#and steps in to protect both Hero and Beatrice

[whatsfourteenupto]

Not to sidebar from Doc Who again but I’m rewatching Much Ado 2011 (again) and I’ve just noticed how several times in the wedding scene Benedick moves to physically intervene on Hero’s behalf and is ordered to stop by Don Pedro. He is told by his prince to stop and then to leave and yet he still rushes back to help as soon as the others are gone how does this scene keep getting better Jesus CHRIST

[toon-topaz]

The vampire if how overprotective does the rest of the cast get when they find out Subaru's not a vampire like one to ten scale

Oh boyyy this is gonna be fun Scale is gonna be from 1 (Doesn't give a fuck) to 10 (keep him on a leash at all times good god)

Emilia - Emilia found out at the beginning of arc 2, once she brought Subaru in for Beatrice to heal him. She then spends the entire series horrified at the lengths he will go to to protect her, or prove himself or whatever the hell he's trying to do. Especially after he got mauled by the Ulgarm, her worry for him increased tenfold, and then another tenfold after he challenged Julius. Her reasoning for leaving him behind in arc 3 is in part because she sincerely believes herself to be a bad omen, because of Subaru's continued offers for her to bite him (he thinks it'll be romantic and doesn't understand how weird that is), she thinks he might have some kind of brain damage after what Julius did to him. She believes she may actually end up getting him killed (little does she know, it's already happened, a lot), but also that she might lose control one day because damn, his blood smells nice. By arc 4, she understands his reasoning a bit more, but still hates to see him constantly putting himself in harm's way, and considers it extremely important for him to continue hiding his true identity. Despite not being the best liar herself, she's dedicated to keeping him safe, but will usually just avoid talking about it. In a way she feels kinship with him, as they both need to be careful about going out in public, due to her identity as a Witch of Envy lookalike, and his identity as what's essentially a talking prey animal. 8/10

Beatrice - Beatrice also knew the moment she met him, her ability to read Mana coming in handy for this. At first, she finds him more annoying and stupid, and even when she starts to like him more, her reluctance to exit her shell and bare her vulnerabilities prevent her from being too involved in what he's doing. After their contract, she's about as protective of him as in canon. Beatrice isn't a vampire, she's a spirit, and so she doesn't have any reason to be scared of herself losing control and attacking him. He's her contractor, she cares for him and his safety and will protect him with her life, but she also trusts him to take care of himself. She knows he may be reckless, but he's not stupid. 5/10

Rem - Rem finds out in arc 2, once it has to be explained to the staff that they need to somehow find a food source just to feed this one guy. Needless to say, she finds it incredibly suspicious, especially when in earlier loops Subaru keeps tailing Emilia and casually suggesting they have a taste of his blood. He has to be up to something. Not to mention, there's not only a ridiculously sweet scent wafting off of him whenever he accidentally cuts himself, but there's also constantly the smell of the Witch on him. She's fully convinced he's a Witch Cult plant, some kind of fabricated existence meant to be as tempting as possible. She does actually end up biting him, in the loops where she kills him, to punish him for daring to step foot in her sister's home. After the Ulgarm fight, she becomes one of his most fervent protectors, while also passively encouraging his reckless behavior. His weakness is also a strength in her eyes, as it gives him a unique kind of bravery she's absolutely in love with. She won't stop him from getting into trouble, but she will without hesitation kill anybody who dares attempt to harm her Subaru-kun. He could walk into Hell and she would follow him unflinchingly. Rem is hard to categorize, because her protectiveness of him is filtered through her view of him as her hero. She doesn't want to stifle him, but in the process enables a lot of his bad habits, opting to take action to defend him in the moment, rather than preventing him from getting into danger in the first place. It helps that she knew the moment she met him. 7?/10

Ram - Ram also knows right off the bat, and she's initially a bit wary, like her sister. Depending on how suspicious Rem is of him, her own concerns vary. She's a lot quicker to understand that he's just kinda stupid however. Ram does care for him, but holds no small amount of exaggerated disdain, usually teasing him for his weakness and taunting him with his status as food, with such charming nicknames as "cattle", "pig", and "snack". It's all in good fun, but it's also a subtle warning to him to not get careless. Sometimes she brings him grass, for their "livestock", and he responds to the jab by shoving it in his mouth while maintaining full eye contact. 4/10

Otto - Otto genuinely has no idea until, like, Subaru's knighting ceremony at the end of arc 4. He's absolutely piss drunk when he finds out, and it sends him into a goddamn crisis. He feels like a fucking idiot for not realizing his incredibly fragile best friend is not in fact, a vampire with a chronic health problem, but apparently he's been a whole other species this entire time. He's starting to wonder if Subaru technically counts as an animal, and the only reason they're able to get along so well is because of Otto's Divine Protection. Knowing this now, he sees how Subaru never seems to eat the same meals as everybody else, he's never shared a glass of blood with anyone, and no, that sweet smell is not just Otto's imagination. Otto's dedication is second only to Emilia's with helping Subaru keep his secret from everybody else, and he's a much better liar than her. He essentially crafts Subaru a whole fake backstory, makes it absolutely fucking airtight, and all but forbids him from speaking to strangers without at least one bug tailing him to report back to Otto. If he could he'd ground him to his room forever. About half the paperwork he does now involves forging Subaru's legal documents (which he apparently didn't have for a whole two-ish months??? He's lucky nobody bothered to check), birth certificate, Lugunican citizenship, etc. Poor Otto is about to have an aneurysm every time Subaru goes anywhere. 9/10

Garfiel - Garfiel thinks this is the coolest ever actually. He finds out while fighting Elsa, and at first he's pissed cuz y'know, she hurt his Captain, but once the dust settles he's actually thrilled to find out that the dude he looks up to is part of a long extinct legendary species he's read about in all his favorite stories. A lot of the heroes of legend were human, and he really admires Subaru's tenacity despite his weakness. Everyone's a little fragile to Garf after all, so the most he'll do is offer to train Subaru to fight or dodge better, and act as his bodyguard when he goes out in public. Alas, he's bad at keeping a secret. He will punch anyone who fucks with the Captain though. 5/10

Frederica and Petra - Frederica learns when she comes back to maid duty, and Petra needs to be informed once she gets hired. I don't have much to say about them, but Frederica makes sure Subaru gets proper nourishment, and Petra is a little weirded out that she can lift Subaru up with ease, but she's mostly chill about it. Sometimes they team up with Otto to keep an eye on him. 6/10

Roswaal - This fucking guy knew before Subaru even got here. He's been growing orchards in his backyard in preparation for the day his favorite little pawn would show up. His sacrificial lamb. He's been doing everything he can to put Subaru in harm's way, knowing he can just try again if things go wrong. He fully believes in him to pull through somehow, even as he actively throws him to the wolves. Not only that, but Roswaal is one of the only vampires alive who was once human 400 years ago, so he knows how it feels to be preyed upon, and yet he could not give less of a shit as long as Subaru helps him achieve his goal. 0/10

Part 1/2

[crazyintheeast]

What is Warrior Nun about?

By now many of you have heard about the hit Netflix show Warrior Nun and you might be wondering what it is about. So I made a quick guide to help you

Warrior Nun is centered around Ava. A lonely bookish 19 year old girl who accidentally becomes chosen to carry a Holy Relic that gives her super powers and she gets plunged into the War between good and Evil

Both sides of the War want to recruit her and the choice seems easy until J.C comes into the picture. He is bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks who makes Ava question whether it's as simple as good vs evil

But the side of the Light also has it's attraction in the form of Michael. A devoted hero who seeks to protect Ava and is always there for her

This love triangle becomes more complicated in season 2 when it's revealed that Michael and J.C used to date

We also have Father Vincent who is charge of the side of Light and Michael's adoptive Father who raised him since he was a child. He is a devoted priest but back in the day he ran with a rough crowd

And we have the big bad fallen Angel Adriel who is J.C father and the leader of the Darkness. Will J.C chose Ava over his father's will?

But the show is not all about hot guys. We also have Lilith. J.C's step sister who deeply hates Ava

And Sister Beatrice who becomes Ava's best friend in the whole world. She is a kind devoted pacifist who always supports Ava and is there to listen when she needs advice over J.C and Michael. She is like a big sister to Ava

[hamletteprinceofdenmark]

Okay so like to fully understand the absolute bonkers mess that is Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship please know that it is Really Heavily Implied that before the play starts they actually DID DATE in secret and were courting each other and then Benedick fucked up by being One Of The Boys and Beatrice dropped his sorry ass about it and that’s why they’re so brutal and bitter about each other (and also why they’re both so ready to believe that the other one does really love them after all 🥺)

It’s not just that Benedick rejects toxic masculinity and chooses to break ties with his friends and quit his job to stand with the women and hold the people who wronged them accountable. Its that he does all that in part because he failed to step up and do the right thing before and it cost him everything and he’s not going to make that mistake again.

Benedick’s choices aren’t just the natural progression of his character arc, they are specifically a redemption arc that only he and Beatrice are party to.

They are choices that help and protect Hero in the present, and are an apology in action for how he failed Beatrice in the past.

[walker-journal]

At Hell’s Gates (Bea, Adam, Luce- POTW)

Participants: Beatrice Vural (Spellcaster- Fiona), Lucinda Vural (Spellcaster-Cal), Adam Walker (Hunter- Tapir)

Summary: Adam brings Nell’s skin talisman to the Vural house to plan a rescue operation into a Hell Dimension with Luce and Bea as time runs out. 

Content Warning: Allusion to sibling death in the Bea resurrection plot

In a way Adam appreciated the breakneck speed of preparations, the staggering level of planning needed to even attempt this almost impossible task. Every second fussing over environment resist gear, talking to Naomi about atmospheric poisons, and running over possible dimensional scenarios with mom was one where he wasn’t thinking about Nell being tortured in hell. Eventually he just had to drug himself to sleep, as he’d be no use on the mission already exhausted. 

Adam caught a glimpse of his reflection in one of the windows of the Vural home. He looked like someone about to venture into a radiative wasteland or wade through mustard gas, heavy boots, sealed armor, and a gas mask hanging from his belt. In truth, even with all this equipment he was pathetically underprepared for what was coming. 

But as always, Adam put on a face of stony resolution. He’d mastered the unphased action hero act a long time ago, even if his reflection had a numb thousand-yard stare that didn’t quite fit. 

“So what’s the magic plan?” 

The bracelet around Luce’s wrist had pinged the second Adam had crossed the boundary line, the magic a reminder of the sister she had lost. Nell had been the one who’d insisted upon the bracelets, something simple and small that they could always keep on them. She’d been so different back then. Younger. Unburdened by the weight that this town placed on its inhabitants. Luce let out a sigh and made her way to the front door, letting Adam inside. He looked like he was going to be rolling up into Chernobyl and, for all any of them knew, he would be. They didn’t know what was on the other side of those portals. And as much as Luce wanted to rush into the first rift she saw, she knew she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave Bea here, alone, to worry and to curse her name. 

Cupping a glass of water in her hands, Luce looked over at her older sister, uncertain. “I don’t know. I’m not the one with the master plan, not this time.” Not ever really. She was just here to get things done, to bring Nell home. She might have lines now, boundaries she wouldn’t cross. But she needed to bring her sister home. “Bea, you find anything in the books on how we can get her back?”

In her early twenties Bea had been worried about her breakups and losing touch with her friends, how different that was from her sisters’ lives. How different that was from Adam’s life. He was walking into war for her baby sister and the eldest Vural could not help but see the flash of the blade cutting down when she looked at him. How many people would risk their lives for Nell? Would Adam be added to the list that had lost theirs for her? Nell, of course, was worth it, but Bea couldn’t help wishing that Adam and Nell could simply lead a life that was similar to Bea’s at their age. 

Her shadows swirled at her feet, agitated by the whirling emotions suffocating their mother, they clung to her ankles as she moved to grab a tome she had taken from Nell’s things. “We’ll be using her magic for this. Or at least we will be using an adjusted version of her magic,” Her voice flowed confidently through the space, coating every surface with honeyed hope that she did not feel. Is this how Luce and Nell felt when they lost her? Luce, now, had witnessed both of her sisters gone, taken unfairly from this world. In an impulsive move, Bea found her little sister’s hand, squeezing as she thought of the terror that must be drowning the middle Vural. “Adam, we will get her back.” Bea would destroy this world for her sister, if it meant she was safe. She would tear the fabric that kept this plane stable. She wondered if the universe knew, if it was prepared to go to war for Penelope Vural. Bea was ready. 

Adam had always been cautioned against hope. It was a purely therapeutic emotion, meant to comfort the dread of uncertainty. Esther Walker had instructed her children that facts should be assessed only for what they were rather than what we want them to be. We are not gods. This is not Hollywood. The cold universe wouldn’t fudge the numbers just because some monkeys on a random rock in the Milky Way had feelings in their skull. 

But Adam knew that not everyone grew up with their mom bluntly stating that they’d eventually lose everyone they care about in the long war. While Adam knew this grimness was Esther’s way of loving him authentically, it’d probably be cruel to give Nell’s sisters the same treatment right now. 

“Hey if we got a plan anything’s possible” he assured Beatrice with a confident lie of smile. Trying not to look at the darkness bubbling at the deathless woman’s feed, Adam turned his attention to Luce briefly. “Hey uh, resident fire scientist. Any way I could get something that might give me a chance if like...there is like an inferno or something? Just a few seconds to get the fuck out?” 

Adam shifted his weight, leather and alloyed kevlar creaking with the moment. “How do we get access Nell’s magic then?”

Bea’s hand slipped into her own and, for the first time, Luce realized just how changed her sister was. The familiar warmth, the heat that had always matched her own-- a source of both frustration and comfort that had followed their whole lives… It was gone now. Bea’s fire was gone. She didn’t have it anymore. She never would. But she was still here, still standing, still trying. And Luce was going to try too. She’d reclaimed her fire, she’d manage to fan the spark back into a blaze, and now that she had the power back? The least she could do was help Adam. To keep him safe. Fuck. She nodded slowly, mulling over how she’d manage something like that. Their mother, she’d made charms to protect Nell from their fire as children, back before they had total control. “I think we have something that we could use-- a necklace Nellie used to wear when she was little. Kept her safe from us, before we could control our fire.” She said, dreading the idea of going into Nell’s room to look for the charm. She didn’t want to step foot in there. Just because she could expect the same anguish that had overtaken her when she’d went into Bea’s room last year-- that didn’t make it any easier. This town, this fucking town. She’d thought that the nightmare had ended, that Bea was safe, that Nell was safe. But nothing changed here.

Looking at the book in Bea’s hand, Luce swallowed. “That’s one of Nells. I don’t know how to do what she does, Bea. Neither one of us do. Summoning, blood magic-- I… What are you planning?”

The charm. Bea had forgotten about the charm that used to keep Nellie safe from them. A physical reminder that she was different from her sister. Bea didn’t blame her for not keeping it on her as an adult. “Do you know where that is?” Nell could have thrown it out years ago, but the youngest Vural tended to know when to hold onto things that could be useful. Bea hoped that she had classified this as something useful enough to hold onto, even with it’s baggage. “I don’t know how to either, but Leah is going to help me research too,” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “We have some luck on our side, we’re already somewhat connected. Her magic is, obviously, connected to ours, but by bringing me back we’re even further intertwined. Your magic combined brought me back, so we can use that as a way to channel her too.” It wouldn’t be that simple though, there were more steps that she wasn’t quite too sure on yet. “We need something else, something to track her too, but I’m not completely sure how to do that yet, if you have any suggestions.”

Adam nodded and mouthed thanks to Luce as Beatrice spoke. He hated to part the sisters with something that reminded them of Nell but when you are about to try a longshot, anything that could ease the odds even slightly was needed. Beatrice's question brought a stab of pain as Adam stirred from where he’d sat, reached into a pocket, and withdrew a battered compass. 

“Nell gave this to me, it was uh a present,” Adam’s stomach clenched at the cruel irony of being given a six months dating present by a sad fire cat. It’d been the morning after he’d taken Nell out to ask their relationship to end for safety’s sake, only for that to be the mistake that caused the disaster he’d hoped to avoid. 

“It points uh,” the answer was that it pointed towards home, though Nell had cautioned that it was more metaphorical than literal. “It can take me to her,” he stammered, trying to keep his voice steady. 

Shifting uncomfortably, Luce swallowed. “It’s in her room. I can…” I don’t want to go in there, not alone. But you could never understand, Bea. You weren’t left behind the way we were. “Get it. Yeah, I’ll grab it.” She said before pushing back from the kitchen table, her hand slipping from Bea’s. She lingered in the doorway for a moment, watching as Adam pulled out a worn looking compass. As Adam explained what it was, Luce couldn’t help but wonder how Nell had gotten her hands on something like that. And just how lucky they were that she had. Luce nodded. “Good. That should… definitely help.” She was dragging her feet, she knew that. Just bite the bullet. With a slightly forced smile, Luce patted the door frame. “I’ll get the necklace.”

The walk up the stairs and down the hall to Nells was a short one, but every step filled Luce with that same anxiety she’d felt every time she had walked past Bea’s door last summer. It was a dread, a fear. That no matter what they did, it wouldn’t be enough. And that all that would be left of her sister would be tucked away in a room. That everything inside would stop being a part of Bea, of Nell, and start being a memorial. A memory. She didn’t want to step foot inside that room. But she had to. If they wanted to find Nell, this was their best shot. Luce pushed open the door and forced herself not to pay attention to the potted plants on their shelves, their leaves wilting a little from lack of care. She didn’t allow herself to dwell on the desk with books still open, the bed unmade with rumpled sheets, as though Nell had just left for the day. These were all reminders of her sister that she couldn’t handle. Instead, Luce began to look for the necklace. 

It wasn’t until this past year that Bea truly understood love. In a sense, she had looked at love the same way her mother did, based on what the other person could do for her. Bea had collected people for their skills, pocketed the ones who were the most useful and claimed she understood love through them. It wasn’t until she had been lost that she got just how powerful love was and even then, though she had seen so much work put into her resurrection, she hadn’t witnessed it all. She hadn’t seen the planning or the original mourning, she had not been involved in the panic and grief. She was unable to escape it here, where love twisted into melancholy suffocating them as aptly as summer heat did in the afternoon. 

Bea reached out to Adam, “Can I hold it? I’ll give it back to you after.” She couldn’t take the physical piece of Nell he had left, but looking at it would help her form a plan. They were all relying on her to make a plan that would bring Nell back. With Luce gone searching, she looked at him for a long moment, considering him. “Adam, I know how much a person would do for Nell.” I know sacrifice and I feel like I’m looking at one. “Please do your best to come back to us too.” Some of that honey sweet hope had dissipated now that Luce was gone, Adam didn’t need that, not in the way Luce did. “Is there anyone who can go with you as back up?” Please, don’t do this alone. 

Adam pressed the compass in Beatrice’s hand. It took Adam a bit to answer Beatrice's request. His wide distant eyes and the lost way they drifted around the Vural’s home, looking anywhere but Bea’s face, revealed the lie behind the firm set of his jaw.

It’d been a long time since Adam had felt his age. Uncertainty and finding yourself were unnecessary when you’d grown up already knowing you’d be a soldier and what war you’d be fighting in. His civilian peers had gone through heartbreaks, angst, anger, cycles of rebellion, maturation, acceptance, and reinvention. But Adam had already grown up at sixteen, when he signed away his life to fight and die in service to humanity. He’d learned how to make bombs, lethal holds, blades, marksmanship, and how to keep his head in a warzone when everyone else had been fretting about what school clique to fall in. 

But now Adam suddenly felt like a child in this tactical armor. It was as if he’d finally woken up from a dream to realize the weight was too heavy for him, but it was already way too late to learn all that stuff the other kids took for granted. Adam marveled at how narrow his own knowledge of the world was. 

Honestly? He knew way more about how to kill monsters than how to be human. 

With bittersweetness, Adam realized that made him exactly what Nell hadn't needed, and only now that she was trapped in Hell was he an ideal partner. 

“I promised Luce I’d come with her back to Earth,” was the only assurance Adam could offer Beatrice. He shook his head at the matter of back up. “I’ve got family and Hunter friends who volunteered but I can’t ask them to take this risk. Besides we need all hands on deck to deal with all the shit coming out of the Portals.”

There were times people should be selfish and this felt like a time, but Bea knew that Adam wouldn’t agree. She could spend all night trying to convince him otherwise and it wouldn't work. He was more stubborn than Nellie sometimes, which was saying something. They were the only people that could get through to each other sometimes. It reminded her a bit of how she and Felix could be with each other. 

“Is it going to be that bad?” She had no idea what these portals could mean for everyone else after all this. Honestly, she didn’t really care what happened as long as the people she loved were going to be okay. “You aren’t asking them if they offered, Adam.”

“In situations like these the portals often get worse, opening wider till they let bigger and bigger things through, stuff that our weapons won't work on,” Adam claimed, suggesting perhaps that the already deadly things coming through the dimensional breaches right now were just small fry compared to what really waited in the beyond. 

“Eventually we get what’s sometimes called a Hellmouth,” the Hunter said, numbly staring at a wall as the present mixed with another time where doomsday had loomed near. “Unless its stopped reality itself could be permanently fucked around here...well...fucked even harder I mean, in a way that can’t be covered up from the outside world any more. They’ll probably notice the tentacle godzillas after a bit.”  

Everyone had called Dad a hero. Had he felt like this, just another expendable piece of kindling thrown on the fire to keep ‘normal’ going for just a little while longer? 

“Hey uh,” Adam prevaricated with a shrug knowing Beatrice was correct. “I’ve ask people for supplies and stuff. They’ve been very generous, but actually going in is something I don’t think I have the right to ask.” Of someone that wasn’t raised to die that way, was rest that was left unsaid. 

It was always the end of the world, it seemed. No matter what everyone did to fix it, something else would come and take the mantle. Bea couldn’t help but feel as though sometimes these things were inevitable. It didn’t stop her from understanding the need to fight, if anything she got that this made people fight harder, because at least they had done something then. Still to fight for a world that didn’t know you were doing it must be exhausting. “So, it needs to close or else we’re all going to die via horrible ways.” The countdown they had already started to tick faster. “I guess it's good that we have people who are going to help then.”

Her throat tightened with unsaid words of caution and unnecessary attempts to dissuade him. Bea knew the look in his eyes, knew that no matter what she did or said, he wouldn’t turn from this course of action. She was sure she would have seen the same look in her own if someone had dared to stop her before she found Nell. “I suppose giving you supplies is enough.” It wasn’t. 

Bea went back to Nell’s book, hoping that skimming again would reveal something else. And it did. She looked between the compass in her hand and the word bone. “Adam, do you know if Nell’s been keeping anything she’s killed? Like the bones of a monster?” The words came out quickly, excited by the potential that laid between them now. 

Adam nodded. “On our first mission together, there was an Alchemist dude who was using a Dolophage to harvest intense emotions and memories from trauma patients,” the Hunter explained, swallowing down the bittersweet feeling of that recollection. It was hard to imagine that’d hadn’t even been a year ago. “Nell forged the Reversal Talisman so the Dologphage’s powers reflected back on it when it tried to tentacle my brain,” Adam explained, poking his ears to illustrate that he’d volunteered to get fed on by the demon as bait. “After we killed it she kept its bones.” 

Digging around in Nell’s room wasn’t easy. Luce had known it wasn’t going to be easy. Not when there was so much uncertainty and that sense of doubt loomed over her every move. The moment she’d heard that Nell was gone, the second she’d heard from Adam, a pit had formed in her stomach. Or maybe it reopened-- maybe it wasn’t a pit so much as it was a gaping wound, created by Bea’s death, that she’d barely been able to tend to. She hadn’t stopped to process the loss, the grief, the anger. The anger. She’d only managed to get a hold of that until it was too late. And just as she was finally coming to grips with the events of the past year, White Crest found a fucking way to open up the wounds. Shutting the dresser drawer she’d been pawing through, Luce settled down on the edge of Nell’s unmade bed. 

Luce clenched her jaw as she tried to sort through her thoughts, trying to figure out where Nell might keep the necklace. But all she could think of was how much it would hurt if she had to do this for real. If she had to pack up boxes of Nell’s things. She hadn’t had to do it with Bea, they’d known how to bring her back, known exactly what they needed to do, even if they weren’t sure if it would work. But Nell was lost. Gone. And Luce had no fucking clue how she could help. Swallowing, Luce wiped her eyes with the back of her hand before her gaze fell on a simple box on Nell’s bookshelf. Luce moved towards it, apprehensive. Her fingers lifted the lid and inside were little trinkets-- magical in nature. Some of them familiar to her, others she didn’t know where Nell had even found them. But there it was. The necklace Nisa had enchanted all those years. Luce took the necklace from the box and closed the box before hurrying out the door. She didn’t want to stay in that room, didn’t want to see that place again. Not until Nell was back. Not until they were all safe.

“Hey. Found it.” Luce said as she held up the little silver charm necklace. “We might need to re-up the magic, but it should help. And hey. Might help with the tracking situation. She wore this all the time.”

Plans were beginning to race rapidly through Bea’s mind, wheels spinning so quickly that she was almost scared they’d burn out. “With that bone we could connect with her,” She mused, before grinning at Luce. “And with the necklace we’ll also be able to tell how close Adam is to her. He’ll be able to use the compass, hopefully, in the dimension to find her quickly.” With eyes brighter than they had been since Nell was gone, Bea looked between the two younger adults,“We have a plan now, a really good one, with three ways to track her. We’re going to get her back.” And the moment she got back, she was going to get the lecture of her fucking life. 

Adam nodded. “Hey...thanks both of you, like I know you’d do this for Nell anyway, but I still appreciate you folks having my back on this.” 

Luce leaned against the doorway, taking in the scene. Bea, determined, her old fire lit inside her with this new mission to get her sister back. Adam, weary in a way that no one should be at his age, but filled with the same resolve. And then there was her. She fell somewhere between the two of them-- somewhere between grim determination and optimism. They were going to bring Nell home, come hell or high water. Which, in this town? Either could happen. “Sounds like we’ve got a game plan then.” Luce said with a nod. “Of course, Adam. And… thanks for leading the charge here. We’re gonna bring her home.”

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Milk Light of Moon

Also on AO3! 

TL;DR: 

Somewhere lost in the clouded annals of history lies a place that few have seen—a mysterious place called the Unknown, where long-forgotten stories are revealed to those who travel through the wood.

Midoriya and Aizawa realise they've been walking through these woods for a long time, with only hazy memories of the events beforehand. Convinced they are lost only, they walk ever onwards, but it doesn't take long for them to realise just how strange these woods really are.

This AU takes place during the training camp mess and after the Muscular fight, Izuku and Aizawa get stuck in a ring of fire and have no choice but to jump through, ending with a fall off a cliff neither of them remembers. They awaken in the Unknown with memories from roughly the time of the test of courage, leading them to believe they got lost in the forest. Stuff gets confusing and fast with Aizawa slowly losing hope they’ll ever get free. Izuku ends up pushing them forwards towards the end, even after Aizawa has totally lost face, trading his own soul for the chance of his teacher’s freedom. Aizawa kick’s the beast’s ass, grabs Izuku and they finally break free.

Key: the Unknown isn’t a quirk, it really just is the space between life and death.

In this AU, Izuku and Aizawa end up very close, mostly as they just spent approximately 2 weeks in a strange liminal space fighting off death together. The only people either of them tell about the whole thing are Mic and Nezu on Aizawa’s end, and All Might on Izuku’s. Everyone else gets the story sans the whole time in the Unknown.

Aizawa is pretty badly beat up from the fall they both took and Izuku is only just alive. Aizawa has to haul them both back up the cliff with his capture weapon, then make his way back to the camp all without knowing if his other students are ok, or if the student in his arms can even still be saved. They make it back the next day, Izuku is rushed to a hospital. The other heroes, despite what they may have said to the students, are shocked they’re alive.

The Unknown is a strange, autumnal forest with plants and animals they only half recognise.

Part of Izuku is screaming “This can’t be a quirk, this makes no sense, where was the activation? Who did it? This must be something else.” and the other half is covering its ears and running through every type of deactivation condition he’s ever heard of for a quirk.

He’s partially refusing to admit it’s not a quirk because he knows that’ll crush Aizawa’s slowly dying hope they can just find the person in the middle of this forest, use erasure and go home.

Aizawa isn’t an idiot and this doesn’t feel like any type of quirk he’s ever come across, but if the kid obsessed with quirks is still classing it as one, he may as well too.

Aizawa finds out a bit of Izuku’s past, more accidentally than anything, just a few too many offhanded comments and a shirt removed to dry better exposing a back covered in very old scars leaves Aizawa with a lot of questions.

Izuku clams up tight as can be so he had to be more subtle about his questioning, which barely works either. They eventually settle on an informal ‘answers for answers’ type thing where they trade questions back and forth while they walk.

Aizawa tells Izuku some stuff that’s more than a little above Izuku’s clearance level because he’s pretty sure they’re going to die and if the kid wants answers, the kid gets them. Not like they’ll be alive to use them.

Izuku, who has taken up optimism as an Olympic sport and is convinced they’ll get out in time, is a little more tight-lipped with his answers. He leaves out a lot of names, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out Bakugo was one of the offenders.

The Unknown is just one ham-fisted metaphor after another from me because I love them and I’m not great at subtlety.

In this little mess of horrors Bakugo is actually a will ‘o wisp that only burns Izuku. He originally doesn’t mention it because he assumes it must be burning Aizawa too and he’s just being a baby about it, but it gets to the point he can’t stand it any more and he cries out in pain. Aizawa is horrified to see the blisters bubbling down his student’s arms.

A small list of other things they run into on their travels: a sentient fog, a monster made of bits of different animals complete with a pair of red bat wings, a tall thin man whose face they can’t make out chasing down the beast despite the fact his chest is filled with Edelwood, and a cat that follows them the whole way through and gives Aizawa a strange sense of Deja Vu.

FYI the Beast is just the Beast, designs a little different but it’s the same schtick. The frog is a kitten and the running name gag is Izuku naming it after different pro heroes. The cat is the spirit of Sushi still following around too-heroic children.

Our Beatrice replacement is a pale field mouse – the first wielder. All the wielders are trapped in the forms of mice, eternally running from an innocent looking cat hiding a horrifically mutilated second form under its black fur coat. They will be trapped there – immortal but able to feel pain - until the quirk stops being passed down.

The first wielder, trapped in the half life with the strange amalgamation of all the deaths his brother should have died, is at first trying to lead Izuku to his death. There is only so much more he can take of this. It doesn’t take long for him to realise he just cant – this kid is a hero to the last breath.

In this particular AU Aizawa and Mic are engaged at the time, and its one of the things Aizawa tells Izuku to try and keep his spirits up - even though Aizawa is really the one who needs help in that area. Izuku latches onto that with both hands and it becomes one of their fall back topics of conversation; “Can 1A come” “what colours are you using” “do you both have rings” “what was the proposal like”.

It’s actually one of the reasons Izuku tries to trade his life for Aizawa’s; Aizawa has a whole class and a fiancé waiting for him. Izuku just has his mum and maybe All Might.

The beast, while trying to get Izuku to just give up and die, tells him Aizawa isn’t looking for him because he’s not worth anything to the man. He really doesn’t want to believe him because Aizawa is wonderful and protected them and stayed with him in the unknown, but also no one before UA ever even tolerated him, let alone went out of their way to help.

It doesn’t really work for the beast though - it doesn’t break Izuku because he half expected it anyway. When Aizawa does come for him, as the Edelwood grows around and through his ribs and the scars on his hands, he cries. When Aizawa picks him up, apologising for giving up and for not trusting him with tears in his eyes, quietly offering a name for the kitten in his scarf? Izuku finally lets himself drift away. Someone is there for him; he doesn’t have to fight any more.

The kitten ends up with the name Loud Cloud. He follows Aizawa and Izuku out of the unknown, fiercely trying to scare away anyone who dares step too close, despite the fact he’s barely the size of Aizawa’s hand.

[doverly]

Doll and Her Puppets

It was a one time expo of rare Russian jewelry. Tsars and revolutionaries alike have worn the crowns and bracelets. And at the center of the massive gathering of jewels and precious metals was a ring. Ripped from a woman’s finger by revolutionaries in 1920. And worn by revolutionary leaders until Stalin’s fall. A layer of white gold interwoven with blue, grey, and green diamonds. At its center was a masterpiece of jewelry. A gray, blue, and green jewel made up of compressed diamond pieces. The Baltic Ring, that was Charity’s real prize. The rest she would sell to fences on the black market but the Baltic, the Baltic would be a gift. Beatrice said that she needed more initiative, so Chari would show her.

She had spent her study hall, lunches, and free time whittling away until she had enough to pull off the job. An army (36 to be exact) of 18 inch tall wooden puppets. Smooth faces, nimble fingers, and silent cotton feet. And with the smarts to understand basic commands and make enough decisions to carry them out. That night Chari walked to the warehouse (thank god Beatrice owned it, she wouldn't have the space to store all her puppets in her aunt’s house) and changed. 

Strings hung suspended from her arms and legs and her face was painted beautifully. Red lips contrasted with her dark skin and the blush and highlighter made her cheeks glow. A lovely white lace mask decorated her eyes and nose. Pairing perfectly with the white lace of her mini-dress. She was perfect, she was beautiful, she was Doll. 

The museum was cold and lonely. Large, largely decorative pillars held up the ceiling and broke up the space a bit. In between them in rows were glass cases and displays holding the jewels. In the moonlight that filtered in from the entrance they glittered. Simple descriptions of each piece were in pedestals in from of each piece. In the daylight it would have been perfect by a school trip, in the moonlight it looked like dollar signs to Doll. 

At the expo Doll gave her puppets a simple command. Put all of the jewels in the bags she had brought but bring the Baltic directly to her. The shattering of the glass rang through the building but no alarm sounded. Her specially built squirrel shaped wooden puppets had already disabled any alarms and camera and were returning to her. Their fibrous tails tickled her as they ran up and down her arms and shoulders. Doll laughed, but the sound was barely audible over the glass still breaking all around her. 

Crowns, necklaces, and earnings wrapped in protective toilet paper filled the bags. Overall it had been a successful night but it had been fifteen minutes already and Doll still didn’t have the ring. She looked at one of the puppets, returning with a few platinum chains that were heaviers than itself. 

She picked it up and the puppet didn’t resist. Before it was anything else it was compliant. Doll checked under the white cotton bootie that muffled its steps, its name was Elly. No mouth, no voice box, and with only the ability to follow orders and make simple decisions related to those orders. Doll sighed and put Elly down, the puppet skipped away happily to get more of the bounty of the expo. Doll followed it and waded deeper into the building. Her white heels clicked softly through the building and she felt drafts through the sheer black fabric of her tights. 

Everywhere Doll looked was broken glass and empty displays. After a brief walk Doll ended up in the deepest part of the expo. Where the Baltic stood under a chase so clear it looked like it was out in the open. Ten of her puppets jumped up ramming it with their fists. No luck, even hitting it with the sharp blades hidden within their fists the glass didn’t break. Doll sighed, maybe she should have given a few of them voiceboxes after all, she wouldn’t even have known about the problem if she hadn’t thought to check. She looked around at the camera that lay dead on the ceiling and the decorative pillars around the building. 

“Go check the sensors again,” the squirrel puppets that had been on her arms shot out and darted around the glass case.

They ran off, probably to the control room, but within a few minutes they returned. Doll crouched down and the squirrels rose to meet her. They gave two small sharp noises, the sound of the blades in their mouths clicking together, it was safe. 

Doll smiled at the squirrels and reached into her pocket. Over her painted nails she pulled on her protective white lace gloves. Overhead she put her hand together, into a fist. Her muscles strained but the glass shattered when she brought her hands down on the display. It sent razor sharp shards spraying everywhere. Her puppets got dinged up and she herself got quite a lot of cuts. No blood stained her dress, but Doll checked just the same. Only when she was sure that she didn’t need to take her dress to the dry-cleaners did she check on the actual cuts that were starting to hurt. A few deeper gashers but nothing that wouldn’t heal by the weekend. 

Carefully stepping over the broken glass in her five inch heels, Doll took the Baltic ring from it’s former case. She tried to put it on but it was too small for most of her fingers. Doll giggled into the empty building and put the ring in her bra. She had gotten what she had come for. And even though it didn’t fit her, Beatrice, Doll was sure, with her slender fingers would love it. Even years later she still looked at the spot where her engagement ring once sat. The Blatic, with it’s gray-blue glow would be a fine replacement. 

Doll was appreciating the ring’s cool weight next to her skin when she felt it. A tear in her mind and then a rush of energy. It happened again and again and by the fourth time Doll was on her knees. Her puppets, they were dying. The semblance of life that she had given them was being taken away, by force. Once she realized what was going on Doll was up on her feet and running. She could sense where all of her puppets were and followed her instincts toward where they were ‘dying’. Every few steps her mind tore but Doll stayed on her feet, she needed to know what was going on. 

It was the usual story. A girl with perfectly tanned skin and a blond ponytail. A mask covered the lower part of her face and she seemed to glow in the darkness. Doll watched as she swung her light whip around and set her fire-resistant wooden dolls ablaze. 

In light of the slaughter around her Doll forced a perfect smile to her face, “Allume!” Doll exclaimed like she was greeting an old friend, “I didn’t think you would be coming tonight. What can I do for you?”

Allume seemed a little surprised, “You’re robbing galleries now, Doll? What’s Monarch going to have you doing next? Drug deals?”

Doll laughed and took a few steps toward the hero, “Yeah this is kind of boring. I’m sure you’re have a much better night.”

Monarch was supposed to be this great criminal leader and strategist, Doll couldn’t let Allume and the rest of the heroes find out about much autonomy she actually had. It would be better to just play along.

“Taking you in and dealing a blow to Monarch all in one night? Yeah I’m having a blast.” Allume laughed with a sort of sinister smile. 

By this time Doll was less than a foot away from Allume, and was still smiling. The light of the Angelmont City liked the performative aspect of battle almost as much as she loved the violence, so Doll knew that she was safe at least for a while. From behind her back the squirrels ran down and hid themselves behind a pillar. 

“Do you really think you can take me in alone?” Doll giggled in a flirty sort of way.

Doll cupped the hero’s face with her gloved hands but even with her heels she had to stand on her tip-toes to still look up to the 6’4” Allume. Allume blushed and Doll giggled again. The heroes started to stammer a bit but she didn’t get a chance to speak. Silently the squirrels had climbed Allume’s golden body armour and bit their blade filled mouths into the hero’s shoulders. 

At the pain Allume pushed Doll away and reached for the pair of puppets that were decimating her shoulder blades. 

“Protect me!” Doll yelled to all of the puppets that had been spared from Allume’s assault, “And don’t let her get the jewelry!”

Instantly the blades unsheathed from the humanoid puppet’s palms and they leaped at the hero. The squirrels left Allume and followed Doll as she ran for the door. Doll was a craftsman, not a fighter, she knew that she couldn’t take the hero on. Not once when she was running on the floor covered in broken glass past the empty displays on her five inch white heels did she trip. Doll knew that she didn’t have time for that. 

When she got to the entrance the lights from the street flooded in and illuminated the bags and bags of jewels.

“Help me get these into the car,” Doll commanded the squirrels.

They did, helping Doll carry the pounds and pounds of jewels into the white minivan. When it was all loaded up Doll slipped into the driver’s seat and buckled up. Anxiety started creeping in as she stared into the illuminated night street. She had driven there sure, but Doll didn’t actually have her driving license. And driving away from a superhero made Doll’s heart leap even more than it already was. 

“Go tell them to meet me back at the warehouse,” Doll said to one of the squirrels. The more fierce one, at least in Doll’s mind, immediately leap out the window and into the expo. She didn’t send both, Doll knew that she had no way of defending herself with her puppets. So she kept the quieter, stouter one with her. 

With that she sped off, and not a moment too soon. When she was just two blocks away she saw the radiant Allume push her way out of the gallery. Doll stepped on the gas a bit more but it didn’t matter, the hero didn’t give chase. Doll glanced back through the rearview window at the radiant hero she knew must have been glaring at her. She wondered if the hero’s blush when she touched her had something to do with her not giving chase. Or maybe she knew that the seemingly innocuous minivan could go from 0-150 miles in seconds. 

Either way Doll breathed a little bit easier once Allume’s light was out of sight. She caught her breath at a red light once she was around the corner and continued through the night back to the warehouse. Occasionally glancing back to the trunk to look at the treasure she had managed to secure. And smiling at the cool weight of the ring next to her skin. 

[badboy-mysweetboy]

One Dangerous Stiff

Eric Coulter× fem reader

Ok..... Hear me out. Thus dude is just mighty fine and he could shove me off a cliff and id smile🙃 enjoy btw this don't follow the plot bro.

Warning: Sad, swearing, cute ending, badass reader

Random tags: @missmarrinette​ @pindragon​ @ericcoulterdauntlessdivergent​ @ericcoultergirl9499​

"So who's it gonna be?" Eric, one of the leaders asked eyeing the new recruits. "Me," I spoke up walking from the back of the group, his cold blue eyes bore into the side of my head as I presented in front of the group. "Is there water? Or a net?" A boy behind me asks, approaching the ledge and turning to the group with a smirk.

Eric's eyebrow raises at the movement. "Boy, I sure hope not." Rasing my fingers in a gun motion to under my chin, pulling the trigger. Lifting my weight from me, the wind throwing my h/c flowing above me as the ledge above me got smaller and smaller. The darkness around it grew to tuck my arms under my head and crossing my legs as if I was on a couch, watching the game. Then my weight was caught in a net.

Landing, my weight shifted as I looked over at a familiar face. "Y/n?" His eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Oh look my least favorite number, how long has it been 7 years? I can't remember." Getting off the net walking away as Four sent up a whistle and another came down. Beatrice, from my old, shitty faction. Abnegation.

As he pulled the net down, their eyes met and never let go. Making gagging noises they caught on before another was sent down. Four kept a gaze on me before Eric leaped down. He walked in front of the group once again as more teens walked in but in all black. Standing in the back I made mental note of the people that stood in front of me, finally meeting with a blue pair already looking at me. Eric's smirk grew into a... Smile. Bouncing my eyebrows, erupting a chuckle. Continuing his speech, my mind wandered to younger days.

"You can't catch me!" A laugh left his lips as my smaller frame tried to keep up. "Slow down!" My younger squeaky voice called out to him, running in between houses and crowds trying so desperately to just graze his skin. Before abruptly stopping being met with a chest, looking up I was met with a scary, familiar face. "Daddy? What's wro-" His hands.

Dug into my arms as he pulled me back to the box-like house, a pair of familiar eyes followed what happened. Screaming and kicking, my cheek stung as my head whipped to the side meeting his eyes once more. "Help me! Big brother, please! Don't let him hurt me!"

Instead of a hero, I was met with a coward, him shaking his head.

But that wasn't new.

But was new was he never came back.

Never.

My body painted in splotches of dark shades, my memories even darker. Daddy.

He blamed me for mom, now brother. Brother never got hit, even though he made me so mad, I'm happy I can protect him from daddy.

I don't know where he went, he was only 9 and I was 7 but I hoped he was safe till 16.

"Follow me." Shaking my head I follow as he mapped out the place to me, "Badass" noticing the grunge military aesthetic. "You're a stiff?" A gruff voice from behind me, turning to see ice blue once again. "What? Happy to see me?"

"Ha ha very funny, but no I meant-" he started, smiling I winked. "I know what ya meant, just giving ya trouble." Chuckling he continued next to me as we were showed the bunking area, " change into new clothes, we burn your old ones in 5."

"Fucking finally" walking into the room while everyone else looked around. Stripping and diving into my new black ones, turning I caught the sight of a neck tattoo before it disappeared behind the wall.

Picking up my old gray clothes and gliding towards the bonfire already made. The heat made me smile. As Four went on and on about new beginnings I tossed my clothes in like it was trash while others held it dearly to their hearts.

"Get over it. It's not like you wanted to stay, throw it in the damn fire so we can move on." I grumbled before shadowing behind the crying group. Passing it. Training. Finally.

Fighting was the only thing I knew after that day with my brother. Relentlessly for 7 years. I built up my strength and got away from the man who hurt me day after day. "What do you got stiff?" A dude was mocking Tris, who was having trouble with throwing a punch. Approaching them and grabbing her hand and pulling her with me. Standing here in front of the bag next to mine, sighing before putting her in the most impactful stance. "Tension here" pointing to her abdomen, "not here" pointing at her stomach. "Weight here, then shift it as you swing" leading her on her back foot to her front. "Swivel your foot with it. Go, right hook it."

Swallowing, Tris did as told and landed a decent punch. Eyes widening she met my e/c eyes, "It didn't hurt." Going to my bag I responded, " because you're the one supposed to give damage not receive-" throwing a hooked punch, "now keep going it hurts less more ya do it, rookie." As my fists met the leather images from childhood flashed in my mind, faces, voices. Every memory leads to a harder punch.

"Y/n and Al, ring now." Eric's cold voice boomed over the cement room, turning to the ring a boy stepped in. Smirking I went in between the ropes and cracked my knuckles. "I can't hit her, Can I fight a guy?" Al asked looking me up and down, Eric's face went from his normal bitch face to disgust. "Really? Just fight her, she has over double your score. Go!" At his command All slowly approaches, scanning his stance I could tell his core was his main focus of strength. Sighing as his fist flew passed my head, grabbing his arm and launched my foot into his side earning a yell of pain. Before twisting the now dislodged shoulder so his arm was behind his back. Laying on the floor at my will, I sat on his back holding the position as I fake checked my nails. "I'm thinking safe word fellas, how bout pork and beans?"

The boy was groaning in pain when he and Eric in unison, "What?"

"I don't know I saw it in a movie. Now, Al, I want you to repeat after me. Four is the worst number." His eyes met mine, "I can't say that."

Pulling his arm farther and farther as he screamed and the group grew as Four and Eric watched me whisper in his ear. "Say It! Or else..." Pulling his arm he yelped, "Four is the... Worse number. Now please." Sighing thinking about it for a second, "I guess so." Getting up and jump out of the ring. Watching Four as his eyes connected to his shoes, walking to the knifes section. Practice, yes I was like a perfected machine but all I knew was to fight.

That's all I've ever known.

Throwing the heavy but not too heavy weapons, the figure of the tall man came back. Making the knives go further... Faster. Until I reached down and no knives were found. Looking up, Eric was holding the box. "Dinner was called 25 minutes ago. You need to eat."

"Why do you care if I eat? You have 45 new robots to program that is eating. I don't eat dinner. Not when I can be here." Never breaking the gaze as my hand refilled with serrated steel, he grabbed my wrist with the blades. " because I like you. And I don't like people, and you're easily the best fighter here. So shower and I hope I see you in the cafeteria, or I'll come lookin" He smirked at the end, "Is that a threat or a promise Eric?" Smirking stepping forward being so close I could feel the hot breath fan over my skin. Glancing between his icy blue eyes and his pink lips I lean in a bit closer dropping the knives in the box, "I guess we'll see then?" Backing away before swaying my hips all the way to the bunks, finding the showers. Peeling the grimy clothes off my body and stepping into the icy water. The colder the better, cleaning the sweat off my skin. I turned the water off and drying off and putting on my bra and underwear.

Walking passed the mirrors I stop in my tracks. I've never seen my self as a whole, damn I'm ugly. Glancing over the scars and abs carved into my skin. Placing the tank and jeans on over the marks, I swiftly make my way to my bunk. Pulling on my boots I hear boots hit the floor growing nearer, “I thought you may have gotten the hint by now but here you are.” Turning and seeing Four, “How’d you know it was me, Y/n?” 

“Because you’re heavy-footed, and you lead with your left foot instead of the average right. Now please excuse me, I’m hungry.” Walking passed him before I felt his hand around my wrist. Stopping in my tracks he let out a heavy breath. “Y/n I’m sorry-” 

Yanking my wrist out of his grip with a cold glare, “No you’re not. You left me alone with that monster for 7 years.

 Not 7 minutes, 

Not 7 hours.

 Not 7 days. 

7 YEARS! Catch my drift you ugly bastard? Even though you ran away every time he decided to punish someone, you’d come back. But at least you came back-oh wait. You didn’t. And really the name Four? Do you really hate me that much? We both know, that’s the time dad got home every day. Leave me alone, Good-Bye Tobias.” 

The cold glare I gave him could kill, another pair of boots could be heard but my eyes never left his. “You were supposed to be my big brother.” In a small whisper left my lips before turning back to the cafeteria. Eric stood at the end of the hallway with a curious look written on his face. “Come on Y/n, I am.” Tobias’s voice echoed, not even turning to meet his gaze. “You lost that title, You haven’t been in a long time. Do what you’re good at. Disappear, Tobias.” Before continuing to Eric as we made our way back.

“Don’t mean to pry but. Tobias? What is he to you?” Eric asked as we sat with our food in front of us. Sitting criss-cross on the bench I look over, “Tobias- I mean Four grew up together. But you would collect that since you heard our argument.” Giving a small smirk at the end taking a swig of water from my cup, he chuckled placing some of the ripped up biscuit into his mouth. “Sorry bout that, but like I said I was gonna come to look for ya. So you’re old friends?” 

Finishing the food in my mouth I answered, “Well not exactly a friend. A friend you can rip off like a bandaid, painful but gone. Nope. To- Four was like cancer, you can’t get rid of it. Somehow, he comes back. But I thought he was gone for good. Shows how much I know.” I chuckle coldly eating a bit more, we sat in short silence. I could see the gears turning. Before the girl from before sat down next to me, a- Tris was her name. “Can I help you?” I ask before plopping food into my mouth, she tugged at her long black sleeves. “I wanted to thank you for earlier, he was being a jerk. And teaching me how to...” She mumbled off, “Throwing a hook? No problem Rookie. Now if ya please, go back to your chair before Four thinks he can sit over here.” I grumble the last part, letting out a heavy sigh when Four plops down across from me. 

Standing from the table I turn and go up the stairs the second Four sat. Clenching my jaw I quickly make my way up the stairs and to the roof, slamming the door shut and grumbling. “Who the fuck he think he is? Walking in like he fucking did nothing? God, I wish I didn’t love him!” I rant sitting on the ledge letting my feet dangle. 

“You love Four?” I heard an angry voice from the doorway, his chest puffed up. Looking over at Eric, “Trust me, not the way you think. Come. Pop a squat.” I pat the cement next to me, he was at my side within seconds. “Then how do you love Tobias?” 

I gulped looking longing at the bright lights against the dark sky, “Tobias is- was my big brother. We had a rough childhood. My dad was an ass, and when my mom ran away he lost it. He took out that rage on me because Tobias ran into the shadows. He left me 7 years ago, I was 7 at the time. I never knew where he went, or if he was alive. I fought to get things since dad was broke, hence to now sitting on a roof with a ruggedly handsome man explaining why I want to kill a number.” I chuckled at the end, Eric watched as I spoke about my childhood.

 I don’t hide it. Because simply I don’t care about my childhood. I won't start crying because of it, not how I was built. 

“Brother? So I have a chance?” He smiled, letting out a laugh I replied. “Yes. Yes, you do Eric.” 

[smarti-at-smogwarts]

First Year Profile

Taking a page from the lovely @carewyncromwell​ who’s the blog that introduced me  to HPHM and encouraged me to play. 

While I’m still in year one [ im trying to catch up as fast as possible T-T] I wanted to jot some stuff down about my MC and  maybe have ppl meet her. 

There’s stuff missing but that will be added as I progress through the game. 

[ Image ID close up of a girl with shoulder lenght brown hair, a round nose, and blue eyes. She’s smiling at the camera. End ID]

NAME | Marta Beatrice Venturi

NICKNAMES | Marti -Goes by that everywhere, actually doesn’t like her full name, and only gets called it when she’s in trouble-. Smarti [ Jacob called her this. Off limits] Munchkin [ her dad] Venturi. [ Snape and Merulla] 

Pronouns | She/Her 

ORIENTATION | Bi

[PERSONALITY] Marti is a bit capricious due  to being the baby of her family and tends to want things to go her way. She’s a bit mischievous because of this and can be rather childish though also very playful and sweet for the same reason. She is also incredibly empathetic and always there for her friends, becoming very protective of them. She’s highly social and outgoing often known for befriending people at the drop of a hat. Despite this first impressions tend to stick to her and once she makes up her mind about you it can take a lot for her to change it. [ ie both Snape and Merula are already in a bad light for her after one meeting with each while both Flitwick and Hagrid are in a good light.] 

She’s very protective of and tries to do right by those she considers friends and can be highly protective of them. 

[Image ID; Marti standing between a girl with dark skin, ling black hair and glasses [ her friend Rowan] and a girl with  short brown hair. The text reads under her ‘’get away from her’ End ID]

Jacob is her berserk button as she loves him dearly and still hasn’t let him go. Anyone talking badly about him instantly goes on her sh-t list and will cause her to lose her temper.  

[Image ID- Marti looking angry as a text box below him reads ‘’expelling him was completely unfair; and it was just as wrong of him to run away without telling. End ID]

[BIOGRAPHY]

Marti is the third child of Abigail Rowle and George Venturi. Both purebloods. They had two boys before her, Jacob [ ten years older than Marti] and Edwin [ four years older than Marti]. Most of Marti’s early memories include her family either together or separately and are good ones.  She was specially close to her oldest brother as he often babied her and had a soft spot for her. 

There was a rough patch when Abigail and George after months of arguments and the relationship being rocky, separated. However, Marti was both too young and sheltered by both her brothers for it to affect her too much.  Their father, a wizard world attorney, kept full custody of the three of them which Abigail was okay with.

Raising three kids was a handful for George and while he tried his best and the family was very loving [ with all three Venturi kids being unequivocally Daddy’s Girl/Boys] there were a lot of times when Jacob and even Edwin eventually  picked up the slack. Being the baby, Marti was coddled and never wanted for much attention not in the very least because while Jacob tried to not have favorites between his siblings he undoubtedly had a soft spot for his baby sister.[ not that Edwin ever begrudged her this. ]  

While Jacob went to Hogwarts when Marti was still really young [ which led to more than a few tantrums specially in his first year] he remained an important figure in her life and the three Venturi remained close, reuniting every break the school allowed even after Edwin joined his brother [ starting his Hogwarts career when Marti was  six ]

Unfortunately this wasn’t to last. Jacob vanished during his sixth year which sent the small family into turmoil. Edwin, who was about to start his first year, became withdrawn and sulked on his own, closing himself off to everyone including his own family. George was distraught at losing his oldest son. His relationship with Abigail became strained since they separated amicably enough but the loss of a child led them to be unable to be in the same room without assigning blame. [ though Abby still keeps her visits with her children she just..doesn’t speak to their father.]

And Marti lost her big brother.

The family grieved and eventually seemed to move on though none of them have completely let Jacob go. George still blames himself and harbors a lot of feelings of failing his son. Edwin is hugely withdrawn and refuses to speak on the matter. Marti in particular refuses to let Jacob go or give up on him returning and refuses to believe the things said about him. Jacob was and still is her hero, she had him on a pedestal before he left and still wants him to come back. Something that puts her at odds with Edwin who wants to forget and move on. 

A few years down the line, George married a muggle named Nora who herself had a magical child and a muggle one. Both Edwin and Marti took this as a sign things would get better and that the family could heal, and both were happy to have additions to the family. 

However this also added to Marti’s feelings that she was the only one who still remembered and hadn’t given up on Jacob as Edwin befriended Nora’s magical daughter [ her being the same age as him and a Hufflefpuff and the two becoming best friends as well as siblings] and her father seemed to move on with the help of his new wife.  

Because of this she even more stubbornly clung to Jacob, to the happy memories she had of him- which she seemed to be alone in as his name was tarnished- and the more the family tried to get her to give up on him coming back, the more she dug her heels in. 

Now going to Hogwarts, Marti is excited to start at the school and learn new things. She’s also determined to use the things she learns to bring her brother home someday. 

WAND |  blackthorn wand with a unicorn hair core. It is eleven-and-a-quarter inches and described as "slightly springy and flexible.

Blackthorn, which is a very unusual wand wood, has the reputation, in my view well-merited, of being best suited to a warrior. This does not necessarily mean that its owner practices the Dark Arts (although it is undeniable that those who do so will enjoy the blackthorn wand’s prodigious power); one finds blackthorn wands among the Aurors as well as among the denizens of Azkaban. It is a curious feature of the blackthorn bush, which sports wicked thorns, that it produces its sweetest berries after the hardest frosts, and the wands made from this wood appear to need to pass through danger or hardship with their owners to become truly bonded. Given this condition, the blackthorn wand will become as loyal and faithful a servant as one could wish.

Unicorn hair generally produces the most consistent magic, and is least subject to fluctuations and blockages. Wands with unicorn cores are generally the most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts. They are the most faithful of all wands, and usually remain strongly attached to their first owner, irrespective of whether he or she was an accomplished witch or wizard.Minor disadvantages of unicorn hair are that they do not make the most powerful wands (although the wand wood may compensate) and that they are prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled, meaning that the hair may 'die' and need replacing.

HOUSE | Slytherin 

[MISC]

♦  Marti loves animals especially those often not considered cute [ bats, reptiles, bugs]  and has a pet snake she left at home as she didn’t see anything about snakes being acceptable pets in the letter. She plans to ask about it at some point in her first year. Her pet snake’s name is Mickey. 

♦  Marti has 2 siblings in Hogwarts. Lizzie Mcdonald in Hufflepuff and Edwin Venturi in Ravenclaw. They don’t interact that much however due to the age gap [ they’ll graduate by the end of year 2] and the fact  that they have different social groups [ well Marti and Lizzie do. Edwin’s more a withdrawn Loner] as well as being in different houses. 

♦   This is also in part because of Marti’s own feelings of perceived exclusion. While they love her very much and don’t mean to do it, the unmistakable  synergy between her elder siblings and the friendship that immediately sparked from it often leaves Marti feeling left out or looking from the outside. It makes her miss Jacob and cling to the idea of him coming back all the more since she remembers having a close relationship with him/being closer to him than to Edwin. 

♦  The Venturi’s are very protective of each other[ and of their step siblings] specifically because of what happened to Jacob. It affected them both very badly though differently.  

♦  The Venturi’s are considered blood traitors by most purebloods due to their lax views on Muggleborn wizards especially now that George married a muggle. [ their view of George was already low due to having separated from his pureblood wife]. 

♦  More to the point, all three Venturis [ George, Edwin and Marti ] are hugely defensive against anti-muggle and anti-muggle born sentiments due to Nora and her daughters being part of their family and are likely to react violently to it, especially if directed at them. 

♦  Marti has a love for old rock bands due to Jacob often listening to them when she was little/when he was still around. 

♦   She wore cat ear headbands as a kid and sometimes still wears them [ specially in first year second and third  as she’s still a child but I can definitely see her wearing them for fun as a teenager] 

♦  Marti has a list of spells she wants to learn specifically to prank Merula. And she might be trying to remember what pranks Edwin and Jacob used on each other before Jacob went missing. 

♦  Marti has -undiagnosed ADHD- and RSD [ Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria] which itself is a sympton of ADHD. This often leads to her not focusing in long classes sometimes and spacing out a lot or thinking of other things in class. 

♦  RSD in particular makes it hard for her to regulate emotions and makes her incredibly sensible to perceived [ or real] rejection. She sometimes ends up crying even when she doesn’t want to  [ ie when Snape blamed her for Merula’s prank.] It’s specially going to be harder in her younger years. 

♦  While this won’t happen for a long time, Marti’s first exposure to a boggart will reveal her biggest fear to be her family forgetting about all Jacob. 

♦   Her mirror of erised by contrast is her whole family including Jacob with Edwin smiling like he used to and her dad not looking so worn and sad as he does ever since Jacob went missing. 

FC  Emily Rudd

Older

Friends In Game:

Rowan Khana

Ben Cooper

Penny Haywood

Chiara Lobosca

MC Friends:

Vixen Mcmahen ( @rosievixen​ ) Ryan O’Donnell,  Cara O’Donnell,  Sara O’Donnell,  Conor O’Donnell ( @unfortunate-arrow​)  Finnick -Finn- Moran ( @ljbard121​ ) Cato Reese ( @catohphm​ ) Henry Mclarnon ( @that-ravenpuff-witch​ ) Lyra Wilson ( @cursebreakerfarrier​ )

If you wanna talk about your MC being friends with Marti let me know

[only-by-the-stars]

the annotated Tome of the Wild

Part 7: The Wild!

- Link didn't open his eyes. A twist on the beginning of BOTW, where you hear Zelda telling Link to open his eyes. I couldn’t resist.

- Hestu’s cameo was a lot of fun to write too. I always found him adorable, first in BOTW and then in AOC as well, and the idea of him waking up Link with his maracas was too amusing not to do. I also had to include his “shimmy shimmy” battle cry from AOC because I always laugh my head off whenever I hear it.

- This also reveals that Midna brought Link to the Great Deku Tree, a character that debuted in OOT and made further appearances in WW and BOTW.

- Something tickled her arm, breaking her out of her gloomy thoughts. Midna lifted her head and looked down. New growth was sprouting from the branch she was sitting on, wriggling its way up onto her. Nothing like this happens to Beatrice in the show, but I had to put in this chilling little moment of Midna nearly succumbing to the dekuwood. It provides a way later to introduce Rhoam’s presence in his scene, as well as some horror at what could’ve happened to her here.

- Note to self: never visit Tabantha if you can help it... Tabantha, of course, being a very cold region in BOTW’s Hyrule. Link’s newfound hatred of snow mirrors my own, and now he’s going to associate it with this horrible experience.

- “It's a bad habit, I guess.” He laughed softly. He’s referring, of course, to how he casually greeted Riju and Medli back at the school pool and they gave him a bit of a hard time about it.

- “You...” Midna stared at him for several seconds, stunned. “You...” She slapped his hand away and starting swinging her tiny fists at him, which he easily dodged. “You oaf! You idiot! What the hell—what the hell is wrong with you? How can you forgive me so easily, when you're still in a shit situation because of me? Neither one of us would be out here groping around blindly in the fucking snow if not for what I did!” I set up Midna and Link to be parallels of each other in a couple ways. One of which is that while Link has isolated himself from Mipha, hurting and confusing her, Midna is on the other end of something similar with Zelda. And here we see something they both struggle with: forgiving themselves. Midna can’t understand how Link can so easily forgive her actions towards him, while Link utterly despises himself for his actions towards Mipha and cannot forgive himself for causing her pain. He’ll later struggle with the fact that Mipha forgives him easily, just as Midna is having trouble understanding his forgiveness of her here. All of them find it easier to forgive their loved ones than to grant that same grace to themselves.

- “She told me that while she appreciated how much I cared, I should think a little more and be less reckless. I know she'd never call me stupid, but...” Link shrugged. “Honestly, I kind of am.” Another reference to Mipha calling Link reckless, and how she hates seeing him get hurt. He is indeed not the smartest guy around, but she does describe him as being very kind and determined to help those in need, so I tried to emphasize that aspect of his personality in this story. Although the “I kind of am” line is also intended to be a subtle red flag. We’ve already seen that Link thinks very little of himself and his abilities, even when it’s clear from the words of others that he’s very talented. And we’re about to soon see him use a bit of intelligence he very much does have, in order to save the day. He would never believe himself capable of such a thing, but he does it anyway.

- “Even just a few branches could be processed... enough to get us through this storm...” Note the use of the plural here. This is leading up to the revelation about his belief that Zelda is in the lantern. His desperation to find more oil anywhere is because, of course, he believes that if the light goes out she will die. And he wouldn’t be in this scarcity if not for what happened back in chapter one, with Link and Aryll and the dog accidentally wrecking the mill and his oil supply.

- He was soon rewarded with a most welcome sight: a single dekuwood branch, growing out of that of a normal tree. It seemed sickly, withered, and it waved feebly in the air, but he rushed forward and hacked it off anyway. The very same branch that tried to attach itself to Midna, sickly and withered precisely because of that failure.

- And now we come to the confirmation that the dekuwood is made from the people who succumb to despair and exhaustion in the woods, right as we see it growing all around Aryll. Rhoam has been unaware this entire time of all the souls he’s sacrificed over the past several months, and now that he knows, he refuses to do it any longer. For he, like Midna, recognizes that Zelda would never want anyone to be harmed for her sake.

He’s also right that Link would never leave Aryll to such a fate, recognizing Link’s love and protectiveness towards his little sister. This is a point where my characterization of Link wildly diverges from that of Wirt, the protagonist of OTGW. I pulled some things from Wirt for Link and his arc, but one thing I didn’t keep was the resentment and initial callousness that Wirt displays for Greg, who is revealed in the tavern sequence to be his half-brother thanks to his mother remarrying, something Greg frowns at when Wirt mentions it. Aryll is also technically Link’s half-sister, as I revealed in the letters that his mother remarried some years after his father’s death and had Aryll with her new husband, but I could not for the life of me see him being resentful or unkind to his little sister. Whatever his faults, I’ve written him as being, at his core, an incredibly kind and deeply loving person, and his adoration of his sister is a part of that. He doesn’t view her as a “half” anything, she’s just his sister and he’ll do anything to protect her. Which of course is a big part of what led to his breakdown: his feelings of guilt over not doing as good a job of that as he thinks he should be doing.

- “Link, I don't... I don't think that's natural light. It looks more like...” This has a double meaning. The fire in the lantern is not the “natural light” of the sun, and it is also deeply unnatural, given that it’s the Beast’s soul in there.

- Speaking of that! The confrontation with the Beast plays out a bit differently here than it does in the show, thanks to Midna’s personal connection to all this. Rhoam’s mention of Zelda gets her attention, and the Beast uses her love for Zelda as a way to try and turn her and Link against each other with his attempt to make them choose which soul will go into the lantern. He’ll get fuel and kill Aryll either way, but why not pit these two against each other as a way to manipulate them into doing what he wants? Except it backfires, because Midna won’t harm anyone for Zelda’s sake, and Link figures out what’s going on anyway, thanks to remembering the words of Rhoam and Telma.

- Link stood up, his mind racing. It was like when the solution to a puzzle finally presented itself in a moment of stunning clarity. For all that he’s not that bright in so many ways, it’s important to remember that he’s canonically able to solve all those tricky puzzles we do, without benefit of a guide, just using his wits and the tools he has at hand. And so too does he solve this particular puzzle, by remembering what he’s been told and piecing it together with what he sees here, thinking about the fact that the Beast’s story doesn’t add up. Which saves the day, in the end.

- “Am I wrong?” Link repeated, his voice shaking with barely suppressed fury; he took a few more steps, forcing the Beast to retreat further. “No more lies. Tell the truth for once, Beast.” Referencing, of course, the fact that Telma told him the Beast lies. He’s absolutely furious right now because of the attempt on Aryll’s life; you do not mess with Link’s loved ones. The Beast, too, fucked around and found out the hard way.

- In the show, Wirt gives the lantern back to the Woodsman to blow out after the delivery of the “Are you?” line that I kept (and had Link nail the delivery of on his first try, unlike Wirt, because that’s what makes sense for both their characters). Here, I chose to let Link kill the Beast, because he is, after all, the legendary hero who slays the villain. But even more importantly, I felt he deserved and had earned such a moment with his growing courage over the course of the tale.

- “See you later, Link.” Hey, remember how Midna broke all our hearts by saying a similar line to Link in TP as she broke the mirror and went back to her world? I sure do!

- “Sleepers wake, dreams will fade... although we cling fast..." This, and the lyrics that close out this section, are the first few lines of the vocal version of Ballad of the Wind Fish that was done for the LA remake.

- There were lights and shadowy figures coming closer, and voices—was someone calling his name? As I would later reveal in the prologue of a place to start, Mipha was screaming his name as she ran down the hill towards him.

- The words he wanted so badly to say to her hung on the tip of his tongue And it shows on his face, that desire to express the love for her that is all but bursting out of him in this moment, and Mipha sees it. She sees that love shining in his eyes as they stare at each other, giving her her hope back and then some. In a way, Link was right: if he hadn’t hidden from her, she would’ve realized what his real feelings for her are. He just didn’t know how happy it would’ve made her. But he will soon.

- “—and that's how we got away from the evil possessed lady!” Out of the corner of his eye Link saw Aryll shake the frog triumphantly, and Mipha, distracted by the sudden commotion, looked away from him. A small, muffled chime sounded, and the amphibian's stomach glowed. “The ringing of the bell commanded her! Though she wasn't really evil, just...” The series is never clear on just what the otherworld the brothers enter is, but it is clear that it really happened to them, and I preserved that ambiguity in the same way, by showing the bell as still being in the frog’s stomach.

- Link nodded. “Yes.” It didn't matter anymore how it'd gotten into her pocket; he'd made it, and brought it with him tonight, with the intention of giving it to her. There was no more question of taking it back or denying it. Courage has been achieved; he’s no longer going to hide or pretend, or try to take back the gift he worked on so hard. Midna is right: he’s been so brave in the Wild, and it’s time to apply that bravery to confessing his feelings to Mipha and letting her know that he loves her. The words will have to wait till the next day, but for now he’s doing all he can to face his fears and stop running, by hugging her and holding her hand and wiping her tears away, letting his love show in his expression as he looks at her without avoiding her eyes. Plus, of course, admitting to his intentions with the tape and inviting her over to listen to it together. They’re finally getting a breakthrough after two months of separation and pain.

- The doctor, Syrup, is a recurring NPC throughout the series, a witch who brews up helpful healing potions for Link to use on his adventures.

- I'm home, Mipha. Calling back, of course, to Midna’s line about there being someone waiting for him and to go home to her. Not only that, but in Mipha’s letters, I had her mention wanting him to “come back to her”. And now he finally has.

and that wraps this up, as the epilogue is composed strictly of Miphlink fluff and sweet, sweet payoff. if you took the time to read the fic and these write ups, thank you, I hope you enjoyed them! ❤

[randomestfandoms-ocs]

Descendants OC Compilation Part 2 (part 1)

Chryseis in We Could Be Immortals (Just Not For Long) (fc. Holland Roden) - Daughter of Poseidon, sister to Triton

Poseidon isn’t a hero.  He’s a god, yes, but not a hero.  His granddaughter Ariel is a hero, his nephew Hercules is a hero, but Poseidon is not a hero.  So no one is really sure why his youngest daughter has just started at Auradon Prep, only days after Ben announced the impending arrival of four villain kids.  But Chryseis knows.  Mal, daughter of Maleficent, is also the daughter of Hades, and the Olympians are afraid.  And Chryseis, only sixteen and still learning to be a goddess, is the only person who can find out her intentions, the only person who can stop her from potentially destroying Olympus.

Hayden in Dying Is An Art (fc. Jenny Boyd) - Daughter of Hades and Maleficent

Hayden was raised by Hades, knowing full well who her mother - and sister - was.  But Mal doesn’t know about her.  So for most of her life, Hayden hid.  She hid away in her dad’s cave and had very few friends.  And then Prince Ben summons five Villain Kids to Auradon - the son of Jafar, the son of Cruella De Vil, the daughter of the Evil Queen, the daughter of Maleficent, and the daughter of Hades.  But only Hayden knows the truth.  And now she has to keep her secret, and try to stop her sister and her friends from stealing the wand, but she might have to choose between her two missions. 

Chiara Potts in Certain As The Sun (Rising In The East) (fc. Danielle Rose Russell) - Daughter Chip Potts

Chiara Potts is as far from a princess as you can get - well, unless you ask Cinderella.  She’s the daughter of a servant, and the granddaughter of a servant.  And she herself is a servant.  Granted, they don’t call her that, but Chiara is only the latest in the long line of Potts’ to serve the royal family.  Still, despite being his chief of staff and majordomo, Ben is her best friend.  And yes, maybe her job is the reason that they’re inseparable, but they still are.  So of course, Chiara is the first person to know about his plans to bring Villain Kids to Auradon.  She’s also the first person to defend his idea, and the person that he asks to help them settle in.  But when Chiara overhears their plans, she has to decide - will she try to change their minds and prove Ben right to all of Auradon, or will she have to go against him - and what will that cost her?

Taryn Porter in Wild Girl (fc. Kaylee Bryant) - Daughter of Tarzan and Jane Porter

Let’s make one thing clear, no one wanted Taryn Porter at Auradon Prep.  Well, no one except for Ben, and no one was willing to go against the prince over bringing a civilian to their school.  Her dad grew up in a jungle, raised by apes and her mom was a scientist.  Taryn absolutely, most definitely, did not belong at Auradon Prep alongside children of princes and princesses.  Maybe that’s why, when Ben decides to bring four villain kids to the school, Taryn is the only person who’s genuinely excited about more outcasts joining the student body. 

Dakota Smalls in And Though She Be But Little (She Is Fierce) (fc. Malina Weissman) - Daughter of Doc

Despite Doug’s warnings, despite knowing that the children of the dwarves weren’t supposed to go to Auradon Prep, Dakota had still held out hope that she would be welcomed with open arms on her first day of high school.  But despite wishing on a hundred stars, Dakota’s first day was completely underwhelming.  The only person who cared at all about her arrival was Doug, who was like a brother to her.  Everyone else made it very clear that they didn’t want her to be there, that her dad wasn’t a hero or a prince and that she didn’t belong.  But she had Doug, so everything would be okay.  Until her second week of school, when Doug is put in charge of showing the new villain kids around.  Now Dakota has a choice to make.  Will she learn to be okay with the VKs so that she can stay with the only friend she has, or will she brave her cruel new school alone?  And really, that’s no choice at all.

Blossom in Faith, Trust (And A Little Pixie Dust) (fc. Sophie Turner) - Fairy

When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born.  When Prince Benjamin Florian laughed for the first time, Blossom was born.  From that day forth, the prince and his “fairy godsister” were inseparable.  The citizens of Auradon always joked that their rulers had given them both a prince and a princess when Ben was born, and Blossom was beloved by the kingdom.  But when her prince brings four villain children to Auradon, Blossom is afraid - afraid for her kingdom, afraid for her safety, and afraid for her prince.  She is Ben’s fairy, she has to protect him at all costs; she has to do whatever it takes to make sure that Ben’s first action as king is a success, even if it means saving the VKs from themselves.

Beatrice in Ever Just As Sure (As The Sun Will Rise) (fc. Willa Fitzgerald) - Daughter of Prince Adam and the Enchantress

If King Adam had known the price of banishing magic from Auradon, he might have reconsidered.  But the former Beast was a stubborn man who refused to heed any warnings, and it had backfired.  He hadn’t known that banishing all magic would rip the last remains of the Enchantress’ curse from his veins, hadn’t known that the magic would redirect itself into the Enchantress, and he certainly hadn’t known that it would lead to the immediate birth of his firstborn child.  But it had.  And while he had no qualms about sending the Enchantress to the Isle, the queen had refused to send her stepdaughter, and so Princess Beatrice had been raised in Auradon alongside her younger brother.  She knew the truth about her birth, and she knew that her father hated her with every fibre of his being, but she didn’t care.  What she did care about was Ben’s decision to bring children from the Isle to Auradon - children that could have been her, had Belle not stepped in - and proving to her father, once and for all, that her generation is something more than just the children of heroes and villains, that they can be their own people and make their own choices.  And maybe the children of the four baddest villains are the perfect people to help her with that plan.

Forever Tag List: @themildestofwriters​ @gottaenjoythelittlethingzz​ @dancerdramatic14​ @seaweedhufflepuffocs​ @iceandwaterfairytail​ - want to be added to the forever/fandom/character tag lists for fics or all content?  shoot me an ask!

Descendants Tag: @katiesocs

[bluedraggy]

Beatrice Santello Part 2 - #9

The group sees light at the end of the tunnel. Literally and figuratively. A long one to make up for the short one. I could have split it in two, but believe it or not I'm only just starting the real story here!

Image by Rudragon. And I do see Bea as Mae's savior in a sense. Or at least as a true friend.

It took some time to get all the way back to Angus. Everyone was quiet, and the broken skateboard that Bea carried on her back was a constant reminder of what they’d left behind. But when finally they squeezed through the tight space that had stopped Angus, the grin on his face when he saw Gregg was heartwarming. The two embraced with unconcealed emotion and they continued up and out of the mine hand-in-hand.

“So what are we going to do now?” Germ asked Bea.

“I guess I need to take this to the police.”

“Let me go with you, Bea,” Mae offered. “We can talk to Aunt Molly.”

“I thought you didn’t like her.”

“I don’t. But she’s better than the rest,” Mae said as they got off the lift and saw the first glimmer of the light of day.

“You going to tell her about the rest of us?” Germ asked.

“Not if I can help it, but you know how the police are. They can worm stuff out of you.”

“Hey!” Mae said, anger creeping into her voice. “It’s not like WE killed them!”

“Not them, no,” Bea agreed. She let the fact that they probably had indeed killed the cultists hang unsaid but very obvious.

“Bea, do what you think is right,” Angus said from behind her and she turned around.

“Thanks Angus. I hope we don’t get into too much trouble, but we’ve got to tell them.”

“We could… I dunno, leave a note or something,” Mae suggested.

“Na. Let’s just get this out in the open and be done with it - for better or worse,” Gregg said, and they all turned around at that. Gregg seemed like the last person who would want to come clean to the cops.

Bea turned to the others, and - one by one - they all agreed.

“Okay. We’ll talk to Aunt Molly. Just me and Mae. It will be good to get this all over with.”

With that, they stepped into the late afternoon sun. Everything was as they’d left it, and the climb up the broken tree limb wasn’t too hard. Germ was the last to drop to the ground, then they walked through the woods before emerging at Bea’s car.

“Good luck you two,” Gregg said from the back seat as they headed back towards town.

“And if it all goes bad,” Germ added, “we’ll have fun in prison!”

“Yeah, thanks for that encouraging word,’ Bea spat.

“Hard to commit crimes in prison,” Mae noted.

“Not if you’re determined!” Gregg laughed.

“They gonna have to take me in a four piece!”

“Dude, you packin’ wolf tickets. You gonna be on the bumper beggin’.”

“You gonna be hangin in the ding wing sippin’ that bug juice, girl.”

“You best be ridin’ the leg of some honcho the minute they open the steel, dude.”

“Dude, I’m gonna be the rabbit. I’ll be outta my peels before they find my boof.”

“You better or you be meeting some big ass commandos your first night.”

“Guys,” Bea interrupted. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Where were you during Prison Week?” Mae said with a grin.

“We’re just practicing our prison lingo,” Gregg explained.

“Prison Week? What’s that?”

“Prison Week? Do you even TV? How do you not know Prison Week?”

Angus filled her in. “Every year there’s a thing where TV shows do a week on prison related themes, Bea.”

“Oh. Yeah, I don’t even TV,” Bea said, mimicking Gregg.

They dropped Germ and his gear off first, before letting Gregg and Angus out in front of their building, then taking the car back behind the Ol’ Pickaxe.

Bea opened the trunk and looked at the broken skateboard.

“You ready to do this?” Bea asked Mae as she picked it up.

“No.”

“Me neither. But let’s get it done.”

They started walking up the street towards the police station.

“Hey, there’s Aunt Molly over there. Let’s just go talk to her.”

As they approached, the policewoman looked up but her eyes widened when she saw the skateboard. Casey certainly wasn’t the only skater in town, but there weren’t a lot of them and she had certainly been given a description of his board during the search.

“Is that what I think it is?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Mae said flatly. “We found him.”

“Really? You found Casey?”

“Yes Officer Molly,” Bea said, denying Mae her accustomed put-down of her aunt.

The cat’s eyes scanned the two.

“You’ve been down in the mine. In there?”

They both nodded.

“Okay. Come with me back to the station. Detective Brown hasn’t gone home yet...”

Bea looked at Mae. Mae nodded her acceptance, but Bea saw the worried look on her friend’s face and she suddenly felt very protective of her friend. She took Mae’s hand and the two followed Aunt Molly.

*********************

Four hours later Bea finally emerged from the detective’s office. She saw Mae sitting in the hallway waiting for her.

Aunt Molly was with her, and she stood up as Bea approached.

“Stay here for just a little while, okay? Let me talk with the detective for a minute.”

Bea nodded and sat beside Mae. Her friend’s face was tear streaked.

“It’s okay, Mae.”

“Oh Bea, I couldn’t help it. I told them everything.”

“Yeah. I did too. Look Mae, whatever happens happens, okay? You had to.”

“I’m not worried about me,” Mae said, choking up. “I’m worried about Gregg and Angus. And Germ.”

“Me too. But Mae, we had to. We had to do all of it. We never had a choice. If we hadn’t, we’d never know who they were. Mae, they killed people. They killed Casey, and if we hadn’t done what we did, they might have killed us. Certainly others.”

Mae’s eyes found her own and she looked at Bea like a child seeking assurance from her mother. Bea felt very worried herself, but for her friend she stayed strong and tried to exude confidence she didn’t feel.

“We did, didn’t we?”

“Mae, we saved lives. You know we did. If these guys don’t see that, fuck them.”

Mae’s face turned bitter. “Yeah. Fuck them.”

“We’re goddamn heroes, Mae. You’re a goddamn hero.”

The door opened sometime later and Molly stepped out.

“Come with me, guys. We need to talk.”

“Do I need a lawyer?” Bea asked warily.

“No, Bea. Come on, let’s go into my office where it’s private.”

They followed Aunt Molly again, down the hall and into a small office where Molly shut the door.

Bea sat beside Mae in front of Molly’s desk and looked around. The shelves were full of obscure books and a few official-looking papers were framed and hung behind Molly’s desk. She apparently was no mall cop regardless of what Mae called her.

“First, let’s get this out of the way. There will be no charges against you. For any of it.”

“None of us? Really?!” Mae burst out, as if releasing pent-up pressure.

“No. We didn’t release it, but we found evidence that something like this was going on. Diaries from two of the... well, of the people that died in the cave-in. They were very detailed. They named names.”

Bea felt her face redden with anger. “But… you didn’t arrest anybody?!”

“No. We didn’t. Because they are all dead. Every one of them named in those diaries was killed in the cave-in. We had no evidence. So we kept it quiet.”

“You’ll find evidence enough now,” Bea assured her.

“Sounds like it. But you did the right thing. The policewoman in me says you didn’t, but the woman in me knows you did. I talked with detective Brown. We’re not going to press any charges against you. Not for trespassing or anything else. But I’m asking you not to tell anyone else about it. We’ll release a statement once we’ve recovered the bodies, but we won’t mention any of you. But the media is going to be on this like flies on shit. They’ll find out who it was that discovered the victims. I suggest you tell them whatever you want about today, but don’t mention… the freak cave-in. Alright?”

“We can do that,” Bea assured her.

“Good. We’ll have a team out there tomorrow to recover them. I’m going to take the skateboard to Casey’s parents tonight. You know… if you’d have told us all this last year…”

“We thought you’d find them,” Mae said, a little indignantly.

“We might have, if we’d known where to look. The diaries mentioned the pit, but they didn’t say where it was, Mae. Guys, we’re just people trying to keep the peace. We’re not superhuman when we put on this badge.”

Bea considered asking if she could come along, but decided against it. His parents would have a tough enough time dealing with the truth without some ex-girlfriend they didn’t even know showing up at their doorstep.

“Thanks, Aunt Molly,” Mae said. “I’m sorry about… all that Mall Cop stuff.”

“No problem, Mae. Now you two get on home. Tell your parents. About today. They’ll find out soon enough anyway. Best you tell them first.”

Bea thanked her as well, and the two left the police station.

“Hey Bea,” Mae said as they walked down the street. “Can I come over later?”

“Sure Mae. I think I’d like that.”

“Might be very ‘later’.”

“I’ll keep the window open,” Bea laughed.

They split up at Bea’s building. As she climbed her stairs, Bea was feeling pretty good, all things considered. She wondered what the next few weeks would bring, but Molly’s assurance that they wouldn’t get in trouble with the law relieved a burden on her mind that she only realized had been there when it was gone.

“Is that you, Bea?” her father’s voice came to her when she opened the door.

“Yup, it’s me dad.”

“Glad to have you back. How was your camping trip?”

She walked into the TV room and sat on the couch.

“Dad, we have to talk…”

[dreadlock-detective]

All of my 5th ed D&D characters together, by order of appearance: Adi the Paladin (Crimson Crow Campaign), Beatrice the Monk/Cleric, Cirilisa the Wizard, Dindelion the Sorceress, Elenor the Ranger/Wizard, and Adi the Cleric (Curse of Strahd Campaign) (yes that’s A B C D E, and then A again)

My characters tend to have rather large issues that would, if they were left on their own without their respective groups/getting caught up in the campaign, ensure they’d never actually succeed in their goals. As such I’ve really enjoyed distilling each of them down to a single word, an essence of what lays behind their entire psyches. And they’re all bad. Yes, even “Justice”, due to the circumstances~ Ramble about each of them after the cut~

Adi the Paladin (of the Crimson Crows) is a bit of a special case, the only one whose impediment to their success isn’t strictly speaking herself. The child of nobles who collected ancient artifacts, it is said one day they lost themselves to madness. Adi was taken in by her aunt and uncle who raised her the best she could, but as she grew they found she too was prone to bouts of madness and hysteria. One day, when the man they had hired to exercise whatever demons lay upon her mind was found upon the floor, the girl bloodying his face with her fists, she was deemed incurable and quietly shipped away to join a peace-keeping force of ex-criminals and other undesirables known as the Crimson Crows.

She always thought of herself as a hero - a warrior of good and bringer of justice. The problem lays in that she was, originally, a warlock/barbarian of a Great Old One (Nyarlathotep), which warped how she saw the world to fit how she saw herself. For example, if she killed someone, it’s because that person deserved to be killed - if not for the reasons she was attacking them, then for something else. A self proclaimed Hero of the People who’s powers came from something far more likely to destroy the world, manipulating her towards its goals.

She had a rather happy ending, though - some of the other PC’s betrayed her trust and managed to sever her connection to Nyarlathotep, afterward she became a Paladin and through the power of friendship (with a colony of Mind Flayers - its a weird story) she managed to become the hero she always thought she was, ending a war with minimal bloodshed and bringing down an ancient evil.

Beatrice the Monk/Cleric of Death The young Bea, in a desperate attempt to save her clan from a powerful and deceptive mage, ended up selling her soul to a litch, turning her into a pseudo-undead herself. As it turns out, her clan who hunted the undead as abominations and mislead by the mage didn’t take kindly to that story, and she joined the Crimson Crows instead of facing their wrath. Faced with the knowledge that she had become the thing she had sworn to destroy to save those that now cast her out, she lost hope that she could ever reclaim her soul and, even among her new family of misfits, feared they would abandon her as well.

Sadly, she never got an end to her story - she got switched out for Adi when the campaign Adi was originally in was abruptly abandoned. Later on her and her wizard friend (another PC who had left the game) who both were hunting that evil mage found themselves mind-controlled into helping him resurrect an ancient draco-litch. She was saved by Adi & co, but now was worse off than ever, having played a pivotal role in bringing back a terrible undead horror, no matter how unwillingly. If we ever play another campaign in that world, I’d love to give her a proper story.

Cirilisa the Wizard Oh precious Ciri, the littlest Drow~ When a rival house murdered her entire family she became a young murder hobo in the underdark, growing up sickly and frail. Eventually she attempted to get her revenge but only managed to steal and sell some artifact from the family, along with getting a massive scar across her midsection from a blast from the family’s matriarch. Somehow escaping to the surface, her unconscious body was found by scouts of the Crimson Crows, who brought her back to relative health and gave her a new home, where she eventually set herself on becoming a moderately accomplished wizard. Her loss in childhood had deadened her already drow heart, but living among the surface world she saw so many people with so many emotions. She didn’t understand them, but she secretly coveted what they had.

I had planned that she would start to fall in love with the first PC that went out of their way to protect or help her from a serious problem - a plan that was designed to end poorly. The three candidates were a loner dwarf who didn’t want anything to do with anyone else, a were-bear orc who was 100% gay, and a minotaur who was already in a committed relationship. But even though the feelings wouldn’t be returned, she would FEEL things and grow as a character... well...

I didn’t expect that character (the orc) to protect her from drow assassins who nearly managed to kill her... and then THE NEXT NIGHT sacrifice his soul to a revenant of a man he had killed to protect the party. Before Ciri even had a chance to start acknowledging or understanding what she was feeling the object of her affections was dead and buried along the roadside. Instead of love, she grew bitter and angry, desperate to find a way to save the orc’s soul, all without really knowing why. She died before she could - her heart ripped from her chest by a wraith of vampiric spirits in a climatic boss battle. But that group’s leader, a PC vampire named Walter, destroyed the wraith, took it’s title and powers as Blood Lord, and raised her as a vampire. She’s still a ball of piss and vinegar, but she’s in a way found herself in a new family, charging herself with constantly keeping the Blood Lord in check and making sure he never gets too full of himself.

Dindelion the Sorceress If you don’t know about Dindel you haven’t been following me long. A homeless vagabond who hides her natural born ability to heal others for fear it would be exploited, she’s internalized many negative things about herself and rarely trusts herself to make decisions that won’t end in disaster. Add in a mother that disappeared when she was young, a drunkard gambler of a father, and a city decades in decline full of poverty and abuse by those in power and she’s got more than a few trust issues for other folks as well. She also has absolutely no idea how a healthy relationship is supposed to work, and a head full of stories and romance that have absolutely not lined up with her experiences since the campaign started.

Her father, the only constant in her life and the other half of a fairly unhealthy co-dependent relationship, got taken away by essentially the mob for not paying debts and it’s up to her to find some way to pay it off. To her great luck, she ran in to the wandering soldier Vale who, apparently wanting to make up for past sins, agrees to take her along to join a new venture he heard about, leading to the campaign proper. She was actually specifically designed to have too many trust issues to actually get in a relationship with anyone, but between how Vale cares for her and how absolutely shitty she’s found the outside world to be, those issues have actually mutated into something new as their romance has grown. Its... not any healthier a mental state though. I’m excited to see where it goes!

Elenor the Ranger/Wizard Elena was once a promising apprentice wizard, learning the weave with 4 other students. Always feeling a step above the others and not content with how slowly their teacher was progressing them, she devised a plan to work with the others to impress their teacher - to show her they were ready for bigger things. They were going to summon a creature from the planes of hell! Specifically, a Lemure, a relatively harmless blob of a twisted soul. An impressive feat and without much risk from the creature being summoned. Definitely within the capability of someone as great as her.

As sharp chains lashed out from the summoning circle her left arm was torn away. A great beast emerged, tossing her across the room. As she looked up she saw her rival, a young man named Osvaldo, brandishing an axe, standing over her, and looking quite pleased with himself. And the axe came down.

She would come to in a crypt standing near a coffin bearing the family crest of Osvaldo. Her body stiff and her mind cloudy, she slowly realized she had not survived that night at all - she was now a reanimated corpse, but had somehow regained her sense of self. She also found the nearby townspeople did not care enough to distinguish between mindless undead and herself. Eventually she found the place she had once studied - destroyed, some time ago it seems, by that night’s events. Lost and adrift, the life she once knew was over, even her memories were fragmented, but she would forever remember the names of the four who had done this. Osvaldo had convinced them to change the ritual - to summon that creature, and to use it to kill her. She was certain of it. And that hatred kept her going as years of nothingness passed her by. One day she was hired by a tunnel elf, a professed seeker of knowledge, as a guide through the wilderness and though she could not stand him they soon encountered others, mostly strange folk - a tabaxi, a triton, and a snake-like dragonborn in particular - and she stuck around to entertain herself.

Little did she know they were about to be pulled into saving the world from consumption by a forgotten and terrible deity. She thinks their chances aren’t even worth mentioning, but still she cannot allow existence to end before she has wrought what vengeance she can on those that wronged her, and so she will fight with everything she has to keep the world going.

Adi the Cleric of Nyarlathotep As Adi of the Crimson Crows discovered as she worked with the mind flayers, she was not the only Adi. Not even close. Hers was a soul connected to a power outside of time and space and finds itself drawn into worlds over and over, each incarnation as much the same as they are different. Perhaps the Crawling Chaos did not want to repeat what had happened before, maybe it was just twisted curiosity, but this iteration of the girl was born through his direct influence, raised in a town he had visited and driven mad. She was his disciple, and she would spread his teachings across the land.

Through a series of misunderstandings she has found herself in the land of Ravenloft, under the watchful eyes of the vampire Strahd, and in this land she came upon a terrible, bewitched house. A house with paintings of the owners and of a woman bearing a striking resemblance to her. A house where the ghostly children said their littlest sister was named Adi. The child had died in infancy, sacrificed in some dark ritual by its father.

And down in the depths of that place Adi found it was the truth. And there, along the alter, sat a book bound in human skin that called to her. A book of rituals devoted to her god, the Faceless Father. And there, upon the alter, she left the corpse of one of those who had traveled with her, who had brought her there.

She isn’t certain why the Faceless Father has guided her to this land, but she will carry out his will or die trying, though all things considered, perhaps the world would be better off with her in the ground, the cult’s voice silenced

[elijahwoodnot]

Did anyone ask........... WIRT

(!!!!!!!!! Anthony you GET ME)

favorite thing about them

-I absolutely adore watching Wirt’s journey from stepping back and letting others take the reigns, blaming everything on his little brother, and immediately lying down and giving up when things get tough. I love how much his love for Greg and desire to protect him begins to shine through as the series progresses. I love that he learns to “take charge of his own destiny” and become “the hero of his own story”. I love how his anxiety doesn’t magically disappear as his story progresses, but he’s clearly beginning to learn that there are things important enough for him to overcome it

least favorite thing about them

-he starts out super dismissive of Greg which…while #relatable, is also just distressing to watch

favorite line

-”maybe i can…fix it? *muttering* i…i can’t fix it.”

brOTP

-I love the way he and Greg interact (especially the way it’s been developing in the comics!!!) and I love their relationship. I love that Greg is one of the only people who can draw Wirt out of his own dark thoughts and entirely into the present, and I love how protective of Greg Wirt is, and how the two tease each other

(also Wirt and Beatrice are just adorable)

OTP

-(i really….don’t have an opinion on this i’m sorry)

nOTP

-for whatever reason i’ve seen Wirt/Jason Funderburker (the kid not the frog) content and i’m always just “?????????” so maybe don’t do that

random headcanon(s)

-!!!!! Wirt is a trans boy!!!

-he loves architecture and birdwatching, though personally believes both to be a bit silly, and therefore spends time on these hobbies only when he’s sure nobody’s going to bother him 

-Wirt isn’t really all that big on holidays. Halloween stresses him out (for obvious reasons), Christmas is “too much” and makes him feel stifled. Thanksgiving involves way too much food, attention from relatives, and too many people. he absolutely cannot stand his birthday (personally cause he feels like he should always be more excited about it, or celebrating it in a certain way, or having a party even though he doesn’t want to, etc.) 

the only thing that improves these holidays even a little is Greg’s countering, absolute enthusiasm for them. Wirt loves to watch Greg get over-excited for Christmas, decking out their living room in gaudy decorations. he loves seeing Greg chat cheerily with their relatives at Thanksgiving while stuffing his face with turkey, etc. 

(in all honestly, with just loves to see Greg happy)

-Wirt and food don’t mix well. he’s allergic to a lot, and what he’s not allergic to he just doesn’t particularly enjoy. in the time after the Unknown, especially, Wirt finds that most of what he tries to eat just ends up getting stuck uncomfortably in his throat, and he doesn’t really have the energy to spare toward fixing the problem. (this is part of why Thanksgiving is such a nightmare for him)

-(especially after the Unknown) Wirt is always cold. he’s consistently shivering, whether from anxiety, cold, or a combination of the two. as soon as September hits, and the temperature cools to below 65, Wirt can be found bundled in at least one sweater, breaking out his wool gloves and thick boots not long after, and buried beneath a pile of at least four (4) blankets at every available opportunity. people are constantly commenting on how icy his touch is, something that only increases after the Unknown, and Wirt, embarrassed by the comments, makes a point of avoiding touching people with his “icy hands”

unpopular opinion

-Wirt isn’t consistently annoyed with Greg’s presence, especially after their time spent together in the Unknown. sure, they bicker and snipe at each other like normal siblings, but there’s next-to-no one’s presence that Wirt finds and warm and soothing as Greg’s

song i associate with them

-OOF!!! ‘Dead of Night’ by Hey Marseilles !!!!!

favorite picture of them

this one from the comics is just….so so good…thanks Jim Campbell for my life

send me a character and i’ll list...~

[lebibish]

Dear Yuletide Author 2019,

Happy fall! (Or winter, which it feels like here!) The Yuletide fic exchange is one of my favorite times of year and I am always amazed with the wonderful and lovely stories that come out of it. I absolutely promise—I will love whatever you write because you have put time and effort into one of these fandoms which I adore and which deserve so much more love. So thank you!

(This...got rather long...)

Things I am generally interested in:

-          World building – both cultural shenanigans and language and how does this actually work and let’s dig into the stuff that was handwaved—did I say both? I obviously meant everything)

-          Family feels – found family, kidfic, good sibling relationships, comfort, people you would fight to live for, snarky banter, deep understanding of someone else. Also, I love kidfic. Also, good parenting.

-          Competence – I really, really enjoy watching/reading about/listening to people being really, really good at something.

-          Magic – fairy tale magic, magical realism, that whole social media thread about people having small everyday magics, hidden magical realm, magic school, I love it all.

Squicks, or things I am not interested in: For Yuletide, I prefer not to have unhappy endings. Bittersweet I can handle. Not a fan of cheating in relationships (consensual polyamory, on the other hand, is VERY GOOD.), grim!dark cynicism, unlikable heroes, angry-teenage-boy angst (this does not just apply to teenage boy characters btw, just saying I lost a lot of interest in Harry Potter after book 5. It was good characterization, he had all the reasons to feel that way! I’m just not that interested in reading from his point of view at that point).

That got long, sorry!

Specifics:

Fandom: Horror Movie Daycare (CollegeHumor)

What I like about this fandom: I love kidfic. I love people taking care of kids, being good with kids (even if they’re nervous and unsure of what they’re doing—genuine interest and care goes a long way), and the subversion of expectations in this.

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): I am torn between wanting to know Ms. Katherine Daisy’s background (where did she come from? Why is she like this? How does she keep getting these creepy jobs? IS SHE FROM NIGHTVALE?) and wanting her to remain a mystery (particularly, seeing her from an outsider’s perspective—what do the families of her kids think of her? How did they find this daycare? Does she have any coworkers? Neighbors? Family? What do think of her and her job? Do any of the kids she takes care of grow up and come back to visit her?)

 Fandom: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (game)

What I like about this fandom: What do I not like about this fandom? I play as Kassandra—she is pansexual, always down for sex, not great at emotions, totally motivated by family, kind of protective, kind of an asshole, and I head-canon her main relationship being Roxana BECAUSE THAT RELATIONSHIP IS ADORABLE. But I’m more than happy to read other people’s versions of Kassandra too! I love the attention to detail in the culture, I love the connections to Greek mythology, I love Kassandra’s relationships throughout the game (families, friends, lovers…)

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): Kassandra in different time periods—they opened up so much room for amazing stories in that plot. Kassandra in the middle ages, messing with the patriarchy. Kassandra hanging out with the all the queer Classics majors at Oxford, (OMFG I just pictured Kassandra meeting Miss Fisher and having sexy, sexy adventures solving murders together), Kassandra in YOUR favorite historical period being her awkwardly kind, aggressively violent self. But also, that opens up so much angst? Because this woman has spent so much time separated from her family and has fought so hard to find them and now she is going to outlive literally everyone? (sort of spoiler warning: Phoebe in the DLC makes me cry so hard and if you want to make that a real thing and bring other people too I WOULD BE SO HAPPY). How does Kassandra cope? I kind of imagine she basically just keeps building families around her over and over again, but I could also see her retreating from getting close to people. ALTERNATIVELY. Kassandra growing up—why does she stay on Kephallonia so long? What is she like as an awkward teen? Kassandra being a big sister to Phoibe. Or. After the main story, I made Alexios one of the crew members on the boat and that was consistently hilarious. I also got the entire family together for that dinner scene—including awkward, angry step-brother together and the family shenanigans of two awkward, angry brothers and AWKWARD AGGRESSIVE Kassandra somehow being the reasonable human sibling is AMAZING.

 Fandom: Sinbad (TV)

What I like about this fandom: I ask for this fandom every year because: people with different cultures and languages coming together and forming a functional group/found family/deep friendships, real mythology being played with, magic hiding in the world as science becomes more prevalent…it’s all amazing.

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): Sinbad’s original curse—not being able to stay on land for more than a day and what that would mean if they had succeeded in being traders; the possibility that Cook has something strange going on with his own refusal to leave the ship; and post-series what these people end up doing and how they interact. Any and all back-stories are love, any and all myths, legends or monsters entering the story are brilliant.

 Fandom: Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)

What I like about this fandom: Beatrice/Benedict – snark. So much snark. Smart, competent people who are confident, but also insecure in some really specific ways. NOT a fan of Claudio.

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): Ok, so, I love the original play and I love it’s various incarnations (the David Tennant and Catherine Tate one is amaaazing) but my first introduction and the one I always imagine is the Kenneth Branaugh version. Beatrice/Benedict is my OTP…except. Except. The speech where Beatrice and Don Pedro are talking and he asks if she’d have him and she says no unless she could have another for working days…I want that story. Beatrice/Benedict and their home together becoming a place where Don Pedro goes to rest and hide from the demands of the world (romantic polyamory OT3, platonic friendship, it could play out in so many ways). Or, Beatrice/Benedict going with the Prince. Beatrice having adventures and charming and outraging people everywhere and Benedict and Don Pedro amused and indulgent and jumping in to troll people left and right.

 Fandom: The Pirates of Darkwater

What I like about this fandom: SO MUCH WORLD-BUILDING. All the islands and the magic and the ship (see also, any of the details for Sinbad…). Grumpy thieves and mercenaries who are secretly good people but have bad impulses/habits.

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): Since the series was never finished—HOW DOES IT END? Does Ren become a King? Do the islands come together in a diplomatic alliance? Do they save the day and sail off into the sunset? OR Ren growing up. Living with his old guardian in an ancient lighthouse and entertaining himself by being a gymnast—but also, how do you raise a secret heir to a kingdom without letting him know he’s a secret heir to a kingdom? Shove a lot of books at him and cross your fingers? Teach good governance through a series of ridiculous hypotheticals and then hem and haw whenever he says “When will I ever need to know this?”. OR pick an island and explore it . Look, magic, pirates, adventure, mysterious islands with a variety of civilizations...you can't really go wrong here.

 Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV)  

What I like about this fandom: Aha. Ha ha. Ok, seriously—time travel, magic, SO GAY, teams, SO COMPETANT, the constant jostling for who gets to sacrifice themselves for someone else this time, other worlds, WEIRD AF worldbuilding (magic? Aliens? Energy beings that are totally not ghosts because the censors don’t like superstition?), TIME TRAVEL, cats, shape-shifters, I will Wait for you, two cultures colliding, hurt/comfort everywhere

What I would love to see (optional details are optional! Tell me a story you’re interested in and I’ll love it!): Fix it fic. FIX IT FIC. Reincarnation? Not actually dead? Someone, something rational and reasonable steps in before tragedy becomes inevitable? PEOPLE GET THERAPY? I don’t care. Fiiiiix iiiiit. AND/OR Shen Wei waking up and negotiating a brand new world—new Dixing and new Haixing. I…kind of prefer that happening much longer than the show makes it seem in the end? Like, I have unreasonable feelings about him waiting 10,000 years to see the love of his life—but I also kind of like the idea of him waking up and being incredibly confused by the culture that has built up in Dixing. Also—more of the actual culture that has built up in Dixing so that it’s not just the desperate poor neighbor but a functional, interesting society that has it’s own traditions and families and no sense of seasons or time but what they designate for themselves (does the lantern change that?) AND/OR I’ve been haunted lately by the idea of the original Kun Lan who we never meet…actually being reincarnated as Zhao Yun Lan?

ALL MY LOVE AND GRATITUDE! YOU ARE AWESOME! I really hope you enjoy this Yuletide!

[noshitshakespeare]

Do you think Benedick and Beatrice are the feminist, funny, wonderful couple that Tumblr thinks? I'm just disgusted by Beatrice being like, "if you're not willing to kill someone for me then you don't love me". How is that funny and healthy?

I think that any labelling like ‘funny’ or even ‘cute’ is going to be a simplification whether you’re talking about a couple or a character in Shakespeare. 

As far as Benedick and Beatrice are concerned, a funny, “feminist” and wonderful couple is at least part of what they are. Their ‘merry war’ (1.1.58) is funny and charming in its own way, and the best thing about them is that they can talk to one another as equals; that is, as intellectual equals, and that Benedick is willing to trust Beatrice over his friend and comrade as well as his prince. But as you point out, that’s not all there is to them, and that glimpse of darkness we get when Beatrice tells Benedick to ‘kill Claudio’ (4.1.288) is not easily reconcilable with the image of the witty charming lady of the earlier scenes. There is most definitely a touch of unhealthiness in there. I also think that, while one can argue that Benedick and Beatrice were really in love with one another all along, textual evidence suggests more strongly that their love interest remains half manufactured by their friends to the end, so that Benedick loves Beatrice ‘in despite of his heart’ (3.4.83).

Criticism is not straightforwardly positive on the subject of this couple. What becomes clearer through the most tragic moment of this play is that the whole story is hiding some serious anxieties about marriage and about the relationship between sexes. As many have pointed out, male distrust of women and marriage is the driving anxiety behind this play. And the automatic connection between marriage and cuckoldry suggests a fear of the power women have over men when it comes to the questions of paternity.

Even though it can be taken and played as a light-hearted repartee, the initial battle of wits between Beatrice and Benedick also, on closer look, hides some serious fears and problems both of them face and that reflects the wider problems of the society of their Messina. A sharp tongue and a ready wit is both a weapon and a shield that protects the two protagonists from their fear of the other sex.

For instance, one can’t ignore the fact that Benedick calls himself ‘a professed tyrant to their sex’ (1.1.160-61) putting on the persona of a misogynist (which draws on a long tradition of rhetorical debate literature that argued about the virtues and vices of women). His description of Hero, even in his joking spirit is based on outward appearances alone – ‘too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise…’ (1.1.165-6) – and is frankly abominable. Also Benedick’s general approach to women shouldn’t easily be dismissed as innocent just because of his actions later in the play or because he happens to generalise all of mankind as sexually promiscuous: ‘That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me’ (1.1.223–7). The equation of marriage and cuckoldry is problematic and fundamental to an understanding of Benedick’s character.

Beatrice too has her own set of problems. She, like Benedick, likes to play a part, in her case the part of the shrew who ‘must sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband’ (2.1.299-300). She also takes on masculine characteristics and implicitly devalues women in doing so, much as Rosalind is accused of doing by Celia in As You Like It. Even though she’s powerful in her own way, she is only so within the confines of her small world, and as her reaction to Claudio’s treatment of Hero goes to show, she isn’t willing to break down the constraints of society and the decorum of what a man or a woman can and can’t do. In saying ‘O God that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market place’ (4.1.306-7), for instance, she actually accepts male violence and her inability to step into that world (which is not a feature of Shakespeare’s women is general).

But Benedick’s personality goes beyond the character of the stereotype misogynist (and Beatrice, needless to say, is more than a shrew) in the same way that Hamlet goes beyond the conventions of the revenger character. And one of the greater things that happens in the play is that he shakes off these conventions he professes by choosing to believe in the women he claimed to be a ‘tyrant’ towards. What it reveals, in the process, is that all these constraints of behaviour are neither natural or necessary parts of human relationships. 

Still, I don’t think Much Ado ever quite manages to step out the the confines of social forms (even though it’s apparent that Shakespeare as a writer has a broader perspective on the matter), because in the very process of breaking apart assumptions about the relation between sexes, new constraints related to honour and gender come into play, and that’s the moment that Beatrice asks Benedick to ‘kill Claudio’.

I can understand your disgust about this scene, but it’s complicated because involves early modern notions of honour which by current standards can seem problematic. Beatrice wants to avenge the insult to her family, but feels she can’t because she’s female (showing her adherence to the violent codes of honour). To be fair on Beatrice, she doesn’t enforce the role on Benedick immediately. He offers his help and she refuses it by saying ‘it is a man’s office, but not yours’ (4.1.266). This is a threefold point: she’s saying that he doesn’t owe her anything, that he isn’t a close enough relation of hers to take on the role, and that he’s too close a friend of Claudio’s to do it. Benedick should have seen what was coming at this point. It’s not so much that she says Benedick needs to kill Claudio to prove his love to her (at least initially), it’s more that because he’s told her he loves her (which is the same as a promise of marriage by early modern standards), he is now a close enough relation of Hero’s to avenge the slight. If he doesn’t, then he might as well be saying that he isn’t willing to become her family. In a way, it’s a wonderful moment because it’s explicit about the injustice of a woman’s situation that she cannot stand up for herself. But it also shows the implicit violence of a society that makes giving a man such a choice socially acceptable and the limits of the freedom of these characters that they can’t see past the arbitrary social structures that enforce silence and patience on women and active violence on men. 

It’s probably not such a problem for people to see Beatrice and Benedick as a funny and wonderful couple, because the enjoyment of a play doesn’t need to include an in-depth analysis and a full recognition of the problems that boil under the surface of what seems a light-hearted comedy. It’s worth remembering that people remember and emphasise the parts they enjoy and rationalise other parts based on their perception. I do think, though, that the recognition of the jarring moments in Shakespeare’s plays are key to going beyond the stories and characters to a structural assessment of what the playwright was up to in creating this particular piece. The recognition of one’s discomfort is the first step to a critical appreciation of a work of art that goes beyond entertainment.