#because they still drop lore bits telling me they still spend time together

[94erz]

I agree about the Minimoni vs Namkook thing.

There's a lot to say about how this fandom (and this is not shade to you!! I know you don't do that) latched onto certain dynamics ages ago, dynamics that have drastically changed since, and they just don't seem to notice or care that what used to be there is simply not there anymore.

The most obvious example is (sorry!) fanfiction. The three main pairings (excluding the hetero/single/bully Hoseok of course) have stopped making much sense to be the most popular ones literally years ago. But people still persist.

Another example is the Vmin soulmates thing. I truly don't think it's what they would call each other anymore. It used to be true but I doubt that they are best friends nowadays - even just in the group, each have other members that they're closer to. But people always insist they're forever soulmates.

Another examples are these events from the very beginning being used as proof of the guys being super close. With Namkook, as you mentioned, people like their relationship because Joon is why Jungkook joined. With Koobi - there are a million examples showing that they're close to this day, but often the only thing that people have to say about them is "Jungkook cried so much when Hobi left!" and I just shake my head. It is a cute story!!! But their relationship has developed so much since then.

Sorry to say but even Namgi do this all the time. I'm sure they're close but the only thing they keep saying is "I knew him the longest" (Hoseok joined you guys like two weeks later hello) and it's just so funny to me. This one is different I guess since it implies the continuity. But still.

I think many people hold onto Sope because of something similar. They used to be so much fun. I get people who still like them, but to me it's just a little like the Vmin soulmate thing.

Idk what it is but I think people don't want anything to change? And they keep rewatching old content, forgetting that it's just that - old - and that people change. But the guys are trapped forever in this perception based on when they were younger. Namjoon says he doesn't know the fool who used to say the things he wouldn't say now. Hoseok tried to show them he's more than just sunshinehe used to show himself us but people just. Won't. Listen.

The Jungkook being a baby thing is another example.

It would require a deeper analysis but the whole denial of them aging might be connected to this.

Ahhh all this to say yes I agree with your analysis of Minimoni, they're really good now!

And I also agree that Namseok are even closer. But that's just Jung Hoseok for you. He's closer to both Namjoon and Jimin than Minimoni are to each other probably.

Another thing - Jin and Hoseok got much closer over the last few years but the fandom, being stuck in the unchanging past, hasn't really caught on yet lol. 2seok bonded even while they were both away in military and that says something.

Sorry for the long ask!

Given I wrote up a whole essay I should have expected one in return if someone did respond to it so don't apologize LOL

But I agree with a lot of this too, I know it's been a while since we actually got to see the members together but chapter 2 was an interesting insight into member dynamics when they weren't forced to spend time together for work/content. And truly out of the 7 of them I think we got a good idea that some members are closer than others. That's not a bad thing, it's just reality. To me it's not a matter of any of them ''falling out'' but more like as they get older and became more sure of who they are and what they value, certain members who grew in similar ways will just be closer. Like in past convos I've had we came to the conclusion that as of right now, with regard to Hoseok, his closest connections seem to be with Namjoon, Jimin, and Jin. But in the past it would not be untrue to place Yoongi above Jin, but over the last few years Jin and Hoseok did get a lot closer and spent a lot of time together, and communicated a lot (especially during Jin's enlistment as he informed us of).

So it's the same for the others too. For me Namjoon's current main dynamics are with Hoseok and Jimin, and while I don't think his relationship with Yoongi has weakened, I do think it's become more reserved. If anything I think the disconnect between him and Jin is more noticeable. Whereas his relationship with Tae and JK have stayed pretty much the same.

I just think the ones who put in the most work will have the best relationships and dynamics, which are Hoseok and Jimin. They go the extra step to show up and reach out to the others and we get to see that often. We don't get that from the rest of them as much so we have less to go on so it's harder to tell. But I always have to keep in mind that we don't see and know everything, so we could always be missing something that would change this conversation, but of the stuff we do have I'm a little more confident about.

[drvscarlett]

About You Pt 10

Sebastian Vettel x Webber!Reader

Summary: Everyone knows about the history of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. But there's a well kept story within the paddock about Sebastian Vettel and another Webber. This is that story.

About You Series

A/N: the calm before the multi 21 lore. are you ready for it??? i would like to know how you guys feel about this

Taglist: @spideybv28@randomcuboidshape @mehrmonga @casperlikej @cliosunshine @honethatty12 @randomgirlnumber-13 @sugyomama @ririyulife @skywalker1dream @vicurious28 @khaylin27 @0710khj @its-elias-world @vizzzashley @allisonwoods @taytaylala12 @miarabanana @ceciii-b @lindsayjoy444

2012, Winter break (December)

Even if Y/N was set on confessing after the Brazilian GP, she couldn't find Sebastian anywhere. She was a little bit upset by the loss of opportunity but Jenson assured that there may be another chance to do that again.

It was Christmas Eve when Sebastian Vettel appeared in front of her apartment. She was shocked that when she returned home after her morning jog, Sebastian was sitting outside her apartment door with a duffel bag. It gave her a deja vu of when Sebastian first won his WDC and he was out there waiting for her in her childhood home.

"You could have called me, what if I wasn't here"Y/N reprimanded.

"I called Michael and he told me the trip wasn't due till January. You are obviously not with Jenson as he is spending Christmas with his family. You are also not going home because I don't think you made up with your brother yet"Sebastian enumerates with a grin.

"You know everything about me, don't you"Y/N shakes her head.

"Well there are some things I still don't know about you"

Y/N frowned. With the amount of time spent together, it was obviously weird for Sebastian to miss out some details about her life especially with how attentive and updated Sebastian can be.

"Then go and ask away so you can satiate your curiosity" Y/N gave a green signal.

"This is more than the usual question and answer portion Y/N" Sebastian's tone was serious.

It was another rare occurrence. Sebastian was always the guy that laces his words with lightheartedness and some cheeky remarks. Seeing him go into his serious mode made Y/N put down her cup of hot choco.

"You know you could tell me anything"Y/N confirms.

Of course, Sebastian doesn't know it but Y/N is panicking. She wonders if Sebastian had already picked up her feelings and what if he doesn't reciprocate them. Things can go very awkward between them real quick.

"I wanted to ask something, please don't lie and just be real"Sebastian started "How do you feel about me?"

The blunt statement has Y/N taking a step back. She could hear a pin drop between the silence of the two of them. Sebastian seems to be waiting her answers and she was too scared to say the wrong words.

"You're my bestfriend Sebastian" the safest answer she could produce

"I know that but.."Sebastian closed his eyes "isn't there anything else you feel for me?"

What does he want me to say, Y/N mentally asked herself. She wonders if Sebastian was baiting her to tell her feelings. She is overthinking how this is all a very bad idea to do especially when Christmas is just a few hours away. Y/N couldn't simply deal with being heartbroken on Christmas day.

"Listen Y/N-"

"Seb I-"

The two chuckled as the tensions dwindles with the way they both spoke at the same time. It was like a perfectly timed comedy joke between the two of them.

"Let me go first and then I'll hear you out"Sebastian took the lead.

Y/N noticed how Sebastian's proximity has been closer with the way he gently held her hands. Her heart was pumping because she might be onto something special.

"I love you a lot"Sebastian laid it out, plain and simple.

"It has been a while since I harbored feelings for you. I am a coward and I have spent so many months and years trying to deny my feelings or running away from them but in the end I ended up looking for you every single time. Its you and it has always been you"

The words were english but it seems so foreign for Y/N's ears. She felt as if she was in an alternate reality because it seems unreal that Sebastian reciprocates her feelings.

"You like me?"Y/N repeated

"Like seems to be an understatement when I have been pining for you for years"Sebastian shyly admits "I think I love you now"

Her eyes looked at him to see if there was any malice or any false sense of hope that she can detect. She couldn't find any as his eyes were speaking to her genuinely.

Is this what love feels like?

"I understand that this is a lot for you to take in and I won't force things to work out if you are not ready. I am willing to wait and I am willing to make an effort to show you that I am sincere with my wishes"Sebastian started to ramble.

It was a funny sight because the usual overconfident driver was in a mess of words in front of a girl. Y/N gave him a kiss on the cheeks to assure him.

"I have feelings for you Seb"Y/N confessed "I have tried to tell you how I feel but it never seems to be a good timing and now you beat me to it"

Y/N could swear that Sebastian's pupils went wider as she was speaking. The look of disbelief in Sebastian's point of view is visible with his facial reaction.

"So are we like now together?"Sebastian awkwardly asked

There was still the pressing matter that Y/N's family is Mark aka Sebastian's teammate and his rival. It was still a little bit complicated if they will add the relationship into the mix.

"We can take this slow right?"Y/N wondered "I just don't want to rush things with all the tensions and problems"

Sebastian has already resigned with that idea that he has to keep the relationship on the low. But he was contented with that because now he knows how the both of them feel.

"We will take it slow then"

2013, Winter break (January)

"There is something different about the two of you"Michael noticed.

Sebastian felt like a deer caught in a headlights when his idol has suddenly popped out of the blue and had a pensive expression on his face.

"Maybe we are just adjusting to the alps altitudes" Sebastian joked.

Michael's eyes darted between Sebastian and Y/N. As a racing driver, it was like a second nature for him to be attentive of his surroundings as the slightest change could mean a lot to the whole competition. He believes that his years as a driver has given him keen insights to know if some relationships changed or leveled up.

"You confessed"Michael realized.

The evident blush on Sebastian was enough confirmation that Michael needs. He was absolutely thrilled by this information and he couldn't wait to tell his family all about it. They have been rooting for them for years.

"It happened Christmas eve and it sort of happened"Sebastian explains "But we're not currently with the labels as we are taking it slow so Mark doesn't freak out too much when we tell him"

"Tell me you confessed first"

"I did, how did you know that?"Sebastian was confused.

Michael just let out a loud laugh. He may have to call some of the grid drivers to tell them that they better prepare their money as they have lost big time. He was fairly certain that Sebastian would be the one to initiate a conversation and confess first.

"Good to hear, you just made a lot of us happy"

For Sebastian, it just felt surreal how he is conversing about Y/N as a special lady in his life. He felt giddy by the thought of it as he longingly looks at Y/N, who was currently playing with Gina and Mick.

"You are so down bad for Y/N"Michael observed "Young love"

"Was this how it feels when you met Corinna?"

When Sebastian tells you that Michael is his idol, he means that in every aspect. He admires him as a fantastic racing driver, as a family man, and even as a loving partner. He wanted to gain some insights as he didn't want to fuck up his relationship and Michael seems to have a good standing with how Corinna and him are going strong after all these years.

"How do you two manage your relationship?"Sebastian asked.

"I am very lucky as Corinna is very understanding and she would always love me through the good times and bad times. Being in a relationship with a driver is difficult as everything is placed under deep scrutiny but Corinna she loves me too much to be afraid of that"

Michael sits up straight as he felt like he was giving important life advices to his younger self.

"You really like Y/N, don't you?" Michael knew the answer to this.

"I love her at this point Michael"Sebastian's voice has no ounce of hesitation.

"Then let me tell you that you should always cherish her"Michael pointed out "Be loyal to her and fight for her. You never know what's coming but do this and its a guarantee that it will work out"

Their gaze drifted back to Y/N who was engaged in a snow fight with the kids. The thought in Sebastian mind crosses about maybe one day he will have kids of their own and they'll be having family trips like this with the Schumachers.

"If you two build a family, you better name the first born Michael"the older driver joked.

2013, Circuito de Jerez

It felt like a full circle moment when pre-testing season starts in Jerez. Seems like it was just yesterday that Y/N first encountered Sebastian in this same track and now a lot has changed.

"Penny for your thoughts?"Sebastian asked.

He gave her a kiss on the forehead as he gave her a cup of coffee. There was a certain lightheadedness that Y/N experience with the way Sebastian has been acting lovey dovey to her.

"We met each other in this circuit, do you remember?"Y/N informs.

There was a hint of confusement in Sebastian's face.

"As far as I could recall we first spoke in the Australian Grand Prix" Sebastian pointed out "I never knew you were already an admirer even before that point"

The teasing never seems to stop with Sebastian with his shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

"Go ahead and laugh but I'm not the one who confessed"

"That's fair I guess"Sebastian shrugged.

The two of them enjoyed the sound of the cars going around for the testing proper. It felt crazy how there is another upcoming season before them and Y/N could only pray for the the best.

"How are you feeling?"Y/N wondered "It seems like yesterday you're like that driver without a seat and looking to impress some teams with a single drive"

"Yeah I suppose it can feel weird that my future competitor might be somewhere over there" Sebastian thoughtfully stated.

"I'm sure Red Bull is dominating another season"Y/N is a boost of confidence for Sebastian.

The two of them spent the afternoon together as they watch some F2 drivers test their cars. Different teams definitely noticed the mix of the contrasting orange and navy uniform side by side with each other. It didn't take long before it reached Mark's intel.

2013, Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit

It wasn't until the Australian Grand Prix that Mark was able to meet Y/N in person. He have tried his best to reach out to her during the pre-testing season but she was surrounded by Sebastian or dragged into meetings with McLaren.

He really needs to speak to Y/N because he fears that she might be putting herself in a tricky situation.

"Y/N" The exhausted Mark finally saw her with a group of McLaren mechanics.

There was no Jenson or Sebastian anywhere near her so he might have a chance to speak with her freely.

"We need to talk, this is urgent"Mark's tone was a mix of begging and a command.

"Mark, you are not supposed to be here"one of the mechanics stepped up "Y/N we can call security if you-"

"That won't be necessary Ed, he is my brother and we'll just take a quick walk"Y/N interrupted.

The mechanics looked at Mark before meeting Y/N's gaze once again. They seem to be unsure about letting their employee go to the Red Bull driver regardless if he is her brother. But Y/N gave an okay signal and they left them all alone.

"You haven't spoken me for so long and now you are forcing me to talk to you"Y/N's voice was dull and without any excitement. Clearly she is still hurt by everything that transpired.

"I have been a bad brother, I know that"Mark admitted.

"Thanks for the obvious"

"But I'm here again because I don't want to be bad brother anymore"Mark added "I don't have the guts to see you feel more pain after everything I put you through"

Y/N stops on her tracks, she seems to understand that Mark knows something. She was scared that he might forbid her from forming any further relationship with Sebastian.

"You have to stop seeing Sebastian"

"What?"Y/N was furious "Who gives you a right to who should I and should I not date, this is so low of you Mark"

"Y/N please listen to me, I have my reasons to why you have to do this. Just listen to me"Mark was exasperated.

He is in the mental dilemma of telling her sister the plain truth of what he saw in Brazil. It will definitely crush her to know that she may be a third party in the relationship. Or he could not tell her and allow her to find out herself in the future which means more pain.

She may hate Mark forever but as an older brother he has to do this.

"I have heard you two have been going on and about but believe me Y/N, Sebastian is up to no good"Mark explained.

"You are just saying this without any grounds"

"Would you believe me if I told you things?" Mark rebutted.

There was a silence between them. Mark knew that he lost Y/N's trust a long time ago because of their unnecessary fighting. He doesn't know what he could do to make her trust him again.

"Did he ever tell you about what happened in Brazil 2012?"Mark wondered.

Y/N wavered as she realized that it was also that time that she was looking for Sebastian but he was nowhere to be seen. She felt curious to what Mark is implying with his statements.

"Stop speaking in riddles and tell me"

"You should ask Seb about it"Mark pushed "I cannot witness you to be in more pain than what he puts you through already"

The younger Webber cries out in frustration. She was so sick of Mark speaking vaguely and planting seeds of doubt in her head. She was finally happy and now Mark is ruining everything again.

"I don't understand any of this"Y/N was frustrated "Just tell me what's going on"

"Y/N I'm so sorry but I-"

"This is all just bullshit isn't it"Y/N lashed "You are just saying these things to further complicate things and prevent us from dating. Stop trying to fucking control my life Mark"

The exchanges of words reopened wounds that haven't healed. It was the first time that Y/N saw Mark tear up because of her words and she immediately regretted what she said.

"I am just doing what I know to protect you Y/N. I never meant to hurt you."Mark was fighting his tears but failing "I hope that when you know the truth then you can understand why I am doing this"

"Mark wait.."

But the Red Bull driver already walked away briskly.

[dino-boyo-agere]

This amazing art piece of my human OCs was made by @littledinosaursposts!!

It's the first ever art piece of these OC's, that are incredibly important to me & I'm absolutely in love with it!! <3

So, thank you again for bringing them to life!

I've been planning on telling y'all about them for a while, but it's so much lore and some of it is a little dark.. uh.. so anyways, here is a "tiny" summary..

Who is who on the picture:

Frank is the tall black man sitting on the floor, he is Chrisses best friend and future husband. In his lab is sitting Nate (yes, I choose the same name for me lols) . On the couch are sitting Nate's big Brother, Chris and Riv, who is Frank's child and Nate's best friend.

About the characters:

Frank - A 25 yo black man and single father of River (Riv). He became a dad at the age of 16, took full custody and raised his kid with the help of his mum. Rivs mother always wanted to be a career woman and Frank always wanted to have children. Frank is now a preschool teacher and LOVES children so much. He's autistic and likes how honest and direct they are, he is very good with children. He calls his kid "Muffin", Nate "pipsqueak" / "Pip" and Chris "Chrissy"/ "Love". He's an absolute rock for Chris and never fails to support him. He knows exactly how to handle a traumatized kid like Nate, since he was a child psychiatrist for a while.

Riv - is 8, goes by they/ them pronouns. Riv loves heavy metal and spending time with their dad. Together they often play video games, DnD or make music (Riv plays the drums and Frank the guitar, bass or piano.) Riv has a hard time connecting with their peers, they are also autistic. Frank did a really good job raising a very intelligent kid, emotionally and generally. Riv knows exactly what they want and are really good at communicating their needs. They share a lot of interests with Chris and the both of them often enjoy horror media or metal music, while Nate and Frank partake in calmer activities, like crafting. Nate is Rivs best friend and "sibby". Even though Riv is bodily younger, they feel like a big sibling, since Nate is permanently regressed and mostly stuck at ca. age 5.

Chris is the big (half) brother of Nate, he took his sibling in after the police removed him from the house of their father. He didn't know the kid existed, no one did (more of that later). He's 26 and trying his best to take care of this deeply traumatized kid. Frank is his neighbor and best friend.. and even though he thought he was straight, he's beginning to realize that he has a huge crush on him. Chris is very loving but a bit overbearing and overly cautious & overprotective with Nate. But Frank is pretty good at grounding him. Chris is trying his best at raising his traumatized sibling.

Nate - ❗Tw - mention of abüse & deäth❗ The police found him chained up in the basement when looking for drugs at the father's house. Any type of abuse one can imagine, he had to go through. His mother was found after he told the police "she sleep in roses." Her body was buried under a rose bush.❗Tw over❗

His left arm is amputated under the elbow and he has many scars. He's still a little underweight, but he's getting better. Nate is intersex and his gender is ambiguous. He has no construct of gender, so he doesn't care what pronouns ppl use for him. The kid has heterochromia, with his right eye the same shade of blue like his brothers eyes, and the left one a turquoise. He also got the same blue streak his Chris has, bc he wants to be like him. He is permaregressed, with his age moving between 3 and 13, depending on the day and possible triggers, tough he's mostly stuck at about 5. He's semi verbal and has selective mutism. His bio age is unknown, since there is no birth certificate. He loves his brother, he calls him "Kiss" because he has trouble pronouncing the name Chris and he calls Frank "Dad" because he keeps hearing his bestie Riv call him that. Nate is obsessed with dinosaurs and the kid would drop everything and anything for an apple.. he loves apples so much. That's because when he was found by the police, one of them gave him some apple slices, that was the first time Nate ever tasted anything sweet.

[xx-justsomeguy-xx]

Tell us about Dola!

shsjshs idek where to start with Dola ;w; thank u for giving me an outlet for talking about her LND incarnation omg I hope you know what you’re getting into when you asked this…

so like!! in general she’s my OC that I use everywhere bc I just like her too much to even care about making other OCs because to me she’s like… the ultimate cool doll >.> she tends to retain a lot of her traits each time + I try to keep as much of her original conflicted artist background as possible while still making it make sense with the lore of the universe I’m putting her in

So in LND as MC, she still has Caleb + Josephine, is a Hunter, and ofc has the aether core in her heart but strays from canon in that:

Art has a huge place in her life because her parents were renowned artists and she was primed to follow in their footsteps. She ends up dropping it sometime after she was orphaned though, and only picks it up around high school age and in secret

Gets dreams of fragments of her past lives with Rafayel, but she can never recall the face of the man that’s always in her dreams once she wakes up. Trying to sketch out the man’s face is her main reason for getting into art again, and it snowballs into her making art inspired by her dreams in general

She knows a lot about Lemurian myth and history because she dreams about the place + this one Lemurian so much that she had to look into it, and by extension is fascinated by the sea

Which also means that she did actually attend Rafayel’s lectures at her university when he became a visiting professor there. They kind of only have one proper conversation throughout that entire year though.

Her heart issues affect her more than they affect MC in canon, so the UNICORNS treat her a little differently to work around it. Largely that means she doesn’t go on as many missions as MC seems to? And is often deployed a support/the human radar bc of her Evol rather than a frontline fighter.

Doesn’t feel that strongly about being a Hunter once she actually is one? Tbh I think she kinda hates a majority of the work and commitment that comes with it but feels she can’t just quit after spending so much time working towards becoming one. Xavier and their training sessions together are kind of the main things keeping her there (+ she has fun killing Wanderers)

She’s not as bubbly or cheerful or bratty as the canon MC is. Her personality is a lot more reserved and introverted and she LOVES studying + learning, but there’s still a bit of playfulness there. There’s actually so many parts of the main story, Tender Moments, and Bond/Memoria that I’m changing or outright excluding because they just don’t work out for her the same way they do with canon MC sigh >.>;;

LOVES plants and flowers. In every iteration I have of her she’s at least half covered in floral tattoos and her home is always full of them! Very into flower language to an extent that I’m not ahdjsjs she makes me research a lot of things…

Kind of obsessed with death (mostly because she believes herself to be on a short timer) and is a little fucked up? Will join Rafayel in his quest for vengeance and will believe his murders are all justified if she finds out about them tbh.

^Okay I feel like that’s a lot ahdjshsja >.> in LND I wrote her with Rafayel in mind as the endgame >.> Zayne’s more of a bestie/brother/secret third thing, and Xavier… I guess to her he’s a friend but he definitely is in love with her? And Dola eventually becomes aware of that and isn’t quite sure what to do about it.

Gosh anyway!! Thank you for being interested ahdjshsjs she’s been my baby and muse for like… 3-4 years at this point? I have so many thoughts about her like you wouldn’t believe ;-;

(i have a whole inspo blog for her ahdjshs it’s @dolasach >.>)

[msviolacea]

Okay! Random thoughts and observations about Star Rail 2.2! Spoilers, obviously!

tl;dr - not as coherent as 2.1 was, story-wise, but SO MUCH LORE. SO MUCH. But honestly most of the below is random nonsense and shitposting.

I didn't think Xipe was the kind of god to go Catholic, but apparently they have confession? Huh.

Bravo to Hoyo writers for pulling off the "it was all a dream" gambit in a way that actually works.

I was willing to possibly buy that we were just getting a slightly disappointing easy-out right up until a) the IPC went "nah, we don't want the planet anymore" and b) Ratio and Screwllum were vaguely happy to work together. At that point, it was like "ahhhh, we're in a DREAM dream y'all."

Poor Sunday, radicalized by being an overly protective older sibling. Relatable, tbh. You know, except for the making yourself a giant supervillain mecha god. Though that's tempting some days, I won't lie.

On the other side of things, it did feel like a disappointing cop-out after spending SO MUCH TIME on his story in 2.1 to just be told "yeah, actually Aventurine just got rescued off-screen."

HOWEVER, kudos to Argenti for surfing into Penacony, immediately finding the forbidden dreamspace and rescuing an IPC ambassador, then rolling up to take 2nd place in an idol competition before fucking off to find more beauty or whatever. King shit. Bravo. Come back soon.

Speaking of the HSR husbando game, BOOTHILL. Who thinks pointing a gun in your face is a way to say hello and has a Plan C that's just "... guess we'll take hostages!" Stay forever, you insane space cowboy.

On a slightly related tangent, I loved the flashback exchange between Firefly and Blade, showing their relationship to each other as Stellaron Hunters. After all the Luofu nonsense, it's fun to see Blade as a weird older brother figure.

Another related tangent to the above: since I also watched some of the most recent Genshin patch on YT this week, shoutout to Daman Mills for having the "deep raspy voiced tragic murder hobo" to "ridiculous androgynous magician twink" range. [insert Patrick Stewart "Acting" gif here]

But back to Firefly, I think she had a nice showcase here, though I wish they'd given her more focus in the last bit instead of sorta-kinda-maybe-probably not killing her offscreen via a short Acheron speech. I assume she'll be back, given that she's dropping as a playable character next patch, but still. There was just a lot going on in this patch and not enough time to do everything they really needed to do.

However, they COULD have cut the idol competition, because that added absolutely nothing to the plot and only really existed because someone clearly went "huh, how do we fit more puzzles and trash fights here?"

We also needed more Robin. She was awesome, don't get me wrong, but again, I would have given up the stupid idol competition in favor of maybe getting more time to play her and not just Sparkle-as-Robin running around giving people ... doomsday buttons?

Speaking of which .. wtf? Like, those went NOWHERE. Maybe they're for later payoff, but given that she was explicitly telling people to use them during the concert ... it was weird.

Dan Heng: Listen my past life just cold clocked me over the head, I need time to process and not deal for a while, Imma stay out of Dream Disneyland and chill. Also Dan Heng: so, my friends are in trouble AGAIN, not like this isn't a "must be Tuesday" occurrence for the Astral Express crew, but my first instinct is to use this very important button to call the saner of my previous life's ex-boyfriends to bring an army to help.

Like, I'm CERTAINLY not complaining about the Jing Yuan cameo, even just as a dream, but that was a very quick response, Dan Heng. I see you. (PS: as long as we're giving VA shoutouts in this post, shoutout to Alejandro Saab for Jing Yuan's everything.)

Little detail I didn't catch myself, but saw someone online point out today - Welt gave the IPC the ammunition they need to take out the Dream Master. Early in the patch, he points out that the poker chip Aventurine gave us is actually a transmitter and recorder, and takes it with him to meet with Robin and Sunday and the Dream Master. At the very end, we see Aventurine playing with the chip, and Jade mentions that they obtained a recording "from your Trailblaze friend" that would help them on Penacony/with the Dream Master. So shoutout to Welt for ... well, deciding that space capitalism is preferable to crazy assholes who are trying to use innocent people to revive a god? I guess he's seen plenty of nonsense in his time, tbh, so I'm going to trust his judgement.

Speaking of Welt, Acheron's name drop was not the only Honkai Impact 3rd direct reference. It was an interesting touch for them to include Welt's "real"/original name in the credits sequences. Don't know if it's anything more than just an easter egg for HI3 folks, but still. Interesting.

Harmony Trailblazer is actually pretty strong. I'm definitely going to build mine.

All in all, I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the last patch, but it's the difference between like a 9.5/10 and an 8/10. Coherent self-contained stories mean a lot to me, but the lore and character stuff that was in this patch was A+, and I'm still digesting half of it.

[konigceo]

imma be spilling some of my lore to u guys !!

tw: uhh none really. just horrible friends and horrible people :3

ok so basically i have this friend, we're gonna call her w, and she's been my friend since like 6th grade, she's my bsf. i moved middle schools bc she was going to another middle school and i literally do everything with her.

then in 7th grade i met this girl, lets call her m. i became friends with her and me, w, and m have been a trio since then. but this year, w and m became friends with 2 other girls, lets call them k and n. i knew k and n since last year. we had a few classes together. i was actually kind of friends with n at the time. we weren't best friends, but i trusted her.

m and n have a few classes together and that's how they became friends. same with w and k. they also had a couple classes together. n and k are best friends btw, they've gone to all the same schools. anyways, me, w, m, n, and k now all become friends.

i have a little bit of history with n tho. last year when i was dating my ex, i was friends with n (like i mentioned.) i trusted n and saw her as a friend, so i told her that i was dating my ex (lets call him s.) obviously i was wrong in trusting her, because she told my entire grade that i was dating s. (s was kind of popular and i wasn't, so it was kind of a big deal ig. i was an ugly loser back then lmao)

because n told everyone a SECRET, a secret that i told her to keep to herself, i didn't trust her anymore. now back to the present.

this all took place in novemeber/december of last year. anyways, k was dating a girl i knew, lets call her z. k and z dated for about 2 months before breaking up. i won't go into the specifics, but they broke up because k acted like she was dating n instead of z. mind you, k and n were best friends, and n even had a crush on k last year.

i'm friends with z, and she told me more details, but the point was that n was a homewrecker. and i honestly agree with her. n has trouble keeping things to herself and has trouble respecting people's boundaries. i really didn't like n now, not only because of the shit she did to me, but also the shit she did to z.

now, i told w and m all of this, since we were all friends. i told them that i wanted to drop k and n, especially since no one else liked k and n at this point. they were really rude to everyone else they used to be friends with. but w and m said no, and that they wanted to stay friends with k and n until they did something wrong to them.

and i was pissed at this point. but i just told them that they could stay friends with k and n, but that i wouldn't be friends with them. so i'm not. i'm trying my best to avoid k and n now. i'm spending my breaks with z and her friends, c and d. they're really nice, and i really like z a lot.

but now i have a problem. z told me that m has a crush on k, and that's why m was gonna keep on being friends with k. so i confronted m about this. i asked her if the reason she wouldn't drop k was because she liked her. and m said it was true, and that she didn't only like k romantically, but also as a friend.

now i'm fucking pissed. i'm so fucking tired of telling m the same thing over and over, that k and n are bad people, that i don't like them, that OTHER people also don't like them. that we're the only people friends with them. and m doesn't care. and i'm fucking pissed.

i'm thinking about dropping m and w. but it honestly isn't that easy. i've been friends with m and w for so long, and they know everything about me. they know my secrets, they know about this blog, everything. and i'm fucking terrified that one day, when i eventually drop m, that she'll tell someone about this blog, and that i'm a fucking loser who writes porn on the internet. i'm fucking terrified.

my parents have been thinking about moving, so that's good. i really hope that i move. that way i'll be able to get away from m and n and k. i still feel really bad though. i've been friends with w and m for so fucking long and the thought of dropping them is still so scary. i don't wanna be friends with n or k, but i still wanna be friends with w and m. especially w. she hasn't really done anything wrong, even if she doesn't care that n and k are bad people.

i don't know what to do now. i think the best for now is to move away and forget about everyone.

lmao thank you for reading this far guys !! i'm just really stressed with school work and this whole friendgroup thing. i'm so sorry for the lack of fics. i can't promise you guys anything, and i'm really sorry. i'll try to get back on track soon enough. thanks for all the support :)

[jq37]

Twice Upon a Time - Neverafter Eps 4+5

Once Upon a Time and Down Came the Rain

Hey Y’all!

Happy New Year!

As I noted in a post about a week ago, I was home for the holidays with very little access to wifi so I missed a week–a very lore heavy and trippy week–and I am butting up against the drop of a new episode so, as promised at the start of this batch of recaps, I’m gonna do my best to catch us up without burning myself out and hopefully we’ll be back to normal recaps next episode.

So, first up, let’s quickly run through what everyone went through during their resurrections in episode 4: Once Upon a Time.

Pinocchio has perhaps the most harrowing time. After a quick chat with his ghost cricket conscience (bc in the OG tale, he straight up murders him, as one does) he is summoned by his very disappointed “mother”. When he sees her, there is a crack of light in the doorway from where he stole the doorknob but he caves and tells her that he found her house and gives her all the loot he took (knob, photo, knife). He’s really worried about his dad and even MORE worried when the stepmother uses Geppetto's blood to give him more power so maybe he’ll do better protecting Roz this time around (she seems to be on a diff plane with Gepetto, making Gepetto her only source of blood). Pinocchio is now a little more fucked up and he has a crow familiar that he’s not very fond of. Then he’s sent back to life but not *his* life. His stepmother throws him into a different version of the Neverafter (a darker one, which is the running theme of these resurrections) and he fully takes the place of the Pinocchio in this world. Yikes!

Puss in Boots gets a very meta sequence where he meets up with two other tricksters–Fox and Rabbit. They seem to be, in a very literal sense, the archetypal trickers you see in stories like Brer Rabbit or the Fox in Pinocchio (and it’s implied that in other versions of Pinocchio–Puss or really “Cat” is also the cat that leads Pinocchio astray with the Fox). At one point the Rabbit says “We have to work together for the rest of storytelling,” which is super meta. The Fox thinks he’s gotten a little too deep in his attachments to the people he’s messing with (which is maybe proven a bit true when he shows he’s still protective over Tomas) while the Rabbit seems a bit more on his side. Before he’s sent back, he gets some new gear (including wolf tooth daggers called “The Fangs of Isengrim”) and also sees a giant spider web which screams Anansi to me (especially now that I’ve seen ep 5 and know how many cultures Brennan is pulling from here).

Roz gets my fave sequence in which she meets Cinderella (Lou Voice: Another secret Black woman?) who gives this wild info dump. Basically, she says that because of the nature of the Neverafter, princesses tend to have special abilities–most relevant here, the ability to live more “once upon a times” than other people. Cindy and Snow have been looking for Roz for a while and it’s been hard because she spends 100 years of her story asleep and it’s hard to find a window to get to her. Cindy says that the Neverafter began when the Times of Shadow did and the powers that be don’t necessarily like this crossover thing that’s happening. She says that as she died over and over she began to become aware of her past lives and she realized that someone–namely the fairies–had been bending events so that things would always go a certain way. For instance, her mother would always die. So, she’s team free will. Roz is a little naive to all this talk, still hoping for a prince and a happily ever after (with Cindy very endearingly trying to be patient with her) when Roz (with a nat 20 Insight) starts getting flashes of her past lives–good and bad–and it all starts to click with her. Cindy tells her that she should meet up back with her friends. She says that witches can be helpful but she thinks in the end they’ll side with the fairies. She also tells her to look for a dancing mute girl near a beach (the Little Mermaid I’m sure) if she can. Oh and she also warns Roz that there are MANY Once Upon a Times but not UNLIMITED ones and they’re running out. She leaves Roz with some encouraging words about love being real even if their lives have been manipulated and then Roz wakes up covered in briars again. But, this time, she’s way more skilled because she got 7 fairy gifts in this version instead of 3 and she busts her way out via a combo of brute strength and calling swarms of animals to do her bidding. 

Red awakens in a nice sunny forest with the Wolf and we learn that apparently, the Wolf told her to kill him before she got her curse, which is interesting. Anyway, the Wolf seems to be just like, an honestly kind of chill representation of The End. Like, he’s not killing you cause he hates you. He’s killing you cause It’s Your Time. He takes Red to a crossroads and to one path is a story where the woodsman comes and kills the wolf and it’s happier for her (though, she’d still be her in her current state it seems) and to the other path is an even more fucked up version of the story. It’s very Red Pill, Blue Bill. She asks to speak with her Grandma to help decide and the wolf leaves and her Grandma appears. With her Grandma there, she attempts to make a break for it, but when her Grandma starts down the darker path, Red notices her ears are a bit too long and suspects she’s being manipulated by the wolf. This doesn’t seem to quite be the case though. It’s like her Grandma just also has a bit of wolf in her. Or maybe they’re kind of the same person? It’s very trippy. Anyway, her Grandma tells her that her real friends will see the wolf in her and still love her and that she’s not a monster. Red chooses the darker path, of course, and finds herself at the edge of the cliff with a forest below. The Wolf is there again and begins violently dying–he has to die for Red’s story to start (a more violent version of the story btw, where she kills the woodsman which is not great for her psyche lemme tell you). Before he dies, he helps buff Red a bit and also says that there is something/one else connected to him in this version of the story (implied to be the 3 Little Pigs because Red hears snorting and also the Wolf is getting burned, like he does at the end of that story). Red demands answers from whoever is doing this and she wakes up in Pottingham in a stronger version of her body.

Gerrard wakes up floating in water with the shard still stuck in chest cause the narrative hates him. He is found by Turquina (aka the Fairy with the Turquoise hair, aka the fairy that brought Pinocchio to life). He fails horribly to pull it out (Nat 1) and Turq tells him to be careful, treating him with lots of princely deference. She is very helpful on the surface but seems to demonstrate what Cindy was saying about fairies being very manipulative of their narratives. She’s all, “It’s a good thing you were frogged the FIRST time but the SECOND time it shouldn’t have happened, that’s off script and we need to get it right”. Ger is basically on board–except for when she mentions changing Elody back. Then he’s like, “The problem isn’t Elody, the problem is everything else.” Also, when he offhandedly mentions Tim’s book, she seems a bit too eager to know more and he tries to cover it up. Anyway, Turq says the fairies are working really hard to put things right and she needs his shard but she can’t actually touch it so she needs him to take it out then leave it in a moonlit glade and a fairy will come pick it up. Also, she needs to bring him back to life but he’ll come back kinda more fucked up. But that’s OK! she says. It just needs to get worse before it gets better. Turq also says that they need to be careful because Roz may have been in contact with some troublemakers (aka Cindy and co). She says that if Ger helps her with this, the fairies will make helping him and Elody their top priority. He then wakes up in a darker world in a more froglike body with memories of Elody on a totally bloodied horse on the battlefield and knowledge that in this version of the story, instead of kissing him to turn him back to prince, Elody threw his froggy body against a wall. Fairy tales are wild y’all. And the shard is STILL in him because, again, the narrative hates him.

Finally, we come to Tim who is riding on the back of a kind golden goose. She’s strikingly similar to the gander, but…you know..not horrific. She tells him that he’s kind of like her brother and the yin to her yang. She can’t be where he is and visa versa. Good things follow her and bad things follow him. Tim still has his book as everyone else had their key items. The Goose tells him a bunch of info including that some fairies, all witches, and some princesses know what’s going on here. And I’m gonna break out the bullets here just so we can finish off these flashbacks:

The Goose says that the people in the book are happy but it’s not like a permanent solution. 

In the world they’re going to, Jack isn’t his son. It is also the version where Jack does the beanstalk and giant killing thing. 

The book is connected to the Goose and has more power than he can imagine.

Things can be brought out of the book.

Jack has way more stories than most people.

(Question: If Tim had no Jack in this version, I wonder what his first wish was.)

Once their conversation is done, Tim is dropped into his new story. He sees an illustration in his book of 8 fairies, and he knows all his friends are in this world.

Oh, and we never learn about what the red gems are about! Hate that! 

And that’s the quick and dirty rundown of this ep. An important thing I wanna make clear in case it wasn’t. Every character except for Pinocchio is now running around with two sets of memories. Their past life and their new one. Got it? Cool. So now we can jump into episode 5: Down Came the Rain.

This is mostly a setup ep, so we’re gonna do bullet points again.

Everyone meets up in their new forms at a tavern called The Cock and Toad. 

Roz is now followed around by a bunch of woodland creatures in a cloak as her body guard. 

Red’s breath is a lot more big and bad now (she took 2 levels of druid because, as I always say, Emily NEEDS spell slots or she will DIE). 

When Ger comes in, Red takes out the shard with a Nat 20.

Oh, also, everyone is level 3 now!

Everyone kind of catches each other up about what they saw in their visions more or less. Ger is a little cagey about Turq telling him to give her the shard but he’s too sweaty to hide his lie by omission for long and everyone is like nah we gotta put the shard in the book.

When Pinnochio describes the fairy that visited him when he had to lie–the shadowy one–Roz realizes it sounds a lot like the fairy who cursed her. Fairy overlap! I knew it!

Also there is a talking and very sad dish here w/ relationship drama (as in The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon) because this is Brennan and he can’t resist making something very silly very serious. 

Tim gets the Dish to tell him his whole sob story in a corner of the bar and he disappears into the book in motes of golden light. In his book, the words “The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon” appear. Tim also feels like he’s reached the limit of what he can do with the book without giving it the shard. 

At the same time, Pib is outside. One of the items he got from the tricksters is a spider ring that can lead him to any spider. It leads him outside to the Itsy Bitsy Spider. When he helps the little guy out, the spider tells him about a spider queen in the heart of the Lullaby Lands who is martialing her forces and cooking up some kind of dark spell that might be causing the lousy weather. She also seems connected to the gander. Also, he mentions she has magical artifacts (which seems significant considering their quest).

(There’s a mention of Hamelin which means the Pied Piper is liable to make an appearance). 

Speaking of artifacts, everyone gathers in the barn near the tavern to get some privacy to put the shard in the book. 

Roz finds some bear scat in the barn and it’s implied it might be from one of the Goldilocks bears. 

The cow that jumped over the moon is also in this barn because sure. 

Tim puts the shard into the book and the whole Cinderella story appears. Strangely, after the traditional end of the story, there are a couple of blank pages and then a picture of the shard. It’s like something more happened in the story that the book isn’t showing the text for but is showing the image (presumably where she stabs her fairy god mom). It’s also weird because it’s like the safe book is censoring the gruesome true end of the story but the carving of toes and stuff is still fully in there. 

OK, so remember when they were told that once the book had the first thing it needed, they’d have allies? Well here we are at a VERY cool plot twist.

Tim hears scratching in the book like someone else is writing in it and sees the writing of someone who is trapped in a cave and seems to have their own book which they are trying to use to communicate. 

Tim is able to write back to them and realizes that it’s Scheherazade from 1001 Nights!

If you’ve never heard of her, Scher is part of the frame story of the Arabic fairy tale collection 1001 Nights. She basically tells these stories to a king night after night to keep from being killed and at the end they get married. This story collection is where famous Arabic stories like Sinbad and Aladdin come from. I was SO pumped to get to this revelation because it’s so fun and meta. 

Anyway, back to the actual story. 

They exchange names and Scher (who doesn’t recognize Tim and vice versa) says she is trapped in a cave with some friends who include Sinbad (great fighter, annoying companion). They were supposed to meet a guardian who isn’t there. She seems to be in a similar situation to Tim where she’s in a world where things have gone wrong and she recently realized things about the true nature of the world. 

But when Tim asks where she is, plot twist #2! She doesn’t know what the Neverafter is. She’s in a land called The Endless Nights. 

This is ALSO super cool! Ever After to Neverfter and 1001 Nights to Endless Nights? Gosh, Brennan is really doing the coolest things with this narrative this season. This is really healing all my Once Upon a Time trauma AND my multiverse burnout at the same time.

Scher and Tim send each other images of what they look like (Tim’s is super buff because of Ally shenanigans) and Scher is like cool, we can send each other magic. She also sends a pic of the guardian that was supposed to be at the cave and it’s like a stone spider glyph. Pib is like, “Oh, hey I might have some info here,” and fills them in on his spider side quest.

Scher says she’d really appreciate the help and will help them as well once she’s out of the cave. She even mentions wishes and I love me a genie in the mix. Oh and she mentions there’s a dude named Aesop who also might have a book! (Aesop as in Aesop’s fables. Think Tortoise and the Hare and City Mouse/Country Mouse).

Before they head back, Tim (aided by Roz’s Speak with Animals) gets the cow’s life story and he goes into the book. Still no picture but the words “the cow jumped over the moon” appear in the appropriate spot. 

En route, Red gets some Goodberries for everyone. Smart move since they’re heading towards a fight. Each is one HP.

Point of Order–Jubilee doesn’t exist in this version of the Neverafter which is concerning to me. Is the map just gonna keep getting smaller each time they die/fail or is it replaced with something else? Also, even though Jubilee doesn’t exist here, Cole (and Senator the ram) are still in the book.

They reach a crossroads and realize that they’re going to Tuffeton. (Tuffeton as in “Little miss Muffet she sat on her tuffet, eating her curds eating and whey Along came a spider who sat down beside her And frightened miss Muffet away.”)

Crow scouts ahead and sees a grim village with this huge hill. And at the base of the hill is a mine entrance with cobwebs.

Note: Via Cole in the book, Tim can always have Lesser Restoration Prepped. He does so when Pib is the only one to fail a Con check from traveling in the rain and Brennan says it prevents him from getting a red gem (but it wouldn’t have helped after the fact)

They follow Pib’s ring to the center of the mine.

As they’re traveling in the dark, Ylfa inadvertently mentally connects to the mind of a tusked boar. She feels fire and asks if he killed the Big Bad Wolf. The board says, “Friend.” A tear runs down his cheek. He says, “I am trying to–” then she loses the connection. Hmmmm.

This is a little out of order but Tim messages Scher again and she says that (1) the spider guardian she mentioned is someone she was supposed to talk to not fight so I’m wondering if actually is the same spider they’re presumably going to have to fight or maybe more of a good guy spider like Anansi or maybe a spider I’ve never heard of because I’m not as familiar with 1001 Nights. She also says that (2) in the cave she’s in there was a tapestry of a princess with a golden mace which sounds like Elody. That’s interesting because it sounds like multiverse bleedthrough. 

They find a massive spider web in this mine but between Pib’s feline grace and roguish tricks, Red being shapeshifted into a spider, Crow being shapeshifted into a spider, and everyone else being very very careful, they are able to navigate to the center without getting caught! They have the advantage going into the next fight! Let’s hope they can keep it this time because it seems like every time they die, things are gonna get much worse. 

[lemonsherbetsss]

Ok so! I have zero plan for how I’m writing this (probably a bad thing) but here is a post explaining (??) Angela Gearlooose and her backstory/lore !

This is Lengthyyyyyyyy I didn’t mean for it to be but yeah

for starters, she exists within the headcanon/au in which Scrooge is Gyro’s adoptive father and where Gyro lived and grew up with Donald, Della and Scrooge. Angela was hatched before Della had and hatched Huey, Dewey and Louie. Della and Donald were ecstatic to be her aunt/uncle but no one was as excited as Scrooge was to become a Grandpa.

The plan was that Gyro would raise Angel in the mansion alongside HDL when they hatched with the help of Scrooge, Donald and Della but this did not happen after the Spear Of Selene. Obviously they all went their separate ways (Gyro obviously still works with McDuck Ind. but his close relationship to his family is no longer intact) and didn’t really have any contact with each other (I say really as for Gyro, Scrooge is just of arms reach but again aren’t as close).

Gyro raises Angel on his own somewhat and I’ve played with multiple ideas which I’ll talk about but I’ll talk about the original ideas first!

The first and original idea was that if Gyro was far to busy, he would drop Angel off at the mansion and she would spend the day there under the watchful eyes of Beakley (i stan Gyro and Beakley friendship they are real, in this I’d imagine Gyro and Bentina already know each other -with him being a McDuck ofc- and she is quite fond of him, their relationship being kind of grandmother-grandson / mother-son if that makes sense) . While at the mansion, she would also make and be good friends with Webby (I think Webby is a bit older than the triplets canonically so they’d be the same age).

Whenever at the Mansion, Angel tries her best to stay out of Scrooge’s way, she doesn’t know her relation to him yet but she feels as if she’s a bit of a burden in the mansion and that she’s always intruding when she is there so she tries to keep her head down and be respectful. As for Scrooge, I feel he wouldn’t want to address Angela, like let her know who he is, build an actual relationship at all (yet) because are you kidding me bro didn’t even do that for HDL the only reason that happened was because of Beakley and their trouble making. Not to say that I don’t think Beakley wouldn’t urge him to get to know Angel (she probably would as like I said she did the same with the triplets) but yeah Angel and Scrooge keep their distance and Angel doesn’t know how or even the fact that they’re connected.

The way she comes across the knowledge that he is her Grandfather is through Webby (because she knows everything McDuck). The way it went in my original lore explanation I made on my Instagram highlights was really lame but briefly (although yes this is basically it) it was:

Webby: how come you get so quiet and reclusive whenever Mr McDuck is around?

Angela: I don’t know, he’s an adult I don’t know, it’s respectful I guess.

Webby: wait what? But he’s your Grandpa

Angela: he’s my what.

(Sucky ik but let’s just roll w it for now 😭😭)

She nervously and quietly asks Gyro about it and Gyro’s shocked because he didn’t really like tell her much about their past and other family as it basically has just been the two together as a family (looking back now it’s kinda dumb I had this because Gyro is a genius and his daughter is friends with the McDuck obsessed kid also Angela literally sometimes stays at the home of said McDuck but whatever). His explanation is just a vague ‘I’m sorry I’ve kept so much about our family from you, it’s hard to explain, something bad happened a long time ago and that’s why their family is like this (mysterious n broken lol) and Scrooge doesn’t mean to be the way he is and it’s just complicated’. I imagined that as a child and because she doesn’t know a lot about the situation and she doesn’t know any better, Angel would have like a tiny voice in her head that’s trying to convince her that she’s to blame for the rapture of her family but yeah 👍👍👍 that was the original idea.

One of the ideas I’ve played with was Launchpad helping Gyro out with raising Angel and become like an uncle figure to her (bc I also believe in Lp gyro friendship 💪💪). I feel Gyro’d just want to to do everything on his own (bc 1) being so hurt from everything and 2) being so stubborn) and, bc Lp is nearby -him working for Scrooge as well- Launchpad wants to be friends and eventually learns about Angela and wants to help. At first it’d be just Lp offering small favours (like offering to drive, hold things -perhaps if Gyro’s got a lot on his hands literally idk 😭😭- offering to bring things down to the lab, offering to buy him anything he needs, offering to watch Angel for a sec, etc.), to which Gyro refuses time and time again until one day he reluctantly accepted, much to Launchpad’s surprise. With Lp watching Angel Gyro would be extremely reluctant and hesitant (giving Launchpad’s clumsy nature) but he lets it happen and nothing goes wrong (maybe a broken cup or something that makes Gyro freak out if Angel’s ok for a bit before the reassurance that she’s fine from Lp) and he let’s Lp look after her more and they become closer and very much like family, the first family Gyro’s had kinda of like??? ‘Around’ ig since the spear of Selene

There’s more ideas but this post is already too long so ig I’ll talk abt it another day

So this is it lol 😭😭 this is probably really bad bc I don’t usually do stuff like this but like I realise I never actually share my oc lore to any places so it’s good have something down ig

Also I said in a post before that Gyro still works an unhealthy amount (coping ig) but finds a way to do it while caring for Angel I’ll link it here when I can lol

Edit: forgot to add but Angel spends most her freetime in the lab w her dad (idk if that’s important but ya)

[stoopid-noah]

This amazing art piece of my human OCs was made by @/littledinosaursposts

It's the first ever art piece of these OC's, that are incredibly important to me & I'm absolutely in love with it!! <3

So, thank you again for bringing them to life!

I've been planning on telling y'all about them for a while, but it's so much lore and some of it is a little dark.. uh.. so anyways, here is a "tiny" summary..

Who is who on the picture:

Frank is the tall black man sitting on the floor, he is Chrisses best friend and future husband. In his lab is sitting Nate (yes, I choose the same name for me lols) . On the couch are sitting Nate's big Brother, Chris and Riv, who is Frank's child and Nate's best friend.

About the characters:

Frank - A 25 yo black man and single father of River (Riv). He became a dad at the age of 16, took full custody and raised his kid with the help of his mum. Rivs mother always wanted to be a career woman and Frank always wanted to have children. Frank is now a preschool teacher and LOVES children so much. He's autistic and likes how honest and direct they are, he is very good with children. He calls his kid "Muffin", Nate "pipsqueak" / "Pip" and Chris "Chrissy"/ "Love". He's an absolute rock for Chris and never fails to support him. He knows exactly how to handle a traumatized kid like Nate, since he was a child psychiatrist for a while.

Riv - is 8, goes by they/ them pronouns. Riv loves heavy metal and spending time with their dad. Together they often play video games, DnD or make music (Riv plays the drums and Frank the guitar, bass or piano.) Riv has a hard time connecting with their peers, they are also autistic. Frank did a really good job raising a very intelligent kid, emotionally and generally. Riv knows exactly what they want and are really good at communicating their needs. They share a lot of interests with Chris and the both of them often enjoy horror media or metal music, while Nate and Frank partake in calmer activities, like crafting. Nate is Rivs best friend and "sibby". Even though Riv is bodily younger, they feel like a big sibling, since Nate is permanently regressed and mostly stuck at ca. age 5.

Chris is the big (half) brother of Nate, he took his sibling in after the police removed him from the house of their father. He didn't know the kid existed, no one did (more of that later). He's 26 and trying his best to take care of this deeply traumatized kid. Frank is his neighbor and best friend.. and even though he thought he was straight, he's beginning to realize that he has a huge crush on him. Chris is very loving but a bit overbearing and overly cautious & overprotective with Nate. But Frank is pretty good at grounding him. Chris is trying his best at raising his traumatized sibling.

Nate - ❗Tw - mention of abuse & death❗ The police found him chained up in the basement when looking for drugs at the father's house. Any type of abuse one can imagine, he had to go through. His mother was found after he told the police "she sleep in roses." Her body was buried under a rose bush.❗Tw over❗

His left arm is amputated under the elbow and he has many scars. He's still a little underweight, but he's getting better. Nate is intersex and his gender is ambiguous. He has no construct of gender, so he doesn't care what pronouns people use for him. The kid has heterochromia, with his right eye the same shade of blue like his brothers eyes, and the left one a turquoise. He also got the same blue streak his Chris has, bc he wants to be like him. He is perma-regressed, with his age moving between 3 and 13, depending on the day and possible triggers, tough he's mostly stuck at about 5. He's semi verbal and has selective mutism. His bio age is unknown, since there is no birth certificate. He loves his brother, he calls him "Kiss" because he has trouble pronouncing the name Chris and he calls Frank "Dad" because he keeps hearing his bestie Riv call him that. Nate is obsessed with dinosaurs and the kid would drop everything and anything for an apple.. he loves apples so much. That's because when he was found by the police, one of them gave him some apple slices, that was the first time Nate ever tasted anything sweet.

some more pictures:

I drew Nate and an Instagram friends (@/baby.anels.space) OC called Noah. Yes, I may have picked my name partially bc of my OC, leave me be.. Also their OC has my other first name, so it was destiny!

This was an ych from @/baby.anels.space on Instagram!!

[uvobreakmylegs]

Haze

i saw a meme and it made me want to write a Morel piece. then @ramwrites​ suggested making him a banshee and i loved it

i have definitely bastardized banshee lore but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do for a story

Warnings: manipulation, mentions of death

A hiking trip up to a nearby mountain trail had been on a list of things to do for you and your friend group for a while. Your friend Denali had suggested it, and she assured you all that it wouldn't be anything too difficult; it was just a beginner's trail that would consist of a few hours of walking up the trail and back. And then maybe you all could grab some food after.

You were pretty excited for it, as the idea sounded refreshing to you. Another thing that added to the anticipation of the hike was the fact that it had also been a little while since everyone in the friend group had been able to hang out together.

Or more accurately, it had been a while since you were able to make it to one of these friend meetups.

Some kind of bad luck had been plaguing you recently; the last few times an outing for the four of you had been planned, something unexpected came up for you and you needed to cancel last minute. Be it work obligations, family emergencies or just you getting sick the night before, it had been a while since you hung out with them like you once had.

Aiden, Denali and Colton all seemed to take it well, but you swore you could sense a growing annoyance in them. They seemed to be shorter with you in texts, and there had been a few times now that you'd sent a picture or said something in the group chat and it had been ignored. You worried that they were starting to think you were making up excuses instead of genuinely being unable to see them, but every time you tried to talk with them privately, they told you that there wasn't anything wrong and that you were just overreacting.

That hadn't made you feel any better. You just felt like a bad friend.

But today would be different.

You made a point to ensure that you had the day completely cleared for the hike, getting the day off from your work well in advance and doing your best to stay away from anything that might make you sick. The morning of your friends had all confirmed that it was still on, and after a little while they were going to rendezvous at your place to pick you up before you all headed out to the trail.

Things were going to be different today, and you were excited for it.

And things were different.

But maybe not in a way that you had expected.

You didn't notice the second car that had pulled up behind Denali's initially when they stopped outside your place. You only noticed that something was different when you approached Denali's car and noticed that one of the seats in the back had been taken up by a pile of backpacks, leaving no room for you.

When Aiden stepped out of the first car as you came out to greet him, he explained the situation. Without your knowledge, Aiden had invited someone from his work, a woman named Fawn. Evidently during those times when you couldn't make it, your friends had been hanging out with her a lot, and they had figured that she should be invited on this trip as well.

That they were hanging out with other people didn't upset you; they had every right to spend their time with people that were able to show up. But you felt slightly hurt that you hadn't been asked or even given a heads-up that this was happening. You had been anticipating spending time with your old friend group for this trip and instead you would be trying to reconnect while also navigating a new group dynamic.

But you decided not to say anything about it. You just nodded and smiled when Aiden told you that you'd be riding with Fawn in her car. Although it was unexpected, you told yourself that new people wasn't necessarily a bad thing. You could probably make good friends with her while also berating yourself for your first reaction to her being disappointment. That sort of attitude was no good.

Despite all of that, you quickly came to feel that you didn't like Fawn very much.

For one thing, the woman was one of the most reckless drivers you had ever come across. Virtually blowing through stop signs, running several lights and swerving around drivers that she felt weren't going fast enough, there were several times during the trip that you felt she was going to cause an accident. She also passed by Denali's car for some reason, and when you asked her why, she said she thought it would be fun to see who could get to the mountain first. You didn't agree, but there was literally nothing you could do but hold onto the inside of the passenger side door for dear life. The motion sickness you'd gotten was so bad that by the time you made it to the parking lot next to the hiking trail, you'd needed to lean against the side of her car and take in deep breaths in an attempt to not throw up your breakfast.

At least she seemed pretty apologetic when she saw you like that, and she offered you a bottle of water which you gladly took. But the second Denali's car pulled up she seemed to switch her focus to that completely, going up to the rest of the group to greet them. She had something of a one-track mind, it seemed. It didn't make her a bad person, but you still wanted a bit of distance for now.

After recovering and making sure you had everything you needed in your backpack, you approached Aiden while the others were getting ready.

“Hey,” you said, “you think you and I could switch places for the car ride back?”

“Oh c'mon, it couldn't have been that bad,” he said, “you'll hurt her feelings if you do that. She really wants to know you.”

Fawn walked up right after, and since you weren't willing to criticize her driving right in front of her, you dropped it.

Meanwhile the mountain loomed above all of you. Tall and imposing with a rather dense white fog that almost obscured the very top of it. There were parts that were heavily forested, and you briefly wondered if you would need to worry about anything like bears or some other kind of large wild animal.

“How far up are we going?” you asked Denali.

“Not too far. We'll be sticking to the marked trail; there's a cool little observation deck at the end of it,” she told you, “I figure we'll head towards that and then come back the same way.”

You nodded, but before you could give any real response Colton called her over for something, and she left to help him. Aiden and Fawn were chatting about something, so you stood silent and at the ready, looking up once more at the mountain.

Despite the distance, you swore you saw something moving. You wanted to say it was some large kind of four-legged creature, though it was impossible to tell what exactly it was.

“Are there bears on the mountain?” you asked aloud.

“Nah.”

That was all the response you got.

For about ten minutes after the hike started, Fawn had stayed at the back with you, asking you some basic questions about yourself that you would in turn ask her once you had answered. You hoped that the interaction wasn't as awkward as it had felt to you. Maybe it was but she also didn't want to say anything about it.

Then when your group came across an old, crumbling well, Fawn had run up towards Aiden to get some better pictures of the structure, and when the group began to move again, she chose to stay there next to him.

Denali had taken the lead with Colton right behind. They were talking, though what they were talking about you couldn't be sure as you only caught bits and pieces of the conversation. A few steps behind them were Aiden and Fawn, talking about something that was going on at their workplace. And a few steps behind those two was you, trailing behind the group and unable to join either conversation. Although Aiden had said that Fawn wanted to know you, she hadn't said much of substance to you before she turned her attention back to him. Although maybe that was your fault. Maybe it really was obvious that you didn't care for her much. You thought that you were doing a decent job at being polite, but maybe she could tell that you were still a bit annoyed about her driving earlier.

Or maybe she just wanted to talk to Aiden right now and you were overreacting again.

You weren't sure.

It just felt like you were being excluded.

Of course. The first time in forever that you were able to make it to a meet-up with them, and it felt like you weren't wanted.

You sighed to yourself as you walked behind silently, trying to tell yourself that it was unreasonable to be thinking like that and that you wouldn't have been invited if they didn't want you there. The hike had just started; you couldn't decide that the whole thing would be bad just because of a rough beginning.

At least for now you could enjoy the scenery, and you looked about the woods as you walked along the trail, noting the different types of trees and plants and just how many of them surrounded you as you walked by on the trail. You stopped now and then to take a few pictures with your phone. Although you could hear the distinct chirping of birds in the distance, you didn't manage to see any, and despite the movement you thought you had seen while in the parking lot, it didn't seem like there were any other animals in the area. Denali had said this was an easy trail; maybe people frequented it enough that most animals avoided any areas close to it. That was too bad, but not that big of a deal. At least you were still getting nice pictures of the forest.

Your group came across a wide set of wooden stairs with a wooden barrier on either side after a bit, beginning a steeper ascent towards the higher parts of the mountain. Nothing had really changed within the group, though you noted that the conversations had mostly died down in an effort to appreciate the nature around you. Colton was also frequently looking behind to make sure everyone was still there. The two of you managed to lock eyes at one point, and you smiled at him. He gave back something of a half-smile before looking back in front of him. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but you noted that he didn't look back after that.

The walk continued, and all of you were quiet now, looking about the scenery. Some of them occasionally made remarks whenever they spotted something unusual, like an oddly shaped tree trunk or rock. You stayed silent, though, remembering your messages that had gone ignored and worried that if you said anything, that would be ignored as well.

Were you being too anxious about this? Probably. You sighed to yourself again as you tried to keep those kinds of thoughts from running amok.

Just distract yourself by looking around, you told yourself.

You paused when you glanced over to your right.

It looked like there was some sort of stone pillar standing in the distance. The dark rock was covered in moss and vines, but the shape was such that it couldn't have been a natural formation. Someone human had put it there some time ago. It also looked as though there was similar wreckage behind the pillar, and you wondered if it may have once been some kind of building.

Taking out your phone and pulling up the camera, you zoomed in on the the ruined structure. You briefly glanced over to your friends as you did, making sure they weren't leaving you too far behind.

But when you looked back to the phone, you let out a small sound of surprise.

There was a man standing by the pillar.

Your eyes immediately went back to the pillar as you wondered where this guy had come from.

The shadows over in that area made things a bit darker, but you were able to see a general shape that looked like a person. You squinted slightly as you looked at him, trying to make out any details. But strangely, you couldn't. It was just the shape of a rather broad man, and as you continued to look, you found that it looked almost wispy, like a few pieces of cloud had floated down and arranged themselves to imitate what a person might look like.

…. Why did it feel like it was looking back at you?

“What are you doing?”

Aiden's voice called to you, and you snapped out of your stupor to find that the whole group was standing there waiting on you.

Your mouth fell open to try and offer some explanation, to tell them about what you were looking at, but when you glanced back to where the shape had been-

He wasn't there.

And when you looked back to the camera, you found he was gone from there as well.

Had you imagined it?

The entire thing had happened within mere seconds. The pillar wasn't large enough that he could be hiding behind it, and no one could move that fast without making some bit of noise. Looking between the view from your camera and the pillar a few more times, you decided that you had imagined it. Though you were certain you had seen something standing there, there was no way that could have actually been the case. Maybe a shadow just looked weird within the lighting at that moment?

Aiden called out to you again.

“Sorry!” you called out, putting the phone away as you hurried up the stairs to rejoin them.

“What you were looking at?” Fawn asked you.

“Something back there,” you explained, “ it looked like there were some ruins of a building.”

“Oh, did you get a picture? Can I see?”

“Ah, sorry, I didn't.”

Fawn pouted, asking “why not?”

“I thought I saw someone.”

They both looked at you strangely.

“You couldn't get a picture because you thought you saw someone?” Aiden asked.

“I don't know. It was just weird,” you said, getting a bit flustered as you continued “I thought I saw a guy for a second – or something that looked like a guy – but then he was gone.”

“... 'Something' that 'looked' like a guy,” Aiden repeated.

“Oh wow, I didn't know you could see ghosts!” Fawn exclaimed, giggling a little, “we've got a coworker who swears that the printer room is haunted. Maybe we should bring her here and see if she also sees something.”

…. You weren't sure if she was making fun of you or not, so you stayed silent. Aiden was still looking at you like you had two heads while Fawn was pulling out her own phone, preparing to walk back down to take a look at the ruins herself. Then Denali called out to the three of you, asking what the hold-up was. That was enough to spur you to begin walking again.

“Aw, I wanted to get a picture,” Fawn said as you began climbing the stairs once more.

Fawn then looked to Aiden as he said to her “we can always snap a picture on the way back.”

“That's true.”

“And did Nell say that the printer room was haunted? I thought she said it was the third floor bathroom,” Aiden then said.

“It could've been both. According to her a lot of places are haunted. Something about weird energies,” Fawn responded.

They were talking about something from their work again, and since you still had no way to join in, you walked behind them in silence. As your group continued the ascent, you glanced behind to see if there was anything weird with the pillar from this angle. There was a nagging feeling at the back of your mind, and you felt as if there was someone watching you.

There was nothing, and though the feeling wasn't going away, you told yourself to forget about it.

Time passed as the clouds parted some to show how the sun had moved higher in the sky, and your group came to a wooden platform with benches and tables that were clearly meant as a rest stop for any hikers. The others decided that it was a good time to have lunch and settled themselves at a table. You, on the other hand, were still feeling some side effects from Fawn's driving earlier, and as you really didn't want to get sick in the middle of the hike, you opted not to eat. You sat with them at first, but when you once again felt like you couldn't contribute to the conversation, you stood up, the amateur photographer in you feeling fulfilled somewhat as you snapped a few more pictures of the scenery.

You wandered over to a different part of the platform, leaning your elbows on the wooden fencing as you looked out at the forest.

At the beginning of your trip it had been fairly overcast, and only after you had started this excursion had the clouds thinned and allowed the sun to shine through. But just as the weather started to clear up, it seemed to be turning overcast again as a mist began to fall, seemingly sliding from the top of the mountain and through the thick forest of trees. Was rain a possibility? Maybe, and of course you hadn't brought anything with you if that did happen. You had made a point to bring a first aid kit in case either you or someone else got hurt, but nothing to protect you in case the weather turned bad.

A flash of white caught your eye while you were caught up in your thoughts.

Glancing to your left, you found yourself staring at a white rabbit.

It was nice to finally see some wildlife for the first time since this hike had started and at first glance it seemed perfectly normal. But the more you looked at it, the more.... Odd it seemed.

It was sitting upright facing away from you, not moving at all. That didn't seem quite normal, since you thought most rabbits were inclined to hunker down and try to blend in with their surroundings if they encountered something they thought was a threat. This one didn't seem to be hiding, it just sat still, and the more you looked, the more it didn't seem like it was even breathing. It also seemed strange to find a pure white rabbit up in the mountains. The color was striking against the earthly tones of the forest, and presumably that should've meant that it would have been easy prey for any natural predators that roamed the area. In fact, it didn't look the slightest bit dirty, making you wonder if it was someone's pet that had escaped.

And the more you looked at it, the more something about it just seemed to be off. Like it had some kind of weird energy to it.

And yet you felt an urge to get closer to it.

The instant you moved closer it reacted by twisting it's head around to face you, and you saw it's face for the first time.

Or rather, it's lack of one.

No eyes, no nose, no mouth, no sort of features whatsoever. It's face, and the rest of it for that matter, was completely blank, and it seemed less and less like a living creature the longer you looked at it.

You stared at it, unsure of how you were supposed to react to such a thing.

“The rabbit doesn't have a face,” you said aloud.

Your friends didn't hear you. In their defense, you hadn't spoken all that loudly.

When you moved again it bolted, vanishing behind surrounding tree trunks.

Follow it

Maybe it was because of the shock you felt at seeing that thing that you didn't even question the thought. You just climbed over the fencing and headed out in the same direction you had seen it run off to.

It wasn't long before you caught sight of it again, and once more you were struck by how odd this thing was. It was sitting up again, staring at you. Almost like it was waiting for you.

Did you really want to follow a faceless rabbit into the woods? Apparently you did, because when you got close again it ran off, and the process repeated itself as it began to lead you through the forest, taking you further and further away from the hiking trail and down an unmarked path. The rabbit never got too far before it would stop and wait for you to catch up, and it stayed still during the few times that you would pause for a break. It really was waiting for you, and somehow, it didn't seem like it was running in any random direction. More like it was leading you somewhere.

A haze had seemed to form in your mind. Somehow, none of this seemed questionable to you, that you were running off in pursuit of a white rabbit like a heroine from a Lewis Carroll book. Or at least some darker version of that tale given the rabbit's lack of a face which you still weren't able to make sense of. There was no reason for you to be running off of the trail like this, into terrain that you weren't familiar with, but every time you caught sight of the rabbit, something inside you told you that you needed to go after it.

You did just that for some time until the haze finally broke.

In the midst of your pursuit, you happened to step on a hollow, rotted log, and the wood was weak enough that when you put your weight on it, your foot went right through. You shrieked, stumbling forward as you desperately pulled your foot out. To add to your panic, there had been a fair amount of bugs living inside of the log, some of which had attached themselves to your shoe, and you kicked your foot out rapidly to get them off of you. They scattered, and you stumbled back before landing awkwardly on your ankle. Pain shot through you, and you fell against the trunk of a tree where you sank to the forest floor, one hand steadying yourself while the other was over your chest as you tried to calm yourself down.

What the hell am I doing?

The thought struck you. Why had you gone off the trail like this? And for some weird rabbit creature, of all things? What was the point of this excursion? What if you got hurt?

You put some weight on the foot that had gone through the log and you hissed as another sharp bolt of pain hit you.

Scratch that. You'd already managed to hurt yourself.

It seemed like your ankle was sprained. Clearly you had landed on it wrong after getting your foot out of the log.

Ah, this was the worst.

You gingerly removed your shoe and tried to get a look at the damage. It didn't look too bad yet, but there was definitely something wrong with it as you only felt pain every time you moved it. How fast does the swelling set in? At least you'd had the forethought of bringing a few rolls of elastic bandage wraps, though you felt like you'd need some help to get it properly wrapped.

Which meant you'd need to find your way back to your friends.

How far away were you from the trail by now? You weren't even sure how much time had passed since you had left them. It was all so strange, that you had gotten such extreme tunnel vision like that and had run off. And because of that, you had gotten hurt and would have a hard time making your way back, or else they would need to come in to find you.

They'd be upset with you, wouldn't they?

You probably wouldn't be able to continue the hike, and you were sure there'd be some resentment if this outing was cut short because of you. Maybe you could just wait at the rest area? They'd be coming down the same path when they came back, so maybe they could continue the hike and you could rest up and join them on the return trip. It'd be boring for you but then at least the trip wouldn't be a waste for them.

You sighed as you began to shimmy your shoe back onto your foot. Today was a bust. First the thing with Fawn, then the way it seemed like you were being ignored, and now this.

They hadn't even said anything when you jumped the fence to chase after the rabbit, had they? Not that you'd really been paying attention, so maybe they had, but they sure hadn't gone after you.

… Not that it was on them to look after you. You were an adult and therefore not their responsibility. It was wrong to think like that.

You sighed again.

Everything that had happened today really had been your own fault, huh? It was all you could do to hope nothing else bad would happen.

You remembered some old superstitious saying about bad things happening in threes. If that was true, then maybe your bad luck was over for the day.

Trying to get off of that particular train of thought, you looked about for something that could work as a walking stick, something strong enough to hold your weight for when you made your way back to the path.

A voice called out from far away, and when you paused to listen, you heard the voices of your friends calling out your name.

That was actually really good.

A new creeping fear was that you would be lost in the woods and have a hard time finding the path, but as long as they were calling out to you, you could use the sounds of their voices to find your way back. As you were about to push yourself to your feet, you allowed yourself to be a little hopeful, feeling that the bad things were done for the day.

You heard something then, as though something had dropped onto the ground next to you.

In an automatic response, you turned your head towards the sound and found a pipe laying atop the dirt and fallen leaves.

Had that been there earlier?

It was moderately sized, a black stem with a little bit of intricate gold detailing on either end, while the bowl at the end of the pipe was more of a darker bronze.

Wouldn't you have noticed this earlier? Or had you been that distracted when you'd been desperately shaking all of the bugs off of your foot?

Without really thinking about why you reached out to grab it as you wondered to yourself if there were still people these days who smoked using pipes.

It was warm when your fingers made contact, and as you raised it up to inspect it more, you noted how clean it was. If it had been out here for a day or so there would've been more dirt on it, but with the state it was in, someone must have dropped it not too long ago.

At least it gave you some comfort knowing that you weren't the only one who had wandered off the trail, though you were probably still one of the dumbest to do so since you had gone off in chase of a freaky rabbit.

Should you take the pipe with you? Was there some sort of lost and found box down at the parking lot? Would the person who lost it even still be looking for it, or would they have already accepted that it was gone forever?

With those thoughts swirling around your head, you didn't notice the sound of footsteps that came closer until they stopped right next to you.

“Are you alright?”

A man's voice broke you from your thoughts, and when you turned your gaze upwards, you found an older man standing above you, leaning an arm against the same tree trunk you were resting against. White hair, a gray dress shirt with a red tie and wearing black sunglasses despite the clouds overhead, he looked down at you with a clear look of concern on his face.

“Ah – yes! Well, mostly,” you said once you realized he was waiting for an answer.

“Mostly?”

“I think I sprained my ankle.”

He knelt down next to you, asking “may I?” as he motioned to your aforementioned ankle. You nodded, and he inspected your ankle. He was gentle with you, looking over the injured area carefully and apologizing any time he caused you some discomfort.

“How bad is it?” you asked him after a moment.

“I'd say you were right. It looks sprained.”

You groaned a little, disappointed that you were correct.

“Do you have anything to wrap it with?” he asked.

“Yeah, in my backpack,” you answered, “I was gonna get my friends to help me with it once I got back to them.”

“Where are they?”

“Back by the path, I think. It sounded like they were looking for me just now.”

However, you could no longer hear them. In fact, the whole forest seemed oddly silent now, the only exception being the wind that would at times whistle through the trees. And had it gotten darker?

“That's weird,” you said more to yourself, “I know I heard them.”

The man who sat patiently before you, with your ankle still in his care, looked about for any sign of your friends before he spoke again.

“Well, I'm here now,” he told you, “care if I patch you up instead?”

“Um, as long as it isn't too much trouble?”

He smiled at you.

“It's no trouble at all.”

Saying that it would be easier for him to work on you, the man carefully picked you up and moved you so that you sat on a nearby boulder, kneeling down in front of you again as he waited for you to fish out the bandages from your pack.

“I'm Morel, by the way.”

You gave him a small smile in return, introducing yourself as well as you handed off the bandages.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked as he began to wrap up your ankle.

“Hiking with friends.”

“I figured that much,” he said, grinning a little, “but the trail is a good distance from here. How did you end up off of it?”

“Ah....”

Despite the pain in your ankle and the circumstances between you and your friends, it hadn't been lost on you that Morel was pretty handsome. A bit rugged, but in a good way. And though you knew nothing about this man – for all you knew he had a wife and child at home waiting for him – you didn't want to say something that might make him think you were an idiot. Telling him that you had gone chasing after a rabbit would definitely make him think you were an idiot.

And you didn't want to mention that you thought it had no face. Then he'd think you were crazy.

“I saw some ruins down at the base of the mountain; thought it'd be cool if I went exploring and see if I could find some more,” you lied.

“Unfortunately, any ruins would be down at the bottom. Nobody would've built anything this far up,” Morel explained.

“Ah, I see.”

You stayed quiet a moment, looking back in the direction where you'd heard your friends calling. You still couldn't hear them, and it worried you that something may have happened.

There was also that white mist from earlier that had grown thicker while Morel wrapped your ankle, slowly settling down around you and making the scene around you look more ethereal.

“Why did you wander out on your own? One of them should've come with you,” Morel said suddenly.

“Oh.... I kinda, um, ran off without telling them anything.”

So much for not sounding like an idiot.

Morel paused, glancing back up at you as he asked “did something happen?”

“... Not really? I mean, kind of, but...” you trailed off for a moment, “it's mostly my fault. I'm the one who isn't trying hard enough to talk it out with them. Ah, I really hope I haven't ruined this trip.”

“I doubt you running off could've ruined it.”

“I hope not. But still, I'll need to apologize, maybe take all of them out for a meal after to make up for it,” you said.

There was a sad expression on Morel's face when he looked up at you after you said that. Something in the way he frowned and his brows furrowed at your words made it seem like he knew something you didn't.

You didn't get a chance to question him on it as he finished up wrapping your ankle, handing the remaining bandages back to you as he announced “all done.”

“Ah – Thank you.”

He seemed a bit more cheerful now, though he looked off in the direction you had been looking in.

“Those friends of your still on the trail?” he asked.

“I'm not sure? It really did sound like they were looking for me earlier.”

“I see. Then if they're looking for you maybe we should stay put. Wait for them to get to us. It won't do any good if we all get lost trying to find each other.”

That made sense, and you nodded.

Morel sat down next to you, the boulder being large enough to fit both of you, though he did need to squeeze in a bit closer than you would normally be comfortable with a complete stranger. You found that you didn't mind much, though. Although for the sake of your friend group you wanted to be found soon, you didn't dislike the idea of spending more time alone with Morel. He seemed trustworthy, and being in such close contact more than made up for all the stuff from earlier.

…. Good lord. Were you really this weak for a random guy you found attractive?

The mist seemed to be growing thicker, but you could still make out most of the trees that surrounded you.

“What are you doing up here, Morel?” you asked, “it doesn't look like you're dressed for hiking.”

“I live here.”

“Really? On the mountain?”

He nodded.

“Wow. I didn't know anybody lived up here. Is it just you or are there others?”

“There's a few of us up here, though my neighbors tend to keep to themselves,” he told you, “a lot of them just want to be left alone.”

It seemed surprising to you that there was more than one person who lived up on a mountain like this. Especially since you had been under the impression that the area was part of a park. Maybe his place had been built beforehand and he was grandfathered in somehow?

The more you thought about it, the more you felt that didn't make a lot of sense. But before you could voice that opinion, it was like the thought was forcibly torn from your mind, and something within you encouraged you to try and learn more about him.

“Are you one who wants to be left alone?” you asked him instead.

“For the most part,” he answered, “but I don't mind people on occasion. My neighbors, not so much.”

“Would they have gotten mad at me?”

“Definitely.”

“Guess I'm lucky you found me and not them,” you said.

He smiled at that, but didn't say anything, and you continued.

“Although if your neighbors want isolation, isn't it inconvenient that the trail's been set up here? Don't you have to worry about people trespassing?”

“Most people know not to go off the path,” Morel said, “though I guess you're not one of them.”

“It wasn't my fault!” you insisted, “there was a rabbit, and I just - I don't know, needed to follow it.”

Why had you done that again? You'd been questioning it before Morel found you but you'd gotten distracted. It was strange. And did the rabbit really have no face? Maybe your mind was just tired and had made it up or something and you just ran off because you were an idiot.

Where had it even gone, anyway?

Morel tilted his head, smirking at you.

“I thought you said you were looking for more ruins? You mean you were actually chasing after rabbits?” he asked.

….. You forgot that you lied.

Your fingers fiddled with the hem of your shirt while you looked away in embarrassment.

“.... I didn't want you to think I was stupid,” you mumbled.

He laughed at that, and you felt worse about your lie, turning your head away further as you made a point to not look at him.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean it,” he said, one of his hands coming up to playfully tousle your hair. You glanced back at him then, and the sour look on your face lessened a little when you saw how he smiled at you.

“I've also gone off wandering after random things,” he continued, “I've hurt myself a few times, too, so don't feel bad.”

That made you feel a bit better, and you relaxed a little more.

“What kind of things have you gone wandering after?” you asked him.

“Things that you probably wouldn't believe if I told you.”

That answer was oddly cryptic, though you supposed that made two of you, since you were still too nervous to divulge the fact about the rabbit lacking a face. Maybe Morel had seen freakier things up here. But since he didn't seem to want to go into that, maybe it'd be better to steer the conversation away from the potentially supernatural.

“Were you wandering after something when you found me?” was your next question.

“No, not today. I was in the middle of looking for something I had lost.”

“Oh. Sorry,” you said.

“For what?”

“Distracting you, and making you wait here with me.”

“It's not that important,” Morel said, “and what kind of guy would I be if I left you out here by yourself? Especially with that fog that's settling in.”

“I'd probably be okay. Oh. Unless there's bears. Then I might not be.”

You remembered the shape you had seen when you had first arrived, and you asked him “are there bears on this mountain?”

“I've never seen any.”

You hummed at that, thinking again about what you had seen and trying to figure out what it was.

“Did you see one?” asked Morel.

“I don't know. I saw something weird when I was in the parking lot, and I'm still not sure what it was,” you explained, “I've seen some other stuff, too. Some a bit more freaky than a bear.”

“Like what?”

“.... Do you promise not to laugh at me?”

“I promise, I'm done laughing at you,” Morel said, grinning a little.

Despite being unsure if you could trust him in that regard, you decided to speak anyway.

“So, the rabbit that I saw earlier – I'm not really sure why I followed it, but I noticed it back at the rest area. It seemed kinda weird when I saw it, because it didn't look like it was breathing? And when I got closer, I swear, it didn't have a face. No features at all. It was just blank.”

You prepared yourself for him to laugh at you again. When he didn't say anything, you looked back to him.

Morel looked surprisingly neutral.

“That does sound strange,” was his reply.

“.... Do you believe me?”

Morel looked away from you, leaning back on his hands as his gaze seemed to go to the cloudy sky above the trees that surrounded the two of you.

“You know, I think I do. Living up here, I've had my fair share of strange occurrences. Not quite like that, but maybe I just haven't encountered that before.”

It was a relief to hear that he wasn't mocking you, and it was even more of a relief that he actually believed you, as you had been worried that his reaction might resemble what had happened earlier with Aiden and Fawn. Him believing you spurred you to speak more.

“I saw something before, too,” you said, “down near the ruins, at one point I thought I saw a man standing next to them. But when I looked up from my camera he was gone.”

“What did he look like?”

“Not sure. I saw him, but I somehow didn't really see him? Or I just saw his general shape,” you continued, “the others were joking that it was a ghost.”

“Could've been,” said Morel, “this is ancient land with a lot of older things attached to it. There are probably more than a few wayward souls that have found a home here.”

“..... Do you think they could be dangerous?” you asked him.

“Maybe some of them. But most people should be safe if they stay on the path.”

He grinned again when he looked back at you.

“Who knows. You could've come across something bad,” he said jokingly.

“Don't you and your neighbors live up here? It can't be all that bad if that's the case,” you responded, “though I think I'll try to keep from chasing after anymore weird rabbits.”

“Probably a good idea.”

A comfortable silence settled over the two of you. The mist had expanded as you continued to wait for your friends, who you hadn't heard in some time now. It should've worried you more that you couldn't hear them – they hadn't given up on you, had they? Even if they were really annoyed with you they surely wouldn't go that far. Yet you found yourself thinking even if that was the case, it would be okay. Morel was so nice, he wouldn't just leave you here if they didn't show up, right? At the very least, he'd take you back to the trail.

If your friends had bailed on you, then maybe you should repay him by taking him out to dinner.

The tops of the trees were slowly becoming more obscured as the fog continued to drift down, and all you could think was that it looked pretty.

“Is it nice living up here?” you asked him.

“Yeah, pretty nice. Lots of good scenery.”

He seemed to be thinking about something, and you noticed that his shoulders sagged slightly.

“Being completely alone can get to you, though.”

There was a sadness in his voice. He did say that him wanting to be alone was just 'for the most part'. Unless that was a lie. What sort of circumstance could drive him to be living alone in the wilderness if he didn't actually want to be here? You wanted to know, but worried that might be crossing a boundary of some sort, and that made you hesitate to question him further.

“Do you not want to be here?” you asked him softly.

“No, I do,” said Morel, “but I also liked being around people. It just became hard to be around them after a while.”

“Hard to be around them?” you repeated.

“Yeah. It's.... It's just tough to explain,” he said.

“Sorry.”

He shook his head.

“Don't worry about it.”

It confused you, and while you wanted to ask a few more questions, you got a sense that he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

You found yourself wondering if Morel suffered from some extreme form of anxiety or agoraphobia. He seemed like a pretty calm person, but maybe that was only because he was in an environment where he was comfortable. That could have made sense, although you mentally berated yourself shortly after for jumping to conclusions like that just because he didn't want to talk about it. Maybe you should try to move the topic to something else.

“Does anyone come up to visit you?” you asked.

“No.”

Ah. Okay then.

“Then...” you trailed off briefly as you tried to find the right words, “ as long as it isn't too hard to be around me, would you care if I came back to visit you? I could repay you with all you've done for me with a dinner. Maybe bring it by next week or something like that?”

Morel smiled at that, and yet to you it seemed forced. You got another sense that he knew something that you didn't, and that he was intentionally keeping that information from you.

What would he know that he'd be keeping from you?

The thought left your head just as quickly as it entered when he spoke again.

“I guess I could handle having you stop by,” he said jokingly, “you're pretty tolerable.”

“Ah, that's good. Glad to know I can at least be tolerated,” you answered back in a similar joking manner.

He chuckled at that.

“All jokes aside, it'll be nice to have some company up here,” he said softly.

It felt good that he accepted you so easily. Maybe he accepted you a little too easily given the short amount of time he had known you, but if he was living up here all by himself maybe he was just that desperate.

And the argument could also be made that you were similarly being too trusting of him. It was possible that this was just a facade of his that would drop the instant you were vulnerable. That'd probably be what Colton would tell you if he knew the thoughts going around your head.

Although you were already pretty vulnerable, weren't you? Alone in the wilderness with a man you just met and a sprained ankle, so you weren't even able to run if you needed to. Even with your friends that were hopefully close by, with Morel's size it would've been easy enough for him to drag you off if he wanted. Helping you, sitting down and waiting with you for your friends just to gain your trust seemed to be a bit too much effort if his ultimate goal was to take you away.

You forced down those silly, anxious thoughts of yours. Morel wouldn't hurt you, you were certain of it.

The mist around the two of you was growing thicker still, but you didn't pay it much mind as you looked back down to your lap.

Something was sticking out of the front pocket of your jacket, and then you remembered that you still had that pipe you had found this whole time, having absentmindedly stuck it into your pocket when Morel moved you earlier. A thought then occurred to you as you looked at it again.

“This wouldn't be yours, would it?” you asked him as you pulled it out to show him.

Looking down at it, you noted that he didn't seem too surprised as he said to you “it would, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. That's what I was looking for when I came across you,” Morel said.

“Huh. That's some weird coincidence,” you said as you extended your hand out to give him the pipe.

“It happens,” he said. He thanked you as he took it from you, pocketing it before his hands went back to where they had been before.

There was no urgency within you as you continued to sit with Morel, the mist still swirling and settling around the two of you. The more the mist grew, the more the thoughts of your friends and the worries within you began to slip away.

You had nothing to worry about.

Had you been paying more attention to him, you would've seen Morel stiffen ever so slightly, maybe even heard him curse under his breath as he sensed something that was now in the general vicinity. But you only noticed when he stood up suddenly, hands on his hips as he turned to face you.

“Hate to say it, but this fog'll probably only get worse. I'm not sure it's a good idea to keep waiting here,” he told you.

It had seemed to become exponentially worse as soon as he spoke those words, the fog that had been fairly moderate now surprisingly thick, to the point that you had a hard time making out the trees that were closest to you. Somehow you hadn't noticed just how bad it was until now.

“Ah. Yeah, you're right,” you said, “I think I remember which direction the trail is in. I should be able to make it back on my own.”

“What – no, that's not...”

Morel was rather flustered now, a hand running through his hair as he continued “even if you can make it back there, I doubt you'll have an easy time going down those stairs with your ankle like that. And with how hard it is to see right now, there's a 100% chance that you'll end up falling.”

You nodded, though you weren't certain where he was going. It seemed like a lot to ask him to walk you back in such circumstances, and far, far too much to have him take you back down the mountain.

“Since we're not sure what happened with your friends, I think the best thing I can do is take you back to my place for the time being.”

That hadn't been what you were expecting, and you opened your mouth to second-guess that idea until he spoke again.

“Just until the fog clears,” he assured you, “and this way you can get some actual rest inside instead of sitting out in the cold like this.”

… Morel's proposal seemed a lot nicer, you had to admit.

“I guess,” you began, “as long as you're sure it isn't too much trouble.”

He smiled at you as he said “I promise, it isn't.”

Any worries that this may be overstepping some kind of boundary faded from your mind after his reassurance, and you looked about the forest again.

“I guess we should try to find something for me to use as a walking stick,” you said, squinting your eyes when the fog proved to be too thick to see clearly, “unless you're okay with me leaning on you.”

“I've got a better idea.”

With that, Morel turned around and knelt down, his arms stretched out behind his back as he said “I'll carry you.”

After assuring you that this way would be faster, it didn't take much for you to take him up on his offer. After you made sure not to put any weight on your ankle while you climbed onto his back, Morel slowly lifted you up after he had your legs secured around his waist and you loosely held on around his neck.

With the sensation of you being pressed against him, of your warmth and virtually feeling the way your heart was steadily beating against his back, Morel let out a quiet, relieved sigh as he began the trek back to his home. He was grateful that you hadn't questioned him or tried to insist that he take you back to the trail anyway. If he hadn't been able to convince you, he'd need to take you by force. Such a thing would have been easy for him to do, and it was probably more common for those like him to take their captured humans while they kicked and screamed.

But he didn't want to traumatize you during the journey to your new home.

Luckily his aura that had been slowly engulfing you was able to influence you enough that you weren't questioning him on much, so the trip would be a peaceful one, although it was marred by how dishonest he was being about all of this.

If only he could just sit you down and explain everything, why he was doing this. But he knew you wouldn't believe him.

No reasonable person would believe him if he told them he was a banshee.

Saying that would only make you feel unsafe, maybe try to run from him, and then you'd end up even more injured in the process, and even more upset when you found that you could no longer leave the mountain.

But even that would be better than the alternative.

Morel just didn't like seeing people die.

The role of a banshee was to warn when death was coming. To let out that unearthly wail so the human marked for death could prepare and make peace with their fate. For Morel, when he saw someone who was marked to die, it looked like a cloud had settled around them. An aura that grew darker and darker as the human came closer to the time of their death until the aura had blackened completely. Then Death came to collect that unfortunate's soul.

And Morel was unable to do anything but give a heads up.

It was depressing. Being part of that cycle, watching as human after human had that cloud around them turn black and vanish as it left their lifeless bodies behind. And during the last years he had spent in the heavily populated areas, he found that more and more people were panicking when they heard his warning as a fear of death had grown stronger as time had gone by. The people who feared for their lives did everything in their power to try and prevent their deaths, and more often than not their attempts to thwart death ended up being what caused it. All because they had heard his warning.

It began to feel as though he was the one responsible for those who had died that way, and that felt even more depressing, to know that they had died because of him. By the end, Morel had grown tired of it all.

So he left.

He left the areas that were overrun with humans and found a home on an ancient mountainside. And for a while, he found some peace.

But time moved forward as it always did, and evidently, people forgot what areas were meant to stay sacred when they put together the hiking trail. It had angered many of his neighbors, but most were compelled to stay away from it and leave the humans alone as long as they stayed on the path.

And yet some of them couldn't do that, and on occasion the ones that strayed would run into some of the more malevolent spirits that resided on the mountain alongside him. He could usually tell when someone would die to the supernatural. The aura about them just had a certain feel to it, but Morel chose to stay out of it completely, not wanting to cause problems with his neighbors.

Even after trying to get away, he was still forced to see that cloud of death.

It was no different when he saw you after you first arrived.

Morel had happened to be at the base of the mountain when he saw you, the death cloud around you one shade off of completely black. You'd be dead before the end of the day. Perhaps during your trip in the woods, he had thought to himself. Yet as he observed you more, he felt that wouldn't be the case. Something told him that you would make it through this hiking trip of yours, but you would die almost immediately after. You seemed pretty healthy, so illness didn't appear to be the cause. An accident, then? That would be more likely. While he couldn't determine what exactly was going to happen, whatever it was would be sudden and violent.

Looking at the rest of your group, he found that none of them were marked for death like you were. Whatever happened after you all left, you would be the only one to die.

Something compelled Morel to keep watch over you, and so he followed behind, listening in on the conversations your friends were having and waiting for you to speak up.

You weren't saying much, however, and when he moved off the trail to walk beside you so he could get a better look at your face, he was taken aback by how dejected you seemed.

Something was eating at you, but you were keeping quiet about it as you continued to follow behind, almost unnoticed by the others in your group.

Your last hours of life were going to be spent with you feeling ignored and lonely, and that depression Morel felt when it came to these things returned. You shouldn't need to die today; you should've had years left of your life, not a scant few hours. It wasn't right, but there was nothing he could do.

Or was there?

An idea came to Morel, and he became lost in his own thoughts as he found himself walking away from the trail as your group came closer to the stairs. He made his way towards what had been a chapel for some long-forgotten deity, mulling over the thought in his head.

There was something he could do to alter your fate, both him and the magic still in the mountain powerful enough to allow him to lay a claim on you. But was it worth angering Death itself to keep you safe?

As he contemplated what to do, he looked back to you.

You had taken your phone out, holding it in a way that made it clear you were aiming to get a picture of the ruins he just so happened to be standing next to.

It took less than a second for him to realize what had happened when you blinked in surprise and took your eyes off of your phone.

You could see him.

You may not have been aware of it, but your eyes met his in that moment. Based off how you looked him over, you weren't able to see him all that clearly, but he could still tell when your eyes met again as you tried to make out any features of his face.

Then one of the people from your group called out and you looked away, and Morel made himself vanish. The confusion was clear when your head turned back and found him to be gone, and you ended up following your group again with your brows furrowed.

It was something that happened on occasion with certain people, another confirmation that you were close to death: as your final hour drew near, the barrier between you and the spiritual realm was thinning and you were beginning to see things that you weren't meant to.

When you looked back one more time, you managed to look in the exact spot where he had been standing, though this time he made sure you couldn't see him. He felt the way your eyes met his again before you turned your head back, that black cloud of death still engulfing you.

Something about your situation and that sight made Morel snap.

Screw fate. He needed to save you.

As he made his decision and began to follow you in earnest, a part of him was aware that saving you wouldn't do anything for the countless people that died every day, but he felt that if he could save at least one person from an unfair and untimely death, he could live better with himself. If he could keep you alive and happy, it was worth it.

He'd been worried that luring you away with the rabbit wouldn't work. You were far enough along that you could see it for what it really was: a creation that he'd made out of mist and smoke. Yet during the time you had spent getting up to the rest area, he had expanded his aura around you for long enough that any reservations you may have had about the slightly horrifying thing before you were easily pushed to the side as he compelled you to go after his creation, to get you further into the woods and by yourself.

He hadn't planned on you getting injured in the process, and when he heard your friends calling for you sooner than he expected he threw his pipe next to you in an act of desperation and just hoped that you would grab it. As long as you picked up something that belonged to him of your own free will, then you would belong to him.

You had done just that. And therefore, he was now free to do whatever he pleased with you.

“Is there a reason why we need to get to your place fast?” you asked him as he carried you back.

“You see how thick the fog is, right? I need to get us there before I lose my way,” Morel said, “can't embarrass myself like that, can I?”

Actually he just wanted to get out of there because of the other being that had been approaching the two of you. As much as he was able to hold influence over you, you would no doubt panic if you saw a headless woman sitting astride a horse casually come up to you.

“That makes sense,” you said. Then you giggled a little to yourself.

“I'm still mad that you laughed at me earlier,” you told him, “so if you do get lost, then I'm allowed to laugh at you.”

“Fair enough. If I get us lost you can laugh at me,” he agreed.

You laughed a little bit more.

“I won't actually do that. If we do get lost I'll probably be more concerned with trying to keep calm.”

“Don't worry; I know this mountain like the back of my hand,” he assured you.

If you had really been thinking about it, you might have questioned him on that. If he knew his way around that well, why couldn't he take you back to the trail? Why was he insisting on taking you back to his home?

But with the way his aura was enveloping you completely, no such thoughts came to mind, and you instead softly rested your head against him, feeling content.

You were rather easy to influence, and that fact made Morel feel badly for manipulating you the way he was.

He'd make it up to you, he told himself. He'd done good by wrapping up your ankle, and now he'd take care of you.

Glancing back at you, he felt satisfied to see that the black cloud of death had vanished. You no longer needed to fear anything like that.

You belonged to him now, and Morel would keep you safe for the rest of eternity.

[samsexualdeancurious]

Not a Duet But a Holy Trio | Chapter Five

Pairing: Wincest, Wincest/Reader

Total Words: 2,044

Summary: When Sam finally arrives in Heaven for the last time, he discovers that, somehow, he has TWO soulmates - his older brother and a complete stranger.

Warnings: Reader Death, Canonical Major Character Death(s), WINCEST, eventual threesome smut (vaginal sex, anal sex, probably some oral, I’ll try and update this as we go), some made up lore shit for plot reasons. If the SPN writers can do it, so can I xD

Header editing by me.

--

Things improve a little after that. Dean’s not as prickly and seems to be making himself at home in the cabin, especially the kitchen. He’s not as reluctant to spend time with you, either, which you’re grateful for because the tension when he entered any room you already occupied was getting to be uncomfortable. Sam seems pleased with this as well and shoots you a questioning glance the next morning when Dean willingly sits beside you at the bar for breakfast. He made waffles today and they’re absolutely perfect - crisp on the outside, light and fluffy inside. You just give Sam a shrug in response and dig into your breakfast.

Dean doesn’t necessarily talk to you that much more but what he does have to say is friendlier, his tone having lost that edge of distrust and bitterness he spoke with before. He invites you into conversations more as well, inviting you to tell him more about himself and occasionally offering up tidbits about himself. They’re small steps towards having any kind of relationship with the older Winchester but these are steps you’re more than willing to take.

In addition to Dean’s improved mood, the brothers are more open with their physical affection. They’re not a touchy-feely couple by any means but there are little things. The way Sam lays his hand in the small of Dean’s back as he leans in to taste whatever Dean’s cooking. The playful ruffle of Sam’s hair when he’s reading on the couch and Dean passes to head outside. You’ve yet to see them kiss - to do more than hold hands during a movie night if you think about it - but there’s a casual closeness between them that they’d been keeping hidden until they were sure they were safe to be open about it.

You’re glad they feel safe, even if the sight of them together sparks a painful loneliness in your chest.

The days pass slowly. More people come and go than before, old friends coming to visit the brothers. You’re introduced to several more people - hunters, civilians, people who rode the line of the hunting life, like a preacher the boys stayed with when they were younger. The most memorable by far is a grumpy older gentleman Dean introduces as their Uncle Bobby.

“The one who brought you to the lake when you were kids,” you say without hesitation, smiling at the man Cas had dropped off. Apparently Bobby pulled some heroics a few years ago and helped the boys a lot but landed himself in Heaven’s prison for his efforts. It took Cas and Jack, who you’ve still yet to meet, a while to persuade the Angels to release him. He’s gruff, with a greying beard and dirty trucker cap, but there’s a twinkle in his eyes when he looks at the brothers that tells you Bobby Singer is a bit of a teddy bear and he loves his boys.

“Thought I recognized this place,” Bobby says, glancing up at the cabin. “1996?”

“‘95,” Sam corrects. “I’m pretty sure.”

Dean just shrugs. “Sounds right to me. Bobby, you want a beer?”

Bobby, you learn, is less of an uncle and more of a second father in the eyes of the Winchesters. Someone who was there when their dad wasn’t, who gave them spots of normalcy throughout their rough childhoods that they never would have had otherwise. You can’t help but develop your own fondness for the older man, especially when he takes you aside while the boys are bickering over the after-dinner dishes and murmurs with a fond glance in their direction, that they may have a terrible way of showing it but he can see how much they like you already.

You’re surprised to find yet another important person from the Winchesters’ lives who not only approves of the… unconventional relationship the brothers have, but also approves of the addition of a stranger into their midst.

“You’re a smart kid,” he says, settling into the armchair that’s already becoming “Bobby’s Chair” with a sigh. “They’re smart, too, but. Well.” Bobby tosses another look of fond exasperation at the Winchesters. Sam has just snapped a towel at Dean’s ass, resulting in a surprisingly high-pitched yelp, and is now fending off his brother’s soapy hands. “Oy! Are you doing dishes or are you too busy flirting?” Bobby calls and they both freeze, cheeks bright red as they stumble apart.

“Sorry, Bobby,” they mumble, almost in sync but not quite, and Bobby just laughs.

“Idjits,” he tells you, eyes twinkling. “The both of them. You’ve probably noticed. They’re painfully oblivious on the best of days.”

You nod, toeing off your shoes and tucking your feet up on the couch so you’re leaning sideways against the arm. You’re full of mixed emotions these days. Growing fondness as you get to know the brothers both individually and as a couple. Bitterness that you couldn’t have met them in life, gotten to know them before they’d come together like this, and maybe have been a part of the mix from the beginning. Sorrow for all the lost opportunities, lost potential. Jealousy for what they have now, something you’ve never been able to experience.

You know that, with time, that might change. Castiel has assured you more than once since that first day, when he explained everything, that soulmates will inexplicably come together. It’s not the same as Cupid’s arrow - not a momentary increase in attraction building the foundations for what will hopefully be a solid relationship. Soulmates, as he explained, are pieces of the same soul scattered through different bodies. The bond between soulmates may not always result in romantic relationships but soulmates will always come together no matter what may attempt to pull them apart.

Perhaps if you’d known from the start that soulmates could be platonic, this wouldn’t be as hard. You wouldn’t have gotten your hopes up and would be able to settle for just friendship with the brothers. You’re not sure if that’s possible at this point, though. Your heart latched onto Sam within minutes of meeting him the first time. Maybe it was just because he was your first human contact in years, maybe it was because he’s your soulmate, but regardless. You find yourself drawn to the brothers in a way you don’t think Bobby would understand and seeing the two of them together like this? Sam looping the towel around Dean’s waist and pulling him in for a rare kiss? Dean relaxing into his brother’s embrace in a way he’s never relaxed around you? And being the outsider, the one without a place in this beautiful thing the brothers have?

You pull your gaze away and find Bobby watching you with a soft expression.

“Oblivious,” he repeats.

Your cheeks burn but a soft laugh is pulled from your chest. “Yeah,” you agree. “Yeah, they are.”

“Hey, Bobby!” Dean calls and you glance up to find that the boys have broken apart now. Sam’s drying the last dish, the sink draining quietly as Dean pulls open the fridge. “You want a beer?”

“Do trees have leaves?” Bobby replies.

Dean chuckles, straightening up with four bottles in hand. “Y/N? You want?”

You shake your head. “No, thank you. I’ll just have water.”

“Crazy,” he teases even as he returns the fourth bottle to the fridge and grabs your favorite water bottle from where you left it on the island. Something in his tone ignites warmth in your chest and it only grows at the cheerful smile Dean passes you along with your drink before settling on the other end of the couch. “Sam?”

“I’m coming.”

Sure enough, Sam drops onto the couch between you and Dean moments later, leaning over as he does to take his beer from his brother without disrupting whatever Dean and Bobby are talking about now. You pull your knees up a little to avoid having your feet sat on but maintaining that position isn’t practical. You consider your options for a moment - you could put your feet down but that wouldn’t be comfortable, especially with Sam’s weight tipping the angle of the couch cushions towards him - and make a split-second decision. You relax your body, allowing your sock-covered toes to press against the place where Sam’s muscular thigh dents the couch cushion.

Sam doesn’t say anything or move away but his gaze flits to you, lovely sunflower eyes questioning. Your cheeks warm, burning even hotter when his lips quirk upward in a small smile.

He turns his attention back to the conversation between Dean and Bobby then. You’re not sure what they’re talking about - something to do with a hunt, you didn’t catch the details. A wendigo, you think? The rest of the evening passes in a similar fashion, the men swapping stories and reminiscing over their beers while you listen and take it all in. Your toes stay pressed against Sam’s thigh the entire time, soaking in his body heat. Both brothers turn to you a few times during the night, making an effort to keep you included in the conversation in a way Sam has done before but is still a new occurrence from Dean.

Bobby leaves once Dean starts to drift off in his seat, apparently worn out from his long day reconnecting with the older man. Once Bobby’s gone, Sam ushers Dean into their shared room to get ready for bed while you take over cleaning up the empty bottles left on the coffee table. You’re not expecting Sam to come back out any time soon but he does as you’re dropping the bottles in the trash can.

“I really like Bobby,” you tell Sam honestly as he slides onto one of the stools at the island.

He smiles brightly, clearly glad to hear that. “I think he likes you, too, which is good. It would really suck if my - our - potential future partner didn’t get along with our family.”

Your brain stutters over Sam’s words, sticking on “future partner” for a moment. Even once you’ve unstuck your thoughts, all you can manage is a, “... What?”

“I want to be honest with you,” Sam says, earnest and more than a little hopeful. “I like you a lot. More than a lot. I think… I might not remember knowing you before but my soul does. I may not have known you long but you were here when Dean wasn’t and right from the start you’ve felt like home. He’s denying it still because he’s stubborn and reluctant to trust but I know Dean feels the same.”

You have no idea where Sam’s going with this but you nod and he smiles, soft and sweet. Almost like the smile he reserves for Dean.

“I know this isn’t easy for you.” His tone is gentle as his expression sobers. “It’s the furthest from easy, really, and your patience means the world. All I want to ask is that you be patient just a little longer?” His hands are twisted together nervously on the countertop, long fingers woven through each other. “I want to take our relationship further. I think you do, too?” You nod, which he echoes before continuing. “But if we’re going to do this, it needs to be all three of us.”

“We need to wait until Dean’s ready,” you finish for him, the pieces clicking into place.

Sam is nodding, leaning forward on his elbows. “Exactly. He’s getting there but you’ve seen how Dean is. He’s not a huge fan of destiny and the horse it rode in on.”

You can’t help a laugh at that, drawing the corners of Sam’s mouth upwards once more. “I can’t blame him, considering what you guys have been through. I understand, Sam. I really do. It’s frustrating and I won’t lie and tell you it doesn’t hurt a little to see what you and Dean have, but I’m willing to wait because I know the wait will be worth it.” The words are the truth and you can see that Sam knows it.

He seems relieved to hear this. “I think… I think Dean’s coming around.”

“I think he is, too,” you agree. “I don’t want to push him, though. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

—

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—

Team Forever: @mrswhozeewhatsis @manawhaat @books-and-icecream @laughing-at-the-darkness @tumbler-tidbits @emoryhemsworth @imsuperawkward @onethirstyunicorn

[ranboo-lorekeeper]

DSMP Lore Summary - Apr. 23 2021

The Enderwalk Saga; Chapter 1 - The Lessons

i thought this summary would be quick. it was not quick. it took me three weeks. my google doc has over 2k words in it. i haven’t gone through the after lore chill stream yet so i’ll probably update that sometime in the next day or so, for now the only notes on it are from my memory (which isn’t always that trustworthy lmao) also the formatting on this one was annoying so lmk if i messed it up, i speedran this entire thing before quackity’s lore stream

under the cut because this thing ended up kinda insanely long

-intro music: end of the hall (little nightmares 2 ost) -ranboo eyes on intro screen are on the wrong sides -opens holding an axe over michael, silent. switches off to give a gapple instead when he starts talking -leaves to talk to foolish about the mansion

-spends a bit wandering around the mansion to find him, he’s in the library -they both eat part of a cake before doing business, ranboo refreshes it -while the mansion is almost done it’s undecorated, and foolish gives a tour with a few decor ideas -”are you a book reader?” [looks at memory book] “yeah… i’d say i am.” -”i wouldn’t say that we really want guests, i think tubbo and i would like to remain, probably….. secluded for a while.” -foolish brings ranboo to a secret room, getting lost on the way -he asks ranboo for directions, ranboo replies with “you’re asking ME if i remember?” -foolish thanks ranboo for the deal they’d made together -ranboo thinks it’s mansion payment, foolish reminds him of the shulker thinking he’s faking -ranboo can’t remember. starts getting audibly flustered -won’t say what’s wrong, when asked tells foolish he’s fine

-they go back down to the mansion entrance, foolish is rambling about water feature ideas when his voice starts to fade out -enderman noises, words scroll onscreen. Lesson 14: If you have the opportunity to gain a favor, take it. ranboo’s view drops to the floor -foolish is still rambling, didn’t notice. ranboo even more audibly panicked -foolish hears the change, gives ranboo a grass block and leads him to michael’s new room -foolish has more ideas, ranboo quickly excuses himself, saying he’d just remembered he needed to do something -explains the audible anxiety by saying all the stairs made him lightheaded

-”i remembered something.” -confusion over what it was, still doesn't remember the deal w/ foolish -tells himself it probably didn’t mean much + it was just bc of all the stairs, he’s okay -”i need to stop beating around the bush when it comes to my issues, what was that?” -leaves snowchester -confused about the lesson, doesn’t really remember what it said -”it’s fine, it’s just because i’m a little lightheaded, it has nothing to do with the experiments that i’ve been doing…. it has nothing to do with those! nope! there’d be no side effects-” -stops in front of the bee & boo saying he needs to finish it -Lesson 27: Do not reminisce on what you have lost for it will weigh you down -freezes, confusion over numbers + what the lessons are -”...but why am i remembering only this?”

-immediately starts moving again, telling himself it’s fine + it’s nothing -”could this have something to do with….” [turns toward l’manhole] “no. he’s still in prison.” starts walking anyway  -heads toward panic room, reassuring himself that it’s fine, it’s not him, he just needs to eat something, sam promised -questions the timing + what could have sparked this -runs past the panic room -”i think i need to tell people. i think i need to begin to tell people what i’ve done.” -runs along the train tracks trying to figure out why he hasn’t said anything yet -Lesson 53: Never fully trust anyone -shakes head, staggers back -”what do these mean? ...and why are there 53 of them?”

-tells himself that he just needs to block them out like he’s been doing the entire time -says the experiments have been going well, he figured out how to cause it (enderwalk) but is confused as to why these side effects are happening -stops in view of the prison, telling himself it’s fine -stares into the prison entrance, zooming in on it, before saying “no. no. i promised myself i wouldn’t let that happen. i promised myself i wouldn’t go in there again.” and leaving, decides to go home -Lesson 67: Leave no evidence of what you have helped with -”evidence of…. evidence of what?” -freezes in place trying to figure out what he did before shoving it aside, saying it’s all bc he’s hungry again and eating a potato

-”...or it could have something to do with the EXPERIMENTS, you idiot!” frozen overlooking tommy’s little area, “i knew that if i experimented on it, if i tried to figure out how it control it, then there might be side effects but i don’t want these.” -says he’s fine because he doesn’t even know what “these” (the lessons) are, that he can just go home and it’ll all be fine -heads along the prime path toward the portal, blames all of this on him trying to figure out “how to stop it” and says he screwed it all up again -still reassuring himself that this is temporary, that it’ll stop and it won’t happen anymore and he’ll be okay -stops in the middle of the community house. drags his memory book into his hand, “it has nothing to do with… no.” swaps to a grass block and goes back to walking, then swaps to his axe -says he’s moved past “everything that happened before” and that can’t be causing this -”i moved on, i moved past it, it hasn’t been happening- it’s fine…. is it fine?”

-stops in front of the community portal. -Lesson 94: DO NOT LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE (flashes onto a book page, all sound cuts when the book shows) note: i believe in the post-lore chill stream he confirmed that this was supposed to be lesson 93, but i’ll have to rewatch that and make sure (edit: he said “you never know” instead of giving an actual answer. guess we never know) -”god….. i have to go to the prison.” immediately turns around and starts running -”it was the fourth book” over + over getting audibly more choked up each time until it sounds like he’s running through tears -sprinting along the prime path talking about needing to go to the prison while holding the axe of ender -checks to see if sam is online, only tells himself he’s okay once he sees sam -”93… 93 lessons! and there could be hundreds more, there could be THOUSANDS more-” note: this was streamed on the 93rd day since dream was imprisoned -”i have to go see him in order to protect everyone. i have to go to protect everyone. it’s for… it’s for the good. it’s for the good. it’s for the greater good.” -takes damage while running, doesn’t stop to eat or heal it

-sees sam filling in the holes around the prison, says “oh thank god” -runs over, still audibly distressed but no longer obviously crying -near immediately tells sam he needs to go in the prison, repeating it over + over when sam seems confused -sam tells him he doesn’t need to go in, nobody’s allowed to visit, ranboo knows that -ranboo keeps insisting, sam asks if he’s okay, he finally puts the axe down -says the only thing up with him is that he fell in some water on the way there -sam continues to refuse to let him in + ask if he’s okay, he pulls the axe of ender back out -ranboo demands sam’s explanation, sam tells ranboo that he’d told sam to keep him away from the prison + keep everyone away from dream -”i’m not letting you in to see dream. i’m not letting you go into the prison.” “no, sam, you don’t understand. i don’t want to visit dream. i need to be put in the prison, sam. please. i need to be put in the prison.”

-sam starts telling ranboo he doesn’t need to be put in the prison, ranboo tries to explain twice but physically can’t get the words out, “i can’t tell you why but i just need you to trust me” -sam keeps telling ranboo he’s not gonna lock up an innocent guy and ranboo’s done nothing wrong, asking again if he’s alright -”i can’t tell you… i can’t tell anyone.” “okay, i get that. but… are you alright? just tell me, are you alright?” “i’m…. i don’t know anymore, sam.” -he goes back to begging to be put in, taking off his armor -”put me in the PRISON, SAM!” “i will not put you in the prison. you haven’t done anything wrong.” “I CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT I HAVE! PLEASE!” -sam will not let anyone into the prison but himself, for their own safety. he refuses to open the door for ranboo -”i can’t MAKE you understand… i can’t make you understand, sam, but…. please. just… just for a little bit, just for maybe a couple…. couple years…. okay? maybe just for that long? okay?” -sam keeps refusing. ranboo asks what he’d need to do, sam says there’s nothing he possibly could do 

-”i can’t tell you why i deserve it.” “it’s because there’s no reason-” “there IS a reason, sam!” ranboo punches sam and is thrown back by the thorns on his armor, “...no, there’s not.” “sam, there is a reason. there’s so many reasons, there’s…. 93 OF THEM, sam…. there’s 93 of them, and i don’t even…. there could be hundreds of reasons. thousands.” “i look at you and i don’t see a single reason why anyone like you would need to get put in this prison.” -ranboo offers to pay sam to put him in the prison, sam still says no -”ranboo…. you are a good person.” “i know.” “you don’t need to go in the prison.” “...i can’t tell you how wrong that is.” -sam brings up the fact that ranboo would never see michael again, he wouldn’t know what tubbo would do, foolish is building the mansion. ranboo replies that that’s exactly why he needs to be put in -repeatedly begging, sam refuses every time

-ranboo threatens to put himself in the prison, sam says he can’t and ranboo says he’d find a way -he walks toward the prison portal, sam tells him he could go through but it wouldn’t let him in -”i’m not locking you away for something you imagine you’ve done.” “....please?” “no. no. you’re a good person, ranboo.” “then…. that means you can trust me. you can trust my judgement. and my judgement-” “no. no. i know that you’re a good person on the inside, ranboo, you haven’t done anything wrong. someone who’s done something wrong doesn’t come begging-” -tries to convince sam again, can’t say he blew up the community house -sam says again that he won’t put ranboo in, it’s dangerous for both ranboo and the prison itself, says he doesn’t understand why ranboo would want to be locked up bc he has so much -sam pulls out his sword, “i think you need to go home, ranboo.” “...are you going to kill me?” “i don’t want to. i don’t think i’ll have to. i think you should just go home.” -”listen to me. you are a good person.” “...i am?” “yes. you are.” “i don’t think so, sam.” “i do. even if you don’t.” “i really don’t think so.” ranboo turns around and starts walking away, view shaking -”be safe.” “you too.” doesn’t turn back or stop

-pauses. “i know what i have to do.” -”if i’m not gonna get put in there, then i at least need answers.” -puts his armor back on while talking about how he needs answers and he knows who can give them -running along the prime path back to the prime portal. only pauses to eat when he can’t run anymore, not enough to heal -audibly stressed but not as emotional -”i shouldn’t have done anything…. i shouldn’t have DONE ANYTHING! because it was FINE! but then my curiosity got the best of me and now… now there are 93… 94… 90… there’s so many reasons. and i don’t wanna know, i don’t wanna remember anymore.” -enters the nether -”but…. i’ve opened up pandora’s box. i’ve opened up pandora’s box, and i don’t know what to do. because instead of closing it…. there’s no way to close it.” -still only eating to sprint not to heal, ignores all damage taken

-leaves the nether -”i know what to do. will it hurt? no. it doesn’t hurt, just… the way that the enderwalk works, it’s something that i’ve been trying to figure out for a long time. but i know what can help me.” -enters his house, grabs glass from a chest, crafts it into bottles. grabs gunpowder from a chest in his basement, fills the bottles with water, converts them into splash water bottles -”if i can’t get answers from anyone else…. then i know the one thing that can give me answers.” [writes “What am I?” in his memory book] “the one thing that can give me answers….” [takes a water bottle from the brewing stand] “...is myself.” -screen cuts to black, sound of the bottle smashing followed by an enderman noise -outro music: beneath the waves (little nightmares ost) -new lore screen: keeps the same crown, but the eyes from the intro are now pure purple with a purple smile, still glitchy -changes to SEE YOU SOON which shifts and distorts onscreen while ranboo talks (out of character, telling people he’ll be streaming again in half an hour for an after lore chill stream. ends by saying “see you soon”)

[oswald-privileges]

ALL RIGHT BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Power of Three as a series is just. full of weaknesses, most of which come down to poor continuity and structure. I'm not gonna try and fix ALL of those, bc that'd be laborious as hell, but I will pick out things that I feel are the most egregious as case studies.

What Po3 does have, tho, is an absolutely shining strength in the concept of its three main characters. After twelve books of Blandly Heroic Protagonist Syndrome, Jayfeather is an absolute godsend. He's angry! He's rude! He's unhappy! He's not nice. I Love Him And He's My Son. Lionblaze has his invincible pride (hah) and emergent bloodlust, and Hollyleaf has her moral absolutism and certainty. These are good starting points for characters. Sadly, the lack of continuity undermines what could have been three really good character arcs.

So! I present to you:

HOW TO MAKE "WARRIORS: THE POWER OF THREE" NOT COMPLETELY SUCK ACCORDING TO MY PERSONAL TASTE; A NON-EXHAUSTIVE, NON-CONSECUTIVE LIST BY ME

ONE

- Have there be a persistant, overarching series threat. Sol is a character with amazing villain potential who does literally nothing except hang around, and do exactly 2 Bad Things completely off-screen. This Is Not Good.

- Instead, have him be present from the second book onwards- initially introduced as a friendly but enigmatic outsider who is slowly revealed across the series to be a complete black hole of a personality, a social parasite quietly rearranging whatever community he's a part of to just-so-happen to benefit him as much as humanly possible. His "preach individualism not starclan" methods are not so much values as one strategy out of many. (to those who know me- yes i have a type. no i will not apologise.)

- Maybe his ultimate goal is to dissolve and centralise the clans or something so that he can live out his life as a political puppetmaster in all the cat-luxury he likes. idk it's hard to imagine overall stakes for this rewrite BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE ANY

TWO

- For gods sake you don't have a series based on the premise of "the main characters develop super powers" and then only have the second power confirmed by the end of the fourth book. I understand the first book mostly focusing on Jayfeather- his powers are obvious from the start, he's got the strongest personality of the three, he gets access to most of the prophecy plot stuff because of them. But you NEED to have the other two show an interest in something concrete happening to them beyond that, and you need to at least hint towards the other two having something unique to them even if nobody clocks it yet.

- Have Jayfeather tell his siblings about the prophecy by the end of book two at the latest. The amount of time he spends noodling around not sharing it with them is inexcusable. It's not that it's out of character for him to hang onto a secret for a bit, it's just that there's no point and it slows everything down. It would be equally in character for him to go to his siblings and be like "look, i'm SPECIAL. well you as well but ALSO ME". Boy starts off as desperate for recognition, what can I say

THREE

- Have Jayfeather discover that StarClan don't withhold signs or information on purpose for the sake of "building courage and faith" or whatever nonsense. Seeing and communicating the future is metaphysically very difficult, so interpreting signs and messages is a genuine skill, or even an art. The cats of StarClan, however, really are just ghosts, much more similar to living cats than the currently living believe. This is the impotus for Jayfeather's discarding of his reverence for StarClan, which remains consistent throughout the series.

- Have Hollyleaf and Jayfeather both still change their cat careers in the first book, but put place more attention on the fact that they basically switched jobs. Have a scene where they end up yelling at each other, because can't the other see how lucky they have it? The tension breaks when they realise they've both lost something important to them- Jayfeather his chance to prove he's as capable as a sighted cat, and Hollyleaf her path to helping her clan in the way she thinks is best. They commiserate together, and reluctantly promise to do the best they can with their lots, so they don't waste the path the other wishes they'd taken. This closeness is eroded over the series as they disagree more and more on the subject of StarClan and its role in their moral choices and obligations.

FOUR

- Speaking of Hollyleaf! I nearly threw my phone across the room when the first Omen of the Stars book claimed that Hollyleaf "worked so hard to discover her power to help her clan". Where, Ms Erins??? I would have LOVED to have seen that!! Hollyleaf expresses absolutely no concern over the details of what power she has/will develop, and only has a couple of scenes even touching on her ambitions to help her clan. She has some vague ideas about becoming leader and like one scene where she gets to do some leadery things, but that never gets followed up on. What does happen is that the whole "warrior code" thing becomes more and more a part of her personality (for no clear reason) until she snaps.

- Hollyleaf going off the deep end is something I wanted so badly to get into and be moved by, because I could see where it comes from! Her moral certainty is fascinating, especially since it's based in something as abstract as the warrior code- which, when you think about it, isn't really... anything. There's no concrete set of rules that make it up, no traditional wording or cat philosophers, not even any fables. It's a handful of agreed-upon, common sense rules- don't cross boundaries, don't take prey that isn't yours, respect your ancestors, and don't murder. That's it!

- So, combining the above points, I think Hollyleaf not being one of the Three should stay, but both the audience and the characters are given good reason to believe she is. By around the third volume, make it so that Hollyleaf has found that her power is to get cats to "Do The Right Thing"- i.e. what she wants them to do. She sneaks off often to see Sol, who teachs her how to use this power. Her siblings are concerned about this new power, having already gotten a glimpse at what Sol can do, but she's confident that she can only use this power for good. Volume-specific plot happens, Sol manipulates her into causing him to win, she is shocked and horrified, and vows to stick ridgedly to what she knows is right i.e. The Warrior Code

- However, the more fervently she tries to stick to this abstract idea, the less it gives her results, the more her power seems to be failing. Believing that StarClan is taking her power away from her, she becomes caught up in a faith-guilt spiral that puts her in the position to snap at the end of the series. By that point it's clear to her siblings that Hollyleaf has no power- she was just very, very good at persuading people to do what she wanted.

FIVE

- Lionblaze is a girl now because I Said So. This Cat Is Trans And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

- Her relationship with Heathertail stays the same- childhood sweethearts who are torn apart as they begin to understand the nature of the societal divides that exist between them.

- This can be used to contextualise the whole "half clan/outsider blood" thing as a cultural contradiction. In reality, inter- and outer- clan relationships aren't at all rare. They can't be, otherwise the whole society would be inbred out of existence in like five generations. But if at least one society of humans can spend a good 200 years pretending Sex Is Bad And Sinful Actually then cats can have persistant cat-racism in the face of all logic. Heathertail clocks this contradiction, Lionblaze doesn't.

- Her relationship-to-power arc doesn't need changing all that much either, other than starting much sooner and being more consistent. At first, she's completely overjoyed by her power, since unlike her siblings, it lines up so well with her ambition- become the finest warrior any of the clans have to offer. As the berserker rage aspect becomes more prevelent, she becomes more and more disturbed by the fact that she isn't disturbed by what she can do, and that she doesn't want the escalation of her power to stop.

- Tigerstar still does his thing, but Brambleclaw knows about it. He recognises the signs from when his father used to visit him, and tries to train Lionblaze in his own way. She ends up caught between wanting to be a good warrior, and testing the limits of her power.

SIX

- Jayfeather can stay basically the same because he's my perfect little angy boy and nothing needs to change. His arcs can be strengthened by having a more robust relationship with Yellowfang where they try to out-bitch each other, and coming to terms with his internalised ablism. Maybe he has a chat with Mothwing about faith a couple of times. Him furiously lashing out at being offered help transitions into an acceptence and understanding of his abilities more naturally. He never stops being A Grumpy Old Man.

- All fucking past-lives unexplained time travel goes in the BIN. Doesn't fucking happen. You can have that lore dump sprinkled across the books, or come from going deep into the tunnels and having a surreal meeting. Make it properly eldritch-level scary, shake Jayfeather's confidence in the idea of them being just a bunch of ghosts.

SEVEN

- Have the way Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight present very clearly as parents to the Three be explicitly, textually unusual. One of the things I liked so much about the first series was an almost total lack of emphasis on who was mated with who, and who was related or not. It felt very real to how feral cat colonies form, where raising kittens is a communal job. This gets completely dropped the moment series 2 starts and now the cats have monogamy.

- This emphasis on the family unit and fostering close relationships between parents and kittens is deliberate on the part of both Leafpool and Squirrelflight. Their aim is to cover for Leafpool so she doesn't lose her role as medicine cat- something she already gave up Crowfeather for before she was pregnant.

- In that little bit of backstory, have a robust reason for both Leafpool and Squirrelflight to leave the camp while Leafpool is pregnant and giving birth, possibly one that ties into the present day story in some minor way. I don't know how, it would just make that element of the story a lot more ground than "we left, the kits were born, then we came back and everyone was cool with it"

- When it comes to the "I am Not your mother" reveal, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are confused and hurt that they were lied to, but come to the reasonable conclusion that well, since they were raised mostly by Squirrelflight, saw Leafpool often, and are loved by both, they don't hate her. Lionblaze has something of a crisis over being half-clan, possibly initiating an attempted reunion with Heathertail. Jayfeather is more concerned with how other cats will think it makes him lesser, something he's still sensitive too.

- Hollyleaf, meanwhile, completely fucking snaps at the way her mother Violated Part Of The Code. It's a completely irrational reaction, but expected because she's been growing more and more reliant on The Code for the whole series, and less and less stable in her attempts to aid her clan and train to be its new leader.

- Squirrelflight is the one to murder Ashfur. This is easy to work out while reading- she's literally the only one of the four with a motive who isn't a perspective character. The mystery is less around finding out who did it, and more about why she did it (it's very ambiguous as to whether it was an accident or not). The main tension comes from who finds out when.

- Lionblaze is shocked, awed by how far she'd go to protect the three of them, and reassures her she did the right thing (as a way to salve her own uncertainty over her own longing for violence). Jayfeather makes it all about himself because he's Jayfeather- upset that he didn't know immediately, instead of, you know, figuring it out in a few hours because he can basically read minds. They try their best to hide it from Hollyleaf, who is already rattling around the final volume as a full-on antagonist, but are unsuccessful. This almost costs them something incredibly important- possibly Squirrelflight's life.

EIGHT

- the whole plot with the Tribe Of Rushing Water is a MASSIVE can of worms that could be removed from the series without issue. As it is:

- Characterize the Tribe as uncertain of how to fight other cats, because yes, they haven't had to do this before. DON'T characterise them as pathetic, doing whatever their leader says without thinking, and with ancestors who have Given Up

- Have some of the Tribe be really good at the violence. Worryingly good. Have others be sickened by what they're being asked to do.

- Have some of the clan cats reflect on what they've done. Hollyleaf would be all for introducing this society to jesus The Code, but even she might be horrified at being thanked by a tribe cat who can't wait to get out there and win themselves glory, only to be killed a few hours later

- The Tribe begin a new tradition of marking the walls in the mud they use as camoflage in order to commemorate their battles, and memorialise the fallen. One of the characters reflects on the fact that in a generation or two, the Tribe will feel like it's always been this way. How many of their own traditions- those that feel almost like natural law- started out the same way?

- Have Sol as the leader of the invaders, or maybe having insinuated himself into the tribe as a "mediator" and doing his charismatic cult leader thing.

NINE

- Cinderheart isn't a reincarnation of Cinderpelt. She's just named after her bc Cinderpelt saved her mother from a badger. this is because I think the reincanation thing is stupid and I can't think of a way to make it good.

TEN

- No more using tails as hand gestures like covering people's mouths. Never. None of it. It's expunged from existence.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Omen of the Stars yet, so I can't account for anything that might happen in that series that's grounded in Po3. I'm like... two thirds of the way through the first volume. I'm Not Impressed.

[thespoonisvictory]

Please explain why Schlatt is the best character on the SMP.

(Alternatively, I would be really interested in hearing more about your dislike for Quackity's produced lore. Personally, I love it, so I'm really intrigued whenever someone says that they're not fond of it).

as much as I love schlatt, I think I'll answer the quackity question, because I've been meaning to.

first of all, I think I should clarify that I'm definitely biased, because my favorite streamers, outside of the dsmp universe, tend towards semi lore, or, at least, not whatever quackity's doing. I'm used to it, and people tend to not like change lol.

second of all, I really do like quackity's produced lore, but I don't like certain aspects of it, and find myself preferring semi lore in general. I don't think he should stop doing it so much as I think he should use it as an occasional technique rather than conveying near 100% of his story with it. big q is very talented and I commend him for taking such a bold approach, which I think pays off in some ways.

third, to me, semi lore is any lore that breaks the fourth wall in that it isn't trying to be something other than a minecraft stream, it's all in first person, and none of it is prerecorded. for example: most of wilbur's pogtopia streams are semi (or casual) lore to me, because he'll thank subs and joke with schlatt about getting techno a girlfriend, but it's still largely in canon.

anyway, in true jenny nicholson fashion, let's kick off with a numbered list.

1. this post, by patches, explains a bit of why the lore streams can get a bit disconcerting to me. the dsmp have always had a bit of charming awkwardness in their improv, because these are for the most part just Some Guys acting, and under the guise of a stream where it's just a Streamer Playing Minecraft, it fits. but the highly produced nature just- creates such a disparity between the quality of the cinematography and the acting that it's a little weird, y'know?

2. in some cases, semi lore allows for dread to be built in a unique way. during the exile arc, tommy would have lighthearted streamer jokes and bits, shout out subs, pretend like things were normal. he never acknowledges that his situation is messed up, that his condition is getting worse, that things are falling apart. it's a quiet, sinking, horror that creeps along over the course of weeks. it's important to the viewer that we are there every day to see the slow progress, to understand why tommy gets pushed so far down. besides the impracticality of 14 highly produced lore streams, you would lose a lot of the subtlety there.

the smp is such a unique medium in that the stream style itself is so telling. when tommy actively doesn't acknowledge what's happening, it makes the abuse that's occurring seem so much worse. when wilbur drops little hits about his depression or his plans in between lighthearted, ooc jokes, it lulls the audience into a false sense of security.

imagine a version of the 'forming las nevadas' story where quackity does it over the course of four nights. the slow realization of his manipulation tactics disguised by an unassuming stream format, because it's still quackity, joking around and laughing until he approaches the next person and he shifts into his 'persona'. when he finishes the conversation, we watch his face fall, his smile fade, as he walks back to an empty las nevadas. it would build hype, not to mention taking less work, and letting the audience see a bit more of quackity's humanity.

3. I mentioned it before, but it just straight up takes less time. I'm willing to wait, of course, but there's something to be said about the merits of pacing and being able to throw together a lore stream last minute. take, for example, tommy's death. it wouldn't have been nearly as impactful without the rushed, oddly somber flurry of livestreams that came after. jack didn't need a highly produced montage of him standing by tommy's grave as the seasons passed, of his planting flowers everyday. what turned out to be effective was just- him, walking around, coming to terms with his grief, completely silent for periods of time.

it was mourning. plain and simple, with no embellishment or evil villain music, shockingly earnest.

I don't think you could replicate that raw, undone feeling with a prerecorded, pre-produced, semi-movie. it feels like all of a sudden jack's pov was important enough that he had to stream, and there it was.

you could argue that this could be planned beforehand, but I think more often than not, that's a. not really feasible, and b. going to take away from the organic nature.

we all like candid shots, 'authentic' vlogs and influencers. to me, this is just one more extension of that rule.

4. under the same idea, you can make more. we spend more time with the streamers, and therefore the characters, and get to know their more human side. wilbur, for example, is deeply humanized by little things that you just couldn't really fit into a lore stream: his dynamic with niki, all his little moments of hesitation, his banter with tommy and his true love for l'manburg. who c!wilbur is is built up over hours and hours of comments and suggestions and one-off statements, and we just don't have time for that in quackity's lore. the transitions are snappy, filled with beautiful shots, but they don't allow for as much depth of character as that awkward little walk from place to place, that quiet monologue they do to themselves.

it's not impossible for you to do that, as with c!quackity and c!charlie serving as a 'morality pet', but at this risk of repeating myself endlessly, it's more earnest and organic in a sense.

5. last, I just really like multiple povs. one of my favorite bits from s1 is the fundy spy arc, because of how effectively multiple povs are used. streams where wilbur is deeply, deeply distraught over fundy's betrayal but thinks fundy doesn't care, while fundy is deeply, deeply distraught over wilbur's prior treatment of him but thinks he doesn't care. and you could watch both at the same time! quackity's pov isn't as personal when it uses third person, which is a bit sad because I think it's a unique aspect of livestreaming every perspective.

(I'm so sorry if this isn't coherent or makes any sense I'm very brain dead and tired from speedrunning three essays yesterday)

basically, I think quackity's lore style is good for big, grand events, occasionally. it's very cool to watch, definitely builds hype, and can make certain things easier, such as coordinating a bunch of people or doing special effects.

but for building a plot and establishing character dynamics, I really prefer semi/casual lore.

[judediangelo75]

Her Fear, His Truth

Hi~

So I did feel a bit of inspiration to right this random as I’m teetering on the edge of falling into a food induced coma. But I’m fine, I want to write more Talith (Talbott x Judith). This is going to taking place after the whole “Without You/The Man Behind the Necklace” series (that I might edit, don’t quote me.)

For those who are familiar with my MC and the building lore I’m trying to create here, her fear is the words “I love you”. She fears them because the people who cares leaves her alone and the person whose suppose to love her (AKA her mother) loathes her very existence. So if anyone tells her those words, she most likely lash out.

This is what I’m covering here. This is happening in 6th year when Talbott finally corners his evasive girlfriend to talk about what happened.

Warning: Mentions of suicide attempt

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

Talbott understood more than anyone how valuable personal space was. 

Which was why he didn’t hover over his girlfriend.

She only woke up just a few days ago from her coma, took her older brother to the cemetery where their father had been laid to rest, and found out she and Jamal have a half-brother. All in the same day.

He was okay with giving her some breathing room until she came to him to talk. Only...

She didn’t.

He had an inkling of a feeling that she was purposely avoiding him. He still remember telling her the words that have been residing in his heart for quite some time.

“I love you, little bird...”

While he didn’t outwardly show it, he was emotional for the week Judith been asleep. He never knew that she felt so strongly to try to kill herself. He felt like he failed her as her boyfriend. He known her ever since third year, even crossing paths with her unknowingly from childhood.

He never felt the connection he felt with anyone else.

She has been a constant ever since re-entering his life. Her absence for the week she’s been staying in the Hospital Wing was unsettling. 

He missed seeing her in his classes.

He missed seeing her during lunch where they would sneak off into one of his hiding spots for a private lunch.

He missed her smile. Her laugh. Her sassy eyerolls. Her voice. 

He missed her. 

Everyday, he would visit with a bouquet of flowers, spending time in her presence to ease the ache in his chest.

He still remembers the first night of her in the Hospital Wing, he snuck out to be next to her. With no prying eyes of their friends, Talbott finally submitted to his tears. He held her unresponsive body in his arms, silently pleading to her to stay.

To stay with him.

He already lost his parents years ago. He was determined to keep everyone else from entering his heart again.

Until he met her again. 

Something about her pale gold eyes was familiar to him, but he wasn’t sure from where.

He got his answer when he followed her to the cemetery. Met the man who was his parents’ oldest friend from when they went to Hogwarts. The same man he remembered from that one day from his childhood.

Kendrick Harris, his girlfriend’s beloved father.

When he realized that she was the same little girl he told his secret to, who he taught how to waltz, who gave him an odd but warm feeling in his heart...

The pull was undeniable.

He forgot about keeping his distance. Forgot about keeping others out of his heart. He wanted to try to put the pieces together to what this feeling meant. They became close. Friends even.

Until he realized he couldn’t see her as that. Talbott remembered the intense ugly feeling he felt when he spied Judith with Andre in the Courtyard when flying overhead in the Courtyard during the Celestial Ball. 

Especially when Andre kissed her.

That feeling, he came to realize, was jealousy. He couldn’t bear to see them any more and flew away.

He was convinced that they would be the perfect couple. Both are fashionable, athletic, intelligent, well-known students in his year. It would make sense for them to be together. 

After all, Talbott was a loner who preferred to company of a good book, birds, or himself. He heard some whispers from students about being the long lost cousin of the owls that live in the Owlery. Didn’t help that he was basically built like a Bowtruckle.

Why in the seven hells would Judith look at him like that when there was Andre? 

But she saw something in him. Something that made her choose him over someone who would be considered her perfect match. 

Which was why they got closer. 

Their first date. Being each other’s Valentines. Becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. Making their relationship public at the Festival.

Talbott knew he basically fell for the girl over the years. Accepting that he was in love with her when he gave her the heart statue.

She’s the only one who trusts with his heart. A heart that was holding on by a thread.

Her suicide attempt made him realize that he never told her the words that lived in his heart for so long. Why he told her as soon she was in his arms.

But she hasn’t said anything back, only squeezing him silently.

Now he barely could see his girlfriend since then, and Talbott has had it.

He had David send her a fake note, asking her to meet him in the Courtyard at night. 

He stayed hidden in his Animagus form, waiting for the familiar shape of his little bird to step out into the moonlight.

He didn’t have long to wait.

Judith silently walked into the still Courtyard, gold eyes scanning the area for her friend.

She figured he had something important to tell her why they couldn’t just do it in their Common Room. 

“David? Are you here,” she called out quietly, hand on her wand just in case. She just by the fountain when someone spoke. 

“David isn’t here, but I am.” Judith sharply inhaled at the sound of her boyfriend’s voice. She silently cursed when she realized that she’s been set up.

But she couldn’t get mad.

She has been avoiding the Ravenclaw loner. With all of that has been going on lately, the biggest bombshell was his confession.

Something she feared when she realized her Patronus changed that night.

She couldn’t look at him. Not because she was disgusted with him or that she repelled by him.

No.

It was because she was terrified. Knowing she would be forced to deal her reality, her fear, just like when she faced her Boggart in third year.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. 

“T-Talbott. What are you doing here,” she asked, her voice trembling ever so slightly. Enough for the wizard to notice. Talbott walked up, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder. He noted how tense she felt under his palm.

“Judith, look at me,” he muttered softly. Judith bit her lip, unwilling to move from her position. Talbott sighed, walking around so he could face her. Only for Judith to lower her head.

“Judith, look at me,” he said again, an inkling of desperation and agitation could be heard in his voice. Judith still hasn’t made a move or spoken.

“Little bird-”

“Don’t call me that.” Talbott stared at the Hufflepuff witch with wide eyes. He could practically feel the temperature drop due to her icy tone.

“And why not,” he asked, holding her hand. Something was wrong, something that made him feel like she was withdrawing from him.

He bestowed that nickname onto her when she transformed into her Animagus form. He found it fitting and has been calling her that since third year. Hell even longer than that.

To suddenly to stop calling her that... it was like she trying to break the bond that they’ve created since they were children.

He refuses to let that go, he refuses to let her go.

“I-I...” Judith struggled to get the words out. She wasn’t looking at him, but she can feel the heartbreak and longing in his beautiful gaze. She stiffened when she felt his arms wrap around her, pulling her close to his chest. It was when she heard it.

“I love you, Judith...”

Talbott wasn’t prepared to feel the air literally knocked out of him as Judith punched him in his stomach repeatedly. But he didn’t let go of the suddenly emotional Hufflepuff.

“Don’t fucking tell me that! Let go of me! Let go!” Judith’s voice morphed, bringing back that familiar accent he remembered from childhood. It was also thick with sadness and fear.

“No, Judith. Please talk to me,” he pleaded weakly, trying to regain his breath. Judith never has hit him before, but something told him it wasn’t intentional. Judith melted, ceasing the attack on his torso.

“Don’t tell me you love me, Talbott. Please,” she begged, finally looking the wizard in the eye. Talbott was shocked to find so much pain and fear in her otherworldly irises. 

“Why, Judith? Please tell me, little bird,” Talbott answered in kind, cupping her cheek so he could hold her gaze. He was desperate to understand why she didn’t want him telling her how he felt about her. Why she wanted to pull away when he uttered those three little words.

He wanted understand why she wanted him to let her go.

“I... I wouldn’t be able to handle it if you left me too,” she whispered. Judith knew she couldn’t escape her boyfriend. He wasn’t going to let her.

“I would never leave you, darling,” he whispered, trying to pull her close. Judith shook her head, pressing her hands against his chest.

“Everyone who told me those words leaves at some point, Talbott,” Judith mumbled, feeling the familiar burn in her eyes. 

“Everyone. My grandmother, my father, even my brother... People I love always leave. I... I... I love you too much for you to do the same...” Red eyes widen at her confession. 

She loves him...

Judith gasped when a pair of lips claimed hers. She stared through teary eyes as Talbott kissed her. She felt as if all her strength was sapped from her, she couldn’t find strength in her limbs to push him away. 

A weak moan escaped the back of her throat as she felt his teeth sink into the soft flesh of her bottom lip. A shiver ran down her spine when she felt the stone of the fountain press against her back.

“Talbott,” she squealed when she felt him hoist her up by her thighs. Her legs immediately locked around her boyfriend’s waist. A flush colored her cheeks as she stared into half-lid red eyes.

“Say it again,” he whispered, pressing closer. This was the first time they ever been in such a... intimate position. Judith was finding hard to think.

“W-Wha-Mhm?!” A heated kiss was pressed onto her lips. As quickly as it started, it ended.

“Say it again, little bird,” Talbott pressed. Understanding what her boyfriend was getting at, Judith bit her kiss swollen lips. 

“I... I-I love you,” she whispered quietly, looking down. The Ravenclaw wizard wasn’t having it, taking a hold of his girlfriend’s chin so she can look at him.

“Again,” he said. 

“I love you,” she repeated again, a little louder.

“Again.” Judith suppressed a growl, confused as why Talbott seem dead set on hearing her saying that one phrase.

“I love you, Talbott!” Talbott kissed her again, this time softer. The Hufflepuff didn’t resist, wrapping her arms around her love’s neck as small tears escaped the corners of her eyes. They pulled apart after a few moments.

“I love you too, Judith...” came the soft reply. 

“It’s always been you, Judith. I would never want to leave you, not now. Not ever. I know you fear loving others, I can see it in your eyes. But let me show you that it’s worth it. I know if your grandmother and father had a choice, they would still be here with you. While I can’t speak for Jamal, I know he loves you enough to risk his life for you. His little sister. They will always love you. I will always love you and I’ll try my hardest to stay by your side. Please, little bird, don’t shut me out. Don’t be afraid to love,” Talbott said. He watched as her pale gold eyes became misty with tears, trickling out her eyes like small rivers. 

But she held his gaze.

“I...” Talbott held his breath as he waited for her trail off. If she ended things between them, he knew his heart wouldn’t recover from this.

He loves her. Truly. Deeply.

“I trust you, Talbott... and I love you,” Judith said in a hush tone. She couldn’t deny the emotion in his eyes. Or the feeling that exists in her wounded heart.

She wants to love and be loved. And here was someone who was willing to accept her love and to give it back to her in return.

Unconditionally.

As if to cement her words, Judith pressed her lips against Talbott’s.

“I love you... I love you... I love you...” she whispered against his lips after each kiss. Talbott melted against his little bird, sighing.

This where he was meant to be.

“I’m with you, Judith. Forever and always, darling...”

[bitchassbucky]

Ｔｗｉｎｅｄ: Ａ Ｓｏｕｌｍａｔｅ ＡＵ

📎Word count: 1.5k

📎Warning/s: Mentions of death, f-bombs galore. MINORS DNI.

📎A/N: Hey lovelies <3 @honeyvbarnes​ and I worked on this Soulmate AU and we hope that y’all like it! I loved working with my bff and we’ll do it again hopefully <3 enjoy!

📎Honeyvbarnes’s Masterlist

📎Masterlist || Ask || AFTERDARK

When Bucky Barnes died back in 1943, he died knowing that he lived his life without a soulmate. 

When he turned eighteen, he waited for a flash of annoyance, stress, or anything emotionally malicious that came from his soulmate since emotional pain is supposedly said to connect two wandering souls no matter how far they are from each other.  

A bit sadistic, Steve Rogers would say. But Bucky would always counter his friend’s point with, “you see, Stevie when your soulmate gets hurt, you’re the only one who can hear them-- at least in your head-- and you can help them, you can help them find you,” 

“Still, I don’t want someone to suffer just to make a connection with me,” Steve said, ever a gentle-hearted (but strong-headed) person.

“They’re not gon’a. Annoyance is enough for them to create a short connection,”

“What I’m hearing is that I get a pass for annoying you more,”

It’s hot. Searing. Humid. The air is so thick, you can almost choke on it.

The beach is filled with people-- couples and families mostly and your mind wanders to soulmates.

You never had one and as far as you’re concerned, you’re better off without one.

Since your eighteenth birthday, you felt a great deal of stress coming off from your soulmate. You had to go through various therapy sessions, evaluations, and couple’s counseling since the supposed love of your life won’t answer to your pleas and calls as to what the fuck is going on inside their head.

They never let you in and it seems like they will never let you in.

Not now and not ever especially since the torment of nightmarish inner turmoil had subsided; granted, there are still some night terrors but it doesn’t compare to the pain you felt back then.

You started thinking maybe they were in the army or something of that sort. 

Maybe, maybe. What if, what if

That’s your inner turmoil; the boiling water inside the pot. 

You weren’t sure where to start looking for them-- you spent years trying to get through but you never get as much as a word.

So you gave up.

And not a lot of people give up on their soulmates, at least not the ones who never had to spend literal years of their lives trying to coax out a word out of their loved one.

You still get worried and anxious about them. You still try to comfort them after a particularly bad nightmare even though you know they won’t answer back to you. You still tell them that you’re always there, ready to give the comfort only a true soulmate can give.

You wanted to give them warmth not knowing that they dislike the heat.

Bucky had always hated the summer. He hated how everything is so warm and dry and humid. He hated how he can’t stay bundled up in dark sweaters and jackets, he hated the way that the glow of the scorching sun brings out the best in people. 

He prefers the cold. The harsh winters remind him of his past, and he likes to suffer, he allows the despair and loneliness to settle deep in his bones. The heat of the summer makes it more difficult for him to keep his mind separated from yours. 

Bucky Barnes died back in 1943 without a soulmate, but after his resurrection in Wakanda, he knew you were there. The dull feeling of annoyance would come in waves and he knew you hadn’t felt him yet. 

Oh, but you did, he came to realize. Over the years, Hydra had control over him, his mind, and his soul. The constant wipe of his memories not even sparing a chance for him to feel emotion, to feel you. The harsh realization that you had to feel the same pain he had, makes him sick. 

Thinking of the years of abuse and torture makes him want to apologize profusely, but would you even understand? Would you ever love the person that’s caused you so much pain? He doesn’t know who you are or your age, and the fact that his soulmate lives in an era where he was never meant to live in, still confuses him to this day. 

So he’s built up walls, a mind blockade in hopes that you’d move on without him. He doesn’t deserve love after all that he’s done. Mostly, you don’t deserve him as a soulmate. You deserve better, he thinks. 

He feels guilty shutting you out, but he forces the guilt away because he knows you can feel that too. On his bad days, you still assure him that he’s not alone in this world. You give him warmth to soothe his ice-cold heart, but he rejects it, doesn’t want it, doesn’t deserve it, he’ll tell himself. 

One fateful summer day changed that though. 

As Sam Wilson finished packing the car with what he calls ‘beach essentials’, Bucky Barnes had his mind a thousand miles away. 

“You okay, tin man? Got your sunscreen?” His dark-haired friend chides soothingly. Sam was wearing a red Hawaiian shirt, his Raybans clipped onto his lapel, and his skin smelled of berries and shea butter; he smelled and looked like the personification of summer himself.

“Let’s go, Wilson; I don’t have the patience of getting stuck in traffic with the both of ya,” Bucky rolled his eyes behind his dark sunglasses, his hair tied in a low bun, he was wearing a baseball shirt and a summer-themed beach short with seagulls on it, as per Sam’s request. His skin glistened with the newly applied sunscreen he snatched from his go-bag. 

“And what’s so bad about it?” Steve wore a flannel and dark jeans combo, his baseball cap was on backwards, because ‘I wanted to try something new,’ he said, and he opted for a pine-scented suntan lotion instead, deciding to get a slight tan.

Bucky decided not to answer the question.

The ocean mist filled your senses as your book chapter hits its end. Putting down the easy-reading material, you stretched out and propped up yourself, thinking if you should join the other beachgoers in the water.

Giving it a quick thought and then glancing at the beach’s showering station, you decided against splashing around. This is more of a reading day for you.

You picked up your dog-eared book again and started to read when a good gust of wind kicked up the sand, sending a few grains your way, you quickly closed your eyes and yet, just as fate intended, you ended up with sand particles in your left eye.

“Ow, what the--” Bucky instinctively put up his arm to protect his eyes when a breeze flew past them, “something’s in my eye.”

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuckity-fuck.

Your eye has been invaded by sand and it feels like it’s scratching your cornea raw. You can think straight, you’re in pain albeit minimal, it’s still pain.

You try to scramble for the bottle of water you kept close for hydration, hoping it will be enough to put you out of your misery, washing out the sand.

“Something’s definitely in my eye, Sam, I feel it,” Bucky tries not to squirm so much under Sam’s touch, but the pain feels almost invisible, like it’s not his.

“Stop moving so much, I can’t see anything,” Sam said, reaching into his bag to get his eye drop he was saving especially for this occasion, “I got your back. Don’t tell me that I overpack ever again,”

Drenching yourself in water was better than the agonizing pain you felt not five minutes ago. Your left eye was red, pulsating, and tearing up like a mad dog in a shed; perhaps this was your cue to pack up and go home.

Then you feel that magnetic pull again. Stronger this time.

You suddenly remembered the lore and the tall tales of the universe pulling soulmates together, literally, if they were close enough to each other. You try your best not to walk to your left side as the pull dictates.

“Where are you going, Buck? Our spot’s right here.” Steve said, unpacking the food he prepared for their beach day. Sandwiches, chips, fresh fruits, and beer are already in place when Bucky felt a strong pull to his left side.

“I just- I gotta check something out,” He said, not knowing where his feet are taking him.

The lore said when you meet your soulmate, the gravity will shift around you. The magnets of your souls will push you towards each other even if you try to pry yourself away. Your bodies were from the same asteroid before and now the universe wants you together again.

You feel your skin prickle as you try not to look behind you. You’re familiar with the tales, the personal anecdotes, how it feels to be pulled towards your literal soulmate.

Bucky just stands in the sand, his eyes not wandering too far from where you’re standing, your back behind him.

Is this it? Is this his soulmate?

What if you hate him? What if you don’t want to be with him?

Bucky’s heart quickens with the thoughts, his anxiety riddles his brain as he tries to come up with something to call you.

When the pull is strong and the bond is unbreakable, rare cases of soulmates knowing each other’s names before they met is attainable. 

A single name popped up into Bucky’s head, “Y/N.”