#behind the scenes during Fourth Wing

[aprill-99]

Prof. Grady: “I didn’t see you at stealth training yesterday Wingleader Riorson!”

Xaden: “Thank you sir.”

[indigovigilance]

Maggie is Possessed

This is my second meta! My first one is here.

I’m not the first fan to be suspicious of Maggie but I’m going to argue why she might be possessed (and I hypothesize that specifically she is possessed by an angel), rather than being eldritch herself, and will propose some reasons why the hitchhiker might be doing this.

First, a quick list of her early observable behaviors:

She cannot spell urgency

She signs “very faithfully yours”

She refuses to drink alcohol

Golden angel-wing earrings, anyone?

Have you seen those clothes?

All of those things are angelic, but why possession, specifically? Evidence is presented in order of chronology and not necessarily how strong it is, below the cut:

First: The timeline is weird. She’s eight months behind on rent, and suddenly decides she needs to speak to Mr. Fell “on a matter of some ugrency” and insists she can be out by next week. It’s inconsistent behavior that could indicate that a new decision-maker has taken over. First-point-five, she calls Aziraphale an angel: does she know?

Second: re-watch the first coffee shop scene, S2E1 at 13:20. Yes yes, it reads like a cute lesbian flirtation scene. That’s the cowrie shell. Pick it up. There’s a caraway seed underneath. When she arrives at the coffee shop for the first time, Maggie’s confused “ah, yes, coffee” might not be the flustered redirect you thought it was, but rather indicating that whoever is riding around in that body doesn’t actually know how a coffee shop works. But Nina (to Hitchhiker!Maggie’s relief) remembers her order. So Human!Maggie has been here before, in fact, Nina calls her a regular, to which Hitchhiker!Maggie says “oh right, yes, I’m that.” Not sus at all, sister.

Third: During the “herbal tea” exchange, Maggie says to Nina that “I didn’t go to parties” and she was “not that sort of teenager.” On it’s face it reads like she was a goody-two-shoes human teenager, but consider for a moment that whoever is speaking right now was never human; the statement isn’t a lie, but its very misleading. Who else do we know that does that?

Fourth: During the lock-in, Maggie tells the story of how her great grandmother’s store was in a corner of Mr. Fell’s bookshop, so he lets them stay on for old time’s sake. One possible interpretation of this phrasing is that Hitchhiker!Maggie knows that Aziraphale has owned that shop continuously for at least 100 years. Nina is the one that suggests that it was actually Aziraphale’s grandfather, and Maggie nods along.

Fifth: Maggie says it’s a “coincidence” that the power goes in and out when Crowley passes by; could read as a deliberate redirect from someone who actually knows that Crowley is a demon? But more on that later.

Sixth: I’m skipping a lot of intervening content BUT at the ball, during the dance, she says “this is just what we do, isn’t it?” to which Nina emphatically replies that no, it isn’t. So even though Nina has been effected by an emotion-suppressing aura, she hasn’t lost her memory of how society generally works in 2023, but somehow Maggie isn’t up to date. This is parallel to Point #2, not knowing how to order coffee.

Seventh: Aziraphale’s attempted miracle memory wipe doesn’t work on her. I’ve seen others suggest that it’s due to a miracle blocker but all of his other miracles work, so…

Eighth: Nina calls her “angel.” You thought it was cute. It’s not. It’s a double-bluff. She’s actually an angel.

Ninth: She tells Crowley that “we’re real people.” Okay, human police officer Inspector Constable, whatever you say.

The rest of this is wild speculation. Abandon hope all ye who read below the fold.

So of course this raises the question: why are is the hitchhiker here, and what was Human!Maggie’s motivation to give them permission to hitchhike?

I’ll start with Human!Maggie’s motivation. I believe that she is not just pretendy-good but a properly good person who feels a lot of anguish about her failing business, one that’s been in the family for 100 years, and guilt for not paying her rent. I think she prayed for help, and a “guardian angel” answered her prayers, and she gave that angel permission to possess her and fix the problem.

As for why the angel answered her prayers, I propose that the Metatron sent them to fuck around with Aziraphale. My evidence is that Maggie frequently meddles to Aziraphale’s detriment. In chronological order:

She puts him in a moral choice position: if he evicts her, he’s the bad guy. If he forgives her rent, he’s done something good. Both of these can be leveraged by the Metatron. Notably, after he forgives the rent, Maggie calls him an angel, perhaps to remind him whose side he’s really on *wink wink nudge nudge.*

She confides in her landlord about her crush on the business owner across the street, who’s already in a relationship?! How ridiculously inappropriate?? Maggie??!! But she does, and plants the idea in his head about love, which ultimately becomes the runaway train that makes him extremely vulnerable later.

She refuses to leave the shop during the attack (S2E5), I propose is for purposes of fucking over Aziraphale, as evidenced by…

For this part, I need you to go back and watch it. S2E6 at 3:28. During the pissing contest at the threshold, Maggie turns her head away, there is a sound effect, and that’s when she turns back to Shax and invites the demons in. Hitchhiker!Maggie has taken over and rolled out the carpet for the enemy invasion.

Maggie is the instigator of the “you have to talk about your feelings” conversation, dragging Nina from behind the counter across the street while she has a shop full of customers. Considering that the Metatron is at that very moment at the French restaurant next door, making a job offer to Aziraphale, the timing choice seems very suspect. Almost as if they coordinated to talk to each husband while they were separated.

So, it is possible that Hitchhiker!Maggie was sent by the Metatron as a spy and a saboteur to meddle with Aziraphale. To what end, specifically? Probably to get him to break up with Crowley and/or get him to return to Heaven, but ultimately, I just don’t know. I will admit that I don’t have a very strong conviction that this will become canon, but it was fun to write and I hope that it was fun to read! Leave a note if you enjoyed it!

edit: a link to another meta about why this was such an effective strategy against the husbands

[whiteskullofroses]

STAR OF JERUSALEM

Baldwin Iv x Reader

🕯️Imagine you're a theatre star touring the world. Once you perform on the Holy Land, The king notices your talent and wishes to get to know you.🕯️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"AND ONE AND TWO AND THREE AND Y/N GO!"

And you went. Stepping on the red X drawn upon the stage. Your joyful and youthful face turning into a straight and emotionless one.

"Esto quod es, ex animo, ex Luna."

The scene looked absolutely mesmerising. On the huge wooden floor sat a man-made moon in the phase of waning crescent. Behind you swung stars, the hot weather of Jerusalem making them shimmer and shine as though they were a sheet of a book kissed by candle light.

"Esse est percipi." Clapping sharply and reaching for one of the stars: "ad altiora tendo." Throwing the star on the ground, having it dramatically break apart: "ad astra."

Swirling in your own little world as the strings played a gentle, heart touching melody on the command of the harpist's fingertips.

"Luceo non uro." You sang, breathing steadily and stopping on the centre of the stage again: "nec spe" the music picked up the pace, you dropped to you knees: "nec metu."

"BEAUTIFUL Y/N! BEAUTIFUL!"

You inhaled deeply, for this night wasn't like no other. Rumors roaming around like a vampire at night, that his majesty, Baldwin the fourth will be joining the hopeful crowd of people who share a passion for ancient poetry combined with dread that comes with being alive and wanting it acted out infront of them.

Such news excited you madly, wanting to do the best of the best you practiced day and night for this magical show which will appear before everyone's eyes tonight.

You were incredibly lucky to have God bless you with the talent of being such a delicate preformer. The bigger the crowd, the better. The more eyes were glued to you the smoother words ran out of your mouth.

'What a lovely feeling it is, to be loved.' you thought, not only today but often as you've seen all of Europe, have met hundreds of impressionable people of whom you only heard in fairytales as a lowborn child. Them preaching what a fine show you've put on behind the stage curtains after every show made you feel like a flawless angel with bright wings and the purest soul.

The Holy Spirit inside you was preaching that showing off your skill to who some call 'the messenger of God', or simply the ruler of the Holy Land, should be your top priority. You always listened to it, as a personal belief of yours was that It was in fact God speaking to you through it. So what other choice could you have?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heavy clouds casted upon the wide stadium. Whispers of wonder were dominated by laughter of those already tipsy ones. These kinds of special events that to foreigners often seemed formal, were in all reality a party for all kinds. Those who wished to drink through the show were allowed without any restrictions, yet those who listened and watched you, were rather intoxicated with words that cut deep.

And so it is. The Greek harpist began strumming a century old melody called: 'Stella iuxta Lunam'. The crowd went silent like birds during a storm. Curtains coloured dark blue opened, presenting a beautiful young woman in a black dress with pearls in her hair. That woman was you.

The people of Jerusalem weren't used to a woman showing her hair, not only because of how religious the people were, but also because of the hot weather. Many people would suffer heat strokes and terrible migraines without them.

As you sang in Latin, the clouds cried down on the Earth. Soft tapping mother nature provided with the downpour gave out a great additional scene.

"Ad astra..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Folks cheered, threw roses and whistled in your honor over and over again. The rain had long before stopped allowing the stars to shine up in the skies.

Bowing and sending kisses to the sea of people, you left the stage.

Sighing and letting your hair down. Just as you were about to go drink some water, you heard an unfamiliar voice speak your name.

"Yes?" Breathing out and turning towards the one standing behind you.

As soon as you saw his metal mask you quickly added: "Your majesty."

Straightening up and giving your hair a quick fix, he started: "I greatly apologize for interrupting you while on break."

Sitting down on a chair, breathing heavily.

He was so sick. It broke your heart, poor twenty year old couldn't even walk a couple of meters without almost passing out.

"However" he continued: "I must say I'm a great fan of your work."

Taken back from the fact that the King of Jerusalem himself came to see you perform despite his state: "I'm truly honored, your majesty-"

"Baldwin." Interrupting you. Noticing your surprised expression he chuckled.

"Alright, Baldwin. Thank you for coming to see me tonight." It wasn't unusually for you to have people of power view you as one of them. After all you made good money and were loved to death by whole of Europe.

"I'm really proud of how far you've come." Baldwin was showering you in compliments and all you could do was redden in the cheeks and grin.

After a while he pondered: "How long are you staying here, Y/N? Tilting his head to you, who was now sitting opposite to him.

"Three days."

Baldwin leaned forward: "Do you play chess?"

You did. And you were bloody good at it too.

"Join me tomorrow for a round then." Standing up and taking one last look at you: "when the Sun goes down."

THE END.

[pinturas-gran-guerra-aire]

1918 04 Remember me - Russell Smith

Remember Me? depicts a hypothetical but plausible encounter between and Bristol F2.b of 48th Squadron, RAF and a Fokker Dr.1 triplane piloted by Leutnant d. R. Friedrich "Fritz" Kempf of Jasta 2 (Boelcke). The scene depicts Kempf zooming up and past the Bristol, catching the crew by surprise. The client was fairly specific about the attitudes and positions of the aircraft, but he left the overall composition and the choice of Bristol markings up to me.The Bristol Fighter was a maneuverable, heavily armed two-seater biplane, and one of the most successful fighters of the war. It got off to a poor start during "Bloody April" when it was introduced to the Western Front by the inexperienced pilots. Believing that the aircraft was structurally weak, pilots avoided violent maneuvers during combat. It was soon realized, however, that the Bristol fighter was actually a very sturdy aircraft that could be maneuvered as if it were a single seat fighter with rear protection. Bristol crews met with great success by using their aircraft in that capacity. By the end of the war over 240 pilots and gunners achieved ace status in the type. My choice of markings for this particular Bristol was personal. Growing up in SC I often attended the Shawfest airshow at Shaw Air Force Base located in Sumter. In my 20’s, as a budding aviation artist, I donated a painting to the 20th Fighter Wing which was based at Shaw AFB at the time. For those reasons I have had long felt a familiar connection to Shaw AFB. A few years back, though that connection became very personal. While doing some research on Ancestry I found that I had a great great grandfather who was a Shaw and who was born in Sumter, SC. I knew immediately there had to be a connection to Shaw AFB. After further research I came to find that Shaw AFB was named after 1st Lt. Ervin David “Molly” Shaw, the first Sumterite killed in the WWI & the only Sumter Aviator to die in combat. Shaw served with the 48th Squadron, RAF, British Expeditionary Force. In combat, he is credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft. On July 9, 1918, well behind enemy lines on a scouting mission, he and his British observer were greatly outnumbered by enemy scout planes and they perished in battle. They were flying Bristol F2b B-1113 at the time. As it turns out, 1st Lt. Ervin David Shaw, after whom Shaw AFB is named, was my great-grandmother’s cousin!Frederich "Fritz" Kempf was born in May 1894 in Freiburg in the town of Breisgau in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg. At age 19, he joined infantry in October 1913 and by August of the following year was promoted to Unteroffizier . After being wounded in battle and a lengthy hospital stay he applied for a transfer to the Luftstreitkraefte. Once accepted he arrived at FEA 3 in Gotha on May 6, 1915. He was then sent back to Freiburg to complete training and then on to FEA 9 at Darmstadt at the end of November 1915. In March 1917, after serving with various aviation units, he received the Iron Cross 1st Class and joined Jasta 2 "Boelcke". He scored his first victory on 29 April - a BE2c near Le Pave. His second was a Sopwith Pup on 5 June at Masnieres, then the 3rd was a Camel on 20 Oct. at Gravenstafel.He was sent to Jasta-Schule I as an instructor , returning to Jasta Boelcke in January 1918. On 8 May he scored his fourth victory, a Camel west of Steenwerke. He returned to Jasta-Schule I in August 1918 where he served until the end of the war. Although he only had 4 victories to his credit at war’s end, Kempf was none the less a respected and valued member of Jasta Boelcke. He died in August 1966.Of the aircraft that Fritz Kempf flew during his wartime career, perhaps the most recognizable were a pair of Fokker Dr.1 triplanes which carried similar

[abysskeeper]

Chapters: 1/8 (Wyll)

Part: 1/3

Summary: "They say a singular flap of a butterfly's wings can cause an ensuing storm on the other side of the world."

Nox'ani Skuldavi is not good with people. She is, however, good with magic. She is also smart enough to recognize her preferred status as a "living elf" (emphasis on both living and elf) is, at least in part, predicated on this small group of individuals she and her sister have found themselves with. Unfortunately, these individuals are rife with as much of their own, personal strife as they are stricken with the parasite. Even more unfortunately, Nox is finding she actually wants to help them however she can.

It's not much, she's not good with people. But she is good at magic, she's good at listening, and she really likes butterflies. It's hopefully enough to get the point across.

(AKA: Extra scenes from Act 1 companion quests; also AKA a BG3 friendship fic.)

***************************

The first butterfly to enter camp was Wyll’s.

It flew in on a rather heavy evening, carried by the winds at the forefront of an approaching storm. The air itself was weighted with the promise of a long, hard rain that was primed to burst from the sky at a moment’s notice, though that hardly stopped the flight of the endeavoring, little creature. Having already moved his belongings under the protection of his tent, the man the butterfly sought sat at the makeshift cloth entrance of his camp home, a goblet of wine in one hand and an old adventure novel in the other.

Wyll had thought this weather would be perfect for him to dive back into his reread—his fourth time through—of one of his favorite novels. He had just been reaching the climactic battle of the story when other matters forced him to set it aside, and he’d had little time or desire to pick it back up since. Even now, he could admit to a bit of forcefulness behind his actions, though he considered his reticence to be caused by the change in his situation rather than a lack of desire. Reading was a touch different now than it was from when he last held the book in his hands.

For one, newly acquired horns rested heavily on his head, and unused to the new weight as they were, the muscles in his neck protested under the strain by the end of every day. Attempting to find a comfortable position to read in was quite a hassle, and even when he finally found one…it did nothing to relieve the weight that rested in his chest. When he decided to take up the book again earlier in the evening, he believed the fantasy and escapism residing within the pages of one of his favorite stories to be exactly what he needed. The words used to fill him with such joy and admiration, such hope and aspirations of how he wished for his future to be.

But…there was some hesitance. A fear that was becoming realized the longer he attempted to push through the book’s pages. The words that used to rouse his heart were now only breeding a deep sense of disappointment and a dash of humiliation low in his gut. It had only been a day and a half since Karlach joined their traveling party. It had only been a day since Mizora punished him for acting against her orders.

It had only been a day since he became this. Whatever this was.

Wyll snapped the book shut and rested his head on the tentpole he leaned against. Perhaps, instead of the escapism and fantasy, what he really needed was sleep. He discovered last night that was a much more difficult task with his new appendages as well—they hardly allowed him to lay down comfortably, never-mind that he could not clear his head of the images he saw during his soul’s descent through the Hells—and he was starting to feel exhaustion’s pull on his bones. Based on how the sky was clouding over, the storm would be starting soon anyways. It was probably for the best he packed it in for the night, he could always try again tomorrow.

He heaved a sigh, but before he could move to stand, something fluttering in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Confused, he turned to watch as a butterfly, of all things, landed on the book cover in his lap. He blinked at it, waiting for some trick on his vision to clear. The butterfly’s wings fluttered a few times before it settled on the cover and decidedly did not disappear. Now utterly bewildered, Wyll gently pulled the book a little closer to his face to inspect the insect.

He had never seen a butterfly in only one shade before, and never one that was such a pure, dark-green color. It was strikingly beautiful in its simplicity but also odd, both in color and in its behavior. It was neither the season nor the weather for such a creature to be out right now, and it was far too calm with him being so close to it. Also, probably the most striking aspect that truly set it apart from anything he had ever seen before, a glowing aura around the tiny creature lit up the darkness of the night and the storm befalling their camp.

“Interesting…” Wyll mumbled. Out of curiosity, he held a finger towards the butterfly. In turn, it crawled up his finger and came to rest on the back of his hand.

He watched it calmly flap its wings a few times again before he heaved another sigh and looking towards camp, determined to find who sent him the magical bug. It wasn’t hard to narrow down the suspects; aside from himself, the only ones to use illusion magic in camp were the wizards and Shadowheart. He caught sight of the cleric knelt in front of her tent deep in prayer and immediately doubted it was her. And Gale was nowhere to be found, likely already settled into his tent for the night.

That just left the other wizard, and his eyes landed on her across the camp. The elven woman sat next to her sister—the paladin also deep in evening prayer—with her quill in hand. Her violet eyes, however, rested on him instead of the open journal in front of her. He noticed a subtle flick of her wrist, almost as if she were writing in the air, and the butterfly fluttered again. Wyll cocked his head in question at her and her shoulders rose and fell with a sigh. Her gaze flickered down to her journal for a moment before she set her quill down in the open spine and rose to her feet. She stretched out her back and then made her way over to him.

Wyll’s gaze shifted from her to the butterfly on his hand and then back to Nox when she stopped in front of him. Both of them stared at each other in silence for a moment, her waiting for him to say something and him uncertain where to begin with the odd gift. He finally held out his hand towards her, the butterfly curling around to sit in his palm.

“I believe you lost something, Nox,” he said lightly.

A small smile graced her lips as she shook her head. “I rather believe it found exactly where it needed to be,” she answered and motioned towards the ground beside him.

He nodded and scooted over to offer more space as the elf sat down beside him, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her chin on top of them. She fell silent again, chewing on her lip in thought. He waited for her for as long as he could in hopes she would give him a better answer. His hand twisted and turned while he waited, the magical butterfly crawling around and around.

Finally, his curiosity won out. “I don’t quite understand how I am where this little guy needs to be.”

“You’re struggling, Wyll,” Nox answered, matter of fact. As if his question warranted anything close to that answer.

He was unable to hide his wince, feeling his heart sink and the playful façade melting away. Was it really so obvious even she noticed? Or was he being foolish? Was it to be expected? “You certainly aren’t one to mince words, are you, Nox’ani?” Wyll asked with a chuckle he hardly felt.

“Sorry,” she grimaced. “I am…not nearly as eloquent or heartfelt as most,” she sighed and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, “but I wanted to offer you something, so…”

“So, you sent me a butterfly?” he asked, tone belying his confusion. Was he, perhaps, missing the context of some, elvish custom?

Nox shrugged, a slow rise and fall of her shoulders. “More than words, illusion magic is what I’m used to…well…using as a way to comfort others,” she answered. “Besides, it’s a far better icebreaker than words for me, if I didn’t just exemplify that.”

Despite himself, Wyll let out another, small chuckle. This one he did feel. “My prior question already had an answer then, you are rather to the point,” he agreed.

“Talking isn’t exactly a strong suit of mine, if that hasn’t been made obvious either,” Nox said with a thin smile.

It was obvious from their very first meeting that her sister handled most of the communication with people. Lux had that sort of personality; Nox was far better at handling the logistics and magical matters before them. “Not everyone is gifted with a silver tongue,” he shrugged and glanced around the camp. “Given the personalities in this little group, having someone who knows when not to speak is actually a boon, I think.”

Her smile smoothed a little. “Well, I am glad at least one person understands it. Not many appreciate the gift of listening.”

“It is a relief, honestly,” Wyll said. “And if nothing else, it is more than Lae’zel can say for herself. She is far brusquer with her words than you.”

Nox snorted, “I suppose I should count it as a win that, blunders aside, I at least have better manners than a gith.”

They both fell quiet again, wordlessly watching the magical butterfly crawl up and around his forearm. As the silence stretched on, Wyll began to wonder if she was waiting for him to speak on her original comment and he felt a bit of panicked bile rise in his throat. What could he say to it that hadn’t already been said? Where could he begin that wouldn’t cause a deluge of emotions he hadn’t started sorting for himself yet? Luckily, she continued before he felt obligated to ask.

“I do mean it though, the listening,” she clarified. “If you wish to speak on what troubles you, that is. Between my lack of words and these large things,” she chuckled as she tugged on her ear, “I am quite adept at listening.”

Wyll smiled at her joke but otherwise remained quiet. His attention remained on the butterfly as he cupped his hands and it crawled into the center of his palms. It sat there, nestled by his hands, and he felt the light brushing of its wings when they twitched in time with Nox’s soft sigh.

“Of course, you also don’t have to if you’d prefer not to. I would understand,” she added. “Over the years, I’ve learned that sometimes all people want is something pretty to look at. A distraction from what troubles them, or even just a reminder someone else is thinking of them. That’s really why I fall to illusion magic,” she explained. “I…never really know when I should step in, or how, even when I know I want to offer something. I’m good at magic, better at it than words, so…I offer what I can.”

Wyll didn’t think he wanted to speak on it; everything he believed mattered on the subject had already been said. He did not regret it. He was happy to have been stopped before he made an awful mistake, and he was happy to have found a new friend in Karlach. He could not speak much of his pact with Mizora, and everyone had respected that. Now that his latest orders had been cleared up and his punishment doled out, it was time to move on to solving the issue of the parasites.

Yet, the longer he stared at the butterfly and mulled over her words, the more he could feel it all churning in his heart. The disappointment, the embarrassment, the grief, and the anger. He blew out a breath and closed his eyes, his fingers curling gently around the butterfly, almost protective. “It’s…heavy.”

Heavy. That had been the one word on his mind since last night.

Nox hummed in understanding, and he felt her eyes roving over his face. “As the right choice often is,” she agreed after a moment.

“I…know.” He sighed again and opened his eyes. The butterfly still rested calmly in his palms. “That knowledge does not make it any lighter this time, though,” he admitted and turned to meet her stare.

She pondered him for a moment. “Do you regret it?”

“No.” He shook his head quickly, though his gaze slid away from her scrutiny. He did not regret it, he would never regret doing the right thing. That still did not necessarily negate his…dissatisfaction. “But that does not mean I have to be pleased with the result, does it?”

“Of course not,” Nox said readily. “No one would imply otherwise.”

He felt her shift beside him, and a quiet breath of frustration escaping her forced his attention back towards her. Bemused, he watched as her hand suddenly retreated from the space around his arm and she frowned. Instead, the butterfly’s wings brushed against his fingertips.

“Wyll, you sacrificed a lot for a stranger, based on the words of other, effective strangers,” she continued. “It was the right choice in the end, obviously, but there are not many men in this world who would do that. Fewer still who would do it when they knew the consequences of disobedience…and you knew the consequences, didn’t you?”

“I…” Wyll hesitated, swallowing hard as he was yet again forced to acknowledge all of the changes he had just undergone. “I…suspected several options. All things considered, this was one of the better outcomes.”

“I’m sorry,” Nox mumbled.

“For what?” he asked, incredulous. He thought he would be annoyed by pity; he had no desire to be pitied for choices he willingly made. But pity was not what she spoke with, and sympathy was not what he expected in its stead. “As you said, I knew the consequences. I have always known the consequences.”

Nox made her gentle humming noise again. “Knowing the consequences and accepting the burden regardless is a noble venture,” she answered. “I respect it, but I also sympathize with it.”

Wyll stared at her for a few moments before an astonished laugh pushed past his lips. “You know, most would not assume that of a warlock pacted to a devil.”

“Most warlocks pacted to devils are not you.” She smiled and flicked a finger. The butterfly responded by escaping from his hands and fluttering up in front of his eyes. “Actions speak louder than any words or deals ever could, and while I’ve only known you for a short while, I would like to believe I’ve been around long enough to be able to say with certainty that your actions mark you as a good man, Wyll,” Nox said and caught his eye. “A noble one, even.”

Despite his best effort, he couldn’t hold her gaze or stare at her illusion any longer. She spoke words that he needed to hear, words that he himself had been repeating consistently since last night. Those words were starting to taste like ash, however. The longer he tried to tell himself exactly those words, the more it felt like he was trying to convince himself of a lie instead of reminding himself of the truth. Hearing them aloud, spoken to him by an effective stranger he needed to trust and rely on was…complicated. Simultaneously, paradoxically hopeful and discouraging.

Beside him, Nox huffed out a breath. Wyll felt the butterfly ascend and stiffened when it settled on his left horn. It was one of the first touches he had felt on his newest body part, and definitely the first not from himself or their surroundings. It was still odd, to receive sensations from a part of him that was so new. Odder still was feeling something so gentle on a part of himself he considered quite ghastly. The legs of the butterfly almost tickled.

“I know you cannot speak on it,” Nox continued softly, “but I’d also like to think I have been around long enough to confidently believe your pact with Mizora came because you saw no other option for whatever situation it was you found yourself in.”

That was what he liked to believe as well, and yet he had his doubts. “Believing to have no other option than a devil is a failure in even the best of men,” he mumbled. After a long moment, he blew out a breath and turned his face towards the sky. The wind had picked up and the clouds were moving in faster now. “I can recognize that, even if I do not regret it.”

Nox clicked her tongue, and out of the corner of his eye, he watched her attention turn towards the sky as well. “Desperation is a great motivator…and an even greater undoing. I refuse to judge someone based on their most desperate moments; I will judge them for what they do after, though.”

For the first time since they had met, Wyll was reminded he was talking to a nearly two-hundred-year-old elven wizard. It was such a simple piece of wisdom, and yet one that could only be uttered so honestly due to time and personal experience.

“And based on what you have done after your pact, I am confident in saying that it is a heart of pure gold that beats there in that chest of yours…oh!”

The excited gasp caused him to look back at her in question. She was grinning, eyes shining as if she just solved the answer to a particularly difficult puzzle. She drew her finger through the air, and he waited for the butterfly to move off of his horn. It never did.

After several, quiet moments, he sighed. Perhaps whatever it was she just discovered had nothing to do with him at all. Though, given how she was staring at him and smiling, he had his doubts. He also doubted she would answer him even if he asked—he barely knew her, but the way she was looking at him all but screamed she was wanting him to ask, just so she could tell him to ‘wait and see.’

“Well, I am glad to hear you say that—” Wyll’s small smile dropped as he felt the butterfly move towards the tip of his horn. “—Even if I can’t help but wonder if the outside is now a better reflection of what lies within.”

“Oh, it will take some time to get used to, I have no doubt about that. But—” Nox was cut off as a flash of lightning shot across the horizon, followed by a distant rumble of thunder. “—But the outside most assuredly is not a reflection of what lies within at all,” she finished with a shake of her head.

It was his turn to study her: smiling face, bright eyes, utterly relaxed. She was not lying to him just to assuage his concerns and she was quite confident in what she was saying. “You seem quite certain of that,” Wyll muttered.

“And there will be many more who are quite certain of it as well, many more who know you better than I—” He had thought the same once. The people of the Gate. Florrick. His father. “—And there will be many more still who see it because they see what you do, for them and for others. You help people, Wyll, and you’re always striving to do what is right. You would do well to listen to those people’s words and no one else’s,” Nox said. “It will help you in one day being able to say them for yourself again.”

There was another rumble of thunder, closer this time. Nox was unbothered, still looking up at him instead with a sympathetic smile; a hopeful smile that proved she did still believe in what she was speaking and a knowing look that belied her age and experience. It was the first thing to truly make him feel better since last night.

Wyll returned her smile and nodded. “I would like to believe you are right. Thank you, Nox.”

“Rest assured, I am right. Besides,” Nox shrugged as she rose to her feet, “if I am to understand the trends these days, the…ah… ‘bad boy’ appearance is all the rage these days,” she smirked. “Many will outright enjoy the horns, I’m sure. And…all the better for them that something truly sweet lies underneath.”

Caught off guard, Wyll sputtered out a laugh and shook his head. Of all the things he expected someone like her to comment on—especially given the rest of their conversation—that certainly was not on the list. He wouldn’t deny it lightened his heart immediately, though. “On that note, I think it is time to say good night. I do not believe I am ready to receive your dating advice just yet,” he teased.

Both of them glanced towards the top of the tent as a few, small pitter-patters fell against the cloth. “And I do not want to keep you in the storm,” he added as he smiled back at her.

“Another night, then,” Nox chuckled. She turned on her heel and gave him a wave before bidding him good night. “I hope you sleep well tonight, Wyll.”

Wyll hummed in agreement and watched as she lightly jogged back to her tent in the drizzle. He watched her until she disappeared between the flaps before he grabbed the book again and entered his own tent. Genuinely feeling a touch lighter after their conversation, he set the book down at the end of his bedroll and set to straightening it out for the night. The butterfly—which he had incorrectly assumed disappeared when Nox did—floated down from his horn and onto his pillow. He sighed with a smile, moving to delicately nudge the thing out of the way, when a new addition caught his eye.

The butterfly was no longer solid green. Golden filigree spread throughout the four wings in gentle, swirling designs. His eyes traced over the looping gold patterns until they finally made sense of what he was seeing designed on the wings. There, surrounding the body of the glowing insect, the patterns on all four wings came together to form a heart in the center of the butterfly.

Wyll shook his head and let out a chuckle of disbelief. After a moment, he held out a finger to the butterfly and, once it crawled on, moved it to rest on the book laying at his feet. “You certainly are to the point, aren’t you, Nox’ani?” he asked softly while settling in.

Before drifting off, he glanced down at the butterfly resting on the book at his feet, wings fluttering lightly and softly casting the inside of his tent aglow. She most certainly was to the point.

Perhaps he really would try reading again tomorrow.

[alanaever]

About me !

Hi! I'm Alana (She/Her)

I write fanfiction for the Empyrean, I'm incredibly delusional and think I’m Violet Sorrengail.

My favourite colour is pink, I love Lana del Rey and come up with random scenes to music on a whim, and then think I should write them.

Below you'll find links to my work/fandom & some FAQ 

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✧ Fandoms/Works

Fourth wing: 

Currently posting

     - Xaden’s POV of Iron Flame.

Clue in the title. Behind the scenes of what went on with the marked ones and at Samara. Focuses primarily on Xaden’s friendships and relationships negative and positive as well as giving context in the form of my theories about Xaden’s life before the rebellion as well as Violet's life before the quadrant. Each chapter has an epigraph that tells a story from a character perspective that I make up. 

Snippet from Chapter 1 

"She is standing right here," she snaps, and hell, Violet speaking Tyrrish is... There are no words for the emotion I feel. All I know is that I want to pick her up, deposit her on the throne and... No. Trust first. I look about to gauge the Assembly's reaction to how screwed they are and an unflattering amount of satisfaction courses through me at the number of jaws that drop in front of me.

     - Beneath the Willow tree

I read Willow in the Breeze and got immediately inspired I do have a plan to continue this story but I've hit writer's block on it at the moment and I have other projects to work on. The first two chapters are my idea of the night of Willow’s conception, and the 3rd is Xaden returning from the army and setting the scene for his life and why he may or may not be the most advisable parent… 

Chapter 4 has been drafted but I need to further flesh out the plot before I take it off hiatus and start posting more regularly. 

Snippet from Chapter 4

“No answer? Okay, I’ll speak. You don’t invite yourself over to my house. To sit at my table. Eat my food. And fail to converse with my daughter politely. It’s not har-” my tirade is cut short. 

“Do you know?” Mira asks voice shaking.

“What’s wrong with you? Not the slightest -”

“the father.” That has me in waves of fury immediately.

“I’m sure we went over this at the time. No, I don’t fucking know who her father is,” I pause for breath “I’m sorry it’s such a shock to you that I’m raising a child as a single parent, it does happen you know.” 

“You could have had an abortion,” my mother says a strange lilt to her voice. 

“I could never have aborted what was likely my one chance at being a mother. Easy for you to say with your perfectly functioning bodies, abortion was never an option for me when the chance that I’d ever even get pregnant was slim to none.” 

My mother looks strangely confused by this, I have thought for a while that she might be a sociopath capable of understanding human emotions but not particularly caring about them. “You’d have had more chance if you weren't a single mother, men don’t want an extra burden to carry around with them. You’ve read Othello the whole premise is cuckolding, men don’t want to raise another man's child,”  

“You just sat on the floor playing with said burden Lilith, fancy telling her what you think of her?”

“I don’t think that. I was providing an alternate view to your belief that you wouldn’t have had a family if you had had an abortion,” 

“Why are we having this conversation? We-” I gesture wildly at Lilith, “were having a lovely evening but the second these two show up, back to cold stone emotionless mother who feels the need to discuss my rights surrounding abortion again.”

“We weren’t trying to imply anything,” Brennan says quietly. 

“We just, well. She reminded us of someone we know and we weren’t sure…” 

The little air my lungs have retained during our argument evaporates. And I stood staring at Brennan and Mira waiting. Envisioning the dark handsome man who appears towering over me in my dreams, whose eyes i see reflected in my daughters face, whose smirk exists as a cheeky smile flashed over the kitchen counter

— Banishment

the story of Violets life pre Xaden her relationship with Halden and the other tauri siblings and her forieghs into political scheming long before joining the revolution.

snippit from chapter 1.

Violet Sorrengail, a notorious recluse, has unexpectedly agreed to share her life story. This revelation isn't just a simple recounting of her wartime experiences; it's a deep dive into the pivotal moments leading up to the conflict. These stories are being shaped into a biographical series, although many suspect it's more of a romance novel exploring not just the entanglement of the great betrayers son, as he once was and the general’s daughter, but the lives of hundreds of other players who’s stories were lost to time all compiled by her close friend and confidant, Jesinia Neilwart a woman who herself had a role in the conflict and had her own entanglements. 

Jesinia, the now curator of the scribe quadrant, sat across from Violet in a dimly lit study, the walls lined with ancient tomes and faded portraits. The air thick with the scent of old parchment, a fitting backdrop for the stories about to unfold. "Okay, Violet," Jesinia began, her voice steady and her pen poised, ready to capture every nuance. "If you're ready, let's start with the period immediately following the fall of the Apostasy. This could provide a powerful opening to your biography."

Violet leaned back in her chair, her eyes narrowing as she contemplated the suggestion. "I'm not sure how that's relevant, Jesinia. My involvement in the revolution wasn't a culmination of years of brewing discontent, it was sudden, from the moment i found out during war games i was thrust into it. You're asking about a span of six years, a time when I had nothing to do with the war."

Jesinia leaned forward, a knowing smile playing on her lips. Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of unearthing untold stories. "Violet, if you insist on claiming you spent all six of those years locked up in your mother's Basgiath apartment, I'll be forced to threaten you with this pen," she teased, holding up the instrument with mock menace. "Scribe or not, we both know the truth. Your entanglement with political affairs started long before your well-documented involvement with Xaden and the revolution in 634 AU. It all began back at Calldyr Castle."

Violet chuckled, a rare sound that softened her usually stern demeanour. "I can't imagine many people would be interested in the mundane lives of the Calldyr elite," she remarked, her tone laced with a hint of irony.

Jesinia's expression grew serious, her voice unwavering. "You'd be surprised, Violet. The world is fascinated by the intricacies of power, privilege, and rebellion. This is my story to tell, and I intend to include every detail I deem significant."

Violet raised an eyebrow, her lips curling into a half-smile. "I thought you said this was a biography," she challenged, her tone playful yet probing.

"It is, in a way," Jesinia admitted, her eyes not leaving Violet's. "But I want it to be immersive, to draw readers into the reality of those times."

Violet leaned forward, her curiosity piqued. "So you're saying you're going to sensationalise it?" she asked, a glimmer of amusement in her voice.

Jesinia shook her head, her expression earnest. "There's no need for sensationalism. If you got into even half as much trouble as I've heard about during the quadrant and the war that followed, then trust me, I won't need to embellish a single bit. The truth, as you lived it, is compelling enough."

For a moment, there was silence as Violet considered this. The flickering candlelight cast shadows that danced across her face, highlighting the lines etched by years of experience and secrecy. "Perhaps you're right," she finally said, a thoughtful note in her voice. "But remember, some truths are best left buried."

Jesinia nodded, her gaze steady and reassuring. "We'll tread carefully. But the world deserves to know the real Violet Sorrengail—the woman behind the myth."

Violet sighed, a resigned yet accepting gesture. "Very well. But don't expect me to sugarcoat anything. The world I knew was far from a fairy tale."

Jesinia smiled warmly, her pen once again poised to capture the essence of Violet's journey. "That's exactly what I was hoping for," she said, her voice filled with anticipation.

Behind-the-scenes works 

     - part one of a series called two sides of the same coin, - ‘traitors’ 

Has been plotted and planned extensively and I am currently writing the first draft, unlike my other works this will be a story I write behind the scenes and post one chapter at a time when I’m ready and pleased with the result. 

The plot is inspired by Storm in the Quiet which if you haven't read it please please check out it’s an amazing piece of work. It is the story of Violet's first year if Tyrrandor succeeded. So no Xaden and no marked ones at Basgiath. Unlike SITQ Tairn tells Violet about the venin and she takes on a Role similar to Xaden in Book 1, Xaden and the marked ones will not be present in Book 1 of this series but will be introduced in Book 2 if my plans are followed. 

Snippet from Chapter 2 

No dragon bonds an injured rider. And no dragon would look twice at her due to her stature she’s small and smaller than most human women and there's a frailness in her physique despite her competence with daggers she is not a natural fighter but a learned one out of necessity. 

I think I make up my mind then. 

     - what if we all left

 A story centring on the premise that Mira and the rest of the Sorrengails left Basgiath to fight for the rebellion believing violet to have been compromised by the scribe quadrant. They reunite years later and find a completely different sister to the one they left behind, who has been through some shit. 

Snippet 

I lunge for the knife without thinking and take it to slash at the family portrait in the hall of the smiling faces from years ago who don’t yet realise their lives will end so soon. I kick down the carved bookcases sending papers to the floor i smash 3 pictures 5, 7, all of them till there's nothing left but the carnage of my life. 

But it’s still not enough, I reach for a bottle of bleach from under the sink and take the cap off showing it over the cushions, the floor anywhere in reach. 

     - then we were Venin.

A story where Violet and possibly Xaden ( to be confirmed ) turn Venin and end up being tried for treason after capture only for people to discover the truth. There could be a child in this story but it would be post pregnancy and the child would be around 10 years old. 

No snippet I haven't yet written anything for this work.

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✧ FAQ

Do you have an updated schedule?

No, I did try to do one but I’m still in university so I write as and when it suits me. I do try to get updates out sooner if people enjoy the chapters so if you're irritated due to a cliffhanger let me know and I'll do my best to deliver ;))

Can I bind your fic?

Yes provided it’s for personal or non-profit use. I’m a major advocate for keeping fanfic free especially as a lot of the work I do is not entirely OC and the rights and ownership of the characters belong to RY. 

Can I use a scenario/character in your fic for my own or write something inspired by your fic?

Yes provided I’m referenced as the inspiration for the scene or as the creator of the character otherwise I'd love to read anything people come up with xx

[inkonfreshnewpaper]

Tag Game! (Two for Two in a week! Saved for later so I'd have something different to write about) (Saved it for so long I've got a ton to write about)

Tagged by @bacchanalium

3) Last song: Love Me Like You Used To - Lord Huron. It hits in that good melancholy country mood for me.

4) Last film: Portrait of a Girl on Fire. I'm so behind on essential queer films, so I finally got around to watching it. Honestly, surprised at the lack of music in movie. It's saved for a moment at the end that absolutely hit. Bit slow, but in a good way. Seven Samurai. It's Seven Samurai. It's a good movie. I don't have much to say other than, movie good. Wasn't expecting Mifune's character to be as feral as he was, or how affecting the movie was. The Thing. It's The Thing, I wanna be you. The first time I saw it was Halloween 2020 during my horror movie marathon. This time I watched it in my university's movie theatre with a nearly full audience. People gasped during Child's "Then we're wrong" line delivery and laughed a bunch throughout. Seeing it on the big screen was incredible. 10/10. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2022). This was a weird one. Gonna have to actually post my thoughts on it because I'm still chewing on it. It focuses entirely on Utterson, but the adaption decides to put him through a negative character arc. Does it work? Stay tuned.

5) Currently reading: The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (finished it but at what cost). It wasn't very good. I got YA vibes from the character descriptions in the how they focus exclusively on eye and hair colour. Pacing was all over the place. Would spend way too long in one scene, way too short in another. The characters felt way too modern in a supposed fantasy world, mostly due to the dialogue. (Protag's best friend called her and her love interest 'slow burn' and I had to put the book down for a minute after that). The magic system felt like an excuse to get the main couple together and nothing else. That's my biggest critique of the novel. Everything just feels paper thin in this world. Things are set up, but resolved so quickly it doesn't feel satisfying. The school is set up as super dangerous and everyone is trying to kill each other 24/7, and the protag makes a best friend first day and they stay best friends. And further confirmation that no one knows how to write enemies-to-lovers, just 'didn't like you at the start'. Love interest says he loved her since he first saw her. WEAK. Why'd I read it? A bookstore clerk recommended it, I was on the library wait list for months. I needed to dissect this book thoroughly to justify me reading it. I'm also reading The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper. It's an okay mystery set in 1920s Australia. Garden of Earth Bodies by Sally Oliver. I'm compelled. It's horror-lite about grief, but the twist hasn't happened yet, so who's to say if it's good yet. Definitely reads as a debut novel - very dramatic prose, feels like it's trying too hard to grab my attention. It's meh so far, but I want to see where it goes.

6) Currently watching: Currently Delicious in Dungeon as it comes out. Studio Trigger is doing such a good job with the adaptation. I'm also watching Revue Starlight, which was way better than I was expecting. Episode 8 launched Hikari to all time favourite characters for me. Haven't finished it yet.

7) Currently consuming: Some tea.

8) Currently craving: Nice and full from dinner with Delicious in Dungeon. No better way to spend a Thursday night.

Tagging: @thefollow-spot, @whoawhataconcept, @fate-motif, @ishmaels, @flubz, @scootbloop, @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, @kafkastan, @sacrerouges, @violasmirabiles, @owlmylove

[capitolhost]

GENERAL

more mentor/mentee things: maybe caesar is helping your character to get a breakthrough in the industry.

more caesar emotionally adopting your kid/being a DAD: just close connections with e.g. victors or young people in the capitol. he's totally taking young people up under his wing every chance he gets, as he has long forsaken the wish to have a family himself.

more relationships that aren't eternal love: i'd love some more flings for caesar as he's slept around a lot during his younger years. we can definitely work with staying friends, or becoming enemies, or even rekindling their relationship post war. just a lot of different types of relationships.

caesar fathering an illegitimate child: this is a bit more a whimsical idea, but caesar sleeping around a lot in the early years of his hosting career might have led to a whopsie. i'd be up for exploring that plot, especially if he's unaware of the child for a long, long while (post war orphaned teen appearing on his doorstep?)

PRE BOOKS

for victors: any kind of recruiting your victor to the cause of the rebellion, whether it's caesar trying to figure out your character or beginning to speak more plainly with them.

for victors: talking behind-the-scenes about strategies employed for the interviews of their tributes (e.g. what topics should caesar ask about?)

for capitol residents: friendship, enemies to lovers, flings (especially in caesar's early years), colleagues, people who try to sabotage his career, people who want to get on his good side, people who try to get information on current games from him to get a sponsoring advantage

DURING THE BOOKS: BEFORE THE WAR

for haymitch: caesar and haymitch talking before the interviews about the love confession in the seventy-fourth interview

for rebels: during the seventy-fourth games, talks and hopes about the katniss and peeta angle. possibly some conspiracy talks, such as the rule change.

for capitol rebels: the time after the seventy-fourth games and the changing mood in panem. hopes arising, plans being pushed into place.

for victor rebels: conspiratorial action before the war, such as revealing to victors what plutarch's plan for the quarter quell is.

for victor rebels: once they arrive in the capitol for the third quarter quell, conversations about going back into the arena.

for rebels not in the arena: further plans and conspiracies during the seventy-fifth games, possibly gathering in pairs to discuss what they saw on screen or caesar checking up on them or further plots made for the escape attempt. for any capitol rebels also talking about the fear of discovery during the upcoming rebellion.

DURING THE BOOKS: WAR TIME

for peeta: mockingjay timeline anything! interviews, talks before or after the interviews, caesar visiting peeta as often as he can, caesar living his double agent role by trying to give peeta more details without being noticed.

for all imprisoned victors: caesar and them doing propos together. caesar trying to help them while he's still in his double agent role (e.g. slipping in food). them communicating (or trying to) when they are both imprisoned. them being rescued together by the rebels.

for people high up in the rebellion: before caesar gets caught, he is providing information to 13 as often as he can (including just mentioning he's still alive). some bad quality zoom calls to update them on what is happening once he is in thirteen, he will help out the rebellion by being at meetings and providing information on the capitol—especially when they attack it directly.

for everyone in district thirteen during the war: caesar and them meeting in thirteen, possibly surprised at his part in the rebellion in case they don't know yet. caesar doing propos with important rebels together (e.g. katniss or finnick). caesar just hanging out™ with some of the people in thirteen. possibly some hostility by those who don't trust him regardless.

for alma coin: enemy-enemy threads where alma and caesar are bickering, caesar refusing to help her rebellion all that much, and the rare moments when he does (e.g. by providing crucial information on the capitol).

for any nurses in district thirteen: caesar is the charming and slightly annoying patient. some hospital threads where your muse is doing their medical job while he's being a dramatic annoyance charismatic person.

for katniss: caesar is at the mansion before snow dies. maybe katniss and him discuss the bombs that fell, and katniss has someone to theorise with. this idea comes directly from her passing out in a wardrobe of clothes after talking to haymitch⸺could be caesar's room and he finds her there (or she runs straight into him), meaning katniss gets the conversation she sought with haymitch elsewhere.

AFTER THE BOOKS

for any people living in the districts post war: caesar has a new show where he reports on the rebuilding efforts in panem and would visit your character's district. he might interview your character, or, if they know each other better, he would visit your character beforehand and have a nice conversation. this is the first time he'd even be able to visit your character's home, so he would stay for as long as he can to chat and help out.

above, but specifically for the victors: caesar has a fatherly relationship with a majority of the victors. he'd want to check up on his emotionally adopted kids ever so often, so he might stop by during their birthday as well or when an important event happened (e.g. post annie giving birth).

for katniss or peeta: as mentioned at the end of mockingjay, katniss and peeta are working on their book to write about people they have lost. caesar might stop by and provide some more tributes and victors.

for victors or anyone otherwise involved with the games: i picture there being an anniversary celebration to remember the horrors of the games. caesar would be present during that time and he'd be meeting your characters and talk with them.

for anyone in entertainment post war: caesar would still be around! outside of the above-mentioned show i can totally picture him exploring other venues once a few years passed and he's feeling healthier. maybe your character is a singer and he's hosting the singing show plutarch planned. things like that & obviously need heavy plotting beforehand.

[awstenknight]

oh my god girl you've read 100 books this year?? 100??? I'm speechless but also give us your top 10 please and thank you

top 10 hmmmmmm let me look through!!

in no order:

real friends - middle grade graphic novel about friends, family, school

all the things we never said - ya about three suicidal teenage girls who are matched as partners on a suicide pact website

fourth wing - emerging adult dragon book that reads like a fanfic. i am not a dragon book girl at ALL but i loved this one. hunger games/divergent vibes. a page-turner for me!!

the prince and the dressmaker - graphic novel. so sweet.

before we were blue - ya with alternating perspectives from roommates in inpatient ED treatment. kinda weak (not bad) ending, but the story as a whole was so good i didnt mind.

numb to this: memoir of a mass shooting - graphic novel memoir written by a college student who was on campus during a shooting. it's largely focused on the aftermath (spanning a few years of her life) and the shooting's affect on her friendships, family, and mental health

re-read of im glad my mom died - jennette mccurdy (sam from icarly)'s autobiography focused heavily on her eating disorder and her relationship with her abusive mom. also dealing with fame, what it's like behind the scenes, and growing into being an adult when you have no idea what that means.

hidden pictures - CONTROVERSIAL so i cant super super recommend it, but despite the controversy it was maybe my favorite book this year!! adult fiction about a 20-something recovering addict who takes a nanny job with a nice suburban family. the kid starts drawing freaky, unsettling pictures. the family gets a little stranger as time goes on, and clues start cropping up all over. some people think its dumb af, and some people love it. i happened to be in the love camp haha.

under the whipsering door wasnt a favorite necessarily but i really enjoyed it. the premise is that when people die, they go somewhere where a ferryman can take them to the afterlife. this book's ferryman works in a tea shop. spirits stay there until they're ready to pass through the whispering door - and nobody knows what's behind the door. the story is about a mean lawyer who dies and wakes up at the tea shop and refuses to go through the door. it had me choking up at one part, and im not a crier!! potentially very moving if youre in the right headspace. found family, huge growth from the main character. great read.

breathe and count back from ten - ya about a high school girl with hip dysplasia and overprotective parents. all she wants in the world is to be a professional mermaid and perform at her town's tourist attraction called mermaid cove. i wish the love story hadnt been part of this bc i was just interested in how her medical stuff affects her, hearing about her body image, seeing her interact with her family, watching her attempt to overcome obstacles, etc.

[jezabatlovesbats]

Going off of this post, I started brainstorming ideas for what a musical adaptation of Monsters Inc. would actually look like because I'm stupid.

Of course, none of this would actually happen! These are all just thoughts!

Also, I should warn you that, whenever I try to do things like this, what I say never makes sense.

I saw this person's idea, but from what I've seen, musical adaptations of movies often change more than just a few things.

For starters, I don't agree with the idea of using puppets to play the characters. Personally, I see the monsters' actors wearing SpongeBob Musical-ish costumes representing their characters, but with more non-human aspects, like the additions of horns and wings and stuff.

I totally agree with having the curtain call be the cast singing an extended version of Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me! But, I would keep the part where Mike sings it to distract the coworkers. That way, the curtain call would be a nice payoff, with Mike leading everyone in the song.

I also agree with having the door to the Himalayas go right to the Abominable Snowman's cave. It would help with the pacing. Also, yes- remove the sledding scene.

Now, for how I would change up the actual plot, because that person seemed to just be copy-pasting the movie for the most part...

Maybe the opening scene can be Mike and Sulley doing their little scare floor exercises while getting ready for their day. Like, the first thing we see is a kid sleeping in bed, and Sulley steps out from the closet to scare it, but then the lights come on, and Mike comes out from under the covers, revealing that he was holding a dummy. Then, we get our opening number, which establishes how the monster world works and the scream shortage problem and also how dangerous kids are. It ends with Sulley, Mike and the other monsters arriving at the factory.

After the opener is when we start hearing about the all-time scare record. And, maybe during the early scenes of Act I is where the parts about Mr. Bile/Phlegm and the new scare recruits can go. Like, before or after the scare floor scene, we could see Mr. Waternoose coaching Phlegm, and then he comes over to ask Sulley about showing him how it's done and all that.

I imagine the scare floor sequence being an entire song, where each monster gets a chance to show off what they're good at. It would end abruptly; Charlie cuts everyone off with his, "23-19!" He could also do a fourth wall break and shout, "WAIT! STOP THE MUSIC! 23-19!"

I also imagine this adaptation touching upon the characters' backstories more. Like, Mike and Sulley could have lines about their time at Monsters University (yes, I am making references to it).

Randall could, too. He could probably lament to Fungus about how he and Mike used to be buddies in college, but then he was humiliated, leading him to resent Sulley and Mike. And, just like I said in my earlier post, I would want Randall to have a solo number. That could be his solo.

If I Didn't Have You has to be one of the songs! I would put it in a scene where Mike and Sulley reconcile after their argument.

I would swap out the climactic chase in the big vault of doors for something more stage-friendly, but I don't know what.

I don't want the scene where Mike shows Sulley Boo's fixed door to come after the final number, like that person implied. During a vamp or an interlude in the finale, Mike can take Sulley aside to show him that he fixed her door. Sulley opens it to see her behind it, and then everybody comes out for the big finish.

That's all I've got. I should never be a playwright or director.

[jules-has-notes]

collaboration spotlight — Story of My Life by Home Free

Home Free might be marketed as a country band, but their talents are much broader than one genre. Taking on a pure pop song was a great reminder of that for their VIP audiences during the 2014 Sing-Off tour, and afterward in this video. Luckily, Layne was already working on three VoicePlay videos using official tour footage, so why not add a fourth for his new friends?

Details:

title: Story of My Life

original performers: One Direction

written by: Julian Bunetta, Tiziano Ferro, Jamie Scott, "John the Blind" Ryan, & One Direction

arranged by: Home Free

video directed & edited by: Layne Stein

release date: 27 April 2014

My favorite bits:

the gentle arpeggios in the intro section

integrating behind-the-scenes footage from the tour, their "Guilty Pleasures" skit, and events a couple weeks afterward

hearing Chris take the lead way more than he got to during the competition

so many shenanigans — Tim glomping Rob from the wings, Rob sneaking into the Fillies' rehearsal, hotel suite leaping, stupid human tricks with snacks

Tim's extra beefy low note at the end of the second verse

Austin's big old riff leading into the final chorus

Trivia:

They filmed the actual singing portions of the video in between the afternoon and evening concerts in Milwaukee, WI.

Layne was already working on two VoicePlay music videos — "Love On Top" and "Road Trip" — and a behind-the-scenes documentary with Tony during the tour (in addition to, y'know, performing in the shows). That dude is a workhorse.

[ailtrahq]

This article is featured in Bitcoin Magazine’s “The Broke Issue”. Click here to subscribe now.The story of Bitcoin has certainly had its fair share of nefarious characters, criminal activity, bad haircuts and worse wardrobes, and yet our anti-hero du jour has seemed to outdo them all. Sam Bankman-Fried, better known by the three letter acronym SBF, burst onto the scene at the peak of the 2017 bubble, founding Alameda Research that September, just four years after graduating from an internship into a full-time position at one of the world’s largest market makers, Jane Street Capital.SBF is the son of Stanford Law professor and founder of left-wing super PAC Mind The Gap, Barbara Fried, and Stanford professor Joseph Bankman, an expert on tax shelter laws and government regulation. At the start of 2018, SBF had struck digital gold while taking advantage of the arbitrage opportunity presenting itself between a higher demand for bitcoin in the Asian market, colloquially known as the “kimchi premium”. By the end of the year, and after amassing a considerable fortune from this high-volume bitcoin/dollar spread, he officially moved to Hong Kong, formally founding the derivatives exchange FTX in the following spring.The Bitcoin network that SBF rode from rags to riches and back again was partially launched in direct response to the fiat money experiment rearing its ugly head in the subprime mortgage, real estate and eurodollar crises that culminated into what is now known as the Great Financial Crisis of 2007 to 2009.“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”- Satoshi Nakamoto, January 3, 2009This now infamous inscription in the genesis block made clear the inappropriate fractional reserve banking and predatory loan fiascos of our regulated banking industry was to be put to rest once and for all by this emergent monetary protocol; a completely transparent and decentralized ledger would de-incentivize fraud and prevent obfuscation of illicit activity. A new competitor to the dollar arose from the ashes of the meltdown, and with it, a new standard for financial fairness, complete with predictable issuance, controlled once and for all by the people for the people. Yet in any system made with good intentions, criminals like SBF and his bought-and-paid-for political and media allies manage to find a way to hurt innocent people for the advantage of an unknown few. Like most intriguing stories of fraudulent financial crimes, this one starts in the Bahamas, and ends with a tidal wave of asset liquidations and broken homes.“If you think the Bahamas has ruined your global tax system, you have a pretty terrible global tax system.”- Steven Dean, Summer 2020 [1]Launching The Stablecoin, CBDC Race To The BottomThe Bahamas seems innocuous enough, and yet there is a long history of U.S. tax avoidance, complete with rum-running bootleggers during the prohibition era. Continuing this tradition, the Caribbean banking centers, including the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, as of August 2022, were the fourth-largest foreign holders of treasury securities, behind only Japan, China and the U.K. Shortly after the time of its founding, FTX was fully taking advantage of the free money era that began with the 2008 crash and was sustained by low-to-zero interest rates brought upon by the Trump administration.These rate cuts were started by the Trump-nominated and Biden-renominated Jerome Powell and were further exacerbated by both of their administrations’ COVID responses. An unprecedented pumping of all things dollar denominated occurred, with real estate, stock indexes, bitcoin and a whole bunch of unregistered securities known as altcoins reaching new highs across the board. In June 2019, one month after the founding of FTX, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced Libra, a digital currency based on a basket of international currencies; a novel take on stablecoins. This launched the stablecoin and CBDC race in earnest, and coincidentally

enough, the Central Bank of the Bahamas became the first such institution to announce its own CBDC, the sand dollar, in October 2020. The sand dollar itself was pegged to the Bahamian dollar, which is itself pegged to the United States dollar, and thus with its government-sanctioned launch, the birth of the first central bank-issued stablecoin dollar came to be on the sandy beaches of SBF’s new home."What is the reserve currency of the crypto economy going to be? Right now it's unambiguously the USD. And interestingly it's USD whether or not you're looking at the American crypto economy."- Sam Bankman-Fried, November 5, 2021While the U.S. government feigned fear of systemic risk at the time, the Chinese government understood the Libra project to be a backdoor dollarization of the G7 currencies rumored to be included in its basket. A Metaverse-held take on the 1985 Plaza Accord, this plan of coordinated central banking would spread USD network users across the internet’s biggest network, sped up by the high velocity available in centralized digital payments and globalized by the borderless nature of the Facebook user base.The digital yuan was trialed in April 2021 with great haste in reaction to this development, and by the Winter Olympics 2022, had launched for foreign attendees in Beijing. Not to be outdone by these new-look, same-shit fiat cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin made its own financial history when President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador took to the stage at Bitcoin 2021 to announce the legal tender aspirations of his small but dollarized nation. On March 9, 2022 President Joe Biden signed Executive Order #14067–”Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets”, which included aspirations for mitigation of financial risks in digital asset markets, as well as a clause stating that within 210 days, the attorney general, in consultation with the secretary of the treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, must provide a formal proposal for a government-issued CBDC. By this point, the Bitcoin financial system had been utterly and properly dollar-ified, with billions of dollars in liquidity of dollar-denominated trading pairs making up the lion’s share of market activity. The same can be said for the Ethereum network, which has seen its compliance-driven perversion by non-native assets taking the wheel from its token Ether, as stablecoin and other dollar derivatives now uphold the majority of economic weight of the system. Both stablecoin giants Circle, issuer of USDC, and Tether came out in support of the merge, further ossifying their stake in the now-nearly-70%-OFAC-compliant blockchain. [2] As of this article’s writing, over 15.5 million ether are currently staked without active withdrawals in the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain, worth nearly $18 billion dollars.[3] Fortunately for Bitcoin, the consensus weight of its system is not manipulated by user stake, and thus the Bitcoin market has been seemingly unaffected – negatively anyway – by this decade-long development. At least until scammer Do Kwon and his ponzi-scheme Luna wreaked havoc on investors at the start of May of 2022.“[Crypto is] obviously serious…you want to do right by it in the regulatory space.”- President Bill Clinton, April 27, 2022 (Allegedly) [4] Click the image above to buy The Broke Issue.  Contagion SpreadsOnly a few weeks after SBF hosted a keynote with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton at the FTX-organized Crypto Bahamas conference, one of the largest-ever over-the-counter bitcoin purchases was announced by the LUNA team.Terraform Labs and the non-profit Luna Foundation Guard, two entities headed by Do Kwon, had begun a campaign to purchase bitcoin as a reserve asset in the event that their algorithmic stablecoin, UST, deviated from its $1 peg. Shortly before their collapse, the plan had ballooned to the lofty goal of stacking over $10 billion in the hardest known digital commodity known to man. This purchase

was financed with Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, and was facilitated by cryptocurrency broker Genesis."Terra's remarkable growth has continuously reshaped crypto markets over the last two years”, said Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at Genesis. “Genesis is excited to be a liquidity partner to the Terra ecosystem, connecting it to a broader audience of institutional market participants."With the bitcoin reserves of Luna Foundation Guard totalling 80,394 BTC, valued at over $3.1 billion on May 5, 2022, this purchase placed LFG among the top-10 bitcoin holders in the world. [5] But only for a moment, for while it might feel like a lifetime ago, what happened next should look awfully familiar; the peg was attacked, the recently-purchased bitcoin fortune was liquidated, Binance, led by CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), aptly halted all trading on LUNA and UST pairs – with notable exceptions to their own stablecoin BUSD – and Kwon seemingly fled to outside of U.S. jurisdiction to Asia. [6]Thus begins our first of many repeatable points of inquiry; where exactly did this bitcoin go? According to an audit released in November 2022, over 33,000 bitcoin were transferred to Binance on May 10, 2022, and sold along with other assets while failing to defend the peg. [7] The same day the nearly $1 billion dollars worth of bitcoin hit Binance’s order books, bitcoin’s USD price broke below $30,000, falling from $40,000 just a week before.On May 13, SBF purchased a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, the trading platform that came under scrutiny for halting trading during the GameStop fiasco in early 2021. Bloomberg had reported that around 40% of Robinhood’s revenue came directly from selling customers orders to firms such as Two Sigma Securities, and Citadel Securities. [8] Citadel had been fined $700,000 in July 2020 for front running trades placed by customers orders, and in September of that same year, Robinhood itself was questioned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for improperly informing clients of selling stock trades to known high-frequency trading firms.Previously in December 2020, Robinhood had agreed to pay $65 million to settle charges of repeated misstatements for failure to disclose their receipts of payments from said trading firms. [9] When newly-nominated Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen briefed newly-elected President Joe Biden on this conflict of interest in February 2021, she herself had to acquire an ethics waiver due to having received at least $700,000 in speaker fees from Citadel LLC the year prior. [10] SBF had disclosed this purchase via a filed Schedule 13-D form with the SEC, costing $648.3 billion dollars and giving him 2.8% voting power in their dual-class share structure, under the entity Emergent Fidelity Technologies; a name said to be randomly generated. [11]“On July 13, Coinbase Exchange will be unifying USD and USDC order books. As part of the unification process, USDC order books will be merged under USD order books to create a better, more seamless trading experience with deeper liquidity for USD and USDC.”- Coinbase Exchange Twitter, June 29, 2022 [12]Circle, the entity behind the increasingly utilized USDC stablecoin, had previously expanded their international offerings with a subsidiary operation based in Bermuda with an announcement made on July 22, 2019. [13] This entity, filed under the Digital Assets Business Act of 2018 (“DABA”) meant that Circle was the first major stablecoin issuer to receive a Class F (“Full”) DABA license that covered their operation of custody, payment services, exchange, trading and more financial services within the digital asset realm. Circle’s other banking partners, Signet, Signature Bank and Silvergate Capital had made USD loans to Celsius, Voyager, Block Fi, Three Arrows Capital and Alameda Research. By the time this article was written, all had filed for bankruptcy. Two of their other business affiliates, Galaxy Digital and Genesis, have also reported massive losses in the FTX collapse, with rumors of further contagion effects coming.

Coinbase, a publicly-traded exchange under the ticker $COIN, announced in its Q2 2022 shareholder letter that nearly one third of total revenue was derived from interest on USD-denominated holdings, including a large USDC position:“Interest income was $33 million, up 211% compared to Q1. The increase was primarily driven by our USDC activity, as well as higher interest rates as we generate interest on fiat customer custodial funds… at the end of Q2, we had $6.2 billion in total $USD resources. In addition, we had $428 million of crypto assets.” [14]When the letter was released in late August 2022, interest on USDC holdings for 12 months was up to 4.7%, while one-month yields were an even 4%. By November 16, 2022, USDC yields were down to 0% across all time frames.[15]“1) Binance converts USDC --> BUSD, and we see the change in supplies. Thus begins the Second Great Stablecoin War.”- @SBF, October 23, 2022 [16]On September 4, 2022, Binance announced that it would be auto-converting all USDC, USDP and TUSD, three major dollar stablecoins, into its self-issued BUSD, effective in just 25 days. [17] This led to continued concerns about Binance’s solvency with the preceding few months, especially July 2022, seeing the largest known outflows of bitcoin in the exchange’s history, eclipsing even March 2020’s black swan bottom.On October 11, 216 days after Biden’s executive order with the aforementioned 210-day clause, BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian bank with over $43 trillion on the books, and coincidentally, the custodian of Circle’s reserves backing USDC, announced the launch of its digital asset custody program. [18] Involved with more than 20% of the world’s investable assets, the bank founded by the first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was also listed as a partner in the FedNow pilot. [19]Despite these institutional developments, a continued bear market weighed heavily on the now-plummeting bitcoin price. Paradoxically, more and more Bitcoin hash rate poured onto the network. These concurrent movements saw Bitcoin’s hash price plummet to an all-time low, spurring a massive liquidation of bitcoin liabilities off mining operators books. On October 26, Core Scientific, then the largest Bitcoin mining operation in the world, filed for bankruptcy with millions of dollars in debt liabilities, thousands of ASICs, and yet in their filings, held only 24 bitcoin total when the circus came to town. [20] Where exactly did all this bitcoin go? On that same day, barely two weeks before the FTX collapse, Binance saw its largest single day outflow, with 71,579 coins, totalling over $1.1 billion in dollar terms. [21] This pushed net outflows to nearly 95,000 coins from the world’s largest exchange since just that July. Again, where exactly did all this bitcoin go? The very next day, October 27, 2022, SBF appeared on The Big Whale and announced future plans for FTX to launch its very own stablecoin. [22]More Sand Than Dollars“CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and caribbean islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex gf who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”- Nikolai Muchgian, October 28, 2022 [23]On October 24, 2022, the MakerDAO approved a community proposal to custody nearly $1.6 billion USDC with Coinbase Prime. [24] Four days later, Nikolai Muchigan, the co-founder of MakerDAO and inventor of Rai, a DAI-fork stablecoin, tweeted that his life was in danger due to a Caribbean island blackmail ring, supposedly backed by Israeli and U.S. intelligence agents. Three days later, on Halloween, the 29-year-old coder Muchigan was found dead, having drowned in the sea off Condado Beach in Puerto Rico. [25]Two days later, on November 2, 2022, CoinDesk reporter Ian Allison released findings that over a third of all assets – around $5.8 billion of $14.6 billion – on the balance sheet of SBF’s Alameda Research was intrinsically, and soon to be fatally, linked to FTX’s exchange token FTT.

A “bank” run commenced, and after three days of nearly $6 billion in withdrawals, FTX was left with literally one single bitcoin. Where exactly did all this bitcoin go? The next day in an interview with Fortune, Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong made note that USDC will become the de facto central bank digital currency in the U.S. [26]“The policymakers in the U.S. will set the framework that need to be followed so that the private market will actually create the solutions, and USD coin has been on a really rapid rise… the regulatory environment is one of the biggest unlocks we’re going to have in terms of growing this industry and perhaps even getting the prices to go back up in the right direction”- Brian Armstrong, November 3, 2022On November 6, CZ announced Binance would liquidate a remaining portion of FTT it had acquired from exiting FTX’s equity, having received around $2.1 billion in BUSD and FTT. Minutes after his announcement, Caroline Ellison, SBF’s partner and the CEO of Alameda Research, offered to purchase the tokens at $22 each, in an over-the-counter fashion. [27] By November 8, CZ and SBF had a phone call and seemingly came to a tentative deal for acquisition, reserving the right to back out of the deal at any time, while interestingly also leaving both U.S.-based proprietary exchanges, Binance.us and FTX.us, outside the scope of the deal.“Things have come full circle, and FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com (pending DD etc)”, SBF tweeted. [28]Later that evening, FTX officially suspended all asset withdrawals. As part of the conditions of the acquisition, SBF was forced to open the FTX books and show the bottom of his pockets; seeing more sand than dollars, CZ backed out of the deal. A few important statements were made in the 48 hours or so that led up to this sudden cataclysm, including from the awfully-quiet U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission itself.“Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, learning from LUNA. We gave support before, but we won't pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards.”- CZ, November 6, 2022 [29]On November 7, 2022, the SEC officially deemed LBRY, or Library Coin, an unregistered security offering, setting a devastating precedent throughout the extended cryptocurrency market. [30] In the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the memorandum and order read, “The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) contends that LBRY, Inc. offered and sold unregistered securities in violation of Section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933”, the act colloquially known as The Howey Test.Due to LBRY reserving a pre-mine of nearly 400 million LBC tokens, and the knowledge that the company to date had spent approximately half of its pre-mined LBC, the SEC determined common enterprise complete with a lack of disclosure and proper filing of its now alleged security offering through required channels in the Gary Gensler-chaired SEC. The implications of this filing sent shockwaves across the pre-mined token industry, including exchanges listing these tokens as well as the entities behind their issuance. Conveniently, the next day was November 8, the United States’ midterm elections, with the balance of the senate and the house — and perhaps the regulatory path of the digital asset industry — once again at stake.Searching for FTX on FEC.gov brings up 456 individual campaign contributions from SBF, CEO Ryan Salame, and others. [31] Salame’s contributions total over $14 million towards GOP candidates, while SBF’s “effective altruism” contributed over $20 million in donations to DNC politicians. Having been the second leading donor to the Biden campaign, by the time the final tallies from election night rolled in, SBF’s bankroll had finally caught up with his morals, and he found himself nearly completely bankrupt.

By November 9, the day after the elections, SBF had reportedly lost 94% of his net worth, down to $1 billion from more than $15 billion, leaving him with the largest single-day loss by a person according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. [32] Early in the morning of November 10, SBF took to Twitter to explain what happened, writing “I'm sorry. That's the biggest thing. I fucked up, and should have done better”, before making a specific note that “THIS IS ALL ABOUT FTX INTERNATIONAL, THE NON-US EXCHANGE. FTX US USERS ARE FINE!” [33]Chapter 11“The administration [...] has consistently maintained that without proper oversight, cryptocurrencies risk harming everyday Americans…The most recent news further underscores these concerns and highlights why prudent regulation of cryptocurrencies is indeed needed.” - White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, November 10, 2022 [34]On the eleventh day of the eleventh month, FTX and Alameda Research officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and SBF stepped down as CEO. In addition, 130 affiliated companies connected or associated with FTX also commenced voluntary proceedings under Chapter 11. [35] The tide had gone out, and nearly everyone involved got caught swimming naked, as a near-endless tidal wave of dollar-denominated liquidations made quick work of SBF’s Caribbean empire.While the first trickles of a dollar CBDC may have started in the Bahamas, the monsoon of coming regulation and contagion of the Second Great Stablecoin War is far from over. The dollar, having fallen 10% off 35-year DXY highs since September, looks for new ways to innovate and further dollarize markets across the globe.On November 15, just four days after the SBF tsunami crashed to shore, BNY Mellon, as well as a dozen or so other banking institutions, announced the start of a twelve-week digital dollar pilot program with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [36] On the very same day, BlockFi announced plans for bankruptcy filings, only five months after taking a $250 million loan from FTX, and Circle announced users would now be able to settle payments by accepting Apple Pay. [37,38] With a significant 43% discount now showing on the highly-regulated Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, further community requests for proof of reserves are growing around Genesis and Grayscale, both owned by the Digital Currency Group, and even their custodian, Coinbase Custody. [39,40] As of this writing, these requests have so far been denied for security reasons.While appearing to be riding the wave of the booming digital asset revolution, gathering celebrity endorsements and political allies alike, it turns out SBF was drowning in debt and capital misallocation amongst the loud, mainstream praise. Later that month, on November 30, SBF was set to appear in person at a New York Times event, sponsored by Accenture, alongside Secretary Yellen, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, former Vice President Michael Pence, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and others; tickets for the event were listed at $2,499 per attendee.[41] The interview between SBF and Andrew Ross Sorkin was streamed as advertised, albeit with both parties shooting remotely.Bitcoin tends to be a ballast of truth, bringing all sorts of ballooning fraud rushing to the surface. FTX and Alameda Research will take their place amongst the seemingly too-big-to-sink players that ended up doing just that. They will certainly not be the last. However the following weeks, months, and years play out, it is clear that SBF was but a small fish in an ocean-sized, dollarized pond. And as he quickly found out, there is always a bigger fish.“At some point I might have more to say about a particular sparring partner, so to speak. But you know, glass houses. So for now, all I’ll say is: well played; you won.” [42]– Sam Bankman-Fried, November 10, 2022This article is featured in Bitcoin Magazine’s “The Broke Issue”.

Click here to subscribe now.Divider(Variant 1)ENDNOTES:[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/taxnotes/2021/06/24/in-the-1930s-the-bahamas-became-a-tax-problem-for-treasury/[2]https://fortune.com/2022/08/09/stablecoins-circle-tether-support-ethereum-merge-proof-of-stake[3]https://ethereumprice.org/eth-2-deposits/[4]https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/inside-bahamas-crypto-festival-where-ftx-ceo-bankman-fried-welcomed-bill-clinton-and-katy-perry/[5]https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/luna-foundation-now-holds-more-bitcoin-than-tesla[6]https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/binance-remove-trading-pairs-ftx-114338983.html[7]https://lfg.org/audit/LFG-Audit-2022-11-14.pdf&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1668725884650403&usg=AOvVaw22nNl-O_mnhcT8MxsEtEiX[8]https://www.truthorfiction.com/does-citadel-own-robinhood/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1668980992263700&usg=AOvVaw31decanIMGsjR2r2ceb0sP[9]https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-321[10]https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-to-call-regulator-meeting-on-gamestop-volatility-seeks-ethics-waiver.html[11] https://www.axios.com/2022/05/13/what-does-sam-bankman-fried-want-with-robinhood[12]https://twitter.com/CoinbaseExch/status/1542270332299579396?s=20&t=3qAy3oJqtmMnLdfwk-JTJA[13]https://www.circle.com/blog/circle-expands-international-offerings-with-new-bermuda-operations-and-digital-assets-business-license[14]https://s27.q4cdn.com/397450999/files/doc_financials/2022/q2/Q2-2022-Shareholder-Letter.pdf[15]https://www.circle.com/en/usdc-yield#start[16]https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1584077423280521216?s=20&t=UB_GcB9mjBRJtNS8sS4RJQ[17]https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/binance-to-auto-convert-usdc-usdp-tusd-to-busd-binance-usd-e62f703604a94538a1f1bc803b2d579f[18]https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/bny-mellon-launches-new-digital-asset-custody-platform-301645324.html[19]https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/community/news/012521-announcing-pilot-program-participants.html[20]https://www.forbes.com/sites/rosemariemiller/2022/10/27/core-scientific-unable-to-pay-bills-warns-of-bankruptcy/[21]https://bitcoinke.io/2022/11/largest-bitcoin-outflow-on-binance/[22]https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sbf-ftx-stablecoin-second-great-055956820.html[23]https://twitter.com/delete_shitcoin/status/1585918718088970241[24]https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-launches-usdc-institutional-rewards-program-with-makerdao[25]https://www.trustnodes.com/2022/10/31/etherean-nikolai-muchgian-dead-by-drowning[26]https://fortune.com/crypto/2022/11/03/coinbase-ceo-says-usdc-will-become-de-facto-cbdc/[27]https://twitter.com/carolinecapital/status/1589287457975304193[28]https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7268278[29]https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1589374530413215744[30]https://odysee.com/@lbry:3f/secvslbrysummaryjudgementruling:a[31]https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_employer=FTX[32]https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/business/sam-bankman-fried-wealth-ftx-ctrp/index.html[33]https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1590709166515310593[34]https://cointelegraph.com/news/white-house-says-prudent-regulation-of-cryptocurrencies-is-needed-hinting-at-situation-with-ftx[35]https://cryptopotato.com/ftx-and-alameda-file-for-bankruptcy-sbf-resigns-as-ceo/[36]https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/digital-dollar-wall-street-banks-new-york-fed-ftx-crash-2022-11?miRedirects=1&op=1[37]https://www.businessinsider.com/blockfi-ftx-bankruptcy-crypto-lender-emergency-loan-pausing-withdrawals-2022-11?op=1[38]https://www.circle.com/blog/apple-pay-is-now-available-on-circle[39]https://news.yahoo.com/grayscale-bitcoin-trust-hits-record-132435240.html[40]https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-11-18-2022/card/coinbase-vouches-for-grayscale-investments-products-yA5vzaPEIvaOr7Ffj2GE[41]https://www.nytco.com/press/the-new-york-times-to-host-annual-dealbook-summit-on-nov-30/[42]https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1590709197502812160

[lizzie-tempest]

Fanfic Rec List part 2

This list is the harems! :D

I WILL BE ADDING MORE TO THIS! I JUST HAVE THEM SAVED IN MY BOOKMARKS AND HAVEN’T GOT AROUND TO READING THEM YET! THERE WILL BE MORE ADDED! *sobs*

(I have tagged as many authors as I possibly can. If an author isn’t tagged, it’ll be because they don’t have a Tumblr or I can’t find/get on their blog.  If you know for certain that one of the authors has a Tumblr and they haven’t been tagged, please let me know so I can tag them!)

Monstrum Sceletus by Vivalavidapasta (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, ABO dynamics, pining, violence, non-con)

You’re a scientist stranded on an island.  Despite your attempts to continue your research, a bunch of feral skeleton monsters just won’t leave you alone and intend to make you a member of their pack!  Ah well.  At least you can use this in your research.  Oh personally, I love reading the tags on this story. They are hilarious.

What’s in the attic? by Shadowandblack (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, angst, yandere) @shadowandblack

Mutt decides to do some poking around and when he does, he finds the door to the attic locked tight.  With you behind it.  He knows that Sans has something to do with it, so he becomes friends with you in secret.  And while he does, he starts to hatch a plan to get you out of there.

Sleepin’ with the Fishes by Catsitta (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, mystery, angst, violence) @catsitta

MobMer AU.  You have always managed to attract the presence of the Fae.  It’s caused more than its fair share of problems.  So when a nice gentleman on the beach gives you a pearl necklace and offers you a job selling his wares, you can’t pass up the opportunity.  You need a job and this could be the one way you have some kind of normality in your life.  It turns out that it’s not as normal as you had hoped.

Friends of the Fourth Kind by JoJo419 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, fluff, angst, romance) @blazewatergem

You are a little fairy who helped guide Frisk through the Underground.  Unfortunately, you are still trying to regrow your wings so they sneak you into the skeleton brothers’ house so that you can take your time to recuperate.  And then there are four more skeletons and it becomes harder to hide your existence.

Skeleton Squatters and the Landlady by Tyrant_Tortoise (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst) @tyranttortoise

You’ve been stressed from work and your asshole of a boyfriend so you decide to spend the weekend in the middle of nowhere. To be more specific, your grandpa’s old lodge.  But when you get there, you find that it’s not as empty as you thought.  It’s inhabited by a bunch of skeleton monsters.  They’re more than happy to buy the place from you, but instead you decide to become their Landlady. Let the shenanigans begin.

Skeleton Shenanigans and the Landlady by Tyrant_Tortoise (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst)

Set during the story of Skeleton Squatters and the Landlady.  This consists of scenes that didn’t make it into the story, the POVs of the different skeletons and alternate takes on scenes in the story already.  Definitely recommend reading the original if you want to understand any scenarios going on here.

Zoot Suit Riot by YinYanChan (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance) @yinyanchan

Mob AU.  All the skeletons are mobsters.  You live with Sans and Papyrus and are just friends.  However, the two skeletons have romantic intentions and insist on spoiling you at any opportunity.  Then Sans’ machine blows up and a whole load of other mobster skeletons are suddenly there.  Oh, and you also don’t know that they’re actually mobsters.  And they also haven’t told you that you’re their soulmate.  It’s fun to read Sans getting so frustrated.

Bitty Hunt by Rnd_Injustice (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance? fluff, angst) @rnd-injustice

You are a bitty; a human who was turned into a tiny version of yourself when the monsters surfaced.  Usually the humans turned into bitties are taken away and then adopted by others as they have no memories of their former life.  You still have your memories however.  And you have been fighting with everything you have to keep your home.  When a bunch of skeletons move in without your permission, you make it clear that you don’t want them there and you make it your mission to make them leave.

Rose and Bones by Fukae_Flwr83 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, yandere, character death) @fukae-flwr

You’ve always been told not to visit the mansion that is owned by your family.  Once your parents pass away, you decide to break this rule and visit it and the tenants that reside there.  The longer you spend there, the more you think that your parents kept you away for a reason.

THE ALPHA TIMELINE by Sh33tMeDead336 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, violence, character death, fluff, angst, mind the tags) @sh33tmedead336

An interesting take on the reverse harem trope.  The Reader is from the Horrortale AU and is close to the Sans and Papyrus of that AU when all three of them are pulled into the Tale verse.  The other skeletons in the house are already extremely cautious of the Horror boys, but with you thrown into the mix? They don’t know what to do and make it clear that they don’t trust you or the brothers you came with.

Skeletons in Heat by TheMsource (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, angst) @themsource

After being dumped and made homeless by your ex, you spend the night in Grillby’s, drowning your sorrows in booze.  This is where you meet Sans the skeleton.  After hearing of your predicament and engaging in some...fun activities, he offers you a deal.  To live with him and his family and help them out with their heat cycles.  He even offers to pay you!  You don’t have anywhere else to go, so you accept his deal.

A Songbird’s Lament by Mitsuko_Elric, XrosaryX (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst)

Inspired by the story Six Skeletons, One Maid by RacoonSinQueen, this story follows the sister of the maid in the original story.  You have become a maid to six skeletons in order to find your sister.  The skeletons you serve aren’t the usual gaggle of skeletons.  Instead they consist of the brothers from Mobtale, Dancetale and Altertale.  My favourite thing about this story is the way that AlterTale has been included. I haven’t found many stories on the AU itself yet, but I am soft for Alter Sans who acts all protective, gentle and fatherly. <3

A Mouse Among Skeletons by Duchess_Aquarius (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, character death, mind the tags)

You’re used to your twin sister Edwina stealing friendships and relationships, so when she introduces herself to your friends Blue and Papyrus, you believe that it will happen again.  Turns out, they’re not as easy to manipulate as Edwina thought.  After a series of events, you end up living with the skeletons.  And then you find out that some of them happen to be your soulmates.

Guilt In The Eyes Of Sinners by KallicaTheNerd (complete?) (Multi-chapter, angst, character death, mind the tags)

Inspired by the story Six Skeletons, One Maid by RacoonSinQueen, this is a sort of “what if” story.  You get a letter from your mother while working for the skeletons.  And unfortunately, it’s not good news.  Sans hasn’t been keeping his end of the deal, and now your family has suffered the consequences.  The story itself isn’t marked as complete, but with the way the fourth chapter ends, I think it’s safe to say that it is.

The Priestess and the Soul Guardians by FireflyKisses (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, non-con, violence, character death, mind the tags) @rayeofintegrity

You try to end your life by falling into Mount Ebbot, and ultimately fail.  Sans and Papyrus are the ones to find you in the Ruins.  They have been waiting for you.  It turns out that you are a Priestess, destined to bond with six guardians and use the power to summon a Beast God in order to break the barrier across all universes so that monsters can go free.  However, there is discord in the Underground.  Not all of the monsters agree with Queen Toriel and the idea of a human being a Priestess.

Six Skeletons In Your Closet by MsMK (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, slow burn, violence, character death, mind the tags) @msmkcreates

You’re constantly on the run from your family, never settling down for long.  After your roommates find out about the terrible secrets you carry, you find yourself in need of a place to stay again.  Your friend Sans offers you a room at his place and while you’re hesitant to accept, you need a place to stay.  You didn’t expect to get so attached to all the skeletons that live there.

Six Skeletons In Heat by MsMK (ongoing?) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut)

A “what if” of the story Six Skeletons In Your Closet, this covers what would have happened if you hadn’t been rescued and instead stayed with the skeletons in order to help them with their heat.  Each skeleton of the household gets their own chapter, so even though it’s not marked as complete, it could be seen as being so.

Six Skeletons, One Maid by RacoonSinQueen (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence) @raccoonsinqueen

You are the single maid working for six skeletons.  You cater to their every whim, do the cooking, cleaning, laundry and any task they ask of you.  In return?  Your Master Sans send money to your family, so that they can pay off a debt.  It’s hard work and damn frustrating at times, but you are determined to make this work.  Besides, you’re good at your job.

You Matter To Me by myownpersonaldemons (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, hurt/comfort, angst, slow burn) @myownpersonaldemons

You’re good friends with the skeletons.  One night, you get home and find your boyfriend is cheating on you.  With your sister.  Hurt and betrayed, you go back to the skeletons and spend the night, pretending that everything is okay the next morning.  At first you only tell Stretch about what’s going on.  It’s only a matter of time until the others find out too.

Six Skeletons and The Waitress by Teutonic_lisp (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, violence, mind the tags) @teutonicfanfics

Your two brothers are manipulative, controlling and violent, claiming that their actions are purely for your own good.  You’re actually relieved when you get the chance to move in with an old friend.  You believe you’re finally going to get away from a bad situation.  Except your “friend” isn’t exactly...well she’s horrible. Is there no one who can save you?

Learning A Little by Nightmare_Walker14, sketchy_sketch (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort)

You are kicked out by your ex and your friend Papyrus offers you a place to stay.  Some of the skeletons are fine with you, but there are some who believe that something isn’t right.  Eventually they find out your secret.  You are a Little.

You Snooze, You Lose by Cryybabyy (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, angst, character death) @she-a-crybaby

You are in a relationship with Sans and perfectly happy.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t feel the same and breaks up with you.  2 years later and you return to Ebott.  One of the first people you bump into happens to be none other than Sans.  Now his alternates and their brothers have you in their sights and want you for themselves and Sans is jealous.

party of six. by alchemic (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, comfort) @alch3mic

You are in an established polyamorous relationship with Sans, Blue, Axe, Black and Red.  Chapters consist of various slice-of-life drabbles and just oozes fluff and good vibes.  A lovely story to read when feeling down, as the interactions between the characters and Reader is so heartfelt that it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :3

Don’t Dimension It by Frothy_Frowns (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, smut, yandere, fast burn) @dont-dimension-it

After the Multiverse converged, you became roommates with Scarlet and Sakura, who happen to be the Fell version of Undyne and Alphys.  They are very protective over you, so much so that they see themselves as parental figures to you.  When stopping by the skeleton brothers’ house one day, it’s revealed that the brothers are your mates.  Before you can get too overwhelmed, Scarlet and Sakura step in and set some boundaries for the boneheads.  You are only to see two at a time.  No ifs, ands or buts.

The Sacrificial Skeleton And The Labyrinth Of Gods by this_is_my_alt (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, lil non-con, violence)

You are a necromancer who used to be human.  After your death you turned into a skeleton.  With your friends gone, you set out on a journey to try and find if there are others like you out there.  You hear about a village who worships gods.  Gods who happen to be skeletons, like yourself.  Excited at the idea of finding more skeletons like you, you immediately journey to the village to try and find them.

Good Boy by this_is_my_alt (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, smut, non-con, substance abuse, violence, mind the tags)

On trying to find fellow pet owners, you end up in a pretty chaotic situation. You find yourself surrounded by a kinky Mutt, a gaster! blaster Sans named Fang and Axe wearing cat ears. Well, at least you've got your adorable dog Wuffie to help you get through it.

Tangled Strings by RoseTeaCup (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, smut)

You are best friends with the Swap brothers, but you like them both.  They like you too, but they won’t tell you their feelings.  One day, their “cousins” Black and Pup (Swapfell bros) have to stay with them.  The second you meet them, you feel an instant connection with the two new brothers.  Seeing the connection, Blue and Stretch start to get jealous and you feel increasingly confused about how you feel.

Dropped From The Not-So Heavens by FidgetBird (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, angst, violence, character death)

You are from the Birdtale AU and have wings.  You’re in a relationship with your Sans.  Unfortunately, things haven’t been great in your AU for a while.  In a last ditch effort to save both you and himself, your Sans uses his machine to take you both to the Tale verse, where all the other AUs have ended up.  But when you finally wake up, you’re in the care of the Horror boys and Dust and your Sans is nowhere to be found.

Cold Currents by JacketBones (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff) @jacketbones

You’re a mermaid and you somehow manage to make friends with the skeletons, despite there being a language barrier.  When they find you far from your home in the ocean, they vow to help you get back.

A tale of Myth and Legend by Tashamon04 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence, character death)

Sans has tampered so much with the machine that not only has he brought his and his brother’s alternate selves over from their own universes, it’s caused the multiverse to start collapsing.  Now it’s a race against time to find a mage from legend who may be able to stop this and fix things before it’s too late.

You’re Broke? They Break Bones and Break Bank by Trash_McTrash (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn) @trashmcwrites

Mob AU where all the skeletons are mobsters.  You are broke as hell and you somehow gain the attention of some very generous individuals.  They’re more than happy to pay for your furniture and anything else you may need.  But you don’t really know who they could be, or why they’re helping you.

I See You by PandaWrites_Fics (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, ABO dynamics, smut)

Not all monsters were forced Underground.  You are a skeleton monster and after the death of your family, you find the monsters who have recently resurfaced.  Moved by your sorrow, Asgore and Toriel give you a little cottage in a forest where you can live out your life in loneliness.  And then, the gaggle of skeletons move into a mansion nearby.  They don’t know you’re a monster, and they want you out.  You’re not taking this harassment lying down.

Unexpected Housemates by BigTrashPile (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, mild horror) @bigoltrashpile

An AU of Aggre(g/v)ation by Llama_Goddess.  In this story, you have just moved into a new house.  No one else will touch it because it’s supposedly haunted, meaning that you get it at a steal.  Turns out that the rumours are true.  It IS haunted.  By the spirits of three skeleton monsters.  And because you set them free from the dolls they were trapped in, they will do anything for you.

Mediocre Expectations by BigTrashPile (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence, tags to be added)

Mafia AU. After you're fired for serving Frisk and Monster Kid, you find yourself desperate for work. Luckily, Frisk's adopted uncle Sans hands you a job on a silver platter. All you have to do is cook for him and his "cousins".

Dear Hearts and Gentle People by Esuerc (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst) @esuerc

After finding you in a trap, the Horrortale brothers take you back to their cabin in the woods to nurse you back to health.  It’s obvious that you are friends with the skeletons at the main household, but when you finally wake up you have no memory of what happened to you or even who you are.  Crooks takes this opportunity to keep you for himself.

The Skeletons and the NOT Pot Dealer by NihilismPastry (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, angst) @nihilismpastry

You’re a herbalist and Sans seeks out your service to help with calming down some of the more...violent skeletons.  You try and explain multiple times that you don’t sell pot, but he doesn’t listen.  Against your better judgement, you decide to take the job.

Second Floor Skeletons by sansual (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, angst) @sansualfics

Your university has extra space when the monsters resurface and offers to house some of the monsters.  All of the monsters on the floor above your room are none other than the many skeletons of the numerous AUs, including the Gasters.  And they are all dying to get to know you.

I Have The Power of Gaster AND Anime On My Side by littlexsiren (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, angst)

Sans fucked up with the machine again.  There’s a whole host of skeletons now, and they all want to jump your bones.  Pun intended.  Luckily, you have Gaster fighting in your corner and acting as a protective father towards you.

But No One Came by AmberLynn2424 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, ABO dynamics, smut, angst)

After eating monster food, you are suddenly able to see stats.  It doesn’t do you any favours.  After running into the skeletons, your life starts to take a different direction.  You’re unable to tell if it’s a good thing.

Lovely Bones just Lovely. by LovelyHuman83 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst)

You are a skeleton monster who was never sealed Underground and are the very last of your kind.  At least, until you come across the skeleton brothers.  You end up living with them and it can be pretty hard being the only female skeleton in a house full of males!

Live Again by Novicenox (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, angst, mind the tags) @daveysramblehour

After receiving a bad phone call from your father, you end up in Grillby’s bar.  You meet Sans there and even after you leave, he finds himself concerned about you.  So he ropes in the rest of the family and it doesn’t take long for them to find out about your abusive parents.

Perpetually Boned by katzenjam (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst) @undertaleimaginationland

You saved up all your money and instead of using it to go on vacation, you decided to buy a new house so that you can get away from your awful roommates and start a brand new life!  Your neighbours are interesting too.  Your house is surrounded by houses owned by skeletons.  Shenanigans ensue once they introduce themselves.

On Top of the Bone Pile by Lyrjok (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, hurt/comfort, slight non-con, violence) @lady-lyrjok

You are a bartender who is best friends with Sans and Papyrus.  You can’t imagine life without them.  Then more skeletons appear out of nowhere and they take a great interest in you.

Starlight by LukaDeer (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, mind the tags) @hyrulessongkeeper

You answer an ad to be a live in nanny.  The advert says that your expenses will be paid and is practically rent free.  It seems like a pretty good deal.  Sure, it means you’ll have to take care of a lot of kids that seem to be fighting, but the guy you spoke to on the phone, Sans, who you presume is the dad, seems to be at his wits end.  You’re determined to help this guy out.  It’s only when you get to the house with all your stuff and sign the contract that you realize that the advert wasn’t exactly truthful.  There are no kids.

My Ordinary Life by BoujeeD (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, angst, violence, character death)

You’re a day-care worker just trying to go about your ordinary life.  You end up meeting a skeleton at a bar and trade numbers with him.  Then you meet another skeleton.  And another.  And suddenly your life isn’t as ordinary as it used to be.  My favourite thing about this story is how the author portrays Axe.  He’s so delightfully unhinged but you can tell that he’s trying to be romantic and it just results in some truly hilarious scenarios and I love it.

I’m no human by Desolateskeleton37 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, angst, non-con, violence, mind the tags) @imnohuman-undertaleficblog

Sans is able to bring back Gaster from the void.  He appreciates that his son is protective of him now, but he still wishes for alone time and so sneaks out of the house at night to walk by the ocean.  It’s on one such nights that Gaster finds you.  After your failed attempt at suicide, you have no wish to be alive as a human.  Gaster decides to bring you back to his lab because he has a solution.

Windows to the Soul by Rochesa (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, violence) @moramulti

You are offered a job to be a live-in therapist by none other than Sans.  Things have been incredibly tense in the mansion with all the skeletons from different AUs crammed in one space.  You have your work cut out for you, but Sans is hopeful that you can help.

It's All Bones, Baby by TrasBen (ongoing) (Multichapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, substance abuse, hurt/comfort, violence, character death) @beanniebenn

You're a skeleton who is trying to recover from the death of your mentor, Gaster. While trying to fix the machine, a button that belonged to your mentor falls in. While you try and get it back, you soon find yourself trapped in the machine. When you wake up, you're in another universe with two skeletons staring back at you.

Skeleton x Skeleton by Tea_Cup (PumpkinFlash) (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, slow burn) @pumpkinflash

You are a mystic skeleton heading to Ebott City for some monster food. While walking through some woods, you get caught in a trap and end up getting rescued by two skeletons; one of which is a ghost. They invite you to spend the night at their house and you accept their invitation.

A Skele-ton of Fun by lollipopkitten93 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut, angst, violence) @lollipopskele

You're in Ebott City, going to college against your mothers wishes so you can be a zoologist. When your monsterphobic roommate kicks you out, your good friend Sans gives you a solution. Move in with him and his brother. And their cousins.

The Soul's Song by Galactic_Eden (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, smut, violence, character death, substance abuse) @galactic-eden

You're an art student that's lived in the North-east for most of your life. Life is pretty boring until you get some new neighbours. Who happen to be skeleton monsters. They quickly become involved in your life, and you don't really mind.

Into The Bonezones by Saiyurimai (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, slow burn, angst) @saiyurimaiandtheden

When you find yourself out of a job and getting kicked out of your apartment, your skeletal friends Papyrus and Blue suggest you move in with them and their brothers and cousins. You tell yourself that it's just until you get back on your feet, but you really do enjoy living with them.

All Gone by cateronix (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, smut, hurt/comfort, substance abuse, violence, non-con)

You're just trying to get through life when you're dragged into another universe and dumped in front of a load of skeleton monsters. You actually know these guys. You're a fan of Undertale and you know the characters and their alternates. Years ago, you would've been jumping for joy. Now you just want to go home. And the skeletons are more than just a little suspicious of you.

A Nanny Among The Feral by Pchan2017 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, smut, ABO dynamics, violence) @washedupfae

After surviving a storm and washing up on an island, you do the best you can to ensure that you, your son and your other young charge, survive. It's not easy, but the three of you are making it work. And then the skeletal inhabitants make themselves known. And there's a lot of them.

A SANSational Experiment by Britkiir (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, smut, violence) @queenbritkiir

You work in a lab with Sans. One night, he calls you and asks you to come to the lab because the machine you've been monitoring is creating interesting readings. It's acting out because of the storm and when Sans accidentally touches it, you're thrown back and black out. When you wake up, there are three more Sanses in front of you.

Our Place Among The Stars by Nascent (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, smut, violence, character death) @nascent-chaos

After stopping a racist protest from potentially dusting a group of skeleton monsters, you end up being fired from your security job. Instead of being down in the dumps, you take this as an opportunity to do something you'd be much happier with; getting a job at Muffet's bakery. While working, you end up seeing some of the skeletons again and it's only a matter of time before you become friends.

My hand slipped by xiphiathepeacefullsword (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance) @xiphiathepeacefullsword

You are rich, going to college and bored out of your mind. It starts with getting a random text message. Before you knew it, the guy you'd been texting has moved in next door with his family. They're all skeleton monsters. Oh, and they're ALL your soulmates. Personal note: this story is hilarious. Reader doesn't take any shit and the fourth wall breaking is great.

You Don't Need Saving by ThemSoundwaves (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst, violence, substance abuse) @themsoundwaves

You used to have everything. Good home, great family. The world was your oyster. But you decided to leave it all behind. Running away at 15, you made your way to Ebott City. Now you fight in an illegal fighting ring. Probably not the best life to lead, but you still love it. You start questioning your decisions when you meet a bunch of skeletons.

Startale Undervalley by UnholyKrow (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, angst) @unholykrowcollection

Birdie is a fangirl in a world where the Undertale world (and the AUs) have converged with the real world. After running away, they end up in Stardew Valley and decide to have a fresh start. Which is hard to do when the whole town is made up of skeletons.

The Crasher by AKA_Indulgence (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff) @aka-indulgence

You're good friends with Sans and you miss him terribly. He's been absent for a while. You understand that life can get in the way, so in the meantime you end up meeting two new skeletons. After finally meeting with Sans again, you end up in a house fire and needing a place to stay. Sans is more than happy to let you crash with him for a while.

Make the World Afraid by theragingprophet (complete) (Multi-chapter, fluff, angst, slow burn) @theragingprophet

After the monsters surfaced from the Underground, other monsters revealed their existence. These monsters had never been trapped, instead hiding their true selves from humans. You are also a Surface monster. But with your species being generally despised by humans and monsters alike, you hide who you really are. It can be quite lonely.

The House on Lane 66 by OolongTeacup (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, hurt/comfort, smut, angst, violence, character death) @oolongteacup426

It's your final year of college and you desperately need a way to pay off your student debt. So you answer an advert in the paper for a groundskeeper. The ad says that the applicant MUST be monster friendly and you presume it's because of how close the address is to the mountain and the monsters that emerged. You don't expect your new employers to be a family of skeleton monsters.

Throw Me a Bone Here, I'm Trying My Best by randomassuser (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, fluff, angst, violence, tags to be added) @randomhailee

When monsters surface, it doesn't take long for you to become friends with Sans and Papyrus. But after an accident where Sans' machine destroys their apartment, you invite them to live with you. Your apartment is more than big enough. But it turns out that the accident with the machine actually pulled in alternate versions of your friends into this universe. Now they're all staying with you and helping you run your cafe.

The She Alpha and The Skeletons by Blueberrybagel (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence, character death, non con, ABO dynamics)

After waking up stranded on an island and discovering your beloved sister is dead, you do your best to survive and grieve at the same time. Your sister would want you to live and you do your best. But it's made a little more difficult with all these skeletons following you around like lovestruck puppies.

Jail Time Rock by Loopylulu258 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence) @self-indulgent-gremlin

Aggre AU. You're hired as a nurse for Mt Ebbot Prison. Your main patient is Sans the skeleton, who needs weekly check ups due to his low HP. And then you meet Red, who rules the prison courtyard and isn't afraid to get into fights. Then there's Skull, who is locked away with the most dangerous prisoners, but for some reason he's like a puppy when with you.

Crowd Control by owl_bones (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence) @owl-bones

You've been housemates with Sans and Papyrus for a while now and you're the best of friends. Then Sans manages to bring different versions of himself and his brother through to this universe and the house you're living in gets rather cramped. So you decide to find a bigger house and move out. Easier said than done when trying to control all these skeletons.

Gumtrees and Gaster Blasters by wannabuyahotcat (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, fluff, angst, substance abuse, tags to be added) @wannabuyahotcat

When looking for a room to rent, you find an extremely cheap one in the mountains. It seems a bit too good to be true. When you go and look at the place, you figure out that you'll be rooming with 10 skeletons. Could be fun though.

Meeting Your Soulmates on Animal Crossing by PunnyPearl (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst) @punnypearlpeppermint

Everyone has a soulmate and in this world, it just so happens that you can't actually see their face until a certain event happens. So when your friends get you Animal Crossing for your birthday, you start to meet your multiple soulmates through playing the game.

Family is where the Love is! by basurtoj15 (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, angst, violence, mind the tags) @ask-bassyj15

Looking after your twin brothers isn't easy, especially when they beg for pets and lose interest in a week. You're often left to care for the poor thing, but sooner or later every pet ends up disappearing or going to "the farm". This time, the boys want the latest craze: Bitties. You're not happy with this, but your parents ask you to go along with it and so you take them to get a bitty. What happens in the store affects you and your family for the rest of your lives.

Skeleton Squatters and the Vampire by Xenbonzacura (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, fluff, smut) @splintertale-stories-blog

You're a vampire and after living in the city for too long, you decide to retreat back to your forest home. But when you finally get there, you're not expecting a family of skeleton monsters to already be living there.

Skeleton's Small Problems by Novacainne (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, hurt/comfort, slow burn, tags to be added)

When you're only a few inches tall and the whole world seems against you, it's hard to trust anyone. But when a group of unwanted skeletons move into the house you've been occupying, your beloved dog companion takes a shine to them. Her instincts aren't usually wrong, but you're not going to trust the skeletons straight away.

Free Love by tagitup (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, tags to be added) @time-is-pain

By day, you're a barista and at night you are a DJ. But when you find yourself thrown out of your home and have nowhere to go, a regular customer finds you and offers up a helping hand. So you move in with him and his cousins until you are back up on your feet.

Green Threads of Life by blacksilks (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, smut, angst, character death, non-con, violence) @blacksilks

When you get caught in a shooting and end up in a coma, the political world of humans and monsters are thrown into chaos. Once you wake up, your life is turned upside down and the new and painful scars that have been carved into your skin cause new disagreements.

Fucking Superb You Funky Little Bat by TastySins_tm (complete) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, smut, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort, violence) @itsthesinbin

You're a surface monster; a vampire. And you can't remember your name or your past. All you know is that you wanted to get out of this horrible facility that keeps torturing you. So when you get the chance to escape, you run as far away as possible. While hiding in some woods, you come across a cabin that's the home to a bunch of skeletons. Once they discover you, instead of reacting with fear like you expected, they keep bringing you food. Not that you're complaining.

Life With the Bone Brigade by ValkyrieOfSmut (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, smut, fluff, angst, slow burn) @valkyrieofsmut

When (Y/n) loses both her jobs and apartment, she packs her camper full of her stuff and decides to look for a new place to live and work. For the time being, she decides to camp out in a seemingly abandoned campground in the middle of nowhere. Well, she thinks there's no one there until a skeleton with a head wound tries to turn her into his next meal.

Different Paths to the Heart by LovelyMemory (ongoing) (Multi-chapter, romance, slow burn, fluff, tags to be added) @artistgamersketches

It's hard trying to work 2 different jobs and trying to scrape by. When you finally catch a break, you end up meeting a skeleton. And another. And another. And with each new skeleton you meet, you find that each one has a different way of finding their way into your heart.

[turtlethon]

"Michelangelo Meets Bugman"

Season 4, Episode 27 First US Airdate: November 3, 1990

Mikey teams up with the superhero Bugman to battle his arch-nemesis, Electrozapper.

"Michelangelo Meets Bugman" is episode 92 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is the final show of the series written by Dennis Marks, following on from his previous contributions, “Back to the Egg” and “Donatello Makes Time”.

We open today with Mikey engrossed in a “Bugman” comic book, to the point of forgetting to attend his ninja practice. Splinter snatches the comic and reprimands his young student. When Michaelangelo protests and says “c’mon man”, Splinter flips out. “MAN? Is that how you refer to me? What is next, rat-faced dude guy?!” This is easily the angriest he’s been since that time he threw the Turtles around the living room in last season’s opener. Tossing the comic aside, he drags Mikey to the practice room.

During practice, Mikey – mistakenly animated with Donatello’s colours and “D” belt – is blindfolded and tasked with wrapping his grappling hook around a sewer pipe. When a power cut leads to the lights going out, the team pick up torches and wander off to investigate, leaving a still-blindfolded Michaelangelo behind. Understandably offended, he returns to his bedroom to resume reading his comics, but is distracted by the sound of a person yelling for help nearby.

Floating along in a stream of water is a visibly exhausted man. Mikey quickly comes to his aid, carrying him back to the Lair. As he comes around, he’s alarmed by the sight of the chains that had been restraining him. Michaelangelo is baffled until it’s explained that they’re made of Leestanite, which robs him of his power. At this point, Mikey realises he’s rescued Brick Bradley, AKA Bugman, who just... is a real person in addition to being a well-known comic book character, as it turns out.

Brick has Michaelangelo promise not to reveal his secret identity before going on to outline his origin story via flashback. At college he studied entomology, researching the effects of light spectrums on different insects. A lab experiment led to him being caught in the rays of a machine alongside a host of insects, fusing their DNA with his own. Later, Brick is shown witnessing a bank robbery. In one of the most graphic body horror transformations I’ve ever seen on Turtles, his anger at seeing the crime causes his eyes to grow and turn red, as wings, arms and antennae burst out of his body, completing his transformation into Bugman. The superhero is shown picking up the van containing the robbers, depositing it in the State Prison.

Back in real time, Brick explains that he was battling his nemesis Electrozapper in a power plant and was defeated when the villain unleashed the chains made of Leestanite. Mikey offers to team up with the superhero to defeat the bad guy, before both break the fourth wall to inform the viewer this is happening “because YOU asked for it!” (This would work a hell of a lot better if Bugman had been in any way an established superhero and not just a guy that was made up for the purposes of this episode.)

In a scene reminiscent of the Batmobile sequences from the Adam West Batman show, Michaelangelo and Brick perform a launch sequence for the Turtle Van. Utilizing the big spring mechanism – which I don’t think we’ve seen since “Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers” last year – the vehicle is propelled out of the Lair and onto the streets of New York.

Act two opens with the other Turtles returning to the Lair, having managed to restore power to their home. They find a note from Michaelangelo announcing that he’s “gone off with Bugman to fight Electrozapper”. Raphael, Leonardo and Donatello all laugh at this, and when I say laugh, I mean they’re buckled over in complete hysterics for the remainder of the scene.

Investigating goings on at the power plant is April, who sits outside in a news van and is chewed out over a video call by Burne Thompson. The Channel 6 boss demands that she return to the office and stop tying up the van. (That checks out: so many vans have been destroyed over the course of the series that the station is seemingly now down to its last one.) April gets her boss off her back by fiddling with the van’s equipment to make it seem like the signal is breaking up, then heads out to survey the area.

We’re almost halfway through this episode and now we finally get introduced to today’s villain, Electrozapper, a goofy-ass Hamburgler lookin’ guy with a big picture of a battery on his chest. He uses the power plant’s equipment to charge himself further, saying to no-one in particular that when he reaches his full capacity, he’ll “be able to control electrical currents anywhere”.

April is checking out a mysterious antenna that crackles with electricity when she happens to encounter Michaelangelo, who introduces her to Brick. For what I think might be the first time in the series, April is shown to have a definite romantic attraction to another character, quipping to Mikey that Brick must be “The Incredible Hunk”.

Brick identifies the antenna as “Electrozapper’s secret listening device”. He tries to break it but fails, still weakened by the effects of the Leestanite. Michaelangelo steps in, using a ninja kick to blow up the antenna. Electrozapper’s equipment begins exploding as a result, and he sets out to investigate. Confronting our heroes, he fires an energy bolt at a nearby electrical pylon. Michaelangelo dives in to knock April out of the falling structure’s path. Turning his attention to Brick, he encourages the hero to transform into Bugman, stomping on his foot to induce more anger when he’s still unable to do so. Another metamorphosis sequence follows, this one thankfully shorter, cartoonier and less horrific than the previous time.

April is astonished by all of this, finding it hard to believe she was briefly attracted to this half-man, half-insect hero. Having twisted her ankle after being knocked to the ground, she watches as a battle unfolds between Bugman and Electrozapper.

Back in the Lair, the other Turtles discuss Michaelangelo’s note. They briefly consider the possibility that Bugman might be real, but ultimately dismiss it.

Electrozapper is able to expose Bugman to a secret reserve of Leestanite, knocking the hero out of the air and reverting him to his normal human form. He zaps Michaelangelo and captures both crime-fighters, restraining them in chambers – which he refers to as “electronic tombs” - inside his hideout. The supervillain explains that he intends to drain all of the energy from their bodies.

April was seemingly considered so little of a threat by Electrozapper that he left her sprawled out on the ground next to the power plant, still unable to move. The damaged equipment from the battle soon catches fire, which encircles the reporter as the second act concludes.

Returning from commercials, the other Turtles are watching a monster movie when the signal cuts out. Donatello notices unusual formations in the static appearing on the TV, and the team gradually come around to the idea that perhaps there really is an Electrozapper after all. Taking to their Sewer-Skis, they race off to investigate.

Michaelangelo is able to kick his way through the plastic chamber holding him. He goes on to battle Electrozapper, hurling the Leestanite into a nearby control panel and causing an explosion. Brick is now able to turn back to Bugman off-screen, and quickly joins the fight. Meanwhile, the other Turtles rescue April from the fire, and soon find themselves face-to-face with the escaping villain.

Reuniting with Mikey, who is accompanied by Bugman, the heroes battle Electrozapper until he again flees, this time via speedboat. The insect hero swoops in and rapidly devours the boat’s exterior, leaving only a hollow frame. An electrical explosion follows that sends Electrozapper flying. Winding up on the pier, he’s dragged away by two cops who appear out of nowhere.

Bugman greets the Turtles and April one last time before flying off. April promises to “leave the light on” for the hero, suggesting she still has a thing for him after all. Later, she films a report on the day’s events for Channel 6, weirdly getting right up into the camera as she excitedly thanks the insect crimefighter. The Turtles do their wrap-up in the Lair, with Mikey suggesting April has gone a little “buggy” before being pelted with pillows by the others. In and out in ten seconds for today’s concluding gag, that must be a new record.

Okay, this episode definitely raises... questions. The Turtles have saved New York and/or the world in 91 different adventures prior to this. At no point did Bugman ever show up to do anything, his path and theirs never crossed even once. Now he’s here, a real active superhero with his own nemesis that they somehow only know as a fictional comic book character. Even more amazingly, despite all their exploits, Bugman doesn’t seem to have prior knowledge of the Turtles either. My most charitable analysis of this is that maybe Bugman operates in another town – that he and Electrozapper have only now wound up in New York.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen other costumed heroes operating within the city: earlier in the season Gadgetman was introduced as a retired crimefighter returning to active duty after many years, though the idea of a true superhero operating in parallel to the Turtles this entire time is something else entirely. Adding another layer to all of this is that someone, somewhere is monetising Bugman and Electrozapper’s likenesses for use in comic books. Did they sign off on this?

I’m not sure what to make of “Michelangelo Meets Bugman”. The surface level reading of it is as a loving homage to campy superheroes, which given that the Turtles themselves were originally conceived as a take on Daredevil and The New Mutants make this kind of a comics parody within a comics parody. However, knowing that Dennis Marks was vocal while working on the animation side of Marvel Productions in his disdain for the company’s comics division and its creators, I have to wonder if this entire episode isn’t just him venting.

Dennis won’t be returning to write future episodes of Turtles, but against all odds, Bugman will make a second appearance next season in “Michelangelo Meets Bugman Again”. I’m fine with this: if you’re going to float the idea that other superheroes have been running around this entire time, at least run with it. Dan Gilvezan voiced the animated version of Spider-Man back in 1981 before joining the original Transformers cartoon as Bumblebee. He makes his second TMNT appearance here, having previously guested as Rondo earlier this season, and is always a welcome addition to the show.

NEXT TIME: "Poor Little Rich Turtle"!

[mageofseven]

Thank you both for requesting! I was originally gonna split this up into two posts, one for a good ending and one for a bad ending, but I think I found a way to keep both within this post with how I decided to format it. However, while I was writing Satan's section, I hit the word limit for a post. I didn't even realize that was a thing 😳

Basically, that's why this ask is still gonna be separated into multiple parts, likely 3 but we'll see. I honestly didn't think I'd write this much, but this ask got me so inspired, it's crazy.

So everyone! This is gonna continue off from the pregnancy discovered in this post. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth a read.

Below is Lucifer, Mammon, and Levi's sections.

Part 2 | Part 3

~

Lucifer:

The man thought he was prepared. He thought.

Lucifer expected all different kinds of physical ailments that he would have to help MC cope through; he didn't expect the ailments to be mental.

He noticed it start around her fourth month. Before that point, the demon was surprised at how calm things were. His Love went through the usual struggles of human pregnancy, like the morning sickness in the first trimester, but that was all. Nothing odd had happened and though he was grateful, Lucifer was also suspicious.

The start was subtle. His Love's spirits had been seeming down, despite keeping a cheerful outlook for all the weeks before this. She was happy for this child and it was infectious, easing the Avatar of Pride's worry about fatherhood and making him look forward to this child as well.

That was shattered when the low spirit had suddenly progressed into a heavy depression. MC couldn't even leave their bed most days and getting her to eat had become a challenge for the first brother.

He simply couldn't understand the sudden nose dive in mood and any questioning came up empty. MC didn't know why she felt what she felt and that scared her.

It was the end of that month when the fear really set in though.

Lucifer had a meeting with Diavolo at the castle. He had laid in bed and cuddled his girlfriend close beforehand, giving her a kiss and promising he'd be back in a couple hours.

He had only been gone for 10 minutes when he got a call from Mammon, who was freaking out. The older brother couldn't fully make out what the second brother was saying, but he heard his Love's name in jumble that was his brother's words so he hung up and rushed back home.

Discovered all six of his brothers in his room, trying to calm a panicked MC, who was screaming and crying on the floor.

The demon rushed to her side, trying to calm her down and figure out just what was happening. His Love clung to him and he could feel the her heart beating as if it meant to break free from her chest and the man felt powerless.

Luckily, it only took about a minute of being in his arms for the woman to stop screaming. She cried in his arms for a while and slowly, her heart beat settled.

Lucifer was so confused. What happened and why? The man shooed his brothers out of the room before carrying his Love back to the bed.

Discovers that after he left, an uneasiness set in that quickly turned into blind panic. The woman didn't even notice the brothers or hear any of their attempts to calm her.

To say that the demon was concerned would be an understatement. He had to convene with Diavolo at once for a new reason.

The man laid with his girlfriend till she fell asleep, exhausted from her previous panic.

Lucifer called his friend and apologized for his absence before explaining the situation. Lord Diavolo, now concerned as well, decided to come to House of Lamentation instead.

The two discussed the issue in his study. The lord listened to his friend's predicament before explaining that this was likely a side affect of MC's angel heritage.

Right now, their baby was trying to form its soul along with its body and the demon child needs dark energies to do so. The woman's body is trying to absorb this dark energy for the child, but her repressed angel spirit is trying to repel it all, causing her own body and soul to fight. Her brain is the battle ground.

The reason it triggered in his absence is likely a psychological thing. Lucifer himself, as all demons do, radiate the very dark spiritual energy his child needs so, despite her soul's rejection, her great trust in her boyfriend gives her feelings of safety and has her mind lend support to her body to absorb the energy the baby needs.

To sum it up, his presence is the only thing keeping his girlfriend and child alive right now.

At this news, the man changes up everything about his schedule to stay near MC. He does all his paperwork at the desk in his room instead of in his study, he stops attending RAD the few days a week he still was at that time, made his meetings with Diavolo limited to only the most important work issues and always take place within his study at House of Lamentation. Sometimes he did have to leave her side, like for said meeting or simply because he had to grab food or use the restroom.

During those times, he'd call one of his brothers in to watch her. The demon had discovered that though her trust in them was not as great as it was in him, that trust still provided somewhat of a psychological cushion for her.

However, though their presence prevented full blown panic, it wasn't enough stop her from crying incessantly.

Most of his brothers could not handle her tears so it was usually Beel or Satan that accompanied her during these times.

It was hard for all of the men to watch, Lucifer included. He couldn't help blaming himself, knowing his carelessness had gotten her into this situation. Still, he had to keep it together for her sake.

The months went by and her belly grew. Lucifer missed that excitement he felt in the beginning of all of it when MC glowed with positivity. Now, unlike the times he was smiling and rubbing her belly as the two cuddled and discussed baby names, the emotionally exhausted demon saw it nothing more than a visual timer, reminding him that this will all be over soon.

Good Ending:

After a long nine months of his Love's mental and emotional suffering, the time finally came. It was late at night, around 3am when his Love awoke with labor pains. Lucifer was already awake and at his desk doing paperwork. He immediately called the doctor that Lord Diavolo had recommended for them before approaching his love and trying to calm her. This was it. It will all be over soon and his human will finally be happy once again.

Five and half hours later, the couple was greeted by a beautiful baby girl. The small baby had her mother's hair, her father's red eyes, and a bit surprisingly, her father's black wings. MC cried as she stared down at her daughter; her tears were accompanied by a smile though. A smile. That was enough for Lucifer, who started to tear up at the scene.

"You did so well, Love." He leaned down and kissed his girlfriend's head, staring down at the baby, now drinking from her mama's chest. "I'm so proud of you."

All the days before this were tortuous for the couple, as well as the rest of the House of Lamentation, but finally some happiness was lighting up the household.

The two end up naming their daughter Ksenia.

Bad End:

The demon sighed. He was at his desk, going through paperwork while his Love slept in bed behind him. It was 1am and though that never used to be such a late time for him, these last few months had him exhausted him. His worry and care for his girlfriend took up most of his energy these past few months. MC was already entering her eighth month of pregnancy. The two were just so close to putting this all behind them and being happy. So close.

Lucifer gave a huff and laid his pen down on the desk. His concentration was waning regardless of how much he fought it. He glanced over his shoulder at MC, watching her sleep peacefully. That's the only way she finds peace anymore, by shutting off her mind and losing consciousness. Every waking moment for her is a heavy one and moments she even perceives that she might be alone causes her heart to race in her chest... all she's knows anymore is that pain and sadness yet she pushes on for the sake of their child.

Lucifer stood up and approached the bed, staring down at his Love with a guilty heart. He leaned down and kissed her forehead as he laid his hand on her round belly. There were so many moments during all of this that... he cursed his child for doing this to her. Never aloud, just within the confines of his heart. It was always followed by a reminder that the fault is his own though, not his child's. Their child didn't make any decision nor was it actively trying to hurt their mother. No, this child exists because of him and MC, because of his choices and carelessness. None of the blame truly falls on his child; it falls on himself.

He gave her belly a gentle stroke, a silent apology to the child he felt that he had wronged. Already, he felt that he was making his previous words ring true; he's a terrible father to his child. The night that MC told him she was pregnant, he confessed this fear to her.

"I should have been better. Now what's stopping me from making the same mistakes with our child?"

"Me." She answered, without missing a beat. "Lucifer, you're not alone anymore. This... we can do this together."

He still remembers those words and they roll through his head every time the fear of fatherhood decides to rear its ugly head within his mind. No matter how scared he is on the inside, no matter what happens now, he cannot let himself be engulfed by it all. No. MC needs him now and he refuses to break for her sake.

The demon steps away from the bed and heads towards the door. He shouldn't leave her, he knew that, but sometimes he just had to. It was maddening, confining himself to his room for months on end. Occasionally, and only when his Love is asleep, he allows himself to step away from the room and head downstairs to his office.

Here he sat at his desk, pulling a bottle of demonus from his drawer. It would probably look bad to anyone finding him drinking alone in his office at a time like this, but the man was stressed and he only gave himself the luxury of doing so every two weeks or so.

The man lost track of time while he was down there and before he knew it, the sun was rising. Lucifer sighed before hiding the bottle back in his desk and went back upstairs to join his girlfriend in bed.

Instead, he found her lying on the wooden floor. He raced up, calling her name and pulling her into his arms to better check her.... she was cold. The demon's eyes widened as he checked for a pulse. None... no pulse, no breath...his Love was gone.

Later, he finds out what happened from Barbatos, who checked into the past for him. His Love awoke in a panic after a nightmare to find herself all alone. The usual panic from that compounded with the fear from the nightmare and it was too much for her heart, causing her to have a heart attack. No one heard her because her last moments were filled with her desperately trying to mute herself because she didn't want him or his brothers to hear and burden them with herself once more.

Lucifer was completely torn about this. In the space of a couple hours, he lost both his girlfriend and his daughter (Barbatos told him) because he left his room at the worst opportunity and because he didn't know she felt that way. The emotionally exhausted man never knew she saw herself as a burden. It never occurred to him that she could actually have believed such a ridiculous thing. But he should have. He should have spoke out more. As many times as he told he loved her, as many times as he told her everything would be okay, he never told her specifically that it was okay to lean on him because he didn't know that she needed to hear that.

And now they're gone. And now Lucifer has to live with feeling like he was both a bad father and a bad boyfriend.

Mammon:

It all started off pretty simple in theory: morning sickness

MC's morning sickness was strong and unfortunately, didn't just happen in the mornings.

The two had to skip a lot of school days at RAD. Lucifer allowed this, but had a hell of a time negotiating with their teachers, especially Mammon's, so they aren't penalized too much for this.

MC really couldn't eat breakfast. Or lunch for that matter. If she tried, she'd end up puking it up before even finishing the meal.

She could eat dinner, but it had to be something pretty light for her stomach.

It became so much more complicated as the pregnancy progressed.

Morning sickness usually ended during the first trimester, but it never actually stopped for MC. In fact, the farther she got into her pregnancy, the less her body could keep down.

This freaked Mammon out and he kept running to Lucifer, asking if there's something, anything he can do to help this.

For a while, all he could do was comfort his weakened human... but it was hard.

During her sixth month, it was hard to even look at MC some days because, despite being pregnant and her belly sticking out, the woman had actually lost weight since becoming pregnant; other than her growing belly, she was all skin and bones. Her legs, arms, even her face, all boney and sunken. She started to look as if the life was being sucked out her.

Somehow, the human stayed cheerful. Honestly, her boyfriend didn't understand it; their baby was practically starving her, but she still smiled.

The only time she showed any fear was when she'd tell Mammon how worried she was for their baby; she hadn't felt it kick yet and she was worried it was too weak to do it.

Everytime she spoke this worry, Mammon would hold her close and start rubbing her belly.

"Now, don't go talking like that." He leaned in and laid a kiss to her temple. "Baby is gonna fine."

"But they--"

"But nothin', babe. You know it's a bit on the early side for that anyhow."

"It's early for others to feel something, but I should have felt something before this, a flutter or something but they--"

Tears poured down her cheeks, breaking her man's heart. Mammon froze for a moment before leaning in with a kiss.

"A-Are you sure they'll be okay?" She sniffled, looking up into his eyes.

"Of course, you think I'd lie to you?" He asked before giving her belly a gentle rub. "Look how our kid has grown already! If something went wrong, they wouldn't still be growing, now would they?"

"I... I guess."

Despite everything he said, the Avatar of Greed was scared shitless. What if she was right and something already went wrong? What if he already failed her and his kid? Those thoughts were too much for him though so he did whatever he could to push them aside.

It was during her seventh month when Lucifer discovered a potion she could try, one that could help with the nausea and help her keep more food down.

Mammon had to give it to her every morning, but it helped her keep most of her meals down and regain her strength.

The first few days, they kept her on light meals just in case, but afterwards, she had free reign to eat whatever she craved.

This was when the late night food runs started happening. In all honesty, Mammon never thought he'd be so grateful to be woken up at 2am to get weird food combos like ice cream and beef jerky (MC seemed to have a thing for sweet 'n salty food combos).

Things were finally starting to seem okay; MC was eating, regaining her weight, and just seemed so happy. Not forced positivity, but some real happiness.

Then, around half way done with her 7th month, it happened. MC was sitting in the living room with Mammon and a couple of his brothers she suddenly gasped.

"M-Mammon!"

The man jumped up and rushed to her side. All of the brothers were now standing too, alarmed.

"Shit! What's wrong??"

She grabbed his hand his hand and laid it on her belly. He gave her a confused look for a moment till it happened. A kick! Their baby actually kicked!

MC cried, but also smiled as she saw his face light up.

"Holy-- see! I told you our kid was alright!" He grinned. "Just goes to show that you need to be trusting The Great Mammon more!"

The other brothers settled back down in their seats. Beel actually smiled at the happy couple, grateful that things seem to be turning around for them.

Good Ending:

The rest of the pregnancy went smoothly, thanks to the potion. The couple's worries seemed to disappear for the most part. MC was eating again and healthier; their baby was kicking and seemed pretty lively. There were even nights where the kid kept their mother up (and in turn, their father) with all their kicks and movements, but they were glad to trade sleepless nights for the confirmation that their child was healthy too.

It was her 39 week, just barely missing the nine month mark, when MC went into labor. Mammon panicked in the beginning, causing MC to have to calm him down through her labor pains. The demon eventually got a grip on himself and started helping his girlfriend. After six hours of labor, the couple was greeted with a baby girl, who had her daddy's white hair, her mama's eyes, and surprisingly, two little nubs on her head, which will likely grow into horns just like her dad's. The couple cried along side their bundle of joy. Mammon leaned down and kissed his Human.

"You did so good, Babe. Just look at our girl there."

Most of the pregnancy... it definitely wasn't easy, but when the couple stared down at their little girl, they knew it was all worth it.

The couple ended up naming their daughter Cassia.

Bad End:

It was during the beginning of MC's eighth month when she went into labor. Mammon still remembers her panicked tears as she kept saying over and over that it was too soon. The second born had Lucifer call the doctor as he just held her close and tried to calm her. He gave his all to stay calm himself, but his Human's fear and pain really broke him down inside to the point where he'd have to quickly wipe a tear of his own away before she saw it.

In the end, MC's body was just too weak. Even though she recently had been able to regain some of her strength, it didn't erase the months before that of her body being near starved. The doctor was barely able to save his daughter. Mammon can still remember the look on his girlfriend's face when their girl entered the world, a weak smile of relief. She went to say something, but suddenly exhaled her last breath, leaving her body permanently stilled.

And just like that, he lost the only person who he felt gave a damn about him. He remembers collapsing in on himself while his brothers only saw him stare far away into space. He remembered when his younger brothers started throwing insults and blame his way, saying his stupidity killed her. And he remembered throwing himself against the brother closest to him, later noticing it to be Belphie, just punching him and crying. This shocked them to the point that no one, not even Beel stepped up to stop him for the longest moment. This wasn't Mammon. Mammon never laid a hand on his brothers.

Lucifer was the one who snapped out of it first and pulled the second born off of Belphie. The room was silent as he cried, practically in unison with his daughter in the other room. That was the moment where each of his brothers started to realize just how much Mammon loved MC. All of the brothers cared about her and were hurting from her death, but this was first moment where they really took the Avatar of Greed seriously with his own feelings.

The Brother's were a lot softer with Mammon from then on. No matter what he stole from them, no matter how much debt he racked up, they kept a certain tenderness in their heart for the brother who lost it all with MC's death.

As a dad... Mammon tried his best. No one doubted that, even when the other brothers had to jump in to feed the girl or quiet her cries while her father either cried in bed or searched for some sort of distraction to calm his mind. Looking at Cassia... it was hard for the dad. He'd look down into her eyes, the same eyes she got from her mother, and could only think about how MC should be there with him now... but how she's not.

As a baby and toddler, Cassia was mostly raised by Asmo and Beel. As a child, she had gotten closer with her Uncle Lucifer. Mammon was a loving, but distant dad who constantly tore himself down even when his brothers no longer did.

Leviathan:

Levi and MC got a good five months before facing any major difficulties.

Outside of the morning sickness in the beginning, everything was pretty calm with the pregnancy till then

And what happened at this point in time... honestly, no one could have predicted this.

The two were sitting in his room, each reading their own chosen manga.

When the woman had risen from his side, the otaku didn't really give it any thought, just assumed that she needed to go pee or grab another pillow.

It wasn't till heard a splash to his left that he looked up from his book and saw his pregnant girlfriend at the bottom of his giant fish tank.

Panicking, the demon dropped his book his and rushed up to the top of fish tank. He didn't even notice that he transformed into his demon form before jumping in and swimming down to the human

He quickly swam up with her and carried her back out and onto his floor.

"Shit shit!" The man stared down at the unconscious human, brain being uncooperative as he realised they were not breathing. Then it clicked and Levi put both hands on his Human's chest and repeatedly pressed down, starting CPR.

When his girlfriend eventually coughed up the water in her lungs and came to, he nearly fainted in relief.

He scooped her into his arms and started crying.

"W-What were you thinking???"

The demon didn't understand what just happened. His Henry almost drowned. And she was the one threw herself in! Was she trying to kill herself? Was the whole pregnancy and parenthood stuff getting too scary for her? Was he not taking care of her good enough? Oh devil... what if she thinks he's gonna be a bad dad and just wants to end it all now??

As the Avatar of Envy always did, he thought of the worse outcomes that he could blame himself for.

"I... Levi, what happened?"

??!!

"What do you mean, what happened? You tried to drown yourself!"

The woman's eyes went wide and she frantically shook her head.

"I... no! I would never do that to our baby!"

Even now, she wasn't even thinking of her own life. Just their child's. Levi was scared for their kid's life too, but got so panicked over her's that he didn't mention it before.

As he looked down into her horrified expression, the demon knew she was telling the truth. Or, at least she believed she was.

For a second, the man doubted what he just saw, just experienced. Her drenched hair and clothes were the only things that cemented him in the knowledge that he was right.

But then why did she sincerely believe differently?

Levi texted Lucifer that there was an emergency and needed him in his room now before he helped MC get changed out of her wet clothes.

By the time Lucifer came to the room, MC was in Levi's pj pants and one of his tshirts with a blanket wrapped around her to keep her warm.

Lucifer could sense something different with MC the moment he entered the room. As a demon skilled with magic and curses, he could sense the energy shift within her

And once his younger brother explained what had happened, it had all clicked into place for the first brother. Granted, it was just a theory at this stage, but all signs still pointed to it.

The situation seemed to be a side affect of her pregnancy and a magical one at that. Her baby needed something that they weren't getting so they took the reigns and made their mother give it to them.

That something? Water. The baby seems to have inherited they're father's affinity for water.

Levi was frozen where he and MC sat on the couch.

Basically what the third brother was hearing was that this was his fault, that he almost lost his girlfriend and baby because he has a connection to water.

The demon was ready with a slew insults to express his self blame, but was stopped by MC's quick kiss.

"Hey... none of that." She said softly. "It's okay, it's not your fault. Besides, you saved me."

She knew her boyfriend well enough to know when he was gonna tear himself down but this... she couldn't let him blame himself for something this big.

As per Lucifer's advice, MC started lounging in the bath a couple times a day to see if that would curb her baby's need to be surrounded by water. And surprisingly, it worked.

But as her pregnancy progressed and her belly grew, so did her need to be in water. She'd be fine for a few weeks then suddenly there would be another fish tank incident (though luckily, Levi would stop her before she would even get her feet wet) and her boyfriend would rush her to the bathtub. Each time this happened, the amount of sessions and length of said sessions in the bath increased.

In all honesty, it probably wasn't good for her skin to lay in water so much, but considering this was a life or death situation for her and the baby, it was worth dealing with pruney skin.

It got to the point where it felt like most of her day was spent in the tub and the woman hated it.

Actually ended up convincing Levi to join her for some sessions and loved snuggling up to her boyfriend in the tub.

Honestly, it was something the human wanted to continue between them even after her pregnancy.

Levi had to keep a close eye on her for the remaining months, which was stressful for the otaku, who couldn't really indulge in his usual hobbies, knowing he'd get too absorbed and possibly miss it the moment she needs him.

Still, the demon took care of his Henry well.

Good End:

The woman so ready to birth this baby. MC was so tired of spending her days in the bath tub and being sore and pruney so when the day came, she was nervous, but relieved. She was about a week overdue when her water broke and she went into labor. Levi was a nervous wreck for a most of it, but MC was very patient with him, despite her pain.

After six and half hours of labor, MC held their baby boy in her arms. Levi just stared in wonder at his son. His son. Who would of thought this would ever happen? If you would have told him before he met MC that he'd be a dad someday, he would of said something was wrong with you. If you would of said it after they started dating, he would of told you there was no way MC would wanna give him such a gift.

But there he was, staring down at the son that MC spent hours pushing out and even almost drowned once, just to bring him into this world. This... MC really was amazing.

"Do you wanna hold him?" She smiled at her boyfriend, breaking his thoughts.

The man tensed up, but gave a shy nod.

His girlfriend explained how to hold the baby before setting their son in his arms and telling him to make small adjustments. Levi stared down at his child, who had his hair and MC's eyes. Heck, the little boy even had a tail just like his. The man started tearing up and the human laughed.

"Don't... I'm not crying, I swear..."

After reviewing some of the baby names they talked about, the couple decided on the name Kai.

Bad End:

MC was halfway through her seventh month when it happened. They had recently had another incident of the woman finding her way to the fish tank and had to adjust her bathing schedule again. Bad news: MC had to spend another two hours in the tub each day. Good news? The woman should be incident-free for another couple weeks.

This was why Levi felt it was okay to leave the house, something he rarely felt like doing. He used to never mind spending most of his time in his room. Before this pregnancy, it was his safe haven, where he retreated into in order to avoid all of his troubles and the judgement that he felt he got from the world. Since MC has been pregnant though, that has been the room she spent all her time in, especially since things got... complicated.

His room was no longer a safe place; on the contrary, it was where all of his stress and fears lied. He still powered through it most days for MC's sake, but on transition days where the pattern showed her to be safe, he'd leave the house to go to the comic book store (which also sold manga). He made sure his brothers would keep checking up on her while he was gone.

But they didn't. For a variety of reasons, none of this brothers checked in on her until it was too late. Lucifer was busy working in his study. Mammon left for his modeling gig. Satan was out plotting things with Mephisto. Asmo was in his room, talking on the phone with someone while he did his nails. Beel was in the kitchen, trying to cook dinner and fighting the urge to just eat the ingredients. Belphie was asleep.

Eventually, Beel made his way to Levi's room to check on MC and found her floating face-down in the fish tank. Levi didn't come home until an hour after she was found. He started heading to his room when Lucifer stopped him and called him into the living room. His heart sank when he entered and saw all his brothers sitting around the room. Asmo was crying. Mammon was pretending not to be. The rest of his brothers simply look depressed.

Apparently, MC skipped a bath time while he was gone. She was just so on edge and didn't want to force herself into the water yet. The baby did though. And now they are both gone.

And just like that, the third brother was alone again. Levi locked himself in his room for months after her death, not leaving for school or to even eat. His brothers brought his meals to his room, but he often needed encouragement to eat. The man just wanted to cave into himself and hide away from it all, but the one place he could hide was the same room the human he loved died in... because he wasn't there to comfort her and have her take her bath.

He was so utterly alone. No Henry. No baby. And he felt that he had no one to blame but himself.

~

Part 2 | Part 3

[shannendoherty-fans]

The fourth season of Beverly Hills, 90210, began airing on September 8, 1993 on Fox television network. The season concluded on May 25, 1994 after 32 episodes.

This season follows the gang during their freshman year of college as they deal with issues that young adults face such as sex, teen pregnancy, date rape, drug abuse, animal rights, politics, relationships, antisemitism, marriage, infidelity, crime, abortion, and homophobia. This season marks Shannen Doherty’s final season as Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210.

Brenda began the fourth season in Minnesota, where she had decided to enter university. She chose to go to university in Minnesota to prove that she could make it on her own, away from her family and out from underneath Brandon’s shadow and more so, to distract herself from the painful feelings she experienced after Dylan chose to be with her best friend Kelly instead of her. However, after realizing that she and her old friends from Minnesota have little in common anymore and deciding to take control of her own destiny regardless of her geographical location, she decides to return to her family in Beverly Hills. This is another big step for Brenda’s character, as it’s the turning point where she stops running from her mistakes and the heartbreak of her past, faces reality, and takes responsibility for creating the life she wants for herself.

The Walsh parents struggle to understand the reasons behind Brenda’s dropping out of Minnesota’s university program and moving home, but are more concerned that Brenda is choosing not to go to university in California either, and saying that her failure to succeed in Minnesota was proof that she isn’t cut out for higher education at all. Despite the character’s desire to be the master of her own destiny, Brenda Walsh continues to teeter between making rational and irrational decisions, and struggles with the “all or nothing” mentality that plagues most young adolescents, ironically narrowing their opportunities at the very time they are trying to spread their wings and join the world as adults.

While settling back into being home in Beverly Hills, Brenda spends the first few days of her return hanging out at the Peach Pit and cruising around town with Dylan, as he has decided not to enter university either. But after some heart to heart discussion, both Brenda and Dylan decide to give California University a chance, and they both enroll.

Brenda participates in rush week with her friends Kelly, Donna and Andrea upon arriving at the university. The friends hope that by pledging the same sorority, they’ll be able to maintain their close friendships during their college years. Despite wanting to maintain close friendships, Brenda isn’t impressed with the non-stop party scene that pervades the sorority life. After putting her energy towards finding a job instead of pledging, and not having any luck, Brenda decides to work for her dad for some real job experience.

The job experience was going well, but Brenda was frustrated that between school, work and homework, she would never find time to date. Brenda’s parents set her up on a blind date with the son of one of Mr. Walsh’s clients, and while she was hesitant at first to go, she and her date, Stuart, became serious very quickly, announcing their marriage engagement at the Walsh’s 20th wedding anniversary only two weeks after they first met. The Walsh’s did not forbid the marriage at first, but had their concerns that Brenda was being rash, as she tends to do. Brandon had serious concerns though, after Dylan told him that he had known Stuart years ago as a dealer of drugs. Once Dylan spoke to Mr. Walsh about his concerns, Mr. Walsh encouraged Dylan to convince Brenda not to marry Stuart, implying that Brenda still loved him. Because Kelly and Dylan had broken up at this point, he actually considered the possibility of getting back together with Brenda, now with Mr. Walsh’s blessing.

Even though Brenda and Stuart have a whirlwind romance, when she finds out that Stuart has a prenuptial agreement for her to sign prior to marrying him, Brenda gets upset and storms out.

She and Dylan have coffee after running into each other at a poetry reading, and Dylan begs Brenda to end the engagement, telling her that her marriage would end any chance that they might get back together. Brenda quickly surmises that he’s spoken to her father, and is furious that her family and friends would go behind her back and try to manipulate her. After confronting her father about his part in it, she packs her things and leaves to move in with Stuart at his condo. Hoping to team up with Stuart’s parents and discourage their children from marrying so soon, the Walsh’s invite them over for lunch, but are surprised to learn that Stuart’s parents not only support the marriage plans, but have already started planning the wedding with event coordinators. Brenda and Stuart become overwhelmed and decide to elope to Las Vegas in secret, but Brenda spills the beans to Brandon and he tells their friends. Everyone books plane tickets and flies to Vegas in an effort to stop her, but knowing how hard headed she is, they decide to persuade her using reverse psychology and pretend that they are in favor of the marriage. Brenda starts to doubt her reasons for marrying Stuart and calls off the wedding.

Brenda’s life also took a few shots during the season. When Donna and Brenda find a puppy on the street, they learn that he escaped from an animal testing laboratory and are helpless when the puppy dies. Brenda then falls into a group of animal rights activists and participates with them in the ransacking of a number of laboratories until she is arrested (Donna decides at the last minute not to join the group). After her arrest, the only person in the group who supported her was Dylan; David Silver questioned her judgment, Andrea was angry that she had damaged laboratories that did not test animals and Kelly told her that Dylan was no longer her boyfriend and that Brenda could not go and look for help whenever she had a problem. It turned out that one of the activists was an FBI agent who offered Brenda a deal not to jail because she had not supported vandalism. As a result, all Brenda’s friends apologized for their behavior towards her.

During the fourth season, Brenda is interested in the drama department but it also led to problems: she spoiled her first audition and then went to the director of the play to try again and convince him. She then got the role, but a student made a rumor saying that she had slept to have the role. Unfortunately, this student was the girlfriend of Steve Sanders and the latter believed the rumors, others refusing more or less to believe the denials of Brenda. Steve understood his mistake when the student asked him to attack Brenda to make her miss rehearsals. A little later, Steve’s friend tried to commit suicide, but Brenda and Steve joined forces to save her and Steve was finally compensated by following Brenda’s debut on stage. The director’s praise led her to accept the latter at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London for a year. After Kelly and Dylan last broke up, Brenda finally learned that a relationship was possible between Kelly and Brandon and expressed her blessing. She later spent her last night with Dylan, telling him she would not be gone forever. The couple will reconcile briefly in the final scene of the fourth season, though Brenda never returned to Beverly Hills.

Here are the links of the last episodes of the third season of "Beverly Hills 90210" that I host on google photos. Feel free to join, share, and add yours if you like. xoxo