#but given who i centered i couldn't think of a reasonable wedding

[dangermousie]

I saw a post where you analyzed some details in Flower of Evil (particularly the relationship between the lead couple) and your analysis was super interesting.

I dropped that drama ages ago somewhere in the second episode because it just felt like things had already gone so horribly wrong that there was no possible way that it could be brought back to a story that I'd enjoy. I was wondering if you might be able to explain how that isn't the case so I should give it another chance, ideally without spoiling anything too huge? Or do you think my first instinct was right? If I couldn't stomach the first two episodes it probably just isn't the drama for me? My original interest in watching it was for the romance more than anything else.

I would love to analyze (always game for FoE freakouts) and address the issue but I think I could do it better if you clarified a little what you mean by "it just felt like things had already gone so horribly wrong that there was no possible way that it could be brought back to a story that I'd enjoy."

Is it a worry that there would be no happy ending (and one that feels earned/logical not tacked on) for the couple and/or ML (or FL), or that the progression of the relationship would not be anything you like or not given sufficient importance? Or something else?

If it's the former, while I can't say whether you'd like it or not because it's very hard to predict what clicks and doesn't for another person (I have like two mutuals where I automatically know if they like X, I am guaranteed to do so) but I can answer that:

(a) This drama has a happy ending that felt right and justified and not tacked on for me - in terms of both characters individually and the ship. They both go through hell but emerge into sunshine on the other side; by the end of it, Hyun Soo knows exactly how much he's both known and loved by Ji Won (and it's huge for a man who believed on a deep level nobody could possibly love someone like him nor should they) but also he's accepted that he himself is not a monster but is capable of love. And Ji Won loves her husband as much as she did at the start and has proven exactly how much and this time it's based on true knowledge of all of him - because before that she loved him for what he was (his characteristics were all true even if his background was not) but now she knows exactly the traumas and events that shaped him and the issues that haunted him and...she still sees the slightly odd, quite introverted, very caring man she fell in love with. It's a process, she thinks things through and it takes her time to get there, it is not linear but it is so thorough and glorious. She basically goes with her whole behavior: I see you fully and I know you fully and because of that sight and knowledge I love you MORE. And he processes that but also, in an even huger emotional shift, he realizes that he loves HER, that he's always loved her, he just had no vocabulary for it and no ability to process that this is what he felt due to all the trauma and gaslighting and what not.

(b) This is a romance drama. Oh, it has a good plot with its share of mysteries and mini-mysteries, and it's a great character study and has a lot of other interesting things to say. But ultimately, it's a romance. It is centered not really on the mystery of who Do Hyun Soo actually is, or who was/is committing various murders, or when Ji Won would figure stuff out or w/e - it focuses on a relationship between husband and wife who desperately love one another. This drama had an INSANE fixation with shots of their wedding rings and it was for a reason because this is the story of their marriage more than it is anything else.

It actually features a trope that is very much my catnip and narratives (outside of Gong Xinwen novels) don't do often enough - where the woman is the rescuer and the white knight and the savior and the man is this beautiful, oddly fragile (despite being competent and potentially deadly) being in need of rescue. And I don't mean just in the metaphorical sense - she is the reason DHS still has his sanity and found happiness and healing - nah she rescues him in the most physical way possible, from drowning, from various other acts of harm. In a way, Ji Won and Hyun Soo are a noir couple with genders reversed - a tough pragmatic detective and an alluring romantic partner with a mysterious past and ambiguous in terms of morality vibe, a homme fatale. But who (which also happens in some noir), turns out an abused, gaslit person who needs saving and who has honestly is owed by the world for all the hell it put him through.

Once again, I can't say if you'd like the drama - but the above is why I love love love love LOVE it and thank you for letting me have a chance to rant.

[maprues]

Growing up from an exceptionally unfortunate family, unfortunate foundation can make one's life hard or delicate as they call it these days.

I go by Reasonability and I woul like to impart my story to you.

I experienced childhood in a family where by we were just recongnised for being poor of which I think it was great since I gleaned some significant knowledge from it,and how to reside with ither individuals.

This is a result of how I grew up that I wish to assist others with having a superior life and help others. At the point when my mom couldn't bear to deal with me she chose to take to my grandma. My grandma who then, at that point, saw me as a slave and began mishandling me.Little did she had any idea that she was making me a solid, bold lady.

I was simply 5years when I began to bring water from the stream. I didn't comprehend everything by then, I believed it's the manner by which life is assume to be.I recollect when my dad visited us in the rustic regions. I was separated from everyone else and like each guest we need to plan something to eat. By then. I was doing grade 1.I needed to make fire and began cooking utilizing those pots with 3 legs.

He was astounded to see me cook, I don't have the foggiest idea what he was thinking yet am certain he was glad to see me do sothing that different children of my age couldn't do.

Days went by schools open, I would get up promptly in the first part of the day to warm water for others to shower, I wolud cook then whn they are done I begin setting myself up to go to school.My most exceedingly awful bad dream happened when my uncle's little girl lost her pencil and took mine then let my granny know that she heard a few children at shool saying that I lost my pencil.

I was nibbled like a jackass then, at that point, pondered internally yet why, for what reason did my mom live me here to carry on with this life, for what reason was I brought into this brutal world. Things where deteriorating every single day.

On one occasion I became exceptionally ill, I was made to hydrate with salt and I was not taken to the center. Neighbor saw me and illuminated my mom in the city. At the point when she came everybody imagined they gave me love yet no they were simply imagining.

A few neighbors let my mom know how I have been dealt with and that she would yet garments for and the garments were given to my sisters (uncle's girls). She then, at that point, chose to return with me.

I went in the city and began my grade 3 there and I figured life will be better. I saw my dad nibbled my mom every single time he become inebriated. Sooner or later I was youthful yes however my mom drained and was taken to the clinic, it was then that we found she was pregnant.. It was miserable on the grounds that my father didn't show that he was grieved.

I grew up with outrage and told myself I won't ever get hitched. Years went by and my auntie shared with my mom when I was in secondary school, she planned to take me to remain with her in South Africa and finish my examinations there.

Things changed when I arrived, I needed to search for a task with the prospect that assuming I get compensated I will study and working.First installment I was told to purchase food and pay lease. I saw my reality pulverizing as I naturally suspected I had seen everything presently am beginning to live like an ordinary youngster however I was off-base.

I met this fellow and guaranteed me the world. We dated I moved out when I figured out I was pregnant. I was frightened my auntie was going to tore into me. Everything was going great when I moved until one day when he slapped me since I went to see a companion.

after 11 years with 3 children and wedded I concluded its about time I moved out on the grounds that the person would messed with me for things that I didn't have any idea and wouldn't let me go except if I concur with him that I did what he would be blaming me for. It was the point at which he nearly broke my ribs and my 5 years of age saw all that even following 5 years in the wake of breaking up(divorced) my child actually gets some information about it..

I have gained some significant experience about this life despite everything realizing all I wish for is to help the people who are head over heels and those children that face GBV in their homes.

I bless your heart!!!

[minnarr]

four funerals and a proposal

Scraping in just a hair late with a submission for Day 1 of @nabooreview​ (Found Family).

Word Count: 3,340

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Character death (mostly canonical character deaths, and all aftermath rather than on-screen, but grief features heavily), interfamily conflict

Relationships: Gregar Typho & Saché,  Saché/Yané, Gregar Typho & Saché & Yané (is how I would tag it on AO3, but there’s also a grab bag of feelings with his extended family, especially Mariek, and with Padmé).   

Summary: When Gregar Typho met Saché, it didn’t feel like a pivotal moment in his life. She was a young hero of the invasion; he was just an administrative aide. But in life’s upheavals, and their shared association with Padmé, she became an unexpected constant. Or, as it says on the tin, follow Gregar’s life through four funerals and a proposal.

Funeral I: The Queen’s Memorial, Gallo Mountain University One year after the Battle of Naboo

Gregar paused in the doorway to the administration office, shifting the box in his arms. There was a slight figure standing at reception; maybe someone’s kid? “Are you lost?” he asked.

She turned, and Gregar’s breath caught in his throat. The robe she wore had short sleeves, and when she faced him, it revealed twisting lines of scars crawling down her arms. Her age, her scars, and the look of her together immediately identified her, although the palace had kept any holos of her under wraps. “You’re Saché Adova,” he blurted.

An impish smile warmed her face. “And you have the advantage of me, Mr…?” she said.

“Oh.” Gregar set down the box on the desk and held out a hand. “Typho. It’s an honor, my lady. When they said they’d send a liaison from the queen’s party, I didn’t expect you.”

“I’m just a page,” Saché said. “Can you direct me to the events coordinator?”

“She’s running late back from her errand, I’m afraid,” Gregar said. 

“Oh.” Her eyes strayed towards the box, then she tilted her head. “Can I help? Everyone seems to be very busy.”

Gregar laughed. “Not with this. I was just bringing them back to stash in the office; we definitely can’t use these candles in the ceremony.” He slid open the lid and gestured for Saché to look.

She craned her head to peer inside, then laughed. “Yellow? No, I can see why you wouldn’t want wedding candles.”

“Everything always goes wrong the day of,” he said wryly. He closed the box, then bent to tuck it under the reception desk. He considered a moment, then said, “You know, Mariek Panaka is my aunt. She told me what you did—how brave you were.”

When he straightened, she reached out to touch the medal pinned to his jacket. “We all had to be very brave,” she said. She met his eyes, and for a moment, that understanding that everyone who had been on Naboo during the invasion shared passed between them. No one had been unaffected. They were all still finding their way back to normalcy.

When the coordinator returned and he went back to work, he expected that to be an end to it. He’d met a hero of the battle for Naboo’s freedom; she had met an office aide. The memorial was a touching ceremony in the end, and Gregar drifted off on his own afterwards to pay his respects to fallen friends. Only a year gone, and he still ached to think of them.

Saché surprised him at Stannos’ grave marker. “I’m sorry to intrude,” she said.

Gregar turned, his hands still tucked into his pockets, and blinked at her for a moment. “No,” he said. “No, it’s all right. Do you need something?”

She pointed at the path, where a cluster of girls in grey robes that matched her own stood. “We were passing, and I wanted to say goodbye. It was nice meeting you, Typho.”

A sliver of warmth lodged in with the heartache. “Thank you,” he said. “I was glad to meet you as well.” There was movement on the path, and the queen appeared in a voluminous dark grey gown, flanked by guards. “I think that’s your cue. Take care.”

Funeral II: Vers�� Two weeks after the Battle of Geonosis

Gregar had organized the transport of the bodies home, delivered the news to the families, watched Mariek’s sister Heli’s heart break at losing her only child. It was strange and uncomfortable to be there in his capacity as Versé’s superior, not as family. Padmé gave them all leave, but it wasn’t a break: it was a grueling marathon of memorials.

He didn’t know how Padmé handled them with such grace. She went to each one, spoke to the family members, told stories crafted to show the dead in their best lights, her honest fondness and grief showing through. In lieu of her Senate guard, she had protectors provided by Queen Jamillia, but Typho recognized at least one of her handmaidens from her time as queen standing by her at all times.

It left a cold fist of fear in his gut not to know where Padmé went at the end of the night. He let it lie; he didn’t have the energy to open up that conversation. He suspected she thought she was doing him a favor. She was always so careful about giving her people space in their personal lives.

Grief shut some people down; for others, it brought everything boiling to the surface. Heli boiled over the night of Versé’s memorial.

Her grave marker read VERSAAT LA’PARUN. Gregar hadn’t planned to say anything about it. Mariek at least waited until they were in private to ask, “Versaat?”

Heli turned so fast Gregar’s neck ached in sympathy. “It’s the name we gave her,” she hissed. 

Mariek was silent a moment. “If Mother buried you with anything other than the name you chose, I would also question why she chose to do that,” she said at last.

“It’s not the same thing at all,” Heli said. “This family has given enough to that woman. You and Quarsh spent years focused on looking after her, and Gregar’s just as bad. I’m not giving her my daughter’s memory on top of her life.”

Mariek reached for her hand, but Heli jerked away, not looking at either of them. “Who’s your family, then, Mari? Us, or Amidala?”

“That isn’t a fair thing to ask and you know it,” Mariek said gently. “I love you. I loved Versé, too. Give her the credit she deserves for that big brain of hers. She knew what the stakes were, and she chose what to do with her life.”

“How can either of you not be breaking apart over this?” Heli choked out.

“I don’t need to be here,” Gregar muttered, and ducked away.

Heli wasn’t exactly his aunt—she was Mariek’s sister, and Gregar’s mother was Quarsh’s sister, and in plenty of families he would have had next to no obligation to her. Mariek kept all of her family knit tight together, though, a spider at the center of a web of gossip, advice, useful connections, and love. He felt a responsibility to her on top of it, for putting Versé in that position. That didn’t mean he was going to stick it out through this argument. Breaking apart was not on the agenda for tonight.

His search for air ended with him sitting on the front steps of the temple. He was still there when a figure dressed in mourning purples started up the steps, and he would have ignored her if she hadn’t called out, “Captain?”

He looked up, and it took him a moment to recognize Saché Adova. He had only seen her in passing or on the newsnets since that brief meeting almost ten years ago. She smiled at him like she was meeting an old friend, though. 

He stood to greet her. “My lady.”

“You can call me Saché if you like,” she said. “I’m supposed to be finding Padmé and Eirtaé and dragging them out for the night. Would you like to help?”

“It depends.” Saché looked at him in question, and Gregar made himself soften his tone. He didn’t want to come off sounding like an ogre. “Do I get to know where she’s going? Or at least how secure it is where she’s going? It’s been driving me crazy.”

Saché tilted her head. “You really are Panaka’s nephew,” she said. 

“It’s not…” Gregar scrubbed a hand over the back of his head. They did have similarly...strong feelings about risk-taking, particularly when their charges did it, but that wasn’t what this was about. “I don’t want to fuss at her. My cousin died.” He jerked his head towards the temple. “I want to know she isn’t going to die, too.”

A little too honest, for a near-stranger. But Saché had been a handmaiden. He saw the understanding come into her eyes at once. She reached out and pulled his arm through hers, turning them towards the temple. “Do you have plans with your family tonight?” she asked.

Gregar considered. There weren’t any official plans, and he had meant to make himself useful, but he wasn’t sure how Heli would come out the other end of her conversation with Mariek. Didn’t think he’d be welcomed, truth be told. “No,” he said.

“Then I want you to consider helping me extract Padmé, then coming with us to drink a few toasts.” Her eyes slid sideways towards him. “Nothing wild; my wife and I have kids to get back to. Just...company.”

Gregar tilted his head, acknowledging the offer. It was a kind one. He wasn’t sure if Padmé would welcome him, either. It seemed...private, an affair with friends unconnected to her current team. “I saw the senator standing with Versé’s friends a few minutes ago. I’ll show you.”

The group Padmé had been with had disbanded, but Gregar consulted a few of the guests and followed their directions further back into the crowd. Quarsh had stopped to talk to Padmé, and Saché sucked in air through her teeth at the same moment Gregar’s heart sank. Another awkward conversation, from the strained looks on their faces.

“It’s almost worse when they try to talk to each other than when they ignore each other,” Saché said. “You distract him, I’ll take Padmé. Meet us out front in five.” She pulled her arm away from his and gave him a gentle push, and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Don’t you know the steps?” she said, a small smile tugging at her lips. “It’s the easiest dance in the book.” 

He hadn’t expected to smile tonight. He took a moment to smooth his face, then made a beeline for his uncle. He pulled him aside with a significant look back towards the room set aside for the family. “I’m going to head out,” he said, “but you might want to tread carefully with Heli and Mariek. They were getting into it when I saw them last.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” Quarsh said, looking irritated. That was...probably fine. Quarsh at the end of his rope skewed towards snappish, but he wouldn’t take it out on anyone here. Quarsh seemed to be taking the same moment to evaluate Gregar, because he reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up,” he advised. “You’re not the one who put their lives in danger. You made the best plan you could in the face of people who play politics with explosives.”

Gregar nodded, both grateful and uneasy. Quarsh had a good heart, and he’d been in Gregar’s position, but the subjects of politics and defense were reliable conversation ruiners at any family gathering. He steered the conversation towards goodbyes, and made his way out of the memorial just inside the five minutes Saché had ordered.

Padmé turned as he approached, and she reached out immediately to catch his hands. She didn’t speak for a moment, just squeezed them, and he could see the lines of strain around her eyes.

Before she could say something horrible, like I’m sorry—they weren’t taking about the guilt, though they both knew the other felt it—Gregar cleared his throat. “Well, ladies. Shall we head out?”

Funeral III: Padmé Three weeks after the formation of the Empire

When Gregar finally returned to Naboo to pay his respects, the funeral itself was long over. He slipped into the tomb alone and tried to grasp hold of the gnawing guilt and anguish, the sick feeling that went straight to his bones.

There was nowhere for him to go. He didn’t keep an apartment here anymore. Going to Mariek or Dormé or anyone else who had helped him guard Padmé was unthinkable. He didn’t know which of the rest of his family stood with the Empire, and which against, and he wasn’t ready to test that. He didn’t know why he had come at all—he wouldn’t find his closure here.

Until now, he hadn’t let himself truly believe it. Truly feel the loss. 

A footstep behind him had him turning, blaster up and aimed before he could think about it. A slight figure stood frozen in the doorway, hands raised, the sunlight spilling in behind momentarily casting her face in too deep a shadow to make out. He recognized the voice instantly, though. “We should really try meeting in better circumstances,” Saché said dryly.

Gregar laughed, rusty as an old hinge, even though it was the farthest thing from funny. He rarely saw her face to face, although they’d kept up a lively correspondence after that terrible week of funerals. 

“This time, you can do me a favor,” he said, without thinking it through any further.

Saché stepped further into the tomb. Out of the dramatic lightning, he could see the concern in her face. “Name it,” she said lightly.

He needed to regroup. He needed to figure out who was an ally, who was an enemy. He needed to keep his head down and not get noticed, and he was pretty sure Saché lived somewhere quiet and safe. (Wasn’t she running for Bibble’s old spot? A future governor and former handmaiden would know to keep an eye on security).

“Do you have an extra bed?” he blurted.

Her expression barely shifted. He didn’t know if it was because he looked and sounded like a wild animal, or because she had something to hide. “We do. Stay as long as you like.”

Funeral IV: Jedi Knight Ondee Marter, Jedi Knight Pall Fyrfo One month after the formation of the Empire

Once��nearly fifteen years ago now—a Jedi had come to Naboo and made the ultimate sacrifice, and helped secure Naboo’s freedom in the process. He had been released into the Force in the manner of his people, and Naboo remembered his name.

The galaxy had changed since then, and too much of Naboo had followed. Gregar sat down to the hasty conference in Saché’s home office, trying not to show what a kick in the gut seeing Mariek was. 

“I had word from the palace,” Mariek said. “Two Jedi sought asylum there last night.”

She had not appeared at Quarsh’s side when he took the new office of Moff. Gregar had not been surprised, but it still hurt. Especially because his own parents had been visible among his supporters. The cracks in his family had started as hairline fractures years earlier, but they had split open with the declaration of the Empire.

He knew he could trust the people in this room. Mariek, yes, and Saché, but also her wife Yané, Eirtaé and Rabé and Dormé. He was told Sabé and Tonra could be counted in their number, too, but they weren’t on planet right now. 

Such a small number to be organizing. But a small number of people hoping and planning had freed Naboo before—with some help. 

“Two Jedi?” Yané said, with hope in her voice.

Mariek shook her head, her face grim. “They were killed,” she said. “By one of Apailana’s personal retinue.”

All the air left the room at once. Many, many changes had come, at home and abroad, but—this was near a sacrilege. And in the royal palace, at that.

“Did Apailana order it?” Eirtaé said. Her fingers clenched into a white knuckled fist.

Saché was already shaking her head. “She wouldn’t. She’s young and idealistic, but clever. Skeptical.”

“She did not,” Mariek confirmed. 

Yané pressed her fingers to her mouth, horrified. “They came for sanctuary,” she said. “Not an untimely death and an unmarked grave.”

Gregar stirred, the beginnings of an idea forming. It wasn’t important, in the grand scheme, but it could right one small wrong. “If they’re in the palace morgue, I might have a contact who can fix the second one,” he said.

Three weeks after the world’s end, their first act of rebellion was a secret funeral for two lost Jedi. Few saw the pyres, and none would speak their names as they once had Qui-Gon Jinn’s, but their small circle would remember sending them off as they deserved. 

A Proposal Two years after the formation of the Empire

“You should go to bed,” Gregar said, craning his head to look down at Mirri.

“Don’t wanna,” Mirri complained, though her eyes were half-closed as she looked down at the book cradled in her lap. Gregar tied off the braid he’d been working on and lightly tugged on the end.

“I do things I don’t want to do all the time,” he said.

“Oh? Like what?” came a voice from the doorway, rich and amused.

Gregar tipped his head back. Yané stood there with her arms crossed, curls spilling over one shoulder. “Eat Saché’s cooking experiments,” he said.

“It’s not kind to talk negatively about people behind their backs,” Yané said.

“I give Saché critiques to her face,” Gregar said.

Yané smiled a little, and then pointed at Mirri. “You. Gregar is right. Time for little ones to go to bed, so they can be rested to finish their books tomorrow. Yes?”

Mirri grumbled, but Yané got bedtime sorted, and both of them ended up in the kitchen, passing around the latest news from Bail’s cell and nursing warm drinks. Saché came down eventually. She circled behind Yané and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, then leaned there, her cheek pressed against her hair. “You don’t want to sit?” Yané murmured.

“Too much sitting,” Saché said. 

Yané sighed, but patted Saché’s hand. “You want to start?” she asked.

“Now?” Saché said.

“When is the house gonna be quieter?”

“Am I expecting a lecture?” Gregar asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Both of them turned to look at him with identical looks he categorized as ‘listen to your mother.’ Because he wasn’t one of the children they fostered, he weathered it calmly. “It’s about the living situation,” Yané said.

“Ah. The ‘you’ve been a great help, but it’s time to start apartment hunting’ speech, then,” Gregar said. He’d planned on initiating that conversation himself more than a year ago, but he’d gotten used to it here. He was hit now with a pang of premature nostalgia.  

“Sweetheart?” Yané said, looking up at Saché.

Saché pulled away from her and settled into the chair beside her. “Actually,” she said, “since we’ve never really talked about the terms of this arrangement other than ‘sure, stay as long as you like, you’re not imposing,’ I thought we should finally talk about it.”

“Please don’t take credit for my ideas,” Yané said, mock-pained. Gregar tilted his head. She shook her head. “Saché, whom I love dearly, with all of my heart, will happily sit with a situation and hope that wishing really hard will make it turn out the way she wants it. You, Gregar, just make up your mind that you know both sides of a conversation without actually talking to anyone. Especially if the conclusion you reach is something you don’t want.”

Saché broke in. “What she’s trying to say is...well, do you want to join the household?” She waved around at the kitchen around them. “It’s chaotic on the best days, and all the adults in it are members of a rebel cell, and I am going to have to ask you to help scrape paint off the hallway ceiling if you stay, but…”

Gregar opened his mouth, and Saché shut hers immediately, looking suddenly shy. At first, all that came out was air. This had never been the household he pictured for himself. But the galaxy had changed, and even before it had, Gregar had stopped expecting life to go the way he planned it. Every now and then, in the rough currents of life, you came upon a sturdy raft. Gregar would be a fool not to reach for it with both hands.

“I would like that,” he said roughly. “Very much.”

[adamworu]

I recently found this rant about Kaworu: "I never got why people thought that Kaworu was nice, he was both willing to murder 3.5 billion people and from the very beginning and only took intrest in Shinji because Shinji was a broken mental mess and Kaworu thought that was amusing. Like Kaworu takes amusement in the fact that Shinji is a broken mess like 'ahaha aren't humans and their emotions quirky.'" It also says "Kaworu did love Shinji but more like a dog, he is inhuman (speech pattern etc.) and is a god like being who sees himself as superior (which is right), he sees humans as subjects and not people". Plus him saying "suki" to Shinji doesn't mean anything romantic as in 3.0+1.0 he uses that same word from Misato's kid, says the rant. I just didn't find anything talking about this take anywhere so I wanted to ask your thoughts...

Apologies for not getting at this sooner but let's tackle this:

'Willing to murder' simply isn't true. When Kaworu finally meets up with the creature in Terminal Dogma he thinks as Adam (which would later turn out to be Lilith), he undergoes a crisis. The action of returning to Adam is purely biological, not moral. He knows this would destroy man hence his hesitation. Therefore he couldn't have been willing to annihilate the whole of humanity.

If anything Kaworu finds Shinji one of the few people he can talk to. Humans fear his species despite cloning their progenitor and stuffing them into more biomechanical iterations (which he rightfully finds weird and likely hypocritical). It's why he states that he may have been born to meet Shinji. Shinji is a good reason why Kaworu hesitates on the merge. He doesn't see Shinji as this weird creature to be seen under a microscope. If he did he wouldn't try to emotionally support Shinji's woes by telling him that running away isn't the answer.

The only thing inhuman about Kaworu is that he states humans as ‘Lilin’ but this isn’t all the time. He says ‘humans’ in the Director’s Cut of episode 24 when talking to SEELE via their monoliths. Also Kaworu talks to Shinji as a person (the point I was talking before about sorting out his emotional issues). Even more to further strengthen this point is when Shinji goes into the center of his problems, how his father was absent both physically and emotionally as well as his contempt for him. 

Kaworu understands full well of his status but it hasn’t given him a swelled head over it. 

There’s a whole bevvy of Kawoshin. Here’s just a smattering of KaworuxShinji being official. Altair and Vega. I am the words I love you. Kaworu and Shinji wedding rings as official merch. Even 3.0+1.0 has Kaworu stating that he and Shinji’s names were next to each others in the Book of Life. Meaning they’re always destined to be with each other no matter the timeline.

[serasvictoria]

Stupid Games - Chapter 2

Pairing: Ubbe Lothbrok x Reader, Ivar Lothbrok x Reader

Rating: Explicit at the end

Word count: 7487 (look, I obviously have issues)

Summary: You used to live next to the Lothbroks when you were younger, but you moved away and haven't seen them since. A wedding brings you back to town after many years and during a bachelorette party you run into the brothers again.

Notes: After Hvitserk had a go in the first part, Ubbe and Ivar take over. I thought that this chapter would end up being more centered around Ubbe (he will get more attention in the next instalment), but Ivar had something to say about that apparently. He is a bit of a pushy shit in this chapter, but I was oddly into it.

Took me a while to post this, because I couldn't get the first part of this to work. I'm finally pleased with it now so hopefully it'll work for you guys as well *fingers crossed*

Part 1 (link to my AO3)

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“A game?”

After Ivar had alluded to some kind of game that seemed to be going on between Hvitserk and Ubbe, something that neither of them wanted to comment on, their youngest brother had been the one to tell you what he had been talking about. It didn’t exactly help that Ivar looked a little bit too gleeful that he was the one that got to tell you all about this.

They had been playing a game. And it was all centered around you. That was why whenever one of them tried something when you were still a teenager, the other one was always keen to take it one step further. Everything from the kissing to the heavy petting to the dry humping, quite possibly all the way down to what had taken place in the restrooms earlier, had all been part of some stupid game.

“So the two of you were just playing with me this entire time?” Hvitserk had gone completely silent and seemed to be more interested in the contents of his glass. You somehow guessed that he was waiting for Ubbe to say something, since he was usually the one that diffused situations when they threatened to get out of hand, but his older brother never interjected. “Why would you even do that?”

“I would never do that to you,” Ivar suddenly said. “They are children.”

“Now hang on…”

“Shut up, Hvitserk.” Whatever it was that he was going to say, you didn’t exactly want to hear it. “Yeah, Ivar, you’re a real saint.”

“Better than them anyway.”

“I need some fresh air.”

“You want me to come with you?”

“No, Ivar. Stay here.” You leaned over to him and briefly pressed your lips on his cheek. “But thanks for offering.”

Before turning away, your eyes swept over Ubbe and Hvitserk for a few seconds and it looked like Ubbe had been about to say something, finally finding some words, but he closed his mouth when you turned away from them. Obviously sensing that it might not be the best idea to say something right at this very moment. You pushed yourself through the throng of people, the air too stifling now. When you were relieved that you could finally breathe in some cool air instead of the almost humid atmosphere in the bar. The night air was pleasant, on the cusp of summer and autumn, where the temperatures were still nice until relatively late in the evening.

Despite the fact that you had given it up years ago, it was times like these where you wished you hadn’t quit smoking. Since your hands needed to do something, you grabbed your mobile instead and scrolled through your instagram feed, if only to make sure that you weren’t opening yourself up to a potential conversation with anyone.

If you were honest with yourself, you had always expected that Ubbe and Hvitserk had been up to something all those years ago, but that a game had been at the source of it was quite unexpected. You had somehow convinced yourself that you’d just been having fun, that you were simply exploring new things with the boys next door, that you were using them just as much as they were using you. But it was never that simple, was it? Because at one point your feelings had very much entered into it, long before Ubbe had even kissed you.

But would they really be so cruel as to turn it all into a game? You knew and trusted these guys. You had a hard time thinking of them as callous. They wouldn’t do that. Not to you.

“Want some company?” You turned your head to the side and saw Ubbe approach you. He leaned against the wall next to you, but kept his distance. “I know that what Ivar said just now sounds really bad, but he was the only one that ever called what we were doing a game. Neither me or Serk ever looked at it that way.”

“Then what was it?”

“Interest in my case and Hvitserk was obsessed. Plain and simple.”

“Obsessed? With me?”

“What did you think it was?” He turned so that his shoulder was now pressed up against the wall and he could look you in the eye. “You remember that stupid card game?” You nodded. “Serk knew that you had never kissed anyone and he wanted to be your first. He figured that he had it in the bag as well, but he didn’t have a clue that I had a winning hand.”

“I had sort of figured out that it was the reason why he had suggested that dumb prize in the first place.” Why else would he have even come up with it to begin with if he hadn’t been convinced that he would win? “But why didn’t he just kiss me then? I wouldn’t think that he needed much incentive to do that. Especially when you take into consideration how many other girls he had already kissed at that point.”

“I don’t know,” Ubbe said with a shrug. “I probably know him best of all, but I don’t get his reasoning all the time. Maybe he thought that his best option was to turn it into a game.”

“That would explain it.” You looked up at Ubbe with a slight smile when your mind flitted back to that particular day. “And then he lost.”

“He was furious.” Ubbe started laughing. “Even accused me of rigging the game in my favour later.”

“It wasn’t like the kiss was any good.”

“Say what now?” He playfully poked a finger against your ribs. “I was prepared to put my heart and soul in that kiss. You were the one that pulled away.”

“Don’t remind me.” The only thing that you remembered was that you were absolutely horrified that Ubbe had essentially been forced to kiss you because of some dumb game. You’d wanted it to be a natural thing, not something that he had felt obligated to do. “He didn’t have any problems later on.”

“He wanted to outdo me.”

“Then what was everything that happened earlier all about?

“You want to know what he told me?”

“Well yeah.” You thought about it for a few seconds after answering him and added a quick, “It’s not going to be bad, is it?”

“Nope.” Sensing your apprehension, he reached out and took one of your hands in his as a comforting gesture. “He said that it had been worth the wait. As soon as he said that, I knew what the two of you had gotten up to while you were away.”

“Worth the wait?”

“He was obsessed with finding out what you tasted like. He even lost sleep over it at the time.” Ubbe barked out a laugh when he saw the surprised, yet also intrigued, look on your face. “It was pretty bad.”

“Oh my god,” you groaned. “He is such an idiot.”

You covered your face with your free hand and wished that you could just disappear right this very moment. This was definitely not what you thought was going to happen when you decided to come back to Kattegat after all these years. You always knew that there was a chance that you’d run into the Lothbroks at one point during your visit, but you hadn’t accounted for anything like this.

Ubbe’s hand slowly peeled your hand away from your eyes and his big blue eyes peered into yours quite insistently. “We’re cool, right?”

“Come on. As if I could stay mad at you.”

“Good.” He kept up his intense stare and kept holding your hands. Whenever you tried to pull your hands away, he squeezed until you stopped resisting. “Can I ask you something?”

“Depends on what you want to know.”

“Why did you never call?”

“Call?” You frowned, not sure what he was talking about. “When?”

“When you moved away. You promised to stay in touch, but you never did.”

“Oh. That. Why do you want to talk about that now?”

“Just always wondered about it. That’s all.”

“I don’t think I…” He tilted his head to the side in a similar way that Ivar always did to show that he wasn’t going to drop the subject. You sighed deeply and wished that he’d just let go of your hands already so you could cover your face again. “Stupid really.” You tried to figure out how best to say this since it had been based on nothing but teenage insecurities at the time and they seemed so trivial now that you were a grown up. Ubbe didn’t push you, he simply waited until you found the words, his thumbs drawing comforting circles on the palms of your hands. “I erm… I wanted to. Just figured you guys would be busy.”

“With what?”

“More important… stuff.”

“Cut the crap.”

“Okay. Jesus.” You squeezed your eyes shut, knowing that he couldn’t exactly pry your eyelids open. “I needed some time to adjust at first so I didn’t want to bother you guys with that dumb shit. Who wants to hear about that crap right? To hear me bitch and moan about how much I hated it there.”

Your mother had moved to be closer to her family and staying in Kattegat had hurt too much. Much later she had told you that everything there had reminded her of your father. Where they had their first date, where he had proposed, everything there had been tied to him and she wanted to get away from it. Her entire life before she had met your father had been in Silkeborg which seemed a million miles away from the only place that you’d ever known. You transferred into school in the middle of a school year and the only kids you knew there were two cousins, one of which you hated. You were absolutely miserable and basically kept your head down until you were old enough to go to college so you could get the hell out of there.

“I stayed in touch with Svana, Olga and Gunna and I eventually asked about you guys, since I was thinking of calling and I wanted to know if it’d be weird if I did that after going all silent for a while.” You swallowed. God, this was hard. “But they’d always go all quiet when I brought you guys up and I didn’t know why. They kept saying that you were doing fine and wouldn’t elaborate. So I asked Kára instead since she’s the only one that wouldn’t sugarcoat anything...”

That was where you stopped suddenly, not really wanting to continue. The reason was so incredibly stupid. It didn’t matter. The urge to go back inside and get paralytically drunk was overwhelming. Before you knew what happened, your face suddenly connected with Ubbe’s chest and he gave you a massive hug. He was still good at giving those. You still remembered that time after he had given you your first orgasm and the two of you had lain in his bed, hugging each other until it got dark outside. He never even said anything that time either, he just held you which was the exact same thing that he was doing right now.

“What did she say?” Nothing in how he held you gave away that he was angry, but you could hear it quite clearly in his voice.

“This is so stupid.” You pressed your head against his chest so that you could muffle your answer. “They told me that you and Serk were seeing Margrethe.”

At the time it had felt like the deepest betrayal to your young mind. It didn’t matter that you hadn’t been in a relationship with either one of them, but the only thought that had been on your mind at the time was that they’d moved on and found someone else. With your mortal enemy no less. It wasn’t like they didn’t know that the relationship that you had with her was strained, if you could even call it that at all.

You thought that the two of you had been friends at one time, but Margrethe had merely befriended you as a means to get closer to the Lothbroks. When that hadn’t worked, she had started spreading vicious rumours around school and the word about you being a whore that slept with all four of the boys spread around the school like wildfire.

It hadn’t mattered how much anyone had denied it, a lot of people had been a bit too eager to accept the gossip as gospel. Mainly girls had eaten it up like cake. Apparently a lot of girls were incredibly jealous of the fact that you were around the most popular guys in school almost constantly. The only girls that had stood by you through all of it were the seven girls that you were with tonight. Kára had even attempted to break Margrethe’s nose when she’d found out who had been behind the rumours and had been expelled for a week because of it.

In the end Margrethe had gotten exactly what she wanted.

“That’s it?”

“What do you mean ‘that’s it’?” You pulled away and slapped his chest suddenly. “You knew I had a history with that bitch.”

“Maybe you should have called and asked me about it.” He sighed and pulled you back in for another hug. “Or were you worried about what the answer might have been?”

“I was a dumb kid.” You pressed your head against his chest again and breathed in his comforting scent. He always smelled so musky and earthy. There was no other scent quite like it. “Course I was worried.”

“It was never that serious. Not for her anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She had… issues.” Ubbe was picking his words very carefully. It wasn’t that big of a surprise to you to be honest. The fact that Margrethe was seriously troubled hadn’t completely escaped you back then, but you had never concerned yourself too much with trying to figure out what her deal was. “I tried to help her, but whenever I tried to broach the subject she’d run to Serk to badmouth me.”

Even if you haven’t thought of Margrethe for years, hearing him say that made you want to hunt her down. You would have told him that too, but that wasn’t what he needed right now. You were a bit at a loss how to make it better however. It didn’t seem like he was still hurting or anything so telling him that everything was okay was probably a million miles off.

“She always had her problems,” was all you said in the end.

“I know,” he replied. “All in the past.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Shut down on me.” He released you, cupped your chin and gently tilted your head up so you could look at him. “You used to do that when we were kids as well.”

“I swear that I wasn’t! But you started this. Not me.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“Basically,” you said with a grin as another idea formed in the back of your head. “So make it up to me.”

“Make it up to you?” His eyes started sparkling with obvious delight. “I’m not going to do what Serk did earlier. I never wanted to outdo him at anything. I know I can do better.”

“That’s not what I was thinking of!” You smacked your hand against his arm first before letting it rest on his bicep. You could not help but give him a light squeeze, briefly imagining how easy it must be for him to lift you up and pin you between himself and the wall. “You’re unbelievable.”

“You’re thinking about it now though.” He brushed his thumb over your bottom lip. “I can see it in your eyes.”

“Doesn’t mean I want you to do it,” you replied. “Not out here anyway.”

“Hmmm.” He leaned forward, his beard tickling against your ear as he kept talking. “What do you want me to do then?” His large hands settled on your hips and he pushed you back against the wall. “You’re gonna have to tell me, princess.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

“Maybe.”

Ubbe settled his lips on your neck. All he did was kiss and nip at your skin, but you could feel your heart rate increase already. He briefly reached up to pull the collar of your shirt open, placed his mouth right on the spot where your neck met your shoulder and started sucking on your skin. Despite the fact that the two of you were standing only a short distance away from the red neon light that hung above the entrance to the bar, he covered you in such a way that it would simply look like the two of you were just making out. Besides, crazier stuff must have happened out here anyway.

“This what you had in mind?” he murmured huskily against your neck. Before you could reply, he moved his hands from your hips to your ass. “Or do you want me to take you home?”

“What is it with the two of you and this urge to get me back to your place?” You blurted out with a giggle. “I just wanted you to kiss me.”

“That it?” He peeled his lips away from your neck and pressed his forehead against yours. “Just a kiss?”

“Just a kiss.”

“You sure are easy to please.”

“As you know.” Ubbe never really had to try very hard with you and he knew this. In the past he would always joke about how blissed out you would look even after something as simple as a kiss. You tilted your chin up so that your lips brushed together. “You gonna kiss me or not?”

“Your wish is my command, princess.”

Pushing forward, he closed the small distance and captured your lips. The kiss that he had given you inside earlier had been intense as well, but it had been short and tasted of more. He didn’t have to stop now. He growled against your lips, kissing you so hungrily that it felt like he was trying to devour you. Even when younger Ubbe had often joked that he was like a wolf, something that his parents had recognised at birth and had named him for it. It had always made you laugh, but you could practically feel the resemblance now. If he could have his way, he’d no doubt be tearing your clothes off right now so he could eat you alive.

If he kept this up, you would be tempted to just turn around and let him fuck you right here up against the wall. Your entire head felt fuzzy and it was pretty hard to concentrate on anything other than Ubbe’s tongue which he kept slipping into your mouth. Hvitserk had worked you up to a frenzy not that long ago, but Ubbe was beginning to push you in a similar direction very quickly. One of his hands started sliding down and you knew that you should tell him to stop before you lost your mind completely, but you didn’t. His hot palm was on your bare thigh seconds later and then he slid it up, dipping his fingers into your panties so he could touch your bare skin.

“You’re burning up,” he groaned against your lips.

“Sure feels like it.”

“Want me to do something about it?”

It sure would be tempting to simply say “yes”. And oh so easy. Just one word. Just that little affirmative answer and he’d do something about this heat that he was gradually stoking inside of you. Your body was practically screaming at you to just say “yes”, to get it over with and stop putting it off. You could have what you wanted. Right here and right now. All you had to do was…

“Oh hell no!” You pulled your lips away from him, because you recognized that voice. “You little slut!”

“Am not!”

“Yeah, you are!” Svana was making rude gestures at the pair of you from the entrance with a big smile on her face. “Get back in here. We just bought another round. As for you,” she was pointing straight at Ubbe now. “We bought your ass a beer, so you’d better finish it before we let your brother have it.” She cackled loudly and then disappeared without waiting to see what the two of you were going to do.

“What do you want to do?” Now that his lips weren’t on yours anymore, it was a lot easier to think. When you didn’t answer straight away, he pinched your ass once before removing his hand from your underwear. “Go back in?”

“Be a shame to waste those drinks.”

“I guess.” He held his hand out to you and you took it without hesitation. “One thing though, you’re having dinner at our place tomorrow. Just to avoid any more interruptions.” You could feel all the hairs on your arm stand on end the second the words were out of his mouth. Just the thought of an evening with the two of them with no one around to stop them… your brain already went into overdrive. “Deal?”

“Sure. Sounds good.”

Right before the two of you passed through the entrance, Ubbe pushed you up against the wall right next to it very quickly and gave you one final hungry kiss that took your breath away.

It very much felt like a little taster to what could happen the following evening if you’d let him keep going.

*****

After the night you’d had, you were glad to be back in your hotel room.

When you and Ubbe had gone back inside to join your friends, you found that Hvitserk and Ivar had already joined them and the rest of the evening was filled with even more alcohol and witnessing some incredibly bad dancing from Hvitserk’s end.

Switching the light on in the small bathroom, you looked at yourself in the mirror and came to the conclusion that you looked like absolute shit. You stripped out of your clothes, dropped them on the floor and left them there. It wasn’t of the utmost importance that you fold them up right this minute anyway. You had already hung a slinky, spaghetti strapped nightshirt on a peg on the door. It had been packed in case you managed to get lucky sometime during this short trip and the way things were looking after tonight, there was a definite chance that you would.

Make-up removed and teeth brushed, you headed back into the room and promptly dropped face first into the bed. You spread yourself out over the mattress and pressed your face into the sheets. It was a good thing that you didn’t have anything planned until tomorrow evening (technically this evening), because you probably wouldn’t wake up until midday.

You’d been about to doze off when you heard your mobile. You swore and reached for it and stared at the screen. Unknown caller. You groaned and shoved it underneath the pillow. Probably a wrong number or some bad joke from one of your drunk friends. It kept ringing until it switched over to voicemail and you sighed deeply when it stopped, completely ready to let sleep overtake you…

It started ringing again. By now you were determined to ignore it, but as soon as it stopped, you kept hearing your ringtone kick back to life. Whoever it was, they would not allow you to fall asleep until you’d picked up. After the fourth time, you dug it out from under the pillow and answered.

“What!” The annoyance in your voice was unmistakable and you’d been about to start swearing about how this had better be really fucking important when you heard a familiar voice on the other end.

“That’s no way to greet an old friend.”

“Ivar?” You rolled over until you were laying on your back. “What the hell? Do you know what time it is?”

“4:48.”

“Jesus Christ. Why are you calling me? And how did you get my number anyway?”

“Ubbe gave it to me.” You’d exchanged numbers with Ubbe after he’d invited you round to have dinner with him and Hvitserk since he had promised to pick you up. “You didn’t want me to have it?”

“I didn’t say that.” You didn’t mind. Ivar would probably end up getting your number sooner or later anyway, but he still hadn’t mentioned why he had decided that now was a good time to call you. “I don’t know why you’re calling me, but can’t it wait until later?”

“No. I need to talk to you now.”

“Okay, fine,” you said with a sigh. You had known Ivar for long enough to know that he was the type of person that would end up getting his way no matter what and if Ivar wanted to talk to you, that would be exactly what would happen. It didn’t matter if you were too tired, you just had to get over it and accept it. “What is it?”

“What are you wearing anyway?”

“Ivar! What the fuck! I’m not telling you that.” You started laughing and was waiting for him to join in to let you know that he had asked you that question to be funny, but he never did. “Get to the point. Why are you calling me?”

“I was just thinking of you in that ridiculous outfit.”

“Oh. And you figured you’d call me to tell me about it?”

“Yes. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep after seeing that and I don’t think you should either.”

“Okaaaay…” You stretched out the word and found yourself wondering what else was going to be coming out of his mouth. “So what should I be doing instead?”

“Touch yourself.” For a few seconds you weren’t entirely sure that you’d heard him correctly, somehow convinced that you were imagining this entire conversation because you were so sleep deprived. But then he said your name in a low voice and asked, “Are you still there?”

“Y-yes.” You didn’t know why he was asking you to do this, but it had to be a joke to see if you’d actually do it. That was the only logical explanation. “D-did you just ask me to…”

“Touch yourself, yes.” He paused for a few seconds while you were still waiting for him to tell you that this was all a joke, that he had just been having some fun, but then he continued. “But you were wrong.”

“Oh? About what?”

“I wasn’t asking you, I was telling you.”

“Ivar, you can’t just call me at five in the morning and tell me t-”

“Yes, I can.” He cut you off before you could finish your sentence. “Touch yourself. I am not telling you again.”

“Ivar, fuck.” Hearing the command in his voice was working for you in ways that you had never thought possible. You pressed the index finger of your free hand against your neck, just below your ear, and started trailing it down. “This is insane.”

“Are you touching yourself, kitten?”

“Y-yes.” This really was a dream. You were having some kind of vivid sexual dream involving the kid that used to sit in the little red trailer behind your bike as he screamed at you to go faster. And now that same kid, all grown up by now, was initiating phone sex with you. “I am.”

“Where?”

“My collarbone.” Your finger had pressed into the dip above your sternum and had started trailing outward.

“Child’s play.” Ivar sounded less than impressed with you. “Are your nipples hard?”

“Ivar!”

“What?” You heard him chuckle on the other end. “Well? Are they?”

You looked down at your chest and could see your nipples pressing up against the silky fabric of your nightshirt. “Yes.”

“So touch them instead.” Despite the fact that he couldn’t see whether you were doing it or not, you thought that he would probably be able to tell if you were ignoring what he was telling you to do. “Your collarbone. Honestly.” You whimpered when your finger brushed up against the hardened nub. “Feel good?” You made an affirmative noise. “Squeeze.” You did as he asked again and stifled a moan. “Don’t do that.”

“W-what?”

“I want to hear you.” You repeated the movement and this time you didn’t try to silence yourself. “Good.” You could hear the pride in his voice. “Now move your hand down lower.”

Your hand skimmed down your stomach, moving down ever lower until your fingers brushed over your mound and you sighed deeply when your hand dipped down in between your legs. When you pressed against your covered core, you could feel that your underwear was already damp and you set to lazily rubbing your fingers up and down. Little gasps and moans kept tumbling from your lips and you gripped your mobile tighter in your hand.

“Did I tell you that you could do that?” Your hand stopped moving instantly and you made sure that Ivar heard how displeased you were. “No. I didn’t say that you could move your hand down that low.” Since you could somehow tell that it was coming, you pulled your hand away and moved it next to you to grip the sheets instead. “Start again.”

“From where?”

“Your collarbone.”

“I thought that was child’s play?”

“Just do it,” he replied mercilessly. “And don’t talk back. Good girls do whatever they’re told.”

“And who told you that I was a good girl?” He wasn’t in the room with you so you could be a little bit defiant. “Good girls don’t necessarily give guys blowjobs in restrooms.”

“Probably not.”

Without any warning, the call suddenly disconnected. You stared at your screen in confusion. Why would Ivar get you all hot and bothered like that only to hang up on you? So now you had to finish it yourself and then you could finally fall asleep. You’d been about to do just that when your phone started ringing again. When you looked at the screen, you saw that someone wanted to video call you. You swiped your thumb over the screen and the next thing you knew Ivar’s face came into view.

“You thought that I was going to leave you hanging, weren’t you?”

“I kinda did yeah.”

“I just wanted to see with my own eyes that you were going to do what I told you.” Ivar bit his lower lip. It was a move that was almost a little bit too calculated to come across as natural, but you didn’t really mind. It only made you wish that he was in the room with you so you could feel those lips on yours. “Now show me what you are wearing.”

You moved the phone up a little bit higher and slowly tilted it downward. There was a lace trim at the top of your nightshirt and the rest was made of a pink silky material. It didn’t exactly leave much to the imagination. You had your legs pulled up so he couldn’t see your underwear properly and you could see a slight frown crease his brow.

“Open your thighs.” You parted your legs slowly and made sure that he could see your panties. They didn’t match your nightshirt, but when you heard him whistle through his teeth it was made clear that he didn’t particularly care that you weren’t wearing a matching set. “Nice.”

“You like it?”

“A lot. Let me see your face again.” You moved the screen back up and smiled at him. “I want you to take it off now.”

“My nightshirt?”

“Everything.” He could probably see the hesitation on your face and you saw his eyes soften. “Would you do that for me, kitten?”

“Just my top.” You saw his other hand move into view for a few seconds, gesturing at you to continue. You put the phone down next to you, pushed yourself up into a sitting position and removed your top. Moving back into view of your phone, you sat in such a way that Ivar could see that you were half naked now without letting him see your bare chest. “See?”

“But not enough.” One corner of his mouth curled up in an almost wicked grin. “Just a peek.” You knew where this was heading, that much was obvious, but you had never done anything like this before and it made you apprehensive. “Do you want me to say please?”

“I’m not so sure you can say please.” You lay back down, moved one of your arms so it covered your breasts and grabbed the phone again. You held it high above you so he could see your face and the top of your chest. “Like this?”

“You’re not giving me a lot to work with here.” He sounded unimpressed so you moved your hand, aiming it down lower so he could see the arm that you were covering yourself with. “Move your arm.” You briefly closed your eyes and took in a deep breath to steady yourself, but didn’t pull your arm away. He said your name and you looked up at his face again. “Please?”

Very slowly, you spread your fingers so a single nipple appeared between them. His tongue peeked out from between his lips to swipe over his bottom lip. You saw his lips move, but before he could say anything you started circling the pebbled nub with one of your fingers. Ivar’s pupils were so big by now that you could barely make out the blue in his eyes anymore. You couldn’t help but wonder if he would come over if you were to ask him to.

“Move your arm.” You took a deep breath and very slowly started moving your arm down until it was resting right underneath your breasts. Ivar tried to hide it, but you saw his eyes widen ever so slightly and then he uttered a low, “Fuck.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What are you wearing?” He didn’t respond immediately, he merely looked amused that you even asked him this, so you tried to make your next words sound as commanding as possible. “Show me.”

Ivar kept his eyes on yours for a few seconds longer and just when you thought that he wasn’t going to show you anything at all, he slowly tilted the phone down to show you that his chest was already bare. You’d already felt it back at the bar when he pulled you closer to him a couple of times after he and his brothers had joined your group of friends, but my god, he was ripped. You’d been paying such attention to his chest and the tattoos that covered part of it, that you hadn’t noticed that his other arm wasn’t visible. In fact you might even have noticed that there was slight movement coming from that side of his chest, but sadly you hadn’t.

The camera moved down over his stomach and you found yourself wanting to know how his skin would feel against the palm of your hands as you skimmed them down his chest. It wasn’t until you caught sight of trimmed hairs that led down that you noticed that he wasn’t wearing any underwear either. And then, without any prior warning, his cock suddenly came into view. You saw it for a few seconds, your mind only barely registering how hard he was and how slowly he was stroking himself before he disappeared from view and you started swearing.

“Fuck! Dammit!” You rubbed your forehead and heard him doing his utmost not to burst out in laughter on the other end. “Not funny, Ivar.”

“I am sorry, kitten.” He cleared his throat, chuckled one more time and then asked, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Dropped my goddamn phone.”

“Look at me.” You rolled on your side to grab your mobile and propped it up against a pillow so he could still have a clear view of your face. It also meant that you would not be able to drop the damn thing on yourself again. You definitely didn’t want to explain a possible black eye to Ubbe and Hvitserk tomorrow. “Were you that shocked?”

“Wasn’t expecting you to be naked,” you replied, feeling mighty stupid about yourself right now. “That’s all.”

“So… now that you know that I’m naked…”

“I’m not going to be showing you my pussy.”

“I am shocked that you even thought that.” He even gasped, but you didn’t believe him. That fucker always kept a very tight lid on his emotions. No way that something like that would shock him. “You could still take your underwear off though.”

“I could.” When you didn’t move, Ivar started pouting. Very much like before, it was such a practiced move. How many times had he done something like that before to get what he wanted? “You sly fucker.”

“What did I do?”

“Shut up. As if you don’t know.” His mouth broke out into a wide grin and you shook your head. “You are such a dick, Ivar.” When you saw him open his mouth to speak, you cut him off. “Don’t say it.”

“Say what?”

“If you were going to say anything about how nice your dick looks, I swear that I’ll hang up.”

“I wasn’t going to say that, but thanks.” You groaned for even voicing that opinion out loud. You really had to learn to think before you speak, especially around someone like Ivar. “What kind of guy would say that?”

“Have you met Serk?”

“Good point,” he said with a chuckle. “I was just going to ask you to take your panties off again.”

“You always were a persistent little shit.” Why not give him what he wanted? You weren’t going to shove the phone in between your legs to show him that you were entirely naked, you’d made that clear already. “Tell me. Don’t ask me.”

“Hmmm. So you like that, do you?” His grin turned practically feral now that you’d given him a piece of information that he would likely use against you at some other point in the future. “Take your panties off. Now.”

“Yes, sir.” The word was out of your mouth before you even realised it and when you did, your cheeks flushed bright red. “Oh my god… I-I am so s-sorry… that was…”

“Hot?” Your horrified expression only amused him more and he started laughing. “You can call me that anytime, kitten.”

“I wasn’t…”

“But I did tell you to do something, didn’t I?”

And then the command was back. When an involuntary moan escaped your lips, he drew attention to his own lips again by running his tongue over his plump bottom lip. You mouthed the word “fuck” before reaching down and sliding your underwear down your legs. When they were off, you moved them into view of your phone to show him that you were now entirely naked and hearing him groan softly on the other end felt strangely good.

“Ivar?”

“What is it, kitten?”

“If you’re going to tell me to touch my collarbone again, I’ll kill you.”

“Impatient.” Before he could tell you to do anything, you’d already slid your hand between your legs and you made sure that he heard the sound that you made when your fingers finally came into contact with your soaking wet pussy. “Fine. I’ve been touching myself for a while so I’ll allow it.”

“You’ll allow it? Gee, thank you, Ivar.”

“I can be merciful,” he replied without a hint of embarrassment. “What are you doing?”

“Touching myself.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific than that.”

“Lord. This is kinda…” You squeezed your eyes shut and bucked your hips up against your hand. “Fuck.” His laboured breathing was starting to propel you closer to reaching a climax and when you opened your eyes to look at the screen again, you could tell that he probably didn’t need much more either. “I’m so wet,” you half moaned. “Wish you were here so you could… replace my fingers… with your tongue…”

“Oh y-yeah?”

“Mmmm.” You moved your hand away from yourself, quickly replacing it with your other hand and then held your arousal soaked fingers up to the screen. “See that?” His lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. You kept eye contact with him when you sucked your digits into your mouth, moaning as you did so. You moved your fingers in and out of your mouth, determined to give him some kind of show.

“I need to feel those pretty lips of yours…” He was finally able to talk now. “...wrapped around my cock.” You released your fingers with a loud pop and then presented your tongue to him, to mimic that you were doing something else entirely. “Just like that,” he said with a grin. “Bet you’d look good on your knees.”

“In my… skirt…”

“Yeah…” It was getting more and more difficult for him to talk now, you could tell, but he was still trying. “I’m so…”

Ivar never finished his sentence. All that came out was a low guttural growl and then he was done. His eyes were closed and his breathing was heavy as he came down from his high. You kept your eyes focused on his lips and his tongue that kept darting out to moisten them. When he finally opened his eyes, within seconds he knew what you’d been looking at.

“Kitten.” He practically purred the word at you and you could feel your muscles twitch involuntarily. Your movements increased, rubbing harder as the pressure continued to build. “I should just come over so I can make you come with my mouth and my fingers.” Your face started to feel hot and you gasped loudly. You were close. So close. “And then, if you’ve been a good girl, I might even fuck you.” He paused for a few seconds, his blue eyes locked on yours. “But only if you’ve been really good.”

“Oh my god…” One last circular movement around your clit, that was all you needed. You squeezed your eyes shut and all but wailed the words as your legs started shaking, your muscles spasming, your toes curling against the blanket. “Shit, shit, shit…”

You were aware of Ivar’s soft chuckle somewhere in the background, but it was hard to focus on anything after orgasming that hard. If it was already this good, what the hell was it going to be like if he was actually in the room with you? If he actually pressed that thick cock of his into you and growled into your ear what a good girl you were? The sheer thought of it was almost enough to make you come again.

Finally cracking an eye open, you looked at the screen to find Ivar’s blue eyes focused on you. One corner of your mouth curled up and then you wiped the sweat off your brow that had accumulated there. “Fuck. That was amazing,” you said with a breathy laugh. “I’m exhausted.”

“I can tell,” he said quietly. “Will you be able to sleep or do you need me for something else?”

Wait. Was he angling for an invitation here? You looked at the alarm clock that was on the bedside table. The red glowing numbers had the time at 5:16 in the morning.

“Nope.” You decided to play dumb. “Why? Did you want to talk?”

“Talk? No.” He chuckled softly in reply and ran his hand down his face. “So that’s how it’s going to be?”

“Yep.” You rolled over on your side and blew a kiss at the camera. “Good night, Ivar.”

Before he could say anything in reply, you had already disconnected the call and then pressed your face into the pillow as you laughed. Your phone started beeping almost immediately. You saw a message illuminate the screen and you unlocked it to reply.

The message read: That was rude.

Since you hadn’t had a chance to add his number to your contact list, you were seeing nothing but his phone number so you added him so you could at least see his name.

Good night, Ivar.

You saw that he was typing back and it didn’t take him long to send a reply. Good night, kitten. You were going to reply, but saw dots appear again. I’ll have to teach you some manners the next time we see each other.

A shiver ran down your spine when you read his message. You wondered what he was planning, but knowing him it would probably be good.

Good night, Ivar. And I’m looking forward to it.

He didn’t send you any more messages and you fell into a deep sleep shortly after while clutching your mobile tightly.

[devourer--of--books]

Some time ago (and by “some time” I mean a long ass time, oops) Kate (@pumpkinpaperweight) posted an analysis of gold rush by Taylor Swift tracing parallels to Agatha, which this post is clearly inspired by. 

(Go check that one out after you finish reading this post, it’s really good.)

Ever since, I’ve had an entire tagatha x taylor playlist/unfinished post that I don’t think will ever see the light because I’m too lazy to actually finish it. But now I have some spare time and I noticed that,,,, invisible string wasn’t on it.

And that's cause, well, despite the obvious gold fingerglow motif which is very tagatha … you already read the title of the post. It’s more like my own version of of what I would have had happen post-otk (will my epilogue version ever see the light, I wonder) than anything else, but this is my account, in which I am correct all the time and accept no criticism so,,,,

Green was the color of the grass where I used to read at Centennial Park

I used to think I would meet somebody there

Basically, these first two lines are about how Sophie’s egocentrism isolated her and kept her from making genuine connections with people from very early on, until she becomes friends with Agatha and even after that.

Okay, so have you guys ever seen those tiktoks that are like ‘13-year-old me, in black jeans and sneakers, at the beach, reading a book mYstERioUsLy so that when Harry Styles showed up he’d know I’m dIfFeRenT'?

This is the energy I get here. 

Like, Sophie in the start of book one doing all those ‘good deeds’ so set herself apart in the eyes of the school master hoping that he’d bring her to the school where she would meet *drumroll* The One. 

Most of us have, at some point (I hope, otherwise it was just me and that would be so embarassing), tried and failed to channel that main-character-energy to manifest ourselves into a story much more interesting than whatever is going on in your life at the moment. I feel like at the very core, that’s sort of what Sophie was trying to do? It’s a very juvenile feeling and shows just how little Sophie knew about love overall. Love as it is in fairytale books, as opposed to as it actually is.

She thought herself as above everyone else and thought she was entitled to true, unconditional love, which ended up holding her back and isolating her from everyone in the town, save for Agatha, give or take. 

This mindset is what really keeps her from seeing Tedros (and Agatha, and everyone else) as people, rather than characters in her story, and actually connecting with them on a non-superficial level. 

Teal was the color of your shirt when you were 16 at the yogurt shop

You used to work at to make a little money

I don’t think this part needs much explaining? 

On surface level, Nicola canonically started working at her father’s pub at a very young age to help with family expenses.

If you think about it a little more and contrast it with the previous line, though, it highlights the differences between Sophie and Nicola:

Nic works to help her family, learning responsibility and duty, while Sophie barely ever did anything for her father, both out of vanity (and a superiority complex) and out of spite (which is honestly undeserved all the way up to book 3, when Stefan let Callis die and fucking tried to blame Agatha for returning without Sophie and then guilt-tripped her into going to save her, after which he was dead to me lol). Sophie grew with a princess-like mindset, despite being just slightly better off than Nic, given all the villagers save from Callis and Agatha (due to them being outcasts) seem to have a similar income (with the exception of the beggar which I don’t understand and am probably overthinking about, but honestly, it’s a impossible to leave town and people die on the mill all the time, there's no college or whatever, did none of these assholes offer the beggar a job- I’m getting carried away), while Nicola has to shoulder most of the responsibilities due to her dad being sick.

Also, given the *misogyny* I’d be surprised if Nic didn’t have to do all the housework, as the only girl in her house.  

I doubt that the uniform of the pub was teal and given the book timeline she wouldn’t have been 16 in any instances in which Sophie and her met in Gavaldon, but I digress.

Time

Curious time

Gave me no compasses

Gave me no signs

Were there clues I didn't see?

Also kinda self-explanatory in a way?

On one interpretation, it takes Sophie an awful long time to mature and grow into an okay person. She lashed out after Tedros’ rejection because her desire was, when you get down to it, to be loved, even though she didn't understand what love was or how to go about it. She was already loved both by Agatha and by her father but she couldn't see it because the idea of love (romantic, loud, grand-gesture) was so embedded into her, but the clues to it were there all along.

On another, you could argue that Nicola also did not see this coming at all, specially if you consider canon!Nicola rather than fanon!Nicola (why would you, but okay, ignore my Hunter post, go on, stomp on my feelings). Nicola, whose purpose in TCY was to be the new hort-love-interest no one asked for, ending up with her *gag* love-rival? Unexpected, iconic, never done before (never actually done in canon), amazing, mind-blowin-

Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA

You ate at my favorite spot for dinner

Bad Blood was a smash hit on Taylor’s career, playing on the radio  non-stop during the 1989 era, arguably her peak in terms of mainstream pop and radio plays.

The Tale of Sophie and Agatha was the equivalent in this context, as it was all the rage in Gavaldon after book 3; Sophie’s persona as the Dean Of Evil is solidified and everyone in The Woods knows who she is and read her tale, including Nicola (who already knew who she was, but now had a another version of her to compare to the version she already knew, which hm, did not favour Sophie either way).

I think it’s kind of fascinating how parasocial relationships work in the context of SGE because like, the storian is there as an omniscient narrator, but it doesn’t write everything. Like, does it just expose what the people in the tale feel and think only if it suits the plot or do the tales look just like the SGE books, in some sort of fourth wall break or is it like an actual children’s fairytale, where you just get told actions and have to sort of assume motivations? How does that affect public opinion? I don’t think most people would be too keen on stanning Sophie after reading The Tale Of Sophie and Agatha (cause damn, Sophie does a lot of questionable shit there) but canonically, they do, despite her being the villain, which is something I have opinions on (do I ever not have opinions on things?).

Like, sure there would be Nevers stanning her, but honestly, if they read the tale, wouldn't they be more likely to stan Hester or even Agatha? Cause Sophie almost got both Evers and Nevers killed, doomed everyone in The Woods for a guy, and was overall a horrible person with no regard for actual Good or Evil as balanced things? Isn’t this why The Coven sided with Agatha, like, I don’t get it- Is it stanning out of fear? Cause that’s the only sort of explanation I have, specially for people in Gavaldon, but that’s something I’ll go deeper into in another time.

Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nic’s first class at SGE was about The Tale Of Sophie and Agatha, given she was originally placed in Evil, due to Dovey and Sophie’s bet, and Evil’s school curriculum was under Sophie’s control, so if you think those classes were anything other than the Sophie-Show, you are wrong.

Now, on to headcanon territory, wouldn’t it be poetic if during her first lunch Nic sat at that tree in the middle of the clearing where Agatha and Sophie used to sit? Not only for ship reasons, but the tree is right in the center, which could relate to how Nic was supposed to be half/half?

Bold was the waitress on our three-year trip getting lunch down by the Lakes

She said I looked like an American singer

It’s a real shame that I don’t remember most of TCY. (But is it really?)

This is kinda of my own personal interpretation of what the OTK epilogue should have been like (and so, it's kind of a spoiler for my ever unfinished rewrite sksnsksn).

Imagine if, instead of that horrid school wedding (kill me now, please), they actually held the respective funerals for all the people lost in the Camelot power-struggle (I’ll take a school funeral, but don’t come at me with school weddings or I’ll lose my shit).

Tedros and Agatha, poor traumatized children, are on their way back to Camelot to try and get stuff back under control and do royal things. Sophie is pretty much on her own, with the remaining faculty of the school, as well as the new kids (yeah, Hort’s staying dead, boo hoo, I’m not sorry sbfhbsdb). Nicola will be returning home to Gavaldon soon, since the school schedule is already messed up beyond repair and everyone is taking some time off anyway. She was only staying there until christmas originally, so might as well.

Public opinion on the main trio is kinda weird at the moment:

Tagatha suffered a coup, then a while laterTedros killed the brother of his usurper, whom had been more popular than him, and well, they do tell people that Japeth killed Rhian, but it’s not like they have receipts? Like, there’s no way to fact check that. They could very well have killed Rhian, we, as bystanders, wouldn’t know? You can bet rumors like these don’t just go away.

And Sophie?

Well, I think public opinion on Sophie was already fear-based rather than coming from a place of admiration for her acts. People aren’t sure of her alliances anymore, and don’t really know how to behave around her so they mainly avoid her. Now that Dovey and Hort are dead and everyone else is resuming their quests, she’ll be pretty much on her own to deal with the aftermatch, which is not only sad, but also probably not healthy. She considers staying with Agatha, but she doesn’t want to add more scandal to the Camelot situation.

So she decides to go back to Gavaldon. Not permanently tho. Just to visit her father and take some time off to decide who could balance her well enough to be appointed as Dean Of Good. 

She'd choose Agatha, but you know, Agatha is kinda busy. Plus, it'd be good to see her father. Watching most of your parental figures drop like flies really puts things into perspective and maybe (just maybe) there's still something to salvage there.

Not many people know she's at Gavaldon, and that's on purpose. For once, Sophie just wants to be left the fuck alone, so she just tries to lay low and not bring unnecessary attention to heself. It's so unlike her to do so that when she walks in to have lunch at Nicola's pub, no one but Nicola even recognizes her.

And if Nicola keeps her company and accompany her on walks, well, it’s no one’s business. Bonding time? Bonding time.

Time

Mystical time

Cutting me open, then healing me fine

Were there clues I didn't see?

You know what these kids need after this Camelot shitstorm? Therapy, that’s what.

There’s no therapy in The Woods, so friendship will simply have to do. Please sir, let these kids heal.

Nicola was dragged to SGE while her father was sick and knew no one there personally, then got dragged again, now into a power struggle where she almost died multiple times, dated a guy, broke up with a guy and I can’t even remember what else but that sounds like a stressful time considering how close together the events from TCY are compared to TSY. What does she want to do now? Will she become a knight? Will she remain in Gavaldon? Does she have to finish school? How have Hunter and her dad been? Whatever went down with her brothers? Why was she important in the first place? Lots to reflect and self-search.

And Sophie. Oh Sophie.

Sophie fell once again for a ‘get-love-’quick’ scheme, not once, but twice! That is not something easy to look in the face and forgive yourself for.

With Rhian, it backfired by hurting everyone she loved, and after the shit Rafal pulled on her, she should have known better. But can you blame her? It’s not like the Rafal thing left her unscratched: you try being in an abusive relationship with a predator, see if you don’t get some trauma. And instead of doing the hard thing and keeping up the work she had been doing on herself she threw her progress out the window the moment Rhian said what she wanted to hear!

After that went belly-up, she at least managed to help her friends, but then later that backfired and she got brain-washed (are we gonna talk about this? disturbing much?). Then, she got fragile enough for her to attempt to find purpose in her life within Hort’s feelings for her, even if she didn’t actually reciprocate those feelings, simply because she was sure of them and they were familiar.

And later, even Hort was taken away from her. 

(Probably for the best, given their attachment had been… precarious, to say the least.)

Therapy, I’m telling you.

A string that pulled me

Out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar

Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire

Chains around my demons

Wool to brave the seasons

One single thread of gold tied me to you

These two would be so good for one another.

I think that being alone when you’re going through something is literally the worst you can do, but when you have someone who just…. gets it, you know? They were there too. They understand. It forms a connection.

After OTK, both of them (Sophie mostly) have enough on their plates for them to go down a dark path to a horrible place. But they don’t. Cause they are here for each other and have their support system to help them.

Does that translate into late nights drinking together after the pub shuts down? Maybe.  Keeping tabs on each other to make sure they’re sleeping and eating right? Yes. Keeping secrets and confessions? You got it.

And then my friends, begins the pining.

Cause, you know, they’re just gals being pals, gals being gay- wait what.

Nicola probably comes to terms with it first, but thinks Sophie is not interested in her like that (she also suspects that Sophie only sees her as Agatha’s stand-in and will drop her eventually once Agatha is no longer in such high demand.) Sophie is, in classic Sophie-fashion, neck-deep in denial, she’s not a lesbian right? she’s boy crazy, she’s not a lesbian-

Except she never felt like this with any of those boys. The only comparison she has is what she feels for Agatha, this feeling of being heard and seen and understood, but-

But Sophie doesn’t want to kiss Agatha.

And in retrospect, she never wanted to kiss anyone like this either.  Tedros who, Rafal who, Rhian who, Hort who, these bitches could never.

Eventually they attend the official tagatha wedding, HELD AT THE CASTLE, as each other’s plus-ones, and well, maybe consider checking my eventual OTK-epilogue for more on this, once it eventually comes out.

Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart

Now I send their babies presents

Very self-explanatory, Tedros may be Sophie’s favorite ex, but he’s still an ex and they will be killing each other if left unchecked for two long unsupervised.

Nicphie as the tagatha baby godparents. Please, YES.

I’m not gonna go into detail because children make me uncomfortable,  I wish this was a joke, haha, but yes, Sophie and Nic pic the presents together and they attend the baby shower together. Are they dating, are they just married but don’t know it yet? I wonder. They're just together and no one really knows what's going on.

Gold was the color of the leaves when I showed you around Centennial Park

Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven

You know what’s funny? I didn’t tell you anything between the wedding and the baby shower. Remember how there was an opening for Dean of Good?

Yeah, too late to send in your resumes, position is already filled.

Sophie shows Nic the ropes of being Dean, or at least that’s how she’ll present it, but they’re still sort of figuring it out together. And that's okay.

They spend summers traveling around, christmas in Gavaldon, new years in Camelot and all is well. Their fingerglow colors now match. But it’s, unfortunately not gold.

Time

Wondrous time

Gave me the blues and then purple pink skies

And it's cool

Baby, with me

Yeah, it’s fucking purple.

I can’t remember if Nic has a canon fingerglow color, but I don’t really care much for canon, do I? I just really like the imagery of it, so it’s blue and pink mixed together. Because, you know I’m a symbolic bitch.

And isn't it just so pretty to think

All along there was some

Invisible string

Tying you to me?

Anyway, I am correct, this is the post.

[dukereviewsxtra]

Duke Reviews Xtra: Cinderella 3: A Twist In Time

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Xtra Where Today We Continue Our Look At Movies By Disney...

And On Yesterday's Show, I Looked At Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True, So, Today, We're Looking At The Final Sequel For Our Princess With The Glass Slipper, Cinderella 3: A Twist In Time...

This Film Which Is Half Disney Sequel, Half Disney What If? Sees Lady Tremaine Getting Her Hands On The Fairy Godmother's Wand And Makes It That It's Anastasia That Fits The Glass Slipper While Keeping Cinderella As A Maid...

Will Cinderella Reverse What Lady Tremaine Has Done And Win Back The Heart Of The Prince?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Cinderella 3: A Twist In Time...

The Movie Starts With Cinderella And The Prince Celebrating A Year Since Their Wedding Anniversary And The Mice And The Fairy Godmother Have Prepared A Party For Them...

While Back At The Cottage, Drizella And...WAIT A MINUTE!!!!...

What Is Anastasia Doing There? (Sighs) Okay, Let's Talk About This Bullshit Move...

Apparently Everyone Hated Cinderella 2 So Much That They Decided To Retcon It Entirely, And Just Redo The Anastasia Redemption Story In This One Only Without The Baker...

What...The...Hell...

Now, Look I Will Say That Cinderella 2 Was Not The Best Of The Disney Direct To DVD Movies, But It Wasn't The Worst Of Them, The Movie Was Tolerable And I Did Enjoy At Least 2 Of The Stories, One Of Them Being Anastasia's...

So, I'm Sorry But I Just Don't Think It Was Necessary To Redo It For The 3rd One...

And If They Wanted To Have A Redemption Arc Then They Should Have Given It To Drizella, Let Her Realize That While Money Can Buy Much, It Can't Buy Love And Happiness...

Or If They Wanted Her To Be In This Then, Take Away Cinderella And The Prince's Memories Of The Ball After Time Is Reversed And Let Anastasia And The Mice Be The Only Ones Who Remember The Past Including Her Relationship With The Baker And Cinderella's Night With The Prince...

And Have Them Be The Heroes Of The Story With Them Trying To Get Cinderella And The Prince Back Together So They Could Stop Tremaine...

Back To The Story, Drizella And (Sighs) Anastasia...Are Bitterly Doing Chores But When Anastasia Wanders Off To Avoid Work, She Stumbles Upon The Party Where The Fairy Godmother Drops The Same So Anastasia Can Take It To Her Mother...

Attempting To Take The Wand Back, Anastasia Turns The Fairy Godmother To Stone As Lady Tremaine Sees This As A Chance To Ruin Cinderella's Life. So, Using The Wand She Turns Back Time To The Day The Grand Duke Fit The Glass Slipper On Cinderella...

Using The Wand To Make The Slipper Fit Anastasia, The Grand Duke Declares That She Must Be The Girl As Cinderella Arrives Too Late...

Knowing That She's The One That Danced With The Prince To The Point That She Shows Tremaine The Other Glass Slipper Like An Idiot...

But Of Course, She Destroys The Slipper And Tells Her To Stay Away From The Palace And The Prince...

(What Cinderella Should Have Said To Tremaine After That Line)

Determined To Set Things Right After A Song That Cinderella Sings, She Follows Tremaine And The Stepsisters To The Palace...

Where We Catch Up With The Prince Who Is Sword Playing With The King Where They Go Into DIscussion About How The Smitten With His Wife Who Passed On Years Before This....

Hearing That The Girl Has Arrived Only To See That It's Anastasia, The Prince Is Slightly Disappointed As He Knows That He's Not The Girl He Danced With, But When Tremaine Casts A Spell On The Prince, He Accepts Anastasia As His Bride By Altering His Memory...

Oh, Great, I Hope He Doesn't Think He's Greg Brady...

(Fun Fact: Christopher Daniel Barnes, The Voice Of The Prince Played Greg Brady In Both The Brady Bunch Movie And A Very Brady Sequel)

Witnessing This, Jaq And Gus Tell Cinderella (Who Has Disguised Herself As The Royal Mouse Catcher) That Lady Tremaine Has The Fairy Godmother's Wand..

But Despite Anastasia's Clumsy Antics, The King Is Charmed By Her And Gives Her A Seashell That Belonged To His Wife Saying When They Found It On The Beach And Their Hands Touched Each Other, They Knew That They Belonged Together...

But Despite Lady Tremaine's Spell, The Prince Tells The Duke That When His Hand Touched Anastasia's While Dancing With Her, He Felt Nothing, Leaving Him Seriously Confused...

Sneaking Into Tremaine's Room, Cinderella And The Mice Manage To Get The Wand But Cinderella Gets Captured By Palace Guards Before She Can Lift The Spell...

However, Before She Is, Cinderella Manages To Touch The Prince's Hand Which Begins To Jog His Memory But Not All Of It, So Lady Tremaine Has Cinderella Exiled From The Kingdom By Ship..

You Know, This Story Is Too Focused On Giving Us The Anastasia Redemption Story Again When Really It Should Be Focused On Lady Tremaine And Telling Us Why She Does This To Cinderella...

We Got An Answer In The Remake So Why Couldn't We Get An Answer Here? There's Got To Be More To It Than Just Her And The Stepsisters Being Jealous Of Cinderella's Beauty And Charm...

But Luckily Jaq And Gus Explain The Whole Story To The Prince Through Another Song Before Showing Him The Other Glass Slipper That Cinderella Had Which Has Been Repaired As Proof...

So, Racing Down To The Port On His Horse, The Prince Intercepts The Ship And He Embraces Cinderella As He Asks Her To Marry Him To Which She Accepts...

Bringing Cinderella Back To The Palace, The Prince Explains Everything To The King And Grand Duke And They Order The Guards To Find The Tremaine's And Arrest Them...

But This Leads Them To Go With Plan B, Replace Cinderella By Making Anastasia Look Like Cinderella...

Trapping Cinderella In A Carriage (That Looks Like It Belongs In Halloweentown From The Nightmare Before Christmas Than A Cinderella Movie) With Lucifer As It's Coachman, Lady Tremaine Tries To Get Rid Of Cinderella...

But With Help From Jaq And Gus, Cinderella Is Able To Escape The Carriage As It Is Driven Off The Cliff..

Making It Back In Time To Stop The Wedding, Cinderella Is Shocked To Discover That Of Course, Anastasia Has Already Stopped The Wedding Realizing That She Doesn't Love The Prince And Wants To Be Loved For Herself...

(God, This Is So Stupid)

(Start At 2:38)

Reuniting Cinderella And The Prince, Anastasia Picks Up The Wand And Returns Everything Back To Normal. Returning The Seashell To The King, He Tells Anastasia To Keep It, Saying That She Too Deserves True Love..

Even Though She Already Had It In The Second Movie!

Reconciling With Her Stepsister, They Restore The Fairy Godmother, Who Offers To Undo Everything That Tremaine Caused But With Cinderella And The Prince Happy With Outcome Either Way, Things Remain Where They Are As Our Film Ends..

Yeah, This Film Sucks

The Story Has Possibilities But They Take What Was Good About The Second One And Just Rehashes It And I'm Sorry But Unless It's In A Flashback I Don't Need To See It Again...

Also We Don't Get Why Tremaine Hates Cinderella So Much Other Than What Was Said In The Perfect Movie Where Here Would Have Been A Good Opportunity To Do That And Reveal The True Reason...

I Know Alot Of People Actually Like This Movie Over The Many Other Disney Direct To DVD Movies, And I Know I'm Going To Get Alot Of Flack For Saying That I Hate This Movie But I'm Sorry But All This Movie Is To Me, Is A Rehash Of A Story With A Missed Opportunity In The Center So, For This Movie, I'm Saying Skip It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off

[valkyrie-echo]

Project Echo, Part 1: Chapter 18 (Reviving Bucky Barnes)

Part 1 Summary: A long-buried Hydra disaster, a monster in the shadows, a missing child. Eight months after the events of “The Winter Soldier”, Bucky turns himself in to the Avengers on one condition: They must help him find a girl snatched off the streets by Hydra seven years ago. In their quest, the Avengers accidentally unleash a horrifying creature of darkness and shadow, intent on making their quarry its prey.

Chapter 18: Reviving Bucky Barnes

A week passed without any sightings of the creature, and everyone was thankful for the break. Bucky started meeting with Sam regularly to talk through things and, when he still couldn't sleep for fear of the memories, Thor or Steve would go to the gym with him and practice fighting. Tony tried convincing everyone that a three-on-one fight with the Hulk would be a good idea, but no one saw how that came close to 'fun'.

Natasha and Clint weren't seen around the commons area too often- they continued to get no response from the girl. Whenever Nat entered the lobby, Bucky would excuse himself. He could tell she wasn't a fan of his- especially since JARVIS' full med scan on the girl painted a vivid picture of his handiwork. She didn't have to say anything- Bucky could see her rage in how she moved, and he made it his mission in life to avoid her. Doctor Johansson returned with a small team to begin putting the nameless child back together again and check the recovery of his other patient. He could barely make eye contact with Bucky after examining her.

One rainy afternoon, as Bucky worked on rebuilding a car engine from the 1970s, Clint came in, "How's it going?"

"New engines are more difficult to figure out than I thought. I swear there's a piece missing," Bucky was making an effort to be as amiable as he could around the team- especially Tony. Stark had cleaned out a section of his robotics lab and given Bucky access to his old junk car collection to rebuild on his own. It was Tony's original hobby- before the Iron Man obsession began, and he was happily passing it to the Winter Soldier now.

Clint looked slightly uncomfortable, "Listen, I'm sorry about all this with Nessa, I still don't think there's any reason-"

"Nessa?"

"Inessa," Clint nodded, "Nat couldn't get a name from her so we made one. It means-"

"Pure," Bucky smiled, "it's a good name for her."

Clint gestured to the door, "Can I show you something really quick? I've been having trouble with something, you might be able to help."

"Sure," Bucky pulled off his grease-stained apron and gloves, then followed Clint out to the lounge. He froze as soon as he saw where Clint was leading him.

"See," Clint snickered, "we have an overabundance of cake and gifts, and we need someone to take it off our hands."

"Surprise!" Everyone was wearing party hats and streamers were draped from the lights. All the Avengers (and their friends) were present, including Pepper (allowed back into the building that very day by Tony), Jane Foster (who Bucky only knew from a picture Thor carried around), Mariah Hill and Rhody. Bucky was overwhelmed. He hadn't even known it was his birthday. A giant "98" hung from the rafters and he silently vowed not to tell them that he hadn't even known the year before just then.

Steve came over and clapped him on the back, laughing. He pulled out a large piece of metal with a bow on it and handed it to him, "Couldn't have you finishing too early," the goddamned missing piece!

"You little-" Bucky put him in a headlock with his metal arm, "still no respect for your elders, huh?"

"Uncle, uncle!" Bucky let him go and was quickly swept up in the sea of people. He had to admit that just this once being the center of attention (for a good reason!) felt great, and he couldn't stop smiling.

"You cleaned up well," Pepper came over, smiling, and held out a hand to him. This time Bucky shook it. "Tony speaks very highly of you."

"Woah Pepp," Tony came over, "I have an image to keep up."

"Well then, Bucky, this is just from me," Pepper held up a gift bag.

Tony raised his hand, "My idea!"

Pepper rolled her eyes and prompted Bucky to open the gift. He was curious. He reached in and pulled out a silver frame. Once he realized what it was, his mouth fell open and tears filled his eyes, "Where did you find this?" he managed a whisper.

"The historical society. Steve gave me some background so I could start looking."

The frame held a photograph of his parents on their wedding day. It had been digitally cleaned-up and printed on much nicer paper, but it looked exactly like the one his mother had kept on the mantle in their apartment. He touched the picture. His family. It had been decades since they died, but how he had a piece of his past. He wiped his eyes, "Thank you."

"Happy Birthday," she gave him a hug.

"Are we doing gifts already?" Clint came over with Natasha.

She nodded her greeting, then held out a flat, wrapped package, "An olive branch."

He unwrapped the parcel and looked at it- a tablet? He'd seen the others with similar contraptions, but like Steve he mostly avoided them. Natasha hit a button on the side and video filled the screen- a live feed of Inessa, sitting in the living room of Natasha and Clint's apartment under the guard of two suits, "I turn on cartoons. No sign she's even seeing them, but maybe one day she will."

"Thank you," Bucky had been dying to know how she was doing, it drove him crazy sometimes, this was as precious a gift as Pepper's, "How is she? Have you managed to get anything from her?"

Natasha shook her head, "It would be easier if they'd tried to alter her, like what they did to you. Re-directing someone can be undone with time but you-" she corrected herself quickly, "they, they took her to a blank slate. It can take weeks or even months to make progress from there. We just have to hope whoever grows in her place resembles whoever she was."

Bucky nodded, "And no luck identifying her?"

Clint shrugged, "We can't even figure out which country to start looking in. You said she spoke English, but JARVIS' scans say she's got the nutrient and calcium levels of someone from the second or third world. She could be a missionary's kid. No one ever reported her missing- either she'll have to tell us who she is or Hydra will."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do towards that end," Bucky had tried to convince Steve and the others to let him go on a mission to Auckland after Dennisson, but instead they'd installed an electromagnet on any door or window that could open to the outside. Bucky couldn't survive a fight with Hydra without his arm, and couldn't leave the building with it. He'd finally surrendered and agreed to stay (though the magnets remained just in case).

"Can I talk to you- alone?" Natasha lightly grabbed his arm and steered Bucky away from the others towards a quiet corner. "Listen," she sighed, "I just want you to know that I'm not mad at you. You don't have to keep avoiding me, really."

Bucky shifted uncomfortably, "I know what I did, you don't have to pretend it doesn't make your skin crawl-"

"It does," Natasha admitted, "but the only difference between what's in your past and what's in mine is that I chose to kill, maim, torture- whatever was needed. The KGB ripped my soul right out of me, but I could have left before Clint found me, and I knew it. I'm paying for all that now, just like you are and will continue to do in the future. I don't blame you- I blame the people who used you... I'd like for us to be friends, if you're alright with that."

"I am," Bucky nodded.

Natasha smiled, "Now, go- get back to your party. I'm told Tony will actually attempt to light every candle on that damn cake, and it's always fun to see DUM-E roll into a room with the fire extinguisher.

Chapter 19: Thomas Dennisson