#been trying the other stuff it brought and levelling my Willow

[the-blossica-fan]

I'm sorry but,

Nah, Ms. Caroline "Lesbitron 5000" Bartley is 1000% in the right to be in love with Willow. I'm sorry, that face right there is her poor little meow meow, her pookie, her moonlight and her wife (Willow is unaware of this fact but that's nbd). I know for a fact she kisses that mole beneath her eye and kisses her brow when it scrunches up in annoyance. That frown is an invitation, and Caroline can not ever resist the pull of those eyes. That woman is her WIFE, and Flutterpage is their daughter (again, Willow is unaware of this).

This is actually pretty funny because I received this ask before I even updated the game and I told my friends that, before I even got to know the story, I got to know there's lesbians.

He said "at this point, why are you surprised?"

SHE'S SO SAD BUT LIKE

She's so sad and uh, my Lord what's the word. Melancholic? She's such a cutie but like, in a pitiful pathetic way.

I still haven't met Caroline, I'm in part 5 so I don't know much about her but good God I bet she's a huge lesbian because if I saw Willow I would do a flip.

She looks angy cat.

...Lesbitron 5000...

[sepublic]

Through the Looking Glass Ruins!!!!!

         …

         SO! Onto other things first…

         WRATH IS BRAXAS’ FATHER!??!!? HOLY SHIT, Wrath is a canonical dad, I’d always expressed my… OH MY GOD WRATH IS DAD! And of BRAXAS, that sweetie… How is Braxas such a sweetie with a father like HIM, also-

         Wrath was in casual wear? Either he has a day off, or he got fired by Belos/Kikimora after drawing Luz a map to Eda in Young Blood, Old Souls! Either way this guy has a sudden new level of NUANCE that I am reeling from, and yes I checked, that really is Wrath according to the credits! Dang this puts everything in a WHOLE new light…!

         AMITY HAIR OHMIGOD IT LOOKS SO ADORABLE SHE’S SELF-ACTUALIZING I AM FUCKING SCREAMING HOLY SHIT OH MY GOD!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, it’s PINK and not green… They acknowledged it, Emira did! And they CHANGED IT I AM LOSING MY FUCKING MIND OVER THIS-

         She looks so BEAUTIFUL and I love the kind of foreshadowing with the bookends of our first shot of Amity having her hair down, and now it’s changed! And she looks adorable and EMIRA AND EDRIC BEING GREAT SIBLINGS I LOVE IT SO MUCH! This… THIS is everything I wanted! I was resigned to not much of them but HELL YEAH they’re being good siblings and we get a look at their rooms, we see them doing MAKEOVERS together this is everything from my favorite fanon content and MORE,

         Also Edric has a date?! Emira says ‘their’ mom… Unless the Golden Guard has a mom, DARN! Not gonna lie, I half-expected a big twist at the end that Edric was dating the Golden Guard, who was doing some sort of reconnaissance as his unrecognized normal self and/or screwing around with the Blights even further, but in a GENUINE sense… But then who knows Kikimora could be posing as GG’s ‘mom’, this is a stretch anyhow-

         JUST HELL YEAH Blight Twins! Blight Twins being sweet and mischievous and supportive of each other, Blight SIBLINGS being siblings, Emira being an older sister and giving advice! And AMITY, Amity mentioning how much Luz has changed stuff, I love that they acknowledge it openly how her life has completely shifted, and now… NOW…!

         No necklace! Red leggings! PINK HAIR?! Is this why Amity in the intro hasn’t been updated yet… She was getting TWO updates, so the animators decided to only animate a change after this final update?!

         King and Gus are also friends it seems, and they even recorded some fun together! I’m surprised at how much Bria and the others mock Gus’ illusion skills… Obviously Belos is kinda terrible but like; I don’t think he’d set aside an entire subset of magic into Illusions without reason! Also that nightmare trip… I LOVE IT, I love Gus applying the creativity of illusions in their ability to completely warp and distort someone’s sense of reality! And I called that dragon-thing being an illusion!

         A graveyard… I wonder if the Gallderstones (is that how it’s spelled) have any relevance or if they’re just neat? I hope Mattholomule and Gus help hide the Looking Glass Graveyard… Damn, that’s another Death reference with Gus, huh! Is it culminating in his respect for the dead, or will it continue further with Gus being a necromancer, or an Oracle who can commune with the deceased, and he has their respect as someone who treats them properly?!

         Also not to get dark but… What if all those Illusionists are dead because of Belos? I’m JUST SAYING…! And not gonna lie, every time someone insulted Illusions, I kept imagining the Illusion Head just suddenly waking up and feeling like there’s a disturbance in the force, as well as a weird compulsion to beat up some Glandus kids. It’d be even funnier if he had beef with the Construction, Plant, and Abomination Heads as well!

         Speaking of which, more confirmation on Construction Magic being related to earth! Glad to see Bria give us a look into that, which furthers my idea of Belos using construction magic… Also dang, Bria and the Glandus Kids really are the parallels/foils to the Detention kids! You’ve got the short ‘nice’ girl, the tall lanky kid, the furry… But the Glandus Kids start off looking nice and cool, but turn out to be rather nasty!

         Meanwhile the Detention Kids seem like bad news and delinquents, but no! They’re just demonized and actually very kind and chill! The Detention Kids are looked down upon, the Glandus Kids are appraised… The Detention Kids are dual-track, the Glandus Kids are singular; Glandus Kids from, well, GLANDUS, Detention Kids from Hexside… One’s ‘mischief’ is actually very neat and cool, the other’s is literal grave robbing.

         I guess that’s how the bleeding statues got past the censors- It’s technically just an illusion! Also more insight into how Glandus works with its Survival of the Fittest mentality, I wonder if we’ll get confirmation on which coven heads came from there, how that might influence them as adults…

         What is Glandus like, is it more whole-heartedly accepting of Belos’ rule, hence its harsh ideals? Was it made after Hexside? Does Bump hate it for being so cruel like that, or is it just school bias? And dang poor Mattholomule, I always had a feeling he sort of felt and knew that he wasn’t much, so he accepted and compensated by deliberately doing whatever he can for power…

         They confirmed he’s from Glandus, and I appreciate this new look at him! This new leaf turned… Hot take but he’s honestly not as bad as Boscha, his stint with Gus was a one-time thing that Gus was able to live with! And that seems pretty good to set them up as friends! Speaking of Boscha, Willow was injured by pixies? And the last time we heard of pixies, they belonged to Boscha and caused the school to get shut down… Did BOSCHA DO THIS I SWEAR SHE IS DEAD TO ME-

         (Also she’s mentioned in the credits for this episode but I don’t remember hearing her? I might’ve gotten distracted with so much other things.)

         Gus! I like the insight into his relationship with Illusions, and I appreciate how he’s considering other forms of magic… But this hesitation might just serve to reaffirm his believe in Illusions, which is okay! It’s all about choice… And yeah, it seems Gus also has a case of impostor syndrome like King, no wonder they get along so well! I love the glimpses into Gus’ house and the confirmation that he has a library card, no Perry though alas…!

         I appreciate how Gus feels overlooked, like he has no real substance, which is how his Illusions reflect a desire to draw attention, but also the idea that there’s nothing real beneath them… Again, very much like King! And Gus, he’s not a powerhouse like the rest, he’s SKILLED and smart, but strength isn’t his forte, it’s not brute force he operates on, but cleverness! Trickery, I like it…! It’s a nice callback to his last A-plot episode, SVSF, where instead of fighting Mattholomule physically, Gus’ solution is to think outside the box and pull the alarm!

         You go kid, not relying on brute strength but showing that some clever tricks and thinking are just as valid! Kinda wonder if this episode is lowkey a discussion on masculinity for young boys, especially with Gus growing older with puberty, though the latter is mostly because his actual VA grew… But maybe the writers rolled with that and incorporated it, or it’s just a very neat coincidence! Also, it is me or did Mattholomule’s voice change? And the gag that Gavin’s dad looks identical to him, even moreso because he’s NOT supposed to have a moustache… That’s great!

         Malphas! Love this reference to a classic demon, I wasn’t sure if Malphas was the librarian with glasses whom I’ve always headcanoned as a father figure to Amity… But maybe it’s actually this bird dude! He seems adept in Bard magic, and I love the reveal of his true crow appearance… Guess those theorists were right that the one-eyed figure is from the Forbidden Stacks! Also Malphas NOT COOL with Amity, but I’m glad Luz changed his mind, and I wonder how that adventure looked…

         Which- DAMN, the RSD with Luz! She looks so UTTERLY BROKEN when Amity mentions doing stupid things, and she didn’t mean it like that, but Luz just looks so completely shattered and you can tell she wants to cry but instead she bottles it up and tries to take it in stride, and that plays into her trying to overcompensate for her mistakes AGAIN… SOMEONE GET IT TO HER HEAD that she doesn’t need to! I’m scared for Luz, and I was SO scared this episode would end on a bad note…

         BUT DOAHLDdFAEONDKFHN LUMITY KISS LUMITY KISS! ONE-SIDED BUT THEY FINALLY FUCKING KNOW AND AMITY IS LIKE WHAAAAT AND I WAS WAITING FOR IT AND I COULD FEEL IT HAPPEN AND GAY KISS! GAY KISS ON-SCREEN!!! And the way Luz just FLOPS to the ground on her knees AAHJJFFKHGGK and no Alador nor Odalia to ruin this, UTTERLY PERFECT and the twins WATCHING OOOHHHHGGGG YYYEEAAAAHHH-

         This is EVERYTHING I ever wanted!

         What an AMAZING episode with wonderful characer beats and reveals! Again, Amity’s growth as a character, that brief insight into how Luz as a person is very chaotic and sometimes frustrating for Amity and forces her to reevaluate, but ultimately it’s good and Luz DOES try her best, and Amity clearly wanted to make things up for Luz and apologize, they’re BOTH doing things, just the little moments!

         Also, Alex Lawther voices Philip Wittebane! He has long hair and a vaguely british accent, he’s… He’s Belos isn’t he? And they got a new VA because having him voiced by Matthew Rhys would be really spoiler-y right? He’s got the long hair and he’s a nerd… And with how he talks of finding a way back home, maybe Belos really DOES just want to return home, after all? He talks of making a way back home…

         And we see a glimpse of the Portal, so it might’ve brought him there? Or did Philip succeed in making it, and that was his blueprint designs? Did he arrive by Titan’s Blood? What happened to the portal if it brought him there, or if he made it? Why the scar, why near Eda’s house, partially buried?

         Was it lost before he could finish his work, and Philip got side-tracked into something else… Perhaps going on a crusade, on behalf of a curse/demon that possessed him? A demon that killed King’s father…? Was the portal broken and he had to discard it, but then it naturally healed- Or did it just need to recharge, maybe Philip DID make it back home, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?! Is there some sort of doppelganger for Philip, is BELOS his doppelganger?! What is THIS WHAT-

         WHAT AN EPISODE!

[incorrectlumityquotes]

Why Amity fell for Luz: A Theory

Watching all the episodes of The Owl House and reviewing them brought back a lot of thoughts and feelings that I maybe forgot about. We all ship things and sometimes we do it for fun; sometimes for deeper reasons. I just started lumity because it reminded me of Diana & Akko from Little Witch Academia. I loved that show so much that I wanted more, and I thought it would be cool if Luz & Amity did something similar. I had no idea that it was going to go beyond that, so DAMN. To quote a talking science wolf, “For years we ask how, but we should ask why.” I mean, we saw how. But why? Well I can take a guess.

If we’re are going to start anywhere it’s going to be with the girl in question, Amity Blight.

As far as I know as of this typing, Amity Blight is a witchling from The Boiling Isles. She lives in Bonesboro at The Blight Manor estate with her parents and her siblings. She attends Hexside School of Magic and Demonics. Good for her.

Amity has an ambitious and competitive personality. She’s always striving to be better and be at the top of whatever she is doing. When she’s introduced in I Was a Teenage Abomination, she’s showing having great pride in being the top student in her abomination class. In Adventures in the Elements, she goes to The Knee in hopes of training to beat her siblings’ high score on the placement exam.

Amity also has a bit of a temper and gets annoyed easily. In I Was a Teenage Abomination, she sics her abominations on Willow and Luz just because she wasn’t named top student that day. In Enchanting Grom Fright, Amity snapped at the person she bumped into before realizing it was Luz. And later in the same episode, Amity beat up Hooty when he decided to get too close.

But she does have a soft sensitive side. She keeps a diary in her secret room in the library and even reads to kids in her free time. Amity also has a strong sense of integrity. She despises cheating (and cheaters) and feels guilt when she’s forced to break ties with Willow.

So why did someone like this fall for Luz of all people? (see above image)

Enter what I call my Shipping Theory of Compliments

The Shipping Theory of Compliments is that two characters would be shipped and sometimes canonically enter a romantic relationship based on their personalities complimenting each other and fulfilling elements they don’t have alone necessary to developing the character.

People like to use the image of a missing puzzle piece, but I don’t like that comparison because I think it’s a little inaccurate and I don’t like puzzles. Think of it more like the two pieces of the yin and yang coming together and then growing the circles of the opposite colors in them.

Something like that.

And it’s compliments, not opposites. When you think compliments, think more Star and Marco from Star vs the Forces of Evil. Star wants to go on a magical adventure. Marco also wants to go on a magic adventure. The difference is that Star goes in recklessly while Marco wants to plan it out a bit. They still have their adventure as oppose to Star’s opposite who wouldn’t want to go on a magical adventure. That sort of thing.

So how do Luz and Amity compliment each other?

Let’s start with that they have in common. Obvious stuff aside, they’re both training to become the best witches they can be. The difference comes that Luz is a human who has to learn magic via glyphs that she finds and Amity learns magic the “proper” way on The Boiling Isles. 

Luz and Amity are also both fans of The Good Witch Azura book series. Difference is that Luz is more open about her fandom while Amity tries to keep it a secret. Also petty thing but they’re both fan artists too, but I think Luz might be a better than Amity. But hey, her crosshatching is improving.

Luz and Amity are also (at the start of the series) both lonely people. Luz’s mom says that she doesn’t have any friends, and Amity doesn’t like her “friends.” The difference is that Luz reaches outward to ease her loneliness (being social and friendly, trying new things, etc.) while Amity reaches inward (keeping a diary, staying busy, having a secret spot, etc.). They both also use escapist fiction to ease their loneliness.

That’s all well and good, but now we get into the real speculative parts. 

...complimenting each other and fulfilling elements they don’t have alone necessary to developing the character.

When I was taking acting classes I was taught that the way you see people act is a persona based on their experiences on what it takes to survive and avoid physical, emotional and social death. So now we have to speculate based on what we were given on what emotional/social needs and wants has Amity not been getting before that she has with Luz.

First let me point you to another show called F is for Family. F is for Family is an adult animated sitcom on Netflix that follows a very dysfunctional family in the 1970s. These are legitimately bad characters, not in terms of being poorly written. What I’m saying is that these guys are assholes. But here’s where it gets interesting.

One of the characters is Kevin Murphy, the teenage son of the family. He’s a dim-witted wannabe rockstar who is always yelled at and put down by his parents throughout the entire series. However in season four Kevin meets Alice. Alice teaches Kevin that his favorite band is a big reference to Tolkien and gives him a copy of The Hobbit. They bond over their love of Lord of the Rings and get along really well. Alice calls him smart for being able to read all of Lord of the Rings over a few days and never puts him down. Even in the one time they did fight she never yelled at him or raised her voice which he found weird because he’s so used to being yelled at. Alice gave Kevin the emotional support he always wanted but never got from his family.

Using that as a backdrop, let’s go back to Amity.

Amity grew up with her parents making her do things she didn’t want to do, making choices for her. Amity wanted to be one way. Her parents wanted something else. Amity’s mother even dyes Amity’s hair green so it matches her siblings. Amity wanted to be friends with Willow. Amity’s parents wanted her to be friends with the mean kids. While Amity does work hard to be the best at what she’s doing, her parents also put pressure on her to make sure that she is at that level. 

Her siblings are another bag of awful. They constantly refer to her by an annoying nickname that I’m guessing has an embarrassing moment attached to it. They seem to live by a double standard that Amity despises. She has to work hard and follow the rules just to be accepted while they are naturally talented and break the rules with everyone still thinking that they’re perfect. 

Family is supposed to provide unconditional love except it looks like the love of the Blights is based on conditions. Nobody just likes Amity for who she is. She doesn’t have a friend.

Enter: the friendliest person she’s ever met

Amity has to struggle and work for the simplest things, even affection. Except when it comes to Luz. Luz is naturally friendly and positive. Amity doesn’t have to earn her kindness. Even when she’s bullied Luz before, Luz is always coming back with a smile. I suppose when you live life surrounded by jerks, you’ll want to hang out with the one person who’s always nice to you. Sort of.

Yes, Amity did think Luz was a bully for constantly getting her into trouble. But even at Covention and Lost in Language, Luz kept reaching out to her. This combined with Amity’s awareness of her own behavior is what convinced her to try to reach out in kind to Luz by the end of Lost in Language. “She’s trying to be nice to me, so I should try too,” I’m guessing is the mindset especially in Adventures in the Elements. And then...Luz continued to be nice to her which is kind of a big deal for Amity.

Let’s tally up what we have so far:

Luz and Amity have similar interests (The Good Witch Azura series, art, fiction, learning magic)

Luz and Amity have similar values (work ethic, disdain for cheating, protecting those closest to you, etc.)

Luz gives Amity the positivity and affection that Amity doesn’t normally get anywhere else

They still have differing personalities with Amity being more competitive and Luz having more of a live-and-let-live attitude.

Even with all these things in mind, why was Amity so scared to ask Luz to Grom?

Speculating again but my theory is that Amity wasn’t sure if Luz actually liked her or if Luz is just friendly because that’s how Luz is. Amity was scared of being rejected because she felt that maybe she was just reading the situation wrong. Luz is this ray of sunshine in her gray skies (if you’ll forgive the cliché). People like Amity always think of all the worst possibilities (I know because I do this too). Amity was probably thinking a bunch of what ifs. “What if Luz doesn’t actually like me? What if she’s just being friendly because she feels sorry for me? What if she has feelings for someone else? What if she never actually liked me? What if she’s straight?”

Luz is Amity’s first crush and it is scary as all hell to put yourself out there like that for the first time. She wasn’t expecting to get married at Grom night. She just wanted to dance with the girl she liked.

The dance at Grom was like confirmation for her that it could happen. Amity didn’t have to ask out Luz because Luz asked her. Being with Luz isn’t a pipedream. It’s a definite possibility. And we all know how she reacted to that idea.

Uh...she’ll be in her bunk.

While Luz and Amity aren’t together as of this typing, I believe it’s bound to happen. Until then, after The Lumity Trilogy, Amity knows that Luz is the girl she likes. 

tl;dr version

Amity fell for Luz because they have similar interests and values, their personalities differ in a compatible way and Luz provides Amity emotional needs and wants that she doesn’t get anywhere else.

Also, round eared girl pretty.

.

Thanks everyone for reading.

[whitleyschn33]

Not Everything Can Be Wiped Away With A Hug

Or why I’m not happy with Weiss and Whitley’s reconciliation. 

Whitley and Weiss haven’t had a great relationship. From the first time we see him, the two are shown to not be comfortable with each other. Weiss’ tone when they meet is one of dismissiveness and wariness, even if the conversation ends on a technically hopeful note. As the show goes on, every interaction the two have is riddled with tension. Weiss accuses him of wanting her loss of status, Whitley gets angry and bites back. Whitley stops by her room to ask if she wants anything and twist the knife, Weiss asks if he’s jealous and slams the door in his face. When Weiss comes back at the party, she does everything she can to brush him off, clearly annoyed, while Whitley talks about what he’s been up to since she’s been gone. Weiss laughs when Whitley gets splashed with wine, Whitley storms off in a huff. Then Weiss comes back during the... siege(? I don’t know what to call this failed attempted at a Fall), commanders the house, shoves a weapon in Whitley’s face, sends him to his room like he’s a child, and then doesn’t acknowledge him again until he calls Klein. At which point she hugs him and all tensions disappears from their relationship. 

See what’s missing here? We have point A of massive hostility between the two with both parties having grievances with the other and point B of both parties having found a balance in their relationship. What’s missing is a strong connection between those two points. What’s missing is the meat of the actual arc, something between set up and pay off, and that’s ultimately the problem with their reconciliation. It wasn’t worked for, at least on Weiss’s end. There was no effort for any of their grievances to be addressed, talked about, and worked through. There was no point where they took the grievances that had been brought up and had the characters discuss or react to them in any meaningful way. It just fell into their laps - or rather, it fell mostly into Weiss’s lap. That’s the short version, anyway. Let’s discuss the long version.

In Volume 7, Weiss and Whitley’s relationship is tense, Weiss clearly annoyed and dismissive of her brother for being a snot towards her, and Whitley angry that Weiss ignores him and abandoned him to their neglectful/abusive parents. In episode 7, though, Willow flat out tells Weiss why Whitley acts the way he does to her. Willow gives us Whitley’s motivations - that he’s hurt and resentful towards Weiss. This is the set up for a reconciliation; Weiss has been given insight into Whitley’s point of view (had it literally shoved in her face), and has the chance to contemplate it so as to be able to find common ground later. 

Plot stuff happens, and the two are separated as Weiss deals with all that until Weiss needs a place to lay low. Armed with new information on Whitley’s disposition, Weiss... 

Whitley: Oh, you’ve picked a fine time to--

Weiss interrupts by pointing Myrtenaster at him, and he looks at the blade in fright.

Weiss: Not. Another. Word. We’re coming in.

Whitley steps aside and groans as Ruby’s group walks into the manor.

...threatens him after saying 7 words. Not even words of “you can’t come in” or anything to suggest he won’t let them in but, “oh great, this is a wonderful~ time to drop by”, venting frustration. Weiss doesn’t try anything else before shoving a weapon in his face (the face of an unarmed, defenseless, civilian minor that physically can’t stop her from coming in anyway) and forcing her way inside. 

Whitley: Things are already bad enough after what you did to father, now you want us to harbor fugitives too? Our family has a reputation.

He crosses his arms in annoyance. Blake, having set Nora down on the floor, looks at him.

Blake: That’s what you’re worried about? Your reputation?

Whitley: I’m just saying that we’ve already lost all the house staff, and Mother locked herself in her room.

Weiss: Maybe you haven’t figured out what’s going on, Whitley, but we’re busy trying to save Atlas.

Whitley continues to vent his frustration. Jacques, Whitley’s only source of familial attention, has been taken away by Weiss (”what you did to Father”), the staff has all vacated the estate (most likely a combination of their employer being carted away in the back of a military truck and then all hell breaking loose in Mantle and Atlas airspace), and Willow, the only other human being in the mansion, has locked herself in her room for several hours, up to almost 24 hours (I’m honestly lost on the timeline of this volume with how much it flip-flops between night and day, and I can’t be bothered to rewatch these episodes). 

Whitley has been left completely and utterly alone, and Weiss comes back not for him, but to use his resources to hide herself and her friends, all of which are wanted by the military. I don’t know what Atlesian policy is, but harboring fugitives is a crime punishable with prison sentences in the US, dependent on what the fugitive is charged with. She’s forcing him to risk being arrested and imprisoned for her crimes, after destroying his family’s reputation with Jacques’ arrest and causing everyone to vacate the manor and leaving him utterly alone (the way he follows up Blake’s response with “I’m just saying we’ve already lost all the house staff” makes me think he’s tying those two things together. With Jacques’s arrest, their reputation is falling, and everyone’s jumping ship, starting with the house staff. Any other family allies the Schnees might have legally and politically are likely to follow suit to save their own skin (ah, societal politics of the rich). Harboring fugitives and Whitley and possibly Willow arrested as well? The Schnees are sunk, dead in the water. They’re not getting out of that, they’ll be left to the dogs.). And how does Weiss respond?

Weiss: Maybe you haven’t figured out what’s going on, Whitley, but we’re busy trying to save Atlas. 

How in the absolute hell is he supposed to come to this conclusion? No, really, tell me. He knows two things: one, he knows there’s some kind of Grimm threat in the heatless Mantle and hovering around Atlas based on the news - maybe; we don’t know how much the news has reported about how bad it is outside of that one Mantle broadcast and how much Whitley has kept up with the news (he seems the type to absorb in as much information as possible, but he may not have been watching every waking second) - and two, he knows his sister and her friends have pissed off the military and are marked as fugitives. There is no way for him to know that the group of fugitives are doing anything to help Atlas, especially when he has no way to know what’s going on and what Weiss+co are up to. Weiss’ comment does nothing but imply that he’s too wrapped up in his own stuff to see the big picture, when he doesn’t have the knowledge that there’s even a big picture to look at. Rather than trying to reach out and reason with Whitley, Weiss snaps at him and treats him like he’s being self absorbed and shallow. His life is falling apart, he’s been left behind again by staff and his mother, and Weiss doesn’t just not respond to it, she gets mad at him for it. It’s Ruby that has to step up and tell him that they just need a place for their friend to heal and then they’ll leave (which turns out to be a bold-faced lie, but that’s another post). 

Whitley relents then, and asks what they want him to do. Weiss then tells him to “go to his room”. Let’s set this up - we don’t know how old Whitley is, but we can guess based on Weiss’s age. Weiss is 19, and Whitley is likely 2 to 3 years younger, as he seems a bit older than Oscar but most likely more than a year younger than Weiss. That makes Whitley at least 16 years old, possibly 17. Whitley is either just a year younger or the same age as Ruby, the girl Weiss is blindly following as a leader. Whitley is not a child. A minor, probably, but not a child (I consider “child” to be 12 and under, and minor to be 13 - 16/17 (depending on what the age of maturity is in Remnant, which I’ve always considered to be 17 based on Beacon admission ages) btw to clarify). Yet, Weiss tells the boy that she has no legal or emotional authority over that’s about the same age as her leader to go to his room, treating him like he’s a petulant child. She doesn’t want to have to deal with him, so she shunts him aside - makes it clear that she’s not going to break his isolation, she wants him out of her way. Alone.

The relationship between Weiss and Whitley was already tense and hostile, but this pushes that to the next level. Before, it was hurt feelings and snipping - valid hurt feelings on both sides - but this has escalated it. Physical threats of violence, forcing him into committing a possible felony, and then dismissing him like he’s a child shows a lack of respect for Whitley, and is the exact opposite of working towards reconciliation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Whitley’s anger and resentment towards his sister grew after this; that would be my reaction. 

“But wait!” You might be thinking. “That’s not really fair to Weiss - she’s worried about Nora who’s possibly dying and about being followed by Atlas’ military. She just wants to get under cover as fast as possible and then get to helping Nora! She’s stressed and tense, it makes sense that she’d be brusque to Whitley; we shouldn’t judge her so harshly.” To which I say - character is the choices you make under pressure, not when everything is just fine. Weiss resorting to the threat of violence immediately against someone she knows is no threat when faced with a tense situation where some diplomacy and respect would go a long way, it’s not a good look for who she is as a person. But alright, let’s play that game. Weiss is too worried about Nora to deal with Whitley at the moment. She gets Nora to bed, starts treating her as best she can, and then... 

Nothing. Weiss doesn’t speak to Whitley again until he calls Klein for Nora, presumably a day later (once again, I’m not entirely sure. They arrive at what I believe is sunset, Amity happening that night, then the sun rising or setting in Midnight (?) and in War it’s night again as Klein arrives, so I think that this has  to be the next night but it’s extremely difficult to tell and causes a crap ton of plot holes, thanks a lot CRWBY (I might skim through each episode to put together just how broken the timeline is)). That’s 24 hours where Weiss didn’t decide to ask Ruby or Blake (who I would have thought would be the one to have the most first aid knowledge of the three with her militia group experience) to watch over Nora for a few minutes while she seeks out Whitley to talk to him. 24 hours where she didn’t choose to apologize for threatening him, or go to talk to him about what’s going on, or follow up on Willow’s request, or ask if their mother is even alive still if she’s been locked up drinking for over a day, probably 2 (again, the timeline is fucked up). That’s not “I’m rushing and being harsher than I normally would out of concern for my friend”, that’s “I don’t regret or care about how I’ve treated my brother; I don’t see any reason to reach out to him” (And as side note - if Weiss had gone to see Whitley earlier, letting him know just how bad of shape Nora was in, Whitley might have called Klein earlier. By talking to her brother, Weiss could have gotten Nora the help she needed sooner, but she didn’t).

This is the next conversation Weiss and Whitley have after she threatens him and sends him to his room. I know I spent far too long breaking it down, but that was just one incident, the only one between  between Willow telling Weiss to not forget Whitley and their hug.

Weiss: You called Klein?

Whitley: That girl needs a doctor. (turns away from Weiss) I didn’t do it for you.

Weiss: I know. That’s why it means so much to me.

Whitely gasps as Weiss steps forward to hug him. After some hesitation, he sighs and embraces her back. Weiss gasps when she and the others hear an explosion from outside.

That’s it. That’s their reconciliation. After this point, Whitley shows no anger towards Weiss or brings up his issues with her, so we’re meant to think that this is it, the Weiss-Whitley reconciliation is over.

Now, on Weiss’s side, I could see this putting Whitley in her good graces (maybe). Weiss’ grievances with Whitley boil down to hurt feelings over him being a snot about her loss of inheritance and being annoying. Whitley was being a jerk about it when he came around in V4E9 to twist the knife, but we know why he did that (he was pushing his own situation in Weiss’s face, a “see how you like it, being stuck here alone like I was” type thing), Weiss does get an explanation for it later from Willow, and at the end of the day, that’s all he did. He didn’t betray her, act against her, try and get her in trouble with Jacques - he didn’t do anything to her. Gloating at the role reversal is petty, yes, but it’s not like Weiss doesn’t attempt to fire right back, and it’s not like she wasn’t plenty rude to him when accusing him of wanting it to happen. Weiss mentions “you never liked me” in V4E7, but we never get anything more specific than that, and implies that he was just bitter and snippy with her like he is in V4E9. Theoretically he could have been an absolute terror before, but since we’re never shown any of this or given any examples, it’s difficult to factor in anything Whitley may have done before V4 as a piece of Weiss’ attitude towards him. Point is, since I’m starting to ramble, is that ultimately Whitley hasn’t done anything but hurt Weiss’s feelings, and him calling a doctor for Nora purely because Nora needs one feels like it might be enough to put Whitley in Weiss’ good graces, even if it raises some uncomfortable implications - that Weiss only extends her love and affection when Whitley does something she likes and can revoke it if he does something she doesn’t (like make a light joke).

On Whitley’s end, though, this scene is an absolute mess of an ending. At the end of Volume 7, Whitley is angry and resentful towards Weiss (and Winter) for abandoning him to abusive and neglectful parents, and then arresting Jacques, taking away his only source of attention and dealing a huge blow to their family’s status. In Volume 8, Weiss comes back, threatens him physically, dismisses his concerns, treats him like a child by sending him to his room, and leaves him alone again until he does something she likes. At no point does Weiss do anything that would make his attitude towards her shift to the better; in fact, she does things that should only further alienate him. Why is Whitley no longer mad at her? Because she gave him a hug? That doesn’t change that she still (from his point of view) abandoned him without a second thought, blamed him for things he didn’t do, threatened him with a weapon, forced him to harbor them, and then talked down to him and pushed him aside when she didn’t want to deal with him - abandoning him again. Weiss has done nothing to make Whitley any less resentful. She hasn’t acknowledged how she’s hurt him, they haven’t discussed why he was so hurt by her leaving, there’s been no attempt for the rift between them to be mended. Weiss just hugs him, and somehow that makes everything better. I didn’t realize that Whitley was so completely starved for affection that a hug makes him forget everything leading up to it - a hug that he initially backed away from.

He has his hands raised defensively, he starts backing away, and his expression is completely shocked. His posture is completely stiff, his arms falling to his side and hands clenching into fists. He’s clearly not comfortable with this initially, before giving in with a sigh and hugging Weiss back - giving in and giving Weiss what she wants. 

Weiss is happy with him now, so Whitley can’t be upset. Weiss gives her approval, Whitley has been useful to her, so Whitley is “redeemed” in the eyes of the characters and the audience. What Whitley wants, what Whitley feels, what motivates Whitley? They don’t matter now that Weiss cares about him again. They aren’t discussed, they don’t continue to effect how Whitley acts and views Weiss, Weiss has forgiven him, so Whitley isn’t allowed to still be pissed with Weiss. Weiss didn’t have to do anything to reconcile with her brother, she doesn’t have to be humbled or acknowledge her own role in this dysfunctional relationship. She got to treat him with violence and like a child, and then hug him and act like everything is forgiven when by all reasonable logic, Whitley should be pushing her away, repeating that he didn’t do this for her and to back off.

Weiss didn’t work for this; Weiss didn’t earn this. Whitley’s own emotions and motivations were stripped away to let her get her brother on her side without her having to confront her own mistakes, because RWBY refuses to let its main girls make mistakes.

This isn’t the first time this has happened in RWBY, far from it. This isn’t even the only example of this happening with Whitley. Next episode and a few later, they do the exact same thing with Whitley and Willow! Whitley starts episode 8 rightfully pissed at his mother; she’s left him completely alone for two days straight to drink in her room, being less than useless, straight up neglectful. This anger carries on when she tries to call him, him turning to the door as the Hound approaches with anger. During the Hound attack, Willow grabs onto him, and he lets him. That makes sense, both of them were extremely frightened by this Grimm unlike anything they’d ever seen. What doesn’t make sense is that in episodes 11 and 12, Willow is still hanging onto him. I haven’t watched episode 11 for personal reasons (RWBY’s pissed me off), but I’ve seen the screenshots.

Willow’s holding onto him like she’s showing him off with pride. It’s a cute image - but why is Whitley allowing it? Why is Whitley not pulling away? Whitley was rightfully angry at his mother for neglecting him, for leaving him emotionally and mentally, right up until the Hound attack. Now, I know what you’re thinking; Willow saved his life. They killed the Hound together. Something like that, it can being people together. I agree - and I would even buy that being the spark for Whitley giving his mother another chance if there had been any kind of scene or even conversation on screen where we get to see this transition from rightfully anger at a drunk neglectful mother to a son giving a proud mother another chance at being his mother. It would have been incredibly easy to slip in, too! Like, and I’m just spitballing here -

Willow after the Hound is killed: Are you alright, Whitley?

Whitley: Oh, so you suddenly care. That’s nice to know.

Willow: I have always cared -

Whitley: Then you haven’t ever shown it! Whitley gets visibly angry. You’ve done nothing but leave me alone in this house with him while you drown yourself in your wine. You haven’t cared about me since I was 7 years old! Stop acting like you’re my mother! Whitley starts walking off. 

Willow: Whitley - ! Willow reaches out for Whitley and stops him I - she deflates - You’re right. I have been a horrible mother. I’ve left you alone, all this time, and if I had been even slightly more drunk tonight, you might have been killed.  ...I might have lost you for good, and it would have been my own fault. I’m sorry...

Whitley: He pauses, and falls silent. 

Willow: ...Please. I almost lost you tonight, and I don’t want to lose you to something I can fix. Is there anything I can do? Can I... Can I get a chance?

Whitley: .....he turns back to Willow, taking a deep breath, and looks up at her. ...One chance. You can’t - You can’t fix all of this, but... Whitley looks away ...I’ve wanted you back for 9 years. I don’t want to lose you either if I might get you back.

Willow: Willow looks surprised, before giving him a weak smile and pulling him into a hug. Thank you, Whitley. And I am so, so proud of you.

Whitley: Whitley stiffens with surprise, looking at his mother with shock, but returns the shaky smile and hugs her back.

One minute for this conversation, and I would be completely on board with Whitley and Willow seeming to reconcile as well. The same goes with Weiss, except a longer conversation.

If Weiss and Whitley had had even one talk where they both admit their faults and failings, apologize to each other, and agree to try again, I would be all on board with this Schnee family reconciliation. As it is now, though, with how it’s been written in the show, neither Weiss nor Willow have had to work to repair their relationships with Whitley; Whitley’s anger has just been wiped away. They set up the potential for reconciliation between Weiss and Whitley, between Willow and Whitley, acknowledging why Whitley is angry with both of them, but rather than have any of the characters take that knowledge and use it to reach out to Whitley, the writers skip all of that and let the characters treat Whitley however they want until they end up reconciled with one act. A single summon is treated like it makes up for years of neglect. A single hug because Whitley was useful to Weiss is treated like it makes up for abandonment, disrespect, and threats of violence. They don’t, and the lack of respect the writers’ have for the emotions of a male abuse victim sickens me.

[citadelspires]

P1 - Given how great you're track record's been for doing hypothetical interactions of Amphibia kids with the Duck kids and Owl House kids, let's try doing the Duck kids meeting the Owl House kids and who they'd like the best. I'll exclude Violet for this for the sake of evenening things out 5 to 5. I'd assume Luz would get along best with Dewey (both jump into adventure), King with Louie (could see em teaming up for a scheme), Willow with Huey (eh, more leftover interaction but can work)

Screenshot of second half of the ask provided. Text: P2 Gus with Webby (would totally ask each other lots of questions about their species), and Amity with Lena (both got abusive figures they stood up to and would totally talk about their crushes on Luz and Webby LOL). Would love to see you take on Duck kids and Owl House kids interactions.

First of all I’m very pleased to hear you find my track record on these posts good, they’ve been really fun to write and it makes me really happy people like them! Second I am so sorry it’s taken so long to get to this ask, it’s a really in depth one and it took a long time to write, I hope you’ll find it was worth the wait!

Aight! Oh and one last thing real quick before I get into it. I hope you wouldn’t mind me adding Violet back in, partially due to the fact I love her, but mostly because there’s actually another owl house character I think works significantly better with Louie than anyone else and I really want the chance to talk about that. Saving that one for last hehe. This’ll be another long one, writing below the cut.

Luz and Webby So I do like a lot of the possible interactions brought up by your suggested grouping but my mind went in a few different directions. I’ll start with Luz, who would fit in best with another excitable adventuring partner, as pointed out, but I think the best fit for her in that regard would actually be Webby. While Dewey would no doubt get along great with Luz, there’s a special element to the potential relationship between Luz and Webby that really elevates the potential of their friendship to another level, that being: they both want to eat a hamburger.

An aspect of Webby I wish the later seasons of the show got into a little more, but is definitely something I would consider a core part of her character, is the fact that she got held up in the mansion her whole childhood, with no opportunities to interact with the world around her, have all the adventures she wanted, and most importantly to just be seen as the kid she wanted to be. And while Luz was technically able to go out into the world, the place she found wasn’t one that was willing to see her, or give her any of the chances she longed for. Both Webby and Luz fully understand that feeling of being trapped in your own life, of finally getting the chance to break out and just doing your best to make the most of it. I think there’s a lot the two could gain from spending some time together.

(Also, to borrow the bit about gushing about their crushes but from the other end, these two would totally get sidetracked talking about their respective crushes and also trying to play wingman for each other. It’s a massive comic disaster in both cases, but somehow both Lena and Amity manage to find it endearing).

Amity and Violet Okay wait lemme explain. While the two of them don’t have a whole lot in common at first glance, I think they would genuinely get along extremely well. While a lot of Amity’s focus on school came at the force of her parents, you cannot honestly expect me to believe that girl isn’t a studious nerd on her own anyway. Heck even outside the realm of studies she throws her full dedication into literally every single thing she does. Remind you of anyone? Beyond just being extremely intelligent Violet is clever and ready for anything. She takes everything in stride and always has a plan, she can go from “we were sleeping over and you said everybody get on the plane, so we got on the plane” to “I brought an axe” in a minute flat.

I like to think the two of them would have a mutual respect for each other based on their respective intellects upon first meeting, but as they become closer friends they find they can move from more serious respect to a casual enjoyment of each other. I would go as far as to say that both of these characters really value dependability in a friend, and that they each provide a lot of that. To wrap back around to the stuff about intelligence I think Violet could provide a lot of insight to Amity as far as showing her that pursuing studies and academic heights of her own volition can be something that she can just do because she wants to, and that’s no excuse for unhealthy parental relationships. Getting along so well with someone like Violet only to see that her parents are actually really loving and supportive, that would be really eye-opening for Amity I think. For Violet’s part she could get a lot of help from Amity as far as her pursuit of the secrets of magic goes. I suspect Amity would be much more interested in the study of her magic than Violet would be able to get Lena to tolerate lol.

Bonus Round: Amity would absolutely be a senior junior woodchuck and she would love it you cannot convince me otherwise. She starts quoting the JWGB around the owl house kids and they all look at her like she’s crazy.

Lena and Willow I feel like this one might seem a little out there at first but trust me on this one. Initially Lena doesn’t think too much of Willow, being as close as she is to Webby she knows liking flowers and cute things doesn’t mean Willow is automatically to be taken lightly but she feels like she’s got a good read on her that she generally prefers to avoid trouble and turns down opportunities for violence, which isn’t really Lena’s deal. Over time Lena figures she was right about her first impressions as Willow doesn’t seem to take many opportunities to expose some hidden power, even when Lena knows the people around her kinda deserve it.

She learns to adjust her opinion when she finally does get the chance to see Willow in action and realizes that girl is more powerful than any of the other kids she’s met in the boiling aisles bar none(yes this is my genuine opinion of willow if you don’t think she could kick your ass you’re wrong). It’s at that moment where she starts to pay more attention to Willow and notices a lot more of the strength she puts into all the little things, how much she cares for everyone and everything, and it does a great deal to show Lena that maybe having super strong magic powers isn’t mutually exclusive with being kind and gentle. And maybe gentle isn’t her thing but still, it’s nice to know.

For Willow’s part she’s just happy to make more friends. Especially if the opportunity arises, as I like to think it would, when they’re close enough friends, that Lena would start to hint around asking questions about how Willow remains so casual and nice with the ability to do so much damage, and Willow takes the chance to help Lena figure out her magic a bit more, and learn how to better appreciate it as an aspect of herself she doesn’t have to be scared of. (I mean come on Lena never really learned how to do any of it except barely kind of from Magica of all people she could really  use something like that).

Huey and Gus Now there are some certain things about Gus that would drive Huey absolutely nuts. His lack of primary and reliable sources for any of his information being a big one, but at the end of the day I think he’d enjoy Gus’ desire to learn in the first place. Gus would probably be a little dubious about Huey’s “sources” and “citations” but if it helped him get more info on the human realm he’d certainly go for it in the end. In that way the two balance each other out pretty well. Gus is studious and intelligent but he’s a little off the wall, he’s got a big creative streak, and he’s really excitable. Huey is really really good at facts and analysis but he lacks the strength in imagination that Gus has. Huey is able to take all the grandiose concepts Gus is able to think up and help make them actually happen. Gus has that specific brand of an adventurers soul matched up with the fact he’s not actually the type to get into danger and fights, meaning he’s able to drag Huey out of his comfort zone a little and help him reach new heights with his mind that his struggles with creativity prevent him from reaching, while managing to not make him feel like he’s actually in danger. I actually believe the two of them together could get some really incredible stuff done.

What I’m saying is that with Huey’s help Gus could absolutely complete his tunnels under Hexside.

Dewey and King Now this, this is the pair who would go incredibly well together, at the detriment of literally everyone around them. If there is one person King “I Will Rule Everything” Clawthorne should not be exposed to its Dewey Duck. Within minutes of meeting each other the two of them would immediately have so many bad ideas. Between Dewey’s insistence on being the best and most daring adventurer while putting his name on everything and going down in history & King’s trying to rule everything and everyone, the attempts to raise the stakes would be constant and the two would spend literal hours endlessly trying to one-up each other. All in one day they search for legendary treasure, discover an entirely new civilization, try to take over said civilization, create a new species just to name it after themselves, and build statues of themselves in the middle of Bonesbourough. And that’s all before lunch.

Louie Here it is. The one I waited till the very end for out of sheer excitement. I even kept the second name out of the heading thing. That’s how secretive I’m trying to be about this. See, there’s one character in the owl house that works so well with Louie it’s practically canon. Their interactions have so much potential, they each bring so much to the table, I just couldn’t Not talk about it. And yeah, I know this ask was specifically asking about the owl house and ducktales kids, but I just couldn’t resist talking about the relationship between Louie and Eda.

A con artist from another world who was so successful she became nationally famous? There’s no way Louie would pass up an opportunity like that. For his part I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s already managed to set up another underworld identity in the boiling aisles, or at the very least that Eda could totally have been to the ducktales realm and heard of his one there.

Either way I’m convinced the two of them would start planning a heist as soon as they figure out who each other are. Eda is a little prideful and wants to show this kid he can’t out-con her, but Louie knows what he’s doing just as much. Honestly with the two of them combined Eda wouldn’t have to worry about losing her stand for a long time. Over the course of their planning and seeing Louie in action Eda begrudgingly gains some respect for the  kid, and while Louie was definitely just using her as a learning/profit opportunity at first, he’s pretty susceptible to getting attached.

For Louie, it’s the fact that she actually respects him for being good at what he does. Even back with his family who all love and care about him and all that he still feels like most of them don’t really get what he does or see what’s special about him, so having someone who made a whole life of it be even a little proud of him feels really nice.

And of course, at the end of their heist when they finally have the money in hand, and Eda just casually hands over his half, he stares at her like she’s crazy.

“You’re just.. Giving it to me?!”

“Well, yeah. That was the deal wasn’t it kid? I mean if you really want I definitely have a few ideas for it.”

“No! Uh, no, thanks, I’ll keep it. It’s just that you really remind me of someone, I guess I was expecting something else.”

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: Shades of Autumn

Luz is early today. She’d been getting to school earlier and earlier as the weeks have worn on.

She always has been an early riser, just not an early to do anything after she got up, person. More content to lay in bed, enjoying the quiet of the morning till her alarm actually went off and she was forced to get up.

But Amity gets to school early, so Luz does too, of course.

Any extra time spent with her paramour Is enough to get her moving, even at the crack of dawn.

The air is cool and crisp with the onset of fall. The trees have begun to change color, though to her it’s strange to see because the foliage in the Isles is already such varying shades aside from the green she’s used to, the only way she can really tell is because the ones she sees every day outside the owl house or on the way to school have begun to change hue and flake off the branches. Greens are turning red and brown while the reds wilt into bright yellows. The woods are a rainbow of hues; she likes it.

Even if it is a constant reminder.

She takes a deep breath of the cool air and grins as she jogs towards the school, some fallen leaves crunching under her steps.

As she runs up the path to Hexside she quickly spots her girlfriend’s head of mint green hair near the steps, she grins and makes a beeline straight for her.

She’s talking to Gus and Willow who are apparently also early today.

“Hey, guys!” She smiles brightly as she comes to a skidding halt in front of them.

Hey, Luz.“ Gus and Willow grin and wave.

“Buenos dìas, mi amor.” She nudges Amity with her hip, who pinks a little but smiles at her tenderly. She’s spent enough time with Luz over the last month and a half to have started picking up some Spanish and it’s only when Luz starts her rapid, spitfire rambling in the language that she gets hopelessly lost, but she’s trying. She wants to learn, for Luz and for herself. She’d like to be able to say whatever she wants to her without fear of people overhearing things they shouldn’t.

It’s slow work, but Luz is all too happy to help her learn, even when she giggles at the stilted, choppy way Amity says things. Rolling her ‘R’s is another thing she’s having difficulty with.

She may have also managed to get a hold of a handy little Spanish to English dictionary, courtesy of Eda, from her pile of human trash. She’s been studying it in her spare time, hoping to surprise her girlfriend with things she hasn’t yet taught her.

“Morning…” She hesitates, hoping she’s not going to butcher this, “querida.”

Luz chokes on her own spit as her face turns red and Amity feels rather proud of herself, having brought her chatty girlfriend to stupefied silence.

“What’s going on?” Gus whispers to Willow who just smiles.

They’ve become pretty accustomed to Luz and Amity’s somewhat new dynamic since they started dating and all the strange, sometimes hard to follow conversations the two have. Though without any context Willow thinks she knows what’s going on.

She’s also picked up a little of Luz’s other language, and while she doesn’t know ‘amor’ or ‘querida’ the faces the two make tells her all she needs to know about the nature of these words and she rolls her eyes at the couple.

“They’re just being sappy, don’t worry about it.

“Oh…” Gus nods.

“Where did you learn that?” Luz finally sputters, still red-faced, and Amity grins, and maybe it’s a Blight sibling thing, but she winks and Luz feels like she might just melt into a puddle of human goo. She only thought she got flustered whenever one of the twins winked at her, this was a whole nother level entirely.

“If you two are done…,“ Willow started, drawing the couples embarrassed gazes. “I heard the Autumn festival is going to be in town this weekend, we should all go.”

“Yeah!” Luz quickly agreed before stopping. “What’s The Autumn festival?” she asks and Willow laughs while Amity can only roll her eyes fondly.

“It’s like a carnival but with autumn-themed food and games and all kinds of fun stuff,” Gus explains, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet and Luz joins him in excited fidgeting.

“Count me in!” Luz pumps a fist before turning to look at her girlfriend imploringly. Amity’s lips twitch at the large, pleading eyes now turned on her. Luz is the only one with this kind of power over her. Not that she would have turned down the opportunity to spend an afternoon with her and their friends.

“Sounds like fun,” she agreed.

Luz and Gus cheer, high-fiving while Amity and Willow share a look.

They talked a little while longer before the bell rang and they all had to make their way to class.

It was Thursday, and Luz had Bard and Oracle track classes today, so she bid farewell to her friends as she and Amity walked down another hall. Abominations were only one hall down from the bard hall.

When they stopped in front of the entrance to the bard’s hall Amity grabbed her arm.

“I won’t be able to meet you today, my mom wants me to come straight home after school.” She frowned and Luz resisted the urge to pout, she knew Amity didn’t like it anymore then she did so she simply nodded.

“It’s okay, I’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll message you tonight.” She smiled and Amity’s frown vanished in the face of it. She wanted very badly to close the short distance between them and lay a quick kiss on her mouth but there were students all around them, though none close enough to hear them.

“I’ll be waiting for it, querida.” she grinned as she walked away from her again short-circuiting girlfriend.

~ ~ ~

Luz was worried

She’d waited until sometime after dinner before sending Amity a message on her scroll as she laid in bed. Usually, Amity replied within a few minutes.

She’d waited a few hours, checking her scroll periodically, eventually feeling antsy and moving about the house.

Eda and Lilith seemed to pick up on her behavior pretty quickly as she wandered around the kitchen and living room, frowning.

“Is something the matter, Luz?” Lilith was the first to ask.

“Hmm, Amity hasn’t messaged me back yet and it’s been four hours…,” she mumbled, plopping down on the floor, opposite the couch where the sisters were sitting.’

“That’s it? Your girlfriend hasn’t messaged you back yet?” Eda cocked a brow. “You were wandering around here looking like someone was being murdered.” She crossed her arms.

“You don’t understand, Eda!” She threw up her hands. “She’s never not responded to me before… and her mom wanted her to come home right after school today… I’m worried.” She glanced down at her still silent scroll.

The women shared a look before turning back to Luz.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be okay, kid. If her mom wanted her home it must have been for something, she’s just busy.” Eda tried to comfort her apprentice.

“Surely if something were wrong she would have messaged you first,” Lilith followed up.

“Yeah, kids head over heels for you. If she needed you, she’d let you know.”

“Hmm, I guess…,” Luz grumbled.

Eda frowned at the glum look on her kid’s face and stood.

“Come on Luz, let’s go get ice screams,” she said, ruffling the girl’s head as she walked over to the door.

A tiny smile pulled at her lips at what she knew Eda was trying to do. They were probably right, Amity had a tighter schedule than most adults she knew, she was probably just busy.

“Okay” She hopped up to join Eda at the door.

“King, let’s go, we’re getting Ice screams!” she yelled, and upstairs a loud squeal of excitement echoed back. “You too, Lilly.” Eda jerked her head.

“Very well.”

~ ~ ~

Luz was very worried now as she walked quickly to school.

Amity had never returned her message and according to the little text next to it, she had never even read it.

That was not like her and it made Luz’s stomach tight with worry.

She shot right out of the house as soon as she had gotten dressed when she’d checked her scroll to still see no sign of Amity.

Students were milling about the front of the building. If she wanted to avoid people Amity would get to school just before the bell rang so she could use it as an excuse. She’s done it a couple of times since they started dating, though never to Luz.

Just as she predicted, she could see her girlfriends bright green head as she walked toward Hexside’s main steps.

“Amity!”

She froze stiff at the call, but she didn’t look like she was going to try and run.

“Hey! I was worried about you, you never messaged me back last night.” She stopped at Amity’s side so their conversation was hushed as kids walked by them.

“Sorry, Luz… I got busy last night, I didn’t mean to worry you…” She turned to look at her with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Luz noticed it immediately.

Amity’s hair was a bright new shade of mint and the auburn roots Luz adored were gone, now the same shade as the rest of her hair.

“Your hair…,” Luz mumbled and Amity clutched her books tighter to her chest. She knew Luz would notice right away. She didn’t know why she thought she could avoid this.

Luz pursed her lips as she looked at the uniform color and remembered what Amity had told her about it. She’d held her tongue before about the subject, but this clearly caused her girlfriend distress if the way her hunched shoulders and the way she couldn’t meet Luz’s eyes meant anything.

“Did your mom make you re-dye your hair last night?” She knew she hit the nail on the head because as soon as the sentence left her mouth Amity flinched, hunkering in even further.

“Yes,” she answered after a long moment, just as the bell rang. “I gotta go.” She tried to walk away but Luz grabbed her shoulder.

“Amity, wait…”

“I really don’t want to talk about this right now, Luz.” She pulled away and ran inside leaving Luz to watch her go from the bottom of the steps with a frown.

Her stomach was churning with worry for Amity and anger at her girlfriend’s mother. She’d never met Mrs. Blight, but she knew already without a doubt, she didn’t like her.

~ ~ ~

Amity could hardly pay attention to her classes. She was mad at herself.

She knew eventually her roots were going to reach a point where her mother was going to ‘suggest’ that she fix it. She knew by the length that the time was approaching and she should have told Luz about it, knowing that she would notice right away and that she knew her and her mother’s… secret agreement, if that was what she wanted to call it. Amity sniffed at that.

Even Ed and Em didn’t know why she colored her hair, they’d teased her mercilessly about it after the first time, saying that if she wanted to be like them she’d have to try harder then that.

Hell, she wasn’t sure her father even knew. Having inherited her warm auburn hair from him, he’d seemed a little disappointed after the first time her mother had ‘asked’ her to color it, in that cloying sweet way that meant she wasn’t really asking.

She sighed to herself, she hadn’t meant to ignore Luz last night, but having her hair recolored had put her in a very bad mood and she didn’t think she’d have been good company.

Then this morning… she groaned quietly.

Of course, Luz would be able to put two and two together and see that she was upset. She always was the first couple of days after having her hair fixed. She really shouldn’t have blown her off though. She would send her a message later, apologizing.

There wasn’t much she could do about her hair. She wished she could just let it be the color it was; It frustrated her.

When class mercifully ended she took her time gathering her things. She knew in the back of her mind it was just to avoid Luz, even though she really wanted to see her.

After last night she just wanted to let her girlfriend hold her. She was always happiest and at peace whenever the human wrapped her arms around her and let her just bury her face into her neck.

But Luz also asked too many questions and felt righteous, indignant anger for others much too strong to simply ignore this, it was one of the things Amity loved about her. She cared so much, but this was something beyond her, and Amity needed to find a way to explain it to her so she would let it go.  

Luz thought the emperor was tough? She’d never met Odalia Blight and if Amity had her way, she never would.

She was walking down the quiet empty halls tiredly when a classroom door swung open and someone grabbed her pulling her inside. She didn’t even have time to cry out as the door shut and she was standing in the middle of an empty classroom.

“It’s just me!” Luz quickly soothed her panic.

“Luz!” Amity hissed. “What are you doing?” She held a hand to her chest over her rapidly beating heart.

“Sorry, I was waiting for you.”

“You could have just waited outside for me…,” Amity grumbled.

“So you could take off running the second you saw me?” Luz frowned, not glaring but it was a very stern look that made Amity frown guiltily.

“I’m sorry…,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be sorry, just talk to me, Amity” Luz pleaded. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, amor”

“You can’t help with this, Luz.” she shook her head, looking at the floor. “This is just… something I have to do… I know you want to help but you can’t. So please, can you just forget about it?”

“No!” Luz flings out her arms. “How can I just ignore it when it makes you like this?!” Luz can’t understand why Amity just can’t talk to her about this.

Maybe she can’t do anything, but she’s there for Amity to lean on even when she needs her, when she’s hurting, even when they can’t do anything about it.

She doesn’t have to shove it all down and pretend she’s not bothered when she clearly is.

Frustration is bubbling up in Amity’s stomach like a boiling cauldron. Why can’t Luz understand that this is just something she has to do?

“It’s just hair, Luz!” She’s not shouting but it’s much louder than it needs to be.

“If it was just about hair then you wouldn’t be so upset and miserable about it!” Luz’s tone also raises. “You wouldn’t be hiding from me!”

“It doesn’t matter, I have to do this, you don’t know what my mother is like!” she is yelling now.

"I would if you would just explain it to me!” She shouts back, just as loud.

Amity turns away from her, shaking. She hates this, hates how angry she is, hates her mother, and that Luz can’t just let this go. Just this once, she wished she didn’t care so much.  

Luz frowns. This wasn’t at all how she had wanted this to go. She takes a breath, calming herself.

“Hey, it’s okay… maybe I don’t get it…” Luz starts quietly and reaches out a hand towards Amity’s shaking shoulder. “But my mom…”

Amity is just so frustrated by everything she spins around to face her surprised girlfriend and snaps:

“Stop, your right, you don’t get it and your mom isn’t here!“

Brown eyes go wide and the hurt couldn’t be clearer.

Just like that, all her frustration drains out of her and she wants nothing more than to take the words back, pull them back and swallow the vile things before they leave her mouth, but she can’t. They’re out there now and she has to live with that.

Live with the deafening silence that fills the empty classroom as she and Luz stare back at each other with wide eyes, gold filled with horror and brown with shock and hurt

Her stomach drops into her feet as Luz’s lips begin to tremble and her eyes turn glassy.

She wants to say something, anything, but for the life of her, she can’t get her mouth to form the words.

Luz bursts, choking on a sob before she turns and runs, wrenching the door open. It slams against the wall, the bang echoing through the room as she flees down the hall.

"Luz!” Amity calls finally able to make her body respond and she runs after her, but Luz is fast, much faster then Amity realized as she bursts out of the schools front doors in time to see the other girl vanishing into the woods at the edge of the school grounds, she stops at the bottom of the steps, helplessly watching her girlfriend disappear from sight amid the trees.

“Amity!?” She looks to see Gus and Willow, standing at the edge of the steps looking at her with concerned faces. No doubt they had seen Luz run by sobbing.

“What happened!?” Willow asks.

“What did you do!?” Gus accuses, pointing a finger at her and glaring.

‘I…” she stammers, then bites her lip and after a long minute trying to form coherent thoughts, she slowly explains what happened. The two friends’ faces change from shock to outrage and alarm by the time she’s done.

“Why would you say that?!” Willow is all but shouting at her as Gus crosses his arms and glares as if she didn’t already feel bad about what she’d said to Luz.

“I don’t know!” she wails. “It was stupid and cruel and I don’t know! I didn’t mean to, I was just frustrated, she wouldn’t drop it and it just came out…” She buried her face in her hands miserably.

Willow is pinching the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. She knows what she’s about to say is going to make Amity feel so much worse, but it needs to be said.

“You don’t know how cruel…,” she starts and Amity is looking at her with worried eyes at the miserable tone of her voice. “Summer is over Amity, Luz was supposed to go home almost two weeks ago…,” she trails off and Amity’s mind shifts gears, spinning into overdrive as she takes in the meaning of those words, understanding slapping her in the face.

“Oh… oh, Titan, no!” She covers her mouth with her hands but the horror In her eyes is clear. In the midst of the cloudy haze of their blossoming relationship, Amity had lost track of the days.

Somewhere in the human world, a mother is desperately searching for her missing daughter and Luz knows this, Amity, Willow, and Gus know this, and Amity had only, no matter how unintentionally, dug the knife in deeper.

Her knees are on the verge of giving out and she drops on the bottom step before they can buckle of their own accord.

“Why am I so terrible!” Amity shouts, reaching up to pull at her hair, shame is the only thing she can feel and it makes bile threaten to rise up her throat; she thinks she’s about to be sick as water pools in the corners of her eyes.

Willow sighs and kneels down on the ground in front of her, thinking about what to say.

“You’re not terrible, Amity,” she said slowly. “I know you didn’t mean it and I’m sure Luz knows it to…”

“I hurt her…” Amity whimpers, and she’s never been so disappointed in herself as she is at this moment, knowing that she’s hurt the one person she cares about more than anything.

Willow and Gus share a look before turning back to the girl cracking too pieces in front of them.

“You can still fix this, Amity.” Willow reaches up and lays a comforting hand on the trembling girl’s shoulder. “You need to talk to her, now.” Willow impresses the urgency upon her.

She nods, wiping away the tears that are threatening to fall and she stands.

“I gotta go…” she takes off toward the owl house without another word.

When she’s finally standing in front of the house she’s panting, having run all the way.

She takes a moment to get her breath back before walking up to knock on the door. Hooty is strangely quiet as he looks at her from his place in the door.

After a moment it opens and the owl lady is standing there looking at her with a frown.

“Is Luz here? she asks, trying not to cower as Eda looks down at her.

Eda simply regards her for another few seconds before saying anything.

“Yeah, ran through here crying. Your doing, I take it?” It’s not really a question.

“Can I talk to her…, please?” She’ll beg if she has to. She has to make this right.

Eda continues to stare at her for the longest few seconds of Amity’s life before she steps aside and Amity shoots through the door and up the stairs, not even acknowledging King or Lilith sitting on the couch.

Luz’s door is closed but she can hear her quiet muffled crying through the door and it tears at her heart. She lifts her hand to knock but hesitates, and swallows, but her mouth is dry.

Finally, she taps on the door and the cries quiet.

“Not now, Eda…” her voice is quiet and it cracks. Amity takes hold of the handle, gripping it tightly before pushing it open.

It’s dim in the room, stray beams of light are streaming through the drawn curtains, just enough that she can see.

Luz is curled up on her bed, facing away from her.

She must have heard the door open.

“I just wanna be alone, Eda,” she choked quietly.

Amity licks her dry lips.

“Luz”

The girl goes still before her cries pick up again, though she’s trying to muffle them.

Amity’s feet are heavy as she walks across the room, but hesitates at the bedside, not sure what to do with herself.

Finally, she settles for kneeling on the floor, so her face is level with Luz, hands holding onto the edge of the mattress. The old, worn wood bites into her knees but she ignores it.

“Luz…, I am so sorry,” she finally says. “I didn’t mean to say that… or to yell at you… I was just frustrated and I know that’s no excuse for it, I just…” she chokes back her own tears. “I’m sorry, I’m just so sorry.” It’s all she can say as she stares at her girlfriend’s quaking back, tears dripping down her cheeks. Her head drops and she clenches her eyes shut as more tears fall, dripping off her chin to the floor, leaving little wet circles in the dry wood.

She stays right there for several long minutes before the bed shifts and she looks up.

Luz has rolled over to face her, staring back at her with wet, red-rimmed eyes.

She’s still crying as she holds up an arm and Amity stares back at her with wide eyes.

“C'mere,” she croaks and Amity scrambles into the bed, wedging one of her arms between Luz and the mattress to squeeze her close, burying her face into her chest.

Luz’s grip on her is just as tight as she nuzzles her face into bright green hair.

They just lay there for a while as their tears slow, eyes closed

They don’t hear the Clawthorne sisters outside the door.

“Edalyn!” Lilith hisses as she follows her sister down the hall to Luz’s room. “Do you honestly think they’re in there making out again?!” She asks with quiet outrage.

“After last week I’m just checking!” she hisses back. “They know the rules, door open!” she says quietly.

Lilith rolls her eyes, scowling. “Luz was in tears!”

“I know. Do you know how many crying people I’ve 'comforted’?” The younger finger quotes and Lilith’s scowl only intensifies; for multiple reasons.

“Do you really think so lowly of Amity?” she growls.

“No, of course not, but I need to check on my kid!” Eda growls, looking at Lilith over her shoulder. The elder only frowns but says nothing else.

She’s silent when she turns the door handle and opens it just a couple of inches to peek inside. the first thing she sees of course is the two teenagers curled up together on the bed, and she’s just about to throw the door open when she hears it.

Crying.

Both of them are huddled together on the bed crying.

She closes the door as silently as she opened it and backs away.

“Well?” Lilith asks lowly and Eda just shakes her head.

“Leave 'em be,” she says as they walk back down the hall.

When the crying has stopped the two are just laying there quietly, absorbing each other’s warmth, still sniffling on occasion as Luz runs her fingers through Amity’s hair while the other clenches and unclenches her hands in the fabric of Luz’s shirt.

Finally, Amity finds the will to speak.

“I lost track of the days…,” she starts quietly. “I completely forgot when you were supposed to go back…”

Luz hums.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Amity finally finds the courage to ask.

Luz just shrugs, frowning into Amity’s hair.

“I didn’t want anyone to worry about me. I especially didn’t want you to worry about me. Worrying about it isn’t going to fix it…,” she trails off.

Amity makes a frustrated sound in her throat and pulls back just enough so they can look at each other. Both their eyes are red and puffy.

“That’s not how this works, Luz! I’m going to worry about you whether you want me to or not, that’s how love works!” She’s more than aware of the hypocrisy of her words as they come out of her mouth, but more so as those deep brown eyes lock with hers, but she goes on. “I want to be there for you, even if I can’t do anything, I want you to be able to lean on me.”

“Then why won’t you let me be there for you?” she shoots back and Amity flinches. The words hold no anger, just sad confusion.

“I…,” Amity sighs. She’s been thinking about this too and has finally come to the answer. “I don’t know how…” her voice is so soft Luz barely hears it. “I’m a Blight… I’m not supposed to need anyone. I should be strong enough on my own.” She closes her eyes, unable to stare into Luz’s any longer, she can’t bear whatever she might find there.

“That’s stupid.”

Her eyes shoot open to look at Luz, who is frowning. She looks angry but Amity realizes it’s not directed at her as she presses her forehead against hers.

“Everyone needs help sometimes, no matter what their name is, and… we’re supposed to be there to help each other, no matter what, that’s what this is.” Her grip on Amity tightens. “Like you said, that’s what love is. Us against the world, but you have to let me, Amity.” Her voice is thick with raw emotion.

Luz is getting blurry as tears fill Amity’s eyes again and her fingers dig into Luz’s shirt in a death grip. Luz is smiling at her sadly as they begin to drip down her cheeks to the bed. She nods shakily.

“I know…,” she hiccups.

“You said I don’t understand. So explain it to me,” she breathes, and Amity sniffles. “Please, mi amor. Tell me.” Luz whispers.

So she does.

They lay there a long time, so long, the sunlight in the room disappears, casting the room in darkness as Amity explains exactly what it’s like growing up in Blight Manor, with parents that are too busy most of the time to even remember they have children unless it’s convenient to them. With a distant father who is usually too busy to spend time with his family or know what is going on and a mother who when she has the time, uses it to try and sculpt all her children into perfectly painted figurines for her to display to their friends and acquaintances at parties.

Nevermind that the paint just hides the many chips and cracks beneath.

Luz only holds her all the tighter the longer they lay there and her heart aches the more Amity speaks as she realizes that Willow and green hair dye are only the tip of an iceberg lodged in her girlfriend’s heart.

“Oh, Amity,” Luz breathes, holding her as tight as she can without crushing her. “I’m sorry,” she finally says when Amity is finished. “I should have left it alone…”

Amity shakes her head

“No…, I should have talked to you about this instead of just trying to ignore it,” she sighs “I know you, Luz. I know how much you care and want to help… I love that about you… I guess part of me just didn’t want you to know what a mess I am,” she mumbles, gold eyes sliding to look anywhere but Luz. She squeaks as Luz’s grip on her becomes crushing.

“You’re not!” she growls, anger burns in her belly like she’s swallowed fire. She’s never felt such intense hatred before as she feels at Amity’s mom right now. “You’re amazing and I love you so much.” She squeezes harder still. “And what your parents do isn’t your fault,” she asserts.

“Luz, too tight…,” Amity squeaks.

“Sorry, sorry!” Luz smiles sheepishly and relaxes her death grip on Amity, who can finally take a full breath. “Really, though. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed. When you tell me to leave something alone I need to listen…,” she says with a frown, which makes Amity frown.

She draws her hands back from around Luz’s back and wedges them between them to wrap her fingers around her neck, thumbs brushing her cheeks.

“And I need to learn that I can rely on you, no matter what,” she says and Luz smiles, making her own lips pull up.

“Always, mi amor.” she affirms, leaning into Amity’s touch.

Amity closes the incrementally small distance between the two to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s smiling mouth.

When she releases her she sighs happily but exhausted.

“We’ve been here a long time… you probably need to get home.” Luz frowns, not at all happy about having to send Amity home now that she knows exactly what that home is like.

The twins can only help so much, they too are just teenagers in the same boat as their sister, even though it seems to Luz that shielding Amity from as much as they can is their priority; for which she could never be more grateful.

Thankfully Amity just shakes her head.

“They left for the weekend this morning… it’s just Ed and Em at home,” she says.

“Then stay,” Luz says without even having to think about it.

Amity jerks up to look at her, eyes blown wide and cheeks pinking.

“I… don’t think Eda will be okay with that after what happened last week” the pink turns red.

“She will if I explain It to her…,” she says. Amity looks unsure of that. “We need adults in our corner, even if they’re both wanted criminals.” She grins and Amity can’t help but giggle at her. Even when it’s dark, Luz has a way of lighting up her world.

“Okay” she moves to sit up but Luz pushes her back down with a hand on her shoulder.

“You stay here, I can do it, amor,” Luz assures her. Amity wants to argue, but she feels drained after explaining it all to Luz, so she just nods.

Luz pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and crawls off the bed, moving to the door.

Amity bites her lip before calling out.

“Hurry back, querida.”

Luz freezes and Amity grins, knowing even without being able to see her face as it’s turned away and dark that Luz is blushing.

After a second she just looks over her shoulder and smiles.

“Siempre volveré a ti, mi amor.” She says before opening the door and disappearing down the hall, leaving Amity confused but flustered.

She pulls out her scroll and calls her sister who picks up on the second ring.

“Mittens, are you okay, where are you?” She sounds worried and Amity feels a little guilty about that.

“I’m fine, Em. I’m at Luz's…”

“Oooh, and what are you two up to I wonder…?” she says with a knowing lilt, but she does not have the energy to be angry at her older sisters teasing.

“Emira…” the tired and almost sad way she says her sister’s name makes the sound on the other end go quiet for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” Emira sounds serious now, and with a weary sigh she explains the last few hours to the twins after Emira has put her scroll on speaker, which includes finally telling the twins why she’s been dying her hair green for years; they don’t like it. Not one bit.

After about twenty minutes Luz peeks her head in the bedroom door and seeing her on her scroll, gives her a thumbs-up as she walks quietly into the room to sit on the end of the bed.

“Titan, Amity…” she hears her brother say quietly.

“I’m going to stay with Luz tonight, I’ll be back in the morning and we can talk about it later,” she says before he or Emira can say anything else.

There’s a long moment of silence and Amity can just see the two of them, looking at each other having one of the silent conversations they’re famous for.

“Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow. We love you!” The two chorus at the end and Amity rolls here eyes, but smiles.

“I love you too.” The scroll beeps as the call ends and Luz reaches out to grab her hand and squeezes reassuringly.

“Eda said we’re good to go for tonight and that dinner is ready.”

It isn’t until she says this that Amity realizes how absolutely starving she is.

“That sounds nice.” She nods.

Luz grins and leads her downstairs, hand still threaded through hers.

Eda looks up as they walk into the kitchen.

“Have a seat, kids.” She motions to the table where Lilith and King are already sitting, waiting.

They do, and they all smile, and for once Amity is glad that Lilith is here.

Maybe she hasn’t forgiven her yet, but she’s trying, and after all this talk about her mother, she’s glad for anyone else.

She gives Lilith a small smile and the woman seems surprised, but it’s quickly replaced with a reassuring look.

When dinner finished and everything is cleaned up, Amity insists on helping, the two head for the stairs only to be stopped by Eda, poking her head out of the kitchen to look at the two as they start up the stairs.

“Luz” her mentor calls, and they both turn back to look at her.

“You two can sleep up there, but that door stays open, no funny business, or this is the last time anyone stays here; got it?” They both turn bright red but Luz nods.

“No funny business,” she squeaks. she’s not going to even attempt to argue that nothing is going to happen, she just agrees; not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Good. Night, kids.” Eda grins and the two hurry up the stairs, mumbling to each other and faces red.

[timeforelfnonsense]

The Bargain

Astarion x Dafni

Rating: M 

Ao3 || Sunshine & Starlight: My on going bg3 series  

I want to add a TW up here: The first half of this fic depicts Astarion having a panic attack/being in fight or flight. The portrayal was informed by my own struggles with BPD and panic attacks. I think it's important to remember our responses to trauma are often flawed and imperfect. It was very cathartic for me to write tbh. I'm very proud of this one and I think a lot of Dafni's character really shines through! This one has a good bit of canon d&d lore mixed with some homebrew/folklore about the fey (WotC pls feed me more feywilds canon I am DESPERATE for it!). Elvish Translations (via candle keep): arael’sha: Heart-friend (used in contexts like beloved or my heart) The stars shining right through your eyes: A common elvish idiom referring to one's youth or naiveté.

A gust of wind blew through the putrid bog carrying the damp, acrid smell of rotten vegetation and sulfuric swamp water. The gray, splintered walls of the tea house groaned, the top half of the gnarled structure swaying. It was shocking the poor construction of the ramshackle hovel hadn’t killed the hag for them. Astarion had made his way to the small alcove hung above the crumbling foyer hoping to find his paramour. He felt his heart sink when he was met with nothing but the witch's clutter. Astarion rocked on his heels. There was something deeply wrong with this place, even with Ethel dead. Oppressive energy hung on the stale air. Filling the whole space with an undoubted misery that left him feeling raw and exposed.

Deep down you like being leashed, don't ya?

Gale and Wyll had begun to make themselves at home below him. He observed them as they languidly poked about, looking for anything of the hag’s that would be of use. Wyll had already summoned a raven to send back to camp, a note attached to its foot informing the others that they wouldn’t make it back for the evening. The old bat had not given up without a fight and they’d been left battered and exhausted. Astarion winced, his arm brushing against the wall.

He was bleeding. Fantastic.

He had been too preoccupied with the feelings this place drew out of him to notice the long gash running down the top of his forearm. Ethel had tried to drag him to the gaping chasm at the center of her abode when the fight was no longer in her favor. He had struggled and thrashed against her but she only dug her twisted claws in deeper. She’d nearly succeeded in pitching him over when a fatal arrow from Dafni’s longbow sunk into her eye with a wet squelch, exiting the back of her skull.

He already felt like shit from being tossed about by a hag and that discomfort was only compounded by the growing need for a drink. The scorch of thirst started to lick at the back of his throat. He must have been bleeding into his sleeve for some time. His body was eager to replace what was lost.

Is there still rat stuck in your teeth? Slave!

Perhaps Dafni would allow him a little nibble. Just the thought of the sweet strawberry wine in her veins eased some of the discomforts. Astarion pressed his back against a hideous wardrobe, sliding down until his backside hit the ground. He had made a point of exercising restraint when it came to drinking from her. He never wanted her to be under the impression she was only a meal to him. But he was famished and she was his favorite treat.

You're one thirsty night away from betraying everyone!

Or maybe not...

There had to be something else edible nearby. He took in a deep breath only to be met with the nauseating scent of an overripe corpse. He coughed and sputtered, forcing the repugnant smell from his lungs. Any thirst he might have had was chased off by the gut-twisting aroma. It seemed he wouldn’t be taking a breath for the rest of the night. While his undead nature freed him from the necessity of breathing he’d always been partial to it. The feeling of his chest moving up and down had served as a steadfast reminder he wasn’t  truly  dead despite all he had endured at Cazador’s hand.

Vampire? Ha! You’re nothing but a ravenous cadaver, spawn!

“You bastard! You ruined it- You ruined everything!” Mayrina squawked.

“Are you daft! I helped you!” Dafni spat back.

Well, he found her.

It would seem Dafni’s damsel in distress was none too pleased with her would-be hero. Astarion groaned, bringing his head to his knees. He was agitated as it was and the squabble happening outside was only making the tightness in his chest worse. He squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to tune them out. Astarion grit his teeth, the pain in his arm was growing more acute by the minute and the strange magic of this shithole had his nerves ragged. His body jolted at the crack of a hand against flesh ringing out across the yard outside followed by a string of elven cursing. A torrent harrowing memories shot through his brain as the appalling noise hit his ear. The simmering dread morphing into fury. A low growl fell from his snarling lips as he tore down the stairs towards the yard.

“The hag promised she’d bring my husband back from the grave if I gave her my baby! I just needed to wait a little longer but you had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong!”

“You promised your child to a hag? You do know hags devour babies, yes? They swallow them whole and within a week the child is reborn a hag daughter.” Dafni’s yelped as Mayrina‘s palm came down across her cheek. She brought a hand to the stinging flesh in disbelief. Foxglove bells dripped from her battle messed hair, hot summer rage threatening to boil over. She took a deep breath in attempting to soothe her nerves but her soundings did little to help. The magic that covered this swamp, was arcane and wild- Much the same as dark and forbidden places in her home plane. Hags often built their homes in places where the barrier between the material and faerie was thin enough for fools from both planes to seek them out. It was unsurprising the shadowy influence of the hag had mingled with the magic of a crossing to create a bubble of negativity. It was likely provoking more extreme reactions from the already distressed woman. “I understand you are upset, but my patience is growing thin. I am only trying to help you. I’m no stranger to hags. They are creatures of my homeland and I can assure you there is always a greater price. You’d do well to remember that.”

“Don’t you judge me! You can’t possibly understand-” Mayrina sobbed raising her open palm for another strike only to her wrist caught in the iron grasp of Astarion’s alabaster hand.

Oh no.

“You foul little wrench!” Astarion’s voice was acid, his teeth bared, “She saved your miserable life and you dare raise your filthy hand to her? I have half a mind to tear your throat out but that seems kinder than you deserve.”

Dafni’s heart was pumping a mile a minute. She’d seen Astarion cross but this was completely different. Astarion’s body was completely rigged. His shoulders forward, back straight. His red eyes glowed with ferocity as his grip on Mayrina tightened. Normally when he was upset he’d get stroppy or belligerent. He’d needle the target of his disapproval with snide remarks until they were as frustrated as he was. He could be rather rude and bab tounged when he felt like it but it was always a cool, controlled vexation. This was unfettered wrath far stronger than Mayrina’s actions had earned.

“I-I’m sorry!” Mayrina uttered with a shaking breath, “Please, let me go!”

“Why?” He snarled, cocking his head to the side, “So you can attempt to strike my beloved a third time?”

“Please, arael’sha, let her go…” Dafni wrapped her hand around his shoulder, her eyes soft and concerned, “I’m fine. She shouldn’t have hit me but I’m in no danger from her and you know that.”

“Fine.” He shot her a loathsome look but yielded to her request, tossing Mayrina’s hand with disgust, “You and your gods damned bleeding-heart. Let the shrew disrespect you if you’d like. I don’t care.” Astarion turned on his heels staking back into the tea house his fists balled tight at his side.

Dafni nibbled her lower lip, her fingers worrying the hem of her sleeves. Astarion had made himself scarce after the incident with Mayrina. It upset her to see him so distressed. Her instinct had been to tear after him when he stormed off. But, she knew him well enough to understand he would need space and time to calm down before they discussed it. Any attempt to talk to him before that would only serve to upset him even more. She made herself busy tending to her friends in the meantime. They had a few injuries but nothing she couldn’t patch up. She might have been too worn out for magic but Ethel had kept a decent supply of herbs and tonics for her less exotic ‘lotions and potions’ that would do nicely. She even found a few things worth snagging for her own medical kit back at camp. If they had to be stranded for the night, at least it was somewhere well stocked.

Gale had a burn on his arm she’d treated with a salve of aloe and quince. Wyll a nasty knock to the head, that while painful, by the Protector’s grace, didn’t appear to be a concussion. She’d put on a kettle of willow bark tea and instructed him to drink at least two cups of the stuff as soon as it was ready. She had done all she could for now. More than anything they both seemed fatigued. With a little rest, they’d be on the mend.

The worn staircase creaked under her weight as she made her way to the second level of the house. Astarion sat on the splintering floor, his back propped up against a cluttered cupboard. His scarlet eyes glassy and fixed on a far off point. He was clutching the top of his right forearm. Between his fingers, Dafni could make out a tell-tale dark stain of red on his sleeve.

“You are hurt!” She gasped racing to his side, “Why didn’t you fetch me! Let me clean and bandage that for you.”

“Don’t touch me.” His voice came out in a low growl as he twisted away from her.

Dafni took a step away, her hands held up. “I won’t touch you without your consent but I need to tend to your arm soon. I’m worried about you.”

“Why should I want your help?” He glared at her arm still held tight against his chest. “You certainly don’t want mine.”

Dafni let out an exacerbated exhale, “Is this about what happened earlier?”

“No, it’s about you and your compulsive need to martyr yourself at every chance! It is foolhardy, reckless, and incredibly selfish! You can be so juvenile- The stars shining right through your eyes! And I can’t always be there to mind you, Dafni! Today it was just a slap but one day you are going to try and save the wrong person and I’m going to find you bled out in an outer city gutter or worse!” He was scolding her in earnest now. His bottled-up feelings coming out in a torrid of icy words. “Is rushing into other people’s disasters to prove to mommy and the gods you are a big girl really worth it? ”

“I do tend to put the needs of others before my own” She admitted, “Oftentimes to my own detriment but, please, don't talk to me as if I am a misbehaving child.” Dafni kept her tone calm and even as she continued, “I care for you and I can tell you are feeling overwhelmed. I want to support you but I can’t do that unless you help me understand what’s going on?”

They sat in silence for a while. His lean frame was closed off and wound tight. As if he was prepared to bolt at the slightest disruption of his already fragile state. An anxious tremble coursing through him every few moments. He refused to face her but Dafni could have sworn she saw the wet shimmer of tears forming in his eyes.

“My patience was already rather thin and then I heard that insolent twit strike you…” He spoke at last, finally met her gaze with an absolutely despondent expression. “And something just snapped in me.”

“I’m sorry you had to hear all that shouting. I’m sure listening to her smack the daylights out of me wasn’t pleasant for you. Especially when you were already feeling uneasy.” Dafni said as she slowly brought her head to rest on his shaking shoulder. Astarion dropped a smidge of tension from his body as he buried his face in her roseate, satin-soft curls. His breathing grew more steady by the second. She could sense the storm of his disquiet coming to an end. “I want you to know I appreciate you standing up for me. I might not have agreed with the method but I know your heart was in the right place.” She hesitated, “Can I ask you a question?”

He gave her an uncertain look but nodded, “If you’d like to.”

“Do you feel like it’s your job to protect me?”

He shifted a bit his eyes darting away as his good arm rubbed the nape of this neck. His body language all but screamed the answer but he was clearly still trying to craft a response. “Sometimes. Is that a satisfactory response?”

“Hmm?” Dafni mused, “If you elaborate, yes.”

“Why?” The word came at a long, petulant whine. His brows were knit tight, “I answered the question, did I not?”

Dafni brushed a delicate finger along the straight line of his ear. She smiled as a shiver of delight ran throughout him. A faint flush made its way across the bridge of his nose and to his cheeks. So light you’d miss it if you didn’t know what to look for. “Humor me?”

“I don’t like seeing people hurt you.” He said toying with a stray tendril of her hair, “You always see the best in everyone and everything. The world is full of malefactors who would be more than happy to take advantage of that and for some reason, beyond my control, I’ve decided keeping you happy and whole is just as important to my survival as my own well being.” He groaned pinching the space between his brows with the hand of his unmarred arm, “So you see my motivations are far from selfless. Happy?”

Dafni tried to will the bright grin that threatened to take shape across her lips away. Worried she might frighten him off with her enthusiasm. “Your elaboration was sufficient.” She tittered, no longer suppressing her smile. Her eyes shimmering with mirth as she spoke, “I have an idea! How about we strike a bargain?”

Astarion’s mouth quirked with a warm smile of his own, “Wasn’t it the dangers of fey bargains that caused this mess in the first place?”

“Yes, but I am no hag and I’ll give my word to say only what I mean. No tricks. Creatures of Faerie are bound by our word, we never go back on a promise once given.” She explained, “Now, I respect you far too much to lie and say I’ll stop helping people when I think they need it but, I, Dafni Ríwen of Gwynneth, Daughter of Thesmia Ríwen, cleric of blessed Corellon Larethina give you, Astarion of Baldur's Gate my word that I will try to pick my battles rather than jumping in headfirst at every opportunity. In exchange, I ask that you treat me as your equal from now. I watch your back and you watch mine. We protect each other. Always. Do we have a deal?”

“I can agree to that.”

With a bargain struck between them she leaned in close brushing her lips against his cheek, a gentle tingle of magic, sweet as spring spreading through them both. “Now, I insist you give me that arm. You might like the smell of blood but to me, it reeks of iron.” With a half-hearted laugh, he relinquished the injured arm to her at last. Drat. Was nothing simple? The gash was much deeper than she’d thought it to be. “ Hmmm, this will need stitches, unfortunately. At least until I can rest and heal you with magic. I’ll need to boil some more cloth for bandages and find a needle in this mess.” Dafni procured a small flask of pale yellow liquid from her pack, a bit strong for such a simple procedure but with his, she didn’t want to retrigger his fight or flight by stabbing him with whatever dull needle she could scrounge up. “In the meantime take a  very  small nip of this. It’s a bit of poppy syrup diluted with dandelion wine for the pain and nerves. Drink up. I’ll be back in just a moment.”

Dafni made her way back downstairs creating a list of supplies in her mind: She’d need to boil some cloth in witch hazel for dressing, a steel needle, and thread, alcohol to clean the wound, something to keep everything clean and safe while she worked in the filthy alcove...

When Dafni returned she found Astarion lounging rather contently with a lazy grin on his beautiful face. She had told him to take only a small nip! Oh well, at least he’d sit still for her. She sat back down, carefully placing the silver tray of makeshift medical supplies beside her.

“This stuff is great, Daffodil!” He chuckled, swirling the remainder of her laudanum around the flask.

“A nip, Astarion. A nip! Now give me that.” She scolded, snatching the glass bottle from his loose grip. He only laughed, completely bemused by her annoyance. “Alright, I’m going to clean out the cut with some alcohol. It might sting a bit.” Dafni explained, rolling her eyes, “Though I hardly think you’ll notice in this state.”

He winced a bit as the alcohol came in contact with his flesh, his nose scrunching up in displeasure but he sat otherwise stone still. Methodically, she began the work of suturing his arm. He was very lucky she’d been able to bum a needle and thread off Gale otherwise she would have been forced to get creative.

“You are a cleric. Doesn't daddy Corellon grant you all kinds of healing power? Why did you bother to learn how to mend people without magic?”

“Ok, first off  please  do not refer to the divine being that created our people as ‘daddy’ ever again.” She shook her head with a giggle all the while continuing her task, “Secondly, I learned because of situations just like this one. Magic takes a lot of energy. I can’t just cast unlimited healing spells and the wilds can be dangerous. I never wanted to find myself in a situation when I was unable to care for myself or my sisters. Besides, I needed something to study while they and my mother worked on their wizardry.”

“I want to know something else. Why did you let that fool girl get away with slapping you?”

Dafni mulled the thought over for a bit as she finished the final stitch, snipping the thread with a pair of sewing shears she fully intended to steal. “Because I felt sorry for her. She had clearly already suffered enough without my vengeance. Humans live such fleeting lives, Astarion. They are over before our people even reach adulthood. They experience so much loss and decay in such little time. I think it can make them blind to the long term implications of their choices.”

“I still think you should have let me kill her for disrespecting you.” He shrugged, “But I suppose I can understand your thinking.”

“As I said, she’s suffered more than her fair share. But I appreciate the sentiment.” She gathered a length of linen, winding it snugly over his arm. “All done! You were a model patient!” She teased before adding with sincerity, “I hope that wasn’t too bad.”

“It wasn’t bad at all. Thank you. For everything.” He paused for a beat, his eyes falling to the well-worn floorboards, “You are the first person to treat me like a man in a very long time. You make it easy to forget I’m an undead horror. I’m eternally grateful for you even if I’m not the best at expressing that.”

“I wish you wouldn’t talk like that Astarion.” She scowled, “It hurts my heart when you say things like that about yourself. We might not always see eye to eye and I won’t lie, you can be an absolute pain in my backside. But you will always be a person to me. Never a monster.”

“Always so sweet.” He sighed, slumping against her shoulder, nuzzling his favorite spot in the hollow of her neck. “I wish I understood you. All that time and I don’t think I’ve ever really understood you- how you can be so... good. Yet, frustratingly you’ve always seemed to understand me better than I understand myself.”

He spoke with an unmistakable familiarity, far beyond that which they’d formed over the past few days. Their people lived many lives. Longing to return to Corellon’s side in Arvandor but unable to as punishment for confining themselves to a single shape. Two elves could find each other in more than one lifetime. It was far from unheard of.

The Feywilds did funny things to a person's memory if they weren’t used to its magic. Even affecting the reverie of those from other lands who spent time among their eladrin cousins. The crossing or the magic of her bargain could possibly have provoked things long forgotten.

Or he was simply three sheets to the wind.

Regardless it was refreshing to have such a candid conversation with him. Free of affectation or pretense. Even if he was almost certainly going to forget all of it and be right back to his cocksure self by morning.

“I disagree.” She stated, “I think you understand me better than you think. You’re just a little out of practice when it comes to letting people close to you. You didn’t ask but, as I’m positive you’ll forget this little talk by tomorrow, I also want to add that I think you are secretly very sensitive. I’ve also seen the puppy eyes you give me when you think I’m not looking. Totally adorable! You are just afraid to let people see that side of you.”

“Puppy eyes?” He chuckled nipping softly at her throat, “I think I preferred thinking you were scared of me.”

“Sorry to disappoint, sweetness.” She tuted placing a light peck on his forehead, “You need to rest. I’ll be here when you wake.”

“Oh, my darling, Despoena.” He muttered exhausted against her shoulder. “It was so lonely here without you. I’m glad you found me at last.”  

Dafni’s heart stopped dead in its tracks.

How?

He named her.

The memories of one’s primal life were lost after their first century. Leaving only glimmers and fragments behind. For the fey eladrin, true names- The names they had carried when they sprung from the blood of the Creator, were the most sacred and personal of those precious among them. Names held power in the land of Faerie but none so much as a soul’s true name. They were not to be shared with even the closest of loved ones, and yet in his haze, Astarion somehow knew?

“Astarion… I’ve never told anyone my true name. Not even my mother knows it. How did you know it? And what do you mean by ‘I’m glad you found me’? Are you having some kind of waking reverie or are you just high out of your mind? I’m a little taken back- And you are snoring. Great. You blurt out my only true secret and then it's off to Sehanine Moonbow with you.”

As desperately as she wanted to puzzle out the evening's events she was tired in mind and body. The others had already settled in for the night and she’d be wise to do the same. She settled herself in for trance, Astarion’s head on her shoulder, his hand intertwined with hers. Praying her reverie might provide some answers.  

[enbyleighlines]

This is prompt 3 of 3! Thank you again for so many amazing drabble requests! I’ve really enjoyed working on these

Here is Jiang Cheng / Nie Huaisang: Flowers

—

Jiang Cheng quickly realizes that there is one downside to taking Nie Huaisang to a zoo for their first date. Namely, that it sets a prescedent for more unconventional dates. It’s not like he can fall back on the traditional dinner and a movie. Nie Huaisang’s expectations are probably a lot higher than that.

So after some deliberation, and some internet research, Jiang Cheng decides to take Nie Huaisang to a botanical garden.

On the drive over, however, Jiang Cheng starts to doubt himself. Is a botanical garden too grandiose for a second date? Or perhaps it’s too archaic? Will Nie Huaisang think Jiang Cheng is trying too hard?

These thoughts plague Jiang Cheng until he arrives. Then he catches sight of Nie Huaisang, and his frontal cortex momentarily shuts off.

Nie Huaisang is wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed sunhat, with a vibrant yellow flower tucked into a green ribbon. They also have on a short-sleeve blouse with a high collar and pearl-like buttons, jean capris, and sandals with more flower-themed buckles. They look like a preppy socialite, but somehow they make it look good.

It’s eerie, how just one glance can make Jiang Cheng feel like he’s gone braindead. He shakes his head, forcing his mind to reboot. Then he strides over.

“Hey, Huaisang,” Jiang Cheng calls.

Nie Huaisang removes their sunglasses, and gives Jiang Cheng a smile that reaches all the way up to their eyes. “Cheng-xiong,” Nie Huaisang greets, “Hi! I hope you brought sunscreen.”

“Sunscreen?” Jiang Cheng repeats dumbly.

“Yes, sunscreen!” Nie Huaisang pulls forward a small bag they had on their back, and fishes out a tube of sunscreen. “We’re going to have clear skies all day. I brought some extra water, too, in case we get thirsty.”

Jiang Cheng marvels as Nie Huaisang cups his hand and squeezes some of the sunscreen into the palm. Their hands are so soft.

“You really thought of everything,” Jiang Cheng says. He can still feel the warmth of Nie Huaisang’s touch even after they pull away. The effect is only slightly lessened when he begins rubbing the cool sunscreen into his skin.

Nie Huaisang shrugs and looks away. “I like to be prepared.”

Jiang Cheng knows that Nie Huaisang can get a little dodgy about compliments. That’s only one of Huaisang’s many oddities and complexities. They can be so confident one minute, and so bashful the next. Even after being friends for years, Jiang Cheng is still figuring them out.

“Anyway,” Nie Huaisang swiftly shifts the subject, “Which path do you want to take first? I’ve never been here, so you can lead the way.”

“I’ve never been here before, either.”

Nie Huaisang blinks. “Really?” They ask, “How’d you know this place existed? I’ve never even heard of it!”

Jiang Cheng winces, but he stays honest. “I did an internet search.”

There’s a second of silence, and then Nie Huaisang bursts into a stream of delighted giggles. It’s the kind of full-body laugh that makes the skin around their eyes wrinkle.

Jiang Cheng flushes. “Hey—”

“That’s cute,” Nie Huaisang interrupts, before Jiang Cheng can get the wrong idea, “That’s so cute! Cheng-xiong, you’re too cute.”

Now Jiang Cheng flushes for a different reason. He glowers off into the distance, since he can’t muster the nerve to glare at Nie Huaisang directly. Jiang Cheng has never thought about himself as cute before. He wants to keep being cute, for Huaisang.

“Sorry, I’ll stop laughing.” Nie Huaisang reaches over to take Jiang Cheng’s wrist. Their thumb presses against his pulse. “Let’s head into the garden.”

—

The botanical garden is, Jiang Cheng learns, far more interesting than he had anticipated. He chose it only because he knows Nie Huaisang likes pretty scenery, and what could be prettier than a giant garden? But even Jiang Cheng finds himself mesmerized by the vast array of plants. He had no idea there were so many different kinds of trees.

It’s kind of like walking through an enchanted forest. The narrow pebble paths lead them in winding circles, over a babbling brook, through curtains of willow trees, and into a maze of flowers.

Nie Huaisang is insatiable. They keep stopping to take pictures with their small camera. They even take the time to read the carved stone plaques detailing each plant’s scientific name. Their eyes burn with a fire Jiang Cheng remembers from their first date, in the wolf enclosure. Jiang Cheng also learns that when Nie Huaisang is in laser focus mode, little can be done to win back their attention.

But there’s something about standing back and watching Nie Huaisang get all fired up over mundane things that makes Jiang Cheng supremely happy.

The flower maze is not only a feast for the eyes, but for the nose, as well. The fragrance in the open air is crisp and not overwhelming, like it might have been in an enclosed space. The flowers themselves almost look unreal. They are far more varied than Jiang Cheng thought possible. Many droop like bells, while others have intricate patterns on the petals.

Nie Huaisang all but swoons over them. They spend the most time by the orchids, admiring the unique shapes and textures of the petals.

Some of the orchids are so strange that they seem like they belong on a different planet. Jiang Cheng catches sight of one with feathered edges, like the wings of a bird. The scientific name reads: ‘Habenaria radiata’.

“Hey,” Jiang Cheng says, “Come check this one out.”

Nie Huaisang turns and loudly gasps. “A white egret orchid!” They coo, and squat down to get eye level with them.

“A white what?”

Nie Huaisang doesn’t dare tear their gaze away as they breathlessly explain, “A great white egret is a kind of bird. It’s also called a great white heron. They’re my favorite kind of shorebird. So elegant, just like these flowers.”

The flowers are indeed very pretty, but Jiang Cheng can’t help but stare at Nie Huaisang.

Their eyes are sparkling, their lips parted and soft, their faint smile hypnotizing... Jiang Cheng takes in all of these features, trying to imprint it in his memory. Nie Huaisang is so... cute. Not just on a surface level, but all the way down to their big, easily overexcited heart. How did it take Jiang Cheng this long to see it?

But that’s not quite right. Jiang Cheng has always seen how special Nie Huaisang is, it’s just he’s never allowed himself to focus on it before. If he did, he might have to investigate his attraction to them.

Such a thing would have been impossible, when Jiang Cheng was so insecure about his manhood. Now he’s free to admire Nie Huaisang’s beauty all he wants.

Nor is he limited to simply stand back and stare.

When Nie Huaisang straightens back up, Jiang Cheng tilts their head towards him with a finger.

Nie Huaisang’s breath catches, their lips still parted and soft.

Jiang Cheng leans forward, in a soundless request for permission. Huaisang meets him halfway, joining their mouths with a breathy sigh.

Conscious of their location, Jiang Cheng keeps their kiss short and sweet. Yet, when he pulls away, Nie Huaisang seems dazed, like they’re waking from a deep dream.

“What was that for?” They whisper.

But Jiang Cheng can’t give voice to his thoughts. He’s never been good at that, and besides, it would probably just come out wrong. So he kisses them again, on the lips, and then one peck for each cheek.

Nie Huaisang giggles under the barrage of affection. Their skin is warm with a blush that makes their face rosy pink.

“Jiang Cheng,” Nie Huaisang murmurs, speaking softly into the space where they’re sharing the same air, “Thank you for taking me out. I’m... I’m so happy.”

Jiang Cheng cups Huaisang’s flushed face in his hands and gives them another kiss on the mouth. This one lingers, with Jiang Cheng savoring the sweet, vaguely minty taste of Huaisang’s breath.

They part again. Nie Huaisang giggles. “Jiang Cheng,” he pleads, “Say something.”

“I appreciate your passion for this stuff,” Jiang Cheng tries, “You just... appreciate things so damn much.” He hopes Nie Huaisang understands what he’s trying to say, because he’s sure he’s messing this up. “It’s... cute.”

“You’re cute,” Nie Huaisang retorts.

“Thanks,” he returns, awkwardly.

“Mm.” Nie Huaisang presses a kiss to Jiang Cheng’s nose.

And then they continue on down the path of flowers. Jiang Cheng holds Nie Huaisang’s hand in his, fingers interlocked. It’s incredibly romantic, and Jiang Cheng immediately feels good about the location he’s picked for their date.

He’s just going to have to keep getting creative for their subsequent dates...

[mj-spooks]

Alright, judging by how successful that last Harry Potter experimental question was, Buffy's scooby gang, as a Leverage Crew? Is it too simple to say Buffy as a hitter and Giles as a mastermind?

Which version of the gang are we talking here? Can I go across the whole series? Season 1 only? All Stars? Fuck it I’m cherry picking because THAT’S HOW WE DO.

So, Giles is absolutely on the money. He’s the Mastermind, no doubt. He’s the watcher, he trains the others (mostly Buffy and Faith, but let’s be real, he trains all of them in their own way), he’s the one that works things out, leads research parties, comes up with plans. He’s the Mastermind, at least at first. Like Nate, he graduates out of that position (although I think the others sort of share it after he steps down, rather than one person picking it up).

But Buffy’s not the hitter.

Buffy is the grifter.

Think about it. Pretty, blonde, posterchild for popularity. She’s charismatic. She’s endearing.  You like her. You’d probably do anything she asked you to. She’s an an excellent liar, a brilliant actor. She plays the part. The only reason she doesn’t have Sunnydale wrapped around her fucking finger is because all the bullshit with demons and vampires is Too Obvious for no one to ever notice how weird she is. If they could be even slightly more subtle, or pick slightly more convenient times to get up to their nonsense, no one would ever suspect she was anything but what she looks like.

No, the hitter? That’s Faith. And yes, I’m counting her as a Scooby. My girl got done dirty, alright. Granted, she did some people pretty dirty as well. But she was a teenage girl with a really shitty childhood, and I’m not one to use the shitty childhood as a get out of jail free card (get it), but dude. Dude. Every single thing that could’ve gone wrong for her, did. And every time the team had a chance to prove she could trust them, they fucked it up. Mostly Wesley fucked it up, but let’s not go there. And did I mention she was a teenage girl? Also, it helps that she was only Properly Evil for like, a few months, after which she was in a coma, and was Properly Evil for all of five minutes before deciding “Actually I just wanna be Buffy,” because guess what, she never WANTED to be the bad guy-

I’m getting off topic. The point is. Faith is the brawn, alright? Post-Faith, I guess that position goes to Spike, who let’s face it, is basically Buffy’s backup/guard dog from the moment he realizes he can still kill demons, and especially after his big “Oh shit I love the slayer” realization. For the record, bad decisions being made by an ostensibly helplessly evil soulless monster aside, no one EVER had Buffy’s back like Spike did. Not a single damn person. Fucking fight me. Every. Single. Other. Person. Let her down. Constantly. Or they were never in a positoin to properly have her back in the first place. The one time he really did screw it up, he realized how fucked up he was, and went off and got a fucking soul for her, so basically

Riley, for the record, is not a Hitter and does NOT count as a Scooby, because screw that guy. Also while I’m on the subject, screw Xander, because the episode where Riley leaves and Xander gives Buffy the “you’re the bad guy” speech sits so fucking wrong with me, and Xander goddamn Harris can get fucking bent. I’m still off topic, I know, I know. Sorry, I just. I have VERY STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT BUFFY.

ANYWAY. Willow is the hacker, big fucking shock. She’s... she’s literally a hacker, okay. Even when she stops being all computer-y and starts being all witch-y, her approach to witchcraft is... is to hack it. She hacks magic. Literally. That’s what gets her in so much trouble with it, because she’s too fucking good at cheating the system. It’s how she brought Buffy back. She’s the goddamned Hacker. Age. Of. The. Fucking. Geek. Baby.

Thief............ hmph. I don’t know?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?

See, the thing is, basically all of the properly involved Scoobies had to steal something at one point or another, all with basically the same level of success, so... wait.

Okay. No. The thief is Dawn.

She’s literally a thief! She steals from everybody all the goddamned time! With varying degrees of success, sure. But if she was actually trained at it, she’d be better than all of them. She’s the only Little Sibling out of the bunch (Well, okay, Tara had an older brother, but her homelife was so fucked she has Very Different Younger Sister energy than Dawn). She has a specific talent for it that I bet would serve her well if she was actually trained. I honestly at this point have read so much fanfic that I cannot for the life or me remember if canon!Spike ever helped teach her to knick stuff or if that’s just widely accepted fanon!Spike because people love that dynamic (as they should, it’s great). I’m doing a rewatch but... uh... I kinda stopped partway through S5 because I’m like four episodes away from The Body and gods I just can’t take it. Point being, I dunno if that’s legit or not. BUT. If it were legit, and she was taught how to steal, she’d be great at it.

I guess Spike is kind of also the thief. But he’s also the only one of the scoobies that’s properly been a villain (I’m not counting Faith or Willow’s brief insanity, and Angel isn’t the villain, Angelus is, so...), so naturally he’s got the shady skills. He can kind of grift and mastermind, too, except he’s too impatient for it, which is why he ends up stuck as a hitter most of the time. Everything else is too slow for his ass. See, the entirety of S2.

For fun, under the cut, the remaining scoobies and what position they’re best suited for:

Xander: Hitter??? He’s not got the super strength and he’s kind of played for laughs, but there was that whole bit where he had the tactical training from his brief stint as GI Joe in the Halloween episode. He’s a decent tactician, which is kind of the hitter’s job. I bet that if the wasn’t so busy feeling inferior to Buffy and he actually like. Trained. He could be a decent fighter.

Cordelia: Straight fucking grifter. Which she proves plenty of times on Angel. It’s extra great because she basically IS Sophie, what with the whole “can grift like a boss but put her on stage and she’s terrible” bit. She’s also a decent mastermind, also showcased on Angel. She whips him into shape from day one, and is the only thing that keeps AI running half the time. Also not unlike Sophie. Honestly Cordelia is my favorite character from the OG cast. She deserved better.

Angel: Mastermind. He’s got all of Angelus’ brains, remember, just not necessarily any reason to use them. He’s smart, though, and definitely good at planning. He’s also really into knowing the most and keeping his cards close to his chest. The parallels with Nate are a little strong, honestly, because he also has that whole... guilty conscience spiraling downward holier than thou thing going on. And yes, I do ship him and Cordy, thanks for asking.

Oz: Hacker! Not a lot of people really remember this, since his prominent character traits were “In a band”, “Willow’s boyfriend”, and “werewolf”. Plus there’s the whole flunked-senior-year plot point which I honestly think they did just to keep him around. But the first time Oz actually properly interacted with Willow was because they’d both gotten singled out for their badass computer skills on career day. He’s very nearly as good as her.

Anya: Grifter. I mean, the whole vengeance demon schtick relies on the grift. She’s very good at it. Which, she ought to be, she’s been doing it for over a thousand years. It’s sort of hilarious though because it seems like the second she loses her powers, she also loses her ability to blend in. I think that’s likely because she’s used to short term cons, and running the long con that is being human again is more difficult. Still, this is where she shines.

Riley: He doesn’t count because I kinda hate him. But fine if you wanna go there. Hitter. He doesn’t deserve the title though because Eliot is both brains and brawn and Riley can’t think his way out of a paper sack without someone giving him directions, and even then it’s dicey.

Tara: This one is super hard for me! I can’t see her as any of the actual team positions. I suppose the one skill she displays would be grifting, since she does try to hide her identity as a supposed demon from the others for a while before her birthday comes up. But honestly I see her less as a member of the crew and more as a Maggie. Voice of reason, moral high ground, not putting up with shenanigans if she can help it... yeah. Tara’s the Maggie. Every crew needs one.

[death-himself]

Could You Meet Me Beyond the Grave?—Chapter 5

Summary: Virgil tries to communicate with the humans, and Remy and Emile discover the truth

Pairings: Eventual LAMP/CALM, Remile, QPR RED (this chapter’s mainly Remile)

Word Count: 1,498

Warnings: Kidnapping, talk of murder, talk of cannibalism, arguments

previous next (AO3 Link)

Once Dee, Emile, and Remy had fallen asleep, I slipped out of my room, walking silently down the stairs. I slowly turned the knob of the door, listening closely. Two of the humans were asleep, while the third was awake.

I took account of their scents. The one that was awake smelled like peaches and cinnamon. The one on their left smelled sweet, like they took a bath in sugar water. The one on their right smelled of books and lemon, a surprisingly calming scent coming from a human. The one that was awake growled at me to the best of their ability.

“Relax, will ya? I’m not here to kill you or anything.” I sat in front of them, hearing the other two slowly wake up. I considered taking off the cloth covering their mouths and actually having a proper conversation with them.

But then I thought back to what Dee had told me all those times about how humans react to Willows; how they’re terrified of us—or in this case, maybe just furious that they’re being held here against their will. The thought of being screamed at and called names by these humans made me flinch.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets. How would I be able to communicate with them any other way? I bit at my lip, the silence only making me more anxious. I stared down at the ground, taking a deep breath to calm myself. Coming up with an idea, I said, “I’m gonna ask a few questions. You’re gonna answer them. Got that?” I hesitantly took the sweet-smelling human’s hands, tied tightly together at their wrists. The human tensed up, before forcing themself to relax a bit. “Tap on my hand once for yes, twice for no. Okay?” After a few seconds, I felt a tap.

“Good.” I took a shallow breath, all my questions suddenly leaving my head as I felt the warmth of a living human’s hands against my skin. It felt so familiar, but the warmth took it to a completely different level. It felt completely different from when Dee would hold my hands.

I forced my thoughts away from that, refocusing back on my questions. “So...do you know what I am?” Two taps. “Do you want to know?” There was a moment of hesitation. Then they tapped once. I hummed. Typical human curiosity.

“I’m a Willow. Have you ever heard that term?” Two taps. “We’re kinda like zombies, kinda like ghouls. We eat humans and have our own...special powers that we get when we become like this. Sounds like it comes straight out of a horror movie, huh?” They didn’t answer. I grinned evilly. “Are you scared?”

Two taps. I froze, my eye sockets going wide as I stared into the darkness. “Did you forget two taps means no or something?” Two more taps.

“Are you messing with me?” Two taps.

“Trying to get my guard down then?” Two taps. I pulled my hand away from them. “What’re you trying to do then?” The sweet-smelling human muffled out something inaudible, their hands moving around as much as they could while tied up. “Okay, okay. Stop. I...have no idea what you’re trying to say.” They hummed out a small agreement. I sighed, blowing at my bangs before taking the human’s hands again.

“Do you know why Dee brought you here?” They hesitated, nervously tapping my hand. “It’s messed up, isn’t it? He usually doesn’t really do this kind of stuff. It’s actually...kind of weird. And I mean, why would he do this now? Emile and Remy have been with us for like twenty years now!” I mulled it over in my head, something not adding up, like it was just out of reach.

I groaned, pulling my hand away and standing up. “Whatever. Any reason Dee had for doing this is a good reason.” The lemon-scented human made a noise of protest, as if they knew Dee better than I did. “We’ll head to the store and get you some food and water tomorrow. For now, just try and get some rest. Later.” I saluted to them as I walked out the door, closing and locking it behind me.

I took a deep breath, sure that my heart would be hammering in my chest if it were still beating. Something was weird about those humans. It was like an idea was itching at the back of my skull, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t place it. But I couldn’t decide if it was just something that hasn’t clicked yet, or if I just didn’t want whatever it was to be true. Nonetheless, I shrugged off the strange feeling, heading back up the stairs to bed, running my hand across the Braille on my skin that had yet to be erased.

“Are you sure we should be doing this Remy?” Emile asked, a hint of apprehensiveness in his voice as he followed Remy down the stairs. “Relax, babe. I just wanna check something.”

Remy slipped silently down the stairs, unlocking and opening the door to the humans’ room. A muffled voice greeted him, one that Remy could swear was trying in vain to curse him out, but with no luck. Remy crouched in front of the humans, mulling things over in his head. Then he quickly ripped off one of their bandanas.

The human gasped in surprise, but Remy simply ignored him. “You’re Virgil’s soulmates, aren’t you?” Emile could feel the panic and anger radiating off the human, almost able to see the glare Remy was getting.

“What does it matter to you?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Remy said with a sigh, standing up and turning back to his boyfriend. “We should tell Virgil.” Emile spoke.

“...Let’s not.”

“What?”

“You heard the man, release us!” Virgil’s soulmate cried out. Remy shoved the bandana back over his mouth.

“You remember what Dee said about this whole soulmates becoming Willows thing. They’re not becoming Willows! Besides, if Virgil finds out, he’s gonna let them go, then Dee would get mad and there would be humans out there that know about us. Not to mention how Vee would feel. I mean he finds out about this, and all his trust in Dee-Dee is gone, poof, au revoir mi amigo!”

“Rem, you realize that that was two different—”

“It’s better if he didn’t know about this.” He cut off bluntly. Emile sighed. “I understand that, but...these are people’s lives we’re messing with for no real good reason. Not to mention they’re the people Virgil’s been pining after for years now, I mean...it’s just wrong.”

“Well it’s not like we haven’t done worse things, Em! We kill people so that we can eat them! I think you forgot about that! So what’s wrong with a little kidnapping?”

“It’s mental torture, Remy. Unlike with killing people, they’re going to be alive in here for...well who knows how long they’re going to be here!” Emile could sense the humans calming down a little bit, having seen our attention had left them for a moment as we argued. They were still so painfully scared, but Emile hoped that wouldn’t be for too long.

“Come on, Em. Besides, Virgil is still able to talk to them. It would be dangerous for him if they were to leave, don’t you think? They could write whatever they want and he’d see it and wouldn’t be able to get rid of it. And with how boy crazy he is for these guys, he’d believe anything they say.” Emile shuffled his feet nervously on the ground. “That’s a good point.” He muttered hesitantly. “But that still doesn’t excuse us kidnapping them!” Remy shook his head, crouching in front of Virgil’s soulmates. “They would still have writing on their arms, wouldn’t they?”

“Yeah, why?” Remy grabbed a rag from their supplies and wet it in the sink, taking the humans by the arms and scrubbing. “What’re you doing?” Emile asked tentatively.

“You remember when Virgil said how weird it was that they haven’t wiped off their arms yet?”

“You’re cleaning it off?”

“If Virgil gets suspicious, you know he’ll jump to this conclusion.” Emile hesitated, before grabbing a rag of his own and assisting. They worked in silence, scrubbing until they felt decent enough about the writing to call it gone. Remy stood up once he was done, stretching in place and dropping the rag to the ground. Emile put his rag away, walking over to Remy and leaning into him, allowing Remy to wrap his arms in a comforting embrace.

“If Vee finds out about this he’s gonna hate us.” Emile spoke softly. Remy held his boyfriend tight, slowly ushering him out of the room. He pulled away for a moment to lock the door, before pulling Emile slowly up the stairs.

“He won’t find out. There’s no one who can tell him but us.”

[alitheamateur]

The Grind- Chapter 17

Warnings: Language. In-ring violence.

Once I got inside to join the others, I found them all huddled on the foamy, red rubber wrestling mat that spanned over half the room. Probably planning my demise. I dropped my duffle and belongings off in the ladies locker room on the way, and downed a lukewarm bottle of water, then with a sigh of heavy, anxious breath, I made my way to boot camp.

“Alright, chick. You good to go?” Tia was the first to speak, and I hesitated to find the right response.

“Uh, I think so? But, by the looks of you three conniving little shits, I’m not sure.” I replied as I began the series of pre-workout stretches they’d shown me.

“Willow is gonna start out with some really, really basic stuff with ya’. Simple kicks, some jab patterns, and there’s a fairly easy little takedown I want to try to show you, too. Sound like a plan, Elliott?”

“Yes, ma’am. Let’s get it going!” I loosened up my stiffening neck from side to side.

“That’s the enthusiasm, I like to see! Let’s get it on!” Willow clapped with me a firm hand to the shoulder, then proceeded to lightly massage over both my blossoming trap muscles, encouraging a calmness over me.

I spent over 6 hours in the gym that day. Not only because it was Saturday, and I sadly had nothing better to do, but I was enjoying myself. Not so much however,  the tender slash drying up on my right cheekbone from the obvious perfectly executed take down move that my overzealous friend had gone over with me. The crew wasn’t taking it lightly with me, but they also weren’t laughing me off the mats when I so clearly didn’t belong there, stammering and stumbling around for majority of the lessons. Willow reassured me not squander my progress so quickly, and that she had been very pleasantly surprised at the talent of my technique.

“I think your background with basketball is definitely behind the skill of your footwork, Liv. You’ve definitely got that natural-born athleticism in ya’.”

In spite of how flattering their compliments were, I still felt like a flopping fish out of water in this world. Their world. The Muay Thia, Jiu Jitsu combinations hadn’t been a total shit show, thankfully, and I felt fairly good about some of the little jabs I had countered with Tia, but that creeping doubt still swam through me. What the hell was I trying to prove? Was I doing this to feel closer to.. him? There wasn’t a shadow of doubt that Tia and the others wouldn’t let me get myself seriously injured, and I figured they must not see me as a total waste considering the countless hours of training they were walking me through, so I kept trucking along. Nursing the glimmering flame of excitement and the thrill of fighting that had ignited in me.

Willow sent me off to the showers with a swift smack to the rear, laughing at the wince it elicited out of me. The next afternoon would be the birthday celebration Tia had so, so, SO persistently insisted on throwing, with my actual big day falling on the Independence holiday on Monday. I painfully wondered if I’d even have the legs to move from my bed to the shower when I woke up the following morning, much less paint on a stupid, dopey party grin.

The Sunday sun had risen, along with my dead to the world slumbering body. I still smelled the lingering aroma of the lavender medicinal salts I had soaked in the day before. Once the moment I reached the apartment, and again directly before bed, hoping to maybe get some painless hours of sleep. Before I even assessed my pain level, I moved only an arm to reach for the bottle of anti-inflammatories I had brought to bed with me, knowing no doubt when I did muster the energy to make the move towards the bathroom, I’d run face first into the cement wall of soreness.

I stepped every so gingerly off the side of my heightened bedside, desperately needing to release the gallons of water I had drank the previous day per Tia’s instruction. Glancing instinctively towards the medicine cabinet mirror over the sink, I grimaced dreadfully at the bulbous cut that had slightly bruised overnight. Tia’s elbow tag to my face connected lightly, however directly on the bulging point of my cheekbone. After relieving myself, I flushed and leaned down to turn the bath handle, opening the spout, only not turning the knob much past the coolest temperature. If I was expected to rub elbows with Tia and the rest of my party guest list, I’d need to pull out all of the first aid stops for sore, tight muscles. After pouring the chilly mop bucket filled with ice to the brim into the already clear, glacier like bath water, I stepped over the side one foot at a time, sucking deep breaths to help adjust to the goosebumps multiplying over my body.

After soaking beyond the time I could stand, I emptied the tub and harshly knocked the handle to change to the hottest setting, and washed the coolness off under the scalding shower head. I rummaged through the bottom drawer of the vanity in search of the antibiotic ointment I was sure I had bought when I first moved in the place, to smear over the open slit under my eye. The gash would definitely raise whispers in public for the next few days. I was about to drop my robe and begin dressing when my phone buzzed twice on the countertop.

Andrew: Hey, birthday girl. Better come get your celebratory blend at the shop this morning, we won’t be in tomorrow. You know I can’t let The Grind bigwigs deprive their best customer of her free birthday beverage!

My favorite barista saving the day, of course. For the last two years, Andrew made it a point to treat me to a free coffee down at The Grind for my birthday. The first morning I discovered the little gem tucked away on the corner was actually my first birthday in the city. Andrew, being the employee of the year he is, chatted me up, spilled the 411 on some other little hidden treasures in the city, and insisted on welcoming me  with my choice of beverage on the house. The mousy, sweetheart was one of the good ones here in the dog-eat-dog city.

I increased the pace, and pulled the locked door closed behind me, heading down the road for my awaiting morning pick me up. I parked farther from the entrance than my usual front and center spot, hoping the still rising heat of the summer sunshine, and gentle exercise of walking may loosen up my painful, creaking joints. I pondered keenly over the idea of an actual birthday celebration since I moved to my new home here, knowing Tia would surely pull out all the bells and whistles for my day, because that’s the exceptional friend she was. Her itinerary would began with she & I shopping at our two favorite boutiques down at the square, then and early dinner with the rest of the party crowd before her final surprise of the evening. I poked and prodded at her text the night before, telling her it was of utmost importance that she fill me in so I wouldn’t have to blindly pick an outfit, but me imploring protests were all for naught.

I shook out of the growing daydream and I made the last turn into the propped open door of the shop. The morning hours were dwindling, along with the early crowd, so Andrew was able to catch my eye when I entered, the edgy wonderment on his face instantly obvious to me. I leaned over the counter, no one else in line so his attention was all mine.

“Good morning, Drewby. What’s up? I think I’ll do a mocha frap this year! I need the sugar rush!”

“You got it,” he answered, but his tone still iffy.

He walked over to his blender and began mixing and adding ice, and I turned my back to him nonchalantly scanning over the few faces left in the shop, recognizing some familiar frequent flyers. The people watching distraction was interrupted when I heard Andrew nearing behind me, clearing his throat. I was flabbergasted when I was met with his hand outstretched with my order, and an overflowing, pungently sweet bouquet of creamy pink peonies sitting on the empty bar.

“Andrew! You did not! Oh my gosh, Drew.” My screeching appreciation drawing attention in the almost otherwise soundless room.

He exhaled a heavy sigh with a raspberry sound on his lips and shifty eyes. “Wait, Liv. S-slow down for a second… they’re uh, they’re not from me.”

I tightened my brow. “Tia! That sly little bitch. I swear, she’s so beyond over the to-“ my second assumption was suddenly hushed by Andrew.

“They’re from Colton, Liv. Not Tia…”

I couldn’t make sense of my own English, native language to process his abrupt interruption. How? When? Why?

“Here, babe. There’s a card.” he pulled a white envelope from the center of the vased garden of pink. I looked to the card, then to his gaze, the card, then his gaze again. I wasn’t sure I had the clear eyes or mind to comprehend whatever he’d written in it, and did I even want to? Against my screaming better judgment, I hastily clutched it from Andrew.

Liv,

This is the least I could do. I think you said these were your favorite.

Hopefully I didn’t screw that up to.

Hopefully they make you smile.

Happy Birthday, 2-1.

Love, Colt

I recognized his unsteady, marred handwriting instantly. They were undoubtedly from him. Andrew reached over to catch the lone tear dropping down my cheek, and I cringed as he grazed over my cut in doing so.

“How, Drew? Explain.” I demanded through a sorrowfully clenched jaw. My hand chattered, clutching with the jaws of life onto the note.

“He came by at open this morning. He was waiting outside the door before I even turned the lights on,” he began with a hesitant chuckle. “When I let him in, he asked me if I thought you’d be in anytime within the next two days. He said he couldn’t find a local shop that was delivering since it was a holiday weekend, and he wanted to make sure you got them. The guy looked honestly like hell, Liv. I couldn’t say no. I mean, they’re just flowers so I thought they were innocent enough. I should’ve known. I’m sorry, I should’ve minded my own business.”

The one lonesome tear was joined now by some other escaping friends, but was it sadness? Relief? Could I truly be happy with the unforeseen gift?  What was he expecting in return? What this supposed to be his apology? Millions of demanding, uncontrollable question marks pounded my brain, nearly beating me into a foggy oblivion.

“Don’t be sorry, goodness, Andrew. That’s so, so far from necessary, honestly. Thank you for getting them to me. They’re beautiful though, aren’t they?” I sniffled, childishly wiping at my running nose with the back of my hand.

“Um, YES! That pouty little brute opened up his wallet for these. There’s got to be like, three dozen of them!” I couldn’t help but allow myself a smirk amongst my emotional chaos.

“I know, that bastard. What am I supposed to do, Drew?” I pulled the shimmering vase closer to inhale the fresh, poignant sea of pink.

“Seems like you’ve got a whole lot to think about, my friend.”    

 My 23rd birthday came and went, Tia’s careful and thorough celebration checklist passed with smooth sailing. She hadn’t overlooked a single, miniscule detail from the champagne she had chilling for us when we arrived at our first shopping destination, to the heinous pink boa she snaked around my neck when we were seated with our guests at dinner downtown at the snazzy surf-and-turf, apparently very happening restaurant, concluding from the hordes of hungry customers waiting out front to be seated. Andrew had joined with his plus one, my gym rats Austin, Willow, and Cal, who also brought his latest lady endeavor, the clerk who assisted us earlier at the boutique, she and I had become friendly as of late, Kate from my apartment building, and of course Tia’s on again-off again boy toy, Ethan.  My small circle was all there to shower me with gifts, hugs, and probably three too many birthday shots.

I couldn’t hide the rousing satisfaction I felt having all my cherished ones together in one room. Almost all. I’d have given a thousand sacrifices to have had Sara sharing the moment. And of course, well, you know who, as well. I attempted to contact him via text to express my reluctant gratitude, however the message never connected. He’d either gotten a new number in the passing year and a half, or I had been added to the block list…

That night ended with my best friend absolutely taking the cake. Her well-kept last event of the night turned out to be a concert on the outskirts of the city at a new outdoor amphitheater. We spent roughly 3 hours under the breezy Pittsburgh, summer sky being serenated under the dim stars by Gavin Degraw, a lifelong favorite of mine. The expectation surpassing performance finished with a literal bang as uproarious fireworks echoed over the grounds, colors I didn’t know I could see in the sky exploded continuously. I nearly considered caving in to Tia’s repetitive, forward romantic advances towards me and kissed her out of overwhelming appreciation for the weeks of finalizing she’d exerted into the whole night, along with the amounts of cash she’d spilled out, I’m sure. When I settled at home in the wee hours, I melted into bed for some much desired rest. The pink, cascading bouquet of peonies on my nightstand being my last conscious vision before nodding off. They had almost sang me to sleep that night. All 32 of them. I counted. 

TAGS: @torialeysha @eap1935

[paperdoll-hearts]

Ian Harding, Emily Vancamp, Torrey Devitto, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Jessica Lowndes, Emeraude Toubia

Ian Harding

First off, Ian is just an underappreciated fc and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. But of course my first thought when I see him is my dear sweet Declan Everett. For real, you taking my wanted connection has been one of my best experiences. I had this idea of what kind of guy I had in mind for it but then you messaged me about it and as we went back and forth about his, bouncing off of each other’s creativity and next thing I knew you had created exactly what I wanted so perfectly for him. Like even more so than I first thought. The thing I love about Declan is his maturity and I know that sounds like a funny thing to say, but it’s actually more rare in male character’s than you would think. Because I think that mature can make people think boring when creating a character but you have done such a great job at establishing him as this mature man but making it interesting and just seeing how he handles situations because of it. Just through hc of their past and what we are currently writing now I love the balance you have of him showing his heart while trying to hold on to his emotions at the same time. I love how gentle he is in everything he does. In his kindness and his anger he still has this grace about him. I’ve loved being able to write opposite of him and just having the way the character handles things be a challenge to my writing because again you’ve just done such a great job at showing that having a mature character can still be exciting to write/read. 

Emily Vancamp

I have had a couple experiences with Emily before and nothing negative, but again Vera Rollins is what comes to mind. Wow. Wowwww. Let’s just say I never thought that Vera would become what she did to my character Flynn. I was expecting immature fights and fun, but instead, it has turned into nothing but heartbreak and I absolutely love it! I’m going to echo a little bit on a thought I wrote for Zach that fits Vera as well and that I loveeee that you are consistent with her. Again you have the “bad girl” character that didn’t just all of the sudden change because of love. No instead you showed that Vera has this very fragile vulnerability that comes in sparse moments while still having this harsh tongue and hardened way about her. I like that you don’t change her for threads or plots. When you think she might cave she comes back swinging and for Flynn that is frustrating as heck but for me, as a writer, I think it is so great. She is a wild card but in a way that makes sense for who she is. She is two sides of a coin with her harsh outlook and yet her deep unspoken desire to feel the softness of love. Each thread is such a joy to write because it’s unpredictable with her.

Torrey Devitto

I have two Torrey opps and I love them both so much. 

First is @onehopthistime Michelle. While most of what we have done with that character is hc, I adore Michelle. She is the kind of character that I root for to do things that would be deemed bad but it’s because I want what is best for her, which is Oliver, okay?? But for real she is the kind that you want to scream at to be selfish but understand why she isn’t. I really suck at 1x1′s but I’m excited to get more into her character because of those reasons.

Then there is Vienna Ricci. Tripp’s sweet darling fwb. I had random interactions with her, and we had the friendship between them that was amuseing but yes it wasn’t until me bringing Tripp back that I have gotten the chance to know Vienna more than just the “nice character”. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she is nice. Her heart is one the beats with kindness and she treats everyone she meets with the sweet nature, but I have loved being able to get past that into more. I love that she battles with her own desires and morals. Making sure they line up before she gives in to something that she wants. I love her playfulness that comes out subtly at first but the more comfortable she is with someone she stops holding back. I love that she can be open and not so open at the same time? Like she is willing to talk about things and how she feels but it always feels like she only allows that to a certian point. I feel like there is so much more left untapped in this character that I have yet to discover and just like Tripp I am eager to know more about her and what she really wants for herself.

Jessica Parker Kennedy

I’ve always liked this fc but anytime I was in a rp with her the character was so short-lived that no impression was ever made but oh boy did all that change. @weryourlegacy has stolen my heart with Willow Deighton, okay? Another great wc that I received even if I don’t play that character anymore (or lets be real for right now) I am so so so happy that I had that character there so that I could have Willow in my life. I’ve been able to play against Willow as someone who just met her and someone who has known her for years and it has been so interesting to me that way because I get to see the surface level and the deeper level all at the same time, and Liz has done such a great job in distinguishing who Willow is in those interactions. They are so different but it’s all the same Willow and all makes sense for the character. I love Willow’s struggle with loyalty to the family, staying true to herself, and also questioning what her future life should be. She is like that friend that you have who when you first meet seems reserved then comes out with this sarcasm that takes you by surprise, but fits right into who she is. She has more love in her than she gets to show, and I just want her to have a happy life with Noah and Hope. 

Jessica Lowndes

If I have ever rped with a Jessica besides Jordyn Daniels, I don’t remember. Jordyn I first started writing against  in a 1x1 with @onehopthistime but I’m so glad that she brought her to Rockford because I have been able to really get a better feel for the character. Jordyn has this way about her that she kind of just seems like the fun girl. She’s a good time, a goof, and a great person just to joke with. On the surface level she is this sarcastic food obsessed a bit lazy girl, but from seeing other interactions (just cause my guys are always jerks to her) she has this unbelievable heart. She just wants to be there for people and she is. Whether that be in a way of talking with them through it all or just simply offering her time with them, she has such a subtle way of really being a selfless character. I am just excited to see her development and possibly see how she handles things when she is the one that will have to go through stuff and how that plays out with who she is. 

Emeraude Toubia

Technically I have never rped against her yet butttttt @claurps   is bringing her into my life as Catalina Abbott and I am already in love with this character without even writing a reply to her yet. I just love the sweet, authentic, genuine character that Clau has already created, and I am so excited to dive into getting to know her. To see the heart for people that I know she has played out in different interactions with others. How her story looks as she holds on to her background and her past home while continiously looking to what her future is. She is already this strong fierce character but fierce in a way that isn’t always depicted because she is that in the most gentle way. She is an example that being strong can come from being meek and I am so looking forward to writing against her.

[marigoldbaker]

imperfections (56/?)

read it on ao3!

iiiiii don’t know how to add a footnote w/o making it Extremely spoilery. love u all. writing this fic is such a trip and i am so glad to have an audience for this scooby family nonsense, esp. as it gets closer and closer to being finished

“That was some nice stuff you said to Buffy,” said Jen as they walked to the car.

Faith’s stomach flipped over. “Yeah,” she said uncertainly. “Yeah, it was—she means a lot to me, y’know?”

“I’ve noticed,” said Jen, and maybe it was just wishful thinking on Faith’s part, but there was an almost purposeful lightness to her tone. Like she knew Faith was holding shit back. “I’m really glad you two have hit it off.”

Faith bit the bullet. “I might ask her out,” she said. “Like, on a date. To prom, maybe. I don’t know. Haven’t really thought it through all that much.” She was doing her best not to look at Jen, continuing to talk so that she wouldn’t have to hear what Jen had to say to that. “I mean, she’s still gettin’ over Angel, she says she wants to take things slow, but if she’s not going with Angel she might as well go with me—”

“Faith?”

“I’m into girls,” Faith blurted out, refusing to look at Jen. “Which you should probably know, ‘cause B’s gonna be coming round sometimes, maybe. I don’t know. But that’s why she means a lot to me and we haven’t just hit it off in a friendly way—”

“Breathe,” said Jen, tugging on Faith’s leather jacket until Faith stopped walking. When Faith finally mustered the courage to look over at Jen, she saw that Jen was looking at her the same way that Jen always looked at her, and the relief at that realization was dizzying. But then Jen spoke again. “You’re not the only one who’s had crushes on girls.”

“Don’t try and tell me that every straight girl feels this kinda thing—” Faith began, outraged.

“Operating on some faulty intel there, kid,” said Jen, a broad smile beginning. “Whoever said I was a straight girl?”

Faith stared. Then she said, “You suck face with Giles in the kitchen on a daily basis.”

“You kids really need a crash course on bisexuality,” said Jen, who was now grinning fit to burst.

Faith didn’t really know what to say to that. Slowly, she managed, “So all that time you’ve been giving me looks every time me and Buffy talk—”

“I know the signs,” said Jen, knocking Faith’s shoulder. “You were making the same face I did around Marian Hall back in college, and somehow you managed to be even more obvious about it than me.”

“I was so not obvious!” Faith objected, indignant. “B didn’t catch a thing, and Giles didn’t either—”

“I love the kid, but Buffy probably wouldn’t have figured your crush out if you waved a sign saying DATE ME,” said Jen matter-of-factly. “And Rupert spent the better part of last year trying to figure out whether or not I liked him, most of that time while we were actively dating.”

Faith snickered. “Fair point,” she said, and reached down, quietly gripping the hem of Jen’s sleeve as they started to walk again. Her heart was pounding. “So I kinda just came out to you, huh?”

“Kinda, yeah,” Jen agreed, her voice softening. “I’m very proud of you.”

Faith made a gagging noise to try and hide her dumb grin.

Willow apparently still hadn’t reconciled with her mom, who had somehow forgotten the stake-burning but remembered that Willow had run away after being grounded. Joyce was still trying to talk Mrs. Rosenberg through that one, but for the time being, Willow was staying in the Calendar-Giles attic/guest room, which was A-okay in her book.

Ms. Calendar made Willow some hot chocolate again, this time with half-melty marshmallows and a dollop of whipped cream. “Does your mom tuck you in?” she asked, crossing the room to sit down on Willow’s bed (no, the guest room bed, Willow reminded herself). “If I recall correctly, you’re the kind of kid who really appreciates that.”

“You could tuck me in again,” said Willow. Ms. Calendar had done that a couple of times over the summer, back when things were a total mess and Willow stayed in Ms. Calendar’s bedroom pretty much every other night.

Ms. Calendar stood up, then bent down again, tucking the covers more snugly around Willow from the waist down. “You can just leave your mug on the nightstand when you’re done,” she said, leaning around Willow to fluff up one of the pillows. She smelled like a mixture of old books and floral perfume. “And get some sleep, okay? Don’t do that thing you do where you nap for two hours and get up to read books from Rupert’s study.”

“Giles has a study?” Willow grinned. “This is a nice house.”

“Yeah, I like it too.” Ms. Calendar gave Willow a little kiss on the cheek. Willow thought she felt a waxy smudge of lipstick, and kind of liked the thought of it lingering. “Night, Willow.”

“Goodnight, Ms. Calendar,” said Willow with a yawn.

Ms. Calendar wavered. Then she said, “You know, if you wanted, you could call me Jenny outside of school. You’re not just my student, Willow.”

Willow felt a kind of rush and had to blink really fast to hide potential tears. “Um, yeah,” she sad, swallowing hard. “Maybe. But, but maybe not yet?” The thought of Ms. Calendar as Jenny felt weird and informal, especially since Giles was the only one who called her that. Faith called her Jen, but that was a name that Willow personally thought didn’t really fit Ms. Calendar. “I like Ms. Calendar,” she clarified. “It used to feel kinda formal, but now it feels…”

Even though Willow wasn’t quite sure how to finish her sentence, Ms. Calendar smiled slightly, like she got it anyway. “Yeah,” she said. “That name didn’t really mean a lot to me until I came to Sunnydale, but now…”

She squeezed Willow’s shoulder, then leaned down again, enfolding her in a soft, floral-perfume hug. Willow closed her eyes, smiling.

Giles was still sitting in the kitchen by the time Jenny came down from putting the children to bed. Upon seeing her, he stood, feeling a sense of profound sadness and exhaustion. “Moment’s come, hasn’t it?” he said quietly.

“Come here,” said Jenny.

Giles obliged, stepping into her arms and closing his eyes. “You are so remarkably resilient tonight,” he murmured.

“Yeah, well, next apocalypse it’s my turn to freak out,” Jenny informed him, turning her head to rest her cheek on his chest. “Listen—this is gonna be hard, I know. But it’s the right thing to do for all involved.”

“They’re going to come here in person, you know,” said Giles quietly. “They’re going to demand to speak to Buffy, and I don’t know what they might convince her to do—”

“In a few days she’s turning eighteen,” Jenny replied simply.

“I was twenty-one when I raised Eyghon,” said Giles.

Jenny pulled away, looking up at him with a resigned, loving expression. “Rupert Giles,” she said, “idiot of my heart, you are gonna have to let that girl make her own choices. There’s only so much a parent can do to protect his kid, and after you make this call, you will have done everything you can.”

One word in particular stood out to Giles. “Parent?”

Jenny’s smile fluttered; she looked suddenly nervous. “Was that—I mean, was I off base?”

“Quite the opposite, I think,” said Giles unsteadily. “It’s simply that I worry my attachments mean I have failed her as a Watcher.”

“We have already established,” said Jenny firmly, “that the system you were raised in is bullshit. I know it is going to be so hard to let go of all that stuff, but holding onto it only hurts you.”

There was a level of understanding in her eyes that went well beyond her knowledge of the Council alone. “Jenny,” said Giles quietly, “you came to Sunnydale to carry out a mission of vengeance.”

“Yeah,” said Jenny, and gave him a wobbly, crooked smile. “Yeah. Because my family told me that that was all I would ever be good for.”

Something twisted in Giles’s chest. Not once had he thought about what might have brought Jenny here—in part, he supposed, because he knew it must have been painful for her. “You’re good for—” he began.

“I’m not a witch, remember?” said Jenny, who seemed to be doing her best to keep her smile steady. It wasn’t really working. “I came from a long line of seers and witches and warlocks and people in tune with the earth, and I was never, ever that. So they sent me off to watch Angelus, because that was the only way I would ever be of use, and…” She trailed off, raising her hands to his face. “I know,” she said. “I know for a fact that you’re making the right choice, Rupert, because you’re making the same one I did a year ago. I don’t regret a single thing I did last year, not one, because it led me to a home and a family and one of the best hot librarians I know.”

Giles stared at her, eyes wet, and then he kissed her, and…how, he thought, was he this lucky? Watchers lived a painful, lonely life; nearly everyone they dared to love ended up dead, and here was beautiful, compassionate, resilient Jenny, changing the rules because she could. “I love you ceaselessly,” he said clumsily as they broke apart, then kissed her again, an awkward kiss that was more of a collision than anything. Both of them were a bit too emotional for finesse. “Unendingly.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” said Jenny with a nervous laugh.

“You know I would never do that to you again,” Giles persisted.

Her expression didn’t change, but Giles felt Jenny press herself closer against him. “Yeah,” she said. “Ditto.”

“The promise thing or the flowery-love thing?”

“Don’t make me say it,” said Jenny, giving him a small, watery smile.

Giles kissed her one last time. Then, with no small amount of reluctance, he let go of her, stepping back and picking up the phone. Eyes locked on Jenny’s, he dialed the extension, waiting for Travers to pick up.

“Hello?”

“Travers, it’s Giles,” said Giles, and Jenny took two steps forward, winding her arms around his waist. Grounding him.

Faith was hanging around the general area of Buffy’s locker, looking somewhat tense. Even after the emotional mess of the night before, Buffy’s heart did a funny little flip thing upon seeing her, and she couldn’t hide her smile. “Hi,” she said bashfully, stepping up to Faith.

“Yeah, B, I got some bad news,” said Faith shortly. “You were gonna find it out when you got to the library, but Jen said I should run and tell you beforehand.”

Buffy felt the crush-related jitters fade, replaced by some more general jitters that she didn’t really like. “What’s going on?”

“So, uh, Giles and Jen tried to call the Council yesterday night,” said Faith, falling into step with Buffy as they headed towards the library. “Didn’t really go over well.”

“How did it not go over well?” Buffy asked, pushing the door open with her shoulder. Then she stopped.

“Ms. Summers?” said an old guy in a tweed suit, flanked by a whole bunch of other business-formal people that Buffy didn’t know. “My name is Quentin Travers, and I am the head of the Watchers’ Council. I believe you and I need to talk.”

[mdhwrites]

 I actually think the fandom is scared of Boscha being strong because they don’t like admitting the bully IS sometimes much stronger than you. I have consumed lots of Boscha content, and I’ve seen L U Z written as lifting Boscha in the air with one arm by the throat, or just generally deleting her in single hand combat?

 Meanwhile I’ve read Boschlow (and Scarscha) content where Boscha is perfectly strong and capable even in comparison to Willow (yes I know Boschlow is controversial but the Boscha content that isn’t just hateful to her is HARD to find, luckily most of it drags Boscha through a long ass redemption arc or just makes her nicer from the get go?). Its usually Boscha haters who paint her as an inhumane monster and make her incompetent… or homophobic (SOMEHOW??)… or fatphobic… or transphobic... or a perv… or an abuser… yes i have seen all of these in various fics.

 Hunt//w does do the whole… uh… make Willow’s partner pathetic to emphasise her strength. But part of that is the fandoms obsession with having Hunter be cradled and petted for being such a good trauma dumpster, and Willow tends to baby Hunter in a lot of stories ive read.

So… This is honestly touching on the fact that the fandom projects a LOT of themselves onto the characters to an EXTREMELY unhealthy degree. You can see it on multiple levels throughout the show. Because Luz is canonically nuerodivergent with ADHD, they will protect her to the ends of the Earth. Because many of have experienced some form of parental abuse or have strained relationships with their parents, they push onto Odalia and Alador the idea that they truly are the most evil people ever. Though actually, even back between Seasons 1 and 2, you have people playing dual fantasies. The godlike parent who would always understand them in Alador but just couldn't do anything their hellish partner who hated everything about them, Odalia.

And of course, you have the possibility that much of the fandom has been bullied for many reasons (say, all those phobic elements you brought up? Just saying the writer may have a personal reason to bring those in). As such, the bully character is going to be hated beyond comparison. They're also going to be treated in such a way as to make them feel strong. Hence why people will even ignore "My weak nerd arms" Luz for the sake of allowing themselves to feel like they're beating the bully. To feel like they're superior.

Admittedly, most of this comes from the Twitter side of the fandom in my eyes. However, Twitter kind of cultivates this attitude for a show like this? How many people do you see making hateful content towards Boscha who are

Constantly online LGBTQ+ Heavily expressive of themselves Do not wish to be told what to do Incredibly hurt and angry at certain other groups, especially white dudes?

And none of these are inherently bad, especially the LGBTQ+ part, except for probably that last one because racism is still racism even against a dominant class. eyes Velma and how it's still on the air despite being racist because of that fact I also want to admit that I very much so fall into the first, third and sometimes even fourth categories. And eight years ago I was such a shit. If I hated an element of My Little Pony back then, EVERYONE had to agree with me. You were a moron if you didn't and just blind.

I crashed hard and lost a lot of friends because of that mentality and changed though. I try to see other perspectives and actually listen to other people. It's this listening that allows me to write LGBTQ+ characters despite not being one. I'm not going to say my stuff is as good as what an actual sapphic writer could do but it seems like sapphics do in fact like my work and don't find it offensive.

Sorry, got a little sidetracked. The larger point is that what people do with Boscha is… Fine. It's what fanfiction is for honestly. To release or explore the emotions and ideas you want to. It only becomes a problem when that fiction matters more than the reality of things. When you might see a blog like this and scream at me for enabling abuse or supporting bullying just because I think Boscha has more depth than you do.

No one has done that to me because of Boscha btw. Luz? I've been told to go die because "She's a minor and nuerodivergent" (I'm not kidding. TOH fans unironically use that meme to excuse Luz) despite the fact that… She's a fictional character. And I'm not. She'll never be affected by my words or your feelings. I sure as shit will be.

sigh And to touch on the last point: Yes, Huntlow definitely gets pushed for infantalizing Hunter but the show in general does that with how everyone treats him. It's not malicious in my eyes though because it happened to Amity too. It's just more of a thing in the fandom art while most people don't focus on the fact that Amity has quite obviously become less skilled, focused or impressive in general since getting with Luz. Somehow she's more powerful despite not training and seeming to not have any interest in magic anymore but that's because the show runs on "It's magic and fuck you."

sigh This show doesn't do character arcs well. And the fandom is blinded by how the characters can represent them and what they want more than what is actually happening on screen. Which is nothing new. Not for fandoms or for this show.

And sorry for how rambly this got. I have complicated feelings towards this fandom for so many reasons.

[the-excursion]

Fictober #21

Prompt: “Impressive, truly.”

Original Fiction

Story: Vibes/Faded

Nicolette was moving through a large group of club goers dancing to music. She had come to Saotharlainne to speak to a few important people, fellow crime bosses and less than honest business owners. The group had reserved the VIP area for this meeting. She briskly made her way up to the top level of the in-orbit nightclub. After taking an elevator up she was let into the VIP area by NNO, the widget manning the floor. She found a seat off to the side and made herself comfortable. Nicolette gave a short nod to the other attendees. Nicolette’s young appearance awarded her demeaning stares. The group talked business amongst each other while ignoring Nicolette. She kept quiet as she stayed in her corner.

“Yeah, I do think creating a joint transportation network would be useful,” one of the crime bosses said as he sipped on a drink.

“Hold up why is this little kid here?” one of the others said under his breath with a glance to Nicolette. He waved to the group as he broke off and walked towards Nicolette. “Hey kiddo what are you doing here? Did you get lost?” he asked her. Nicolette sighed before locking eyes with him. He was now frozen in place unable to move. Small flowers started to grow from her sleeve.

“I’m not one to speak down to,” Nicolette said as she made vines and had them wrap around his throat. She started to choke him using the vines. His face slowly started turning purple. Everyone watched on in either interest or fear.

Chrysa was with Zinni sitting on one of the reserved booths in the club by the bar. They decided to take a load off and watch the patrons dance and enjoy themselves. Chrysa propped her feet up on the table while Zinni sat with her head in her hand leaned against the table as the two shared relaxed smiles.

“Ever since you’ve hung out with Willow, we’ve been getting more breaks to go out together. I’m glad she took out that thorn from your side,” Zinni joked.

“Hm not only, Dax. There’s Lexis and Nerium who are out there living their lives to the fullest. It was just my time to realize we can do that too,” Chrysa said with a smile. Suddenly, an alert began to flash on Chrysa’s watch which made the girls sit up. “It’s NNO on the VIP level in one of the rooms,” the two quickly stood and dashed into the elevator. They soon jogged out and were met with NNO who directed the two to the specific room. To be sure to grab the attention of everyone in the room, Chrysa kicked the door open with a loud slam. “What the hell is going on in here!?” She exclaimed until her eyes suddenly grew wide at the sight in front of her while Zinni put her hand to her mouth.

Nicolette let go of the man’s throat. “Who are you storming into rooms like that?” Nicolette said as she retracted her vines. Chrysa shook her head and gave a smug grin.

“You’re really going to ask me who I am in my own place?” She responded, quickly regaining her composure.

“Chrysa chill,” Zinni warned.

“We own the place. And if you’re going to be making a mess of it you better be willing to pay for it as well. I just got this place finished, damn it,” Chrysa remarked. “This meeting is adjourned. If you’re not going to respect the roof you’re under then get out,” she continued as she shot a glare at the others in the room. Nicolette knelt down by the man.

“Now you know who to thank for being alive,” Nicolette said to the man as she glanced at Chrysa. She stood up and started walking out of the room. The others soon filing out of the room as well. Chrysa stubbornly held the door open for them as she watched them with a raised brow until they all left and she closed the door to the room. Zinni and Chrysa then glanced at each other and finally took a breath.

“Thanks, NNO,” Chrysa said as she gave him a pat on the back. He only gave a nod and reentered the room to clean it back up.

“Chrysa.. did you see that?” Zinni asked in an unsure tone.

“So you saw it too..” Chrysa said in a hushed voice.

“What are you gonna do? Do you really think…?” Zinni cut her own thought in disbelief.

“As impossible and unlikely as it is, there’s no harm in making sure. Let’s see if we can catch her,” Chrysa said with a confident smile before she jogged to the elevator with Zinni. Chrysa sent a message to the widgets and Olea to keep an eye on things while the two went off.

Nicolette was on her way out of the club walking towards the hangar bay before she heard someone trying to get her attention.

“Hey, hold up,” Chrysa called as she and Zinni jogged after her. Nicolette turned around.

“Didn’t you want me to leave,” she said.

“Yeah leave the room. Not necessarily leave the place, unless you have a curfew.. if that’s still a thing..? Well you can’t have one if you’re out here picking fights. Where’re you supposed to be, kid?” Chrysa asked with a tilt of her head as they exited the club. Nicolette clenched her fists before taking a breath and calming herself down.

“You can trust me when I say I am definitely much older than you. The reason why I almost killed that last guy was because he referred to me as a kid. So, I’d prefer it if you refrain from that,” Nicolette said as she looked at Chrysa and Zinni. The two glanced at each other before looking back to Nicolette again.

“Sure, can’t judge based on appearance,” Chrysa said as she scratched her head. Zinni put her hand to Chrysa’s shoulder and shook her head.

“Look we’ll get to the point here. We saw how you, well, almost killed that guy and we.. just weren’t sure of what we saw exactly,” Zinni explained. “Now, we won’t get you in trouble or anything. And we may just sound crazy if you’re not what we’re thinking. Uh how do I say this-?”

“Are you part Fralseg?” Chrysa quickly came in.

Nicolette gave a short chuckle.

“Hmm, no I’m not. I am quite possibly the last breathing full blooded Fralseg. Why do you ask?” Chrysa went through a mix of emotions throughout Nicolette’s sentence.

“What- how- how is this possible? The last one was-” Chrysa stopped herself as she bit her lip and shook her head. “How are you alive?”

“Some dumb bitch turned me into a Xae 500 years ago, now I can’t die,” Nicolette said as she looked at her nails. Chrysa’s brows furrowed as she frowned.

“Are you kidding me? You’re lucky to be alive as a full Fralseg! You’re a part of something huge and important,” She said, clenching her fists at her sides.

“What am I a part of? I am cursed to live in a universe where my entire race has been decimated forever,” Nicolette said to her with a grimace.

“That’s not true!” Chrysa frustratedly shot back. Suddenly, the petals of the flower Zinni wore in her hair began to wilt and fall from the flower. Zinni caught them and looked at Chrysa with wide eyes.

“So, you're one of the mutts. A descendant of our race that managed to get our gift? So what? One day you’ll just die too,” Nicolette said as she looked off to the side. She now looked sad. Chrysa was taken aback by her harsh words.

“That may be true, but you can bet your ass that won’t be anytime soon. A mutt? Yeah thanks, I’ve been fighting my way through like one all my life. I may not be full blooded but what counts is how I feel about it. And I still feel like I’m full blooded in here,” she said in a broken voice as she put her fist to her chest. “What you did in there was amazing. Impressive, truly. But how you perceive the world makes me sick. Here I thought I had a chance. But life’s a bitch isn’t it. You think you finally find someone like you…” Chrysa trailed off as she shook her head in disgust.

“Chrysa hold on, maybe you’re taking it too personally,” Zinni came in.

“This is personal to me. Forget I said anything. Get out of here, pure bred,” Chrysa said as she shrugged Zinni’s hand away. She swiftly brought the flower back to life on Zinni’s hair with a short wave of her hand before walking back into the club. Zinni watched Chrysa leave before turning back to Nicolette.

“I’m sure you’ve been through stuff. But so has she. You get that, right?” Zinni tried. Nicolette looked back at Zinni.

“I get it, but she came to me. I don't know if she's allowed to come at me then storm off when I don't say what she wants to hear, but I'm willing to listen,” Nicolette explained.

“I think she just had high hopes upon first impression. But first impressions aren’t always the most accurate. I’m Zinni by the way,” she said with a wink as she shook Nicolette’s hand. “I’m sure she’d love to get to know you. You realize you two are the only ones in the galaxy with these powers. Best to take advantage of that. I’ll talk her into coming back out here.” She gave a short wave before jogging back into the club. Nicolette gave a nod as she stood to the side.

[stringsofstarlight]

I feel like a big dummie sitting here right now knowing you are so close, a dream come true only a stones throw away.

      Part of me keeps looking at the letters from this morning racking my brain for some code, literal or figurative, then I remember that kind of puzzle is not my forte.   The fandom is in a happy shambles as people were just getting folklore processed, now this just rocks everyone’s world, including mine.   The willow to champagne problems wrecks me, there just no other way to put it.   While at the same time if you going to shift the narrative to make space for me without over turning the fandom wheelbarrow too much, then there are going to be songs that have the ouch factor.   I came on this trip because I believe in you, I hear your heart, and see your soul which in many ways has become tethered to mine.   At this point these are indisputable facts.   You know I have been yours for all intents and purposes since August of Rep tour, that’s just the truth.  You won my heart so long ago that it is almost ancient history.  I needed to be taught so many things I  hadn’t experienced living in OR with the hippies hiding out.    In MA, when the Grammy noms for rep came out, you were like “I’ll just have to make a better album”.   That is how I have felt when these trips haven’t gone the way I thought, “I’ll just have to make myself a better james”.   There was a millisecond of relief last time in Nashville, which you realize it took them like 1/2 hour to get there, he and I almost ran out of things to talk about.   I knew exactly what I was doing and could have left or run away again.  Little did I know you were filming willow MV at the time.   That millisecond of relief turned to deep sadness every time and resolve to get my metaphorical sh*t together.    I do know that each time I resolved to remain celibate because for me that has always been secondary to a glorious mental and emotional connection.   The ability to have all of those aspects in one person was too much to even consider possible until you came into my life. I have learned to be able to handle great emotional and physical pain, even kept creating situations that repeated this pattern.   Upon learning to be able to trust and love myself, I realize it doesn’t have to be like that.  Please accept my apologies for being so bull headed and stubborn about accepting your loving good graces.   There is a part of me that knew there was still work to do, yet now I see there will always be work to do, it would be way better together.  

 Last year I flopped bad, and I won’t blame it all on my brother—I saw the Downton Abbey reference and the matinee.  It is true that I couldn’t speak when I arrived in NYC, but that was only because my brothers and I brought up the sun with way too many drinks plus heart to heart, then hiked the next day, plus the red eye to Manhattan,   I was trying to make everyone happy and thought I could pull it all together as one.   It didn’t work the way I thought and I let my brother’s misgiving about things become some roadblock that I disregarded immediately after that trip.  I have found that I am superb at seeing everybody else’s things yet am blind in many ways to the simple things I can do to change my own course.    You push me with this soft voice that encourages the way to become a better person, even when I feel like I need to fight it.  The truth is that I don’t want to fight it anymore, I just want to have a welcome space to be near the one I love, then figure all the sh*t that comes at us all together.  

     BTW, he ended up getting a guaranteed contract with CBS for three years, which I learned on the day spent with his family in November after the election.            Marjorie explained to me that in your line there is a “special” gift, a gift that I share from my grandma who was from Mexico. This is how we are able share these times that surely seem as to question the legality of such pleasure.   This gift is hope of humanity moving from a density of being to a finer state, where nonverbal communication and understanding become an accepted state of being.   I feel my aunt and my mom in the way you describe your grandma Marjorie, these powerful beings who weren’t able to fully realize their full potential, thus leaving it to us to further the work in the differing ways we have been called.   The spirit of the other called me to help you develop this skill, in order to be the shepherdess for the multitude of the flock you have gathered no matter what happens in your external world.   Little did I know that you, in turn, would be teaching me to look deeply into my own fears and hurt to become someone worthy of self love and eventually your love.

     It is important for me to be near you, even if we haven’t mustered up the courage to see if we can make this real.  It scares the living everything out of me thinking of a life where you aren’t a part of it.   By some factor of fate or pure brute effort we have developed this level of connection that is truly magnificent.  I know you have all kinds of tendrils leading to the past and an already golden connection.   I just know that for me I don’t want to do anything else except be by your side.   It doesn’t sound all that exciting to become a great commodity trader that they write books about.   The markets are just that markets, I long for a human connection that can weather the great storms that we have already worked through, yet foster a kindness that is exciting to wake up to most of every day.   I have to be realistic, sometimes stuff happens and we have to each deal with those kind of hardships in our own way.   This doesn’t mean we are alone in dealing with the vagaries of life, it means that you have someone who believes that you are always, always worth it.   Let me repeat, someone who believes you are always worth it.   It is exciting to me that I could say ““need to get back to T, you know she likes to keep me near”—a little or a lot of smothering is the kind of loving that I need.   Oh dear, please know that no matter the course you ultimately decide I will be there to support you in any way.   I have lived long enough to see when a person is truly a once in a generation embodiment of our hopes, love, and dreams.    From all of me to all of you, I send my love and zest for the potential of some kind greatness here and now in our coming together.   The rain did come this time also, so that is nearly every time in the last two years.   Will get back in bit.

eternally yours,

james

P.s.   I see all the stuff you do and connect in our lives, the golden string, the golden string...