#beat me up a little first though so we can have a reluctant allies to lovers slow burn mkay

[abracazabka]

this is so stupid. high fantasy warrior princess fall in love with me and get me out of here...NOW!

[ultfreakme]

So one of my fav fic author, just wrote a non-power AU of GoYuu (gojo/yuji) & SukuFushi (sukuna/ fushiguro) and...... I don't know what to feel. Like, have you know someone who ship them (it's the first for me) ? The fic's not underage, yuji's and megumi's age had been aged up by the author, but still the age gap, the dynamics, right? Can you think the reasons to ship them? Well, creativity really knows no bound.....😂😶

Oooh I have actually come across both of these ships very often on ao3. The ItaJun tag has a bunch of them on top hehe. I actually used to ship Sukuna and Megumi a little back when the anime was first airing(not anymore though).

For Gojo/Yuuji I think the first episode scene where their faces are super duper close probably kickstarted it

(Gojo: tf is personal space??? what's thaaaat???) GoYuu has a very popular ship dynamic I've observed in many fandoms; Student x Teacher. There's always a kind of jaded, aloof and distant teacher-figure who's shipped with the cheery, open-minded and sunny student-figure. I've heard that dynamic is really popular in East Asian fandom spaces(it appears a lot in danmei novels I've read). GoYuu was apparently the most popular ship in Japan (it beat out SatoSugu). Gojo argued to keep Yuuji alive and gave him time, so that's probably a point of appeal too. Gojo usually has no serious reactions to anything, he could have easily killed Yuuji and been done with it but he wanted him to live(Megumi did but eh, technicalities). What made this distant and carefree person take interest in the well-being of this stranger? Why would he risk the world for this one boy? That's probably the start of it. And then in the development, it's probably about how Yuuji can break down Gojo's walls and make him be more honest in his emotions.

2. Sukuna/Megumi: I used to ship it because I thought Sukuna was interested in Megumi as a person, assumed he'd be someone who can give him a good fight or wanted him as an ally.

Also this probably, look at that aesthetic appeal:

(Damn Mappa had a thing for these, ItaJun also had this. Why???? Fuel fujo-bait??? I thank them for the ItaJun version)

Right before this Sukuna's all giggling laughing asking Megumi to give him more(to fight against, but like, SukuFushi enjoyers probably enjoy taking that to mean something different). I think we all assumed he was interested in Megumi's evolution as a sorcerer. He takes joy in fighting and if anyone can catch his interest, it'd be someone who's struggling to get stronger and sees him as a rival.

It seems like he doesn't give a shit about anyone but Megumi. Like that one time he verbatiom said "Aside from him, I truly don't care". Also in Shibuya arc he heals Megumi and fights Mahoraga and everyone though it's because he cares about him(I was a fool).

On Megumi's end, okay idk what the current SukuFushi shippers expect but I personally wanted Megumi to kill Sukuna even when I was shipping them. Enemies to lovers except one of them is permanently in the enemies phase. As far as I've seen, there's always this non-con element to it? Like Megumi is extremely reluctant, Sukuna is unrelenting in pursuing him, and Megumi goes through a bit of a corruption arc and Sukuna.....well he isn't redeemed but he tones down because Megumi asks. A Beauty & The Beast situation.

I was talking about it to my bff and she was (rightfully) roasting me like we were joking around. Me: "Sukuna wants him for his body.....but like literally he wants to be inside him." My friend: "You mean possess him???" Me: "That's the word yes!"

The age-gap thing for SukuFushi feels more okay because I grew up on a bunch of fantasy shojo manga where a high school girl fell for an ancient spirit with a minimum age of 100. This isn't even an animanga thing, it's there in western media too(....Twilight). A lot of people just don't see the point of mulling over age gaps when the differences are centuries, even if the other half is a minor.

As for GoYuu, well I guess it's fiction, they're just lines on a page at the end of the day and it's less about the legalities of the gap and more about the dynamics it brings to the table that people can find interest in. The power difference, the difference in ways they view the world, the younger one is always more innocent, etc.

I personally don't find these to be my interests 99% of the time but I get why others would enjoy it (my few exceptions are Scum Villain and ErHa but if I start trying to explain THOSE messes we'd all lose it).

I guess people would be confused why I'm still hung up on ItaJun too huh? XDXD But as you said, fanon and creativity has no limits and people do as they like and enjoy.

[that-house]

Viego Rant (villainy and character design and tragedy and all that jazz)

Introduction The more I think about Viego, League of Legends’ newest character, the more enamored I am with him as a villain (unrelated to his general sexiness, though that does tie in with what makes him such a good villain).

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about his design. The Ruined King, one of the greatest threats in Runeterra, the progenitor of the Shadow Isles, the lord of the undead, is finally released as a playable champion and he looks like this:

People were expecting another Mordekaiser (who is similarly an undead king with a ghost army), a lich-tyrant clad in iron, decayed flesh peeling from an aged face. What we got was an angsty anime prettyboy, and it was infinitely better than the alternatives. 

Lore Viego isn’t a conquering king. While his combat abilities are indeed badass, his personality is far from it. He’s a whiny brat and that’s incredible. He isn’t bent on world domination. His character arc revolves around just how human, how fallible he really is. For those unfamiliar with his lore, I’ll paraphrase it here:

Viego was the second son of a great king. Overshadowed by his brother and with no expectations upon him and near-limitless wealth, he wandered around being an idiot fuckboy for the vast majority of his formative years. Disaster struck when his brother died in an accident, and Viego took the throne with no training, no experience, and no desire to be king. He was a shitty king. The worst king. Just all-around apathetic. Gave zero shits. Can you blame him? It’s a lot of responsibility to be thrust upon someone who isn’t much more than a child, and with no preparation. He didn’t care about anything, that is, until he met Isolde. She was a poor seamstress, but he fell in love with her upon their first meeting. Together they ruled the country but it was really just them staring longingly into each others’ eyes. His allies were kinda fucking pissed about that, and one day an assassin came from Viego. The assassin fucked up and stabbed Isolde instead, and the poison on the blade made her fall gravely ill. As she lay in her bed, slowly dying, Viego went mad seeking a cure. He ravaged the land seeking any knowledge that might help, pouring all of his money into finding an antidote. He failed. As a last resort, he brought Isolde’s body to the Blessed Isles, a place rumored to be able to resurrect the dead. It worked, to an extent. Isolde’s wraith, confused, afraid, and angry at being ripped from the peace of death, unthinkingly stabbed Viego in the chest with his own magic sword, creating basically a magic nuke that turned the Blessed Isles into the domain of the undead. Viego resurrected as the king of the Shadow Isles some time later, having totally forgotten that Isolde killed him. He controls a big-ass ghost army, could probably beat up any living thing in a fight, and has evil ghost magic. Now this stupid simp wants his wife back and if he has to kill every living thing on Runeterra, well, anything for his queen. He’s even a tier 3 sub to her Twitch.

Music His musical theme isn’t some heavy metal anthem or intense cinematic piece (unlike the Pentakill song named after his sword, Blade of the Ruined King). It’s mostly sad and slow, almost sinister, with a piano and a music box. It has its loud moments featuring violins and choral bits like any villainous music, but the song is mostly subtle. It is a banger though.

In the comments section of this video, someone pointed out that the music reflects his story from beginning to end:

Everything about this champion is so well done. Riot Games really outdid themselves on this one. Bravo, encore please.

Motivation While the Mordekaiser circlejerkers on r/LeagueofLegends won’t shut the fuck up about how powerful Mordekaiser is, Viego is the better villain. Mordekaiser may be a bigger threat to all life on Runeterra, but Viego is a better character. (There’s a guy on my League discord server who won’t shut up about Mordekaiser so forgive me for being pissed at Morde stans).

Mordekaiser is motivated by a desire for control, to rule the world. Viego is motivated by obsession and misplaced love. There aren’t a lot of Mordekaisers on Earth. Supervillains are rare in real life. But Viego’s motivations are a lot closer to home. People in positions of power that they don’t deserve can do a lot of harm (for example: Trump).

He’s a grieving husband who was never prepared to deal with anything more difficult than choosing what wine to drink with dinner, who is trying to get his wife back because the world had always complied to his every whim. He’s a funky mix between a truly hopeless romantic and a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum.

Obsession is scary. It’s a real-world emotional state that’s been the cause of a lot of murders over mankind’s history. In contrast, Mordekaiser’s cartoonish Genghis Khan XXL schtick isn’t something that we encounter often. Of course a superpowered ultradictator would be worse for the world, but if you give ultimate power to a random person, you’re more likely to get someone like Tighten from Megamind. Or, more relevantly, Viego.

Design His design is sexy and stupid, just like him. He wears an open shirt into battle and wields his sword like an idiot (I’ve seen all the rants about how that’s not how that sword is meant to be used) because he was never really a warrior. Even at his most violent, right before the end of his mortal life, he didn’t do much combat himself, leaving his military endeavors to his underlings. Even now that he’s essentially a god, he still has a colossal wraith army that causes far more devastation than he ever could personally.

Despite his slim build (by League of Legends standards), he easily wields his colossal sword because of the strength of his state of undeath. Like his political power when he was alive, his posthumous magical and physical powers were never something he sought out, they were just given to him by circumstance.

The big cool-ass triangle hole in his chest where Isolde stabbed him is the source of the Black Mist, which is evil ghost mist that ebbs and flows from the Shadow Isles, bringing with it hordes of the undead. The sadder Viego is, the more Mist he creates. Poetically, his invasion of the world is inspired by his sorrow at his wife’s death and enabled by his wife’s reluctance to return to him. His story is perfectly reflected by his design.

Isolde Isolde’s spirit took up residence inside a young Senna (who’s another League champion, not particularly important here). This led to some Black Mist-related shenanigans and at least for the time being, Senna uses Isolde’s power to fight off the servants of Viego which threaten all life on Runeterra.

It seems pretty clear that whatever love Isolde felt for Viego is gone by now. Whether or not she ever loved him or was just unable to say no to the king is up for debate, but I’d like to believe there was something there. In my opinion, Viego’s story hits harder if they really were a great couple at first, torn apart by circumstance and obsession.

Much like the Maiden of the Woods in that one comic that circulates around here, to whom the knight gave his heart and she was like “yo what the fuck i literally never asked you to do this,” Viego went a little too far in trying to save her. They may have once been happy, but the Ruined King ruined his own life, too.

Unless Isolde is a lot less morally decent than we’ve been led to believe, I doubt she can forgive all the massacring that her husband’s been doing lately. In the recent cinematic, she was shown to be pretty anti-Viego. Maybe she’ll get a bastardization arc, but it certainly seems unlikely.

All of Season 2021 is based around Viego, Isolde, and the Shadow Isles, so we’ll just have to see what comes next. It’s possible that we’ll get Isolde as a playable champion, which should clear a lot of things up.

Final Thoughts Unlike so many villains, he’s not fueled by rage or hatred, but rather by sorrow. He’s stuck in his past, unable to move on. He regrets the actions of his life but is set on his course now. The sunk-cost fallacy comes into play here; he’s put so much time and effort and blood into bringing back Isolde, that turning away from it would feel to him like an insult, not only to her but to the innocent lives he’s taken in her name.

His tale is a tragedy, a love story gone horrifically wrong. Viego has suffered throughout his thousand-year life. Despite this, he’s undoubtedly the villain. His permanent death would be a net positive for the world. In has rage and grief he’s destroyed multiple civilizations, and will burn down the world to get Isolde back.

His heart may be in the wrong place, but it’s in a very human place. I don’t think he’ll get the ending he’s looking for, but I hope he finds some closure in the end.

[staarshines]

Alderaanian Tragedy || P.D.

Warnings: Mentions of ecstasy (in the song), mention of getting drunk

Word Count: 1.8k

The story as to how you ended up in the middle of a cantina on Ajan Kloss, dancing with the love of your life, foreheads pressed together while laughing, still high from the first two kisses just a mere few hours after the war of your generation ended.

[A/N]: i said i would write it 😌 NO THIS IS NOT ANGST I PROMISE!! it’s based off of the song “greek tragedy” which’s remix went viral on tiktok lately—if you’re gonna listen to it while reading the story, please do not listen to the remix because that’s the complete opposite of the original 😭 And yes if like five of the words seem changed I did change a few lyrics to fit the universe better!!

Poe.

That was the only person you wanted to find when you landed—everyone else could wait. Rey, Finn, L’ulo, Rose—they all could wait.

The love of your life couldn’t.

Maybe it was the absolute high you were still riding from watching all those allies drop out of hyperspace. Maybe it was relief about the war you’d been fighting for for nearly half a decade finally being over. Maybe it was fear of how many blasts had barely missed your X-Wing that last battle. Or maybe, just maybe, it was just exhaustion of keeping the secret for so long. But you needed to tell him.

After all, you had no excuses now.

We’re fighting in a war.

We can’t risk being distracted.

What if something happens to one of us?

It’s not a good time.

If he doesn’t feel the same, we won’t be able to work together anymore.

No. None of that. All those “excuses” went down with the dreadnoughts on Exegol.

You’re too lost in your thoughts to even be actively looking for him, just wandering through the crowd of ecstatic rebels because you know the moment you see his eyes, you’ll be racing toward him.

And you’re damn right.

You run into his arms so hard that you knock the breath out from your own lungs—forget about his. You know he’s saying something, you just can’t hear it over the rebels’ cheers and your own sobs. It’s practically impossible to get out of his grip, but once you do, you press your forehead so hard against his that it hurts, laughing through your tears, his face cupped in your hands and vice versa—you swear to the Maker you would’ve kissed him right then and there had Rey and Finn not nearly tackled you both to the ground with a hug.

Nobody says a thing for who knows how long—the silence in between the four of you is more than enough. Once the four of you pull apart, it takes mere seconds for you all to break out in laughter after seeing the fatigue on everyone’s faces. Nevertheless, the flyboy has something else on his mind.

“We’re definitely getting drunk tonight, right?”

“I thought we were dressing cute—” you blurt out, looking at your black skater dress and Finn’s collared shirt before seeing Poe in his signature tank top-half flightsuit and Rey in one of her regular sleeveless tunics and a jacket.

“I thought we were dressing homeless…”

“I was just too tired to change out of my flightsuit.” Finn snickers and you just roll your eyes, fighting back a smile (and failing, obviously). “It doesn’t matter, really. I look hot either way.” He sends a wink your way which you hope looks like you blatantly disregarded it—because your mind certainly didn’t.

“Don’t get too cocky, Dameron.”

Making your way down to the cantina, you can’t help but let your mind wander a little because of how flirtatious Poe is being. Sure, he was always flirty little shit, but something about this was… different.

Probably just the weight of the war off his shoulders, you tell yourself.

But that couldn't be the only thing. There had to be something else.

This. This is what you hated about being a rebel—were you still a rebel if the war was over? That’s beside the point—the hope. The hope is what you hated. Rebellions were built on hope. As long as there was hope, a rebel would keep fighting. No matter how improbable or impossible, even, the situation was, a rebel wouldn’t give up on it. It’s the only reason the Rebellion won the war, really.

And you’ve told yourself more times than you can count that work’s ideology should stay in work’s life. A motto that outrageous doesn’t just transfer over to a, well, to any love life. You’ve talked yourself down in your quarters, the hangar, your X-Wing, a fucking dreadnought, and even this cantina where you’re sitting right now.

Your heart just wouldn’t listen.

“This song—hell yes!” Poe’s excited yells pull you out of your thoughts, and it takes you a few seconds to realize that Alderaanian Tragedy is playing. “C’mon flygirl, get up! Let’s dance!”

“Flygirl?” you don’t hesitate to question the nickname—not that you were complaining, no. The opposite, really. “Since when has that been my thing?”

“Since I said so.”

“Oh really?”

“Mhm. I practically own the brand. I say what goes.” You nod teasingly but don’t budge, earning a groan from him. “Fine. You made me do this, then.” He grabs your hand and pulls you out of the booth with a surprised yelp from you. You reach a hand out to Finn and Rey but Finn just waves you off and Rey blows you a kiss, winking. Sighing, you decide to accept your fate, catching up to Poe so he doesn’t have to drag you through the crowd anymore.

“We’re smashing mics in karaoke bars…”

“Are you really going to pull us into the middle?” you yell over the pumping music, barely even being able to hear yourself.

“Is this your first time meeting me?”

“You’re running late with half your makeup on…”

Poe comes to a stop and grabs your other hand, beginning to sway to the music. You’re still a bit reluctant, which earns you a pout from him. Maker, not the damn pout.

“This method acting might pay our bills…”

You smile just the tiniest bit at remembering how much you loved this song—Poe’s grin when he sees that you’re having fun makes you start giggling almost uncontrollably.

“But soon enough, there’ll be a different role to fill…”

You sing along, finally starting to let yourself loosen up and have some fun, which makes Poe happier than he’s been in a long time.

“I love this feeling, but I hate this part…”

Poe sings along with you, giving you a little “Yeah!” of encouragement at the end.

“I wanted this to work so much, I drew our plans in the stars…”

You swear you see him point to you both before pointing up at the ceiling like you could see the stars—damn this dim lighting. Did you just imagine it, or did Poe really make that verse about the two of you—?

“Speeders are flipping, I’m in hot pursuit…”

He grabs your waist and twirls you into his chest—you swear your heart stops right then and there.

“My character’s strong, but my head is loose.”

He rolls his head back and sticks his tongue out at you—as stupid as it may be, you laugh. The bass of the beats start shaking the floor, and you both look at each other like you know what to do next.

“She hits like ecstasy…”

You’re jumping like crazy with your hands on Poe’s shoulders, laughing gleefully and letting your hair whip around without a care in the galaxy.

“Comes up and bangs the sense out of me…”

He’s singing along now, and as loud of the music may be, you can hear him—you’re closer and honestly? He’s louder. Like the song means something to him.

No, he’s just enjoying the night. Stop being a romantic for once.

“The tarot cards say it’s not that bad, the blades rotate there’s just no landing pad…”

Dramatically falling back with full faith that Poe will catch you—which he does—you try to stop yourself from thinking about how deep you are in your love for him. Dancing like this, it’s not… It’s not how best friends dance. There shouldn’t be this much tension, and there sure as hell shouldn’t be this much meaning.

“And better have said it, but darling you’re the best…”

You mouth the last four words—as does he—and pointedly tap his nose, as if to solidify that you were talking about him.

“I’m just tired of falling up the Penrose steps…”

He slows down a little bit and you gladly oblige, a little bit out of breath yourself as well.

“I hate this feeling, but I love this part…”

You let your arms drape over his shoulders, feeling like he was trying to tell you something. You look into his eyes but you can’t read them because of the lack of light—you swear you see a shimmer or a sparkle somewhere in there, though…

“She really wants to make it work, and I clearly want to let it start…”

One of his hands travels up your back while the other tucks a loose strand of your hair back in place—the simple motion setting off that Maker-damned fizzing feeling in your stomach again.

“We’ll build a podracer as soon as I get home…”

Your hands switch positions from over his shoulders to holding his face—were you two getting closer? You honestly couldn’t handle the suspense.

Fuck it.

“Oh and she hits like ecstasy…”

Your veins throb and you swear your heart explodes as your lips crash into his, which he gladly welcomes. He’s everywhere, up your back, your neck, your hair, and suddenly, he’s kissing you harder, deeper, with some sort of urge that you’ve never known before. It’s dizzying, because you feel the same thing—you’ve never wanted anyone like this before. Ever. In this moment, all you wanted was Poe. You want him closer, closer, closer, even though he can’t get any closer. Maybe time stopped when your lips met his.

“Comes up and bangs the sense out of me…”

You don’t want to break the kiss—in fact, you want to let it go on forever—but you need a second to think without his lips on yours.

Did you really just kiss him?

Poe Dameron?

The love of your life?

And he’d kissed you back?

“It’s wrong, but surely worse to leave…”

You’re searching his face for answers and he seems to be doing the same—that is, until, you both come to the conclusion that another kiss is probably the answer.

“She hits like ecstasy…”

It still isn’t clear whether or not you’d just dreamed this moment into real life, but there was something about the way he was gripping onto you. Something that screamed “I’m never going to let you go. I’m never going to let you go. I’m never going to let you go.” And honestly? You didn’t want him to.

“So free up the cheaper seats…”

Even though you’re too out of breath for kissing, you still need to be as close to him as possible—thus being the last detail of the story as to how you ended up in the middle of a cantina on Ajan Kloss, dancing with the love of your life, foreheads pressed together while laughing, still high from the first two kisses just a mere few hours after the war of your generation ended.

“Here comes an Alderaanian Tragedy.”

Masterlist

All taglists are open! Send me an ask or a message :)

Permanent: @becausewhyknotme, @browneyedhimbo, @theladyoffangorn, @officialtonystarkprotectionsquad, @justmebeingtheweirdmeiam, @fantasticcopeaglepasta, @talk-geek-to-me, @letsmellowjello, @thescarletknight2014, @bbluespiritzuko, @brooklynsmorales, @poe-djarin, @marvelinsanity​, @softly-sad​, @yourbucky084, @mcolbz14, @houseofthirst, @arkofblake​, @asianravenpuff​

Star Wars: @kittyofalltrades​, @m1rkw00dpr1ncess​, @propertyofdindjarin​, @coldbreadbouquetworld​, @melvls​, @thedevilwearsbeskar, @agentshortstacc​

Poe Dameron: @poe-damnnn-eron​, @lapilark​, @peterhollandkait​, @demigod-dragonrider-schoolidol​, @twomoonstwosuns​, @lady-sloan, @poes-stardust​, @legamelo​, @xremember-me-notx​, @imtheoutgoingsidekick-baby​, @yourbucky084​, @agents-assemble​, @daydreamerinadazedworld​, @darthadeline​, @roserrys​, @fandom-addict-aesthetics​

Story Tag: @permanentmess​

[bookwyrminspiration]

Is there any of the not so obviously evil characters that you hate?

interesting question!!

I think i've been fairly open about my current dislike of Oralie and how she handled the reveal of her involvement in Project Moonlark, but I have at least one or two full posts on that so I won't repeat all of that here. Just the way it became all about her and her yearning for a child and how much she'd sacrifice and how it hurt her when Sophie was right there, also affected by it. Yet, it still came back to Oralie and how "sophie could hate her all she wanted" (paraphrased), which felt very...wrong? i don't know how to explain it. It felt like Oralie was making herself this huge victim in a situation she opted into, entirely voluntarily. While Sophie just got thrust into it. I do still like her, in the sense that I like a complicated character and they don't have to be good, but hot damn does she enrage me.

aside from her, I don't know if anyone else immediately comes to mind.

I can say that the way Bo and Ro are written infuriates me, but that's the writing and not the characters themselves. They just feel so...flat. And repetitive. Like okay, they're big strong muscly warriors and they use violence and intimidation as the solution for everything. They can't acknowledge their weaknesses and work on themselves. And on top of it, they constantly boast that they could beat other people in a fight without actually going further into it, just confidence that sounds immature, to me at least. I can excuse it to a point with them being surrounded by reluctant allies and species that don't approve of them, needing to keep up a guard and appear powerful, but it's gotten excessive and now it just annoys me. It's been long enough, I think we can see another side to them now. And Ro has started that, Bo a little further away, but I don't know if this development will continue or not.

these are more critiques on the writing and not the characters though, and I do have more of these. characters like the entire population of gnomes and how they're written and all that

I could probably think of a few more given time, but these are the people who first came to mind! Thought provoking question though, so thank you!!

there are of course the characters who's decisions irritate me but now them as a whole: people like Tiergan because of his reaction to Sophie's arson and the way he put all the blame on her, but that's a little different

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

A Miraculous TikTok Account

Part 25

First

Previous

Next

But, unfortunately, the good mood didn’t last long.

Hungover, tired from lack of sleep, and sore from sleeping on the floor…

Not a great start to the day, but they had stuff to get done.

They’d all brought their technology and, after a few moments where they'd discussed their abilities, they’d gotten to work. If it were at any other time, with any other people, they could have been mistaken for just a set of teenagers engrossed in their technology of choice.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as lighthearted as it seemed to the untrained eye.

Ladybug pressed her lips into a thin line, eyes roving over every still frame of their TikToks.

It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense AT ALL.

Why had Hawkmoth suddenly upped the ante? It had to have something to do with their accounts and/or the fact that they were now all living together, it was too soon after the start for it to be anything else, but then the answer should be obvious. It should be somewhere on their accounts…

And yet she couldn’t find anything. Nothing that could have provoked him, really.

She could see the conspiracy board in the background of Chloe’s video, but that didn’t mean much.

It showed their estimate of Hawkmoth’s height, which shouldn’t be much of a problem considering the fact that miraculi had a way of keeping people from figuring out who their holders are using physical characteristics alone...

It also showed some of the attributes/insults that the miraculous team had come up with. Had he been upset when Ladybug had pointed out his “stupid shaped condom head”? Insulted when Carapace had said he had “Rich asshole dad vibes (think Gabriel Agreste but more overtly evil)”? Hurt when Chloe had written “terrible fashion sense, probably straight”?

She didn’t think that was what had happened, lashing out over a few petty insults didn’t fit her profile of him. Hawkmoth was smug, Hawkmoth was cool and collected, and, above all, Hawkmoth was determined to keep his hands clean so he couldn’t be found.

Maybe that was it. He’d been threatened by the proof that they were actively looking for him.

She didn’t know. It didn’t make sense for someone who only ever came out when he thought he had won to appear for seemingly no reason…

But she brushed it off. They had bigger problems.

Namely, Hawkmoth shouldn’t have been able to find them. They’d done everything they could to keep their location a secret, from carefully placed camera angles to sneaking in through windows to asking Rena to cloak them when they could. So how had he found them?

The first answer they’d come up with was the people Chloe had hired to move her things in. Chloe had badgered her dad to figure out the names of the movers and given them over to Rena, who was doing a shockingly extensive background check on them all (they were opting not to question it).

“Three of them had a criminal record, but they were all minor. Public indecency, drunk driving, that kind of thing. Nothing that really screams ‘Hawkmoth’,” said Rena. “And the only one that fit the height requirement was the complete wrong skin color, so…”

“I doubt that any of them have property in the rich area of town, anyways,” said Chloe.

This earned a glare from the others and she shrunk back with a sheepish smile.

“It’s around the Eiffel Tower, though, we should check that out,” said Ladybug. “Since that’s a more or less easy to access place.”

Rena shook her head slightly. “There’s been akumas that have tried to take or destroy the Tower. If his base was there he wouldn’t have allowed that.”

They all considered this before deciding that made sense.

Carapace leaned back in the armchair with a long sigh. “I looked through all the comments. If anyone managed to find us that way they’d have to be speaking in code for me to have missed it.”

Chloe nodded and set her phone down. “I couldn’t find anything on the internet, either.”

There was a beat as the five of them considered this. If the movers hadn’t been Hawkmoth, and no one online had figured it out, then the only way Hawkmoth could have found out was…

The anxiety in the room spiked.

“So, we all agree that the traitor is probably Chat, right?” Said Chloe.

Chat frowned. “I was the only person fighting him for a while. Why would I even bother if I was a traitor?”

“To keep up looks, or maybe you only recently started working with him,” said Rena. “Besides, Hawkmoth needed the Ladybug miraculous, too, to make the wish. Maybe you were waiting for her to show up.”

Chat bit his lip and drew his knees to his chest. “No. The only reason that we even got a Ladybug was that I happened to be allergic to birds. I didn’t even know there were other miraculi until she showed up.”

“And that allergy was exploited quite a few times by Hawkmoth, so much so that another hero had to be involved. Sounds a little suspicious, honestly.”

Carapace sighed. “Please, that was just good strategy. Hawkmoth wanted another hero to appear, so he made it happen. There’s no reason to think that it was Chat’s fault.”

Rena didn’t seem all that convinced.

“Maybe we should get Chat to explain why his room wasn’t touched,” Chloe said.

“I can’t! Because, get this: I don’t know or help Hawkmoth!”

Carapace raised an eyebrow. “Can we talk about how eager you guys are to throw him under the bus?”

Rena frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m SAYING that someone here has been just a little too curious about us all. Not to mention you love it when stuff doesn’t go well for us. Or that you’re the newest member here.”

Rena pushed her laptop from her lap and got to her feet. “PLEASE. You’re just mad that all the signs are pointing towards your little friend betraying us!”

Carapace pushed himself to his feet as well, looking at Chloe and Rena with clear contempt. “And your ally is so great? Want to talk about how she messes up all the time and makes everything hard on us? She fucked up enough to get Ladybug to babysit but, sure, let’s go after the person who’s been putting his life on the line for the longest!”

Chloe launched herself at him --.

“ALRIGHT, THAT’S ENOUGH!”

Chloe’s hand stopped inches away from Carapace’s face. Carapace let go of her shirt. Rena unclenched her fists. Chat pulled his face out of his knees.

Ladybug crossed her arms over her chest. “Kwami. You’re acting like children.”

“But --,” tried Rena.

“NO.”

Rena snapped her mouth shut.

“I get that you’re all scared, and that’s UNDERSTANDABLE, but you need to get ahold of yourselves. This is exactly what Hawkmoth wanted, for us to be scared and angry and, most importantly, ready for akumatization. Yes, this is a big problem, but all of you need to go cool down.”

There was a beat before Chloe got off of Carapace and offered him a hand up. Carapace looked reluctant but, when Ladybug had turned her glare on him, he took it.

“Thank you.” Ladybug pressed her lips together as she considered her next words. “If you’re going to get akumatized, run out of Paris and do something to relax. Otherwise... Chat: play video games, Carapace: listen to music in your room, Rena: you can use my gym to work out, Chloe: do some gardening.”

There were a few moments as the four stared at her with wide eyes before they slowly shuffled off to do as they were told.

She waited to make sure they were gone before dropping her Ladybug persona and falling back on the couch. She rested her arm over her eyes.

Kwami, she hated that it had gotten that far. Really, she hadn’t expected it. While it wasn’t at all shocking that Rena and Chloe were confrontational and Chat would cower, she hadn’t thought Carapace would snap at them. 

Still, once she’d realized that things were escalating… she probably should have done something.

Not that she didn’t have a reason, because Ladybug always had a reason. She’d wanted to see their reasonings for why they could all be traitors.

… not that she genuinely thought there were traitors. The only person that was even slightly shady out of the lot of them was Rena, and she was pretty sure that was just because of her miraculous.

Ladybug clicked her tongue irritably.

How the hell was she supposed to prove to everyone else that they were all safe, though?

~~~

Taglist

@nathleigh @sassakitty @th1s-1s-my-aesthet1c @blueslushgueen @woe-is-me0 @ladybug-182 @cas-and-their-refusal-to-write @trippingovermyfeet @melicmusicmagic

[lov3nerdstuff]

Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 7.25}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student, blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 5.2k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

______________________________

Two minutes after the elaborate goodnight wishes, the five girls were finally on their way down to the dungeons. Cas was babbling away as always, entertaining both Melissa and Lisa to the fullest, while Jorien and Robin merely listened and observed as they followed behind. The three girls up front barely made it down the spiral staircase, giggling as they were, but not even the gloomy darkness of the dungeon hallways could bring the calm and quiet of the night into their conversation as they happily chatted on and on about the many highlights of the dance. Thus it wasn't surprising when a minute later nobody took notice of Robin's quiet yelp as she was whisked away from the group in a crossing of one gloomy hallway with an even darker one.

The adrenaline in Robin's blood skyrocketed immediately, the yelp dying on her lips in a broken moment of initial surprise. Then the familiar arm around her waist and the comforting scent of home quenched every spark of fear or panic in her mind.

She found herself pressed against the cold stone wall a second later, kept in place by the weight of his body while his soft lips on her own demanded a fire she gladly returned, and every last cell in her body lit up in roaring flames as an immediate response. Her heart was bursting, drumming furiously against her ribcage while its echoes pulsed through her entire body in sheer blissful heat. Oh bloody fucking hell, this was magnificent… breathtaking, in every sense of the word. And it still was terribly dangerous, even here now in the dark. That, perhaps, was the only flaw of the moment, their one and only honest mistake.

"Are you aware that you are way too good at this?" Snape finally asked, ragged breaths brushing against Robin's skin as he leaned his forehead against hers. Upon this she smiled, but her eyes stayed closed as she found herself too overwhelmed to open them. She didn't need to; she could feel him, his presence, his warmth, his entire being…

"Really?" She finally let out a humoured and incredulous huff in reply. How could she be any good at this if she had never kissed anyone before? Was her lack of experience really not all that noticeable?

"Without a doubt. I would never allow myself to get this carried away in a school hallway of all places if you didn't enchant me beyond any measure. Beyond any reason."

"Sev-..." She was cut off by his lips, both in word and thought and she lost every string of reason that had just started to gather back together. Oh screw experience, they were way too good at this to even think of that. She must be doing something very right if he couldn't stop this madness either, couldn't resist the growing addiction.

It once again was the noise of people crossing by in a hallway close by that broke them apart, and only then Robin noticed for the first time how much it hurt to stand on one's tiptoes for an extended amount of time. For a kiss like that, she still would do it again and again any time.

"I should apologise for seizing you like that without your permission." He finally said when the retiring students' laughter and chattering had faded in the distance, then he took a step backwards to give Robin her space as well. "Who knew I could act like a dunderhead myself, given the chance."

"Oh, I knew." Robin couldn't help grinning as she stepped away from the wall, which earned her a small glare and a not-smirk. "And as much as I understand and appreciate your point, you do have my permission. Besides, where would be the point in suddenly pressing me against a wall and kissing me senseless if it came with a warning?"

Snape didn't look at her, but the corners of his lips were twitching and she could tell with utmost certainty that he was amused even though being rather flustered at the same time. It was surprisingly adorable, really, and made her wonder if he had never been in such a situation before. Well, not exactly the same situation, obviously, but still…

"I have wanted to do that for a long time now." He replied to her surprise, and his eyes were back on hers, dark and intense and every last idea of adorable was gone. Instead, his gaze made Robin shiver in delighted excitement. "But never would I have thought that it would be better than anything I was even vaguely able to imagine."

"You imagined kissing me?"

"More often than I should admit to, if I want to keep some last scraps of dignity at least."

"I've seen you lying in a muddy river before, as well as being stuck in a giant cobweb. And if that's not enough, we were just snogging in the hallways like the hormonal teenagers we scold for doing the very same. I think it's a bit too late to worry about your dignity with me." Robin chuckled, louder even when Snape rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but her heart soared when he smiled again after all. "We really should get out of the hallways though, I'm tired of fearing people might run into us. I really don't see how the danger of getting caught can be appealing to someone, for me it's just nerve-wracking."

"I could not agree more."

After taking two seconds to straighten out their appearances just in case, they made their way through the gloomy darkness side by side like they had done so often by now, with the small but significant change that the accidental touches, the brushing of hands and bumping of arms were more intentional than not this time, and both knew it to be their fullest intention as well. Robin couldn't keep the grin off her face, but she bit her bottom lip to tone it down as much as possible. She hadn't felt so much giddy excitement in one night since… well, ever really. And when they walked right past the office, then past the lab as well, a liquid lightning ran from the top of her head down her spine to her very core and every cell beyond. These new rushes were only an additional layer to the bottomless adoration and affection that had been there for years now, to the deeply rooted love she held for him, but it was a heavenly addition nonetheless. It certainly gave the term 'allconsuming' an entirely new meaning, an inevitably deeper one.

It was only when Snape stopped in the crossing of hallways that on one end led to the common room and to his rooms on the other that Robin's smile faltered. With a confused frown she didn't bother to hide she came to a halt as well, looking up at him with the question clear as night in her eyes so she wouldn't have to say the words. It was safer than admitting to being as boldly assuming as she had been… somehow she hadn't doubted that they would at least have a coffee. Like always. Or… did he need space now, with everything that had happened? After all the days and nights they had spent together, he didn't really strike Robin as the kind of person who would need space, not from her. From others, yes, always if possible, but he hadn't sent her away in years, rather on the contrary really. So-...

"I don't know if this could be considered a good idea by any means." He said in a calm tone, reluctant almost while yet he reached out for Robin's hand and pulled her closer to himself. Always the contradiction, that man…

"And why wouldn't it be a good idea?" She asked in return, calm encouragement colouring her voice now that she knew the reason for his hesitation wasn't a sudden wish for distance. Indeed, as if to prove that point, he interlaced their fingers and drew her closer the last bit in a single move of gentle elegance.

"Because if you come with me right now, I won't let you leave again until we are late for breakfast." He replied quietly and yet in that intense sincerity that had Robin's heart skipping beats while her eyes were glued to his. Gods, he really did mean it… excitement struck her like lightning, her heartbeat posed the thunder.

"I can live with that." She managed to say in a breath, her lips curving up into a smile upon the repetition of his earlier words. Then they formed a smirk as she went on. "Bold of you to assume that I'll want to leave for breakfast though."

"Oh, I've never been partial to having three meals per day anyway."

His reply made Robin laugh, then smile up at him brightly and with just a hint of tease. "It's not such a bad idea after all, huh?"

"That would depend entirely on who you ask." He quirked an eyebrow at her with a not-smirk, then walked on down the hallway with a start while keeping hold of Robin's hand. She didn't need to be not-told twice to follow, and was again walking by his side when he spoke on. "I for my part cannot complain, and I honestly don't care about any other opinion but yours beyond that."

"Complaining wouldn't help you at this point anyway, because I have recently discovered the perfect way to bribe you."

"Is that so?"

"Open the door and I'll show you." Robin replied easily but with a teasing smirk no less once they reached his rooms in the bow of the hallway.

"Don't tempt me."

"Isn't that what a temptation is supposed to do?" She quipped while her smirk broadened. "Tempt?"

"You are insufferable."

"Or perhaps tease? Allure? Seduce? Ens-..." She didn't get further when she was pulled through the now open door and into the darkness behind it, barely catching how it was thrown shut again before she found herself tightly trapped against it from the inside. The grin that wanted to form on her lips died a broken second later when she got exactly what she wanted, and yet, as always, so much more.

His lips moved against hers in hunger, returning every bit of passion she gave, and yet there wasn't a hint of roughness in the kiss, no blunt strength which would taint the blissful sensuality. In a spark of boldness or bravery, Robin traced the tip of her tongue over his bottom lip, only for him to gasp against her lips in return. When she wrapped her arms around his neck and did the same thing again, the gasp turned into a silent moan and he pulled her with him away from the door, staggering through the darkness with a baffling certainty until one unfortunate movement of his hand over the hurting spot on Robin's back made her first hiss in pain, then flinch at the intensity of it. He let go of her immediately in return, and Robin's first fathomable thought was a silent curse directed at Morgan for being the cause of what had broken apart this moment. The stupid pain in her back.

"What did I do this time?" Snape asked in honest concern as well as subtle remorse, and a second later the fireplace lit up from a wordless spell, illuminating the remainder of the room in a gentle orange golden glow. They had almost reached the sofa by now, obviously having made their way there before the pain had put a stop to their plans.

"You did absolutely nothing wrong, I promise." Robin immediately gave him a small but reassuring smile, and held onto him so he wouldn't even think about moving away. "It's just that spot on my back that's still hurting ever since Morgan touched it, it really doesn't matter. Don't worry."

"Your back simply started hurting out of nowhere upon his touch during the dance? And he didn't speak a word?" Snape still inquired further, in lingering concern but quite obviously more at ease now that he knew it wasn't his doing that had hurt her at least. Robin had to smile at his sheer inability not to worry about her; it made her heart soar in warmth and adoration all the more. And seeing as he wouldn't stop asking, now that she had brought the mysterious pain to his attention, they might just have to deal with it right now.

"Not a word that was a spell, at least… and yes, he just traced his fingers over my back and that caused a strong stinging and burning that faded a moment later though. Now it hurts whenever someone even comes close to touching it. That's why I flinched so stupidly." She shrugged with a half smile. "Sorry for that."

"Don't apologise for what clearly isn't your fault. I should curse Morgan into oblivion for hurting you right in this instant… but I would rather take your pain away if I can." Snape sighed, then paused for a moment, lost in thought, before he finally spoke up again. "Did it hurt when your back hit the wall? Or the door? Or is it just a hand's touch that hurts?"

The question made Robin frown to herself; she hadn't considered that. The answer she came up with for herself then rendered her frown even deeper. "I believe it's just an actual human touch that causes me pain. It didn't hurt at all when I leaned against whatever surface, and neither does the dress make it sore or anything like that… But you and the girls could hurt me quite a bit by just touching any spot on my back. What does that mean?"

"I have a vague idea." He grumbled to himself at the thought of it, and Robin understood the sentiment only too well in this regard. "Can you touch it without pain?"

"I can try…" She mused and did just that, but even though she only barely could reach the spot with the back of her fingers when she twisted her arm enough, there should have been at least a little sting. But no, nothing, no pain at all. She frowned to herself again. "That's weird. I can't even precisely tell you where it is when it doesn't hurt… and I can touch it without pain. Perhaps it's nothing."

"Magical wounds should not be taken lightly, especially if inflicted by someone as irresponsible as Morgan. We should take you to the hospital wing."

"Or you could look at it here." Robin suggested easily, shrugging with one shoulder as she observed his reluctant but not averse expression. "You know more about the situation with Morgan, about what happened tonight and about me than anyone in the infirmary. I really don't mean to doubt their abilities at all, but I think if it's a magical thing of more or less unknown origin, it falls more into the dark arts anyway, which precisely is the point where I would prefer you to look at it. Who knows, maybe it really is nothing and we're through with it in two minutes… we could save ourselves the time of way. I have other plans for tonight than sitting around the infirmary with a bunch of punch-drunk students."

"Do you?" He couldn't help the smirk on his lips upon that, even though it was clear that he was trying to fight the short lived amusement due to the otherwise serious situation. At least it wasn't serious enough to warrant the complete absence of humour on his end, so that was a relief at least.

"Yeah, actually. I was hoping for a drink and the continuation of where we were interrupted, but I'm still open for further suggestions." She smiled up at him and he rolled his eyes, but the amusement stayed nonetheless, which sufficed to give Robin some more courage. They'd be through with this in no time, they always had been when she'd been injured. "Do you happen to know a spell to undo a million tiny buttons? I haven't found one yet, but if anyone knows such a thing, it would have to be you."

He let out an amused huff, then quirked an eyebrow at Robin. "I believe if there was such a spell, I would have discovered it by now. Every time I tried to invent one myself however, it led to the destruction of the garment rather than the desired result. Therefore I unfortunately have to disappoint you. Why do you ask?"

"Because it would have spared you work." She chuckled, somewhere between humour and embarrassment, the latter of which however she strongly tried to reason against. He'd seen her in various stages of undress over time, and it had never been a big deal. Or had it? Would he think differently of it now than he had over summer? Gods, why was she nervous now?! It wasn't even the kind of situation where she should be nervous, they were just trying to make sure that her back was alright, for heaven's sake! And she still stood with her point that she would rather have Snape looking at her injuries than anyone else, even in complete disregard to the most recent developments between them. This had nothing to do with that, it was just a coincidence. An oddly fitting one, going by the line of events.

Robin resisted the temptation to roll her eyes at herself and her antics and merely turned around so that her back was right in front of him, making an obvious point of what she wanted him to do. This wasn't a movie; plots didn't just fall into place like that. Two things could happen without any obvious correlation between them. She sighed, then focused on the task at hand. "Perhaps I should've worn a dress with a zipper like everyone else, huh? Then again, I wasn't really expecting anyone having to undress me tonight."

She didn't need to look at him to know that he was hesitating, and if she was honest, she couldn't really blame him. Truth was that things were different now, or could be different now, and it was uncharted territory for both of them. Either of them was uncertain what to make of it, afraid to make a wrong move. At least it brought some peace and relief to her mind that he obviously was just as insecure as she was in this new and yet so very familiar moment of innocent intimacy. Even though things like this had happened in the plenty over summer already.

"We're just looking at my back for the damage Morgan did yet again… Just like the times he dislocated my shoulder, or cut open my hand, or-... well, you know what I mean. You've seen me torn up and bloody before, and we've always taken care of it. And I know for a fact that your hands aren't cold, so there really is nothing to worry about, right?" She said in a calm, almost soothing voice, both to him and herself, and contrary to what she had thought, it actually caused an overwhelming wave of ease and comfort to wash over her when he finally started with the first button in the back of her neck. When his fingers brushed against her skin however, her breathing hitched nonetheless while goosebumps covered her skin within a broken second. Perhaps this wasn't entirely like it had been over summer… But comfort and excitement were what it caused yet again, and that really seemed to be a reoccurring theme with them. Their own perfect ambivalence. Home and adventure at once.

It didn't take long at all until the buttons were open down to her waist, just far enough so she could slip the spiky and stiff shoulder parts off her arms, which left her to clutch the front of her dress to her chest quite a bit more tightly than necessary. Robin blamed the neckline of her dress for making her forsake any kind of bralette… It left her upper body entirely bare now, and that in return was the reason why she was clutching the front of the dress to her chest. But then again, she didn't really mind it too much if she was being honest with herself. Having an excuse to show some skin… forcing her to be bolder than she was… it really was terribly exciting for some stupid reason. A lucky coincidence, even if a bit poorly timed. Most of all however, Robin liked the reaction she was getting from the man behind her, judged by the fact that his heartbeat had doubled in speed by the time her back was exposed to him almost entirely. There it was again, that overwhelming excitement that came with the power she seemed to have over him… the knowledge that her mere being did such things to him. But they were just looking at her back for the spellwork done on her, and she gave herself a mental slap to stop pondering how they could go on from there. Unrelated situations, and all that…

"So… how does it look?" She finally asked in a surprising calmness, considering that her every sense was heightened to the extreme. Gods, she wanted him to touch her skin again, even if it would hurt… No, bad thought, bad Robin! There was work to do, and she was getting distracted!

"Like three hand-length cuts that seem to have scarred. Did you ever notice those before? They look far older than just a few hours." He mused in return, then carefully pulled Robin closer to the fireplace by her elbow. She didn't resist and merely walked backwards blindly until she was in the direct light of the fire, and thereby also in the reach of its warmth. He stopped her there, and for a moment she wondered if he needed the light or if he had just noticed the goosebumps on her skin. Duh, obviously he had… they were hard to miss, even if they weren't at all caused by the cold. Either way, his hand lingered on her arm, and that was even more welcome than the fire's warmth.

"Actual scars? I don't think I've had them before, no. And truth be told, you probably would've seen them before if they had been there for longer." She finally remembered to reply, then frowned to herself. "And in addition to that, I can't remember ever getting severely injured on the back. Other than the thing with the bludger in fifth year, that is… I never really knew exactly how badly I hurt myself there, and I never dared to ask."

"Badly enough to have me terrified of your impending death."

"Oops…" She breathed rather lamely, then chuckled to herself almost apologetically. "I guess passing out in the infirmary right in front of your eyes didn't help much with that."

"No. Neither did it prepare me for the instance last summer where you actually came close to death when you passed out on my doorstep." He said in a sigh, then the hand on Robin's arm vanished as he spoke on. "Let us ensure that it won't happen again and find out what that pest of a man did to you this time. Tell me when the pain becomes noticeable, yes?"

Robin only hummed in agreement, and jumped a second later when he placed a hand on her shoulder this time, in a gentle touch that had her melting right on the spot. Slowly and with just enough pressure to be noticeable at all, his fingers danced across her skin, down to her shoulder blade and over her spine, tracing three lines at last with a bit more pressure. Robin had to bite her lip to keep in both a sigh of bliss and a whimper of pain. For some odd reason these two were currently very hard to tell apart in that they both caused an echo of his touch, a heat pulsing through her in the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"Didn't that hurt at all?" He asked with a frown practically ingrained in his tone, as well as confusion in the plenty, and Robin had to call defeat to circumstance.

"Oh. Yes, it did. Sorry, I really should have said something." She admitted in a quiet voice, then got a grasp of herself and continued on a little louder. "But I didn't want you to stop, so I kind of… forgot speech over the overwhelming feeling of having your touch on my back at all."

"You do make it very difficult for me to focus on the problem at hand when you say things like that."

His words brought a smile to Robin's face as it suddenly eradicated the nervousness, and she was only glad that he couldn't see it. "I'm sorry."

"You're not."

"True, I'm not." She couldn't help chuckling at her own half-hearted attempt to fool him, and even more at his trenchant ability to see right through her. "But I'll try to focus on the problem now instead of how amazing your hands feel on my skin."

"Robin…" He warned her quietly, but she could still hear the smirk in his voice, and that's when she couldn't help laughing.

"It's really not my fault!" She protested, and almost would've dropped her arms in a grand gesture if she hadn't remembered just why she was holding her dress in place in the very last second. This entire situation was as ridiculous as it was dangerous as it was wonderful. "You try focusing on anything beyond the tingles when your entire body is a goddamn wildfire!"

"I am trying right now, and you're not making it any easier. The sight of you alone is distracting enough."

"Just that little bit of skin is supposedly doing to you what your touch does to me? Sorry, but I sincerely doubt it."

"You shouldn't." He replied entirely seriously now, and the mere tone of his voice was enough to make Robin shiver again. "It does not take naked skin or fancy gowns for me to think of you as far more than simply ‘delectable’. You are nothing short of the most breathtaking creature I have ever been blessed to see, to stay with the trivial matter of physical appearance for once. But indeed, while I could not care less for others' looks and garments, you never fail to enchant me entirely with any of yours, and seeing as I have previously not had the opportunity to see quite so much of your skin, it does affect me quite strongly now at long last."

Robin's heart skipped a beat, then set into a steady gallop that made it delightfully hard to breathe. But for some reason, the words on her lips did not care for that at all. "You make it very difficult for me to focus on the problem at hand when you say things like that." She mirrored his statement, smiling to herself at the thought. "But do you actually mean it or are you just trying to get revenge on me by equal terms?"

"Both, obviously, but the latter is rather a lucky side effect of the former. And since we are discussing it already, you can call me blind if you will, but I do actually find your hair very attractive on any day, especially because it is a perfect mess." He answered easily, while his fingers continued to trace irregular patterns over the injured part of her back that seemed to hurt more and more by the minute. "Even though I very much appreciate the recent absence of the pineapple scent."

Robin found that she didn't mind the pain, especially not when his reference to her words from earlier this evening as well as the dreaded pineapple made her laugh, and the knowledge that he did, in fact, mean all of those things he'd said made her skin tingle pleasantly. He never made shallow compliments; when he deliberately said something nice for once, one could be sure that he meant it to the fullest.

"I think that might be among the loveliest things you have ever said to me." She smiled after a moment, when her soaring heart would let her speak up through the haze of emotions. "Directly said to me, that is. You say a lot of nice things when you don't mean to."

"Don't get used to it. What a crazy world would we be living in if I started saying nice things regularly now… It would entirely destroy the efficiency and purpose of my compliments." He scoffed in obvious sarcasm and tease, while placing his second hand on her shoulder to keep her in place for whatever he was doing.

"You're an idiot, Sev-..." Robin's words and laughter were cut off with a start when Snape placed his other hand directly on the hurting spot on her back, with quite a bit more pressure than before. It caused a pain far too strong for any measure to ripple through her every sense, and a well of tears to spring to her eyes in return. "Ouch! God damn and bloody hell…"

"I might be an idiot, but an idiot who can focus far better when we banter as usual. That seems to have become somewhat of a precondition for me to be able to work efficiently." He returned, then removed his hands from her entirely before he spoke on in a much more tainted tone. "I apologise for having to hurt you, but in order to undo the spell before it became even more dangerous, that unfortunately was inevitable. Now however, the pain should be gone once and for all in just a moment."

"Wait, you… you know what Morgan did to me and just… undid it like that?" Robin turned around to face him with a deep frown creasing her brows in an instant. "Is that what you were doing while we talked?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't bother telling me?! At least a little warning, perhaps?"

"I had the choice between distracting you by making you laugh and thereby forget about the pain I was unfortunately causing in the process, or to further said pain even more by talking about Morgan and his vile doings." He replied so easily that it made perfect sense now, that it appeared to be the most obvious solution ever. "As you see, it wasn't even a choice to be made."

"Thank you. That… was a really clever thing to do, actually." Robin sighed and gave him a soft smile, then took a moment to appreciate how the shadows of the flames danced across his skin before she spoke on. "So… no more pain for now?"

"Not as far as I can tell, at least."

"Let's find out for sure then, shall we?"

______________________________

Tags:

@ayamenimthiriel @chibi-lioness @t-sunnyside @alex4555 @purpledragonturtles @istrugglewithphilosophy @meghan-maria @hidden-behind-the-fourth-wall @darkestacademiaaa @nizem8 @girilimoni

General Tags:

@wegingerangelica @dreary-skies-stuff @wiczer @lotus-eyedindiangoddess @theweirdlunatic @caretheunicorn @kthemarsian @lady-of-lies @strawberrysandcream @noplacelikehome77 @theoneanna @mishaandthebrits @i-am-a-mes @nonsensicalobsessions @exygon @hiddles-lobotomy @rjohnson1280 @annwhojumps @spookycatqueen @salempoe @headoverhiddleston @fanfiction-and-stress @createdfromblue @thecreatiivecorner @themusingsofmany @kinghiddlestonanddixon @scorpionchild81 @crystal-28 @adefectivedetective @lokis-girl-in-mischief @booklover2929 @iamverity @lovesmesomehiddles @akk4rin @whitewolfandthefox @stuckupstucky @kassablanca13 @delightfulheartdream @hayalee8 @lemonmochitea

[cinaja]

Before the Wall part 53

Masterlist

A/N: It's been four weeks since the last chapter. I'm sorry for the delay. Life kind of got in the way, but hopefully, I'll have more time to write now.

----

Dear Kiko,

I hope you won’t mind me writing to you out of the blue. We hardly know each other, after all, but Drakon said you wouldn’t mind.

I have a request, and since you study magic at the university, I thought you might be able to help. I was wondering if you might know a way for someone to contact the deceased, or if you might know where to find something about it in one of your libraries or elsewhere.

All I would want is one conversation. A few minutes, that would be enough. I realize that this is an unusual request, but it would mean a lot.

For obvious reason, I would appreciate your discretion on the matter. I hope we’ll be able to meet in person again some time. We never did actually get the chance to truly talk to each other.

Yours,

Miryam

PS: Drakon says hello and sorry for taking so long with his reply to your letter. The Alliance is keeping us both quite busy at the moment, I hope you understand.

----

Dear Miryam,

I hope you know that this is my tenth attempt at writing this letter, mainly because I do not know how to address you. I hope I’m not being informal, but, well, you’re married to my best friend, so maybe this is fine. If it’s not, I’m sorry.

Regarding your request, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you. There is no way to talk to the deceased, and if there is, I never heard of it. All I have been able to find records on in the library were resurrections, and even for that, information is scarce. Most of what I could find was more myth than fact, and as for the little bit of concrete information, there was nothing I could recommend to you. I realize I am in no position to tell you what to do and I hope you don’t see this as me crossing any lines, but I urge you in the strongest way possible: Stay away from resurrections. There is always some price attached to that sort of thing, and I do not think you want to find out what it is.

I am sorry for your loss, I truly am. And I understand why you might want this. But some things cannot be undone – you just have to learn to live with them.

Yours,

Kiko.

PS: Tell Drakon not to stress himself over the letter. You’re all very important and very busy, I get it. Since I’m far less busy, though, I might come visit for your Autumn Festival, then we can talk in person.

And seriously. Stay away from the resurrections. They are a very bad idea.

----

As it always does, the world moves on with dizzying speed, carelessly forgetting any tragedy within days. For all that Miryam wants to scream, wants to rage at the world for forgetting about Jurian so quickly, she can’t stop it. And loathe as she is to admit it, she, too, simply doesn’t have time to dwell on past tragedies. Not when there is the end of a war to organize.

The war is truly moving towards its end now, and there seem to be a million of things to be done, all of them immediately. The Loyalists seem to be reluctant to surrender, although their defeat seem unavoidable now, and the Alliance is currently trying to end the war with as little casualties as possible. Miryam sincerely hopes she won’t end up being one of those casualties, but all she has time to do about that at the moment is to do her job as well as possible and hope it will be enough.

Today, that means trying to find a way to get the Spring Court to surrender without a fuss. It should be no hard task, given that the Alliance managed to completely isolate Spring on Prythian in the past months, and Hybern, its biggest ally, is too busy dealing with internal struggle to assist. Unfortunately, Miryam has yet to meet a single Loyalist country that surrendered easily. Besides, Miryam still has the humans left in the Spring Court to consider, and make sure that they won’t end up caught in the crossfire. Shey and most of the other Fae don’t seem to care much about that, but Miryam does.

Standing on a lush green hill, Miryam looks down at the pretty white manor below. Roses are growing in the gardens surrounding it, all in full bloom. Miryam would have considered the land beautiful if she hadn’t been able to make out the figures working on the fields surrounding the manor. Human slaves.

The anger rushing through Miryam at that thought is unproductive, so she pushes it down.

“Disappointed that there are no mountains for you to blow up nearby?” Helion teases. He got chosen as her escort for today, mainly because the council felt it would be good to have someone from Prythian there for the negotiations. “But don’t worry, if it’s necessary, you can just settle for the manor.”

Miryam rolls her eyes at him, but the comment does manage to summon a smile to her gace “Are you ever going to let that go?” She asks as she starts walking down the hill and towards the manor. Their guards – the council’s reaction to the incident in Tehne and Prythian’s general disregard for Continental rules – follow a few steps behind.

Helion grins. “You nearly dropped a mountain on me,” he says. “I’d say I deserve some teasing.”

Miryam already has a teasing reply ready, but by now, they are in hearing range of the guards at the manor’s gates, and she instead schools her face into neutrality. The guards at them as they approach, and Helion replies with a cheerful wink at them.

Miryam settles for a smile that falls somewhere between polite and cold. “I believe your lord is expecting us,” she says. “Would you be kind enough to lead the way.”

The scowl of the nearest guard deepens, and as he inclines his head, he looks like she asked his to jump into a bucket of piss. He complies without a comment, though, turning briskly and stalking over the white gravel pass towards the manor. Miryam follows after him, Helion falling into step next to her.

High Lord Cadell of the Spring Court is waiting on the steps leading up to the manor. He’s dressed, thematically fitting, in spring green with golden embroidery, his blond hair adorned with a crown of flowers. His face is tight, mouth pressed into a thin line. Miryam offers a polite smile and the barest nod, even though she isn’t exactly in the mood for politeness.

“High Lord,” she greets.

He doesn’t return the greeting and only gives Miryam an accessing once-over, then turns her attention to Helion.

“Lord Helion,” he says. “It’s been a while.”

Helion offers a small smile of his own. “Not long enough for you to learn manners, it seems.” He turns to Miryam. “Your Highness,” he says, “meet High Lord Cadell of the Spring Court. High Lord, Princess Miryam of Erithia, leader of the Alliance.” He pauses, as if considering, then adds in an exaggerated fake-whisper, “I know Continental politics aren’t your strong suit, but you ought to know that she’s pretty important there. You should probably treat her like it.”

Cadell’s pale cheeks turn a furious red at the implication that his impoliteness was simply ignorance of Miryam’s station. His green eyes dart back and forth between Miryam and Helion, as if he is trying to come up with a reply but failing miserably.

Behind him, Miryam can see the manor’s foyer. Figures are standing by the walls. Human slaves, Miryam realizes, waiting for and order by their owner. A tight knot forms in her stomach as she turns back to Cadell.

“Are you planning to make us negotiate your surrender standing on these steps?” She asks.

Cadell’s hands curl into fists, and Miryam is sure he desperately wishes he could hit her. Being talked back to by a human is probably a new experience for him, and he doesn’t appear to be enjoying it.

“Come on in, then,” he snaps, voice biting. Without waiting for a reply, he spins around and stalks up the stairs and into the manor.

Miryam leaves all but two guards behind as she follows him, and the two guards that do stay with her and Helion are more for show than anything else. Helion has a shield firmly in place around the two of them, and should it come to a fight, Miryam is confident she can beat Cadell.

The High Lord leads them to a small, private study. He doesn’t have any advisors with him – apparently, he doesn’t want anyone around when he has to surrender to a human. Three chairs have been set out, and Helion pulls Miryam’s out for her before she can. She nods her thanks to him as she sits down. Cadell, still scowling, sits down on the opposite end of the table.

“Let’s get straight to the point, then,” he says.

By all rights, he should have first thanked Miryam for taking the time to meet with him and then followed it up with some pleasantries before slowly approaching the point of the meeting. He didn’t even offer refreshments. On the other hand, Miryam doesn’t particularly care for false pleasantries from a slave owner. At least his insolence sets the proper tone for the meeting.

“Of course,” Miryam says. “I assume you received the letter where I notified you of the terms the Alliance demands.”

“I did. And to make this clear right off the bat: I will not surrender part of my territory, most certainly not to these mortals.”

“Won’t you?” Miryam asks lightly.

“No.” Cadell leans forward on his table, face red. “These mortals are citizens of the Spring Court, and this is where they will remain.”

“You mean they are property,” Miryam corrects. “If they were citizens, they would be allowed to refuse work and leave the court as they please according to Prythian law.”

Cadell scowls, unwilling to meet her eye. He doesn’t manage to hide how much it irks him to have this discussion with a mortal. “If the Alliance insists, I will free them. But only under the condition that they remain here, in Spring, as workers.”

Miryam arches an eyebrow at him. “You realize that changing the label on slavery won’t make me like it any more, don’t you?”

“Your preferences aren’t high on my list of priorities,” Cadell snaps in a brilliant show of failed control. “I’m not going to let these mortals leave, much less just hand them part of my territory, and if you don’t like it, I suggest you get used to it.”

Helion snorts softly but leaves it to Miryam to reply.

“You seem to misunderstand the purpose of this meeting,” she says in a too-soft voice. “This isn’t a negotiation, you don’t get to make demands. You are surrendering because you don’t have a choice, because you are hopelessly outnumbered and backed against the wall, and I am here to accept that surrender.”

“But without my agreement, there won’t be a surrender at all,” Cadell shoots back. “You need me, and if you want me to play along with you, you better meet my demands.”

Miryam allows herself a smile. “That’s where you’re wrong,” she says. “I don’t need you. The Alliance doesn’t need you. We’ve already won the Spring Court, and there are more than a few people on the council who think it would be easier to simply kill you, kill your sons and put that youngest boy of yours – Tamlin, isn’t it? – on the throne. A seven-year-old would make a wonderful puppet ruler, don’t you think?”

Cadell is gaping at her like he can’t believe what she is saying. His face turns from red to white startlingly quickly. Then, inevitably, he turns to Helion, as if he is expecting help.

Helion merely shrugs. “Why are you looking at me?” He asks lightly. “I’m not even on the council. If you want to save your ass, High Lord, it’s her you should turn to.”

Miryam could have hugged him. It’s not unusual for the Loyalist Fae to try and ignore her in favour of whichever Fae accompanies her. It also happened when she was sent to Xian last week – only then, the Fae who had been sent along with her dismissed her just as much as the enemy leader did, which certainly made it more difficult for her to assume authority and get Xian to accept the surrender.

Cadell turns, unwillingly, back to Miryam. “You can’t kill us,” he says, more outraged than worried.

“Oh trust me, we can.” Miryam gives him a small smile. “But I don’t want that, don’t worry. I don’t like unnecessary death – which is your luck, since the council won’t choose to kill you without my say-so.”

In fact, the council won’t choose to kill him at all, with or without Miryam’s say-so. Killing the royal family of the Spring Court was never even up for consideration. The entire council – Miryam included – agreed that it would be unwise to have the leadership of a surrendering court executed this early on. Smarter to show leniency, make the remaining Loyalists realize that if they only agree to end slavery and play along with what the Alliance wants, they will get favourable conditions for their surrender.

Miryam is bluffing. She is bluffing with incredibly high stakes, because for all the self-assured act she is putting on, if Cadell doesn’t agree to her terms, she won’t have a sure way to get the humans out of Spring safely.

“And what is it you want,” Cadell asks, each word biting, “in return for your generosity?”

Miryam turns to Helion, who snaps his fingers and makes a contract appear on the table between them. “First of all, I want you to sign this,” she says. “It includes your official surrender to the Alliance, as well as an assurance that the Spring Court will never again own humans as slaves. All slaves currently in the Spring Court will be officially freed, compensated and then sent on their way to a new territory that will be formed on Spring Court land and is to be under independent human jurisdiction.”

Cadell laughs. “And you think I’m just going to agree to this?”

“Since I assume you are rather fond of being alive: Yes, I think you will.” She smiles slightly. “So that we don’t misunderstand each other: You are useful to me for precisely one reason, and that is that I assume you’ll be able to ensure that the humans here will be able to leave your territory and settle into their new homes safely. If you aren’t able to do that, I have no use for you, and I’ll tell the council to have you executed.”

Cadell tenses. Miryam thinks it might be the threat of execution, but his problem seems to be something else entirely. “Of course I can assure that if I want to,” he snaps. “I’ve got my country perfectly under control, I’ll have you know that.”

Miryam exchanges a glance with Helion, whose mouth twists into the barest hint of a smile.

“That’s good to hear,” Miryam says. “Then I can assume that you will be able to make sure the humans in your territory will be able to leave it safely. Should one, just one of them, die, I will assume it was intentional on your part and see you executed.”

Cadell tenses. “What?” He asks.

“Maybe your oldest son will do a better job. If not, then he dies and his brother gets to try his hand. And if he doesn’t manage that, then I am sure whoever the council decides to put in as regent for your youngest boy will manage. We were considering Helion – that way, he’d get some practice at running a court before one day taking over Day.”

Thankfully, Helion doesn’t show the surprise he must surely be feeling, since there was never any talk of handing Spring to him. “Sure,” he says with a dazzling smile. “I told you: Just skip the formalities and put me in charge right away.”

Cadell looks between them, mouth slightly agape, like he can’t believe what he is hearing. “You can’t…” he stutters, clearly enraged at the notion of having his court given to the heir of the Day Court. “You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” Miryam asks lightly. She leans forward on the table and tilts her head to the side as she watches Cadell. “Tell me, My Lord, do you beat your slaves?” She asks. Her voice echoes throughout the room. “You seem to be the type who does, the type who punishes even the slightest mistake and delights in the suffering you inflict on others. Why would I, who grew up surrounded by monsters like you, not want to see you dead?” Miryam holds his gaze for a moment longer, then leans back in her seat. “You might wish to provide me with an answer for that question,” she adds. “If you make me think about it for too long, I might come to the conclusion that there isn’t one.”

Cadell doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t say anything for a nerve-wreckingly long time. He simply stares at Miryam. For want of better things to do, she stares back.

If this bluff doesn’t work out, she will be done for. She needs him to agree to the contract now, or she will be left emptyhanded and looking stupid. It will become clear that she doesn’t have the power to have him executed whether she wants to or not, and then, she might as well hand the negotiations over to someone else because her credibility will be damaged beyond repair. Not to mention how the council will react if she returns without anything to show for, or what it might mean for the humans here if these negotiations go wrong.

“The High Lord is also close personal friends with Amarantha,” Helion adds into the tense silence. “His sons fight in her army.” He winks at Cadell. “You know how Miryam feels about Amarantha, don’t you?”

Cadell’s eyes widen in something like panic, and Miryam sees her chance. “You know what,” she says to Helion, “you are right.” She reaches out to grab the contract. “We’ll do it your way.”

Her fingers barely brush the paper of the contract before Cadell all but rips it out of her hand. “Wait!” He shouts, then lowers his voice. “Boiling Cauldron, I’m signing. I’m signing, alright?”

For a moment, Miryam wishes she truly had the power to have him executed. He would deserve it, she is sure of it, and she hates that she will have to allow him to remain in charge of his court.

“Wonderful,” she says, hoping he doesn’t hear her racing heart. That was close. Far too close. “In blood, please. It’s binding.”

 Miryam is the one to tell the humans working in the manor. They don’t seem to believe her the first time around, something which Miryam understands all too well – she certainly wouldn’t have believed it in their place. If she remembers correctly, she only fully realized that Drakon was letting her go after he had left her alone in the desert.

“You’re free,” she repeats, over and over again, squeezing hands and patting people on the shoulders. She doesn’t know what else to say, and it’s all that really matters anyways.

Eventually, her words seem to register with the listening humans. Some cry. Some fall into each other’s arms, others drop to their knees. Miryam walks around, pats shoulders, tries to find words of reassurance. She stays for a few hours, talking to people, helping the humans choose their leaders and instructing them on what the next steps will be. She would have stayed longer, but they are, as Helion reminds her, on a schedule. The Alliance came up with clear rules for this visit: Three hours, and if they aren’t back after that, it will be an army that goes looking for them.

So Miryam says her goodbyes, including a sharp reminder to Cadell of what she will do to him should any of these people be harmed. Any anger she felt over him getting away unscathed has been momentarily eased by seeing the people she just freed, a reminder of what it is she’s fighting for.

With one last look back at the humans who are standing in a tight group in the centre of the foyer, Miryam turns and walks out of the building.

As they walk over the gravel path towards the border of the grounds, Helion grins at Miryam. “Congratulations. That was a damn-near perfect surrender you achieved.”

Miryam returns the smile. “Thank you,” she says, and does her best to ignore the voice in her mind that whispers that it won’t be that easy with Ravenia.

Bluffing her way to the Spring Court’s surrender, or getting the Xian empress who had lost one child and had the other taken prisoner only days before, had been easy. But Ravenia won’t fall for simple bluffs, and there won’t be any personal tragedy to ease her resolve.

“Nice bluff, by the way,” Helion says, before her thoughts can spiral further into worry.

Miryam winces slightly. “Sorry for the lack of warning. It wasn’t my original plan.” Helion waves her off, and Miryam adds, “I’d appreciate if you kept silent about my strategy during that negotiation, though. It would be best if the council didn’t find out about that detail.”

“It was a bluff,” Helion points out. “They’d understand.”

“Probably. But I’ve had some trouble with people misunderstanding my actions lately.”

And she really doesn’t want to see how certain members of the council would react to her pretending that she has the power to simply order the execution of an enemy royal no matter what they might want. Maybe they would understand it was a bluff – or maybe they’d see it as her assuming authority she doesn’t have.

They have reached the edge of the manor grounds now, and as soon as they pass the edge of the wards. Helion winnows them and their guards back to Telique. They land in one of the palace gardens, and Helion turns to face her.

“Do you want to go out for a drink?” He asks. “Celebrate your success.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Miryam says. “The Autumn festival is today. I’ll just report on our success to the council, then I’m off to Erithia.”

“Oh, a party. Nice.” Helion grins. “You’ll like the Autum festival. The food is great.”

“I’ve heard.”

“Well, then. Have fun.” Helion winks at her.

“Will do.”

Strictly speaking, she won’t be at the festival for fun. Her presence is a political requirement, and it will likely involve lots of small talk with basically everyone in attendance. Still, she is looking forward to it. Most members of Drakon’s court – her court, too, now – are pleasant to be around, and what she heard of the festival does sound like it will be fun. Besides, it’s the closest she comes to an afternoon off since… well, since her marriage day, come to think of it.

 Miryam makes it back to Erithia by midday, with an hour to spare until the festival begins. If she still had to change clothes, it would be too short a timeframe, but fortunately, she was smart enough to already put on her dress for the afternoon for the negotiations in the morning.

She finds Drakon in his study. He is also dressed for the occasion, clothes red and gold and brown like a forest in autumn. When Miryam enters, he is bowed over a table, frowning down at the documents strewn out over it. Miryam reads the worry on his face easily.

“What’s wrong?” She asks.

Drakon nods towards the papers. “I don’t like how some of these armies are moving.” He jumps to his feet and walks over to the map table. “Here, look.” He points first to part of the Black Land arms stationed at its northern border, then at Vallahan’s army, currently further east. “They are both on the move.” He picks up the figures and pushes them towards each other.

“Many soldiers,” Miryam says. Thousands. Ten thousands, actually.

“And close to our border,” Drakon adds. “Call me paranoid, but with the Black Land involved in this…”

“Yeah.” Miryam frowns down at the map. Expending soldiers to attack a single country at this stage of the war seems stupid, and she has never known Ravenia to be stupid. On the other hand, she has never seen Ravenia actually losing, and therefore has no idea how she reacts to that. Maybe her way of reacting to failure is to completely throw all sense to the wind. “We should bring it up with the council,” Miryam says. Frowns. “Tomorrow. Today, we can’t do anything about this either way.”

Well, they could do something, but Miryam would have to call an emergency meeting. The council would likely have her head over making a fuss without any concrete reason and the people of Erithia would be concerned over them missing the festival. Needlessly concerned, probably, since the odds are that this is just her and Drakon both being paranoid.

Miryam absentmindedly runs her fingers over the red embroidery on her sleeves. Red embroidery. That’s what she gets for not being able to talk her wishes for her dress through with the seamstress. (It wasn’t even her fault she missed the appointment, an emergency meeting with the council got in the way.) Just a month ago, she wouldn’t have cared either way, but lately, red embroidery always makes her think back to Jurian’s funeral.

She shakes her head, trying to chase the memory away. Fun. She is supposed to have fun today. It’s her first afternoon off, and she will enjoy it.

Drakon seems to have come to the same conclusion. With a sigh, he looks up from the map. “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask: How did Spring go?”

“The surrender is signed,” Miryam says. “Cadell agreed to let each and every one of his slaves go – with any compensations of their choosing – and sign a contract guaranteeing that Spring will never own slaves again.”

“That’s wonderful.” Now, he smiles and squeezes her hand.

I’m worried it won’t go like this for the other countries, though. Certainly not for the Black Land, Miryam thinks but doesn’t say it. For one afternoon, she will let her worries be worries and simply live.

She forces her thoughts into a different direction. “The other humans were so happy when I told them.”

She takes Drakon by the hand and together, they walk through the palace. As they do, Miryam tells Drakon about what happened during her negotiation with Cadell. By the time they reach the field just outside of the city gates where the celebration will be held, Miryam is done with her account of what went down in Spring and her mood has become significantly better. Some things probably just feel far better looking back, once the stress of the moment is gone.

The field is freshly harvested, only little stalks remaining of the wheat that grew her. Another tradition, as Miryam has been told. Since the Autumn Festival is kind of a harvest festival, it is usually held on wheat fields. Of course, it is also a festival for Daín, who is one of the Fae’s most important religious figures. Miryam finds the connection a bit strange, but she isn’t exactly well-versed in faerie religions, so there might be something she is missing.

Up until a month ago, she didn’t even believe Daín existed – or the Mother, for that matter. Having been to Cretea and met the man who killed Daín, she had to change her mind on that, but that still doesn’t mean she’s about to start worshipping them as gods. Still, as long as it’s not being used as an excuse to enslave her people or sacrifice them to the gods, she doesn’t actually mind Fae religion. At least what she hears from Drakon seems pretty decent.

“What does Daín have to do with a harvesting festival again?” She asks, leaning in to Drakon so that the people surrounding them won’t hear the question.

She is nearly certain that he told her already, during one of her nightly sessions where he tries to explain all the things she needs to know as Princess of Erithia. The problem with those sessions is just that they are, well, at night, and sometimes, they are both tired enough that they hardly manage to keep their eyes open. If Miryam remembers correctly, she was particularly tired the night they covered Fae religions and her memory of the conversation is sketchy at best.

Drakon doesn’t seem to mind. “The Mother was inconceivable. And, well, she created this world for the creatures living in it, so that they might live happily, but that doesn’t mean that the people could easily understand her intentions.” He shrugs. “But Daín, he was Fae at first, and after he became the Mother’s consort, he set to work on making the world understandable for its inhabitants. He came up with the calendar and the measuring system, and –“ he points at the field surrounding them – “he revolutionized agriculture.”

Miryam grins. “Hence the connection to harvest.”

“Yep.” Drakon takes her by the hand and pulls her towards the long table that has been constructed right on the field. It is near-bursting with all kinds of dishes, most of which Miryam has never even seen before. “And hence the brilliant food.”

----

One of the things Drakon likes best about the Autumn Festival is that for the duration of the celebration, everyone is exactly the same. There are no class divides, no protocol to watch out for. In fact, people are actively encouraged to mingle with people they don’t usually get to talk to.

Drakon ends up sitting next to a baker from the city called Shili. They are a bit flustered in the beginning, but get over it quickly enough. It turns out their wife is working as a captain in Sinna’s army, and that some of the cakes on the table today were created in their bakery. Shili doesn’t seem decided on which fact makes them more proud.

They pick up one of the cakes, red and shaped like a flower, and hold it out to Drakon before putting it down on their plate. “The dough needs to be kneaded and folded a hundred times,” they say, and when Drakon looks surprised, they start explaining the process.

After a while, a blacksmith sitting on the other side of the table joins the conversation and soon, the topic turns to the art of creating Seraphim steel. Drakon does his best to talk to each of the people sitting close to him at least for a bit, but after a while, most people are done eating and start moving around, so his conversation partners keep changing on their own.

Drakon quickly loses track of time. He only notices how late it already is when Miryam sits down on the bench next to him, making him look up and realize that the sun has already fallen almost behind the tips of the nearby mountain range. The people around them incline their heads to Miryam in greeting, some even jump to their feet and bow. Miryam returns the greeting with a nod and a smile.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she says, turning to Drakon, “but I was wondering if you’d like to go for a dance.”

Indeed, people are already dancing on the fields all around and in the air above. Several hours ago, musicians started playing at the far end of the field, and they kept at it for most of the afternoon.

“Of course,” Drakon says, getting up. He inclines his head to the people surrounding them. “It was wonderful to talk to you. I hope we’ll get the chance again sometime soon.”

He links his arm with Miryam’s and together, they walk over to the dancing floor.

“I was going to ask an hour ago already,” Miryam whispers, nudging him in the side, “but you were so deep in conversation I didn’t dare interrupt.”

“Sorry,” Drakon says, although he doesn’t think Miryam actually minded. She is smiling so brightly her eyes seem to sparkle. Drakon smiles to himself, glad that she actually seems to be enjoying herself.

The musicians are currently in the middle of a fast-paced song, and Miryam pauses by the side of the dancefloor. “Not quite my pace,” she says.

Drakon nods. Miryam is a good dancer, but some Fae songs are written for people with Fae speed, making it impossible for anyone who isn’t fully Fae to keep up.

The next song is slower, though, and together, they step out onto the dancefloor.

“I was speaking to one of the priestesses earlier,” Miryam says, voice lowered slightly. “We ended up talking about Daín and she mentioned how he got murdered by one of his closest friends.” Drakon nods and she continues, “And, well, I didn’t want to ask the priestess because I didn’t want to start a discussion, but I was wondering if there was any reason you know of.”

“Ambition, I think. And arrogance,” Drakon says. “Gh – I mean the witcher who killed Daín was a follower of the Mother before his betrayal, and him and Daín were close friends. But over time, he became arrogant. He started looking down on the Fae and thought himself above them because of how close he was to the Mother and Daín, and he began to want more for himself. He was no longer content with simply serving a goddess and instead wanted to become a god himself. He thought it was his right, and so he used Daín’s trust in him to steal his sword and kill him.”

“And that was his only reason?” Miryam asks. She doesn’t bother to conceal her doubt.

“It’s the way the stories tell it.”

Even as he says it, the words feel hollow. He’s known Ghost for several years now, and he doesn’t seem to be greedy the overly ambitious type. And he doesn’t much like the Fae, yes, but not because he is arrogant. Besides, given Ghost’s stance on slavery, Drakon has been wondering for quite a while if there might not have been more to him stealing the sword than meets the eye.

“Did you ever ask?” Miryam asks.

Drakon shakes his head. He wanted to, but it isn’t exactly easy to discuss these things with Ghost. “You could try, though,” he says. “He’ll be more likely to answer if you ask.”

Miryam nods. “I will,” she says.

They keep dancing through the next three songs, and conversation turns away from Daín and Ghost. The third song just ended and they are both catching their breath when Nephelle appears between them.

She grins at Miryam. “Can I steal you for a dance or two?” She asks.

“Sure.” Miryam squeezes Drakon’s hand once before letting go and stepping back onto the dancefloor with Nephelle just as the musicians start playing the next song.

Drakon lets himself drop down to a bench and reaches for a glass of blue juice. He has just taken the first sip when someone sits down next to him forcefully enough that he nearly spills his juice. Drakon barely manages to keep his glass steady and turns around to the newcomer.

“Kiko!” He grins. “I thought you said you weren’t going to make it!” At least that’s what he said in his last letter, and Drakon didn’t know anything had changed about it.

“I’ve only got an hour,” Kiko says. “My parents aren’t exactly pleased that I bailed out on them on such an important occasion, but they could do little to stop me, and I promised I’d be home in time for the services. But we haven’t seen each other in forever.”

Spontaneously, Drakon throws his arms around Kiko and hugs him. “I’m so happy you’re here,” he whispers.

They haven’t seen each other since the wedding, and then, they hardly had time to talk. There are letters, of course, but Drakon rarely finds time for those, and anyways, letters aren’t the same thing as talking face-to-face. Before the war, they met at least once a month – and before Drakon became Prince, they saw each other daily. He misses that.

“How are you doing?” Kiko asks. “You look tired.”

Drakon shrugs. He looks around to see if anyone is in listening distance, but the seats around them are deserted. Chances are the other guests are keeping a distance on purpose, not wanting to intrude on a private conversation. Drakon turns back to Kiko. “It’s just a bit stressful at the moment,” he says. “Getting everyone to agree on a treaty is a mess, and trying to come up with what will happen after the war is worse. But at least everyone agrees that it will only be a few months, maybe half a year now.”

“That’s good,” Kiko says. He reaches across the table and picks up one of the sweet coconut cakes. “This war has been going on for too long already. I don’t know how much longer I could take this.”

Why? A very small, very petty part of Drakon thinks at that. It’s not like you are fighting. But that’s a stupid thought, ridiculous and useless, and he pushes it away. It’s not like the only people affected by a war are the ones fighting in it, and he never held it against Kiko that he didn’t volunteer to fight. Kiko and fighting never did fit together. (The same goes for Drakon and fighting, but it’s not like there was anything to be done about that.) The annoyance vanishes as quickly as it came, and Drakon thinks that he really must be getting too little sleep if he got worked up over something like this.

“Yes,” he agrees. “I just want it all to be over.”

Kiko nods. He takes a bite from his cake. Chews on his lower lip. He is unusually quiet, and Drakon is a moment away from asking what is wrong when he finally breaks the silence.

“I wanted to talk to you about…” He winces. “Well, first off: I didn’t get to tell you in person yet, but I’m sorry about Jurian. Truly. I never met him, but he sounded like a great man.”

“He was.” Drakon tries hard to ignore the weight that suddenly seems to press down on his chest.

Kiko nods again. “I hope you are doing alright,” he says. “And, well… I hope you and Miryam aren’t pursuing any… less-than-smart plans. Particularly in regards to any resurrections.”

Ah. So that is why he’s being so jumpy. Apparently, he didn’t find Miryam’s reply to his letter convincing enough.

“We aren’t. No need to worry.”

Kiko still doesn’t seem particularly reassured, which is strange since they both know that lying isn’t exactly one of Drakon’s talents. “I’m serious,” he insists. “Even if you should manage, there is always some kind of price to this sort of magic. Resurrections are not something you should just mess around with.”

“We aren’t,” Drakon repeats. “I would lie if I said we never considered it, but…” He shrugs. “We didn’t know if Jurian would have wanted to be resurrected or not. So we couldn’t…”

It had been Drakon who had come up with the idea, three days after Jurian’s funeral. It had been a rash idea, not really thought through, and Miryam had been quick to find the flaw in it: Even if they could resurrect him, which is far from certain, they might not be doing him any favours. Human culture views death different than faeries do, they are far more accepting of it and far less inclined to mess around with it. Miryam said that she probably wouldn’t mind resurrection herself if it was done almost right away, but neither of them knew how Jurian would feel about it, so it was off the table.

“I’ll admit, this was not the reasoning I was hoping for, but at least you’ll stay safe,” Kiko says.

Drakon does his best to chase the thoughts of Jurian away and almost succeeds.

“What makes you think we wouldn’t?” He asks, trying to steer the conversation away from Jurian. “Have you ever known me to be anything but reasonable?”

“Not you, but…” Kiko hesitates. “Please don’t take this as an insult, Miryam picked a fight with the most influential country on the Continent at what – eighteen? That kind of excludes being particularly reasonable. And that’s even without taking into account the stories they tell about her.”

“What stories?” Drakon asks, suddenly curious. He never bothered to find out what rumours are circulating about Miryam or him, but now that Kiko mentions it, he wants to know.

“Oh, lots of them.” Kiko grins. “Did you know that some of the Loyalists claim that she sold her soul to some ancient monster or god in exchange for her power.”

“Well, that’s just petty,” Miryam says from behind them.

Kiko yelps. Drakon, who felt her approaching a moment before she spoke, merely grins and shifts to make space for her on the bench.

“Hello Kiko,” Miryam says and smiles at him as she sits down. For once, she seems genuinely happy, and he is glad that she didn’t hear their conversation about Jurian. “I’m glad you could make it.”

Kiko’s red skin is quickly moving towards purple. He glances frantically between Miryam and Drakon. “He asked,” he says. “Drakon wanted to know…”

Drakon grins down at his hands. He can count the times he has seen Kiko this nervous on one hand – once, he thinks, after he accidentally set fire to the hem of the principal’s coat. But come to think of it, he has never seen Kiko having to interact with one of the high-ups in Continental politics, either.

Miryam waves him off, grinning. “Oh, I don’t mind,” she says. With a wink, she adds, “But for the record, I did not sell my soul to any higher power, good or bad. If you ask me, that’s just a bunch of Loyalists trying to talk themselves out of the fact that they are being defeated by a human.”

“Probably,” Kiko agrees. He already seems to be back to his usual confidence, now that he remembered that Miryam actually likes him. “This isn’t even the most outlandish of the rumours about you, though.”

“Oh, I know. I think a couple of years ago, people in one of the western Loyalist countries – I don’t remember which – were claiming I wasn’t a person at all but some evil spirit that was trying to wreak havoc on the world.” Miryam shrugs. “People come up with the wildest tales.”

Kiko nods and Drakon abruptly decides he doesn’t want to know what other stories people might be telling about Miryam. Or about him. It is kind of funny to listen to those stories knowing they are wrong, but it gets far less amusing when you realize that there are people who actually believe them.

Maybe Miryam feels the same way, because she changes the subject to Kiko’s life at university. Kiko promptly launches into a story about the project he is currently working on and how his professor nearly blew up the classroom during a demonstration.

“Of course, he didn’t get into any trouble at all for it,” he adds, “Apparently, magical accidents are only a problem when they happen to me.”

“Or maybe there is a small difference between almost blowing up a classroom and actually blowing up the new laboratory,” Drakon suggests.

“Traitor,” Kiko mutters and Miryam laughs.

Kiko’s allotted time for the visit is up far too soon and he has to excuse himself to return home. “I’d stay longer,” he says, “but you know how my parents are about services. If I’m late, they’ll be angry for at least a month.”

He hugs Drakon goodbye, and, after a moment’s hesitation, turns to hug Miryam as well.

“Come visit again sometime soon,” Drakon says, clapping Kiko on the shoulder one last time. Kiko nods, waves at them and walks off through the crowd.

Miryam leans against Drakon’s side. “Do you miss university?” She asks.

Drakon hesitates for a moment, then nods. Yes, he misses it. He misses the lessons and discussions, and the free afternoons spent on grounds with the other students. But most of all, he misses the lightness, the carelessness. Back then, he never knew to properly appreciate it, but looking back, it was a privilege to be able to live without any kind of responsibility.

“It was easier,” he says. “Less pressure.”

Of course, there were assignments to complete, but those were usually fun and it certainly wasn’t anything like being in charge of an entire country during a war.

“But with everything that’s going on, I don’t think I could have kept studying there either way,” he adds. “I don’t think I could have… I mean, it’s not judgement of the people who are still there, I understand, but I think I would have wanted to do something to help with the war.”

Miryam nods. “I understand, I think,” she says. “I also miss working as a healer.”

 A few hours later, the festival begins to slowly calm down. The music stops and a crowd forms around the huge pyre that has been erected towards the edge of the field. Loud laughter and talking are replaced by quiet conversations, people shuffling closer together to make space for everyone.

Drakon stands at the very front, Miryam on one side and the Erithian High Priestess on the other. Neither him nor Miryam will have any active role to play in the following services, but tradition gives them the place of honour next to the priestess.

Once the crowd has fully settled, the High Priestess steps forward. She is wearing a red dress, the colour so deep it seems almost brown and woven out of the bark of a rare tree growing towards Erithia’s centre that makes it glow in the beginning dark.

“My friends,” she begins, “today, we have gathered here to celebrate the end of another successful harvest season, and to give thanks for what we were blessed with by the Mother.”

Drakon glances over at Miryam. She has her hands clasped behind her back and is watching the priestess intently, head tilted slightly to the side.

“This has been another year of war,” the priestess continues, “another year of struggle. The harvest has taken losses, but it is still enough to fill the storages, and so we thank the Mother for creating this world that gives us all we need to for living, and we thank Daín for giving us the knowledge to use it.”

The speech continues on for half an hour. Then, the priestess reaches for the torch that has been planted in the ground next to her feet. Next to Drakon, Miryam flinches ever so slightly, the movement only noticeable because she is standing to close to him. Drakon digs his fingers into the fabric of his coat as the priestess steps forward and holds her torch against the wood of the pyre. Drakon watches the flames lick up the wood and tries not to let his discomfort show. As a child, he used to love it when the pyres were lit, but these days, it only ever makes him think of death and funerals.

“Now, to honour Daín and all he did to catalogue this world,” the priestess continues, “let us each give one important date of the last year over to the flames so that it may be remembered by history.” With that, she pulls a folded paper out of the hem of her robes and throws it into the flames.

Drakon goes second. Slowly, he takes the piece of paper he prepared in the morning out of his pocket – it seems to weigh far more than any piece of paper has a right to – and throws it into the flames. Miryam follows his example. Then, they step back to make space for the next.

People begin to form a long line, stepping towards the flames one after the other to throw their papers in, each containing a note about one occasion in the last year that they hope will be remembered. Miryam seems to have already caught herself; her face is perfectly composed as she watches the proceedings.

“What did you write about?” Drakon asks softly without turning to face her.

“Jurian,” Miryam answers. She is still watching the people who are throwing their papers into the flames, and her face remains politely curious, but there is no mistaking the sadness in her voice. “You?”

“Me too,” Drakon says.

 The pyre ceremony marks the official end of the festival, but many of the attendees stay long past it. As soon as the last person threw their paper into the flames, the musicians started playing again, and people returned to their dancing and eating. In other years, Drakon stayed past midnight, too, but today, it only takes one shared look between him and Miryam for them to agree that they will retire early. The pyre ceremony brought with it far too many memories of Jurian and left neither of them in a very festive mood.

Arms linked, they slowly walk away from the celebrations and back towards the city. Their guards follow several feet behind, well out of hearing distance.

“I don’t think I feel like going to bed already,” Miryam says.

Drakon nods. By all accounts, he should be tired since he barely slept the last few nights, but right now, he wouldn’t be able to sleep either way. His last conversation with Jurian is replaying in his mind, and it will just get worse if he lies alone in bed.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” He asks. “Somewhere quiet.”

Miryam nods. “Our usual spot? Then we could also use the chance to visit our friend there.”

“Good idea,” Drakon says. They had planned on visiting Ghost yesterday, but they had to cancel their plans because Miryam had to prepare for her meeting with Cadell and Drakon went over his proposal for the council together with Andromache. “I’ll go clear it up with the guards.”

 -

“You’re back earlier than I thought.” Ghost’s voice appears a moment before he does. His dark hair falls almost to his shoulders today, and his eyes stand a bit further apart than usual.

“We needed a break,” Drakon says, glancing over at Miryam. Her mood seems to have lightened significantly since they arrived on Cretea. “And we had some time. It’s the festival of…” He trails off awkwardly, remembering a moment before he says the name that Ghost was the one who murdered Daín. He winces slightly. Well, this is awkward. “The Autumn Festival,” he finishes somewhat lamely.

“Ugh,” Ghost says, wrinkling his face in a way that doesn’t quite manage to replicate an actual grimace. It looks more like a piece of paper is being crumbled. “You’re still holding festivals for him? Don’t you have better people to celebrate?”

Drakon frowns at him, but doesn’t know what to say. Of course Ghost, who murdered Daín, didn’t like him. He could have figured that much out himself. It was stupid of him to bring up the topic.

“Who would you celebrate, then?” Miryam asks. She sounds genuinely curious, and Ghost immediately seems appeased. He really does like her.

“There was a woman I knew once,” he says. “Her name was Rashida. She would deserve a festival in her name.”

Drakon never heard that name before, and now, he is curious as well. “Rashida?” He asks, hoping Ghost will explain who she was. If Ghost knew her personally, she must have lived many millennia ago.

“Yes.” Ghost smiles at Miryam. “You would have liked her, I think. She was just as stubborn as you are.”

“I prefer determined,” Miryam says lightly. Drakon laughs. “What was she so stubborn about, then?”

Ghost smiles, almost fondly. Whoever this Rashida was, Drakon realizes he must have genuinely liked her. “Oh, many things,” he says. “She was Queen of the Black Land, you know?”

Miryam tenses immediately. “Very funny,” she says in a tone that makes it very clear that she finds this anything but funny. Drakon frowns at Ghost. It is unlike him to make such tasteless jokes.

Motions jerky, Ghost lifts his hands, as if in surrender. “She was human,” he says.

Both Miryam and Drakon freeze. Miryam catches herself more quickly than he does, and echoes, “Human? But…” She shakes her head. “The Black Land is Fae. It has always belonged to the Fae.”

That was Drakon’s understanding as well, and he always made a point to know as much as possible about the early days of their world, if only because of his family’s involvement in that time. But because of this, he also knows that the historical records of those days are far from complete, and that the past has the unfortunate tendency to be coloured by the interests of people in the present. So what Ghost is saying is… well, it certainly isn’t impossible.

Ghost lets out a harsh laugh. “Nothing in this world,” he says, gesturing vaguely, “has always belonged to the Fae.”

----

Miryam’s head is spinning. She heard what Ghost said, but she doesn’t quite manage to process it. The implications are too big, too world-changing. Miryam spent her entire life hearing that the current state of the world is natural. That, ever since that Fae’s goddess created the world for them, the Fae ruled and the humans were property. But now…

A human Queen of the Black Land. The world not always belonging to the Fae. It changes… Well, in the grand scheme of things, Miryam supposes it changes nothing at all. Even if this world had been made for the Fae, she would still fight for her people’s freedom. But it is still a validation of sorts, to know that her people have as much of a right to this world as the Fae do.

She turns to Drakon, grinning. He smiles back at her and squeezes her hand.

Still, she needs certainty. Needs more information.

“What do you mean?” Miryam asks. Her voice sounds raw and scratchy.

“Let’s just say that the Fae weren’t always kings and queens of this world. And humans certainly weren’t always slaves,” Ghost says. “But Rashida lived in a time when slavery had already spread throughout most of the Continent.” With a wink at Drakon, he adds, “And yes, Étaín was still around at that time. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.” Drakon’s smile dims a little, but Miryam still has her full attention on Ghost as he continues. “Rashida was a slave herself for several years, until she escaped. She united the human states in the area that is now the Black Land and became its first queen.”

Miryam tries to imagine it – a Black Land ruled by humans. But no matter how hard she tries, all images that will come to her mind involve Fae parading through their beautiful palaces, humans in shackles, humans bleeding and dying. She feels a stab of pity for Rashida, whose country some ancestor of Ravenia’s must have stolen and turned into the nightmare it is now. She wonders if Ravenia knows that her country is built on the bones of a human civilisation, that her precious ancestors are no more than thieves.

Maybe she’ll tell her one day.

“When was that?” Drakon asks. He seems almost as excited as she is. “In the year one thousand? Two thousand?”

“I’m surprised you don’t know,” Ghost replies lightly. “Her and your ancestors had dealings with each other quite frequently. Although I suppose ‘dealings’ is a pleasant way to put her storming Erithia and chasing your ancestors out of the region for the next couple of centuries.”

“What?” Drakon asks.

“Well, that’s what happens if you try to own people as slaves, right?” Ghost shrugs. “Rashida wasn’t any happier about it than Miryam is, and I believe she did show your ancestors just that.”

Drakon doesn’t reply. He looks shocked, like he can’t quite belief what he is hearing. Miryam doesn’t entirely understand what is so unbelievable about it, but right now, she has bigger concerns.

“You said she united human states,” she says. “How… I mean… Would you tell me?”

Ghost nods and begins to talk. Miryam listens, trying to commit each word to her memory, still not quite believing that this is real. This is her history. A history that goes beyond death and suffering and slavery, some precedent of humans fighting against Fae and succeeding.

Only in the end, they must still have lost. “How long did it last?” She asks softly, not quite wanting to hear the answer but knowing that something must have happened to make things to change from the world Ghost describes to the one she knows.

But Ghost’s form darkens at those words. “I don’t want to talk about that,” he says. Then, without giving her a chance to reply, he vanishes.

Miryam stares at the spot where he was standing until a moment ago, shaking her hand. “Still, thank you for telling me,” she tells the empty air. She never quite figured out where Ghost goes when he disappears, but maybe he still hears her. “It truly means a lot.”

Then, she turns to Drakon. He looks… well, he looks like he’s unhappy about something, but trying hard not to show it. It confuses Miryam. She supposes she understands that it’s not pleasant to hear a story where your people are the villains, but it is still strange for Drakon to react like that. She had thought he’d be as excited as she is about the news about human history, not moping around because the Fae were once again the bad guys in the story, or because his country got an apparently well-deserved ass-kicking several millennia ago.

It is unlike Drakon to react this way. And Miryam doesn’t like it. But maybe she’s misreading.

“Do we want to go outside?” She asks. “We could take a walk. Give Ghost some peace.”

Drakon nods, not quite meeting her eyes. “Sure,” she mutters.

By the time they left the cave, door closed safely behind them, Miryam decided that she was indeed wrong: Drakon isn’t acting strange because he is upset over what Ghost said, but because he somehow seems to expect her to be upset with him. No matter how hard Miryam tries, though, she can’t figure out why he would think that.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, because it’s probably better to clear this up right away instead of leaving whatever-this-is standing between them.

“What?” Drakon asks, flinching slightly.

Miryam sighs. “If you were upset, I could understand why.” Although she certainly wouldn’t like it. “But you are acting like you expect me to be angry with you, and I really don’t get it.”

Drakon starts tapping around on his leg. “I’m sorry,” he says, which just confuses Miryam more since she has no idea what he is apologizing for. “I didn’t know.”

“I never thought you did,” Miryam says. She is getting more bewildered with each moment. How would Drakon have known that the Black Land was originally human?

“Yes, but…” Drakon shakes his head. “I just… I didn’t know my ancestors… I thought they were…”

Miryam blinks. Does Drakon really worry that she is angry with him over something his ancestors did almost ten thousand years ago? She knows that the Fae put a lot of stock into ancestries and who is related to whom, but even knowing that, this sees rather outlandish.

“Drakon,” she says, shaking her head slightly, “I am never going to be angry with you over something that happened ten thousand years ago, no matter whether the person who did it was related to you or not.” And she can’t help but feel that the only reason why they are having that problem is that Drakon can even trace his family back that far. Most people simply wouldn’t know if some asshole who lived millennia ago happened to be related to them. She sighs and reaches for his hand. “You aren’t a good person because your ancestors were. Whether they were saints or monsters has no bearing at all on what kind of person you are.”

Besides, she never thought that all of Drakon’s ancestors were good people. She gets that he did – pretending your ancestors were generally on the right side of history seems to be a thing most royal families do – but she never had any such illusions. She always thought that Erithia was likely involved in slavery at one point in history, and even if they weren’t, standing by and allowing it to happen elsewhere isn’t that much better in her eyes. And then there is the matter of Drakon’s father who was, as far as Miryam can tell, definitely not what she’d consider to be a good person. She isn’t going to bring that up, though, not when Drakon is just beginning to look a bit less stressed.

“Oh.” He runs a hand through his hair and smiles, clearly relieved. “I thought you might mind. Because you married into my family and all.”

Miryam is about to say that no, of course she doesn’t mind, but then, that wouldn’t be entirely honest. “If it had happened in living memory,” she says, “I think I would have minded. Not because of your ancestors specifically, though, but because I wouldn’t have wanted to rule over a country of former slave owners.” She hesitates, considering whether she needs to say something comforting or not. “You’re alright?” She asks, just to be sure.

“Yes of course.” Drakon shakes his head. Now, he seems angry with himself. “I’m sorry. You really don’t need to comfort me about this, that must be awkward for you, I’m…” He throws his head into the air. “Sorry,” he repeats.

Miryam doesn’t entirely feel like he needs to apologize this much, but at this point, it seems best to just change the subject. Fortunately, that’s what she wants to do anyways, since Drakon’s ancestors ten thousand years ago having been assholes was honestly the least interesting part of what Ghost told them.

“Alright,” she says. “So, about the rest of what Ghost said…”

“Yes.” Now, she finally gets the reaction she had been hoping for earlier. Drakon grins and reaches for her hand. “As soon as we are back, I’ll ask for some books from the library. Maybe we’ll find some historical records on this Rashida, or anything about that time.”

“If there were any, don’t you think we would have heard?” Miryam asks. Her heart is beating giddily fast and it takes quite some self-control to keep from jumping up and down in excitement.

“Well, not necessarily,” Drakon says. “There might be some historical documents or ruins that have been deliberately misinterpreted by Fae historians. But if we know what to look for, we could find something. And if we do, we could pass it on to some historians, see it published. And when news get out…”

“It would mean so much,” Miryam finishes for him. “I mean, the Loyalists would probably deny it, but for us…” She smiles, shaking her head. “It would mean to much,” she repeats.

----

A/N: I feel like I could say this after every chapter, but once again: A huge thanks to @croissantcitysucks for their help with and contributions to this chapter. Rashida was their idea, as well as large parts of the entire Ghost/Daín/the Mother story and the culture surrounding it and Before the Wall wouldn't be the story it is without out conversations about it❤

[starrysupercell]

Brawl Fantasy AU Part Four!

Max is a rapid-fire fairy. It's difficult trying to keep up with her through the streets of the Kingdom. Especially since Shelly wants to look around. She was so curious! Ash was steadfast focused on not losing track of the Fae.

Before too long, the Trio make it to the castle where they're greeted personally by (Lunar) Princess Piper De Prim. (She's a Sylph!)

She thanks them for finally arriving. She had expected correspondence, but perhaps their messenger bird had gotten lost along the way?

Shelly and Ash exchange looks. What? Was she expecting them-?

Piper continues. Nevertheless, the De La Prim Kingdom gives its heartfelt thanks as a whole. Taking a quick look over the two, she asks if they would like... showers, and then a late lunch to discuss the urgent matter at hand?

Ash accepts for the both of them quickly, because he feels very displeased with his current VERY unclean state. Plus it'd be rude to refuse an offer.

Shelly is about to complain, because they were rushed here and now it's suddenly not that big a deal anymore, but shrugs. I'm tired of cold river water and bland fish. Gimme that tub and fancy food.

They're shown to their very ornate rooms, and are greeted by the very enthusiastic Princess Colette, who Max sticks to most of the time.

Colette very often forgets to be ~regal~ most of the time and has to be reminded by Piper.

After her shower and getting half-dressed, Shelly accidentially falls asleep because she's so exhausted.

She's awoken by Ash suddenly. He tells her to get it together!! They're guests with an urgent warning, and Shelly is keeping the acting Royal waiting!! It's evening now! (Piper had been lenient, but Ash decided to steal away and wake Shelly.)

"I was sleepy," Shelly grumbles to defend herself but Ash has a point. The princess hastily gets ready and then heads down, joined by the knight.

Barley, Max and Colette are there. It's only this handful of folks, since it's a vital discussion. Colette is sat beside Piper. And the Knights stand/hover by the Royals. Max is at human-size now.

Shelly begins to apologize as they take their seats, but Piper waves it away. "It's time to talk about what you two came here for..."

Shelly nods. "The Dragon Attack," she confirms.

"About the Curse." Piper states at the same time.

Wait.

Piper puts down her glass and speaks first. "Pardon. You aren't here because I sent away for aid from the Vandete Kingdom?"

'-'

"No," Shelly said, feeling uneasy.

Colette and Max are puzzled. Barley simply thinks, '...Oh.' hides his relief.

After bracing herself, Shelly continues. "We trekked here because.. Dragons have attacked our Kingdom. We didn't get your message because there was no way for us to get it. But I'm sure that if we had gotten it, the Vandete Kingdom wouldn't have hesitated in supporting you."

Piper sighs. Still very displeased, but she finds reason in what Shelly is saying. Still. The fact that the message is still out there can lead to trouble if another Kingdom finds it.

Plus, she had just been told one of their strongest Allies have fallen. This couldn't have just been coincidence. This had to be sabatoge. or karma.

But as she's done often lately, she kept up her grace. "We appreciate your words. You seek advice on Dragons, is that right? What do you wish to know?"

The attacks are discussed, which Piper finds odd. Dragons are territorial, but never attack unprovoked. Most types also don't have a pack-mentality, unless still in Family Broods. Did somebody in the Kingdom wrong a pack of them?

No. This was countless Dragons. Different kinds. They wouldn't stop attacking. We didn't catch the end, but our kingdom was rubble.

"Oh, dear." Barley spoke up. Both he and Piper realized the situation. Colette looked just as confused as Shelly and Ash.

Piper looked concerned. "I'm afraid we cannot aid you. You see, what you just described are the signs of an attack led by an Overseer Dragon. That requires more resources to take care of than what our Kingdom can give in our current state.”

Ash is taken aback. He didn't expect that answer.

Shelly asks what exactly is the current state?

Without skipping a beat, Piper answers that it's none of Shelly's concern. Very professionally.

Shelly: We're the same class.

Piper: From manners alone, it's hard to tell.

Shelly: Excuse me Princess, We've done our fair share of travel to get here. We told you that our Kingdom lies in ruins which puts us at risk. You don't want to help us, and now you refuse your own show of faith and insult me. How is that for manners!?

Piper exhales very slowly. She repeats calmly that there’s no benefit to explaining herself. For this kingdom’s sake, it’s safer to keep their situation well-guarded until it’s guaranteed it can be fixed. It isn’t meant to be taken personally. She then adds an offer in the chance to stay as long as they want. For their troubles.

Shelly firmly states that they’ll take their leave in the morning.

Piper: ..Oh. I see. Nonetheless, the De La Prim Kingdom will always be open to you. U.U

Dinner is dismissed.

~

Much later that night, Shelly opens her door to roam castle when she’s stopped by Ash.

Ash: what d’ya think yer doin’ up, lassie!? ye can’t travel on a drop o’ sleep, can ya!? 

Shelly: What about you!? have you even slept at all!?

Ash defends themselves by declaring it’s her job as a knight, and it isn’t like there’s anyone else sworn to protect Shelly.

Shelly: well i don’t know why you’re still here. your stupid princess just cost us this kingdom’s good graces.

Ash hesitates at telling it how it is, but eh. screw it.  if she insists!

"Yeah, ye were dafty. we’re out o' shelter, and despite what the actin' royal says, I wouldn’t trust the promise o' being welcome. all this because YOU couldn’t keep yer pettiness in check."

gee, thanks. Shelly isn’t proud of herself atm already, and that definitely helped.

"...but i’d be fibbin' if I said I wouldn’t do the same. if i had a death wish, that’s the way i’d go, wipin' the floor clean with that sickeningly sweet look of hers! ...but ye didn’t hear that from me, Princess."

shelly and ash laugh over the thought, and shelly is like. well, you are right though. I guess i should go to sleep to leave in a few hours. but you should try to get some rest too.

Ash is about to answer when a third voice interjects.

“Aww! you know you guys don’t have to go in the morning!”

and a fourth.

“and at this rate, nobody in the castle will get any sleep, chatter-bugs!”

Colette and Max are there, giggling. Max is back to mini sized. (it’s her preferred form, but they were keeping guard earlier.)

Shelly and Ash are a little nervous because how much did she hear?

the younger princess handwaves it off. “Don’t worry about it. I... uh, I know how it looks like with Pi- with my sister, but please don’t be mad at her. she’s just really, really stressed."

"The truth is, somebody cursed the king and queen. they’re in a deep sleep, and we can’t find a way to break it. we have no leads and we don’t want to cause mayhem or attention to our plight.”

shelly and ash are suspicious. “and you’re telling us, because...?”

Max explains that she can sense emotions, so she knew that they were telling the truth.

Colette’s theory is that the Dragon attack and the Curse may have something in common.

The curse seems to have been done by a powerful Wizard, and the Kingdom attack could have been planned. If someone wants to take over, it seems like they're getting started.

so, if you solve one, you can solve the other.

Shelly and Ash are listening carefully.

"Obviously, I'm not allowed to leave. So... would you guys mind poking around for me based on that?? That would be REALLY helpful."

They.. agree, with some reluctance because of Piper. But if it is to stop someone from ruining more kingdoms, they're all for it.

"Great!! ....I have.. a theory. There's a kingdom that is stellar in um, wizards and magic stuff. I really think that's where you should go. Have you heard about the Grailams Kingdom?"

Shelly confirms it. Aside from the Ranger in the forest, she's heard countless tales of sorcery when she was growing up.

Colette gives them funds to travel comfortably. She also urges them to take Max along with them. Fairies are super helpful in many ways! And Max is the cream of the crop! Take her!

Shelly shrugs. "I guess. Won't they notice your Knight is missing?"

"It'll be fine!" Colette says dismissively. "Now I gotta go. Good night!!"

And she slinks away, stumbling a bit in her dress. How... weird.

Max smiles at them. "So! When are we heading out? Morning time right? I guess there's still time to kill. I'm just going to take a quick power nap." She darts into Shelly's room before she could be stopped.

"..."

Well, it makes sense why they're friends.

Shelly and Ash do settle in again for the night. They have a journey to continue tomorrow.

[mist-chance]

JJK Chapter 137

This is going up a bit late, but I wanted to post my thoughts on Chapter 137 before I get around to reading Chapter 138.

This chapter, which reads as Part 1 of the Shibuya Incident Aftermath, is really interesting because it shows what the state of the jujutsu world – and the non-jujutsu world of Japan – is outside of Shibuya. When there’s a lot of action going on, like the kind that’s been happening for the past year or so worth of chapters, it’s easy to get tunnel vision and focus only on the main cast. So it’s nice that we get some context as to what’s happening outside of Shibuya.

1) Dystopia abound.

We already got a hint of how the non-jujutsu world is affected by an influx of cursed spirits during the action part of the Shibuya Incident, within the contained space of the curtain surrounding Shibuya. Now we learn that other locations in Japan are being affected as well: the state of the government is unknown, there are concerns of how Japan’s political and commercial infrastructure will hold up to this massive shift in reality (and how other countries will view and react to these changes), people are evacuating affected cities, and an important question has arisen as a result of the Shibuya Incident – should the non-jujutsu world, the normal world, become aware of the existence of curses?

This question is important, because it seems Fake-Geto (I know the curse user possessing Geto’s body is Kamo Noritoshi the ancestor, but Fake-Geto is easier to use) is dead set on bringing back a world where powerful cursed spirits held the most influence in the world. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not cursed spirits and the jujutsu world at large become common knowledge to non-jujutsu sorcerers, and how the world will change as a result of either one of these decisions.

2) Yuta appears!

This is his first appearance since Volume 0 (the prequel volume). He pretty much looks the same to me, though his face looks a bit more mature and his hair is longer. He’s still awkward around others – even children – though he looks pretty confident when dealing with the elders at Jujutsu Headquarters. 

Here, Yuta seems to be gearing up for a rampage/epic beatdown similar to the one in Volume 0, after Geto took down his friends. Yuta’s pretty similar to Gojo in that he has the capability to pull of a deus ex machina during a time of crisis; he can evolve at an extraordinary rate and pull off impossible feats. (Gojo himself has mentioned that Yuta has the potential to become just as strong as him.)

So in JJK there are two god-like characters: Gojo Satoru, the self-proclaimed but probably-really-is the strongest sorcerer in the world, and Okkotsu Yuta, who’s on his way to being as strong as Gojo. The reason the Shibuya Incident had such devastating consequences is because Gojo was sealed away early on, and Yuta was supposedly still out of the country. Making these two god-like characters unavailable allowed for the struggles and losses in this arc to happen, and gave characters like our main trio the opportunity to grow.

What’s interesting in the aftermath of the Shibuya Incident is that we’re still down Gojo, but we’ve gained Yuta. And Yuta seems to be currently under the influence of the elders at Jujutsu Headquarters – or rather, they’re taking advantage of his need for vengeance and Yuta’s letting them manipulate him – whereas Gojo has always opposed their authority. (When Gojo killed Geto, I doubt he did it because the elders issued a kill-order on Geto. He most likely did it because Geto was dangerous, and Gojo knew the only way to stop him was to kill him.)

As of this chapter, the elders seem reluctant to trust Yuta. But for now, they have a Special Grade Sorcerer to do their bidding.

3) The elders at Jujutsu Headquarters and their plan of action.

This chapter again shows how black and white the current authority of the jujutsu world – the elders at Jujutsu Headquarters (I believe they’re all unidentified except for Gakuganji Yoshinobu) – are, and how desperate they are to maintain their conservative, straightforward vision of how the jujutsu world and the non-jujutsu worlds should be.

It’s hard to tell how much information Jujutsu Headquarters is operating on, based on the orders they’ve issues.

Order 1: We know the elders know that Geto is “alive.” However, it’s unclear whether or not they know that Geto isn’t the real Geto, but a curse user possessing his body. In any case, they want him killed again.

Order 2: We know the elders know Gojo is sealed, since originally, during the Shibuya Incident, the order was to free Gojo Satoru. (This may not have been an official Headquarters order; both the College and Kyoto group may’ve only been acting on Mechamaru’s info.)

This new order calls for Gojo’s continued imprisonment. It’s reasonable for the elders to be suspicious of Gojo (someone who’s always opposing their authority) to be Geto’s accomplice – especially since they were best friends  – so this order is understandable. 

But there’s a fine line between the elders wanting to keep Gojo sealed because they believe he’s a traitor, and wanting to keep him sealed away because it keeps him from interfering with their agenda.

Order 3: This order is absolutely ridiculous, on par with the idea of Absolute Justice in One Piece – the idea or reasoning that, because Geto and Gojo were his students, Yaga is responsible for the decisions they made and continue to make as adults. 

The elders didn’t hold this against Yaga when Geto (real Geto) defected and became a curse user. The difference between then and now is that Gojo is being treated as an accomplice to a curse user. So the goal of this order might be to punish Yaga for producing two traitorous students, or his execution is a way to justify Gojo’s continued imprisonment. The reasoning for the latter option, if we consider the dark, manipulative elders route instead of the ignorant, misinformed one, could be that, to justify that Gojo’s crime is bad enough to warrant being sealed for eternity, his former teacher is also culpable, and the only punishment worthy of his crime is death.

Order 4: Reinstating Yuji’s execution order is expected, given Gakuganji’s previous manipulations during the Kyoto Exchange Arc. 

Order 5: This order, for Yuta to be Yuji’s executioner, is also expected. Yuta is currently the only Special Grade (who hasn’t gone rogue) to not have a relationship or any interaction with Yuji; and, given Yuta’s desire to keep his friends safe, Yuji already has a point against him for what he did to Inumaki – even if it was technically Sukuna’s fault.

What might happen next?

There are two ways of thinking the elders could be operating under. One, they’re operating on incomplete information (mainly, not knowing Kamo Noritoshi the ancestor is possessing Geto’s body, which could potentially make Orders 2 and 3 void); or two, the elders do have all the information, and they’re trying to keep Gojo sealed away for their own benefit. With Gojo out of the way, the elders have no one (powerful enough, anyways) to oppose their authority, and they can shape both the jujutsu world and the non-jujutsu world as they please.

[Their order of keeping Gojo sealed is probably the one they’ll regret the earliest. It’s stated in one of the earlier chapters that curses grew in strength because a being of Gojo Satoru’s strength was born into the world. Cursed spirits grew stronger simply as a matter of evolution, the prey evolving to better counter the predator that would hunt them down. 

And while there are several talented sorcerers still active to fight the sudden influx of powerful cursed spirits, and several sorcerers-in-training who can step up to joint the fight, the Shibuya Incident also took talented sorcerers like Nanami. Gojo was very much a large-scale, heavy-hitter fighter, capable of taking down several curses at once with little effort. Without him around, it’ll  be harder for sorcerers to operate. It’ll definitely give Fake-Geto all the time he needs to enact his plans, since the sorcerers will be too busy fighting curses to figure out his endgame.]

Then there’s the question of how much Yuta knows about each order. Like the elders, Yuta is either ignorant of one or more of the orders (as in, he doesn’t know that Gojo is supposed to stay sealed, or that unsealing him is a criminal act; or that Yaga, Panda’s creator/guardian, is slated for execution), or he knows all of the orders and is choosing to ignore the ones that don’t give him permission to take out Yuji. Either mindset could lead to interesting future conflicts, but I think it’s more likely that Yuta doesn’t know all of the orders. Based on my read of him from Volume 0, he isn’t the type to go for extreme measures unless his friends are hurt.

It also looks like Yuta’s goal of executing Yuji can go two ways. Either he tries killing Yuji and ends up fighting Sukuna, or he tries killing Yuji and his friends (mainly Maki and Panda, if Inumaki’s still out of commission) stop him and beat some sense into him. It’s possible, of course, that the feelings of Yuji’s previous allies/friends may have changed over the course of the Shibuya Incident, because of the damage Sukuna caused while fighting Jogo (e.g. Kusakabe. The difference with Kusakabe, though, is that he was indifferent to Yuji’s existence as Sukuna’s host until the mass destruction in Shibuya. He also, to my knowledge, has never met Yuji.)

But that seems doubtful for the second years, since Panda still seems fine with Yuji, and I can’t see Inumaki and Maki disagreeing with him. And even if they aren’t, Yaga’s technically in the same boat as Yuji, and it’s unlikely Panda, Inumaki, and Maki would act against him. If Yaga continues to stick up for Yuji, they would most likely follow his lead. Megumi I’m sure will still be on Yuji’s side, as will Nobara (please, please let her be okay.). 

As for Yuji and Yaga... I can’t imagine Yaga trying to run off to avoid execution. He’s more of the type to make a stand. I could see him encouraging Yuji to escape though, and serving as a distraction until Yuji’s escaped far enough.

I’m really excited to see where Chapter 138 will take us!

[Source of all screenshots: VIZ Media]

[spacebatisluvd]

LUVD

Summary: Adora can read the First Ones’ language. Hordak cannot. (Entrapta has some explaining to do.)

CW: This is fluff with hurt/comfort elements, featuring Hordak’s self-esteem issues, panic attacks, and rage.

A/N: Probably the last drabble I can manage before the final season drops. See you guys on the other side. (Again, I’m sorry for the readmore. I tried. The mobile app is garbage, but I wrote the drabble on my phone, so what are you gonna do?)

-

[[MORE]]

The alliance had, reluctantly, asked Hordak to come to Bright Moon. An issue had arisen amongst the clones that had decided to settle there—and wasn’t that a wonder? they had decided—and apparently, neither the Queen nor her princesses were able to resolve it, and Swift Wind had, somehow, made the matter worse. Hordak had been somewhat reluctant, as he and Entrapta were in the middle of a time-sensitive experiment, but he had an obligation to go. He was the clones’ ‘cultural ambassador’—or some such nonsense; he hadn’t paid much attention to the title itself—and fulfilling that role was part of his reparations to Etheria. It was hard to go alone, but Entrapta didn’t really need him for the experiment, and she promised to record the whole thing for him to review when he returned.

So he went. While he worked with the clones—who had begun to collectively call themselves ‘Kin’ rather than ‘Horde’—he stayed in Bright Moon’s castle. The Queen insisted it was to honor his status. Hordak was fairly sure it was so they could keep a close eye on him. He was also fairly sure that’s why they had invited the She-Ra—or, rather, her avatar—as well.

He didn’t mind working with Adora. She was intelligent and efficient—and if a small part of him was proud of her conditioning, he certainly wasn’t going to mention that to anyone—but he really didn’t enjoy the way she looked at him at times. Or, rather, the way she looked at the crystal that powered his armor. He often caught her staring at it, and his hand frequently lifted to cover it on its own, before he was conscious of the action. He then felt obliged to clear his throat and do something else with his hand because this was ridiculous and he was making it worse.

He didn’t even know why she was staring, until he was nearly done with his work with the Kin. She was pretending to be busy, while in reality, she was minding him, and Hordak was actually busy, looking over the contested village plans. He sighed, crossing something out and re-writing it elsewhere. “So, how’s it going?” she asked.

He snorted in disgust. “While I am glad that my kindred are starting to form their own personalities and are becoming comfortable seeking out the things they want for themselves, I am afraid they are also going to have to come to understand that the nature of compromise means that they can’t all get what they want all the time. This should not have been as complicated as they made it out to be.”

She laughed a little, the sound shy and unsure. He ignored it; he hadn’t been joking, and he didn’t understand why she thought that was funny. “Yeah. I guess so.” She rocked on her toes a little, and suddenly, she was sidling over, invading his space. He straightened, perturbed by her proximity. She was looking at his crystal again. He clenched his hand to keep from covering it protectively. “How about you? You and Entrapta are...getting pretty close? Right?”

He narrowed his eyes. “I fail to see why that is any of your business. Move—you’re in my light.”

“Oh, sorry.” She stepped aside, though not very far. He gave her another suspicious glare before returning to the plans. “Uh, did Entrapta tell you I could read the First Ones’ language?”

He sighed. He did not engage in ‘small talk’. He didn’t see the point of it, but Entrapta had asked him to be nice, so he would answer the avatar’s vapid questions. “No, she did not. I do not believe she thought it would be relevant.” He said the last word very pointedly, hoping she might take the hint.

She did not. “Oh. Well. I can.” She looked at him very deliberately as she said it. His ears twitched before he returned his attention to the plans.

“How nice for you,” he said, taking care to keep his tone neutral and polite.

“Ugh! Hordak, I can read what your crystal says, okay?!”

Unable to stop himself, he cupped his hand over it. “I have no idea what you mean—it doesn’t say anything.”

Her eyes went wide and her cheeks flushed a deep scarlet. “Oh. She didn’t...tell you...?” She swallowed. “Never mind! My mistake—you’re right, it doesn’t say anything!”

He caught her arm as she tried to leave. “What does it say?” he demanded, looming over her.

“Well. Um. It’s not really a word? It’s letters that sound like a word.” His ears flattened.

“What. Does. It. Say?”

She swallowed. “L-U-V-D.” He narrowed his eyes. “Loved—it says ‘loved’. She really never told you?”

It felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“Hordak?”

He pushed her away, hearing the pounding of his hearts echo in his ears. “You’re mistaken.”

“Uh? No? I’m really not. Look, it’s a She-Ra thing; I can—“

“I don’t care!” he snarled, the writing stylus snapping between his fingers. “You are mistaken! It is either an unfortunate acronym or merely a coincidence. Regardless, it doesn’t mean ‘loved’—it doesn’t mean anything!” He straightened, trying to steady his breathing. “And I expect you to keep your ridiculous suspicions to yourself. Do you realize how badly you could damage Entrapta’s reputation by implying—?” He exhaled hard and leveled a hard look at her. “She does not need you wrecking everything she has built.”

The avatar stared back at him with wide eyes. “Have you talked to Entrapta about this?” she asked after a moment.

“There is nothing to talk about.”

“Hordak—“

With a snarl, he dodged her outstretched hand and stormed off. “We’re done.”

“Hordak, wait! Can we just—“

“I said we’re done!”

He returned to the castle, too frazzled to continue his work. He paced in his assigned room, hissing at Imp when he gave a curious chirp. Imp left with an abundance of angry chattering as he sought out more pleasant company. Hordak couldn’t blame him—he knew he wasn’t at his best when he was like this. He’d been working on controlling his temper, but the urge to start breaking things was strong.

He shut his eyes, trying to breathe through the rage. How dare she? How dare she?! Did she realize what such rumors would do to Entrapta? To Dryl? They weren’t some isolated nation—they were at best a city-state and heavily reliant on their trade agreements with their neighbors. Neighbors he had attacked and conquered!

Was this their revenge, then? To use Hordak to ruin Entrapta’s reputation, to destroy her small country’s economy? To play with his emotions, taunting him with—?

One of his vambraces started to spark, shocking him. He ripped it off with a roar and tossed it across the room, his breathing rapid and ragged.

Just then, his communicator started beeping. Entrapta. Something like relief wrapped him. Of course! He should have contacted her immediately! He turned on the monitor, barely waiting for her features to resolve when he said, “Good; we have something to discuss.”

“Oh. Yeah. Adora called me and—“

“I think we can get ahead of the rumors if we—“

“—said she told you about—“

“—form a plan. We’ll need to re-affirm your trade agreements—“

“Wait. Trade agreements?”

He nodded, glad she was listening. He started to pace as he laid out his plan. “Yes! You need to ratify your agreements, strengthen the bonds with your closest allies.” He beat one fist against his unarmored palm. “We have some inventions that might be useful to the others as well, things that other kingdoms can use. If we produce blueprints, show them how to—“

“Hordak.”

“—make them, we can endear ourselves to some of the kingdoms that—“

“Hordak.”

“—would be particularly upset by these rumors.” He hesitated. “You ought to...start seeing suitors.” It felt like his chest was being compressed. “That would certainly quell any rumors of—“

“Hordak.”

“—of impropriety.”

“Hordak!”

He looked at the monitor. “What?”

“Will you take a breath?” He blinked. “Just. A deep breath. Like this—“ She inhaled. Through pursed lips, as if trying to keep the air in, she said, “And hold it.”

Not sure why she’d ask this of him but trusting her nonetheless, he filled his lungs and held his breath. Entrapta nodded. “Good. That’s good. Now exhale real slow—like this.” She demonstrated, and he mimicked her.

“What was the purpose of that?”

“To calm you down. You were panicking.”

“I do not panic!”

“Why don’t you take another deeeep breath?”

“I DO NOT NEED TO BREATHE!” She raised a brow, and his words caught up to him. “Perhaps, you aren’t...incorrect.”

“You think?” He shot her a look, but let her walk him through some more breathing exercises. Finally, it felt like the band of steel wrapping his chest had loosened. Smiling fondly, Entrapta said, “Okay. Why don’t we try this again? Adora called me. She said she told you what the crystal says.”

“Yes. I’m concerned. Our...working relationship is bound to spark rumors, regardless of whether or not the She-Ra’s keeps her suspicions to herself. It’s something we should have considered before, as it will likely have broader effects on your kingdom.”

She started to play with her hair. “O-oh. So. You...don’t...? You don’t mind that it says ‘LUVD’? You aren’t...? Confused? Or...?”

He waved that off. “Entrapta, I know it doesn’t mean anything. It’s not as if you wrote it—“

“I did.”

“You?”

“Wrote it.”

“Oh. Well. I’m sure you didn’t mean—“

“I did.”

He blinked. It felt like he was drifting. Like his body was no longer tethered by gravity. “‘Loved’? You meant? That?”

She nodded, then smiled weakly. “Um. Yeah.”

“Oh.” He sat heavily on the bed. “I.” He touched the crystal.

“I didn’t really mean for you to find out. Definitely not like this. I figured that maybe if....” She lowered her welding mask.

“If?”

“I would have told you. If I thought you returned my feelings.” Her hair rubbed at her upper arm.

“I—“ His tongue felt thick. Cumbersome. His breathing was shallow and too fast. “What if. I did?”

She lifted her mask, eyeing him. “Is this just a thought experiment? Or...?”

He swallowed. “I have. Reason to be invested in your answer. What if I returned your feelings?” He couldn’t believe what he was saying, couldn’t believe he was allowing himself to entertain the idea that Entrapta.

Loved.

Him.

“Well.” She rolled the word around, tasting it. Her mouth quirked in a small smile. “We’d probably need to implement some of your ideas to keep our trade agreements in place. And.” She held onto her hair, combing one lock with her fingers. “Maybe go on a date?”

He just stared at the screen. Stunned. He swallowed, ears lowered. “I think I will ask if they can manage the rest without me. I would like to return home and continue this conversation in person.” He looked down. “I believe I will also offer an apology to the She-Ra.”

“Yeah. I think I might owe her a thank you.”

Entrapta smiled at him, and he nodded his agreement, rendered mute by the weight of his feelings.

His fingers traced over the crystal af his throat.

LUVD.

He was.

Loved.

(And he loved in return.)

[stxvercgersslut]

Go Fish

Prompt (s) : 5. “Fine, but if I win, you’re mine for the night. Anything goes.” & 15. “Okay, wait, that kind of turned me on.”

a/n: how could I not enter @stargazingfangirl18 and @navybrat817 challenge when it was to do with Chris? Plus these two prompts were screaming Colin’s name so I just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity 😂 this one shot takes place just after Ally and Colins fight.

Description: A innocent game of go fish with Colin doesn’t exactly go to plan

Warnings: brief mentions of smut (barely even there), mentions of a break up, mentions of alcohol, language

"So let me get this straight....you and Ally broke up and now your on my couch because?" You spoke with a slightly raised eyebrow as you glanced over at your friend Colin, whom right now was laying lengthwise on your couch with a pillow held in his embrace as if he was a child refusing to let go of a teddy that he had just won. How he had even gotten into your house in the middle of the night without a peep was beyond you at this point, but that definitely wasn't the biggest problem right now. 

At around 1 in the morning Colin has shown up at your door, letting himself in and just collapsing onto your sofa. Which had, rightly so, startled you when you practically stomped down the stairs 8 hours later.  Naturally, you had been quite shocked by his sudden appearance at your house. However, the male had explained what had happened just a few hours before you'd awoken from your slumber, you couldn't help but feel sympathy for the boy. How could you kick him out when he was in such a fragile state?

The former playboy took in a all mighty deep breath, almost as if he'd been starved of oxygen for months, before letting Your a broken sigh as he sat up on the huge couch. This was much harder then he had actually imagined it being.  Now he spoke. "We didn't exactly break up....in fact we weren't even really dating..." the male explained whilst staring into your eyes with his weakened ones,  searching for some sort of comfort in your gorgeous e/c orbs that always seemed to brighten up his days.

This confession of course made your ears prick and your eyes widen. In your eyes Colin and Addisons relationship was unspoken, the way the pair acted around each other made it extremely evident that there were at least some feelings involved. Which was why your friends explanation seemed to baffle you even more then usual "you weren't dating? But you two seemed so close?" You questioned, still keeping your distance from him for now as you continued to battle with your thought on what exactly to do next. Was hugging Colin a good idea?

'You're not the type of guy people end up with.'

Where the dreadfully cruel words that Ally had admitted to the former playboy just a few hours again. However, even though those words had been spoken hours before this moment, Ally's confession still rang in his hears like a church bell. No amount of alcohol was going change that.

"Forget I even said anything...let's play a game!" Collin spoke as he totally and utterly ignored your question, pretending like everything was perfectly normal again. But both of you knew that things were oh so far away from ever being normal. Nevertheless, this man was adamant that whatever happened between him and Ally was in the past. No matter how recent their 'break' up was. After around 5 minutes of silence the older male finally spoke up, once again baffling you with every single one of his ideas. "Ah!" He began, raising his pointer finger up to the air as a wide grin appeared on his face. "I know exactly what we can play" within a milli second of his words leaving his mouth, Colin was up like a flash. Racing over to your closet in the front room and coming back a couple seconds later holding a selection of board games. All of which were probably going to either involve a heavy amount of alcohol, or a disgusting amount of stripping. He was a open book after all. Or at least you thought he was.

Almost exactly 15 seconds went by before Colin had poured all the games onto the sofa with a dorky smile back on his stupid face. "So sweetheart, which game catches your eye?" The playboy asked as he ran his hand through his short hair, calming any stray hairs that may have appeared when he had laid on the couch not so long ago.

Wiggling your eyebrow you walked towards the couch, examining every little detail of the box’s that laid there before your eyes zoomed in on one game in particular. Your limited edition game of Go Fish. “Oh hell yeah. Finally found a game that I’ll for sure beat you at!” You spoke with a wide smile attaching itself to your mouth whilst you wafted the pack of cards in your friends face causing him to grimace at your game of choice. “Really y/n? Out of all the games on that couch you chose go fish?” He questioned whilst you just began laughing in his face. Not for long of course since your goal was to taunt him. Not piss him off so that he didn’t wanna play at all.

Playfully you sauntered your way over to him, stopping around 3 inches away from him as you stared him dead in the eyes and practically shoved the game in his face. Now you really were teasing him and he’d be dammed if he was going to just let you get away with this. Yes he’d just gotten out of a ‘relationship’ (if you could even call it that since they never went on a date and never really hung out unless it was to help Ally find her ex’s again, ) but his all mighty crush on you wasn’t ever going to go away. “Yes yes really! And you asked me what I wanted to play so you don’t get a choice. We are playing Go fish and we are playing it right! You don’t get a choice” the words seemed to fly out of you despite the fact that it was literally only 10 am at this point. Well it’s 12 o’clock somewhere right? Might as well start drinking.

A low groan from Colin could be heard from a mile off as he visibly began to think about his decisions on how the hell he could make a excuse on why he just couldn’t play this game. But surprisingly he came up with nothing. Really? Nothing? Oh come on Colin there must be some way of excusing yourself from this stupid old fashioned game right? He though to himself. But still nothing came to mind. Well seems like it’s time to accept. “Ugh fine, but if I win, you’re mine for the night. Anything goes.” He spoke with a wiggle of his eyebrows proving that he was indeed not joking about the fact that he wanted you. But then again, when did he ever joke about that in the first place? He was a playboy who always seemed to be greedy for sex so it didn’t really come as a surprise to you that that was the catch do playing this game with you. However, just because it wasn’t a surprise didn’t mean that you weren’t reluctant to accept.

This man was your friend. Not only that, but he was your friend who had just gotten out of a kinda relationship with someone he couldn’t stop talking about any other time. Yet he was l basically hitting on you right now? Although, that wasn’t the part that seemed to scare you. No the worrisome part was that you seemed to enjoy this. Oh no. “Anything goes? What exactly do you mean by that??” You Queried whilst still continuing to question in your mind exactly what he wanted to do with you. More so what he wanted to do TO you.

“You can’t be serious sweetheart? How upfront do I have to be? If I win I get to fuck you! Is that clear enough for you?” He spoke with that same gut wrenching laugh that always seemed to make you cringe whenever you heard it. How were you friends with this man?

If only he could read your mind. How the hell were you even considering going along with this? If you were in your right mind then you would have told him know by now. But was there really any hard in doing this? Could it be so bad to sleep with Colin? Well it can’t be that bad right? “Fuck me? Fine but if I win then I get to be on top and in charge. So what I’m basically saying is...when I win You’re mind for the night” you spoke back, using his previous words against him yet equally arousing the pair of you. Now things truly were getting heated.

Throughout the game, once you had finally shook on your deal and actually set up the game, Colin continued to look you up and down every so often. Fully taking in your gorgeous figure for as long as he physically could, almost as if he was terrified that you were going to disappear any second now. But you didn’t exactly seem to care, especially since you could literally see his erection growing in his pants every time you even so much as hinted towards what you were going to do if, well when you won. Plus you really couldn’t deny the fact that you two were getting aroused by this.

It wasn’t until Colin stuck his finger into his mouth in attempt to get you going, that you finally seemed to snap. “Okay, Wait, that kinda turned me on” you spoke with such confidence as you continued to stare straight at him. Oh this was going to be one hell of a long night.

[tea-mew96]

An Analysis of Armada Starscream’s Character Arc

So after reading @baebeyza‘s answer to an ask here, I decided I wanted to make a separate post sharing my view on some of the points made there, mainly the ones taking about Starscream’s character arc. Make sure to read that original post before going through this in order for this anything below to make sense. This is all my personal interpretation btw, so feel free to agree or disagree as much as you want. Also, spoilers for Transformers Armada.

For starters, I’m of the belief that Armada is a mess in regards to writing up until the Unicron Battles act of the show, but Starscream’s arc was arguably one of the better parts of Armada IMO. Plus he’s one of my fave characters in the show. Thus, I’m going to analyze and provide my perspective on some of the things mentioned in the original post. 

1.) The fight between Megatron and Starscream in “Rebellion”. If you thought the fight between these two in this episode felt contrived, that’s because in-universe it kinda was. Remember Sideways? He was manipulating both Megatron and Starscream throughout that entire episode in order to get those two to fight to the death. He was successful in getting the fight to happen, but there was no death of one of the bots like he had hoped would happen.

2.) Thrust and Megatron’s plan in “Sacrifice”. It’s true that Starscream had ownership of the Star Saber when the Decepticons finally got it their hands on it. That is, until Megatron had his Minicon Leader-1 trick him into attacking Demolisher with the sword in “Conspiracy”. The end-result was everyone agreeing that only Megatron should be allowed to wield the Star Saber, questioning Starscream’s competence. Ever since then, Megatron was the one in charge of the sword.

So why didn’t he want Starscream to have the sword? Simple: Megatron is an arrogant dick who is afraid of Starscream. Megatron sees Starscream’s confidence as a threat to his status as supreme Decepticon leader, and Starscream challenging him to that fight in “Rebellion” (despite his emotions being manipulated by Sideways in order to do it) is evidence of that fear being somewhat founded in Megatron’s eyes.

As for Thrust, he’s also quite arrogant, thinking of himself as the “best tactician”. Because of his perceived high-intelligence and ability to think of “great strategies”, Thrust believes that he’s better than any other Decepticon…including Starscream. The fact that someone so “below him” has the title of “second in command” doesn’t sit well with Thrust.

Basically, what you end up with are two arrogant people who either don’t like and/or fear Starscream.

The plan that Thrust makes is aimed to retrieve the Requiem Blaster, a powerful weapon which is currently back at the Autobot base. If they want a chance of breaking in, they’re going to have to lure as many Autobots as they can out of the base. In other words, they need a distraction. And because of their combined distaste for Starscream, Megatron and Thrust decide that he is the one that should be the distraction. I’m also guessing another reason to keep him in the dark was to keep the reaction as convincing to the Autobots as possible; sometimes being informed on the twist causes a less-convincing performance, and a convincing disguise was an important thing the plan needed in order for it to work. Thrust does imply that Megatron would have to give up the Star Saber for a time in order to ensure the retrival of the Requiem Blaster, which Megatron agrees to. Starscream only got the Star Saber in this situation because of that little tradeoff to make the plan work: distract the Autobots with the opportunity of getting the Star Saber back while the Decepticons invaded their base and grabbed the Requiem Blaster. And the mission does end up being a success.

This plan was definitely a gamble, as they could’ve easily lost the Star Saber and the chance to grab the Requiem Blaster, but it was one that worked in their favor, so all’s well that ends well. Who cares how Starscream feels about not being informed? Megatron and Thrust sure didn’t.

3.) Starscream, Alexis, and Sympathy

I’m also going to argue that while the messy writing can make it difficult to feel bad for Starscream, that doesn’t mean the potential to isn’t there. I personally have a lot of sympathy for him, even if his story wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve.

“Rebellion” and Thrust’s plan in “Sacrifice” are both driving forces for Starscream to join the Autobots, and a justifiable one IMO.

In “Rebellion”, Starscream gets beaten by Megatron for…no reason. Starscream followed Megatron’s orders exactly as he wanted. But because they lost the previous battle and Megatron can’t admit to being wrong, he blames the loss on Starscream anyway. Sideways says in-show that Megatron beating up Starscream for his own loss was absurd. And the abuse only stops when Demolisher blasts his way in and intervenes.

“Sacrifice” only furthers this mistreatment of Starscream, being used as a punching bag for the plan and getting abandoned without being informed about what was going to happen. This combined with the multiple times he’s been belittled by both Megatron and Thrust sends him over the edge, attacking everyone in the base when he gets back and eventually going to the Autobots for refuge and help to get revenge.

When Starscream arrives, the Autobots-especially Hot Shot-are reluctant to have a Decepticon join the folds so little after their dear friend Smokescreen almost dying by their hand. Hot Shot in particular is still hurt over Sideways’ betrayal. I’d argue those facts make for valid and understandable concerns, even if it results in some drama.

Regardless of their hesitance, almost everyone knows and agrees that having Starscream go back to the Decepticon base after attacking everyone there wasn’t going to end well for him. Thus, Optimus orders that they will let Starscream join their ranks (he’s a good dad).

Alexis was one of the first to suggest that Starscream join, and one of the first to attempt to get him to open up to cooperation with the team, probably because she saw potential in having him as an ally like Optimus did. Towards the end of the episode “Mars”, Alexis congratulates Starscream on a job well-done with getting the Minicon Firebot to join their side (praise ain’t something Starscream receives a lot of). Starscream scoffs and says he’s only on their side to defeat Megatron, but he leaves behind a moon rock, something that the kids had asked Jetfire and Starscream for earlier before going on a mission to Mars. I agree with Alexis in her conclusion that this is evidence of Starscream starting to change for the better. In the next episode “Crack”, the kids award Starscream for his nice gift by throwing him a surprise party and gifting him a chamois. What stands out to me about this scene is that Starscream has no idea how to react. He’s confused because he’s not used to receiving many positive words of praise from his former Decepticon peers, much less a present. 

He does push away help and positivity from the Autobots and the kids (to unintentionally hilarious degrees at times), but I think that’s partly due to the kind of impact his experiences with Megatron have had on his mind. He wants approval and acceptance, but once he starts getting it he rejects it. This is merely speculation from a psychological perspective, but I think Starscream has a hard time getting used to receiving kindness because whether consciously or subconsciously, he doesn’t believe he deserves it. The belittlement and mistreatment by Megatron has made him believe otherwise, and/or that every positive acknowledgement received always comes with a catch later on.

Yes, Starscream does return to the Decepticon fold later in “Crack” when Thrust convinces him that he has a better chance to get revenge on Megatron by coming back and conspiring with Thrust. But his short time with the Autobots and kids did impact him. He was extremely hesitant to fire the Hydra Cannon at Earth in “Threaten” and “Crisis” (even though he fires the cannon anyway after said hesitation), regretted the death of Optimus in “Remorse”, saved the kids from being killed by the Requiem Blaster (now in the hands of Thrust) in “Drift”,  and stays behind to help Alexis retrieve her necklace safely (made from the moon rock Starscream gave the kids) in “Portent”. Starscream shows even after leaving that he has started to learn a little bit about compassion.

During the show, Starscream becomes a person who isn’t quite sure whom he should side with, as his personal goals contradict the overall goals of both sides. And how does his story end? He gets killed by Unicron, trying to convince Megatron (technically Galvatron now, but whatever) that Unicron is a real threat and that he needs to ally with Optimus and his team to defeat him. And his final words? Telling Megatron that he was a dick to him and that Optimus treated him better in that short time period than Megatron ever did.

Look, I get it. Armada’s a mess of storytelling. I wish there was more build up to Starscream defecting to the Autobots and coming back to the Decepticon fold. But we still got a pretty descent arc in the end, even if it could’ve been done better. I can’t make anyone feel sympathy for Starscream, but I refuse to deny that his story didn’t impact me or many others.

Starscream’s arc to me is the story of an abused bot trying to find his place in the world and not truly finding it in the end. It’s the story of a bot who dedicated every fiber of his being to serving his leader and getting nothing but shit in return. I feel bad for Starscream; he deserved so, so much better than what he got.

The thing about that chamois scene is that it had a longer impact on Starscream than the episode initially implied, as I mentioned in the examples above. I’m sure exchanging of gifts probably won’t mean much to someone who is used to getting and giving them. But to a bot who’s been abused by Megatron like Starscream was? That’s a fucking revelation. That’s new. That challenges his viewpoint of the world around him. If it didn’t, he wouldn’t have had second thoughts about firing the Hydra Cannon. He wouldn’t of saved the kids, he wouldn’t have helped Alexis with the necklace. He wouldn’t of helped Optimus convince Megatron to join forces and defeat Unicron.

Alexis was a firm believer that Starscream could be a better person and by extension get onto a path of recovery by showing him small acts of compassion and kindness at a time and celebrating those small victories of improvement. She wanted to be his friend because she recognized the potential he had. She recognized that Starscream needed support, needed a friend, deserved respect. That’s something he never got much of if any during his times as a Decepticon. 

TL;DR Starscream’s character arc in Armada ain’t perfect but it’s still one of the best stories in the show that can impact you and I will forever stan him.

[bluebellhairpin]

The Girl Who Knew The End {15}

Thorn Oakensheild X Fem!Reader I See Fire

Chapter Fourteen // The Attack of Smaug

Chapter Fifteen //  (You’re Here!)

Chapter Sixteen //  No King to Me

A/N: I’ve started putting the next chapter titles up (because I know what they are now), so now you get some ideas of what could be coming *wink* - Nemo

Song: ‘I See Fire’ by Ed Sheeran  

Warning(s): Thorin’s still a jerk but in lowercase lettering. 

Summary: You sing a song for the fallen Laketown. The Company gets put on edge, as this song seems to be exactly about what they’re watching. What does it mean? Are you finally telling them their future, or does it mean more than that?

Series Masterlist  

Masterlist  

Everything was burning. Homes, buildings and lives. People. 

It hurt that all you could do was watch, with the stone cold underneath you, and the wind making your tears feel like carving knives slicing a river of ice down your face. It as an ironic contrast, really. Especially since your chest burned and ached with every breath. 

You couldn’t tell if it was because of the trip up to your mountain-side viewing platform for destruction - something that wouldn’t normally be a problem (not considering everything you’d done to get to Erebor) - or the fact that you were feeling so close to being sick - like properly throwing-up your last meal sick - because of what was happening both to Laketown and Thorin, but your chest really hurt. 

It was too much, and you weren’t handling it well at all.

Dori - ever vigilant to these things - came forwards to you when the others stayed further behind. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t really need to, and you didn’t want him to. He just sat with you, and that was enough. 

Why couldn’t everything be that easy? 

Eventually the others came forward, joining you to watch destruction that - in reality - you all caused. Only if you let the dragon sleep. Together you watched a world burn, and together you watched the dragon fall. Alone you felt yourself fall, as if you were there with that worm, and you thought back to your dreams. But they were more like nightmares that haunted you even as you blinked. 

When you had your eyes open there was Laketown. Burning.

When you closed your eyes there were your friends, family. Burning. 

Everywhere you looked was fire. You didn’t know what to say.  So you started to sing.

“Oh, Misty eye of the mountain below.” 

You haven't sung for the others since before Beorn's house, and to them it sounded weary - like a ghost haunting and abandoned castle, lost and broken, only wanting something real to hang onto, something good to hang onto. 

“Keep careful watch of my brothers' souls - and should the sky be filled with fire and smoke,” you stopped, practically forcing yourself to sing the next words, “Keep watching over Durin's sons.”

“What is she doing?” Dwalin asked, standing further away and close to Thorin with Balin. The elder of the two shook his head. 

“Mourning would be my best guess.” 

“If this is to end in fire, then we should all burn together,” 

“But why in song, she’s not done that before.” Dwalin looked at you, concerned for both your well being and the fact Thorin didn’t seem to notice. “Maybe she hit her head when Thorin…”

“No, I don’t think it’s that Dwalin.”

“Watch the flames climb high into the night, calling out father oh, stand by and we will - Watch the flames burn on and on the mountain side.” 

Ori looked at you, and Dori - bless his ever working sixth-sense - started thinking something wasn’t right. 

“That song she’s singing,” Dori said to Balin, “That’s not one of ours.”

“And if the night is burning, I will cover my eyes,” your voice broke, and if you weren’t turned away from them all they would’ve seen your tears, “For if the dark returns then my brothers will die.”

Bilbo looked over at you, having been the only other person to hear Smaug’s declaration of darkness against you. He wondered how you knew this song, how your words seemed so fitting even though it seemed to come from nowhere.

You thought, what did Ed Sheeran's words mean? Did they have another meaning to you? Whatever Smaug said to you, whatever it meant, you weren’t going to let that dark kill those you loved, or yourself. 

“And as the sky's falling down, it crashed into this lonely town,”

Thorin turned to face you, finally mirroring the rest of his company to listen to your singing sound throughout the little spot you were all on. For a moment he looked at Laketown, wondering what had come over him, wondering why and how he’d let the dragon out of the mountain alive. 

For a moment he had clarity, he was himself. 

But it was only fleeting. He turned back, away from you and the others, and looked at Erebor. That was his home, and it had no dragon. 

“And with that shadow upon the ground I hear my people screaming out,”

Dwalin was uneasy, much like everyone else. 

They’d come to know how their king and future queen were together. A couple days ago, Thorin would have no qualms in being close to (y/n), to comfort her if she felt so deeply. But now he was turning his back on her. 

Dwalin knew (y/n) was headstrong and stubborn, once her sorrow passed he knew she wouldn’t take any of Thorin’s ignorance or haughtiness. He feared for what that meant for her - not a few hours ago having been slammed into a stone wall for not complying. 

He was more than readying himself to intervene in the future if something came close to that happening again. 

“I see fire, inside the mountain, I see fire, burning the trees,”

“I’ve never heard this song before.” Dori said quietly, shoving his hands in the flaps of his clothes, hiding his fingers from the oncoming chill of night. “It’s bugging me how I don’t know.”

“That’s because it’s one of hers.” Balin replied after a couple beats, looking over at you with pursed lips, unsure of what exactly your words meant. Whatever it was, your words rang true.  

Everyone was seeing fire. 

“And I see fire, hollowing souls, and I see fire, blood in the breeze,”

“She sounds so sad,” Ori said, wringing his fingers in his sleeves, placing  himself safely between Dori and Dwalin, “It’s such a sad song.” 

Dwalin looked down at the younger dwarf, nodding ever so slightly. 

“She’s been through more then we’ll all ever know.” 

“And I hope that you'll remember me.” 

Your last words were quiet, like a promise only spoken to those worthy to hear, and you’d deemed them all worthy. The others looked from the burnt Laketown to you, and then over to Thorin, who then turned away and started back to Erebor. The others followed, eventually leaving you with Balin, Dori, Ori, and Dwalin. 

“It’s not him.” you finally said, shaking your head and joining their little circle of dwarves once everyone else mostly left. “He’s so much more sick than I imagined.”

“He’s worse than what you’ve seen?” Balin asked carefully, looking over at you through bushy eyebrows. Dwalin crossed his arms as you meekly nodded.

“Surely there's something we can do to fix it. A medicine, or a book that can tell us something.” Ori said, now playing with the edge of his hood. You tugged on your braid, the one with Thorin's courting bead in it, remembering what the movies showed happening.

“No, Ori. He will get better, but he just -” you sighed, feeling for the first time slightly useless, “He’ll figure it out on his own.” 

“But, King Thror, he died from that sickness.” 

“Thorin isn’t his grandfather, Balin!” you defended, snapping wildly at the elder, before recomposing yourself and muttering an apology. “Thorin is good.” 

“And before, how he hurt you,” Dori said, almost reluctant to speak again, “Was he good then?” 

You thought back, how Thorin looked at you as if you were an enemy rather than an ally, as if you were Thranduil instead of (y/n), how his voice was harsh and eyes were hard and cold.

“Just tell me!” he’d said, pushing you into the wall, and even now you could feel the dull ache of a bruise forming somewhere on your back - however less than the fresh cut on your forehead.

“He’s not good.” you said, shaking your head, “He’s sick, and arrogant, and stubborn, and greedy. But deep down, he’s still Thorin. Deep down he’s still good.” 

“By the might of Erebor, (y/n),” Balin said, laying a comforting hand on your arm, “I hope you’re right.”

----------

Series Taglist: @thorins-queen-of-erebor​ @pigeonsbones @reignofglitter​ @theabandonedchocolate​ @violentmommabear42​ @jumpingmanatee @pixierox101​ @persassyismyspiritanimal @lilith15000 @yes-captainstark​ @foolish-fangirl​ @sukeraa​ @minniyoonji​ @marvelous-glims​ @inlaval​ @tumblinglringlring​ @mystery-5-5​ @apploosa84​ 

[toarmsrw]

How I feel a Ronin Warriors Remake could go

Ronin Warriors AKA Yoroiden Samurai Troopers was one of my favorite anime back in the day. I first heard of this series when it was airing on UPN TV 44, the same channel that had aired Sailor Moon when it was being produced by DIC entertainment. Unfortunately, this series aired during times when it’s target range viewers were in school so it didn’t have a particularly long run on US TV. It was only years later that this series would air on the Toonami lineup and gained a greater interest from American anime fans than it had during its first airing.

Currently Samurai Troopers is celebrating its 30th anniversary and it made me wonder, what this series would be like if remade for the more current age. After all, the main TV series was set in 1988 and a lot of things reflected that time period. Now in 2020 things can be updated to match current settings and technology.

I’m familiar with both the Japanese Names and the English Dub names. But I’m going to use English Dub names here as it was the version that introduced me to this series.

As much as I love the original series, I do feel that it is certainly deserving of an updated reboot. The original series did have a number of moments where they were constrained by budget and it showed. Budget cuts, and repeating animation is a common way of cuting corners in animation in varius series, but it is rather obvious when you see the animation cheepen.

There are some things in the anime itself that did bug me because they felt rushed or they came off as unrealistic. I’m not an expert in Japanese culture so please understand if I am approaching these things with a bit of a bias.

One of the things that bothered me is having the five warriors are just open to working together from the start.

For example in the first episode Mia is surprised that all five Ronin have appeared at the same time and then is dismayed that they aren’t united. So she tells the five Ronin they need to work together if they hope to beat the Dynasty, and they all look at one another as though saying “Um…what?”.

The English dub does give the impression that there is at least some familiarity between the five boys. However, in the original version all five of the Ronin are from different parts of Japan and this is the first time any of them have met.

The one thing I’ve always liked in anime is when the main cast is free to grow and understand each other at their own pace.

While having the main warriors joining forces is ideal and an inevitably, having them all partner up from the start is unrealistic. Particularly since the five Ronin do develop an almost familial unity with one another over the course of the series.

An anime with a similar concept to this would be Sailor Moon. Please note I’m not comparing Sailor Moon to this series for bias reasons. Sailor Moon certainly had a larger production budget and more of a story to adapt to as it started out as a manga before it became an anime series. Ronin Warriors is it’s own story and it also has some things it is better at conveying then Sailor Moon did.

I am using Sailor Moon as an example, because these two series do center on the plot of five teenagers drawn together to save the world from an otherworldly evil force.  

Sailor Moon as a series was able to introduce the characters gradually.

The series begins with introducing the titular character, Sailor Moon herself. The first handful of episodes follow her, then Sailor Mercury is introduced and she assists in battles for a couple episodes. Then Sailor Mars is brought in and a sizable chunk of the series centers on these three warriors stopping the forces of the Dark Kingdom. Then around half way through the first season Sailor Jupiter is brought in as another member of the group and then finally Sailor Venus.

Other Sailor Soldiers such as the Outer Sailors and the Sailor Star Lights are introduced in the continuing seasons. These groups don’t really involve themselves with Sailor Moon and her companions right away.  They do assist in battles at times, but they would also make it clear that they don’t want Sailor Moon and her allies interfering with their goals. Eventually the groups do choose to join forces, but that is only when they have come to the realization that the only way to take on the main foe was to merge groups.

The way this story is set up all five warriors needed to be introduced right away. However, I find having them join forces from the start is a little rushed.  Now, granted they had some idea they all knew the fate of the world rested on their backs and they were given the mystical armor to help them save their world, their homes, the people they love.

Each of them also have a story passed through the years about an armor that their family has watched over. Like many things these stories have faded from memory with some of the families or they don’t have anyone to tell them about the amor legend. So they discover their armors through other sources.

For example, Whiteblaze, Ryo’s tiger companion, is is the familiar of the Ancient One and chose Ryo as the one who will bear the Armor of Wildfire. Whiteblaze led the Ancient One to Ryo, so he could be trained in its use.

While each of the Ronin would have unconsciously or unknowingly been trained since childhood to become ready for their armors. It is the armors themselves that do draw them together initially.  That wouldn’t stop at least some of them from be reluctant in working together and then have at least a couple episodes where they warm up to if not become downright convinced working together is the only way

Cye and Kento are chummy and open hearted so I can see these two being more open to the idea of working together as a team from the start.  

Sage, Ryo, and Rowen on the other hand might be less open to working as a group.

Ryo is not absolutely against working as a team, but he is a loaner, he is also fiercely protective of those around him. He doesn’t want anyone to be hurt for him or because of him, so he has a tendency to place burdens upon himself such as going off to face enemies on his own without his friends. So I feel he would just tell the other Ronin to go home and protect their families, while he would deal with the Dynasty on his own.

Sage is more likely to be the lone wolf. He does have a guarded personality and doesn’t warm up to people all that easily. He wants to rely on himself and his own power rather than depending on others, but has his own doubts and fears that he unconsciously deals with. So when Sage leaves the group he would tell everyone else they would only slow him down and get in his way.

Rowen would be more on the fence regarding allegiances. His guiding virtue is wisdom so he would know or at least see how working together would be beneficial going forward. But much like Ryo he is used to being alone. However, due to his intelligence,  Rowen does have problems with socialization. So he wouldn’t say anything in regards to why he doesn’t want to work together with anyone else…he just leaves.

As the series progresses the battles will force the Ronin together. It would start with them merging into groups of two, so Cye and Kento would become one group. Rowen and Sage would also grow to work together and leads to the four of them joining forces before reuniting with Ryo. These encounters will enable them to gradually get to know each other and understand who they are in the battle to save the mortal world and their reasons for fighting in the battles against the Dynasty.

Another thing that bugged me was how the Dynasty depended on divide and conquer as a strategy. Granted the Ronin can be a challenging force when they are together. Still each of the Ronin are also dangerous on their own, particularly since their armors do gain strength and power as they fight.

Three of the Warriors have families with siblings, and both Ryo and Rowen have parental figures who may not be present in their lives but still matter.  Heck, Kento alone would have had family affected when the Dynasty captured everybody in the Tokyo area.

One of the Warlords has power over illusion. Have the Ronin given illusions of their loved ones in the Dynasty’s possession. This would be even more poignant when the Ronin have entered the Dynasty’s strong hold. Have the Ronin ready to deal with whatever the Dynasty would throw at them, then suddenly a scream is heard which Sage, Cye, or Kento could recognize as one of their loved ones.

Or Kento’s family for instance, show them among the humans imprisoned in the Dynasty. Kento has a fierce temper, particularly when someone he cares about is being harmed so that could trigger him to act rashly.

I’ve never really liked how the families of the Ronin are only limited to the supplemental materials such as the Audio dramas, Light Novels and such.

Another thing Sailor Moon did well is how it balanced out the home lives of the main cast along with their lives as Sailor Soldiers. We don’t need to see the families of all the characters, but even a simple mention can be used to add to how the main characters relate to each other and feel more well rounded over the course of the series. But they still had to maintain secrecy about their lives as Sailor Soldiers from their loved ones.

What Ronin Warriors was able to achieve is to suggest the families of the five warriors do have some knowledge about the armors. Or at the very least have some familiarity with the story of a legendary armor that has passed down through their line for the past thousand years.

Such as Cye’s mother saying “At last it has come” when he informed her of finding his armor.

Each of the Ronin also have attributes that mark them as chosen or destined to wear the armors since birth. In most cases these attributes aren’t outwardly visible

Ryo-Encountered Whiteblaze at a young age and holds a companionship with the white tiger and was personally trained by the Ancient One himself.  It’s not emphasized, but it is possible he has a sensitivity to cold temperatures as he has a strong dislike for flavored ice and lukewarm baths.

Cye: Able to swim to vast depths of water without needing an air tank.

He also has an affinity for sea based creatures. He isn’t able to talk to them or anything like that, but there is an orca and a number of other sea creatures that do recognize him as a friend.

Kento: No displayed or attributed traits aside from being strong and hard headed. Possibly has more physical endurance then his companions.

Rowen: He is physically marked by his armor because of his blue hair. And also he has an IQ of 250.

Sage: Physically marked by his armor because he physically represents his armor element of light.

While each of the Ronin are chosen by their armors or from a force associated with the armors. There is still a test they need to undergo to prove they understand the guiding virtue associated with the armor.

With Sailor Moon there were moments where the family members of the Sailor Soldiers or people they know are affected by the evil forces at play. With the Ronin however, having people know about their armor or their identities as Ronin Warriors does lead to tragic results.

It’s generally an unstated rule among the five warriors to not to involve their loved ones or allow any knowledge of their existence as Ronin Warriors. Since that would only cause needless danger or cause their loved ones to become targeted by the evil forces they are facing.

The families of the Ronin themselves aren’t completely required, after all the five Ronin do become a family of brothers themselves. And at its core, the entire story of the Ronin Warriors is a romantic story centered on a brotherhood forged by blood, sweat,and tears in the battle to save humanity. The trueborn families of each of the Ronin, would just be an extension of that bond they share with each other.

I’ve always seen each of the five warriors as wounded in various ways. Some have known personal loss, but there are those among them who have experienced pain, loneliness, isolation, self-doubts, and other things such as that.

In the Message OVA in particular, brings a lot of this into view as the five warriors do have internal monologues about their experiences as Ronin Warriors and how that has affected them personally.

Cye in particular during his monologue talks about how he personally didn’t want to fight, but he still took up arms in the war against Dynasty anyway because he felt there was like there was little choice in the matter. He also questions whether he even deserved the power of his armor to begin with.

“In order to avoid pain, suffering, and fear human bearings aspire to collect all the power that they can, then they cling to it no matter what. I was no different, I felt exactly the same way. I never wanted to fight though, I thought my destiny followed a different course. Could I have resisted this power? Could I have denied it? Even if someone had realized the truth, we still wouldn’t have had any other options. It was fight or die, none of us had any regrets for what we did…in staying alive. But that didn’t change the fact that *I* didn’t want to fight!”

The armors they each possess were forged from evil, but were created to be a force for good. As such the armors themselves are neither good or evil, but both. It was the heart and soul of their bearers that determined what choices they made in using the armors they were given.

While they all have seen the negative side of humanity and what it can do if left unchecked. They are also able to know that there is still enough human goodness to believe it was worth saving. And while they still fought and were motivated by their own own personal desires to protect those nearest and dearest to them. The companionship they forge in the fires of war is what heals the wounds each of them carry. Even then there is resistance and pain in being healed, but it is part of becoming the people they know they are because of it. While other hidden wounds are exposed because of the battles faced.

With Ronin Warriors and their families, Ryo and Rowen are the only children of their respective family and their respective parental figures aren’t around all that often.

Ryo’s father is a photojournalist and is always away on assignment but he does send money to cover Ryo’s living expenses.

Rowen’s parents divorced when he was twelve but even before then both of them were more married to their careers then they were as a family. The times they were home their minds would still be work oriented.

However, having two Ronin with workaholic parents just feels boring. Having Ryo being an orphan could translate into why he is so protective of his companions and why they mean so much to him. Because Ryo regards the other Ronin, Mia, and Yuli as a surrogate family to him, and he would gladly fight and give his life to protect them for that reason. He nearly dies just trying to get Sage and Rowen back after the five of them are seperated. And during the war when all the Ronin with the exception of Ryo are absorbed by Talpa, he is devastated knowing each of them are gone. In the Japanese version he says “You fools, how dare you die for me.” This is later expanded upon when the four of them are able to use their Spirits to take hold of Talpa’s armor and tell him to strike the demon emperor down while they have him restrained. And Ryo refuses to do it because doing so meant killing his friends as well.

Rowen has a detached, mature demeanor that is underscored by the fact he is the youngest member of the Ronin. He’s often viewed and treated like an adult by people around him when he really is just a kid. Since he is so used to living for his own convenience, he has trouble really understanding what actually means to have friends or even what having a present family is like. So that could be something that could be explored with his character in how he relates to the other Ronin.

He generally gets along with all the Ronin, but will at times (often unintentionally) say or do something that might have annoyed or exasperated reactions. For example in the Tenkuden CD Drama, there is a part where Yuli asks Rowen for assistance on a problem in his math homework. Rowen looks at the problem and says “That’s easy, you must have skipped the day they were teaching it.” Yuli then goes and asks Cye for assistance who is able to help him figure out the answer. After Yuli runs off to continue his homework. Cye turns to Rowen and chidingly says “Just because you find something simple, doesn’t mean it’s the same for others.”  

Rowen’s father is someone who wouldn’t really be included as a character. I’ve always had the impression that he generally isn’t really all that present even on the occasions he does return home to the apartment he shares with his son.

Rowen’s mother on the other hand could work as an occasional character. However she comes across as a bit too much to handle. She’s friendly and well-meaning but has boisterous energy that is difficult to really take in all at once. The five Ronin and Mia first meet her in the Tenkuden CD Drama after Rowen receives a voice mail call from her telling him he will be arriving at Narita International on Such and Such date. And every one automatically is like “Great Idea, let’s all go meet Rowen’s mother”.  

As much as he does care about both his parental figures, I did get the impression he is embarrassed by his mother as well.

For example, the first act of Tenkuden actually does involve Rowen waiting with Sage at the airport terminal for Rowen’s mother to arrive. After they encounter her, Rowen’s mother runs off to go make a phone call.  Sage then remarks “Okay, that IS different” to which Rowen sighs and says “You got it.” Funnily enough, every time I had heard that exchange in the past I’ve always visualized Rowen holding up a sign that says “Shoot Me” afterward.

So if Rowen’s mother appears at all it would be a humorous one-shot episode where the armors aren’t really needed. There can be some dramatic moments as well though. Since TenkuDen is also the moment where Rowen learns his armor has the ability to fly. There is also a moment at the end of the CD where Rowen’s mother pulls her son aside and alludes that she saw him in his armor hovering outside of the window of the airplane she was traveling in. But she assumes the whole thing was just a dream.

When it comes to Kento, Sage, and Cye they are the eldest, middle, and youngest siblings of each of their respective families. So the familial dynamic of the Ronin will be something they can easily adapt to, but still, give them a different dynamic that can challenge and affect them.

Cye is the youngest child in his family, but he is the oldest of the five Ronin. So this puts him in a sort of older sibling role in some ways. He doesn’t need to adapt too much, particularly since Mia already plays an older sister role with the five Ronin. And his older sister Sayoko had more or less served a parental role of sorts in his late father’s absence. He’s also the only Ronin who is actually living away from his family, as he has an apartment in Tokyo where he lives alone while he is attending high school. In one of the Cassette Dramas Rowen has a habit of visiting Mia’s grandfather’s mansion so he could read the books there. Unfortunately when he does this he loses all track of time and frequently misses the last train back to Kansai. So he has to end up couch surfing over at Cye’s apartment much to the Torrent Armor bearers irritation.

Cye’s family is more likely to be included as part of a dramatic storyline.  

For instance, Cye’s mother has heart disease and is frequently in ill health, but she still runs her family and her family’s pottery business until her daughter Sayoko can take over.

Sayoko is ten years older then Cye and has also been an influential figure in Cye’s life. She helps look after their mother and their families pottery shop.

Ryuusuke Shizuka is Sayoko’s fiance and works at the Hagi Marine Research Institute. After meeting Cye he chooses to marry into Cye’s family. Sayoko and Ryuusuke are supposedly married by the final OVA of this series..

One of the cassette dramas has Cye returning to Hagi after learning his mother had fallen ill. Kento accompanies him on the trip, however the only reason he’s going is because he mistakenly thought Hagiyaki was a kind of food. It’s this Drama where Cye is introduced to his sister’s finance.  

Kento is the oldest child in his family, and so he is well used to playing the older brother role among his siblings. As the second youngest member of the Ronin he has the freedom to be a younger brother. Still when it comes to his companions, the protective brother instinct will still be a present part of his personality over all.

Kento is also the most inclusive of the Ronin and does consider his friends to be like his family.  

I can see Kento’s family being used in heart warming slice-of-life plots. Kento just feels like one of those people you meet in life who just adopts you into their family. As much as he would make disparaging comments about the number of people in his household, in all honesty he wouldn’t have it any other way.

During the Tsuki CD Drama, following their final battle with Saranbo. Kento realizes they are near Yokohama and starts inviting his friends to his family’s restaurant only to be shot down and scolded for being too carefree. After Kento storms off he has a monologue where he states about how much he loves the town of Yokohama and his family and he the reason he fights is all for them. That’s why he wanted his friends to meet his family, to show his companions they are just like family to him.  

That is something I can certainly see happening in an updated version of this series. With Ryo and Rowen, Kento would want to include them so they can at least know what a loving family was like. Knowing Cye and Sage are away from their respective homes. I can see Kento making an effort to make them feel there is something like a family there for them.

Cye might welcome the idea since he understands Kento is wanting to include them as part of his family.

Sage might not be so open about it. Not because he doesn’t understand Kento’s reasoning for it. He however would firmly point out that their family lives and their lives as Ronin should be two different things. Kento would be upset it’s only later on that he would realize Sage’s reasoning.

During the times when they are not involved with fighting the Dynasty. I can see Kento dropping by Cye’s apartment with take out now and again. This would later extend to Ryo when he starts living in the city.

Of the Ronin, I see him learning his family was affected by the Dynasty because Yokohama is in the Tokyo area. He is the only one of the five who would have had immediate loved ones in the vicinity of the Dynasty’s first attack . Which would make the battle to stop the Dynasty all the more personal for him.

Sage is the middle child of his family, but both of his siblings are his sisters. His older sister Yayoi and his younger sister Satsuki. He cares about both of them and would defend them to his last breath, though Yayoi does have a bit of a contentious past with him as she is the reason he is uncomfortable around women.  

Sage’s family is a family I can see included dramatic storylines, but wholesome ones as well.

When it comes to Sage’s family there is a lot you could work with. I will start with Sage’s sisters since I’ve seen a number of interpretations regarding them. In fanfics Yayoi often ranges between being an entitled sister up to just being an evil abusive witch. I have been guilty of this view myself.

Thinking back on it, I wonder if fans were blowing her relationship with Sage out of proportion.

Yayoi is five years older than Sage. From the basic description of her she is in essence a female version of her younger brother as she does talk in the same formal manner he does, and is also a talented kendo fighter.  She is a medical student and is attending college during the TV series.

The worst thing she’s known to have done to tease her brother is to use him as a dress up doll when they had been younger. She also still possesses a picture of him with ribbons in his hair.

This is largely just kid stuff, still some actions as innocent as they may seem can have a negative affect. In this case, Sage is uncomfortable talking to or being around girls as a result.

Women also tend to hold power in Sage’s family, meaning the female members of his family do hold sway in the decisions and actions of the Date House. Because of this they are highly respected. The only male who is an exception to this would be Sage’s Grandfather who is the current head of the family.  Yayoi was likely able to get away with tormenting her brother the way she has, because she knew if he retaliated in any way he would be the one who would be punished.  

In later years, Yayoi may have realized what she actually was doing, but by then the damage had already been done. So while the picture she still has of him with ribbons could be something she could threaten her brother with. It’s also just as possible that perhaps the reason Yayoi keeps the photo, is to remind herself of what she has done to hurt her younger brother in the past.

She seems to have some moments where she does make an attempt establishing a better relationship with him. Such as when Sage was beginning elementary the light color of his eyes made him appear cold and intimidating, because of this his schoolmates would often cry when they saw him. It was Yayoi who suggested he cover one of them with his hair so schoolmates wouldn’t be so scared of him.

Also In the Yoroi Guiden novel, the day Sage received his armor he had been forced into a match against another Kendo practitioner known as Shingo Kazamatsuri. During the match Shingo attempts to cheat by throwing sand or something into Sage’s eyes. Due to one eye being covered by his hair, only his visible eye had affected. Angered that his opponent would resort to cheating, Sage goes into a blind rage and attacks Shingo, rendering him unconscious. While her brother is being punished for his actions, Yayoi tends to Shingo’s injuries. Which made her one of the first people to learn what had taken place. She then tells Shingo that he was fortunate he didn’t lose a limb after making her brother that mad.

I can see Yayoi gaining friendship with Mia, and through that she and Sage could begin to heal the rift that exists between them.

Satsuki is younger than Sage by two years. She is the only member of Sage’s immediate family who doesn’t have any interest in the family Dojo and the only one who speaks casually. I see Sage in some ways being somewhat envious of his younger sister, because she possesses a freedom he isn’t able to have within their family. But he also values that she is able to have such freedom as well.

I’ve seen her placed with Rowen or Kento as possible romantic interests. Personally, I just see Satsuki just viewing the other Ronin as additional brothers. She knows her brother doesn’t have many friends and wouldn’t want to become a catalyst in causing him to lose his companions. Hints at romantic interest could be there, but at best she would just be a sister figure.

Sage’s family life on the other hand is where things take on a more dramatic turn. As I’ve stated before that each of the Ronin have attributes that mark them as chosen by their armors. Sage and Rowen are the only ones who have physical attributes that mark their connection to their armor.

Anyone who is familiar with anime and manga lore would know hair color has specific meaning. Blond or yellow hair often has a variety of meanings, but the most widespread meaning is a person who is special in some manner. Often in most anime the characters would have a variety of hair color tones that no one bats an eye, despite the fact it might look a little strange aesthetically.

The only time a character’s hair color is brought up as peculiar is if the story itself wants it to be  something that is meant to be seen as questionable.

Sage’s family is one of the Ronin families that is well versed in the legend of the Ronin Armor that is passed through their family. It’s never emphasized in the series, but from the sound of things in supplemental materials such as the novels, Sage is the only one in his family with his hair and eye color. This means that yes Sage was meant to physically represent the element of his armor. That would also lead to problems that Sage would have had to face growing up.

In Japanese Culture, one of the worst scarlet letters you can possess is to stand out. Sage is from a traditional family so being born representing his armors element would have raised a lot of eyebrows. I’ve seen numerous dramatic fanfictions where Sage is picked on because of his implausible hair color. I’ve also seen the word Konketsu applied to him as well in some of these fics. Konketsu means mixed-blood but it can be used as a slur that means half-breed. 

In a more modernized incarnation this traditionalist might not be used quite as often. So you can sum it up as anime logic.

While the legend of the Halo Armor is well known in the Date family, only a small fraction would believe the legend to be more than just a story.  While an even smaller fraction would recognize that Sage was born connected to the Halo Armor.  Namely Sage’s grandparents and possibly his mother.

The circumstances of Sage’s mother being chosen to provide a male heir to the Date Clan are unknown. It’s often speculated that Grandfather Date only had daughters, if there had been a boy born to their family he either died before he could prove himself as an heir. Or he was expelled from the Date Estate for some reason. Which in turn would put the burden of producing an heir on the shoulders of his sister or one of them.

Sage’s mother could be the oldest daughter, or she was deemed the one who was more likely to produce a suitable male heir.

Whatever the case may be, the Ronin are the first real friends that he’s ever had. And it’s likely that his upbringing didn’t really allow for friendships to exist in his life.

With Sage’s character bio for the original series it is stated that his grandfather was largely responsible for Sage’s upbringing. Some bios state that he was given over to his grandfather because his parents had trouble disciplining him.

Personally to me it always felt there was more to this. Grandfather Date likely would have recognized from the moment Sage was born that he was destined to bear the Halo Armor. So he would have naturally taken it upon himself to prepare Sage for when the armor would deem him worthy of it.  As well as to groom Sage for the day he would inherit their families Dojo and become the next head of the Date Clan. While he would have told Sage and also Sage’s sisters of the family legend, he would continue to let Sage believe the rigorous training he is given is all associated with being his grandfather’s successor.

While Kento is actually the wealthiest of the five Ronin, neither Kento nor Sage’s home’s are described. The best that’s given is that his family live on the outskirts of Sendai and that the Dojo is a part of it, or at least an area of the family estate that can be visited without invitation.  

Wanting to ensure his grandson was raised in a way *he* deemed fit, Grandfather Date would insist that Sage come live with him at the main house. I can imagine he was around the ages of 4-6 when this occurred. Sage’s grandfather is described as being unusually strict. Sage was also rather rambunctious at that age, so he may have believed that he must have done something bad so he was being taken away from his family as punishment.

Sage is still able to see his parents and sisters, but he would live under his grandfather’s roof at the Date Estate. Grandfather Date according to the brief description of him is said to be the walking precept of Date House, he was also a soldier in his youth he raises Sage to be the same.

The time Grandfather Date was a soldier is rather unclear, some bios he was a soldier during the Meiji Era which means he was around Sage’s age during the early 1900’s since that era ran from 1868-1912. Since this series is set in the late eighties, it is possible that he may have been in the tail end of that time period. Though I have seen bios that have said he was a soldier during the Edo Period, which would be physically impossible since that time period ended just as the Meiji era started. Logically if he was in a war at all, it would more likely be WWII.

Since Sage’s family is descended from Date Mesamune, a more logical conclusion was that Grandfather Date was trained to be like a soldier from the Edo period and raised Sage to follow those same disapplines. So this would be a bit of a reverse of what Rowen’s life is like. Where Rowen is a child who is seen and treated as an adult, Sage is a child who has his life framed with the expectation that he will act like an adult.

Perhaps Sage viewed his home life under his grandfather’s teaching as a gilded cage. Everything he needs is provided for, however there is always the sense that everything he says and does is watched and has to meet a certain expectation. If he does something that is met with disapproval it can result in a harsh punishment. The same expectations he would be expected to follow at home would also apply to his school life.

With School aside from meeting his Grandfather’s rigorous criteria, which would make it difficult for him to make friends with his schoolmates. All this of course translates into the self doubts and fears he shows at times during the war with the Dynasty.

With the Ronin Warriors, Sage would likely find himself in a bit of a conundrum. As he has actual friends for the first time in his life and not only that people he comes to see as brothers. While being raised by his grandfather and following his directive, he’s always presented himself as the persona his grandfather had expected him to have. The one thing he has never really been permitted to be is himself, and that could lead into the issues he has in events such as the Korinden CD drama.

Mia and Yuli would largely be the same, as they are in the series. Just a pair of civilians who are friends with the Ronin and understand the battles they go through. Mia would continue her grandfather’s research on the armors and assist where she can. Mostly she would be a big sister figure to the Ronin and help them figure out. In the Message OVA she does become a delegate at the United Nations. While the other Delegates are wondering about the strange things that are going on and wondering about how they were dealt with in previous events. Mia stands up and says she believes she may know what they are looking for.

To be honest, this often bugged me. I mean I like the idea of the Ronin being needed in other parts of the world aside from Japan. Still at that point, the Ronin Armors as they were originally had all been destroyed. Mia would have recognized what was going on was connected to the power of the Armors. Still telling a group of bureaucrats, a bunch of suits that believed in facts, science, and other such tangible information that everything that was going on hinged on a group of teenagers with mystical armor. I’m sorry, the only thing they will believe is that the person telling them this is insane.

All this is stuff that was demonstrated in the series and OVA so there isn’t just headcanon.

In the second episode of the series, the Japanese Self-Defence Force is deployed against Talpa’s castle in the first war, and all their efforts prove useless. The first episode also shows electronics, vehicles, and other man-made creations lose power due to the forces of Mystical energy coming from the Dynasty.  

And even if they could be convinced that the Ronin Armors were real. Talpa’s Armor was the corporeal embodiment of all human evil. Figures in places of power and authority would be anything but happy in knowing that five suits of armor are capable of wielding weapons-grade levels of mystical power even exist. And they would be even less then happy knowing these said suits of armor were given to people who are essentially children.

While the Ronin themselves know they are fighting for the good of the Mortal Realm, authority figures would argue they are just children playing with power they couldn’t possibly understand. While other people would fear hate them on the grounds that if they can use their armors for good, what was to stop them from using them for evil.

This is seen during the series where Rowen breaks Anubus’s helmet and is stunned to find that instead of a netherworld demon, Anubus was actually a human. Later on Kento is approached by Dais and told that he would become corrupted by his own armor in time. In the Dub, Kento is told that the five armors in the past had been worn by men who have used their power for their own selfish desires. In the Japanese version, Kento is told the armors were sought by people who wanted their power for themselves.  

During the Guiden OVA, Sage is believed to have become evil and is killing innocent people in New York. In the Japanese Version, Kento makes a comment about how the name of the Samurai Troopers is tarnished because one of them decided to go rogue. Which causes Rowen to look at Kento with a horrified expression.  

Later on when Rowen and Kento are confronting Sage about his actions, they find it’s not their friend but actually his armor. While the Ronin themselves don’t use their ultimate attacks because of all the civilians around them, the Police and National Guard are still brought in to try and arrest the Ronin because of the public disturbance their battle is causing.  

During Legend of the Inferno Armor, Cye is the first of the Ronin to notice the power of their Armors starting to corrupt, Each of the Ronin also eventually notice their armor becoming corrupted.

In the Message OVA Rowen does say that the armors were just as much of a curse as they were a gift. And the Ronin do comment on and fear the eventuality of losing themselves to their armors.

Worse yet, people in places of authority would use any excuse they could think of to imprison the five Ronin. They would have their armors taken to be studied and weaponized if possible.  If they can’t do that, they would force the Ronin to agree to use their armors as a superweapon against the people they want. And if they can’t do that, have them executed.

Again in the Guiden OVA, Sage is abducted and tortured for days by a Scientist working for Shikaisen so his Armor could be studied for his own personal interests. Shikaisen also used Sage’s armor to slaughter hundreds of innocent people

All of this would lead to Talpa reforming himself and starting the cycle of the Ronin armors once again.

In the Guiden OVA, after Shikaisen merges with the Scientists computer, he does become a figure that resembles Talpa.

Message OVA,The Ronin all get this sense that their battles against the Dynasty are repeating itself. Rowen comes across a play written in the Edo Period depicting their fights against the Dynasty and sends it to Ryo.  

Since the Ronin are destined to be Warriors until the day they die, The Ronin are just best off as being guardian figures who watch the humans and protect humans from afar. Mia can open her mansion to allow the Ronin to live there as permanent house guests, or just give them the house so they all can live there at their leisure.

The new armors they recieve at the end of the Message OVA aren’t tainted with Talpa’s evil since Suzunagi’s mother she placed love in the corner of them. So they don’t act as a becon that attracts beings of evil from the Netherworld Given this the Ronin themselves could spread the teachings of the Ancient One by creating a new Legend of the Ronin Armor. 

It could start with Sage talking to his grandfather about expanding their families Dojo. Or at the very least telling his Grandfather he will not inherit the Dojo as it stands, but instead will recreate it. So instead of teaching Kendo alone it will include Archery, Swordfighting, Kungfu, meditation, and other forms of martial and spiritual arts. The other Ronin would be brought in as instructors to lead these various class all the while instilling the Anicent Ones teachings about not giving into the sinister urges of man kind. And when needed the Ronin would don their armors and face the forces from the neather world who seek to destroy the peace they have created. 

Eventually the time will come where they feel they have played their role in protecting the world, and hand the Dojo over to Yuli or at least someone they know would look after things and carry on the legend of the five armors. 

Once they have their affairs in order, they could make the choice to enter the Netherworld. This will be a tragic choice as a year in the Netherworld is a hundred years in the human world. So the Ronin would be making the choice to leave their families and loved ones behind. But they do this knowing that when they are needed they will return, and in time choose worthy successors to bear their armors. 

Yuli in an updated version would be a somewhat tragic case following the first war. During the series Yuli seems to stay with the Ronin and Mia indefinitely and is able to travel to distant countries at a moments notice. He sees all the Ronin as adoptive brothers, though he idolizes Ryo the most out of all of them. A large part of the first war with the Dynasty is that Yuli’s parents were abducted by the Dynasty. However the series never shows him with his parents again.

He should be shown meeting up with his parents again after the first war just so viewers have that closure. Then somewhere in the interim episodes between the first and second war something should happen to his parents so he loses them, it can be left up for interpretation if his parents are permanently lost. Yuli would then start to live with the Ronin and Mia until arrangements can be made for him; he will eventually be taken in by the families of one of the Ronin.  

Of the three Ronin I see Kento’s family being the only one that would work. Kento has siblings roughly around Yuli’s age, and also Yuli himself would want to be near his adoptive big brothers.

In the Message OVA, Yuli is shown as a thirteen year old having won his jr. high’s Kendo tournament. Sage teaches elementary school aged kids at his families Dojo, so I can certainly see Sage privately teaching Yuli at some point.  

[lov3nerdstuff]

Voluptas Noctis Aeternae {Part 7.6}

*Severus Snape x OC*

Summary: It is the year 1983 when the ordinary life of Robin Mitchell takes a drastic turn: she is accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite the struggles of being a muggle-born in Slytherin, she soon discovers her passion for Potions, and even manages the impossible: gaining the favor of Severus Snape. Throughout the years, Robin finds that the not quite so ordinary Potions Professor goes from being a brooding stranger to being more than she had ever deemed possible. An ally, a mentor, a friend... and eventually, the person she loves the most. Through adventure, prophecies and the little struggles of daily life in a castle full of mysteries, Robin chooses a path for herself, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more, and two people abandoned by the world can finally find a home.

General warnings: professor x student, blood, violence, trauma, neglectful families, bullying, cursing

Words: 1.4k

Read Part 1.1 here! All Parts can be found on the Masterlist!

______________________________

A glimpse into the fifth week of travels (or the fourth week of July):

"This place is incredible!" Robin marveled at the high columns and the even higher ceiling that spanned out so far into the distance that it was too dark to see. She was impressed beyond measure, taken aback by the sheer size and grandeur even though she couldn't see all of the hall they had just entered. And a hall it really seemed to be, like the open space of a cathedral, but ancient, underground, and filled to a third at least with deep black water. The only dry space posed the stairs at the edge of the grand room, which were running along the wall from the high entrance level down to the deep blackness. That was where they were currently descending to.

"Fascinating indeed." Snape replied in equal curiosity about the unique place, as he followed Robin down the narrow staircase, all the way down to where it led into the water. "Do you think it has always been flooded like this?"

"I honestly have no idea. Neither do I know how a ten foot fish is supposed to live down here, nor how it's gotten to this place."

"Well, what do you know about this place then?"

"Not much, admittedly. I only read about its existence in a book that's older than I even care to admit, as well as some specifics about the living conditions in places like this in the country."

"Places like this? I sincerely doubt there are other places like this anywhere in the world at all."

"Well… not exactly like this, of course. But water and darkness and no movement nor exchange of streams… that's probably close enough." Robin replied softly, but even in their quiet tones, their voices echoed off the high stone ceiling and distant walls in an eerie manner. In addition to the lumos' bright but cold toned greenish light, the entire place had an otherworldly feel to it in general. Like it wanted to swallow them with its darkness, and their little bubble of light served as their only protection.

"So tell me, why exactly didn't you want to tell me what exactly today's method is going to look like? Acquiring a giant fish's scale surely isn't as easy as simply 'going fishing'." Snape inquired as they reached the edge of the water, and he observed with a curious frown how Robin simply dropped her backpack on a higher step in the security of the dry.

"You wouldn't have believed me if I had told you, so I'll just have to show you." Robin replied in amusement, smirking to herself for making things a mystery for once. This was one of her newest theories, she had only come up with it in the first week of summer while bored at her parents' house. In that sense, it was as unrefined as it would get. And yet here they were, seeing as finding the right place at least had proven to be a success. Hopefully the next step would, too. "And I haven't really tried this before either, so consider it a Plan A, for now."

"You never cease to build suspense…" He sighed in return, and his frown only grew when Robin took off her boots and socks and placed them next to her bag. "...and you never cease to confuse me either; what exactly are you doing? Certainly not going for a swim in that blackness, which is inhabited by who knows which horrors, are you?"

"I don't have a deathwish, no." Robin laughed in return, and gave him one of her most reassuring smiles. "I just want to try out something. If it doesn't work, we can go over to Plan B, alright?"

"Fine."

"Would you, uh…" Now there was the part where Robin could technically do it alone, but honestly didn't want to. Her heart was beating faster than it should anyhow, and asking for help, even if for this kind of help, certainly wouldn't change that for the better. "Would you give me your hand? Please?"

After two seconds of surprise or confusion, or both perhaps, Snape did as she had asked without a comment and Robin held onto him tightly as she took a deep breath. Really, holding his hand never ceased to overwhelm her senses with rushes of energy and tingles. But they were here to work, and she had asked to hold his hand for entirely professional reasons. Well, almost entirely… She tried to ignore it either way and went on with the plan. For a short moment she focused on the spell she had come up with those few weeks ago, took another deep breath, and then took one large step forward into the water. Or rather, onto the water.

An instantaneous relief overcame her as she saw that it actually had worked, she was standing on top of the water's surface just as she had planned. A few reluctant steps around the staircase on top of the deep water confirmed that her spell was working perfectly fine, and yet she still stayed close enough to still hold onto Snape's hand. Bloody hell, she really could walk on water. Amazing! With the biggest smile on her face, she looked up from her rolled up jeans and naked feet to Snape in front of her, who only seemed beyond surprised at what he saw.

"Impressed?" Robin couldn't help asking with a smirk, and she positively noted how it was him now who held onto her hand tightly. Perhaps he was afraid she would go under and vanish after all…

"How?" Was all he asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Well, you see, when I thought of this spell I had some inspiration from my parents' guests from the US… Very religious people, they keep talking about God and Jesus all day, and I'm sure you can see the connection to the spell there. And from that point forth, it really was only a day's worth of research." She shrugged with the very same smile as before. "The spell freezes the surface of the water in time. Or to start explaining at the beginning, I had to think of skipping tones over the water. They touch the surface for a very brief time only, and therefore they don't go under. To recreate that effect I would either have to be really really fast…"

"Or to slow the water down." He added with a sincerely impressed expression that made no secret of his utmost fascination, and perhaps even a little admiration as well. "How are you even able to mess with time? I haven't got the slightest idea about it, and neither should you."

"I researched time turners. Someone had to make them at some point, which means that there had to be spells to mess with time. Admittedly, reducing the effect to one specific thing, and especially something as vague as the surface of the water, was a bit more complicated, but still nothing I couldn't do in a day."

"Why am I even surprised by anything you do at this point…" He sighed, and then reluctantly let go of Robin's hand when she let go in return. She stayed standing on the water, which was a good sign, and even took a step further into the room, over the mirroring blackness below. Still, the concerned frown never left his face even as she turned back around to him. He opened and closed his mouth to speak a few times, before at last words came out along with it. "Be careful, yes?"

"Of course. But if it suddenly stops working for some reason, and I go under and drown, you'll get me out, right?" Robin asked while taking a few more careful steps over the water. Really, these questions were merely a method of reassuring herself; she knew the answer, but she still needed to hear it. "Because I really don't care for a run-in with any of the beasts living down there. If I mess up, you'll have my back as always… right?"

"Of course I will. As always."

"Good… Thank you."

"And what do you plan on doing now?"

Robin looked up at him once more, smirking already at the thought. "Now, I'm going to steal a giant fish's shiny scale."

______________________________

Tags:

@ayamenimthiriel @chibi-lioness @t-sunnyside @alex4555 @purpledragonturtles @istrugglewithphilosophy @meghan-maria @hidden-behind-the-fourth-wall

General Tags:

@wegingerangelica @dreary-skies-stuff @wiczer @lotus-eyedindiangoddess @theweirdlunatic @caretheunicorn @kthemarsian @lady-of-lies @strawberrysandcream @noplacelikehome77 @theoneanna @mishaandthebrits @i-am-a-mes @nonsensicalobsessions @exygon @hiddles-lobotomy @rjohnson1280 @annwhojumps @spookycatqueen @salempoe @headoverhiddleston @fanfiction-and-stress @createdfromblue @thecreatiivecorner @themusingsofmany @kinghiddlestonanddixon @scorpionchild81 @crystal-28 @adefectivedetective @lokis-girl-in-mischief @booklover2929 @iamverity @lovesmesomehiddles @akk4rin @whitewolfandthefox @stuckupstucky @kassablanca13 @delightfulheartdream @hayalee8 @bluewneptune @lemonmochitea