#at least maybe marion will be safe?

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

The first song of spring (pt. 4)

Elrond x reader

*****

The following weeks are frantic, as you re-learn to adapt to the life of a princess, but also maybe the happiest of your life.

You spend as much time as you can with your father. He is, unlike you feared, not angry because you ran away, and if he were, the relief and the joy to have you back make him forget. You have dinner together every day, and every time he can he walks with you in the gardens, talking and simply enjoying your company just like you enjoys his. You are probably the only person he feels comfortable with enough to express his real feelings, to be an Elf as well as a King; you keep his secrets as a treasure, knowing he wouldn’t confide in you if he didn’t really trust you, and feeling finally at home, loved and respected and understood, happy to simply walk next to him, share a smile or a knowing look when you perceive each other’s thoughts without the need to speak them out loud, and know he has never stopped loving you and never will, no matter distance or disagreements between you.

Your days are full and often demanding; you sit next to your father at his meetings with the various Elflords, the generals of his army -among which Galadriel, who becomes a fast friend of yours- and anyone who has requested an hearing with the King, take his place at various ceremonies, adjucate and apply the law in a number of matters -except the most serious ones, which need the King’s personal attention- and simply assist him in ruling the kingdom. It is a far cry from the life you lived in Khazad-Dum, but it is also the only one you have known for centuries, before you left, and returning to your duties as your father’s heir and aide is a bit like putting on an old dress; uncomfortable for a minute, but easy to get used to.

You are moved by the people’s reaction at your return. Your friends, and even those who didn’t particulary care for or like you, welcome you with joy, expressing how happy they are to see you back, and how terrible it is that your absence was due to a simple misunderstanding; for a while you are the subject of great curiosity, as well as rumors about your life away from the kingdom, but you ignore it and soon the people gets used to your presence. You also meet those Elves who became part of your father’s entourage after you left, and do your best to make a good impression on them. Even though your absence wasn’t due to a vacation you are determined to make up for lost time and dedicate your life to the well-being and the protection of your people.

One day, just after breakfast, you are informed you have a visitor: it is Marion, who has been informed of your return and has come back from the village he had moved to a few years after your disappearance. Once you are face to face, you both struggle to find the right words to express what you feel, but you can’t, and in the end you simply hug and cry -a cry you at least have waited a whole century to have- on each other’s shoulder, both relieved and moved. He begs for your forgiveness and you tell him there is nothing to forgive, and that you are so happy he is all right; in those few minutes, talking and even more in the silence of your hearts, you make peace with each other, remembering the affection you once shared and promising you will both remember that, instead of that terrible day that ruined both of your lives.

You haven’t forgotten the only people whose friendship made it easier for you to bear the long solitude, and the guilt; you write to Durin and Disa as soon as you have the time once you have settled in your new, and old, life, thanking them once more for everything they have done for you, and they answer expressing their joy at knowing you are safe and happy at home, and promising they will pay you a visit soon. How is Elrond?, Disa asks -in a manner you could only describe as arch; you know it is absurd, since you cannot interpret a person’s intentions from a letter like you could do from their tone of voice or expression, but you could swear your friend is not only inquiring about the Half-Elf’s health- and you wish you could answer… but you can’t, because ever since he arrived at the palace with you, you have barely seen Elrond.

Obviously he hasn’t left, not like you did once; but you soon have the impression, which quickly becomes a certainty, that he is avoiding you. As his herald, Elrond is probably the person who spends the most time with the King next to you, which means he can hardly avoid meeting you, but he clearly does his best to reduce the lenght and the frequency of those meetings, as well as to ignore you during them as much as he can without appearing unpolite. If you look at him as you both sit in a council with your father and his advisers, he hides his gaze in his notes; when you adminster the law in the King’s place and he should be by your side as he always is at his, Elrond begs to be exempted because of other duties - something, you hear someone mention, he has never done before. You invite him twice to a private lunch, and twice he again sends his apologies since he is otherwise occupied - a lie, you easily discover. A few times it even happens that you see him in the distance, as you walk in the gardens or you are crossing a corridor, and as soon as he sees you Elrond immediately walks away or enters the first room he finds to hide. When he really can’t help talking to you he is formal, distant, as if you had never met before… as if you are just a princess and her father’s herald, and not a pair of friends… dear friends, you would have sworn, and confidantes.

It is unexpected. Incomprehensible. And, frankly, offensive. He has been avoiding you for months now, as if you had the plague or had tried to murder him, and is clearly trying to erect a wall between the two of you, quite a difference from the complicity and the empathy that had blossomed, unexpected and comforting, between you as you exchanged letters and he visited you in Khazad-Dum. Was that friendship, that confidence, that… intimacy, only on your part, an illusion your heart created? You don’t think so, you don’t want to think so, but then, what has changed? Why is he treating you as if you are strangers, or even worse?

Your father, knowing how hard it is for those who are in a position of power to find friends who are sincerely interested in them and not only in the benefits they could reap thanks to that relationship, has taught you to choose the people you give your friendship and confidence to carefully, but this is different: Elrond has cared for you when you were an Elf as many others, obscure, unimportant; why should it change now that he knows you are a princess? You remember how selflessly happy he looked when he told you the truth, that Marion was alive and you could go home; and now that you have, it seems like you have somehow offended him terribly.

Why? And most importantly, how can you repair what you once shared? You have never begged for anyone’s consideration in your life and you don’t intend to start now, and since your return you have been welcomed by your old friends and made some new ones, so you can’t say you feel lonely, or that you don’t have anyone to spend time with. As the King’s heir, you could easily order him to participate at your various engagements, previous and more pressing duties be damned, but that would change nothing; you miss him… and would give your right hand to know why he is avoiding you.

You consider writing to Disa, who also knows Elrond and could perhaps help you understand the reasons for his behaviour, but you don’t want her to think Elrond is mistreating you -because he isn’t; he is as respectful and deferential as an herald must be towards a princess, bowing low and calling you your highness and my lady. And that, in a sense, is the problem- and even though you love her like the sister you never had, it’s embarassing to ask for her opinion in such a private, and in a sense petty, matter, as if you were two young girls gossiping about their sweethearts. You don’t know what to think, unsure whether you should feel guilty -have you offended him in some way, without realizing?- face him or simply accept something has broken between the two of you and let him go, like Marion did with you; in the end, help comes from the most unexpected person.

Your father.

Elrond has joined the two of you in the King’s spacious study, to discuss the organization of an important ceremony; you have tried more than once to meet his gaze, while he has kept his tried on his notes as usual, so blatantly you wish you could rip the parchment from his hands and force him to look at you. Your father does not comment, focused as he seems on the need to invite every Elflord who has the right to participate to the event, even those you dislike, but as soon as Elrond has left with a bow and closed the door behind him, he turns to you and “What happened?” he asks.

“What do you mean, father?”

“I mean, between you and Elrond. You told me you had become such good friends since you met in Khazad-Dum, but now, and since you have come back, he takes every opportunity to keep away from you; it seems like he cannot stand to be in your presence a moment more than strictly necessary. Has he been… unkind to you?”

“Absolutely no, father” you quickly answer, sitting on a carved chair close to the King’s desk; whatever problem has arisen between the two of you, the last thing you want is to be cause of problems for Elrond with his lord “He has done nothing wrong, to me at least.”

“I am glad to hear that. What is wrong between you, then? Have you fought?”

Confiding this sort of problems to your father would be even more inappropriate than doing it to a friend, and if he sees you cannot even sort out your personal relationships, how could he ever hope to see you lead a whole kingdom? But at present, the King doesn’t seem disappointed or exasperated, just worried, and because of this you find yourself telling him everything, about the unexplained formality your friend is now treating you with, and the painful distance that has grown between you because of it. If Elrond has decided to rescind your friendship, or if he is angry with you for some reason, you will accept it, since you clearly cannot force him to be your friend; you just wish he would tell you, to give you an opportunity to make things right and ask for his forgiveness, and because you wish you could feel him close at least once more, to see his beautiful smile and the kindness in his brown eyes, and believe that you will never be truly alone, as long as he keeps you in his heart…

“But I never will, it seems. Whatever the reason, Elrond clearly doesn’t want anything to do with me, and I must respect his wish, however painful it is for me” you sigh “If I truly care for him, and I do, the best thing I could do is to give him space.”

Your father looks at you, seeing in your heart even better than what you could do yourself. He has never felt anything like what he sees shining in your eyes, which is one of the reasons -but not the only one- why he had you himself, but he can recognize it, and it moves him, and it makes him happy.

The King spoke to Elrond after he returned to the palace with you, in private. He thanked him for bringing you back home, knowing that nothing he could say could express the gratitude and the joy he felt, and offered his herald any reward he could choose; Elrond declined.

“I want nothing, my lord” he answered, modest and respectful and more sure than the King had ever seen him “Because I didn’t do it for you, and the only thing that I want it is not in your power to give. “

Your father looks at you, and for a moment he regrets you are no longer the little girl he could carry in his arms and who had no other love than him; but knowing that your heart has chosen a loyal, devout and faithful companion makes him happy, as well as the fact that you will not leave his side after your wedding.

“Maybe the reason why Elrond is avoiding you is not anger, or disinterest” he says in the end, careful not to say too much; it is the duty, and the right, of a parent to guide and instruct a child, but in the matters of the heart each one must evolve in their own times “But rather, fear.”

“Fear of what? Why would Elrond be afraid of me?”

“Not of you; but of his own worth.”

You stare at him, uncomprehending, and he smiles; so intelligent, and still so naive about her own feelings, he think affectionately. “Talk to him; force him to talk to you” he suggests “Unsaid words are like cracks in a wall, but you are still in time.”

In time for what?, you wonder, but your father’s words have given you the courage to face Elrond and ask him to explain himself; wordlessly, you hug him, and march out of his office like a warrior towards the battlefield.

Tagging as usual @grinkitty @starlady66 @elvenenby​. Hope you like this!

[orleans-jester]

It was one of their first walks together in the almost empty city. There were a few that were around now that they knew of. Victor, Zero, Willem, Figaro, Koda. All people that they knew and spent time with, even if Koda was a newer friend. It was kind of nice that they all knew one another. There might be others around that Delta just hadn’t thought to talk to them about too, of course. It wasn’t as if she or Frank really needed to tell them anything of what was going on. They had Frankie all secure in her stroller, wandering feet going through the streets as she thought of things to improve the sustainability of Feral. Her own ideas.

Like maybe she would see if the garden was still around near Sherwood. Marion’s old garden. The flowers were pretty, but not what she was thinking about. A vegetable garden. Now that, oddly, the city was a lot safer because there weren’t crazies like Declan around any longer, and she had a lot more faith in her own abilities again, she might pick it up as a hobby. Something to do, at least, other than helping her husband with the carousel whenever he felt up to it.

But thinking about a garden reminded her of Lothlorien, and she was just about to comment on something that Thomas had said while giving them the tour of their land, when something caught her entirely by surprise.

People in New Orleans were crazy. You had to be to keep on living on the site of an actual all out witching and voodoo war, even if it was years ago. Chip wasn’t the only one who kept things prepared. There’d been one of those ‘stockpilers’ who had been preparing for something like this for years. A gas mask to protect against the Horned King, that was safe enough. But the dancing - that had been dreadful. His feet had become stubs essentially, until he laid down on the floor and did a wiggling motion, a worm, eating bugs off of his floor until he was near dead. And then finally, he managed to wiggle his way up the stairs, having some degree of control at least to where he was going to go. Gas mask half off of his face now, hanging off to let the bugs in, he wiggle wiggle wiggled his way out of his barricaded house. He thought he was the sole survivor. Crawling on what was left of his hands, left of his knees. There was nothing left of his feet, scraped raw on his hardwood floor like an eraser against sandpaper.

Until he was seen.

All that Maddy saw was something moving out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head expecting to see one of the many stray dogs, or cats, or animals that were around feral, but this thing was too large in the dark, too odd, too jerky, that she acted without thinking, making a move to protect her and her family.

It was so quick. A barrier, the sheen hardly seen in time, rushed in around the figure, crushing it to death. The bubbly exterior of the bubble wasn’t even seen, but now it appeared like blood splatter around the remains of this man. Decimated. Turned into hamburger helper. The only real show that it had been a man was the broken gas mask and the scraps of fabric that had been left behind in the mush.

Maddy put her hand up to her chest to calm her own breathing. “It - startled me,” She said, and then tucked her hair behind her ear and removed the barrier from the man, the blood just falling back to the ground. She grimaced at what she saw because it was a real mess. She made sure to turn the stroller from it so that Frankie wouldn’t have to see, not that the infant would even understand what it was seeing.

Her first real murder. She’d given her permission freely to Delta and Frank to commit one on Bastien’s behalf, but this was up close, it was personal, and it was entirely her doing. And she felt - okay. Like that’s what he deserved for sneaking up on them in this place where they should definitely not be snuck up on.

And what did the new murderess say about what she had done? She turned her head from it and looked towards her husband, a frown on her face. “I suppose the stray dogs will clean it up - I hope he didn’t have any diseases that’ll make them sick.”

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #591

Top Ten Moments in Indiana Jones Movies

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there’s a new Indiana Jones movie. Directed by James Mangold – who made Cop Land, Walk the Line, and Logan – it stars the 108-year-old Harrison Ford, Fleabag, and that bloke who always plays baddies playing a baddie. It’s called The Dial of Destiny and based on nothing but my own assumptions (and the fact that it seems as if Mads Mikkelsen’s Nazi ne’er-do-well might not have aged between 1944 and 1969) that it’s gonna have something to do with time travel. I reckon Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood – last seen marrying Dr. Henry Jones Jr – has died (sniff) and when he gets his hand on this “Dial of Destiny”, Indy’s gonna have a moral moment a bit like at the end of Last Crusade, where he could put this immense power out of enemy hands for good, or use it himself to bring his wife back.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong.

Anyway, to celebrate the release of Dial of Destiny I actually re-watched all four prior Indy films this year. I could rank them, but there’s, like, four, so it’s not really a top ten. But then I thought, well, what are the best moments in the movies? Because these are films just built on moments. Even the lesser ones have some tremendous action scenes, fight scenes, stuntwork, and prolonged chases. Crystal Skull – the much-maligned fourth outing – is at its best when it’s on the hoof, with a great warehouse escape in the opening sequence, a bike chase through a university, and a chase through the jungle that ends up going down a waterfall. These are excellent moments of action cinema that really showcase just how adept at this sort of stuff Spielberg is.

And Crystal Skull isn’t even the best film! I mean, it’s not the worst either, but it’s down there a little bit.

What I’m trying to say is that the whole Indy saga is just a phenomenally well-constructed series of breakneck, nail-biting, expertly choreographed action scenes. I’m not really sure why Spielberg isn’t talked about more as an action director, because he stages the heck out of these things, and is capable of not only giving us exciting cinema, not only framing it in such a way as to be decipherable and easy to follow, but also injects a huge amount of humour and heart and character into these things. From the very first moments of Raiders, we have the core tenants defined: yes, it’s a great, exciting, action set piece; but it’s also inventive (the idol, the arrows, the boulder!). It shows Indy’s ingenuity and knowledge but also his fallibility; he cocks up by mistaking the weight of the idol and so triggering the booby traps. He runs hell for leather, appears knackered and beaten down (we also have that sublime moment where grabs a vine, thinks he’s safe, cracks a relieved smile, and then the vine starts to tear away and he panics again). Then he’s captured, taunted, has the idol taken from him, but manages to escape anyway with arrows raining down around him. And he hates snakes! He hates ‘em!

The boulder scene hasn’t made this list, shockingly; yes, I’m even angry with myself. But bloody hell fire, there’s just so much in these films. Almost every one of them has at least three or four simply phenomenal action scenes. There are absolute all-time iconic scenes here. Any list of the best action scenes of all time ever that didn’t include at least one Indiana Jones sequence is not to be trusted. And yeah, okay, whilst there may have been a little bit of trying to give every film a fair shake here, I do think that all of them have their merits and then some. Even the really stupid bit in Temple of Doom when they jump out of an aeroplane in a dingy is still a cool stunt.

All this said and still I think the best thing about Indy is the heart and humanity of the series. Yeah, okay, I guess he’s a cad and a bit of a graverobber and all that, but the whole franchise is about how, deep down, he cares so damn much. He believes in stuff. He loves people. He gets hurt but he keeps getting back up again. And again, and again, and again, long after he probably, realistically, should have stopped making these films. Which is why not all of these moments are really action – some of them are drama and some of them are comedy. But we still have that propulsive excellence that defines these movies.

Indiana. Let it go.

The truck chase (Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981): one of the greatest stunts in history as far as I’m concerned. It’s a great car chase which features clambering over and around trucks, people getting punched out of windows, and – oh my god – the classic Stagecoach-riffing moment where Vic Armstrong crawls underneath a moving truck and edges his way to the rear before climbing up the back of the vehicle. It’s stunning. And, again, it’s a sequence that features so many great Ford reaction shots and instances of him getting battered.

The tank chase (The Last Crusade, 1989): another excellent chase through the sand, with Indy once more going on and around a large moving vehicle. Here, though, we have multiple things going on, with Henry and Marcus in the tank, and Sallah helping out on horseback. There’s great ingenuity – the rock in the gun barrel – and ups and downs as our heroes score minor victories and then get clonked on the head. And then the tension of Indy trapped on the barrel, about to hit a rock, and then the glorious gag of the tank going over the cliff and a bedraggled Indy joining his companions as they stare over the edge.

The Brody cut (Crusade): yep, not really an action beat, but I did just say “moments”! This is such a funny bit and one of the best jump cut edits of all time. We slowly track in on Indy as he taunts the Nazis with Marcus Brody’s skills and accomplishments; “with a little luck, he’s found the Grail already.” Smash cut: Brody walking through a market loudly asking if anyone speaks English. What more is there to say? He got lost in his own museum.

“Let it go” (Crusade): still on Crusade, a film that’s one percent not quite as amazing as Raiders but is still just so damn good. This is almost an action scene as it’s a tense bit of stuntwork and effects as Indy falls into a crevice and stretches out to retrieve the Grail, his fingers touching it. The simplicity of his dad calling him “Indiana” for the one and only time in the movie – acknowledging his son’s choices, having grown to understand and accept them – is so touching it kicks Indy out of his Grail-mania and allows him to be saved, choosing life – and therefore death – over the Grail’s promise of immortality.

Anything Goes (Temple of Doom, 1984): my least-favourite of the four films (by a gnat’s wing) still has some blinding moments, including the best opening of the series. Spielberg scratches his musical itch about thirty-five years before West Side Story will a beautifully choreographed Busby Berkeley-esque dance sequence of chorus girls, and future Mrs. Spielberg Kate Capshaw singing in Mandarin. When Indy drinks poison and scrambles for an antidote there’s a knockabout, slapstick quality to the proceedings, with things getting kicked away amidst a riot and a fight, and then – and then! – they end up in a car chase through Shanghai, before the great final gag. Nice try, Lao Che!

The plane (Raiders): the story of the production of the plane fight is legendary – George Lucas snapping two wings off a model because it would be too expensive to build full-scale – but the sequence itself remains extraordinary. Another great example of Indy getting the shit kicked out of him, it’s also a great showcase for Marion as she batters a Nazi pilot with some chocks and attempts to steer the plane, its rotation – and spinning rotors – a recurring threat as Indy fights a Nazi man-mountain. After all the tension and drama of the fight, we get that great moment of gore as the spinning blades hit our adversary; just the right gruesomely funny coda to a terrific scene.

The castle escape (Crusade): the whole sequence with Indy and his dad in the Nazi castle is brilliant, with their banter just terrific right from the off, and then it evolves into another of those almost Rube Goldberg-like escalating action scenes. There’s the attempt to escape from being tied together on chairs, a rapidly escalating fire, and a secret revolving fireplace. And then, out of the castle, there’s a brilliant bike chase, with pursuing Nazis sent flying like Stormtroopers on speeder bikes. It all culminates in Henry’s brilliant speech about the Grail being life, about this being a battle against evil. So good.

Young Indiana (Crusade): prequels, eh? Whatcha gonna do? But here we see the most perfect prequel of all time – possibly because it’s only, like, fifteen minutes long or something. But in this microcosm we see every element of Indy, from the superficial to the significant. He gets his whip, he gets his hat, he gets the dinky little scar on his chin; but we also see his resolve, tenacity, his desire to preserve these ancient antiquities for the wider world… his fear of snakes. And we see the difficult relationship he had with his dad. It’s everything you need in a prequel, with a hot, charismatic, terrific actor playing the younger version of our hero. And it’s just so fun; the chase through the desert, the various train carriages… it’s an amazing opening sequence.

The mine karts (Doom): like the world’s best videogame level, this has ups, downs, and everything in between. To describe it as a rollercoaster isn’t doing it any justice; I think they actually did turn it into a rollercoaster. But this is just another one of those iconic sequences, with all the various jumps and spills, characters going in and out of different karts; so iconic, in fact, that it’s been homage and replicated time and again. Donkey Kong Country owes it a big debt, for instance. It does beg the question, though: why did the Thuggees build this crazy, impossible, multi-mile-long network of higgledy-piggledy train tracks? It makes no damn sense!

The bike chase (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008): the scenes and sequences in Crystal Skull might not be quite as iconic – although the image of Indiana Jones, a WWII-era throwback to nineteenth century adventurer-explorers, framed against a mushroom cloud is pretty dramatic – but this prolonged fight-cum-chase is an excellent example of Spielberg’s inventive direction. Tapping into its fifties milieu, we have a greasers-versus-jocks brawl, and our heroes on a Harley pursued by sinister besuited figures, Indy moving in and out of vehicles (this is a franchise staple that I don’t think I’d quite clicked on until this list), at one point dragged along on foot, before the chase enters the university itself, riding through a library to allow Indy to give some advice to Tom Hanks’ son. It’s a wild, escalating action-packed sequence full of character and comedy, and shows that even after all this time the series still had it.

Another good bit from Crystal Skull? Jim Broadbent sadly reflecting that they’ve reached the age when life “takes more than it gives”. It has quite a nice, melancholy air that film, that’s often overlooked.

And, god, what bits haven’t I mentioned? Marion’s bar! Asps! Toht’s coat hanger! The bridge! The bugs! The zeppelin! They named the dog Indiana!

Anyway: Indiana Jones. Fab, innit?

[aerial-ace97]

Aldous Leekie Reframing?

So I’m watching Orphan Black for the third time right now cause it’s amazing and one of my favorite TV shows of all time.  Anyway, I’m becoming convinced that Leekie might have been the best of the Dyad Institute and maybe the best bad guy of the show besides those who clearly or even just effectively swapped sides (AKA Helena and Paul).  Spoilers though so I’ll put my reasoning under the cut.

To start off, I am by no means calling Leekie a good guy.  He was known to kill in order to keep the experiments safe, as in the case of Olivier (to be fair he was a sex offender so I don’t feel too broken up about it and you could argue Leekie hired him but with how many heads Dyad has there simply is no way to know that).  He also supposedly killed Rachel, but oh it turns out no he didn’t, so did he just... burn documents or something.  He did have grandiose ideas about eugenics but that’s... everyone in Dyad and he honestly was mostly just a figurehead while others did the real work.  He also had a creepy relationship with Delphine.  Maybe?  We never got the full picture on how that worked though.  Certainly his status was above her and so you could make a point for work place exploitation but besides that... I’m not really sure what’s creepy about their relationship.  Is it just ageism?  Rachel and Ira are creepy because Rachel LITERALLY raised Ira from four years old.  We know nothing of the history of Aldous and Delphine.  Aldous was... also vaguely an asshole and superior around most people.  Not exactly a crime akin to the monumental violations we see from others on the show.

On the other hand, Aldous was deeply committed to maintaining as little intervention with the subjects as possible, or at the least, the most that we saw (I guess besides Marion Bowles but she was hardly even a character and MK’s revenge list with her named crossed off suggests she was involved with Helsinki so... not a great look for her).  He didn’t try to kill any clones we know of and forwarded the greatest impetus for curing the clones of anyone in the Institute.  When Rachel went out of her way to have one of her sisters murdered and autopsied he was disgusted.  Not to the extent anyone should have been but with more genuine frustration than anyone I can recall in the Institute.

When we compare him to other members of the group there really is no contest with most of them.  Virginia Coady advocated for genocide and rape.  Her cadre of clones, while arguably manipulated, were also rapists.  PT Westmoreland experimented on a child and eventually killed him in cold blood, manipulated everyone around him to do his eugenic dirty work, stole blood from dozens of youth and let them die thinking they had a cure, you name it.  Evie Cho had dozens of babies euthanized when they were ‘defective’.  Ferdinand massacred clones.  And Rachel, for all people try to argue for her redemption and as manipulated as she was, went a long with both Westmoreland and Ferdinand, held back Cosima’s cure, tried to kill her mother and Sarah, did have one clone murdered, manipulated and abused Kira, and was perfectly fine with however many clones had to die.  Sorry Rachel fans but her being manipulated doesn’t absolve her.  Everyone is a product of others.  No upbringing makes Rachel vindicated.

Of course Prolethians fair no better with all of them abusing faith in order to manipulate the murders of clones.  Tomas was abusive, Henrik a rapist, Bonnie a murderer and abusive.  Probably way more crimes for all of them.

There are only two members of Dyad who may have had any chance of being better.  Susan Duncan being one.  But... Susan Duncan was still ok for a while with experimenting on Yanis in the horrible tests he went through.  Speaking up isn’t really stopping it and she should’ve cut and run then and there.  Also had that above creepy relationship with Ira.  I don’t know that she couldn’t have been aware of some of the Helsinki stuff and other things that Dyad got up to as essentially the head of Dyad for a time.

Ethan Duncan is the other contender and yeah for all intents and purposes we’re left to believe he was better than Leekie but he was also... only very briefly ever a member of Dyad.  Certainly not the Dyad we see in the current age.  So I find it difficult to count him.

This is all worthless info of course.  They’re all scheming and cruel eugenicists more interested in profit and science than actual human lives.  But in retrospect of watching through the seasons I feel like Leekie shines as not so bad when we stop and think about it.  Course he might have been.  In an alternate story where the Club sides with him over Rachel in season 2, maybe he becomes the worst of the worst.  But I can only judge by what actually happened.

[helldustedstories]

@allcluia asked: ❛ i could keep you safe. they’re all afraid of me. ❜ Marion @ Charlie

an assortment of dialogue prompts // accepting

With everything going on in Hell, Charlie had figured she should probably have a better understanding of the Overlords. So she'd started studying up, familiarizing herself with that level of Hell's hierarchy. She'd even had Vaggie help her with flash cards, so she'd be able to recall important facts at a moment's notice, if she needed to.

But one of the things she'd had trouble wrapping her mind around was just how young one of the Overlords was. It was always upsetting to Charlie when children ended up in Hell, but for one of those children to not only end up in Hell, but to become an Overlord? That was definitely going to take her some time to accept.

Still, she'd decided that she was going to at least attempt to talk to all of them, to really put faces to names, and then maybe, to potentially get them to help her, if she could. Because while the hotel was important, it was about more than just that, at this point.

That was, however, how she found herself in the young Overlord's space, sharing tea with her. Things had been going pretty well, Charlie thought, until Marion said, ❛ i could keep you safe. they’re all afraid of me. ❜

Charlie blinked, looking over at the young girl. "Keep me safe?" she repeated. She knew she wasn't exactly the most popular person in Hell, considering, but why would she need someone to keep her safe? The thought that anyone would be afraid of this girl astounded her…., but she was an Overlord, and Charlie was trying not to underestimate her.

[goodtripsblog]

Hey guys, Marion Jose U Buenviaje here

So I guess it’s safe to say I am the black sheep of the family.

It’s not in every aspect but I don’t think my siblings and I could be any more alike but at the same time different, call it a case of Jekyll and Hyde. We just took very different paths in life, which is the presentation that my sister recently gave to a group of classrooms in a high school in the Batangas national High school . I have two siblings that are uber-successful and I am a complete failure, or at least that is what I was on track to be, and I know it’s not too late to rewrite that narrative, but for now, it’s the reality

Being the black sheep is lonely & confusing. You wonder why you’re different yet not considered good or unique.

You do your own thing by defying the normal and the conventional.

Defying the norms comes with a price which you, being the black sheep, don’t consider a price in the very first place because you’ve been through a lot.

To an outsider, once you make it big, wonders how you stood fast. But to you, it was all normal & part of the process.

You might have been shamed, mocked, or ignored.

Since you can remember, you felt like didn’t belong. You felt like an outsider looking in and never acquiring the love, support, and sense of belonging that others get.

So maybe your sense of feeling like the black sheep was subtle and implicit—nothing directly said out loud but rather always a slight sense of the back of your mind and heart.

Or maybe your feeling of being the black sheep was more explicit and you were physically and relationally rejected by your family of origin, church, or early community, for who you are and how you move through the world.

However and for whatever reasons this may have manifested for you, many of us can identify with “the black sheep” archetype and, while this is predominantly a pejorative term in our collective lexicon, this post is all about reclaiming the power of that archetype—diving deep into what it may mean to be the so-called “black sheep” from both a cultural and psychological lens, exploring the pain of what it can mean to embody this archetype, but also the power, gifts, and opportunities it offers.

[wyllzel]

review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Who is your favorite fearless hero? 🎵 (Letterboxd)

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I can't quite put a finger on why, but this felt more like a movie about Indiana Jones, rather than an Indiana Jones movie. The eponymous character is lovingly recognizable, and Harrison Ford feels deeply familiar in the role, but something felt missing in his surrounding story environment. I think this can be partly attributed to the villain's M.O. and the artifact itself (the Dial).

Mads Mikkelsen killed it as the villain, Voller, but Voller's motivations didn't feel very Indiana Jones-ish. Without giving away too much, Voller is a physicist -- rather than a rival archaeologist, like Belloq or Elsa Schneider.

However, this villain evolution is likely a result of the modern technology/computer boom: a turning popular interest to STEM-based miracles ("discoveries" and "innovations") rather than mythic miracles. (This is made very clear by the movie's conversation around the Moon Landing.) But isn't the idea of ancient, mythic miracles what makes Indiana Jones so interesting?? The idea of a romantic (maybe Romantic) hero whose strength is his passion, interest, and empathy for those who came long, long before us -- he is someone who can wield that knowledge to preserve their memory and their culture. Indiana Jones is worthy of witnessing the miracles that our ancestors witnessed first.

(Or, at least, that's maybe the ideal Indiana Jones story. The artifacts display their miracles... and then the Ark gets turned over and locked up by the U.S. government; the Sankara stone is safely returned to Mayapore but the British colonial regime is upheld. I think Last Crusade gets it right when the Holy Grail is buried within its home and beyond the reach of further disturbance and exploitation. I do not wish to address the Crystal Skull... The Dial's fate remains open, which I think is interesting.)

Importantly, the artifact's miracle does happen in Dial of Destiny. But rather than letting the miracle speak for itself, the writing explains it as "mathematics" and science. And as a further offense, it undoes the miracle by lifting the curtain and showing what's behind the trick. The tantalizing mystery is made infuriatingly clear. Why!!!!! To awkwardly paraphrase Edmund Burke and his essay on "The Sublime and the Beautiful," trying to capture something of a miraculous, terrifying magnitude and then DETAILING IT rather than leaving it obscure is a huge mistake. These are the things that are better left unexplained. (Which, slightly related, is in part why I refuse to watch the Young Indiana Jones TV show. And, slightly more related, I think this mistake is one that Crystal Skull fell for too.) Perhaps the best part of Dial of Destiny's miracle is when Voller faces it with anxiety and terror etched deeply in his gaze.

That being said, I did enjoy Dial of Destiny overall! There were plenty of nods to the previous movies, and it definitely felt like a continuation despite Raiders coming out about 40 years ago. (Wow!) The action was fun, the locations and exploration were interesting, and the characters were lovely. Gotta love the spunky young woman (Marion, Willie, Elsa, and now Helena) and endearing but capable kid (Short Round, and now Teddy) sidekicks. Choosing to delve into Greco-Roman history was an interesting choice. I think there was something to be desired in the historical mystery, but that might be due to my familiarity with Classical history...? It felt like more emphasis was placed on the action behind the chase rather than the history/knowledge informing it, which is not necessarily a mistake but does make me nostalgic for Indiana Jones being a little nerd... :')

Additionally, I think this installment finally did its characters of colors justice. Of course, John Rhys Davies in brownface as Sallah remains offensive. However, in general, the characters of color are offered more detail and nuance, rather than caricature and stereotype. (Short Round may be excluded from that sad legacy -- as an Asian American, I have a soft spot for the kiddo.)

This was a good conclusion to the Indiana Jones story. It has left that mythic hero a solid legacy.

PS: I do wish they had added nuance to "It belongs in a museum!" (a modern ethical dilemma within Library and Information Science academia), but I also understand that Indiana Jones may not be the right franchise to offer an answer to that. LOL.

[marionmaverick]

I guess somehow we made it back with a few dreams of ours still in tact.

"In a philosophical mood huh?" Marion said, "I guess I feel the same. The first was something else."

He leaned back against a tree and watched as the sun set. He still felt tense even after everyone came back safely.

"Maybe we'll actually get to act on them before the next crisis, or at least relax."

[thehazbins]

Marion also took a bit of cinnamon roll while listening to Jilly talk and nodded. Finishing the bite before speaking. "Yeah she seems sweet! And don't think I haven't considered the option of cannibalism- probably will try it at least once down here just not at that point yet." She laughed. It already seemed like such a trivial thing that there was a town full of them... she doubted she'd always be against the idea. "Just don't think I can bring myself to let someone have that control of me again- dealt with that too much when I was alive."

"You're always welcome to- I have a clause, you can have your soul back at anytime as long as you bring two new folk to me. Can't be done ahead of time, but if you wanna go, that's all it takes. I don't lose any power, and it's not terribly difficult to find desperate folk who'd enjoy the idea of a pleasant would-be overlord. But I also can't offer much more protection than from lone demons or the like. They know to stay out of my territory and for some that's enough."

"However- if Miss Carmilla decided she wanted the space, I'm not sure exactly what I'd be able to do. Or any of the others. It's a work in progress, but it's a relatively safe option."

She often felt like she belonged being born a few decades before. If only because maybe it wouldn't have been such an outlandish thing for her to not want to go into law. But no, she was born in 1980, she'd never even got to have a family like she wanted. They'd considered it but she had wanted the boyfriend to propose first. Ah well. Down here she found a path of her own and was thriving in it.

Laughing lightly, she nodded in agreement to the comment about her ambition. "I'm fueled 100% by spite, and a desire not to have to fall under someone else's control. I'll die before making a deal with anyone." Would she? Debatable. She might but if she had enough to live for... "I'd rather do neither though, and simply be strong enough to care for myself down here."

Marion sipped her drink, enjoying her own mimosa as well with the sweetness of the french toast. She could tell at a certain point that Jilly seemed off about something, but not in a way that made her feel the need to ask. Not yet at least.

And then the other woman told her anyway, and she rose a brow. Her own gaze shifting around, brushing over the man and elsewhere just so he wasn't completely aware that she was looking for him. Though she let her gaze slide back over- still casually and likely concealed well enough.

"Interesting. I haven't a clue who he is no- so he's just putting his nose where it don't belong." She muttered. "Didn't think we were all that interesting. I know we're pretty but I don't think I'm interested in what he has to offer."

"Unless you happen to be?" She didn't want to insult Jillian but she didn't think tall, green and creepy was her type.

Jillian nodded emphatically what Marion said of Overlords, "Ya won't get an argument on that from me, dolly. Mos' Overlords are powe-hungry despots, as far as I'm concerned. Miss Rosie at least takes care of her cannibals, from what I can tell." Tearing off a piece of the huge cinnamon roll, Jillian popped it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, swallowing before smiling warmly at Marion. "I'll be excited to see whatcha end up doin' with your power as ya get bigger. Heh, who knows- I start hearin' enough good press, an' I might jus' have to sign up with ya myself." A rather unlikely prospect, as Jillian had no plan on selling her soul at this time. But who could say what the future held? And besides, with Exterminations a constantly looming thread, one was smart to always keep track of their options. Jillian had her mimosa halfway to her lips when she heard Marion mention her death year, a surprised look on her face, "My oh my, you're still shiny an' new down here, arencha?" she asked, tilting her head at Marion curiously. Honestly, she'd assumed Marion couldn't be more than a decade or two newer than she was, so to hear that she had almost half a century on the other demon was quite a surprise. Still, she supposed she should've know better- sure, there were women in law when she passed away, but they were few and far between. So for Marion to have been pushed into a lawyer's career, it would have to be assumed that a woman lawyer was a less unusual concept during her lifetime. Not that it truly mattered though- so long as someone was good company, Jillian didn't much care when they arrived. "Well, that jus' makes your progress all the more impressive then, doesn' it? Already got a pack of souls to your name- jus' imagine where you'll be once you're hit your 50th year here!" she said. Ambition was a positive quality, and it was no less so now that they were in Hell. As they continued to eat and chat, Jillian couldn't help but get the impression the two of them were being watched. So, with the ease of someone who had practice with doing so, Jillian casually slid her eyes to the side, reaching for her phone to conceal her sneaky gaze. The demon was quite obvious, beady eyes starring at them as though attempting to burn a hole. Jillian couldn't be sure what their intentions were, but there was a familiar air of...foulness, to the attention. "We got eyes on us." she said quietly, using her eyes to indicate where the nosy parker way. "Tall guy, green skin, corner table. Ya know him, or is he jus' a creep?"

[multimask]

oh shit giving marion one of the amulets...

[reapersbayif]

Play the demo now! (Last Updated: Feb 2023) // Patreon // Discord

You are the third heir to the throne of Navra, the third born of the Royal House of Vailia.

You were, at least. When you were fourteen a coup sent you and your older sister fleeing while your mother, father, and brother laid dead in the castle you once called home. A new king has taken the throne; Julian Merandis.

She took you to Norwick, the second-largest city in the neighboring kingdom Tetha and the deadliest by far. You're not safe anywhere, especially not here, but your sister wanted the throne returned to your family more than she valued her life.

Norwick has connections to build and the money to make it happen if you know how to play the game.

Your sister ended up dead in Reaper's Bay courtesy of Jansen Hendrick, the man who practically owns the criminal side of Norwick.

Reaper's Bay is an interactive fiction novel in which you are the lost heir of Navra, hiding from those who'd see you dead in a city called Norwick. It's easy to get lost in a place like that, after all. You’ve managed for ten years, at least, before things began to crumble.

Many decisions await you, heir. Just try not to end up like your sister.

Create your character. Customize gender, pronouns, appearance, skills, and personality.

Choose how you feel towards those around you.

Romance any of the eleven characters plus seven poly routes, listed below.

Choose how you fight. Old fashioned swords and daggers, guns, or simply your fists?

Decide your path of revenge. Are you ruthless or benevolent?

Choose exactly how you survived all these years. Was it by becoming an assassin, stealing from the wealthy, running stolen goods for pirates, or clinging to the shreds of your morals and working a normal job?

Marius/Marion de Klerk (he/him or she/her), they're slowly taking over all organized crime on the west side of Norwick. Do they really mean to help you reclaim your throne, or are you just a means to an end?

Elias/Eliana Santos (he/him or she/her), a city guard. They want to bring peace to Norwick and destroy Jansen Hendrick, a leader in organized crime they seem to take a special interest in. They have noble intentions, but how long will it last?

Finley "Finn" Merandis (he/him or she/her), the child of the man who slaughtered your family, yet a victim all the same. The new heir to Navra will soon find that ignoring their anger won't get rid of it.

Jayanta/Jayanti Abbas (he/they or she/they), an acquaintance of yours. You've seen them around town and at the market. You occasionally strike up conversations and they seem to like you well enough. Maybe they can be a reprieve from the madness around you?

Nishant/Nisha Kumar (he/him or she/her), you only hear whispers about them; that they have a deal with De Klerk, selling their stolen goods. Some even go so far as to say they're the curse of the ocean. You wouldn't know, you've never met them.

Adrianus/Adriana van Herten (he/him or she/her), you know their name as well as your own. Before you were even born you were arranged to be married; now they think you're dead and you're not sure who they are anymore.

Kai Martens (they/them), the child of your father's personal guard. Their father was slain the same night as yours, and they vowed to him before he died that they would protect the true heir of Navra. That's you, now.

Mica Fevre (he/him or she/her), they're new to Norwick but you see them around occasionally, making all the money they can to send back home to their mother. They aren't anything special, just someone else trying to get by.

Laurie Visser (he/him), he had tried to help your sister before she was killed and tossed in the bay. He fled Norwick, thinking you were dead as well, but now he’s back with new money and old thoughts of revenge.

Octavian/Octavia Donati (he/him or she/her), the Queen's sibling. King Merandis had his first wife executed to marry Leonie Donati, their older sister. Since then they've acted as her guard to protect her from the cruelties of the man.

Leonie Merandis née Donati (she/her), the Queen. They say the queen is a quiet, melancholy woman who likes to play the harp. Little do they know she was her father’s spymaster and marrying her might be the King’s worst mistake yet.

Striker (he/him), the assassin. His name is yet unknown, his identity belonging to the shadows of the Ellende. Despite his rather bloody job, he seems to have a soft spot for both you and his pet fishes. If you get him on your side, he’s an invaluable ally.

??? (he/him or she/her), the unknown. A shadow from a foreign land come to assess the situation across the sea. They plan on bringing light to the shadows and unearthing secrets Merandis would rather keep buried.

RO Profiles & Playlists

My other interactive fiction projects: @disenchantedif, @theunseelieif, @faewildif, and @fallenlightsif

[froggomcgee]

Thinking about how Jester and Fjord kind of have parallel arcs. Both of them are trying to emulate the person who they look up to most, Marion and Vandran, respectively.

You can see it in the early campaign with Jester when she tries flirting with Fjord, she's trying to be mother. As Laura said in the wrap up, Jester's idea of what people find attractive is Marion, so if Jester acts like Marion then maybe Fjord will find her attractive. But Fjord is not actually into Marion, he likes Jester. When they finally get together, Jester isn't acting like Marion with him. She has to learn that she can be attractive as herself, and that's part of her arc.

Fjord's end is a little more obvious, and in basically everything before Refjorged, Fjord is doing his best to be Vandran. Down to faking a voice. He's trying to be the man he looked up to for most of his life, which is entirely understandable. But Fjord just....wasn't Vandran. And he never needed to be. Fjord's relationship with Caduceus and eventually the Wildmother were instrumental in him realizing that he could be valuable as his own person, and stop trying to be someone else.

Both of them had a story with them learning to be their own people. And I think that part of why the two of them work together so well. Their relationship starts with them being different people, but they always had a safe space with each other where they could perhaps not take the mask off all the way, but at least give themselves some breathing room.

[charmixpower]

Skloom child(teenage years) headcanons 🥺

Omg bestie I don't have oc fankids, I can't get specific. I can try tho 😭😭

Unsurprisingly both of the kids want to take after their parents...and Daphne

The child with the dragon fire was raised around a lot of things about how cool and awesome their mom Grandmother and Daphne where and how badass their powers are and I think the kid would be....not egoistical, but obsessed with becoming the best because of how all the women behind them where amazing

When they official start going to Alfea is when the pressure sets in. Probably ends up becoming a friendly rival with....maybe Aisha's kid? Or Dia's kid. Just someone who their friends with, have been around most of their childhood, and are equally competitive with

Everyone in the school has their eyes on them, but they're used to this at this point. They've been outside before

They work really fucking hard on their magic (much like Stella did) and managed to get their basic manifest before their first year, which is odd

I feel like they'd also be the odd man out for being more masculine than their peers. In what form, idk, but they have Musa/Tecna fashion vibes ok?

Girselda takes great pains, as the new headmaster, to keep the new little headache (affectionate) safe

Of course they'd be the leader of the next gen Winx club, but they'd probably name their club after something else fairys are known for

Flora might be there every now and then as a guest teacher, which they love, bc aunty!!!! Flora!!!!

This child is a bit of a thrill seeker (it runs in the family, Marion and Daphne where uhhh....let's just say the kid gets this trait honestly)

They want to protect the magical dimension the same way their mom did, and is already talking about the Harmonix quest. All the teachers have a headache, and Bloom is trying to get them to calm tf down

They will not calm tf down

Very polarizing to their peers for being a fucking try hard lol

I feel like they'd inherent more of Samara and Daphne's personality which leads them to be both reckless as fuck and cunning to a fault. This child is smart and has the drive to do something really stupid. Frankly it's a horrible combination

The non magical one probably takes more after Bloom and Sky, being kind and protective to the point of getting themselves hurt for just about anyone. Which is a trait Bloom and Daphne inherited from Oritel

They're obviously a star student in RF, having Sky as their dad and help from uncle Helia? Yeah this kid knows what their doing

Didn't inherent the impulsive tendencies Sky and Bloom are known for tho

Did however inherent Bloom's ability not to get scare easily

The siblings break into the stables and take a dragon for a joy ride at least multiple times on Domino....and on Eraklyon

They both try to be princess and prince charming, like their parents seem to be (especially according to the media) but Dragon kid is impulsive, scheming, and reckless with a good loving heart; and their sibling tends to come off as a door mat....they're trying their best to live up to their parents legacy, not understanding that this legacy isn't perfect

With Bloom and co still around, neither of these kids will have to step up in the way that the Winx and the *inset Roxy's group name here* had to, so they learn that it's ok not to be pushing yourself 24/7. That it's not required to be special to be worth love, or to justify their existence

They're just dorky kids with a lot of stuff they think they need to live up to because that's all the media tells them

[professorthaddeus]

batten down the hatches

They’ve gone over the plan a thousand times, yet Fjord can’t help running through it a thousand more. They’ve been preparing for days. There’s still so much they don’t know. 

At some point, Beau nodded off and Essek woke up, and now it’s just the two of them keeping silent vigil over the others.

Essek is a constant wave of motion, gliding slowly around the room, occasionally reaching out a hand to brush against the panels of colored glass. It seems he’s having just as hard a time getting his thoughts to quell. 

At least the movement is a welcome distraction—until he halts, hovering still in the air a few feet away, face unreadable. He pulls out a familiar stone from the folds of his cloak.

Dread settles cold in the pit of Fjord’s stomach.

He may not have Caleb’s perfect memory or sense of time, but he knows. He knows. It hasn’t been nearly long enough for Jester to have replenished the energy she needs to channel her not-quite-a-god’s power, for Yasha to have recovered from her wounds sustained in battle.

Essek’s holding the stone to his ear. The chill spreads until Fjord’s veins are filled with nothing but ice.

To his left, Caduceus stirs, his hand curled loosely around his staff. Ready to defend his family even in sleep. Ready to go down with them all at this site of ancient disaster, even though he has another family waiting for him far from here. He’s always worn duty like it’s a badge of honor. His quiet resolve and faith in the Wildmother’s plans for him have been a consistent source of admiration and inspiration as long as Fjord’s known him.

But tonight, he can’t agree. Death is not an option, no matter what the cards of fate may hold.

Yasha has a hand on her sword as well, and Fjord doesn’t blame her; his own fingers are itching to summon the Star Razor. They’ve all learned to be battle-ready and would die for one another in a heartbeat. But Yasha, more than any of them, has embraced the mantle of protector. 

Fjord only hopes they can watch her six in return, and she’ll survive to soak in the happiness she’s just starting to find.

Speaking of. Jester is curled up by his side, head propped on pillows the cats had brought down for her. None of them had suggested sleeping in their separate rooms tonight. Caleb may have tailored them to be as individually cozy as possible, but there’s nothing more comforting than feeling each other nearby.

As Fjord waits for Essek to deliver the bad news, he can’t stop himself from tucking away a strand of hair that has fallen across Jester’s eyelids. She’s given them all so much—her spells, her strength, her custom-made feast still spread out around them, and more than that, her easy laughter and fierce, endless love. He’s desperately, selfishly relieved that she’s here. But he also can’t stop thinking about her forcing optimism through her teeth before finally faltering.

“I lied to her, Fjord.”

He sets his jaw, tusks poking at his lip. It won’t be a lie. Marion will have her daughter back.

He looks across the room to Beau. Her position is a reflection of his own, sitting up with arms folded, though her chin has dipped to her chest and her shoulders rise and fall in fitful sleep. Not that it makes much of a difference. She’ll be the first one ready at the earliest sign of trouble.

It’s been incredible to see her evolve from someone brash, impulsive, and honestly, a little scrappy—though he’d never say it to her face because she’d punch him into paralysis—to the capable warrior she is now. One who fights tooth and nail for others and is no longer afraid to open her heart to her friends.

“Just thinking about the others.”

“I know. They look to you.”

“Let’s not disappoint.”

Fjord didn’t have a quarter of her bravery when he was her age. Gods, she has so much of her life ahead of her. He’s glad she’s getting a little rest. 

Somewhere out in the dark and cold, Caleb and Veth are sitting awake in the dome, hundreds of feet away from the rest of them.

He almost wants to slip out and find them, take them back to this sanctuary that Caleb has so reverently crafted to keep them safe. It’s wrong that they’re not all together in this final hour.

But no, they are together, because Fjord can feel them, waiting with bated breath just as he is, a prickle of something between anticipation and fear thrumming right under the skin. Maybe Veth is whispering morbid jokes aloud, pretending Caleb can hear her and nudging him every so often to remind him she’s there. Maybe Caleb is preparing to be a soldier again, analyzing every inch of the space ahead of him through Frumpkin’s eyes.

They’re going to be okay. They have each other, and Caleb is more determined than any of them to ensure Veth will walk away from this and return to her husband and child. And though Caleb may have written himself off, Veth never will.

“I’m calling my favor. If it comes to that, you will stop me. Utterly.”

A shiver runs through Fjord’s body. He made a promise, and he intends to uphold it, but it won’t. It won’t come to that.

Essek drifts over, that stone clenched in his grasp. He doesn’t need to say it; Fjord’s already steeling himself as Essek starts to speak.

~

Salt spraying in the air, water sloshing onto the deck. The panicked shouts ringing out amongst the crew are swiftly drowned out by sheets of rain pouring from blackened clouds.

The cresting waves around them are twice the size of their ship. Fjord remembers being awed by the majesty of her sails, the excellent craftsmanship of her hull. It all seems so foolish now. Who are they to think they can fight the sea?

He grits his teeth, the rope burning in his hands as he struggles to keep it from being wrenched away by the winds. “Captain, what do we do? Should we turn back?”

Vandran’s expression is strained, but his voice is strong when he speaks, and his hand is steady where it rests on Fjord’s shoulder.

“We forge ahead. There’s an end to this storm on the horizon, and we’re going to make it to the other side.” 

~

“The rangers have had a sighting. Troop of five approaching. They’re asking if they are to engage.”

Fjord’s gaze flickers once more to his friends. Caduceus. Yasha. Jester. Beau. Veth and Caleb outside, watching their backs. They have to make it. They’re going to make it. They just need more time. 

He looks up, locks eyes with Essek. Sees his grim conclusion mirrored there. 

“Yes.”

—————

also on ao3 | my other cr fics

[peantbutter-honeycombs]

Kids Are a Handful of Love

Summary | Post Campaign, Fjord and Jester are pseudo parents to a little girl that's been traveling with Nein since the start of the campaign when they picked her up on the side of the Amber Rd. Though she doesn't refer to them as her parents and the two aren't married they're doting parents. Both are eager to finally give her a somewhat normal upbringing and provide the childhood they never had.

Author | Full writing credit to, @angelltheninth

Notes | This story was commissioned

Warnings | Fluff

———

When they decided to take an impromptu vacation off the coast of Nicodranas to spend some time with their kid, neither Jester nor Ford could have predicted how much fun it would truly be, or how much such a simple gesture would mean to their child.

She was still so small and new to many things, so of course when the opportunity to experience something for the first time presented itself she was eager to take it. Even if it sometimes ended with a fire or two. Oh well, nothing was permanently damaged. Except for Marius and his clothes. And he may have a few bite scars for life. But other than that Anwen was not a menace, no more than Jester at least.

“Where are we going today?” Anwen looked excitedly between Fjord and Jester as Fjord steered the ship toward the port.

“Nicodranas. We’re visiting Marion today. So make sure to bring her lots of shinies.” Fjord was of course referring to the treasure jewels they found recently, not to the big stash of coin and trinkets that Anwen ehm... borrowed along the way.

Anwen’s smile only widened, which showed off her sharpening dragon teeth, “Okay! I’ll go see and find something really sparkly and pretty!” She put a few jumps in her run as she took off towards the lower deck.

“And you tell me I’m the bad influence.” Jester smirks up at Fjord who only shakes his head, “Not very fatherly of you, blaming me for it.”

“Very funny. I know she’s just exploring, that’s fine, we were both like that when we were kids, I just wanna make sure she’s safe while doing it. You know?”

“For her to know she has us there with her.” Jester finished for him. They shared a knowing look. Fjord nodded, his head turning towards the little girl running up to them, “Exactly.”

“I found it!” Anwen held a big red jewel in hands, almost the size of her head, “It’s red like her.”

Jester knelt down to the little girl and patted her light brown hair, “I’m sure she’ll love it. But how about we put it in the Bag of Holding for now, really make it a surprise?” Anwen seemed a little reluctant, she really liked all things shiny and sometimes found it hard to part with them if it wasn’t on her own terms. But she relented and gave Jester the jewel, which the cleric then put away.

A few minutes later, they were docked in the Port, which was brimming with life. Fishermen offering new goods, posters and people offering and looking for helping hands for future voyages, all kinds of animals hoping to get a few pieces of fresh fish.

Jester and Fjord flanked Anwen and gently took her smaller hands on their bigger ones, “Come on little Bee Up!” They both lifted her up a few inches off the ground, at which Anwen giggled with excitement and kicked her feet before they touched the ground again. They did this a few times more as they walked around the market.

“I thought we were going to see Grandma?”

“We are, we’re just taking a little detour, maybe we can find a few more things for her.” Fjord scanned the market with expert eyes for anything tasty. His smile widened when he found the perfect thing, “Hey Anwen, look over there. See what I see?” Anwen tilted her head in confusion. Jester snickered as she watched her daughter’s eyes light up.

“Ice cream! Can we get some?! Please?” She looked excitedly between the two of them. Fjord and Jester merely smiled down at her and nodded, their smiles widening even more when Anwen’s eyes sparkled in excitement.

It brought them even more joy when the ice cream vendor gave them extra big scoops for being such an adorable family.

“Don’t eat too fast, it will freeze that smart brain of yours.” Jester patted Anwen’s smeared cheeks with a napkin, only for the little girl to go right back to devouring her ice cream. It was gone in a span of minutes, while Fjord and Jester were still halfway through theirs.

Next stop was a small store close to the center of the marketplace. There they bought various scented candles and a big basket, which Jester then arranged and wrapped in a big blue bow.

“What do you think? Will she like it?” The basket was almost comically big, shielding Jester’s head and part of her torso from view.

“I think we went a little hard on the candles there, but other than that yeah.” Fjord gave a thumbs up and immediately regretted his choice of words when he saw the mischievous look on Jester’s face, “There’s a kid here Jester.”

“I wasn’t gonna say it!”

“Say what?” Anwen looked confused but before she could ask again Fjord scooped the little girl up and put her on his shoulders, her hands tangling and fisting into his hair. It didn’t hurt him however, Anwen knew to be careful.

He tilted his head to the side and slightly upwards, “Ready to go see Grandma Marion?”

“Yes! Let’s go!” The little dragon girl pointed excitedly in the direction of the Lavish Chateau.

It wasn’t long before the three found themselves traveling through the currently empty halls and stairways, knocking on Marion’s door and being met with the brightest smile in Nicodranas.

[saphirered]

Hi welcome back! Hope you’re doing well. Random question b4 my request, bc I want to give back as thanks for the great writing: are you a coffee, tea, or hot chocolate/cocoa drinker? I prefer hot chocolate and sweet tea.

How would the m9 respond to an SO/friend with a kid? Where the reader is a single parent with a child of at most 10 years old. Thanks :)

- 🐋

This took a while to write so sorry for that 😅. I'm so glad you like my writing! I love writing for you lot. I'm definitely a hot cocoa person. I hope this one turned out to your liking 😘.

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Caleb:

You never hid the fact you had a child from Caleb, if anything you’re proud of them. Though, you do know in certain company it’s better to keep that fact a secret for safety reasons. Caleb understands that fully he respects and admires you always put your child’s best interests first.

This is why when you began getting more involved with Caleb you kept your child out of it and took a good amount of time before introducing them to the wizard. You didn’t want to set expectations for both sides and wanted to protect and preserve them both should what you and Caleb had going not work out after all.

It’s no surprise Caleb is good with children. He takes a gentle approach when it comes to all things good in this world to the point of almost being afraid to ‘ruin it’. You assured him many times he was in the clear and how could his heart not warm at the curiosity and search for knowledge your child was already displaying.

With your permission Caleb began teaching your child some things here and there. The theoretics of magic and eventually simple spells. The smile it brought to their faces while they worked couldn’t make you happier. Caleb definitely earned your child’s approval to stick around.

Beau:

At first Beau is surprised. She knows children come from somewhere of course. She’s not stupid but actually tying a child to their parent let alone being very close to that parent is a whole new story. Especially learning you raised your child on your own and seeing you want to provide what’s best for them definitely earns you her respect, not having a parent with the same motivation herself and all.

The day of introductions came along and as expected Beau is the most awkward, trying not to be a terrible influence and be on her best behaviour, makes her very much on edge. An perceptive child picking up on this awkward behaviour calling her out leaving her cursing like a sailor, then apologising for said curses, even less of a surprise. You had to assure her many times it was fine.

Beau makes a promise that no matter what, she’ll make sure you’ll be returning to your child and make sure they get the love and support they deserve. Growing up without loving parents is one thing. Growing up an orphan another. She’d do everything in her power to keep you safe.

It may have began with joking comments such as ‘finish your homework’ to ‘do the dishes’ and ‘be nice to your parent while I’m gone’ but it didn’t take long before Beau was helping them with their homework or cleaning dishes after you cooked.

Absolutely treats your child as someone capable of making decisions of their own and speaking for themselves. No baby voices or cooing like too many adults tend to do even to a child regardless of their age. Your child has thoughts and opinions of their own and for the love of all that is sacred, can speak for themselves. You’re glad Beau treats them with a sense of maturity.

Fjord:

Fjord may have done what can only be referred to as a spit take the moment you said you had a child. Clearly didn’t expect it but giving him time to recover and process he’d ask all sorts of questions. What are they like? What do they like? And of course the dreaded question about your partner.

Supportive Fjord for the win. After finding out you’re on your own he’d always have your back, checking in with you and making sure you’re doing alright amidst the stress of the world and raising a child in the mix of it all. He’d open up to you about his past and being raised without any kind of proper parental figure. What he wouldn’t have done to have someone like you around when it counted for him.

Introducing them went rather smoothly. Fjord is surprisingly good with children. While some might find him intimidating, he nearly melted when your child embraced him as a thank you for looking out for you. Fjord was happy to answer any and all questions your child asked.

Whenever you’d be swept away for a while having to leave your child in the care of your trusted ones, Fjord would tell your child to ‘have the wheel, sailor’ which they would return with a salute before biding you both goodbye. Fjord slowly transcended into a bit of a father role and none of you minded in the least. You were happy.

Veth:

When she spoke of her boy she left behind you pitied her. A child shouldn’t be without their family. They deserved to be loved and sheltered from the darkness of the world until they are ready. When you told her you had one of your own Veth really felt safe to confide in you with her worries and troubles. You bonded over it really, drowning out all the sad stories and struggles with fond memories of both your families. Sadly for you, that would only extend to you and your child, the memories of their other parent perhaps somewhat painful to share.

You wondered what it would be like if your children ever got to meet in person. Then the day came. Nicodranas really had a way of bringing families together didn’t it? First time may have been a bit strange, your child being fully aware of Veth’s need for a disguise with her son, played their part well. Both you and Veth may have wiped away some tears when Luc claimed your child their big sibling from now on, and you his third parent.

Work and life are a difficult combination for Veth. She wants nothing more than to be with Yeza and take care of her boy but as long as the world’s in peril and her other family needs her just as much if not more, she’ll have to leave them behind. Knowing that you and your child are with her husband and son when she can’t be eases her mind a lot and she’s forever grateful.

It goes unsaid that Veth’s time away from children and in the presence of adults, specifically the Mighty Nein may have left her a bit out of the routines of raising a child as shown by giving Luc and your child fireworks, promising them to teach them how to shoot a crossbow and more. You did have to hold her back a little with the help of Yeza and keep things a bit more contained for their safety, but mostly yours.

Jester:

Of course upon learning you’re raising your child all by yourself Jester goes onto a rant about how her and her mom were always alone and how Marion used to read stories to her and do you read stories to your child and do you sing to them and draw with them and give them hugs and cuddles after nightmares and… You have no idea how that girl doesn’t run out of breath.

Jester couldn’t be anyone but herself when meeting your child asking about their interests, do they like to draw and sing and dance and… You ran out of breath just listening to her talk and your child replying in similar fashion. Everything went quite well and the two of them got along. Jester would be singing them songs and teaching them how to draw resulting in many dick drawings randomly appearing in your books, notes and other places, followed by mischievous giggles.

Having bought your child a lovely green cloak and letting them pretend they’re the Traveler here to spread mischief and fun and leave behind many phallic shaped objects drawn and carved wherever possible sent you all in laughing fits but you swore you heard a more masculine chuckle and saw a green cloak fade into the shadows. Odd.

What only can be summed up as the combination between big sibling, fun wine cupcake aunt and mom, remained a constant in your life and you couldn’t be more thankful to have that ray of sunshine be there for all of you.

Caduceus:

Caduceus is very calm and collected about learning you have a child. Less of a response than perhaps anyone else perviously unknowing. “That’s nice.” He’d nod. You’d almost start thinking he may have been able to read it off you for some reason. He confirmed he was, the tired eyes, and the recovery of exasperation at times but sense of accomplishment and reward was a look he had seen from his own mother many times.

“You’re weird.” A stare down ensued. “You’re weird too.” Eyes sharpened. “I like you.” The ice broke and smiles followed. For a moment you were afraid that maybe your child wouldn’t like the odd firbolg and thinking about how you would keep friends and family separate but a wave of relief went over you knowing that all was well between the two most valuable people in your life.

You’d be handed a fresh cup of tea by your child, a plate of snacks by Caduceus, all too innocent smiles on their faces but all it took was a raised eyebrow from you to have them come clean about the kitchen being covered in soil from the two of them potting new plants, turning your home and garden in what can only be described as a greenhouse and rather ask for forgiveness than permission. You weren’t mad of course, but did make them clean the mess they made.

You’re still unsure whether or not it was a good or bad idea introducing your child to the extended Clay family as you got some insight in the chaotic prank wars between the siblings and all together sibling rivalry among some of them. It’s all fun and games of course but some moments you were glad you weren’t the one pelted with mud pies by Calliope or pushed into the spring by Calliope herself. Instead you could just enjoy Clarabelle’s bug collection with your child while laughing at the other’s being covered in mud and soaked to the bone.

Yasha:

Poor Yasha doesn’t recall much of a family. In reality she never really felt like she had one until the circus, and after them the Nein. When she saw you and your child together, the unconditional love you had for each other, she felt like she finally realised what she had been missing, and something she perhaps would never have. She learned the value of such a relationship.

Yasha has no idea how to interact with children at any level and by default tends to treat them as either adults, or cute animals. No in between. It took her some time to get the hang of it but you couldn’t deny both you and your child rather enjoyed the unconventional relationship.

The wastes and hardships of Xhorhas may force a child to grow up quickly in the tribes but that doesn’t mean children outside of those regions have to learn how to wield a sword and what bugs you can and cannot eat or how to best skin an animal before eating it… It took some convincing why that was not a necessary skill to learn at the tender age of ten.

You compromised with Yasha on the fighting in the end, persuaded by the woman and your child to allow her to teach them some fighting basics because someone’ has to have your back when Yasha’s not there. You did manage to hold them off on purchasing a sword perhaps too large for your child despite the ‘they’ll grow into it’ reasoning and instead settled on training equipment instead.

Mollymauk:

Oh Mollymauk, nothing surprises this one. He felt rather sorry for you going through the struggles of raising a child alone. He may not remember his own family but he’s traveled far and wide enough to know the hardships. He knows poor Toya and he admires you for being able to do what so many can’t or won’t.

It goes unsaid that Molly is perhaps the worst of influences when it comes to people but you’ve seen him interact with Toya before and know well enough he’s a kind and caring soul who wants only the best for those who can’t just yet fend for themselves. It’s a good foundation that leads to a better person. He jokingly claims himself proof of that through the carnival and him ‘being an absolute asshole’.

Molly’s soft side really does come out whenever he’s around your child. He doesn’t deliberately censor himself but tries to contain certain words and avoid certain subjects that should never be discussed around your child knowing you’d appreciate it and if he does let something slip and your child ask questions he’d gently explain it as certain things should definitely not be described in gory detail to someone of their age.

This circus man is not afraid to put on a show in any circumstance and will happily do so to cheer you or your child up whenever you’re feeling a bit down or overworked. Whether he’s making a fool of himself, giving you bogus card readings, juggle his swords or tell the most ridiculous stories ever he’d do it without a second thought because it brings you and your child joy. You’re part of his family and he’d go to hell and back again for you.