#but i think i would be Killed if i tried to redo it. i dunno. maybe ill try to change it when i do sadnesses. maybe not.

[remxedmoon]

so all you need to do right now is disappear.

HHHHAPPY ISATVERSARY EVERYONE. here’s redraws for every single battle cg in the game. 36 drawings this time around, with 11 of those being custom (though admittedly a good portion of those are edits). combined with the portrait redraws i made back in september, i’ve made 114 redraws for this project! jesus christ! just like those redraws, these are completely free to use!! as long as i’m credited and it’s not for commercial purposes, go wild!! do whatever you want!!!

no i didn’t make these for isat’s 1 year anniversary this is just wildly good timing.

i genuinely can’t fit all of these cgs in one post even with the 30 image limit on browser, but i’ll still try to fit Most of them below the cut (without making this post horrifically long), along with some notes that might be important 👍

okay! once again, i labeled all of the custom art as such in the drive(UPDATE. NNOT TRUE ANYMORE. reformatted file names to be easier to mod in auau. apologies!), but if you want a full list, the customs are hatless siffrin jackpot, bonnie jackpot, bonnie special attack, bigfrin attack, and a bunch of alts which are definitely not related to any projects i’ve been thinking about don’t worry about it. and out of those customs, only like. 3 of them are actually completely from scratch.

while i did my absolute best to keep the aspect ratios completely the same as the originals, there’s 3 exceptions that i just couldn’t get to work.

isabeau’s hair in his special attack cg wouldn’t fit in frame if i kept things completely accurate to the og, so i moved his cg down a bit. it shouldn’t cause any issues with modding or anything, it’ll just appear slightly lower than it does in game. alas…

isabeau’s sleeve and mirabelle’s hair made their jackpot sprites a little larger than the originals? i’m hoping this doesn’t have too much of an effect (since the jackpot sprites have inconsistent sizes) but i can’t test this myself unfortunately. aaa feel free to let me know on discord if any problems arise!!

i managed to fix these, so they aren’t going to cause problems now, but my original drawings for mirabelle and siffrin in the final attack scene were a pain in the ass to fix. mirabelle’s sprite was slightly too talk to fit in frame and siffrin’s hat whacked bonnie in the face while i was editing everyone together. i’m only mentioning this because it took like an hour and a half to fix them and finish the scene.

all that aside, these were a fucking BLAST to work on. apparently this ended up taking 57 hours over exactly 10 days. which is a little worrying if you do the math on that but somehow i have not burnt myself out. i will be doing enemies at some point!!! but probably not for a little bit. i think my friends will actually kill me if i don’t take a break.

once again, happy birthday isat. you’ve ruined my life and i wouldn’t have it any other way (silly).

also, on an actual serious note, this little timeloop game has genuinely changed my life for the better? you guys are probably sick of hearing it at this point (or maybe not, i don’t talk about myself That Much. i hope), but i was practically a ghost for about 2 years before joining this fandom. it’s a little surreal to suddenly have friends (plural!!!) and people who Care about me, or even know i exist, honestly. it’s weird!! in a good way!!!

i don’t think i would’ve ever come back to social media if this community wasn’t so welcoming. i’ve met a lot of really great people through this game!!! so, uh, thank you isat, i guess. here’s to another year.

[syrupspinner]

steam next fest 3 the finale maybe

i have recently become much less confident that nextfest is all one word, also

yeah, its missing some pizzaz, like music and sfx work, but the devs are pretty open about it being early so ill look past it. the gimmick itsself is fun! its simple and straightforward in a good way, and i like how it iterates on runs. the good items taking up more physical space and getting burried in your deck is a really good expression of balance. good little roguelike! wishlisted and played for way longer than i thought i would

straight up couldnt get this one to work. no buttons or keys do shit. i unplugged my controller, relaunched it, a bunch of stuff, still stuck on the first screen. shame, i was really looking forward to giving it a shot

this is a good demo! it does a good job at presenting the game and letting you know what its all about. i got the basics really solidly, and i see how the additional environments would iterate on the core gameplay loop. i dont think this ones for me, it seems a bit too sandboxy and score-based for me, but i recognize that this is a well made game and i think itll be really enjoyable for its target audience. check it out if you like simulator/management things, or if you want to try the genre out!

okay, just finished the tutorial, and im kinda split. first, the action feels great and the movement it stellar but yeesh this controller binding is messing me up. it only feels comfortable for me to keep one finder on the front of the controller, and i switch between the bumpers and the triggers with just my index. literally the only games that arent comparable with this approach, by expecting you to use bumpers AND triggers simultaneously, is this and hotline miami 2. the worst part is, i only figured out how weird this feels by the second-to-last tutorial, so i gotta redo all of it with kbm. after that, the game felt a lot more reasonable to get my fingers around (i probably wouldve switched spacebar and shift if i played longer), and i can confirm that the controller layout is my only obstacle to this kick-ass game. i will say that i wasnt expecting it to be a survival game? i thought itd be kind of a roguelike progression-through-a-dungeon thing, but its more about staying in a small space and defending. i already had this one wishlisted, and im glad i know what to expect now, this seems like itll be an interesting "kill 20 minutes before bed" game (in a good way! i love those)

right away, this feels like its to scotland what kisima innitchuna is to alaskan first nations. only its all stop motion and the entire ost sounds like a simon & garfunkle open house. maybe this comparison is stupid, the point is that this is awesome and you need to play it now. it may look like you get what the games about when you look at it, but it feels different to control. i dunno how to explain it, the artstyle makes the controls feel... different in a neutral way? please just try it, words fail me. this may very well be a once-in-a-lifetime game

game froze midway through the opening. man, bad luck today. it gotr working in the end, and MAN does this make me feel like a game reviewer. the game isnt hard per se, i can beat all the levels pretty easily, but the game asks you to be pretty damn talented if you want those a ranks. replay the level, route the best way to kill everyone as efficiently as possible. by the end youre gonna feel like harding. i feel like the full games gonna be a bit to tough for my blood, but im gonna have a stellar time watching the action from the sidelines. catch this at GDQ 2026

yeah i uh. went back to play more. damn this is more fun than i thought itd be, this is a good ass roguelike

before you read on, let it be known that this is objectively one of the best made and well put-together games ive tried this entire festival and all of my gripes with it are from personal preference. trying this game has led me to understand what people enjoy about punch-out (its clear inspiration) better than any 15 minute video essay could: its a puzzle game that relies on twitch reflexes and trial-and-error. its your job as a player to be attentive to the bosses's minute difference of animation to tell you exactly how to dodge and exactly when to strike. thats a great game! i feel genuinely remiss that i dont like trial and error and split-second weaknesses, or else i wouldve enjoyed this game way more. if youre on the fence about it, please give it an honesty try, this game knows exactly what to be and how to be it. the animation is great, both from the perspective of telegraphing attacks and just looking fantastic, the games vibe and personality is choice, and the gameplay itself is tight as hell. please just give it a shot

i guess thats the beauty of a demo, huh? it lets you figure out if youre gonna like a game before you commit to it. i hope if you take anything away from this 3-part... idk what youd call it, i kinda just gave my opinion about shit. look, im trying to tell you to try these games out yourself, hopefully this helped you figure out what is and isnt worth trying according to your own personal taste. and if youre not sure, give it a try anyway. demos are free, yknow

[ungrateful-cyborg-moved]

Hermes and dynamis uses

EW spoilers

I’ve already said that I didn’t like Hermes because he never even tried to change people’s mindset or to communicate how he felt before assuming the worst and acting on his own. Like, never, in at least a century since the Meteia are about a century old.

But I'm redoing this part of the MSQ with A’idan and just reached the point where we go to find one Lycaon to kill it. He forbids Meteion to join him because, and I quote, “I would spare you their pain. And mine.” (Emphasis mine)

And I remembered how he said to Emet earlier than dynamis didn’t have much use for them as their aetherical density is too high for that but... it has a use.

Psychology.

If he had bothered trying—actually trying—to make people understand that creatures had feelings too and another approach was needed, he had the means to do so in Meteion and her sisters.

And it’s not as if I didn’t know already that the Ancients on Etherys were quite terrible in psychological matters but it’s a good reminder. That being said, as scientists, I do think they would have welcomed a new field of study even if change might have taken time.

(Dunno where I’m going with this, it was just on my mind.)

[stargazer-balladeer]

Hiya! Could I please request an angsty doc for Diluc from Genshin Impact? Maybe the reader is his best friend and secretly loves him but he doesn’t know? The reader develops hanahaki (the flower illness? I dunno if I spelled it right) disease and gets progressively closer to dying until Diluc finds them collapsed, surrounded by blood and flower petals, and he panics and holds the reader, confessing his love for them somewhere in his panic which cures them of the illness? Thank you!!

Daffodils [Genshin Impact]

[ Diluc Ragnvindr x Gender Neutral! Reader ]

{Hanahaki Disease}

Notes: making this an angst instead of fluffy is quite tempting- I hope I did justice to your request 😔✊im sorry if you don’t like this ;w; Hope you’ll still enjoy it tho! (If you want a redo, please request again-)

(I tried using the flowers in the game but.. their useless 😐. Cecilia looks like Lilies flowers but their meaning is basically soulmates- i decided to use daffodils in this one-)

Warning: Mentions of blood and negative things.

Word Count: 1297

Diluc narrows his eyes at the running figure that he calls his friend. Why were they running away from him? Did he smell bad? Diluc’s brows furrowed as he shakes his head. That’s not it. They’ve been acting weird for quite a while now. At first, Diluc shrugged it off. But as days go by, weeks, Diluc started to notice their strange behavior.

Recently, they look sick. Their skin lost color and their face always seem pale. Thick bags appeared beneath their eyes. And they always cough. For some reason, [Y/N] also seem to be avoiding him, and only him. They are still talking to everyone in Mondstadt, all except him. Did he do something wrong? Then what is it?

Diluc wanted to confront them about it. His patience is wearing thin. He sighed as he tries to think of a new plan to do to capture- no, convince them to talk. Tomorrow, I’ll get the answer I want..

——

How did you get in this position again? [Y/N] sweatdropped as their eyes were on the ground. Ah yes. Diluc fucking ambushed me— “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m getting my answers now.” Diluc said harshly, but there’s concern underlying it. [Y/N] knew that he’s just worried about them but they don’t want him to know. Especially their feelings towards their pyro-user friend.

Don’t make him guilty— Don’t say anything— It’s better this way—

“I.. don’t know what you’re talking about.” [Y/N] mumbled numbly. Diluc clicked his tongue as his hold in their hands tightened. [Y/N] winced a bit, but they knew that Diluc wouldn’t hurt them. It’s just the way he is. Even though he puts up a stoic, cold front, his a baby in the inside.

That’s what made [Y/N] fall in love with him..

But, they knew that their love will never be requited—

[Y/N]’s eyes widened when they felt something familiar rising in their throat. No! They screamed in their mind. Not now!

Diluc noticed their panic and raised a brow. “What’s wrong?” [Y/N] kept their mouth shut, afraid that they’ll start coughing if they spoke. The concern in his eyed became apparent now as he slowly lets go of their hands. “Talk to me, [Y/N].. we’re friends, aren’t we?”

[Y/N]’s eyes prickle when they heard the friend word. That’s all they will be. Friends. Their hands cup their mouth. The vile inside their mouth is rising even more, scratching their throat, wanting to be let out.

Diluc’s hand move to touch their cheek but [Y/N] move. Hurt. That was on Diluc’s face. Unable to look at him anymore, their legs started sprinting. They could hear Diluc calling for them.

They ran as fast as they could until they arrived at a forest in Springvale. They couldn’t breathe, literally couldn’t breathe. They cough, trying to get whatever in their throat out. It was painful. They wanted it to stop.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the thing stuck on their throat finally came out. [Y/N] retracted their hand, only for their eyes to widen in fright. There in their palm was full of blood, along with the blood-stained petals of the flower Daffodils.

How ironic. [Y/N] knew exactly what they mean as tears started falling in their eyes.

Diluc is the only one for them..

——

Diluc has been feeling uneasy ever since this morning. He doesn’t know why but something tells him that he should check up on [Y/N]. Its been a week since he last saw them. Ever since then, they just.. disappeared. Diluc only grew worried about them when his mind would wander to that day.

He could clearly remember the pain in their eyes, clearly seeking for help to him. However he didn’t do anything as he watch them ran from him. But now, more determined than ever, he will get the answers from them.

Diluc stood in front of their door in their house just outside of Mondstadt. His hand rise to knock, but he hesitated. What if they don’t want to see him? What would he do? Diluc shakes his head. Now’s not the time to think of that.

He slowly knock on the wooden door. No answer. He knocks again, this time calling out. “It’s me. Open the door.” No answer again. His brows furrowed as he tried to listen if there was someone inside the house. But only silence greeted him. He pursued his lips, now concern than ever. He tried opening the door but it was locked.

He cursed as he tried to find any alternative way to get inside. His eyes landed on a nearby tree that lead to their bedroom window. His mind was contemplating on whether or not he should do it. But in the end, his worrisome self got the best of him.

Diluc climb up the tree slowly and carefully. Once he reached their window, he tried peeking in but the sunlight was not making it easy for him. “Stupid sun..” Diluc mumbled as he got closer to the window.

What Diluc saw froze him, not literally mind you. His eyes widened at the sight of [Y/N] laying on the ground with pool of blood surrounding them and daffodils. His mind is still racing when he screamed their name while jumping to the window, effectively breaking it.

Glass shards scratch his face, but he didn’t pay any mind. He quickly went to [Y/N]’s side. Tears pooling in his eyes as flashbacks of his father’s death flash before him. “No no no! [Y/N]! Wake up!”

Thankfully, [Y/N] opened their eyes, but Diluc can tell their struggling to keep their eyes open. He gave them a weak smile as he cradles their body in his, not minding that the blood and daffodils stick on his clothes. “D-Diluc..? What’re you..?” [Y/N] weakly mumbled as a series of cough interrupted them.

Diluc rubbed their back as he eyed the daffodils. Where has he seen this before? Why does it seem familiar? Then it finally click in his mind. Hanahaki Disease. This made Diluc’s heart stopped momentarily when realization hits him hard. You love someone you can’t have?

“Who is it?” Diluc asked while looking at the walls. “It’s.. no use.. you.. don’t need to know.” [Y/N] weakly responded. Diluc grits his teeth as his hold on [Y/N]’s shoulders tightened. “Tell me so that I know who I’ll kill.” [Y/N] lets out a strained laughter.

Knowing that [Y/N] wouldn’t speak, Diluc sighed as he pulled their body to his in a hug. “You know.. this’ll turn out differently if you would let me love you instead of that bastard.” [Y/N]’s eyes widened at his sudden confession. His arms tightened around them. “Maybe.. I would have given you the best life instead of suffering like this.”

Tears were trekking down Diluc’s cheeks. The mere thought of losing them from someone they love is unbearable to him. He doesn’t want to believe. He loves you too much. “I love you.. you idiot..”

[Y/N] lets out a laugh before starting to laugh. Their tears no longer filled with grief. Their heart was beating fast in their chest as they hug him tighter. They could feel themselves healing. The thorns in their throat now disappeared.

Diluc was confused on why they were laughing. Did he say something funny? But when they pull back from the embrace. His eyes widened, they look more healthy than they ever been. Their smile was bright as they press their forehead with his. “I love you too, Diluc.”

Ah.. so he was the reason why you have hanahaki disease? He doesn’t know whether to be grateful, sad, angry or— basically, he’s a mess. Even though his mind is a mess, it doesn’t stop him from pulling you into a kiss.

Finally.

[x] Main Page || [x] Mondstadt Page

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, eps 1-5 thoughts! opening the new season with episodes like these kinda blew me away. we had multiple serious episodes INCLUDING a two parter!! also, valerie :)

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-I don't know what I expected s2 to open with. but danny portal incident in more detail was not it. (also, I hate to break it to you, sam, but danny's parent's bigass ghost hunting rv def chugs more gas than those vehicles, lmao. unless it runs on ectoplasm or something...)

-WHY WAS DESIREE IN THE SEWER? HAVING TEA WITH IT DOWN THERE?? Her making the giant cow come alive is a boss move, we've almost had all of my fav animals as ghosts now <3 I also don't like how sam was expecting danny to just, haunt the place so the cars wouldn't get sold? I KNOWWW I know she's 14 (and I had a very annoying phase like this, I think I mentioned in a previous post, I GET IT) but they're HIS powers, and messing with (1) dealership will not really put a dent in sales overall because they can just move the cars to another sales lot, and it certainly wont change the industry anyway, it's more of a minor annoyance for (1) location. Also, usually people who work at car sales places work on commission, so if they dont make a sale, they don't have money to pay bills, or eat. sam baby if u wanna be an activist you need to like, actually look into these things. with as much money as her parents have, she could be doing a lot..more useful things for causes she cares about? it's frustrating to see someone with resources who doesn't know how to use them. but shes 14 so again. cannot be really upset :/

-IS THIS A PREDATOR VS TERMINATOR VS FREDDY KRUEGER MOVIE BUT THEYRE ALL WOMEN?? you know, sam is so right to be excited about this. /I/ want to see this movie. that rules

-paulina inviting danny and friends to her quinceañera, aw! even if it is just to get phantom to show up :') and there'll be a meteor shower, and we KNOW danny wants to be an astronaut!! there's not a meteor shower every night!! the tickets are non-refundable, but..she's rich? like. gotta agree with danny, they never get invited!! I KNOW it's the principle of keeping promises, but if she was that upset, she should've said something. directly. I hated how she was like, passive aggressive about it through the episode, like you SAID IT WAS FINE, THAT YOU'D GO TO THE PARTY TOO. MOVIES SHOW FOR A FEW WEEKS IN THEATERS. IF YOU HAD A REAL PROBLEM YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. WE'VE HAD THIS PROBLEM BEFORE, SAM. YOUR FRIENDS. ARE NOT. MIND READERS.

-MR. LANCER GOING AFTER THE GHOST WITH THE FIRE EXTINGISHER LMAO

-this outfit is everything . anytime the show does an over the top cutesty pink outfit i WANT IT. it looks like shit I wear JKASDHF I HAVE a bow like that and a pink sweater. I need leg warmers </3

-SAMS GOTTA RE-HALF-KILL HIM??? thats fucked up. but also, he finally got his logo!! it took until s2!!! this episode was lowkey very fucked and I felt like it glossed over a lot. does sam have guilt about like. kinda KILLING HIM?? I know, he also agreed and walked into the portal. but. she made the choice to redo it SO quickly (even if it was because someone had to beat desiree) and danny, during their fight, brought up a lot of stuff sam's done in the past, meaning he was holding onto those memories and resentment was building. (I KEEP SAYING HE LOWKEY NEEDS THERAPY, BUT I THINK MOST EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW KINDA DOES) which...is a red flag? and then they didnt even GO to the party URGH I know she tried to make up for it, but it really felt like Sam fucked up and barely faced any consequences and got everything she wanted in the end. I KNOW it's a kids show obv they aren't going to go too in depth, and she undid the damage, kinda, but...I DUNNO how to articulate it but it rubbed me the wrong way.

-but on a note about desiree, her powers of wishes were STRONG ENOUGH TO ERASE NOT JUST THEIR MEMORIES, BUT DANNY'S POWERS?! fuck, if I was danny I'd be like, trying to make friends with her. I know they always have horrible side effects as most genie-granted wishes do, but...c'mon, I'd at least TRY to be like 'I wish no ghosts would hurt anyone in my town' or 'I wish vlad would lose his ghost powers forever no matter What and also forget about my mom' LIKE. SHIT DESIREE IS SO POWERFUL. rewriting reality powerful, basically!! appreciate her. respect her.

-aww, sam helping tucker pass the nurse's office so he wouldn't see because he's afraid of medical stuff? very sweet. I also don't like medical stuff, I've gotten a lot better at handling it tho. but seeing blood and needles still makes me feel lightheaded x_x

-FOLEY, BY TUCKER FOLEY. I want to make my own perfume, that's so cool. even if his first attempt isn't good, he's pretty consistently shown to have an inventor/entrepreneur streak in the show, so like. I can see him inventing or making something (or several somethings) that make him $$$ when he grows up :) proud of my creative son

-I know the 'creepy abandoned hospital on the edge of town' is a joke and the creepy hospital trope is so Worn Out, but in my town we actually DO have a hospital like that! my dad was born in it, but its not in use and hasn't been for, like, 20 years! it needs to be torn down but I think the city doesn't wanna pay the money. the inside is horrible, spray painted and broken glass and shit everywhere. but there's still like, rusty equipment and fucking DOLLS all over the place. the cops drive by it pretty frequently to make sure no one is like, breaking in. (because of water damage, some of the areas really aren't safe. also, asbestos, but people still go in anyway) but also, some of my town was used in a filming for a stephen king show. So it's lowkey spooky all over. just a fun personal tidbit :) to lead into saying, any hospital abandoned for any period of time is NOT safe to quarantine these kids in JKSAHDKF like I KNOW it's a ghost trying to do this, but NONE of these parents are even like, 'well, why dont we keep them in the regular, working hospital'....YIKES. this hospital looks pretty accurate to the one in town. grungy and spooky.

-fentons are tax evaders confirmed by jack's fear of being audited, lol no one is surprised

-ghost sickness via ghost bugs. horrifying concept. I actually expected it to be a new villain, not dr. spectra again! this is a very elaborate scheme. her new form rules, love the new costume. the way none of the bg kids seem to recognize her as their old school councilor. did we just forget about that completely?

-dash watching romance movies in the fucked up ghost hospital. same.

-'oh please, you're ghosts, do you have any idea what YOU smell like?' no, tucker, what DO ghosts smell like? I genuinely didn't know they would even have a smell, I actually want to know now.

-it feels like a while since we've seen jazz!! i was happy to see her again, even if she was a head in a jar for most the episode. I want another jazz-focused ep!!

-we finally see danny doing space-related stuff!! him and his friends stargazing to open ep 3 of s2. cute :) until, GHOST PIRATES!!!!! ...ghost pirate captain is a small child?? VOICED BY TAYLOR LAUTNER???

-oh, the easy listening is ember's song instrumental slowed. 'vapor drone' THEY VAPORWAVED HER!!! ember in a pirate outfit tho >>>>. and the cruise being called m.bersback JKASDHJK. ember adopting a little pirate brother is also pretty cute. concerning this teen and little kid have such bad opinions of adults, like, who hurt you?? (how did you DIE ALSO?? im always lowkey curious about that. we know desiree died at an old age, but her ghost form is young, probably mid-20s, so I wonder how that sort of thing works...its a more mental thing, isn't it?) but ghost team-ups are always cool to see, even if ember bailed after danny took her guitar. I guess she probably thinks youngblood can handle it (which, he's been owning danny this far in the ep, so...fair)

-tucker got that sponsorship from nasty burger for their radio!!! again, opportunistic money maker king, love to see it!!!

-danny taking control of the kids SO FAST. he makes a pretty great leader. no one is surprised, im pretty sure I said I think he's the most mature of the trio, once again, correct, because he's taken on so much responsibility already. all the teens suiting up in the jumpsuits to go save the adults and taking the ship over with a BLIMP. OKAY LETS GO. this feels like it should be a mid finale or straight up finale.

-...speaking of finales. why is ep 4-5 of s2 combined into a 50 minute episode? I havent even clicked play and im concerned. weird placement, like, this season JUST started and we're getting a two parter? okay...why are the episodes placed like this? why not put this at episode 10 or something, for a mid-season thing?

-this is also a cute dress. possibly my fav dress so far. can her parents give ME cute dresses, I'LL wear them.

-it turns out the castle fright knight was in is called pariah's keep and there's something worse than fright knight in there! lovely! fuck off vlad wtf are you doing <3 your hubris <3 is going to literally get you killed <3 'ring of rage' and 'crown of fire' are great names tho. ...vlad turning into a super polite guy when he was scared of mr. pariah was hilarious. and fright knight doing the same...I mean, it makes sense, he's a knight, he serves a king? happy to see fright knight again either way :) vlad telling him to call him tho, lmfao. you WISH HE WOULD. (I wish hed call me, too. 😔)

-so...jack being genuinely concerned about vlad...maddie really didn't tell him what happened at the cabin, did she. damn. if I was her id immediately come home and be like 'YOU WONT BELIEVE THIS SHITTTT THIS CREEPY GUY--' like, I feel like that stuff you need to tell your partner!!! I know she didnt want Jack to think she was an irresponsible parent putting danny in danger at that time, but STILLLL. maddie spilling boiling tea on him. get his ass. how is jack this oblivious to his wife's discomfort with vlad!! ughhh

-fenton wipe (tm). trademarked toilet paper.

-DANNY AND VALERIE BEING FRIENDS??? :D that was a cute moment. 'hey val <3' and 'if you like him like him, make a move, or someone else will ;)' at sam...damn!! I love her. valerie go for it girl!!! I hate how sam and tucker treat val also, like I GET IT YOURE PROTECTIVE AND DONT TRUST but if anything him befriending valerie will help when she finds out or he tells her like I feel like she'll be more understanding that they think! ALSO I feel like her reason for not liking ghosts is valid, like you haven't really explained the full story to her anyway! she doesn't seem to have any other friends after being booted from the a-listers so im like :( but seeing them kick butt together again was nice <3

-the ghosts all RUNNING FROM PARIAH DARK IS NOT GOOD, I thought he sent them to attack or something, but no. why doesn't someone just tell desiree 'hey i wish pariah dark would die' lol. once again I think she can solve every problem <3 but seeing all the enemies in one place, being civil and hiding together? love it.

-you just know danny's gonna have to clean up vlad's stupid mess. also, jack being willing to put on the ectoskeleton pants to help maddie, as soon as vlad heard it could kill him, he suggested jack do it instead of helping maddie himself? this is why jack got the girl, my man.

-ghost skeletons. how do you end up as a skeleton ghost in your afterlife instead of a humanoid like most the ones we've seen? lmao

-the ghosts just making new homes in various stores. I'd totally be setting up in an expensive clothing store if I was a ghost.

-valerie's dad is possibly the most useful adult so far, with that ghost shield expansion!!! and valerie saving vlad and danny, even tho shes been thru it already, shes still so good!!! this family rules.

-danny: *gently caresses valerie* :)

-*then he immediately TELLS HER DAD ON HER. and his first response is 'are you okay?' :'( such a good dad...

-*me every time fright knight breathes* youre doing SO great sweetie :)

-the fenton suit thing is so silly looking. does anyone take this thing seriously

-ALL THE GHOSTS FIGHTING WITH DANNY <3 AAAAA. and the fact that pariah isn't perma-defeated, but just locked away again. yikes. he'll probably get out again, won't he? it wasn't too clear, but if vlad DID make a pact with fright knight, I am rabid. I will beat vlad to death with the fenton bat (tm). YOU DONT DESERVE A COOL KNIGHT.

-valerie being direct with sam and challenging her? kinda love that, even tho I normally don't like 'catfight' type situations. because sam has been very passive aggressive about it which is annoying. valerie knows wtf she wants and wasn't even embarrassed to tell sam, but she did tell her, giving sam time to make her own move! and sam denied it and got embarrassed/mad! and sam did have a chance when danny was about to go off and fight, and she hesitated and didn't tell him. I feel like she's hesitating because they're friends and it might make it weird between the trio (poor tucker would be third-wheeling) but if u snooze u lose, u gotta GO after what u WANT girl. smh this is a No Tsundere Zone. 😤

[madam-o]

Revised Nutty Fan Theory for Loki: Nuclear Edition

After writing that long-ass post yesterday, then getting a seemingly simple comment from @obiwanobsessed that blew my mind once I thought about it for like 5 minutes, I have to completely redo my predictions.

This one's going under a cut because it's quite a bomb.

The misdirection that Waldron is playing us with concerning Loki and Sylvie is that Loki's been transformed by his love for her because Loki's her mother.

We know this for several reasons:

1) During ep 3, Loki had a moment with Sylvie in the shack when she was trying to enchant him. He said, "What are you doing?" and then she said, "What are YOU doing?" Both of them were aware of the other doing something that we couldn't see but whatever it was, it confused them both.

2) Loki later starts talking about his childhood and mother and asks Sylvie about the same. Sylvie reveals that she knew she was adopted but that she only remembers her mother in flashes. He convinces her to sleep and wakes her up with a jaunty rendition of an Asgardian lullaby. She looks disturbed by this, as if it were stirring a memory.

3) Later again, Loki questions her about how enchantment works. From what she tells him about not being able to create false memories, this must have confirmed that what he saw when she tried to enchant him was real, which I'm theorizing was Sylvie's own fragmented memories of her mother singing that same lullaby to her as a small child. He could have further explored her memories while she slept on the train as well.

4) The nexus event spiked as they both prepared to die and Sylvie touched Loki's arm. I'm guessing he was about to confess that the enchantment worked in a way, and that he's her real mom and he's so proud of her etc etc.

5) This explains the way Loki talks about Sylvie to Mobius in ep 4. He speaks of her glowingly but still says insistently that she's not his girlfriend.

6) When Loki tries to confess to Sylvie in the Time-Keepers' chamber he's nervous and says, "This is new for me" but that he knows they will figure this out because back on Lamentis...then gets cut off as he's pruned. What I believe he was going to say was "When you were trying to enchant me, I saw one of your own memories and realized that it was me singing a lullaby to you that my own mother sang to me...because I'm your mum. But just not yet."

Why do I say he's her mother and not her father or just "parent"? Because Sylvie specifically says she only has fragmented memories of her mother. Dads aren't brought up by Loki in their conversation on the train.

Also, Loki's genderfluidity was promised to be addressed and represented accurately by Waldron, Herron, and Hiddleston. But we haven't seen hide nor hair of it yet, even though Sylvie's presence seemed to address this issue. But if she's Loki's daughter, or even just another Loki variant, that doesn't address our Loki's genderfluidity properly at all.

Waldron has also said that this series shows off Hiddleston's impressive range, which I assumed meant he'd be playing several different Lokis, but he hasn't so far. I think he's only going to play the one Loki, but that Loki will go through major changes in the last two eps and the female version of Loki will be played by Tom Hiddleston himself.

That's pretty awesome and mind-blowing, but the implications of this theory open up a can of worms. First off, Sylvie was intentionally misfiled as a Loki variant. I'm assuming her birth name was Loki Lokisdottir (yeah Loki totally would name his kid that) but the TVA shows her name as Sylvie Laufeydottir. The first name change was Sylvie's doing, but what's the purpose of surname change? It can only be to hide her parents.

What bothers me is that this strongly implies that Loki will go back in time at some point later in the series in order to either start or take over the TVA and create a perfect timeline in which all the events of the series happen so that Sylvie can become who she is and he can finally achieve the destiny he desires. I'm still hoping that one of the reasons future Loki is collecting all the Lokis in one place is so that TVA Loki can become their king, absorb all of their abilities, and become the Uber Loki.

In this scenario the "other Mobius" that people have guessed Renslayer meets with in her office is actually our Mobius from the future, who is running the TVA with future Loki. This does imply that Mobius could be Sylvie's dad, yes.

But this also means that Loki will intentionally make Sylvie and many other people suffer for the sake of this timeline. He's conning the whole universe for his own benefit. It's little comfort that he and Mobius aren't actually killing anyone to do this, just seriously messing with their heads and/or sending them to the "pruned" plane.

Sylvie's childhood flashback showed her playing with valkyrie, dragon, and Fenris toys, so we can surmise that Loki left her with either his brother or Valkyrie some time after the events of Infinity War. Being abandoned by your birth mom so she can create a horrible future for you that will forge you into a warrior? Doing all of it for "your own good"? Honestly, I dunno if that's something Sylvie will be able to forgive.

[nalgenewhore]

masterlist - ao3 - last chapter - next chapter

+*+*+*+*+*+*

His smile was blinding, as always, but Elide didn’t believe him. There was something holding him back. “We’ve thwarted the wicked witch, El,” Fenrys cheered, lifting her up and spinning her around. 

Elide squealed, hitting his back as Fenrys slung her over his shoulder and sprinted down the hallway, “Fen, my whole ass is out!” She reached around, pulling down the hem of her black dress. Fenrys batted her hands away. 

“It’s only half out,” he pouted. “And it’s a nice ass, it’d be mean to only let me see.” 

Elide slapped him upside the head, hissing, “I don’t even let you see it.” Fenrys snorted and slowed down, putting her down in front of her doors, holding onto her waist to make sure she didn’t tip over on her heels. “And I’m a future duchess, a royal one, I can’t have any of my ass hanging out.” She crossed her arms, glaring up at him. 

“You’re a future duchess ‘cause of who, again?” 

She rolled her eyes at him, patting his face a bit too hard, “Don’t be a dick, sweetie-pie.” 

He laughed, tipping his head back. Elide laughed as well, their hysterical chuckles ringing out throughout the hall. 

Eventually they calmed down, grinning wildly as they wiped tears from their eyes. 

Elide looked at her door handle, “I should go to bed… do you wanna, I dunno, come in? I was going to watch something, hang out with my dog.” 

Fenrys nodded, “For sure, Ellie. My choice, ok?” He winked and opened the door, sneaking past her. With a flourish, he opened the door, bowing as he ushered her in. Elide shook her head at him, but the second she took another step, Fenrys had scooped her up and kicked the door behind him with a resound slam. 

+*+*+*+*+*+*

“Fen, get off, fat ass,” Elide groaned, pushing the man off. It turned out that Fenrys was a cuddler and though they had fallen asleep on opposite sides of the bed, by the time Elide woke up the next day, Fenrys had wrapped himself around her. 

Fenrys whined, decidedly keeping his eyes screwed shut, “Where is my lovely fiancée running off to, so early in the morn?” 

“The gym, now move,” she growled, smiling triumphantly when he rolled away and she could get out of bed. 

“I’ll be lonely, with the bed so cold.” 

Elide glanced over her shoulder, moving out of the way when Bear bounded to the space she had vacated, “Bear can keep you company.” 

“At least Bear will never stop loving me,” Fenrys crooned, fawning over the overgrown puppy. “Won’t you, girlie, huh? No, I’m your favourite.” 

“That’s cause you give her treats when she’s not supposed to have any,” Elide scolded jokingly as she padded into her closet to change. 

When she walked back out, her long hair smoothed back into a high ponytail, both Bear and Fenrys were passed out, sprawled across the plush mattress. Elide chuckled and kissed them both on their foreheads before heading out. 

+*+*+*+*+*+* 

Lorcan danced on the balls of his feet, glaring at the heavy bag as if it had personally offended him before jabbing with his left hand and swiftly following it with a powerful roundhouse. The bag swung when his shin connected with it and Lorcan jabbed again, kicking once more. His hips twisted with the drive of his leg, making sure the kick was strong before springing back. 

After a few rounds - switching every minute - his knuckles were smarting from the rough wrapping and Lorcan stopped, breathing heavily. 

He could still feel his anger rolling in his gut so he carried out a complicated pattern that ended with a spinning back kick and the heavy bag straining against the chain it hung from as it swung wildly. 

Lorcan reached out, steadying it with his hand before he stalked over to his water bottle on the bench. He sat down heavily, his lungs burning. Practically ripping his wraps off, Lorcan blew away a flyaway strand of hair that had escaped the single braid going down the length of his spine. 

When the strand just settled back down on the bridge of his nose, Lorcan glared at it, pushing it back. 

“Why don’t you just redo your braid?” 

He shut his eyes, managing to keep his mouth shut and not curse aloud. With more control than he thought he had, Lorcan stood up and did not look at Elide, “I can’t.” 

In the corner of his eye, he saw her prop her hand on her hip, tilting her head to the side in a condescending way, “Why not?” 

Lorcan almost told her to fuck off and mind her own business, but he’d promised Rowan and Fenrys that he would do his best to be civil. In a terse tone, he bit out, “Hair is sacred. I have to have the right intentions when I touch it and I’m pissed right now, so.” 

“Why are you pissed?” Any condescension seemed to have left her stance, replaced with intrigue. That probably had more to do with a desired elaboration of what his hair meant to him - not that Lorcan had any inclination to do so - than his being pissed.

He snapped, “Do you always ask this many questions?” 

Elide rolled her eyes, somehow looking down her pert nose at him despite the fact he towered over her by almost half a metre, “I was just wondering.” 

“Well,” he narrowed his eyes, giving her a mocking smile, “don’t.” Lorcan sipped from his water bottle, watching her carefully as Elide moved around him. He tensed when she walked behind him. 

Elide noticed, her face somewhat falling. “I’m not going to touch your hair, Lorcan,” she said quietly. “I would never do that.” 

Lorcan was speechless. He slowly put the bottle down, trying to find the words. Elide frowned, looking down at the floor. She picked at her nails, frowning harder at the ring on her finger. Without a thought, Lorcan quipped as he stood, “Having second thoughts, sweetheart?” 

Like always, she snapped her head up, “No, I am not. And I am not your sweetheart.” 

“Mmm, I see that you enjoy the possessiveness, but I didn’t say my sweetheart… sweetheart,” he said, with a wink and somewhat filthy grin. “Have a fun workout, Elide.” Lorcan picked up his t-shirt before sliding past her to the treadmill to cool down. 

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Elide fumed as she pulled herself up on the bar and slowly lowered herself. She glared into the mirror at Lorcan, who was jogging on a treadmill. 

She finished her pull-ups and dropped down, landing lightly on her feet. About to move to her next rep, Elide looked over her shoulder to find the door swinging shut behind Lorcan. 

Something like anger, anger she’d never known, sparked in her chest and Elide chased after him, slamming the door open, “Hey!” 

Lorcan glanced behind at her, a brow arched, “What?” He didn’t stop walking, his long legs eating up distance faster than hers ever could. Elide sped up, her pace faltering when her ankle smarted. 

She didn’t notice how he slowed slightly, a concerned gaze zoning in on her leg. Soon enough, Elide had caught up to him, “I don’t get what your fucking problem is. What did I ever do to you that was so bad that you felt the need to tell the whole world that I was unfit for what I was born to do?” 

Lorcan stopped walking and looked down at her with a blank expression. 

Elide seethed, hissing, “I know you think I’m some joke, Salvaterre. Did you and your horrid aunt sit around with that horrid lordling to plan that dance? Wh-what, you came to save me like you were a fucking hero only to humiliate me?”

“We danced for a minute, Elide,” he said drily, “not exactly what I would plan, if I had planned it.” Her heart cracked a bit in her chest, to hear him be so dismissive about it. Despite herself, despite everything that had happened, it meant something to her. It meant so damned much to her.

She frowned, shrugging her shoulder, “It was more than a minute.” 

Amusement stole across his breathtaking face. His perfectly shaped lips curled into a crooked smile, “Well, maybe a minute and a half.” 

“Fine, it was a minute and a half, but you lied.” 

He tilted his head to the side, “And how did I do that?” 

Elide crossed her arms over her chest, “You didn’t tell me who you were and that you were trying to steal my title.” 

Lorcan rolled his eyes, “Oh, forgive me, your royal Grace, I guess I forgot that it’s customary to show a girl your entire family tree before dancing with her.” 

She gasped, “Oh, you- I’m going to kill you.” They heard voices down the hall and Elide grabbed his arm, dragging him with her into a cozy broom closet. She flipped the light on, glaring up at him, “The lie dance is not the point, Lorcan. It’s–” 

“What is the point then,” he asked, flicking the light off. 

Elide sent him a withering glower before she turned it back on, “The point is that I’m onto you. I know what you’re trying to do.” 

Lorcan raised his brows in a fake impressed look, “Oh, really?” 

“Yes,” she hissed. “Do you not think I saw you last night, talking to Fenrys?” 

Elide couldn’t discern what flashed over his face before he schooled it into a visage of cool neutrality, “I was already on the balcony. Your fiancé came to talk to me, so…” 

“That is irrelevant. I beat your little game and you’re trying to cheat at it. I’m going to marry Fenrys, Lorcan, why does that annoy you so much?” 

“You don’t know a fucking thing about him. He has his own life, you know. Fen doesn’t magically exist to fix your problems,” Lorcan snapped, a different type of indignation flaring in his gaze. Elide played it off as jealousy and the bitterness of defeat now that there was nothing in her way. 

“Problems,” she laughed coldly, stepping in as close as she could and stabbing her sharp nail into his chest, “that you created, Lorcan. You think I’m any happier with uprooting his life?” 

He shrugged, his face settled into cold disdain.

Elide laughed again, the sound hollow. She opened her mouth, about to rip into him when someone opened the door. She tried to jump back, but in the enclosed space, there was nowhere to go. 

The poor maid gasped, her eyes as wide as saucers. They snapped between Lorcan and Elide and she stammered, “O-oh my g-go-ds, I-I’m, I am so sorry, ma’am.” 

Elide tried to argue, but the girl closed the door, ignoring her protests. She rounded on Lorcan, her gaze like a live wire. “You–”

Lorcan reached for the door handle, turning it and pushing the door open, “You should really learn more about your fiancé.” 

Without another word, he stalked away, leaving Elide stunned in the broom closet. 

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Channeling all her anger into her arm, Elide threw the stick and watched it as it sailed through the air. Bear barked once, quickly tearing after it into the woods. 

Someone whistled from behind her. Elide whirled, relaxing slightly when she saw that it was only Fenrys. “Damn, Lochan, you’ve been holding out on me. Who knew you could throw like that?” 

“Thanks,” she said shortly, turning back to keep an eye on Bear. “What are you doing out here.” 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Fenrys commented, sidling up to stand next to her. It was late and dark, but with the lights of the palace, Elide could see that he had already gotten prepared for bed. The hood of his Doranelle University hoodie was pulled over his head, but the shine of the silk durag he wore to protect his waves peeked through. “Lorcan told me he saw you out here.” 

Elide scowled, not answering as Bear bounded back and dropped the stick. Her heavy tail wagged enthusiastically as she sat and waited patiently. Fenrys picked up the stick before Elide could and tossed it, smiling at the way Bear eagerly chased after it. “So, what’d Lorcan do this time?” 

She groaned, letting out a slight scream of frustration, “I hate him so much. He- I- I can’t even articulate how much he bothers me. Like, today, for instance,” Elide didn’t notice Fenrys’ cheeky grin as she launched into her tirade, “I went to the gym and he’s just there, being pissed for no good reason and acting like I would- would hurt him in some way!” 

He tilted his head to the side, putting his hands in the pockets of his sweatshorts, “How did you get that?” 

Elide rolled her eyes, “His stup- his braid was coming undone and he kept blowing away the hair and so I asked him why he didn’t just redo it and he-” she breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly to collect herself, he supposed. “He told me that he couldn’t redo his braid without good intentions and since he was angry, he wouldn’t do it. I mean,” she scoffed, “what does he have to be angry about? If anything, I should be the pissed off person in this scenario. And I am!”

His friend began to pace back and forth, not noticing how Bear trotted back to drop the stick down in front of Fenrys. “Then he tells me that me uprooting your life is somehow my problem when he’s the thief. Throne thief.” Elide threw her hands up, “And, like, he’s acting like he knows you and you guys are friends…” she trailed off, the words dying in her throat when Fenrys looked away and pushed his hood down. 

He ran his hand over his wave cap, blowing out slowly. 

“You guys are friends.” Elide drew back, wrapping her arms around herself. “Well, ok, um… I think I need a minute–” 

“El, it’s really not like that. He didn’t know until I got here and- and we haven’t seen each other in years,” Fenrys protested. “We went to the same boarding school and we roomed together with my brother and Rowan and his cousin Vaughan. I’m not helping him with any of it, I would never do that.” 

Elide looked at him distrustfully, staring directly into his eyes. Fenrys fought the impulse to avoid her piercing gaze. After a few moments, Elide sighed, her shoulders slumping inwards, “Of course, I’m- I’m sorry, Fen. He just drives me fucking crazy.”

Fenrys raised a lightened brow, giving her a slow smile. Elide glanced at him momentarily, distracted by Bear, who was barreling at full force towards the pair. She looked back at him in shock and horror, “Oh my gods, no, Fen! I am not into Lorcan.” She hissed his name with a visceral disgust. 

He picked up the stick before she could and hurled it away, laughing as he ran after the dog, “I didn’t say anything!” 

Elide exclaimed in rage, flipping him off when he looked over his shoulder, “Yeah, you better fucking run, Marama!”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

an: hey ! lorcan is indigenous in this story, specifically lakota, and his hair holds a lot of meaning ! here are some super cool links for you to educate yourself further on the significance of hair in lakota culture because i am the furthest thing from an expert! 

https://sistersky.com/blogs/sister-sky/the-significance-of-hair-in-native-american-culture

http://keepersoftheword.org/traditions/native-americans-long-hair/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/understanding-grief/201710/death-and-bereavement-among-the-lakota

@mythicaitt​ @tinywolfofeyllwe​ @schmlip-scribble​ @the-regal-warrior​ @empire-of-wildfire​ @ladyverena​ @ttakeitbacknoww​ @shyvioletcat​ @alifletcher2012​ @tswaney17​ @ourbooksuniverse​  @flora-and-fae​ @thesirenwashere​ @queenofxhearts​ @maastrash​ @mynewdreamwasyou​ @cursebreaker29​ @empress-ofbloodshed​ @b00kworm​ @hizqueen4life​ @silversprings98​ @amren-courtofdreams​ @minaidss​ @superspiritfestival​ @sanakapoor​ @ireallyshouldsleeprn​ @spyofthenightcourt​ @januarystears​ @aelinfeyreeleven945tbln​ @magicalunicorngypsy​ @elriel4life​ @sensitiveillyrian​comment/ask to be added or removed from the tag list 🥰

[riverthunder]

The Stars in Our Skies

For @thespacecryptid for the @ironstrangehaven Gift Exchange ❤️

Link to AO3 Post: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28625829

Notes:

Alrighty, so first I need to apologize to my giftee, TheSpaceCryptid. I tried to finish your gift early, and I want to say I had it done sometime between the 15th and the 20th? And after a lazy Christmas Day I went into my Google Drive to post this and it was just... gone. I have no idea what happened. So I had to redo the whole thing from scratch. In some ways I like this version a lot more, though- and in others I think the original was a little better? But overall I'm pleased with this.

You had a lot of ideas I absolutely adore- like Asexual Stephen (insert my heart eyes here), and stargazing dates, and these two being professors. Just. Mwah. Beautiful.

Also, I'm tagging this as Teen due to some discussions of sex- nothing graphic, though, obviously- since I headcanon ace Stephen as a sex-repulsed asexual like myself.

I hope you like the fic and your bonus artwork to make up for how late this ended up being! Apologies again!!

The Stars in Our Skies

Tony stared just a little bit as the new astronomy teacher strolled into the break room and began fixing himself a cup of oolong tea. He had a beautiful face, with sharp cheekbones and a well-defined jaw, as well as piercing, beautiful eyes. Tony also had a funny feeling that he’d met the astronomy teacher many times before, but he couldn’t put a finger on where.

He knew Professor Strange had been a surgeon back in the day, and he was sure he’d seen him at some of the galas he’d attended in his youth. But it felt like he’d seen Strange more recently than that.

He was very obviously distracted during his class, and he gave up on whatever physics explanation he’d been trying to give the poor engineering class he was clearly confusing, and told them to just go ahead and work on homework, giving them a bonus extra two days on his latest paper as well to top it off while he sat back down at his desk to think.

At the end of the period, two of his best students came to sit next to him.

“Everything okay, Professor Stark?” Peter asked while Harley gave him a knowing smile.

“Fine, boys, just a little off my rhythm is all,” Tony said, trying to look unconcerned.

“You sure?” Harley asked innocently. “Sure it’s not something else? A certain someone, maybe? Like… I dunno… the hot new astronomy professor?”

Tony had been taking a drink of coffee and choked on it at Harley’s words, which was decidedly not good, since the coffee was still piping hot thanks to his specially designed insulated mug. “I- you- what?” Tony spluttered.

“What?” Harley asked innocently. “He’s kinda like you, Professor. A silver fox. He’s smokin’.”

“Harley!” Peter said indignantly. “You can’t say that about a professor!”

Harley shrugged. “Too bad, it’s true, Pete. ‘Sides, Professor Stark should come to terms with the idea.”

Tony’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at Harley’s tone. “Oh really?” He asked. “Why?”

Harley shrugged innocently. “Because I wrote Professor Strange a note in your handwriting and hid it in his desk drawer asking him to go on a date with you tonight at 8:00.”

Tony stood up so quickly his coffee mug almost spilled all over the papers he’d collected from his first period, but before he could shout at Harley at the top of his lungs, a certain handsome professor was standing in his doorway.

“Oh,” Stephen said, looking from Tony to their students. “I’m sorry, are you busy? I could come back another time.”

He was holding a piece of paper that had obviously been folded a few times in one of his trembling hands.

“No, we were just leaving,” Harley said sweetly.

Peter felt himself blushing for some reason as he passed Professor Stark a quick note of his own. “Um, I just wanted to know if you’d please check my work on these chemistry notes,” he said.

Tony glanced down at them. A new web-fluid design. He nodded to Peter. “Yes. Yes. I’ll look them over and e-mail you with any necessary changes.”

“Thanks!”

Without another word, Peter seized Harley’s upper arm and dashed out of the room, while Harley laughed and tried to protest, clearly thrilled with watching Tony flounder in the presence of his crush. You could hardly blame him. Seeing Tony Stark, Iron Man, who was a professor for fun, flounder, was a rare and almost unheard of sight.

“Hello, Professor Stark,” Strange said politely, and Tony felt his face heating up. “Um- hi- I-”

“I am very sorry,” Stephen said, setting the note in his hand down on Tony’s desk. Tony caught a glimpse of the handwriting- fucking identical to his own. That damn Keener brat. When Tony got his hands on him-

“But I am afraid I must decline your invitation.”

Oh.

Tony hadn’t even known he was asking Stephen on a date a few minutes ago, but somehow Stephen’s words still stung.

“Oh,” he said out loud. “Uh… busy?”

“No,” Stephen replied.

Yeah, that definitely hurt.

“Oh.” Tony glanced at the note and quickly plucked it off the desk. “Okay. That’s fine, I understand. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable with this.”

“You didn’t,” Stephen told him. “It was actually very flattering. But I don’t think you would like to be in a relationship with me, so I am afraid I must decline.”

Wait, what?

“Uh… sorry, you lost me,” Tony said awkwardly.

Stephen chuckled. “I identify as asexual,” he explained. “Specifically, a sex-repulsed asexual. And from what I know of your past...er, love life, I think it’s better if I decline the invitation altogether. I don’t want to upset you because you want to have sex and I don’t.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “So it is an ace ring!” He said, pointing at the black ring on Stephen’s middle finger on his right hand. “Rhodey called me crazy and said it was a swinger’s ring!”

Stephen blinked in surprise and glanced down at his ring. “Er- yes, it is,” he agreed.

“Cool! Okay.” Tony shot him a smirk. “In that case- are you an ace of spades?”

Stephen looked shocked. “You- you know about the card suits?”

“Sure do,” Tony said proudly.

Stephen narrowed his eyes. “Okay then- who uses the ace of diamonds?”

“Demisexuals and demiromantic asexuals,” Tony said. “Ace of clubs is for graysexual and grayromantic, ace of spades is for aromantic asexuals, and ace of hearts is for romantic asexuals.”

He grinned, and Stephen had to crack a smile. “Very impressive.”

“So, what’s your suit, Doc?” Tony asked, grinning at him, and Stephen had to resist the urge to let that smile widen.

“Ace of hearts. I’m a romantic asexual.”

Tony grinned. “I can work with that.”

Stephen allowed his face to fall into a small frown. “Tony, I-”

“Look, Doc, I don’t need sex to be happy,” Tony said. “I’ve had loads in my day, yeah, but I’m a big boy and frankly, I think it’s about time I had a relationship that wasn’t so focused on it. If you’re good with a romantic relationship, I can be happy with one, too.”

Stephen chuckled despite himself. “Persistent, aren’t you?”

“Very,” Tony said, a bit smugly.

Stephen chuckled. “Very well.” He wrote something on a small scrap of paper and offered it to Tony, taking back the note Harley had written. “You can pick me up there, at 8:00.”

“I’ll be there,” Tony said, snatching the fake letter back. “And I’ll give you something actually written by me then.”

~(*)~

Tony pulled up to the house on Bleecker Street. Huh… looked kinda like a museum, to be honest.

The elegant Professor Strange was already walking to meet the car. “Right on time,” he teased, climbing in. He looked like he was putting on a brave face as he entered, and Tony took note of the way Stephen’s hand reached for the cabinet handle on the inside of the door.

Tony bit his lip. “I just like to be on time to things,” he said casually, placing his right hand on the console if Stephen wanted to hold it too, or instead.

Stephen nodded. “Well, I appreciate it. So, what’s the plan for our date?”

“I think you told Professor Verity that you like ramen from Samurai Noodle, right?”

Stephen smiled. “Yes, that’s right.”

“Great! Then we’re getting take-out,” Tony told him, grinning to himself. “And I have a great idea of where we can eat it.”

“Oh? And where is that, exactly?”

“It’s a secret,” Tony said, smirking. “Are you ready to go?”

Stephen nodded, looking amused as he took Tony’s free hand on the console. “That I am. Let’s go, Professor Stark.”

Tony snorted as he started the car. “Alright.”

He tried to sound cool, but he knew that he had started blushing.

~(*)~

“So what exactly are we doing in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night?” Stephen asked as Tony laid a large blanket out in one of the large fields near the Avengers Compound.

“Why?” Tony asked, smirking at him. “Don’t you trust me?”

Stephen chuckled. “Is that your way of saying you’re secretly an ax murderer about to eviscerate me in the middle of this field, free of any witnesses?”

“Ouch,” Tony complained. “You’re really good at wounding someone’s ego, you know that, Strange?”

“So what’s the real reason we’re out here, then?” Stephen asked, amused.

“Lay down,” Tony ordered, pointing to the blanket. “And look up.”

Stephen did so, and gasped in surprise. “The stars….” He breathed, sounding mesmerized.

“That’s right,” Tony said, smiling at him. “Not to easy to see them in the city. But I figured you’re the Astronomy Professor… maybe you’d like to see them more clearly? Maybe teach me something I don’t know?”

“Lay down,” Stephen ordered quietly. “There… Orion the Hunter. Can you see his belt? The three stars, just here.”

“Oh… right,” Tony said. “Isn’t he that dude everyone says Artemis loved?”

“A common misconception these days,” Stephen murmured. “In many of the myths, Artemis was actually the one to kill him, on purpose, for harassing her friends, the Pleiades, or she would encourage someone else to kill him for her, such as Apollo. He’d summon a giant scorpion to kill Orion, which many believe is Scorpio, as the two constellations aren’t around at the same time. When Scorpio rises, Orion vanishes.”

“Cool,” Tony said softly, staring up at the night sky with Stephen. “What else can you see?”

“Sirius, the Dog Star, Orion’s hunting dog,” Stephen said, pointing to the bright star. You can see the constellation Taurus there. Gemini there. Monoceros is there, very faint. You see? Look closely.”

“Beautiful,” Tony murmured, resting his head on Stephen’s chest as he gazed up at the sky.

Stephen smiled to himself and wrapped an arm around him. “Hmm. Not as beautiful as you,” he murmured in a thoughtful voice, making Tony blush.

~(*)~

“Was that an okay date?” Tony wondered as he drove Stephen back to Bleecker Street.

Stephen smiled at him. “You don’t know?”

“Not really,” Tony admitted. “And I kinda wanna… you know. Do this again.”

Stephen chuckled as they reached the museum door. Wait… how come even the building looked sort of familiar? And the street…?

“Well, in that case… it was a perfect date, Professor Stark.” Stephen leaned over, kissing his lips gently. “And I expect to go on another one with you very soon.”

“Sure,” Tony said, a little breathlessly, his eyes wide as he stared at Stephen. “Whatever you want….”

“Perfect.” Stephen smiled at him, and suddenly something long, red, and fluttering was at his throat, gently tugging him out of the car. “Alright, Levi, alright. I’m coming,” Stephen murmured, reaching out to stroke the red fabric.

Tony stared at it. A sentient cloak….

Wait- was he-?

Stephen was already disappearing inside the door when Tony found his voice, so he couldn’t ask him directly. He sat in the dark of his car, dumbfounded, and feeling his heart pounding. Was that the kiss, his sudden epiphany, or both?

“FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Boss?” Chirped the cool Irish accent.

“Am… am I dating the Sorcerer Supreme?”

Extra Notes:

To clarify the "Stephen is the Sorcerer Supreme but Tony doesn't recognize him but is sure he's met him before" thing- I headcanon that Stephen's magic acts as a sort of "barrier" to his identity- and just protects his identity for him. I got the idea from Cute High Earth Defense Club actually- where the villains and heroes can't really recognize each other as specific students when they meet due to "radio interference" almost- but in my Stephen headcanon, it's more that the magic puts a sort of veil over Stephen, so Tony is sure he's met him before, but he can't put his finger on where until he recognizes Cloakie and goes "oh shit, Stephen's the Sorcerer Supreme I've been battling monsters with???"

[ruakichan]

State of Roo Gaming conglomopost:

Alchemy Stars (summer event):

120 pulls no Fleur. I has sad. Got trolled by two 6* in the same element even.  Outlook bleak. This is gacha life. Game took a look at my A3 water team and said I didn’t need him. Game doesn’t understand thirst. : ( I need him.

That said, I am here for the energy of Fleur and Brock as Those Two Guys, even more so as Those Two Guys Who Absolutely Should Not Be Left Alone Unsupervised.

Summer story’s pretty interesting, though I did get bored with a lot of the beach-life stuff as I do in every gacha that does summer events sans GBF.  I don’t particularly feel anything toward Beryl, unlike Eve; she’s very passive so we haven’t seen any of her personal thoughts or feelings about much.  Hell, half the reason I’m so salty about Fleur is cause he actually got more development than Beryl did so far, which made me like him more than just a pretty face!

Humor beats are still pretty spot on though. And at least this game really knows how to make events feel like events.

3 more days and I’ll be done with Stage 4 for Regal, THANK GOD. The dispatches are such an annoying time-gate. I have a ton of energy packs saved up so I should be able to clear out Stage 5 much more quickly. Looking forward to getting my first Eternal Silent Hunter!

I ran out of characters I feel like A3ing so now I’m just grinding to level up equipment.

I don’t know if I should get Barton (who I do not have) or Nemesis (who I need one more copy of to max breakthrough and thus have her skill set to pre-emptive) from the free ticket they give. This is one of the few times where both would technically be dick picks, but one would be useful for meta (Nemesis is one of my core Thunder units) while the other I don’t have but would like to. DECISIONS!  At least the ticket doesn’t expire. i’ll end up forgetting about it most likely

GBF (lotto drama):

Man that lotto drama whaoooo.  I’m mostly retired/seasonal in GBF these days (and my loss of reliable/fast internet in a week will just compound that due to ping/racing/refresh) so I don’t really care, but just whao.

That said, I think with this being people’s last straw shows that some people really don’t know how to give things up on their own and don’t realize it’s okay to fall out of love with something you once enjoyed or spent a lot of time/effort/money in.  I saw a lot of complaints about X or Y no longer having magic/fun etc for them any more, and they still stick around cause they keep hoping that it’ll come back, and I can tell you—it rarely ever does if you stick around.  It’s okay to move on. That sunk-cost fallacy just does harm until only bitter feelings are left.

As for me, I did come out with a T3. Picked Nehan cause I always go dick picks in gacha and I was clamoring for a Nehan unit back during SoR’s original run. Used the second one to go meta with G.Narm though since there was nothing left for me to really get, but I dislike Narmaya so she can just sit there in my inventory with all her other versions CAUSE SHE WON’T LEAVE ME ALONE I guess.

Did literally nothing else though; just no real time to play grindblue lately.

Exos Heroes (director’s notes):

Hahaha, the devs noted they were nervous about how people would react to the first Memorial Saga and I BET IT WAS DUE TO THE TWIST LOL but anyone who has used Rachel or came from Exos Saga weren’t gonna be shocked. Regardless, the translation referred to the story as from “Ramge and Rachel’s youth” and I laughed cause IT TOOK PLACE A WEEK BEFORE THE MAIN GAME’S STORY????

Hope the 2nd MS ends up actually giving rewards for side quests.

Thank god though that they are going to implement a give up section for tag battles. I no longer have to set up [my absolute most hated character in this game] as a sacrificial character any more and can set up some more proper teams.

Infinity Core is still shit but at least now they will be showing what you’ll be facing the entire week instead of day-by-day reveals. Half of the issue is playing a guessing game on what FCs you need to hoard in case their theme comes up and thus purposely limit yourself from actually achieving higher stages.  Still wish they’d just allow you to keep the stage you’re on if you already cleared it in a previous week. Why the hell do I have to redo the stage(s) every week if I already passed it? At least quick battle will be implemented to a limited degree.

Glad they acknowledged the biggest problem in the game: inability for new players to catch up.  The gap between vets and newer players never ever narrows due to all the time-gating elements this game has.  I’ve been around the block in a lot of games and the ones who have this gap never has good player retention and ends up shrinking just to a core base of cliques until the game dies. Too bad no solutions offered.

I was disappointed Blue Kaya doesn’t buff HP for support units, then remembered HP is the biggest problem in PVP so yeah, no, nevermind, good on them for realizing that. Didn’t roll for her since I went ham on the summer banners and defense scales poorly in this game due to the HP inflation.

... oh man, I got momentarily excited when I saw Saint West was getting SF3. Then remembered Rachel, while from Saint West, is the heir to Saint West’s throne, and is basically labeled as Saint West in everything else in the game, is actually the general for Lenombe. Fuck me. When will they buff him. I’m tired of facing SF3 nations and seeing my nation’s gimmick being told to pound sand cause they refuse to buff his nation even though he’s fallen way off the meta a long time ago. i think i will literally blow a fuse if greenland gets sf3 before lenombe

In non director’s notes news, I linked up Shadowbane to Lenombe. Luna and Garlond are pretty fun to use and I hope to eventually slap them onto my WR team for tag week to see how that works out, but they worked really well in Infinity Core. Glad I finally have a viable Frost unit I can use since who is Bathory? She doesn’t know me.

Dunno who I’d put in Rudley’s spot since I use him so that my Lenombe team has at least more than one chance to kill these tanky SF3 nations. Zeon is just useless now due to the prevalence of Misty and I tried out Misty and she’s okay, but she’s not the best synergy with Lenombe. I wish A.Zeon would get his FC already so I can pair him with Schmid to get the Vagabond SF bonuses... (but I’m thinking the outcry against the genderbends pushed that back RIP...)

AND FINALLY. FINALLY!!! YOU CAN GET R1 GEAR AT YORM SHOP. OH MY GOD. I CAN FINALLY GEAR MY CHARACTERS. NO MORE HATING MY LUCK. /bloodtears

[originalcontent]

Oooookay. Welcome back. Posting about pathologic part 4 I think? Part 4. We just reached Act 4 too, so everything’s going according to schedule. This gaming session had some ups and downs. Ups: That good good lore, and a lot of quality time spent with my good pals Daniil  and Changeling and also Clara apparently, although she might not be my good pal after all, but w/e. Downs: FUuuuUUUUCKkkk we are so bad at video games, and also the kin folk have become A Lot, holy shit. Where to start.

Okay so this time the game wasn’t actually super stressful for me personally bc this time I kind of just handed off the controls to my sister every time shit got dangerous. She’s a lot better at video games than me. Shoutout @akpaley​ for keeping me from dying from stress in real life.

The drawback of this is that since she’s a lot better at video games she’s also a lot more willing to actually take risks rather than just running away from literally everything. Which I won’t deny, has gotten us a lot of much-needed money and resources but also.

WELCOME TO THE FUCKING DEATH SPIRAL PART OF THE GAME. I guess it had to happen eventually, right? Fuuuuuuuck us, do you have any fucking idea how much shit you have to redo when you’re randomly shanked by some dude every fifteen minutes? And they’re harder to fight every time we come back, apparently, and also our health is like permanently half gone? Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck why are there not more clocks.

Victor Kain, you were the one who made the clocks?? I could fucking kiss you. I owe you my life. Or like, six hundred of my lives. Hhh.

Okay, seriously though, the clock lore is actually kind of sick. Victor told us that they’re smaller versions of the cathedral, and we were like “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THaT’S WHerE wE RESET THE GaME IN THe PROLOGUE!!!!!!! METAPHYSICS!!!!!!!!!” The Kains are so cool.

(Maria Kaina got infected tho. Sorry, you. :( Although technically that happens later.)

Um, we gave the rest of our shmowder to Khan. We’re out now. We’ve been looking for more but haven’t found anything.

Also we made a random potion, and the plague showed up and was like “fuck you,” and I was like “damn, calm the hell down, you’re the one fucking killing people.”

Met with the Saburovs more. They were like “we have another suspect!” and I was like “yeah they probably don’t but w/e” and my sister was like “they’re in an infected land and we should probably save their lives” and I was like “why do we care about helping the Saburovs again, literally all they do is accuse random people of killing my dad, the Kains are obviously the best family, we should just be throwing in with them” and she was like “that’s not all they do, they also run the guards, you know those guys who patrol plague districts?” and I was like “okay fuck you’re right let’s visit them” and it turns out that that there was actually some super cool lore pertaining to the town’s mistresses. Also, god if they don’t have some cool reflections. I love everything about this town’s history.

Afterwards we randomly decided to visit Yulia for literally no reason, and she was like “I’m glad you’re here, I have a lot of super heavy important shit to discuss with you about the Inquisition that will be here tomorrow, it sure is convenient that you’re in my neighborhood for some reason even though I live in an incredibly inconvenient location?” Also she knows something about the nature of Artemy, Daniil, and Clara-or maybe the Changeling but she called her Clara? Oh yeah, Daniil was there too for some reason. Poor guy, I don’t think he’s okay. He cried on my shoulder a lot, he was endearingly open and earnest and for once I felt bad about the dialogue options wherein Artemy throws shade.

And then Clara happened to be standing outside literally right then? I wonder if that was going to be a big quest location and we just happened to arrive right before the game told us to go there anyway. I think that’s it actually. We’re so good, damn. Clara keeps pulling shit and then immediately trying to reconcile and asking for help. I really like her, but we really shouldn’t be trusting her right?

Oh Murky was also there and she set up a meeting between us and her “friend” and that night we went and Clara and Changeling were both there and I’m so confused???? What is her deal? But!! Changeling facilitated a deal between me and the plague! And Murky is now off the hit list!!!!!!!!!! Does this mean she’ll live? Anyway the plague started talking to us, and our infection rose a bit in an unhealable way, and, dumbasses that we were, said “wow this is probably all just the natural consequence of the bargain we made. Guess there’s literally nothing we can do to address this.” (Spoiler: That is not the case, the cost of the pact was literally just that we became infected and would have to cure it with fire before it killed us. We figured that out eventually, I promise.)

Fast forward to the next day after we finish the day’s entire fucking plotline, when we have done literally nothing so our infection’s increased a shit ton and it starts actually killing us. And since we only have like half our potential health bar from getting killed so much, we literally can’t survive long enough to treat it. We run around trying to cure ourselves and die like ten more times before we finally accept that we just have to go back in time to before the infection was this bad, try to get cured immediately, and redo the whole day. There’s a whole fucking skeleton out by the theatre by now btw. Fucking death spirals. This play session took a long fucking time okay?

Alright, flash backward again. After talking with Changeling, we visit Stakh because after rescuing him twice in a row he promised we could talk. We go to his house and he’s sleeping, or maybe just pretending to sleep, but either way Artemy has the absolute sweetest little monologue, just talking to him, and so much has happened but I can tell there’s still a lot of tenderness there between them even if it’s buried deep, and it’s just such a soft scene against such a harsh story.

Guess who’s dead by morning.

The next day Aglaya showed up and was like “see me immediately,” so obviously we visit Capella and then town hall first off. Daniil’s there, he bitches to me about Aglaya for a bit. So cute, we really are friends. I promise to help him with corpse duty bc Capella wanted me to visit Grace anyway. We talk to the official people at the official desks, one is collecting babies, one is giving me some lunch money as a very good reward for being a very good little surgeon, and one is telling me that actually money is illegal now but here are some free coupons that actually are too cheap to buy anything with.

Aglaya is the woman from the prologue! Hhhh things are really building to a point, aren’t they. I wonder how Yulia knows her. But damn, the whole village was out there waiting to meet with her weren’t they.

I made a deal with the rat prophet to clear some space in the graveyard so Grace would be okay. Dunno what will come of that. I’ve been seeing him everywhere lately though.

I met with Oyun and gave him my dad’s house. I met with Aspity and was like “did you kill Stakh” and she gave me some vague shit, and in general I am very upset at the kinfolk right now but I tried to save them anyway. Went to the termitary and did the whole termitary thing. Wow that sure is a place, right? God, have I ever mentioned how much I love all the screaming soundtracks  in this game.

Damn, Taya’s whole child queen vibe is unsettling.

The whole termitary is horrible, and what the kin folk have been put through is horrible, but their obsession with blood and strength legit terrifies me. I’ve spent all my time until now trying to convince everyone that they aren’t bad, and that they aren’t to blame for the disease, but now they want to kill? And they really really really want me to be a killer too. And the whole thing with Taya is creepy as fuck too, she’s just a kid. Anyway, we’re sending Vlad the older to them, I don’t know whether he or his son deserves to be torn apart more, but Changeling was really upset at the idea of Vlad the younger going there, so I guess we’re backing her. We run all around town making sure the right Olgimsky is going, and then we realize we actually have a few hours left so we take a hospital shift too! And then we die of disease like six times.

Okay, flash forward again, we’ve gone back, gotten some guy to molotov cocktail us, redone the entire termitary thing, saved the game on Vlad’s clock after sending him to his doom (sorry dude). That’s where we’re at currently.

(Only it’s not actually, we went back and spent like an hour going back and forth between the termitary and Oyun again trying to deal with their shit, and everyone was like “murder all dissenters :D” and I was like “what the fuck” and the day was almost over but then a dude stabbed us and we randomly died, and none of these places had clocks, so at that point we were basically like “yeah it’s after midnight, let’s just call it quits.”)

Anything else......oh, the warehouses are at risk again. Notkin and Sticky, what would I do if anything happened to them. I hope my medicines are good enough, I gave some to Bad Grief too but now all there really is to do is wait. :(

Oh, I once again have thoughts on how fucking theatrical is it that everything in the game is simultaneously literal and metaphorical, it’s gorgeous, and have I mentioned the costuming choices for the Orderlies and the Plague, hhhhhhhh, not to say anything nice about Mark fucking Immortell, but he knows what he’s doing with this thing. Listen if this post weren’t already way too long I would just gush about the theatrical elements again, but sadly it is too long.

Okay, that was our latest session! We’ll be back either very soon or in like three weeks.

[glambitions-a]

it kills to know that you have been defeated.

audrey rose centric fanfiction | post descendants three | canon compliant | part three of ? | rating : teen | warnings : swearing, anxiety, past violence, harry steals a car, prescription drug use  | word count : 2489 | masterlist

prompt : part three of my audrey centric fic! previous | next

|  “no,” uma stretched out on the bed. “i was going to have harry do it and then laugh at you when he beat you.” audrey gave her a look that was less than what a proper princess should give.  “he’s not a very good teacher when you don’t know where to start, especially if you’re a princess.” harry scoffed at this, of course, but he wasn’t denying anything.  |

tags (open): @saturn-satin, @cosmosstarstudio, @go-sullivan, @tacobacoyeet, @andthatsonceliastophat, @johnmulanev, @lilychen, @youngjustices​

    with a mouth full of apologies, audrey followed harry into the room.  he had held the door open but it wasn’t the same as when ben or chad did it.  (maybe it was the way he bowed while he did it so mockingly) when the blonde set eyes on uma, she opened her mouth to apologize about how she had acted the previous day. but uma gave her a firm look that shut her back up, and audrey’s eyes cast down to her feet.

    now she wrung her hands together anxiously as she listened to gil ramble on about a new fruit he tried today to harry. (who sat and listened which confused her to no end because she was so used to him not listening to literally anyone) she was sitting next to uma, not right next to her because she was still nervous but they were still fairly close to each other.

   there was a movie on the t.v. that audrey didn’t know, but these days all she watched were ‘chick flicks’ so she shouldn’t be surprised that pirates were watching something other than those.  her knees were pulled up to her chest and it was now that she had begun to regret not keeping her sweat pants on. (only a very small part of herself wished this because it was simply un-princess like for her to be dressed so sloppily in front of her friends)

   maybe she had wished she had still kept on the comfortable clothes because uma had tilted her head when the two of them had sat on her bed together.  the pirate captain had asked her if that was what she wore to sleep, to which audrey replied, no. (the problem was she couldn’t give an answer that she wasn’t semi ashamed of to why she was wearing actual clothes at ten o’ clock in the night)

   audrey tilted her head back into the reasonably soft pillows uma had propped up behind their backs. slowly she let her legs stretch out in front of her. the princess was very good at pretending to be interested in the seven children screaming about something on uma’s t.v.,but apparently she slipped or something because uma put a hand on her shoulder.  “hey, you okay?”

    to this she sat back up and nodded, “yes, of course.  why wouldn’t i be?” she trailed her fingers over the braid that was slowly becoming loose.  really though, why wouldn’t she be okay? she was safe, and comfortable, and (according to the other people in the room with her, though audrey’s self doubt still ran wild in her head.) she was with friends.

    “i dunno, you just seemed, like, off almost.” audrey shook her head in response and chuckled delicately.   even if she felt a little out of place and like an intruder, it wasn’t like uma would care.  audrey has witnessed firsthand the kind of behavior you get if you talk to uma about your feelings.  (not to audrey, never to audrey, but to unsuspecting aks who get put in the dumb talking groups ben had put together to help ‘mingle’ the villain kids and the auradonian kids.)

    uma made a noise that sounded oddly like a scoff, but audrey turned her attention to where gil was laid on harry’s lap.  she pondered to herself how that worked, because it seemed far too affectionate to be friendly.  uma caught her eyes yet again and squeezed her hand on her shoulder.  when audrey looked over at her, uma’s eyes were on the television.  (it confused her but she came o the possible realization that maybe uma was trying to comfort her.  and then she accidentally melted into her grasp.) 

     uma made a little humming sound at the laughter of the two boys on the floor, a soft smile on her face that made audrey smile a little too.  and suddenly audrey didn’t feel quite so lonely.

     it was about an hour and they were half way through another movie before uma had taken audrey’s braid out and the two of them had sat much closer to each other than before.  uma was humming a song audrey didn’t know, and it helped to distract her from the fact she was almost leaning against uma while she was playing with her hair.

     audrey twisted her hands in her sweater, nervous that uma would do something to hurt her because she never got the chance to apologize.  the fear made her feel awful, so she apologized.  her words were quiet but she knew uma heard her because of her sigh.  

     “i thought i told you i was getting sick of all these apologies.” she tilted her head down shamefully and uma tugged her hair to make her bring her head back up.  which made audrey squeak out a ‘sorry’. uma groaned at this and continued to mess with her hair.

     “harry?” uma took her by the shoulders and moved her so she was sitting in front of her between her open legs. harry turned around immediately and so did gil. (for some reason audrey was unaware of) “do you think dizzy has hair dye in her room?”

      he nodded, “i walked in on her redoing celia’s hair, they’ve got just about everything in there.”  audrey assumed that uma grinned before she turned and reached for her phone, the princess turning her head to follow her movements.

      she turned around completely so she could make eye contact with uma, who was looking at the screen of her cellphone rather focused.  “why do you need hair dye?” a lump in her stomach formed at a revenge plot for her.  maybe uma was just pretending to be her friend while really they were going to dye her hair neon green.  she shuddered at the thought, no one could convince her that there would ever be a right time to wear neon green.

      “well, if you must know.” uma sighed dramatically, obviously mocking literally every princess to exist ever, and set down her phone. “i thought we could make your hair brown again.”

      audrey blinked, out of everything that was not what she expected to come out of uma’s mouth. “oh, uhm, why?” uma had picked up her phone again and from what audrey could see she seemed to be texting somebody, probably celia or dizzy. (or both)

      uma groaned like it was the most obvious thing ever, “you told me that you dyed your hair because you wanted to look more like your mother.  so, i thought we could make you audrey again.”  the girl in question pursed her lips and brought a hand to touch her hair.  by now, harry and gil were still looking at the t.v. and uma was scrolling on her phone again.

      “well, that’s very kind of you.” she sat up on her knees and ran her fingers though her hair again.  “i’m just not sure-” uma pressed a finger to her lips to quiet her, and it worked of course.  who could ever refuse uma?

       “audrey,” uma slowly put her hand back down. “i can read you like a book.  you don’t need to pretend around me,” she waves her hand towards the boys curled up at the foot of the bed on the floor. “around us.”  audrey took her bottom lip between her teeth.  yeah, the reason she dyed her hair in the first place was so that she looked more like her mother.  but she did sort of change because she didn’t feel interesting enough before as well.  audrey isn’t sure what to think because something as simple as dying her hair wouldn’t make her happy, at least that’s what she thinks.

      audrey squeezes one of uma’s pillows against her chest in frustration, “i just don’t know.  my grammy already lost her mind when i dyed it the first time. i don’t want to disappoint her anymore than i already have.”  harry had looked up at her words, and that was probably because gil had sat up and peered up at her from behind the foot of the bed.  “she’s already kicked me out of the castle, i don’t want her to disown me or anything.” 

       uma sighed and squeezed her shoulder, “one of these days, i promise you won’t ever have to worry about your grandmother ever again.” audrey half smiled and shrugged.  gil got up and gave her a hug to match her smile, cautious. 

       audrey smiled in thanks and her hands found her hair as she worried it between her fingers. “i’m just not sure, uma.”  she let go of her hair and crossed her arms.  audrey used to be good at holding her own and being firm, but after the engagement and her little incident with the scepter her self confidence had taken a nosedive.

       uma groans, “if you let dizzy dye your hair, i’ll teach you how to sword fight.” the other girl sounds like this was a last resort option, and audrey tilts her head in confusion.

       “i thought you were already going to teach me how?”  uma had expressed a concern for audrey’s lack of fighting skills before, and the princess in turn had laughed it off, thinking she was joking.  but of course, uma had persisted.  audrey had been told that she would learn how to sword fight or at least something whether she liked it or not.

        “no,” uma stretched out on the bed. “i was going to have harry do it and then laugh at you when he beat you.” audrey gave her a look that was less than what a proper princess should give.  “he’s not a very good teacher when you don’t know where to start, especially if you’re a princess.” harry scoffed at this, of course, but he wasn’t denying anything.

        audrey really didn’t want to embarrass herself, especially not in front of uma, gil or harry. (now that she had confirmed that she has friends again, she really needed to focus on keeping them.  and she couldn’t go off the rails like last time)  it would be easier just to agree with uma, because the girl had proven to be persistent and audrey just didn’t think at this point she could get away from this especially since gil and harry were aware that this was would uma wanted. she doubted she’d walk away with her blonde hair.

       she propped up her head in her hands with a sigh, “okay, are they awake right now?” audrey smiled softly feeling gil’s head on her shoulder.

      uma gave her a victorious smile, “audrey, honey, not everybody goes to bed at nine o’ clock like a fucking middle-aged man.” audrey blushed and laughed softly.  she supposed they were teenagers after all, it’s not like they had a reason to go to bed so early.  audrey had cheer practice on every morning around seven, so sometimes it was still dark when she ended up getting up to get ready. 

      audrey purses her lips.  what uma doesn’t know is that she has to take a special pill (normally crushed up and put in her tea) because of the curse.  audrey finds it especially hard to sleep most nights because of the gnawing feeling that she could fall asleep and never wake up.  however, there was no reason uma had to know that.  and it would be okay because she could just go to bed and get her tea and stuff after her hair was done. she just smiled and nodded as uma took her hand and said something about leaving.  too wrapped up in her mind to care, she didn’t really notice when uma got up and picked up a pair of shorts and a t-shirt out of her dresser drawers.

      “you should probably put these on,” uma set the surprisingly neatly folded clothes in her lap before running an arm down the sleeve of audrey’s perfectly pink sweater. “wouldn’t want you to get this dirty.”

       audrey smiles and nods, uncrossing her legs so she can get up.  gil moves, and suddenly she feels cold again. she pretend it doesn’t happen and she doesn’t feel it as she goes to the bathroom connected to uma’s room.  “thank you.” is what she says as she opens the door.  and even though she wishes to say more, it’s all that she says.

       by the time audrey gets changed, she tries not to think about how she much she likes wearing uma clothes, even just the thought made her heart spin.  when she comes out uma has this soft little smile that audrey hopes means that she doesn’t look terrible.  they leave to go to dizzy’s room, and her heart is beating so hard.

      the amount of squeals that come out of dizzy’s mouth while audrey’s hair is wrapped in foil is honestly astonishing. audrey is worried, and as always uma holds her hand.  uma isn’t really paying attention to her, but she’s there and that helps.

      she’s afraid to look after dizzy leaves her with freshly curled hair.  by then, uma’s hand had left hers so she could go with harry and gil.  audrey thinks it’s to go back to her room but she’s not sure.  dizzy has this adorable smile on her face so she tries not to express her nervousness.  

      “audrey, audrey look! it’s so pretty!” a mirror was thrust in front of her face, and dizzy was right. it was pretty. shiny, bouncy brown curls framed her face and audrey hoped that her grandmother wouldn’t be too cross because she honestly really liked how it looked.

      as audrey looked over, she found celia curled up in her bed and dizzy practically on her toes hopefully waiting for praise.  audrey smiled in thanks, “thank you dizzy, it’s really beautiful.”  a squeal came from dizzy as she stood up and brushed off her shorts.

      a knock was heard on the door before a teal head peaked in.  audrey holds her breath and for some reason prays that she likes it.  uma’s smile says it all as she comes to her to touch it.  “there, now you look alive again.”  audrey laughs and smiles, like she knows she should.

     only after audrey starts to breath again and she had paid dizzy (which surprises her for some reason) does uma tell her that she has a surprise for her.  audrey is confused but smiles as she should and let’s herself be taken away with uma.

--

     “are you fucking kidding me!?” she screams over the wind and the roaring engine of chad charming’s car.  uma just laughs and gestures to harry with his wild smile and the key that doesn’t belong to him in the ignition. she pulls her hand with her as they walk closer.

     gil looks over to her with this confused puppy look, then he looks to uma.  “she knows fuck is a curse word here, right?”

ʚĭɞ | if you want to be on my taglist, all you have to do is like this post. gahhh i lovelovelove the moodboard i made for this!!  imagining literally any word in china’s voice makes my heart flutter so this was a DREAM to write truly.  comforting!uma? kill me please xx i’m really trying to write more so hopefully part two of only angel should be up after this.  i hope you enjoyed this part and please check out my other works if you’d like 🥺🥺 - rory

[lux-i-fer]

Dunno if you’re still taking requests, but if you are (and have time!) perhaps a reveal whump to lucifers friends (Ella, Dan maybe) while he’s saving Trixie? I’ve just gotten this image in my head of Luci protecting the lil human like he protected Chloe in s3 final

Technically requests are closed but considering I got less requests than usual this time I think I can make an exception ;) If you like reveal fics that include Dan in the mix check out this fic of mine. There’s no Trixie but there is some whump! For this fic I didn't include an exact redo of the s3 finale but I did include some wing!fic similar to it.

EDIT: This came out a lot longer than anticipated and will also be put up on AO3

When the call came in Dan assumed the worst. Twelve witnesses claimed to have seen Trixie walking to a friend’s house after school. Ten claimed to have seen her get pulled into the back seat of an unmarked car. All ten witnesses had tried to save her and all ten witnesses had failed.

Dan’s stomach twisted when the evidence was laid out. Minus the witnesses, it reminded him too much like another kidnapping. He hoped, no he prayed, that Trixie wasn’t going to meet the same fate as April Tinsley had thirty years ago. Neither he nor Chloe would be able to live with themselves if their baby girl was found mutilated and violated in a ditch on the side of the road.

And as if the nightmare couldn’t get any worse, the LAPD had hit a dead end. Correction: the majority of the LAPD had hit a dead end, Chloe, on the other hand, was denying that they’d hit a dead end. 

Dan stole a glance at Chloe’s desk. It was covered with papers and frantic scribbles. Lucifer loomed just over her shoulder, and if Dan didn’t know better, he’d think that it was Lucifer’s kid that had been kidnapped. The man’s face was twisted into something that Dan had never seen before. His features were neutral, blank even, but his eyes burned with a fury that forced the precinct into a tense silence.

The wheeze of a printer made Dan jump. When he realized the noise belonged to Chloe’s desktop printer, he ran towards it. The message had printed by the time he got there. 

WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER. MAKE US A DEAL. 

Dan reread the message five times over. The second sentence didn’t make sense. Ransom notes usually included an exact amount of money, but this note read like a blank check. There was no amount, no location, and no indication that they shouldn’t contact law enforcement. 

Chloe didn’t seem to care how wrong the whole thing felt. She was already jabbing at her keyboard, trying to ping where the message had been sent from. Dan looked at Lucifer for an answer, but Lucifer wasn’t staring at the paper. He was staring at his phone. A shadow of disdain crossed over his face, and his frown deepened. If Dan’s heart wasn’t beating as fast as it was, maybe he would have commented on the sudden chill that swept through the precinct. 

“Excuse me, Detective, Daniel,” he muttered, hardly concealing his anger. Then he began to walk off towards the stairs.

Dan’s head whipped towards Ella’s office, where he knew she’d been spying on them for the past few minutes. He caught her eye and jerked his head in Lucifer’s direction. She nodded and grabbed her purse off the table. They headed towards the parking garage.

“We’re going to get some fresh air, Chlo’.” 

Chloe didn’t respond.

“We can take my car,” Ella said when they got outside. 

Dan grunted his understanding and five minutes later they were racing down the Strip in a vintage Thunderbird. Despite his head start, Lucifer wasn’t hard to find. His Corvette weaved through traffic oblivious to pedestrians and road signs, leaving a trail of car horns and near-miss accidents in its wake. Ella maneuvered around the damage expertly and without complaint. 

Fifteen minutes later, Lucifer made a hard right and banked into a group of warehouses. By the time Dan and Ella caught up, they found the Corvette haphazardly parked with the key still in the ignition. 

“If I had to guess, I’d say Lucifer’s in there.” Ella gestured to an access door nearly ripped off its hinges. 

Dan unholstered his pistol. “And if I had to guess, I’d say the kidnappers are in there too.” 

They crept into the warehouse, Dan in front and Ella just behind him, gripping the bottom of his jacket. The few lights that hadn’t been busted out were flickering, almost as if there was a short in the wiring. Shafts of dusty sunlight filtered in through the shattered window panes and cut through the places where the flood lights didn’t shine. Shipping crates and wooden pallets lined the perimeter of the room, and as soon as they could, Dan and Ella ducked behind them for cover. 

They’d walked a few hundred feet when suddenly, Ella shoved him down to the dirt floor. “Get down.”

He went down soundlessly. Next to him, Ella was typing something out on her phone. When she was done, she turned it towards him.

I’m texting for backup it read. 

Dan moved to grab the phone and typed out a message of his own: make sure they know to stay quiet. We don’t want to spook them.

Ella nodded and took the phone back to start typing out her message. When she was done, Dan army crawled towards the voices. The voices got louder and more distinct until finally he could make out what they were saying.

“Look we ain’t the bad guys here. You want your daughter and we want what belongs to us, alright?” a voice said from the other side of the shipping containers.

“One, Beatrice isn’t my daughter. Two, I don’t know what you want, you haven’t told me.” 

Dan barely managed to stay quiet. That was Lucifer’s voice. 

“I thought Lucifer Morningstar didn’t lie.”

“I don’t. Tell me what you want, and I’ll arrange its arrival if and only if you let Beatrice go this instant.”

Dan flinched when he heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh. He crawled a few more feet and managed to find a gap in between containers that he could see what was going on. 

Lucifer sat handcuffed to a metal chair, surrounded by five hulking goons. Each man had a rifle strapped to their backs and handguns on their waistbands. A sixth guy stood parallel to them, holding a gun to Trixie’s head. Dan gulped and tried to keep his breathing under control. 

The man holding Trixie spoke, and Dan realized it was him that had been making demands earlier. “We know what you are, Satan.”

“Then you should know exactly the kind of torment you can expect to receive when your miserable excuses for souls cross the threshold.”

One of the five henchmen punched Lucifer in the gut. It was a shock when he barely even flinched. Then, the henchmen drew out a curved dagger that Dan could have sworn he’d seen before.

“This,” the leader explained, “can kill you, Devil. We have sources that tell us it was forged in Hell.”

Dan didn’t need to see his face to know that Lucifer was at least a little surprised. “And, pray tell, how did you come across this weapon?”

The leader jabbed the barrel of the gun into Trixie’s temple, causing her to whimper. “Your daughter’s backpack.”

“I’m sorry Lucifer, Maze gave me one for emergencies,” she said in a wobbly voice. 

The man slapped Trixie. “Quiet!” 

Dan’s blood boiled, and if the tension in Lucifer’s shoulders were anything to go by, so had his. 

A low, predatory growl rose up from Lucifer’s throat and Dan could have sworn the ground trembled from its intensity. “I’m afraid that was the wrong decision.”

The leader smiled crookedly and shot the henchmen holding Maze’s dagger a look. In one swift movement, the man rammed the blade into Lucifer’s thigh. The only sound Lucifer made was a soft hiss, as if all of the air was being sucked from his lungs. The henchmen slammed his open palm down next to the blade and only then did Lucifer scream in pain. The henchmen removed his hand from Lucifer’s thigh and turned it up so it caught the light. It was stained dark crimson.

The leader laughed in disbelief. “It looks like the big bad Devil isn’t so macho after all.” He shook Trixie’s shoulders. “I wonder if he’ll cry if we shoot his girl.”

In that moment, Dan didn’t even think. He fingers flicked off the safety and fired off a round. The next thing he knew, the leader was falling backwards, and Trixie was falling with him. The five henchmen drew their handguns. Dan barely registered Lucifer snapping the handcuff chain, but he was up and stumbling out of the chair with a cry of pain before he could blink. He watched in horror as Lucifer ripped the blade out of his thigh and began racing towards the group. 

Dan glanced back at Ella, and their eyes met in the darkness. An unspoken agreement sparked between them. Dan cocked his gun just as Ella let out a bloodcurdling scream. Lucifer and the henchmen whipped towards the scream and Dan took another shot. A henchman crumpled to the ground.

What happened next was something Dan couldn’t explain. For a brief second, everything came to a standstill and then it erupted into chaos. He lay in the dirt, dumbfounded. Two white wings, flared from Lucifer’s back. Dan watched as he lunged for the remaining henchmen, dagger in his right hand and his left balled into a fist. He looked every bit the avenging angel from the scripture and Dan couldn’t have been more terrified.

He swallowed his fear and flicked his safety back on before sliding the gun to Ella. Then he made a break for Trixie. Gunshots when off around him, but Dan didn’t stop. He saw Trixie rooted to the spot, shirt stained with her kidnapper’s blood, and ran faster. More screams rose up into the air, but none of them belonged to Ella. 

Dan didn’t stop running when he reached Trixie. He just leaned down, and scooped her up by the armpits and flung her over his shoulder and kept going. He didn’t stop moving until they were safely behind a shipping container on the opposite side of the building.

He set her down to look at her face. “Are you hurt, monkey?”

Trixie shook her head.

“Does your face hurt?” He touched the red hand print left over from where the leader had slapped her. She flinched away from his touch. 

Opened his arms, inviting her to hug him. “Come here.”

Trixie went and they stayed wrapped up in each other until the screams and gunshots were no more.

“You can come out now, Daniel, Ms. Lopez, they won’t be harming anyone now,” Lucifer’s voice cut through the silence.

Slowly, with Trixie still in his arms, Dan peered out from around the container. The scene that greeted them almost made him sick. Lucifer was coated in blood from head to wingtip. The dagger in his hand hung limply at his side and what looked to be bullet holes riddled his clothes. Loose, mangled feathers littered the floor and coated the stiff bodies of all six kidnappers. Across the room, Ella was making her way to the center of the room, eyes wide. 

Dan met Lucifer’s eyes, and was surprised to find that they were blazing red. 

Slowly, he got to his feet and crept towards Lucifer, the actual Devil. The closer he got to the bloodied man, the more obvious it became that Lucifer wasn’t in good shape. His breathing was labored and his wings were trembling feverishly.

“It’s alright, I won’t hurt you either.” Lucifer closed his eyes and sucked in a ragged breath. There was a sickening squelch and the crimson-stained white wings receded back into Lucifer’s body. The effort forced him to brace himself against his knees. After another breath, he righted himself and opened his eyes. They were brown.

“You’re not a method actor,” Ella said softly. 

Lucifer gave a heartless chuckle and shook his head. 

“But you saved Trixie,” Dan said, holding his daughter tighter.

“Beatrice is innocent. Even though she’s clearly not my spawn, a child should not pay for their father’s sins.”

For some reason, hearing Lucifer call Trixie spawn was relieving. He shifted Trixie to his hip so he could reach out and grip Lucifer’s shoulder. The man swayed under his grasp and when he matched Dan’s stare, his eyes were glassy. “Thank you,” he said fiercely. “You don’t know how much it means to me that you did that for her.”

Ella gave Lucifer a light pat on the arm. “Yeah buddy, that was pretty heroic of you to come in here alone. Super dumb, but I’ll give you credit for it anyways.”

Lucifer tried to flash one of his signature smiles, but all he could manage was a weak grin. “You’re not frightened?”

Dan squeezed his shoulder and gave it a small shake. “Dude you saved Trixie’s life, why would we be scared?”

Lucifer opened his mouth to respond, but just then half of the LAPD burst into the warehouse. Leading the pack was Chloe, gun drawn and eyes wild. When they fell on Dan with Trixie and then on Lucifer and then Ella, she let out a small cry of relief. She rushed towards them, holstering her gun as she went. 

“Are you alright, baby?” She cradled Trixie’s face with a trembling hand.

Trixie could barely lift her head off Dan’s shoulder. “Yeah,” she whispered tiredly. 

Chloe looked to Dan for confirmation. 

“She’s a little bruised and a little scared, but that’s it,” he told her. Chloe’s eyes swept over them once more before she turned to Lucifer, who was beginning to look paler and paler. Seemingly not caring about the blood, she wrapped him in a hug. His arms weakly went around her waist.

“Don’t do that ever again, you dumbass.” Chloe pulled away to look into his eyes. “Why didn’t you wait for backup? We would have helped. I just turned around and all three of you were gone and then I get this text from Ella demanding backup with an address. I thought you might have been dead or worse, Lucifer.” Lucifer just shrugged and Chloe pulled him to her again. “I’m so glad you’re safe.” She finally let go of him and turned towards Dan and Ella. “I’m so glad all of you are safe.”

Behind her, Lucifer was swaying. Dan was about to say something, but before he could, he watched as the Devil’s eyes rolled in the back of his head and he collapsed into a heap on the floor. Chloe and Ella sunk down to try and revive him.

“We need a medic over here!” Ella called to the group of officers looking at the six unconscious bodies of the kidnappers.

Dan watched as a paramedic rushed over and helped Chloe and Ella secure Lucifer onto a stretcher. He watched as Satan himself was whisked away towards the ambulance undoubtedly parked outside and thought to himself about how odd it was that he felt more at ease in LA than ever before.

[woildismyerster]

Hey so... *slides you a signed Newsies Playbill* I need finch fluff right

I would do anything for a signed Newsies Playbill.  Well played.

It was a terrible idea for Katherine to have the entire gang over at her house to get ready for Prom.  You all knew it.  You could see the realization of her mistake dawning as she welcomed in each body.

It wasn’t the size of her house that caused the problems.  Her house was huge.

It wasn’t the people she invited.  Your friends had spent so much time there already, and they could be trusted in her home.

It was the timing.

The number of boys outnumbered the girls by a comical amount, and it took very little time for the boys to get ready.  She had invited them over at the same time she had asked the girls to come, so they horsed around while the rest of you tried to get ready.

Katherine had asked you to go with her to a hair stylist, and the two of you left with hair fit for queens.  Yours was braided elaborately, pinned up just so, and was so much lovelier than anything you had ever experienced.

“Makeup before the dress,” Katherine advised.  It seemed like she had everything planned perfectly.  She made you wear a button up shirt so you wouldn’t have to worry about messing up hair and makeup.  She got snacks that wouldn’t make a mess.

She got Finch to ask you to go with him as a friend.

Sure, you had hoped he would ask you as a date.  Maybe he would have, if he had been given more time.  With Katherine, timing was an art form.  She told Jack when to ask her.  She watched Finch to see if he would ask, and when he didn’t take the risk by a few weeks before the dance, she pushed him into it.

“Hey, David-Son-of-Jesse,” she had teased at the lunch table.  “Got a date to the dance yet?”

He had been tapping his fingers against the table in a crescendo of rhythm, but he paused when he heard the question.  “No,” he said.  “I haven’t asked anybody.”

“Are you planning on it?”

His face was tight with suspicion, eyes darting between Katherine’s face and the horror on yours.  “I dunno.”

“Awesome,” she chirped.  “Y/N doesn’t have a date.  You should take her.”

Everybody at the table had turned to look at you, a mosaic of amusement, pity, and surprise.  You plastered on a broad grin, but you were blistering with rage.  You would rather have no date than a pity one.  “Kath, stop terrorizing Finch.  Let him go stag if he wants to.”

“It’s fine,” Finch mumbled.  He cleared his throat.  “No, that’s fine.  We were going to be going together anyway, right?  We’ll just be posing together for pictures and stuff.”

“Great,” you grated.  Your smile looked false, no doubt, but it was the most you could give.

You had imagined Finch taking you to Prom.  You had imagined him seeing you at your best, and you pictured the way he would melt.  You imagined him dancing with you, unable to keep his hands off of you.  You had imagined his eyes lingering on you all evening, bewildered and pleased and lost.

Getting ready for the Prom hurt, since you knew it was leading up to him not wanting to meet your eyes.  It would be uncomfortable pictures, obligatory dances, and relief when it was time to part ways.  

“I want to eat something,” you said.

“Makeup,” Katherine said.

“My mortal form grows weak.”

Jack poked his head into the bathroom.  He had been shouting as loud as any of the other boys, having some sort of NERF battle or game of tag.  You couldn’t tell, but it was loud.  “Let her eat.  She’s earned it.”

You looked to Katherine, hopeful.  “Please?  Please, please, please.”

“We’ll be eating in an hour and a half,” she said.  Even as she protested, you could see her softening.

“Food,” you moaned.

“Fine,” she huffed.  “Jack, can you get one of the guys to bring stuff up?  Chips and drinks, or something.  Y/N can eat while she does her eyes.”

You grinned at Jack.  “You’re my hero.”

“That depends on which guy brings you stuff,” he said dryly.

You were careful while you applied eyeliner.  This was not a day for uneven wings or clumpy mascara.  You wanted to impress yourself, if nobody else.

“I come baring sustenance,” Elmer said.  He was carrying bowls of chips and cups of juice, biting his lip as he balanced them.  

In the mirror, you saw some of the guys run past the doorway.  Finch, holding a small rubber ball, grinned when he saw Elmer in the bathroom.  Your eyes widened as Elmer leaned over to set down a bowl, Finch pulled back his throwing arm, and one of Elmer’s cups leaned precariously over your head.

“Really slowly,” Elmer continued, “but I’m still baring -”

Finch’s ammo nailed Elmer in the back of the neck.  He dropped one of the bowls in surprise, and the cup tipped.  The juice spilled directly onto your head, soaking into your hair and pouring over your face.

Silence fell in the room.  Elmer’s eyes were the size of saucers.  Katherine’s jaw dropped.  You took a deep, spluttering breath.

Finch’s arm was still outstretched, like the ball had only just left his hand.  His face was slack with horror.  “Oh, no.”

Katherine had screamed.  Jack had slapped Finch upside the head.  Elmer had looked near tears.  You just sat on the edge of the toilet, dripping into the tub and onto the floor.  Your clothes were freezing, but you hardly noticed.

Your hair was ruined.

You would have to take it out of the updo so you could wash it, and there was no time to ask a professional to fix it.  You rubbed a few fingers over your eyes to wipe away the juice, but otherwise stayed perfectly still.

“Y/N,” Finch said in a low voice.  “I am so sorry.  I am so sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I am such an idiot -”

“You think?”  Katherine was snarling, lovely teeth bared in a vicious smile.  “We don’t have enough time to redo this.  Jesus, Finch.”

“I can try,” he said.  He was wringing his fingers frantically, gaze darting over to Jack.  “I can do braids and stuff.  If you’ll help me find something online, I know I can do it -”

“Okay,” you said.

Every face turned to look at you.

“It’s not like we have any other options,” you said.  You stood and grabbed some tissues to wipe yourself off.  “I’ll wash my hair.  Help Finch pick a new style.  I’ll be out soon.”

You ushered everybody out of the room, slammed the door in the faces of all of your horrified friends, and gave a quiet, choking sob.  You tried to hold in the urge to cry while you washed your hair.  It wouldn’t do any good, and it would only make Finch feel worse.

You were moved to a chair in the basement so Finch would have room to work without the eyes of his friends distracting him.  You realized, eyes glued to his fidgeting hands, that he was terrified.  Terrified of you, of Katherine, of the mistake he made.  Even as something ugly and miserable flipped in your stomach, you managed to give him a convincingly encouraging smile.

“Take your time,” you said lightly.  “The schedule is already off, so there’s no rush.”

He gave a brief, humorless laugh.  “Yeah, I wrecked just about everything.”

“Not everything,” you said.  “The chips survived.”

“Thank goodness,” he sighed.  “That could have been awful.”

“It would have ruined the night.”  The more you talked, the better you felt.  It was Finch, you told yourself.  Finch was your friend.  He taught you to shoot a slingshot, and later a bow and arrow.  He could play the knife game better than anybody else.  He gave the best massages in the universe, and you were the only person he gave them to regularly.  This was Finch, running his hands through your hair before sectioning it off.  

You had never seen him do hair, but it wasn’t a surprise that he could.  His hands were a tool, and what he did with them was an art form.  Why wouldn’t he be able to braid hair?

You closed your eyes, allowing yourself to enjoy the way his nimble fingers twisted strands of hair.  “You don’t have to take me, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“To the dance.  I know Katherine made it impossible to say no.  I’m giving you an out,” you said.

The journey of his hands stopped.  “No, I’ll take you.”

When you opened your eyes again, you wished you could see his face.  You wanted to know what he was thinking, what emotions he was feeling.  “You sure?”

“Of course.  You’re my number one, Y/N.  Why wouldn’t I want to spend the night with you?”  His hands started up again, but not before he fondly ran a finger around the curve of your ear.  “This’ll be fun, if you don’t kill me for wrecking your head.”

When Finch’s hands stopped, you turned to look at him.  “Well?”

He frowned.  “It isn’t the same.”

“I figured that,” you scoffed.  You heart was in ruins.  You had wanted to look your best for him, and that wasn’t possible anymore.  This was as good as it would ever get tonight, so you could only pray that he liked whatever he had done.  “But how is it?”

When he didn’t answer, you pulled out your phone to open the camera.  When you looked at your reflection, you didn’t know what to feel.  It was not the same as it had been, but it wasn’t bad either.  It was clearly done by a person who didn’t know how to do the style, but Finch had pulled it together so it was passable.

Not Prom good, but far better than hair dripping and sticky with juice.

“Perfect,” you said.  You smiled at him, hoping he would relax, but it had the opposite effect.

Finch dropped into the chair on the other side of the table and buried his hands in his hair, releasing a heavy sigh.  “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” you said gently.  You had been so, so angry.  It was hard to be upset with him now, after he tried to fix his mistake to the best of his ability.  He had tried.  What more could you ask for?

“No, I do have to worry about it.”  He was a statue of agony, with his hands holding his head in a bruising grip and his eyes focused on his lap.  “I was trying to make this perfect for you.  This was supposed to be a special night, but I wrecked it.  I know how important Prom night is for girls - I know how much effort you put into looking right.  I got in the way, and I am so sorry.”

“You didn’t have to make this special for me.  You already agreed to be my date.”

“That’s the problem,” he snapped, looking up at you again.  “I didn’t ask you in time, so that killed any chance of being your date-date.  I thought I could fix it by - I don’t know, being really great tonight.  I practiced slow dancing with Specs, and everything.”

You grinned.  “Really?”

“But then I did this,” he said miserably.  “This is the worst way to start a date that I can possibly imagine.”

“I dunno,” you said.  You felt like you could float away.  Every ounce of anger and disappointment was gone, leaving nothing but Finch, and that part of you that wanted to kiss him.  “You could have wrecked the dress.  My hair is whatever.”

“It was awesome.  You looked awesome.  You always do, but I killed the vibe -”

“I made the vibe for you, dummy,” you said.  He gaped at you, too surprised to look happy or sad or anything at all.  “I thought that I had ruined the chance for a date-date by not asking you myself, so I wanted to look great to impress you.  Like, to make you think that this might not be so bad after all.”

“I never thought it was going to be bad.”

“I wanted it to be great,” you said.  You could see a cautious hope growing in his eyes.  “I wanted it to be the date that makes you want to date me.”

“I already wanted that,” he scoffed.  “I just needed the perfect promposal -”

“And Katherine stole your thunder,” you finished.

He nodded.  “So, we both wanted it to be a real date?”

“Seems like it.”

“And now we both know.”

You nodded, smile blooming.  “As long as we’re on the same page -”

“Let’s date,” he concluded.  He beamed, then looked down at his clothes.  “Oh, I have to get dressed!  And - and the corsage is in the car, and I should go to an ATM to get more money for the restaurant.”

“Finch, you don’t have to -”

He pressed a quick, hard kiss into your forehead.  “You look gorgeous.  Be back in a bit.”

He darted out of the room, leaving you bewildered and excited.  You weren’t in your dress.  You hadn’t redone your makeup.  Your hair was a little rough.  All the same, Finch thought you looked nice, so the night was off to a good start.

[homebeneaththestairs]

garden gnomes and group chats

Sirius to felons or falcons: im ready to pass or die

Remus: I literally sent you a study package two weeks ago 

Peter: i left u my notes from last semester what are you doing with your life? 

Sirius: not studying 

Sirius: I thought that was really obvious

Sirius: cmon guys get with the program 

James to Remus: i left snape a step by step instruction manual on how to properly wash his hair 

James: its in his locker 

James: what do u think are the odds that he’ll actually figure out how a shower works?

Remus: first of all: oh my god 

Remus: secondly: good job.

Lily to Sirius: s2g black give me back my pencil case 

Sirius: it was an emergency 

Lily: you’ll be in the emergency room if you don’t give it back to me 

Peter to felons or falcons: guys guys guys 

Sirius: don’t u dare 

James: don’t 

Peter: reminder that college applications start today! 

Sirius: blocked. 

Peter: :////////:

James: yeah u think about u did 

Remus: I’m in the library right now filling out applications 

James: blocked. 

Sirius changed the group name to: if remus mentions colleges one more time i’ll kill him 

Remus changed the group name to: sirius stop using the group chat name to make a point 

Sirius changed the group name to: make me

Remus to slim slam dunk slimmies: I swear to god that i will kill whoever keeps leaving raisin boxes in my locker 

Remus: I’m talking to you James and Sirius 

Sirius: i literally have no idea what ur talking about 

Remus: someone keeps leaving those boxes of raisins in my locker and i hate raisins why do you guys keep doing this?

Sirius: I’m going to go with innocent until proven guilty, mate

Remus: I’m not an idiot 

Remus: its either you or James doing this how stupid do you think I am?

James to Peter: so when r u going to tell Remus that you’ve been breaking into his locker all year?

Peter: probably never

James: respect that 

Sirius changed the group name to: plexiglass fuckers 

Peter: wait what 

Remus: How does one even?

Sirius: carefully, and with punk attitude 

James changed the group name to: punk is really dead get over it black 

Sirius: im never talking to u again 

James: but u just did 

Sirius: damn it 

James to james potter is a secretly a walking talking jar of jam: im failing out of english and its a problem 

James: like seriously 

Sirius: yes?

James: literally not the time buddy 

Sirius: i always have time for u 

James: bro <3

Sirius: bro <33333

Remus: sirius shut up 

Remus: what do you mean you are failing out of english? have you done any of the readings? 

James: hamlet is literally the worst torture in the history of ever i can’t get through it and i’m so far behind i need help i just got a 40% on the paper and she gave me an extension to redo it but i don’t know where to begin 

Remus: you’re going to be fine 

Remus: i’m messaging a friend. maybe she’ll agree to tutor you 

James: bless u 

Peter to Remus: fuck u 

Remus: what on earth did i do to deserve this 

Peter sent to Remus three screenshots 

Peter: he hasn’t shut up about her dainty little wrists yet 

Peter: u did this 

Remus: oh my god what did i do 

Remus to Lily: how did it go with James?

Lily: I think I found the problem

Remus: he was dropped on his head as a small child?

Lily: ???

Lily: no he’s been trying to read a copy of Macbeth, not Hamlet 

Remus: why am I friends with these people?

Peter to four guys with great hair: i dunno y but sirius makes great decisions when drunk 

James: wait u went drinking without me?

Peter: u said u wanted to watch lily do homework at the library 

James: u make it sound so much creepier when u say it like that 

Remus: why did you call me 20 times tonight?

Peter: sirius tried making a fire 

Remus: with what??

Sirius: e v e r y t h i n g 

Peter: actually though 

Peter: it was a bit more of an explosion than a fire tbh 

Sirius to Remus: not to be controversial 

Sirius: but i really don’t like bbq sauce

Remus: literally wtf is controversial about that 

Remus: also its 3am fuck off 

Peter to the discount spice girls: i forgot we had homework in history 

Peter: someone skip history with me

James: im in chem but sounds coolio 

Sirius to the discount spice girls : wait we had homework 

Sirius: don’t leave without me guys 

Sirius: guys?

Sirius: g u y s 

Remus to Sirius: you submitted your applications right?

Sirius: ???applications,,,, 4 wat?

Remus: why are you like this 

Sirius: oh yeah college appLications 

Sirius: kind of 

Remus: this is the last day to submit 

Remus: where are you 

Sirius: in the libBBrary picking progRams out of a hat with James 

Sirius: do u think i could work with kids?

Remus: i think the kids would be to mature for you 

James to the Lily Evans Appreciation Group: she is so perfect 

James: she loaned me one of her gel pens today

James: GEL 

Sirius: ohhhh gel?

James: gel. 

James: purple gel pen 

Sirius: wow thats serious 

Peter: ^^^ :D

James: i honestly dunno whats better. the fact that she blessed me with one of her pens, or her eyes. 

Remus changed the group name to: mention lily’s eyes one more time james

James: they’re literally the most beautiful eyes i have ever encountered 

James: like they are honestly so green 

James Potter has been removed from group. 

James to Peter: have u seen sirius?

Peter: no

Peter: craig said he saw him hitchhiking earlier, looked pretty bad 

James: im grabbing the car 

Peter: i’ll meet you by the school

Peter to the Remus Lupin is a Moon Man: i got rejected by my safety school 

Sirius: im literally on my way with beer 

Remus: where are you getting alcohol from? 

Sirius: i broke into bellatrix’s apartment and stole her stash of candles and beer like yesterday 

Sirius: james the jim was the get away driver 

Sirius changed James to jamesthejim

James: honestly that school was stupid 

James: you’ve got plenty of time to hear back 

Peter: liar 

Remus: trust him on this one 

James to Sirius: he keeps baking cookies 

Sirius: aw shit 

James: we ran out of dairy already 

Sirius: no please don’t tell me 

James: he started making vegan cookies 

Sirius: sinful 

Remus to the Peter Won’t Stop Baking Support Group: he got rejected from another school and he’s moved onto making cupcakes 

Remus: I think he’s crying 

Sirius: i’m in the middle of calc homework i want some pie 

Sirius to Peter: james is making a move on evans 

Peter: omg no way 

Sirius: yes way 

Sirius: they’re at her locker 

Peter: im across school report everything 

Sirius: k well james tried that awkward leaning thing beside her locker and lily dropped her textbook on his foot 

Sirius: i dunno whats redder her hair or his face 

Sirius: nm his face is way redder 

Sirius: he asked if she wanted to meet up for coffee but she thought he meant for tutoring and im dying his face 

Peter: maybe this will be the end to all that is perfect about lily evans 

James to wtf does duolingo not have elvish????: Lily told me this really clever riddle today 

James: i didn;t get it 

James: at like all 

James: but she was so happy and so cute 

James: im gonna marry her 

Sirius: u jinxed it peter 

James to Remus: I GOT ACCEPTED 

Remus: I’m so glad Lily dragged your marks up for admissions 

James: ikr same 

James to the Peter Won’t Stop Baking Support Group: his mom started selling the cakes that he was making 

Sirius: i dunno y i keep offering to eat them 

Remus: he made over thirty cakes today 

Remus: half of them were coconut flavoured 

Sirius: so?

Remus: you’re allergic to coconut????

Sirius: yeah but if i die i don’t have to do homework 

James: lucky 

Remus: i hate you all so much

Remus left the group. 

James added Remus to the group. 

Remus left the group. 

Sirius added Remus to the group. 

Remus: i hate u both

Sirius to Remus: not 2 b political or anything but technically every war is a skeleton war if u think hard about it

Remus: w h y 

Peter uploaded a video to james stfu about evans: here we r blessed by remus singing starman 

Remus: i remember none of this 

James: i thought i was the one that sung that 

Peter: no u got really drunk and started moving your lips to the words and got excited that u learned how to talk and not talk at the same time 

James: wait what time was this even 

Peter: 10pm 

Remus: where’s sirius?

Peter: see that questionable lump in the right corner of the video? that’s sirius basically dead 

James changed Sirius’s name to questionable lump. 

questionable lump: y u do this

James changed the group name to: lily’s eyes are like glitter i swear

Sirius changed the group name to: literally no one cares

Sirius to Remus: i see u 

Sirius: posting some whimsy status about college acceptances 

Sirius: whatever 

Sirius: thats only a little cool, moon man 

Sirius: siriusly though congrats 

Lily to James: why did sirius throw glitter at me outside homeroom? 

James: oh my god 

James: im so sorry

Sirius to Peter: did u know that james has been stealing garden gnomes and hiding them under his bed?

Peter: that is the weirdest fetish 

Sirius: ikr i wanna hide them in remus’s locker 

Sirius: it’ll be really funny 

Peter: omg lets 

Sirius to the Baking Has Stopped Bless All: the oven is off 

James: oh thank god 

Remus: wait i was hoping he’d try doughnuts next 

Remus to James: do you know if sirius has heard back from any schools yet? 

James: dude i was just going to ask u that 

Remus: shit 

Peter sent three links to Remus: k so i know one of these is a literal dumpster but sirius basically is a dumpster 

Remus: i see no difference 

Peter: James liked the second one option for the apartment 

Remus: oh god i’ve agreed to live with james potter and sirius black in one house 

Peter: how bad could it be?

Remus to WHERE DID YOU GET THE GNOMES FROM: wtf guys 

Remus: my locker 

Remus: they all came falling out

James: wait 

James: where did the gnomes come from 

Sirius has left the group. 

Peter has left the group. 

James: damnit they found my stash of gnomes 

Remus: ????????????

Lily to Remus: why did you have my mom’s garden gnomes in your locker?

Remus: what 

Lily: the gnomes 

Lily: i recognized them from the ones that went missing 

Remus:this is definitely not what you think

Lily: black stole them didn’t he?

Remus: sure 

Lily to Sirius: im gonna find you

James changed the group names to felons or misunderstood falcons?: i wrote lily a poem 

Sirius: no no no 

James: roses r red, violets r blue 

James: i hate flowers but love u 

Peter: i can’t tell if that was sweet or not 

Sirius: u should totally give that to her 

Remus: sirius no 

James: im committed to the plan 

Remus to Sirius: have you gotten any news from the schools you applied to?

Sirius: yeah funny story 

Sirius: i sort of messed up applying 

Remus: wait so you didn’t send out any applications??

Sirius: naw just messing with u 

Sirius: i heard back months ago 

Remus: R U KIDDING ME 

Sirius: i broke u this is the best moment of all 88 years of my life. 

Sirius: yeah though. haven’t opened anything yet 

Remus: you mean you never opened the letters?

Sirius: yeah no i liked the suspense 

Remus: jesus christ open them right now i will cut you 

Sirius: cool beans i got in 

Remus blocked Sirius. 

James to Lily: i like u a lot 

Lily: ask me out then 

James: wait what 

Lily: i’ve been literally waiting all year 

James: jesus christ will u go out with me 

Lily: yeah y not 

[bizarrebird]

missing him was dark gray

Prompt from @secretlystephaniebrown -  OKAY CAN WE SEE CABOOSE PUTTING THOSE BEADS IN TUCKER'S HAIR IN THE SOULMATE AU BECAUSE THAT KILLED ME

Okay, so I’m not the best at writing Caboose, but I tried. The bead thing was something I was kinda hesitant to put in In Screaming Color, but I’m glad people like it, so here you go!

Also on AO3 here

Warnings: N/A

Rating: G

Pairings: Implied Tuckington, platonic Tucker & Caboose 

“Tucker, look!”

Groaning, Tucker pushes himself up, blinking in the sudden light. He’s pretty sure no one’se ever taught Caboose about knocking before he bursts the fuck in on someone. At least he had just been sleeping and not in the middle of alone time. He’s been sleeping a lot lately. Training the rebels is exhausting, so hell, he’s earned it.

 And when he’s asleep there’s less time to wonder what they’re doing to Wash. To Donut. To Sarge. Except for when his dreams try to fill in the blanks.

He squints a little as Caboose plops onto his bed without so much as an invitation. “Dude, the fuck do you want? Aren’t you supposed to be on  supply run? Did you get me the shit I asked for?”

“No, I forgot your list, but look what I did get!” He shoves a small plastic box into Tucker’s face. The bed is shaking a little with the way he’s bouncing on the spot. Whatever the hell he found, he’s sure excited about it.

That might not be good for him.

Taking the box, he rubs at his eyes. It doesn’t sound like anything is trying to claw its way out of there. He gives it a little shake. Sounds like there’s a lot of… little somethings rattling around in there. Huh.

He sits up, shifting to put his back against the wall as he opens the box. His brow furrows. “Beads? Where the hell did you get these?”

“The supply run. There were lots of stores and no bad guys so we explored and I found a store with lots and lots of them. It took a while, but I got all the right ones,” he says, looking pretty proud of himself.

Tucker frowns a little. The right ones? What does that mean? He gives them another look. There’s… not a lot of colors. Which is weird for Caboose. Back in Blood Gulch, he had specially requisitioned the biggest pack of brightly colored rainbow beads he could find once Tucker had agreed to let him mess with his hair again.

It had taken quite a lot of convincing after the fire incident. He had mentioned the beads just off hand when he’d been complaining about cutting off the burnt ends and Caboose had just lit up. After that, it had sort of become a thing. A not quite nightly routine of Caboose carefully working an assortment of beads into his hair.

Of course then, even with the ridiculous amount of colors to choose from, he had mostly stuck to the blue ones.

But there’s… not actually any blue ones in there. Huh. It’s not until he’s got a small handful to get a better look at the colors that it clicks and something in his chest curls tight until it hurts. There’s four colors. Pink, red, gray, and yellow.

Tucker’s voice sticks in his throat as he looks up at Caboose. Suddenly, he looks a little sheepish, ducking his head, curls flopping down to hide his eyes. “I know they are not blue, but… I thought they would be nice. I think Donut and Wash and the sergeant would not mind you using their colors.”

It takes him a minute to swallow the lump in his throat before he nods. “Yeah… yeah I bet they’d be cool with it.”

He grabs Caboose’s hand and carefully drops the beads into his much larger palm. Shifting the box closer to him, Tucker turns away, pulling his hair free of the loose bun he’d forced it into earlier. “Go ahead, just try not to pull too much, dude.”

“I will be very gentle,” Caboose says earnestly.

It’s always relaxing to have someone mess with his hair. Caboose’s big, clumsy fingers are surprisingly nimble when they want to be. He carefully works through Tucker’s dreads, Tucker can even feel him carefully tightening up a few locs here and there like he’d shown him ages ago. When he wants to, Caboose can remember things pretty damn well.

“What colors would you like?”

Tucker’s teeth go to his lip and he shrugs. “I dunno, maybe… maybe Wash’s? I can braid some of Donut’s in yours later.”

“That would be very nice.”

Caboose hums to himself, apparently not feeling the slightly heavy silence as it settles around them. Or maybe he does. “You miss Washington, don’t you?”

That lump’s in his throat again and he shrugs. Because he doesn’t want to miss Wash’s stupid self-sacrificing ass and his fucking drill sergeant orders and all the rest of it. But his hand absently goes to the collar of his shirt, knowing there’s that too gray mark hidden just beneath it.

“I sure as hell don’t miss him telling me to drop and give him a million,” he says, snorting. “Or his stupid pacing at three in the morning all the time. Oh, or how he’d never stop giving me crap about the one time I forgot to brush my teeth. Or--”

“Yeah, I miss him too.”

That shuts him up way too easily. Something in Tucker’s chest aches and his eyes burn, so he forces them shut. This is stupid. He can’t get worked up over this. It’s going to be fine. Wash is fine, they’re all fine. They just have to find them.

Caboose’s hand stills in his hair, the other landing on his shoulder and squeezing. “When we rescue them, we are going to make the best blanket fort ever.”

Tucker reaches up and pats Caboose’s hand. “Of all time.”

They keep talking, the pain in his chest easing a little. Caboose apparently has about a million things planned for when they get Wash and the others back. He’s got a whole tour of the rebel base planned, though Tucker tries to talk him out of some parts. (“Dude, they’re not gonna want to see Andersmith’s stamp collection, no one wants to see that.”)

Eventually, Caboose decides he’s done and scoots off Tucker’s bed to sit on the floor. He’s so fucking tall, it’s the only way Tucker can get at his hair. “This is so fucking tangled, hang on, I’ve gotta comb it out first. Have you not been brushing it again?”

“I forgot. Agent Washington has not been reminding me and I have not added that to Andersmith’s schedule yet.”

Tucker freezes where he’s got one hand in the box he’s been using as a nightstand. Fishing out his comb, he lets out a breath. “Don’t bother, I’ll put it on mine. Smith won’t do it right. I’ve got it.”

“If you say so.” But there’s a hint of cheer in Caboose’s voice that wasn’t there before. He mostly sits still as Tucker carefully works the knots out of his hair.

“It’s getting real long again,” he notes, catching a few strands between his fingers, letting them slowly fall back where they curl halfway to Caboose’s shoulders. “You should let me cut it soon.”

“I am waiting for Donut. He cuts it best.” Well, Tucker can’t really argue with that. For a moment, he almost says they have no idea when that’s going to be. That they don’t even know if Donut’s going to be up for that when they get him back. If--

No. No he’s putting the brakes on that hard, so he just nods. “Yeah, okay.”

Once he gets the tangles out, he starts carefully working a few little braids into Caboose’s hair, threading a few pink beads in here and there. “Can you save some?” Caboose asks when he’s been at it for a few minutes. “I think Grif and Simmons would probably like a few beads too.”

Tucker’s pretty sure neither of them would be caught dead with pink and red beads in their hair, though Grif’s is definitely long enough for it. But he doesn’t disagree. “Sure. There’s gonna be plenty left though, you got a fuck ton, dude.”

“I had to make sure there were enough for everyone, Tucker,” he says, faintly shaking his head as he scoffs a little. “Sharing is very important, everyone knows that.”

He can’t stop himself from laughing as he nods. “Okay, yeah, good point. Alright, think that’s pretty good unless you want more.”

Caboose reaches up and feels at his head. After a moment, he nods and stands, collecting the box of beads. “This is good. Thank you, Tucker, I will try to keep them nice until we find the others.”

“Uh huh, sure.” Knowing Caboose, he’s going to have to redo the braids daily, but… it’s not the worst way to kill an hour or two. Tucker throws an arm over his eyes as he flops back on the bed. He’s vaguely aware of Caboose babbling something about going to see Grif and Simmons at him as a large hand pats his knee.

The door to his room opens and closes as Tucker’s hand idly drifts to his own hair. Fingers running over the beads, he shuts his eyes tightly. It’s not enough, and really… it shouldn’t mean shit, but the yellow and gray are so, so like Wash’s colors. Like part of him is still there.

It’s not enough, but it’ll hold him over until Wash is back. It’s only a matter of time.

[fountainpenguin]

Once Act 2 of Origin of the Pixies is over, I can finally delete the Google Docs file for it. For kicks and giggles, here are some deleted scenes that have been sitting at the end of the Acts 1 and 2 document all this time-

H.P. talking biology with Mr. Thimble:

Four and a half centuries after that, just before I was to begin my real work as an employee in the family business of Wish Fixers rather than Ambrosine’s unpaid little tagalong, I returned to Spellementary School to seek something from Mr. Thimble that I had never wanted in the months following my nymphhood: His advice.

My timing was perfect, as it tended to be. I arrived as his latest batch of students was filtering out for recess. He crouched on the floor with a dustpan full of pottery chunks and crumpled flowers (someone, it seemed, had finally put that twisted orange and brown monstrosity on the bookshelf out of its misery).

"Someone broke your vase?" I asked as he stood.

He shrugged and started for the waste bin. "One of the will o' the wisps brushed it with her wing. It doesn't matter- they were just daisies." Then he glanced over at me for the first time. “Ah. Fergus Whimsifinado. You look more like your father every day.”

_

Mr. Thimble considered this. “If you want to say you’re a pixie, then I see no reason why you can’t. The early will o’ the wisps and brownies began in a similar way. Here. You remember this old collection of tablets, perhaps. I would suggest you find some blank ones and create a copy for pixies, containing information such as wing design, particular magical abilities, sexual tendencies, and aggressive behaviors that outsiders ought to be aware of.”

I stared at the heap of tablets with my stomach curling in and out of knots. I wanted to be called something, but I didn’t want it that badly. I thanked him for the tablets and even began my work, but I lacked the attention and drive for it. The project was shelved.

This scene was originally going to appear after the lunch conversation with Ambrosine in “Love Struck Out”. In this early draft of the story, H.P. wasn’t so bogged down by feelings of “not being a real fairy” and “my mutation makes me ugly”, and he was actually going to call himself a pixie from the get-go. He approached his old school teacher, requesting to fill out the tablets to get his species placed in the school textbooks. Because of course he can do that.

I felt like this concept took a LOT out of the story, though, which is one reason why the scene was tossed and I went back to the drawing board (other reason being, it disrupted Chapter 3′s flow). I did really want to make a joke about him hating paperwork in his youth, but after ditching this scene I never really had the chance.

Also, you may notice that the mention of the vase was moved to “The Art of Starting Fires” instead. I was pretty proud of how it was written, and designed the Wish Fixers scene around it (after tweaking the scene as necessary to fit Karowel’s personality, of course). Fun Fact: In Act 4, H.P. owns a vase that looks exactly like this one even though he called it ugly in his youth.

Academy Party:

Sparkle wiggled his brows. “Are you sure you don’t want a sip? It’s orange.”

I studied the drink, then brought it to my lips. “Maybe just one.”

It runs in the family, the sugar addiction. I was at the top of my game one moment, leaning back in my comfortable seat and surveying my kingdom with fingertips pressed together. Shortly thereafter, Polly was leading Sparkle and I down the hall by our ears, both of us with our words bumping together like raindrops. I find it necessary to state, however, that soda is no longer a weakness of mine and should not be expected to work against me again. 

Although this snippet has some merit, I removed it from “School’s In - Not Much of a Musical” because I realized I didn’t want to timeskip the entire party (I played with the idea of having two parties at first). After this, I wrote the second “party” as something rather boring. H.P. was just playing snapjik with Sparkle and Polly in the basement somewhere. Brown walls and quiet people in the study area, yep. There was... no excitement whatsoever until Ambrosine showed up. It just seemed like the kind of place H.P. would hang out.

Then I remembered he’s canonically a rave-lover and grinned a wicked grin.

H.P. meets Pip

1)

I jolted upright, wings flared. “What the- Ow!”

A blue and black shape hovered above me with a horrified stare etched across her entire face. “Of all the places to spill my hot spaghetti sauce, it had to be on a fairy in diapause.”

“What?” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes. “I wasn’t… what?”

She bore no crown, and her bat-like wings were feathered along the edges. An anti-cherub, then. She stared at me, stiff, with a bowl of pasta in her hands.

2)

I took a few steps, but swayed heavily and began to sag. “Take it slow, big fella,” she said, tailing me. “That’s it. Keep walking forward. Forward.”

“I know you’re trying to walk me off a cliff. This is where I live. I know this valley.” I rubbed my entire face with my palm. “Was I seriously in diapause? The last season I remember was the Winter of the Scarred Caribou. What year is it now?”

“Autumn of the Flightless Bird. That would be about…” She tipped her head. “Twenty thousand years, I think?”

I blinked several times. “You remember that?”

She coughed into her fist. “Years are kind of my thing. It’s in the job description. You learn to pick them up. Anywho, no one wants to hear about my boring life.”

3)

“Hey, I’d be more grateful in your position. You would have been eaten by predators if I hadn’t waited around until some angels found you and decided to give you a proper burial.”

“They buried me alive?”

“It wasn’t their fault. You still had dust on you and you looked pretty dead.”

“And that was twenty-thousand years ago.”

“Yep.”

“You’ve been stalking me for twenty thousand years, and you’re only just now waking me up.”

“Yep.”

“Why are you like this?”

“I dunno? I come around this area every century or so to listen to that fluttery sound of your core deep underground, and I finally got curious and just decided to do it.”

4)

I checked myself over through bleary eyes, but all my clothes were still in place, well-worn by the elements and damp with ice.

“Identify yourself, or I shoot you with a seven-day blindness hex.”

“Easy, easy!” she protested, flapping her wings.

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

These diapause ideas were scrapped because of the conflict with Baby, You’re a Rich Man, when H.P. tells Sanderson he met Pip about five hundred years before he was born. I used Mortikor to wake H.P. from diapause instead.

The first one was definitely supposed to show Pip’s quirkiness. In that version, H.P. fell into diapause in his little cave, and she snuck in to rob him. Hot spaghetti sauce is, evidently, warm enough to wake someone from diapause. The other three all take place outside in the snow.

H.P. trying to communicate with humans

1)

“You want me to paint?” I tried to infer. I dipped my fingertips in the red powder, then stared at the wall. What to draw? I had never painted anything before, or if I had, it was when I was very young and the memories had been shuffled beneath millennia of more important work.

I looked at Tall, and then I knew exactly what to create. First, I drew two crude angels, to symbolize the concept of ‘more than one’. Then, more carefully, I drew a third figure floating over their heads, with wings spread. After setting my paints on the floor, I faced the pack again. Shiny had her head to the left, but no one really seemed to get it.

“Pack kills animal,” I said pointing to the picture that Tall had drawn. Moving my finger to the next, I pressed, “Pack gives food to the fairy and cares for them.” The third image, “Fairy lives happy life.”

They weren’t getting it. How were they not getting it?

Oh, well.

2)

I stared around the cave. Then I took up the feathers that had been plucked from the meat, and tucked them into my hair. I took up a large bone like a wand. I brushed clumps of purple dust from my left shoulder down to my hand, and clenched my fingers before they could begin to wriggle back up.

One chance. One chance.

I threw my handful of dust to the floor and silently pleaded for them to shoot up white sparks (It was only a small amount of dust, after all). With a sound like a ping, they did. I leapt into the air as I flared my wings, and held.

3)

I clung to my wand. They seemed to understand. They respected me like I was the greatest. I was a king. 

“Okay. For my first order of business, I require an escort to Great Sidhe.” I pointed out the cave and started to leave it, but after a minute of hovering outside the entrance, I came back. “Escort? Why is no one moving?”

The first and third are okay, but I’m not fond of the second. Anyway, like the scenes with Pip, these take place in “The Wanderings of the First and Alone”. I timeskipped them all instead because they weren’t necessary for the chapter, and I was having trouble making them all flow together anyway. 

Additionally, I wanted the first time H.P. is seen naming something to be when he names Sanderson (Hence why the story points out he never named his pet fish or the living cardboard boxes). I also played with the concept of H.P. sticking with this group of humans for decades, observing their mortality, but that idea was quickly discarded when I realized it would give him parental experience, and I wanted Sanderson to be the first child who truly looked after.

Social services are trash

The word- it was the wrong word. That word didn’t belong in conversation.

“Dead!” she exploded, visibly resisting the urge to sink her thumbs into my windpipe and strangle me. “The Fairy Elder’s orders! They’ll kill him to prevent the continuing spread of-”

I flashed for the door before she finished, tying the ribbons of China’s coat with all the wrong loops only to tear them apart and redo them correctly. I barreled through two streets, swerving around more than one magic carpet and knocking half a dozen Fairies to the cloudstones.

Originally, H.P. went out to lunch after dumping Sanderson on social services in “Grand Father”. However, he shouldn’t have friends at this time, so I couldn’t figure out how he ended up talking with this lady. Or how “I just illegally abandoned my son and I feel great” could come up in conversation. 

In the final version, he goes to the post office instead, and finds out from the Keepers that Sanderson was on the chopping block. The final version works well because it’s a good way to remind the audience that the Refracted exist, and it shows that despite everything, H.P. feels guilty about dropping off Sanderson with little fanfare, and so brings him the scarf.

The draft version was a little too panicked and emotional considering that technically, Origin IS supposed to be written for the pixies and H.P. wouldn’t normally let something QUITE like that slip in. I mean, for the sake of storytelling, I haven’t been writing the way I imagine he truly would, but that’s why he has an editor whom he hates.

I’ve been waiting for the right time to bring the magic carpets up again, but I think I missed my chance, so that might just end up a Frayed Knots thing.

Anti-Sanderson meets Sherri

The door opened, and a slim figure headed across the grass for the showers with a bucket in one hand and rag in the other. A damsel. A cherub damsel. Anti-Sanderson looked at me. “Watch this.”

He went bouncing and sliding down the tree, ricocheting off a tangle of branches, and at the bottom ran over to the cherub. "Can I help you carry that, twizzlerbit?" he asked, and she let him with a smile.  

The pair had nearly reached the showers when the cherub made the mistake of holding her eyelids shut, or perhaps darting her gaze away, and Anti-Sanderson lunged for her face. She screamed against his lips and slapped at him with her hands and snapping wings, but with his arms wrapped around her, even the yoo-doo doll struggled to tear him away. As the cherub scrambled off, we all dropped to our knees. We knelt there, hands behind our backs, glowering at one another, until finally Venus stormed in and grabbed the offender by the elbow.

"That's it. I have hit the roof with you. You can spend the next five hundred years in solitary confinement."

I REALLY like the phrasing of jumping down the tree, but had to toss it due to the scene change to the ballroom in “Snowflake”. Shame.

(By the way, Sanderson was mentally nine in “Bells and Whistles”, and is mentally eleven by this point in the story. Once he hits twelve, he’ll be mentally twelve for a looong time until his lines catch up with his mental age. After that, he’ll start aging with his line count. So I guess aging with lines is like a puberty thing? That makes sense to me. Let’s do that. Pair it with a wing moult and other features like an adam’s apple or something, yeah.)

H.P. meets Wanda

“Wanda Fairywinkle.”

“You’re the damsel who traveled back in time to kill the dinosaurs.”

She took the folds of an imaginary skirt and curtsied.

That’s it. That’s the scene. That’s as far as I got before I realized I would MUCH prefer to write “Rain Dance” instead, and I didn’t want to accidentally write myself into a corner.

This scene, and the next one, would take place during the war.

Chatting with Schnozmo

Robin leaned across the table. “They say some lunatic called Doubletake snuck a cú sith into the camp.”

I sipped my coffee. “That in itself was against the Fairy Elder’s orders, isn’t it? Poor sucker didn’t stand a chance, I suppose.”

“I dunno about that. Maybe.” He shrugged. “All I know is, people are sayin’ how Doubletake got himself sugar-drunk and killed Shiverwand. Just stabbed him right in the back, no warning or nothin’. His own bunkmate, while he was sleeping! Got the dust everywhere. How’s that for juicy?”

I rotated my mug between my fingers. “And the cú sith took him on the grounds of dishonorable killing?”

“Sure did! The mangy yellow thing snapped his soul up before you could steal a peach cobbler off a windowsill.” Robin slapped his knee and leaned back, both hands wrapped around the edge of the bench between his knees. “Wish I coulda seen it. Two words: Night patrol reeks. Anyway, they say Doubletake’s body’s new driver is a charming fellow. So, if you wondered.”

“Thank you.”

He flashed his jagged teeth. “Hey, that’s what the Hooded Robin’s here for.”

“And Doubletake in the cú sith’s body?”

“Got away into the trees. They’re trying to round him up. I dunno if they’ll try to get him back in his own body, though. I mean, he was a loopy fellow. A couple years in hot fur might cool him down.”

Mmhm. Originally, H.P. didn’t take Sparkle with him when he left the Academy at the end of “The Fallen Angel”. The rebellion in “A Grain of Truth” didn’t even exist. I’m still trying to decide WHAT H.P. and Schnozmo are going to talk about during this scene, or if the entire scene needs to be removed.

Additionally, the soul-swapping scene worked well for Chapter 6, because it drives home exactly what fairy dogs can do, and justifies H.P.’s reactions in “School’s In” and “Bells and Whistles” sooner rather than later.

Anyhow, those are the deleted scenes, and they’ll be deleted for real when I finish the Act 2 finale and discard this document!