#because as much as i hate to admit it this is also vaugely about

[omni-scient-pan-da]

Are you a fictional character? Because you're living in my brain rent free (hyperfixation rizz)

[a-student-out-of-time]

Vauge Tally5 Spoilers!!!

What's your interpretation of the text in the Tally5 image?. And the Tally5 image itself, but I'm more interested what you think the text means.

//Ah, Tally5. What an interesting thing to contemplate, so let's go through these one by one. I will also try my hardest to be fair in regard to how David is meant to be portrayed and interpreted:

I became a villain in pursuit of your dream.

Interesting way to open up, but what's this in reference to? Well, if I had to hazard a guess, I'd say this is possibly referring to why David became an inspirational speaker in the first place. I don't think it's a stretch to say that he hates his career, and this quote may mean he was pursuing it for someone else. Maybe a family member or someone else he aspired to be like?

Regardless of who, it's clear that he does see himself as a villain, which he is, as he's used his position to manipulate and hurt people. As I've said time and again, if rumors exist that he's fake, that means that someone found out and let others know. Once it starts, it'll never go away, and he knows it.

2. I threw away my humanity for an ideal I couldn't understand

So, in a sense, David has rejected his humanity in the pursuit of some grand ideal. Once again, that's a pretty familiar villain origin story, where someone tries to pursue a cause, making sacrifice after sacrifice, losing more of themselves until they become the very thing they hated.

How does this relate to David? Honestly, I think it fits well with this misanthropy. It's obvious that David despises other people, yet in his position as an inspirational speaker, he has to talk with them and try to inspire them to pursue greatness. For someone as cynical and depressed as him, I can see why he wouldn't understand that sort of ideal.

When you don't believe change is possible, you can fall into this trap of assuming that neither you nor anyone else can aspire to it. Yet that's exactly what he has to tell people, day in and day out.

3. But I don't regret it. To 'regret' implies I could've done anything else

A very fatalistic thing to say, again hinting that David becoming an Inspirational Speaker wasn't something he chose to do. Yet at the same time, it's not something he regrets doing for one reason or another. Is it because he was happy that he could get other people to be better even if he didn't think they ever would, or is it because he's accepted that he himself could never be a good person?

4. I never told you, but the truth is, I was never capable of ever becoming human in the first place

5. So in the end, you are always-

Who's he talking to in these ones? Well, given the image of tally5, the obvious answer here is Xander. It's clear that David, while he's a manipulator and villain, also sees himself as not just a villain, but not even human. He thinks very poorly of himself and others, and used his position to cause real and serious harm.

Yet at the same time, David, on some level, seems like he really respected Xander for who he was. I've been quick to dismiss his attitude toward Xander as love-bombing, a common manipulation tactic, but it doesn't completely discount the idea that he did care about him on some level and maybe aspired to be like him. It doesn't make any of what he's said or done okay, but I don't think he disagrees. After all, it seems like he's accepted the idea that he could never grow as a person.

While I'm not the biggest David fan out there, I will admit it's a very interesting and deep look into his character, especially compared to how much work he was putting in to try and prevent his secrets from being revealed and how quickly he fell into this grandiose villainous asshole attitude.

He's the kind of person who's accepted that it's all he could ever be, thus he can't aspire to be anything greater and so doesn't even try. Xander, by contrast, might represent what he wishes he could've been but never had the opportunity to due to forces outside his control.

That's my take on all this, anyway. Hope you found that interesting ^^

[badkarma1998]

*places this ask in your hands* karma its time for you to talk about your original characters :)

:0 COOPER!!

Aight, you left this nice and vauge, so Im gonna go over the basics (which might still get long we'll see)

Firstly, Stella: She's my OG blorbo. We love a vampire babe. She died when she was 17, she had leukemia. Her brother couldn't stand the thought of her dying, so he broke her out of the hospital and took her to a coven of vampires. Her transformation was violent and she doesn't remember any of it. She woke up in an alley covered in blood with no memory, and her family has no idea what happened to her. She does get horrible dreams of the night her brother took her from the hospital, and they always end with her waking up from intense phantom pain. So fun so edgy. She's a loner, she's mean to everyone because she wants to stay isolated, but she's secretly a softy. So when she sees a teenager hudled in the rain on the street late at night, she takes him in.

Enter Elliot: He's my sweet baby boy, and I love to make him cry. He can see ghosts, like literally. Almost ghost whisperer sytle, but ghosts rarely interact with him. He saw his first ghost at his sister's funeral, at which point he was distracted and really couldn't care. Then the next year his dad died, and he ran away, because he's convinced he's cursed. He jumped on a bus, hoping to runaway to Hollywood, but he ended up in Seattle with no money, following a random stranger home. Then he slept on her couch for so many nights he ended up becoming roomates with a vampire. Stella would never admit it, but she has a huge soft spot for him, and Elliot somehow sees past her cold facade. They are comfy cozy found family, and I'm so normal about it I promise.

There's also Zack: Elliot's childhood best friend and love interest. He's known Elliot since they were 5, and had a crush on him since they were in middle school. He loves puzzles, games, and he runs a FNAF theory blog. So when his best friend up and dissapeared without a word, his response of course was to track him down clear on the other side of the country. He was not prepared however, to find out that Elliot has secret ghost powers, is living with a vampire, and that magic is real.

Also the twins: Forest and Sky. They're human (mostly), but their mother owns a store for magic clientel. The front is your typical corner store, the back is like if a 7-eleven got freaky with every YA fantasy novel ever. They're both practicing magicians, perfectly capable of spells and potions. Sky is fun and energetic. She's outgoing and loves to get into mischief. When she was 7, she made a deal with a loteral demon, and now her right eye can literally see into the future. Forest is much more shy and toned down, prefering to follow rules and avoid attention from others. He went fully deaf at a young age, and prefers to speak using ASL, so he's literally more soft spoken than his sister. He does however have a hidden sassy streak and can be just as mischievous as Sky when he wants to.

I could keep going, but Ill keep the others short. I have Oliver, who's Stella’s older brother. After taking her to the vampires and losing her anyways, he became a vampire hunter under the assumption she died. Naomi, a vampire who works at the shop with Sky and Forest. She's a fruit bat, so instead of drinking blood she eats a metric fuckton of fruit. And lastly Mariana. She's an ancient forest nymph who owns a flowershop. She absolutely HATES Stella, and by the wonders of fate, she offers Zack a job and her extra room when he shows up looking for Elliot. That's right, I've got not one, but TWO boys who unknowingly stumble into being roommates with supernatural beings!

Yes this is the basics, yes I can go more in depth on any of them, Cooper you asked for this and I love you for it.

Some fun facts because this is my post and I wanna:

Elliot has a sweet tooth and loves carrot cake and obscenely sugary starbucks drinks

Zack is trans, and Elliot helped him pick out his name.

Sky and Forest are homeschooled and they want to form a band when they're older. (Sky on vocals and bass, Forest plays drums)

Stella adores octopi and wanted to be a marine biologist when she was alive.

Mari lived in Spain for the first hundred years of her life, she and Zack often speak spanish with eachother.

Naomi retained most of her memory after becoming a vampire, unlike Stella, however her turning is very fuzzy. All she remembers is being bitten by a woman with long white hair, which saved her from a stab wound after being mugged. She's madly in love with this woman and wants to find her so badly.

Forest has a huge crush on Elliot. Zack also has a huge crush on Elliot. Elliot is a sweet boy and everyone has a huge crush on him. Naturally Elliot is oblivious af and would combust if he noticed.

[theinvisibledreamergirl]

Chap. 7: “Friendship questioned”

A.N: And I still hate this AU and this title because it isn’t much related to the topic 🙄

MASTERLIST 

———————————————————————

Donahue’s bar was flooded with interns and residents taking some break after their long night shifts and seemed to enjoy these minutes. The fantastic four (as Klaw would call) Elijah, Jackie, Sienna and Landry and the never-separated couple Dan and Imelda were sat together discussing about the new changes of Edenbrook Hospital that were notified yesterday.

“Could you even imagine? Doing your residency with the most elite diagnostics team in the world?!” Elijah exclaimed.

“Never in my life would’ve thought of this dream.” Landry sighed in a wandered gaze.

“Screw you. This is totally obvious that I am going to be the winner of it.” Jackie put down the shot of tequila raising her eyebrows.

“Someone looks very confident.” Dan replied with a smirk.

“Of course I am not even you scalpel jockeys can stand us.”

“Seriously why didn’t you two sign up for this? Even the surgeons could be part of the fellowship.” Sienna asked.

Imy let a sigh. “Yeah we know but I don’t think we could waste our precious free time plus diagnosing the patients. Scalpel is enough for us. Right sweetie?

Dan kissed the back of her hand gently. “Of course love.”

“Aww you are so cute.”

“Yuck get a room you two already. It’s getting enough disgust in here.” Jackie admitted and everyone shared a laugh.

“What about Klaw? Do you know if she has signed up?” Landry asked curiously. She had mentioned before that she wanted to work with Ethan Ramsey closely and he was also felt in debt for saving his life from that man Miles in their first day of work.

“Hm. I don’t know but I think she had. She would never miss this rare opportunity.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Well you’re wrong.” A voice made them to turn their gazes to the tired and not so amused face of Klaw with Bryce accompanying her.

“What?!” Everyone said in unison shocked except from Jackie who snorted.

“See? I told you scalpels cannot handle the diagnosis!”

“You either are stupid for real or you have a reason that you didn’t want this.” Eiljah admitted and a sudden wave of relief was seen in Landry’s face in which Dan noticed it.

“But Klaw... why did you change your mind?” Imy asked in confusion but her expression let her that something had happened and she looked at Bryce for some answers but he mouthed.

Later.

“I’m going to the bathroom I’ll... catch up with you.”

While she was nodding Bryce gave her a knowing glance in which she replied silently with a reassuring smile.

I’ll be fine.

When she made herself disappear to the corner so her friends wouldn’t see her, she texted to Reggie.

Now. We need to talk.

Thankfully he saw the message and carefully after serving the drinks to the guys he went in the same dark room where his other friend was waiting.

“What now?” He crossed his arms.

“Care to explain your friendship with Ethan Ramsey?” She arched her left eyebrow.

He let an exhale knowing that she wouldn’t forget this despite her busy schedule in hospital.

“Fine. I’ll say this quickly... Ethan and I have known each other for ten years since he came for the first time in Boston after university. He wasn’t alone though. He was with Simon and they both needed a strong drink after their first day as interns. It was also my first week in Boston and I wanted to have a good job so I bought this bar and let me tell you-” He motioned with his index finger the surroundings. “- it wasn’t like this. It was rebuilt again thanks to them who offered their money’s to help me and we’re like partners of this bar and after that Simon decided to name it ‘Donahue’.” He chuckled. “Weird name huh?”

Reggie wanted to ease the tension that was appearing in Klaw’s face but that didn’t change it.

“When were you going to tell me?”

“Klaw I seriously didn’t know you would come here. I really wanted to tell you but I just didn’t know how. Look... if you are worried about your involvement with the Mercy Park Crew I won’t tell anything to Ethan.”

“It’s not about that Reggie. I’m just upset because I thought I could trust you and the contrary. Because we’re friends right?” She hesitated at first before saying. “And about Vaug-“

“Do not try mention his name!” He glared at her giving some cold chills down her spine. She knew his anger but despite of that she wanted to try again.

“Vaughn wants to talk to you.”

“I don’t want to talk with a gangster and a criminal who left his family for his own pleasures!” He hissed. “My uncle is devastated and auntie too and I’m not going to let him to enter to our lives ever again!”

She sighed. “I know but he told me-.”

“You should go back to your friends.” He cut her off without giving a second glance.

“Reggie...”

“Go.” He said courtly. “They’ll suspect and you don’t want this, right?” She only nodded when he narrowed his eyebrows. “You go first and I’ll come after two minutes.”

Klaw did as he said. She truly wanted the two cousins to talk about their misunderstandings and solve them to be united again. But it was clearly that this would take a long time given the fact that Reggie was a hot-tempered guy even though it didn’t look from the outside to other people.

Bryce had told his friends about the tragic death of Dolores and now they could understand why Klaw didn’t want to participate in the competition. But this wasn’t the thing he worried about.

Strong arms had been looping her maybe for a couple of minutes but for her it looked like an eternity sleeping.

She blinked her eyes slowly while trying to comprehend what happened.

Oh she thought. Yes- she forgot to drink her usual pills and ran with a fake excuse to her attending to go to the locker room.

And after drinking them her body twisted in a quick motion until feeling someone calling her name.

Definitely it was a man and at first she got worried if he was the one she was thinking about.

But instead she was met with green scrubs and she could recognise that megawatt smile everywhere.

“Look who’s waken up.”

“B-Bryce?”

“Yeah scalpel jockey in the flesh.”

“What’re you doing here?” She murmured slowly.

“Uhm helping and carrying you? Because you were about to knock your head in the ground and your skull would be opened?” She giggled. He was so good at making her feel better. “Now will you tell me why’s in your locker an inhibitor bar?”

She gulped hardly trying to think of an excuse. “It’s- for calmness.”

What a great lie to say him.

“Klaw... you can trust me.” To prove it he caressed her cheek softly letting his thumb linger. Bryce Lahela had feelings for this girl like no one else and seeing her in this state- he wanted to be her saviour. “Look... I’ve seen you avoiding us in many occasions and not interacting with us at all. You refused first to play with me. Second you haven’t given any answer to Sienna about moving together and the third you’ve been pulling your leg all of this week in many surgeries just so you can’t meet us. And now this?” He shook his head. “There’s clearly something wrong with you.”

From the look of his eyes Klaw saw the sincerity and the kindness of him that never thought to come out given the fact that he was always cheerful and flirty all the time. That’s when she started to trust him and thought he wasn’t kind of manipulating person to be. But of course she couldn’t tell him the whole truth even if she wanted to.

“I...” she gulped nervously before inhaling sharply. “I suffer from PTSD Bryce.” That’s when her tears started to drop off her cheeks despite many of her attempts not to.

His grip on her tightened and pulled her in a comforting hug while she was sobbing. Bryce had never seen her in such a devastating situation because she looked strong and capable of everything but clearly this was the contrary.

“Shh... it’s alright Klaw... I’m here.”

“I’m sorry Bryce I-“

“You don’t need to apologise to me.” He frowned his eyebrows. “It’s me who should say that. I’ve asked too much for this, have I?”

“No, you moron. Of course you haven’t.” She scolded him with a slap on his arm. “You were worried about me and there’s nothing to apologise to.”

He sighed. “Does anyone else know this?”

“Only Dan and Imy.”

“Why don’t you tell the others?”

“I’m not ready Bryce I mean... I don’t want to seem like fragile and my friendship to be built because everyone feels sorry about me. And that is really disgusting.”

He laughed revealing his shining teeth. “Well they will know it one day and you won’t escape from that.”

“If you don’t tell them of course.” She jumped from his lap to head to the door. He caught her wrist.

“Whoa hold on where do you think you’re going miss? You just fainted in front of my eyes and I am going to let you go? No way.”

“I have to go back to NICU. Ethan is waiting for me.” The last words fell from her mouth unexpectedly and that’s when Bryce grinned clearly amused.

“Well well someone calls her attending by his name. Hm was he good on his office?”

She laughed loudly. “Bryce what the hell you’re saying? I was talking about Dolores Hudson’s son, Ethan.” And when her smile faded she whispered. “She died today leaving alone the little tadpole and I’m looking after him with Dr. Ramsey.”

His smile faltered too and felt in regret saying it.

Great Bryce you made her upset.

“I’m sorry Klaw. Uhm... you can go now.” He opened the door to let her go first gently but before she left he felt a kiss on his cheek and a soft voice whispering to his ear.

“Thank you for everything scalpel king.”

Not later she joined her friends who were now looking at her with concerns. Suddenly Sienna got up from her seat and hugged her tightly.

“I’m so sorry dolphin.” She whispered sweetly like she was. It was about Dolores. “Please don’t mind our reactions about your decision.”

“It’s okay Sienna. I’m fine.” Her friend assured but she made a face like she wasn’t convinced. “I really am dolphin.” She rubbed her back.

“If you say so.”

“Klaw we’re sorry too.” Elijah said. “I mean damn. That was really heartbreaking and I’m feeling goosebumps now.”

“I can’t imagine what it feels like to grieve for your first patient so sorry from me too.” Jackie said sadly.

“Guys can you please stop this emotional conversation? We have to celebrate for your competition. Right Bryce?” Klaw smiled at him.

“Hell yeah we are fucking doing it!” He stood up letting his feet up the chair to raise a toast. “We surgeons wish you medical interns a very pleasant time with grumps like Ramsey and Mirani and sweets like Delarosa and Tennant. May the best wins! Cheers!”

“Cheers!” Everyone sipped their drinks in one gulp until Ines and Zaid joined them. Ines congratulated them with a hug whereas Zaid with his glaring face to surgeons Bryce and Dan said that even if one of the interns won they wouldn’t merit that.

——————————————————————

“Ethan come on it will be just a meeting.” She pleaded to him. “It won’t kill you.”

“I said no Harper.”

“It is a great opportunity for all of us to renew the project we have with the Banner Health.”

“I still can’t believe that you want us to schmooze in all of their luxurious, idiotic and ridiculous things only for our hospital. Why didn’t you bring Simon for this? He clearly has a much better poker face than I do.”

She leaned closer to him to tie his collar. “Well I would but since the Banner Health Representatives are interested on your research then why don’t we use this opportunity? Besides even Naveen would agree on that.” She gave him a lightly kiss while caressing his broad shoulders. “Come on let’s hit ‘em before we are late.”

Harper was a such in a good mood today that asked himself if she would’ve stayed the same if she knew the real reason why Naveen gave up his position two weeks ago.

“I came up with a decision.”

“What’s wrong Naveen? You called us in such a hurry. Everything okay?” Simon asked worriedly when he saw also Ethan standing with crossed arms behind the chief clearly disapproving.

Ethan knew this and just before they would enter the diagnostics office they debated whether or not to tell everyone about his health condition that was deteriorating day by day and still none of them had arrived into a conclusion what this illness was.

“The main position of this team will be held by Dr. Ramsey.”

“What?!” The shock was evident in all of the team’s faces. Simon was eyeing to Ethan if he knew something about this but instead he was met with a shrug.

“Please doctors calm down.”

Clearly the one who couldn’t calm down herself was Dr. June Hirata who wanted nothing more than the position of the diagnostics which had worked for it ten years and seeing that the jerk doctor take it- made her blood boiled.

“But Dr. Banerji...” Dr. Baz Mirani spoke up frantically. “I’m not saying Ethan isn’t a good doctor but... may I ask why?”

“Ah Baz. I really appreciate your concern but I thought as an old man sometimes I need to rest y’know... I’ve come to an age that everything can happen and the retirement will be the best for me.”

“Are you sick?” Edgar asked in suspicion in which Ethan felt his jaw tightened and again Naveen responded with a smile.

“My dear Edgar. If I were sick I would’ve been now at one of your operation theatres right?”

“Goodness Naveen don’t even say that!” He scolded.

“Well I guess I have to congratulate you my pal.” Simon got up and pulled Ethan in a tightly hug. “I have to say that you saved me from a big responsibility so thanks a lot Naveen!” Even though he wanted to lighten up the strange moment they were experiencing his thoughts were a fog.

“Ha. Very funny Simon.”

Naveen chuckled to them. “And also I’ve told Harper that she will be the Chief of Medicine... if that’s okay to you.”

“Absolutely Naveen.” Everyone agreed but Ethan didn’t say anything at first. His mentor challenged him with an eyebrow and he nodded in half-agreement.

“Well then doctors if you don’t have anything else to say- have a nice day!”

Ethan really wanted to tell Harper and Simon about it but he made a promise to his mentor to not bring up this conversation ever again.

“I’m really going to miss being a neurosurgeon y’know. It’s just a strange feeling not to touch the scalpel while wearing your mask and gloves to open the skull. Now the only thing that I can touch are papers. Unbelievable.” She chuckled while Ethan was driving his car. “Ethan?”

She raised her eyebrow seeing that he wasn’t paying attention to her. In these days Ethan had been acting differently since she was announced as the Chief. Surely there was no surgery that could stop her from meeting him or giving some slyly glances when they had crossed their ways. He looked deep in thought and if that was a reason behind of it, Harper would be delighted to know it if was about their relationship.

And Ethan Ramsey was thinking about a certain woman. The piercing brown eyes who had appeared multiple times in his dreams. He gripped tightly the steer trying to forget that rare smile she gave him when they were looking after little Ethan Hudson.

After making their coffees from his machine that no one in the hospital knew about it he was waiting for the other while checking his watch. He smirked at the thought of his secret. In the quiet NICU room were heard soft steps of his intern who gave him a rare smile he had never seen before.

“Am I late?”

“No you were just eight minutes late.”

She giggled and teased him. “You’ve been counting the minutes. Wow.”

“Just sit down and take it.”

He handed her the coffee packed in a plastic container just like one those of Starbucks. When she sipped it she felt another kind of taste and let out content moan.

“This isn’t Edenbrook’s coffee. It’s clearly a cappuccino.”

He shook his head before sipping. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Liar. This is exactly the same coffee I do in my apartment and it’s originally from Brazil. It’s the same taste and you-“ she pointed her finger to him. “- can’t deny it.”

Instead of answering her he replayed again the moment when she moved her tongue before saying the letter ‘L’.

Ethan get hold of yourself.

He sighed in defeat revealing his secret. “This is from my private coffee machine.” She clapped her hands in victory while whispering ‘yes’ to herself whereas he scoffed. “As soon as I got the office I vowed never to drink that caffeinated dishwasher again. No one knows it so...”

“I won’t tell a soul.” She said before laughing quietly and holding her hand to stop it but when she saw the warning gaze of her attending she pursed her lips. “Okay sorry.”

“Ethan?”

“Uh, yes Harper what were you saying?”

“You took us into the wrong road.”

He took a look of the signs which were leading them to Boston Common instead of the baseball stadium so he shifted his direction to the right one.

They arrived at the local bar where the baseball game was playing. Ironic to Ethan was that the two squads would always choose blue and red uniforms to play. While he was ordering two drinks to the bartender Harper got an emergency call from the hospital and that’s when he didn’t want to deal this by his own.

Jesus Christ what else are you bringing to me now huh?

Apparently his bragging on his mind was stopped when in the corner of his eyes a young woman in her sportswear appeared with her hair tied up, drinking a bit of cigarette. He almost could feel her perfume. That perfume who was standing next to him two weeks ago and his observation skills never failed him. It was indeed that kind of smell that he wanted to forget but it seemed to be inevitable.

After she texted Bryce on her phone she glanced up to see the tall figure standing in a stool enjoying his casual scotch. Her breath hitched when she realized her cigarette was still on her fingers and luckily she found the nearest bin to throw it. She didn’t want another embarrasment in front of him as she moved closer.

God damnit. How is possible that there’s not a single day without seeing him?

“Someone’s date didn’t go as well as expected huh?” She said playfully as if to break the ice but she knew that a man like him wouldn’t bring his girlfriend here. But Klaw wasn’t sure why she was enjoying this little teasing.

“Did you enjoy your smoke?” That’s where she rolled her eyes meaning that he saw it and Ethan curled the corner of his lips. “About the answer of your question no- I’m not in a date. I’m here to renew the contract between Edenbrook and Banner Health Rep and this drink was for Harper but she had to go back to hospital for an emergency case.”

“Oh I see.” She bit her lower lip nervously. The Banner surname. Such familiarity to her. But she didn’t want to think about it because she knew exactly who was behind of that great company. His words interrupted her thoughts.

“And what about you?”

“I’m trying to spend this miraculously day off with my friends. We saw a baseball game in which I had absolutely no idea how it was played and the funny thing was that I was cheering about the blue ones but then I did the same for the red ones clapping like a fool.” She giggled. “I’m literally stupid.”

“Glad that you are aware of it.”

“Hey.” She smacked his arm. “I’m not the only stupid here by the way.” She smiled while when he furrowed his eyebrows. “You clearly are staying here in this bar thinking ‘damn how am I going to survive those pesky and petulant rich people in front of me’ and trying to avoid them but you can’t do that because the deals with Edenbrook are in your hands. Am I correct?”

“Not always.” She gave him an incredulous look. “Okay you caught me. They’re trying to butter me up with lobster, fine wine and all the ridiculous luxuries they can afford.” He sighed. “It’s terrible. And I’m not a man for... schmoozing.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeeeah I’m almost believing it.” But she did actually. It was just one of her ways to not express herself and it was clearly a rule she lived with for a long time now.

“As much as it humiliates me to ask a favour of an intern... would you... join me upstairs?”

Did he just ask me to... what? But what if I meet his uncle? No. It’s not possible for him to be there. Whatever happens put a poker face... no one knows you.

He sensed her hesitation and added. “I won’t keep you much longer. I just don’t think I’ll survive much longer on my own.”

“Did I say no?” She smiled again and got up from her seat.

He smiled aback. “Follow me then.”

The box suite had a magnificent view of the stadium and a part of Boston Highway. Surely this thing wasn’t foreign to Klaw. Being with rich people. She knew how they used their strategies to attract doctors like Ethan Ramsey or anyone else. But she wasn’t worried about that. She took a brief look at the guests of the room and luckily was no sign of his uncle.

“If you are going to give me lectures about how to behave in front of them don’t.” To prove it she took two glasses of wines before he would say it.

“Then I’m waiting to see what gems are you going to reveal to them Rookie.”

“Watch and learn Dr. Ramsey.” She clinked her glass with his.

“Don’t be such confident. I’ve seen many doctors changing their priorities to be part of these things and don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”

“Got it Sir.” She winked and maybe that was a bit unprofessional but that came naturally to her and unexpectedly he didn’t even seem to be bothered. Klaw could feel her guilt building up in herself for not telling the truth to her attending what actually happened before arriving at NICU but her thoughts were interrupted until-

“Ethan, Ethan there you are!” A chirping voice was heard in the middle of the crowd now approaching them with an amusing face.

“Smile a bit Dr. Ramsey.” She muttered.

“I am Dr. Craig.” He muttered back.

“Yes from what I’m seeing now you have a very good poker face.” She mocked.

He scoffed. “I am a doctor not an actor for god’s sakes!” Their voices were now barely a whisper as the representatives were coming closer and closer.

“Then you should be.” And both shared a quick glance.

His, a worried and a troubled one.

Hers, a reassuring and a supportive glance.

He seriously didn’t expect their conversation to go flow and in such a quick way thanks to an intern. They finally managed to renew the contract and she didn’t let them escape without her request for better rates on cardiac services. This was one of the biggest achievements they’ve had and a smirk appeared on her face while turning to his gaze back.

“Okay you don’t need to say it.” He raised his hand averting her.

“The future of medicine?”

“Stop it.”

“One of the most promising doctors?”

“I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“But you wouldn’t have won without me Dr. Ramsey. Now we’re double trouble.”

He scoffed. “I think you are the real trouble here Rookie. Besides I couldn’t introduce you as a colossal pain in my ass, could I?”

“Ha. Ha.” She mocked him while rolling her eyes.

Both of them took their seats to enjoy the last part of the game there. When she thought everything was back to normal that question came back as if slapped her face.

“Why haven’t you signed up for the competition?”

So Klaw how are you going to respond now to your mentor huh? Another lie you want to create? And you pretend that he’s a liar. Fuck it.

“As my bestie said: ‘Scalpel is enough for me.’ So I’m not going to waste that little free time in diagnosing.”

“Then why in your application was written that you wanted to be under my wing? Care to explain?”

“It was just a bingo.” She shrugged. “I mean I didn’t know with who I wanted to work so I just picked your name since I’ve read your book.”

He huffed. “You are very smart Craig but when it comes to lies you are very subtle.”

She closed her eyes for a moment while bringing back that fidgety of her fingers- and indicator that she was worried about something. “I don’t want to ruin my friendship because I know if I enter to this competition we will start to have rivalries and in the end we will never talk to each other. I’ve been thinking all of this time Dr. Ramsey, believe me. It’s not easy when you just find out that someone will dump you to get their spot on his or her place. It’s like an animalistic fight for territory but this is between people and this takes to a much cruelty and I don’t want to be part of this. I don’t want to have my friendship questioned.”

Ethan listened attentively to her reasoning and her how her logic had been analysing all of the pros and cons of being part of the competition. She clearly wasn’t a clueless intern. She was an adult who seemed to have been through a lot in her life.

“Remarkably wise outlook for an intern.” He admitted and she watched him in surprise. “Even my friends did the same when they started their residencies and now they’re apart from their rivalries and they’ve put boundaries to each other. So you’re smart to value your allies.”

She smiled while shaking her head in disbelief. “You just called me smart two times.”

He warned her. “And if you tell anyone I said that, I will disavow that entirely.”

“Duly noted.”

First, their meeting in London.

Second, their interaction with little Ethan.

And this was the third.

What else they would keep to each other?

——————————————————————

In the interns new apartment another friend of theirs joined them surprisingly with her husky dog. Sienna was the most excited one as she pulled her in crush hug leaving Klaw breathless.

“What a day, what a game!” Elijah said happily.

Jackie shook her head in disbelief. “I still can’t believe Landry’s advice to the manager got the Nighthawks to come back and win.”

“Well I wouldn’t say it was all me.” Landry grinned triumphantly. “All I did was examine the evidence and diagnose the problem. Which is why you can all kiss that diagnostic team position goodbye.”

“Ha. Dream on, buddy. I’ll give you a run for your money!”

While they were laughing Sienna and Klaw were curled up in a couch patting Jonah’s furry.

“Why did you name him Jonah?”

“I don’t know it just came out naturally. And I’m glad I put that name too. Sienna...”

“Yes?” She asked, her encouraging smile always evident on her face.

Before Klaw would talk about her proposition to move to this apartment her phone rang.

Who in the goddamn hell calls in this hour?

She excused herself while going to the balcony and shut the glass door carefully. “Hello?”

“Good evening Miss Craig! I-I’m terribly sorry that I’m calling in such lateness!” She recognised this voice. It was the receptionist of the apartment where she was staying.

“Yes Billy. Tell me.”

“Uhm there’s a package that came from postal service ma’am and it’s from Greece.”

“From Greece? Who sent this?”

“Let me check ma’am...” she heard some ruffles and scratches. “It’s from Ms. Zelda Ahmad. The location is Athens. What should I do with it?”

Her heart wrenched when she heard her aunt’s name in such a long time. The last meeting with her was when she buried her parents and her brother and went immediately to Los Angeles. To go to that inevitable and dangerous path which seemed to never have ended for her.

“Uhm ma’am are you there?” Billy asked when he didn’t hear anything from the owner and thought to ask her again. “What should I do with the package?”

“Keep it.” She said courtly. “I’ll be there as soon as possible to take it.”

“As you wish ma’am.”

She ended abruptly the call remembering why her aunt had sent her a package. After that Sienna opened the glass door sensing her friend’s troubled mind. “Is everything okay Klaw?”

“Oh, yes Sienna. No worries but can you guys keep Jonah for a minute?”

“Yeah sure but- where are you going?”

“There’s something that I’ve should done before.” She didn’t know how she created that line and Sienna gave her a smile which she did aback. Still not knowing the reason behind of that.

If her friends would’ve known how fast she came to their apartment... clearly they didn’t know that a black muscled Porsche parked in an underground garage was everything that a girl like Klaw Craig would need. She was thankful for this vehicle to have not only the best speed but also the best acceleration to drift a bit where there were no cops patrolling.

She took the package from Billy to jump onto the elevator, her foot tapping nervously to open it. She was afraid of what her aunt could’ve sent her because it had been four years with her absence and thought for a moment of those rare calls on the phone were really something or not.

Klaw didn’t want to open the door while her breath was hitching.

“Oh come on Klaw you can do this. It’s just a package and nothing else.” She scolded herself.

She unlocked the door rapidly and headed to her suite, tossing it to the bed. Her lips twitched several times while eating the insides of her cheeks anxiously. She didn’t know why felt afraid to open it because as much as she could remember she asked Zelda if there was something that her grandma liked such as ornaments or something that she could keep it too to her home. At least reminding bits of her memory.

When she dug the knife inside of it there were some books that she read while she was younger in her years and in the end of it...

She gasped.

The end revealed some medical files with the logo of Edenbrook Hospital. It were clearly her grandmother’s.

Her eyes widened. Now she remembered. She asked Zelda that she needed to see everything that was related to her grandmother’s illness- the treatment, the surgery appointment and the doctor’s name who did the operation. Zelda had said in that time she didn’t remember exactly where she put them because apparently her sister (Klaw’s mother) Marilyn obligated her to not show anything to Klaw.

Upon the files there was a card with some words scribbled.

To my gummy bear niece.

She laughed because she dearly missed the way her aunt called her then started to open it slowly.

Agapití [Dear] Helena,

When you were younger you were always our precious niece that I, Andreas and Mama DD ever wanted. I can’t say how lucky and how proud I am that you’re now a grown woman and an independent one. You know what many other things I could’ve written to you now but I’ll just keep it short. We love you so much and I want to apologise for lying at you at first when you requested Mama DD’s files. Your mother told me to keep them away because she knew your hot temper and you would do everything to find justice. Now no one is stopping you. Here’s everything you need to know which I hope they’ll be helpful. You can continue on your quest my darling. Because I’m waiting and believe me... Mari is waiting too.

xoxo, Z

When she opened the file was the patients name and the condition of her illness altogether with the treatment in which she already knew. But the surgery appointment was nowhere to be found.

“Fuck it!” She shouted while searching for other files. “But if there was a surgery appointment then surely one of them must be on the list of the Diagnostics Team.”

Dr. Banerji’s name wasn’t on the list. The same thing was with Simon but he had told her in the 2011 he was doing some practices in New Mexico and came back after two weeks.

The only names remained were:

Dr. Akash Mirani

Dr. June Hirata

Dr. Kenji Hirata

“Who the hell are these people?” She frowned in annoyance.

Dr. Harper Emery

“Dr. Emery was in Diagnostics Team too? So she knows what has happened to Daisy.” She seethed angrily given the fact that she was a well-respected neurosurgeon. She scoffed. “Even you aren’t perfect as anyone can think Harper Emery.”

True. Nobody was perfect and neither was the last name.

Her eyes landed to the first letter...to the second, to the third until it revealed the full name with the doctor’s title.

Dr. Ethan Ramsey

She stayed still while a chill was running down her spine. Her lips trembled threatening to be welled up in tears. She saw the name again and shook her head in disbelief. Maybe she wasn’t looking properly. Maybe she needed glasses to see better. Maybe...

“No, no... it can’t be... it can’t be.” She said frantically.

She was panting hardly trying to collect herself.

She felt every emotion in one second and couldn’t understand what she was feeling. Relief? Happiness? Anger? Rage? Betray? Fear?

What she knew now was that she had a newly profound change.

Even though she had some bits of good memories with him it seemed like they were vanished.

A change that coursed down her body and made her to look into the mirror on the wall as she remembered some few words.

Competition makes them stronger.

And now she knew exactly what to do. If she wins it she would reach to the truth.

And a new confidence was now appearing even in her voice now.

“Ethan Ramsey... be prepared to see this Rookie being your closest ally.”

She smirked devilishly because if Klaw Helena Craig wanted something... she definitely would take it.

And there was still time before all zeros lined up.

—————————————————-—————

TAGS WILL APPEAR IN A REBLOG!

Part 8: TBA*

Ps: please before you think what’s going to happen in the next part interact with this post.

from now on only the graduation of high school in june is much more important for me now... and also sorry for not replying to your supportive messages and for this post too... i don’t feel like I’m ready... but i truly appreciate them...

until then... stay safe folks...

bye. ❤️ K

[lyranova]

A Fractured Diamond:

Episode 9: Neva vs Llyr

Hi guys! I’m so sorry its been so long since I’ve posted a chapter of this, I’ve been busy with other fics and series and haven’t really felt inspired for this lately. But I got hit with the inspiration recently and finally finished it 😁! This is the last part to this ‘arc’ so I hope you all enjoy~!

Taglist: @thoughtfullyrainynightmare @succulentsunrise @jovialnoise

Word Count: 4,528

Warnings: Violence

Neva rolled her shoulders back as she heard the announcer shout. This was it, she felt her nervousness from a moment ago slowly fall away. She needed to put Llyr and Langris out of her mind for now, she had to focus on the task at hand. She turned to look at Sonas and Lavis, they were just standing there, apparently they didn’t have any idea what they were supposed to be doing. She sighed and shook her head, they were useless.

“ Ok, since neither of you have mapping spells can you at least sense mana decently?” She asked as she crossed her arms, they would need to move soon before the other team discovered their location.

“ U-Um…not really.” Sonas muttered softly, Lavis shrugged his shoulder.

“ I’m decent, but not as good as most.” Neva growled in irritation.

“ Well what are you two good at?!” She snarled, she needed to do well, she wanted to be a part of the Royal Knights and she would be damned if she didn’t make it because of these two! “ Whatever. Just stay here and guard the crystal. I’ll take care of the other team.” She quickly equipped her Effervescent Armor and took off before either of her teammates could say a word.

“ Well she’s in a mood.”

——-

Yuno watched as Neva seemed to almost glide across the battlefield, she seemed to know exactly where the other team and their crystal was. Her mana sensing was quite impressive, but it didn’t help that the other team was already on their way to where Neva’s team was situated so she was at least a level 4. He watched as she summoned a crystal pillar to pierce through the other team's mode of transportation. Her armor disappeared and she began to use Diamond Shower to attack from long range and Diamond Palisade to block the team's attacks.

‘She has gotten much stronger.’ Yuno thought somewhat proud, the thing was; Neva didn’t realize how much stronger she had gotten in the past few weeks, anytime they trained she would always mutter how she needed to get stronger, how she was still too weak, how she couldn’t call herself a member of the Golden Dawn until she was able to beat someone with the same magic type as her. He shook his head slightly, she was putting too much pressure on herself. But the more he watched the more his suspicions were confirmed. These three mages she was fighting against, they were all decently strong and she was handling them with ease. Not a single spell was able to hit her. Suddenly, he watched as a single Diamond Arrow shot out of her hand went straight through the other team's crystal; they had left themselves wide open to an attack.

“ Crystal Destroyed!” Rang out through the battlefield, Yuno watched as the teams walked away from each other and climbed onto the small disks that would float them back up to where the other knights stood.

“ I told you; she doesn’t work well in teams.” Klaus muttered as he pushed his glasses up, Yuno turned to look at him.

“ But, she works well with us!” Mimosa argued, but everyone had seen it. She went rogue.

“ Yes. But the key word there is us, she knows us and has learned how to work with and around our affinities.” Klaus argued before they heard heels click against the stone ground, Yuno turned and saw the fair haired girl in question walking towards them.

Neva was breathing heavier than she would have liked, the battle really wore her out, it also used a lot more mana than she wanted. She shouldn’t have used her armor, but she wanted to get the battle done and over with as quickly as possible. She wiped the small beads of sweat off her brow with the back of her hand as she walked over to the others. Yuno’s eyes were narrowed slightly.

“ What’s wrong?” Neva asked as she stood in front of him.

“ Nothing. You did very well out there.” He answered simply, Neva quirked her eyebrow. She was sensing a ‘but’ in that statement.

“ But?” She pushed slightly, Yuno was a terrible liar or at least when it came to little white lies anyway.

“ But you need to remember this is a team test. You can’t just abandon them like that and go off on your own, that’ll most likely disqualify you if you do it again.” Yuno explained, his usual monotone voice held a certain sternness to it. Neva gritted her teeth, she knew he was right, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

“ Says the guy who told me to use them as decoys.” She threw back, Yuno blinked in surprise for a moment before he looked away in shame, he did tell her to do that didn’t he?

“ I shouldn’t have said that.” he admitted softly, causing her to sigh as well. Everyone in this test had been dealt a bad hand. Some worse than others.

“ What do you suggest I do then? Since I can’t go off on my own?” She asked him before crossing her arms, she watched Yuno think for a moment before he did a small half shrug.

“ Adapt.” He told her simply. Neva blinked, that was it? To adapt?! That was all the advice he could give her?! She shook her head before walking past him for a moment and coming to stand next to him, she watched as a small team cleaned the field for the next team.

“ Easy for you to say, you can adapt easily. I...I’m not so lucky.” She muttered under her breath, Yuno frowned, she was decent at adapting in his eyes. Sure she wasn’t as good as others, but she was still decent. Before he could open his mouth to argue his team had been called.

“ Looks like it's your turn.” Neva said as she turned to look at him, a small smirk on her face. Yuno nodded before walking towards his team.

“ Hey Yuno,” he turned as he suddenly heard Neva call him, his breath hitched in his throat slightly. She was smiling softly, like at the Star Festival. “ Good Luck.” All Yuno could do was nod in response before he turned and stood on the small platform that would take him and his team down to the small battlefield. He had seen that smile two times before, so why did it still make him feel...weird? Like he couldn’t breathe. He quickly shook his head, there wasn’t time for any of that, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

———

Neva watched silently as Yuno and his team entered the battlefield, she was nervous, even though she knew he would be alright. She didn’t really know why she was nervous for him though.

‘Maybe because you don’t want him to get hurt, hm?’ That little voice in her head teased. She quickly shook her head, no, that wasn’t it! That couldn’t be it! But a small part of her did wonder if that little voice could be correct, when Neva thought about it she was nervous when Mimosa and Klaus were fighting as well. She paled instantly, no, that was the complete opposite of what she wanted! She had to keep her distance, the walls needed to stay up, for everyone's sake. She heard the announcer begin the match and watched as Yuno and his team split up. He took charge almost as soon as they had landed on the field, he knew what he was going to do, and he expected them to follow.

Neva watched him in awe, the way he moved on the field...it was amazing! The way he used his affinity to carry himself, the way he was able to use both offensive and defensive spells at the same time without using very much mana. It was one thing when she fought alongside him, and another when she was watching him. She never noticed the way he flicked his wrist when he went to use one of his many offensive spells, or the way he clenched his jaw when his opponent made a counter move, or the way he seemed more comfortable in the air than on the ground. He carried himself differently on the battlefield than he did when he wasn’t, he was more confident, more comfortable here. This was his space. Neva hadn’t realized her mouth was slightly open in awe at him until she was snapped out of her thoughts by the one person she never wanted to see again.

“The Honest; always gives, but never takes.

A protagonist; never makes mistakes.

The honorable; always provides solace.

A leader; one that truly intimidates.

The true hero; the honest.

An honest man; is he.”

Llyr closed his poetry book with a soft ‘snap’. He came to stand beside Neva and watched as Yuno continued to dodge the lesser mage’s spells.

“ Are you trying to tell me something Llyr?” Neva asked in irritation, she hated his stupid vauge poems, ever since he was a kid he was always partial to that art form. He chuckled softly.

“ Maybe I am. But sadly, the message probably goes over your poor little head.” He sighed in disappointment. She glared at him.

“ Well I’m assuming the ‘honest man’ you’re referring to is Yuno, yes?” She asked with a smirk, she saw the genuine surprise on his face before he quickly covered it.

“ My, you have changed Neva. What a smart little girl you’ve become.” Neva growled, the way he was speaking to her, like she was a naive child, was really starting to piss her off.

“ You’ve got to the count of three to go away before I kick you across the field.” She warned, Llyr held his hands up in mock surrender before he laughed.

“ Aw don’t be that way Neva, I was only teasing. But you are correct, I was talking about Yuno.” He confirmed with a nod. “ May I ask you something?”

“ You’re going to ask anyway so I don’t see the point in you asking for permission.” She snapped, Llyr always did and said what he wanted, so why should he start asking for permission now?

“ How can you two be so close, and so similar, but yet be so different at the same time?” He asked, Neva turned to look at him in confusion.

“ What are you talking about? Yuno and I aren't very close.” She stated she didn’t think they were very close, or at least not closer than how squadmates usually were, he shrugged simply.

“ You sure? Because, it doesn’t look that way to me.” Llyr smirked slightly, causing Neva to roll her eyes at him. “ Y’know what I noticed? You didn’t deny that you were different, yet similar.”

Neva hmphed a bit, she had noticed their similarities a bit. Both were quiet, focused, and didn’t really want to make friends and yet they were different in the sense Yuno told everyone what he was thinking and didn’t have a problem telling them about his family, about the people back at his home in Hage village, while she, well, she didn’t talk about anything.

“ Crystal Destroyed!” Suddenly rang out, pulling Neva out of her thoughts, Yuno’s team had won and she missed it, because of Llyr!

“ Great thanks a lot.” Neva snapped, she had wanted to see all her squadmates' victories. The red haired man smirked and ‘tsked’.

“ What a shame you missed your boyfriend's overwhelming victory.” He tutted, Neva growled and she glared at him.

“ He is not my boyfriend!”

“ Whatever you say blondie, whatever you say.” He teased before walking away, she glared at the red heads retreating form. He was probably the most infuriating person on the planet, a small piece of her wondered how his fellow squadmates hadn’t killed him yet. She looked over when she saw Yuno and his team come over, Noelle walked past her to go speak with Asta and the other Black Bulls that had come to cheer her on while the man from the Green Mantis went over to be by himself, or that’s what Neva assumed anyway.

“ You did great out there.” Neva said with a smirk, she hadn’t gotten to see the entire match, but from what she had seen, and what she knew about him, it was probably an easy victory.

“ Thanks I guess. It wasn’t that difficult.” Yuno said quietly as the two watched a small crew begin to clean up again.

“ I didn’t figure it was.” She said with a small laugh, she figured most of these matches would be pretty easy for him, unless he went up against the Captain of the Aqua Deer or one of the Vice Captains. That would probably be the only time he would struggle.

The raven haired man and platinum haired woman stood in silence as the next team entered the field, neither really felt the need to constantly fill the silence with small talk like a lot of people felt they needed too, Neva had to admit it was nice not having to think of something to say. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw he appeared to be lost in thought, most likely about his next match. She sighed softly, she had been trying to think of a strategy herself, but considering her two teammates might as well be useful as a chocolate teapot in the middle of summer.

Neva blinked as suddenly the next team was already leaving the battlefield, what? When did she miss that? Yuno frowned as he looked over at her.

“ You alright?” He asked, he watched the blonde girl shake her head. The last time he looked at her she looked to be completely lost in thought, he shook his head, she was stressing herself out.

“ I’m fine, just...got lost in thought.” She laughed humorlessly, she frowned when Yuno made a disbelieving noise, but neither commented on it. She wondered why he had made that noise. Suddenly she watched his eyes widen and his mouth open slightly in shock. “ What’s wrong?” She asked before she followed his gaze up to the board. She gasped softly as her own eyes widened at the names.

The next two teams that would be going against each other were hers and Llyrs!

“Seriously?!” She said softly, why did the world have it out for her?! It wasn’t that he was stronger than her, it was that she had to deal with his personality on the battlefield. He was already annoying enough just speaking to him, she could only imagine how he was when you fought against him!

“ Well well well, if this isn’t a pleasant surprise.” Llyr laughed as he came up to stand beside Neva and Yuno, she gritted her teeth and glared at the red head who only smirked. “ I was hoping I’d get to test out your fighting skills today. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed.” He chuckled before walking towards his teammates.

Neva shook her head before she walked over to the small platform that would carry them down to the arena.

“ You’ll be ok Neva. You’ve got this.” She froze as she heard those words leave Yuno’s lips, she turned around to face him and he had his usual look on his face that she couldn’t read, but the look in his eyes showed he believed those words without a doubt. She smirked and nodded.

“ Thanks, Yuno.” She said as she stepped onto the platform with her teammates and floated down to the arena, she couldn’t help but sigh slightly in relief. She felt better knowing someone else believed in her.

———

Neva looked around, they had been dropped in a different location than before, they were in a small slightly worn down building that was surrounded by trees and foliage. She had to admit it was a good spot to hide in, well hidden, secluded. But it was also the perfect spot to be ambushed, so she made sure to keep her guard up. She looked over at Sonas and Lavis who just stood there looking around, she sighed in exasperation; these two were completely hopeless.

“ What’s the plan boss?” Lavis asked as he crossed his arms, Neva rolled her eyes; why did it always fall to her to come up with a plan? Did neither of them have a brain of their own?

“ I don’t know.” She confessed with a shrug, Sonas blinked and looked down at the ground.

“ L-Llyr is a really strong mage and his two teammates are as well, h-how are we going to beat them without a proper plan?” He asked nervously, Neva placed a hand under her chin thoughtfully.

Llyr was not dumb by any means, sure he liked to pretend he was dumb and aloof, but he was probably one of the most intelligent people she knew. She began to pace around the room as Lavis and Sonas watched her. Llyr’s main weakness was his pride, anger, and his ego. He believed he was more powerful than he actually was, now that wasn’t to say he wasn’t powerful, but she had gone against a lot more powerful people than him before. She smirked a bit as she was hit by a sudden idea, a memory from a previous conversation had popped into her head and she knew exactly how to beat Llyr!

“ I have an idea, but I’ll need you both to listen to me very carefully and follow my instructions exactly as I tell you. Do you understand?” Neva asked them, they both frowned but nodded.

Llyr sighed as he used his water magic to carry him, his teammates, and their crystal towards Neva and her team. He lucked out in getting a mage who had a mapping spell, so they were able to locate them pretty easily.

“ Huh.” The Blue Rose knight who was using the mapping spell suddenly muttered, causing Llyr to glance over at her.

“ What’s wrong? We’re almost there.” Llyr asked in mild annoyance, the girl frowned and looked up at him.

“ The group; they’re splitting up and going in completely different directions!” She exclaimed in surprise, Llyr smirked which only surprised the team more.

“ Ah, she’s taking a huge risk doing this. But is the gain really worth it?” He muttered to himself as he suddenly dropped the water transportation spell, he landed on his feet while the others landed flat on their faces.

“ She thinks she can weaken our team by separating us, making us all go in seperate directions.” He suddenly began to chuckle. “ But she forgets; it weakens her team as well. Where is the strongest mana coming from?” He asked the Blue Rose Knight, she looked at her mapping spell before answering.

“ Straight ahead. It’s a large concentration of mana but-.” She didn’t get to finish her sentence before he took off in the direction she pointed. “ H-Hey wait!” Llyr didn’t listen, he knew where there was a large amount of mana meant that Neva was there and, knowing her, she would be guarding the crystal herself!

Neva smirked as she stood in a small clearing, waiting for the red head to show up. She glanced at the crystal behind her, she hoped her plan would work, no, she knew her plan would work. She quickly faced forward before suddenly feeling mana approach her and saw Llyr flying towards her and her smirk widened; he brought his crystal with him.

What an idiot.

Llyr suddenly let out a yell as a wave of water came towards her, Neva quickly used ‘Diamond Palisade’ and a wall of diamond quickly appeared in front of her and blocked the water mages spell. Droplets of water splashed around her, some even landed on her cheeks, but she remained calm. There was no way he would be able to cut through her diamond.

“ Nice reflexes blondie.” Llyr smirked before he sent more and more waves of water towards her.

Neva either dodged or blocked them with her Diamond Wall, she would use her Diamond shower on occasion, but he was pretty fast himself. Llyr would dodge or capture it in a bubble of water before letting it drop to the ground. The more the two fought the more destruction they caused. Tree’s were being cut down, the ground was being destroyed. But worse of all; Neva was getting tired.

‘I...I used a lot more mana than I thought.’ Neva thought somewhat bitterly, she hadn’t meant to use so much earlier but she had no choice. She tried her best to defend the crystal, she couldn’t let him break it, that one thing held her chance at being a Royal Magic Knight!

“ Haha my my, the Diamond of the Golden Dawn is getting tired is she?” Llyr teased as he sent more waves of water towards her, that had been a title given to her shortly after she became a Magic Knight. She usually didn’t mind her title, even though it wasn’t used very much, but she absolutely hated the way it fell from his lips. Like he was mocking her accomplishment. She sent more Diamond shards towards him but again he dodged or captured them on bubbles. Neva began breathing heavily, she didn’t have much mana left.

“ Hah!” Llyr suddenly shouted, he sent a spear of water towards her and she made yet another wall, but as soon as the wall went down he sent a slash of water at her, but she didn’t have time to create another wall. The sharp edge of his water knife grazed her cheek before curving past her and cutting straight through the crystal. Neva heard the crystal shatter behind her and fell to her knees; this was it.

“ Hahaha! I can’t believe it, even after all this time you still can’t beat me and you’re supposed to be a part of the Golden Dawn!” Llyr laughed almost manically as he held his head high in triumph. “ At first I’ll admit, I thought you had really gotten stronger, especially since you’re in the Golden Dawn. But apparently, I was wrong. You’re still that weak little girl from many years ago who knew nothing about her magic and could only make little sculptures with it.” He stepped towards her and glowered down at her.

“ What a disappointment.”

Neva’s head shot up at that comment and Llyr’s eyes widened; she was smirking at him. Why? Why did she look like that? Like she had just won. That’s when it suddenly hit Llyr like a ton of bricks.

The announcer didn’t call out ‘Crystal Destroyed’. His blue eyes traveled towards where the crystal had sat only moments ago, he had destroyed it hadn’t he? So why wasn’t he being declared the victor? He growled as he looked at Neva’s smirking face again.

“ What did you do?!” He shouted in rage, and all Neva did was slam her hand to the ground and a diamond spear appeared behind him and pierced his team's crystal. He whipped around and stared as the shattered remains began to disappear. He gaped like a fish out of water, what the hell did she do?!

“ Crystal Destroyed!” The announcer shouted and Llyr felt his blood boil as the blonde stood up and held her head up high.

“ I listened to a friend's advice and used everyone as decoy’s.” She smirked as Yuno’s teasing words popped into her head. He had meant it jokingly, but it was actually a pretty good idea when she thought about it. She began to walk away from Llyr, he began to follow her and just glared at her back.

“ You see; I used my Diamond Magic to make 3 fake crystals that were nearly identical to the one we were given. In order to do that I had to use a lot of mana, plus I had to insert some of my, as well as my teammates, mana into them so your team wouldn’t be able to tell which ones were real and which ones were decoy’s. The real one was hidden in that old building behind me. I used your ego and against you Llyr, I knew you would come after me if the teams split up because you want to prove you're stronger than I am. Of course you failed because you let your pride get in the way of your intelligence.” Neva finished as she turned around to face him.

Llyr was pale. He had been played like a fool, and that made him angry. He began to shake violently, how dare she be so smug about this? How dare she think she’s better than him! He was able to beat her during their matches when they were kids, he was able to prove to everyone that he was better, stronger, and more capable than she was! He suddenly leapt forward to try and attack her, but Neva was quicker.

Without a second thought, the minute he got close enough Neva quickly kneed him in the groin, causing him to stop instantly and double over in pain. She shook her head and leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

“ You’ll never be better than me, not in a million lifetimes. Sure you can get strong, but I’ll get stronger. After all, I was gifted with more mana than you,” she smirked as she lowered her voice even more. “ commoner.”

The word slipped off her tongue like a slur, she watched as Llyr’s body stiffened and she could feel his rage bubbling. But he couldn’t say a single word to dispute her claim. She was born a noble, he was born a commoner. That’s why he had taken so much pride in beating her as children, because who would have ever thought a commoner would be able to beat a noble. She quickly turned around and walked away from him, sudden guilt beginning to eat away at her. She never threw her status in someone's face, it wasn’t who she was, but Llyr...he needed to learn to stop being so cocky all the time!

She glanced up at Klaus and Mimosa and saw them beaming with pride and happiness, even Yuno seemed to be slightly proud of her. But all she felt was shame. ‘Llyr deserved it, he wanted to call me weak and put me down, he deserved a taste of his own medicine!’ She tried to justify to herself, she quickly looked away from her squadmates and stood on the platform that would take her back up to the others.

Neva had thought she would be happy she had finally beat Llyr in a battle, but instead all she felt was guilt.

———

Ah I apologize this wasn’t very good but I hope you all enjoyed and I’m so sorry for the wait 😅! Hopefully chapter 10 won’t be as long a wait! Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good day~!

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Phantom and the Sorceress

Ducktales returns! The Phantom Blot returns to animation after too damn long with a neat backstory, an infnity guantlet and a hate boner for anything magic related. And since Lena is magic related she’s forced to go to her worst enemy and local close up magician Magica De Spell for help. Also Gladstone is here because we missed him and for no other reason. But we missed him so it’s okay. Friendship Is Magic, under the cut. 

Woo-ooo! We’re back! Months later and in a new room, with new things to be depressed about because this year is groundhog day and everyone is bill murray, which isn’t as fun as it should be, Ducktales is finally back on screens and in my heart. And my galbladder.. he really likes ducktales.  But yeah with the recent cancelation of the venture bros, it’s nice to get it’s spirtual littlte brother back just a few weeks later to help fill the void, and while a comparison to it now I know frank’s a fan and noticed the simlarties between rusty and gyro thanks to a tumblr post, the same post for both things inf act, I might just do that one day. But tha’ts not what your here, for , iv’e had to rewrite this intro enough times, Pitter Patter, let’s get at er. 

This episodes opens with Scrooge sitting down for his morning tea when the kids pop out of the tv and hte bored way he figures it out is really hilarious. David Tennat is really good at selling just how Scrooge has both seen it all and has the deductive skills of Barbra Gordon. What eveyrone syaing “Of batman” gets old after a while and she’s just as smart as he is, especially as oracle. Point is it’s a good bit. As he correclty guesses the kids were playing Legends of Nerverquest or whatever that game Huey and Della played last season is called, one of them wished it was real, presumibly Dewey, and Lena’s magic accidently made it happen.  And since it’s her first spotlight episode of the season, and possibly only one since this season is kind of packed, it’s time to talk about Lena! Admitely I PLANNED to do at least her first episode and her two season 2 episodes before this, but life got in the way so here we are. Lena.. is easily one of my faviortes, the number of weblena chats have made that clear. She’sd got a compelling arc, the show tackles abuse well in her narrative, and she and webby have really sweet chemstiry. Plus she brought us Violet and i’ll always be greatful for that and she’s voiced by Kimiko Glenn in her first major voice acting role so that helps too. SHe’s a great addition to the cast and the canon. Same, as the previous comment made obvious, goes for Violet, and the three togther have a great dynamic and i’ts nice to finally see an episode with JUST the three of them post “Friendship Hates Magic.”. 

But yeah Lena’s magic’s been going haywire and I do feel the setups abit rushed.. hilarious but rushed. While Night on Kilmotor hill did establish her magic can run wild, it was also vauge if it was because of her, or it was because magica was messing with her head. IT’s still a plausable setup since we haven’t really SEEN her use her magic or have any intrest and doing so and she’s only done so either while working for magica, to undo something magica did, or to give her sister a mace so she could literally go midevil on some alien ass, it just feels a bit abrubt. And while Night on Kilmotor hill also set up a problem we hadn’t seen on screen, it felt like it gave us more time to ease into it and Lena’s issues, and made it clear SOMETHING was up instead of just telling us that. The rest of hte episode is still good i’ve just seen the show be way better at setup than this. 

But yeah Lena’s magic keeps runing their fun and she feels bad about it, while Scrooge ends up putting his foot and spats in his mouth by voicing his hatred of magic, with all his nephews giving him a “Grandpa no look” and Webby glaring at him.. and whiel I didn’t realize it while watching it.. whiel sh’es given him a disaporving look, the equilvent of shooting bambi in the face emtoinally, she’s only been THIS angry with him one other time.. and it was the time he said “Your not family”. Thankfully this time he’s not in defnstive arrogant bastard mode, so he meekly walks it back to exclude her and she shrugs it off: She hates magic too. And really.. it’s not hard to see WHY given that most times it’s enterted her life, it’s nearly got everyone she loves killed, and that the only spellcaster she knows personally is the absuive aunt whose gaslighted her on multiple occasions, most recently to try and renslave her.  Thankfully before Webby can make an old man bleed for his insesntivity, Della reveals some magical creature is there and Scrooge, while annoyed it’s more magic, is happy for another adventure and invites everyone along. And I jsut love that he dosen’t even show the slightest hesitation bringing Violet and Lena along. As far as he’s concerned probably their family too, maybe not as much as Webby but their still welcome. I mean granted i’m sure della and donald had an awkard conversation with Ty and Indy over all this to make sure it was cool, but still, it’s a nice gesture on his part and show’s his personality: He really dosen’t care who comes along as long as they can pull their weight and share his love for adventure, their welcome.  It’s also nice ot see him and Lena interact since the two really haven’t since the shadow war: Sure he’s been in the same room with her twice, btu they haven’t really spoken. Though my honest guess is they could’ve genuinely meant for Scrooge to adopt her into the family.. but when coming up with Violet found her family adopting her and them becoming sisters to be a better idea and went with that. And to be fair it is, and not just for  shipping purposes, I just wish we got some closure on that line, but i’m also aware the show has a LOT of ground to cover each season, so I understand it probably got squeezed out by all the other stuff going on and don’t really sweat it since we got something better anyway, her getting two gay dads and a sister, it just felt worth talking about.  And in universe.. I feel he didn’t simply because he didn’t either know she was back or have a chance to, though i’m also damn certain, at least in my own headcanon, he helped those men formally adopt her. I mean he owns most of the city, and they probably also had to make Lena legally exist in the first place since I doubt Magica bothered to put her on any offical records that weren’t signed in blood and written on paper made of avian flesh, which given SCrooge’s experince is probably not the first time he had to get a person into official records who came into being by way of magic or some other weirdness. 

Anyways, Lena opts out of the adventure because she’s worried about it going haywire and Webby opts out out of sympathy and while Violet is clearly keen to go, she gladly does so for her sister.. though this just makes Lena feel worse since now her girlfriend and her sister are missing out on stuff because of her, and suggests just going to sleep before she whoopsie daisy magics them to death.  The girls end up woken from their sleep however by a bang at the door. It’s Gladstone!

Yup it’s time to talk about another character I haven’t talked about yet. Gladstone is easily one of the show’s best overhauls. See in the comics while Gladstone is just as lucky and lazy.. he’s also just.. 

Okay i’m amazed it’s taken this long for me to refrence jean ralphio in one of these reviews but i’m glad it was for this.  Back on topic, while I know Gladstone in the comics has his fans, and is softend a bit in european comics, but in most stories i’ve read with him he’s an insufferably arrogant dick. Even BEFORE getting his luck, his first apperance, which I own in trade and read earlier this year, has him trying to take Donald’s house and kick him and the nephews out on the street over a drunken wager to take a polar dive, which Donald fials because life hates him and he’s a coward. Thankfully Daisy rushed in and saved the day because she’s great sometimes ,and turned things on him wiht his own drunken crap, but still, it says something when your first apperance is trying to force three ten year olds and your own cousin out into the cold. 

He .. did not get any better once his super luck came into play. Instead he just flautned it all the time and tried to constnatly win Daisy over from donald.. which had varying sucess based on how much of a shallow dick she was being that story, and in general was just unplesant. He really only works for me in comic in those aformetioned softer times: when a writer makes his luck ruin his love life or add actual depth instead of him just being the raincloud on donal’ds parade. The original ducktales and the going quackers game are the only places I can think of he showed up otherwise, prototype in the old disney shorts nonwithstanding, and Ducktales Classic made him a nice guy from what i’ve heard. Thankfully frank and crew knew exactly what to do to adapt him perfectly: He still retains some aspects from the comics: Donald and Scrooge still hate him, Donald for Gladstone always winning and always having it easy while Donald.. is donald and thus utterly miserable half the time and on fire the other half, and Scrooge because he’s a lazy asshole who gets whatever he wants with the least effort, which didn’t change. What did change was his attitude. While he still is proud of getting whatever he wants in life with no effort and being “the best at getting something for nothing” he dosen’t lord it over everyone else. Sure he’s proud of it but he dosen’t rub Donald’s nose in how much better off he is on purpose, and genuinely loves his family, something I really coudln’t say about most versions of comic Gladstone. While he’s self serving he’s perfectly happy to share his luck with whoever else: He can always get more money whenever he needs it because of course he will. The other factor helping is , as with this entire reboot, the voice acting, in this case the marvelous Paul F Thompkins of Bojack and so much other stuff fame, who really sells the “Sleazy vegas layabout” vibe this series gives him, updating his old aristocratic asshole vibe to something more fun to watch and really being a treat anytime gladstone comes up. Gladstone singing in season 2 was entirely something Paul Improvised during his first apperance they made sure to use eventually. He’s a delight any time he shows up and a total 180 from his utterly agrviating original version. 

As for why he’s here.. said luck. is gone. After being hit by some weird energy, Gladstone suddenly, since he didn’t see it hit him, finds himself living normally: going to a restraunt offers no free meal for being 100th custmoer or anything, his wallet dosen’t magically have 20 dollars in it, and the atm gives him 20 dollars.. which would seem normal except it’s actually usually a sack of rubys.  Naturally Gladstone having coasted his entire life on his magical luck, has no idea how to function as a normal human being and is utterly hilarious as he breaks down. Admitely he’s not the biggest part of the plot, he’s mostly here for comic relief and COULD have been eaisly cut.. but he’s so hilarious and seeing him utterly fail at being a normal person and whine about things as simple as walking or going up stairs is just groovy.  As for what weird magical bolt took it, Violet being violet figures it out quick: The Phantom Blot! For those unfamiliar, he’s a charcter from the mickey mouse comics, though I know him from one episode of house and mouse that adapted those comics that I need to read more of, a master schemer and old school villian par excellence and Mickey’s greatest foe. I was ecastic to see him come here and in the capable hands of Giancarlo Espisto. While I haven’t watched brekaing bad i’ve heard nothing but good thigns and he does his best with what little he’s given. But here instead of a master schemer he’s an infamous magic theif and is obviously the one who drained gladstone.. and unforutntely for scrooge the boys and presumibly everyone else... we see him in action using his fancy infnity guantlet esque magic draining gauntlet to drain the portal they took. Ruh Roh.  It gets worse when he mistakes Lena for magica, and charges after her, though Webby is able to hold him off with the axe she grabbed on the way to the door earlier, and damages his gauntlet. he retreats.. but it’s obvious he’ll be back and both Webby and Violet come to the conclusion Lena needs to grasp her magic in order to survive.. and both have the same unfortunate relization: They only know one person who can do it and Lena, once she realizes what hteir thinking, wnats nothing to do with her, and neither do they. But they have no options: they have to go to magica.  So they journey to her house on Dagobah, with Gladstone tagging along because they need a wacky comedic sidekick to help lighten the mood what with the serious, grim hunter wanting to murder a teenage girl inf nront of her tweenage girlfriend and kid sister, and their only resort being going back to her abuser for help.  Magica however isn’t all that helpful at first. Being Magica her first move is to make a grab for the Amulet to get her power back, which her running crew thwart quickly but naturally Lena still wants nothing to do with her and Magica just insults her for not using magic and because she’s a terrible person. SHe does however end up changing her tune when she hears the blot’s involved. She whisks them inside while we get a cutaway to FOWL headquarters where blot is working on his guantlet more on him in a minute.  We soon get the Blot’s backstory which is actually really inttresting and invovled even if it’s not a lot like who he is in the comcis or house of mouse: A long ass time ago before meddling kids got in her way, Magica took over a small vililage with the threat of destroying it and eveyrone in it outright unless they gave her tributes.. and when those got boring she just did it anyway. Problem was, as happens a lot when evil sorecerers calously destroy hometowns, one of them survivied. It’s even lampshaded by Magica as she points out Blot wasn’t the first. The problem was.. he was persitant. The blot never gave up, coming up with better tech to fight her magic each time and coming back stronger and likely more determined. I like this verson: While he’s not the bwahahah mastermindk, he’s still an utter threat, a force with an unyielding hatred and a burning mission to take out the target of his hate and anything like her. He reminds me a lot of toffee from star vs but if htey actually gave his backstory on screen. A meancing, somehwat quite, or mostly silent in the blot’s case, immortal menace who’s deterimiend to wipe out those who wronged him and anything related to them and has warped from what was once probably a decen tperson into a human engine of destruction with one goal and one goal only. He’s a good enoguh villian for the episode, I just hope if he comes back they give him better lines. his dialouge is really what dosen’t work for me as whiel his backstory and aura of meance work, Giancarlo is given nothing to work with line wise. He dosen’t need to be a chatty cathy or anything, just give him one or too really cool lines. Sometimes tha’ts all you need. Watch how the pros do it. 

I do like this verison, I jsut think they could do more, but given the show has a good track record for only getting better with their villians with every use, I have no worries about that and he’s still a cool enough threat. I also wish we got more of fowl or why he’s working with them. just a small scene with one of them was all I asked, because we’ve barely gotten fowl this season. It’s really one of the season’s only real problems so far: 8 episodes in and while FOWL agents have shown up twice, adn one of the episodes did advance that plot by showing off heron and steelbeak, we really haven’t seen any progress on their plans to both take the missing mysteries or kill the Clan McDuck. HOpefully this changes as we go and again, it dosen’t ditract from the episode itself, jsut the season as a whole.  Anyways, Lena is still relucntant because Magica is terrible and keeps slipping in how much she wants to take the amulet every five minutes. I love the show and catherine tate’s take on magica: just as hammy and nuts as before but when she does have magic, she’s the utter threat she was before too times ten.  But yeah while Lena’s relunctant.. neither of htem really has a choice> Magica needs her amulet secure to get her magic back, and Lena needs to not die. So they relucntantly agree to work together among more hilarous sniping.  Cue a training montage set to a hell of an 80′s tune. The show really has a good habit of making good incdental music to use in bits like this. Lena trains, uses gladstone as the training dummy, and it’s funny as it is creative and we even get some karate kids bit and the obvious star wars refrences. Meanwhile the blot approaches ever closer..  We also find out something important from Magica as she chastises Lena for having fun with her friends while training after Lena uses blue magic instead of purple: Turns out much like spellcasters in say owl house or my little pony each caster has a specific color to their magic, a Colur of magic if you will. Magica’s, and lena using hers is purple while the blue magic we’ve seen from her is her own powered by friendship and love. It’s a nice advancement of what we’ve seen so far: We’ve seen her magic powered by webby is stronger than her other stuff, and we’ve seen it come out during times their bond, or in the case of kilmotor hill her bond with everyone, is strongest. We knew something was diffrent with the magics and it’s now given a though and clearly well thought out explination why: Magica’s magic is hers and Lena was just borrowing it.. the blue stuff is hers and hers alone.  Magica does try to get her to master it by having one of her friends shoot her.. Webby of course strongly objects so Violet takes it up since it is for study after all and her sister can take a hit. Lena also wonders how she can even do magic without the amulet, but as Magica makes clear, and as I outlined above, the amulet is just help. The blue magic is her. Lena fails to use it though to deflect in time.. and to make matters worse the blot shows up after plopping gladstone down and wants to kill them  both.  We then get easily the best laugh of the episode.. as Magica tries stage magic and the blot wonders what the hell he’s looknig at. I mean this is his mortal enemy, the monster who killed everyone he’d ever known or loved... pulling out a bunch of colored rags and asking him to pick a card. It’s amazing. Lena attacks from the side and Webby and Violet quickly asist, with Magica joining in to use the rope to bind him and Lena’s magic kicking in, turning the rope into chain and summoning a snake.. but in a show of badassery the blot easily shrugs it off: he absorbs the magic, escapes and knocks them around while Webby asks the snake for help.. can she speak snake? She hopes so. 

Then things get dire as The Blot starts absorbing the magic.. and killing lena as she starts to fade away. Magica of course can’t even feign dispaointment in anything but loosing her magic. And that’s also something I really love here: The show makes no attempt to make magica better or turn around because it just isn’t who she is and even if she did after all the abuse she did, Lena would have zero reason to forgive her. It’s nice that they DON’T try redemeing her or shoing a brighter side: she’s a bad person, a worse caregiver and they only came to her because they had no choice. 

But as the magic’s absorbed magica does tell her to find the source of the power and we get a great scene: She first thinks of all the abuse magica’s done to her and it’s a harrowing montage to watch. But webby, breaks through that, since that obviouslyf ails and reminds her of where HER magic comes from: Her and webby. and we get an adorable,a nd shiptastic montage as we see more clips from past episodes.. but this time we see their adorable fistbump from “Beagle BOy Birthday Massacre”, their hug from “Jaw$!” and Lena’s return to the world and hug with her lady and future sister from “Friendship hates magic”. IT’s her friends, her sister and the love of her life who are her real source of power, and her magic connects to htem as lena ccccchanges.  And I mean entirely, her outfit changes and she gets these.. weird bright blue eyes. Like I like the rest of her outfits, a white and blue attire to show her change with a badass cape, looks like a superhero so naturally I love it.. her eyes just look really off. Like when Milo Muprhy’s law tried to give characters colored irses. Because no one else in ducktales has them it just loosk.. weird.. Otherwise though I like it. We then get a beam struggle, but with adde dhelp from her friends and her new power, Lena eventually beats the blot, as her sheer power overloads the guantlet and sends him running. However in the confusion the amulet was lost.. and Magica gets it back. Lena whollops her easily, pointing out her magic’s purpose is to protect the world from people like her. It’s a nice development too: Lena realizes MAGIC isn’t inherently evil... it’s how it’s used. Star Vs could’ve maybe taken this lesson, but regardless, it’s a nice bit of character development realizing that magic is a part of her IS Her, and she shoudln’t have to give up something in her nature because of her abuser. Magica, while repowered, is force dto lookf or her staff while Lena gladly floats team magic home. Also with the guantlet broken gladstone is back, as a rain of 20 dolalr bills he uses as tissues confims, and the portal returns, and with Lena you know, havin ga whole superhero outfit, glowing blue eyes and her hair streak now blue, they know something clearly happend and the episode just kind of ends. Still a good one.  Final Thoughts: This was a good one as I just said. While I had my nitpicks here and there as I also said, Lena’s strong character, and the game performances of Espisito, Thompkins, and Tate really add to our usual trlo, and as I mentioned before it’s nice ot see team magic get their own episode now their a full team. IT’s just a good romp and a good way back. I”ve made my complaints clear but their drowned out by good jokes, good character stuff, and good worldbuilding that makes this an utter thrill and a great one to come back to and i’tll also be intresting to see where Lena goes from here.  But wherever she goes she’ll have webby. They can be whot hey are, independent together, if theyt ry. And yes that’s my shiping song for htem and yes I have one. 

Quick bit before I go I dind’t get to, Gladstone flirts with magica when she lands in his arms, a little something for the shippers and a nice gesture on frakn’s part. Whle she rejects him and he dumps her in the sludge with a shrug. I mean.. their probably going to bang at some point. Gladstone’s powers mean he’ll likely find her when sh’es super horny and more than willing, and he’ll be like “eh why not boobs”. I mean I thought about this: I figure his powers allow him to find a willing partner, any gender or none at all I see him as pansexual, who happens to probablyb e loaded and diseased free, whenever he happens to be into it who naturallyw orks out perfectly because if he gets money whenever he wants it, why not sex? It’s not even a concious thing as we’ve seen things just work out for him so of course he probably gets laid, and as we see here it’s only if the other person consets. Good for him. Hope to see him again sooner. I want to see more of him and della interacting and see what she thinks of him. Freshe eys andall that. 

But yeah this was great to come back to. If you liked this i’ve reviewed the rest of the season up to this point and will be reviewing each episdoe every monday till they stop again, so keep an eye out for that.  You can check the tabs on my blogs for more reviews, come back this weekend for regular loud house coverag,e follow for more reviews or shoot me a pm if you’d like to comission me to do an episode. For just 5 bucks i’ll review any episode of any animated show of your choosing, and as i’ve only covered one season 2 episode of ducktales, there’s over 40 left ot choose from if you have any you want to hear my thoughts on. Until then stay safe, quack hard, and Go Team Venture! Play us out Steg .. and Co. 

[angrylizardjacket]

Run to Paradise {Nikki Sixx} Part 34

34. it’s time we danced with the truth

Summary: lola and the band go to rehab, and lola has to confront her past, her fears, and her reality.

Warnings: discussions of drug and alcohol abuse and rehab, also angst

ragtag bunch of misfits: @starlalove @toofasttofallinlove @xrosegoldwolfx @obsessivesky @lovehelpmewrite @marvelismylifffe @lilytalebi @glitterdreamsz @freddiessmallnipples @crazysaladchopshop @dramatique-moi @calspixie @aryssav @catsoo12 @sweetshutter @silvertonguedserpent @shamelessobsessions @lavenderbones22 @keepcalm-and-beyou @scarecrowmax @nicholeh7 @unknownoblivion @sighsophiia @fruitinthebottom @misscharlottelee @local-troubled-writer  @redlipscrystalskies14 @kaitieskidmore1 @the-specific-oceans

{ MASTERLIST }

"I want you to picture your addiction sitting in that empty chair across from you."

Lola, who'd just come out of a week long detox, and had finally stopped feeling like death warmed up, stared at the empty chair in the unbareably beige office of the rehabilitation center's therapist.

"Can I get some water?" Lola rasped, craving a cigarette and knowing she wouldn't get one. The therapist, an aging woman a kind smile and a clinical stare, obligingly passed her a bottle of water. Lola really did want to take this whole thing seriously, but picturing her addiction as a person sitting across from her made her feel like an idiot. There was no-one there. No-one else had made her do any of this, why should she try and blame someone who doesn't even exist.

"At least you've acknowledged that this is self-driven, that's good, that's very good; self awareness is key. You are in control of you life, Lola," the therapist's voice is sweet, and Lola can't help but scoff.

"I wish I was less aware of myself, that's why I do all this shit," she snorted, and it's meant as a joke, but it's too honest by half, and the therapist frowns.

"Is that why you don't want to picture your addiction? Are you afraid to picture yourself?"

Lola knows she's not in the best shape, currently eight weeks pregnant and terrified of what to make of it, dead sober - pun intended - for the second time in six months, painfully aware of every terrible decision that has lead her to this exact seat.

"What do you see in that seat, Lola?"

"Nothing," Lola says flatly, and takes a long sip of water. The therapist sighs deeply, and Lola scrunches her eyes closed for a moment, forcing herself to play along, "I see myself."

"What does she look like?"

"Like me," with an implied eyeroll and obviously, Lola sits a little lower in her chair, trying desperately to ignore her growing nausea. She takes another drink.

"Like you now, or does she look like a different version of you?" The therapist asks, and Lola hears the scratch of a pen against paper. Lola takes a deep breath, another drink, and stares at the empty chair. If Nikki were here, he'd roll his eyes and make some sort of snide comment, and Lola would laugh, and her discomfort would ease. Maybe that's why they're in seperate facilities.

Except when she looks, when she really tries to see something, she can't see just one version of herself. She sees the night she was drugged while out with Vince and Razzle, sees herself that night, weak and crying to Nikki, making a vow to try and get better but not sticking to it. She sees herself chain smoking in Tommy's dressing room the night she tells him she loves him, so afraid of the pyrotechnics in the show that she tries to escape it by drinking, by letting herself focus on anything else. She sees herself, fully dressed in a hotel swimming pool, unsure of how she got there, halfway through a bottle of vodka, hoping she'll forget how and why she's telling Mick about her scars.

She sees a kid in a Queen crop top, asking for her first taste of alcohol instead of explaining, when Nadine looks at the scars on her back with concern.

"Younger me, I guess," Lola's voice is soft.

It had been escapism without having to go anywhere, because Lola was never using to escape her reality as much as she was escaping herself.

"What's she saying to you?"

"That it's easy," Lola doesn't realise there's tears in her eyes until they start to spill. She's looking at herself, laying on the pavement in her own sick, and blood from her broken nose, as the paramedics are hauling her into an ambulance, and she can't remember how she got there, which kind of makes it worth it, even if she's dying. In her memory, she's smiling, "it's easier than anything else in the world." Lola's voice cracks.

"Why are you here, Lola?" The therapist asks gently, and Lola's lip trembles.

"I keep hurting the people I love," she admits. Her voice catches in her throat and she has to look away from the chair. She thinks she's going to be sick, and its mostly the pregnancy induced nausea, but part of it is the painful self-awareness.

"I need to go-"

"Lola -!"

"Or I'm going to throw up on your nice carpet," Lola snaps, getting to her feet, stumbling from the chair, from the room, out to the nearest bathroom. The therapist calls to her again, but at least she doesn't try and stop her. Lola hates it here.

The facility is somewhere in Washington state, with more medical equipment than a rehab center is usually known for, but the patients here need extra medical attention, like Lola and her pregnancy. They take care of her, give her everything she needs, make sure she's eating healthy and drinking enough water and exercising, with daily therapy sessions, and weekly group therapy that she's kind of coming to dread.

One of the girls in the facility, another one of the patients, remembers Lola, but Lola doesn't remember her. She'd spent the night with Lola and Tommy in New York, and she won't stop apologising, even when Lola tells her she has nothing to apologise for.

"It was one night, it's okay, it happens to the best of us -" Lola brushes her off, but the woman is still apologising, almost crying.

"I smashed a bottle over your head, I tried, oh Lola, I think I tried to glass you, I was in such a bad place, I'm so sorry -"

Lola doesn't even vaugely remember what she's aluding to, but it also definitely sounds like something that would happen to her. All she can do is say that it's okay, and pretend like she cares. She's doing that a lot lately, pretending like she feels remorse. She'd probably need to feel guilt over the things she's done to feel remorse, but seeing as how she barely remembers her worst offenses, she can't bring herself to feel remorse for them. But her therapist ends up catching on.

"You told me you're here because you keep hurting the people you love," the therapist says with a level patience, "so if you're not sorry for the things you've done to the people you don't remember, would you change to stop hurting the people you love?"

"For them, I would," Lola agrees easily, which surprises her therapist with it's certainty. And then, unprompted, "but if they don't want me when we're all sober, that's - dude that's the nightmare scenario." She laughs, but it's devoid of humour, and her gaze is glassy as she contemplates. There's a lot of fears that Lola had been running from, that she's terrified to voice, and it's all she can do nowadays to distract herself from the reality of her biggest fear growing inside of her.

"Do you love them because of the drugs and alcohol?"

Lola falters, shaking her head quickly.

"And Nikki, you've told me you've loved him since..." the therapist checks her notes, "since you were fifteen; was it because of addiction back then?" Again, Lola shakes her head, and the therapist asks, "then why do you love him?"

It takes Lola a long time to finally find the words for her feelings, the things she's known for years but never been able to voice.

"He never gives up; he's never given up on me, and I love him for that, but it's... it's more than that, of course it's more than that. He's the most talented man I've ever known, and I mean no disrespect to the rest of the band, but Nikki... his mind is unparrallelled, and I'm always in awe of him. I really mean that; the music that lives in his head, the ideas and stories and everything, I've never in my life heard anything like it."

"I didn't ask what you love about him, I asked why," the therapist says quietly, and Lola's eyes go wide and uncertain, and she falls into a contemplative silence. When she finally speaks, it's hesitant, it's quiet, it's so unlike herself.

"Because..." she pauses, looking at her hands, "because he's the only person in the world who understands me, honestly,  like really understands me," she fidgets, pushing back her cuticles with her nails, "I miss him," she adds, a quiet aside, and bites her lip, but the therapist knows to keep quiet, that Lola's not done, "I love him because he's the soft place I land when I fall, every time," she hesitates, a smirk tugging at the edge of her lips, "which I know is sappy as fuck, but despite everything, he still loves me, he still catches me. He's my home, you know?" She nods, bringing her hand to her mouth to chew on her thumb nail, finally looking at the therapist, "he's my home."

"Will those feelings change when you're both together and sober, do you think?"

"My feelings won't change," Lola says, specifically, and the therapist gives a gentle smile.

"I'm going to play you something," she says, and Lola watches as she pulls a cassette tape out of her desk drawer, along with a small cassette player, "you're aware that I record all of our sessions," the therapist reminds her, and Lola nods, chewing her thumb nail, intrigued, "well I recieved this from the facility that's been treating the band -"

"They're together?" Lola asks, eyes wide, incredulous, as if almost relieved, "are they okay?" And the therapist seems pleased that that's her first reaction, her first question, and reassures Lola that they're fine.

"I'm worried about her, of course I'm worried about her, I miss the fuck out of her, the rest of us are here, she should be too -" Nikki's voice comes filtering out of the cassette player, and Lola almost bursts into tears at the sound of it. The unfamiliar voice that joins his must be his therapist.

"She's in a medically-focused facility that's giving her special care and attention -"

"Because of the baby," Nikki sounds like he suddenly understands, and there's a sudden knife-twist of guilt in Lola's chest, but she stays silent, "I just don't want her to be alone through that, family's always kind of terrified us, so I don't want her going through that shit alone." Tears are welling in Lola's eyes, only made worse when Nikki admits; "I'm just kind of fucked, because what happens when we both get out of here and she realises I'm just the piece of shit who ruined her life -"

"You didn't," Lola sniffles, cutting in even though she knows he can't hear her, but thankfully, the therapist gently tells him that he didn't. Nikki tries to protest, but the therapist cuts him off quickly, won't let him dwell in that sort of negativity, and instead asks why he loves Lola, just like her therapist had asked her only minutes ago.

Nikki is quiet.

"Like, the real answer?" He sounds hesitant, too honest and too raw, and the therapist prompts him with gentle affirmation, "I could say anything; you wouldn't know if I was makin' shit up."

"Why would you lie? Who would that help?"

"The real answer... I don't like talking about that shit with people I barely know. That's my shit."

"Nikki, you don't have to say anything you don't want to."

Nikki's silent for a very long time, and there's the sound of shifting, like he's trying to get more comfortable, and then he clears his throat.

"She puts up with our shit better than anyone else," but his heart's not in it, "even after all these years, she still loves all of us bastards, and..." he sighs, but his voice turns soft and gentle, "and she makes me feel safe, okay?" Finally, he sounds honest, and sounds like he's mad about being so honest, "when I'm with her, I feel safe being myself, no bullshit, no stunts, no fear, just... it's just us, and nothing else matters. And I'm fucked if she doesn't want me after everything, but I wouldn't blame her, fuck, after everything she's gone through I wouldn't blame her one bit."

"You're his home too," the therapist tells Lola, who's covering her mouth with one hand, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Does he... does he know I'm hearing this?" She asks, choking on the words. The therapist nods.

"Once he'd said it, and his own therapist suggested sending the tape for you to hear, he seemed more than accommodating -"

"I need him to hear what I said too, I need him to know- I need him to know," she was sobbing, though the guilt from his earlier words, and she hears herself babbling, "but there's - oh fuck - there's only one problem, and you can't - you can not - send this part, please. Turn the recorder off, please." And the therapist sits up straight, on alert as she hesitantly turns off the recording device on her desk, and Lola's trembling hands find her stomach.

"Lola, what's wrong?"

"I love Nikki so much," Lola's adament, "but the baby's not his."

[creamypudding]

The Anomaly part 2 - snippet

Diving back into The Anomaly feels like this when I try to explain it to myself or others -

I forgot the sheer amount of world-building I’ve done for this story. It feels like I need a wall of papers to keep track of it all, and yet, a lot of it also comes flooding back as I sift through the material.  I did a read-through and edit of Part 1 and thought I could hop straight into part 3 and get writing, seeing as part 2 is done, but I am wrong, wrong, WRONG, so wrong! I looked through part 3 and cursed myself out for past Pudding leaving so much stuff unclear. There is a section where there are many different characters all with aliases and I have no recollection if they are game characterd or OC’s I made, which side-tracked me considerably and stopped me from writing anything, Part 3 is the sticking point for me. It’s why I put this project on hiatus, because part 3 has the least amount of planning. I know exactly what happens in part 4, but part 3.... I have a vauge idea but so much is left uncertain. So much is left to be written!!

Anyway, I absolutely love this story and I wish it would write itself. I’m very excited to get back into this world and finish it, hopefully, in the next 2/3 months.

Please note this story (when completely posted) gets depraved and lewd and has a lot of dub-con, but that’s okay, because we are in a fantasy AU. For anyone who’s never read this and doesn’t know what I’m on about - Axel is an incubus and meets Roxas one Halloween and they have a lot of sex. It’s very messy and dirty and there is cum everywhere. There is also a lot of world building and I am hella excited about finishing this writing project - because Axel and Roxas deserve to be together and not live on separate planes of existance, so a lot of words are needed to give them their Happy Ever After. The below snippet is an early part in Part 2 - Axel, returned to his home from a night of SO MUCH SEX is very mopey and gets a visitor, who is also not very impressed with how depressed Axel is.

The flutter of bat wings occasionally rouses Axel from slumber. He gives Reno glares, swats him away with his wings, or tail, rolls over, and falls unconscious again.

For how long this continues Axel doesn't know, nor would he care, but one time Reno poofs out of his bat-form and sits on the large stone table in the middle of Axel's abode.

"Yo, what's wrong with you?" Reno grumbles, sitting on his ass, knees up and arms resting on them. 

"Nothing. Just a food coma," Axel croaks, his throat coarse and dry. How long has it been since he has eaten or drunk anything? Too long, yet he still doesn't feel like he's wasting away. He feels overstuffed… and weathered and beaten by emotions every second he is conscious. He squeezes his eyes shut, wishing for sleep to take him once again; his head hurts and there is a sharp ache in his chest.

"You're a shit liar," Reno harps on, his voice grating. "What happened to you out there? This isn't like you."

Axel grinds his teeth. "Nothing happened. Leave me alone."

"Not before you give me what I want. It's been too long. We made a pact. You feed me when I need it, and Adra," Reno growls, "I need it." He slams his fist against the stone-hewn table.

Axel rouses from his cocooning slumber, his blood pulsing and heat sparking. "Bit of hunger shows up and you call me that?" Axel's lips uncontrollably raise in a snarl.

"You're keeping that raw feed to yourself." Hunger glints in Reno's eyes. He's on all fours, crawling toward Axel's sleeping spot, slow, predatory.

"Don't look at me like that," Axel threatens, hating the greedy tone in Reno's voice.

Reno continues his slow creep toward Axel, in a low, threatening voice, he husks, "Give me what I want! Either an explanation or a feed. Preferably both!"

"Nothing happened,” Axel insists through grit teeth. Speaking about it… about him with anyone… he can’t bring himself to entertain it. It’s too raw, too personal, too… embarrassing. The things he did. The things he said. Those empty promises… he can't believe how much that meatsack has gotten under his skin. “Do you even care about me?” he throws out, a half-formed thought, not ready to be voiced, but there it is.

Reno stops his crawl, tilts his head and stares up at Axel, nonplussed. With startling speed he leaps up, his face right in Axel’s, seething, “What happened to you? Admit it!”

“Nothing!” Axel snaps, his teeth bared and his forehead pushed against Reno’s.

“Like Heaven’s Asshole it’s nothing! You tell me what happened or you give me what’s my due,” Reno snarls, his hands on Axel, his claws digging; his hunger too great to even care to think that Axel has the upper hand.

Axel grips Reno’s wrists, twisting them, pulling the claws off himself. A raw growl leaves his throat, his dander is up. He feels affronted seeing this side of Reno directed at himself, when for an eon they have remained amicable and close. "I don't owe you shit," Axel growls, flinging his wings out either side of himself, a menacing reflex.

“You do, you reckless mistake,” Reno spits with bile and venom, knowing where to hurt Axel the most. “Who do you think got you of that dungeon?”

Axel shudders with abhorrent rage, his body glows red, his tail ramrod straight, and he squeezes Reno’s wrists so tight, he can almost feel the bones inside cracking, but Reno doesn’t budge, doesn't pull away, doesn’t let weakness or fear show. He still thinks he can contain Axel… he’s probably right. Axel powers through his anger to arrive at thoughts—at words; “You said we were brothers. That we would look out for each other. We are the same—banished.”

“We are,” Reno glares dangerously, his eyes burning with green fire. “So give me what I want and I will be what you treasure," he says, his face pulled into a hideous mask of anger.

Axel startles at that word-choice. His grip relaxes for a fraction of a second long enough to let Reno have the upper hand, pushing Axel over, landing on top of him. He caresses Axel’s cheek, traveling up to his mane and… horn. There is a coolness to his touch and his face wears a devilish smirk. He husks, “I will hold you and lick your horns,” he slowly traces a finger up the bumps of Axel’s horns, eliciting a tingle along Axel’s spine, “and I won't even tell anyone about how you've lost yourself and—fallen for a meatsack,” Reno suppresses a laugh.

Axel’s embarrassment, mixed with anger, explodes. He roars and flings himself up, lunging at Reno, tearing at his skin and hair. Reno poofs, his tiny bat wings faltering to work in unison for a second, but then he manages it and squeaks up toward the ceiling. Axel jumps up after him, his powerful wings raising him up into the lofty parts of his home. He reaches out, struggling to clutch at Reno’s small form. 

They race against each other. Reno flits through a crack in the rock, which opens up to the cloud-filled sky. Axel slams into the rocks, finding purchase for his hands and feet. He glares through the crack, seeing Reno’s gleaming eye on the other side and hearing his grating laugh.

“So it's true.” Reno laughs even more. “I was kidding about the meatsack, but… wow. You really were made completely wrong. Daddy-dear truly wasn’t thinking when he made you.”

Axel bellows out of rage and smashes his fist against the rock, causing a sharp sting of pain to course down his arm.  Shards of rock break and fall to the ground below.

Reno laughs some more, but less of a mock, more dry and displeased now. “You’re no good to me like this. Get your horns screwed on right again. We need each other. Nobody else will have our backs. I’ll return to check on you later.”

“I don’t need you,” Axel screeches, but Reno’s already gone. Axel strains to loosen his tight grip and plummets for a moment before gliding back down to the ground. His head hurts, his arm radiates with stinging agony, and his throat is parched. He knows he can’t keep hiding away. It’s not making him feel any better, and now he’s lost the one ally he’s had in this world. And then there is the meatsack, the hooman—human—Axel corrects himself, imagining the disdained on that cute little face. Mirth bubbles up for the first time since that night. It quickly crashes, leaving him with an ache which curls Axel’s lips up into a sad sneer. Roxas. A well of deep sorrow gushes forth. He breathes it down. How long has it been now? Axel doesn’t know. Long enough for Reno to look gaunt again, and to feel his hunger pangs. Long enough for the frenzy outside to have died down, he hopes. 

Axel looks down at himself. He still barely recognizes himself with how buff and filled out he is. Even after a long hibernation following his past feeds, he usually doesn't retain such an overstuffed appearance for very long. He can't believe how potent his feeding with that small creature had been. There had been so much feeding. A frenzy really. And his own cum leaving him—that uncontrollable tugging and release he felt inside himself… something about it niggles at him. A hint of forgotten familiarity.

[roseamongroses]

here we are again

s u m m a r y

Roman was suppose to be the solution.

Remus was suppose to be left alone.

But it didn't work, it never would.

c h a r a c t e r s 

Roman Sanders, Remus Sanders

w a r n i n g s 

blood/bleeding/wounds used as metaphors, cursing, vauge ending, roman’s never ending self loathing 

v i b e s

sad, angst, fusion

It was a wound, twice scarred, that Roman couldn’t help but keep picking at. It was easy to fall into old habits which is why he had to work twice as hard to keep it from bleeding all over again. Sometimes he felt too quiet, sometimes too loud, clutching at the ideas in his head-- trying to make something of worth, trying to shape himself into something of value, someone who could be trusted. 

What he didn’t know was that he was already bleeding, he was sitting in a puddle of his own mistakes, slick with it's taunting failure and he didn’t even know it. He wasn’t sure if the denial made it better or worse. He didn’t want to know, but it certainly didn’t make it excusable. 

“How many times can someone apologize?” 

That’s the real question because after so many slip-ups, why should they be expected to forgive him?  He should be a hero, that knight in shining armor that can be trusted, yet he couldn’t even trust himself. He was supposed to be the solution, but it was all falling apart, he was falling. 

“Oh, lookie, “ Remus let out a laugh, a high-pitched cackle which grated Roman’s nerves, “Did they finally get sick of your face?”

Roman’s eyes snapped up, but with no real heat, no real anything, “What are you doing here?” he said, as Remus crouched in front of him, rocking on the balls of their feet.

“What am I doing here?” Remus made a tsking sound, flopping down with the expected amount of grace, “No, no, no, I should be asking you that question, ”  he made a sweeping gesture, “This is my place, not yours,” he said, “So get the hell out, eh?” 

Roman rolled his eyes, “No I’m--” He froze, eyes registering the sweeping darkness around him. His heart sank, a slow trotting panic filling him as he consciously searched for his space, his part imagination, only to be told that he was there. He was already there. 

Remus realized at the same time, “Oh,” he said, manic grin the same, but eyes dull.  

Roman stood abruptly, “I can fix this,” He gritted through his teeth, not daring to look down, not daring to look at them-no, himself. He’d have to, there was no way he was going to let this unravel all their work, unravel their deal.  He can work. He can exist. 

“Can you?” Remus taunted, but he looked sick, “This isn’t the first time you fucked up,” 

“If I do recall,” Roman grumbled, trying to will the imagination apart, “Last time was your fault,” 

“Middle school sucked ass,” Remus said,  ”I was keeping it fun and spicy, and--” he grimaced, “Ugh, hurry up I can already feel your self-loathing,”

“I’m trying,” Roman snapped, “It isn’t,” The imagination wasn’t budging,”...It isn’t…”

“It isn’t working,” Remus finished for him, dangerously quiet. 

 “I don’t think it ever worked,” Roman nodded numbly, not quite knowing when he sat down, “We...don’t work...I--” his shoulders shook, but he wasn’t crying, the laughter spilling without joy, without anything, he couldn’t feel anything, “I don’t work,” 

Remus didn’t respond, he didn’t have to. Everything was spilling into each other, the lines were already blurring, the wound was gushing and showed no signs of stopping. The hate, the love, every nauseating fear clashing with secret desires too much to ever hear. 

Remus would’ve never admitted that he wasn’t curious about before. One moment there was creativity, the concept-- infallible without fault, the next moment there were the two of them. The one that worked until they couldn't, the one that worked in all the wrong ways.

At a certain point,  Remus had embraced it. He didn’t have to face the prying eyes of the other sides. He did what he did without fearing whether he was too much or not enough, but he also did without reward. He did without acknowledgment because he didn’t need the mess, the feelings, the limits.  

He didn’t need it. 

But that doesn't mean he didn’t crave it. A deep, gnawing hunger, for more--knowing that the other sides had more, that they were complete. One could say he hoped that maybe if they were together instead of separated that it would be better. 

Now they were complete, but they were still spiraling, still hungry for something they couldn’t quite understand and d all they could ask themselves is,

 “What now?”

[sweetlittlehawke]

Bittersweet

Some one-sided Haurchefant/WoL angst. At the time that I wrote this (which was a while ago) Sty was very much only in love with @nijohirjesyho and couldn’t imagine himself loving two people.

Lord Haurchefant is many things. Kind, helpful, handsome, genuine, trustworthy, loving, the list goes on. It’s a list Styliani’s heard many times from many people; Samilen, Nijoh’ir, Kita, nearly everyone he’s met that knows Haurchefant, knows how his heart goes out to all. While he may be scorned and hated in Ishgard, anyone from outside the country sees the value in him. They see him as a man, not as a bastard. Styliani may not have much understanding of the prejudice against bastards, but he does understand it means a lot to the Elezen that Styliani doesn’t care about his birth status. Styliani remembers well a late night conversation with Haurchefant about their births, about how pirates seldom marry or stick to a single partner. Haurchefant was astounded by how accepting the young Miqo’te was. He knew Styliani hated talking about his past, that even his nearest and dearest friends only know pieces. Their conversation was vauge at best, but it meant a lot to Hauchefant. Styliani mentioned his parents being unmarried, and how it was common among the pirates in Limsa, but it was worded in such a way that it was unclear if Styliani was one such pirate. Regardless, it was comforting to hear that being a bastard didn’t impact Styliani’s view of him. If he’s being honest, he could have guessed. It’s no secret Styliani is closer with Nijoh’ir than most of his other friends, and Haurchefant is aware that Nijoh’ir was also born out of wedlock. He is no fool, he knows how to put two and two together. But, assumptions are dangerous.

With all of this knowledge, and the conversations they have had, it’s lead to here. Another late night conversation, as is so common for them. Being summoned to talk to Haurchefant is nothing new. They both enjoy their conversations and the things they learn from each other. Styliani expected tonight would be no different. When he arrived and found Haurchefant waiting with drinks prepared by the fire though, he felt like something was off. Most of their talks start with business and devolve into pleasure, but this looks set up for pleasure. The moment Styliani sets foot in the door Haurchefant stands to greet him, arms open and a smile on his face. “Styliani! Tis good to see you! I trust your travels have been going well?”

The Miqo’te nods, closing the door behind him and speaking as he crosses the office, “As well as they ever do.”

Once within reach Haurchefant pulls Styliani into a hug, a rather common occurrence since he learned how much the Miqo’te enjoys physical affection. It’s such a familiar feeling to be in an embrace with him, and how Haurchefant longs to hold on forever. Alas Styliani pulls away and reaches for a drink. “So, what do you need from me?”

Haurchefant follows suit, grabbing his own glass. “Ah, a rather… delicate topic if I am to be honest. I was speaking with Iz’ya, and he mentioned something that is of great interest to me.” He pauses, taking a long drink from his glass. Haurchefant is not known for being reserved, lead of all with Styliani, but this evening seems to be an exception. It is with a heavy sigh that he speaks again, “Iz’ya gave me some advice really. I admit I was lamenting some sorrows to him in an unseemly manner, but he, much in the same way as you, is kind beyond words. He took no offence at my drunken state, and instead told me how to calm my anxieties. As much as I disdain facing this, for fear it should result in anguish, it is something I simply must say.”

Once more he pauses, and Styliani speaks up in the break, “You don’t have to be so formal. I’m a friend, you can speak casually.”

The Elezen chuckles nervously, “Ah… of course. I’m sorry, I can lead Camp Dragonhead no problem, but matters of the heart are something else entirely.”

The mention of love certainly isn’t what Styliani is expecting, as exemplified by him choking on his drink. He stammers out an apology, wiping stray drops of wine from his lips. “Love? I flirt a lot I know- but if you want actual love advice I’m… not going to be much help.”

Haurchefant waves a hand as if to dismiss the thought, “No, no, as I said before, Your brother offered advice. Now I am simply following through on it.” He moves over, kneeling in front of Styliani so they are eye level. “Your brother said you have interest in someone, though he dared not tell who. I know not if that is because he isn’t privy to the information, or simply did not wish to share it. This leaves me to wonder who it is that you care for, and how I might aid you in… pursuing them.”

Styliani nods slowly. As he said, he’s no expert on romance, and he certainly has told Iz’ya who it is he loves. Far too similarly to Haurchefant he’s spent too many nights drunken and unloading on Iz’ya, and while he will admit in Coerthas it’s been a lot harder topics, but it is still all too common for him to simply talk about Nijoh’ir for hours on end. How Iz’ya handles it Styliani will never know. What Haurchefant is saying though, sounds more like a question or a request, as if he’s hoping he’s the target of Styliani’s affections. He’ll admit, he cares greatly for Haurchefant, but not in that way. The man is far kinder than most, has done more than Styliani ever expected for the Scions, he’s handsome for sure, but Styliani can’t look at him the same way he looks at Nijoh’ir. There’s only one way to figure out his intentions are though, and that’s by asking- something Styliani is not keen on doing. “I appreciate the offer, but no. There’s more going on than me simply not making my interest shown. He is far too busy with his own duties, and I don’t know that Sun can handle a relationship right now.”

The Miqo’te realizes when he stops talking he didn’t actually ask Hauchefant’s intentions. What he reads off the man’s face says it all though. The moment Styliani said Sun, a known nickname for Nijoh’ir, Haurchefant’s face fell. His expression had been nervous, but still felt like there was hope to it. But the moment a name was used Hauchefant’s eyes fell and his shoulders slumped. It felt like watching his heart break. Then he spoke, and Styliani’s heart broke for him. “Nijoh’ir? He’s who holds your heart?” He asks, voice hardly above a whisper. There is merely a nod from Styliani as Haurchefant stares at him. The eye contact is awkward, it lasts so long with neither of them speaking.

“Is that… a problem?” Styliani asks, faltering slightly on his words. He never did ask, but he’s confident he knows what Haurchefant’s intentions were now. His trepidation on asking his intentions seem to be placed correctly. Now he must simply deal with the fallout of that.

The Elzen shakes his head quickly, eyes darting back to Styliani. “Of course not! It is good that you care so much for him. You’re clearly very close with him already, I was a fool to not see it,” he says, the last sentence trailing off into a whisper.

Styliani shakes his head, scooting forward in his seat to take Haurchefant’s hands into his own. “You’re no fool Haurchefant. You’re one of the most admirable men I’ve ever met. It’s just hard to see things sometimes, with everything going on like we’ve been dealing with.”

Haurchefant smiles sadly, eyes falling to the hands that hold his own. They’re so much smaller than his own, and feel so fragile, but so safe as well. They are calloused, as any warriors are, but still soft. He’s not the close and personal combatant his brother is, nor the sculpted archer that Nijoh’ir and Samilen are- but his magic has a flair all its own. Or is that simply Styliani himself being so splendid? “I thank you Styliani, you are too kind. I do hope things go well for you and Nijoh’ir. You two are both splendid. If you are ever in need of anything, I am always here Styliani.”

He nods, understanding well what Haurchefant is saying, or even just implying. Not everything is said, but it is understood. Haurchefant will always be a friend, or more if that is desired, but overall wants what is best for him, and will let himself fall to the wayside. It’s an attitude Styliani can’t argue with, it’s admirable and humble. “Thank you Haurchefant,” he says before standing up. He grabs his glass to down the rest of the wine before saying, “Have a good night,” and leaving the office.

Tonight certainly did not go how Styliani or Haurchefant expected, but in the end it wasn’t bad. It was not good per say either. Bittersweet is the best descriptor Styliani can think of. He feels bad for having to reject Haurchefant, because the man is more than anyone could wish for, but he’s not Nijoh’ir, and Nijoh’ir is all that Styliani wants. He’s grateful beyond words that Haurchefant took it so well, as he’s seen the same situation play out much worse far too many times in his life.

[malisonquill]

Rebuild: Behind The Scenes

I thought just for some fun, I might post the plan I made for writing Rebuild. It has some silly alternate titles, some doodles I sketched out, and I thought some people might like to see how much the end product was different from the plan. 

I do also have a section of the plan just for ideas, but I haven’t included it here because it contains spoilers for the sequel(s). 

Hope you enjoy my ramblings below! (Obviously it contains major spoilers for all of Rebuild, so make sure you’re read all that before reading this!)

Rex Brickowski AU Outline

C1: Rexile (AKA Anikin Voice: "I hate Sand". AKA What to do when you're suddenly not dead)

Rex ends up back in his own original timeline in the outskirts of Syspocalypstar. He’s alone, no Rexcelsior, no velociraptors. That makes him sad. 

He looks to the city and thinks about everything.

Cat lady comes, he gets bricks and builds and awesome bike  and drives to the city. 

C2: Shattered (AKA Rex really likes bikes for some reason and also fucks shit up)

There, Lucy and the others are chillin in a park while Rex tears through the city exploring, turning heads. 

He goes up a ramp that sends him up over a building above the park. Whilst in the air he grabs his bike and does a flip. The others watch him. He lands on the road next to the park and spots Lucy, his eyes go wide. He does a skidding turn to pull up beside them. 

They say how awesome that was. They don’t recognise him and he plays along with that. He needs to get used to them and himself before he drops a bombshell on them. 

They show him around the city. He gets a black coffee from the shop. Freezes when he sees a laundromat (PTSD), he hallucinates the deafening roar of the Dryar of Undar until Unikitty distracts him and pulls him away and they continue the tour. 

At one point Everything is awesome plays, he acts aloof but taps his foot quietly and lucy notices. 

Eventually they get to the town square. There is a statue of Emmet. Rex is immediately taken aback and asks what it is (to gauge his friends reactions and also because he's genuinely surprised to see he's been acknowledged). 

Lucy says it honours the special, Emmet. That he was there friend. That they looked for him for a while, but eventually had to admit that he was gone, so they stopped looking. 

BIG ANGST TIME.

Rex snaps. He’s still bitter. He starts off vauge like “You gave up? Would he have given up on you?” but gets increasingly louder and madder. Revealing that he was trapped in Undar, how he feels abandoned and slowly revealing to the others that he’s Emmet. Lucy is like “Emmet…?” And he’s like “Emmet is gone! He’s dead!” 

He breaks the statue in one punch in anger. His friends are horrified. He looks between them and the statue, shocked and saddened by himself. “What have done?” (Internally). He drives off, leaving the others sad and confused. 

C3: Traces Of You (AKA Talking to your ex who you feel betrayed you, even though she thought you were dead… that's rough buddy)

Alternate titles, How can you stand there, a whisper from me? Gone But Not Forgotten

After a short while, giving everyone some time to breathe/ think, Lucy finds Rex in the outskirts. They talk. He explains how he toughened up, how he did some terrible things, how he wants to be better but doesn’t know how. How he’s ruined any chance he had with his friends because of the statue incident. Tears form in his eyes. Lucy goes to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder and says “Emmet...” Queue the “I’m not Emmet anymore and I dont know how to be” line.

Lucy convinces him to not be just one, be a combination. That his friends can help him through this and him to be happier again. He says he’s still can’t fully/ needs time to trust them again, but he’s willing to try. Oh and to call him Rex, cause he wants to be different from movie Emmet. 

C4: Building Blocks (AKA DON'T TOUCH ME WHEN I'M WRITING ABOUT SPACESHIPING!!!!)

Lucy and the others ask Rex to build something with them. He decides on a spaceship, they let him lead. Friend interactions. 

C5: Time Heals All Wounds (AKA So it turns out you based your entire new personality on your friends and also you finally acknowledge your PTSD)

Over a longer time period (make this clear), montage of helping with each individual. Them understanding Rex and who he is more, maybe after he tries to act exactly like Emmet would but it’s unnatural for him? Finding out about raptor training. Helping him cope with his PTSD (Dryar, paralyzation, loneliness) and abandonment issues.

(after writing half the chapter, i realised) His hand injury and recovery mirror emotional healing! )

https://askmarietheapprentice.tumblr.com/post/183050688583/meta-monday-rex-dangervest-based-his-persona-on 

Order: 

Fist, alone with Benny, flying spaceship they all built. (Who Rex developed his spaceship love from.) Emotional thing dealt with: ?

Unikitty. He learnt to harness/ weaponize rage from. Unikitty encouraging him to release some anger and destroy some rubble. Helps him get his anger feels out.

Metalbeard. About being a captain of pirates/ raptors. Talk about how he misses them.

Batman. Learnt how to be tough fighter and suppress deep emotional issues. See below for events. Then they talk about talking through things with others, stuff B learnt in Lego batman movie.

Maybe he’s left alone for ten mins whilst a friend goes to grab a brick or something and is terrified they wont come back. He’s relieved but visibly shaken when they do return. 

Maybe a change over between friends. One has to go and leaves Rex to meet the batman outside of a shop. As he waits his mind wanders thinking Batman has forgotten about him, doesn't want to meet with him, or even like him etc. As this happens he hallucinates hearing the dryer roar. He stands frozen in place, covering his ears as his vision gets darker. Maybe this causes him to glitch to the real world and back every few seconds. The roar gets louder and louder and louder. Batman comes, sees Rex, is concerned and tries to get his attention by touching his shoulder. Rex freaks out, snapping out of his hallucination shouting/ screaming and madly thrashing punches. He smashes a bin or lamppost or car to pieces before Batman can calm him and he realises he's fine. Rex apologies.

Lucy. Made a super cool alias like Wyldstyle, and hides his insecurities under confident exterior like her. Maybe they talk on their way to her surprise. She asks why he changed his name and himself? He explains his thoughts on Undar, how at the time he thought his friends were right and so he toughened up. Made a cool name like she did. He realises a lot of his Rex traits are semi based on his friends. Maybe talk about how it's good to be confident but also not bad to be vulnerable/ talk about problems with others. He realises he's already been doing this with others? Or just have mostly fun not angst for them here!? Meh, idk yet.

Ends with Lucy giving him that cute little house he made for her, that he’d almost forgotten about. Says it’s just a basis and he can change it if he wants. Talk. Suggests they could be platonic (for now) roommates. She leaves him for the night, he’s now ok (ish) with being left alone. 

C6: True Colours (AKA Title made it sound like Rex would turn out evil but surprise! He actually just wanted to look pretty. AKA Rex stares in a mirror for an awkwardly long time)

When Lucy returns, Rex looks different. He briefly went to the Man Upstairs realm and used markers etc, to change his appearance. He wanted some brighter colours to look happier, and more like a combo of Emmet and Rex. He explains this, and decides he wants to be called Rex Brickowski to symbolise this combo of all his aspects. 

Basically this first bit is the man I used to be from count of Monte cristo musical.

(Rex and Lucy designs and also size comparison.)

Maybe some Rex and friends hanging out, it’s better than before. Group karaoke? Tries to warm up to Sweet Mayhem?

C7: Epilogue (AKA The end happens. Everything is awesome is still a bop)

Rex and CO are hopeful for the future. Rex knows who he is now and thinks he can be happy again and trust his friends. He’s a mix of mature and innocent/ sweet. He can now enjoy ‘childish’ things and tough things. He’s happy and thinks everything might be ok now. 

Maybe he goes to the coffee shop, orders Lucy something and a black coffee with 25 sugars for himself and returns home, listening to rock music on his headphones.

(End on poignant thing.)

Side Notes/ Reminders For Myself

“According to a draft from the first film's script, Emmet is 22 years of age in that film, thus making him 27 in the sequel if accepted.” My AU Rex spent 2 years on Undar, plus 5 getting tough before the movie happens. Making him 34 at the start of the AU.

Rex was in his past changing things. But when Emmet was saved, it was no longer his past/ his timeline. So he faded and was sent back to his original timeline. All the stuff he did in the movie timeline still happened, we see three raptors are still there with Ms Scratchen-Post at the end. So the raptors stay where they are in the movie timeline, because they aren’t like Rex who is being written out of the movie timeline’s future. Which is why Rex is alone at the start of this AU. 

Very important! Rex's trust of his friends. My take: friends are the most important thing to Emmet. With friends, he was happy even during the apocalypse. Without them, he becomes jaded, tough. Lucy is who he was closest to/ loved. None of his friends, but especially her not coming for him and moving on hurt him the most. As Rex, he was most mad at her (see him scowling at her during the movie). But then they all try to come back for movie Emmet. Lucy makes it through and saves him. She saved him. This changes post back to the futuring Rex's view. The fact the movie Lucy saved him plus the fact he loved her and cared for her the most before, means AU Rex is inclined to trust her most. 

Titles for 3 stories: Rebuild. Rekindle. Re-----. (I'm an idiot for planning 3 of these!!!!!)

Rebuild: Rex's relationships and himself up again. 

Rekindle: his and Lucy's love for each other. 

Re-----: ((REDACTED BECAUSE IT’S A SPOILER! You’re gonna have to wait to find out what it is!))

INFO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw-r_G7rfnU - Chris Pratt Singing

Dino facts:

https://www.psd1.org/cms/lib/WA01001055/Centricity/Domain/36/SS_How_Fast_Did_Trex_Grow.pdf

http://cycles.westinmathies.com/Info_Pages.asp?ptype=Velociraptor_Cycl

SPELLING = Armamageddon (according to the subs)

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

And that’s it! This is the rambling mess that brought you Rebuild. Hope it was interesting to see.

As another note of my writing process, I did a lot of jumping around. If I had an idea for some lines of dialogue pop into my head, I wrote it down before I forgot and then slightly altered it and filled in the gaps later. In fact that whole bit between Lucy and Rex in chapter 3 was almost all dialogue (with a few notes like “He turned. She smiles” Etc in between) and then later after writing some of chapter 4, I went back and filled in all the gaps. 

I would really recommend writing down whatever pops into your head like this if you want to write things. You might think “Oh, i’ll remember to put this in when I get to writing here!”, that is a lie. You won’t. Or it’ll be different to that brilliant thing you came up with whilst day dreaming out a window. It’s definitely better to jot it down and have it, then decide to edit it later if you don’t like it, than lose it entirely. Just make sure when reading over your chapter/ story that everything flows together nicely. :)

This method also meant I wrote chapters 5, 6 and 7 simultaneously. I had about half of chapter 6 and 7 done whilst I was still making my way through 5. (Probably because 5 was so big!) But then when I was done with 5, I finished off 6, then 7. It also really helped when I came up with the idea to put the first line of the story as the last line too. It gave me a direction to go in for the last chapter (after Rex get’s back from the coffee shop) and also was a nice way to end it off. 

Anyway! Hopefully I see you all again for Rekindle! Which by the way, if there is anything involving the characters from this story that you might want to see, please let me know! I might just fit it in somewhere! :D

[mic-and-cheese]

Ok this is enough. I'm done being vauge and quiet. I have been hurting and in fear for so long and it's not ok that I've been made to believe that I shouldn't talk about it.

I've ignored nasty anons to pretend like it doesn't bother me because I knew that people from the fandom were watching my blog for a response. I was scared to show any sign of weakness because I wanted them to give up and for a while I was happy because nothing happened.

Then I learned that they have been lurking on my blog for who knows how long despite multiple warnings and posts and dnis saying I didn't want them here.

And that's honestly my final straw. I'm a person who wants to forgive no matter what awful things someone has done to me. I still have it in my heart to say I'm sorry to a disgusting person for something they did to me 3 years ago, and I don't even want to associate with them because they turned out to be a fucking p*do (which, in case anyone was worried, my particular conflict with them is unrelated to that) but my point is that even when I hate someone's guts I still can't hate them enough to not want to reconcile. I don't know why that is but the same is true here.

I was so, so willing to put this all behind me, to apologize and accept an apology and finally be fucking friends again even after I already tried and failed to do it once. But after learning that they can't even respect the fact that I'm gone and want nothing to do with them, I've become so conflicted again. I hate them and I'm not afraid to say it. I hate them and it takes me every ounce of self control I have not to call them out by name. I'm done giving them chances. And yet I still feel the need to forgive and now it's not useful for keeping myself calm in pursuit of someday ending the conflict. Now it's just fucking annoying because they've gone past what I can forgive. I don't care about being the bigger person anymore, they hurt me and they need to fucking know it.

I'm sorry I ever believed anything they said or looked down upon certain characters and ships because I thought they were right at the time.

And if any of you assholes are listening right now, you're sick fucking creeps for lurking on this blog despite me telling you not to. How dare you use my space that you were never allowed in to laugh at me. How dare you pretend like you never talked behind my back and made fun of my art.

You act exactly like middle school bullies and I want everyone to know everything you've done to everyone in the Incredibles fandom and how you transformed it into a toxic cesspool and THEN have the audacity to ask why there's so much drama like you're the victims.

You have hurt so many people and made them scared to leave your toxic clique. I want everyone to know how you've harassed creators with anon hate. You guys breathe exclusionist like it's nothing, and then want to pretend that you respected the fact that I'm asexual. You claim to support autistic people, but you talk behind people's backs if they talk "weird" or have a special interest you don't like when so many of you are also autistic or otherwise neurodivergent and know what it feels like to be hated for it. You're progressive up until it comes to someone you don't agree with. You cast out your own friends if they don't agree with you and talk behind their backs when they leave or get kicked out, and then lie about why you kicked them. You have at least three different channels for stalking, harassing, and talking shit. You hate anyone who dares to be in more than just your server. You are trying to isolate people so that you have them under your control and don't feel like they can leave or have anyone to turn to when they realize how toxic you are. And that's only what you've done before I left.

Update: Listen I'm too tired to be eloquent about this but in case anyone wants to say I'm lying:

Anyway, here's what I'm proposing. Stop checking my blog for a month. From now until the end of september, and in turn I'll stop talking about y'all. I will not make another single post about you until October and if I don't get a single check, I will not mention you again so long as you stay off this blog.

I was never mad that we didn't have the same character preference. Annoyed, sure, but it wasn't a big deal. It became a big deal when I realized I didn't feel comfortable around all of the salt in the fandom and realized that I was mearly being tolerated. I don't even support some of the people you've harrassed, but I do not want to be associated with people like you, so I left, and frankly, its my damn right to be able to talk about how I felt. I never published a single name, and I will never, but it's not right of you guys expect me not to talk about how I felt regardless of if your actions were intentional or not. I do not care that I was not your worst target and I never have or will claim to be. But the environment that you have created is toxic, and talking about my experiences with it was never supposed to be a personal attack on you until you got involved.

Also, because I wrote this while I was angry, I will fully admit that I exaggerated some of my claims and they have been changed accordingly. I apologize for my immaturity and should not have said that, however I will not change anything I know to be true.

Another edit: I have deleted the portion about a particular artist and their work. That was an oversight by me as I did not remember that they are suspected of being legitimately predatory and I would not have included that if I had remembered it at the time of writing. That being said, my stance on the issue is that the type of harrassment that took place against that artist isn't right and that it is better to deplatform predatory people by warning others about them and refusing to interact with them, rather than giving the any sort of attention, negative, positive, or otherwise. I do not support that artist, but I also do not support their harassment and anyone saying otherwise is spreading lies about me.

[thefatdrunkdragon]

The Worst RPer I have ever met (Nemo Saga Chapter 6)

 Okay, so here we go with another standalone Nemo chapter that discusses the one thing about Nemo. His fucking temper.

 As demonstrated in the Spooky RP, Nemo has a short temper when it comes to people actually messing with him or belittleling him. Now, it’s understandable that in RP’s you can sorta make a character based on people you don’t like and have em be killed off or defeated. I havent had much RPs about those but Nemo’s case is that he resolves everything with vauge threats and murder.

 For example, before the Spooky RP, Nemo first met the Dragon Cafe Crew.

 The Dragon Cafe Crew is composed of the following:

Rubelle “Ruby” Black - The Chubby Dragoness

Calvin “Cook” O’Hara - The Alcoholic native of Philly

Jill Xhiao - The Shy Panda woman.

Oswald “Ozzie” Hempshey - A fat East End Drake

And Dexter “Dex” O’finnigan - The Irish Yang to Ozzie’s Cockney Yin.

 Out of all of those, It was Ozzie and Dex who didn’t come to immidietly like Nemo. And in character, they like to mess around with other people. So let’s say that Ozzie and Dex make some dumb jokes about the Vampires or admit that “We ain’t really friends.” What does Nemo do? He brutally murders Ozzie and Dex. But has them revived. If this were a moment in an RP with a good friend of mine, this scene would not be as brutal and would be played off for poorly done dark comedy. But Nemo was very serious about it. He really REALLY hated Ozzie and Dex simply because they didn’t wanted to be his friends right away. It get’s better.

 Another example comes when a Zombie Virus is loose in Puerto Rico. Aiden thankfully survived in a farmland, enjoy the spoils of the apocalypse and the catharsis it brings. God-Nemo, offended that Aiden can rebel in a bit of normal power fantasy in a role play, calls him an evil man who doesn’t want anything to change so he decides to leave Aiden to his lonesome... with a fucking bomb that is suppose to kill him. I playfully have Aiden Brush off his death as cartoonish as possible, but Neem’s says “no no, let him die.” And I’m like “Excuse me bitch? I couldn’t kill YOUR characters but now you want me to let you kill mine because he thinks differently than you? FUCK YOU!”

 It was after those two events that Nemo realized he shouldnt be having his marty stu kill me for not agreeing with him, he decides that he needed to add excuses for why he was killing me. And I mean excuse that would justify why he would kill my characters. And those excuses came in the form of either Demons or Rabies, and no matter what happens, there is no signs of that behavior until AFTER killing my characters.

 While it wasn’t murder, there was an obvious threat of murder for this next example. Nemo kept bringing up a Mercy Brown Video Game (Which Only Exist to him) and he made moments where he tried to act like he was some Big shot letsplayer and blahblahblah. I have never heard of this game but Only had small understanding of what it was about, so I decided that, since I was into Zero Punctuation at the time, to make a sort of faux Ben Yatzee Review of a game. I didn’t do the whole thing because Its a fake game within an RP but the first few minutes was just me channeling my inner yatzee.

The small thing I wrote as Ben Yatzee:

Ben Yatzee: i hardly do reviews about indie horror, my last one being too scary to even continue. But when you have a cult of people simply worshipping an unknown horror game for being a bloody masterpiece, you end up witth your entire fanbase asking you to review. While i really dont take request, the number of people desperate for my thoughts on the game is just staggering so here we go...

Ben: Mercy's Autumn Nights is an indie horror game created by who else? Mercy brown. The title should be so completly obvious that she made the game as its not enough for her to simply put her name in the credits, you need to make it pretty bloody clear she made it.You play as, big surprise, Mercy blooming Brown as she tries to escape an angry mob thats chasing her down. Why? I dont fucking know?! Maybe mercy brown, being the obvious killer vampire, killed some people and she just not doing a good job at hiding it. Or maybe she hasnt showered in a while and the villagers are just getting sick and tired of smelling her greasy hair...

*ben continues to critize the games story and the use of mortal things when the character plays as mercy, complements the graphics and the controls.*

Ben: in conclusion, the next time someone sends me a request, my answer will simply just be "Mercy Bloody Brown!" Why? I dont care, its there. Have a nice day, internet.

 Nemo took the Review as an offense and tried to get in contact with ben yatzee because they talked to each other once for a while like a year. Neem’s words, not mine. And this is ignoring the fact Yatzee has Social Anxiety. Ben tried to explain to Nemo that his video is only there as a means to both critique the game and be a comedy but Neemo kept trying to convince Yatzee it was a good game and that he was a good youtuber, ignoring the fact Ben reviewed the game not the Youtuber. But it was after being presented with Mercy Brown and the grave and how annoying he was, Ben basically shut him off, the video still remained though so no one won.

Mercy’s response:

Mercy: That takes care of it. See ya.

 I told nemo that it didn’t really change anything and that the thing was just a video talking about the game, not him.

Neem’s Response

Nemo: I see. But if we see another negative video about us, you know what we'll do to him. He'll never know.

 Like I said, It may not be a violent moment, but he generally demonstrates the same kind of mentality the secret police has. Censoring any form of criticism and killing off those who don’t like him

I already presented one example in the spooky rp but there is also another major example with this small rp moment. It was during the mercy saga, and it was a moment where "our dear friend and vintage American sweetheart Mercy Brown” contracted a disease just to get us to feel bad for her and give her some attention. Aiden and Ruby, not wishing to risk getting the mary sue sickness, decide to come in Hazmat suits. It’s as exaggerating as it sounds and for the time, it was just played for giggles. But later that day, she got better and Aiden und ruby had nothing to do, so they decided to call a helicopter to pick em up. This big fucking osprey shows up, lands on the garden but no one takes off because it turns out, one of the guys in the osprey, Dave, was getting married and everyone took the opportunity to celebrate it... while still in the osprey and still on Nemo’s Lawn.

Nemo, understandibly tried to get everyone out of the lawn but they ofcourse couldnt listen due to the fucking loud music inside it. He later got a megaphone, letting the message get through to them and forcing em to take off. It was there were a drunken Dave decided to just walk out on the osprey doors and flip nemo the bird, sealing everyone’s fate with that gesture.

Nemo’s Words after the vtol flew off:

Nemo: Yeah. That'll teach you how to disturb some neighbors, you mind-fucked bitch.

 Nemo went flying in the air (Somehow) and gun down the entire vtol. Killing or injuring everyone, and leaving Ruby and Adrian in a catatonic state. He later flew back and acted as if nothing happened. Before that, he made a comment that was suppose to sound like the kind of snide remark of “Oh, I wonder how that horrible accident happened” kinda  That is until Kate shows what happened , and this was the one time posession was actually close to making sense but since the RP always had Nemo act like a normal person and showed very little signs of posession, making this the only time he actually had it plan off.

Nemo’s word’s after being shown what happened?

Nemo: *whispers and closes the door* Oh my God. What did I do? What did I do? *drinks a can of A&W Root Beer* I'm getting crazy. I need blood. *licks his own lips and chewed his own lips. He grabs a meat and eats it and there was blood spilling on the floor* Master Velora. You promised me eternal life! And you did.

 Funfact: Before Velora became a Valentine Girl and was part of a trio of marceline clones, she was supposed to be evil.

 Pretty soon, Nemo suddenly had demonic powers and ordered his vampire clan to make the world a supernatural place for vampires and werewolves, and he will assend to become a Vampire God. Starting a fucking apocalypse and building a castle for him in Rhode Island.

 When Kate, freaking out over what the fuck was going on, Nemo tried to be as hidden and “evil” as possible while signs were made quite fucking obvious he was starting a vampire apocalypse. But then when asked why the fuck he started fucking armageddon, here’s his response:

Nemo: No. Not ending the world. It's my parents. My parents should pay for what kind of stuff they did to me. Sending me to dangerous places and tormenting me. They have gone too far.

... At no point has Nemo’s folks EVER appeared in the RP. And Let’s not forget, He was fucking 19 at the time, so...

 The apocalypse breaks out and the world seems like it was going to be in for one dicking of a terrible time. But we got to remember an important Detail: This is Nemo’s world. 

How it really happened:

*Then Nemo was almost killed. But then he was fighting against a Wendigo. A Native American cannibal creature. People were watching Nemo and the Wendigo have a brutal fight in Providence, Rhode Island. He grabbed his medieval sword and stabbed at the creature and killed him. The Wendigo was killed and everybody was saved. Nemo thought it was himself, but it was a Wendigo. So Mercy had to send him to a church in Exeter, Mercy and the priest got rid of the spell that cursed him for so long. Nemo was finally saved and happy. He can now live however he wants. Even Kate was happy that he is now saved. His friends and family was happy that he's not possessed anymore. So in December, in Mercy's house, the presents are under the Christmas tree and everybody was having a good time. Nemo was waiting for all his friends to come.*

Well THAT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!

After the battle:

Nemo: I hope nothing possesses me again.

Mercy: God will always be there for you.

Nemo: I know.

....

This was the stupidest thing to have ever happened in RP history and I just needed to share it with you all because this was fucking insanity

The point is: Nemo is a violent dick. Anything that doesn’t apppease his ego simply results in a death setence and later revival so that you can apologize to him and kiss his ass. And to be fair... it’s fucking scary. And it’s only made worse with the following subject: The Line between reality and fantasy.

[cowboypossume]

sdfghj I'm so sorry for coming back to this so late I am living in Tumblr bliss without checking my inbox but a) babe is totally fine I love that!! and my names aru (no a, you were close though!!)

yeah I'm like...halfway ash through the book? Simon snow needs a break but I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR OPINIONS EVEN IF THEY WEREN'T GOOD

AND SORRY FOR NOT RESPONDING TO YOUR DMs I'm really bad at messaging I'll try to get better!!!

hey hey don’t sweat about the dm thing ! the inbox is something i can learn to do :D !!! but ok you and spoilers throughout literally the entire and this is gonna be a lot and unedited (mostly) because BEHZYZTGZYSHSYHZUENEUSBS IM SO U P S E T

undeather the - - - - - - is when the spoilers stop

ok, ok, getting striaght to the point. it’s so horny. it’s so horny. and for W H A T ? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE REASON FOR IT TOBE T H A T HORNY? AND EVEN THEN ALL OF THE SEX STUFF WAS SO V A U G E ? LIKE EVERY TIME SIMON AND BAZ WERE TOGETHER IT TYRNED INTO SEX AND YES OK AS AN ACE I G E T HOW MUCH SEX CAN COME UP, BUT LIKE, ENDYXHZYGSHSYZGE WHAT WAS THAT?? IT WASNT EVEN WELL WRITTEN! IT WAS JUST SIMON BEING LIKE “i want more but it’s not enough” AND LIKE NOT REALLY ELABORATING ?? AND THEN THEYD BE SHARING A CUTE MOMENT THEN *bam* HORNY AGAIN? OK ALSO AS FAR I KNOW RAINBOW ROWELLE IS A CIS HET STRAIGHT WOMEN .. BABE WE DONT NEED THAT MUCH SEX BETWEEN THE MLM RELATIONSHIP??? AND THEN WJEN THEY ACTUALLY KIND OF EVEN HAVE SEX ITS SO V A U G E (AGAIN!) ITS NOT UNTIL SEVERAL PAGES LATER I REALIZED THAT THAT TIME WAS ACTUALLY SEX VS ALL THE TIMES IT WASNT? I DIDNT LIKE IT !!

ok now that i’m done being upset about how fucking vague it was, i also didn’t like how it was used as a metaphor for simon wanting to actually try in a relationship? yes it’s important to try in relationships and compromise and try when you don’t want to, that’s important, obviously, but like ,, you’re allowed to have your own believes about sex. that doesn’t have to be the soul focus of your relationship. baz himself even admits that they “have bigger things to worry about”. there are ways to show growth in a relationship without sex, and even if you do, IT DOESNT NEED TO BE THAT VAUGE?? AND OFTEN? simon felt overwhelmed in those positions and then was like “ok lol i’m done with anxiety and just gonna try now and no more anxiety :)” it felt like to me? and then bam bow horny. ALSO. ITS NOW CANNONICAL SIMON HAS A BLOOD KINK ????

ALSO! THAT SCENE IN THE SEWER WAS BAZ BEING LIKE

“please fucking stop about asking me to drain you. i’m makes me so uncomfortable and scared and stop.”

and simon was like “but it’s hotttttt”. WHAT ?? BABE WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO NEXT POINT: WHY? WHY THE FUCK DID SIMON GROWL??? W H A T?? WHAT THE FUCK?? WHAT THE FUCK WAS HIM G R OW L I N G WHEN HE SPOKE??

and ok something i didn’t fit in before was all the weird ways the kissing scenes were described? i’m from america so maybe it’s like a dialect thing i don’t understand, but constantly hearing “i shove my nose into his face” while they were kissing was so weird?? like shove, similar words i frankly don’t want to remember, we’re used all the time? and for what? hmmm??? what was that?????? i cant express to you how of a fever dream this book was?? but ohohoho i have more to unpack.

penny to me always felt like the token diversity friend when it wasn’t in her point of view (and even then pushing it) and so i didn’t love her character. but!! her and simon’s friendship was realistic. i could get behind that. HOWEVER. THIS BOOK TAKES THAT AWAY. SIMON once is like “give me space” and then she’s just like “ok” and i feel like their friendship never got repaired at the end? i stopped really paying attention because fucking shit i was so tired of the constant sex between baz and simon that i zoned out most of it so maybe it did but ,, i don’t think it did. i’m pretty sure she got with shepard and then he got with baz and then that was the end of the friendship because ✨ooooo we’re dating people✨ thing. which ,, isn’t how it happens??

and while we’re here: i didn’t like the penny and shepard ship but whatever it felt like it was inevitable like female x male loki so i was like “huh disappointed but not surprised” feeling when they kissed. if you like it, cool great (/gen), i didnt and that’s swaggy but, ok, the plot of shepard being engaged to a female demon who i think wants to fuck him in hell only to be resolved in like 2 pages of a monologue so penny and shepard can get together was ?? so WEIRD ??? like what was that ?? how did that develop their relationship? idk it was so weird.

but ok back to simon and penny, i kept reading and reading and reading on so i could maybe get to at least talk again and then,, they didn’t? they just didn’t. they never made up their friendship and i get that you lose friends along your life. believe me i’m the last person you have to drive that point home to. but,,,,, god i hated that their friendship ended. for WHAT REASON DID IT END?? simon said he needed space, penny respected that, got a boyfriend and simon did too, so no longer theyre friends? something i liked about this series was the group dynamic all of the books had. no matter who’s pov it was in you could tell who each character was because it was unqiue. you still could in this book so i’ll give credit where credit’s due. however THIS BOOK WAS LIKE 3 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORIES WITH NO CONECTJON REWLLY ?? WHICH IS FINE I JUST ,, didn’t get that in the first two books so ,,,, why is it here ?

and ok something else while i’m criticizing is: i don’t love her writing style. i didn’t like how in book one i got “here’s an introduction to my magical word told through past tense and memories and so hopefully you’re all caught up now” which i was willing to overlook because just because i don’t like the style means it bad. at least this book didn’t do that but idk didn’t love that aspect.

ok back to the three stories: i love agatha being a bisexual goat care taker. that’s it literally she should have been the main character. like deadass i loved her story so much. that’s it that’s all /pos.

ok but! simon finding his family was cool. i liked that he got that. the pacing of the scene where he finds out was a little rushed for me but, then again, based on my writing i can’t really critique on that so … liked it, enough. idk how to elaborate. wasn’t the worst part of this book but doesn’t really sit well with me.

and i’m so confused about simon’s wings. he does want them and constantly brings up his surgery and then all of a sudden ,, doesn’t? i think? the last chapter is so vague and simon mentions being on the fence about it and i understand that we as the reader don’t need to know everything about what the future holds for these characters but also ?? beudhyzhsgsbeysyzb babe he brought it up like all the time and can i please get a solid answer ??

aLSO. WHY DID SIMON AND BAZ BREAKUP ONLY FOR THEM TO GET TOGETHER 5 CHAPTERS LATER?? WHAYDYXYZGWH WHAT WAS THE POINT OF WAYWAYRD SON IF SHE JUST DID THAT???? LIKE WHXGXYVZYZHE YOU MADE THEM STAY TOGETHER WHEN SIMON WAS BEING AN ACTUAL DICK FOR AN ENTIRE BOOK (which i will defend until the day i die those scenes weren’t an OUNCE of how horny this book is), THEY BREAKUP, AND THEN GET TOGETHER AGAIN?? NOT EVEN 100 PAGES AFTER THEY BREAKUP??? SHZGZGZYSGSU W H A T? WHAT? I DONT GET IT? i don’t get it.

i kept waiting for the scene where everything came together and it never came. then the epilogue didn’t clarify anything either.

i don’t know. there’s more probably i just didn’t enjoy this book. i would have given it a 5/10 the first time i read it but the more i think about it the lower that number goes so ,, yea not a good time.

- - - - - -

so! that’s a lot! completely get it if you disagree :D. you’re allowed to like a book even though i don’t. and also i have no energy to edit this so enjoy me screaming about it !

[patroklosandachilles]

Three-Piloted Jaeger

Pairing: Pipeynabeth Rating: Teen Word Count:  2218 Summary: Jaegers are piloted by only two people, so what happens when three people are drift compatible?    A/N: For @kitshunette as part of the @feastoffortuna2017! I hope you enjoy it! You can find it on ao3 here. 

It seemed like it had been ages since the first kaiju attack. In reality, it had only been about roughly ten years. It was hard to keep track of time when you were a jaeger pilot. The task was exciting, yet monotonous at the same time. You went out, fought kaijus, and came back to base. Rinse, and repeat. The hype had died down, and kaiju pilots were no longer invited onto talk shows, or anywhere, really. They had to be ready for a kaiju attack at any moment, but they actually spent most of their time waiting around, especially if you hadn’t found someone you were drift compatible with yet.

Waiting around is what mostly occurred on the east coast base off of New York, and it was precisely this waiting around that had lead Annabeth to Piper in the first place. Piper was in her bunk reading, with the door open when Annabeth walked by. Annabeth recognized the cover, and knocked on Piper’s door. Of course she had seen Piper around. They had even said brief “hellos” to each other in the hallways, so this wasn’t completely strange, yet Piper found herself startled at the knock, and then nervous when she saw who was responsible for it.  

Piper’s nerves may have had something to do with the slight crush she found herself developing on Annabeth. She really couldn’t help it, though. Annabeth was one of, if not the best in combat practice. Because of this she really had a toned physique that left Piper swooning. The feelings were mutual. The only reason Annabeth had bothered knocking in the first place was because she was very into Piper. One of her co-pilots had accused her of stalking Piper when she merely wanted to see what table she sat at during lunch so that she knew which direction to occasionally shift her focus to. Piper was definitely hot, but it was not only her looks that drew Annabeth to her. It was her way with words, and the way she could pretty much word things to get exactly what she wanted.  

“Hey, Annabeth. What are you doing here?” Piper asked, trying to play it smooth even though she knew that Annabeth had seen her jump.  

“I was in the area. I recognized the book. Thought I’d ask how you’re liking it so far.”  

“Oh. It’s good, but it could use more lesbians.”  

Annabeth froze. Did she actually have a chance with Piper? Was this Piper’s way of suggesting that there should be something between them? Was she simply projecting? She couldn’t tell.  

“Every book could use more lesbians, let’s be honest,” Annabeth replied with a smile.  

“True. Would you like to come in?”  Piper asked.  

“Of course.”  

They became fast friends. Perhaps a bit more than friends, although neither of them had said anything about it. There were lingering touches that weren’t mentioned, and lots of flirting. They had realized they were drift compatible the first time they’d stepped into a jaeger together. Finally the two of them could do what they came here to do. The problem was that their combat suffered a bit during their little game, because part of their focus was on ignoring the other’s feeling. Neither one of them wanted to be the first to admit their feelings to the other for fear of rejection, despite the fact that they had been in each other’s brains. No one could tell you why they kept up that act for so long.  

One day, after a particularly intense round of combat practice, Annabeth came to Piper’s bunk. She had finally cracked, and decided that why the fuck shouldn’t she tell Piper that she liked her? Piper would say yes. She’d been inside her brain, after all.  

“I like you. A lot. And I think you like me too, so would you just come over here and kiss me?”  

Piper obliged.  

Their combat strengthened once they became a couple. They could sense each other’s moves and follow through with ones that only served to strengthen the original. They were a good couple both on and off the battlefield, and after a few months, they were recognized as the best pilots on base.  

That all changed when Reyna, a transfer from the west coast, entered the base. Both of them took one look at her and they were already smitten. Her skills in combat, and over all authoritative, yet compassionate personality didn’t help.  

Despite this, she was still picked on by the asshole pilots who thought that new transfers needed to survive some sort of hazing. During lunch her Reyna’s tray was frequently knocked out of her hands. She was constantly being tripped in the hallway, and everyone decided to gang up on her during combat practice.  

It was safe to say that Reyna was not having an easy transition, and both Annabeth and Piper longed to help.  

One day at lunch, Reyna’s tray was knocked out of her hands, like usual, and Piper was right there to help her pick it up. It had taken Piper a bit to figure out her lunch schedule, but once she did, she and Annabeth switched around their schedule so that they could be there at least to help her out during lunch. The captain wasn’t happy about the schedule change, but he couldn’t say no to his best pilots.  

“Thank you for your help,” Reyna said with a grateful smile as Piper helped her salvage what was left of her lunch.  

“Anytime. Would you like to sit with me and my girlfriend Annabeth? We’d be happy to have you.”  

“Absoultely.”  

Reyna fit right in with Piper and Annabeth, and the three of them could flirt like there was no tomorrow. Reyna still hadn’t found someone she was drift compatible with, so she spent most of her time training or in her bunk and when Piper and Annabeth weren’t fighting, they spent their free time with Reyna. Both of them had developed quite the crush on Reyna.

“I think it’s time we addressed the kaiju in the room,” Annabeth stated one night after witnessing Reyna defeat her in combat training, a feat most could not manage even in the best of shape.

“Are you upset that Reyna beat you in combat training?” Piper asked with a small sigh. She knew how competitive her girlfriend was.  

“No…actually I kinda loved it when she beat me. I was upset at first, of course. You know I hate losing. But Piper have you seen Reyna? She’s hot as hell.”  

Piper frowned. “Are you dumping me for her?”  

“God no. I was thinking…maybe we could see if both of us were drift compatible with her?”  

It didn’t take Piper long to catch on to the hidden meaning in Annabeth’s words. “Oh,” she replied.  

“Is that a ‘yes Annabeth I’d love to see if we’re drift compatible with Reyna’ or a ‘no Annabeth that’s weird as fuck and I don’t want to have any part in it’ oh?”  

“It’s a ‘I think Reyna is hot too and if you want to see if we’re drift compatible, I’m down’ oh.”  

So it was settled. The only problem was that only two people operated a jaeger. Plus they didn’t even know if Reyna would be on board with it.  

Piper suggested since Annabeth was the first one to bring up the topic, that she be the one who ask Reyna, and face the possible rejection.

“Hey, Reyna, I heard you haven’t found anyone you’re drift compatible with.”  

“How’d you hear about that?”  

“Everyone around here gossips. It hadn’t even been a day and everyone knew that Piper and I were dating.”  

Reyna looked a bit jealous. She told herself it was only because of the relationship, not the people involved.

“It’s true, I haven’t found anyone I’m drift compatible with,” Reyna said with a sigh, trying to hide her jealousy.  

“Well I can hopefully help with that. Want to see if we’re drift compatible?”  

Reyna visibly perked up at the offer. “But you and Piper…?”  

“She was actually wondering if you’d want to see if you were drift compatible with her as well.”  

“But there are only two pilots?” Reyna was starting to get a little confused. Did this offer have some vauge hidden meaning she was supposed to pick up on?

“Yes, well, we’ll try it one at a time of course,” Annabeth replied, like it was obvious. It was clear that Reyna had not caught onto the meaning behind the offer, but she could work on that.  

“Oh. Well, yes. The answer is yes. For both of you.”  

As it turned out, Reyna was compatible with both Annabeth and Piper. It was a relief to them all, and Reyna finally felt she was part of something like she had been on the west coast. She also stopped getting picked on for good. People had lightened up once she’d started hanging out with Annabeth and Piper, but there was still the occasional problem in combat practice since they hadn’t had that together. However, now they did, and even though Reyna had been kicking ass in her combat training alone, with Piper and Annabeth by her side, she was unstoppable.  

There was still a slight problem when they had to fight kaijus, though. They had an alternating system between all of them that dictated who fought with who each time, but it was a bit tedious. Not to mention the fact that whoever wasn’t fighting felt left out while the other two went out and fought.

Annabeth had been working on the plans for a three-pilot jaeger so that they would be able to fight kaijus together, and defeat them more effectively, but she had yet to propose that plan to the captain. She still hadn’t asked Reyna to be both her and Piper’s girlfriend yet, and didn’t want to bother the captian if that fell through.  

This is why as soon as she’d finshed a rough outline of what a three-pilot jaeger would look like, she decided to get Piper and Reyna together with her and finally ask the question. It was right after combat practice, as most things of this nature tended to be, in Annabeth’s bunk.  

“So I bet you’re wondering why you’re here, Reyna,” Annabeth started.  

“Not really. I mean, we always hang out after combat practice?” Reyna answered, sounding a bit confused.  

“We need to ask you something,” Piper said, not realizing how ominous it sounded.  

“Okay…” Reyna trailed off.  

“We want to ask you to be our girlfriend. You can say no, of course, but we both really like you,” Annabeth said after she gave Piper a pointed look for almost scaring Reyna away.  

“A lot,” Piper added to try and make up for her earlier mishap.

“Wow, I, uh, I don’t know what to say. You both really like me? And you’re okay with me…joining you?” Reyna said, unsure of how else to phrase her thoughts.  

“Yes,” Piper and Annabeth said in unison.  

“Well…yes. I…I really like both of you a lot too. I’d love to be your girlfriend.”  

Reyna kissed both Annabeth and Piper with a smile and realized she couldn’t feel more at home.

Annabeth had finished her plans for a three pilot jaeger and was finally ready to bring them to the captain. She knocked on the captain’s office door and waited patiently outside to pitch her plans.  

The captain opened the door, greeted Annabeth, an allowed her to come in.  

“What is it you need Chase?”  

“Sir, I have plans for a three-pilot jaeger I’d like you to take a look at.”  

“A three-pilot jaeger? And just how will that work?”  

“Well, you see. We’ve been splitting the cerebellum in half along with the left hemisphere and right hemisphere of the cerebrum. For a three-pilot jaeger, one person would have the cerebellum, since it’s smaller, and you’d spilt the cerebrum between the remaining two as we’ve always done. It’ll be more effective against the stronger kaijus we’ve been coming across, I believe. McLean, Ramírez-Arellano, and I are willing to be the guinea pigs, so to speak.”  

“I see…”  

There was an awkward silence while the captain looked through the plans and Annabeth shifted nerovously. Finally, the captain had made his decision.  

“We will get to work on this three-person jaeger immediately, Chase, thank you for designing it and bringing it to me. I believe you’re right; it will be more effective against the stronger kaijus.”  

Annabeth could barely contain her excitement. As soon as she was dismissed she rushed to tell her girlfriends. Both of them were immensely proud of her, and showed it through extreme affection.  

Once the jaeger was completed, Annabeth, Piper, and Reyna piloted it with extreme success. Not only did Annabeth’s design work flawlessly, but they kicked kaiju ass. It was a category four, and you would’ve thought it was a category two from the way they effortlessly took it down.  

Needless to say everyone was impressed. The whole world was impressed. Suddenly, the life of jaeger pilot didn’t seem so boring anymore. Especially not when you have two amazing girlfriends to fight kaijus, and make out with after combat practice.

[one-of-us-blog]

Last Christmas (Doctor Who Christmas Special)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap “Last Christmas”, the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special. It’s that time of year again, and it’s time for some yuletide cheer! Clara and the Doctor have a run in with Santa Clause and wind up at the North Pole, so there’s nothing but fun times ahead and everyone’s gonna have a joyeux noël, right? Right?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, I’m so glad you liked “An Illegitimate Concern” so much! It’s one that really sticks out in my mind, both for the solid Blanche story and the wonderful Dorothy/Sophia subplot. The musical number is definitely the highlight of the episode and one of my favorite moments in the whole series. I’m really glad you’ve been on a positive streak recently, and I think that will continue with “72 Hours”. I don’t want to color your opinion of the episode before you get to it, though, so for now I’ll just get to my own recap!

Buttocks tight!

Special directed by Paul Wilmshurst and written by Steven Moffat

We start off on Christmas Eve, when Clara is awakened by the sound of Santa (Nick Frost) and some elves crashing on her roof. Clara in understandably surprised since she doesn’t believe in Santa anymore, but Father Christmas and his elves insist they’re real. The Doctor arrives and insists a dazed Clara join him in the TARDIS. Santa and the Doctor seem to have some sort of history, and they’re pretty tense with each other. The Doctor says he know what’s going on, and Santa says that before the night is through the Time Lord will be glad to have the jolly old elf on his side. Clara’s surprised to see the Doctor again after their seemingly final parting, but the Doctor just wants to know if she believes in Santa Clause. Clara admits that, for the moment, at least, she does.

After some wintery opening credits, we arrive at the North Pole. A group of scientists have set up a base there, and things don’t seem to be going well. One of them, Shona, is sent into the infirmary where a group of ‘sleepers’ are waiting. The sleepers have access to Shona’s thoughts, or something like that, but she uses music to distract herself. She’s distracted from her distractions by the sudden arrival of Clara and the Doctor. Shona explains that the sleepers are blind and deaf but they’re also telepathic. They use their telepathy to hone in on their prey, so as long as you don’t look at them or think about them they can’t find you. The sleepers wake up and come after Clara and the Doctor, so the Doctor tries to distract Clara by reminding her of Danny Pink. Clara uses this opportune moment to inform the Doctor that Danny’s dead, hallelujah hallelujah, which is news to him.

The rest of Shona’s team arrives to save the day, but crab-like creatures begin to descend on them. Santa and his elves arrive in time to save the saviors and Santa is able to send the sleepers back to sleep. Santa knows all of the scientists from when they were kids, and he also knows what’s up with these facehugger knock-offs. They’re Kantrofarri, or dream crabs, and they’re bad news. Shona, Santa and the elves argue about Santa’s validity, while Ashley (the leader of the expedition), Clara and the Doctor discuss the Kantrofarri. The dream crabs make it impossible to tell reality from fantasy once they’ve got their little claws in you, so this is bound to get hairy. The Doctor and Clara come clean with each other about their “The Gift of the Magi”-esque falsehoods; he lied about finding Gallifrey so she’d stay with Danny, she lied about Danny being alive so he’d go home to Gallifrey. Oh, also, the Doctor thinks they’re all already infected with the Kantrofarri and are also dying.

It should be pointed out that everything about our extras of the week is very vauge. There are four scientists here – Shona, Ashely, Fiona and Albert – and all of them brush off any questions from the Doctor about why they’re at the North Pole or what the point of this expedition is. Fiona explains how they stumbled across the Kantrofarri, which came out of a dormant state once the scientists started thinking about them. The dream crabs latched onto some nearby scientists and put them into a dream state while they munch on their brain. Clara gets sent off on her own and gets snatched by a dream crab, winding up in a dream state where Danny’s alive and they’re celebrating Christmas together. Son of a bitch, I just can’t get away from this guy!

The Doctor tries to send Clara some warnings about her brain being munched on, but she resists and tries to stay in her fantasy. Back in the real(?) world, the Doctor tries to think of ways to kill the dream crab. Ashley says they don’t know of any way to get the Kantrofarri off the sleepers, and Santa can’t get rid of them, either. In order to reach Clara he’ll have to enter the dream world himself, which he does by having a dream crab stuck on his head. Clara is less than thrilled at this interruption and still resists getting woke🤔👀💯. Steven Moffat is damned determined to make us like Danny Pink, so it’s the fantasy Danny who’s able to convince Clara to wake up and stop living in mourning for him. Clara and the Doctor wake up, the Kantrofarri fall off and they promptly die. Clara and the Doctor don’t have wounds from the Kantrofarri being latched onto them but they still feel the telltale pain associated with them, as do all of the scientists. The Doctor forces them all to realize that they all had Kantrofarri latch onto them before Santa arrived to save them, meaning they’re all sharing a dream right now and Clara and the Doctor were just in a dream within a dream. *Inception horn*

Santa’s in the know about all of this, and he’s the manifestation of their subconscious trying to get them out of this. Clara and the scientists wonder why their collective subconscious chose the image of Santa, and he explains that it’s the most fitting thing to appear at the North Pole on Christmas. He asks them to believe in Santa one last time, and it’s enough to get them to wake up back in the infirmary and have the Kantrofarri fall off them. They escape the sleepers, and the Doctor wants to up and leave. Clara is horrified that he wants to abandon the scientists, and then she realizes that something else is amiss. If Sana’s just part of the dream, why was he on her roof earlier? They head back in and the Doctor points out that none of the scientists can explain what they’re doing at the North Pole to begin with, and Clara doesn’t know why she and the Doctor came here. Aw, shit, y’all, we’re still in a dream! *Inception horn*

The Doctor realizes that the sleepers are actually representations of the four scientists he’s talking to, Clara is in her bed and the Doctor’s probably asleep in his TARDIS. Some nightmare stuff starts to go down and Albert is killed by the representation of himself. Clara, the three remaining scientists and the Doctor run out to the TARDIS, but sleeper versions of Clara and the Doctor are waiting for them. More and more copies of the sleepers begin to surround them, but the Doctor imagines up Santa to save the day again. They all hop in the sleigh and head for home, with the Doctor even getting to take a turn at the reins for a while, and they all get caught up in the yuletide wonder. The scientists begin to realize they’re not actually scientists and remember their real lives. Fiona wakes up as a wheelchair-bound grandmother, Ashely wakes up as an account manager for a perfume company and Shona wakes up to her life as a minimum wage shop employee who just went through a breakup. The Doctor wakes up on some alien planet and heads back into the TARDIS, but Clara lingers in the sleigh with Santa. *Inception horn*

The Doctor arrives at Clara’s head and removes her dream crab, but this Clara is old as balls and says it’s been over sixty years since she’s seen the Doctor. The Kantrofarri can grab people from different points in time, you see, and they found Clara after discovering her in the Doctor’s subconscious. Old Clara and the Doctor bond and catch up, while the Doctor wishes he’d come for Clara sooner. But just then Santa walks in, because, holy shit, this is all still a dream! *Inception horn*

The Doctor wakes up on that same alien planet and gets to Clara, but she’s still young and firm and all is well in the world. They’re both relieved to have the chance to spend more time together, and they immediately decide to start traveling again. *Inception horn*

The End *Inception horn*

~~~~~

This was a lot of fun! I thought Nick Frost was great as Santa, and I really enjoyed the multi-layered dream story the characters had to navigate. I do think the Doctor’s immediate willingness to abandon the not-really-scientists was pretty striking, and I really hope that aspect of his character is toned down in episodes to come. I liked that they found an organic way for Clara and the Doctor to wind up together again, even if, if I’m being totally honest, I kind of feel like I’ve had enough of Clara as the Doctor’s companion at this point. I don’t hate her and I still think Jenna Coleman is a fine actress, but, I mean, c’mon. As sad as it is to see companions like Martha or Donna go after one series, it can never be said they wore out their welcome. I feel like Clara worked in the same way Rose did as a bridge between two versions of the Doctor, but I don’t need her to stick around for two and a half series like Amy and Rory did (and, to be clear, I think Amy and Rory did wear out their welcome by the end of their run). Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that and make it seem like I don’t have positive things to say about this episode, because I do! I thought the Kantrofarri were neat, and I liked that they acknowledged the obvious Alien parallel. This did come out four years after Inception, so they could have given it a nod, too, but I can see Moffat not wanting to be too obvious about where he got his ideas from. I thought the scientists were likable, especially Shona, and the moment at the end where the Doctor gives in and has fun in the sleigh was nice.

I give “Death in Heaven” QQQQ½ on the Five Q Scale.

Check back in later this week as Eli will be driven half-crazy with the next episode of The Golden Girls, “72 Hours”, and after that it’ll be my turn to kick off Doctor Who’s ninth series with my recap of “The Magician’s Apprentice”.

Until then, thanks for reading, thanks for imagining and thanks for being One of Us! *Inception horn*