#barely using main tags outside of reblogs

[pynkhues]

https://www.tumblr.com/pynkhues/763036611208527872/its-funny-that-you-talk-abt-the-interracial?source=share

Yeah what? You've been really clear that NEITHER is the wife, because they're both cis men. And I agree that people can get a little weirdly hung up on one of them being the woman, somehow, which feels different from exploring "feminine" qualities either or both might have.

Thank you, and yeah. It does feel like a pretty selective and bad faith reading of what I've written, and I kinda suspect from how they've written what they have that they might be an anon who's sent me a few asks now? Which leaves me a little bemused that anyone might follow this blog that specifically for haterism given I'm pretty under the radar in this fandom, haha.

[hoshinasblade]

second best |1| hoshina soshiro

PART 1 | PART 2 | BONUS: PART THREE

DISCLAIMER: this fic has a detail that hasn't been mentioned in the anime yet. it isn't a big give-away but if you are sensitive about that kind of thing, please do not proceed. pairing: hoshina soshiro x f!reader genre: slight angst, comfort, childhood friends to lovers, a bit of that miscommunication trope snippet: hoshina soshiro always ranks second at everything in his life. god forbid he falls behind in the bid for your heart too. word count: 3K trigger warnings: author's note: this fic has two parts - part 2 will be posted a week from today :) likes, replies, and reblogs are always appreciated but please do not repost or steal my writings. this is quite long, but i gotta make you guys work for it. i have also set up a taglist for the second part and the other fics or drabbles, please sign up if you wanna be tagged! as always, feel free to let me know what you think or give me a prompt by sending me an ask here!

hoshina soshiro can claim with extreme conviction that he rarely regrets the decisions he has made so far in his life.

from the time he has set his sights on taking the aptitude exam necessary to be recruited in the anti-kaiju defense force, to following captain ashiro mina to support her as the vice-captain of the third division, to religiously adhering to his daily routine of working out even during his off days so he can stay in peak condition - everything he's done is driven by soshiro's lone motivation: to rise and come on top.  

unfortunately, as he sees you walking in the hallway of the training building with his brother, soshiro realises that this is one of those rare occurrences where he hopes he gets a do-over.

it was barely 6 in the afternoon so there was still light from outside; the rays of the setting sun penetrating the transparent windowpanes cast an orange glow to the furniture in soshiro's office. it made him remember how he used to always be assigned as the student to clean the classroom back in junior high school: he would sweep first then rearrange the chairs before closing the windows and drawing down the curtains. he would rush up to the rooftop, in time to watch the sun dip below the horizon. he would stay for a few precious minutes, dreaming of a chance to get out of their town. he was fifteen then.

soshiro shook his head a bit. he decided that today - of all days - will not be when he will have a trip down memory lane. yes, despite the number of times he would get reminded of his past today, he refuses to get sidetracked.

the floor is eerily silent, save for the momentary opening and closing of doors; soshiro is aware that almost everyone has left, flocking to the local izakaya not too far from the base to celebrate. he had half the mind to prompt himself to hurry up in order to make it to the get-together on time. the long and gruelling application process took three months before the vetting could begin, but finally, the third division of japan anti-kaiju defense force honoured its new officers that morning. as the nominated head of the selection committee, he oversaw the entire thing, and at the end, he could not help but to feel confident that their force would become stronger from here - this year their roster of applicants boasts high-profile names like that of the very daughter of jakdf's director general and the young master of the prestigious izumo family.

okonogi, sitting in front of him at his office, was sorting the personal forms of the recruits, a big stapler in her right hand. "i can take care of this, vice-captain", she said to him, "they cannot miss you there."

soshiro smupled to his swivel chair, obviously fatigued by the task he and okonogi had been trying to finish for half an hour already. fighting and defeating kaiju is the main part of the job, but handling the paperwork proves to be as challenging. "right, make sure the headquarters get this by the morning along with the report of all their numbers -" the sound of footsteps nearby interrupted soshiro's train of thought.

there were three loud knocks and the door opened, a man with the same eyes as soshiro peeping inside. even okonogi glanced over her shoulder to identify who the intruder is. soshiro stood up.

"just wanted ta drop by before i head back ta himeji", hoshina soichiro's undeniable accent dripped. spotting the huge pile of forms littering the desk, he commented, "seems like ya are a little preoccupied though."

"hoshina fuku taichou, good evening." your voice was firm yet jovial as you greeted him, the kansai inflection rolling off your tongue. you appeared beside soshiro's brother, still wearing the same standard-issue uniform you wore during the event several hours ago when you were sworn in as a new defense force officer. the outfit is snug on you - soshiro had noticed at the ceremony earlier, but up close the top looked almost skintight, the skirt coming up a little above your knees. soshiro can be a high-ranking official within the force, but he is also a man. if only briefly, he stared. "aren't ya going ta the party?"

taken aback that you would drop by his office, it was out of his mouth too fast he couldn't stop it - "how about ya? what are you still doing here with him?" soshiro responded pointedly at you, throwing you the same query but not answering what you asked him. it was too late to take it back; he sounded like he was interrogating you about your presence with the captain of the sixth division. soichiro winced; soshiro pretended not to see. "i- i was just thinking ya went with the officers on the way there", he added, calmer this time.

"oh, i was just catching up with hoshina-kun", you replied without missing a beat. soshiro doesn't know if the accidental force in his question just seconds prior did not intimidate you at all or you simply ignored his tone. "i mean with soichiro-kun. considering ya are hoshina too", you chuckled. soshiro stole a glance at the man at your side while maintaining an empty expression. he found his brother smirking at him; soshiro willed himself not to picture soichiro as an ugly kaiju with a butt for a face.

okonogi who is now attentively eavesdropping on your conversation caught your attention. "pardon for the bother, hoshina-san. we'll be off now."

for an instant, it looked like you were waiting for soshiro to say something in response. to say what, he doesn't know. the eye contact between you and him held up for a moment but broke as quick as it began. tension prickled in the air briefly then ebbed as you turned away from soshiro. "i'll see ya at the party, vice-captain", you gave him a bow before exiting the room. soshiro wanted to stop you; he didn't.

soichiro sighed. "it was nice seeing ya, 'lil bro", he addressed soshiro, his hand patting the latter's shoulder once, twice. "i have paperwork ta worry about too so as much as i'd like to, i won't be able ta attend your division's party. just in case ya want ta know." soshiro didn't look like he had a crumb of interest to know about his brother's occupational responsibilities; he shrugged soichiro's hand off.

soshiro saw you standing outside, leaning on the wall, when he ushered his brother out. "i'll be driving her to the izakaya though", soichiro informed him. "ya should visit our folks when ya have the time. ya should come home sometimes", soichiro continued, a hint of concern evident in his voice. when soshiro did not respond, surprisingly the older hoshina did not look a tiny bit disappointed. instead, soichiro put on a charming smile and waved at okonogi. "okonogi-chan, see ya around!" he tossed a playful wink at her.

soshiro merely watched as you and soichiro walked together, your pace matching his. a few meters away, he saw you listening intently to something soichiro was saying - he is too close - and although he is not within earshot to hear what is being said anymore, he knows it is another one of his brother's bad jokes. it looks like you were trying to suppress it, but a smile was about to dawn on your lips. soshiro felt sick to his stomach all of a sudden.

the party was already in full swing when soshiro arrived - everyone is hungrily feasting on the expensive wagyu beef, drinks flowing endlessly from the bar. everyone is enjoying themselves; even captain ashiro mina can be seen having small talk with the newly sworn-in officers who were eagerly taking notes from her.

you had easily made friends with the other rookies who are now sitting next to you; it was thanks to your group that this event was planned - after enduring long sessions of strenuous physical training every day of every week, you all deserved a night of everyone just gathering to have a good time. soshiro seems to be exempt from the festive atmosphere though.

he picked the seat next to his captain, who greeted him with a curt nod. he proceeded to grab the mug of beer served to him; the first sip registered a sharp bitterness through his mouth but soshiro relished on the flavor as it overtook his senses.

"everything alright?" captain ashiro from his side asked without lifting her gaze from her own drink. "you are being -" she paused, carefully searching to find the right words, “uncharacteristically quiet.”

soshiro picked the glass of beer again, and when he was about to put the lid on his lips, he could sense someone’s intense stare locked on him. years of being the vice-captain gifted him with equal parts instinct and paranoia so he could not help but scan the room, only to find you, sitting across the room, watching him with a curious expression.

a rowdy group of rookies surrounds you; they are high-fiving each other, laughing at their silly pranks, not minding that all of you are squeezed together at a crowded circle. soft music in the background swelled as everyone cheered and clinked glasses.

soshiro's eyes remained fixed on yours, lasting for what he felt like forever. the buzz of chatter dulled to a distant hum, fading into an almost white noise. his heart raced as he felt his breath catch and his mouth go dry. the corner of your lips curved into a smile and maybe it is the alcohol in his system, but he is certain his cheeks are flushed now.

"huh", captain ashiro lowly exclaimed. soshiro quickly snapped a glance at her. "you talked to her yet?" she asked him. ah, she caught his little moment with you.

soshiro was on the verge of playing it cool and putting on an act; he was about to outright lie to his captain by saying "talk to who?" as if he had no idea what she was referring to. he settled with silence. he was grateful his non-response only earned him a sigh from the captain who did not press the topic any further.

 "to you newbies, congratulations!" captain ashiro raised her glass, still half-filled with alcohol. her voice rang out over the place, everyone's conversations immediately falling quiet. "may the third division always be victorious in our battles to come", she recapped her speech.

the party showed no signs of slowing down. hibino kafka, a recruit in his thirties has been the centre of intrigue that has spanned for weeks now. hibino ossan - as what the others nicknamed him - had revealed in a bathroom conversation with other male rookies that he grew up with captain ashiro. ashiro mina likes dried squid; ashiro mina used to raise pets in grade school - everyone consumed any and every tidbit of trivia hibino disclosed about the usually stoic and serious third division commander. soshiro was among those invested in the rumor and you knew why. for a while, you also wondered how he would react once the rest of the troops learned about your own past with their vice-captain. would he deny it? or would he brush off any potential gossip that may arise from the revelation? if everyone discovered your shared history with hoshina soshiro, would it make him want to reconnect with you?

“you lot will start duty monday next week, but tomorrow will just be another workday for vice-captain hoshina and i”, captain ashiro said, having stood up from her seat, preparing to take off. “no, you can stay”, she said to some of the newbies who have started to get up too.

“nah, captain, why don’t we bring them along to help us file all the tedious paperwork?”, soshiro interjected in his familiar upbeat tone. the crew bursted into snickers; captain ashiro gave soshiro a perplexed look, obviously puzzled about the sudden shift in his mood. testing her theory, she looked at your direction.

captain ashiro couldn't make out why, but you were giggling at whatever your seatmate had said, elegant hand covering your mouth, eyes crinkled. she understood soshiro then - she was not foreign to feeling uneasy inside when she sees someone so physically near someone she cares about after all. "let's go, hoshina", she tucked her pity for the vice-captain away.

"do you guys think they are dating?" a particularly tactless rookie sitting at your table had asked immediately after captain ashiro and hoshina were out the sliding doors.

"i bet they're not", you blurted out a little too soon, a little too sure. you did not mind clipping your accent, your kansai-ben thick and heavy. your fellow officers looked at you, expecting an explanation for your outburst. "i mean -" you stuttered, "that would be awkward, i guess."

"you know to think of it, you're from himeji too, right?" a few more recruits have started to listen in on the exchange. these people can smell the truth off me, you thought. you wanted to smack yourself in the face.

"we went ta the same high school together, that's all", you admitted, feeling backed in a corner. tomorrow when you get questioned for this imprudent behavior, you can probably blame it all on the alcohol. "and grade school", you continued, loose-lipped now.

you still liked wearing pink bows in your hair when you met him. an only child of kind parents, you never experienced having to ask for something you like; you were doted on and spoiled so you were reasonably upset when a young hoshina soshiro did not give you the time of his day. your family has just moved to hyogo shortly before that, and you were anxious to make friends; since your early age, you had made it your mission to make soshiro acknowledge you.

"you dun wanna play with me, because ya are stupid", you told soshiro-kun once. "oka-san said all boys are stupid", you had the nerve to elaborate after he pouted at you, his unkempt bangs sticking on his sweaty forehead, his clothes dirty from training all day.

"yer pretty", he responded and you felt the blush crept up on your cheeks. "pretty annoying."

"come on, spill some tea!" someone's palm connected with the table, jolting you out of your trance. "we have another hibino-senpai situation on our hands!" they declared, grabbing you by the arm and shaking you a bit. if it was meant to encourage you to tell more childhood tales between you and the vice-captain, it worked really, really well.

"he's always had that haircut even as a kid", you said, misinterpreting the kind of story your companions wanted you to tell, judging by their disappointed looks. “i- i don’t know what else to tell you guys”, you held up your hand in surrender.

“do you have a crush on him?” you choked on your drink, caught off guard.

vexed at his absent-mindedness, soshiro was walking back to the izakaya place alone when he heard the commotion. he is going straight to bed once he gets back to the base, but he would have to retrieve his uniform jacket first from his seat earlier.

“you totally do, don’t you!” it stopped sounding like a question and more of an accusation you could not deny. “you like hoshina-san!”

“i -i do, yes... but what of it, huh?" he couldn’t see you but he would recognize the soft timbre of your voice anywhere. soshiro felt like a victorian gentleman getting a glimpse of a woman’s ankle for the first time listening in on the uproar of cheers after your confession.

“the three of us attended the same high school, soichiro-kun was a grade ahead”, you said. soshiro froze. you are talking about his brother. “he has always been good at everything, t'was hard not ta like him.”

soshiro closed his eyes, attempting to steady his breathing. he always had his suspicions - for the ceremony earlier his brother even took a day off his busy schedule as the commander of the sixth division to attend as a guest. he should have known.

last year, soshiro’s squad fought a lizard-type kaiju with a fortitude of above 8. like the reptile, a cut made on any of its limbs was useless due to advanced regeneration. a fractured rib, extremely bruised arms, and a dislocated shoulder were what it costed soshiro to win against the monster. his bitterness threatening to consume him, he cannot believe that you confirming his worst fears would hurt more than that fatal experience.

of course, he said to himself. it’s not like he can fault you for liking soichiro - everyone did. as the firstborn son, their father always had favored him. soichiro has been the more skilled swordsman between them; he was the golden child, charismatic and talented with an effortless charm - like moths to a flame he would attract people, and even in his silence he would overshadow soshiro.

soshiro didn’t stand a chance against his own flesh and blood.

he was a teenager when he dreamed of running away from the constant but inevitable competition he had with his brother. scouted for the third division, he relished on the freedom. but how do you escape the reality of the one you love loving the one person you could never measure up to?

[officialdaydreamer00]

Marionette on a string

in which your significant other was dragged to a local theatre to see your performance on stage

pairing: (slight) idia shroud x actress!yuu/reader

contents: long drabble, lower case intended, the title should be used for my angstier ideas i swear lmao, a tiny pinch of fluff, reader is yuu and yuu is reader, gender neutral reader and narrated by you/yours, irene losing their mind over ride the cyclone (2016 cast specifically) and decided to add it in their fic, just idia and ortho reacting to the musical :D mainly idia

★ the daydreamer speaks — my third entry for my tumblr sister @cloudcountry's sweet shroud summer 2024!! disposing the worms bc they block my path to temporary shut down :D

do i tag? yes, i do. my main idia liker: @edith-is-a-cat, others: @identity-theft-101 @ferris-the-wheel @xen-blank @twistwonderlanddevotee @loser-jpg @lemonchuu @escha-evenstar @dove-da-birb

remember to comment or reblog if you enjoy my work!!

"Ortho, when will Yuu-shi show up on stage?"

"Should be in a few minutes, brother!"

idia briefly question his life decisions when ortho barged into his room, then proceeded to drag him out through the bustling streets of sage island. he could barely heard him mentioning something about you, what with acting and the local theatre.

well, he was about to find out.

as they both sat down in the darkened room, idia suddenly felt conscious about his fire hair glowing, a bit anxious with the judging eyes of others in the room, and pulled up his hoodie hood. he thanked the seven for the small amount of people in the room, which was less than he would expected there to be.

ortho whispered to him information he needed to know about the musical. about the summary, the characters, and the cast, to which he was pleasantly surprised to see you in the role of jane doe.

so an unidentifiable person, he noted, keeping an eye out to see your performance.

after a while, the narrator presented the final person, and you appeared in all your doll-lile glory, taking the spotlight. it was an unsettling introduction, he'd give you that.

the show went on, and idia's gaze never left you. your fellow actors and actresses did a great job with their own songs, which were quite a whiplash of emotions with how quickly the songs changed genres.

and then came your song.

and oh dear sevens, your voice.

"... Woah. "

"Yuu-san is amazing, aren't they, big brother?"

"Yeah... They really are..."

it was hauntingly beautiful, yet melancholic and painfully emotional, it sent chills down his spine. he couldn't imagine you could hit all those high notes, yet you did them so well. though, he only took his eyes off of you for a second, and you were already in the air, flying all over the place.

confusion was an understatement, but he brushed it off in favour of vibing to your, now that he thinks about it, kind of messed up song. he couldn't help but be enraptured by your stellar performance.

the show ended with a light and hopeful song, and a familiar melody as a callback to its opening. he was a bit disappointed that it was over, but he quite enjoyed it.

ortho noticed his brother's little smile. he smiled behind his mask, satified with the result.

mission "get idia outside" was a success!

[pianostarinwonderland]

maybe skully isnt dead 🤯 [half copium half srs]

listen. ik ive been on copium for a while. ik we all are, ive seen twitter, tumblr, and everyone’s tags on my posts when they reblog

BUT PLS HEAR ME OUT. IM SO SERIOUS RN WHEN I SAY: if u wanna be technical about it, if u wanna stretch it out somehow, you can argue that the game never outright states that skully is dead, only that the skully we met was from hundreds of years ago.

“but mamsir pianostarinwonderland, how in the fuck can that be???? we HEARD that invisible kiss” LET ME COOKKKKKK 🔥🔥🔥 I SWEAR EVERYONE, I AM COOKING U JUST HAVE TO HEAR ME OUUUUUUUUUUUUUT— knocked out

Ok serious time, let me mansplain to you all the possibility of Skully being alive

Establishing first of all, Twst has kept Skully's nature vague

Simply put: we don't know if Skully is human. In his live 2D, Skully's ears are completely covered. Even in his illustration, we can barely see his ears. It's an interesting design choice. However, in his chibi (which wasn't revealed until Episode 5), we can see his ears aren't shaped like a fae, but are round like that of a human.

However, it's pretty hard to think he's human either, when we consider his "moshi, ne moshi" greeting in Episode 1 and its connection to the supernatural. Voiced, to be noted. Exactly what kind of creature he could be is currently unknown, but because this part was voiced, it's something we need to pay attention to at the very least.

In regards to his mortality, the only clue we're really given is Skully himself saying that he may never meet us except through Halloween, which implies a lifespan similar to a human or something similar. But Skully doesn't know how far into the future that the cast is from. Heck, does he even know of his nature?

Now, addressing that invisible kiss...

I feel like this is the main thing that told all of us that Skully is long gone. Heck, if you catch me in my right mind, I might just tell you that yeah, that should be enough proof that Skully is dead! Little signs from the dead such can manifest in similar ways to what Jamil and Leona sensed: hearing a kiss and feeling a kiss on your hand.

(unfortunately i'm not in my right mind so you're getting my dumb reasons why i'm arguing for otherwise)

However, if Skully is gone, I find it interesting that this is the way they decide to show it. We already know from the very first Halloween event that ghosts can manifest all year round in Night Raven College due to the high concentration of magical power in the area. Outside of that, they cannot be seen. If they really wanted to confirm with the audience that Skully is a ghost, they could have had him appear as such at the end, when they all returned to Night Raven College.

But they chose a scenario where people can draw a lot of conclusions from it: Is their senses getting fucked over as they wake up? Are they still reeling from the magic of the book? (though rationally, we know that Leona is not one to be easily stunned, so the first question is at the very least easy to dismiss)

I've also seen some people theorize that he's using invisibility magic during the invisible kiss scene. And well, while I find that funny, it makes me wonder if he could be some other kind of spirit that's not dead. Like an undead of some sort, which the residents of Halloween Town are. Heck, Azul's card line about Skully talks about how he seems to fit right at home with the Halloween Town residents. Again, we don't know Skully's true nature, but the possibility of him being a species that can turn invisible is interesting.

Moving on, we have what Dire Crowley stated about Skully

At the end of the event, Crowley tells us that he found Skully’s portrait while rummaging through the storage and shows it to us and the 11 boys who went inside the book

What he tells us is that Skully J. Graves is a NRC graduate from hundreds of years ago, before Crowley was Headmage. Note that he only was appointed for the position 100 years ago; the Skully we met is at least from around 200 years ago. During his NRC years, Skully got to share Halloween to NRC. It was a hit, and when he graduated, he spread Halloween all over the world in his travels.

I'd like to take a little detour first to discuss something that's been weighing on my mind: Some people have thought that Crowley is lying to us when he speaks about Skully and his achievements, but... I don't see why he would lie. For one, there is a decent chance that Crowley might not have gotten to see Skully. Even if he did, it's even more unsure if he was involved in Skully's affairs.

However, there's one main reason why I do think that Skully got to live a fulfilling life instead of facing an overblot that killed him or some other tragedy. I'd like to dedicate a longer post to this matter, but to make it concise, I think through Skully, Twst is starting to establish something new regarding their history. I think that historical teachings, folktales and stories, and rumors that are well-known tend to be lies or twisted truths. Whereas those that are obscure and not known are actually what occurred. Skully is called the King of Halloween who's done so much to spread the holiday to the world, yet not even NRC students, who should be the first to know considering that Skully is an alumna, know of him. Although there may be other reasons why that's the case, I like to think that at the very least, Skully's obscurity indicates that he did live the life he wanted and succeeded in working for a future that generations after him can enjoy.

Anyway, that actually isn't the main point of this section of the post, but I kind of want to air that out first. The main point is that Crowley only really said that Skully is a former NRC student from hundreds of years ago who traveled around the world to spread Halloween. But he never told us where he was buried or whether he saw his ghost roaming NRC. He never said anything about Skully being dead.

He probably said the hundreds of years ago bit, carrying the assumption that of course, Skully may have passed away. But we have to remember that we have long-living species in Twisted Wonderland. Fae that were students 200 years ago are very likely to be alive now. Crowley himself is a long-living creature, having been Headmage for 100 years. I think with that in mind, it's important for him to emphasize that Skully's gone if he really is. But he never mentioned it. Therefore, there is a good chance that Skully might just be somewhere else. That or Crowley just doesn't give a fuck where his alumni go, and I might be thinking too deeply about the absence of certain words. Honestly, that's a pretty good chance too.

Lastly, we have the scene where Jack Skellington gets shot down but survives it

Here's where it gets a bit more into speculation, but you're going to have to hear me out.

In the movie, Jack Skellington gets shot down by the military for impersonating Santa Claus. When the Halloween Townspeople watched it, they all despaired, and the mayor started declaring to all that Jack has been blown to smithereens and proclaimed him dead.

But that's not what happened: we find Jack landing on an angel's statue, alive and definitely not blown to smithereens.

And considering that Skully is still very much twisted from Jack Skellington... do you think the writers are pulling a similar move? Making us think that he's dead, just as the townspeople thought he was dead, only for us to learn eventually that he's alive.

This of course depends on what happens eventually in the sequel. From the way things are proceeding, what happened in the Lost in the Book with TNBC is events prior to the movie, and we could very well have the sequel be set during the movie events. (If you ask me, I kind of doubt that actually. I feel like Skellington got inspired by Skully's love for Halloween, enough to stay true to his identity as the Pumpkin King, which would mean the movie wouldn't happen the way we know it. So if anything, I feel like TNBC 2 would focus less on the actual movie and more on the side games where Oogie takes over Halloween Town and even kidnaps Santa and other people, but I admit, that's a stretch, especially considering that we will get Santa giving Halloween Town a taste of Christmas)

Of course, this post is really just to let some of my copium out. Rn, it's still safe to assume that yea, Skully's dead. And though I am coping hard for Skully to be alive, with the way Twst treats the dead, it's not exactly a bad thing. Ghosts continue to stay in NRC like they're living people. They honor the dead, and let the dead live among them. And even if he is in the afterlife and not stuck in the mortal plane, I have faith that Skully did live a fulfilling life that may have been forgotten but clearly changed the world. :'D

[mothdruid]

Within the past 72 hours the TGM fandom got a fire put under it's ass, for lack of a better term/phrase. Even though I'm not as active in the fandom anymore, it did make me want to talk about a few things. This isn't the first time that I've had to make a post similar to this, usually speaking about reblogs and keeping your fanfic writers feeling wanted within the fandom spaces, but today I'm going to talk more about fandom etiquette and my experiences in fandom spaces. So, if you want to hear my opinion on fandom etiquette, how I learned fandom etiquette, and my thoughts about the doxing situation that has happened, keep on reading.

My Fandom Experience.

The first fandom that I was ever a part of was The Hunger Games fandom in the 8th grade (if you don't include my anime fandoms). I was 12-13 at the time. This was when I was first introduced to Tumblr and being involved within a fandom online. At the time I was super young, barely even knew who I was as a person, let alone in a fandom space. All I did was reblog little gifsets and fawn over Josh Hutcherson. I remember getting my first hate anon, even though I didn't do anything that would generate that to even happen. Even when I was 12-13, I couldn't understand why anyone would send a hate anon. That was when I found out a friend of mine found my Tumblr and actually secretly hated me, so she sent me hate anons. Still, before I knew it was her I didn't understand.

Fandoms were a formative part of my childhood. I think that main one that helped form me though was the Supernatural (yeah, I know, eye roll), Naruto, and The Hobbit fandoms. I had made friends on Tumblr and Instagram through these fandoms. During these times was when I had first started consuming fanfiction. Specifically, destiel and thilbo fanfiction. This is how I started to find the things in fanfiction that I loved, and the things that I hated. Instead of sending hate to the writers for their thoughts and stories that I didn't agree with, I would back out of the story or just scroll past. Not only that, I also started to use the filters on AO3 constantly, ensuring that I was only reading the fics that I knew I'd enjoy. Also, I was careful to read warnings and tags prior to reading the fic. Never once did I blame the writer for something that I knew I didn't like and accidentally read or read for see what it was about.

After high school was when I started getting into fanfiction writing. I've written for a lot of fandoms during this time. The IT movies, Total Drama, Haikyuu, Attack on Titan, Marvel, Bridgerton, Top Gun: Maverick, and currently ASOIAF. As a writer I've never gotten hate, thankfully, but I have had a lot of friends that have. It's sad to see so many people who take the time to write, whether it's enjoyable or not, receive hate. As writers we are simply expressing our creativity for the things that we love. Since posting fanfiction on tumblr, I have experienced a lot of people pestering for new updates and when the next fic is, and so have a lot of other writers on here. Even though people only know us as a little icon and username, fanfiction writers are people. We have lives outside of writing fanfiction. Everyone also isn't the same type writer. One person may easily write multiple fics every week, some of us take longer, and some of us are even just passion writers (me lol).

The TGM fandom has been one of the most negative fandom experiences I've ever seen/had. It is full of some of the meanest people/anons I've ever seen. From writers being attacked for fic ideas, people being sent hate for something that the anon has full control over, and people constantly expecting new stories to read on the daily. Yes, I do know that other fandoms have these issues, but it seems to be almost a weekly, hell, even daily thing within this fandom. A lot of the issues that I see happen in this fandom are from people who don't understand fandom etiquette.

Fandom Etiquette.

If you had noticed there was a few things I put in bold above. These are key things that I learned during my time that attribute to fandom etiquette. So without further a do, I'll list out some fandom etiquette rules that I follow all the time.

Don't send hate anons to people

Block/unfollow people you don't like

If you don't like an idea or fic, don't read it

Read through all warnings and tags that the writer provided

Use AO3 filters

Don't blame the writer/creator for reading things they created that you actively know you don't like

Writers/Creators aren't "content farms"

There are people behind these blogs/usernames, treat them like someone you'd see on the street

Writers/Creators are expressing love/passion for something, don't hate them for doing that

If you see something fandom related that you don't like, scroll past it or ignore it

YOU CURATE YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE (ESPECIALLY ON TUMBLR)

The Doxing Situation.

For those who are unaware but decided to read this anyways, recently there was a writer (Mama Mayhem) on here who got doxed from another writer in the fandom. Mayhem has since lost her job due to the doxing. This was apparently from her breaking HIPAA by posting a picture into a private groupchat/discord. This picture was posted almost a half year ago. Meaning that the person who reported/doxed Mayhem had known about this picture for months and only recently decided to do something about it.

I'll start by saying that I also work in healthcare, and know many other people here who do. I understand that a HIPAA violation is 100% an offense that gets you fired. I'm not excusing the HIPAA violation if one did occur.

Some people have brought up the idea that maybe the person that reported the picture, and doxed Mayhem, was doing it out of the goodness of their heart. Due to the timeline of it all, that doesn't seem likely. I had a previous coworker get fired for HIPAA violations and it took a total of a week from the initial report for her to be gone.

The biggest thing I want to convey is that TWO WRONGS CAN HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME. Yes, if Mayhem violated HIPAA, it is wrong. But at the same time, the person held onto this information for months only to use it out of spite, pettiness, and cruelty, is wrong.

My Thoughts.

Due to Mayhem being doxed, a lot of people have decided to leave this platform, take indefinite hiatuses, stop writing, or move to AO3 exclusively., and I don't blame them. I'll be honest, I'm thinking about moving to AO3 exclusively now. AO3 feels a lot more rewarding in my experience. I already only post my fics for ships to AO3, so why not just post everything on AO3 (which I usually do).

I think a lot of people have forgot what it feels like to feel shame in something they say or do. When I say this, it's directed towards people who send hate or do other malicious things in fandom spaces. Fandoms were never this clique-ish and mean. I think it has to do with the pandemic, meaning that a lot of people who would have never joined a fandom did because they weren't allowed to do anything outside of their house. So, those mean girls that made fun of fandom girlies (g/n) previously, joined the fandoms and decided started bullying the people within them.

This situation is super shitty and people are now scared. It makes complete sense, especially after seeing someone, that many of you were close to, be doxed. A lot of people are scared of it happening to them now. I don't think this fandom will be the same after this situation, but who knows, maybe everyone will just forget and move on. Either way, I think I'll be taking a step back from the TGM fandom. I'll still be here, but until further notice, I won't be posting any TGM fanfiction. Maybe a gifset/picture here and there, but I don't think this is a fandom I feel comfortable writing for anymore.

If you've read all of this, thank you.

[fizzyxcustard]

True Courage.

Masterlist of fan fiction

Fandom: The Hobbit

Pairings: Thorin Oakenshield x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Sexual harassment, fluff, mutual pining

Comments/Notes: From the imagine, "Thorin takes a stand for you when a lecherous man won't take no for an answer and keeps bothering you."

This fic touches on a bit of a nerve, as something similar happened to me a few weeks ago when travelling home; so why not put my experience to a good use and make a fic out of it? However, I hope you like the fic. As always, like, reblog and comment if you enjoy. If you wish to be added to any of my tag lists, let me know.

Your stomach lurched and you recoiled as the man took your hand in his. "You are very beautiful," he grinned, staring at you.

It had started off with you being polite, listening to the man talk about his life, and eventually his wife. Then he started nudging closer, his body almost right upon you. You had looked around for any sign of someone who may help you escape. But all the residents of Lake-town were too busy in their own conversations or inebriated. The Company seemed to have disappeared and you could not see anyone you recognised in the sea of heads swarming around you in the Master's main hall.

The man kept trying to catch your gaze as you averted it elsewhere, completely sickened by him. His continued chattering away, but your mind was ablaze, contemplating an escape. The feeling of his hand on you made you feel dirty, defiled.

Across the room and Thorin had a clear view of you. A man who looked easily old enough to be your father was sat beside you, his hand resting on your thigh. Thorin grit his teeth and moved through the crowd toward you, having to shove a few bodies away.

"How about a kiss?" the man asked you, his breath almost upon you.

You shoved his hand away and shifted further out of your seat.

"How dare you!" an angry voice came. "You will leave her, unless you wish to be spitting your teeth out upon the floor."

"Thorin?" you whispered, looking up. His face was livid and fierce. You had never seen Thorin so fired up; his eyes were dark and his teeth were bared.

In your embarrassment, you got up and dashed from the scene. Tears were welling in your eyes as you raced out into the cold air outside. Your whole body was shaking, and sobs suddenly overcame you, uncontrollable. It may have been almost winter with a flurry of snow on the air, but you still felt as though your whole body was on fire. Anxiety and adrenaline raged through your veins. The fight or flight response had been activated, only a little too late. It would have aided you better when you were sat with the hideous man.

"Are you alright?" a voice came from behind.

Jumping, you turned around to see Thorin behind you. Instantly you threw yourself at him, finally feeling safe. "I'm sorry," you sobbed on him.

"Shhh," he cooed into ear, brushing his fingers through your hair. "You are safe." Thorin's heart thundered in his chest, both at the feel of you in his arms, but also at the feeling of you shaking. His chest was full of both love and anger, intense and all consuming. How dare someone touch you against your will. How dare someone reduce you to a sobbing mess like this!

You looked up at Thorin, his arms still around you. You were safe here against him. Looking at his face, his expression soft but also full of concern, began to wash away the edge of your fear. It re-formed your crumbled composure, mending the pieces of a broken confidence.

Thorin cupped your cheek and his thumb dried the tears which were glistening on your reddened skin. "No one will harm you, I promise."

Ever since first meeting Thorin six months previously, at the beginning of the quest to re-take Erebor, and you trusted him. There was something in his eyes; a steadfast resolve and a deep-seated sense of honour.

Thorin couldn't take his eyes from your gaze. Having your skin against his made his breath hitch. You were beautiful, and since the moment he met you, he felt as if you were a special, one of a kind flower which he didn't dare touch. He hadn't dared touch out of a fear of offending you. But now that need to be in contact with you was too much. Cradling you had made his heart swell.

Feeling Thorin's touch was something you had imagined far too many times, and now that it was a reality, it was a softer touch than any fantasy had ever allowed you to experience. However, the more he gazed at you, shame entered your heart. "I'm sorry that I'm not brave like you."

"No..." Thorin began.

Your head turned to the side, twisting from his touch.

"No..." he whispered again, sadly. "Never say that."

Tears welled again. "I'm a coward. I froze. I'm ashamed."

"Never be ashamed," Thorin told you, his voice somehow deeper. "Do you understand me? You have nothing to be ashamed of. Absolutely nothing!" Anger dripped from his tone. "He violated your intimate space. No one has the right to do that. No one. And freezing is natural."

"I've never seen you freeze."

"Do not compare yourself to me. My reactions are learned, after years of experience."

If there was one thing that Thorin had always been drawn to, and it was your innocence. In your innocence of being polite and kind, you had entertained the lecherous man for a short while. Thorin, on the other hand, was hardened off to a polite and kind demeanour. You were open to people, welcoming. Thorin was shut off. Now, who was the brave one?

"Bravery isn't only found in battles," Thorin told you, stepping back from you. "It's seen in allowing yourself to be vulnerable and opening your heart to others. You have a courage that I could only dream to have, dear one. I walk into battle, ready to face the pain of a sword in my flesh. But you are ready to face the pain of a broken heart through being vulnerable in someone else's sight. That is true courage."

"That's not courage. That's just being too trusting and being ridiculous," you hissed.

Thorin smiled and then took your hand, kissing it. "You dare to trust. You have no idea how courageous that is. I wish I had a heart such as yours."

A wave of anticipation washed over you and you sighed. "In that case, this is me being brave. You do not need to wish for a heart such as mine, as you already have it. You've always had my heart, Thorin."

Thorin exhaled loudly, smiling, and cupped your cheek again. Then took your lips in a kiss, his beard tickling you. The heat rose and your kiss deepened.

As your kiss ended, Thorin pressed his forehead to yours. "My love," he whispered. "My brave love."

***

Follow Forever tag list: @lathalea @xxbyimm @linasofia @middleearthpixie @luna-xial @knittastically @meganlpie @asgardianhobbit98 @eunoiaastralwings @rachel1959 @mrsdurin @guardianofrivendell @quiall321 @missihart23 @lemond57 @evenstaredits @catthefearless @the-fragile-heart-of-a-lady @glassgulls @sazzlep @aliasauthor @solairewisteria @littlebird-99 @court-jobi @heilith @albionscastle @absentmindeduniverse @way-too-addicted-to-fandoms

The Hobbit tag list: @flowerniche

Middle-earth tag list: @mismaeve @sotwk @emmyspov

Thorin Oakenshield tag list: @braidedheart @dumbassunderthemountain

[utilitycaster]

#reblogging for the “see: girlfailure” tag#caus I have opinions on the insular fandom memeification of characters but I don't - as this post highlights - have the words for it#but I keep those to dms caus anytime I or a friend has challenged it in a public space it gets shot down#it reeks of my troubles with the general fear of using the word woman these days and how it's girldinner this girlmath that#also what do you call as intentional character traits vs a flopped dice roll

(via @distant--shadow)

so I agree and this is interesting to me because what always frustrated me about "girlfailure" outside the more general issue of "um, coquette/bimbo/girl dinner/uwu soft divine feminine cottagecore domesticity don't you mean u want to braid her hair is actually TRUER feminism than being the surly woman who loves math and sword fights and hates sewing" and the fact that, as you said, it mostly came from bungled dice rolls and no real intent, is that the same people who call her a girlfailure insist that Imogen is the main character. And like, she kind of is! And yet - and I've said this about Imogen and Laudna in the context of their relationship but I'm going to not include that because I actually don't think that's even relevant, it's about them as individual characters as well - people want them to simultaneously be The Main Character or at least heavily in focus and also never, ever have any agency. Like, they want "capable" to mean that everyone likes you, and not that you are a person who makes hard choices for the better.

Maybe it's because I'm playing Baby's First RPG right now, but the deal with RPGs and I think(?) especially this one, is you must make every choice and it is laden with consequences (not that I as a D&D player, or, you know, a human woman, am unfamiliar with that already) but what drives me nuts about the just a silly guy! girlfailure! she chooses to be good and therefore is good narrative for Imogen, and the "stripped of choice" (another highly repeated turn of phrase) for both her and Laudna is that it's untrue and it means nothing. For all my criticism of What Doesn't Break, Laudna makes choices. I frequently dislike them and wish they had more gravity, but she does make them. She doesn't make every choice - notably, her death and Delilah's presence are huge things that happen to her without her input - but even while barely herself she frequently brushes off Delilah. You can imagine the dialogue trees and the paths she takes, to intervene or not. She decides to renew her pact; she decides to run into the desert. Imogen decides to attack the villagers with lightning to defend Laudna. She decides to leave, she decides to keep burning their rivals in the Twilight Mirror Museum, she decides to tell her mother that she won't join her, she decides not to help assassinate her mother.

Fearne has a wonderful line when she's talking with Chetney after shardgate, in which she explains that she's terrified of making bad choices. Not of being a bad person, but of making the bad choices. And that's the thing. You cannot choose to be good. You cannot choose to be bad. At least not in any general sense. You can, however, make choices that harm people or help them. You constantly must do this. You can stray, or change the type of choices you've made, but they do accumulate to a point, eventually, where it becomes harder and harder to stray. However, the premise of D&D is very much that your character hasn't become locked in, yet. Is Imogen making choices that will be better for other people? If the world rests on her shoulders, is she making better choices for the world?

This is perhaps the core theme of this campaign, dating as far back as Downfall. Aeor made their choice - many, many choices. The gods made theirs. Ludinus kept making his, over, and over. It's particularly resonant among the women of the campaign. Obviously there's Fearne, and I've covered Imogen and Laudna, but going over to the Crown Keepers, Morrigan becomes a paladin in a few short weeks - an immense choice. Fy'ra advises others on what they are going to do. And Opal is where she is now because in one moment she put the crown on her head - and in doing so, ceded further choice in the long run. The deities of both fate and free will in this world are given considerable presence in this story, and both use female pronouns.

Maybe I'm making a mountain of a molehill, but I don't think I am. I really do think people cling to "girlfailure" and act like we're just being meanie haters who don't believe Imogen is good because she can be the central character who has power to change the world and the narrative; or she can be pure and innocent of all wrongdoing. she cannot be both. No one can. And deep down I think the "girlfailure" proponents prefer a useless innocent girl to a powerful woman who sometimes makes choices or does things that hurt other people. So I don't think that one's just harmless meme-ing, and if you want to see Imogen as an exceptionally important part of this narrative I think you have to reject the girlfailure, and anyone saying "oh it's just a joke" is either unthinkingly repeating or is pushing a story where Imogen is just a MacGuffin without agency, and neither is worth, in my opinion, listening to. Someone "stripped of choice" in real life is worth our pity and deserves our assistance but they make for a pretty terrible fantasy protagonist, and it's maddening to see a woman in the center of the story and then to be attacked if you want her to be treated like a person who, as a result of being a key protagonist, holds particular power and isn't just a girlfailure.

[hermitdream]

about the notes thing, i think part of the reason is that some people in this fandom are scared to like things. i'm a lurker (considering making a sideblog soon!), but if i had a dream team blog i would never like anything because my main blog is a dsmp blog and as much as "likes are private!" on tumblr, if you have certain settings on you can sometimes see posts that people you follow like on your dash. and the broader dsmp community (outside of dreblr) leans very dranti... i want to be able to enjoy my dsmp content without being blocked into oblivion. idk my situation might be very uncommon and strange but even outside of mcyt many people have negative opinions of dream because of dranti propaganda spread around. like, people who have never seen a dream video but saw a google doc sent around about all the terrible things dream supposedly did, and now they have dream fans on their dni. tumblr users finding out someone is secretly a dream stan can be much worse than finding out someone is a kpop fan. idk that's just my theory. dtblr has a lot more lurkers than most fandoms, so a 100 note post could easily reach 300 people.

interesting theory, and I do think it's probably true in some cases! I wrote that post more as an appreciation for how good we are at reblogging and how it makes us feel closer as a community, like it might just be the two particular fandoms I've been in recently but there's barely any memes, discussions or textposts in general in the tags, just updates or fanfics (self inserts for the kpop group), gifsets and moodboards rarely, so the almost 200 likes to 15 reblogs (not to mention none of them have anything in the tags) also shows how there's barely any community (unless you're reading the self inserts, I imagine there would be more talking amongst others for those but idk about that I've filtered out like 30 tags to not see that stuff).

but yeah, tumblr mechanics are weird sometimes, and wider dsmp being drantis is shitty for a lot of fans and society in general given they are ignorant to learning the truth if it means they have a reason to hate dteam. looking forward to welcoming a new dteam blog! (:

[bleedingichorhearts]

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐌𝐚𝐲: 𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫

𝕬𝖚𝖙𝖍𝖔𝖗: Forgot to announce a tag list, so I am announcing one here. If you are tagged into my WH40k and Sentence you will be tagged here because this is WH40k in a way. Unless I am given orders to not tag you, I will remove you from this Mermay list, not any others. If you like to be tagged on this MerMay list you can comment/reblog here on “𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬” or just do it under this post, I do not mind.

𝕾𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖞: Mer!Solor senses and protects/saves you from the Abyss.

𝕿𝖆𝖌𝖌𝖊𝖉: @kit-williams, @egrets-not-regrets, @bispecsual, @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan, @sleepyfan-blog.

TW // Biting, Injury, Blood.

|°𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬°| |°ᴛᴀɢ ʟɪꜱᴛ ᴀᴘᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ°| • {𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧} • {𝐒𝐜𝐲𝐥𝐥𝐚} • {𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐮𝐬}

Perhaps going to abandon places filled with dark waters were not a good place to go exploring in. This one was cold and gave off eerie vibes that something might be lurking down in those flat, dark depths of those waters. Something that could possibly just launch out at you, grab you and pull you right in to be eaten alive.

You shiver at the thought and keep your eyes on the body of water while heading into the next room. Moving your flashlight away from the quiet body of water when you deemed it safe enough than what you needed to see what was in front of you. Little dust particles flowing through the battery powered rays of light.

Moving your flashlight around the next room. This room seemed to be the main room of this place, being big enough to possibly host a 100, maybe a little bit more people in it? Not to mention the many other hallways that branched off to the other joints of the building. Some being filled to the brim with water, others being a bit more free to wander into.

Walking forward more into the center of the room. You shined your flashlight over the big glass cylinder in front of you. The glint of the dusty sign scratching on the glass taking your attention for a second as you read the indented metal sign. Barely reading “Marine Sanctuary” a really old aquarium you remember reading about before exploring this building in the overgrown forest.

This… Sanctuary used to be so prospering. Filled with all sorts of aquatic creatures ranging from fresh and salt water. Tall and bushy deep green plants settling in selections where a tank couldn’t fit; like near a staircase, bathrooms and the gift shops. Making you feel like you didn’t leave from the jungle outside… or at least that’s what you imagined it to be like; seeing a small flier pinned on a gas station’s pinboard. You have never been in this Sanctuary before. You wasn’t even born when it was built and broken down for reasons you couldn’t find.

It’s what made you want to find this place and maybe share it with your family to explore. If, it was safe enough. You weren’t going to lead your family into hazardous, abandoned buildings out of the blue, not without a safety check by you.

Turning your gaze to the glass tank behind the sign, you couldn’t see anything but murky water in there. It almost looked like a solid compound if it weren’t for the occasional speck of movement in there. Microscopic creatures and bacteria living inside of there.

You almost shiver again at the thought of just getting drowned in that. Swallowing all that unknown disease into your stomach. You would for sure think you should have to get your stomach sizzled then. You wound not be living after that. You didn’t think you could.

So much for hoping this place was safely intact.

Flashing the area around you again. You checked which hallway was the most safest to go down through without water blocking the way. Finding about 6 hallways with signs above the archway labeled with the classic “Sea Turtles” are over there or “Deep Depths” types of fish over here.

Though, only 2 hallways seemed safe enough to wander through without it looking it would collapse underneath the water damage this place held. One of the hallways being labeled as “The Twilight Zone” and the other being labeled as “The Abyss” and if schooling didn’t have these movie times you wouldn’t have known what The Abyss was the deep, dark of the ocean. You would have went through with that hallway because it sounded cool.

So, you clearly went with the more seeable and more survivable option. The Twilight Zone, just before the Sunlight Zone.

Making your way towards the decided hallway, you could have sworn you saw something in one of the other hallways filled with water. Your light flashing over to the hallway for a double check. Seeing nothing but flat water inside of the hallway. Maybe… it was just a speck of dust fooling my jumpy nerves? Yeah, that was it, just a speck of dust.

Slowly turning back to your main goal of giving into a different room. You didn’t completely trust your own brain to let that body of water leave your peripheral vision until you were in the other selection of the aquarium.

This selection of the building showed signs everywhere of the Twilight Zone creatures they had to offer: Confetti Squid, Strawberry Squid, Bobtail Squid, Dreamer Angler, and Lantern Fish.

Of course, there is more to this selection to just those rarity’s, but the build was abandoned. There wasn’t much to see besides its ruins and damn! Do you forget how dark the Twilight Zone can really be for being 200-1,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. You don’t know if this was still better than The Abyss or not.

Taking a closer look to the tanks crafted into the wall. Somewhere broken and cracked over the floor while there were others that had that same murky water like the tank in the lobby with nothing really in them, just the same dangerous microscopic creatures and bacteria.

You sigh out in disappointment and move away from the tanks, looking for a place to sit in this let down of an aquarium. Finding a cement pillar on the ground next to a pool of water that was no doubt another safety hazard. Just what did this pillar support before? The caving in ceiling?

Shaking your head at the obvious and take a seat on the pillar thinking of how this exploration was more of a let down than you thought it would be. There was no living fish to be seen. Which is expected from an abandoned aquarium, but one could hope there was still something left out of it. The aesthetic of it was cool, but there really wasn’t much to see and half the building was flooded with the flora outside coming in though the cracks of the cement walls.

…It would be a surprise if the electricity still worked here. Maybe you should try and find that box? Try and turn it on?

Plop, plop.

Plop, plop.

The hairs on your arms and neck stand. Your heart jumpstarting in your chest as you look around yourself for the source. That sound definitely was not here when you first entered this room. You would have known that from the start.

Plop, plop.

Plop, plop.

Your gut twists as you quickly stand back up from the pillar. Should you leave this place? Was it just a sudden failure in some water pipes? Oh, should definitely leave this place.

Plop, plop—

A sudden black and white creature launches out from the water pool next to the pillar. Its hands, claws extended out at you with its mouth wide open; filled with shark-like teeth. Its long dark gray tounge rolling inside of its mouth as it hisses at you. Glossy gray eyes looking straight at you.

You couldn’t move away from its hollow stare. This moment feeling so slow to you, but so fast when this creature latches onto your shoulder, piercing through your clothing and into your skin. A cry ripping from your throat as you fall onto your back at the force. Its teeth desperately trying to rip any shed of skin and muscle it could get.

Oh, this moment felt like it was going to be my last. The last time you would have seen your family, your friends with how your own red blood splattered into the bony, scaly skin of this horrid creature. Its eyes never blinking as its thrashes at your body. Ripping and tearing at your clothing as you try to protect yourself against its much powerful build. Your hands pushing and clawing up at the blood seeking creatures slimy and dark gray scales.

You whimper and achingly, painfully curl up on yourself. Tears building up and down your cheeks when the creature seems satisfied with its work, pushing up and off of you. Wanting to see you bleed out beneath its soulless gaze like some sort of psychopath.

If only you weren’t so out of your own lifeline and hope of returning back to your family. You wouldn’t have noticed how this creature screeched and gurgled. Clutching at its chest as its bones snap in half, dark blue blood staining the ground. How the ground itself rumbled before this… purring reaches your ears. Weird silky warmth being repeatedly pressed into your torn shoulder, stinging at you as you whine uncomfortably at the sensation.

Leaning away from the stinging warmth the best you could. The purring turns into a coo for a second, another solid warmth presses up against your back with more solid warm things wrapped around you before the persistent warmth and purring continued. Bringing you a slow sense of… peace in your situation. Your muscles slowly relaxing in its hold.

…Safe, you felt safe in this warmth.

Safe. Safe you are, little Maiden. Always safe with me.

[hotjaneaustenmenpoll]

Welcome to the HOT JANE AUSTEN MEN bracket! Submissions for the Austen Silver Foxes Tournament are now open!

Voting on all the HOTTEST Jane Austen Gentlemen and Rakes from all the many TV and Film Jane Austen Adaptations ended earlier this year and after nearly two months of voting we have our Winner! Thank you everyone for taking part and all your propaganda now send me some for the old men!

All polls—including ongoing polls, previous rounds,mini ask polls—can be found in the #hotjaneaustenmenpoll tag. The Silver Fox Tournament will be tagged #janeaustensilverfoxes Every poll in the Hot Jane Austen Men Tournament is tagged with the hot regency man and the year his adaptation was made if you need to search for a hot man in particular.

FAQs:

"Will there be a Hot Jane Austen Women Tournament?" Yes! My aim is to start late September/early October baring any disasters - the Jane Austen Men Poll lasted about two months in the end (and I think the women may end up longer) so I thought it would be nice to bookend the year! This will also give me a break between this and the silver foxes poll.

"Can I submit hot Jane Austen men?” If it's for the Silver Fox Tournament - Yes! Fill out the google form here (or send me an ask and I may consider it too)

“I have additional propaganda for the hot men!” Great! Send me an ask, tag me in gifsets, fancams etc or reblog the poll and add your propaganda to it. Also feel free to send in any book propaganda!! I'll try to boost as much propaganda as possible

If you’re submitting propaganda for your hot man, I don’t accept propaganda that is of the actor outside of their Specific Jane Austen Adaptation but I do accept propaganda from them in their respective books. I would love to be tagged in gifsets and fancams, and I'd like to boost propaganda that tells us why your Jane Austen man is your favourite :)

I won’t post or boost negative propaganda. If you really hate that a certain hot man is winning, send me positive propaganda for their hot opponent. I may make exceptions if your propaganda is of another Austen character bad mouthing him though...

Why is the propaganda so uneven on this poll? To stay impartial I only add propaganda to the main poll that has been sent in before each round's polls open. If you submit any after then I will reblog or post and add to the winner's propaganda in the next poll. If it's uneven it's because you never sent any in, not because I'm being biased.

“Where is [my favourite Jane Austen man]?” Have you checked all the polls in the tag? Have you done a tag search for him? Only some of the actors are tagged but if you search for his adaptation and the year he was in it you should find him! If you still haven’t found him, he probably isn't in this poll.

“WHERE ARE THE HOT JANE AUSTEN MEN. I want to see all the hot men competing in one place!" -

The Final , Third Place Poll ,Semi-Finals ,Quarter-Finals ,Round Three Master List , Round Two Master List , Round One Master List

“Who was included in the original tournament ?” We started with 64 opponents readied their duelling pistols to defend their own hotness! I included men from Pride and Prejudice 1940/1995/2005, Sense and Sensibility 1971/1995/2008, Emma 1996/1996/2009/2020, Northanger Abbey 2007, Persuasion 1995/2007/2022 and Mansfield Park 1983/ 1999/2007 as well as a couple from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, one from Sanditon and one from Love and Friendship/Lady Susan. Most are the main hero/anti-heroes but there are a few others scattered in too.

Have you included Spin Offs ?”  In the Silver Foxes Poll - Yes! However the only strictly none Jane Austen adaptation in the original poll were from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because it is set in the correct time period, the characters are basically the same in terms of personality and I thought the casting was great! In terms of Sandition, Sidney Parker is the only man I have entered as he is mentioned in the book as well as the TV so sadly as much as I love the other Sanditon Men they aren't included!

"How have you paired up the men ?" I did start to try and vaguely seed the men but I will be honest I did get a bit slap dash towards the end which means a couple of the match-ups are maybe a bit too even but fun I hope!

If I see repetitive, trolling, and/or bigoted remarks in the comments, I may block you from this bracket. If you want to point out a hot man’s flaws or misdemeanours, that’s fine, but if I see consistent bad-faith trolling, you will be blocked.

On that note—if you have an issue with a poll, offer a solution! I'll do my best to keep the poll happy and fun, and I'll block people being dicks. If you don’t like a poll photo or a description, offer one I can use instead.

“My FAQ isn’t on here :(” send me an ask! I'd love to hear from you guys—just please check these basics first.

Thank you for being here! Enjoy the tournament.

And Thank You @hotvintagepoll for the inspiration!

[femslashfeb]

HELLO ALL

TLDR

No reblogging from the blog this year - posting prompts tomorrow the 31st

For the past few years I've very much struggled with reblogging everyone's activity in the tag. So this year I will not be doing so.

(OR maybe I will? I just don't want to commit)

Even if I knew how to make a bot that reblogs - a lot of people still use the unique tag to tag outside challenges. So I've always had to hand submit. However it became too stressful for me and for the past few years I ended up avoiding it until later weeks or even months.

If you noticed I didn't finish reblogging last year so- I've just given up on that.

Honestly I've struggled a lot with depression for the last 7 years or so. It's been harder and harder to find my way back to tumblr. It doesn't help that my phone can barely handle the amount of apps it already has.

My main account @puff-pink hardly ever updates because of my big sad. And I don't know if I'll ever get back on the horse in the same way I did before.

Some of you know me as an artist, and tho I still churn out subpar art for my day-job I've struggled a lot to make art for myself during my depression. Partially because one year I overworked my hand - and still deal in continual wrist aches. Even the weeks I don't pick up a drawing tool.

I intended this challenge for myself and maybe the small fandoms I was in at the time. But it took off among writers and creators of all types across all fandoms.

One year I even tried to tally the most popular fandoms but there were honestly too many to keep track of- and I stopped after the first three pages of submissions.

I don't claim to have invented the concept of FemSlash February. Before I started the prompts I swear I had heard the phrase somewhere. Tho not sure where. Perhaps it had been amongst my friends on Skype. Back when I had online friends and Skype(I'm still not sold on Discord🤷‍♀️).

However that January I thought it would be fun to partake in a challenge of some kind. But scouring tumblr and the general internet. I could only find half hearted efforts on fanfiction sites from years past.

I'm so proud of all my Sapphic creators on here that have partaken every year. Even if I've never shown favoritism or awarded anyone. I do notice those that actually complete the challenge AND those that keep coming back each year(looking at you H20 writer(I don't remember your username but there's a mermaid writer that's a writing machine)). I truly am proud of you especially in my shriveled state of creativity. Thank you for your efforts. For your hype. And for your love of women of all kinds across all the universes.

Each year I'm surprised to find even more categories I never thought to include. From mood boards, to doll photography, to ofc the classic art and writing. May your pencils forever be in union with your sister mediums.

On that note. There is a strict NO AI GENERATED ART or writing this year.

Not that I could physically stop anyone who does use AI. But I do not want that sort of thing associated with this challenge. It's become scarily good in 2023 to the point it can't always be identified. So I simply ask for the honor system when it comes to AI generated creations.

That being said. If you've made it to the end of this post:

Prompts will be posted tomorrow.

I usually prefer to give yall more of a buffer, but I've been busy. Both with Big Sad, rescuing some feral cats, my own life, errands, chores and work.

If you're still here- here is a preview of the first three days.

FEB 1 - black

FEB 2 - spring

FEB 3 - cake

The 14th as usual will be some sort of Valentine romance type theme(haven't decided specifically yet) and as always there will be a Rest Day.

Expect some repeat prompts. In the past I tried to avoid them but idc anymore.

It's also a Leap Year this year so expect one extra prompt to throw off the symmetry of what's normally 28 days.

Thanks for coming back this year. And thank you to those that still check on this blog.

❤️🧡🤍💜🩷

Keep loving girls

-PuffPink

[idontwikeit]

oh i 100% agree that they don't actually like loustat/louis. they are mainly just lestat fans. they do not give a shit about louis and it's obvious in the way they treat him outside loustat. he only matters to them if he is able to be talked about in relation to lestat. it's why you see these horribly racist takes about loumand, them comparing sexual prowess between lestat and armand, armand being the only actual evil vampire around, not their poor white man. i went on reddit, because i hate myself, and people are scared about the trial because armand will manipulate everyone into seeing lestat as the bad guy.... because physical violence and abuse towards two black characters still means nothing or it's just black people lying to these people. i'm sorry for ranting in your inbox, it's just such a shame that a well written show with phenomenal actors like iwtv is cursed with these people (and a willfully ignorant and/or incompetent promo department who emboldens them as well)

their antiblackness is truly so transparent with them going oh i love gothic romance i love imperfect characters, but immediately turn to defend lestat or criticize the story-writing when it comes to portraying lestat as abuser and toxic and a privileged white man, and attacking louis and claudia. And not to mention being extremely quick to demonize loumand, and judge Armand based on his backstory as dismissal but quick to use lestat's trauma to defend him...like the bias towards non-white characters are so palpable it's disgusting. Even sometimes fans of dev/il's minion irked me out as they are much more fanatic towards it than loumand and seems to treat it as a buttjoke, and I feel like it has to do with a white man in a relationship idk? I still remember when I first watched s1ep7 with the Armand's reveal and I was so excited I checked out iwtv spoilers tag (which I never did back then) and the first posts I saw were oh Armand must be mind-controlling Louis and wow Louis looks so fake, it just took me out. And there are so many big iwtv blogs that are openly racist and getting tons of reblogs coz ppl don't know it's just so infuriating. They just made the fandom so insufferable I won't even venture into reddit and twitter like yikes

don't even mention the marketing department they are so damn incompetent i have no idea what their strategies are like c'mon they cancelled the good s1 podcast with a great host for some unknown youtuber that isn't even good at nuanced questions, barely any good cast interviews and it's like tv insider got everything and NO jacob & assad interviews at all when they are the mains in s2...and all to make memes on social media and pandering to book fans i'm just mad

[ace-n-mooch-daily]

💚♠️Welcome to Ace n' Mooch Daily♠️💚

Here's a simple rundown regarding the blog!

Only run by one person, Mod Chive, (@julas-little-spot)

This blog contains any images related to either or both characters, mostly doodles by yours truly. Submissions are always open so feel free to drop some!

When submitting, please refrain from sending anything NSFW as I am a MINOR

I encourage people to request for doodles! Keeps the blog alive since there's not much content of these two

Ace is some sort of tuxedo cat and and raccoon mix in this blog so uh, there's that

As much as I respect hcs and ships, please, no ships of these two characters. They act exactly like my older siblings so it's a personal ick

While I don't have a DNI here, just don't be an asshole. Also I WILL block certain blogs on sight

I might reuse some posts from another daily blog I run because these two barely have any content both in canon and fan content

Unlike the other blog in question, I'll probably answer questions in character with a text box. Link to the text box generator here

Tags in the blog!

#acen'moochdaily - Daily posts. Usually queued at 12AM-1AM PHT, but not always guaranteed

#not acen'moochdaily :( - Non-request asks towards the characters, very rare reblogs, announcements, etc

#feisty hijacking - At least once a month would there be a post unrelated to the two characters. Still falls under the acen'moochdaily tag even if they're not present

#ace speaks - Includes Ace dialogue in the text post/textbox for asks

#mooch speaks - Includes Ace dialogue in the text post/textbox for asks

#[character] takes over - only used for asks if a character outside the two is present (and is the main speaker)

#mod chive - Hey that's me! :D

#mod chive has a live breakdown - used for me talking in the description

Dividers source

That's it for now! This post will be updated whenever necessary!

[soruset]

why tf do parents go "but who will take care of you???" when u say u dont want kids

like wtf??

NO

i dont want to burden my kid like that wtf

every time my parents ask me if im gonna take care of them im incredibly close to saying no bc of all the shit they do

but i say yes bc they guilt me into itdo they just,,, want me to do that???

to my kid??

like

EW

no im gonna let my kid be independent and not have to take care of me i will not burden them

also i hate how society is collapsing on itself to the point where little children are incredibly compelled to male a change

and parents are lik "why tf ur grades a B+" SORRY MOM. SORRY IM TRYING TO DO MY BEST WITHOUT YOUR HELP SO THAT YOU GUYS STOP GUILTING ME ABOUT BEING TIRED????

and then they go "oh but the adults are taking care of it" EXCUSE ME??? WHAT ADULTS??? I KNOW MORE ABOUT THE DAMN ISR-PAL CONFLICT THAN YOU DO

i have so many funds in my blog but my parents don't know what the hell is going on

they BARELY understood the ch-ph conflcit even AFTER i explained it to them

its as if we're the adults now school is essentially the same as office work with the depression a lot of us have and then we have to deal with the political stuff our parents are too busy to think of and ACTUALLY HELP

as kids we CANNOT DO ANYTHING

WE'RE UNABLE TO BE INDEPENDENT HOW THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DONATE TO FUNDS IF WE DO NOT HAVE ANY MONEY

parents smh

our parents only have three MAIN issues imo: work, family and money

kids on the otherhand, TEENAGERS AND CHILDREN are thinking of family, parent's finances, parents, their own schoolwork, their parent's work, and political shiz

i used to calculate my parent's money to help them

smh why are we making kids do things we can do why are adults allowed to laze around in the house in the excuse of teaching kids chores

DO IT WITH US MORONS

MAYBE THEN WE'LL LEARN

actually the simple fact we as children can understand all these societal problems is terrifying

parents literally tel us "when i was your age i was playing outside lang" EXACTLYYOU DIDNT WORRY AVOUT IF YOUR DAMN COUTNRY WAS GOING TO SUFFER WAR

OR IF ANOTHER WAS GOING TO BE WIPED OFF THE MAP

parents complain and complain abt their kids but they fail to see the incredibly big picture that their kids are doing more for the world than they are AT THE AGES OF 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, WHATEVER DAMN AGE IT IS THEYRE DOING A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN THE 40 YR OLDS STUCK IN THEIR OFFICES WHINING AND WHINING

sorry i just needed to stop choking on that

idk what to tag but pls reblog if you see this

[ask-the-totally-real-peppino]

Quick Info

Current Location: Peppino's Pizza (By the forest outside the building)

Available for Asks

Primary: Fake Peppino (Goes by 'Pep')

Secondary: Brick (the Rat),

Read the story from the beginning here!: [https://ask-the-totally-real-peppino.tumblr.com/tagged/story%20post/chrono]

Read the intermission from the beginning here!: [https://ask-the-totally-real-peppino.tumblr.com/tagged/intermission%20post/chrono]

Read the bonus story posts here! (Bonus story posts are self-contained stories, typically celebrating a special occasion or showing a past/future event, that occur within the canon of the story, but are not direct continuations of the main plot line.): [https://ask-the-totally-real-peppino.tumblr.com/tagged/bonus%20story%20post/chrono]

---

Reference Pit

(References for all characters that have appeared, regardless if they are available for asks or not. These are also tagged as 'reference' for easy finding.)

Pep (Fake Peppino) - (Toyhou.se Version)

Peppino Spaghetti (ref pending)

Gustavo (ref pending)

Brick the Rat (ref pending)

??? (ref pending)

Bean (the mod)

Fake Bean (the fake mod)

Clone OCs (Toyhou.se Link)

~~~

Hello, and welcome to my ask blog! Primarily featuring Fake Peppino, but many of the other Pizza Tower characters and definitely some OCs will appear here too!

This is post-game, so spoilers are abound! Also, due to the nature of Fake Peppino, there will be a lot of body horror, ranging from mainly mild to occasionally severe! (More on content warnings below!)

~~~

Rules

M!A (Magic Anons) are allowed! This can range from sending small gifts to transforming characters for a set amount of posts!

Fanart is a-okay! Please try to represent the character the best you can, and ask before making significant design changes (such as a 'Genderbend' or 'Species Swap')

Please ask beforehand, if you would like to dub my work! And please be sure to credit and link back to me!

No Sexual Content in asks (The occasional innuendo/suggestive joke is fine)

No sending or tagging me in RP starters (this is not an RP blog and I do not RP in private either!)

No spam, such as repeated messages, reblog bait/ask chains etc

Please do not repost, trace or edit my art (unless given written permission)

Please do not use my art/characters in A.I. chatbots etc

Please do not tag my art as 'kin/me' (Nothing against kin! Just my art is very personal to me)

Please be patient! I am only one person, and I am doing this for fun!

---

Content Warnings

While I intend for this blog to mostly be fluffy and silly fun, I do want to explore some potentially squicky topics, so here is a list!

Common, will not be tagged: Mild Body Horror (ie Pep's goopy skin etc), Scars, Foul Language, Depictions of Panic Attacks/Meltdowns, Use of Caps and Glitched/Zalgo text

Uncommon, will be tagged: Eye Strain, Alcohol Use, Smoking (mostly regular cigarettes, but maybe weed too), Partial Nudity (bare chests mostly), Emetophobia/Vomit, Blood, Violence, Moderate to Severe Body Horror, War (via Peppino flashbacks), Guns, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Implied Gore, Implied Cannibalism, Implied Death

Rare, will be tagged, and under a read-more cut: Suggestive jokes, On Screen Gore, On Screen Cannibalism, On Screen Death

Not a content warning, but make a lot of OOC posts bc I have a lot of thoughts! These will all be tagged with 'ooc post', if you don't wanna see them! (But some do have lore in themmmm)

~~~

About Mun

Hi! You guys can call me Bean, Ben or Ruben! I use they/them, and I’m 28. Pizza Tower has taken over my little brain, and so I made this blog to be a bit silly with my favourite character, Fake Peppino~

Main Blog: @smalltimidbean-reblogs (semi-active) (Follows are from this blog!)

Art Blog: @smalltimidbean (active)

[khoicesbyk]

The Royal Romance.

Forevermore.

A/N: this is the next chapter in the journey of my OTP. Follow along for the fun.

Rated: Mature (at times can and will be Explicit. I'll be sure to change the rating when and if that happens). | Contains sexual content and strong language. (You know? The usual. Y'all should be used to this from me by now 😁) | Bolded and/or italicized words are conversations and thoughts of the characters. | Main Characters: King Marquise Rys (LI) and Queen Shanelle Miller-Rys (MC) | All Characters and names: (except MC and original characters created by me and/or other authors [their characters have been mentioned and/or used in the story with their permission] ) are property of Pixelberry.

Current Word Count: 16.4K words. (may be slightly more or may be slightly less. Look, I stop counting after editing and re-editing and driving myself insane. 🤷🏾‍♀️)

If you’d like to be added to my tag list. Just reblog or dm me and I will gladly add you! 😁😘

This series is rated Mature and/or Explicit. It is NOT reading material that is safe for those under 18. Reader discretion is STRONGLY advised!

Missing a chapter or want to read a chapter again? I got you covered! Click ——> Here!

Tag List: @choicesficwriterscreations

Chapter 7.) Ripple Effect. Part One.

It had been a few days since Their Majesties had gotten the news that Khari’s friend Elena Charroux had died and they had to break the news to their daughter. Khari took the news hard and was heartbroken. She didn’t understand why it happened. 

At breakfast one morning Khari barely said three words to anyone before leaving for school and it started to worry her parents, specifically her mother. 

“I don’t like seeing Khari like this,” Shanelle said to her husband as they walked with the twins to the throne room. 

“I know. She’s heartbroken. Elena meant a lot to her and now she’s gone. And it’s a lot for her to process. But we will help her get through this.”

Shanelle shook her head sadly. 

“That poor little girl. She was so young.”

“Agreed. She fought for as long as her body would allow but her body was just too weak.”

Shanelle sighed heavily. 

“And her mother. My God. I can only imagine what she has to be feeling.” 

“I know. Losing a child whether born or unborn, is a tragedy that I would never wish on anyone.”

Shanelle cleared her throat. 

“Speaking of, what is the status of the injunction?”

“It’s been blocked and the funeral home holding Elena’s body has turned her over to her mother.”

“Good. I can only imagine the relief Lady Selene is feeling. Thank you for getting her back to her mother.”

“It was my pleasure. Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can do to Lord Phillip.”

“Why not?” Shanelle asks. 

“Because as insensitive, callous, and cruel as his actions were, there is no law on the books that actually makes what he did punishable,” Marquise replied. 

“Maybe it’s time to change that.”

Marquise snickered. 

“That would make you very vindictive.”

“In this case, I don’t mind being vindictive. He should’ve never been able to file that injunction in the first place.”

“He had the backing of the Heads Of State of Comery Isle. Much like the hospital, there wasn’t much the courts could do to fight them.”

“Speaking of those two, have they answered the summons that was sent?” Shanelle asked. 

“No. It was delivered but they haven’t bothered to answer it.” Marquise replied. 

“They will.”

His Majesty raised an eyebrow at his wife. 

“And what do you have up your sleeve?” He asks. 

“They submitted the islands’ fiscal budget for the year for my approval and I will not approve it until they have responded to the summons.” She replied. 

“That means their current budget will run out on the 29th.”

“Yup.”

“Genius. A tad vindictive but no less genius.”

“It’ll force them to answer the summons. That’s all I care about.”

That’s when their youngest son spoke up. 

“Daddy! Outside?” Zyon asked as he tapped on a glass window. 

“It’s too cold right now my love. Besides, you don’t have your boots on.” He replied.

Zyon looked down at his shoes.

“Boots?”

“Yes, my little one. You need your boots on.”

That’s when he turned to his brother. 

“Amon (come on)! Go det (get) boots!” 

“Let’s doe (go)!” Kylo replied before the two took off running down the hall. 

“What? No! Come back here you two!” Marquise said before he and Shanelle chased after the boys.

The boys made it a little way down the hall before their parents caught up with them, and their Daddy scooped them up before sitting down at a bench to catch his breath. 

“Who knew tiny humans could run so fast on short legs?” Marquise asked as he caught his breath. 

“Nooo Daddy! Outside!” Zyon said as he tried to escape his Daddy’s arms. 

“Now now my love. It’s too cold for you two to go outside right now.” 

“I doe (go) outside!” Zyon said before he put his heave in his hands and started to cry. His Majesty knew he wouldn’t be able to tell him no. 

“Okay, you two come here,” Shanelle said gently. 

The two hopped down from their dad’s lap and ran to their mother. 

“Now Daddy’s right. It’s too cold for you two. You’ll freeze and then turn into Mommy’s abominable snow babies. So no outside for right now.”

“No outside?” Zyon asked. 

“Maybe later baby but not right now. Okay?”

“Otay (okay),” Zyon replied. 

Shanelle snuggled her babies close. 

“Now let’s go sit in the big chair.”

“Big chair?” Kylo asked. 

“Yup. You ready?” She asked them. 

“Let’s doe (go) mommy!” Zyon said as he grabbed his brother’s hand and began to run down the hall. 

“Wait for me and Daddy!” Shanelle shouted as she took off after them. 

Marquise groaned. 

“Just as I was catching my breath!” He complained. 

“Move it you old goat!” His wife shouted over her shoulder as she ran down the hall. 

Once in the throne room, the boys were their normally curious and playful selves. Stealing the show as they played hide and seek while their parents conducted multiple council meetings. 

“Pee boo (peek a boo) Daddy!” Kylo said from behind the curtains. 

“There you are my little one! Come here. Come say hello.” Marquise said to him. 

Kylo came out from behind the curtain he was hiding and climbed onto his father's lap. 

“Say hi my love,” Marquise said to him. 

Kylo smiled at everyone. 

“Hellyo (hello)!” he said with a small wave. 

When it was lunchtime the boys were ready to eat. 

“Mommy! Eat yunch (lunch)?” Zyon asked.

“I think so. Right, Papa Bear?” Shanelle replied. 

“Sure.” Marquise said to his wife, “Everyone! Let's take a lunch break and we'll resume our council meeting after.” 

Once everyone had left, they went to a small dining room next to the throne room, where Margo was waiting. 

“Hello! Hello! Good afternoon my loves!” she said in greeting. 

The boys ran straight to their grandmother.

“Hello, my sweet turtle doves! How are you?” she said as she hugged them. 

“Gammy (Grammy) eat yunch (lunch)?” Kylo asked. 

“You want me to have lunch with you?” Margo replies. 

“Pease (please) Gammy?” Kylo asked. 

“I would love to have lunch with you, my sweet dove,” Margo replied. 

“Gammy sit. Eat yunch.” Kylo said. 

Margo sat at the small table in between the twins. The boys pushed their high chairs up to the table and sat next to her. Zyon started looking around for the attendant to take their lunch orders.

“What are you looking for, baby?” Shanelle asked Zyon. 

“Dotta (gotta) find yunchman (lunchman) mommy.” Zyon replied before he spotted him, “Oh! Helyo yunchman! Helyo!”

The attendant bowed with a smile. 

“Bonjour Your Highness! Good afternoon! Are you and your brother ready to order lunch?” the attendant asked. 

“Yeah yeah!” Zyon replied as he grabbed his menu that was upside down. 

“What would you two like?” the attendant asked. 

“Nugdets (nuggets)?” Kylo asked. 

“Chicken nuggets? Of course Your Highness. And what about you my Prince?” The attendant asked Zyon.

“Pisa poctect (pizza pocket)!” Zyon replies. 

“Pizza pockets it is! And what else would you two like?” the attendant asked. 

“Fench (French) fries!” Zyon replied. 

“Okay, French fries. What about fruits and vegetables?” the attendant asked. 

“Apple slice?” Zyon asked. 

“Apple slices? Okay. And what about you, Your Highness?” the attendant asked Kylo.

“Gapes (grapes)!” Kylo replied. 

“Grapes as well. What about your vegetables?” 

“Tarrots (carrots)!” the twins replied. 

“Anything else?”

“Dolfish (goldfish)?” Zyon asked. 

“Petzels (pretzels)? Kylo also asked. 

“Goldfish and pretzels. Now what to drink?”

“Chocate mill (chocolate milk)!” Kylo replied. 

“Gape duice (grape juice)!” Zyon added. 

“Very well my Princes. Now I have to get the orders of your parents and grandmother and lunch is on the way.” The attendant said to them. 

Margo was impressed by her grandsons. 

“Very good my loves, thank you for using your manners.” She said to the twins, “Now if only your father was as good at that age.”

Marquise made a face. 

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“You weren’t always that good either.”

Once lunch was delivered the twins were ready to eat but they had to do one thing first. 

“Gammy say gace (grace)?” Zyon asked as he and Kylo put their hands together. 

“Yes, my love. Let’s say our grace.” 

After lunch, it was back to council business for The Royals but it was building time for the twins. 

“Bocks (blocks)!” Kylo said to his grandmother as he picked up the bag of blocks, “yook (look) Gammy! Bocks!” 

“I see my love. What shall we build?” she asked him. 

Marquise occasionally would look over to the twins to see them play with their grandmother with a smile. 

“I take it you and Leo used to do that?” Shanelle whispered. 

“No, we were too busy declaring war and throwing blocks at each other between the chairs,” he replied. 

Once the meetings were done, it was time to pick Khari up from school. When Shanelle got to the school pick-up line, she noticed Khari walking slowly, and when she got into the car, she was silent. Just holding her book bag close to her chest. And when they got back to the residence, Khari went straight to her room. Not saying anything to anyone. Not even her brothers. 

“She hasn't said a word,” Shanelle told her husband. 

Marquise sighed as he shook his head. 

“She's taking Elena’s death a lot harder than I thought.” 

That's when Margo spoke up. 

“May I try? She might open up to me.” 

Marquise nodded. 

“Go right ahead if you think it'll work,” Shanelle told her. 

Margo nodded before walking down the hall to Khari’s bedroom. She knocked but didn't hear any response so she opened the door and when she looked, she saw Khari sitting on her bed clutching her stuffed dragon for dear life. 

“What's wrong, my sweet darling?” Margo asked as she sat down next to Khari. 

Khari looked up at her grandmother sadly but didn't say a word. 

“Why are you so sad my love? Did something happen?” Margo asked. 

Khari chewed her bottom lip before nodding her head yes. 

“What happened, my love?” 

“I had a bad day at school,” Khari replied quietly. 

“Oh?” 

“Some of the older kids were being mean about Elena and I didn't like that.” 

Margo shook her head sadly. 

“That's just awful.”

Khari laid her head on her grandmother's lap and started to cry. 

“I miss her Grammy. I miss her so much.” she cried. 

Margo rubbed her head as she cried. 

“I know you do my love.”

“It's not fair Grammy. It's not fair!”

“You're right. Death is never fair. Especially a death from cancer.” 

“But why Grammy? Elena was a good girl. She never did anything bad!”

Margo thought for a moment. 

“Because, my love, cancer is never fair. It doesn't care who it hurts or worse who it kills. Especially when it kills someone who had just barely begun to live their life. Trust me I would know.”

Khari looked at her grandmother before hugging her tightly. 

“I’m sorry. I didn't mean to forget about you, Grammy.”

Margo kissed the top of her forehead.

“No need to apologize, my sweet love.”

“I didn't get to say goodbye. And I feel bad for her mommy. She must be so sad now.”

“Bless you for caring about her mother, sweet child.”

Khari grabbed her backpack and pulled out a drawing. 

“What is this?” Margo asked. 

“Our teacher, Mrs. Thibodeau gave us these to color in honor of Elena so she could hang them up on a wall. It's a penguin. They were her favorite animal.” Khari said sadly. 

Margo gently took the drawing out of her granddaughter’s hands and studied it. 

“I think it is absolutely sweet that you all would do this for her.”

“I asked my teacher if I could keep mine so I could give it to Elena’s mommy and she said yes.”

“You want to give it to her?” Margo asked. 

“Yes. Daddy will speak at Elena’s memorial so I wanted to give this to her mommy.” Khari replied. 

“That is a wonderful idea, my love. I'm sure she'll appreciate your kindness toward her.”

“You really think so?” Khari asks. 

“Yes, my love. Even the smallest act of kindness can mean the world to someone in their time of need.”

Khari nodded before hugging her grandmother.

“Thank you for cheering me up, Grammy.”

“My sweet darling, I am only doing what Grandpa would've done. He would not let his little sunshine walk around being sad.”

Khari smiled softly at her. 

“You know what I think?” Margo asked. 

“What's that Grammy?” 

“I think that when Elena got to the happy place with all of the angels. She started looking around for someone she knew. And guess who found her?”

“Grandpa?” 

“Yes, that's right. And when he found her, he took her by the hand and told her that they're together now. And that they'll watch over you together.”

Khari smiled. 

“I like that Grammy. That way she's not alone.”

Margo nodded. 

“Thank you, Grammy,” Khari said as she hugged her grandmother, “I gotta go say hi to the boys. Since I didn't do that when I got home.”

Margo kissed her forehead softly. 

“Be off with you now.”

Margo watched as Khari ran off to see her brothers and parents. When the Princess got to the living area the boys were playing with the dogs. 

“There's my girl. How are you feeling?” Marquise asked. 

“Better. Thanks to Grammy. I'm sorry I didn't say anything to anyone when I came home. I was…really sad.” Khari replied. 

“Come here, my love.”

Khari climbed into her Daddy’s lap. 

“Your mother and I were beginning to worry about you.”

“I know and I’m sorry.”

“It's okay baby. Death affects everyone differently. And how you grieve and process is how you grieve. We just didn't want you to totally shut down. That's all.” Shanelle said to her. 

Khari nodded. 

“Daddy?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Before we go to Elena’s memorial, can we stop by one of the toy shops? I want to get a gift for Elena’s mommy.”

“Of course we can, my love. What did you have in mind?” he replies. 

“I want to get her a stuffed penguin if we can find one.” 

Marquise nodded. 

“I will put a call in to find one. How's that?” he asked. 

“Thank you, Daddy,” Khari said before hugging him and then going to play with her brothers and their dogs. 

On the day of Elena’s memorial, the Princess was quiet on the ride to the church. When they got to the church Khari was slow to get out of the car behind her father. When the Princess looked up at the entrance she squeezed her eyes shut while clutching the stuffed penguin close to her chest. Her father knelt to look into her eyes.

“Are you ready?” he asked her softly. 

“No,” she replied as she shook her head no.

“Look at me, my love.”

Khari looked at her father with tears in her eyes. 

“Your mother and I are right here. I know you’re sad but you’re not alone. Alright?”

Khari nodded before drying her eyes. While holding the stuffed penguin in her right arm, the Princess slipped her left hand into her Daddy’s right hand. Khari looked at her mother beside her, who smiled softly and rubbed her shoulders before they made their way into the sanctuary. At the altar was Elena’s casket and her mother’s receiving line. When Lady Selene spotted them walking down the line, she smiled softly. 

“Hello, Your Majesties. Thank you for coming,” she said to the royal family in greeting before looking at Khari, “hello Princess. Thank you for coming as well.” 

Khari smiled sadly as she looked up at her.

“Hi,” she replied softly. 

Selene noticed the penguin toy in Khari’s arms. 

“What's that?” she asked Khari pointing to the toy. 

Khari looked down at the toy before looking back at her. 

“This is for you. My mommy and daddy helped me buy it.” Khari replied. 

“May I?” Selene asked. 

Khari nodded slowly as she handed Selene the stuffed penguin. 

“I know that penguins were Elena’s favorite,” Khari said sadly. 

Lady Selene smiled at Khari. 

“Yes, they were. Thank you for this most precious gift, Princess. And thank you for being her friend. Your friendship meant the world to her. You were her best friend.”

“She was my friend too,” Khari said sadly.

“Come here.” Lady Selene said softly as she opened her arms to Khari. Khari looked up at her with tears in her eyes as she went to her. 

“You poor thing,” she said as she hugged a crying Khari. 

“I miss her. I miss her so much.” Khari cried. 

“I know you do, sweetheart. We all do. You meant the world to her.”

“I never got to say goodbye.”

“I know. And I’m so sorry for that. But I do want you to know that I cherish the friendship you two shared. And you know what else?” she asked Khari. 

“What's that?” Khari asked. 

“Now that she's with angels, she can watch over us as our guardian angel.” Lady Selene replied. 

“Really?”

“Yes, my dear. She's our little guardian angel. Yours and mine. Your kindness to her is immeasurable to me. You didn't have to but you did. And I can't thank you enough for being such a sweet, kind-hearted little girl. I want you to know that you are always welcome in my home.”

“You mean it?” Khari asked. 

“Yes, sweetheart. My home is always open to you.” Lady Selene replied with a smile. “Thank you for this precious gift. It will bring me so much comfort and joy in the coming days. Thank you for thinking of me.”

Khari nodded with a small smile. 

“And thank you both for coming.” Lady Selene said to her parents before addressing Marquise, “Your Majesty, I can not tell you how thankful I am that you agreed to speak today. You didn't and don't have to.”

Marquise bowed to her. 

“My lady, it is my honor. I assure you.”

Lady Selene smiled. 

“I should let you three go so I can greet other guests but from the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you for the kindness you've shown me and especially shown to her.”

The Royals smiled at Elena’s mother before making their way down the line. And running into Jean-Marc. 

“Well, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Marquise said to him. 

“Likewise, Your Majesty,” Jean-Marc replied as the two shook hands. 

“It's good to see you old friend. Welcome home.”

Jean-Marc nodded gratefully.

“Thank you, Marquise. Truly I can't tell you how much it means to me to be able to be home after all these years. Thanks to you lifting our family’s exile, we’ll be able to properly bury my father.”

Marquise nodded. 

“I’m happy I could help. I'm just sorry I never asked what happened to you and your family.”

Jean-Marc nodded before looking at Shanelle and Khari and bowing to them. 

“Hello, Your Majesty. It is an honor to meet you. And hello again Princess. It's good to see you.”

Khari smiled softly at him. 

“Hello, Jean-Marc. I've heard so much about you. And do accept my apologies on behalf of His Majesty for stealing a goal from you.” Shanelle replied. 

Jean-Marc snorted while Marquise rolled his eyes good-naturedly. 

“You hear that Your Majesty? Even Her Majesty knows you stole that goal from me.”

“You two will never let me live that down.” 

“Nope.” Shanelle quipped. 

“Please do not let me keep you all. Again, thank you, Marquise. For everything you've done.”

“It was my pleasure,” Marquise replied. 

Jean-Marc nodded before stepping aside to let them pass. When the family got to the end of the line, there stood Elena’s small casket. Marquise picked his daughter up so she could see.

“She looks like she's sleeping,” Khari said quietly. 

“She does. She looks peaceful.” Marquise replied. 

“Sweet girl. She looks beautiful.” Shanelle added. 

“I wish she could wake up so we could play again,” Khari said with a sniffle. 

Shanelle rubbed Khari’s back. 

“We know you do.”

“Wake up Elena. You gotta wake up. Please wake up. We’ll play all you want I promise. You just have to wake up.” Khari said with tears in her eyes. Marquise held Khari close as she cried. 

“It's okay my love. I know you miss her. It'll be alright.” Marquise whispered in comfort to his daughter. “Come, let's take our seats.”

As they made their way to their seats, they were greeted by Elena’s grandmother and a woman Marquise hadn't seen in years. 

“Hello Your Majesties, thank you for coming.” Countess Gladys said to them in greeting before smiling at Khari, “Hello Princess. I hear you and my granddaughter were great friends.”

“Hi,” Khari replied quietly. 

“Your Majesty,” Countess Gladys said to Marquise, “I’d like to introduce you to my sister-in-law, Lady Freida Eriksson-Archambeau. Freida, you remember His Majesty don’t you?”

Lady Freida bowed her head with a smile. 

“Your Majesty? My goodness. You were His Highness the last time I saw you. It's good to see you. Thank you for what all you've done for our family.” she said to Marquise. 

“My lady, it is good to see you as well. And please it was nothing.” 

“No, it was definitely something. Your reversal of my family’s exile is what brought my husband home where he belongs.”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t know sooner so that when I did lift the exile, I could’ve told him personally, but, I am happy that you all are home.” 

“When you took the throne, he believed in you. He knew how horribly your father treated you. He also knew that you would never be anything like him as a King. He knew that one day you would find out, and would work to let us come home. So again, I thank you.”

“It was my pleasure, my lady.” 

Lady Freida smiled at him as they took their seats. Just as everyone else was finding a seat in the sanctuary, there was a commotion at the entrance. It was Lord Charroux and a woman. Lady Jacqueline Yearling. 

“Get out of my way!” He shouted as he stormed down the aisle. He stopped when he got to Elena’s casket. “No! No! No! You can’t be gone! You can’t be!” 

That’s when he turned his rage to her mother.

“You! You did this! You tried to ban me from saying goodbye to my daughter! You no good harlot!”

“I didn’t ban you from anything! You were clearly occupied with other matters!” She hissed at him while giving the woman he brought with him a death stare. “You shouldn’t be here Jacqueline!” 

“Don’t you dare drag her into this!” He snapped at Lady Selene. 

“Why not? She’s half the reason you left!”

“Selene, please! Not now!” Jacqueline tried to say to her. 

“Not now?! Okay, Jacqueline, when do you suggest we do this, hmm?” Selene asked her. 

Jacqueline took a deep breath and cleared her throat. 

“I didn’t come here to start a fight, Selene.”

“Good, then you can leave Jacqueline.”

“Absolutely not! She stays!” Lord Phillip proclaimed.

“I will not have my soon-to-be ex-husband's mistress at my daughter’s memorial!” Selene said as she stood her ground. A hush fell over the crowd. 

Jacqueline shuddered at Selene’s words. 

“Despite what you may think of me, Selene. I loved Elena.”

“No, you didn’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t have stabbed us both in the back.”

“I am her Godmother—” Jacqueline tried to say before Selene cut her off, “You were her Godmother. Until I found out you were sleeping with him behind my back! After everything I did for you! I was loyal to you! When your brother was convicted in Italy, I was there for you! When your parents cut you off and you had nowhere to go, I opened up my home to you and got you a job so you could support yourself! Meanwhile, you were plotting against me! You knew how rocky our relationship was! And you took advantage of it! I confided in you! I trusted you and you preyed on that! You sat back, watched, and happily helped to destroy the family I was trying desperately to save!” 

“I never meant to hurt you, Selene. I swear it. It’s just…Phillip and I…when we fell in love…it just happened, it wasn’t to spite you.” 

Selene scoffed. 

“Well, that’s good for you. I’m glad you found your happiness. Even if it did come at the expense of me and my daughter!”

Lady Selene then turned to Lord Phillip. 

“And you! How dare you decide to show up now! Our daughter was sick for years, and you were nowhere to be found. When I needed you, you were busy living your life however you saw fit. When Elena begged you to come home, you constantly lied to her! You put yourself before our daughter! The only reason you decided to come around now, is because your lover and her incessant need to be kept has put a strain on your finances. Thank God for Their Majesties getting involved and putting a stop to you terrorizing me.”

Lady Selene took a steadying breath. 

“Phillip, the only reason I will allow you to stay is because of Elena. Because before she took her final breath, she made me promise that I would honor her very last wish. She wanted to see you one last time so this is your last time seeing her. Now sit down!” Lady Selene said to him before turning back to Lady Jacqueline, “but you? I will not have you here! You’ve done your damage so now you can leave and go straight to hell while you’re at it!” 

“I will not have you speaking to her in any kind of way.” Phillip sneered as he took a menacing step towards her. He stopped in his tracks when Jean-Marc and Marquise both stood up. 

“You will not take another step towards my cousin,” Jean-Marc warned him. 

“It’s alright Phillip. I’ll go.” Lady Jacqueline spoke up. 

“Jacqueline please!” Lord Phillip pleaded. 

“No, Phillip. I don’t want there to be any more conflict. I’ll see you at home.” She said to him before speaking to Selene, “Selene please believe me when I say this, I never meant for any of this to happen the way that it did. I never meant to hurt you or Elena. I love you both. I still do. I always will. I just hope that one day you’ll forgive me.”

“Never. I will never forgive you for betraying me. Now get out!” Lady Selene snapped at her. 

Everyone watched as Lady Jacqueline made her exit. Lord Phillip shook his head before leveling a glare at Lady Selene. 

“You always were jealous of her. That’s why I left. Because she is a better woman than you will ever be. That’s why I can’t wait to be divorced from you. So she and I can start our own family.” He sneered at her. 

Selene raised an eyebrow at Lord Phillip. 

“I’ll let you in on a little secret that she would never tell you. She’s infertile. When we were younger she found out that she has a rare genetic condition that prevents her from ever conceiving children. Because much like the Heads Of State Of Comery Isle have to, you also have to have a blood heir to pass on your position in their administration to. No exceptions. So good luck with that.”

Lord Phillip stared at her with his mouth open. 

“Now sit down Phillip!” She hissed at him. “And oh! You will not sit anywhere near me and my family!” 

With a nod from their King, security escorted Lord Charroux to a seat in the back of the sanctuary. The memorial went smoothly. And as requested by Lady Selene, Shanelle gave a solo. She sang Elliot Yamin’s ‘A Song For You’. And Marquise gave the eulogy.

“I give speeches all the time so you think this would come easy for me. But this is not easy. When I was asked by Lady Selene to give the eulogy I was honored, grateful, and moved to be asked. Because she could’ve chosen anyone but she chose me, so to you my Lady, I say thank you. Grieving the loss of a child is a pain I can not describe. It is constant. It is indeed like a wave. Sometimes you feel nothing, other times you feel like you’re drowning and can't breathe. So I want to offer words of comfort and encouragement to you, my lady.” 

Marquise said before clearing his throat.

“Admittedly I didn’t know your daughter long but my daughter did. They were the best of friends. And when they saw each other that day at the hospital, I saw how both of them lit up. When they spoke to one another, there were giggles, and jokes, and smiles, and joy, and happiness. And I cherish the time they spent together. I will always cherish it. I mourn with you. I mourn for you. We all do. As I said, losing a child is a pain I can not describe and I will never be able to. But I encourage you to hold onto and remember the enduring love you had for her and especially the love she had for you. You will have days where it will be harder than others but in that moment, I hope you will remember her bright smile. Remember the beautiful light in her eyes. Remember how much of a joy it was to be with her.”

Lady Selene smiled up at him. 

“I want to end this eulogy with an action instead of a word. My Lady, with your blessing and permission, I’d like to honor your beautiful daughter and her memory, by naming the new child cancer center, The Elena Charroux Treatment Center.”

Lady Selene looked over to Shanelle in shock who merely smiled encouragingly.

“But wait there’s more. In addition to naming the new child cancer center after her, I would like to establish a cancer research fund in her honor as well, so that we can finally find a cure.”

“Yes. You have my permission, my King. Thank you so much.” Lady Selene replied in tears. 

“And to the sweet angel that is now watching us all, I hope you are smiling and giggling. I hope you’re running through the endless fields of flowers in heaven. I hope you are surrounded by as many penguin toys as you can stand. I hope you can slide down all of the rainbows. I want you to know we will take care of your mother and grandmother. We will watch over them. We will encourage them. We will protect them. We will give them love. As you would have. You will be missed but know that you are always loved. Your job on this earth is now done. Enjoy your rest amongst the angels. We’ll see you when we get to the other side.” 

When Marquise stepped down from the podium, he laid a hand on Elena’s casket. When he faced her mother, she hugged him. 

“Merci mon roi. pour tout ce que vous avez fait.” She whispered to him. 

“De rien madame. cela a été un honneur.” He replied before taking his seat next to his wife and daughter. Khari looked up at him with a small smile. 

“You did good Daddy.” She whispered to him. 

“Thank you, my little love.” He whispered back before kissing her forehead softly. 

Everyone watched as Lady Selene prepared to say her final goodbye to her daughter. 

“My baby. My sweet angel. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you from this monster. I miss you terribly. But mommy will be strong. I promise you that. I will be strong for us. I love you. I love you so much. I’m sorry my baby. I’m so sorry” She said as she watched her daughter’s casket close for the final time. Lady Selene closed her eyes before taking an unsteady step back and falling to the floor. 

Her cousin and Marquise sprang into action, rolling her onto her back. Marquise checked for a pulse but he couldn’t feel one. 

“She’s not breathing.” He said to Jean-Marc, “My lady, can you hear me?”

She didn’t respond.

“Guards! Get Emergency Services in here now!” Marquise called out to his guards before starting CPR.

Meanwhile, Shanelle did what she could to keep their daughter calm. 

“Mommy, what’s happening?” Khari asked. 

“I don’t know baby but everything will be okay,” Shanelle replied. 

“Her mommy is gonna be okay right?” Khari asked. 

“Yes, baby. She’ll be fine.”

When Emergency Services arrived, they were able to revive Lady Selene and get her on a gurney. As they took her outside to the ambulance, Shanelle pulled her husband aside. 

“Go with them.” She whispered to him. 

“Are you sure?” He asked. 

“Yes. I’ll take Khari home. She's seen enough for one day. Let me know how it all goes.” She replied. 

“Alright. I’ll see you later.” 

Later that day, Marquise returned to the palace and gave his wife a rundown of what happened at the hospital. 

“Lord Phillip showed up at the hospital?!” Shanelle asked. 

“Yes. Showed up and caused a scene. Accused Lady Selene of wanting to ruin him. Called her every name in the book. My guards had to restrain him.” Marquise replied. 

“Where is he now?” She asks.

“In the dungeons of Comery Isle until I figure out what to do with him.”

Shanelle nodded decisively. 

“Leave him there to stew for a few days. Then we can address this issue properly once he's cooled off.”

“Very well. How is Khari?” He asks. 

“She’s okay. She was worried about Lady Selene though.” Shanelle replies. 

“I’m sure she was. Where is she by the way?” He asks. 

“Taking a nap with the boys. They played Spyro until they all got sleepy.” She replied. 

“Good. I’ll speak with her after she wakes up.”

“Okay. How are you by the way?” Shanelle asked. 

“I’m alright. It’s been a long day. My heart goes out to Lady Selene and her family. As tragic as this was, I did find a silver lining for today.” He replied. 

“What’s that?” 

“The family will be burying the former commander with Elena’s casket.” 

“That’s really sweet.”

“Since Lady Gladys kept her brother’s plot at their family cemetery, they’ll be buried together.” 

“I’m glad you were able to lift the exile order and allow them to come home.”

“I am as well. I will never understand why father dearest banned him for a mistake he made on his own.”

Shanelle paused as they sat down. 

“If you don’t mind telling me, what exactly happened that made him unfairly hate the former Commander?” She asked. 

“It all started back during the Great War between the kingdoms. The Dialgosa Pass was a territory that was initially controlled by King Mordecai but because of his alliance with your grandfather, he allowed King Dominic to station troops there. It’s a small valley that runs through East and South Cordonia.” He replied. 

“Okay, so what happened?” She asked. 

“Your grandfather had planted a mole in the ranks, and that mole gave him information that my father would be advancing troops in that area, so King Dominic set a trap for them. Sebastian’s unit had set up camp there that night intending to go further into East Cordonia. But they never made it. Your grandfather’s troops ambushed them while most of them slept. Killing them all. It was said Sebastian was the last to die but there was no real confirmation of that.”

“I never knew that. I knew that Sebastian was killed but I never knew that part of it.”

“Commander Archambeau found out that the mole had been supplying your grandfather with troop information, so he went to tell my father to pull Sebastian’s unit back before it was too late but he wouldn’t listen. Instead, he listened to Barthelemy who was adamant about this being the right decision, and went ahead and unknowingly sent Sebastian to his death.” 

Shanelle shook her head. 

“What did your mother think?”

“She was furious. From what mom has told me, my mother ripped into my father for being naive enough to listen to and trust someone, meaning Barthelemy, who had no military experience or training whatsoever to make this decision. And when my father decided he wasn't going to tell Nadia that it was his blunder that got Sebastian killed, my mother hit the roof. He planned to lie to her about what happened but my mother wasn’t having any of it. She made him tell Nadia and all but forced him and the Monarchy to take care of her and Carlo for the rest of their lives.”

“The Monarchy wasn’t trying to take care of them?”

“No. They were prepared to give him a General’s final send-off but that was it. So she put it in her will that they would be taken care of. It’s one of the reasons why they were given Sebastian’s duchy instead of it going back to the people.”

Shanelle let out a breath. 

“I always knew your father was a coward but this? Not even I thought he’d be this.” 

“Unfortunately he was,” Marquise said as he shook his head. 

Over the next few days, the Royals watched over their daughter who was slowly becoming herself again. By the time it was time for the Royals to head west to Las Vegas, Khari was herself again. 

“Now promise you’ll be good for your grandmothers. Okay?” Marquise told her. 

“Yes, Daddy. I’ll be good. Me and the boys will be on our best behavior. Just promise me that you’ll bring me back a football.” Khari said to her dad.

“I’ll see what I can do. We’ll see you Monday. I love you.”

“I love you too Daddy! Go have fun!” 

With a sweet kiss to each of his children’s foreheads, Shanelle, Marquise, and her father were off to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend. They were staying at Shanelle’s Las Vegas hotel. While the men were going for the game, Shanelle was going for the Usher Halftime Show. 

Because of the money Marquise paid, they were given a tour of the stadium, where he and Damien took several pictures. When they got to their skybox, His Majesty couldn’t help but FaceTime Logan and tell him about the view. 

“Hello?” Logan said as he answered. 

“I got something to show you,” Marquise said to him. 

“What?” Logan asked. 

That’s when Marquise turned his camera around and showed him the view. 

“That!”

“Oh shit! Where are you?”

“Vegas! Live and direct!”

“Oh man!”

“You coming?” Marquise asked. 

“Oh, you got jokes. You got me on tickets?”

“Logan. I bought a 2 million dollar skybox. You don’t need tickets. You just need to show up.”

“On my way!”

“Move it, Ellis!”

“Be there in a few!”

Not even an hour later Logan was walking through the door of the skybox with his father-in-law in tow. 

“So this is how the other half lives? And you got Lowyn on deck too? You are the best brother-in-law a guy could ever have.”

Marquise snorted as he lit his cigar. 

“You make sure you tell Sam Dalton that.”

Logan took a swig of his drink. 

“But for real, thank you for inviting me.”

“Always. This is about to be one of the best Super Bowls on record. It would be criminal to miss it.”

“True.” He agreed before calling out to his father-in-law, “Chief you good?”

“Yup. I’m perfect. This view is unmatched.” He replied as he toasted with Shanelle’s father. 

“Okay, Logan. Who wins?” Marquise asks. 

“NFC all day my guy.” 

“Pity. And here I thought you were smarter than that.”

“You think Mahomes will repeat?” 

“Yes. He’s looking to build a dynasty. And he’s got the team to do just that.”

Logan raised an eyebrow at Marquise.

“How much you wanna bet San Francisco wins this year?”

“$2,500.00”

“Get ready to lose Your Highness.”

“My good man. I don’t lose. I either win or I learn.”

“Nelson Mandela said that.”

“I know. He’s the one who told it to me.”

“You met Mandela?”

“When I was a child.”

Just as Logan started to speak Shanelle came walking into the skybox with Dee in tow.

“Oh no! Trouble just walked in.” Logan teased.

“Shut up boy!” Shanelle snapped at him. 

“For the record, I was talking about Dee but hey if the shoe fits big sis, rock it.”

“Like she said, shut up Logan,” Dee said to him. 

Marquise snorted at the look on Logan’s face.

“Did you girls see him?” Marquise asked the ladies. 

They both started talking all at once. 

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Marquise said with a chuckle. 

“Man, I still don’t see the hype with him,” Logan muttered a little too loudly.

“That’s because you have two left feet,” Shanelle said to him. 

“I do not!” Logan protested. 

“Who can ever forget little Logan trying to breakdance?” Dee asked. 

Shanelle snorted. 

“And nearly breaking his neck in the process,” Shanelle added. 

Logan sucked his teeth. 

“Y’all can go sit down now.” 

“Aww poor baby bro. You’ll be okay. How was your flight?” Shanelle asked. 

“Short,” Logan replied. 

“Like you?” Shanelle teased. 

“I’m 6’1!” He replied. 

“I don’t know that’s still pretty short, Logan,” Dee added. 

The girls cackled at the look on Logan’s face. 

“You two are so mean to me!”

“We love you, Lo!” The girls said to him. 

“Yeah yeah. Love y’all too.”

The girls took their seats as the game got underway. But all the girls cared about was the Usher Concert at Halftime. And true to his form Usher did not disappoint during his halftime show. And by the end of the game, which had gone into overtime, Marquise’s premonition was correct. Kansas City won which meant the AFC won and Logan lost their bet. 

“One of these days you’re gonna learn to listen to me,” Marquise said as he counted his money. 

Logan snorted. 

“Yeah yeah. But seriously, thanks for inviting me, man. I had a great time and I’m sure the Chief will be bragging about this for days.”

“Anytime. Thank you for joining us. I’ll see you in a couple of days. And don't worry I'll send a check to cover what you lost.”

“Yup yup.”

Before he left Logan got a hug from Her Majesty. 

“Thanks for coming babe.” She said to him. 

“Thank your husband. See I knew you marrying him would be the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Shanelle rolled her eyes. 

“You make sure my angels get their signed jerseys.”

“Yes, mom.”

Shanelle sucked her teeth and then smirked. 

“I love you little bro.”

“Love you too sis.” 

With one last hug, she watched her baby brother and his father-in-law head back to Los Angeles before they headed back to Cordonia. 

You've reached the end of Part One. Stay tuned for part two.