#anyway. i think annette does that without even trying

[even-disco-baby]

ANNETTE — “Hi, ace detective.” The young girl stifles a yawn. “We’ll be closing up soon, I’m afraid. Is there anything I can help you find?”

EMPATHY — She’s hoping the answer is yes. Any excuse to take a break from the dreaded *math homework.*

“No thanks, I was just on my way out.” [Leave]

“It’s okay, I don’t want to distract you from your studies.”

“Yeah, actually. I’m looking for a book.”

ANNETTE — She tries and fails to hide her relief as she sets her textbook under her chair. “Of course! What are you looking for, sir?”

“A happy story.”

“A sad story.”

“Something that will make me a better detective.”

“Something that will make me a better person.”

“Something about how to mend a broken heart.”

ANNETTE — “Oh…” She frowns, staring up at the shelves as if hoping that the perfect book will miraculously catch her eye. “Umm… Let me think…”

EMPATHY — She’s genuinely trying to think of one. She wants to help you.

ANNETTE — After a long, long pause, Annette finally lets out a sigh of defeat. “…I’m not sure,” she admits sadly. “I’m sorry, sir.”

YOU — “You can’t think of anything at all?”

ANNETTE — “Well… We do carry some self help books, sir, but…” She casts a quick glance around the store.

REACTION SPEED — Making sure Plaisance is out of earshot.

ANNETTE — The girl leans in conspiratorially and whispers, “Mother says those books are all snake oil. ‘If all it took to change somebody’s life was a book, *we* would be sitting quite prettily.’”

DRAMA — Her Plaisance impression is uncanny! What talent!

YOU — “Why do you sell them, then?”

ANNETTE — “Well,” she coughs, “not everyone agrees with my mother.”

RHETORIC — Translation: because people buy them. It’s as simple as that.

ANNETTE — “But I don’t think that’s quite what you’re looking for, is it, sir…?” She looks up at you with that seemingly impossible mixture of innocence and knowing that is unique to children.

“Yeah, you’re right. It isn’t.”

“No, I think I’ll give the self help books a try.”

“I’m not really sure what I’m looking for, to be honest.”

ANNETTE — She nods slowly, looking down at her frayed nails. “Lots of people come into the shop not quite knowing what they’re looking for. But that’s what’s so nice about bookshops, don’t you think? No matter where you look, you can find *something* interesting.” She smiles bright enough to light up every dark corner of the bookstore and the doomed commercial area below it. “I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for, ace detective. Maybe you just have to let it find *you.*”

+1 MORALE

VOLITION — Here in this bookshop. In Martinaise. Revachol. The world. This seemingly wretched lifetime. In the midst of it all, there is always something for you. Uncurl your fist. Let it find your palms upturned.

[dbphantom]

[H2O s2 spoilers] Charlotte has literally done nothing wrong up until now and yet the show STILL paints her as such a bad person in Pressure Cooker.

She admits if she knew Don was Cleo's dad she wouldn't have shown up and looks visibly uncomfortable (but still trying to be polite) when she realizes it's Cleo's house and has to sit there and watch Cleo openly be rude to her mother by giving away a gift bought as a gesture of goodwill.

Charlotte KNOWS Lewis and Cleo are talking about her and instead of being rude and nasty about it (LIKE CLEO WAS IN EPISODE 3 WHEN SHE MADE ASSUMPTIONS) is just like "yeah, your dad is really struggling right now, you probably wanna go back in there and help him..?" like OMG that was so sweet of her. Yeah she interrupted their conversation, but come on she was trying to be nice. Characters interrupt each other all the time on this show- it's a teen drama, that's how it works. Despite everything Cleo had already done to her, Charlotte was still looking out for her dad.

Then Charlotte accidentally knocks a thing of flour into Cleo and goes up to her room after Cleo storms off to personally apologize for even BEING THERE because she can tell Cleo is Absolutely Furious about her showing up, and openly asks her if she can spend time with/date Lewis because she understands the two of them were together and she SEES how Cleo is reacting, and CLEO GIVES HER THE GO-AHEAD, BUT STILL TREATS HER AWFULLY ANYWAY. She didn't HAVE to ask for permission, but she does anyway!! AFTER APOLOGIZING FOR SIMPLY SHOWING UP TO HER MOM'S WORK EVENT.

and THEN at the end of the episode Cleo is like "even if it IS Charlotte (who I hate for literally no reason other than she stood up for herself when I tried to shame her in public for hanging out with my ex-boyfriend who I broke up with), it's Lewis's choice" but then gives her an actual death glare at the very end of the episode when Charlotte is literally just looking at her and evil music swells all because Charlotte smiles. WHAT!!!!!

IF YOU WANTED ME TO HATE CHARLOTTE SO BAD WHY DID YOU MAKE CLEO SO UNREASONABLE AND MEAN THIS SEASON AND CHARLOTTE AN ACTUAL SWEETHEART WHO HASN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG OTHER THAN ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKING A BOWL OF FLOUR INTO SOMEONE AND PINING AFTER A GUY WHO IS- I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH- SINGLE!!!

anyway brb making a list of all the times the girls openly use their powers or are just straight-up reckless in public SOLELY IN SEASON 2 so i can compare it to them getting really mad at Charlotte and holding her to a huge double-standard because she used her powers to mess with Nate a little bit because HUUUUUUH??? if you have any examples hit me up because im currently doing a rewatch and im on ep 6 and already have a few... most notably Emma using her powers during the soccer game to dunk on a seven-year-old, but also Cleo using her powers at school to [checks notes] take a shortcut across a field with a sprinkler instead of just walking around. I have a few from memory as well that i just haven't gotten up to yet (like Emma and Rikki harassing Lewis at his job and almost getting him arrested because they left the gate open)

>>>>>oh i see... tumblr desktop does not warn you if you have over 30 tags. noted... rip my essay on how Lewis also isn't 100% in the right here [with Charlotte. with Cleo he did nothing wrong (being overbearing... ok i get it, but she could have sat him down and talked to him abt how she was feeling before immediately jumping to breaking up) and even took her aside more than once to ask her if she was okay, if this is what she really wanted, and where he stands with her- to which she lies to his face during and says everything's fine, she's just protecting the secret, she isn't jealous At All, she doesn't want to get back together] because he unintentionally is leading Charlotte on bc he's not communicating the best, and then when they DO get together he's clearly not as invested in their relationship as she is, or how Charlotte was kinda jumping the gun a little but while their relationship is kinda messy in itself, it just doesn't compare to how annoyed Cleo makes me this season, i won't lie. also i did rant about the marine park incident again. it still really bothers me lolol

[dgblueknight20]

There is this anime about a girls survival club- Girl couples :3

Anyways, the president of the club has the ire of the school club president (I think) who is trying to do everything she can to be mean to her.

So she volunteered at the cafeteria to make her eat her vegetables (that she doesn’t like) and everyone around them think it’s so cute and romantic how she’s made her food and that’s all I can think about.

Just everyone around them shipping these two oblivious girls that has no idea what’s going on.

Survival club president doesn’t know who school club president is and is just eating the food she doesn’t like that’s healthy for her and school club president thinking she’s being mean and victorious in her one sided rivalry.

She does this every day or every week while properly doing her job as a cafeteria volunteer.

So in a similar vein, Simmons volunteered at the cafeteria because he doesn’t like Grif and makes him food that’s tasty and healthy.

At first Grif barely noticed who Simmons was, but then when he complimented the food and saw Simmons smile proudly. He thought he had a cute smile.

He got his name and they started talking when Simmons finished his volunteering for the day.

Eventually when Simmons stops volunteering, he doesn’t stop making him lunch. They eat together and occasionally Simmons hand feeds Grif (who can be picky with healthy food).

They are in their own little world. Everyone else thinks they are in a budding relationship and loves it.

Simmons starts planning ways to make Grif eat the food he makes like picnics! (I head canon that Simmons loves Picnics for dates so in this he totally forgot that fact)

That’s when Grif started thinking Simmons has a crush on him. He definitely thought so when finished his whole meal without Simmons having to hand feed him and Simmons was so proud of him that he gave him a kiss on the cheek while hugging him. A very energetic kiss on the cheek. Followed by two smaller kisses and a neck nuzzle.

Of course Simmons realized he kissed him and apologized for not asking first. Simmons had half way thought of Grif as friend.

Grif, unable to stop his fall into love, says it fine and things spiral into an overly affectionate friendship that’s borderline romantic.

Grif says nothing because he figures that he’s basically in a relationship with him already and he didn’t even need to put in the work. A lazy man’s dream.

Simmons, the oblivious idiot, does not see the problem with kissing (sometimes on the mouth and with tongue), snuggling, and holding hands with his new “best friend”.

Yeah Simmons forgot why he was feeding Grif in the first place and only remembers one day while sitting in Grif’s lap like usual. Grif just laughs at him when he yelled in realization. Then he Quiets his grumbling with peppering him in kisses.

Is anyone against this “fast” relationship? (Like this wasn’t such a slow burn for everyone watching them) Simmons’ older cousin, Annette (agent carolina) that was there for Simmons after his accident that gave him a prosthetic leg. It involved his abusive ex boyfriend.

Simmons has his arm weaken and scared and in chronic pain. One of his eyes is a glass eye. Sometimes he uses an eye patch.

She felt like she could have done something to protect him and stop their other cousin, Ash (they/ them OC), from dying trying to protect him.

Blah blah blah you can add to this.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Looking for Love

When I was teaching theater, I sometimes thought GLEE was my worst enemy. Try getting students to work on acting assignments and productions when they’ve seen the GLEE kids grab some music and immediately improvise a polished production number. I even had some students ask me to sponsor a glee club, their own version of New Directions, and managed to decline without screaming, “No fracking way! This school’s already given me one ulcer!” That’s all a round-about way of getting to Don Weis’ LOOKING FOR LOVE (1964, TCM). Early on, while on THE TONIGHT SHOW to hawk her new “Lady Valet” invention, Connie Francis mentions she used to be a singer, and Johnny Carson (not as embarrassing as he used to joke after the film tanked at the box office) urges her to do a number. She then launches into a polished impromptu performance, with the band not missing a beat as they back her up. “Thanks a bunch,” my inner curmudgeon screamed. But then she’s booked at the last minute on a variety show (to replace Barbara Nichols in a number nobody in their right mind could envision her performing), does the number without rehearsal, and it’s a disaster — a very funny, expertly performed disaster, but a disaster, nonetheless. I felt vindicated. Then the show’s host, Danny Thomas, asks her to join him in an unrehearsed duet. And it’s great but, more important than that, it looks unrehearsed. The two create a totally believable, utterly charming illusion of spontaneity. And, of course, the number makes her character a star.

Anyway, producer Joe Pasternak had worked magic with Deanna Durbin and Jane Powell, so naturally when MGM signed Francis to a three-picture deal, they expected him to do the same for her. He didn’t, but it’s not for lack of her trying. Francis is a natural in front of the camera and, working with veteran director Don Weis, pulls off some nifty physical bits. I kept thinking somebody should have cast her and Annette Funicello as sisters, with a good script (a musical version of EXPERIMENT IN TERROR? Nah! Something original and, did I mention this before, well-written). Francis is backed by a solid cast, including Jim Hutton as the promoter she loves who can’t see her as a romantic object, Susan Oliver as her wise-cracking best friend and Joby Baker as the bass player who loves Francis. The script, however, just isn’t there. The jokes aren’t funny, and the suggestion that becoming a singing star can’t hold a candle to marrying a doctor (who’ll probably end up cheating on her with Lauren Bacall or Gloria Grahame or Dyan Cannon, because that’s what movie doctors do) is hopelessly dated. Of course, given her choices between Hutton’s chauvinistic character and Baker, who keeps trying to upstage her while they’re performing (his book scenes, however, are solid), I kept thinking she should have ended up with Oliver. When they’re struggling roommates, they naturally share a bedroom in their otherwise spacious apartment. But when Francis hits it big and hires Oliver as her secretary, they live in a mansion,where they’re still sharing a bedroom. Kind of makes you go, “hmmm!” doesn’t it?

[goggles-mcgee]

Looking back at Chloe in your wish me away AU, her family name being dragged including her wealth is good enough of a consequence than her remembering Marinette in one way or another. Yeah there are some who can have issues with her forgetting Marinette, but when her father gets severe consequences for his choice of a media blackout, Chloe's past akuma actions will be brought up and used as a main reaskn why her father created a media blackout and while she doesn't remember Marinette, she surely remembers her actions, especially Queen Bee.

Well, that, and I don't think people were paying attention to the heroes in the beginning of the story because I did put that Chloe was still the Bee hero just with a different name, Bee-Witch.

Another thing is, I'm not following Canon, Miracule Queen, Love Eater, non of that happened in this story. Chloe does get a redemption arc which we will see in memories that Marietta has suddenly. This redemption arc starts after Marinette insults Chloe in front of her mother to get them to bond and this is when Chloe realizes that her mother only cares about her if she's being horrible but Ladybug encourages and wants her to be nice. Ladybug believes she can be nice and caring. And she connects that, despite all she has done to Marinette, in some way, Marinette believes she can change too.

It's a wake up call for sure. Of course change like that doesn't happen overnight and Chloe has slip ups but she recognizes that she needs help, more help than a people-pleaser father and a well known fashion and just overall everything critic that is rarely pleased. Chloe asks her parents to get her a therapist. Her father of course will get her anything she wants while her mother says she doesn't need one and they won't get one because the Bourgeois' aren't to be seen as "weak." This causes a fight, one of the first real fights her parents have ever had.

This fight brings out years of problems the two have held back and in the end? They want to divorce and they don't hesitate hiring lawyers for themselves. They forget Chloe in this fight, they forget she asked for help, but Jean didn't and he's trying to help Chloe anyway he can.

When it's time for the meeting of the lawyers, so they can work out everything without having to go to court, because both parties would really prefer this not to get out, the lawyers ask where the family lawyers are so they can also work out who gets custody of Chloe. It's then both remember the beginning fight, and it's kind of then that both decide the other should get full custody of Chloe. Audrey says Andre because he's already been taking care of her for so long and plus she runs a fashion empire she's way to busy for a child. Andre argues that Audrey should get custody because her and Chloe are just so alike and they have been bonding more since her mother relocated to Paris. Besides since Audrey planned on moving back to New York it would be safer to get their daughter out of Paris and live with Audrey. In reality Andre just saw this as a way to get rid of mini Audrey.

In the end? Jean fought for custody of Chloe, neither parent fought and that...that broke Chloe, but both Jean and Chloe were forced to sign an agreement that they would not reveal the fact that Chloe was now adopted by Jean and that Andre and Audrey got divorced, to the public in any media. At least until Hawkmoth was defeated.

So Chloe was now Chloe Annette Dubois, daughter of Jean-Auguste Dubois and his husband Peter Dubois.

They moved Chloe put of the hotel as quickly and discreetly as possible and they got Chloe the help she needed. Because of this she had a very lengthy apology and conversation with Marinette which ended up with both girls crying but feeling lighter than they had in a long time. They didn't become friends right away mind you, but they were civil towards one another and working on trying to be friends or at the very least acquaintances. But because of this change in Chloe, Ladybug decides to give her another chance and thus Bee-Witch was born!

It's after the Broadcast that Paris starts it's uproar and surprise surprise it turns its head towards Mayor Bourgeois. No the world. It forces Chloe and her new parents to come out with everything that had happened and that she is no longer a Bourgeois but a Dubois. This shocks the whole of Paris again and more hate is geared towards Mayor Bourgeois. Especially when an anonymous source comes out with the fact that he was being bribed by Hawkmoth himself to keep the Media Blackout in action, and to not have his police forces actively searching for the emotional terrorist.

It's....it's not pretty. Not in the least.

So the reason Chloe doesn't remember Marinette is because Marinette forgave her for her past actions, Tikki forgave her, the two of them saw a young girl struggling but trying her best to change even when everything was falling to pieces around her. Chloe told Ladybug everything that had happened between her mom and dad. Tikki felt all that, was punishment enough for her past actions. The girl was already striving to be a better person. She did not deserve to be plagued by memories or branded an enemy of the Miraculous. Especially because Tikki knew that once everything was brought to light, Chloe would have to continue to fight and struggle against people.

[glowingbadger]

Hey, strange ask, but that ask that compared Dimitri to a retriever inspired me to request either headcannons or a drabble of Dima magically being turned into a dog but his S/O doesn’t realize it’s him but he still follows them around and is super protective of them and hijinks ensues.

Y'know what, Friend Anon? This is fucking adorable.

This really ended up as more 'fluff' than 'hijinks' lol but I had fun with it, so there you are~

SFW - Gender Neutral Reader

What to make of this situation. Not only are you completely unable to track down Dimitri, but when you go to check his quarters, one of the monastery dogs has gotten into his room and is making an absolute scene. He's a lovely golden color, with blue eyes the likes of which you've never seen on a dog, and the moment you enter the room, he bounds up to you and circles around your feet until you're practically dizzy.

"Woah, hey there! How in the world did you get in here I wonder..." you mutter as you lower a hand to pat his head, "Have you seen Dimitri around, buddy? I can't seem to find him anywhere..."

Having only taken a moment to nudge his head into your touch, he rapidly becomes alert once more and begins an absolute fit of barking. At this rate, he'll disrupt the whole monastery.

"Hey, hey! No need for that, sshhhh, come on, everything's okay-" you try to soothe him, speaking softly as you kneel down to pat his head. He whines softly, but his tail is twitching back and forth just a little, so he must be at least a little comfortable with you. "Listen," you say, standing upright and straightening your clothes, "If you can behave, you can come with me while I look for Dimitri, okay?"

He barks once, and comes to stand directly beside you, almost throwing you off balance. You smile and scratch his ear for a moment, glad to have a companion on your quest.

And it quickly becomes evident that your companion took this quest very seriously indeed. On your way out of the dorms, you see a shock of red hair ahead, and wave down Sylvain to ask for any leads.

"Hey- I haven't been able to find Dimitri all day, have you seen him?"

"Hm? Not recently, sorry to say. Who's your friend?" he says with a smile at the dog beside you, "What a cutie! No comparison to you though, of course."

You slide past that last bit and say,

"Yeah, he was in Dimitri's room when I went to check for him, and he's just kind of... fond of me, I guess?"

"And who could blame him?" Sylvain says, smirking as he leans against the wall beside you, "Say, if you're still looking for Dimitri, why don't we go look for him together in town-"

He doesn't get to finish his suggestion- your canine ally is on him in a second. Up on his hind legs, he jumps against Sylvain, nearly winding him and sending him stumbling back a couple steps. The dog barks and snarls relentlessly, even as you do your best to calm him.

"Sorry, Sylvain! I- I think I should just keep going for now- thanks anyway!"

"Yup- yeah, no problem," he replies, doing his best to regain his easy smile, "Man, your new friend is a protective guy, huh. Take care of Y/N for me, alright?" he tells the dog as you two part.

It's not long before you run into Ingrid on her way out of the dining hall, an admittedly delicious looking meat skewer in hand. The dog trots ahead of you and barks to her- though not aggressively, so you figure she must have made a good impression on him somehow. Once again, you ask about Dimitri, and once again, you have no luck. Ingrid does slide a piece of beef off of the skewer in her hand and hold it out to the dog. He glances back at you. You nod, as if to tell him it's okay, and yet he looks hesitant. With some goading from both you and Ingrid, he very carefully takes the meat from her hand between his front teeth, then chews at it slowly.

"What a strange dog," Ingrid says with a furrowed brow, "I've never seen one so... reticent about food."

"Yeah, he's an odd one," you muse as he finishes his treat, "He's a good boy though, so it's nice having him along."

Maybe all he understood were the words "good boy," but regardless, his tail is now wagging so fast it seems to blur before your eyes.

You bid Ingrid farewell, and continue on your search.

By the time you think to check with Dedue, you've spent an embarrassingly large portion of your day aimlessly wandering and questioning guards and knights. Frankly, he should have been your first guess. Meanwhile, your canine friend has become a comfortable fixture in your day. You find yourself mindlessly chatting with him, and maybe it's just because he recognizes that you're speaking, but he tends to bark back in reply. But when you finally muse aloud that you ought to check in with Dedue, the dog circles you, letting out excited little yelps and barks.

"Okay, okay, I'm going!" you say with a laugh, and head towards the greenhouse side by side with your companion.

And yet, you're not expecting the darkened expression that crosses Dedue's face when you explain that you've lost Dimitri. Sure, you could understand a bit of concern- you're plenty concerned, and the longer this goes on, the more you worry that this could be a serious matter beyond a mere missed connection. But Dedue's voice and bearing are grave as he sets down a watering can and says,

"His highness had offered to help some of the magic students this morning. If anything has befallen him as a result of this..." he trails off, but the malice in his eyes is plain to see. Only the dog whimpering beside you breaks the uncomfortable silence that follows. He pads forward and nudges Dedue's hand with his snout. This small gesture seems to lighten his expression just the slightest bit- but it's something. Dedue sighs and looks to you again,

"I will help you search for him. You continue to look throughout the monastery grounds, and I will check likely classrooms and inquire among the mages. We will cover more ground this way."

You nod, but your canine friend seems agitated. Perhaps it's only Dedue's sullen mood- this does seem like a uniquely empathetic dog, after all. You pat his head gently and say,

"Well, let's try to think of anywhere we might've missed."

You say that, but reflecting on it, it's hard to imagine anywhere you haven't checked and re-checked. You'd done well to bolster your mood thus far, but the more time goes on, the more insidious anxiety starts to take root in your heart. Absently scratching at the dog's furry ears, you let out a sigh, which he seems to respond to by whining softly and nuzzling his face against you.

"I know, I'm sorry, I just... what if something's happened to him?" You say softly, barely more than a whisper.

You're merely wandering at this point, letting your feet aimlessly take you where they will. Eventually, you've found yourself at the training ground, and figure you may as well check here again. Unsurprisingly, Felix is here, among a small handful of other knights and soldiers. Careful to skirt around the edge of the grounds and not get in anyone's way, you approach him, and do your best to greet him cheerfully. Felix huffs and sheathes his sword, wiping sweat from his brow as he scrutinizes your expression.

"You look like a mess." he says, blunt as ever, though you know this is his way of expressing concern.

"Yeah, I- I can't find Dimitri anywhere- I feel like I've looked everywhere twice by now, and no one's seen him since morning, and-" you can't help rambling a bit, a hint of a crack in the back of your throat, "I just couldn't forgive myself if something happened to him- so..."

"I haven't seen him, if that's what you're getting at," Felix says with a hand on his hip. Then, he sighs at your crestfallen expression, "Cut it out, will you? You look ridiculous when you sulk like that. And if the Boar sees you like this, I'll have to watch him sulking too."

You manage an awkward half-smile,

"You're right- thanks, Felix."

You hear your name from across the plaza and turn to see Dedue with Annette in tow. As you turn to meet them, you could swear you hear Felix say something to the dog that trails a few feet behind you. While you're none the wiser, he mutters,

"If you're planning to hang around Y/N all day, you'd better look out for them, got it? They look more like a lost puppy than you do. That stupid Boar had better show up soon."

The dog gives a soft little whine, and gently nuzzles Felix's hand. With an exasperated sigh and a roll of his eyes, Felix in turn scratches at his neck, his expression softening just slightly.

Then, those golden ears perk up at your voice,

"Dimitri?!"

He turns and immediately bounds towards you, jumping up and licking at your face with his tail wagging at full speed. You laugh and ruffle his fuzzy head, then turn back to Annette and say,

"Well, he responds to it, so maybe you're right! But... you're sure the only thing we can do is wait for it to wear off?"

"I'm afraid so..." she replies, coming to stand beside you, "Say, Dimitri- if this is really you, could you please walk in a circle around me and then Dedue, then come back and stand in front of Y/N?"

He follows her request without question. Her instructions are far too complex to follow without extensive training, and with no gestures or encouragement to guide him, it seems almost certain that this dog is in fact your lovely Dimitri. You're eyes burn with the threat of tears, and it only now occurs to you how worried you'd been all day.

"Well, Dimitri, it seems we've had quite a day together," you say fondly, kneeling down to wrap your arms around him, "You make a really cute dog, but I think you'll be cuter when that magic wears off- so come back soon, okay?"

[letapollojusticesayfuck]

"the way you flirt is shameful." Klavier (klapollo) and ema ?

"short fics," I said, like a liar.

anyway please enjoy almost 2k of Klapollo Nonsense.

Send me a random line of dialogue and some characters, and I'll write a short fic!

---

Another grey morning, another lukewarm cup of coffee. Apollo pulls his coat a little tighter around him, scowling at nothing in particular. It’s just his luck, isn’t it, that this week’s defendant is a fisherman, accused of murdering their boat’s captain out on the docks.

It’s also just his luck that it’s March, and he hadn’t even thought anyone would be out on the water this early in the year. Shows how much he knows about the fishing industry.

He jumps when an arm lands around his shoulders, and has to fight to keep his awful beverage from sloshing entirely out of its styrofoam cup. With an irritated huff, Apollo turns to reprimand his unexpected company, but the words die in his throat when he looks over to see Klavier Gavin—and, more specifically, the woolly hat perched on his head. It appears to be lovingly hand-knitted, in a shade of purple he’d swear he’d seen in scraps of wool lying around the office in previous weeks. It also happens to be emblazoned with Gavin’s ridiculous logo, the angular G as distinctive as ever.

“Uh…” he says instead, eyebrow raised in what he hopes is a skeptical, yet bewildered expression. He’s not sure he succeeds with that, though, considering the way Gavin’s casual smile crooks up at the edges into a more genuine grin.

“Ja, Herr Forehead? How goes the investigation?” Lazy curls of steam rise from the stainless steel travel mug clasped in his hand, dissipating into the pervasive fog that’s blanketing the docks. Typical. Apollo considers asking him if he’d like to swap drinks.

“Cold. Damp. And is this a good time to mention that I’m allergic to shellfish? I think that’s probably an important detail, considering….this.” he replies, poking an errant mussel with the point of his dress shoe. His dress shoe that he’s for some reason wearing to a crime scene out by the harbour, because Apollo has misplaced ideas of professionalism, apparently.

“Ach, it’s not that bad! For one, you have my company to brighten up your day! And for another thing...I have news for you about the case.”

“Really. And it’s not just going to be something that you’ll immediately rescind in court tomorrow?”

“HerrForehead, what kind of prosecutor do you take me for? We’re on the same side, you know—both seeking the truth.”

“That’s cheesy as anything.”

“But correct! Anyway. FräuleinSkye has just uncovered something tangled around one of the fishing lines on the boat, and she’s attempting to piece it back together. If you hurry, you might get a glimpse before it goes straight into the evidence dossier.”

Apollo hmms, considering. He’s not sure he wants to just take Klavier’s tip-off; it could be seen as collusion under some circumstances. But he’s really not accomplishing anything on his own, and any new evidence could help him prove Annette Sloop’s innocence.

He also realizes, belatedly, that Klavier still has his arm around his shoulders, and that he’s been unconsciously leaning into the warmth of the taller man’s down jacket.

“Okay, sure—it’s gotta be better than anything I can find here,” Apollo decides, and tries to subtly extricate himself from Klavier’s grasp without drawing attention to the fact that he’s actually found some kind of comfort in their proximity, that he’s really not particularly enthusiastic about losing his human space-heater.

Luckily, Klavier realizes that he’ll have to grant Apollo his freedom if he wants the shorter man to be able to take advantage of his newly-gained intel, and drops his arm back to his own side. Apollo stifles a shiver as the cool, damp air rushes back against him, clinging to his skin with a pervasive chill.

He’d assumed that Klavier had business to take care of on the dock, so the fact that the prosecutor follows him as he boards the fishing boat takes him by surprise. What also takes him by surprise is the intensity of the fishy aroma around the vessel, something that Apollo really should have considered as a factor beforehand. He wrinkles his nose and tries to breathe shallowly—and when that doesn’t work out, he buries his nose in the collar of his jacket.

And that brings with it its own set of problems, because somehow the short amount of time his jacket was in contact with Klavier’s own was enough to allow the other man’s sandalwood cologne to seep into the thin fabric. Apollo wishes this wasn’t his life. Isn’t this the kind of stuff teenagers write about?

Luckily, his panicking is cut short by Ema Skye clearing her throat from the other end of the deck, midway through spreading fabric scraps onto a plastic folding table. She appears decidedly unimpressed, but waves them over.

“Justice. I take it you were informed of the recent developments by the fop here?” she remarks, as disinterestedly as possible for someone who’s practically vibrating with the excitement of being able to do something actually forensically significant.

“Er...yeah, Klavier told me that you’d found something?” Apollo replies, trying to look as though he understands more of the situation than he actually does. He thinks he pulls it off. If not, Ema doesn’t comment on it.

Klavier, however, smiles impossibly wide at Apollo’s words, and it takes him a moment to realize that it’s because he’d called the man by his first name, as opposed to his more professional title. A slip of the tongue, nothing more! And yet…

If it’d get a reaction like that, Apollo might start using Klavier’s first name significantly more often.

“Oh, come on, do neither of you actually care about this T-shirt I found? This apparently-bloodstainedT-shirt?” Ema taps her foot against the plank wood of the ship’s deck. Apollo breaks out of his thoughts with just about enough time to look marginally interested in the new evidence—which he hopes is convincing.

And it’s not that he doesn’t want to solve the murder! It’s really just that—well, Klavier is just there, being distracting, like he always is—except it’s worse, recently, somehow. Apollo swears he used to be able to spend time focusing on other things, that he wasn’t always this preoccupied with what the prosecutor was doing, where he was standing, if he was looking at--

“Oh, for God’s sake. The way you flirt is shameful,” Ema says, entirely exasperated. She also seems to be looking at Apollo, for some reason.

“Are you talking to me?” he asks, confused. The detective rolls her eyes and sighs dramatically, visibly resisting the urge to throw up her hands.

“You, him, both of you! This used to be almost funny, you know, watching Gavin be all glimmerous in your direction and seeing you shut him down. But recently you’ve been playing into it and—you know what? I’m done! You don’t get to listen to my stunning forensic breakthroughs until you’ve sorted your shit out, because I just can’t be doing with this. It’s ridiculous. Why can’t you just act like adults?”

The outburst is followed by Ema Skye whirling around, the sensible shoes she’s wearing clacking against the ship’s deck. Halfway to the door to the crew’s quarters, she remembers that she’s left all her forensic materials spread out next to where Klavier and Apollo are standing, and backtracks with increasingly evident frustration.

“You know what? I’m not leaving! You two—off my ship!Go figure yourselves out, and I won’t tell you about this case-changing evidence until you’ve stopped acting like this.”

Apollo’s a little taken-aback—not the least because he doesn’t think that he’s been doing any flirting, especially not with Klavier. He’s been hiding his feelings far too well for that—right?

Klavier looks at him and shrugs, motioning with his head that they should retreat the way they’d arrived. It’s not necessarily the most dignified thing, climbing off a boat in shame after being reprimanded by the detective on the case.

Once they’re back on “solid” ground (as solid as one can call a fishing boat’s dock, anyway), Apollo turns to Klavier.

“So, what was that about? I’ve never seen her that angry.”

Interestingly enough, color rises to Klavier’s cheeks. “Well...I think that, perhaps, she’s...misinterpreting the situation?”

And if Klavier’s strange statement hadn’t been enough to tip Apollo off that maybe something strange is going on here, there’s the familiar pinch of warm metal against his left wrist, his bracelet constricting at the taller man’s fib.

And—they know each other well enough, by this point, that all Apollo has to do is level an unimpressed stare in the prosecutor’s direction, and deadpan “Klavier” with all the air of a man who is taking no bullshit for an answer, for him to deflate and give up, shoving a hand in his back pocket awkwardly.

“Ugh. Okay. Erm. So, HerrForehead, this wasn’t...exactly...unprovoked. It’s possible that FräuleinSkye has been on the receiving end of many conversations about how I would like to….uh…”

It’s quite something, seeing Klavier at a loss for words. Apollo hadn’t thought that the former rockstar could look as awkward as he does now, the hand not trapped in his pocket fiddling with a loose strand of his hair.

He really, really tries not to think about how endearing it is.

Klavier seems to have reached a point, however, where he’s just decided to say things and worry about the consequences later. So Apollo’s contemplations are brought to a screeching halt when the man sighs, flips his hair, and stares at him straight-on, enunciating with perfect clarity:

“Apollo Justice, would you like to go out with me? On a date? Because I must say, I’ve been trying to find the best way to ask you for a while now, but unfortunately all I’ve succeeded in doing is, apparently, annoying the FräuleinDetective until not even Snackoos are a valid enough weapon.”

And—this isn’t the setting Apollo had pictured, in his often-hastily-repressed daydreams about Klavier asking him out. For one, he’d not quite imagined the quantity of fish, or the less-than-steady footing. But Klavier looks so earnest about his request, and Apollo can’t deny the way his heart’s skipped a beat, the way he’s almost petrified to say anything just in case this isn’t real—and so, he takes a deep breath, steps forward, and twines his fingers with Klavier’s.

“You know what? I’d love to. I’ll go anywhere you’d like—with the exception of a sushi restaurant” Apollo smiles, hesitantly at first, and then more genuinely as he sees the softly disbelieving expression on Klavier’s face.

“Really?” the prosecutor asks, and isn’t that incredible—that Klavier Gavin had been worried about being turned down. Apollo can’t quite believe it himself, yet.

“Yeah, really,” he says, smiling up at Klavier, who beams down at him in return. He feels the other man squeeze his hand briefly, and can’t quite contain the impulse to lean in closer to him, consciously this time, sharing both warmth and physical contact in a meaningful way.

When they return to the fishing vessel, Ema takes one look at the two of them and narrows her eyes, proceeding to mime nausea at the way they’re still holding hands.

However, she does follow through on her promise—and by the time they’re ready to leave the crime scene, both Klavier and Apollo are fairly certain of the next day’s trial’s outcome—as well as of the location of their post-trial dinner date.

[raspberryranpo]

fkjgdkjsgh so a trope ive always found adorable is giving your s/o a goodbye/good luck kiss before they leave, so could u write some hcs with giving the blue lions a goodbye/good luck kiss before they leave for a mission?? if u dont wanna do all of them, you can just do the boys, tysm:D

giving them a good luck kiss

fire emblem three houses: blue lions

OH THATS TOO CUTE I CANT

also i did the entire house because i haven’t written anything for the girls rip

DIMITRI

he would be very reluctant to leave without you

he knows that there’s absolutely no way he’ll die during the mission, but he’s still sad to go anyway

it’s leaving you alone that’s the issue

so when he turns to go out the door on the day of the mission, he’s staring at the floor wondering what he’s supposed to do

but when you give him a little kiss on the cheek for good luck he perks up immediately

turns around & looks at you with sparkles in his eyes

“do it again. please.”

DEDUE

you can’t really tell if dedue is sad or not from his face, but his actions do say a lot more than his words

he knows that he must complete missions for dimitri, to ensure dimitri’s safety, and he’s more than willing to give his life up it meant that dimitri would he happy

but he also knows that giving his life up would mean that he’d have to leave you behind too

which is not something he wants to do at all

so yes, he’s noticeably upset - but if you gave him a short little kiss goodbye?

his face has gone completely pink, and he’s practically begging you to do it again

if you do that every time he leaves, he won’t be as upset anymore

SYLVAIN

oh boy

you can’t even surprise sylvain with one. he asks for one every time he leaves, without fail

he has the biggest puppy eyes & he leans so that you’re right next to his face

but on some days, when he’s feeling especially upset, and when he doesn’t ask for one

if you give him one, he’ll immediately pick you up & spin you around

will give you lots of kisses all over your face too

“so you don’t feel left out” he says, but he just wants to kiss you

FELIX

it’s very rare he leaves and actually says something

for quite some time he believed that he didn’t need to kiss you goodbye as though he wasn’t going to return, since his strength will always bring him home

so you’ll have to catch him before he leaves

when you manage to get him, you’ll have to grab him & pull him in very tight

he might try to resist but since it’s you, he’ll probably relax a bit

give him a kiss & he’ll flame up like a tomato

won’t say anything as he leaves, but he’ll definitely be all over you when he comes back

ASHE

ashe is too polite to expect anything from you when he leaves, so he kisses you instead

he’s content with knowing that he’s kissed you, and knows that he can kiss you after the mission too, which is what keeps him going

but if you kissed him first before he could kiss you?

his face lights up in joy, and he’s got his arms around you straight away

might actually be late because he’s too busy giving you the hug of his life

that’s not his problem though

MERCEDES

like ashe, she probably gives you a kiss every time she leaves too

but it’s very gentle, and she holds you very gently afterwards too

always makes it to the door only to run back and kiss you again

but when you kiss her? she’s over the moon

she kisses you over and over again - over your face, hands, arms, anywhere she can get to

whether you end up stopping or not depends on whether you stop being cute

which, in mercedes’ eyes, is never

ANNETTE

always looks like she wants to kiss you but she’s too nervous to actually do it

the most she does is hug you but she’s too afraid you’ll be grossed out if she kisses you

not for any particular reason, but she just thinks that you won’t like that

when you kiss her first, however, she practically shrieks and kisses you straight back

“DIDYOUJUSTKISSMEOHMYGODAGAIN”

if you do it again, she won’t shriek, but the smile on her face shows you just how happy she truly is

INGRID

like felix, she probably also leaves without much of a goodbye

of course, she’s not cut off emotionally like he is, so she will offer you a goodbye and a smile

but kissing you goodbye is something she had never thought of

so when you kiss her before she leaves she’s like ????? why would you do that

and then it hits her that it’s the cutest thing in the world & she does it right back

won’t stop for long though. there’s a war to fight & she’s in it to win it for you

[collecting-stories]

Car Lessons - c. 15 - Georgia

A/N: Fucking finally 😭😭

Georgia Masterlist | The Walking Dead Masterlist

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Daryl clenched his fist, trying to calm himself down as he stood at the front of your jeep with you. He had agreed to helping you with your car, had even been the one to suggest it originally, but spending the afternoon with you again, the way he used to, was a lot harder now. Knowing the way you felt for sure and knowing exactly what he felt, it was hard to stop himself from just telling you, giving in to the temptation of letting himself be with you. 

“At what point do you think we could take a break?” You asked, turning to look at Daryl, smiling at him with your best attempt at puppy dog eyes.  

“Barely even taught ya anything,” Daryl replied though he stepped away from the hood, wiping his hands on the rag from his back pocket.  

You had off from work today and a half-day at school as you prepared for spring break. Daryl had kept his word to teach you. Nearly a week of ‘car lessons’, as you had deemed them, had happened so far. Tara joined you on two occasions, picking up the knack much quicker than you were and actually getting along with Daryl, something you were grateful for.  

“I know but I’m kinda hungry,” You reasoned, “I think my mom’s trying to starve my dad out of the house.”  

“Thought she was happy he was home.” Daryl replied, watching you walk over to the picnic table in front of the camper and take a seat on it, feet stable on the bench beneath it.  

“It’s a catch-22,” you shrugged, noting the way Daryl’s eyebrow quirked when he didn’t recognize a phrase and explaining further, “she wants him home for appearances but she doesn’t want him home cause she’s seeing someone else.”

“E’rbody’ll find out anyway...what’s the difference?”

“The difference between my mom leaving my poor, working father or him abandoning his family?” You asked, pulling a face as he sat down beside you. You knocked your shoulder against his and smiled, “come on.”

He just hummed and nodded in return. It always came back around to the same thing, appearances. Your mom cared about the same thing everyone else in King County cared about, how they were perceived by their neighbors. Heaven forbid, anybody thought there was any fault to be had in your mother’s life. You had been living with the grief of that for a long time too but the more you had spent time with Daryl the less you cared what anyone else in town really thought of you.  

“You been alright?”  

“Do you always worry this much about me and you just don’t say it?” You asked, grinning at him. You’d been trying to drop hints for a week now that you still liked him and that you knew he liked you back, if only he would wise up to it and not pretend this was just some odd sort of friendship.  

He pushed himself off the picnic table, patting his jeans for the keys to his truck before holding them out to you, “come on, ain’t got any food here worth eating. Ya wanna drive ta Woodbury?”

“Me drive?” You asked skeptically, reaching for the keys from his outstretched hand. Just as you touched the keychain his pulled his hand away, a close-lipped smile on his face, “stop!” You laughed, hopping off the table and trying for the keys again.

Daryl closed his hand around them, holding tight as you grabbed his wrist, turning so you could put yourself between him and his arm, your back to his chest as you pried his fingers open. “You said I could have the keys.”

“Ya weren’t quick enough,” he nearly laughed, wrapping his other arm around your waist as if he could hold you off that way.  

Your fingers interlocked with his as you pulled the keys away, holding them above your head so he couldn’t grab them, looking back at him triumphantly. “Got ‘em.”  

He let you go, hand grazing your stomach and then pinching your hip as he stepped away from you, the faintest of pink tinged on his cheeks. Touching you was something he couldn’t resist and he’d gotten bolder about it since the first afternoon he’d spent with you but he still got embarrassed or self-conscious after the moment ended. But you ignored that moment, smiling at him as you shook the keys, showing off your win.  

“If I drive do I have to pay too?” You asked, walking to the truck.  

“Wouldn’t wanna put ya out.” He replied, pulling himself up into the passenger seat. Once you’d started the truck, he fiddled with the radio dial, turning it to something that he liked.  

“I know you never come to stuff that I invite you to but Maggie and I are having a joint graduation party, thought maybe I could extend an invitation.” You mentioned. Annette had sent out the official graduation party invitations a week prior, getting the slot for the second weekend in May before anyone else could try and claim it. “I know you hate people-”

“I don’t hate people.”

“You don’t like them.” You pointed out.

“Ain’t it.” He shrugged, “its the other way around anyway.”

“Well I’ll be there and I like you.” You said, looking over at Daryl and catching his eye for just a second before he turned away, lighting a cigarette to distract himself, “Tara’ll be there too.”

“I’ll think about it.”  

“Are you saying that cause you will think about it or because you want me to never ask you about it again so you’re humoring me?” You asked.

Daryl grinned around the cigarette in his mouth, “take your pick.”

You bit back a smile as you rolled the truck to a stop, casting your eyes down to the dash, “you’re low on gas,” you mentioned, noticing the dial lulling to the E.  

He nodded, a silent agreement that you could pull into Jacqui’s for gas. After your birthday you had stopped hanging around Daryl and it was as if everyone in town had gotten the memo about it. Patricia had even commented that she was glad you seemed to be “back on track” and whether you cared what they thought or not, when you started hanging out with Daryl again you had kept a low profile about it. This was the first time the two of you were going anywhere together during the day, when anyone could see you driving around in his truck.  

But you pulled into the gas station without a second thought, truck facing the window of the small store as you parked at a pump. “I’m not paying for this either.”  

“Yer unbelievable, ya know that.” Daryl rolled his eyes, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket and handing some cash to you. “Just get $20...get me a pack of marlboro too. Jacqui’s always up my ass when I’m in there.”

“Oh yeah, cause she won’t be up mine?” You asked, taking the cash from him. You popped the door open and got out, turning back around to look at Daryl, “anything else?”

He shook his head.  

You shut the door as you stepped passed it, walking between the truck and the gas pump, heading inside the store and ignoring the car two spots down from you. All you were thinking about was the sheer relief you felt stepping inside the door and realizing that it wasn’t Jacqui behind the register. Small miracles, you thought, paying for the gas and asking for a pack of marlboro.  

“You front the bill for his drugs too?”

Your eyes practically rolled into the back of your head at the sound of Shane’s voice. You had been avoiding a majority of the people you knew from school since the fight at Shane’s house but he definitely topped the list.  

“Shut up Shane.” You mutter, grabbing the cigarettes from the cashier and turning to leave, pushing passed your ex-boyfriend. When you push the door open he follows you outside, stepping in front of you. Just over his shoulder, at the truck, Daryl looks over. He’d gotten out to pump the gas and the sight of Shane blocking your path had sparked his attention. “What?” You were still paying attention to Shane though and hadn’t noticed Daryl, “What do you want?”  

“I just wanna talk to you for a minute.” He reached for your arm and you stepped away from him. “I’m just trying to understand where you’re coming from. Hanging around that low-life? Showing up to my party with Aiden? Come on, guys like that don’t give a shit about you.”

“Wow, thank you for that amazing chat, I’ll put you down as concerned and delusional for thinking I give a shit about your opinion.” You started to step around him but he moved to block you again. “Shane...I swear to god, get the fuck away from me.”  

“I still have feelings for you.”  

“I have to go.” You pushed passed him, walking across the parking lot to Daryl’s truck, stopping just in front of him, “next time, you go inside.”

“He give ya any trouble?” Daryl asked, taking the pack of cigarettes and the receipt from you.  

“No, just being a general douche and trying to lecture me. I mean, where does he get off lecturing me?” You complained.  

Daryl hung the nozzle back up, closing the gas cap. He placed his hand on your arm as he passed you to walk around the front of the truck, placing a quick and surprising kiss to your head as he did, in full view of Shane. You grinned, sure that Daryl was turning pink from his ears to his chest because of the peck but not wanting to look at him and give Shane any more of your attention. You got in the driver’s side of the truck, finally glancing at Daryl as you pulled the car out of the parking lot.  

“You’re pettier than I thought you were.”  

“Ain’t petty,” he replied, smacking the new pack of cigarettes against the palm of his hand, “just want that Walsh kid off yer back.”

Daryl showing you any kind of affection or attention would probably have the exact opposite effect if you were honest but you certainly weren’t going to tell him that and discourage him. “I don’t like him but he can’t take a hint.”  

“Has he bothered ya before?” Daryl asked.

“Not for a few weeks,” you replied, “he came into the diner after the party but Otis told him to leave. Lori said he’s ‘passionate’ about me.”

“That ain’t passion.”

“I know.” You assured.  

Daryl looked over at you as you pulled up to a red light, “be careful if he comes around again.”

“You know, people tell me the same thing about you.” You teased and he scoffed.

“I wouldn’t ever hurt ya.”  

“I know.”  

You pulled the truck into the parking lot of the diner in Woodbury, parking in the same spot you had when you had driven there the first time. The familiar little diner was a welcomed sign in your life right now, as was Daryl. You knew the chances of him coming to your graduation were slim but you thought that resistance he had to letting himself be with you was slowly breaking, his resolve disappearing. He’d kissed the side of your head, for a split second, quicker than a blink of the eye, but he had done it and you couldn’t shake the feeling it had caused. The way all the annoyance and anger at Shane had just washed right off you when you looked at Daryl and how okay you felt when he touched your arm.  

“You should let me drive your truck more often,” you commented, handing the keys over as you walked inside with him.  

“I’ll think about it.” He replied.  

“Are you just saying that to humor me?”  

He looked back at you as the hostess grabbed two menus, the smallest of smiles crossing his face, the smugness of it making you smile back.  

-

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[46ten]

curious as to your take on the current debate going on in hamiltonia re: hamilton a slaver vs hamilton not a slaver?

Whew, this is going to be a long answer. Since Jessie Serfilippi’s “As Odious and Immoral A Thing” was first published (I posted a few brief quotes here), likely as part of an ongoing interest in the Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site with the subject of the Schuyler and Hamilton families and slavery (see here for blogposts labeled ‘slavery’ including a couple about AH specifically), there have been three versions of a rebuttal by Michael E. Newton and some people calling themselves Philo (”Love”) Hamilton, one of whom is Doug Hamilton*. The ongoing engagement on this topic also brings up issues of historiography and hagiography.

In this whole discussion there is only one new piece of evidence that Serfilippi has referenced on Twitter but is not part of her article - I’ll get into that below. Everything else is a re-analysis of known and fairly popular sources, so I don’t think going through it point by point would be helpful.

But let’s be clear about something. This discussion around AH is in large part because of this Chernow falsehood: “[f]ew, if any, other founding fathers opposed slavery more consistently or toiled harder to eradicate it than Hamilton.” Chernow also calls AH a “fierce abolitionist” and a “staunch abolitionist” because Chernow doesn’t know what abolitionism is. This lie got tons of mileage with Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose musical character AH may have personal moral defects, but not blind spots as huge and disastrous to a modern audience as a lackadaisical approach to the owning of other human beings. (That Miranda’s approach totally riled some Black artists and scholars is well-known, and I wrote briefly about it here.) Serfilippi’s article doesn’t get the media play it does without the popularity of the abolitionist Founding Father myth that Miranda put on stage. So this conflict and news-cycle interest arose from Chernow’s need to give AH the moral high ground by claiming that he was the best best best abolitionist because Chernow is interested in hagiography, not biography. Unfortunately, Newton-Hamilton seem interested in the same thing.

A brief note on word usage: an enslaver, in most current usage, is defined as someone who participated in any aspect of the slavery enterprise. Considering AH’s undisputed role as money-handler (or the more laughable ‘he was a banker’ assertion in the Newton-Hamilton essay) for members of the Schuyler family acquiring enslaved persons, AH was an enslaver.

In my opinion, on the issue of slavery, AH is damned by his extensive ties from 1780 onwards to the Schuyler family. There’s nothing that can explain away the fact that AH at times lived with, visited, and sent his wife and children for extended stays and to be educated by his slave-owning in-laws. AH did not somehow become innocently involved in slave trading and ownership. Rather, he knew what he was doing when he married into the heavy slave-trading and owning Schuyler family and when he engaged in business acts for that family, including helping them to acquire/sell enslaved persons. These were morally weighty - and abominable acts, argued even in his day - and he did them anyway. There is not any record that remains that he had a problem having his children reared within an abhorrent system/household where people were enslaved and served them; in fact, given the number of times he sent his children to his father- and mother-in-law’s home for extended periods, it could be suggested he found nothing morally objectionable going on there. Philip Hamilton even thanked his enslaver grandfather for his advice on how to “be a good man.” P. Schuyler’s wealth and trading was through the slavery economy. Moreover, AH’s economic concerns were also inextricably tied to slavery - keep in mind that every mention of tariffs on sugar is connected to the slave trade. Almost everything led back to that evil institution.

During AH’s lifetime, a number of white AND Black persons articulated that all enslaved Black and Indigenous persons should be freed, that the practice of enslavement was a grave moral failing. AH was well-informed enough to know that Black Americans were articulating how freedom should be applied to them - indeed, many of the manumission policies of the original states arose from these efforts. So AH was fully aware of the arguments. (His son was involved!) Maybe this helped inspire him and his slave-owning friends and political colleagues to form the NY Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, although none of this group agreed to give up their own enslaved persons as part of the organization of this group.

Or, as Newton-Hamilton audaciously state, “[AH] was more involved in building a nation” sotto voce based on enslavement and racial distinction than he could be bothered to care about the lives of enslaved people. This shouldn’t be a surprise when it comes to AH’s major moral failings/blind spots - he didn’t care about the lives of the people affected by his whiskey tax either. If one wants to nevertheless call this a “good man,” we’re probably looking at each other from across a void.

But this is well-trod territory. Several articles post-Chernow have evaluated and summarized positions on AH and slavery that I share:

“Hamilton's position on slavery is more complex than his biographers' suggest. Hamilton was not an advocate of slavery, but when the issue of slavery came into conflict with his personal ambitions, his belief in property rights, or his belief of what would promote America's interests, Hamilton chose those goals over opposing slavery. In the instances where Hamilton supported granting freedom to blacks, his primary motive was based more on practical concerns rather than an ideological view of slavery as immoral. Hamilton's decisions show that his desire for the abolition of slavery was not his priority.” Michelle DuRoss, “Somewhere in Between: Alexander Hamilton and Slavery,” Early American Review, 2011 [part 1, part 2]

“But it does illustrate something that his primary modern biographers have been reluctant to concede: Hamilton routinely subordinated his antislavery inclinations to other family and political concerns, and he did not ever approach even a modest level of engagement on the issue in his otherwise voluminous published works.” Phil Magness, “Alexander Hamilton’s Exaggerated Abolitionism,” 2015

“He was not an abolitionist...[h]e bought and sold slaves for his in-laws, and opposing slavery was never at the forefront of his agenda.” Annette Gordon-Reed, “Correcting ‘Hamilton’,” Harvard Gazette, 2016.

Serfilippi extends this:

When those sources are fully considered, a rarely acknowledged truth becomes inescapably apparent: not only did Alexander Hamilton enslave people, but his involvement in the institution of slavery was essential to his identity, both personally and professionally.

I have no objection to her statement. We simply have no record of AH strongly challenging the institution of slavery, while several of his colleagues and friends most certainly did. Instead, we have the financial transactions, the possible use of enslaved labor, and the possible ownership of enslaved persons, alongside his strong personal, professional, and political ties to owners of enslaved persons. And the new evidence: the inclusion of the following in a list of persons dead of Yellow Fever in NYC 1798, “Hamilton Alexander, major-general, the black man of, 26 Broadway” An Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in the City of New-York, 1799. We cannot know if this was an enslaved man or a free Black man who lived and labored for the Hamiltons, but it should eliminate anyone confidently stating that the Hamiltons did not own enslaved persons.

Thus, Serfilippi has successfully accomplished at least one important goal: bringing to the forefront the names (as we have them) of persons, servant or enslaved, connected to the Hamiltons.

I wrote above that part of the problem here is hagiography. If his concern is with the truth, I certainly look forward to Newton’s chapter-by-chapter repudiations of books written by Chernow, Brookhiser, and Knott on AH and the AH/GW relationship.This leads to the second issue that has arisen: the unprofessional, and frankly gross, glee in trying to punch down on a young female scholar. In my own field (an ex-partner is a military historian so I’ll speak for their field too), the approach when one believes a colleague is publishing in error and one has additional information that could illuminate the issues is to contact them and seek to work together to analyze and draw conclusions. Newton and the anonymous Love Hamilton clan didn’t treat Serfilippi as if she were deserving of this respect. Moreover, Newton has never, to my knowledge - and I purchased his books! - gone this hard after Chernow, who certainly deserves it even more.

But Newton-Hamilton betray their own concerns here: “Considering the era in which Hamilton lived, the challenges he faced, and his accomplishments, it is not difficult to understand why Hamilton did not make opposition to slavery his primary focus. His attention was on building a nation.” And what kind of nation was that? At the Constitutional Convention, AH’s lengthy speeches on the formation of the government have been recorded. There is no record of him offering any statements about the slavery issue, unlike his friend Gouverneur Morris.

Newton-Hamilton continue: “Unfortunately, that meant neglecting other important matters, not just slavery but also his own financial well-being.” Wow, a comparison is made between AH’s personal finances and the ownership of human beings. Could these authors be any clearer that the slavery issue is an inconvenience that they are ultimately unconcerned about? I’m unsure if Newton-Hamilton realize just how gross their attempt at addressing this issue has been, and that it’s hard to take their interpretation and analysis of the evidence seriously when these are the kinds of statements making their way into the rebuttal essays.

Now there is an interesting discussion about how even later abolitionists did not see a conflict in the employment of enslaved labor, but that too isn’t something that Newton-Hamilton show interest in. Instead, their approach seems to be that AH needs to be celebrated at all costs, and thankfully, those days are passing into history.

*It’s ridiculous that a group of people have given themselves a stupid pseudonym to avoid attaching their actual names to a so-called scholarly article. And I’m aware that I’m writing this anonymously, but on tumblr where maybe 5 people have made it to the end of this (I’m not publishing it on my real blog).

**I will not link it, but it can be found on Newton’s blog discoveringhamilton.

[yngai]

one of the main reasons ada has survived this long working on her own ( outside her predisposition to manipulate people into doing her job for her, a paradoxical method of both minimising & maximising risk ) is that she essentially became her own handler / IT support .  while she necessitated such aid early on in her career, especially during her time at umbrella, a naturally precarious mission which required years of preparation on part of umbrella’s rival corporations as well as several fellow spies implanted within the company that made way for ada’s hiring an assistant researcher in the arklay laboratory .  the death of her handler by his own hand, discovered upon her arrival at their agreed meeting point at the apple inn, despite her securing a sample of the g-virus ( or scraping a tissue fragment off william birkin’s corpse depending on route or adaption ), the sudden, brief release from her dependency on his guidance + the organization during her espionage only reinforced a core aspect of her personal philosophy, that of all people in this world, the only person she can ever rely on is herself .

of course, albert wesker came to her rescue, but his gloved hand was an underhanded offer & even back then, before they would become rival agents of the organization, she knew all he saw in her was just another card in his deck, easily shuffled out when she is no longer of any use .  it was an offer she couldn’t refuse & did little to dissuade her belief in self-reliance .  it only bolstered it, truly, for when she will find herself in a situation like this again, if she even allows herself that uncertainty overcasting her life, her exit will be assured far in advance .  if albert wesker was to treat her as a stepping stone for his own ambitions, she would only do so in return & their animosity grew from that initial meeting, an impersonal video call amidst a dying city .

ada wong’s shift in persona, from a scared woman trying to survive the hell of raccoon city, grasping at straws & desperate manipulations all in the vein hope of survival, to the fully realised spy whose status within the criminal underworld was akin to legend, was a multi-step process which the organization facilitated as her success retrieving secretive data & virus samples from within umbrella’s own, most well-guarded facilities was a display of realised promise, scouted for her talents & interests by the organization just as she had earned her degree .  a strong foundation, natural talent, myriad potential careers ahead of her, an interest in the filed & a pretty face, beneath a burning determination to make something of herself .  she was the perfect candidate & eager to commit to the life of an actress without audience, a lifelong dream without the one setback that halted it early on .  she became a guarantee of completed missions of even greater importance to their goal of overthrowing their competitor’s hold on the pharmaceutical industry & the development of biological weapons of war, an entrée into a lucrative black market that would follow when umbrella’s trade secrets make their way into criminal hands .

she was an asset & fully aware of it, but left scarred & bleeding after setting two feet in hell .  weak, bruised & fearful beyond imagination, there was a purpose here which she clung tightly onto, not the organization or their goals, she held no belief in them beyond wanting to see umbrella burn, but a chance to become something greater, something better .  like the woman painted in the legends told about her, infinitely capable, deeply calculating, twirling the world on her finger .  it would come at a cost, as all such matters often do, personal & moral in equal measure .  too much of a danger for her to return home, a risk that the few people she cared for most would become a liability in her life as a spy & she would much rather they think her dead .  allying herself with the organization’s heart will paint her in colours likened to umbrella, but the rest of the world does not often consider the reputation of a dead woman & in the long run it would not matter anyway, she was not planning on sticking around .

ada agreed to pay that price in full & thus, was given further training to account for how umbrella’s evil would mutate in the coming years, taken new, far worse forms as it exchanged shadowy hands .  though the organization could only provide so much, training ada as an H.C.F. field operative with only few additions to account for her personal conduct, lacking certain skills which instrumental to her survival which she sought to teach to herself.  while there are many facets to account for in the transition between ada’s initial equipment & skill-set in resident evil 2, compared to her much different, twice kidnapped notwithstanding, effortless professionalism displayed in 4 ( i went over her physical development in a brief ramble in the tags here ), i should probably return to origin & discuss her ability as a hacker .  a talent she picked up quickly, almost second nature, coding her own malicious software, exploiting vulnerabilities within well guarded digital systems .  already quick on her feet & adaptable, fast thinking translating from perilous situations to the computer screen, ada found hacking to be akin to the act of manipulation, finding & using a vulnerability against your target .  people & their personalities were systematised within her mind, like code, their wants & desires, their history, all absorbed & accounted for to predict every future movement .  not a perfect process, her own prejudices get in the way of fully perceiving others, her cynicism resulting from a sense of helplessness & of everyone else, she will never have access to her own code .  she understands, she infers, she consumes information at a rapid pace & sometimes that is enough but she is not above making mistakes, pitfalls of her own mind & they each cost her .

during raccoon city, her closest equivalent was the EMF visualizer, introduced in the remake but a piece of tech i rather enjoy as a callback(?) to her future abilities in regards to computers while being deceptively simple & fitting for the 1998 setting .  a fairly self-explanatory, rudimentary piece of technology that detects & interacts with the electromagnetic field generated by moving currents, though it is more apt at doing so with the force created by an electric field as opposed to a magnetic one, as the former is much stronger that the latter .  it allows its user to scan & interact with circuitry by directing charges within an electric system, or short-circuiting any point along it .  while referred to as hacking in-game, it bares very little resemblance to the real deal & quite limited .  it was a portable, small-scale EMP generator that disrupts low-level electronics & can cause more complicated tech to, essentially, glitch ( thus bypassing NEST’s identification system ) .  ada used it to destroy intake fans in raccoon city’s sewers, primarily & any access to umbrella’s internal database was acquired through her position as an assistant researcher before her credentials were erased &, would there be anything above her clearance level, the ID & passwords swiped off of dr. john clemens & dr. annette birkin, respectively .  john, of course, was far more willing to part with his than annette, both because of his infatuation with ada & his plan to leak arklay’s darkest secrets to the world .

with the evolution of technology, the dawn of the information age &, i suppose, the slight discrepancy in its advancement between the ressie universe & reality ( though a lot of what we consider groundbreaking today was developed years prior for military use before going public, meaning both umbrella & the organization would have rather easy access to such advancements quite early ), ada’s only necessity in regards to cyber-security was a computer connected to whatever secure, private network she wanted to break into .  for example, a pair of smart-glasses outfitted with such that are convenient, portable & fashionable, able to discharge a non-lethal explosive, the equivalent of a stun grenade, if activated .  used to scan an encroaching environment, any digital system she wishes to interact with &, in certain instances, as the eyes & ears of anyone overseeing her mission from afar .  hardly a replacement for a proper computer, but a useful tool nonetheless & easy to discard for fear of her tampering being tracked .  as technology develops even further, ada does upgrade from bulky laptops to tablets, to phones & whatever permutations they might take in future, a weird cube .  her abilities as a hacker, tied to a fictionalised rendition of the practice for the fun of it, grow with the tech & tie directly into how she becomes her own handler .  information is a currency, after all, & before every mission ada does extensive reconnaissance on the people & places she will be tasked with visiting, sometimes relying on a web of contacts around the world formed after years of spy-work .  anything too secretive & too hidden is relegated to field discovery, as she would rather her targets not be on alert after a potential cyber-attack .  she prefers it this way, while she always steps into a new mission with an exit strategy already meticulously planned, there is fun & risk to be had in being physically present for a grand revelation & she never passes up the chance for that thrill .  after the organization succumbs to internal conflict & she sets the stage to work freelance, ada begins carrying herself through her objectives & any outside help, predominantly in regards to transport & accommodation, different missions requiring different resources, is given to her by her various employers .  a sort of guarantee, an advanced payment, if you will, though she is not above taking those in cash just as well .  using any resource at her disposal, what is provided willingly, what is not, the people she encounters throughout her life, all to ensure her success, her survival .

a fun little headcanon to end on :  between missions, ada has taken up a little side-project that blurs the line between work & leisure .  leaking sensitive information between rival companies & criminal organizations only to sit back & watch them destroy each other, or to a hungry press looking for the next big story, satiating a starving public seeking explanation for the continuous state of disarray .  gray hat hacking to pass the time, if you will .  she isn’t looking to make waves, she takes no credit for her tampering, would be poor form for a woman wrapped in mystery, & rarely strikes businesses with an international reach, where the real damage is done .  its merely a way to pull strings & watch the world spin, a performance she enjoys viewing from afar .

[inviral-a]

Actually  wanna  talk  about  some  stuff  about  William’s  life  &  the  people  in  it  rn  so  I’m  going  to  smash  out  a  big  messy  post:  

In  my  hc  Williams  mother  was  pretty  awesome,  she  was  a  single  mum  but  she  did  everything  right,  up  until  Umbrella  got  rid  of  her  so  they  could  have  total  access  to  William  since  he  was  a  minor  (14) when  they  first  contacted  her  about  him  participating  in  the  training  facility.  It  wasn’t  anything  Linda  did  wrong,  she  was  a  good  person  & did  her  best.  William  has  extremely  fond  memories  of  her. &  maybe  it  was  this  positivity  &  warmth  in  William’s  early  life  that  ‘sheltered’  him  from  becoming  the  same  breed  of  monster  that  a  lot  of  his  collages  became.  

Anyway  we  also  have  his  wife  Annette.  She  was  smart  as  hell  &  also  apparently  a  bad  ass.  A  lot  of  people  judge  Annette &  make  fun  of  her  but  like  her  motive  for  behaving  as  she  did  in  RE2,  particularly  in  the  remake,  was  because  she  was  thinking  of  the  greater  good,  not  just  of  herself.  She  is  a  very  complex  character,  she  was  wracked  with  guilt &  took  it  upon  herself  to  try & stop  G/the  spread  of  G /  the  outbreak  in  the  city  herself,  which  though  seems  kind  of  silly  from  an  outside  perspective,  is  entirely  understandable  from  HER  perspective  given  how  closely  she  worked  with  William -  like  it  does  actually  make  sense  that  Annette  would  feel  full  responsibly  for  what  was  happening  & feel  driven  above  all  to  try & stop  it. I  also  think  she  was  a  huge  factor  in  William  being  motivated  to  leave  umbrella & take  G  elsewhere.   Annette  seemed  to  be  the  “voice  of  reason”  between  them  since  William  was  so  invested  in  his  work,  another  thing  that  made  sense  given  this  had  been  an  enormous  part  of  William’s  life  since  he  was  15-16.  William  needed  that  influence,  Annette  was  really  a  lot  of  William’s  connection  with  “reality”  or  with  the  world  outside  of  Umbrella  in  a  lot  of  ways. Makes  sense  for  them  both  though  given  it  seems  the  two  of  them  didn’t  actually  intend  for  G  to  be  a  weapon.  That  seems  to  be  very  much  in  line  with  Annette’s  character.  The  two  of  them  clearly  wanted  to  be  able  to  spend  more  time  with  their  daughter  as  well.  Annette  is  the  one  who  reminds  William  how  long  hes  spending  at  the  lab &  that  Sherry  misses  him.  Honestly  the  whole  letter  is  a  pretty  good  insight  into  the  Birkin  family  &  what  was  really  going  on  with  them.  I  think  it  really  shows  how  normal  they  were  outside  of  Umbrella. Honestly  it  doesn’t  make  sense  for  Annette  or  even  William,  to  be  genuinely  evil  people  with  this  in  mind -  I  mean  the  fact  Annette  &  William  ever  had  a  relationship  with  this  in  mind  indicates  that  William  wasn’t  the  same  breed  of  megalomaniac  sociopath  as  what  is  common  in  the  series.   Annette  seemed  to  love  William  because  he  wasn’t &  they  appeared  to  share  a  vision  of  improving  the  human  race,  genuinely,  genuinely  seems  they  had  the  idea  of  ultimately  helping  all  people,  rather  than  wiping  out  select  individuals  they  didn’t  agree  with  or  who  weren't  “worthy”  of  “evolution”  & putting  themselves  as  the  rulers  of  this  ‘new  world’.  That  wasn’t  at  all  the  Birkin’s  shtick.

&  speaking  of  Sherry  herself.  Though  she  was  a  little  ‘neglected’  at  times  her  parents  clearly  both  loved  her  dearly.  Sherry  is  a  really  smart,  mature,  well  adjusted  kid  in  RE2.  I  mean  be  freshly  12   &  survive  what  Sherry  did.  She’s  not  a  child  who’s  ever  been  abused  or  who  has  not  been  treated  or  ‘raised’  right.  She  is  a  little  lonely  because  her  parents  worked  so  much  but  overall  she’s  credit  to  them &  you  don’t  often  have  a  kid  turning  out  that  way  if  you  don’t  love  it  &  nurture  it  to  some  extent.  Speaking  of  its  something  Annette  gets  mad  hate  for,  more  than  William  weirdly  enough  (  🙄 ),  this  idea  that  Annette  was  never  there  for  Sherry.  Not  true.  Out  of  the  two  of  them  shes  clearly  the  one  who  spent  most  of  the  time  with  Sherry.  Though  she  went  to  work  &  put  a  lot  of  time  into  her  work, out  of  the  two  of  them  its  obvious  Annette  is  the  one  who  went  home  at  the  end  of  the  day  &  cared  for  their  daughter.   William  was  the  one  who  worked  ridiculous  hours,  like  spending  almost  an  entire  week  at  the  NEST, without  coming  home.  He  was  also  noted  to  frequently  go  at  least  a  whole  day  without  sleep.  William  was  the  one  doing  all  the  hard  hours  at  the  lab,  away  from  Annette &  Sherry  who  were  obviously  at  home.  It  seems  Annette  only  worked  of  a  day  time &  came  home  during  the  end  of  the  day  to  obviously  look  after  Sherry.

I  also  find  it  super  funny/stupid  how  the  fandom  seems  to  pretend  that  the  Birkins  were  totally  cold  to  each  other,  with  William  being  totally  uninterested  in  Annette  who  was  just  there  because  she  couldn’t  take  a  hint  or  that   Annette  was  this  controlling  woman  &  William  was  just  her  dumb  bitch. Like  to  some  extent  maybe  but  overall  William  was  still  the  “breadwinner”  so  to  speak.  Like  what  I  think  was  common  for  most  families  during  this  time  period  William  was “the  man”  who  worked  stupid  long  hours  &  was  expected  to  handle  the  finances &  business  /  “important”  aspects  of  their  lives  &  Annette,  while  also  working  herself,  handled  the  family  aspect,  ie  raising  their  daughter  &  looking  out  for  the  welfare  of  all  of  them  ect.

Although  unlike  what  is  “expected”  of  such  a  family  I  think  Annette  did  have  a  big  influence  in  everything  because  William,  regardless  to  his  position  at  Umbrella,  respected  her  thoughts  & opinions  &  thought  she  was  fully  capable  of  making  decisions  for  them.  William  was  definitely  a  “ask  your  mother”  kind  of  guy  & I  don’t  think  he  was  doing  too  much  without  Annette’s  knowledge  or  approval  but  it  also  seems  that  was  actually  a  mutual  thing.  Annette,  apparently,  greatly  admired  William &  never  felt  he  was  incapable  of  anything  or  that  she  had  to  control  anything.  They  actually  read  to  me  as  equals  in  their  relationship,  not  one  dominating  too  extensively  over  the  other.

Also  been  meaning  to  talk  about  Wesker . .  .   I  think,  with  all  this  in  mind,  Wesker  was  probably  William’s  only &  strongest  “male”  role  model.  William  didn’t  know  his  father  &  never  really  bonded  with  any  of  his  mother’s  boyfriends.  He  doesn’t  remember  being  overly  fond  of  any  of  them  or  having  really  anything  in  common  with  any  one  of  them.   Keeping  in  mind  William  met  Albert  when  he  was  only  15  & Albert  was  17.  He  very  quickly  became  someone  William  admired  &  looked  up  to  because  he  was  just  that  ‘cool  older  guy’  that  William  was  so  alike  but  so  unalike  in  the  sense  that  while  William  was  a  little  shy  & timid,  Albert  was  confident  & collected  at  all  times,  they  were  completely  opposite  in  that  sense.  That  being  said,  its  probably  true  that  the  Albert  that  William  saw  &  who  lives  in  William’s  mind  isn’t  the  real  Albert  or  at  least  thats  not  who  he  remained.  Its  a  very  idealised  version  of  him.  One  that  was  born  of  William  knowing  him  since  they  were  basically  kids  &  being  so  close  to  him.

Which  is  why  he  does  have  trouble  believing  /  understanding  who  Albert  becomes  in  later  years.  Because  its  not  really  who  William  thought  he  was.  &  it  is  difficult  to  come  to  grips  with  that  or  understand  it  entirely.   William  &  Albert  started  to  ‘drift’  apart  during  the  “Alexia  incident”.  William  fell  into  his  depression  &  Albert  became  more  interested  in  Spencer  in  the  meantime  perhaps  as  a  distraction  for  the  ‘chaos’  Alexia’s  existence  had  caused  in  their  work  place  that  quickly  formed  into  its  own  obsession.  William  probably  always  assumed  Weskers  “odd”  behaviours  were  because  of  Alexia  as  well  as  he  didn’t  seem  too  pleased  by  her  either  but  regardless  if  Alexia  didn’t  happen  &  things  had  continued  at  the  Arkley  facility  its  possible  William  &  Annette  wouldn’t  have  happened  &  Wesker  never  would  have  became  as  focused  on  Spencer  as  he  did.  Just  seems  to  be  a  perfect  storm  of  events  to  me. 

This  is  the  time  where  everything  “changed”  between  them  &  they  began  going  “their  own”  ways.  Regardless,  William  never  stopped  thinking  of  Wesker  the  way  he  knew  him  so  knowing  Wesker  now  feels  like  an  entirely  different  person  &  it  feels  like  a  change  that  has  just  came  out  of  the  blue  for  William.  But  thats  one  of  William’s  problems.  He  doesn’t  notice  a  whole  lot  outside  of  his  little  bubble  so  when  he  does  notice  something  he  tends  to  feel  a  little  blindsided  by  it.  Again,  trying  not   to  speak  too  much  on  Weskers  POV.  I  am  majorly  speaking  about  my  own  take  on  Wesker  here  because  thats  my  default  as  I  don’t  have  one  I  write  with  or  anything.  I’ll  probably  make  a  HC  post  focused  on  him  on  my  multi  at  some  point  that  goes  into  things  a  little  more  too !  But  for  rn.  Wesker’s  probably  the  only  “negative”  influence  in  William’s  life  but  he  wasn’t  always.  Wesker  being  “evil”  is  kind  of  a  new  thing  for  William. 

[yee-fxcking-haw]

What Happens Next?

A/N: This chapter is kind of short, so I hope you still enjoy it! The next chapter will definitely have a lot of smut and cheesy stuff in it so stay with me lol. If you want added to the taglist or if I was the worst and forgot to tag you please just message me and let me know!!

Summary: You and James finally have that long avoided talk.

Warnings: Violence, blood, mentions of mental illness, implications of sexual assault.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four Playlist

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Part Five

Annie's Diner

James orders two chocolate milkshakes and plate of fries, thanking the waitress with a beautiful smile. Sitting in this diner with him feels absolutely surreal. It's obvious to you why you've refused to say a word to him since prom. He makes you weak. You feel yourself falling again, you're so easily swayed by him and you don't even want to fight it.

"Are you sure that's all you want to eat?" He asks, obviously trying to be careful with his words.

You just nod without a word. You keep your eyes glued to the table, pretending to be very intrigued by it. It kills you that this is almost awkward. You never dreamed that you and James would ever have a moment that would feel this unnatural.

"Doll?" He says, his voice has a questioning tone.

"I told you not to call me that." You say without looking up. You don't want to hear him call you that name ever again, he poisoned it when he used it for that other girl.

"What's her name?" You ask quietly, glancing up at him.

He sighs deeply, accepting the inevitable question.

"Elise, I never wanted to take her to prom." He explains.

"So you dumped for me somebody you didn't even like! That makes me feel so much better, thank you so much James." You say, filled with anger at his sorry ass explanation.

"She started the rumors about you, not me. As soon as she got into the gym that night she started spreading them." He blurts out, obviously desperate to convince you of his innocence.

"Honestly, I don't care who started the rumors. It almost makes it worse that you didn't. If you had, then you would at least be able to plead the case of clinging to your own lie, of not wanting to embarrass yourself by telling everyone that you were an asshole that made that shit up. Since somebody else started them, you had nothing to lose by telling everyone the truth. You didn't though, so that's what matters, not who started them, but the fact that you didn't stop them." You finish your little rant with a huge sigh.

Does he really think that he's going to get out of this by blaming somebody else? James just sits there, eyes wide. He looks so defeated already, like you just sucked all the life out of him. Maybe he's really starting to grasp just how much pain he's subjected you to.

"You're right, I didn't. Because I cared too much about what people thought and I was scared. I was stupid, and selfish, and it made me lose the best thing that's ever happened to me." He looks at you with pleading eyes.

"Save the Shakespeare bullshit, James. If I was the best thing you've ever had you wouldn't have thrown me away for somebody who meant nothing." You retort.

"I did not fucking throw you away. I did not dump you. I showed up expecting to meet you with Elliot and Henry, but then the girls were there like an ambush or something." He says, his voice laced with frustration.

"Listen to me, if I had turned Elise down right then and there, your life would have become a living hell." He says, lowering his voice like he's scared somebody will hear.

"Right, because she didn't do that anyway." You snap, words dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you remember that girl at the beginning of the year, the one that sang the national anthem at the football game?" He asks urgently.

You try to think back, you do remember her a little. She wasn't here for very long though, just long enough to sing the national anthem and then she left the school abruptly. She had the most beautiful black hair, that seems to be the only detail you can remember about her.

"Elise wanted to sing that, but the principal liked the way Wendy sang it." You begin to put the pieces together.

"When Elise found out that she wasn't going to sing it, she got very close to Wendy all of a sudden. She found out that she was pregnant because she was foolin' around with one of the football players." He explains.

"So she told the principal and got Wendy expelled." You fill in the rest.

"Where's Wendy now?" You ask.

"Last I heard she left town, she was about 6 months pregnant when she moved. Her and her parents just up and left one day." He says.

"Is that according to Elise?" You ask.

"That's according to Andrew, the guy that knocked her up." He states.

You sit quietly for a second, could one girl really hold that much power over a school? You think back to when you were called to the principal's office that Monday afternoon. You had plead your case honestly, but all the principal had to say was, "Evidence suggests otherwise". What the hell did that even mean? It sort of made sense now. Adults have never been good at taking people your age seriously. Especially if it's a grown man being asked to listen to a young woman. Unless of course, that young woman has something to offer him.

"So you were scared of what Elise might have done, then you saved your ass by pretending you didn't know me?" You ask, not really angry just trying to understand.

"I hate myself for it, but yes." He says.

"How did she even know you'd be there?" You ask, realizing how stupid the question is.

"Elliot told Annette, then Annette told Elise. You know how it goes." Annette is obviously one of the two girls that accompanied Elise that night.

"She was the one stalking me." He says.

"Stalking you?" You ask, your eyebrows shooting up in shock.

Just then the waitress shows up with your milkshakes and fries, sets them down quietly and asks if you need anything else. You say "no thank you" a little too quickly, trying to get back to the story James is telling as fast as you can.

"You've gotta be kidding me." You say, popping a fry in your mouth. Your anger is disappearing slowly, but you still cling to the fact that he hasn't made it right until now though.

"She was obsessed with me man." He says, sipping his shake.

"I caught her driving past my house, I even caught her looking in my bedroom window when I came home one night. I was scared what she might do to you if I didn't go along with what she wanted at prom." He seems genuinely stressed, visibly upset by how everything played out.

You just sit and listen, munching on your fries, occasionally drinking your shake. Every part of you wants to be mad at him, to yell at him for not making it right before now. He didn't even want to make it right really, he just happened to be at the dance hall tonight. By pure coincidence he saw Daniel dragging you out of there. Right? He couldn't have known you would be there tonight… unless.

"Molly?" You ask, realization suddenly hitting you like a bus.

He's not confused at all, his eyes just go wide.

"Molly set this up with you didn't she?" You say, voice growing in volume.

"She may have given me a call." He says calmly.

"Oh my God." You whisper.

"Doll, please-." You cut him off by staring daggers at him for using the nickname.

"Sorry, just please hear me out." He says cautiously.

"That's what I've been doing." You scoff.

He ignores your snark and keeps talking, taking it as some form of permission.

"I couldn't show any sign that I knew you at prom, for obvious reasons. I couldn't come talk to you after, I never found out where you live, I never got your phone number, I had no way of reaching you except for at school where you wouldn't even look at me. For good reason I know, but I just couldn't get to you." The words spill out of his mouth like he's running out of time.

"Then of course there was Elise, she was always breathing down my neck constantly. I tried to confront her one time, asked her what the hell her problem was. All she said was that I should watch it or she would get the principal involved. I can only guess that her rich ass parents were pumping money into the school, or maybe she was-"

"Or she was sleeping with the principal?" You interrupt to ask out of morbid curiosity, your eyebrows high and eyes wide.

"That's a possibility." James says.

"Either way, she had some kind of hold on him. Something that made it very difficult for him to combat anything she told him." He says.

"Jesus, this is like some twisted murder novel." You exclaim.

"Now I hate to use this line, but please believe me when I say this." He says with begging eyes.

"In a very messy way, I was trying to protect you. And when you wanted nothing to do with me, I couldn't force myself back into your life because that would just make you hate me more. I couldn't tell the school the truth because Elise would have dragged you down with me. If it had just been my own ass on the line I would have told everyone and their mother the truth, but I couldn't let her make things worse for you."

You both sit in silence, him waiting for a response, you waiting for him to go on.

"As soon as I could I found Molly and told her everything. She told me it would be hard to do, but that she was certain we could fix this."

"Traitor." You mutter, earning a chuckle from him.

"I had to wait. I'm not just saying this to sound dramatic, I was genuinely afraid of what Elise might do if she ever found out how I felt about you. Which are feelings I still have, by the way." He says quietly.

You just sit there, dumbfounded. He was being stalked, genuinely stalked. That's why he was so stiff that night, so unlike himself. Holy shit. James actually has a pretty good reason for what he did. It's not perfect by far, and you could sit here all night arguing about other options he may or may not have had. That would be a waste of time though. There's just one question burning in the back of your mind.

"Why didn't you ask Molly where I live, or what number to call?" You ask.

"I told you, I couldn't force myself into your life with you already so angry with me. While Elise could hurt me with words, I'm quite confident you could whoop my ass if I pushed you enough." He says, a teasing smile on his lips.

"I didn't want to ruin it doll, the most I could hope for was a night like tonight. I told you, I had to just wait. If I had pushed you or cornered you that would have been the last straw and you know it. I had to hold on to that hope that I had a sliver of a chance to…" He stops for a second, his face knits into a very pensive look.

"A chance to love you again." He finishes, seemingly content with the words he's found.

You hate how much sense it all makes. If Elise is really that batshit, he really had no other option than to just let everything play out until he could find a way to talk to you. A chance like tonight.

"That afternoon, it's irreplaceable. I know a lot of it happened really fast, and a lot of it was really intense." He says, the look in his eyes tells you he's thinking about the way you made love. Both of you were so reckless and full of passion. Your chest burns with desire, heart aching for his touch again.

"Well then what about now, James? Are we supposed to just be together and expect Elise to be over it just because we're not at school anymore? Is she still stalking you?" You ask.

"She's not here anymore. Her family moved to Florida, not before she broke one of the windows in my house for not calling her back though." He says and lets out a little laugh.

"Well shit." You say.

"So let me get everything straight. One of your friends let it slip to one of her friends that you would be at prom. She surprise attacked you and then you panicked and did your best to make it seem like you didn't know in an attempt to protect me. That wasn't good enough for her, so she started the rumors about me being your stalker for good measure?" You ask.

He nods silently.

"Then I was so pissed off that I wouldn't talk to you, for good reason in my mind. You couldn't expose the rumors as lies without painting an even bigger target on my back, so you just gave me my space, waited for Elise to not be a problem anymore, then conspired with my best friend to get me to the dance hall so you could finally have your chance to explain?"

Another quiet nod.

You chew your lip, it does all add up. You try to think of what you would have done in that situation. Of course you want to say you would never throw James under the bus, you would stand up for him and bravely profess your love, but human nature is a bitch. People panic and scramble to do what they think is best based on instinct. That's what James had done. You can't even be mad at him for not trying to get you alone to talk sooner, because you know you would have been too blinded with rage to do anything except flail your fists at him like you had earlier tonight.

"I am so fucking sorry doll." You don't even flinch at the name now.

"After I've said all of that, I need you to know that I know it's my fault. I should have told you about Elise that night on the roof, I should have warned you and kept you safe that way. I just didn't know how to really throw in the fact that I was being stalked without absolutely ruining everything. It was all so perfect, everything was perfect with you. It was all so new and overwhelming, I couldn't think straight. So when I saw you there, in those damn boots and that dress, I just fucking panicked. I only ever wanted to keep you safe, that's all I wanted. I just fucked it up. I really fucked it up." There are tears in his eyes now, he pulls his bottom lip into his mouth and breathes deeply in through his nose.

He's watching you with those beautiful eyes, waiting for you to say something, anything.

Then it hits you, there's something he still hasn't done. With Elise gone he has no reason to not tell everyone she made it all up.

"Then why haven't you told everyone the truth? That I never stalked you, that Elise did, that it was all a lie and-"

"I have, everyone I could get to listen, I told. I told them as soon as Elise left." He says.

It makes sense that you never heard of him doing so. You've avoided everyone from highschool since you graduated. That would definitely explain the lack of stares and whispering at the dance hall. Your presence no longer caused anxiety in everyone, because they knew the truth.

"Why didn't you ever call the police on her Buck?" You ask, slipping back into the habit of using his nickname. His shoulders relax a little bit when he hears it leave your lips.

"What good would that do? She's too young to go to jail, so the only other place they'd put her in is the asylum." He says, his voice very serious.

You start to feel very sorry for Elise. She has all that beauty, but she's so very sick. You understand how somebody could be that crazy over James, he's everything a girl could want. Your mind wanders to what all Elise must have been through in order to be so unstable. Your heart aches for the girl you only spoke to once. You had seen her around school a handful of times now that you think about it hard enough. Always smiling, always talking to somebody, always looking so pretty. Even after she ruined prom for both of you, even after she stalked him at his house and damaged his property, he didn't want to ruin her life.

"Her friends came and talked to me after she started driving by my house. Of course I asked them what was wrong with her, all they could say was that her parents were both too obsessed with their wealthy socialite lives to give her the time of day, so she became desperate for any attention she could get, to the point of getting involved with faculty. They told me her family was moving eventually and begged me to let them and Elise's parents deal with the situation. That way Elise wouldn't get herself into a bigger mess." He says the last part with a low serious voice, your jaw drops when you catch his implication.

"Good God." You gape at him.

"So they begged you to wait until she had moved to tell everyone the truth, so she wouldn't snap and get herself into legal trouble?" You ask, filling in the blanks, everything making sense now.

He nods, "She left two weeks after graduation. She came to my house and cried on my porch for two hours the morning they moved."

He seems like he feels guilty, like he wishes he had done more.

"There's a million things I could have done differently, and I'm so sorry for all the things I should have done. I'm sorry for not telling you everything right away, I'm sorry for being so fucking cold to you at prom, I-"

"James." You say, reaching across the table to grab his hand, he stills completely and looks at you like a deer in headlights.

"It's ok. It was all a shitshow, and you were doing the best you could. I understand now, I can see how you were just trying to protect everyone. It's ok." You tell him.

Every ounce of anger and pain has left your body. It all makes sense now. James did all that he could to keep everyone involved from hurting anymore than they already were. At his own expense, maybe his execution wasn't flawless, but he did everything he could to make it right. He's still doing everything he can. He's sitting here with you, begging you for another chance, owning up to all the ways he fucked up. Had he really though? You realize something you haven't yet, James may very well have the biggest heart of anyone you know. Filled with enough kindness to even want to protect a person who made his life hell.

"She's sick James, you didn't want to fuck her life up anymore than it already had been. I don't blame you for that, I don't blame you for how you handled it." You explain.

God this night has done a complete turn around. As soon as you saw him, you agreed to talking with him and you fully expected him to tell you that he and Elise had been together all along, that he had gotten caught up in the moment with you and that he was sorry for leading you on. You never imagined that James had been carrying this load all by himself the past few months. It's all absolutely insane, and incredibly difficult to wrap your mind around. You feel so much relief at the fact that James had never lied to you about his feelings, and a significant amount of guilt for never reaching out to him to give him a chance to explain.

"I'm sorry that I never even-"

"Doll, don't. You had every reason to cut me out of your life. You were trying to protect yourself." He says, he squeezes your hand for reassurance.

You feel like you should have trusted what you shared that afternoon instead of acting purely on emotion, then maybe you would have been able to heal quicker. Then you remember the sensitive timeline with Elise, she would have done everything in her power to ruin what you and James have if she had been around to see it. Everything that happened had to happen that way for the safety of everyone involved.

"I haven't stopped loving you. I can't, I know I can't. Which sounds absolutely fucking insane, but I just feel it. You're still the most incredible thing I've ever seen." He says.

You don't even feel like you're in the diner anymore, it feels like you've floated to the roof and you're suspended in the sky, high off of the feeling of being loved again.

"It's ok if you can't say it back, I know we've only really spent half of a day together, but I've been miserable without you and I can't see myself ever feeling this way about somebody else so, I know what I feel. I know that I love you." He says it like somebody's about to cover his mouth to stop him from telling you.

You open your mouth to tell him that you love him too, that everything is ok, that you guys are going to figure it out, but you freeze when you hear the bell of the door jingle then see a large man in uniform walk through the door. You feel your entire body tense up, anxiety welling in your chest as your throat closes and your palms begin to sweat.

"Oh shit." You say quietly.

It's fucking Daniel, how the hell did he find you? He's accompanied by the boy that danced with Molly, and one other stocky blond man.

"What?" He asks, bewildered he turns his head towards the door.

"Oh shit." He says, whipping his head back around to look at you with terrified eyes.

"What's the plan if he-" James starts to say, but he's cut off by a loud voice.

"Hey punk, that's my girl you're sitting with." Daniel states, slurring his words just a little at the end.

James' chest inflates and he gives you a stern look. Anger flashes in his eyes.

"James don't." You try to say it as harshly as you can, but he's already moving before you can get the words out.

Everyone in the diner is frozen, watching with dropped jaws and wide eyes. Even the wait staff has paused to observe, those behind the counter have halted their cooking so they can gawk. This stupid small town, everyone's always so desperate for drama.

"Oddly enough, I don't remember her ever agreeing to be your girl." James starts, rolling up his sleeves as he talks. Is this idiot really about to try and fight off three soldiers?

"-but you don't strike me as a man who cares too much about consent." He says, dropping his voice a little to stress the weighty implications of his words.

Daniel's fists ball up at his sides, his friends start to glance around the diner with anxious eyes.

"Boys, if there's to be a fight y'all better take it outside." One of the older waitresses says loudly, obviously sick and tired of all these young bucks bringing their nonsense into her diner.

"What a great idea ma'am. Shall we gentlemen?" James asks with all the confidence in the world. God he really is an idiot.

"James-" You start, but the men are already stomping through the door into the parking lot.

"Fucking hell." You huff, you throw money down on the table out of your clutch, inevitably taking out way too much for some shakes and a plate of fries.

"Keep the change!" You say with an urgent voice as you gather yourself and run towards the door.

The boys have circled around to the side of the building, horrible fluorescent lights illuminating the scene. They've got James completely surrounded, almost backing him into a wall already. You know you aren't going to be able to stop this, not with all the damn testosterone and adrenaline already pumping through all of them. The most you can do is make sure it's a fair fight.

"Alright look. If y'all are gonna fight, you're not going to do this bullshit where you just outnumber him so you can win." You nearly shout.

"This is between James and Daniel, you goons need to step off." You say it like you're a strict teacher telling them off for whispering in class. You can't fucking believe that you're playing referee for this idiotic dick measuring contest.

"Unless you're all cowards who don't feel like you could beat him unless the fight is unfair." You finish then cross your arms, your plan to challenge their masculinity obviously working.

"I could take this prick in my sleep." Daniel says, rolling up his sleeves with clumsy drunk hands, "Watch and learn boys." His two friends glance at each other then take the cue to step back and let this fight be his.

James gives you a quick look, the corner of his mouth twitching up into a cocky smirk. His eyes say thank you, while he rolls his shoulders back and brings his fists up while Daniel steps towards him. Your fool in shining armor runs a hand through his hair and winks at you, you assume to thank you for getting Daniel's cronies to back off. You internally curse him for looking so damn handsome.

"Was one hit not enough pal? You want some more?" James says, cocky as ever. Your stomach twists with nerves, he's pushing it. He and Daniel are about the same size. Daniel is maybe an inch or two taller, but James has more bulk to him. Of course you want to say James is going to win, but it could really go either way.

Daniel sneers at him then cracks his knuckles, taking a hulking step towards James. James opens his mouth to make another snarky remark, but is cut short by Daniel's fist landing right on his jaw. Right where you hit him earlier. It makes a horrible cracking sound and blood sprays out of his mouth. You gasp and have to fight the urge to run and stand between them, knowing that would only make James more bent on fighting for you.

He seems completely dazed by the impact, stumbling back while he holds his face. He pulls his right hand away to look at the blood pouring out of his mouth. Before you can even process it, Daniel lunges at James, knocking him to the ground. They both smack on the pavement with a grunt, Daniel has James pinned to the ground and he just starts swinging, hitting anywhere he can, much like you did earlier. Except Daniel is drawing blood. James has his arms up, acting like a cage over his face. They're taking most of the blows, but Daniel occasionally gets his fist through to hit his face again.

"Fucking do something!" You scream at his gawking friends. They both jump and look at each other, not having any idea what to do.

"Stop!" You scream, running over to where Daniel is still laying into James.

You know you won't stand a chance just using your fists, so all you can think to do is kick. Kick like hell. You run up to Daniel, you bring your upper body in tight then let your right leg swing forward, bringing your foot full force into Daniel's face. He howls and falls back off of James, who takes the opportunity to jump and scramble backwards.

"You fucking whore!" Daniel yells, standing up to stalk towards you. That's when his friends finally intervene, each grabbing an arm to hold him back.

"Call the police, somebody call the police!" A woman's voice yells from behind you. You look wildly around, unaware of the crowd that had gathered.

Daniel and his friends panic at those words, faces white as they scramble back towards their car. Daniel turns and spits at you, swearing under his breath while his friends drag him away.

You hear James groan and your heart freezes in your chest. He's lying flat on his back, hands holding his face.

"Oh God, James." You run to him and drop to your knees. There's blood coming from his nose and his mouth, and his left eye is already swelling. He lets out a breathy laugh, gazing at you with heavy eyelids.

"I'm alright doll, doesn't hurt half as bad as when you socked me." He says, lopsided smirk spreading across his lips.

"You fucking idiot. Bucky, what the hell were you thinking?" You ask, cradling his head, you wipe his hair off of his forehead and cup his jaw. He looks up at you with an earnest look in his bright blue eyes, they appear almost silver in this lighting.

"He said you were his girl." He says with a weak voice.

"So?!" You almost yell at him, but you catch yourself.

"You're my girl." He says simply, then he winces and screws his eyes shut. His face relaxes and his head goes limp and falls to the side. Your chest fills with terror.

"James? James!" You yell, shaking him while you do. You know he isn't dead, but he's still unconscious, and that's enough to panic you. You hear somebody yell about an ambulance, but all you can focus on is James. God, this is all your fault.

@b-o-n-e-daddy @lillsrecs @all-art-is-quite-useless @brownlee-22 @peace-love-hobbitness @pinknerdpanda @supernaturalwintersoldier @can-i-sin-right-now @pennyroyalcreep @jessyballet @calwitch @aurora-sweet @learisa

[wontlastimokwiththat]

Witches Mates- Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Witches Mates....

Warnings: Slight language, 

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

After making the ring for Luke that would help him control his shifting, I went back to the house. The dogs had decided to explore the city so it was just me and Snow. When we got there, Snow jumped off my shoulder, telling me she wanted to stay outside. I walked in the front door and could hear the arguing.

"What do you have against her? She's been nothing but kind and understanding since we told her," Ashton said.

"She's a human, Ashton. She has no place in our world or our lives," Luke told him.

"She's our mate! Me, you, Michael, and Calum, we share her! She belongs with us, human or not!" Ashton yelled as I saw Calum walk down the stairs with my grimoire in his hands. I was thankful he couldn't see me where I was standing. Calum walked into the living room and I lost sight of him.

"She's not," Calum stated.

"What?" Luke asked. I moved a bit so I could see Calum as he held up my grimoire.

"I found it in her room. It's the real thing, guys," Calum told them.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Michael quizzed. I sighed and spoke, walking into the room.

"Maybe because if a witch has four mates, nothing good ever comes of it," I suggested, holding out my hand and willing the book into it. "This is off limits."

"I've never seen any of those spells," Calum stated.

"They're mine," I told him. "I've been creating spells since I was eleven."

"That's not possible," Ashton said.

"It is when you're a Firelight," I heard a voice say. I turned to see my mom walking in from the kitchen with Snow on her heels. "Mystia's gifted, always has been."

"Hi, Mom," I smiled.

"Hi, sweetheart," she greeted, hugging me tightly.

"How was Paris?" I asked.

"Boring compared to everything that's happened here. I saw Lejend and Shyla in the city, they told me everything," she told me. Lejend and Shyla A.K.A Damien and Annette.

"Uh oh," Snow said.

"Oh, hush. It's not like you weren't going to," I hissed down at her.

"Um, you're arguing with a cat," Michael stated.

"No, I'm arguing with my smart ass familiar," I told him as Mom took the grimoire from my hands.

"This is beautiful. Where'd it come from?" she asked.

"N-" Snow cut me off.

"Jonathan. He left it in her room," Snow told her.

"Another word from you and I'm sending you to London with Liam, " I said.

"Why can't we hear her?" Calum asked.

"I'm not sure she won't be rude," I told him, glaring at Snow. "Do you swear not to be rude?" I asked her. Snow raised her left paw. "Nice try, smart ass. Other paw." She squinted her eyes as she raised her right paw. "Okay. I'm trusting you." She said nothing as she trotted over to Luke, jumped in his lap, and laid down.

"Why is it touching me?" Luke asked, holding his hands up. My mom looked away from the book and at Snow sitting in Luke's lap.

"Oh, holy shit," Mom mumbled. "She doesn't even let me pet her."

"He's the warmest," Snow said without lifting her head.

"Oh, my God. It actually talks," Michael said. "I thought J was crazy."

"Joker and Harleen talk too," I told him. "And she's twenty-one, not seven."

"It's rude to tell a lady's age," Snow told me.

"You're not a lady," Joker said, walking in with Harleen at his side and Damien and Annette behind them.

"Mutt," Snow mumbled.

"That's offensive," Luke said, glaring at Snow.

"She was talking to Joker," I told him.

"Wait, do they know?" Annette asked me.

"Calum found my grimoire," I sighed. "Now, Snow has made Luke her bed and Michael no longer thinks I'm crazy because Snow actually talks."

"Well, okay," Damien nodded.

"You always give the best descriptions of situations," Harleen said to me and I knew by the look on the boys face that they heard her.

"Thank you, Harleen," I smiled, petting her head. "Why did Damien and Annette get nice familiars?"

"You're familiar reflects you. Both you and Snow are sarcastic, smart ass, assholes," Damien told me. I glared at him.

"I'm going to kill you in your sleep," Snow growled, jumping to her feet.

"You're three pounds of fur, good luck with that," Joker said.

"Enough," I said, knowing things would get heated if they weren't brought to an end quickly. Snow laid back down in Luke's lap and Joker lowered his head.

"Oh, can I see it?" Annette asked my mom, looking at the grimoire. Mom nodded and handed it to her. Annette flipped through it, stopping on a certain page. "I remember when you made this spell. It was when you broke your hand and couldn't write. We were, like, twelve."

"The enchanted pen?" I asked. She nodded.

"I use that one on a daily," Damien said, looking over Annette's shoulder as she started flipping the pages.

"Oh, Luke, I have you something," I said before walking over to Ashton and sitting in his lap. He was sitting in the recliner beside the couch. I pulled the simple black band from my pocket and handed it to Luke. He took it and looked over it.

"What is this for?" he asked.

"Ashton told me about your struggle with controlling your wolf side. The ring prevents the wearer from shifting. As long as you wear it, you won't turn," I told him. "You can wear it as a ring or put it on a chain, it doesn't matter."

"How does it work?"

"It's a spell from one of my grandmother's grimoires," I said as he slid the ring onto his right ring finger.

"Is that why you went to the shop?" Ashton asked, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Yeah," I nodded, leaning back against his chest. "I didn't have everything I needed here. Which reminds me, I need to restock."

"What do you need?" Damien asked.

"Um, sage, mint, and jasmine," I told her. Mom, Damien, and Annette raised their eyebrows and Snow lifted her head when I mentioned jasmine. "Not for those reasons."

"Sure," Annette nodded.

"What?" Michael asked.

"Nothing," I shook my head. "Mom, are you going to the compound?"

"Yeah, I have to get some manzanilla before I leave for London," she said.

"Why?" Damien asked.

"I'm helping to break a curse," she told him.

"No one's used curses in years," Annette mumbled.

"What?" Calum asked. "Two months ago-" Mom cut him off.

"It's an old family that was cursed many years ago that needs to be broken," Mom said. I raised my eyebrows at Calum, who was looking skeptically at my mom. "Anyways, I should be going. It was nice meeting all of you. Mystia-"

"I know, I know. The shop, the coven, I got it," I nodded. She frowned slightly before nodding and walking out.

"J, that was rude," Damien said.

"Something tells me J knows something we don't," Annette muttered.

"J, is there?" Damien asked.

"Come with me," I told them, standing up. "Give us a minute." The boys nodded and Damien, Annette, and I walked up to the study. I closed the door behind us and turned to look at them. The room was spelled so as soon as the door closed it was sound proof.

"Mystia, what's going on?" Annette quizzed.

"Look, I learned something about the Witches Council today and it seriously set off bad vibes," I explained.

"What did you learn?" Damien asked.

"The wolves in the wolf packs that are aligned with the Witches Council are forced to trigger their werewolf curse when they're thirteen or they're killed," I told them.

"What are you talking about?" Annette asked. "Those wolves voluntarily turn."

"No, Ashton told me earlier-" Damien cut me off.

"So, we just believe everything the vampire says?" he asked.

"That's not what she's saying. She's saying we need to figure it out," Annette told him.

"Exactly. Annette, take Michael and Calum to talk to the voodoo witch on Bourbon Street. Damien, take Luke and go talk to the wolf pack on Main."

"And you?" Damien asked.

"I'm gonna see if Ashton can tell me anything else," I told them.

"Mhm hm," Annette smirked.

[cherrysweather]

Claudeleth Week, Day 6: birthday/fate

[Pairing: Claude von Riegan x F!Byleth]

[Genre: fluff>slight nsfw/nsfw*]

*POP*

Everyone turned to the noise of the confetti shooters when Sylvain and Raphael used them;

“Is he here?!” “Wait! Keep him out! We still have to finish with the wall decorations!” “Don’t worry, he isn’t here.” Sighed Leonie, continuing to do what she had to “Then why are you two using them?!” “We were just checking if they worked” “Of course they work you dumbasses!!” Marianne had to stop Ingrid and Hilda from killing those two.

“I heard that a birthday it’s not fun enough without a dead or two; if it’s like that, we’re at a good point” “Not you two professor” Lysithea shook her head “You should go and check on him, I don’t know if Dimitri’s gonna be able to hold him for much longer, knowing him” “You sure? Then ask someone if they help you if you want to help with the wall decorations” Byleth ran off before Lysithea could throw her something, hearing her screams anyway.

Outside, the evening was lovable: it was neither cold nor hot but a gentle wind cuddled everyone, making shiver who was most susceptible to the breeze, like Byleth; the light clouds were spread everywhere in the orange sky that became purple with some black towards the horizon. It was a perfect day for a birthday; for HIS birthday.

She luckily found both the too-grown-up-children she was looking for at the training grounds, while replacing old or broken weapons with new ones “Aren’t there people who work for these things?” Byleth picked an axe from the ground, putting it in the right box “Surely, but since you all decided to ignore me today, Dima didn’t know what to invent to keep me busy” Claude raised his eyebrow as he looked up to Byleth “It looks like we’ve been exposed, professor” “We weren’t ignoring you, avoiding is the best term” “The better I feel!” He took the box of the old weapons, moving it near the door “We’ll make it up to you!” “Who said that I’m going to forgive you?”  “Come on Claude, we all did it for good” Dimitri grabbed his shoulders and pushed him out the training grounds “Where are we going now? To groom some horses or to fix the saddles of the wyverns?” “Shut up and follow us”.

They took him for a walk until the sun went down completely to give time to others to complete preparations, speaking with him without problems even if they still didn’t wish him happy birthday to keep the surprise (but, frankly, they didn’t even hope to surprise someone like Claude). Byleth quickly checked the hall in to make sure everything was ready before they brought the birthday boy in. “Close your eyes” “So you can throw me in a hole?” Dimitri put his hands on Claude’s eyes to cut it short “Come now” As they brought him in the hall, who had them, took the confetti shooters by the string “Ok, keep your eyes closed” Byleth said as Dimitri took off his hands from his face “When you want” They waited on purpose a few moments after he opened his eyes completely before pulling the string, trying to surprise him with the noise “Happy birthday!” the names they used went from a simple “Claude” to “old man”, “old ball and chain” and so on to emphasize his increase in years; only Mercedes and Hilda used cute names like “Claudie”, just to annoy him.

Silence.

He stayed still, watching around him what his friends made for him, the only sure sign of life he gave was the reflection of the light in his eyes becoming shiny. “I-I should thank you all now, right? Sorry for the awkward silence” he laughed like always, opening his arms to hug as many people as possible. It was the first time they saw Claude with teary eyes, but they were happy, knowing that those were tears of joy. They pulled him from the arms completely inside the hall, giving him a paper crown they made for him; everyone wrote or drew something on it, as a way of saying “I’m with you too”.

The party started immediately; Raphael, Caspar and Ingrid were lost in the buffet, Ignatz was secretly looking for a perfect spot to create a painting of that evening, Hilda and Marianne were setting up the gifts on a table to create a cute composition, Mercedes and Ashe tried to convince Annette to sing something, Dedue stayed to talk with Claude as they both waited for Dimitri to come back since they were searching for him for help for the next battle and, Felix was at the training grounds. So Sylvain had to go looking for him.

Byleth tried to be everywhere for everyone, but the first time she went near Claude, he tied her up to him “Why do I think you’re behind all of this? “Do you have a problem with it?” she asked curiously, hugging Claude from the side, resting her head just below his shoulder “Not at all, it has been almost a decade from the last time I’ve had a party for my birthday, so I’m not used to surprises like this anymore” “Start to get used to it again, this is just the first” “Then isn’t it better if I don’t get used to it anymore?” “...Maybe”

Right after they started to eat the cake Mercedes made, pieces of it started flying for no reason and as soon as a piece touched Lorenz’s and Ferdinand’s clothes, DISGRACE. They were so close to the tears but they only started to kill everyone with words, keeping their finesse as nobles anyway; maybe the Almyran beer that Byleyh chose for the buffet did its dirty duty, also because Sylvain, after rescuing Felix, managed to steal him a dance without punches on the arms and kicks in the back like he always received when he tried to approach that two-legged cat.

So the evening went like that, everyone was so happy and carefree, something that at that time of the war was more unique than rare, maybe too carefree. Since, seeing a whole mountain of drunk people was a, fantastic, sight. The only sober people were Marianne, Lorenz, Linhardt; Ashe and few more. Like, three more. “So what are you all going to do? This isn’t a big dorm for drunk people you know” Byleth had to raise her voice to be heard by everyone “Next time I’ll choose only some fruit juice, you villains” she was helped by who was sober to pick up who was asleep because of the alcohol, entrusting them to who knew where their rooms were.

“Thanks for the night everyone! Take care!” “For the next party just water professor!” Everyone left apart Claude, who was still sleeping on the couch while Byleth settled everything, pinching all the candles’ fuses to turn them off, except for the one near the couch. “Claude” once she finished with the cleaning, she sat next to his exhausted body, passing a hand on his face and using the other one to shake his body, trying to wake him up “Come on, wake up old-sleepy-drunk-dumbass-Claude” she chuckled at her words as she started to poke every spot on his face, opening his eyelid without too much strength. His complaints were the proof that he had finally woke up “Leave me alone, I want to sleep-” “Then go sleep on your bed; isn’t it comfier?” “It’s too far” he just kept whining, turning and giving his back to her “Don’t you dare give me your back Claude” “Who’s Claude?” “If you don’t know, how should I know, Riegan?” “It’s Von, Riegan” he stretched and slipped on the floor in an attempt to get up “Leave me heree..” “Do you want to end your party laying on the ground?” she pulled him up by the arms, keeping a hand on his back “Isn’t it over already?” he hugged her, using her body as a support, forcing her to lean against the table so as not to fall “If you want it to be over, then yes” she patted his back, sighing softly against his chest “You smell like beer” “Does that bother you? I can go take a shower” “No, I liked this beer’s smell, and it somehow suits you” “It was Almyran after all” “If you say so”

They remained there talking for some minutes, also to give Claude some time to sober up. Byleth no longer had half a knot since Claude did nothing but pass his fingers through every strand of her hair to distract himself “Are we going to sleep or do you want to stay here all night?” “Sleep? Do you want to sleep on my birthday? I didn’t say the party’s over yet” he said, placing his hand behind Byleth’s neck to get her face closer, pressing his lips on her nose, making them then slip on hers. She shivered under his touch, keeping a hand on his chest to keep a few inches free between their bodies “The hangover always makes me so contact-seeking, I’m sorry” he tried to sound even a little bit guilty, but he failed miserably, continuing to move his lips on her body, taking off her hand from his chest to eliminate the distance between them “C-laude” she tried to cover the parts of her body that Claude kept showing the world to gain territory for his kisses “We’re still in a hall open to everyone” her attempts of reasoning with him were answered with other wet, noisy kisses “Then what? What would tell us who see us?” he looked right into her eyes with a gaze filled with desire mixed with those sinful emotions given by the alcohol that continued to circulate in his body “Maybe that we’re shameless people who perform obscene acts in public?” as she spoke, her dress flew in the air “Claud-” “We’ll deal with it” he chuckled as one of his legs made room between hers, desperately searching for friction with his lower body against her hip and thigh. After all, she let her go too, putting her hands on him and removing from her sight that piece of cloth embellished several times that this time did nothing but cover without reason that chest that she was never tired of looking at when she had the opportunity “You’re the worst” “Oh me? You also have your dirty hands on my body you know” he grabbed firmly her hips, lifting her as far as he could and throwing her on the couch in the least gentle way possible “But you’re the one who’s treating me like a sack of potatoes; with a hole, for this time” she pushed his face toward the side with a very slow and weak slap “Oh well, excuse me teach” he tried to bit her hand when it was close enough to his mouth, failing every time because of Byleth’s rapid reflexes.

Claude wedged the inside of her knee on his shoulder for easy access to her sensitive areas, filling the scars on Byleth’s legs with small kisses as she started to tremble slightly. “Since when we first met, when I was still a kid with hormonal crisis, I always asked myself what you’d be like at moments like this” he tried to keep alive the eye contact between them as he slowly went down toward her inner thigh “Silent and emotionless like always or, able to emit even the most silent of moans” he slowly rubbed his lips on her skin until he reached her panties, pulling them along the length of her legs to get rid of them. She covered her face that had never been so red in her whole life; she tried her best to keep her emotions under control but, with that man in front of her it was something impossible.  Her back arched suddenly when all that remained of his face were just his bright green eyes that did nothing but stare at her, since the rest was completely covered by her body.

Their loquacity was interrupted without warning to make way for their continuous sounds mixed between moans, imprecations or just their voices whispering each other’s names; all framed by the noise of their hands rubbing on the body of the other or their skins, as they increasingly became sweaty, clashed. Their hands knew no limits for where to touch, sensitive or non-sensitive part of the skin didn’t matter, they needed to feel one with the other; what better way than with one inside the other? Heh.

He kept his free hand that wasn’t keeping him from being completely on the inner knee of her leg not resting on his shoulder, trying to calibrate his body weight so as not to bend too much her leg. One of her hand squeezed tightly his right bicep, feeling his muscles contracting under his skin, while the other tried to hold on his back, leaving some scratches whenever she tried to not make it slip. Every time Claude pushed deeper, out of Byleth’s mouth came a moan that took the sound of Claude’s name as it fully came out. “Khalid” he says, pausing for a moment “Try with Khalid, I’m somehow getting jealous with you keeping calling Claude” he chuckled throwing her hair back from her face. She didn’t ask anything, she just tried to climb his body, using the hand on his back and let the leg that was on his shoulder slide on the couch, pushing his back straight and approaching his face to print a quick kiss on his lips  “Khalid” she said quietly, almost like a whisper, as she wrapped his torso with her arms, resuming the movement at the height of their hips, gently passing her fingers on his body hair, seeing some shivers on his skin.

He squeezed her body and tried to move with her, but every time he heard her calling him “Khalid”, he felt his legs melt completely; she noticed it, so she continued to whisper that name again and again against his hot skin, feeling his strong thighs become relaxed and soft beneath her. “B-By, move, I’m close” “Don’t want to, I’m so comfortable” she pinched his cheek with her lips “W-What? I ca-” “I couldn’t care less right now, I don’t like to squeeze lemons in half“ “We’re not talking about lemons now” she had to kiss him to shut him up, holding tightly one of his hands, without stopping her hips.

She luckily lost her stamina after they both reached their climax; she dropped all of her body weight on him, hugging him bringing her knees to his back as he too let himself fall on the sofa “I didn’t want you on me” she pouted at him, biting softly his ear to tease him “You didn’t complain when I was in you though” he sighed, avoiding her bites and starting to laugh when her hands started to beat him with that bit of energy she had left “Shut up!” she became purple from embarrassment, turning her back to him, playing the fake offended. He took one of her hands and slowly became to fill with kisses her body, starting from her head and running down her back. As he reached more or less the middle of her back, he was interrupted by a hand of her who gently took his chin, bringing him back at the height of her face, placing a kiss on his nose “Khalid?” she looked at his tired eyes, cuddling his face with her finger, fixing his messy hair and his beard, continuing to run her fingers through it even if he began to speak “It’s, a long story, but that’s my real name I guess, the name that my parents gave me when I was born” “So Claude was like a code name?” “More or less, they advised me to keep my real name hidden to avoid problems” she nodded, thinking “Where does this name come from? It sounds a lot oriental; it’s Almyra or somewhere near there?” she was curious like a child “Yes, it’s from Almyra but, I want to keep the whole discussion for a better moment” he smiled and kissed softly her lips “We have a lot of time now” “We’re still naked, in a common hall where everyone can see us” “Right!” She jumped on him, taking his shoulders with her hands to keep him down “You still have to make a wish” she looked at him with the most serious stare of them all “W-What? All of this for this senseless thing?” he laughed looking at her back  “It’s not senseless! Come on, if you don’t want to say it it’s completely ok” she sat comfortably on his lap, waiting for his answer “A wish? Mmmhh...” he thought in silence, keeping his thumb in movement on her hand “Something that I want more than material things is probably a future; with both Fòdlan and Almyra in peace, Dimitri on the throne and everyone besides him or all over the continent to rule it as it should be; a future with you.” he brought her tiny hand on his heart, keeping it safe in his “That’s what I wish for and I will fight for it, especially for the last thing” he chuckled with a wink  “Selfish, but I like the idea” she smiled and rested her lips on the knuckles of his hand “Hey just that it’s selfish” he took her cheek with two fingers, pinching it “H-Heyy” she fell beside him to avoid his fingers, sighing but still holding to his arm.

They didn't want to sleep there, but they didn't want to get up from that beautifully-heated sofa that now had their shape neither; so they stayed, hoping to have enough strength later to get up. “Is someone still here? I finished just now with the army reunion” That deep voice that came from the outside made them jump and the little wax that still kept the candle above them alive, betrayed them without problems  “Hey’a Mitya! They kept you for a bit eh?” He spoke easily like he always did with Dimitri but Byleth used his body to cover herself “A-Am I interrupting something? I still had my gift to give you but I don’t want to bother you two” Claude could see clearly the red on his cheeks even if he was in the dark “Whaaat? Nonono! I wanted to invite you too! Come here!” He sat and held out his hand to his friend

Byleth could do nothing but to sigh and hold her head; probably Claude was giving himself a gift; selfish.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so, I finally finished this horrible piece and I know I’m REALLY. TOO. MUCH. LATE. so I’ll write the next one as soon as possible, I’m sosososososososo sorry please forgive me T-T Anyway, for this one I tried to write a serious nsfw but I think you all noticed that I didn’t wrote exactly what was happening; that is because I like to go around these things and write them in the most indirect way possible to leave to those who read the freedom to choose and imagine the scene, the expressions, the emotions and everything you want So I hope you all liked this thing even if it’s probably the most cringe thing you will read in your life and that’s also why I won’t put these kind of nsfw in the requests list, I’m sorry ;-; Again, sorry for the long wait but I had some problems but I will try to end this wonderful week as soon as I can!! Love you all!!! <3

[currantlee]

You mentioned awhile back that you think Felix has some autistic traits. I'm curious to know what traits you think he has? And, to make it interesting, how you think that would affect his relationship with Sylvain?

Before I answer that, I want to clarify for people who don’t know me and might read this that I am an autist myself (Aspie to be completely clear), so I know what I am talking about here. Also, please keep in mind it’s a spectrum. No two autists are alike, not in regards of their symptoms or personality. I know several other people with my diagnosis and some of them show symptoms I don’t while others don’t have symptoms I’m showing.

Update as of the current day: it seems that I have been misdiagnosed with Asperger’s and actually suffer from hospitalism (which does have some of the same symptoms as Asperger’s does) due to years of emotional manipulation and abuse from my mother. I sincerely apologize for falsely saying that I have Asperger’s. I didn’t know any better.

Alright, buckle up, because this is going to be a long post.

Felix’ Aspie Traits…

First up, I think Felix shows signs of Asperger’s Syndrome. Americans will likely know this as high-functioning autism, since it’s as far as I know not an official diagnosis in the US (it apparently used to be, but it was merged into autism spectrum a while back). In Europe and Asia however, it still is it’s own diagnosis.

As for the signs of the syndrome Felix shows: the most obvious one is his dislike / inability to make direct eye contact, which he even admits himself. This is a very common trait of especially aspies and everyone has a different way of describing how it makes them feel uncomfortable. I personally find it impossible to focus on what a person actually says if I do make eye contact. That is because making eye contact for too long actually freaks me out a little, for reasons I can’t explain. It’s just… Scary.

Another obvious trait is Felix’s focus, which borders obsession, on swordfighting. You can clearly see that he is hesitant to do anything, unless it benefits his swordsmanship in some way. For example, he asks Byleth why he should learn magic. If they reply that it will benefit his swordsmanship, he will regard that as a good answer. Another example is Flayn asking him to chop wood and vegetables for him. He only does it once she points out how this would serve as a great exercise for him.

This ties in with another thing about him: dissociation. No, I don’t meant the personality disorder. It is merely the process of getting completely absorbed into something (like a task or a daydream). It is a way to deal with all the information that floods our brains because our perception filters don’t work properly.

You can clearly see in several of his supports that Felix gets so lost in training that he doesn’t realize when people try to address him anymore, even if they are standing right next to him, most notably his support with Dorothea.

A less obvious trait is the fact that Felix can possibly not tell if someone is joking or not (and yes, that actually takes me some time as well every time someone in that game jokes). While he plays it off with his snarky attitude, which makes it seem like he is simply annoyed, there is more than a few examples in which he takes a joke deadly serious. An indicator for that is that Sylvain is always quick to tell him that he was joking with something, possibly because he knows how hard it is for Felix to recognize a joke (I mean, it is kind of obvious if you have grown up with an Aspie even if you didn’t know they have this condition - at least I have been told so by a childhood friend of mine). Yes, he does it with others as well, but he is never as quick with it as he is with Felix.

This also shows in the fact that he is unable to understand metaphors. A great example of this can be found in his support with Bernadetta, wherein she tries to explain him why she isn’t scared of him anymore by telling him that ghosts are only scary because you can’t see or talk to them (however that is supposed to explain it…). Felix immediately mistakes this for Bernadetta thinking he is a ghost.

A far less noticable result of this trait is the fact that he tries to make sense of anything. While this may not be seen as a result immediatly, let me explain. Aspies have two ways of dealing with their natural non-understanding of social stuff. They either back off and isolate themselves (mostly children do that) because they are scared or they start to observe and ask questions.

In Felix’s support with Annette for example, Annette just sings something because she feels like it. Felix however immediately tries to find the logic behind her lyrics, questioning them because they don’t make any sense to him (since he doesn’t understand Annette is just singing for fun and not trying to put a message into her lyrics).

This also shows how Felix finds it difficult to empathize with others. Unless something is very clearly explained to him, he just can’t make sense of it because his brain works different from others. Another example for this is his support with Lysithea: when he catches her eating cake, he just thinks nothing about it. Lysithea however immediately starts interpreting his reaction (like… “Normal” people do this so often and I cannot state how confusing and annoying I find this) and thinks he might go tell everyone. Therefore she gives him the cake in an attempt to keep him from doing so (even when Felix never intended that), which is something he finds absolutely confusing. First up, he doesn’t understand why she thinks he’s going to tell everyone (showing that Felix has no idea how a complex social concept like reputation works) and second, he doesn’t understand why she gives him the cake and assumes she wants to annoy him. Which is not the case: to Lysithea, her cake is something really important, even precious. That is why she gives it to him and it is also why she tries to teach him the value of cake later on. Anyone else, even if they hate cake, would probably acknowledge this gesture as something very sweet.

Another thing this support also shows is how Felix also has problems adapting to a new, sudden situation. He absolutely refuses to try her cake, which she made for him and him only. I mean, he gives in eventually, but before that he is pretty insistent. I know he doesn’t like sweet stuff, but out of being polite, anyone else would probably at least have it given a try without all the arguing. While this is also a good example for how Felix doesn’t understand the concept of politeness (I mean, he is very blunt anyways), it also shows how he finds it hard to adapt to new situations. I mean, he probably tried cake before, but never Lysithea’s cake. Also, she made it specially for him, so she probably thought about how he doesn’t like sweets.

Speaking of politeness though: I often hear that all Aspies / autists in general are very, very polite. This is not true though. Many of us are indeed more polite than “normal” people because first, basic rules of politeness (like not talking with your mouth full of food) is something you can easily learn. Most autists will be happy to, because those rules are actually very, very clear and not open to interpretation. It means it is something we can easily do right. Some other basics (like you don’t tackle people in the subway) are also something that comes naturally because… Ever tried tackling an autist? Please don’t.

However, as I mentioned before, it is a spectrum. Not every autist is alike. There are also enough autists who do either question or not understand those rules. As for bluntness… I think almost every autist will agree that we don’t get lying for the sake of being polite. Which results in the famous pointing out how terrible you friend’s new hairstyle looks (and not even understanding what you did). Felix’s bluntness is similar to that.

Felix is also shown to not interpret additional meanings into words and therefore come up with unconventional things in his support with Ingrid: aside from the fact that he leaves early (another example of him being unable to understand social rules as long as no one explains them), he suggests stuff like stealing the enemy’s horses (which is actually a logical thing to do), meaning something outside of the battlefield. Everyone else apparently assumes they are talking about strategies on the battlefield, when actually only strategy in general is mentioned.

There is something I want to make clear about all of this: autists, and it doesn’t matter if high-functioning or not, are not dumb. They simply lack the instincutal knowledge about social interaction normal people have.

A little quirk: Aspies tend to collect things, even if it is absolutely senseless or even very, very strange from a rational perspective, even to themselves. For example, I know someone who actually collects DLCs, including those they don’t even own the game for. I used to collect soaps because I liked the smell, but never used them. Eventually they got bad and I had to throw them away, but recently I started collecting Copic markers (don’t worry, I actually use those). Felix has a little more of a sensemaking collection: he collects swords. And yes, not all people collecting stuff are automatically aspies. It is just a quirk that is very present within the spectrum.

And now another quirk: Felix is bad at harmonizing. This is actually a common thing: aspies do not have a good control over their voice. While this doesn’t mean we’re all bad singers, it means we tend to talk too loudly, too quietly, very monotone (though this mostly affects Aspie children) and yes… It is hard to talk and sing when others are doing it as well. For example, I never had a problem with singing in front of a class and always had great marks on that. But as soon as it came to choir singing or choir speaking (baaaaaad memories of some language classes here by the way), I really struggled with it. Because while I’m not exactly bad at singing or speaking, I absolutely suck at harmonizing. Funny thing: it is the same with most Aspies I know except one who has sund in the church choir her entire life. So yeah, I can feel Felix here.

Also, Felix is a great example on how autists are never the same: he can keep it short. I obviously can’t.

… and how they could affect his relationship with Sylvain

Alright. You asked for headcanons, you get headcanons.

Getting Together

I think Felix and Sylvain might have a hard time getting together to be honest. Like… It is a constant dance around each other, constantly backing off as they try to adjust to each other.

I think the biggest issue in any autist-nonautist-relationship is recognizing and adjusting to each other’s wishes, needs and boundaries. For example, you can’t expect an autist to cuddle with you every day, just like that. On the other hand, “normies” usually yearn for exactly that: physical affection, be it in form of handholding, cuddling or sexual contact.

So at the end, both sides need to make compromises. Sylvain would have to come to terms with the fact he can’t (immediately) get what he wants, while Felix would have to metaphorically descent into the cold water, meaning doing something he isn’t exactly comfortable with (at first). If you have ever stepped into a cold lake or pool, you know you should rather take the stairs than jump… At least, that holds true for me. You have to adjust to the temperature, which takes a while. It’s the same with adjusting to new situations for Aspies, really.

Like… Once they are actually together for the first time, the first thing Sylvain does is dragging Felix away from the training grounds since Felix doesn’t quite understand that being in a relationship doesn’t mean being alone next to each other. Which leads to Felix breaking up for the first time because “I don’t need a relationship then”.

I think he comes to Sylvain again after like a week because he wants to give it another try. But only if he doesn’t have to spend all of his time with Sylvain. He spends more and more time with Sylv than with his sword though as time goes by.

So yeah. I think it would be a very slow burn between them, a constant dance around each other. They might also break up a few times because Felix isn’t ready or Sylvain notices he is getting too impatient before getting together for good.

Being Together

I think each of them still has their own room at the Officer’s Academy and also when they’re in the army after the timeskip. Doesn’t mean they don’t sleep in the same bed though. However, Felix absolutely refuses to let Sylvain enter his room in the beginning because Sylvain always, always puts something where it doesn’t belong in Felix’s opinion.

Felix is a side sleeper and also refuses to not sleep with his swordhand free. Sylvain usually sleeps on his back and takes up way to much space on the pillow for Felix’ taste, so Felix usually abuses Sylvain as his personal pillow when they share a bed. I think Sylvain likes that though.

Also, when they’re sleeping in different rooms, they usually swap their pillows around, so they are at least able to smell each other. I think that one develops from Sylvain stealing Felix’ pillow as a joke when the latter refuses to sleep in his bed once - Felix actually breaks up after that once more because he feels pressured. Once Sylvain has cleared the misunderstanding and they’re together again though, Felix decides to respond to Sylvain’s joke by stealing his pillow as another joke.

When they’re doing stuff together, they are often comprimising or trading favours. Like… If Sylvain trains with Felix, they go into town together afterwards.

Or they snuggle under the starry sky together because Sylvain wanted to cuddle while Felix just wanted some quiet time for themselves and maybe talk a little. They speak about different constellation’s names (Sylvain probably knows them all because he used to impress girls with those) and how Felix thinks constellations are an absolutely stupid thing because he sees different things in them. In the end, they end up thinking of their own constellations (like the Sword with a Strange Grip or the Horse that Feels a Little Nausy).

Another headcanon: Felix actually hates other people laying hands on his hair / head, because he is pretty sensitive there. However, Sylvain practices to be carefuly only for the chance to do Felix’ hair. So sometimes, he lets him and just grits his teeth while Sylvain is busy. However, I think Felix loves Sylvain washing his hair.

They also like to take each other out for lunch / dinner or spending time at the library in the evenings once the training grounds are closed. Also, Sylvain is a romantic sap who likes to drag Felix to watch the sunset at the fishing pond. He might even get Felix to play some boardgames.

Alright, the next section is something I’m usually not so fond talking about and I really went back and forth on if I should add it to this post for quite a while, but I decided to give it a go because this is something normal people might actually find a little comedic (note: I don’t really mind if Aspie traits are used in a comedic way in media, as long as the figure having those traits is not warped into a total joke through that or heavily stereotyped. If you are, then that is fine, everyone feels different about it). I personally didn’t understand the comedy of this until it was explained to me by some frineds. I think I can empathize a little on why people think it’s funny by now, even though it’s definetly not my kind of humor, so I decided to give it a go.

Basically when Sylvain suggests having sex with him, Felix is like “Why? If you want to have a baby, you would need a girl to do that!”

The background of that is that while many Aspies gain some understanding of the emotional component of sexual contact, most Aspies I know (including myself) struggle with understanding this nature, especially if they have zero personal experience. Rationalized, it is merely a tool to get babies and that is exactly how many Aspies I have met think about it, at least before gaining experience.I figured Felix might share this view at least initially, before he gains some experience.

Alone Together

However, I think that they not only have separate rooms, but also live separate lives. Like, they never really get married. That’s not entirely a Felix thing though. I think both value their independency too much to make themselves depend on someone, Sylvain perhaps a little less than Felix.

I think there would be countless examples of being alone together, like when both are reading books in the library. They’re technically together, but they aren’t interacting.

Felix does especially need space when he experienced a sensoric overload or after he was arguing with Sylvain. I think when either is the case, Sylvain always finds him at the stables later on, where his horse is. Sometimes, Felix is asleep, sometimes he is awake but barely approachable. I also think Sylvain’s horse often lays down next to him and Felix likes to pat it. In any case, Sylvain always gets him a blanket and waits until Felix comes to him again (because he will, it merely takes him some time).

Due to this, Sylvain probably gets him a cat some time. Felix mentions in his support with Bernadetta how he “doesn’t dislike” cats, so I think he is fine with that. The cat usually also follows Felix if he needs space.

Animals and autists often get along very well. We have a natural or developed liking for them, as they are easier to communicate with than humans and know when to leave us alone. Also, they actually communicate to other humans when to stop, which is often helpful for both sides. So yeah, I think the cat would do that as well. And of course, it would take up the entire space in the bed when Sylvain wants to sleep there (which might actually be something they argue over).

And yeah… That’s actually all :3 Thank you for the ask!