#and she randomly sprung it on us Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[solplease]

well. i finally finished the assignment..!

[lholland14]

Error: Name Unknown

Pairing: Paige Bueckers x reader

Summary: When you vs the Paige Bueckers in her own game, but don't know who she is.

Warnings: Somewhat suggestive? Also, I have no idea who most of the UCONN basketball team is SORRYYYY I JUST FOUND OUT PAIGE AND IM OBBSESSED!! Also this isn't edited so if you find anything pls tell me and I'll fix it.

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The annual Sport Swap, the day where all UCONN athletes show off their athletic ability by playing other UCONN teams of different sports in different games. The staff would randomly choose two teams to face off in a series of random sports determined by a spinning wheel. 

It was electrifying.  

It was your day, as someone who played soccer, this day was a chance to show off. You were a newer athlete, but that didn't mean you weren't popular, fans began noticing you after pulling of a 2 goal comeback and an assist against St. John in the last 15 minutes of the game winning 3-2. Ever since then you were highly regarded as the "Comeback Kid" of UCONN and was shortly named captain, even with that title though, Paige Bueckers was the one to watch. Winning award after award, game after game, heart after heart.

"Okay! Everyone gather around!" Your coach yelled into the clamouring locker room, "The competition is out and I think you're gonna be happy about it this year!" 

You and your teammates sprung out of the tightly packed locker room and into the meeting room with a slide show on titled "SPORTS SWAP". As soon as everyone was settled down your coach lectured you all on being good sports and how everyone is winners. 

To be honest, you had tuned out long before he had began talking. He finally garnered your attention when it was time to reveal who you were playing.

He clicked a button and he slide switch to reveal the highly anticipated words, "UCONN WOMEN'S SOCCER VS WOMEN'S BASKETBALL" 

Your teammates paled at the though of having to compete against the 6ft tall team of total hotties, you, however, didn't understand the fear. Being a younger player in a much more rigorous major you didn't get out much, in fact you never went out, or watched a lot of TV, including certain games starring a certain blonde haired girl. 

Your coach began ushering your solum team into the basketball court where the girl's basketball team was waiting to hear what sports you'd all be playing. The moment you opened the court's doors your team was welcomed with loud music, laughter and cringy dances by the basketball team. 

You smiled, but on the inside you hated it, you hated how cocky they were. You never met them, or seen or watched them, but you hated them. Their smirks and loud music in a dominant way to show that they simply didn't care. 

They knew that they would win. All you and your team was to them was dust on the pedestals. Tattered challengers  standing before gods, someone they could merely dismiss without a thought. 

Your blood boiled at this, and with a defiant look and steeled nerves you asked your teammates who the most famous one is out of the group.

"Paige Bueckers, she's the blond one with braids." Your friend replied staring heart eyes at the 6ft tall girl with piercing blue eyes. You simply rolled your eyes in response, earning a shove from the girl.

"Settle down everyone!" Geno yelled, "I'll be spinning the wheel soon to determine what sports we will be playing today." The basketball girl's screeched in response, yours remaining dead silent.

He began spinning the wheel landing on ice hockey (cue the groans), cheerleading (out of the corner of your eye you could see a younger girl joking rub shoulders with the blue blue eyed blondie you were told about earlier) and finally, basketball.

The final spin landed on basketball, you could visibly see your teammates hearts sink as the other girls erupted in screams. Geno turned to us in apology offering to do another spin, just as your teammates agreed to this you asserted a cold no.

He sighed, and told us to skate up.

~~HOCKEY~~

You had to admit, it was pretty funny to see both teams just slide across the ice in various positions (none of them correct). Both teams not even bothering to play anymore, just running out the clock in order to show off their "skill". 

By skill you meant how long one could stay standing, and that record was held by a girl named KK on the basketball team, her record? 15 seconds. Other various skills included how many players one person could take out in the least amount of time currently held by you.

It just happened so fast, one minute you were standing hunched, arms sprayed out in hopes for finding balance, but instead finding the stomach of a certain blonde haired girl and the mouth of you teammate. Desperately needing balance you accidentally swung out and clutched onto the girl, effectively knocking your teammate onto the ground. However, Bueckers wasn't so balanced herself and began skating backwards due to the sudden force your body had. With each backward step you two knocked down three other played before tripping over a random 6'3 body.

Landing softly, thanks to girl whose shoulders you were clinging onto, whose hands are on your thighs that were currently straddling her waist. As you slowly lifted up your sweaty body from hers you felt the shock that came from unconsciously grinding on her abs after her shirt rode up. The shock sent waves of red onto both yours and hers face, breathing heavily you stood back up, and stuck your hand out to help the blonde haired girl. She sheepishly grinned in response, the cocky smirk wiped from her face and onto yours.

You didn't even notice the long forgotten puck sliding slowly into your goal.

Point Basketball team.

~~CHEERLEADING~~ 

"Lets gooooo!!!" KK screamed the moment we entered the gym. As you continue walking to the middle of the gym you could feel the intensity of Paige's eyes at the back of your head. Was she really check you out? With your mind of occupied by the blue eyed beauty you failed to notice the pom poms set out by Geno, and because you're a tad dramatic ...you screamed, thinking it was a spider.

Both teams erupted in laughter as your teammates ran to help you up, heat rushing to your face due to embarrassment, not because you can still feel the heat of Paige's hands on your waist, and definitely not because the same girl was staring at you with a lopsided smile. 

"Well, I guess Y/n has volunteered her team to go first!" Geno clapped your coach's back with a grin, while the rest of your team groaned and walked over to the pom poms. After 20 minutes of practice, trying to choose a song and props your team was ready and rearing to go. 

With you donning ridiculous white sunglasses and a plastic poofy skirt, you took your place at the center of the gym. The moment the music Apple Bottom Jeans played you started dancing, only stopping when a teammate fell or was laughing too hard to continue, finally ending with the last pose, one hand on your hip and the other in the air with smug eyes and a goofy smile.

Honestly, Paige didn't know if it was hot or the most adorable thing she has ever seen. The way your curved hips swayed with the music, or how the skirt was showing off your ass perfectly. Your goofy smile and the way you were the first to help a teammate, either way, Paige Bueckers was hooked. 

Her teammates could tell too, the way she would just gravitate towards you, how she would look at you for approval when she did a move correctly, tripping over her feet the moment your eyes locked into her's. 

And thanks to your quick observational skills, point you.

Well, Point Soccer team.

~~Basketball~~

The court was buzzing with excitement, with countless students coming in just to see Paige the basketball team dominate a team no one has heard of, but with your 5'7 frame and hidden skills you were determined to win. Unbeknownst to the basketball girls, your team actually played basketball frequently, practicing teamwork, communication and trick shots. Along with UCONN had offered you both a soccer and basketball full ride scholarship, but no one knew about that. 

After both teams came out it was clear to everyone who the audience preferred, the moment Paige came out the students cheered and you were pretty sure you could here girls begging Paige to fuck them. You'd be lying if you hadn't had that exact same though ping through your head at least once today. 

With you facing off for the ball against a someone named Aaliyah, you didn't even bother jumping against her 6'3 frame, instead opting to go behind her in order to steal the ball from KK. The moment the ball was in your grasp you hurled the ball towards the basket, and a loud buzzer played, signifying the bucket you just made. The crowd was dead silent, then cheered so loudly, you fell out of surprise, falling right into Paige.. again. 

"That was insane ma," She murmured against your eye, her hot breath fanning your neck causing you to shiver involuntarily. You just bowed your head in response to the praise, heat spreading to your face and to your core.

With the crowd not settling down anytime soon, you returned to your position. Nodding to your teammates in unison. You had a game plan, you had each others backs and you were going to win. 

With multiple well timed passes, a couple of threes and some insane dunks preformed by your team, you were well ahead of the actual basketball team. 

And they were pissed.

Paige was laughing and cheering and smiling, until, she wasn't. Until she started to get annoyed how you were beating her. She was the record breaker, you weren't. She was a god at this school, you, well you were a nobody.

After you had just scored a three that Paige thought was hot, she started guarding you more closely.

"Who are you?" You breathed out behind her body, trying to block you from getting the ball.

"Paige, Paige Bueckers" She managed to gasp out, her body was totally gassed from the earlier events.

"What? Are you famous or something?" You cocked an eyebrow that you knew would only agitate her more. 

"You could say that" 

With her momentarily distracted your teammate passed the ball to you in the final seconds.

"Really?" You smirked, "because you seem," throwing the ball in a no-look half court basket, the way you saw Paige had done in a video.

Just before the buzzer could signify the end of the game you put your hand on the back of her neck pulling her close, and whispered,

"Irrelevent." 

[voidedaurora]

Sorry if you've mentioned this somewhere before, but how did you find out that Mel was sleeping with you and Clover only to be closer with you? Did she tell someone and they told you? Do you have any screenshots/evidence? I'm just curious since the claim that Mel lied about her intentions is what makes you and Clover victims of sexual coercion.

I've stated this a couple times now but I'll re-state it I found out because she'd randomly admitted it to me one day, I don't remember the exact wording of what she said but it boiled down to her only sleeping with clover to sleep with me. At the time when this had happened I honestly was pretty stunned, regrettably I waited months to tell clover about her admitting that, I'd kept it to myself because I was worried knowing just how upset it'd make her knowing that I'd initially helped reassure her that it was a mutual thing between the three of us. In short, I was really lost on what to do and chose to stay silent for a long time

[to clarify, I'm pretty sure clover and I both came up with the initial idea to help her out mutually so it wasn't me trying to force her to be comfortable or anything like that, just wanted to say just incase] I do not have any screenshots/evidence of this since it was sprung randomly in a VC, I'm pretty sure we were playing Overwatch at the time? [I only remember that specific detail because I've got a pretty visual based memory] I had no reason to record at the time since again, it was out of nowhere and we'd been playing a game from what I remember

I tried to talk to her about it along with other things, but as I've said before Mel refuses to communicate or talk about problems because she's used to throwing people out after a small issue, I never really got the chance to talk to her about it and had waited the 3 months to give her a chance to speak to me about everything I've called her out on within my page I cannot force you or anyone to believe what I have to say, I've provided all the evidence I can for every single thing I bring up and looked really hard for anything else that'd help but this is one of those cases where you either believe me or you don't, it's good to be weary/careful of what you believe since some people do lie and fake stuff to bring people down. I'd say just try and consider everything else I've spoken about that actually does have evidence and form an opinion about whether I'm being honest or not off of that?

Sorry for the long response, I've been trying to be as transparent as possible with all of this

[izloveshorses]

I'm in a bit of an in-between period rn of what i'm focusing on writing, so.... do you guys have any preferences what i work on updating next? (no promises, i cannot write on command/ i do not control what daydream we hyperfixate on etc etc but i can at least Work On what you guys vote for) so peruse the list of drafts here, some published, some not quite ready yet, and pick something that sounds intriguing.

propaganda under the cut if you want something a little more descriptive! otherwise you're welcome to ask questions/ leave your reasons in the replies :)

sleep on the floor: angsty road trip, modern au, etc. i made a whole gifset for this and a pretty banger playlist if i do say so myself.

notting hill au: anya is a famous movie star, dmitry is a nobody bookstore owner, and they cross paths randomly one day when anya is hiding from paparazzi, they hit it off right away, but dating is hard. just one chapter is up so far. i gotta decide on something that happens in the film i was thinking about changing but we could write some other things in the meantime

art heist au: unpublished! anya works at a distinguished gallery, a painting from her late parents' collection they thought had been lost in a tragic fire just recently sprung up into the public eye again, but it's being auctioned off soon and anya isn't happy about it, since she thinks it contains the secrets of what really happened to her family. dmitry visits the gallery in attempts to steal it, but she catches him in the act and they decide to strike up a deal-- if he helps her forge a copy, she'll let him have the original to sell once she does more research and sees if it actually ~contains the secrets~ she's looking for. it's about the intrigue, the drama, the mystery, the reluctant alliance turned romance. good stuff. as long as i can figure out a plot structure aslhkdf

post breakup/get back together fic: unpublished. slightly inspired by the song 'if the world was ending,' but instead of an earth quake it's a snow storm and talk of the world ending with the new year. set during new years eve, anya visits him for the first time since they broke up a year ago and Talk about things that happened, interwoven with some flashbacks of their relationship from beginning to end. i also made another banger playlist for this guy.

equestrian au: dmitry and vlad are show jumping trainers down on their luck, anya is the new stablehand dmitry finds sleeping in the stall with her ugly horse (pooka <3). but when vlad decides her hidden talent is worth sculpting into a refined show jumping career, the three of them team up to make it to the FEI world cup in Paris, where Marie Feodorovna will be watching and contributing to the winning purse. maybe anya will find the home love family she's looking for idk.

crazy rich asians au: inspired by the movie, but without the hazing and the drama and the angst, so it's mostly just a meet the parents au of a sort with some nice and fluffy established dimya. anya's sister is getting married and she wants to use the event as a way to introduce dmitry, her long time bf, to the family. dmitry is excited about potentially asking for the Family Ring (👀) and leaving new york for the first time to visit the homeland (would the wedding be in russia? or would they get married in the french riviera or something a bit warmer?) until he figures out just how wealthy anya's family is. he knew she came from wealth, but not quite to this extent, and gets a little insecure about it. shenanigans ensue.

[ellaintrigue]

I can't stand polyamorous people. I'm pretty open minded and accepting of other's lifestyles as long as they don't push it on me. These people usually do and even when they're not literally every other dating profile on swipe sites like Tinder is a poly one. I've even had them come at me in public which honestly makes me want to punch them in the face. Others lie about being single for up to a week then tell me that they're seeking a woman to share with their existing chick. One randomly sprung on me that his girlfriend could have a baby for us since I didn't want to have one. I was unaware she existed up until that point.

They are people in long term relationships, often with kids or married, who want multiple women to screw. Many openly state that they already have 5 to 10 existing partners. To me this defies the point of marriage. To me marriage means you marry someone you love deeply and commit to them. The point of marriage is to COMMIT. Instead these people have skewed it and want to have their cake and eat it too. One man posted on his profile that he was in a relationship with his wife of many years and his best friend of 6 years. WHY DO YOU NEED ANOTHER PERSON?? I've also seen a theme of women being pushed into polyamory by their male partners. Why? Because men like to screw around on their wives and polyamory gives them an easy excuse to now.

Nearly all of these people have a very creepy energy, and lack of self care and self respect. The woman is usually very obese (not to body shame, these are just very sloppy compared to the average big lady), the man is sleazy, and plaque is a noticeable theme. I have seen so many with caked up or green teeth. As you all know I have 0 issue with someone with broken or missing teeth. But that isn't filth. Gunked up teeth are.

I have said before that I don't judge people on number of sex partners or if they want casual sex but there is a limit. You can't respect yourself and just relentlessly sleep with anything that moves or open up a relationship of 3 or more people. And it isn't mentally healthy. There has to boundaries and limits in life especially something as serious as close relationships. And I feel so sorry for the children involved especially when you have one or more with each partner. That has to be confusing!

[outtherecreations]

[FINALE] Less and Less | Ben Tennyson x Reader (x Kevin Levin):

A/N: Due to technical difficulties, this chapter got messed up and I had to rewrite everything…thanks for waiting. Still bitter about rewriting all this tho 😒

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

“I-I choose-”

I pause, peeking out the window. Both Ben and Kevin were fighting pretty hard…

“Gwen,” I sigh seriously “I’m gonna call you back.” “Ok…be safe, Y/N. Don’t do anything that could make things worse.” Gwen warns before hanging up. I place my phone into my pocket and brace myself to step outside.

Suddenly, the sounds of fighting come to a stop. I look out the window again, only to see Ben back in his human form, standing in front of Kevin with a disappointed look. Ben’s face was pretty bloody from what I could see, I gasp when he looks over to the garage. I quickly yank away from the window, when I peeked again-Ben and Kevin were walking towards the garage.

I cross my arms nervously as the door swings open. Ben looks at me with the same green eyes I’ve been looking at all my life…

They’re the same eyes, but they feel so different.

They don’t spark the childlike joy they used too.

Now they only bring a confused anxious feeling …

Kevin looks back and forth between me and Ben. “So,” Kevin says, breaking the silence “Y/N…as you probably know. I am in love with you-I’m NOT ashamed to admit it. I actually want you to be my girlfriend, and I’m willing to do whatever I need to do to keep you as my girl-” “You would stop trying to make it seem like I’m the monster in the room. You’re the one that’s nearly-and actually killed people for your own benefit.” Ben grumbles, glaring at the ground.

“And yet, I’ve been a kinder, gentler, and all around better boyfriend in my 7 months of experience than your 5 f*cking YEARS of experience!” Kevin snaps “Oh? Then where’s Gwen now? Every time I call her, she never asks about you. Admit it, you never actually loved her! You loved Y/N and used Gwen to get closer to her! You’re still as much as a creep as you were when we were kids, it’s maybe even gotten worse.” Ben says harshly, Kevin’s glare worsens “Stop acting like you know me, Tennyson! You don’t know nothing about me…about my relationship with Gwen-h*ll you don’t even know anything about your own relationship with Y/N.” He scoffs

Ben only glances at me for a second, becoming more and more defensive each time Kevin opened his mouth. Ben opens his mouth to say something, but Kevin beats him to it “I’m sorry this was sprung on you so randomly. But with HIS attitude it was bound to happen.” Kevin says jokingly, Ben rolls his eyes “Y/N, can I talk to you in private…please?” Ben asks.

I shrug “Sure.” I say, Ben takes my hand and walks out of the garage. He squeezes it lightly, I frown nervously. Ben stops in his tracks and looks at me seriously before letting out a sigh “It’s only been 2 and a half days Y/N. Are we really over? Just like that?” Ben asks “I…I don’t know.” I sigh “Do you have feelings for Kevin?” Ben asks.

I hesitate to answer that question.

Truth be told, I did my best to never think of Kevin that way. He was a creep when we were kids, then he grew out of it and actually became a sweet-occasionally gentle guy. Even then, I was with Ben and Kevin was pining over Gwen.

I was just happy being friends with him. I thought Kevin honestly grew out of his crush on me, and the kindness he’s been showing all this time was just how he was now. This is the first time I’ve ever even lingered on the possibility of having any romantic feelings for Kevin…

“I…”

And Kevin’s been so sweet…sweeter than Ben, my actual boyfriend

I sigh, rubbing my arm gently “I don’t know.” Ben only rolls his eyes “Do you want to break up? Just like that? Throw everything we have away-” “What do we have?” I ask seriously. “What, Ben? We don’t act like we’re dating. We act the same way we acted when we were kids-like best friends. I don’t…feel like your girlfriend sometimes, I just feel like a glorified best friend. You always blow me off when we’re supposed to go on date, you’ve made it clear when you find another girl attractive, you barely even kiss me now!” I sigh

Ben looks down at the ground “What haven’t you told me this?” He asks “You never give me a chance…you’re always voiding any serious conversations.” I sigh tiredly. “Then…then talk to me! Forget Kevin, you and me can go somewhere and work things out. Just…don’t give up on me…” Ben says.

The door to the garage swings open, Kevin looks between the both of us “We’re still talking.” Ben says bitterly “I got lonely.” Kevin says with a shrug. Ben grumbles, “So…I’ve been thinking,” Kevin hums “I’m tired as h*ll. Which means, I know Nutjob is tired.” Kevin turns to me and smiles softly.

“So go home and get some sleep. We can talk about this later. Don’t ya agree, Benji?” Kevin ask, flashing a fake grin towards Ben “Couldn’t agree more…” Ben says. I stand there awkwardly as they just glare at each other. Kevin glances at me and pats my shoulder lightly, “Meet back here at…let’s say 12?” He suggest. Ben and I awkwardly nod in agreement.

~Time Skip~



“-And now, I’m gonna have to meet Ben and Kevin in…30 minutes. I don’t know what to do!” I sigh “At least they’re willing to talk it out.” Gwen says gently “I just don’t want to hurt anyone.” I sigh quietly.

I glance out my window to see Kevin’s car already outside, “What about you?” Gwen asks “What about me?” I ask “Did it hurt when Ben went out with Julie instead of spending time with you?” Gwen asks seriously “Y-yeah…” I say “Did he apologized?” Gwen asks “Not really…he actually got mad at me because I spent time with Kevin instead of being alone.” I say.

Gwen sighs, “Of course he did. Y/N, you deserve to be happy. Figure out who makes you happy now, not who made you happy in the past…just be honest.” She tells me, I frown nervously as my stomach turns.

I look up at the clock…11:49. “Ok, I know what I chose now.” I sigh “Do what you need to.” Gwen says softly before hanging up. I take a deep breath and walk outside, Ben flinches. I look down at him “How long have you been sitting at my porch?” I ask “A while. Had to make sure Kevin didn’t try to bully you into loving him.” Ben laughs lightly.

A car door closes, Ben glares at Kevin as he walks up, “Nutjob, you know you had more time to think, right?” Kevin asks, placing his hands in his pockets. “Yeah…I know, I was kinda tired of thinking about it.” I say before Ben’s phone starts ringing.

Kevin and I turn to him, Ben looks at his phone “It’s…Julie.” He announces nervously. My eyebrows furrow while Kevin grins “Gonna answer it, Tennyson?” He asks “No I’m not gonna answer it.” Ben scoffs, hanging up the call. Almost instantly, it starts ringing again. And Ben hangs up again, and it rings again “Oh my gosh.” I groan, snatching the phone out Ben’s hand.

“N/N! Wait-”

“Hello?”

“Ben! Why aren’t you answering?! Come on, you can just say you don’t wanna hang out anymore and ghost me! We have something special, it’s your girlfriend’s own fault if she can’t handle the truth. Your relationship with her has been dead from day one! Don’t you get that, Ben? Ben?!”

“Ok, 1. F*ck you. And 2. I will be making your life a living h*ll at school, so…be ready b*tch.” I growl “W-” I quickly hang up the phone. Both boys stare at me with wide eyes “Ben, you told Julie you didn’t want to hang out with her anymore?” I ask seriously “Y-yeah, she was the cause all of the drama. And I just want things to go back the way they were, I love you…even if I haven’t done a great job showing it.” Ben sighs sadly “Touching,” Kevin huffs “Nutjob, I love you and I’ve always shown it. It different ways…but it’s always been shown.”

Ben and Kevin glare at each other, “So?” Ben hums “N/N, wanna date this creep?” Ben asks. Kevin’s glare darkens, he slowly turns to me. His glare fades into a nervous expression. Ben looks confident, but his eyes were glasses-like that confidence could be broken at any moment. I take a deep breath, looking between the two boys…

Chose Ben

Choose Kevin

[books-and-catears]

Allow me to share another brainrot,, time traveler mc

After they time travelled with the help of barbatos and belphie performed creeky crack on neck, and then they came back, Tiny problem, they accidentally gained a small part of barbatos's time travel magik somehow

And god was it chaotic the first few month's - accidentally creating time lines and having to get out of them-- they keep a small journal of a diagram wherever they jump to, and usually go to solomon or, of course, barbatos for help (barbatos becomes a father figure not clickbait) Though, this helped them became a bit more creative, they also like noting down random events that happen in timelimes

So many more opportunities for mc!! Yayyyy!!!

(I have a whole appearance for them in my head oh god i am back on my time traveler shenaigans)

Also im another regular here now *pulls up a minecart and sits sideways on it* boohoo cracker

If you're a regular here, I am freaking blessed cause your ideas are too freaking amazing. *Takes a seat next to you on the sideways Minecart*

Twisting Time Pt. 3

Barbatos: Two in one day? You're speeding up this time MC.

MC: Well it wasn't hard. Instead of fighting over who is the biggest TSL fan, I pretended to be an anime enthusiast who really wanted to know about TSL instead.

Barbatos: Is this why you were stuck in his room for the last 4 days?

MC: It took us three days to finish the whole series. He spent the fourth day ranting about his opinion on how grand it is. All I had to do was listen and smile and he randomly started crying and hugged me telling me he's grateful I'm here and listening.

Barbatos: And that's when you sprung the offer of the pact on him?

MC: Yep. And Beel was even easier.

Barbatos: You cooked up a feast for him and he agreed to a pact?

MC: Well I also promised him I'd cook this again once in two months.

Barbatos: But a feast surely must be hard to make on your own.

MC: I used Mammon and Levi's help. Pacts are a wonderful thing. *Giggles*

Barbatos: You're a sly one. *Chuckles* I hope you know what you're doing after everything you'd left behind.

This time around it was okay. You could feel it. It felt wrong at times...like it wasn't fair. Like you already knew everything ahead of time, the initial excitement of the unknown and meeting for the first time gone.

The others were all unaware of the pacts you were making. The secret was between you and them. You weren't here to fix the family among each other anymore.

You were here to fix you. You still loved them of course, only a selfish kind.

But it was all for a better future. You convinced yourself to be strong, as you prepared to pact with Asmo and Satan next.

MC: Asmo! There you are!

Asmo: Ah in a rush to see me this morning, MC? How adorable!

MC: *jokes* Of course I want to see you. Who doesn't want to see beautiful things early in the morning?

Asmo: Oh flattery will get you everywhere. Come on inside, let me me show you how beautiful I can really be.

MC: Well I heard you and Solomon have a pact. Can I have one too?

Asmo: I can't just give a pact to anybody MC. You will have to earn. I wonder how you will.

MC: Would you like to do a nostalgic fashion show with all your favourite dresses?

Asmo: .... Oh MC.

Satan: What are you hiding behind your back MC?

MC: Take a guess.

*Something meows behind MC's back*

Satan: ... A cat?!

MC: Not just any cat. I enchanted her with disguise magic so that noone else can see she's a real cat. They will just see a soft toy. *hands him the kitten*

Satan: Why are you doing this?

MC: Well Asmo said I needed to earn my pacts so I'm trying to earn yours.

Satan: ...

Cat: *meows*

Satan: Consider my pact achieved. Now come let's name and feed this kitty.

____________________________________

Somewhere in a parallel timeline...

MC: Solomon! I'm so glad to find you here! I think I'm lost again.

Solomon: *sigh* Which one are you?

MC: Um the real one?

Solomon: *bigger sigh* No you're not. All of you are the real ones. But from the fact that you're not wearing a ribbon and didn't know about that means you're not MC Blue, Orange, Pink, Yellow or Green.

MC: Why are there so many versions of me??

Solomon: You've been going haywire after you came back to life. But then again even I probably can't handle Barbatos's power.

MC: And the colors?

Solomon: Every color represents the brother each version of you likes. So tell me Red or Violet? Red is Beel, Violet is Belphie.

MC: Um do you have a color? *Blushes*

Solomon: .....Why yes. *ties a white ribbon to your collar* I suppose you'd like to stay here's with me? *Smirks*

MC: *nods*

Solomon: Well then you'd better hide in my bedroom for a while. All your versions are looking for me since MC Teal took Barbatos out on a vacation.

MC: Oh. Well jeez I'm literally all over the place. *hides in his bedroom looking out*

MC Blue: *runs in crying* SOLOMON!

Solomon: Did you enter a wrong time line again?

MC Blue: I JUST SAW LUCIFER AND DIAVOLO GETTING MARRIED AND THEY ASKED ME TO BE THEIR BEST HUMAN. How could Lucifer do this to me???*crying louder*

Solomon: *trying so hard to hold back laughter* It's okay it's okay. That's not your Lucifer. Let's revisit the diagram and find your way back shall we?

*After MC Blue leaves*

MC white: Is it bad that I really wanna see that timeline they just talked about?

Solomon: I'll show you how to get there. I just hope we get to see them kiss the groom. Now let's go.

[isolemnlyswearpevensie]

Paper Cut Part 2 | Edmund Pevensie x Reader Soulmate AU

Warnings: Making out/kissing

Time/Era: Modern AU but the Pevensies have been to Narnia. 

Word Count: 2.5k

Summary: Y/N confronts Edmund about the intense injuries she had received in the past. 

A/N: Here’s the second part to paper cut :) If you haven’t read the first part, link below! Please send requests :D Enjoy! 

Part 1 | Part 3 | masterlist | read on ao3

“Edmund, I think you have a lot of explaining to do.”

Edmund’s face was unreadable, almost as if it was made of stone. He stayed quiet; the only sounds that filled the air were the shuffling of the barista and the espresso machine. Y/N wished he would just say something. The silence was damning. 

“Edmund?” His gaze didn’t falter at his name but stayed glued to Y/N’s hand. His eyes traveled up her arm, taking mental notes of every scar, bruise, bump, or cut. Edmund stood up without a word, the chair making a painful screeching noise in his path, and walked out of the coffee shop. 

Meeting her soulmate had been completely different in her head; maybe they would fall into each other’s arms in the streets of London. He would sweep her off of her feet after noticing a small scar on her neck and say something disgustingly romantic. “I’ve been waiting for you, Y/N, you’re even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.” Then, they would fall madly, deeply in love, and adopt a dog. Fall wedding perhaps? Maybe summer? But here Y/N sat, one hand on her stomach, the other gripping a foreign notebook. Before Y/N could process what was happening, Edmund was out of sight and she was left to her own thoughts. 

~

“Y/N! Wake up!” Y/N was startled by Y/B/F/N shaking her awake. “Don’t you have a final in like an hour?” 

That sentence felt like a bucket of ice water. Y/N sprung up from her warm bed and scrambled to get ready. The clock seemed to run dangerously fast and by the time she opened the door of her lecture hall, the test was being passed out. 

“You have three hours and because I’m in such a good mood, you may use your study guide.” The professor continued to pass the packets around the room. They looked thick and time-consuming. Time management had never been Y/N’s strong suit. 

When she was handed her paper, all she could do was take a deep breath. This professor was a harsh grader, so unless her answers were 100% correct, there was no way Y/N would pass. She took the unfamiliar notebook she received from Edmund out of her bag and opened it to his scribbled notes. 

His handwriting was somewhere in between messy and neat; some of the words ran into one another and they were all slanted to the right slightly, yet the letters were beautifully constructed and entirely intelligible. Edmund also took it upon himself to highlight passages he deemed important with a note at the beginning that read: my sister had to take o chem. I asked her what’s important. That was sweet, Y/N thought. 

It seemed as if Edmund knew what he was talking about, too. Each answer was answered completely with further background information to make it easy to understand. Why would you willingly take this? Seems like hell… was written in the margins next to one of the boxes of text. I could say the same about law, sweater boy. 

By the time Y/N had finished her final, the three hours had turned into 10 minutes. She was one of three students left in the classroom and the other two were looking beyond panicked. Most of the class seemed to have either blazed through it like it was an 8-year-old’s math homework or given up halfway through and accepted their loss. Y/N, however, had to pass this class so she triple-checked her answers, took a daydream break, then checked it again. She would be lying if she said her daydreams didn’t consist of Edmund. She wondered if he would ever text her again. 

The young girl hurriedly walked out of the classroom, happy to be done with the semester. She wrapped her jacket tightly around her and braced herself to brave the aggressive weather. 

“Hey,” A voice from her right called out. It was Edmund; he was leaning against the wall lazily. His nose was a bright pink, as were his cheeks, and his hands were pushed into his pockets for warmth.

“Edmund? What are you doing here? You must be freezing!” Y/N walked over to him and looked him once over. A simple long sleeve shirt, vest, and jeans. Y/N slung her wool scarf around his neck. 

“Oh, uh, thanks…” He pushed himself off of the wall with his shoulder. Damn, his shoulders were huge. 

“I’m sorry about the coffee shop, I didn’t mean to jump you like that,” Y/N apologized bashfully. He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. 

“No, I get it. I would have the same reaction. That’s, uh, why I’m here.” Edmund was awkward, looking anywhere but her eyes. Instead, he observed her freckles, eyebrows, and cheeks. “I was wondering if we could, uh, talk? Maybe somewhere private? Like my dorm?”

“Oh, so you want to take me, your newly discovered soulmate, back to your dorm?” Y/N had a hint of mischief in her eyes and a teasing smile on her lips. Edmund’s eyes grew wide and he started to sputter. 

“That’s not what I meant! I would never! I mean unless you wanted to, but no! I just meant to talk,” His cheeks are red again, but this time it wasn’t from the cold. 

“I’m just taking the piss, let’s go, vesty.”

~ 

Edmunds dorm was not what she was expecting. One side looked like it was hit by a tornado, but the other was very organized. Even on the floor, there was a distinct division between the two sides. The neat side, which appeared to be Edmund’s, was very plain. His bed was made with a red duvet and black pillows, his desk was blank besides a small pencil cup, and the cork board hanging above his desk had reminders and pictures. 

“Those are my siblings,” Edmund noticed Y/N’s wandering eyes. “They’re practically dying to meet you, Y/N.”

“How did you know my name? I never told you,” She crossed her arms and strained her neck to look back at him. 

“Ah, so I was right, you don’t remember me. We took a few classes together during first and second years. I always thought you were cute, so I guess it stuck.” Now it was Y/N’s turn to blush. 

“You think I’m cute?” Her arms uncrossed and turned so she was facing him head-on. 

“Well, yeah. You are my soulmate, after all, Y/N. Don’t be silly,” Edmund seemed to be growing more and more comfortable. He was enjoying watching her blush because of what he said; it made a sense of pride grow in his stomach. This was his person, and she was standing right in front of him. 

“Speaking of soulmates…” Y/N trailed off and looked towards the floor. Her hands grasp the zipper of her jacket and unzip it, before rolling up the bottom of her shirt. The jagged scar was on full display, a stark contrast against the skin of her abdomen. Edmund eyed it guiltily; he knew the exact pain she had to go through to get that scar. She had to go through that pain because of him. His own hands found the bottom seam of his own clothes and pulled it up to reveal a matching mark. 

“I can explain but you won’t believe me,” His honey-brown eyes met hers. 

“Try me, Pevensie.” 

He led her to sit on her bed and sat next to her. Y/N hastily kicked off her shoes so she could sit with her legs crossed on her bed. Her shoes tumbled to the ground with two thuds. Edmund, on the other hand, just bent one leg and let the other hang off the edge. He took her hands in his. 

“You have to promise me to listen to it all before you ask questions,” Edmund fidgeted nervously with a ring on Y/N’s fingers as they spoke. Y/N didn’t know if this was on purpose or a subconscious action, but it comforted her all the same.  

“Well, when I was young my parents sent my siblings and me to live away from home. When we were there, my little sister Lucy discovered a wardrobe in one of the spare rooms. Well, inside the wardrobe was this beautiful land called Narnia. It was gorgeous and huge! And when I say huge, I mean HUGE!” He caught himself rambling excitedly and reeled it back in. “Well, uh, anyway, there was this woman, we called her the White Witch and she manipulated me into basically selling my siblings out. The entire nation of Narnia got into a huge battle and the White Witch stabbed me.” 

“Did she lock you up somewhere cold?” Y/N asked, disregarding her promise to stay quiet. 

“Um, yeah. She locked me in this big ice cell. It wasn’t fun. I’m pretty sure I almost got frostbite but my body rejected it because I started warming up randomly.”

Y/N smiled. The paper towel. 

“But that scar on your stomach,” He took his hand away from yours and gently touched your stomach. “Is because she stabbed me. But again, my sister Lucy had this special liquid that could heal any injury.” 

Edmund seemed to smile at the memory. “Long story short, my siblings and I got crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia and ruled for a number of years. We then got sent back-”

“Wait, wait, wait, Kings, and Queens? Who are you? Alexander the Great?” Her tone was teasing and unbelieving. 

“Edmund the Just, actually. And I told you to listen!” His smile reached his eyes this time. “Well we came back to earth through the wardrobe and we were kids again! About a year later, we returned to Narnia and met our good friend Caspian. We had to fight Caspian’s home country. In the end, Aslan helped us and Caspian became a king as well.”

“Who’s Aslan?” Y/N was doing her best to keep up and believe the information, but it was quite hard. 

“He’s a big lion, he’s kind of like the ruler of Narnia. I guess you could say a God? I guess…”

“A big lion god? Edmund…”

“I know it sounds crazy, Y/N. I know but you have to believe me! I went one more time with Lucy and my cousin. We were on a big Naval ship with Caspian and we had to find a bunch of swords-”

“Edmund, love, just tell me the truth.” Y/N was sad that right off the bat her soulmate was lying to her. Edmund’s eyes seemed to lose their sparkle. 

“I would never lie to you, Y/N. Here, look.” He took off Y/N’s scarf and gently placed it on the bed before pulling his vest and shirt over his head. On his rips was a beautifully drawn tattoo of a lion that appeared to be roaring. And on his collarbone was a sword. Y/N delicately reached her hand out and ran her fingertips against the drawing of the weapon. It had insane detail and the way it was drawn made it look sharp. Y/N retracted her hand and sat back. 

“That’s one of the swords we found during my third trip. It was gifted to Caspian by the lord who owned it. And this is Aslan. His roar was the most powerful magic in all of Narnia.” Edmund searched Y/N’s face for any emotion she was feeling. Right now, she was staring at the sword with a pondering look on her face. 

“Okay, say you were a king-”

“I am a king.”

“Fine, you’re a king. What exactly did you do, ya know, as a ruler?”

“Well, me and my brother Peter ran the army and trained them for battle. Along with other things like managing trade and creating political policies.”

“So, fighting? You fight?”

“Yeah, I fought in many battles, big and small. I got stabbed, remember.” His smile was cheeky and he pulled his long sleeve back on. “Once I got good, I didn’t even use a shield. I fought with two swords.”

“TWO? Aren’t those things heavy?”

“Well, yes, but when you went through all of the training I did, it gets easier.” Edmund could tell he was starting to believe him. 

“Tell me more.”

~

The two spent the next few hours discussing the ins and outs of Narnia down to the floor plan of Cair Paravel. Y/N had decided that Edmund had way too much detail to be making it up, and even if he did, it was so magical that she wouldn’t even be mad. 

“Okay, vesty, I believe you.” Y/N says after Edmund gave a lengthy explanation about all the gifts his siblings received and what they do. He stopped mid-word and stared at her. 

“You believe me? Really?” 

Y/N smiled and nodded. “Yes, Edmund. I’m going to be spending my life with you, your highness, so I may as well get familiar with it.”

“Please don’t call me that,” Edmund scooted closer to her. “I hated it even when people in Narnia called me that. I don’t need people outside of Narnia calling me it. Especially not you.” 

She turned her head so she was staring right at him. “Why not me?” Y/N’s speech came out as a whisper. They were so close that she didn’t need to speak loudly. 

“Because if I really was your highness, it would be kind of weird for me to do this.”

Edmund placed a hand on Y/N’s jaw and leaned in. His lips barely brushed her lips before pressing firmly against them. Y/N’s eyes closed shut and she happily kissed back. 

When people described kissing their soulmate for the first time, they always explain it as an electric spark igniting throughout their entire body. They explain it as a firework show full of magnificent colors. Kissing Edmund didn’t feel like that. Kissing Edmund felt like home. She felt safe, secure, and loved as if kissing this boy was what she was meant to do for her entire life. The way he tasted, like peppermint and candy, was the best thing she had ever tasted. And they way he held her, one hand on her jaw and the other holding her close to him by her waist, felt like the warmth of a favorite blanket. The way he moved made her knees feel like jelly. 

As their lip lock continued, his fingertips danced across her back until it landed on the other side of her jaw. He pulled away from their kiss, pressing a quick peck against her nose and jaw before leaning against his headboard. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for my entire life,” Y/N said, her voice gentle and soft. 

“Me too. The thought of kissing you, Y/N L/N, was the only thing that got me through some tough times. I had to make it to be able to feel what it was like.”

Y/N was silent for a long moment. 

“Edmund, love, do you think I will ever go to Narnia?”

Edmund looked at her for a long moment then smiled with half of his mouth. 

“I don’t know, darling, but anything is possible. Especially when it comes to Narnia.” 

[little-ideas]

Found Family Forever

Ahhhh!!!! Finally I can post this! (´；ω；`)

I have spent weeks on this and it was really hard to keep quiet, but I really wanted to do the idea justice

Many thanks to @beelsbreakfast for helping me finalize the idea and for suffering with me through all the sudden thoughts and angst (though I promise this is fluff and not angst!) I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you, boo!  (つ≧▽≦)つ

I hope you all enjoy ♡

Mankai becomes Sakuya's family

The adults are all supportive of him and he's able to go to them for help/advice

That being said, he still struggles a lot with relying on them -years of trying to please others and not be a burden have built mannerisms difficult to overcome

If there's an event requiring an adult, but they don't have to be family, at least one of the Mankai adults will go. Sakuya was concerned about asking his relatives and consulting someone (likely Tsuzuru) on what to do. This gets overheard by Izumi and she volunteers to go. Later events also have several other volunteers including Azuma, Tsumugi, and Homare

Typically Izumi, Azuma, and Tsumugi are the 3 who will go

Citron tells Sakuya stories to help him sleep, but Sakuya will wake up in the middle of the night and feel lonely

He feels bad waking Citron, so instead goes out and walks about the dorm, usually running into Azuma

Azuma invites Sakuya to sit with him and color in some pages over tea or warm milk

At first, they tend to sit in silence or have light conversations, but one night Sakuya feels particularly lonely and Azuma comforts him as he cries

Azuma and Sakuya get a lot closer after that night-both of them know the feelings of being alone, of not having family, of trying to find their way in the world with little guidance. They also are both painfully aware that while they've found home in Mankai, time continues to flow and the others will all likely move on. At the very least, their time in the dorms all together is limited

It's not easy, but Sakuya asks Azuma about what it's like to be without family and for advice with his future

Though their situations differ, they are also similar enough that Azuma sees Sakuya as a reflection of his younger self. He does his best to help Sakuya consider his future, and he desperately wants a different path for Sakuya than the one he stumbled upon

As their evenings together grow more frequent, Azuma begins to expect Sakuya and saves some snacks for him. Of course, Azuma's favorite nights are when Sakuya doesn't come out, since that means he's sleeping peacefully, yet he can't help but feel a surge of sadness whenever this happens, a twinge of loneliness

Sakuya requests and hears stories about Azuma's family

The day Azuma's heart breaks into a million pieces and he VOWS to always be present for Sakuya is when, after Azuma tells Sakuya of one of his childhood adventures with his family, Sakuya asks, "Do you think one day I could be as good a parent as yours were?"

Later on, Azuma sobs when Sakuya looks at him and asks, "Do you think I'll be as good a dad as you are?"

Once Sakuya starts feeling sleepy again, Azuma will help guide him back to bed and tuck him in. Occasionally he's too late, so will gently lower Sakuya until he's lying on the couch and wrap him in blankets. Blanket burrito Sakuya

Azuma humming Sakuya lullabies and playing w/his hair as he drifts off to sleep

Although the others joke that Sakyo's their dad, to Sakuya, Azuma better matches his idea of a father figure

As he and Azuma get closer, he accidentally calls Azuma "Dad" (probably also does this to Tasuku, Sakyo, and Yuzo)

He doesn't understand why. After all, it's not a word he uses regularly

Sakuya will be thoroughly embarrassed by it and Azuma won't notice... at first. Then he realizes Sakuya was referring to him and short circuits

Sakuya calling Azuma "father" in his sleep and Azuma melts

Sakuya getting Azuma, Sakyo, Yuzo, and Tetsuro Father's Day Gifts

Although Sakuya and Azuma get along with everyone and consider all of Mankai their family, the two are particularly close

In fact, everything is fine until one of the other members ends up in the hospital

Their fellow Mankai member is fine, but Sakuya and Azuma are shaken. They are reminded that life changes and things won't stay the same, a fact they know, but have fervently been putting off thinking about because Mankai and all its members are their home and family, found after years of silent pain.

Azuma especially takes the news of hospitalization of their friend hard as he's reminded of the hopelessness from his family's death

Sakuya worries more on that they're alone at night and none of them can visit/stay with them if it's not visiting hours as they aren't legal family

Sakuya starts questioning what it means to be family -he has Mankai, but they're not legally recognized. In fact, outsiders would just consider them close co-workers and maybe use the word "family", but with a different connotation. What, then, is truly family?

Struggling with his feelings, Sakuya seeks out Tsuzuru and talks with him. He may also consult the others, particularly Juza, Kumon, + Muku

It's at this point that Sakuya realizes that, while he treasures all of Mankai, there is one person in particular who he loves as family and would be devastated to lose. Someone who, according to Tsuzuru, he views as his own father

Armed with this new knowledge, Sakuya approaches Winter Troupe (sans Azuma), Izumi, and Sakyo -they know Azuma best, and should anyone know the answer to his questions, it's them

Knowing the holidays are coming up, they think Sakuya is going to ask for advice about presents

While they're not wrong, they're stunned by his question

 Griping his pants, Sakuya tried to ease the shaking of his digits. Sweat soaked his palms as his ears heard only the erratic thrumming of his heart and the steady ticks of the clock. They were waiting on him to speak, he needed to get the words out.

"Sakuya?" Izumi leaned towards him, hand resting on his shoulder. Sakuya was certain she could feel his tremors." Are you alright?"

Taking a breath. Sakuya nodded, raising his head to face the audience before him.

"Do you think Azuma would adopt me?"

 Once they all have time to process Sakuya's question, there's a whirlwind of responses, but the resounding answer is yes.

Izumi and Tsumugi hug Sakuya

Hisoka, Homare, and Tasuku smile and pat him on the back (+ offer marshmallows)

Sakyo ruffles his hair and simply congratulates him

Sakyo knows the most about adoptions, though Sakuya has done his research, too

Is the most help in getting everything together for Sakuya to ask

Sakuya decides to ask during the holidays, and they’re more than happy to help

Decide they’ll do a holiday gift exchange

Rope Chikage in to teach Sakuya how to make it look like he’s pulled a name randomly when he’s really just held on to Azuma’s name the entire time

They don’t tell anyone else, the fewer people who know, the less likely Azuma’s going to hear about it

Sakuya preps another gift so Azuma doesn’t feel pressured in to accepting him and because he’s worried Azuma won’t like it

Freaks the fuck out the closer it gets to the event

At this point all of Spring Troupe knows because they’re helping him stay composed

And then the day comes:

Presents litter the table, wrapped in bags, boxes, and -is that duct tape? Music pours from the speakers with the karaoke gang singing along, not even trying to be in tune. Omi’s freshly baked cookies are almost all gone, but their scent lingers amongst the spice of warm cider and peppermint. Izumi’s struggle to get Yuki to join in the ugly sweater festivities finally won, she signals Kamekichi to let out a squawk (a much preferred method over her previous megaphone) and ushers all stragglers over to the lounge. Passing Sakuya, she pats his back and smiles before sitting down. He lets out the breath he was holding.

It’ll be ok, he tells himself, they would’ve told you if it wasn’t.

But still, with every gift opened he feels the butterflies worsen, feels his throat tighten; he needs water, air, space -anything- to give him time. He doesn’t remember what he’s holding in his hands and his laughter sounds far away -he’s grateful Tsumugi’s the one who had given him his gift, he can see the understanding in his eyes. Is it just that his acting has improved so much over the years or that everyone’s too excited to notice his strangeness? Sakuya’s not sure, but he feels as though he’s on stage for the first time again.

He knows he doesn’t need to be this nervous, he and Azuma have gotten close over the years -Sakuya goes to Azuma first when he wants advice, when he can’t sleep at night, when he feels like he’s missing family. They’ve spent holidays together when most of the other members have returned to their families, and Azuma has gone with Sakuya to visit his parents’ grave. They’ve even talked the what-ifs of being family -a thought experiment sprung forth one night from their roles in their latest play- and it’s Azuma’s words that night that have seared this crazy idea into Sakuya’s heart: It would be nice if we were family.

They were just words, Sakuya knows, but he couldn’t help but feel the same, and on this night many months later, he desperately hopes those words are true. He wishes, prays to all the gods he knows the names of, that this goes over well, and his hands turn white as Azuma picks up the final box from the table.

“Breathe, Sakuya,” Hisoka mumbles, eyes peeking open as he sits up from leaning on the younger man. “It’ll be ok.”

Sakuya only nods in response, returning Azuma’s smile as he reads the attached card, though it feels fake upon his lips, as though someone else is performing the action. He misses the camera Izumi’s pulled out. And then the sound of crinkling paper meets his ears and Sakuya struggles to refrain from lunging across the room and tearing the packet out from Azuma’s hands, claiming everything was false. He had labeled the items 1 and 2, though he wonders if it would’ve been better to have Azuma open the backup gift first. His thumbs twiddle as he watches the older man open the first packet, but it’s his gasp that has him finally meeting his eyes. Sakuya can see the tears forming and he all but launches himself to hug Azuma when he hears him ask:

“Do you really mean it?”

 Sakuya and Azuma both cry. A lot. The whole company is happy for them and they begin festivities anew

Not being sure if Azuma would accept, Sakuya hadn’t told his family yet. Azuma goes with him and though it’s uncomfortable and a bit dramatic, the end result’s a success for them

Sakuya and Azuma finally spend New Year’s happily with family

When Azuma takes Sakuya to visit his family’s graves, Sakuya shows the utmost respect

He introduces himself and refers to Azuma’s parents and older brother as “Grandparents” and “Uncle”

He thanks them for giving birth to Azuma and tells them about how amazing Azuma is and how proud he is to be able to officially call him “Father”

He asks that they kindly look upon him as a grandchild and nephew, and that he will do his best to uphold the Yukishiro name

Azuma sobs

Sakuya does feel a little guilty about leaving his family, but he’s much happier with Azuma

Family photo albums

Just Sakuya and Azuma being happy because they finally have a permanent family again

[themonkeycabal]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, ep 3

Good morning!

Spoilers! of course

Previously on:

The new Captain America is a massive tool, but his buddy, "Battlestar" (lol), is a little bit adorable. They work for something called the Global Repatriation Council, which sounds like a bureaucratic delight and joy.

Bucky got arrested for skipping his therapy appointment to go to Germany (nothing good ever happens to you in Germany, Bucky. Stop going to Germany.) on a mission with Sam (the mission went badly). And once he's sprung from the clink, he and Sam are suckered into the most awkward team therapy session in many an age. Things Are Said and everybody ends up mostly feeling pretty bad about everything.

Speaking of feeling pretty bad about everything — we discover there was a black super soldier in the US Army during the Korean war who was repaid for his service by being imprisoned and made a lab rat for thirty years. Just as awful as it sounds.  

Also our pseudo-terrorists from the first episode turn out to be a pack of idealistic kids who grew up in a blipped world and whose goals are probably as murky to them as they are to me. They, however, have pissed off somebody much bigger and badder (probably by stealing super soldier serum). 

To find just what in the sam hill was going on with the super soldier serum being out in the wild, Bucky suggested they go talk to that very stable and rational repository of Hydra knowledge, Zemo. I'm sure this will go swimmingly.

I've got my chips and guac and beer, it's 12:30 a.m., and I'm ready for some good ol' fashioned fisticuffs! Bring it, Marvel,

And we open with a sunny, smiley propaganda ad for the Global Repatriation Council. Helping you get back to the way things used to be. Reset. Restore. Rebuild. Cut to a shady black police van with the GRC logo and militarized police hop out along with Captain Massive Tool and the shield that really shouldn't be his. They seem nice.

"Don't give them a second to delete, shred, or breathe," says Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever as they prepare to breach a graffiti covered building. Ah, it's the hideout in Munich where Karli and the flag stompers gang were bunked last episode. The owner refuses to give up any info, calls them brutes, spits in Captain Tool's face, and Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever roughs him up and yells "Do you know who I am?" The owner replies for us all, "yes, I do, and I don't care."

Captain Tool leaves and grumbles about not having intel on that super dangerous criminal 12-year old, Karli. Battlestar (lol) points out she's giving shelter and meds to displaced people, and so they're loyal. And I'm just going to let that go at this point, because last ep she was on about how the GRC only cared about helping the returning people and not the people who were there all along, and the Flag Smashers wanted to return the world to how it was during the blip. But now suddenly they're all about helping the displaced, who I thought were the ones who were gone, thus, you know, being displaced when they come back to a world that's moved on without them. And I'm letting it go …. now.

Or not. I mean, I guess we could say that they're helping the displaced the GRC doesn't want to help, because they're not politically useful or the GRC is funneling its massive resources somewhere else. Or … something. Like I said, it's all very murky at the moment. I could keep watching and probably discover the answer. And I'm sure the GRC is corrupt as hell, so you go Karli! Though, she's like 16 (okay, maybe early 20s), and I'm not sure how she's managed this level of pull and resources in the few months since the great Un-Blippening and also she's got like a team of 8 (or 7, one died last ep) and she's not exactly oozing charisma. But, never mind. Moving on. For real this time.

That's all my way of saying that 3:48 into this episode and I'm already super done with Captain Massive Tool.

In Berlin, Bucky and Sam are visiting Zemo in prison. How'd they get permission? The guard seems very chill about them being there, he even leaves so Bucky and Sam can go to Zemo's cell alone. Which is so very weird. Are they hoping somebody will shank the weirdo who sits in his cell listening to opera and playing chess all day? "Oh no, he's dead, how sad. Heinrich! Get the mop!"

Anyway, Bucky says he'll go in alone, because Sam's an Avenger and Zemo doesn't really have warm fuzzy feelings for Avengers. Sam, who is currently in possession of the duo's one (1) brain cell, remembers how Zemo literally stalked Bucky and tried to frame him for a bombing and mass murder. "He was obsessed with Hydra. We have a history together," is Bucky's very questionable counter-argument. Well, I mean, technically yes, I guess.

Seriously, they just let him walk right in. Wow.

Zemo steps out of the improbably dark recesses of his cell and immediately starts reciting the Winter Soldier control words. "I just wanted to see how the new you reacts to the old words." By staring. It's his thing.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. It was never personal." I don't know why, but this made me laugh. His delivery is great. It's just like "hey man, good to see you again, hope you got past that whole framing you for murder and the global manhunt thing. Sorry and all. I just really hated your BFF for that time he dropped a city on my family. Bygones, amiright?"

Bucky skips the chat. "Somebody recreated the super soldier serum. I need to find out who." Ah, Zemo is super interested. But, of course. He killed all the other Soldiers, he wouldn't be keen on others around, would he?

Zemo knows where to begin looking for the answer. Cut to Sam and Bucky walking around in a dark room full of some sort of vague equipment (ah, it's a garage), Sam regretting every life decision he's ever made that led him to this point "what are you talking about you want to break Zemo out of jail? Where the hell are we? Buck, have you lost your mind?" Stupidity, who knows, and yes.

"Zemo's going to mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offense." "Offense." lol idiots.

Bucky finds the lights. They argue some more about Zemo. "Super soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code." Sam's like, yeah, I saw his code, it was blow shit up and kill a lot of people. Sam cannot believe he is hearing this crap right now and he's got to be like "steve rogers, if you weren't 106 I would beat your ass for leaving me with this moron".

"Let me just walk you through a hypothetical. Can I walk you through a hypothetical?" Sam, feeling those cold, tingly chills, the slowly creeping horror of realization, "What did you do?" "I didn't do anything," Bucky lies like the terrible liar he is. Wow he's a bad liar.

Cut back to Zemo's prison cell. Zemo ticks another off the "creepy euro villain" checklist, when Bucky randomly asks what he's reading and Zemo says Machiavelli. But of course. He's hiding something in his book. A key card.

Meanwhile, in the garage Bucky is explaining things to Sam. "The weakest point of any system isn't the software, or the hardware, it's the meatware." lol elegantly put, Bucky. "The human element."

Anyway, to sum up, Bucky's already broken Zemo out of prison. Poor Sam, the look on his face as Bucky hypotheticals through all the steps of the breakout, I laughed so hard.

Sam: “i hate everything, especially this asshole”

"And where are we?" Sam asks, very fed up with Things. 

The door opens and here comes Zemo in his purloined guard's uniform.

"You're going back to prison!" "We need him, Sam." Zemo, politely, "If I may—" "NO!" "NO!"

Argue argue argue. Bucky makes a weird pitch about how Steve didn't sign the Sokovia Accords and neither did Sam and, they went all illegal and on the run, they did it for him and so he's asking Sam to do that again. I mean, Sam's still slightly cheesed about that, Bucky. But, it seems to work, and Sam agrees with A Great Deal Of Reluctance.

Zemo's just standing there all quiet and well-mannered as they go through this, like he's their little pet whackjob.

The garage is full of classic cars belonging to Zemo and they're full of weapons and other goodies. He says he spent years tracking down all the Hydra people who might know how to make the serum, because if it's out there, then somebody could create an army of people like the Avengers. He's taking clothes out of one of the cars and finds a purple ski mask, which he stealthily slips into a bag. Nobody cares about your weird purple mask, Zemo, I've thought that thing was dumb for 30 years.

"To do this, we'll have to scale a ladder of low-lifes." heh

Next they go to an airfield. In Germany. You guys, come on.

Anyway, Zemo owns a plane, he's rich, his family was royalty, he's a baron. Sam's like 'wtf?' Bucky just rolls with everything. Or he does until they're on the plane later and Zemo has somehow lifted Bucky's book of amends and decides to read through it. "Who is Nakajima?" And Bucky's got him by the throat.

Sam's all hey that's Steve's book. "I told him about Trouble Man, he wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What did you think?" "I like 40s music, so…" "You didn't like it?!?!?!?!" "I liked it." Zemo chimes in, "It is a masterpiece, James. Complete, comprehensive. It captures the African-American experience." lol wtf

"Everybody loves Marvin Gaye," Sam is so offended. "I like Marvin Gaye," Bucky says, probably trying to remember 'who is Marvin Gaye?' "Steve *adored* Marivn Gaye," Sam insists. lol. I like Marvin Gaye, Sam.

Zemo starts going off about Steve, and how the danger with those heroes and super soldiers is they're put on a pedestal and we forget about their flaws. And while he's not wrong, he also clearly wants Sam to throw him out of that airplane.

"Do we want to live in a world with people like the Red Skull? No. That is why we're going to Madripoor." Ahh Madripoor, I haven't thought about that place in a long, long time. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, iirc. Ah, yes, Zemo and Bucky confirm.

Zemo says they can't go as themselves and Bucky's going to have to "become someone you claim is gone". Bucky looks Deeply Unhappy.

On to a GRC resettlement camp in Latvia. Karli is playing soccer with some young kids. Because of the good-natured idealism. She's summoned to a hospital bed, in a ward stuffed with beds in an old, fancy building that's seen better days. Somebody is dying and she's crying at their bedside. Her mom maybe?

Back to Madripoor. It's a glittering city of colorfully-lit skyscrapers. The trio are walking across a bridge to give us a picturesque view and exposit about what they'll be doing. Sam is wearing a very questionable suit with like a black and red floral pattern and yellow-green circles. Or something. I can't tell what's going on with that thing. He says he looks like a pimp. Well no, but it is a terrible suit. Zemo calls it fashion forward, but Zemo wears a great coat with a fur collar and a purple ski mask. Don't take fashion tips from Zemo.

He says Sam will play a "sophisticated, charming, African rake, named Conrad Mack. Aka the Smiling Tiger." Sam is still not thrilled, "even has a bad nickname." Though, yes, the original dude does dress that poorly and he looks like Sam, so suck it up, Sam.

Fortunately they don't have to walk all the way across the bridge (it is a long ass bridge), they're met by a car about halfway and Zemo says they have to super duper stay in character no matter what happens.

The car is surrounded by elaborately decorated motorcycles ridden by very armed people. Hell of a welcome wagon. They're escorted to a graffitied, crumbling underpass, presumably the entrance to Low Town. It's part Macao, part Kowloon, part Jakarta, crammed full of neon and people and ramshackle buildings piled together in a maze of narrow streets, rails, and weird building-to-building bridges. Good set design.

Everybody is "fashion forward" and very heavily armed. They pass a wall with the words "Power Broker Is Watching". That's the charming fellow Karli and her do-gooders stole from.

They enter a bar decorated with golden baboon skulls and koi fish. Zemo asks "are you ready to comply, Winter Soldier?" he's attracted attention from unsavory sorts. I mean, more unsavory than the already unsavory sorts who fill the bar. The bartender is surprised to see Zemo and the Smiling Tiger. Zemo asks for Selby.

Somebody at a nearby table pulls a hood over her head, and by somebody I mean Sharon Carter. NOT SUBTLE SHARON!

Bartender asks the Smiling Tiger if he wants the usual and Sam silently nods. The bartender seems suspicious, but he takes a pickled snake out of a jar, cuts something out of it, drops it in a glass and places it in front of Sam who's like 'what in the actual I am going to puke'. lol Sam bravely tosses it back and does not puke no matter how much he really wants to and he really wants to. Bucky's being the Winter Soldier and is not at all laughing in his head about this.

A power broker minion comes over and tells Zemo he's not welcome there. Zemo says if PB wants him to leave, he can talk to him himself or bring Selby. The minion looks at Bucky and asks if he got a new haircut. Bucky gives him pure murder face. So the Power Broker and his minions know the Winter Soldier, so they were Hydra? Or, I guess, they all ran in the same shady circles.

Anyway, PUNCHING AT LAST! Power Broker minions approach to remove Zemo and Zemo tells the Winter Soldier to attack. Bucky is not pleased, but I am, because now there's punching. It's just been the sort of week that needs punching to improve it. Bar brawl! It's a lopsided fight, Bucky's wiping the floor with these dudes and the suspicious bartender is moving away to make a call.

"It didn't take much for him to fall back into form," Zemo tells Sam. Shut your pie hole, Zemo.  Aw, now the guns come out and the fight's over. Zemo calls off the Winter Soldier and the bartender tells them Selby will see them.

Selby is lounging in her backroom, listening to 50s french pop, and hanging out with lizards and piles of cash. As you do. She'd like to know why Zemo is there and by the way wasn't he in prison? She makes a weird purring sound at Sam. lol. I like her. The actress looks familiar but I can't place her. Anyway.

Zemo says if she tells them what she knows about the super soldier serum, he'll give her the Winter Soldier and his control words. Then Zemo weirdly fondles Bucky's face and like rubs at the cleft in his chin. lol. fucking weirdo.

Selby is charmed. She says she's glad she didn't kill him straight away. Weirdos of a feather, I suppose. Anyway, she says the serum is in Madripoor and developed by Dr. Wilfred Nagel. He was working for the PB. She won't give up Nagel's location for free, though. …and Sam's phone rings. Pro tip, Sam: turn off your phone when you go into meetings with deeply shady crime bosses.

Everybody stops and stares at him and he just sort of lets it ring. It's his sister. Dude, just turn it off. Too late. Selby wants him to answer it on speaker. Okay, well, she'll kill you either way, so just refuse the call and get ready for punching and running. So, he answers it.

Sarah says she needs to talk to him about the situation and he wants her to say exactly what situation. So, she says the one with the boat, dummy, and are you high? So he's going to play this off as a Doing Crime phone call. And it kind of works until Sarah calls him Sam. Selby's like wtf kill them and then she gets shot in the chest by … I don't know who? somebody from the outside. Now this trio of geniuses is going to get blamed for it. Immediately a bounty for them goes out to like everybody in Low Town. lol. That went well, guys.

And the shooting starts, they run. Except not so great for Sam who we just discovered is wearing heels. "I can't run in these heels!"

Here come the bikers. And they get picked off by somebody in a nearby warehouse. Oh, is that Sharon? Yep. And she's salty .When asked what she's doing there, "I stole Steve's shield, remember? I also took the wings for your ass so you (sam) could save his ass (bucky) from his ass (zemo)." lol. She didn't have any backup so she's off the grid in Madripoor. Did nobody think to clear her after everybody was all heroic and then pardoned after the Un-Snappening? Come on, guys.

She's better than they deserve and despite being bitter, she says she's got a place in High Town they can hide.

Sharon runs a gallery selling stolen masterpieces and other hot craft goodies. The creators of this show bless us with a long shirtless Sam scene as he changes out of this Smiling Tiger duds and apologizes to Sharon. She says she'd be arrested if she went back to the States and Madripoor doesn't allow extradition. Besides, she muses, heroing is hypocritical bullshit. Right Sam, since you gave up the shield and all. And Sam's all "bwhu?"

Then she turns her bitter on Bucky and asks how the new Cap is and Bucky's like "i hate him the most" and she's all 'come on', she knows he buys into all that heroic bullshit, "before you were his (zemo) pet psychopath you were Mr America, Cap's best friend." Well, no before that he was the Winter Soldier long before Zemo.

"Wow, she's kind of awful now," Bucky tells Sam. lol. You really get a sense of how much Bucky lucked out with his goat farm. Thanks Wakanda!

Sam gets them back to the point and wants to know where Nagel is, though Sharon says they should stay out of it to be safe. Sam presses, he says he can help clear Sharon's name and she's like 'wow, bargaining with my life?' but he gives her a Cap-worth speech about trying. "They cleared the bionic staring machine and he's killed almost everybody he's met." "I heard that," Bucky says from ten feet away. "I don't trust charity." You just tried to guilt him about bargaining with your life, Sharon!

Anyway, they strike a deal.

Zemo's being suspiciously quiet.

Then they go to a rave. Madripoor is party central. Sharon's gallery is hosting a party for clients and whatnot. She'll see what she can find. For some reason she invites the boys to join her at the party because hiding from the bounty on them and probably also from the Power Broker means walking into parties packed full of the sort of people who buy expensive stolen goods in Madripoor, like say, the Power Broker or his wealthier minions.

Zemo's just happy to be out of prison. The shot of him dancing. lol.

Sharon finds a lead on Nagel and the next day this quartet of galaxy brains heads to the docks. Nothing bad ever happens when you go look for scientists at the docks. No sir. And he is apparently hanging out in a shipping container. Sharon's like hurry up you've got a bounty on your heads and I'm sick of you three already.

The container is empty, but Sharon insists it's the right one. Zemo goes in and finds the false back which leads to a set of stairs going up. "Comin' Home Baby" is playing in the distance. I know I always listen to Mel Torme when I'm tinkering on gene-altering serums in my secret shipping container lab.

They find Dr. Nagel, who is not keen on chatting but he's willing to maybe listen to offers. He's definitely the mad scientist type.

Sharon, keeping watch outside, spots trouble. Some bad guys heading towards the container. She attacks! Moar punchies! Or beating the shit out of people with a baton. It's eleventy zillion bounty hunters. How did they find them? Did that Very Wanted Trio maybe go to a very popular party the night before, or something?

Bucky attempts to persuade Nagel with his gun. Nagel says he was brought in to Hydra to work on the Winter Soldier program. Then he was recruited by the CIA. They had blood samples of a subject (Isaiah? the black super soldier from last ep), and he was able to recreate the serum off of that. "I was a god! I did what no other scientist since Erskine was able to do."

Zemo is pacing around like a very, very angry psycho about to shoot the mad scientist. Guys, maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring Zemo to the person who could create the super soldier serum, given that is the opposite of what he wants. Kill Nagel, no more super soldiers. This is gonna end bloody. Zemo seems to have found a gun hidden in the lab. Yep.

"How have we never heard about this?" Sam asks. Well Sam, it turns out Nagel was blipped. Thanks, Thanos! Anyway, when he came back the CIA project was abandoned but the Power Broker was happy to help fund him. He made 20 vials and Karli stole those. And then Karli being a super duper genius, called him a few days earlier and asked if he could help somebody dying of tuberculosis. Karli … don't call the bad guys and ask for help after you stole from them. That's like day one stuff, kiddo.

Meanwhile, Sharon is still fighting every bounty hunter in Madripoor. She's killed like twenty guys.

Sharon runs in "guys we're seriously out of time" and Zemo takes the distraction to shoot Nagel. Who didn't see that coming? Oh yeah, Sam and Bucky and Sharon. Nobody was using the one (1) brain cell today. Or Zemo was. That's what you get for loaning it to the lunatic.

And then somebody fires a freaking rocket at the shipping container lab. Man. But, can you collect a bounty if all that's left are unidentifiable, charred corpses? Nobody in Madripoor is using the brain cell today.

Now they're trapped in a burning lab that's full of probably very bad explosive chemicals and o2 tanks. And yep, it partially blows up. Zemo gets away. Or seems to have, anyway. It's a gun battle now and also arguing. lol. Sharon's like "FOR REAL YOU IDIOTS?"

Oh, here comes Zemo, stomping along the top of a shipping container, carrying his purple ski mask. He fires at a gas line, the explosion distracting the bounty hunters and giving the trio time to run. Zemo beats up some bounty hunters and then finds a convertible muscle car in a container and swings by to pick up the others. Sam is very grumpy "you're going back to jail". lol.

Sharon's like 'okay, buh-bye!', she's had enough. Aww, is she really only in one episode? Well, Sam does promise to try and get her that pardon, so …

Anyway, Bucky calls shotgun and refuses to move the seat up for Sam. Payback is sweet. Heh.

Oh, not done with Sharon yet. She meets a minion and says they've got a couple of big problems.

Lithuania. Karli and one of her pals are stalking a GRC depot. Karli's sad. Her buddy says she should take some time to mourn. But, no, she's got do-gooding to do. They chat for a bit about what they'd be doing if they weren't do-goodering. She'd be a teacher or some such. They were all in Madripoor, washed up there during the blip, put then put out when everybody returned. Hmm. Lots of expositioning. Blah blah, scary taking the serum. "But it was worth it, because this world is ours." And they're going to give it to the kids in the displacement camps. … alrighty then.

Anyway, she's convinced that now that Nagel is dead, the Power Broker will come to her begging for the rest of the serum. No, sweety, I really don't think a person like that begs. Yikes.

"So we've got the one fight ahead of us then? I'll take those odds," says her very dim buddy.

In the prison in Berlin, Captain Massive Tool is talking to the guards about how Sam and Bucky where there when Zemo escaped and the guard's all "you … you don't think they had something to do with him getting out…." World class security. I find it really grating that Captain Tool calls Sam and Bucky by their first names. It's just so weirdly familiar that it almost crosses into dismissive. Completely unearned familiarity.

Lemar says they can't just accuse Sam and Bucky without evidence, but Captain Tool seems to think they can just, you know, make it up or some shit. "If we get the job done, do you think they're going to sweat us on the how?" Fuck you, Captain Tool.

Back in Zemo's plane, Bucky's fastidiously cleaning his metal arm, like a big grumpy cat. And Sam is trying to get a lead on the person (Madani) Nagel told him Karli wanted to help. He's got Torres on it.

They get to talking about the shield and how many people died or got messed up because of it/the serum. Sam says he made a mistake giving it up and he should have destroyed it. Bucky says, "Look that shield represents a lot of things to a lot of people, including me. The world is upside down, we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker [preach]. So before you destroy it, I'll take it from him myself." Kick his ass, Bucky!

Torres gets back to Sam just as Zemo brings them lunch. Such a good host. "They found Madani. Dead. She died in Riga, a city near the Baltic Sea." … was that last bit really necessary? Like Riga is such a mystery? Even if you don't know where it is, like, that's so weirdly clunky. Somehow I think if you don't know Riga, you probably don't have the Baltic in the map in your head, either.  'Have you ever been to London? A city on the River Thames.' 'I've always wanted to go to Los Angeles, a city near the Pacific Ocean.'

Bucky should have said "oh yeah, i love Riga. I killed a diplomat there back in '64. Great beer."

Zemo's got a place they can go and he's looking forward "to coming face to face with Karli." Not creepy at all, Zemo. Nope.

Meanwhile, the kids are raiding the GRC depot and chatting way too much and calling each other by name. Oh dear.

"Filthy Flag Smashers" grumps a soldier tied up on the floor. I can't take them at all seriously with a name like that. Karli says they had six months of supplies just sitting there. "Don't you understand, we're fighting for our lives." Are you? Why and in what way?

Okay, so this is my continuing issue here. They're trying to build up this un-Blipped world, which is great, but they're doing it through So Much Exposition and so much of it is vague. We're supposed to think the GRC are probably shady, but are they? I don't know. Could be. They're sitting on these supplies! Evil! Maybe they are, but why? Why stockpile all that? Is it being sold on a black market? Or diverted to other people? Who knows! I don't. You don't.

We're supposed to sympathize with the Flag Munchers, but they're so vague in their goals. They want the world back how it was during the Blip. Okay. How was it? I don't know. What was so great about it? What we saw in Endgame didn't look all that great. But, we saw it from a different point of view, to be sure. So, what was it like for the average person who survived? Hell if I know. Also the Munchers want to help the people in the displacement camps. Okay. So do those two goals go together? I don't know. Are all the displacement camps bad? We're meant to think so, but I don't know. Is it just some of them? Is it regional? Who, exactly, are the displaced? It seems to be a mix of those who were blipped and those who weren't. I guess. I don't know.

It's just all taken out of the Big Book Of Cliched Assumptions for Lazy Worldbuilding. Why actually do the hard work of details, when they can just fall back on tropes, make vague pronouncements about how 'bad' things are, and let us assume the answers. This might bother me less if we didn't have to spend so much time with Captain Tool and the Flag Munchers. I cannot tell you how much I currently don't care. I find this all very frustrating. I don't mean to spoil the fun. Let me look at Sam's face again:

That was better. But, I stopped too soon. We're still with the Munchers. 

They're leaving the building they just looted, and there’s a bit of business I don’t care about, involving Karli’s car and how she’s not taking it, she’s going to just leave it parked, completely unsuspiciously in front of the building. And, she’s going to ride with her pal Mr. Dimbulb. 

She tells him to put his seatbelt on and she's very insistent. And then her car blows up and the building catches fire and it’s very dramatic. 

Her buddy's like wtf there were people in there and Karli says, "This is the only language these people understand." ARGH. Who people? Why is bombing them the only language they understand? Like, in this show, the GRC have literally DONE NOTHING. Nothing we’ve seen and nothing we’ve heard. At least have people chat about dark and dire rumors or something. Hell, they haven’t even been accused of doing anything other than ‘caring more about the people who returned than the ones who never left’ which is literally their job. sighing all night long. Maybe they’re horrible and evil and the Worst Thing Ever. But I DON’T KNOW THAT, because nothing in the show has bothered to establish that. 

ANYWAY

Riga, a city on the Baltic Sea

The trio are walking down the street, Zemo expositing for us again. Sokovia was apparently swallowed by neighboring countries, erased from the map. "I don't suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial? Of course not. Why would you?"

Bucky's looking not happy. Probably remembering '64. They get to Zemo's place and Bucky says he's going to go on a walk. Zemo and Sam go on ahead and Bucky watches until they're out of sight and he circles back and finds a beeping thingy on the ground. He notices something across the street. Ah another round beepy thing. Now he's collecting them. He steps into an alley and says, "You dropped something". Nobody immediately appears.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up." And he turns around and it's one of the Dora Milaje. She looks unhappy and she’d like to know where Zemo is. Yeah, the Wakandans are not just gonna let Zemo wander free. That's a sticky situation you got yourself in, White Wolf.

Credits.

Well, I really enjoyed the bits that didn't contain the Flag Munchers or Captain Tool. Do better with your world-building, people.

[bbyannabeth]

So maybe a fluffy fic where Percy accidentally loses his memory and wakes up with annabeth in his bed and he's like who are you? And she's like I'm your wife...And he's like WHATTT..But you're so pretty.

i loved this prompt tbh but i changed it slightly bc i couldn’t figured out a reason for him randomly waking up in his own bed with no memory, if that makes sense,,, but i think i kept the same idea and i hope u like it<3 - Percy woke up with a pounding headache and to the sound of machines beeping. The room was insanely bright and it took several minutes until he could fully open his eyes. He was in a hospital room and panic flowed through him when he realized he had no idea why.

Not only did he not remember why he was there, he also didn’t seem to remember anything.

There was a heavy weight in his hand and he looked down to see a head of blonde hair. A girl sat in a chair next to his bed, her hand loosely in his, with her other arm cradling her head on the mattress as she slept. Percy carefully tried to extract his hand but as soon as he moved, the woman’s head shot up and she looked at him, both tired and alert at the same time. She looked exhausted and absolutely stunning.

“Oh my God, finally,” she said, looking at him with relief, standing up and cupping his face. “You’ve been asleep for nearly two days. You scared the hell out of your mom and me.”

Percy blinked. He had no idea what she was talking about. Something in his expression must have conveyed his confusion because her brows creased and she asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Um,” he started. Her eyes were startlingly intense and there was so much visible concern, it made him nervous. “Who… are you?” he asked tentatively.

The woman stared at him and her hands fell from his face and landed on his chest. “What?”

“I, um, don’t remember why I’m in the hospital and I don’t… Who are you?”

She looked shocked and her mouth opened and closed before she stood up a little straighter and carefully took his hand with both of hers. “Annabeth…” she said slowly. “Your wife.”

Percy’s brain stopped working for a second and his eyes fell to their hands where, sure enough, they both had rings. If it weren’t for the rings and the fear in her eyes, he never would’ve believed someone so beautiful was married to him.

“We got in a car crash a few days ago,” she continued. “The other car crashed into your side so you got the worst of it. Silena and I are fine for the most part. Just a concussion and some bruising.”

“Silena…” he trailed off, watching as Annabeth’s shoulders fell and her eyes turned glassy.

“Silena,” she whispered, “our daughter.”

“Oh,” he breathed. He tried to think and it made his head pound again so he shut his eyes. “I don’t- I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”

“It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “Let me get the doctor.”

She let go of his hand and right before he heard the door open, Annabeth sniffled and it made Percy’s heart twist. He desperately wanted to remember her and every memory he had of her. But nothing came to mind.

A moment later, the door opened and Percy opened his eyes to see a woman in a white coat followed by Annabeth. Her eyes were red now and she idly played with the necklace she was wearing. From what he could see, it was a red pendant of some kind.

“Hello, Percy. I’m Doctor Mendez. Can you tell me how you’re feeling right now?” the woman asked, reading something on a clipboard.

“My head hurts a lot. And my body hurts… a lot.”

“That’s expected. You got a pretty bad concussion, some internal bleeding, and a few broken bones. And seemingly a case of amnesia. Your wife tells me you don’t remember her or your daughter?”

Percy glanced at Annabeth who looked dangerously close to tears. “Yeah,” he whispered.

“Okay, can you tell me what you do remember? Think back to your childhood. Where did you grow up? What are your parents’ names?” Doctor Mendez asked, pulling a pen from her coat.

“Manhattan,” he answered. Slight relief flooded him as he realized he did know some things. “Sally and Paul, my mom and stepdad. I never knew my dad but his name was Poe. I think. And I have a sister, Estelle.”

“How old is your sister?”

Percy thought for a second before answering, “Three.” He knew that was the wrong answer when Annabeth inhaled sharply. His eyes snapped to her and tears were flowing freely down her cheeks now.

“Estelle is nine,” she whispered. Percy’s heart sunk.

“Nine?” he breathed.

“Okay,” Doctor Mendez said. “So that gives us an idea of a timeline. I’m going to go get a brain scan set up and we’ll see what we can figure out and go from there.” She looked at Annabeth whose eyes were still locked with Percy’s.

“Mrs. Jackson, your husband may regain his memory,” the doctor said. “But it’s possible he may not. You need to be prepared for that, too.”

Annabeth nodded. Doctor Mendez gave them both a small, sad smile and said, “Alright, I’m going to run a few tests and order the brain scan. I’ll be back in ten to fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you,” Annabeth whispered. Then they were left alone. She stood a few feet away from the bed and despite not remembering anything, Percy couldn’t stand to be apart from her for another second.

“Come here,” he whispered, holding his hand out. Annabeth took it immediately, sitting in her chair. Percy weakly lifted her hand to his lips, ignoring the pain that shot up his arm. More tears sprung from her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Perce.”

“I know. But still,” he said. They looked at each other for a second before he quietly asked, “How old is Silena?”

Annabeth smiled slightly. “One and a half,” she whispered, pulling her phone from her pocket. When she showed him her lockscreen, Percy wanted to cry. It was him, smiling and holding a happy little girl in his lap with blonde curls and green eyes.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, biting his lip. His eyes fell to their joined hands. His wedding band was a simple silver one that had words etched into it that he didn’t even try to make out. Hers was silver, too. The engagement ring had a solid band with a square-cut diamond, and there were bands on either side of the ring, both just a row of tiny diamonds.

“How long have we been married?” he asked, unable to look her in the eyes as he said it.

“It’ll be four years next month.”

They were silent for a moment and he finally looked back up. She was watching him and even with cheeks wet from tears and red-rimmed eyes, she was breathtaking.

“You’re my wife?” he asked, almost in disbelief. Her brows creased briefly but she nodded. Percy chuckled quietly. “But you’re, like, so beautiful.”

Annabeth laughed. “During your vows,” she smiled, “you said something like that. You said you’d never understand how someone as beautiful as me could’ve fallen for you, but you were so grateful I did. Those were your words.”

Percy smiled ruefully. “I was right. I don’t understand,” he kissed her fingers again. “I want to remember. I’m trying so hard.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s okay. Even… even if you don’t, we’ll figure it out. I’ll just have to make you fall in love with me all over again,” she tried to keep her voice light as her lips curved upwards slightly, but there was still a heaviness behind her words.

He looked at her stormy eyes, which glittered behind tears. Her curly hair was loose and fell past her shoulders and there were freckles across her tan skin. “I don’t think that’ll be that hard.”

[ironwoman359]

“I can’t believe I finally got you, how incredible is that?” With human!Deceit and tiny!Virgil?

Warnings: Cages, treating a person as a pet, depression

Virgil was quiet as he was roughly transferred from the pen at the back of the pet store to a portable carrier. He didn’t bother shouting or trying to run, he’d tried all that before and it never worked. He stayed silent as he was run up at the register, kept his mouth closed as the woman behind the counter tried to convince his buyer to pick one of the other tinies from the front of the store.

“Really, are you sure about this one? We have this lovely, lively little fellow over here that I think would be just–”

“Thank you, ma’am, but that won’t be necessary,” the man interrupted with a silky smooth voice, holding up a gloved hand to quiet her protests. “I’m sure this one will do just nicely.”

The woman shrugged, before dutifully informing him of their thirty day return policy and handing over his receipt.

Thirty days.

Had Virgil ever even lasted a whole month with a human? No, he was pretty sure his record with a human was about three weeks before he’d been sent back. It was always the same complaint; he was too boring, too lifeless, to depressing. Nobody wanted a pet that would curl up and lie still in the corner of a cage, refusing to engage with its owner.

Whatever.

It didn’t matter to Virgil one way or another. Whether he wasted away in the back of a pet store or wasted away in the corner of some human’s living room, either way he was going to die alone in a cage.

A car door slammed, and Virgil jumped, realizing that his carrier had been set down on the passenger seat of the human’s car. The man fastened a strap over the carrier, buckling it in place before settling into his own seat and starting the car.

Virgil sighed, and leaned back, closing his eyes. Maybe he could catch a quick nap before he had to endure this new human going through the typical poking and prodding stage that every human apparently had to get out of their system when they first bought a tiny.

“Phew!” the man said suddenly, and Virgil winced at the loudness of his voice. Or maybe, sleep had been too much to hope for. “She totally wanted me to take you home, didn’t she?”

Virgil opened his eyes and peered up at the human who had bought him. The man’s eyes were on the road, but when the car came to a stop at a red light, he glanced down at Virgil and smirked. Virgil realized with a start that the man’s eyes were mismatched, one brown, one blue, and he found himself staring despite himself.

The man raised an eyebrow when he saw where Virgil’s attention was, and Virgil quickly looked away, not wanting to anger him.

“It’s called heterochromia.”

“Huh?” Virgil glanced back up, but the human’s eyes were on the road again as he continued.

“When your eyes are two different colors, like mine.”

“Oh.”

“But yeah, sorry about that lady, she sounds like she was a real treat to have as a caretaker.”

The man shook his head, annoyance clear in his voice, and Virgil frowned. Why did this human care so much about how nice the pet store employees were?

“Between that absolute peach of a worker and the fact that it’s way more difficult than you’d think to track down one specific borrower, I can’t believe I finally got you. How incredible is that?”

Virgil snapped his head up, his eyes wide.

“Did…did you say…borrower?” he asked. Distantly, he was aware that that was the longest sentence he’d said to a human since he first had been caught, but he was too distracted by the fact that this human had just called him a borrower. How long had it been since he’d been called what he actually was? It must have been…

“I’m sure you haven’t heard yourself be called that since you were initially captured,” the human continued. “But rest assured, Virgil, where we’re going, you won’t have to worry about being called a ‘tiny’ anymore.”

Virgil hadn’t thought it was possible for him to be anymore surprised after hearing a human call him a borrower, but the instant that his name crossed the human’s lips, he was proven wrong. All the other humans had tried to give him a name, and not ONCE had he ever been asked what he’d like to be called. 

“How…how did you know my name?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper, and the man smacked himself on the forehead. 

“Dammit, Dee, you’ve done it again,” he muttered, before glancing down at Virgil with a sheepish expression. “Well, I was planning to ease into this topic a little more delicately, but I didn’t pick you out of that pet store randomly, Virgil. I’ve been looking for you in particular, for some time now.” 

“I…why?” Virgil asked, bewildered, and the man, Dee, sighed again. 

“Well, if I gave you all the reasons, we’d be driving all night, but here’s the short version. My best friend, Thomas, he has a big house out in the country that his Aunt Patty left to him. He discovered a couple of wild-born tinies out there, or borrowers, as we found out you’re actually called. He became friends with them, and they opened his eyes to a lot of the injustice that goes on in the Tiny Industries. He decided he’d put all that space out there to good use, and he built a little sanctuary for borrowers. It’s been running for about three years now, and we have half a dozen or so borrowers living out there that were rescued from the pet trade.” 

 “Okay…” Virgil said slowly, trying to keep up with what Dee was saying. It made sense, he supposed, though he’d never imagined a human would decide to take a borrower’s side on anything, let alone build an entire habitat for them. “So…what does that have to do with me?” 

Dee smiled at him, and raised an eyebrow. 

“One of those borrowers is Patton.” 

Virgil sat up in an instant, leaning forward with wide eyes. 

“You’re serious?” he asked, and Dee chuckled. 

“See for yourself,” he said, putting the car into park. “We’re here.” 

He got out of his seat, then came around to pull Virgil’s carrier out. Through the wire bars, Virgil could see fields that stretched out into rolling hills in every direction, what looked like fruit trees in the distance, and the reflection of sunlight off a pond. 

All of that was just the background though, for the big, three story farmhouse that Dee had parked his car in front of. A human was standing on the front porch, and from what Virgil could see of his face, he was smiling. 

“Dee!” the man called, and his voice was bright and full of energy. “Did you find him?” 

“Yeah, Thomas,” Dee said with a grin, holding up Virgil’s carrier a little higher. “I found him”

Thomas clapped his hands, then did something that Virgil thought was strange: he held one hand over to his shoulder, palm facing upward. It didn’t make any sense at first…until they got a little closer and Virgil realized with a gasp that a borrower had been perched on Thomas’s shoulder and was now sitting cross-legged on the human’s open palm. 

Thomas let the borrower off to stand on the porch railing, and tears sprung to Virgil’s eyes as he recognized his older brother. He hadn’t seen Patton since the two of them had been captured nearly two years ago, and had long since given up hope of ever seeing his brother again.

Dee set the carrier on the porch railing and had barely flipped open the door before Patton was rushing forward, tears in his eyes and arms outstretched. Virgil took the last few steps to meet him, catching his brother in what had to be the best hug he’d ever had in his life. 

Patton was crying into his shoulder, gripping Virgil so tightly it almost hurt, but Virgil didn’t mind. His own hold on Patton was just as tight, the fear that this was all some impossible dream hovering at the back of his mind. 

If this was a dream, it was one Virgil never wanted to wake up from. 

Eventually, Patton pulled himself away, cupping Virgil’s face in his hands and scanning it, eyes wide and shiny with tears. 

“You’re here,” he finally whispered, his voice breathless with wonder. “You’re really here.” 

He pulled Virgil close again, and Virgil smiled as he buried his face in Patton’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, Pat,” he mumbled back. “I’m here.”

Thomas and Dee watched fondly as the two borrowers reunited, then Thomas turned to Dee. 

“You might want to visit the family room, Roman kept insisting I tell him when you got back.” 

Dee rolled his eyes before shaking his head. 

“He probably has a seventeenth draft of that script of his to show me. Alright then, I’ll catch you guys later.” 

Thomas waved at him as he headed inside the house, then turned his attention back to the borrowers, who were still locked in an embrace. He smiled, and whispered,

“Welcome to the Sanders Sanctuary for Borrowers, Virgil.”

——–

A/N: Soooo this is an AU now XD I’ve wanted to write about humans who hated how society treated Tinies (borrowers) and established a sanctuary for them for the longest time, and never got around to it, until noooww! If you guys are into it, I’m going to start a sideblog/askblog for this AU, but until then you’re welcome to send me asks about the AU here! I’ll have more info about the other characters and what their roles are, as well as more fics coming soon, but for now, I hope you enjoyed this little ficlet and the introduction into the Sanders Sanctuary for Borrowers/Tinies AU!

Update: the sideblog is @sanders-sanctuary-au, check it out if you’re interested!

-Taylor

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[xxwritemeastoryxx]

Forgotten Alliance Ch. 3

Author: xxwritemeastoryxx

Pairings: Eventual Elijah Mikaelson x OC with other parings mentioned throughout.

Word Count: 2.2K

Warnings: Not too much. Canon typical stuff.

Author’s Note: As a reminder, FA can be found on ffnet up to chapter 42. I am uploading chapters here on tumblr for convenience. I decided against tagging this until new chapters are posted. Of course there are a few that wished to be tagged and I will be tagging them in this. If you would like to be tagged please let me know! Chapters are queued and will be posted randomly. This chapter takes place on day two. It is between episodes 3.14 and 3.15. Enjoy

By the next morning, Elizabeth and Hayley had grown a bit closer. Elizabeth had sprung plenty of ideas to Hayley. Many of them, Hayley couldnt believe that they were coming out of Elizabeth's mouth. But one of them stuck. A list. As simple as it was it had been a list of all of the members of the Strix that had taken them capture. And that had been enough for Hayley.

"I'll be happy to lend a hand." Elizabeth said with a grin on her face.

Hayley shook her head. "I have to do this on my own, but I will need your help." She said with a small smile. But Elizabeth knew Hayley was having a problem asking.

"Just spit it out woman. You wouldn't be asking if you really didn't needed it." Elizabeth said giving Hayley a slight glare.

"Can you keep him busy?" Hayley asked.

"Who? Elijah?" Elizabeth asked before giving her a look. "You expect him to believe that I need to spend time with him for two whole days while you slaughter members of the Strix?"

"It was your idea, Liz." It had taken Elizabeth by surprise that Hayley had used her nick name. Very few did so and there was a part of the vampire that had been glad that the two had seemed to be getting along so well.

"You are right." Elizabeth said with a nod. "I'll come up with something. But you must be prepared for when Elijah eventually finds out, Hayley. Its not a simple task you are trying to pull off."

Hayley nodded. "I know. It could mean an act of war. But if it means getting the revenge I seek for Jackson, it will all be worth it."

"I may have never met Jackson, but the way you speak of him is like you owe him, not that this is something you just want to happen." Elizabeth watched Hayley carefully as she spoke. But Hayley had only seemed to have retreated into her mind. "I'll leave you alone with your thoughts." Elizabeth walked out of Hayley's room in search for Malakai.

After several bars later, Elizabeth found Malakai drinking with a few of the vampires from the quarter in Rousseau's. As Elizabeth stood on one side of the room, she couldnt help but watch Malakai enjoying himself. He was laughing with a blonde vampire that he had his arm wrapped around. For once it seemed that Malakai was enjoying his freedom.

"You seem lost in thought." Elizabeth looked over at the person. Cami, Elizabeth noted. She had seen her twice since her arrival in New Orleans.

"I'm just glad my friend is happy. He hasn't been a bother has he?" Elizabeth looked back at Malakai, who had just taken another shot. Seeing as that it was only mid day, it didn't seem like the group cared much. They were enjoying himself.

"Besides drinking the bar clean, he has been well behaved." Cami noticed Elizabeth's head nod slightly.

"He has been through a lot. He deserves this, to be free."

"Free of Klaus's sire line?" Cami asked watching Elizabeth watch Malakai.

Elizabeth smiled and shook her head finally looking towards Cami. "That was just a plus. But Malakai has only been awake for about three years now." A confused look appeared on Cami's face and Elizabeth didn't hesitate to explain. "You see, there was a time when Klaus learned that he could make Hybrids. It was before he actually learned that he had to break the spell that his mother had placed on him." She nodded towards Malakai. "His curse had only been triggered for a month when Klaus picked his pack as a test trial."

Cami noticed the pause. She wondered if Elizabeth was going to continue her story but she noticed Elizabeth's eyes glass over. "You don’t have to finish." Cami said trying to bring some comfort to the vampire.

Elizabeth chuckled and blinked her eyes a few times. "It was a rough time for us, Cami. I thought I was going to lose my best friend that night. But thankfully a witch was willing to help, she died using a spell to put him to sleep until I could get my hands on doppelganger blood." A smile soon appeared on her face. "Now he is free and allowed to do as he wishes."

"You care a lot about him." Cami noted.

Elizabeth nodded. "He's the only family I have." Without saying another word, Elizabeth walked away and joined Malakai. His face lit up the moment he saw her.

"Liz! Welcome to the party, I thought you would have joined us last night." He said pulling her into a hug.

"I'd figure I'd let you get a lot of the partying out of your system before I joined. " She said with a smile.

Looking to the bartender Malakai ordered a round of drinks and pulled Elizabeth off to sit down and talk. While they had been in the came city for the last two days, they hadn't actually gotten a chance to sit down and talk for a moment.

"How are the Mikaelsons?" He asked watching her. He had a specific reason for asking and wanted to see the reaction on her face. Elizabeth knew what that specific question meant and she could only shake her head.

"I thought you were supposed to see Klaus." She said changing the subject. "He was ready to come looking for you. Saw you as a threat."

"Well you see, I got caught up in all the partying and figured my best friend would ease into a conversation somewhere with Klaus and say I was here." He had a playful grin on his face that Elizabeth enjoyed seeing. Elizabeth shook her head at him.

"Eventually you will need to speak with him. Preferably before things start to hit the fan again."

"What makes you think they will?" He asked.

"Its the Mikaelsons, when does anything stay calm for a long period of time?" Elizabeth's phone buzzed in her pocket. Taking it out she looked at the screen and placed it back. When she looked up at Malakai he had a raised eyebrow wondering who it was that had texted her, but Elizabeth ignored it. "Do you know where you will be at later?"

Malakai laughed. "No idea. Somewhere across the river. One of the vampires, Josh, said there was a party and I do not intend to miss it." He said with a smile.

Elizabeth laughed and stood up from her seat. "Maybe afterwards you can actually talk to Klaus like you wanted to."

Elijah stood on the balcony looking out at the city. He had spent the day helping Klaus search for any remnants of the white oak. They had found none. Elijah hoped that this would be the end of his brother's constant paranoia. The only weapon that could kill them had been destroyed completely and Elijah hoped that it would bring some peace to both his brother and the city. But Elijah had known better. Things were changing and eventually the peace would be gone in a matter of moments.

Elizabeth leaned against the entry way to the balcony watching Elijah. The man always looked so lost in thought. Part of her wanted to leave him to his thoughts and find some other time to ask the questions that had been going through her own mind for several years. But if she held the questions back, she would never really know what she wanted to know.

"Elijah." Her voice had been soft, almost childlike.

"I was wondering when you would actually speak." There was a hint of humor in his voice. He didn't turn to look at her though. His eyes stayed on the city before him.

"I was debating on if I should bother you or not." She said taking the few steps out onto the balcony and stood beside him.

"You have never been a bother, Elizabeth." He said looking over at her with a small smile.

"Are you sure about that?" She asked with a smile. "I was a rather energetic child once."

"And you kept many on their feet, but you were never a bother." A small giggle passed Elizabeth's lips.

Elizabeth had only been four when the Originals had found their way into her village seeking shelter from Mikael. Elizabeth's father had welcomed the family with open arms and helped them settle into a new life. While they still continuously looked over their shoulder, they had tried going on with their lives. Elijah had befriend Elizabeth's father and they had spent a lot of time developing the village the best they could. It was the times where Elizabeth's father and Elijah would be looking over plans that Elizabeth would come running through and interrupt them from their task. Life had been peaceful for a little over a year before Kol fueled Klaus's paranoia.

"I never thanked you for that night, Elijah." Elizabeth said with a small nod.

"How could you, you were only five." Elizabeth could hear the tinge of guilt in his voice. "I could not stand by and watch my brothers kill another innocent. Especially a child."

Kol had fueled Klaus's paranoia of Mikael finding them enough that he had willingly agreed to help Kol slaughter the village. Elizabeth and her mother had went for a walk that night. When they returned to the village, everyone had been killed. Before Elizabeth and her mother could run and hide, Kol managed to get a hold of her mother, leaving Elizabeth running into the forest on her own as she heard her mother's screams.

"Why didn't you do it?" Elizabeth asked. She had always wondered why Elijah hadn't compelled her to forget anything. He had only compelled her to stay calm and not to tell anyone their secret.

"I couldn't give you an answer for I hardly know myself." Elijah said with a slight nod. "Though if I had, I wouldn't have gone to check on you."

"You came and checked on me?" Elizabeth had been shocked by his words. After the night her village had been slaughtered, Elijah took Elizabeth into another village and she had been accepted by a family. After that, she didn't see Elijah again for some time. She never knew he had taken the time to check on her. He never once made himself known during that time.

"Circumstances, remember?" His words caused her to chuckle. "While I had left you with the memories of creatures of the night, I had always gone back to check to see if you were living a normal life. Which you were, until things changed."

"And that was when I started seeing you around again." She nodded completely understanding what he meant by 'until things changed'. Elizabeth had been courted by a man that came from a wealthy family. And while everything had gone according to plan with the courting, it was after the marriage that things got difficult. Before Elijah could say anything, she changed the subject. "Its been almost eight hundred years, Elijah. That's a lot of missed birthdays you have to catch up on."

Of course she had been joking but it did the trick. Elijah laughed and shook his head at her. "You'll have to forgive me, the past eight hundred years have been quite difficult."

"You mean with your paranoid brother who likes to dagger you and keep you in a wooden box from time to time." She said with a smirk growing on her lips. "But I get it. Always and Forever."

Elijah looked at Elizabeth with a smile. She in fact did understand what Always and Forever meant to him and his family. It was just like Elijah knew it applied to her and Malakai. She'd go to the ends of the Earth for the people she cared for. There was no stopping her from saving those she cared for. Elijah knew in that moment, circumstances aside, Elizabeth was there to help them. And while he wouldn't tell her that Klaus still had his doubts about her intentions in New Orleans, Elijah believed that there was no danger in the woman he had watched grow up.

Forgotten Alliance Tag: @mschellehitt

[orynthslibrarian-blog]

Crackpot Witchlands Theories

Bloodwitch spoilers (actually spoilers for the whole series really) follow under the line so read at my crackpot theories at your own risk :) AND LEMME KNOW WHAT Y’ALL THINK. I really and truly need to procrastinate studying for finals right now so interaction really welcomed <3

I’m rereading the series after reading Bloodwitch, and I’m trying to wrap my head around how the hell the Cahr Awen fit into the world of the Paladins. So first, I’m going to set out the relevant facts from the books.

Here’s what we know about the Cahr Awen:

Every single pair has been an Aetherwitch and a Voidwitch

They’re the only ones (as far as we know) who can reach the center of the Origin Wells

There’s an estimate of 60 pairs, but only Memory Records for 40 pairs

The last pair was about 600 years prior to the present day of the story

The Carawen monks were created to protect, defend, and support the Cahr Awen. Their symbol is... “the rook and tree”!

Here’s some of what we know about the Paladins:

The Paladins were very much alive and in power 1000 years prior to the present day (re: the timeline in Sightwitch)

They’re reincarnated, and there’s a strong inference that each reincarnation remembers their past lives, and has access to their past lives. Something about that fight changed the nature of how magic works in the Witchlands (since the reincarnated Paladins don’t remember their lives, and since that’s when the Wells sprung)

The element Paladins have full control of their respective element. I’m going to go ahead and write out who in the present day has been confirmed and who most likely is a Paladin.

Kullen (Air) who was Bastien/The Fury and is confirmed

Stix (Water) who is confirmed and was most likely Baile based on her connection to the under-city & the weird moment with Baile’s eyes

Dirdra/Owl (Earth) who is not confirmed, but we can make a very strong inference she is one as well based on her sudden knowledge of the doors which also suggests she was Saria who helped Eridysi with the doors

We don’t know what power the Rook King had, but I’m about to go into that in my theories. We just know that he’s one of the 6 rebel Paladins. And he has a pet Rook. And he was able to interact with Iseult.

OK THEORY TIME:

The Cahr Awen were two of the Paladins - there’s no way for the timelines to work out otherwise. That wasn’t all that clear to me until...

The Rook King was the Voidwitch half of the Cahr Awen.

His pet Rook has been making himself available to numerous characters (Ryber, Aeduan, & Safi) but the Rook King himself only ever showed up in Iseult’s dreams. If Paladins can access their past lives, then it’s reasonable to assume that Iseult’s past life was the Rook King, who is a confirmed Paladin. And Iseult’s power comes from the Void. I realize it hasn’t actually been confirmed yet, but we can very much assume that at least Iseult is 1/2 of the legendary pair.

Also the fact that the symbol of the Carawen monastery includes a “rook” which I highly doubt is a coincidence. The Rook King most likely established the Carawens himself - him and whoever stands for the “tree” bit.

The Rook King was probably the Paladin who “betrayed” the others. He’s notably missing in Eridysi’s journal entry. His Aetherwitch half was probably one of the Exalted Ones. And b/c they’re a pair, his half was able to convince him or use him somehow to get the information about the Rebel Paladins. And the two set up the Carawens not to support the Cahr Awen, but to protect future reincarnations from the vengeance of the awake rebel Paladins.

Habim, Matthew, and Eron are “awake” Paladins: Habim (fire), Matthew (aether), and we don’t know about Eron. Actually, Eron’s a weird situation. He used to have some sort of witchery, and then he became a Hell-Bard so he’s technically dead, and therefore, no longer a Paladin. But I’d venture a guess these three guys “woke up”, are heavily invested in Safi because they can sense she’s the Aetherwitch of the Cahr Awen. And if my theory about the Aetherwitch half being an Exalted One is correct, then this would all work together because those three are also Exalted ones. Their super schemes to take down the empires is to take back their own land and power. Would also explain why they randomly visited the Sightwitch convent - to find the hidden doorways, duh!

Also these people as other Paladins:

There’s also a strong inference that Noden - the Nubrevnan God - is a Paladin since the temple in Lovats has him standing between Lady Baile and The Fury, two confirmed Paladins. We just don’t know what his particular power and/or present-day identity is.

Corlant (Void) who Aeduan knows to have grown up with Ragnor since they’re both from the same tribe. Grown up with - not just from the same tribe. Ragnor was very much an adult and not with his tribe when he entered into the sleeping ice. Corlant is referencing his past life who knew Ragnor, not the current one.

This is less a theory and more or less confirmed in Sightwitch but wasn’t explicitly clear: Something is happening to Sirmaya (the source of all Witchlands magic) - presumably, Esme’s Cleaving is corrupting the magic somehow resulting in dead wells. The Cahr Awen can heal wells... they can probably heal Sirmaya as well.

[toasttz]

From the Tabletop #8

When last we left our questionably-competent D&D gang, we decided to venture out, due to Kaz receiving a vision/message from Granzeen the Gale, a patron spirit of the chicken tendies, asking Kaz if he wanted revenge for his father's murder. This resulted in: Kaz: Yeah, I guess? Granzeen: I will show you that which you most desire! Needless to say, Kaz has some commitment issues. At the same time, Laguna also had a vision, whereupon he was told he had become a Hero of Yzzmitt, which leads to its own thing a little later on. Imagine a thin girl who loves arts and crafts, her hair tied back in a bandana, clad in apron, and work clothes. Her arms end in useless bulbs rather than hands, but her hair is amassed with dozens of hands that extend from the locks. So, the next day, following the directions issued in the vision, we came across a small, pink, fluffy ball of a creature, about the size of a volleyball with a tuft tail. Kaz: I'MMA KILL IT! Needless to say, Kaz has some mental issues. So, as anyone with a GM as mischevious as ours already predicted, this little fluff ball was one tough piece of fluff, and shaved off 3/4 of Laga's HP in one terrifying firebreath, causing her to flee down the road. Turns out a setting named "DinosaurLand DragonWorld" might actually have dragon-type creatures in it. To say nothing of the fact that Kaz just attacked the thing without doing any prep work or seeing if it was naturally hostile or not. So, tails figuratively between our legs, we venture onward and arrive at a cave, all the while stalked by some weird shadow creatures we couldn't quite make out. Inside, we attempt to switch to stealth mode. Laga and Laguna actually have low-light vision, and take point. Kaz is an idiot and asks if he can fly in the 7' high cave. Laga is then terrified by a small bundle of rubber spiders, dropped on her from a trap, causing this Amazon of a woman, mace, shield, armor, the whole 9 yards, to shriek like a small girl. As the GM said, this set the tone for the entire trip. Around the first corner, a dart trap sprung, hitting Laguna, who to his credit was trying to sneak by. He was laid out on his back, drooling and spacing out as a technocolor whirlwind became the sum of his audio/visual experience. Laga attempted to call out whoever was responsible, proudly declaring her name (and failing her charisma roll), whereupon two chittering figures declared their love of G-pop and fleeing into the dark, much to Laga's consternation. Around here we also found some phat loots, including an old-style oil lamp, an ancient coin, and a wand. Laga and Laguna conclude that it'd be best to wait until we had better conditions to assess them and they pocketed them. Eventually, we get a lay of the first corridor, which sectioned off into several other paths. We decide to head north, as we felt a wind coming from that direction. Then all Hell broke loose. In the next room, we got to Indiana Jones our way to a maiden, strung up to a structure in the middle of the room. The floor tiles had draconic symbols on them, and the only one among us who could read them was the still-groggy Laguna, he got to play the hop-scotch to the death for us. Surprisingly, he made it rather well, and ultimately got to the maiden in question, whereupon slats in the walls opened and snipers started taking potshots at us, and the door behind us sealing shut. Left no option but forward, we had to run for it. We actually managed it with just scrapes and bruises, mostly because chicken nuggers just half-flew across the room and Laga just bolted. In the next room we ran into a much more considerable problem. Approximately 3 dozens kobolds and a powerful woman in the middle of the room, emitting cold air, as she was doing a workout routine. Deciding it best to tackle this via the diplomatic angle, Laga spoke first. It didn't take long for us to piece together that this woman was, in fact, a very powerful dragon. A very powerful dragon who was down an eyeball courtesy of one barbecue buffalo wing and his father. She was ready to just ice us and be done with it, and Kaz even briefly flirted with the idea of challenging her to a duel. I then had to point out that that was suicide. So Laga, flexing the "Us grrrls, amirite?" angle, talked down the dragon, whose name turned out to be Alba. "Her parents weren't terribly creative," ~GM. After coaxing it out of her, Laga learned that Alba secretly wished to visit Belly Button, but wanted a regal, splendid dress to do so. Laga agreed to retrieve it for her, but was given a three-day deadline to pull it off. Kaz then decided to open his beak for some stupid reason, and offered to just knit her a dress. Laga immediately declined that plan, on account she liked living. So they returned to town to try to figure out the dress situation. Laguna and Kaz were absolutely no help in this regard, as Laga was left to her own devices in figuring out who she could petition to create the piece. After being turned down by the best artisans in town and even being offered a Rumpelstiltskin deal, Laga eventually asked Laguna to assess the artifacts we had found previously. Upon invoking the coin's power, we ended up summoning a Fallen, a class of angel, who happened to maintain the purview of clothing. Lucky us! So, Laga gave the specifications because there is no way in hell she was going to trust the others to do so. Dress in hand, we returned to the cave once more, in largely uneventful fashion since Kaz didn't randomly punch any wildlife this time. Ecstatic at her new duds, Alba and some of her draconic friends joined us in a return flight as they began to explore the town with glee - mostly because Laga begged their assistance with the now-impending disaster timer. They also heckled Laguna who, despite having some draconic heiritage had no kobolds to call his own. That, as they said, was so sad. Around this point, we concluded this session and I had to come to terms with one problem I had: Laga was kind of boring. So I consulted with the GM and he liked my new idea, so I created Blackbe, a Paladin of the Warcur people, who was planescaped to this world by powers ill-understood, alongside his sister and nephew. So, at the next session's start, the party was introduced to him, because apparently Kaz started crashing at Laguna's house? Kind of news to me, but Laguna flagged Blackbe down out of the otherwise-empty street because it was the day of the calamity and any sale would be better than none. After an... interesting roll, Laguna offered Blackbe the "GODPIECE", a diamond-studded codpiece worth of armor, which Blackbe politely declined, after his sister speculated this pawn shop was a dealer in questionable goods. Blackbe, having only just become aware of the disasters and the timer, petitioned Laguna and Kaz to accompany him, mostly because any help he could get would still be better than none at all. So they quickly got Cherri and Duran (aforementioned sister and nephew) to safety as Blackbe lead the charge, quickly joining ranks with other teams of soldiers awaiting the fight ahead. Blackbe, being noble among Warcur families, gave a rousing speech about the disaster ahead forging ties between races - that all men who stood together in this dark hour were brothers, regardless of race or standing. This got the troops pretty excited and got the attention of a Warcur lady, Jiraca, a druid who threw in with the team as the first disaster struck: A colossal beast, Thorophaganax, preluded by dozens of small insect-like drones who we met at the base of a hill as their number attempted to plow into it. Blackbe, the first to charge into the fray, declared that s/he who got the smallest number of kills would buy drinks for the party, as Jiraca joined the game with a few kills all her own. Then Laguna unleashed the fuckin' thunder and just rained fire on them, wiping out over half of them in as little as two turns. Being a sorcerer does that. Blackbe: Friend Laguna, I feel I might need to get you more than a drink when this is over... The small fry dealt with, we then had to deal with a lightning-spitting giant. Ever see "Nausica of the Valley of the Wind"? Like that. But more lightning. Kaz then proceeded to completely derail the flow of the game but essentially taking five turns in one go. We actually had to stop the boss fight and call up rules for how monks are supposed to operate in 5e. Turns out, he was basically trying to bend/break all the rule and use all his attacks in one go and not even so much the tribute of a ki point to be seen. We then had to explain that extra attacks and bonus actions were taken as a one-and-done affair and could not be multiplied in the same turn. And he got really petty and douchey about it, especially after he declared he lodged his spear all the way into the Thoroph, which I'm calling it for short, and couldn't actually get it back due to not understanding how suction works. And barbed things. Funny enough, despite Kaz's stupid dex-based pinwheel of death, Blackbe, with two attacks per turn as a Paladin, was able to empower and strike for way, way more damage than Kaz. See, Blackbe uses a greatsword, which has a higher damage floor than most, I have several ways of empowering my strikes, and due to a specialty I get as a Paladin, I can reroll damage results that have 1s and 2s in them. This was also after the fact that I am a moron and wasn't calculating my strength mod into my damage results, and yet I was still belting out more damage. Which says something. With some concerted effort, we struck down the disaster, which ultimately reset the timer for 3 additional days. Not a great deal of time, but a reprieve nonetheless. At this point, we learned Laga had fully embraced the G-pop star life and had taken to pursuing her new career with some level of success. At this point, Alba, who had joined in the battle per her promise, demanded that Blackbe and company take responsibility for the promise that Laga made, concerning some inter-dragon politics. Namely a gold dragon who, quote, "Makes fun of [her] all the time". Agreeing, the party made preparations for departure the following day. Blackbe explained that, upon his sudden arrival in this world, he made fast friends with 7 warrior comrades, who battled alongside him against a goblin incursion they suddenly ran across. And he explained that, since they were headed north towards the Twin Peaks, hoped to meet at least one of them again soon. More on them next time. The next morning, a series of strange injury/illness fell over the townsfolk, as Blackbe rushed to treat as many as he could. It was almost as if they were being violently struck by an unseen fist, so Blackbe began to investigate. Along his way he met with a well-armored man, named Garman. He, too, was investigating the crisis and after exchanging notes, became another fast friend of Blackbe's. Garman was Lucius's player's new character, who also decided to release the A-Men character for a new idea: a dual-classed Ranger/Rogue, with an intense racial hatred against Kobolds. Think "Goblin Slayer, but kobolds", and you're on the right track. And with that high note, I break here. Come back in the future for my D&D adventures such as: Kaz gets his ass royally handed to him by a gel cube, Garman mathematics (always equals KOBOLD), Blackbe is declared the team's face and the hero the world both needs and deserves, and Laguna is tricked by literally the most obvious lie in the world. See you there!

[themurphyzone]

World’s Greatest Dad Ch 3

This counts as my holiday story for the year.

Ch 3: Malls and Dolls 

Vanessa was an impatient bundle of energy. Her snow boots thumped against the seat as Heinz drove into the parking garage. He made sure to pay close attention to the road, because he didn’t want an accident preventing him from becoming the World’s Greatest Dad. 

“That van’s leaving, Dad!” Vanessa pointed to a black van that was backing out of a handicapped space. 

It was tempting, but Heinz was evil. Not inconsiderate. And like any other driver, he preferred not being towed and fined. Charlene would never let him hear the end of it. 

“Not that one, sweetie. We gotta keep looking,” Heinz said, another evil idea taking root in his head. A Parked Car Away-inator would be extremely useful in the future. Or maybe just one that specifically targeted monster trucks. 

Oversized wheels screamed ‘look at me, I’m a jerk and can run you off the road when I feel like it’ anyway. 

Vanessa pouted, resting her hand on her cheek. Heinz was losing patience at finding a parking space too, though he hoped Vanessa wouldn’t pick up on it. He wanted to be her role model, and role models didn’t gripe and complain about how busy the parking garage was during the holiday season. 

He was certain he’d already set numerous bad examples for her. Which made it all the more important for this day to go smoothly. 

Park car, enter mall, find toy store, buy doll, make Vanessa happy, gain title of World’s Greatest Dad in less than ten steps. 

The epitome of easier said than done, really. 

It took fifteen minutes for Heinz to find an empty space that wasn’t handicapped, limited time, or blocked by inconsiderate shoppers who couldn’t park within the lines. Unfortunately, the empty space was on the last floor of the parking garage, which exposed them to the bitter cold. 

Given his usual luck, Heinz would probably have to dig the car out from a layer of ice and snow.

“Got your gloves?” he asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Scarf?” 

“Yes!” 

“Hat?” 

“I’m dressed! Can we go already?” Vanessa demanded, throwing open the car door with enough force that it almost crashed into the neighboring vehicle. The cold swept in, and Heinz quickly pulled on his gloves. 

Heinz double-checked his coat pocket, taking special care to ensure that his wallet and car keys were in there. When was the last time he’d been this careful with his belongings anyway? 

Once the car was locked up, they headed toward the elevator. Vanessa complained about Heinz holding her hand the entire way, but he wasn’t risking her slipping on the ice. 

The elevator took its sweet time. Vanessa folded her arms, either from cold, frustration, or a combination of both. She leaned against Heinz’s legs as if trying to leech off some of his body heat. 

His body type prevented her from getting that, however. 

“So does Carrie McGuffin come in more colors or is it just one style only?” Heinz asked, trying to make conversation. Anything to distract them from the cold. 

“You like saying her name wrong,” Vanessa said. 

Heinz shrugged. “Eh, Jerry, Perry, Aries, there’s a lot of rhyming names out there. Hard to keep track.” 

The elevator finally pinged, Vanessa perking up at the sound of the bell. The doors slid open, and Heinz had to grab Vanessa to prevent her from being run over by a woman with a trolley full of Christmas packages.

“Keep your kid out of the way,” she snapped, storming to her car in a huff.

Heinz glared at her. “You know, when I take over the Tri-State Area, your house and livelihood are the first things I’m destroying.” 

“Dad, you better hurry!” Vanessa shouted. 

Heinz managed to squeeze into the elevator before the doors shut, still thinking up various ways to rain down vengeance upon that woman for almost running over Vanessa. 

“How come you’re always saying that stuff?” Vanessa asked, finally breaking the silence. The elevator was moving slower than Heinz would’ve liked. 

“Saying what stuff?” 

“The Tri-State Area. I don’t think you could be mayor.” 

Great vote of confidence there, Heinz thought. 

“When I do take over, you can be heiress. A Doofenshmirtz Dynasty sounds pretty appealing, don’t you think?” 

Vanessa shrugged. “Don’t know. Can I still have my friends?” 

“Depends. I’ll have to make sure none of them are interested in dating you first,” Heinz admitted. His own romantic history was lackluster at best and a flaming trainwreck at worst. Vanessa was actually much better at maintaining friendships than he’d ever been, but that just made him more worried that someone would emotionally harm her.

While there was no risk of getting hurt if you didn’t get close to someone, it wasn’t the kind of thing he felt comfortable teaching Vanessa.

Heinz breathed a sigh of relief when they finally made it to the ground floor of the parking garage. He didn’t fully understand why he wanted the Tri-State Area so badly, and he always came up empty when he tried to articulate his reasoning. 

Vanessa would be more concerned about finding her doll. 

Heinz held her hand, keeping her close so he didn’t lose her in the crowd of holiday shoppers. He held his breath through the perfume department, guiding Vanessa past the giggling packs of women and men who were struggling to decipher the various brands. 

Vanessa coughed, waving the air in front of her face once they were safe from the onslaught of aromas. “Where’s the exit?” she asked. 

“We’ll find it, don’t worry,” Heinz said. “Hopefully the rest of the mall doesn’t smell like ant pheromones and pollen.” 

“Do you know what ant pheromones smell like?” Vanessa asked. 

“No, no I don’t. Why would I know something like that?” Heinz said hastily. Thankfully, he could make out the entrance to the interior mall from his vantage point. “We’re almost there! Let’s go before they sell out!” 

Vanessa scrutinized him as they headed for the directory. “You’re lying.” 

Heinz coughed. “I’m not lying! When have I ever lied to you, sweetie?” 

“You told me babies came from a magical doonkleberry patch.” 

“You were five and you randomly sprung that question on me,” Heinz argued, figuring that now would be a good time to change the subject. “Anyway, where do you wanna head first?” 

Five stores. They’d gone through five different toy stores and found nothing. Dozens of children were proudly displaying their brand new stuffed animals, video games, and toy vehicles. 

Yet Vanessa was empty-handed. 

And the World’s Greatest Dad title was slipping beyond his reach. 

“There’s plenty of other dolls out there,” Heinz said. “I can get you one of those. What about the one that comes with the brushable horses? Seems like it would be popular enough.” 

Vanessa crossed her arms. “I don’t want brushable horses.” 

Heinz scanned the directory again, trying to remember which stores they’d already checked. “Just a suggestion. You can think about it. Okay, we aren’t going back to the one with the talking hyena mascot. That’s for sure.”

That toy store had the worst selection Heinz had ever seen in his life. Even Drusselsteinian toy stores had more variety. And those only sold branches and mushrooms!

Dolly’s Dollhouse didn’t carry Mary McGuffin either. Which was strange, considering ‘doll’ was in their name twice. It was a very blatant case of false advertising. 

The third store was more video game-oriented, and the last two catered to the young boy crowd. 

As he debated cutting his losses and accepting that he’d never be the World’s Greatest Dad, Vanessa pointed to the name of a store. 

“Unlimited Two?” Heinz said in confusion. “That’s a toy store?”

Vanessa nodded. “A lot of girls in my school have Unlimited Two clothes. And they sell toys.” 

Just what he needed. A brand name store. That’s what he deserved for not paying attention to the trends among today’s youth. 

But it wouldn’t hurt to look, right?

“Dad, let’s go! It’s gotta be in that one!” Vanessa exclaimed. 

According to the map, Unlimited Two was located on the other side of the mall. His legs were going to be really sore in the morning from all this walking and banging into oversized shopping bags. 

Vanessa’s energy returned, and she was trying to run off with renewed vigor. But Heinz kept a tight hold of her hand. He didn’t want to lose her in the crowd. 

The headlines he’d read yesterday flashed through his mind, and that made it all the more important for Heinz to not lose her. He didn’t want Vanessa making front page news because some wacko wanted a doll too.

“Almond brittle! Limited holiday edition!” someone called. 

Unable to resist, Heinz walked over to the booth. 

The vendor’s smile looked absolutely forced, probably due to the strain of the season. “Buy a box and sign up for our online membership! Ten dollars to join and we’ll send you coupons for our products via email.” 

Her intonation was seriously creeping him out, so he quickly paid for two boxes of almond brittle and got out of there before she could ask him to do anything else. 

“What a creep,” Heinz muttered. “I couldn’t resist almond brittle. Best snack of all time. You should try it sometime. Come on, Vanessa. Let’s go find that Ari McGuffin.” 

No response. 

“Vanessa, I know you’re probably mad at me for making that detour but it’s not gonna happen again. I promise,” Heinz said. 

“Who’s that man talking to, Mommy?” 

“Walk away, Johnny. Walk away. We don’t speak to crazy pharmacists.” 

“I’m an evil scientist, lady!” Heinz yelled at their retreating backs. “Get your occupations straight!” 

Heinz cursed his poor impulse control when it came to almond brittle. 

Vanessa was nowhere in sight. She must’ve run off when he was distracted by the vendor. Running a hand through his hair, Heinz took deep, shuddering breaths. 

She could be anywhere. Even outside the mall. This place was a labyrinth! 

“No, this can’t be happening. Okay, it is happening. Vanessa’s on her own cause you just had to buy some almond brittle. I can’t help it. I like almond brittle. Yeah. Okay? Okay,” Heinz murmured, drawing more curious stares from passersby. “Focus, Heinz. You lost your daughter, you get her back. What are you gonna tell Charlene if she finds out? Um, hi. Yes, I lost our daughter because we were looking for a doll and I got distracted by some almond brittle. By the way, could you start calling hospitals in the Tri-State Area to make sure Vanessa wasn’t admitted to them?” 

Heinz slumped onto a bench to catch his breath, tearing a nearby pamphlet to shreds to get his frustration out. Before he could rip apart the next strip, a pair of words caught his eye. 

Unlimited Two.

He was holding a map of the mall layout! That was it! That’s where they were going!

Heinz broke into a sprint, dodging strollers and not caring if mall security was going to be on his tail for this.

The bright neon letters of Unlimited Two were in sight. It felt like an eternity, but he made it. 

Forcing himself to slow down, Heinz took a deep breath. The sections closest to the front were clothes and hair accessories, all of which seemed too colorful and bright. He spotted a shelf full of large stuffed animals in the back, and figured that would be his best chance. 

He rounded the corner, breathing a sigh of relief. Vanessa was here. 

She was safe. 

“Vanessa! What were you thinking?” Heinz scolded, reminding himself to choose his words carefully so she didn’t run off again. “You could’ve gotten hurt, or kidnapped, or something else! You know better than to pull something like this! What would your mother-” 

Vanessa wasn’t defending herself. Strands of brunette hair were plastered to her face. Heinz cut off his tirade, deciding to save it for later. Heinz gently brushed her hair out of her eyes. 

When he pulled away, his gloves were slightly wet.

Her eyes were tinged red. 

She was crying. 

Wordlessly, Vanessa pointed to the display in front of them. 

Mary McGuffin! The Lovin’ ‘n Laughin’ Muffin! $13.99! 

But the display was empty. 

Unlimited Two is just my parody of Justice, or Limited Too as they used to be called. I got a few Webkinz from that place. It’s one of those interior mall stores. The stuff there is mostly for young girls. Kinda expensive too. 

I like making them suffer. I’m not sorry.