#but she is also experienced enough at dragons to know that stabbing it is generally more effective

[sesamenom]

Hunting of the Dragon

What if the Arkenstone really was a Silmaril? (very late, but inspired by arofili's @funwithfanon prompts from last march!)

click for quality | closeups & details under the cut

Galadriel, Celeborn, and Thranduil are the only people on the right side of the mountains that a) have fought a dragon (mostly in the war of wrath) b) remember the Hunting of the Wolf and c) are mentally stable enough to be trusted around a silmaril (more or less)

so of course they end up having to fight silmaril-raged smaug. (he sat on it and now it's stuck to his bald spot)

since the sindar don't have metal armor galadriel is the only tank, and therefore the person on dragon-stabbing duty.

celeborn is the spearman in charge of keeping smaug from escaping or mauling someone else (and also making sure the silmaril doesn't fall on galadriels head, because at that point it definitely would still burn her)

thranduil is supposed to be doing air control to keep smaug from flying up and torching everyone, but he decided it would be a great idea to jump-dive at the dragon's head.

(version with fire because i couldnt decide which one i liked better)

[torpublishinggroup]

5 Dragons Daniel M. Ford’s Adept Wizard Could Beat in a Fight

Dragonslayers have been around almost as long as dragons, but what makes a dragonslayer? Truthfully, a dragonslayer can be anyone. Your nephew, that street performer, your mail carrier… But what about a young necromancer, fresh out of school and with a chip on her shoulder? Yes. 

For more on that, we bring you Daniel M. Ford to discuss the dragonslaying capabilities of Aelis de Lenti, the main character of his fantasy novel The Warden.

Check it out!

by Daniel M. Ford

Aelis de Lenti, the main character of my book The Warden, is, well, a warden, which is to say a wizard with a specific mandate to protect an area or group of people, as a kind of marshal/investigator/magistrate. And as my readers will know, her magic is not generally of the explosive, openly powerful, full-of-offensive-potential kind. So if Aelis was to go hunting dragons, she’d have to be very careful, select her targets well, prepare, and look for weaknesses other people might not see. Thankfully for her, Aelis is, while not a world class planner, really good at making it up as she goes along, and she has a couple friends—Tun, the half-orc woodsman, and Maurenia, the half-elven adventuress—that can generally be convinced to help her out.

Fáfnir

Reaching way back into the origins of European dragons here, I think it’s reasonable to say that Aelis could come up with the idea of digging a hole and waiting for the wyrm to slither over it so she can stab it in the belly. There’s also the fact that eating the heart of this particular dragon is said to bring knowledge, which combines two things Aelis can’t get enough of; fancy cuisine and knowing things other people don’t.

The Sleeping Dragon from The Sleeping Dragon by Joel Rosenberg

Right away, the Sleeping part is a giveaway for exactly how Aelis will approach this fight.

Quietly.

But there’s more to it. In Rosneberg’s Guardians of the Flame series[1], dragons have a pretty well known and debilitating weakness. There is an herb known as dragonbane—a little on the nose—that is commonly found and widely known to interfere with a dragon’s magical metabolism. This generally keeps dragons of this world from messing with humans too openly. Once Aelis gets her hands on some of this herb, a few hours in a decently stocked alchemical lab—even the not very well stocked lab in her tower would probably do—and she can definitely refine it into something extra lethal. Then it’s just a matter of getting close enough, quietly enough, with some crossbow bolts or arrows to get the job done.

Or, more likely, convincing Tun and/or Maurenia to get close enough to get the job done. After all, an Abjurer’s job in a fight isn’t necessarily to deliver the killing blow so much as it is to cover those who are better prepared or equipped to do so. At least, that’s what she’d tell her friends while she talked them into it. Can her wards stand up to dragon breath? Of course they can! Probably. But we won’t even need to find out, right?

Verimthrax Pejorative, from Dragonslayer

A classic fantasy film dragon that proves very dangerous to even an experienced wizard, as seen in the film, Vermithrax Pejorative is tough to take via a conventional approach to dragon-slaying.

Aelis de Lenti is anything but conventional.

In the film, Ulrich the wizard is able to discern that Vermithrax is affected by a disease that bothers all dragons as they age, a scale-rot that causes constant pain. Aelis could certainly diagnose this, and after coaxing the dragon to get close by staking out the goat[2]to provide a free meal, and then offering to treat her scale-rot. Once she does start treating that disease, her Necromantic abilities will teach her all about draconic anatomy and weaknesses, giving her something she can surely exploit. Maybe Vermithrax dies quietly in her sleep, maybe her firebreath is suddenly disabled, maybe the next time she flies she finds that the muscles of her wings have mysteriously atrophied and she crashes into a hill. There is no equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath in Aelis’s world.

A Dracolich, any Dracolich

Sure, sure, Dracoliches like Daurgothoth the Creeping Doom are a menace to fantasy worlds. When you marry the magical power and resistances of a lich with the thousands of years of experience, intelligence, and magical abilities of a dragon, you get something fearsome.

And not one of them has ever dealt with something like a Lyceum trained Necrobane. Aelis is at her best and most powerful when fighting the undead. Once she’s got some practical experience against living dragons and is able to put that together with her Necromantic power, she can surely find a way to take down a dracolich.

Rand al’Thor, The Dragon Reborn[3]

Yes, I hear you. Rand is catastrophically powerful. If he’s got any of his angreal or sa’angreal around, like Callandor, he can probably destroy the world, or close enough as makes no difference. Aelis can’t match him with magic. She probably can’t match him blade to blade, either, as Rand is a confirmed blademaster and she is competent. Her friends wold surely know better than to even try. So why do I think Aelis could take him?

Quite simply, (at least in the early books) Rand is terrified of women, especially one that acts even a little bit interested in him. And later books Rand flat out refuses to fight a woman. Is this cheating? Fine! Aelis isn’t above cheating to achieve a goal! She can easily take Rand al’Thor[4]based on these two data points alone.

So, there you have it; the Top 5 Dragons Aelis de Lenti can take in a fight. It requires a little unorthodox thinking, because Aelis doesn’t flash the kind of power you might expect from a fantasy wizard. But she excels at getting the most out of what she does have; her wards, her Necromancy, her friends, and her willingness to cheat[5].

Notes

[1]    A portal fantasy where a group of college students get transported to the world they play a fantasy RPG in and decide to Do the Industrial Revolution in order to end slavery. It shows its age in spots (it began in 1983) but it’s worth a read.

[2]    If you’ve read The Warden you know exactly which goat I mean

[3]    I do not suggest that Aelis could handle the armies surrounding Rand, the Far Dareis Mai who guard him, or Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Just Rand.

[4]    Provided we ignore all the stuff about his world-shattering power and the massive armies, incredible resources, and similarly powerful people who’d be invested in his victory.

[5]    Please understand that I have great respect, even love, for all the dragons mentioned here.

[targaryenimagines]

Burning Ember

Daenerys Targaryen x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 2,371

Summary:

Warnings: None

People always say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes. That each individual moment you experienced, good and bad, appear in front of you in quick succession. That you felt warm knowing that everything was over. Finally laid to rest for eternity, reuniting with everything you have lost.

It was all lies.

There was no feeling of warmth and security. There was only coldness and despair that seemed to clog your lungs, more so than the water. All you could feel was the endless void that held nothing but wrath and hate. There was no mercy within it only a sense of darkness that your body shrank from.

There was no feeling of freedom or peace. You could feel the weight of the water crushing down onto you. You could feel the way your lungs burned with the lack of oxygen. You could feel the way that the water tore at your skin and seemed to sink into your bones. Chilling you and stealing the warmth you were trying so desperately to keep.

Even when you opened your eyes you could see nothing but darkness. The swirling water holding nothing but you.

You were alone and that weighed on you more than the water ever could, because you know that you didn't enter the water alone. You know that something else was in the water with you, and you know you needed to find it.

However, your mind was too foggy to remember what 'it' was.

You could feel the pressure starting to build in your chest. The need to inhale becoming stronger and stronger with each moment that passed, but you know if you gave in there would be nothing that could save you. Even though you, also, know that if you don't it would have the same end result.

The burning only grew as the darkness did. Your mind starting to deteriorate on itself, and there was nothing you could do. There was nothing that could stop this manic spiral that your entire being was in.

You simply squeeze your eyes shut and wait for the darkness to come. To feel the sweet relief that it would bring. The pain and suffering finally leaving and never returning.

You would be free, and you weren't scared.

Even as the darkness starts to fully consume your mind you did nothing but relax. Accepting the fate you had been bestowed.

Your body going limp just as your mind went blank. Your grasp on the world around you slipping like water does between your fingers. The darkness encompassing you in the sweet relief of tranquility.

Your body becoming numb even as you felt something, gently, lift you up.

-----

A sense of weightlessness enveloped you as chilling winds ripped across your body. Your entire being thrown by the elements. Only to stay in place by the warmth and strength that the being holding you had. The warmth soothing you from the frigid wasteland that was the North.

Finding the strength hidden deep within you, you finally open your eyes. The world was blurry at first but your eyes soon clear. Causing you to see nothing but white and grey, a common color it seems. Bringing your hand up you, gently, grasp the talons holding you. A small smile makes it's way onto your face at the sight. Your gaze already looking up before you could even fully comprehend anything. Only to see a sight that causes your heart to warm.

Viserion.

His beautiful scales seem to glow amid the whiteness of the North. His wings beating with resilience against the raging winds. You had never seen a more beautiful sight, and as you close your eyes you couldn't help but know that you would soon be with Daenerys.

As long as you walked this world you would always return to your dragon.

Nothing, not even the Night King, would be able to stop you.

-----

When you awaken once more you are surrounded by grey. The ground underneath you as cool as the snow outside, but a familiar warmth wraps tightly around you. His body exuding heat like a campfire would.

Pressing your body into his side you nuzzle into him. Relishing the warmth and comfort he was always able to give you. You could see that he was tired by the way his breathing became and more shallow.

Running your hand along his side you could feel the wounds he suffered from because of the fall, and the subsequent bout in the water. You couldn't believe that he was able to get himself out, and then go back in to find you. A fact that causes a tender smile to spread across your face. You didn't know what you've done to deserve such loyalty, but you know you would never do anything to jeopardize it.

Scanning your own body you could see that you hadn't gotten out of the fall unscathed either, but even the injuries you now suffered were a hell of a lot better than being dead.

Closing your eyes once more you lean you head back into Viserion's side. Allowing the moment of peace to wash over you and calm your nerves.

Your mind desperately trying to grasp onto the lightness that the moment gave you.

Knowing exactly what type of darkness was waiting for you out of it.

-----

It took three days for you to get well enough to be able to fly.

Three days of being left in the cave Viserion found when the need for food became apparent.

Three days of constant fear that the White Walkers would find you.

Three days of jumping at your own shadow, even when Viserion was right next to you.

Three days of worrying about Daenerys and missing her.

So on the dawn of the fourth day when you didn't feel a stabbing pain in your side every time you inhaled, you knew it was the day. The day that you had been waiting for.

The day you would finally be able to go home.

Leave the hellish wasteland of the North and head back towards Daenerys. You know that she would be getting ready for the Dragon Pit meeting, if not returning from it.

The thought of seeing her again, and your sons, causes your heart to lurch with joy. Soon you would be surrounded by warmth and the coldness of past three days would be behind you.

You and Viserion would be safe, you just had to take off.

Climbing onto Viserion's warm back, you clutch the spikes. Gripping them tightly when he begins to move, flashing back to the moment you fell. One of your hands unconsciously releasing his spike and traveling to your side. You could feel the makeshift bandage you had put around it. Could still feel the twinge of pain every time you applied pressure.

Snapping yourself out of your dark thoughts you grip Viserion's spikes once more. Leaning towards Viserion's face you whisper. "Sōvegon, Visērion, sōvegon lenton."

Letting loose a soft croon in response Viserion takes off. His wings carrying you both higher and higher into the air. His scales glowing underneath the shining light of the sun. You couldn't help the smile that grows on your face when you feel the wind across your face. You had been on the ground too long, you had no idea how much you would miss the sky. The feeling of complete freedom and peace. The warmth of the sun on your face and coolness of the wind. Experiencing something that many would never get to, it was exhilarating.

Your smile on grows more when pass the wall and are back in Westeros. A weight lifting from your shoulders that you hadn't even been aware was present. The feeling of safety settling over you as Viserion continues to head south. Far away from the North and its icy land.

You know that you would have to return, but at least for now you would be warm in the south. The people you love and trust by your side. There would be no greater feeling than that.

You just had to wait until Viserion arrived.

-----

Scanning the ground beneath you, you could see the sea of Unsullied and Dothraki. Their weapons glinting menacingly in the light of the sun. You have never, truly, realized just how large Dany's army was. The scope of what she was able to accomplish.

Angling Viserion higher, above the clouds, you pass the outer walls of King's Landing. You could see the deserted streets and the overall silence that seemed to wrap around the city. It was a disturbing silence even for you, and you had never even stepped foot in the great city.

Moving you gaze in a lazy arch you notice an almost decrepit coliseum type building, which you know was the Dragon Pit.

Nudging Viserion in the general direction of the meeting you couldn't help but feel your nerves starting to act up. You know that there was nothing to be nervous about and that Daenerys would welcome you back with open arms. It was just the feeling of what if.

What if she was better off with you gone?

What if she had already moved on?

What if she hadn't missed you like you had missed her?

Multiple scenarios ran through your mind, only causing your nerves to fray more, but you quickly steel yourself when Viserion is directly over the pit.

Looking down you could see three canopies situated on the raised platform in the middle of the pit, all the color of blood. You could hear the muffled sound of voices, and then saw the familiar flash of black.

Targaryen black.

Seeing the color soothes you immediately and you couldn't help but grin. Glancing at Viserion you could feel his excitement as well. Nudging Viserion to dive you do nothing but hold on as he gives a shrill cry to announce his presence.

Watching his wings fold tightly into his side causes your mind to flash back to last time he had done this. A thought that causes your body to shrink on itself, but you shake it off. Calming yourself down with the thought that Viserion was with you, fine, and soon you would with Daenerys.

Everything would be as it was supposed to be.

You watch as the people in the pit stand. You could hear startled exclamations but you could only focus on one figure that was moving towards where Viserion was about to land. Her ivory gold locks glowing in the sun and you felt like you could already see beautiful violet.

You could feel the way the stones crumbled, slightly, when Viserion landed. Shifting beneath his feet as he begins his descent down. A smile pulling at your lips when he gives a warning roar to all of the people near him. Clearly saying that no harm would come to either you or Daenerys. Not if they didn't want to deal with his and his brother's wraith.

Viserion starts to slowly lower himself to ground. Not wanting to jar any of your injuries and you pat his neck in silent gratitude. You would have to give him something later for being so thoughtful.

However, as of right now you had another matter to deal with because the second that your feet touched the ground slim arms wrapped around you. You could feel the warmth that Daenerys exuded as she pulled you tightly to her body. Her nose pressed against your neck as she held you. You could feel the stares of all the people in the pit, and the awkwardness their stares caused.

Viserion noticing your emotional change wraps his body around the both of you. Blocking everyone from looking at you and Daenerys.

Bringing your arms to wrap Daenerys you couldn't help the sigh that escaped your mouth.

You were finally home.

Daenerys soon pulls, slightly, away from the tight embrace. You could see the tears that were streaming down her face and you could feel your heart jolt. You hated seeing your dragon crying and the grief that came with it.

"Dany don't cry, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere," you say, your voice coming out in a low whisper. Your eyes sparkling with love and affection.

"They're happy tears, my love, I thought I lost you," she says, her face crumpling at the last words. Causing you to automatically pull her into your body.

"You could never lose me Dany, you are my home and you never leave your home for long."

A soft chuckle escapes her lips and causes your chest to warm. Your happiness growing at the small noise.

"And you are my North Star, you are the thing that guides me to where I have to be. Without you I am lost and I never want to be lost again," Daenerys whispers, nuzzling further into your embrace.

Your next words are filled with conviction as you whisper gently into her ear. "You never will Dany. I promise you that I will always return to you. It may take me a while sometimes but I will always return."

Raising her head Daenerys looks into your eyes. Her own violet starting to sparkle with renewed life. A smile starting to pull at her lips and a sense of lightness returning to her.

"I'll hold you to that promise, my love."

With a gentle smile you bring Daenerys back into your arms. Your eyes tearing up as the realization sinks in that you're finally home. That you weren't dead and that you would be able to be in your Dany's arms once again.

The realization brought happiness into your heart and soul, and as you look at Daenerys burrowing into your embrace you knew that the promise you made to her would never be broken.

You would always return to her.

Just like how the sun always returns to the moon.

You would always return to Daenerys and guide her home. Shining bright against the darkness that wants to consume her.

You would be her North Star.

You would be her light.

You would be her fire.

You would be her always.

[hufflly-puffs]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Chapter 2: In Memoriam

“It was stupid, pointless, irritating beyond belief, that he still had four days left of being unable to perform magic … but he had to admit to himself that this jagged cut in his finger would have defeated him. He had never learned how to repair wounds and now he came to think of it – particularly in light of his immediate plans – this seemed a serious flaw in his magical education. Making a mental note to ask Hermione how it was done, he used a large wad of toilet paper to mop up as much of the tea as he could, before returning to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him.” – Let’s be real: without Hermione neither Harry or Ron would have survived a single day on their journey. And remember that Harry originally had planned to hunt down the remaining Horcruxes alone? Even now, knowing that both Ron and Hermione will join him, he is utterly unprepared. It is not just the fact that he doesn’t know how to heal a cut (how is it possible they haven’t learnt that by now?). When they are attacked during the wedding and have to flee only Hermione was smart enough to pack in advance and have everything ready and always at her side (yes, I’m talking about the magical handbag). Sure, Harry packs things as well, but it obviously didn’t cross his mind that they might have to escape immediately, or to use a spell on his rucksack, giving it more space, or to pack such things as a tent. I think it is fair to say Hermione is the real saviour of the Wizarding World.

“Harry had spent the morning completely emptying his school trunk for the first time since he had packed it six years ago. At the start of the intervening school years, he had merely skimmed off the topmost three quarters of the contents and replaced or updated them, leaving a layer of general debris at the bottom – old quills, desiccated beetle eyes, single socks that no longer fitted. Minutes previously Harry had plunged his hand into this mulch, experienced a stabbing pain in the fourth finger of his right hand and withdrawn it to see a lot of blood.” – Serves him right for being so messy. I mean if he had never completely emptied his trunk in six years this also means the thing hasn’t been cleaned for so long. Just… yuck.

“As he neared the bottom of the pile of newspapers, Harry slowed down, searching for one particular edition which he knew had arrived shortly after he had returned to Privet Drive for the summer; he remembered that there had been a small mention on the front about the resignation of Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts.” – Harry will leave later that day, which means it is now the next Saturday Snape had told Voldemort about. In the Skeeter interview it is mentioned that Dumbledore has died roughly four weeks ago. The timeline for Charity Burbage is then that she shortly after Dumbledore’s death resigned, then some time later wrote an article for the Daily Prophet, before the Death Eaters or perhaps Voldemort himself took her and then killed her. At first I thought her resignation was forced by the Death Eaters, but the timing would not be right for that. So she did resign voluntary, perhaps thinking Hogwarts was no longer safe without Dumbledore there or unsure if the school would re-open again.

After reading Dumbledore’s obituary Harry realizes how little he knew about Dumbledore and his life and how odd it seems to imagine him as a young man or student. I think we all have problems to imagine our parents or grandparents (Dumbledore was a parental figure for Harry) as anything other than that, to imagine they had a life well before us, that they were young as well, or in Dumbledore’s case fallible. The natural distance between a teacher and a student resulted in Harry never asking about his private life; it would have felt disrespectful. And even though Dumbledore is dead by now his ghost follows Harry on his journey and oddly enough we learn much more about Dumbledore now, post mortem, than in the previous six books while he was still alive.

“Albus never attempted to deny that his father (who was to die in Azkaban) had committed this crime; […]” – There is a very personal reason why Dumbledore was against Azkaban in his current form. He never denied that his father committed a crime and he would have possibly agreed that his father deserved some kind of punishment as well, but not Azkaban, not the Dementors, not the prospect of losing your soul (though we don’t know for sure if Percival had been convicted to the Dementor’s Kiss as well). The punishment should always fit the crime and no crime justifies to lose your soul.

“Those of us who were privileged to be his friends benefited from his example, not to mention his help and encouragement, with which he was always generous. He confessed to me in later life that he knew even then that his greatest pleasure lay in teaching.” – Sounds a bit like Hermione, doesn’t it? And of course Harry taught classmates DADA for nearly an entire school year as well. But guess who later became a teacher? None of them.

“Dumbledore’s future career seemed likely to be meteoric, and the only question that remained was when he would become Minister for Magic. Though it was often predicted in later years that he was on the point of taking the job, however, he never had Ministerial ambitions.” – Of course Dumbledore did not become a teacher just because he enjoyed teaching but also because he realized that he is unfit for any kind of power. Power is what corrupted Grindelwald and later Voldemort, what had almost corrupted Dumbledore as well. Of course being the headmaster of Hogwarts gave him some power as well, but not in the way any political tenure would have given him. And he later tells Harry that does are best suited for power who never desired it; people like Harry.

“He died as he lived: working always for the greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day that I met him.” – Obviously Elphias Doge doesn’t know the exact circumstances of Dumbledore’s death, but there is some truth right here. Right before his death Dumbledore had offered his help to another boy in need: Draco.

“He had never thought to ask Dumbledore about his past. No doubt it would have felt strange, impertinent even, but after all, it had been common knowledge that Dumbledore had taken part in that legendary duel with Grindelwald, and Harry had not thought to ask Dumbledore what that had been like, nor about any of his other famous achievements. No, they had always discussed Harry, Harry’s past, Harry’s future, Harry’s plans … and it seemed to Harry now, despite the fact that his future was so dangerous and so uncertain, that he had missed irreplaceable opportunities when he had failed to ask Dumbledore more about himself, […]” -  We do learn a bit more about Grindelwald and his relationship to Dumbledore, but there is still a blank space concerning the time Grindelwald rose to power, which by now the “Fantastic Beasts”-movies will cover. Given his friendship/romantic feelings towards Grindelwald I wonder how open Dumbledore would have been if Harry had ever asked him about him, if he would have told him about his own guilt and responsibility. In the obituary it is mentioned that Dumbledore hardly ever spoke about his family, especially his sister, so it is possible Harry wouldn’t have gotten an answer anyway. The shame about what he had done had made Dumbledore silent.

“Skeeter was certainly quick off the mark. Her nine-hundred page book was completed a mere four weeks after Dumbledore’s mysterious death in June. I ask her how she managed this super-fast feat.” – Look Rita Skeeter is a horrible person and all, but writing 900 hundred pages in 4 weeks? That demands respect.

“‘Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dungheap,’ laughs Skeeter. ‘No, no, I’m talking about much worse than a brother with a fondness for fiddling about with goats, […]” – You know what, I actually don’t wanna know exactly what Aberforth did with those goats.

“‘Oh yes,’ says Skeeter, nodding briskly, ‘I devote an entire chapter to the whole Potter–Dumbledore relationship. It’s been called unhealthy, even sinister. Again, your readers will have to buy my book for the whole story, but there is no question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go. Whether that was really in the boy’s best interests – well, we’ll see. It’s certainly an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence.’” – The thing about Skeeter’s book is, no matter how nasty it is, in clearly written with the intention to destroy Dumbledore’s reputation, there is some truth in it. Skeeter did not make up his relationship with Grindelwald for example, though she obviously portrays everything very biased. The same goes for Harry’s relationship with Dumbledore, but the thing is, it was unhealthy. Dumbledore did manipulate Harry. And Harry is someone who has blind faith in the people he cares about. He put Sirius pedestal and he does the same now with Dumbledore. It doesn’t help either that he feels responsible for both deaths, that he thinks they both died protecting him. However, also through Skeeter’s book, Harry is forced to look different at Dumbledore, more objective, to start to question him. Dumbledore is neither a villain nor a saint, but just as Snape, just as Harry, a rather complex character.

“‘Well, I don’t want to say too much – it’s all in the book – but eye witnesses inside Hogwarts Castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after Dumbledore fell, jumped or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. Is everything as it seems? That is for the wizarding community to decide – once they’ve read my book.’” – So the public is not informed about the exact circumstances of Dumbledore’s death. I wonder why, as he was a very public figure and a crime was committed, plus the fact that there is an eye-witness. Why is Harry’s testimony not enough to justify an investigation against Snape? Is it because the Ministry is infiltrated by the Death Eaters? Of course once the entire Ministry is under Voldemort’s control they will tell their version of the truth: that Harry was somewhat involved in Dumbledore’s death and later accused Snape.

“He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had been thinking of his dead Headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore would never pierce him again.” – This is such a red herring. At this point I really thought that Dumbledore would somehow come back. Of course we will see him again (in Harry’s mind), but this line suggests that perhaps there is more to his death, that it was all part of his plan and he survived somehow. Even Harry starts to question Dumbledore’s death later. And then he will see those bright blue eyes, but they belong to Aberforth. Just as Snape will see Lily’s eyes again, but they belong to Harry. Familiar, but not the same.

[incorrecteragonquotes]

Eragon Movie Recap Part 5: Big Trouble in Little Daret

There’s magic in this one.

We pick up where Part 4 left off. Eragon, Saphira, and Brom have left home, and there’s no turning back now. They may have evaded their pursuers this time, but if all that bickering is any indication, they still have a long and trying path ahead of them.

We begin by returning to Durza’s fort. We get a nice, long look at this sizable yet dingy workshop where Urgals can be found. This is the first time we’ve seen them since the ambush on Arya’s patrol! I wonder how they’re doing.

They look to be doing well enough until Durza himself materializes out of thin air. The guy must run a tight ship, as the whole place goes quiet in an instant. There is one Urgal who missed the memo, though, and he continues with his important mission of sharpening his large, bladed weapon of a type that I cannot identify. His nearby friend gets him to stop after a moment. It’s quite awkward.

Durza walks over to our focused friend, compliments his blade, stabs him in the foot with it, complains about Eragon’s escape, and gives the guy some orders. Durza then dissipates. Say what you like about him, but he sure does know how to keep a schedule.

Meanwhile, in the forest, Brom’s scheming session is in full swing. He claims the best way to evade Durza’s minions and reach the foothills near the Varden’s hideout is to trek over to the reasonably nearby village of Daret. But Eragon’s skepticism may have reached Brom; even he doesn’t seem to have too much faith in his own plan.

Brom gives Saphira some instructions on how to stay safe and hidden. Fly high, only rejoin the group at night, you never know when the Ra’zac may be watching. You know, the usual. Or rather, Brom gives Eragon the instructions, but the instructions are for Saphira. Eragon pulls a classic Yeah Just Do What He Said manoeuver when Brom finishes talking.

Now aware of how to avoid detection, Saphira shares a little bit of sass before promptly departing. She is immediately spotted by the Ra’zac, who are watching from a cliff some distance away.

After about 10 seconds of riding montage, Brom and Eragon hear screams from around a corner. It turns out that some Urgals are attacking a nearby group of random civilians. Brom’s a bit too eager to flee the scene, but Eragon’s a bit too eager to join the fight, which Brom knows isn’t a great idea.

Eragon gets a little cocky when insisting that he’s a trained fighter thanks to his bouts with Roran back on the farm. Brom is visibly excited, while somehow managing to remain simultaneously skeptical, but he still chooses to leave the scene before assessing Eragon’s skills by sparring with him.

Sure enough, they spar by a stream an unspecified distance away after an unspecified amount of time. The bout is implied to be a sort of litmus test for whether or not to participate in the fight with the Urgals, but there’s no way they could get to the sparring ground, finish the bout, and get back to the scene before it’s too late. The terrain is different enough that it can’t reasonably be all that near the Urgals and their victims, who are not seen again. This suggests that these people’s sole purpose in this story was to act as a catalyst for this sparring session. Maybe also to add to the background threat of Durza and friends? I guess we shouldn’t ignore the part where the raid reminds Brom to stay off the main roads. What a noble sacrifice. Maybe the filmmakers were trying to darken the story’s tone here, but it just feels like we lost some perfectly good civilians to a potentially interesting raid that our characters literally walked away from with smiles on their faces.

Regardless, the sparring match is inoffensive enough. They fight with a pair of sizeable wooden sticks. Eragon promises to go easy on Brom because he doesn’t want to hurt an old man, Brom’s clearly in teacher mode, Eragon gets overconfident, Brom gets the upper hand quickly and easily, Brom causes Eragon to lose the bout and get his boot wet in the stream. Brom reminds Eragon that, unlike Eragon’s previous opponents, the enemies they’ll be facing will actually be trying to kill them.

Saphira rejoins the group as they set up camp later in the day. Eragon insists that he Totally Could Have Won That Fight But Didn’t Want To Hurt An Old Man, I Swear. Saphira amusedly voices her doubts.

Brom, meanwhile, is trying to light a fire by hitting a pair of rocks together. When asked, he informs Eragon that Saphira is too young to breathe fire. Eventually getting tired of his repeated failures, Brom stealthily conjures a fire with the power of language. Eragon immediately notices that something is amiss, and questions Brom on the thing he just did. Brom firmly denies the occurrence of any shenanigans.

Uncharacteristically, Eragon doesn’t press the issue. He’s disappointed that Brom doesn’t trust him enough to explain, but Saphira suggests that maybe the whole trust thing is a two-way street, and they should start doing their part as well.

The next day, they set out towards the village of Daret. It’s a long and uneventful journey, and they arrive around dusk. The village is shrouded in mist, and it seems to be built as a series of bridges and platforms on top of some sort of marshy lake. Eragon’s falling asleep on his horse, and even though it mostly seems to be an excuse to show Eragon having another dream about Arya, I think it’s a really neat detail for the filmmakers to have included. Not every movie shows that part of the journey.

Brom shakes Eragon awake so they can enter the village on foot, leaving the horses at the entrance. Brom strikes out on his own to go wrangle some information out of the locals, and Eragon wanders off alone. He is tasked with buying bread and talking to nobody. After a few seconds, Eragon notices a mysteriously cloaked figure a few platforms away. They look at each other for a moment, but the establishment of eye contact prompts Eragon escapes the situation by entering the nearest door and hoping for the best.

On the other side of the door, Eragon finds himself in a dimly lit hut featuring many modest but homely decorations. Eragon immediately moves to touch the dragon-shaped handle of some sort of basin. The resident of the hut takes this opportunity to jumpscare Eragon by suddenly walking out from some back corner of the tiny room. Her clothes are loud and jangly, and she speaks in the third person. Introducing herself as Angela, she offers to read Eragon’s fortune.

Saddened, Eragon laments that he has no money. Angela scolds him, as she is apparently doing this for fun. And for free! She shakes her bag of dragon knucklebones out onto a table, her eyes go all milky, and she begins spouting vague and elaborate descriptions that generally boil down to either “you are important and so is your destiny!” or “you are powerful and so are your enemies!”. Eragon clings to her every word.

There are two meaningful pieces of information. Firstly, a tragic death is imminent! Eragon is unfazed. It happened back at home, after all, didn’t it? Secondly, there is a girl! She’s super important, and she’s calling to him. Eragon realizes that this must be the girl he’s seen in his dreams, and asks Angela to tell him her name. Angela closes her eyes, bows her head, breathes deeply, and the scene cuts to outside the hut, leaving it unclear how much information, if any, was disclosed.

I would like to take a moment to note that Book Angela lives with a werecat named Solumbum. His impact on the first book is minimal, but he eventually comes to play a crucial role in the story. There is no sign of a cat in this scene, nor in the rest of this movie. While the filmmakers could introduce him later, the level of teamwork between him and Angela, such as his interest in Eragon being the thing that prompts her to do the fortune reading, makes it important that he be introduced here. Regardless, the writers will need to work overtime later if they want his exclusion from this scene to work in their favour.

Upon exiting the hut, Eragon manages to walk about three steps before being attacked by an Urgal. A few seconds later, Brom appears and solves the problem for him.

Brom is not thrilled about Eragon’s fascination with his fortune. While Eragon keeps pestering him about how he’s been told his future, Brom gets a few good quips in as he drags Eragon to the outskirts of town. The residents are nowhere to be seen. Urgals are coming from every which way now, including beneath the floorboards, and our heroes find themselves quickly surrounded. Desperate, Eragon fires an arrow while shouting the word that he heard Brom use to start the fire. As a result, the arrow is fired in a spectacularly fiery manner.

The arrow causes quite the explosion, but it does little to affect the Urgals outside the blast radius. Drained, Eragon faints. He manages to stay awake just long enough to see that Saphira’s here to save the day.

That’s it for Part 5! This part covered about 10 minutes of screentime. Things actually happened this time! After Part 4, this change of pace is both wild and welcome. We’ve even got some new characters, some of whom we’ll even see again later! What an exciting time!

Remember to tune in next week when we visit such questions as “how does Angela wash such loud clothing?”, “has Brom ever experienced appreciation?”, and “will Eragon perfect his battle strategy of shooting a fire arrow and fainting?”. See you then!

[kimmysfandomblog]

Ky-o-ko, Na-gi-to, Hi-mi-ko !

Thank you for the ask Serahne!!! I also appreciate you censoring the names for me ^^

From here: Send me a character and I’ll list:

Kyoko

favorite thing about them: She’s a very deep character, in that throughout the story, whether you go for the FTEs or not, there’s a lot revealed about her personality and her backstory (and you have to look past what is said. Even though I am someone who started Danganronpa with Danganronpa the Animation, she still left an impact on me. She acts like an Ice Queen, but it’s more like a facade of sorts. She seems to know everything, but even she can make mistakes and false judgements. Maybe people complain about her being too cold to care for Naegi (Which I really gotta question their biases, lol), but she does care very much for him, and the rest of the class as well. I like that she was important to the story, and you could figure out what she’s like and why she is like this based on things from the main story, rather than relying solely on FTEs (that said her FTEs are really not to be missed if playing the game).

least favorite thing about them: I think I may have said this before, but for whatever reason I never trusted Kirigiri, not until Naegi almost dies for her and she’s genuinely shocked. Honestly, it’s not even Kirigiri’s fault I had such a bias against her? For some reason, it was set in my mind she was or had been connected to the mastermind, or that she was hiding something. She was definitely hiding something, and for good reason, but I guess in the end, what I wanted was for her to have trusted more in Naegi? Hmmm, that doesn’t sound right. I also did not appreciate pinning the blame on Naegi in CH5, but upon reflection, she’d never considered the danger she was putting him in as they kept getting closer to the truth that the Mastermind was trying to get rid of her. She was genuinely, honestly appalled at what mistake she’d made, I still remember the face she made and her promise to Naegi when he was about to get executed. She has done her best to make up for it throughout the rest of the series. Honestly, she’s fine the way she is, considering it was a part of her development as a character, and a set-up for CH5′s Trial and “execution.”

favorite line: "At first glance, he probably looks that way. But when he needs to, he can be stronger than anyone. He’s always optimistic. He always thinks of his friends and never gives up. Even if it means ignoring his own needs. That’s what makes me worry about him, but… …that’s why I believe in him. Yes… Back then, it was only because he was there that I could…“ So there’s a lot of more profound lines, I guess, and this isn’t even about Kyoko, it’s about Naegi, but this is her true and honest feelings for Naegi, and I really liked it! A jewel of DR3 that gets buried in a lot of nonsense, but a jewel nonetheless!

brOTP: Naegi, Asahina, and Togami! For Naegi, it’s actually the strongest one I had after finishing the Animation, given that I didn’t do much romantic shipping at that time (or even after watching through a playthrough since I’d been more focused on the story than shipping, lol). By the end of the game, her trust and faith in Naegi was really strong, and their bond was truly apparent in the game. For Asahina and Togami, a part of it is that they were among the survivors (I don’t know, I can’t picture Hiro being close to the survivors outside of standing up for them and caring for them, he’s in his own world. And Toko is with Komaru in Towa City, and apparently was never even more than an intern in Future Foundation because of Syo) Another part of it is because of the potential in their interactions! I was really looking forward to DR3 having interactions between Hina and Kyoko (And it did! Not as much as I was expecting, but it was there!) Their friendship is something I found really sweet, and by this point, they had a lot of trust in each other (Makoto included). It broke my heart seeing Hina cry mournfully for Kirigiri. For TOgami, they really do seem the type to debate over things, especially with Naegi. Naegi takes a lot of risks for a supposedly “average” guy, since he’s ever so optimistic despite the dark times. I can picture these two kinda sighing after Naegi, steering him as close to safety as possible, while also arguing for, or against, his actions. DR2 kinda solidified this for me!

OTP: I suppose the obvious answer is Naeg/iri, lol. I only really grew to understand and appreciate it after DR3, weird as it sounds. It comes full circle with what happened when Naegi’s execution fails and Kyoko throws herself into the garbage dump to rescue him. There’s a lot of trust and understanding between them at this point. And I never mentioned this before, but I also have a fondness for KyokoxHina for the above reasons stated in the brOTP section. And I’m also a little into KyokoxHajime… if you want a reason besides them sharing the ??? “talent,” then it may be them having a kinship over trying to deal with the other character’s shenanigans, and that I feel Hinata did a lot more investigating and felt more in control than Naegi did during trials. Most of the time XD

nOTP: I feel like every single time I come across this section, my immediate response is “Junko” XD I mean there’s some ships that I still don’t really get the appeal of, but I definitely don’t hate them. So I guess I don’t have one?

random headcanon: I always headcanon that she had eventually made up with her father during the schoolyear she’d attended HPA, before The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. Playing through V3′s UTDP Bonus mode implied she never did, which is sad, but it’s also just another AU not indicative of their real relationship. Kyoko loved her father, but simply felt betrayed for good reason, and her father obviously loved Kyoko (but then, why leave her?) I can’t remember for sure if it is ever mentioned why he leaves her, simply that he left the detective work to become headmaster of Hope’s Peak Academy and left Kyoko with her grandfather. I want to imagine they do get along since in DR0, I do believe she goes investigating the First Killing Game from her father’s inquiry.

unpopular opinion: I like Naez//ono a lot, but that doesn’t mean I want to see nothing but Naeg//iri hate in that tag/search :( Like, all these arguments that “she’s cold, she was never friends with Makoto before DR1 so they can’t be a ship if they wouldn’t have been a ship without the plot of DR1, she never had friends before DR1″ are all really annoying to see. I get it, you like Naez//ono or Naek//usaba… but what is the use in complaining about canon? The only ship actually canon in DR is Izayoi and Ruruka, and that ended pretty tragically. Oh yeah, and the couple in DR3Z that got stabbed through. It’s not exactly a good thing to be canon in a Killing Game atmosphere lol. Kyoko had a lot of character development in the Killing Game that makes a lot of what they say null. She’s actually a caring person, believe it or not, and wants what is best for her friends. (This is really more of a problem with Naek///usaba fans I’ve seen, though the Nae//zono fans tend to jump in and help the kiri bashin :( ). This said, I don’t diss on the Naez///ono or Naeku///saba ships/fans. I just really wish they’d stop the pointless jealousy over Naeg///iri. Naegi//ri fans should also stop antagonizing these “competing” ships because it simply proves their points.

song i associate with them: I hope it’s not a generic choice, but Believer by Imagine Dragons. I mean, thinking about it, this suits DR in general, but this one is about personal growth by acknowledging and embracing pain. THat said, I’m probably terrible at these parts of the meme XD

favorite picture of them:

Ummm, this is probably more accurate as “favorite scene of them,” actually, lol. But yeah, I liked this part a lot! I took it from DR3 because The Animation’s interpretation of this scene wasn’t exactly done well enough for my liking.

Well boy, since I wrote a lot for Kiri, I’m putting Ko and Himiko under the cut XD

Nagito

favorite thing about them: Another very complex character! I know for most people, Ko steals the show from Hinata (I disagree with that, Hinata holds his own very well!), and yeah, Ko is probably what defines DR2, for most people at least. I like that he’s expected to be like Makoto from the start, being the Ultimate Lucky Student, claiming to be average, and he even looks up the students in the class from message boards, just like Makoto. He has a bunch of little funny moments when helping Hajime introduce himself to the rest of the class (Favorite part has to be “Bullying a girl? Not cool Hajime” XD). My first playthrough of the game, I didn’t pay very close attention to him, honestly. DR1′s strongest point had been the story, and not so much the cast (my opinion) so I expected much the same in DR2. I watched Cinnamon Toast Ken’s playthrough, so the only ones who stuck out to me at first were Hajime and Fuyuhiko. However, the second time, when I played through it myself, I actually paid attention, even went through his FTEs. Honestly, even without the FTEs, he was far more fascinating! The FTEs, however, did enhance my understanding. They were written in a way that you can believe them to be canon (this is super unlike FTEs like Ouma’s, for example, where it’s not convincing as part of the narrative). Komaeda’s mindset, his actions, and everything about him, you don’t necessarily forgive him, but you can at least understand him, to the best that you can. And that’s how Hinata feels as well. He’s a fascinating character to study, and it’s no wonder he’s really popular.

least favorite thing about them: The man has seen and experienced harsh reality, and that’s the reason for his warped perception. Still, I can’t help feeling more sorry for Hinata when he’s taking the verbal lashing that Ko gives him in Chapter 4. That really hurts, and it’s reason is not justifiable, although I understand why he did it. I’m sure that with what Ko read, the only thing he sees around him are monsters, with the worst offence being the one he thought shined the brightest. But it still kind of hurts, lol. I also dislike the self-depreciation. I kinda hope he eventually learns to love himself, given time and positive relationships. I also dislike how hated he is by everyone in DR3… like what is the reason? He didn’t do anything nearly so dangerous on purpose until he blows up the gym. If he did, we didn’t see nor hear about it…

favorite line: "It’s going to be fine… I’m pretty sure everything will work out in the end… After all…there’s no way hope can lose… Absolute hope that can break through any despair can never lose in a place like this! And not only that…I believe in you all. I believe in the time we spent together. And more than anything…I believe in my Ultimate Luck! So it’s going to be fine… As long as you believe in hope with all your hearts, the path should open…” The line gives me a lot to think about, how to interpret it. Given the context that he’s planning his own murder by the traitr, I wonder what he presumes? It gives way to theories, like whether he meant for the traitor to die or not. That said, SDR2.5 doesn’t seem to say that about him. If we go by his reaction at the end, he’s less than pleased for having been woken up by Hajime (although at the same time rather happy his classmates are alive if the smile is anything to go by haha).

brOTP: Hinata and Nanami of course. It’s pretty obvious with Hinata (and I’ll expand in the OTP section), but I do admit, a lot of the reason I like Nanami and Ko as friends/a pairing has to do with ignoring canon Nanami’s true feelings about Ko. I just think if Nanami was written in an honestly-a-kind-person way, with her goal set as watching over and trying to prevent the deaths of the former members of Ultimate Despair, then she’d be doing the same as Hinata in trying to understand Ko and keeping an eye on him (as opposed to ditching him when he actually tries to get a bit close to her in Ch4.) I always pictured Nanami giving the same amount of care to all of her classmates as she does to Hinata, and that’s where I started picturing the main trio of DR2 as best of friends! I get questions of why I like it and it doesn’t make much sense, but I just like happy platonic relationships! Not only that, but the idea of Nagito and Chiaki, the people with very strong ideals, challenging each other, is fascinating, too. Nanami is far more optimistic of equality and is ever the believer in the underdog, Ko sees the world in black-and-white, where you either are powerful and born powerful, or you’re just a mite to be stepped on by the powerful. That leaves a lot of debate, and you’d think Nanami is completely right, but Ko would have some hard-to-argue points. Hinata is somewhere in between and out there, where he’d want to believe in Nanami blindly, but can’t help but see some things in Ko’s point of view. That said, he’d have his own perspectives as well. I like the idea of them helping Ko sort out his true feelings, which he buries underneath a mount of self-deprecating thoughts, and Ko supporting Nanami and Hinata by pointing out their good and bad points (which he is good at doing when he wants to, I think). If you want runnerup BrOTPs, then Fuyu and Kaz! DR2.5 had a lot of great moments, and those AI versions of Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko really respected Komaeda was different, but not bad.

OTP: Koma/Hina(Nami)! I’ve talked about Nanami, so Hinata’s time to shine! I think Koma/Hina has the most complex and interesting relationship! I don’t see it happening during DR2 canonwise simply because there’s a lot going on and lots of mixed feelings. The start of those mixed feelings is just that Hinata and Komaeda start off in a good relationship. Komaeda is so helpful and Hinata seems him as a positive and supportive guy that he may even call his friend. Of course, that takes a turn when it’s revealed Ko had a part in the murder of the Ultimate Imposter. It’s now that Hajime feels betrayal: how could this nice and supportive guy turn out to be crazy? Maybe psychotic? Haji also has to deal with this underlying thought that if Ko was able to go through with his plan, the one he’d kill, the one who was the closest to him when he had the knife, was Hajime. There’s a lot of mixed feelings, and Haji wants to run away from that. He avoids Ko a lot, but being the kind of guy Hajime is, he still seeks to understand exactly what is going on in Komaeda’s head. He doesn’t want to be associated with Komaeda in fear of getting involved in Komaeda’s schemes, or even getting betrayed again, but he still wants to know where things go wrong, and why did it go wrong. I do think that Ko’s FTEs work well with canon, and that’s not my shippy mind saying that. Hajime has proven to want to seek the truth: he even tries to do something as dangerous as entering the Funhouse. I think that it is actually possible that he seeks out Komaeda in his free time in Chapters 3 and 4. He’s even about to forgive, or at least accept Ko at the very end of the FTE, until Ko backtracks. Ko sees Hajime, who is the leader of the class trial, who has somehow been able to get everyone by his side when it counts the most, and most importantly, does his best to be understanding of everyone, even Komaeda, and he can’t help but admire Hinata. I don’t think he even realizes his crush, at the very least not until much later. Hinata still remembers that Komaeda was so kind to him, and I’m sure it’s in the back of his head every time he sees or talks to Ko. I think people against the pairing tend to forget how appreciative Hinata was for those first moments. And honestly, it is as Ko says: These two are a lot more similar than one would think. Hajime is able to piece together what Ko’s plan was after his death because he was able to understand him, at least a little bit. There’s a lot unsaid between the two, and a lot yet unresolved (if you don’t count DR3 as a true resolution of course, hahaha). I think that, given time, after Ko wakes up, he and Hinata still have potential. They have things to learn about each other, and a world to shape and explore. I want them to be able to one day be comfortable and understand each other, because honestly they were pretty close to that even in such an environment and with such pressures. I wonder a lot about what would happen if Island Mode was canon (I mean, I can’t say I would have preferred it, but it’s a thought.) I can’t see Hinata letting Ko be by himself, ever, and I truly headcanon Hinata as willing to try harder with Komaeda. I can imagine them being able to help each other post-canon, since Hinata might not always be right when it comes to thinking in ideal situations, or maybe a part of him is still skeptical and wants to run for an easier solution. I see Ko as pointing out when the solution Hinata brings up is too ideal and will not work, or to bring up when a situation calls for a more direct approach rather than beating around the bushes. I see Hinata helping Ko accept himself and accept a happier ending, or striving towards a brighter future. It’s truly a ship that I’ve never really felt with any other pairing, with just how much longing I feel for it!

…Well, I’ve said quite enough, I think, lol. XD

nOTP: I’ve said it before, but I just…. don’t like Jun///maeda. I don’t get the appeal or attraction in it. It’s rather sickening to me, lol/ I’m also not fond of romantic Kom//amiki. It’s got a little to do with this one guy, but also a lot to do with what Mikan says to him at CH3, he looks really stricken. Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to put to people with a lot of issues together. Even without that awkwardness of what is to come after CH3′s interaction, I can only see Ko and Mikan enabling each other’s bad habits of self-deprecation. I can only see them as friends, where Mikan tries to help Komaeda for physical injuries and sickness. I don’t think Mikan is qualified for help in mental disorders.

random headcanon: Komaeda’s riches are almost all gone, with the only thing left after Despair is a house he never loved being almost perfectly intact (He didn’t keep any valuables after his parents death, so when people ransacked his house, there wasn’t much to steal. Fixing broken windows and doors is easy compared to the burnt houses that surround it.) His house was made into a safe-haven for the ex-Remnants of Despairs on the occasion that they had to hide. No one thinks to come to his neighborhood since there are no resources left. He has started a garden there, with food that easy enough to maintain even when he isn’t present. He’s also started to pick up books whenever he is not in the house and has set up a few shelves- barely a library.

unpopular opinion: I don’t headcanon him as homosexual. I headcanon him as someone who believed themselves incapable of love or being loved. He truly despises himself so much, he never considered once that he’d ever be in a relationship. Men and women didn’t interest him, the only thing that did was their talent and capabilities. Until Hajime, of course. Haji gave him so much to think about and feel, that he couldn’t understand why, even after learning the truth, he still harboured positive feelings for him. I can’t really think of any other time he’d been attracted to anyone other than Haji or Izuru, except if you count that scene with Makoto? (Even then, it seemed a lot more like admiration of a celebrity)

song i associate with them: SO I just put my playlist on shuffle and came across The Only Exception by Paramore, and while the first stanza doesn’t apply to Ko, I can’t help but think of this as his feelings to Haji, lol. It’s a nice song, the most different from any other Paramore song to date, I think! Maybe a bit mainstream/generic, but I like it!

favorite picture of them:

(GIF by @kruisu)

He’s so happy here to see his class again, alive and well :,) I got my problems with 2.5, but Nagito being happy is not one of them!!!

Himiko

It’s probably obvious, but if you made it this far and want to avoid V3 spoilers, now’s the time to steer clear!

favorite thing about them: You ever have a talent that you really really wanted to see in a Danganronpa game, but were pretty sure wouldn’t make the cut? Himiko was that for me. Kinda. I wanted a SHSL Mage/Witch, and Himiko introduces herself as that! How very lucky of me XD Plus, it’s no secret I like Nanami, and the one voicing Himiko in the English dub was also Nanami’s! It was more of a plus than it was a reason for me to like Himiko initially, but that’s about it. I liked that she was saying she was a mage, and I guess I have a thing for the sleepy/lazy personality. However, it wasn’t really just that. I was hoping Himiko could be a person that was kind and caring. It’s not something she showcases a lot, but I believe it when Shuichi hypothesizes that what matters most to her is seeing people smile. She isn’t doing the magic shows and protecting her belief in magic just for her: she associates magic with the happiness it brings to others! I think that this view is skewed mostly because her regular audience are children that still believe in magic, rather than people around her age or older, so i’s a bit of… culture shock? to her.

least favorite thing about them: Honestly, just the story in general with her. I’m kinda wishing they just did something else with her character. She’s just made useless most of the time, or is seen as a hindrance or annoyance to the truth. Granted, most of the characters are like that, but people like to focus on her in particular, especially for what happens in Chapter 2, with her insisting her magic trick was actually real magic rather than a trick. I’m also not terribly fond that character development became equivalent to being the one who feels guilty for a character dying for her, or that she had been the easiest to manipulate into joining the Cult/Student Council. She even says in CH1 that she wouldn’t believe in Angie’s god. Except she does, even agreeing to do something dangerous (I mean, we didn’t know the pirannas only ate caracasses at the time, but neither did Angie). And then of course, the thing with Tenko. I really wish Tenko could have been able to recognize that Himiko wasn’t interested, and then that Himiko was made guilty in not having like Tenko the same way :/ We didn’t put up with this when it was Souda around SOnia, so why are we allowing it Tenko around Himiko? Oh, we know the reason why. But it’s controversial. As for her personality change: I didn’t mind it! But I can’t help but miss the old Himiko and wish she could have been more helpful in trials. The writers definitely could have written her that way, but they didn’t. I guess, what I’m saying is that I rather liked the Himiko in the UTDP world than I did in canon.

favorite line: "Nyeeeh… Motivation is rushing through my entire body. Hiii hee hee hee! This is the power of hope!“ This is not at all inspiring but I love the way she says it lol.

brOTP: So it’s probably a weird thing but… oum//eno. Kokichi was the one who instigated her to cry for Tenko and Angie at the end of Ch3, and I wish there was more acknowledgement of that. I also have a headcanon that one member of DICE was actually like Himiko, where to protect themselves from harm, they built up a world of lies, only to come across painful situations they didn’t know how to deal with. I kinda wish more happened between them, even if it’s not romantic.

OTP: I honestly don’t really have one… the closest to it would be oum///eno, but I also just can’t picture it in canon at all. I have alternate universes where it could happen, but not in canon. Not in my mind.

nOTP: I have been pretty open about it, and I know you’re rather fond of it, Serahne, but yeah. I really hate Yuma//ga, romantic or platonic. Can’t stand it, at all. I’ve blacklisted it and stuff, and I don’t really feel like ranting on about it and wasting energy. Another one, I can’t say I hate it anywhere near the same degree, but because of the fanbase, I can’t help but dislike Ten///himi. I don’t see why it’s Himiko’s entire fault she doesn’t feel the same way Tenko does about her. Tenko was actually being creepy sometimes, though she wasn’t aware of it a lot. I think that Himiko could have tried to just tell her flat out instead of beating around it and festering in annoyance, but I also wish Tenko could have give Himiko space to think about how she feels about Tenko. I also hate the fact that people don’t realize why Himiko is crying over Tenko… I’ll get to that in unpopular opinion.

random headcanon: the reason why Himiko is so into magic is that it’s always been something that gave her happiness. She had been bullied as a kid for being weird, and so she took to fantasy worlds. She’s played and enjoyed fantasy RPGs and has read fantasy books about witches, mages, wizards, and warlocks. It wasn’t until she met her master, an “Archmage,” where she found a person who understood her. Since then, she’d seen other people laugh and smile at her magic, and has vowed to continue to make people smile through her magic.

unpopular opinion: Just the fact she’s one of my favorite charactes in the series is unpopular, lol… I get it. I came into V3 already loving her without knowing much at all about her, so I saw things with a hyperfocused lens on her. I acknowledge her mistakes, her character flaws, and just the fact that she’s not a perfect character. However I also feel that people are too harsh on her and her reasonings. People love Tenko, who’s also childish and in her own world. Tenko is not even that helpful during trials, and hinders them as much as pretty much any other character. Yet, people single out Himiko as the character who is useless. Tenko had the benefit of dying on a high note, which was that she inadvertently sacrificed herself for Himiko. She also started showing less hatred towards men, and that’s character development I will acknowledge. Himiko also grows up, though. The reason why Himiko cries for Tenko isn’t because she suddenly realized her love for her, or that Tenko was a friend. She cries because she almost died. She cries because she would have died, if not for Tenko changing places with her. She now owes her life to Tenko, and has no way of paying her back. She is feeling guilty, and the way the others talk about it, how they couldn’t believe Himiko never gave Tenko the time of day because Tenko was so nice to her is just absurd to me. I don’t think they were even watching what was happening! Only Kaede in her FTEs with Tenko acknowledges this. Himiko wanted to try to be friends with Tenko right before Tenko dies, and now that Tenko’s gone, she feels guilt for not having tried sooner. I just don’t think it’s Himiko’s fault entirely and I really wish people could try to understand that her crying over Tenko is not fake or rushed. She feels so bad for Tenko having taken her place, she felt like she should die. Then, her new resolution is to live for Tenko and Angie. The only way she can think of paying back Tenko’s memory is by acknowledging Tenko as a friend. When it comes to the relationship between Tenko and Himiko, I just really much prefer what I saw in UTDP. In that alternate universe, they had time to develop a friendship and sort out their feelings. What happened in V3 just makes me groan, and how people are taking it makes me groan louder.

song i associate with them: Sorry I just love Paramore, so here’s another song by them XD Brick by Boring Brick It’s about having your dream and fantasies rushed by reality. The singer said in an interview that it was “a story about a girl who escaped reality through pictures and fairy tales and anything that wasn’t the real story. This way, she’d look perfect to everyone else and we’d all think that she’s got it together. But being that it was all for show, it couldn’t last” (I copied from Genius.com) I think that unlike every other suggestion, this is the most like Himiko!

favorite picture of them

Just so… adorable ;v; I forget to mention that I would totally see Gonta and Himiko as a brOTP! And Gundham from UTDP mode opened my eyes that they’d make a great team!

[tuxiedjabberwock]

Those Ignorant to History (Are Doomed to Repeat It) - a Fairy Tail fan-fiction

Title: Dragon Taming (on tumblr) Category: Anime/Manga » Fairy Tail Author: Sqydd Language: English, Rating: Rated: T Genre: Romance/Humor Published: 08-23-16, Updated: 04-16-17 Chapters: 4, Words: 48,920

Summary - The embodiment of darkness and herald of the stars have been fighting for centuries and have died each time only to reincarnate. Then, to their surprise, their newest - and final - reincarnation is that of two humans, Natsu and Lucy.

Also available on:

https://www.wattpad.com/399552865-dragon-taming-those-ignorant-to-history-are-doomed

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7854286/chapters/23552460

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12116681/4/Dragon-Taming

https://www.quotev.com/story/9424139/Dragon-Taming/4

Those Ignorant to History (Are Doomed to Repeat It)

X102

 It was always in the same spot that we fought. We’d been clashing there for so long that I didn’t know if it was the first place we ever crossed weapons, or if it was a significant piece of land…none of that. What I did know with all certainty was that I expected her, and contrariwise, she expected me.

 The sun was high and bright that day as we faced each other across the barren landscape. The pale dirt bunched beneath my toes, which I could see rather than feel, as most of my skin was covered in a veil of darkness so thick everything seemed abstract to me. The darkness had been there as long as I have, like a second skin—no pun intended—that appeared whenever her light was nearby, like a sensor. It curled my nails into claws that could tear skin and muscle in one move and covered my face like a mask. It emanated from me like a mark of death, turning plants grey and making people sick when I walked past. But after all, it just brought out the monster that was already inside me.

 “Are you just going to stand there and look pretty, E.N.D.?” she said, her voice easily carrying across the ground, across the heavens. If I was like a messenger from Hell, she was my exact opposite, an angel from the heavens. Her long hair flowed down her back but it was always bound with these ornate cups and pins and bangles. She wore a breastplate carved with several murals that I could never understand, and in a pouch at her side were her Keys, not that she needed them—she was a powerhouse on her own.

 “No way,” I answered with a grin, raising my claws. “Half the fun is staring. You’re pretty sexy after all.”

 “Flattery will get you nowhere.” She curled her fingers around a pretend handle and swung forward. Light bended through her hand and grew longer and longer until she held a whip made of shining golden energy. She pulled her arm back, the whip arcing like a fish in the sunlight, before swinging.

 I waited until the last second before sidestepping, but I’d made a miscalculation: the whip extended as she swung it, and I could feel the air split where she swung, I dodged so narrowly. It struck the ground and brought up huge waves of dirt on either side from the force of the impact. In the same move she was already bringing it up again, swinging towards the side. I tensed before jumping into the air, getting high above the battlefield. She looked up, dark eyes narrowed in focus, and raised her arm. I pushed forward to avoid the swipe, but I didn’t expect her to change mid-strike and the whip shifted around to coil around my ankle. Before she could pull me down, though, I swiped at her with my claws.

 Ching! My magic bounced off of her breastplate as she was sent skidding backwards, arms up instinctively to brace herself from the impact. Still, my claws left large scores in the heavy celestial bronze. She recovered quickly and yanked back, causing the whip to tighten and drag me down to the dirt and across the field before she snapped it, sending me flying into the air. I grabbed the whip before she could retract it and pushed my own magic through, causing it to turn black and burst into stardust. She released it before my magic could touch and burn her, and she braced herself before kicking off into the sky with a huge cloud of dust. In her cupped hands formed a lustrous broadsword that she swung with all her might.

 “Die, you wretched creature of the night!” she screamed as the blade connected with my side. I felt its bite as her magic iced mine down, leaving a trail of black smoke instead of blood. Before she could slice me through, I made sure to grasp her slim neck with my claws.

 “You’re on your way with me,” I rasped, and as she pulled, I tightened my grip. All went dark.

 X322

 “Do you feel the bite of Celestial Magic?” I hissed as I nocked another wispy golden arrow on my hand-crafted bow, modeled with the same design as the rest of my armor. I circled the demon via my mount, an albino mare christened Albury, hooves kicking up huge clouds of dust as I worked on whittling the great dragon E.N.D. down.

 “I’ve felt worse bites from lice,” he retorted, digging onyx claws as thick as tree trunks into the earth as he leaned forward. The sunlight glinted dangerously off of his scarlet scales, then his large and jagged teeth as he leered at me. I smelled smoke seconds before he made his next move, and with a firm tug on Albury’s reins, she skidded to a stop and raced in the opposite direction.

 “Fire Dragon’s Roar!” A great typhoon of orange and golden flames blasted from his mouth, searing across the grasslands and through the sequoia trees that had been growing the last few decades, reducing anything and everything to ethernano in mere seconds. I dropped the visor of my helmet to keep my vision clear, but sweat formed beneath the bronze from the heat generated. Albury cried out at the temperature and I caressed her mane, urging her to run faster as E.N.D.’s flames fanned out.

 “What’s the matter, brave knight? Can you not stand the heat?” he jeered, and through the sparks and smoke, I heard his massive hands and feet pounding as he began to move. Then, with the ominous noise of rustling fabric, a gale force one wind blew through the forest, taking Albury off her hooves and sending both of us rolling across the ashy ground. The advantage was that the flames were cleared; the con, E.N.D.’s wings were spread for flight.

 “Go fly away like the insect you are!” I shouted, flipping over so that my heels dug into the earth and increased my traction. He flapped his wings again, stirring up small black tornadoes of ash, and after a moment his feet left the ground. Before he could get too high, I summoned a saber in place of an arrow, and I used magic to thicken the bowstring before nocking and firing. The saber pierced through his left wing. “But you’ll have a grand time trying to with one wing!” Celestial Magic erupted from the hole created, zapping about his wing like lightning. He bellowed long and loud, a beast’s cry of agony, before he pitched to the right, his single wing unable to keep him aloft. I righted Albury and jumped to her saddle, and she took off as E.N.D.’s shadow grew against the ground.

 “You’re baiting a dragon’s fury, are you, littlest star?” he growled as he remedied himself, forcing his wings straight and gliding low across the ground. His hand crept up on me fast, and I felt him seize me by the hair before I stabbed an arrow into his palm. Crimson blood as hot as lava leaked from the wound, searing the ground as his pained roar filled the air. He recoiled instinctively, and his blood arced into the air before splattering across me and Albury.

 “Aahn!” Albury cried in pain as her skin and fur of her haunch was burned through with the terrible scent of rot, exposing sinew and bone beneath. I could feel my shoulder plate dissolve and I hurriedly unclipped it, letting it roll away behind us, but the damage was done: my primary arm was made useless. I shed my celestial plates and raised my hands, letting them burn with my magic. E.N.D.’s wings folded, sending him crashing down on a course to crush me, but as he grew near, I made sure to burn his heart out before I was finished.

 X680

 She was standing in a plaza of shining grey cobblestones and delicately carved pillars made into the image of the beings twirling between them. Aquarius the Water Bearer hung in a white stone fountain grumbling angrily to herself; Virgo the Maiden eyed her pillar and then herself, comparing images; Taurus the Golden Bull used a memorial placard built of steel to sharpen his battleax as nobody watched; Leo the Lion hovered alongside his goddess, his celestial bronze glinting like the shimmering gold of her gown. Her hair was loose and spiraled down her shoulder, and it glittered as she threw her head back and laughed. Like the stars around her, she shone with enough radiance to light up the night.

 Why couldn’t I be down there laughing alongside them? Oh, right, it was because I was a demon, because I was evil. Best not to disappoint them, then.

 I slid down the hill that led to their little gala, my bare feet moving easily across the dewy grass before it all withered and died in my presence. If there was anything that I despised, it was my alternative forms: one day, I would be inhumanly venomous, and the next, a hulking scaly beast. Always one or the other, while my beautiful goddess remained as pure and holy as freshly fallen snow—another extravagance I never experienced.

 Virgo was the first to see me coming, navy eyes widening as she turned to alert the others. “No need,” I said, reaching towards her. My touch would’ve spelt her death, star or no star, but before my claws could touch her, a spiked whip locked around my wrist. My magic faded away at the sight of her light, and my skin burned with a smell like sulfur.

 “You won’t be laying a claw on my friends,” she hissed with more venom than even I could muster, eyes narrowed to hateful chips. More than anything, I loved seeing her mad: it meant that, like me, she was still human and thus flawed. She was no goddess, no star like her friends—she was simply one who had been blessed with their Keys and strength, and like any other blessing, it all could be snatched away within a moment.

 “I want a dance,” I told her. “Is that too much to ask for?”

 “From a creature such as you?” she said through her teeth. “Very much.”

 “Leave now,” Leo cautioned, a hand on his sheathed sword. I twisted my arm around to grab her whip, the scald just a dull pain in the back of my mind.

 “I said I want a dance. I wish you’d indulge me this once, littlest star.” And I yanked on the whip. Surprised, her grip held, causing her to jerk forward and her head to bump into my chest. While she was still stunned, I wrapped one arm around her waist, and the other, my claw-free hand, I linked with hers. Our skin blackened in contact with one another, and her face screwed in pain, but she quickly hid it beneath a scowl.

 “Release her.” Leo was growling now, sword drawn and with the starlight reflecting ominously from the silver blade. Virgo had her chains in hand and Taurus’ ax was cocked for a swing. But then again, the bottom line was the same: should they hurt me, they would kill her, either by piercing us both or by causing our blood to mix.

 “Let go,” she hissed, trying to pull away.

 “Littlest star,” I said, making sure to have her attention, “your light is the beacon of the night where my darkness would otherwise reign as the supremacy. But, you see, I am not made irate by the fact: in fact, I find pleasure in your endless radiance. It is, after all, what makes this immortal life all the more worth it to live. People…no, calling us anything of that sort would be a cruel, gross lie…beings such as us could not find entertainment otherwise. Like that, let us clash again and again, over and over for the rest of eternity, until I finally catch your light between my claws and tear away your wings and crush you into stardust.”

 Then I kissed her. And, to be honest, it was the most anticlimactic deaths we’ve had so far.

 X791

 My head ached, as did every other nerve in my body. While the stars were usually my friends, it felt as if the sun was compressing into my skull. I grabbed my temples with a moan and had to wait out the pain before I could even think of opening my eyes. At first, all felt icy cold, then I was aware of a radiant heat spreading out from my upper arm.

 “Lucy.”

 Who is that? Moreover, it has to have been a century at the very least. Who else would know my sobriquet aside from the stars?

 “Littlest star, wake up. Wake up and see,” that voice hissed. Littlest star… I was accustomed to that.

 “Mm…” Things appeared blurry yellow at first, but after a few moments I could make out the crescent moon amidst a cerulean sky. There were no stars and not but wisps of slate-grey clouds, which made my stomach turn with disquiet. My limbs felt heavy and stiff and my head continued to spin so violently I feared I would be nauseous.

 “Look at us, Lucida.”

 My eyes felt tender, as did my neck, but I shifted to finally gaze at my accoster. His face was closest to me, soft pink strands falling from his spikes and lightly brushing my brow. His eyes are large, sharp, and intense, emerald about their circumference yet dark and endless in their cores. He seemed familiar, as if by an old dream. At the sight of my eyes, a small smile quirked his lips as he sat back on his heels. “Welcome back to the world,” he said in a low, smooth voice.

 “Who are…” I caught sight of my arms, pale and freckled and entirely bare. I dragged them down my chest and found nothing there, not a shred of my celestial bronze that I’d worn as armor since…the beginning. Additionally, I couldn’t feel any ethernano in the air, and without ethernano, I couldn’t use my magic. My hair fell loosely around my shoulders and back, unbound and without my Zodiac clip I’d received from Loki so long ago. “My things—what have you done with my things?” I hissed. He gave me a shrug that was essentially The hell would I know?

 “I’m just as barren as you, littlest star. Have you ever known me to be without my magic, my scales?” Suddenly it occurred to me who he was, and the thought made my fingers curl.

 “E.N.D.” The word was spat like venom. He winced only for a moment, but it bewildered me all the same.

 “You didn’t answer my question.”

 “No, I didn’t theft your armor in your sleep—precisely what do you take me for?” he sighed, slapping his palm against his forehead and leaning back. He was sitting cross-legged to be level with me, and around us all that existed was pasture and sky, however in the far distance I could see faint lights. “What I can say is…it seems something went wrong with our reincarnation.”

 “You think?” I snapped. He disregarded that and tilted his head back towards the sky.

 “Look, I know darkness and light associates as well as oil and water, but right now, we’ve no choice but to cooperate.”

 “I’d rather lay out here and let the wolves get me.” True to my words, a howl sounds, and it was not nearly as distant as civilization.

 “Well, as much as I’d love to leave you out there,” he stated flatly, “I’m not going to let you die.”

 “Yes, because it’s your job to kill me, isn’t it?” He grimaced again. “Have you truly chosen now of all centuries to feign innocence, E.N.D.?”

 “That’s not it. I just don’t fight this random…perplexing…situation to be appropriate for our next fight. Especially since, well.” He gave a pointed look to my undressed state with no legible expression. “There just wouldn’t be any fun in it.”

 “You’re one to talk,” I pointed out. He glanced at himself, tanned planes bare for the world, and gave me a half-smile.

 “Fair point well made. Let’s go look for some clothes. We’re near to a village, I believe.” He stood and walked off. Any other man would’ve offered a hand, but through all of our encounters, one fact remained: we scorched each other. Even though we were entirely normal then, I still didn’t like the idea of testing our new limits. As I stood, I felt a lot heavier than usual, even though my armor wasn’t present.

 “I could really use a favor,” I called out to the heavens, but for the first time in my very long life, the stars were silent.

  A ranch came into view by first the cows, then the slanted wooden farmhouse. The demon is halted by the sight of the bovines, and a wide grin stretches across his face as he throws his arms around one. “I’ve always wanted to touch one of these, but my magic has always repelled them!” he cried, beside himself with ecstasy. “Aww, she’s so soft~” he purred, nuzzling her side and caressing her head.

 “What in the…” I’d seen E.N.D. in many forms: fury, conceit, valor, sociopathy… This, this id however, that was just weird. I’d begun to wonder if our new re-embodiments would disturb our psyches as much as our appearances and magic ampules.

 “Don’t you like cows, Lucida?” he queried abruptly, glancing at me with wide and innocent eyes.

 “I don’t know! It’s not something I’ve ever thought about!”

 “Well I have!” he huffed with all the petulant finality of a three-year-old. “There have always been too many things I couldn’t touch, lest I…” Lest he cause them to disintegrate or rot or burn away by the force of his being. “This, though, this is pleasant. Touching is nice. Did you know that grass is heavy with dew early in the morning?” he said delightedly. I wanted to say something, but there were more impertinent matters.

 “Let’s go find some clothes.”

 “Right, right.”

 The house was empty with the door unlocked as we entered. I was loathe to take clothes without the owner’s permission, but E.N.D. hadn’t the same scruples, and returned from a backroom with an armful of fabric. “We’ll return these later,” he said absently, trying to sweep past me.

 “No, we won’t. I don’t want to steal these people’s clothes.”

 “Gods, you’re so prissy even now,” he scorned, rolling his eyes. “Tell me, do you have money on you? Anything to trade but the fine gold of your hair?” He took a lock between his fingers for emphasis, letting it run between the calloused pads like silk. “No? I didn’t think so.” He fished through the pile and came up with a threadbare shirt large and long enough to be a dress. “So I suggest you get with it now and worry about compensation later.” He tossed the shirt over at me before looking again.

 “You—”

 “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said, sticking his tongue out. He found a pair of pants that could fit his tall frame and paused. “Been a long time since I could wear clothes,” he muttered to himself. He pulled on a drawstring shirt that clung well to his torso. “Feels scratchy.” Suddenly his head snapped towards the back wall, eyes narrowed. I recognized that expression very well—he was tensing for action. “They are returning. We must take our leave.” He flung a pair of overlarge work boots at me and stomped on a pair of his own.

 “These won’t fit me,” I told him. “It’s not as if earth has ever bothered me previously.”

 “You might think otherwise,” he replied forebodingly, moving past me. It appeared that he had retained some of his otherworldly abilities unlike myself, as he was across the room in a flash. “Well?” he stated flatly, waving a hand towards the door in exaggeration. Again, I was conflicted, but as we didn’t have a choice otherwise…

 “Where are we going?” I asked as he had us running through the mud. The night air had it cool against my bare ankles and it was dry enough that I wouldn’t get stuck. He gave me a sidelong look with the corner of his mouth quirked.

 “We’re going to run,” he said as the sound of hooves on pavement reached my ears. “But we’re going to need a shortcut.”

 “A shortcut?” The strong scent of feces hit me as we came up to a border of a thick wooden fence, and beyond that was a cluster of pigs in significantly softer mud among other things. I twisted around, shoving my feet into the dirt. “I’m not going to—”

 “Up you go!” E.N.D. said brightly as his strong hands clasped around my waist, and within my next breath I was soaring over the fence. It was only by centuries of training that I didn’t fall on my face, thank the gods, but my hands and feet were encrusted with the pigs’ waste. Still, I had gotten off spot-free elsewhere…that is, until the demon came leaping after me, quite literally causing a splash. “I can still jump high!” he cried gleefully, turning to me with big eyes and a bigger, boyish grin. “Lucida, did you see—”

 “I can’t see a thing at the moment, thanks to you.”

 “Whoops…” It took a moment, but he wiped away the muck currently dripping from every spare inch of my body, at least around my eyes so I could see his amused and sheepish expression. “Let’s keep moving before this shit dries.”

 It had never been in my wildest dreams to be making an escape from a farm with E.N.D., my longtime rival, but there we were, running across the grass with nothing but moonlight and stardust in the air. I looked over and saw him whooping and shouting with glee into the night sky, which reflected off of his eyes as true jewels. In all the time I’d known him, I’d never seen him so…boyish. So carefree and excitable. And he didn’t just act like a human, he looked like one too. No longer was he clothed in blackness or scales, but tanned skin and spiky pink hair and shining eyes. For a brief moment, I recalled that, like me, he was once human.

 The village seemed to burn with its own effervescence as we drew closer, which was when we realized it was a large town rather than a simple parish. To the west of it was mountains edged by forestry, and opposite was the grass and farmland we just escaped from. We were a handful of steps away from the dirt roads lining the town when E.N.D. came to a rigid stop, every muscle in his body fraught and eyes narrowed.

 “Something…is coming,” he uttered through a tight jaw, shaking slightly from the tension building within. “I must…” He raised hands, hands no longer threatening with claws long and sharp, and gave a furious grunt, clenching his fists. He marched off without another word, diving into a cluster of foliage. I didn’t have time to think up another brilliant hiding spot before twin white lights shone from down the road, blinding me with their luminosity. I squinted my eyes against the radiance, wondering if there was in fact magic still in the world, then I caught sight of the producer of the light.

 A machine of some sort, the size of a large boulder and crafted of steel, humming like a cobra with prey in sight. I froze for a moment, then cursed myself for succumbing to fear, but that hesitation was enough for the contraption to be upon me. As it grew closer, the warning lights didn’t appear as bright, and I could make out two faces within: one male, one female.

 “Whoa, you okay?” The humming cut off to make way for the man’s voice. A door on the side of the machine swung open and he leapt to the ground. He was young, a build similar to E.N.D.’s, and was clothed in an oddly-patterned shirt and with blue trousers tucked into combat boots. He started towards me, then came up short. “Wow, you’re, uh, you stink.”

 “Gray!” The second door opened to allow what I thought had long since passed: a female warrior. Her hair, scarlet as blood, was pinned away from her sharp features, and through her sleeveless top and short pants, I could see powerful muscles working beneath her skin. “That’s no way of speaking to a lady!” she snapped to her friend.

 “I’m sorry, but it’s true,” he huffed in reply.

 “I apologize for his unruly behavior,” the maiden warrior said, slapping him on the shoulder hard enough to elicit a grunt. “I’m Erza, and this is Gray. What’s happened to you?”

 “I, err… I got lost,” I said. It wasn’t in my nature to lie, but I had the feeling that my true story would raise eyebrows. “I’ve made it here from a long way away as to complete an old task, however several…hitches have arisen. As of now, I’m completely out of luck.” They exchanged a look, then returned puzzled gazes to me. “Is something…the matter?” I knew that I was covered in pig excrement, and that that alone could warrant some odd looks, but at that moment they seemed focus on something else.

 “The way you speak,” Gray said before trailing off thoughtfully, itching the back of his neck. “It’s…weird.”

 “Weird…” I’ve always found it a blessing that the language in its entirety never changed, never mind the nuances of grammar and construction.

 “I have to admit, it’s peculiar,” Erza added, then shook her head. “Never mind that, though. Would you like to come to my home to clean up?”

 “I…would love that. Thank you very much.” There was still research to be done on E.N.D. and my conditions, but it could wait until I didn’t have dried mud sticking my toes together.

 “I just cleaned the interior,” Gray muttered as Erza ushered me in first, then slid in to my right. Ahead was a panel of lighted buttons that I couldn’t help but be amazed at. Gray slid in to the right, and after shutting the door he reached beneath a wheel and turned a key. The humming returned in full force before quieting somewhat as the machine moved across the road, the same speed as a horse drawn carriage. “I guess it’s too late to ask if you’re some serial killer,” he said casually, glancing at me before returning his eyes to the road.

 “No, no,” I replied, and I had to chuckle with it. Erza joined in as well, her dark eyes sparkling with mirth.

 ���Your name?”

 “It’s, ah, Lu…” If the nuances of my speech were odd, my name would stick out even more. It was enough of a rarity two hundred years ago—“Lucida Sidera.” I’ve been told it meant of the stars, a very long time ago, and I took pleasure in that. However, there was another name I was known by, one that the lion constellation delighted in labelling me, that I believed would fare better. “Lucy is what they call me.”

 “They? Who’s that, the Ghostbusters?” Gray chuckled. Erza laughed too, and although I didn’t get the joke, I laughed as to not be singled out. But my name seemed to be well-received. He turned, and all of a sudden, we were surrounded by tall, silver buildings and complex ones alike, and many, many more of these machines rolling across tarred roads. People milled about on walkways despite the late hour—or was it early? We had been out for a long while.

 “My house is right around here,” Erza said as Gray turned again into dual rows of houses painted the same color. He stopped in front of what looked identical to all the others. “Come on.” She had to leave first, then I hopped to the ground gratefully, my legs feeling shaky from the machine’s engine. Erza led me to the front, which was illuminated by odd lights unlike Lacrimas, and as I waved my hand around them, I found that they emitted the same heat. “Welcome,” she smiled as she opened the door, revealing a sparsely furnished main room. There were some seats and closed door as well as an open arch leading into the kitchen. “The bathroom is right over there. I’ll see if I have any clothes you can wear.”

 “Thank you again, Miss Erza.”

 If the town outside was a wonder, the bathroom is even more so. There is a marble bathtub and sink and toilet as I was used to, but instead of drawing water from outside in a basin, there are outlets protruding from the blue and green tiled walls alongside dual knobs made of clear glass. I tried both and found that one creates hot water, the other cold.

 Modern innovations are wondrous, I thought.

 I took off the clothes from the farmland and, although it pained me to do so, threw them away. I doubted that they were salvageable any longer. I pumped as much hot water as I could into the tub and sunk in, feeling it wash off the grime and grit from our journey. Our journey… I wondered idly if E.N.D. found somewhere to go, then cursed myself for it. Maybe he’s helped you this once, but he’s still the longstanding enemy, I kept in mind. I spotted some sweet-smelling soap perched on the corner of the tub and used it to wipe the remnants of dirt from my body. I thought that I could understand what it meant to be a human now, and I wondered if there was another step. We’ve been fighting for eons now… Perhaps this is the stars’ way of telling us to stop? This is a place of no magic, of no demons or celestial maidens. This is… This is…

 I decided not to worry about what it was and instead put my energy towards why it was. To do that, I needed to learn. Learn how to speak the modern language, learn of the new devices and machines, learn about Gray and Erza, even… Knowledge was what I needed, and it would come at a price. I couldn’t manage alone.

 I pulled the plug to let the browned water swirl away, and after that was done I let the faucet run and washed away the bits clinging to the sides of the tub. I was drying myself when Erza knocked on the door: “I have some clothes for you, Lucy.” I left the towel on my hair and opened the door, smiling as she passed the bundle over to me. Her eyes roved over my naked body before a smirk pulled at her pink lips. “Confident in your body, are you? I appreciate that in a woman—it’s rare.”

 “I suppose,” I said, because I didn’t know how else to respond. I found that undergarments had gone through the largest change in the centuries, and they made me flush to put them on, but the loose shirt and pants she provided were fine otherwise. I braided my still-wet hair down my shoulder and returned to the main room to see Erza and Gray having an animated conversation, Gray’s previously frosty expression melting into loud laughter.

 “Lucy,” he chuckled as he saw me, acknowledging my return. I nodded politely and sat across from them carefully.

 “I apologize for the interruption, and especially since we are unfamiliar, however…I would like to impose upon you for a favor.” They still appeared at ease though, with a friendly warmth I was unversed with from humans.

 “Of course,” Erza said, nodding. “What is it?”

 “I…don’t have anybody else to turn to for assistance as of now…as a matter of fact, I’m on my own indefinitely…” As much as I didn’t like it, the stars were the most silent they had ever been. “And seeing as I’m in an unknown environment, I would…if you two are willing…”

 “You need a hand, right?” Gray finished. “To help you off your feet?”

 “I don’t follow you.”

 “Some support to get you started here,” Erza supplied. I smiled in relief and nodded. “Well, that won’t be too hard to give. The main thing you’d need is a job.” Work, yes, that concept I am familiar with. “Hmm… You could perhaps work with us.”

 “Where do you two work, exactly?”

 “In theatre,” Gray answered. “A troupe called Fairy Tail. The way you talk, you wouldn’t even have to act.” Entertainment? Now that was a first for me.

 “What would I have to do?”

 “Considering that you’re new, you would be doing a lot of backstage work. Passing messages, taking notes, adjusting props and such… It would be easy, and we make enough money per show to pay you a fraction of an actor’s wages for it.” Erza lifted her chin slightly. “Actually, if the Master likes you, you could maybe even start off with light roles.”

 “The…Master?”

 “Our boss,” Gray amended with a wince. “Some people call him master because…I really don’t know why. But he’d be happy to give you an advance payment if you explained your situation—it’d be enough to get yourself a little place, some clothes, basic stuff.”

 “You two are doing so much for so little in return…”

 “We’re not looking for anything in return,” he said pointedly, crossing his arms and leaning back. “We just do the right thing ‘cause it’s the right thing. We don’t pride ourselves on having common sense.” Erza nodded her agreement. “So, you think you wanna act?” he finished with a slight smile, eyebrows raised.

 Perhaps things can be easy, living in this new time, I believed. What I said was: “I’ll give it my best shot.”

 X792

 “Lu-chan!” I spun around in time to catch a wad of blue curls and excitement in my arms. Levy raised her head with a flushed-cheek grin as she blew some stray locks from her face.

 “Levy! Where’s the fire?”

 “Look, look, look!” she exclaimed, waving her phone in my face. I had to grab her wrists to still her hand enough to read it. To my surprise, Kemu Zaleon’s new novel had come out three months early.

 “Wow, this is great!”

 “I know, right!” she beamed, jumping back. “Right after rehearsal I’m going to BookLand! You’re coming too?”

 “Actually, I have to do some research at the library for a term paper.” The sentence was true in bits: I did have a term paper, and I did have research at the library to attend to, but the two did not correlate.

 “Well okay, I’ll buy you a copy while I’m there.”

 “That’s why I love you, Levy-chan.”

 “Oi, Bunny-girl,” Gajeel called from the walkway over our heads, a repaired spotlight slung over his shoulder. His long black hair was pushed back from his pierced scowl. “Ya tryin’ to steal my shrimp now?”

 “Wouldn’t dream of it,” I called back, shoving Levy lightly. “Go on, before he decides to let me have a stage accident.”

  “Yeah, c’mon, I need some help with the lights.”

 “I’m coming,” she said, going towards the stairs. Even if Gajeel needed help, the lights were heavy—he wouldn’t call Levy. But we all knew that, despite being a generally nice if gruff person, he had his possessive moments. After all, they had a wedding on the horizon. Then again, there were others who could be far more possessive on the set…

 “Hey, Lucy, Master wants to see you!” Erza yelled from the other end of the walkway. I waved in acknowledgement and ducked behind the heavy red curtains to the door of his office. Inside were bookshelves all against the wall, stuffed with script folders, photo albums, and books that could provide possible shows. Makarov, the elderly man who ran the theater, smiled warmly at me as I shut the door.

 “How are you doing, my child?” It was the way that he addressed us all, as if we were his own children, and I couldn’t blame him: unlike his own flesh-and-blood son, Ivan, we were fond of spending time with him.

 “Fine, thanks for asking. I have sixty hours of credits left.” I’d been taking classes at Magnolia University for the past year, majoring in History (as to fill in the huge blanks) and minoring in Engineering (to fill in the other blanks). In the process, I discovered that Magnolia had been built atop the very first place where E.N.D. and I had fought: the butterfly graveyard. It was never understood why butterflies died in the area, but nevertheless, their beautiful wings made still in death was an ominous presence, the perfect for a fight to the death. I wondered if that had any significance.

 “That’s good. What do you plan on doing with your degrees?” I hesitated. That part, I didn’t give much thought to.

 “Teaching, most likely.” He nodded thoughtfully, then sat forward in his chair.

 “The reason I’ve called you is that I have a new script, and I believe you’d be perfect for the female lead.”

 “What?” I cried. Though I’d been working there for a year, designing props and editing scripts, sometimes writing portions of them with Levy, I’d never acted a main role, let alone lead role. “Mr. Dreyar, are you…”

 “Certain? Yes, yes I am. This role was made for you, Ms. Heartfilia.” With that, he gave me a particularly cunning smile, like there was a hilarious joke that I was missing. “We’re going to have auditions in a couple of days, and rehearsals will start on Monday.”

 “You won’t be using the others in this show?” He shook his head.

 “We want to use fresh faces for once, you know. Yours especially is still new around here, but if all goes well, you’ll be one of our stars.” I flushed a little. “How about you look over it tonight and give me a response in the morning?”

 “I’ll… Alright, that sounds good.” I took the packet from his hands and his secret smile elongated.

 “Have a good day, Lucida,” he said, offering his hand to shake. It wasn’t until I had already left and was on my way home that I realized he called me by my true name, and I was certain I hadn’t told him.

 “What did Makarov tell you?” Gray asked, glancing at me from the corner of his eye. Reedus was working on his makeup for the show that was to begin in a couple of hours. He was supposed to be a prince, and his double-breasted coat and slicked back hair really did make him appear as royalty.

 “He offered me a role in the next performance… Where’s your princess?”

 “Funny you should ask that,” he said with a grimace, and shifted forward a bit. Suddenly, Juvia’s form was behind his, eyes boring into mine with a fire that didn’t fit her lovely loose curls and billowing gown.

 “Love rival,” she ground out without actually separating her teeth. I stepped from her line of sight and it felt as if gravity had gotten a few tons lighter.

 “That’s about it,” Reedus finished quickly, perhaps to save me from death by Glare. Gray was quick to shuffle off, waving me over to a Juvia-free corner.

 “You said he offered you a role? That’s great.”

 “It’s…a lead role,” I added hesitantly. He smiled and clapped my shoulder.

 “That’s even better. Can I see the script?”

 “Yeah, sure.” I handed it over and he scanned it, flipping through the pages with a thoughtful hum.

 “Did you see it yet?”

 “No, why?” He chuckled.

 “It’s kinda funny… The main girl seems just like you. Even this picture—” He showed me the cover page, which featured a painting (most likely Reedus’ work) of a maiden warrior in armor of the same fair-haired shade, and she was clashing swords with a creature made of shadows into the silhouette of man.

 This role was made for you, Ms. Heartfilia.

 “I don’t think so. She’s much more beautiful.”

 “I beg to differ,” he replied easily. I was briefly reminded of Loki, the most amorous star, but Gray’s toying was more out of camaraderie. Aside from that, Juvia couldn’t stand to see him even be within two feet of another woman, let alone flirt.

 “Well anyway, I think I’ll decline. It would be a lot of work to rehearse for a main role, and I have a lot of studying to do.” Besides that, the whole situation seemed shady.

 “Lucy, this would be your stage debut. Do you really want to pass it up?” he said seriously.

 “Well, no, I don’t want to, but…” But I have to. I’d been planning to tell my friends my story sometime, when I believed they could handle it, but lately it was out of my own cowardice that I chickened out every chance that came up. “I just don’t have the time.”

 “Keep thinking about it, alright?” He returned my script as Erza called for all the actors to meet backstage. “See you.” He gave me a smirk before pushing through the curtains, disappearing behind their folds. I gave the script another look before putting it with my things, then I went to help the others set up for rehearsal.

 I gave Mira, our resident piano genius, the sheet music, and she thanked me with her usual overflowing kindness. To Gajeel (and Levy) were instructions to watch out for Makarov’s signals on the lights and curtains. Lisanna and Elfman were in charge of moving props on and off stage, and Cana was in charge of costumes. Vijeeter was choreographer and Nab…well, honestly, I never found out what Nab did. He showed up to work on time, left on time, but all he did was stand in the corner by the broken ‘EXIT’ sign. Nobody else could tell me what he did, and I never wanted to ask him in case it came off rude or personal.

 As Makarov waved at Gajeel and he lifted the curtains, Gray stepped front stage. His arms were out and his head was tilted back as if he was going to shower in a rainstorm, and in a low voice he began his monologue. I only caught snippets of it as I went to and fro between departments, but what I heard was amazing, as expected. For someone so icy and uncomfortable with others, he was an entirely different person in costume. On the other hand, Erza, who was playing a prince from an opposing kingdom, had just the same amount of vigor and grandiose on the stage and off the stage. I started to wonder, Could I be like them, putting on a grand show? I looked out at the plethora of plush seats and imagined crowds there to see me on stage. It felt like a dream, like how my old life was starting to feel after so long of being…normal.

 I descended to the ground and shuffled across the row of seats to where Makarov and the supervisor, his son Laxus, sat to watch. “Mr. Dreyar, do you mind if I get an early start on my work?”

 “You only have thirty minutes left on the clock anyway. I don’t mind,” he replied. “I’ll be waiting for your response in the morning.”

 “Alright, have a good night.” Laxus gave me a curt nod as I left, pushing through the double doors into the city. The setting sun peeked through the surrounding office buildings with the light refracting through their glass walls and all over. The Fairy Tail Theater looked more and more like a castle every time I saw it, an old place build of thick stone slabs and decorated with realistic fairy sculptures, part of its name. Behind it was the huge fountain of Magnolia Park and all of its greenery, providing an aptly dreamlike scene of a dreamlike place.

 I usually drove to work, but my car had been in the shop for the last few days from a battery that spontaneously broke (one of the modern world’s mysteries, I assumed), so I caught the city bus instead. I lived pretty far from Fairy Tail, so I decided to check the script out to pass the time. It was titled, The Stars Against the Night.

 “Interesting,” I murmured, glancing at the picture again and finding it even more unsettling than before. I flipped the page, then flipped back quickly to take another look, rubbing my eyes when all seemed well. For a moment, I’d thought I saw Natsu’s face on the dark form, but it was only my imagination.

 The setting was a fable, a story where a little girl with hair of gold “danced with the fairies by day,” and where a black-haired man with pale skin “fought with the darkness at night.” While the two characters were physically and emotionally nothing like me and E.N.D., I could feel a weird sense of déjà vu in the papers.

 The story is of their forbidden love, two beings of opposite standing and magic who met at sunset, the combination of their worlds, to talk of sweet nothings. Then, as decades passed, the boy wanted more. The story was unclear of what “more” meant, but whatever the case, she disagreed. For the first time in centuries, they had an argument, one that disturbed the balance of all things. They argued for days and nights alike, causing blackouts and storms and eclipses in their anger, but no matter how hard they tried to separate, their tie of love always connected them. It was paradoxical: their love was what compelled them to argue, and their arguments shaded their love. Then, after one hundred years of turmoil, they met up once more. At that point, while I had been skimming before, I felt mystically compelled to read the dialogue:

 GIRL: WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING A LONG TIME, MY LOVE. ARE YOU NOT YET SATISFIED?

 BOY: I SHALL NOT BE UNTIL YOU SUBMIT TO ME.

 GIRL: AS LONG AS WE FIGHT, THE WORLD SUFFERS. DO YOU REALLY WISH TO PROLONG THIS OVER A PETTY ARGUMENT?

 BOY: IT IS FAR FROM PETTY… PERHAPS IF YOU DIDN’T STILL THINK AS A CHILD, YOU WOULD SEE.

 GIRL: [infuriated] THEN SO BE IT! IF, TO SAVE THIS WORLD, I MUST GIVE UP THE ONE AND ONLY LOVE I’VE EVER KNOWN, I SHALL.

 BOY: [in a detached but trembling voice] …DON’T YOU DARE. DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN…

 GIRL: YOU’VE BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF.

 (BOY stares at her, speechless, then bursts out laughing. GIRL is confused as he turns his eyes skyward, then back to her with arms extended.)

 BOY: “SO BE IT.” LET YOUR BLOOD BE VENOM WITHIN THIS EARTH. LET ALL YOUR ANCESTORS THAT TREAD ACROSS IT BE CURSED THAT THEY WILL BE LIKE YOUR PRECIOUS FAIRIES, ALL DOOMED TO DRINK THEIR POISON. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, “MY LOVE.”

 GIRL: YOU— [with tears in her eyes] FINE, THEN, IF THAT IS HOW YOU WISH TO BE, YOU—YOU MONSTER. YOU BEAUTIFUL MONSTER. LIKE YOU, YOUR SONS WILL BE AS A DREAM IN APPEARANCE, BUT AS A NIGHTMARE BENEATH THE SURFACE.

 It was only a fable, it was, but I felt as enraptured as if I was a firsthand witness. I was so into it, I almost didn’t notice the bus pulling up at my stop, and hurried to collect my things and step off. My apartment was only a block away from the stop. The landlady greeted me with the same grunt/curt nod that she had been, and for once I didn’t fight a conversation from her. I went to my apartment and dropped my things in a hurry, flipping through the rest of the script.

 After the impactful opening, the script goes on to a new setting, which is only described as “a place where the carcasses of dreams abound.” Now the protagonists are the ones in the cover, the blonde maiden and the black one. The second arc can be described as battle after battle after battle. They clashed on land, they clashed overseas, they clashed within the heavens. Makarov said that the role was made for me, but he couldn’t have any possible idea how true those words rang. For centuries, eons, maybe even a forgotten millennium, that was all E.N.D. and I had done: fight. I half expected to see “and then they fell into pig crap” on the next page, everything was so…accurate.

 Did E.N.D. sell our information? I wondered at one point considering how verbatim the script was, then I saw that there was a lot of information he would have had no way of knowing, things only witness by myself or the stars. Then again, all of this couldn’t have been only coincidence. It was impossible. It was like…

 …Magic?

 I set the script down and stood up slowly. For the umpteenth time since descending into modern Magnolia, I tried to summon my armor. It was a solid object, but in the past the stars would always give it to me upon request, yet as I pleaded with them now, nothing happened. And for the umpteenth time squared, I asked for my friends. Taurus, try to look at my undergarments. Virgo, ask me for punishments. Loki, flirt with me. I’d never taken those weird occurrences for granted before, but now I felt like I hadn’t appreciated them as much as I could have.

 “If you all are still here,” I said quietly, “I miss you.”

 Just as I expected, silence. But something else was for certain. I picked up the phone and dialed Makarov’s number, hoping that they hadn’t yet closed up.

 “Lucy, hello again,” he said as he answered. “You have an answer already?”

 “I think I’ve had an answer since you showed it to me.”

 “Is that so?” he questioned with that smug note from earlier.

 “I’ll accept the role.”

 “Great. You’ll hear more about the performance after all the other roles are casted, alright?”

 “Okay, thank you. Have a good night.” I hung up with an odd sense of foreboding in my belly.

  I woke up on the day of auditions and almost forgot that it was that, since it was usually my day off. I wasn’t late, but I showered and ate and dressed quickly out of habit, finding a flowy orange top and a denim skirt that I could put on quickly, also forgoing my usual heels for flat sandals. I took up my things and locked the door before heading out, greeting the landlady on my way to the Metrorail. It was faster and less crowded than the bus, albeit slightly more expensive.

 By the time I arrived at the theater, auditions were already in progress. I could tell because as I pushed into the lobby, the seats were crowded with actors. I got a few whistles and catcalls as I walked through but I didn’t pay them any attention. (I actually found it a curious thing, how men always seemed to trip over themselves when they saw me. I had a longstanding list of numbers to call all the time.) I burst into the theater as a possible was having a discussion with Gray, his back turned to me. I spotted Makarov, Laxus, and Erza seated up front, ready to take notes, and joined them.

 “You’re a little late,” Erza commented.

 “Yeah, I uh, forgot that auditions were today,” I admitted guiltily. “Sorry.”

 “It’s no problem! This is actually our first performer,” Makarov said glibly, gesturing to the man over on the side. Not long after, he stepped away from Gray with a laugh and sauntered confidently across the stage. He came to a stop right in front of us, a brilliant grin on his face, and I felt my whole world come to a stop.

 “Good morning, Mr. Dreyar and son, Ms. Scarlet, and…” He met my eyes while I still stuttered for breath, and slowly, E.N.D.’s grin morphed into a smug smirk. “My lovely guest judge.” He looked the same, same pink hair and same green eyes, but with a chambray shirt framing his shape and artfully worn jeans over untied Converse sneakers.

 “Lucy,” I supplied, finally catching my breath after what felt like millennia, but what must have actually been a few seconds. “Lucy Heartfilia, is my name.”

 “It’s my pleasure,” he said smoothly, getting down on one knee to give me a more personal smile. Then the bastard had the audacity to wink before rising. “I guess I don’t need to say I’m auditioning to be the Demon.” That being the male protagonist of the performance. I found that the naming, in comparison with all the other radiant details of it, was very insipid.

 “Yup,” Laxus said dully, leaning back with a hand supporting his arms. “Start anytime you’re ready, pinky.”

 “I have a name,” he said, touching his chest with a bit of a hurt inflection creeping into his tone. I had no way of knowing whether or not it was genuine. Laxus rolled his hand in a “go on” gesture and he snickered. “It’s Natsu Dragneel.” Natsu Dragneel… E.N.D. Etherious Natsu Dragneel. I had almost forgotten. He was once human, as was I, but…then what happened? I rubbed my head, trying to recall memories long lost to history. “And, well, uh, I’ll get started.” He jogged backwards until there was a decent distance between himself and us, which I was grateful for. It made me catch breath easier.

 “You won’t be reading from the script?” Erza inquired, pointing her pen at his empty hands.

 “No, I think I’ve got it memorized.” Like Makarov, Natsu spoke as if by a private joke, but unlike before, I’d a good idea what that joke was. He wiped his palms on his thighs, cleared his throat, and began to speak:

 “Littlest star—” I froze, the deep bass of his tone ringing through my ears like the bells of Cardia Cathedral. I could remember the exact moment he first called me that, back in the wetlands of X742, and he caught my surprise as well, because he locked eyes with me as he pressed on: “—your light is the beacon of the night where my darkness would otherwise reign as the supremacy. But, you see, I am not made irate by the fact: in fact, I find pleasure in your endless radiance. It is, after all, what makes this immortal life all the more worth it to live. People…no, calling us anything of that sort would be a cruel, gross lie…beings such as us could not find entertainment otherwise. Like that, let us clash again and again, over and over for the rest of eternity, until I finally catch your light between my claws and tear away your wings and crush you into stardust.” As he spoke, he cupped his hands before slapping them together on the last line, lips skewed.

 Oh my…

 “That was incredible,” Erza praised, beaming at him. Natsu grinned and bowed with exaggeration, but I could see his flushed cheeks and the light sheen of sweat over his forehead. He was impassioned—moreover, he was as into the moment as I was. My breath was coming quick and I feared I would pass out for a moment, but I managed to swallow my anticipation and regain my bearings.

 “Like Erza said,” I agreed a bit hoarsely.

 “Thank you very much, Lucy,” he said, putting particular emphasis on my name.

 “Humph,” Laxus grunted by means of his usual speech, but he had a trace of a smile as he did it. He may have been gruffer than Gajeel, but even he could get impressed.

 “I think it’s safe to say we were all pleased by your performance, Mr. Dragneel,” Makarov smiled. “You may leave now, and we’ll call you to let you know if you’ve made it, but to be frank, it seems like you’re a shoe-in.”

 “Great!” he exclaimed, beaming with that brilliance that reminded me of when he saw cows. Just like me, he had had a year to acquaint himself with contemporary civilization, and from his expressions to his mannerisms, I could tell he assimilated well, perhaps even better than I had. “Have a good day you guys…especially you, Ms. Heartfilia,” he added in a lower tone of voice, giving me a purposeful look as he walked off the stage and through the side exit.

 “I think you have a new bachelor,” Erza remarked, giving me a much-too-hard elbow nudge. I may or may not have nodded in return as I stood.

 “I’ll be back in a second,” I muttered, moving quickly as to not lose him. As I went through the exit and into the parking lot, I spotted Natsu marching towards the street. It wasn’t easy matching his long strides, but my old rapidity soon kicked in, and after a moment we were neck and neck.

 “Oh? I didn’t know you wanted to talk,” he said offhandedly, glancing at me from the corner of his eyes.

 “Don’t play games with me, E.N.D.!”

 “That’s how you want to play it now, Lucida?” His voice rumbled on the precipice of a growl, but he reigned himself in, pinching the bridge of his nose. He came to a stop on the sidewalk and so did I. “You got my attention, so now what?”

 “What? What in the world are you talking about? You’re the one that marched in on the life I’ve managed to build!” I retorted. He face-palmed, then let his hand rest at his cheek as he gave a weary sigh.

 “I think you’re the one that’s turned all inside-out and junk. This whole performance—a goddess and a demon? A woman of the stars and a man of the shadows? What else could it have been but my calling card? So I’m asking, What’re you trying to get at, calling me up?”

 “I wasn’t trying to call you up, but since you’re here, you might as well fill in blanks for me.” He made a frustrated noise and crossed his arms.

 “And for what? Why do I owe you answers?”

 “Owe me? Don’t you want to know what’s happened to us, why we’re here with no magic—”

 “See? Stop right there.” He put his hands on his hips. “No magic. Without magic, that Dark Magic that used to pour outta me like sweat from a fat guy hittin’ it at the gym, I’m normal. I can go and pet dogs and feed wild cats and swim in pools and— You get the picture. I’m not rushing to go back to being E.N.D. anytime soon.”

 “But—the universe’s balance relies on us—”

 “The universe was fine before we existed,” he interrupted.

 “No, it wasn’t! You read the script, didn’t you?” He nodded, eyebrows quirked. “You saw the story of the boy and girl—”

 “The fable, you mean?”

 “It’s not just a— Ugh! Didn’t you get the same feeling I did, Natsu? I felt like it was more than just words printed on paper—it felt like part of me. Part of the big picture. Part of why I can’t speak to my stars anymore and I’m just grounded here!” I was flailing my arms in my excitement but I couldn’t be bothered about it. Natsu gave me a curious look.

 “Sad story, littlest star, but things are outta my hands and into the universe’s. If she wants to toss you back your shiny trinkets, then hey, more power to her, but I’m not going to fight you again. No way in hell.” He turned away and started walking again, but I persisted.

 “Then why did you come, huh?”

 “I…” His steps faltered but he quickly recovered. “I heard this theater pays out the ass and I needed some quick cash. Unlike you with the star job, I do a lot of physical stuff—construction, deliveries, blah blah blah. Boring, tedious work, and doesn’t pay much more than your average Burger King. I figured nothing could be easier money than going on stage and acting like myself. It’d be the first time in a year that I bothered to, anyway.”

 I hadn’t actually considered that while I was extremely lucky to run into Gray and Erza as I did, Natsu hid away and didn’t have the same opportunity. I felt a little ashamed to admit that I hadn’t given much thought at all to how he had been making a living for the last year. As I knew him, he was a demon that killed everything he touched, but now he was just as human as me, and considering that I’d never seen his face posted up on CNN, he wasn’t out there committing murder.

 “Natsu,” I said as he tried walking off. He stopped but didn’t turn. I cleared my throat, wondering what in the world I was doing as I spoke, “As your possible costar…and as a fellow human…I’d like to take you to lunch.”

 “You’re kidding,” he said, but he ran back over and grabbed my shoulders with excitement in his eyes as he did so. “Where’s the food?”

 Well, it seemed that a year hadn’t changed him too much.

  We caught a bus to a place called 8Island. The owner, Yajima, used to work with Makarov back when they were in politics, but now he was content to make and serve good food. Similarly, Natsu was content to empty my wallet eating all of that good food.

 “Shrimp, fish, octopus, chicken, turkey, steak, pork, macaroni, tomatoes, mushrooms—” he said as he ate them, with an obnoxiously stuffed mouth to boot. I thought I had more food on my face than he had in his stomach as he worked his way through bowl after plate after dish, yet he never seemed full. Obviously, there still existed magic in this world.

 “Natsu, people are, err, staring.”

 “Wha?” He looked around at the crowd he was amassing and quite literally shrugged them off. “Ish no beg del.”

 “It is, in fact, a big deal…”

 “Sho wha? Zey neba sheen a min eat vafor?”

 “I’m sure they’ve never see a man eat like this…”

 “Zey can go vuk zemselvz!” I was more than happy not to respond to that one. After what felt like hours of eating on his part—and what actually might have been hours—he pushed away the last emptied china with a pleased hum. “Damn, haven’t eaten like that in a few centuries,” he grinned, locking his fingers behind his neck and leaning back in his seat. “But can I ask why you chose to feed me? We’re eternal enemies or whatever, aren’t we?”

 “I haven’t forgotten. But…there’s no satisfaction in kicking a downed opponent.” He gave me a look I couldn’t decipher, then stood with a huff.

 “Well, Lucida…or rather, Lucy now, I believe I should thank you for the meal.” He bowed at first, then straightened abruptly, and with a half-smile quirking his lips, Natsu extended a hand. I stood as well, wiping my palms anxiously on my shorts, but he waited patiently until I drew up the nerve to reach out, and I clasped my hand within his. His was larger, rougher, and his grip was firm as he shook my arm once. I looked up in time to catch his mischievous smile, the one that always led to a killer blow, right before he tugged hard, jerking me forward and against his chest. His other arm went around my back with that one going up to the back of my head. “Thank you for the meal,” he said into my ear.

 “What the— Get away from me!” I shoved him away so hard that his back hit against the window with a heavy thud. I was flushed from alarm and my hands shook as I held them out. He stared for a moment, disoriented, then caught himself.

 “Too much, I guess,” he chuckled, cracking his back. I didn’t wait to hear what else he had to say. I dropped some money on the table without even glancing at the bill as it was brought over, and I collected my things and quickly moved past him. I wasn’t sure, but it felt like he tried to grab me again on my way out.

 Because I didn’t expect Natsu’s show of gluttony, I’d missed the bus I intended to take and had to catch a later one, which ended with me getting back to Fairy Tail after nearly all the auditions were over. The others looked at me inquisitively, but none asked me about my leave, which I was thankful for. Erza shared with me notes taken from the other actors and I scanned them absently. The one role that popped out to me was my other, the Demon.

 “There was a handful of other actors that auditioned, but it’s apparent that Natsu put the most emotion into it,” she said. “It’s almost like he was the Demon at some point.”

 “Possibly,” Makarov jested, “after all, Erza, the best stories are true.” She chuckled, but when he met my eyes, there was nothing but truth in his. They agreed to send emails out the following morning to roles with only one auditioned—those were the certain ones. The other ones would be sent by the end of the day, considering rehearsals started right after the weekend. And that was the end of that, except that it wasn’t the end of anything for me.

 By that night, I had poring over countless websites and texts for a long time. My eyes were sore and words were beginning to blur into one another, but I had to know. To be honest, I didn’t even know what I was looking for—it was one of those “you’ll know when you see it” deals. I was beginning to think that I’d wasted four hours of sleep when I saw it, and I knew.

 The girl and boy of the fable were named Mavis Vermillion and Zeref Dragneel. Dragneel, just like Natsu. By that time, I was beyond blaming it on my imagination and coincidence. Those two fought, and now we fought—or rather, we had been before Natsu deemed himself a pacifist. It meant something, I just didn’t know what.

 “Why did you two fight at all?” I whispered, so bleary that I expected a Wikipedia page to answer me back. I wanted it to tell me why those two fought, why we fought, why we were human now, why E.N.D. was simple Natsu Dragneel, and why my heart raced so when he surprised me. But the computer wasn’t magic, and no longer was I. Neither of us could provide the answers of the universe.

 X793

 The show was to begin and I wanted to jump through the window with a chest-clenching longing.

 Natsu, of course, got his part as the Demon, which meant that of all the other actors, we spent the most time talking, touching, and plain being together. While he was my adversary, I found it harder and harder to keep him at arm’s length, until his laughs became my laughs, and my smiles were his smiles. We were friends—at least, within his mind, the story was that. There was an incident while on stage that led to one of the spotlights breaking from its bearings. Natsu shoved me out of the way and both of us hit the ground as it smashed through the floorboards. My body was splayed beneath his, and when he opened his eyes to look at me, I was reminded of when we first surfaced in this new time.

 I was in love with E.N.D. I was in love with Natsu.

 I tried to distance myself, to let that demon seed wither and die, but it was hard to distance yourself from another when both of you were due to be leads in a performance. And the more time I spent with him, the less I was convinced that what I felt could be a lie. I had always heard the humans say “there’s a fine line between love and hate,” and at that moment I understood them perfectly: I was to believe that I hated him, the embodiment of all darkness and death, and yet my heart yearned for his touch. It made me understand Mavis and Zeref all too well. Still, I never let my walls down entirely, even as he joked and jested and gave me light butterfly touches all the time. It was how he was, he couldn’t help it.

 He enraptured the rest of the actors that way as well, and pulled Fairy Tail on his side, even though he and Gray argued more than they got along.

 Although Natsu refused to fight me on my terms, he had no choice otherwise during rehearsal. However, it was rehearsal: the entire thing was orchestrated. We were shown choreographed moves and were expected to do them with each other. It was a bit like dancing in that way, a dance the both of us were overly familiar with. The matter was awkward at first—we were used to going at each other for life or death, not for entertainment—but soon we had fallen into the rhythm, and if things went a little too far at times, it was laughed off.

 Then again, as we wore props that very much resembled my armor and him in a black suit or a drape of dragon’s scales, we both faltered more often than not, because it all began to feel so real. I didn’t know if he thought this too, but it dawned on me just how long we had been fighting. Eons, I’d said before, but that was as far as I remembered. Memories do fail—for all we know, we had been fighting since Mavis and Zeref. Acting and rehearsing gave me the epiphany that I’d been missing for a long while. I realized why Natsu was so averse to fighting me again, and to my surprise, I was beginning to share his sentiments.

 Makarov spoke with all of us actors the day before the show. The usual: he told us to get some rest for the night and show up bright and early and ready to amaze, because we were all amazing actors and all of Magnolia would see us bring to life a story onstage. He had this certain gumption about him that whatever he said would lit a fire within you, and so he never failed to be an inspiration.

 “Tomorrow will be great,” he said with all certainty. “It will be a show to end all shows, thanks to you dedicated and talented people. In fact, I’ve a feeling that it will be…magical.”

 Natsu and I exchanged a look. “Who does this guy think he is, Merlin?” he snorted. “There’s no magic around here—I’ve checked and checked and checked.”

 “Relax, it’s just something that he does.”

 “It’s insensitive,” he grumbled. “Like, you don’t point out that a fat guy’s fat.”

 “Natsu, that’s neither here nor there.”

 “No, in fact, it’s standing there in front of me and playing with my dreams.”

 “I know you’re an actor, but don’t be so dramatic.”

 “It’s what I’m good at,” he replied, smirking at me. I pretended to fiddle with the tail of my blouse as to hide my blush. Makarov caught me and sent me a grin.

 “See you all bright and early, ready for the show.”

 I was mid-window-jumping when Levy caught me.

 “Lucy! What are you doing?” she asked, appalled.

 “I can’t… I can’t do this Levy, I can’t. I’m leaving.”

 “Well, first of all, you’re not gonna fit through that window.” I was very aware of that fact, yes. “And second, don’t chicken out now!”

 “It’s not just that, but…”

 “But nothing! C’mon, Lu-chan, this is your big break!” It took a lot of cajoling, but eventually I climbed down from the window, and Levy smoothed out the wrinkles of my costume. I wore armor designed by an unknown source (Makarov was unusually tight-lipped about that) that, besides the chipping gold spray-paint, was a facsimile of my old set. Levy fixed my braid with her gentle hands before clapping them on my cheeks. “You’ll be perfect! Okay?”

 “O…kay…” I didn’t want to admit the sense of dread in my stomach lest I sound crazy, but it was there as Levy tugged me towards the other actors. They were chatting animatedly, everyone except Natsu, who stood off to the side with arms crossed and his back to me. I started towards him, his name on my lips, when Makarov’s voice rang out from in front of the lowered curtains:

 “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to our performance of The Stars Against the Night.” A short round of applause that he waited out before continuing. “This is also one of the rare occasions that we step outside of our family, so appreciate those who’ve stepped out of their shells to audition and have stood above the rest. The show—or rather, the story you will witness is of a girl who loved fairies and a boy who writhed with darkness, whose influence spanned across the centuries. Though it’s not explicitly stated, I’ve read the script, and I believe that the lesson to be drawn is that history makes its mark. It moves in an endless loop and can trap anyone in it. Knowing what’s behind you, then, can help you not make the mistakes of your ancestors, and to move forward in life.” He laughed. “Well, this is just an old man’s longwinded way of saying enjoy the show!”

 The applause was still going as Laxus and Erza ushered the two playing Mavis and Zeref into place. A desert landscape was used as a background, exquisitely painted by Reedus, and sand placed on stage courtesy of Max, though we had no idea where he got it from. I tried approaching Natsu, but the actor playing Loki asked to review his lines with me and I was pulled away. Before I knew it, the first act was already over, and Natsu and I had to move. Now we were going to interact whether we wanted or not.

 I stepped onto the stage with my palms itching consistently as Gray fiddled with Natsu’s costume. They bickered in the process, but it was more good-natured than anything, then Gajeel warned them that the curtain was about to rise. I looked up and caught Levy’s encouraging smile, then Gray’s thumbs-up and Erza’s confident nod. They believed in me…I tried to believe in me too.

 The curtains rose and Natsu came walking in from the opposite end of the stage, an artful trail of black dust trailing him just as back then. His eyes were slightly squinted, expression detached, and I fought the urge to swallow at his intensity. He came to a stop a handful of paces away, eyes roving my figure just as mine did his. I kept my bearings as Gray switched on a fan, providing a light gust for effect that stirred about the loose strands of hair over my face and chilled my skin.

 “Are you going to stand there and collect dust for the rest of eternity?” I goaded, letting the flat of my golden blade run across my metal-gloved palm. “If so, that makes my mission that much simpler.”

 “You are quite a sight to look at, is what distracts me,” he countered smoothly as the lights were reduced, bringing more attention to his rosy hair and jade eyes. “The heavens’ newest star that has personally come to end my existence… Why, I could not be more honored the universe would bother.”

 “It only means you are a nuisance, and one that needs plucking.” I flipped the sword with practiced precision, and it handed hilt-first with the tip pointed at E.N.D.—err, Natsu. Then I clutched it tight with both hands and charged.

 “Good luck attempting so, fair maiden.” He sidestepped my attack and seized me by the face in the process, shoving me back and hard. I hit the ground with my body tucked inwards and rolled into a crouch. I used the lingering impetus to spring forward with a sideswipe attack. He gripped the sword and wrenched it from my hands with a hiss as the squib was detonated beneath his clawed glove, and corn syrup dyed black seeped onto the floor. “Mm… You’ve wounded me,” he said with a smirk, letting the blade hit the floor.

 “I’ll do more than that.” I replied, taking a gold-glittered whip from my belt and unravelling it. We exchanged blows over and over, acting out a few close-calls that had the audience catching their breath and exhaling all at the same time. Sweat beaded on my brow—I’d never thought it would be so arduous to pretend to fight, but we fought onstage just as we fought in reality: hard and ceaselessly. With only five minute breaks at a time to change backdrops and costumes, we spent the majority of the performance exchanging staged blows.

 Is this really what it was like? I thought as his dragon’s claws clashed with my saber, locking us in a stalemate. Clashing with E.N.D. for a handful of centuries… I never realized how tiring it was. It’s only been forty minutes and I’m exhausted—what did that eon feel like?

 “You won’t be relenting anytime soon, will you?” Natsu sighed. He was just as clammy and out of breath as I was, which put real exhaustion into his tone.

 “Never,” I snapped, dredging up the last of my energy to put it into the fury required. “You are a creature of rot and destruction, of darkness and death. You should not be allowed to wander this earth and pain its inhabitants.”

 I couldn’t say what happened then, since I had said that line many times during rehearsal and all went well, but Natsu’s eyebrows jumped as his eyes bugged with alarm. I didn’t mean it, but I could tell in that moment that he took it as seriously as when we were fighting for blood.

 “Is…that so?” he hummed, a dangerous smile crossing his face. “Says the feeble star who wouldn’t shine if not for the others’ pity.”

 “Feeble star?” I echoed incredulously. My hands tightened around the hilt as I pressed harder, stepping closer until he and I were nose to nose. “What do you know of the stars, you wretch? Your darkness blots them out of the sky.”

 “It’s not as if the people need to see them anyhow. They do nothing but revel in their plains—why, then, do they let me roam freely while you’re the only one who troubles yourself?”

 “Because they have larger matters to—”

 “Don’t belittle me, littlest star!” he interrupted with a shout, eyes blazing like emerald flames. The weapon was swept from my hands and sent skidding across the polished wood of the stage. The next second, his human fist was twisted in the collar of my undershirt tight enough to choke my breath. “The benevolent, merciful stars have never once troubled themselves with me! While you cried out in mourning, I’ve lost my parents woe is me, the stars answered your pleas and made you great.” He thrusted me backwards so harshly that I almost lost my footing. When he met my eyes again, there were tears in the corner of his. “What about the boy who was stolen from his brother by the darkness, eh? What about him?”

 “Natsu! Lucy!” Gray hissed from offstage. It wasn’t peculiar for Fairy Tail to improvise—more often than not, the script would become an outline with the most memorable acting occurring onstage—but the two of us were getting out of hand. I gasped at the sight of his tears, feeling like I was being drawn from a fugue.

 “Natsu, I—”

 “They did nothing!” he roared, clenching his fists to hide their trembling. “They did nothing but watch from the heavens as I suffered. And you, and you, little Lucida Sidera, you never tried to help, did you? It’s far easier to sever a diseased plant than nurse it back to health, isn’t it?”

 “It’s impossible to revive a dead plant,” I amended. His eyes narrowed as he let out a vicious chuckle.

 “That’s how it is, then? This supposed friendship we had, and all the while you’ve been thinking what a lost cause I am… I suppose I’ve always known it.” He raised his clawed hand, and for a second I thought I saw some of the blackness flake off of it. “Well, we won’t have that issue any longer, will we?” And he ran forward and swung. I was slow to react, so even though I managed to roll out of the way, I felt my breastplate give. As I looked at it, I saw three deep scores like claw marks left by a bear.

 That’s impossible… Those claws are fake…

 I didn’t have time to ponder it as he spun and came at me again, claws out. I wasn’t imagining it: there was a dark dust radiating from part of his body and trailing behind him like ash. From all my research, I had been sure that no ethernano still existed within the atmosphere, but my eyes now proved me wrong. Then again, that was the beautiful thing about magic: it often shattered expectations.

 I took up my sword and slashed to parry his attack, and upon contact with the saber sparks flew. I took another look at the prop and saw that it had become untarnished silver, surrounded by an aura of my old Celestial Magic. I had almost forgotten how good it could feel: my body was lighter, the air tasted cleaner, and I was once again Lucida Sidera. Then again, as I beheld the darkness clouding most of his extremities and part of his face, bringing his soft hair into an unkempt mess, I realized that yet again, E.N.D. and I would clash.

 Another swipe of his claws shattered the silver of the blade, and as he came around again, I stabbed the remaining bit into his shoulder. He hissed and recoiled, viscous black blood and Dark Magic leaking from the injury. I clenched my hand and pulled the other back, and a bow formed of Celestial Magic appeared in my grip. I nocked a golden arrow and shot it into his lower belly. He growled as he pulled it free, now stained black as the night, and rushed forward before slamming it down on my chest. The armor glittered before repelling him with a blast of light.

 “Still as radiant as ever,” E.N.D. said acerbically, shaking off his scorched hand. I glanced at the crowd from the corner of my eye: they were stunned, but leaning forward in their seats. I didn’t want them to stay and risk getting hurt, but there was no safe way to say “I’m an envoy of the stars and he’s a demon of death” without causing panic—if we were even believed. We were still actors, after all, and they thought it was a show.

 “What happened to not wanting to fight, huh?” I yelled, nocking three arrows at once and letting them all fly. He deflected them with a swipe of his claws and lashed out with his foot. I caught his ankle with my bow and swung him away quickly, but the string had already snapped. He landed on a knee and spun around, his human hand caking over with Dark Magic until it too was clawed and coming at me. I drew up enough magic to form two longswords and crossed them to block the attack, but I hadn’t the energy left to force him away.

 “I changed my mind,” he grinned, but it held none of his usual warmth. “This is what you want, right? To have both of us skewered and on our way through the ethernano again?”

 “I… Maybe, it was, but…” I shook my head quickly and took a sluggish step forward, then another, and I kept going until I had him retreating backwards to keep his bearings. “That’s neither here nor there! Do you want to hurt those around you? I’m sure that’s not what you want!” His eyes flickered, but only for a moment.

 “It’s not,” he admitted dully. “But hurting you, that’s a big goal of mine right now.” He threw his arms in the air, causing me to stagger forward from my force, and slapped a hand down on my back. He quickly withdrew from the scorches, but he did it: my breastplate fell to the ground in pieces blacked at the edges, leaving me in nothing but a loose undershirt. I may have been without my armor, but he had bleeding burns up and down his arms. I took advantage of that as I clasped my magic-encased hands around them, causing him to writhe and scream in agony before he finally sent me on my back. I rolled to my feet as he whimpered softly, great globs of darkness hitting the ground as he stood, shuddering and shaking. “Hurts…haven’t felt pain like that in…hurts…” he muttered, fingers twitching as he tried to clasp his hands into fists.

 “I hope the pain may humble you.” I lunged forward and tackled him to the ground, pinning his throat with the flat of my blade. The delicate skin there sizzled in contact with my celestial bronze, but this time he maintained a boiling glare.

 “Do it,” he rasped, reaching up with trembling hands towards my neck. “Let’s do this all over again.”

 “E.N.D.—” It occurred to me, then, what I was doing. While reading the story of Mavis and Zeref, I realized how fine the line between love and hate could be, and crouching there with my longtime foe’s life in my hands, I felt those words to be truer than ever.

 “Please,” I pleaded softly, letting the swords hit the ground and vanish into ethernano. “Natsu, don’t make me kill you.”

 “Don’t make you? Have I ever made you do anything in our long past?” he rumbled. “It was you who always sought me out and you who always gave the first blow.”

 “But things are different now! We were together, we sat together and joked and laughed and—don’t tell me that didn’t mean as much to you as I did to me,” I whispered. He looked at me dubiously.

 “I don’t think it meant anything to you,” he retorted, but he averted his eyes as he spoke. He was frightened beneath that anger—I should know.

 “There is a fine line between love and hate. Mavis and Zeref loved each other, but fought all the same. Their rancor still taints the universe to this day.”

 “You’re still speaking of fables, littlest star? It’s a story—it’s only a story!” I froze, because it suddenly came to me. I had an epiphany in the form of a memory:

 “Though it’s not explicitly stated, I’ve read the script, and I believe that the lesson to be drawn is that history makes its mark. It moves in an endless loop and can trap anyone in it. Knowing what’s behind you, then, can help you not make the mistakes of your ancestors, and to move forward in life.”

 “Makarov knows,” I murmured. “Natsu…don’t you see? We’re the idiots here.”

 “You’re one to talk,” he muttered. I shook my head vigorously and skipped away from him. He watched me carefully as he pushed himself to his feet, wincing as he bent his arms.

 “George Santayana once said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Natsu, we’ve been fighting and fighting and fighting for eons, and why? Why do we fight? It’s because of Mavis and Zeref!” I said to him. “They’ve made their mistakes as all do, but we never learned from them. Hell, we’ve never learned from our own mistakes!”

 “What are you getting at?” he stated flatly.

 “I’m saying fighting isn’t the answer.” He stared for a moment before laughing aloud.

 “Ha! Now that’s rich, coming from you.”

 “I’m serious!” I fumed. His laughter died away until it was only his eyes following me, and he started a slow and purposeful stalk across the stage.

 “The answer, I believe, is what we’ve been doing.” With each step, the wood rotted and collapsed beneath him, creating ominous snapping noises that startled Fairy Tail and the guests alike. I was surprised that his clothes held up as long as they had. His eyes glittered with unshed tears. “You wanted to play with me? Then fine, you’ll get what you asked for.” He’s hurt, on the inside, I thought. And the only way he can think of remedying himself is by hurting me in turn. He never got to be with humans, never got to be a human, and neither the stars nor I have done anything to fix that.

 “You’ve made mistakes,” I said quietly as he drew near, “and so have I, so have the stars. But now, I want to make right with the universe. I’m going to do what Mavis and Zeref should’ve done millennia ago, and what I should’ve done months ago.” He stopped right in front of me and raised his arm. I didn’t know what he wanted to do and I never found out, because then I grabbed his hand, claws and all, and intertwined our fingers.

 “Natsu,” I said, bringing wide emerald eyes to mine. I was reminded of when he saw the cows, of when I offered him food, and of thousands of little moments after as we rehearsed. “No matter what has been said and done between us, my heart has made its decision.” I put my other hand on his cheek, feeling my skin warm in contact with his, but neither of us flinched away. It felt as if we were in a private space bubble away from it all—the stage, the audience, everything but the two of us was gone. “Now, and always, I will love you.”

 And I kissed him.

 “Lucy,” he murmured against my lips, his breath coming out in warm, quick pants. “T…Thank you…” He put his other hand around my waist, and tugged, pulling my body flush against his, and tilted his head to deepen the kiss. Warmth spread out between us, almost painful in its intensity, and I feared we would be reduced to nothingness, but as I clung to him, I felt the void-like presence of his Dark Magic whittle away until there was nothing but smooth skin beneath my grip. The remains of my armor melted into light so bright that it blinded us of all else. As I blinked into the brilliance, I saw another girl staring at me. Long, pale hair curled to her bare feet, and her teal eyes brightened with her smile as she bounded over and wrapped her arms around me.

 “Thank you,” she whispered, and all at once, I understood that I was seeing Mavis.

 “Thank you.” She disappeared into a flurry of lights like little fairies, and across from me, a dark form dressed in black robes with a white sash was murmuring into Natsu’s ears. He turned to regard me with eyes as black as the night, then gave a serene smile before he melted into several ink blots that faded into the glow. The lights coalesced and shot up towards the ceiling before bursting. It fell over us and the stage like golden rain, and Natsu pulled away to bask in the shimmering light. “It feels…warm,” he whispered, awed. “The good warm.”

 “It’s the warmth of the stars,” I said. And if I squinted into their brightness, I was certain I could see my old friends’ smiling faces within the radiance, watching from the heavens. The sight brought tears to my eyes, and I laughed. When I looked down, I saw that the remains of our magic had vanished, the scratches and holes gone from the stage.

 “Well,” Natsu said loudly, “I guess that’s all, folks.” He took my arm and linked it with his. “That was our, ahem, special performance, The Stars Against the Night. There was no winner, but there doesn’t always gotta be one, amiright?” And he pulled me into his subsequent bow.

 The building erupted with applause and shouts.

 “That was amazing!”

 “It was so real!”

 “The emotions—wow, those guys were really into it!”

 “The special effects were off the chain!”

 “You guys rock!”

 “Cool!”

 We had a standing ovation, the sight of which made me blush, but Natsu grinned and held onto me to keep me from running.

 Afterwards, of course we were bombarded with questions from the other Fairy Tail members. I shifted uneasily until Natsu gave an annoyed grumble and, in the span of two sentences, conveyed our eons of struggling. I found it to be a ridiculous underestimation, but his closing statement, “And now we kissed so it’s happy ever after and shit again,” made me laugh hard enough to let it go.

 “So, if you two…reincarnated…at the same time,” Gray said slowly, trying to wrap his head around it, but everyone was a little confused, “where were you when we found Luc…Lucida?”

 “Lucy is fine.”

 “I was in the bushes,” Natsu said with a sheepish smile. “I, uh, your car scared me.”

 “Speaking of, how did you know they were coming?” I asked him.

 “My hearing and smell stayed the same,” he shrugged. “I forgot to tell you?”

 “You idiot.”

 “I’m your idiot,” he countered with a grin. They kept up with the questions until Makarov finally called us to the privacy of his office, and good—I needed to ask him some questions.

 “You knew,” I said as soon as the door shut. “You knew about us, about Mavis and Zeref…how?”

 “An…old friend told me,” Makarov said with a smile. “She’s gone, now that her last task of this world has been completed, as is her lover.”

 “Mavis and Zeref have been here all this time?” I asked incredulously.

 “Their spirits, more like. Their arguments left them unsatisfied even upon their deathbeds, and for eons they’ve watched their troubles become the troubles of two like them—you and Natsu.” He waved a hand at us before folding them atop his desk. “But now, I believe they will rest in peace.”

 “So will we,” Natsu said before I could speak, throwing an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. “Because, ah…whatcha say, Luce? Those who condemn history don’t know it so they retake it…?”

 “Not even close,” I sighed. “Mr. Dreyar—”

 “Makarov,” he amended.

 “Makarov, does this mean that we’re fine now?”

 “You’re entirely human, if that’s what you mean. The last vestiges of magic are gone from both of you. You’re no longer bound by your fates—you’re free to live life as you wish, my children,” he said with a grin.

 “Then…I choose to live my life with Natsu, as long as that will be.”

 “Just the same,” Natsu said with a soft smile. “I never knew that love could be a real thing, not twisted or nothing like that, but now, I wanna hold onto what I got with Lucy and never let it go. Damn, I sound like a stupid poetry book, don’t I?”

 “Don’t worry, I don’t love you any less for it,” I smiled, touching his cheek. He grasped my hand and closed his eyes, leaning into my touch.

 “This is a beautiful thing…touching,” he murmured. “And to think I’ve gotta whole life to touch and experience…”

 Makarov stood and regarded us both with a wide smile. “You’ve broken free from the hold that old history had on you,” he said, glancing out his window at the sunny, cloudless sky before going past us and opening the door. “Now you two can make new history. Your history.”

[abybweisse]

hi :) Anon asked you "does anyone know that the remains of the burned bones and etc belong to Vincent Phantomhive? Couldn't it have been the remains of another corpse or body, that may have been substituted for Vincent, as a part to fake his death? I think he's still alive and gone into hiding, in a distant and far away foreign country." I also think that this is a nice idea and also UT doesn't need to know everything. Then here's Sebastian/Vincent theory; maybe they're not the same person part1

“but we still know nothing about Sebastian’s past. Maybe they knew each other? There was a scene when Sebastian remained Ciel’s the situation when little Ciel (the real one?) was cooking with Vincent and Deidrich for sick Rachel, OK Dee was cooking ;) he shouldn’t know about it and also, why he was in this place three years ago and decided tho show himself to little boy? And many others. So maybe Vincent had some another plan about which UT didn’t know, maybe he’s alive or maybe even he is part2

hiding himself somewhere or she became a demon known as Sebastian. Everything is quitly possible if we still know a little. And I don’t catch the idea that Sebastian looks like Vincent to make Ciel trusted him. Just don’t. It’s too weak for Yana, there must be something else. All of them UT/Vinnie/Sebastian looks almost the same (without hair+scars) so there must be a greater reason. What do you think? Have a nice day/night! part3″

Thanks for the asks! There’s a lot to address here, though, so bare with me.

1. We actually do know a few things about Sebastian’s more recent past. First of all, Chapter 2 gives us an idea of what he was up to sometime between ~1750 and when the earl summoned him. Lyrics to one of the Phantom Five songs (”Phantom? Knight!”) strongly suggest that the earl woke him from a deep slumber, but before that… he had been dancing the Viennese Waltz at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Chances are, he had some involvement with the Habsburgs, who controlled the palace for a few centuries, until their reign officially ended in 1816, when Franz Joseph died. Two years later, the palace became national property and was turned into a museum. So, sometime between the development of the Viennese Waltz and when our demon got bored enough to sleep… he was causing intrigue among the aristocracy and royalty of Austria. And not just Austria. The Habsburgs, at some time or other, ruled Austria, Germany, Hungary, and other lands. Ferdinand I was on the throne/in office from 1835 to 1848, but he was unable to rule his lands due to mental deficiency (severe epilepsy, among other issues), so two individuals were assigned to “assist him” (Archduke Louis and Prince Metternich). Somehow, I have a feeling our demon influenced international politics during that era, too, not just this new business between England, Germany, and, to a lesser extent, France and Italy.

2. Sebastian explains that he found the recipes in the family cookbook, a collection of recipes passed down from the previous generation. How that cookbook survived the fire when not much else did(?), but anyway ;) The earl had to explain to Sebastian the full significance of those recipes afterwards. Sebastian just thought they seemed appropriate for someone who needs to eat but can’t handle much. (Come to think of it, too bad he didn’t find those recipes when he and the earl first returned to the manor. I think Tanaka’s return to the manor has something to do with this, actually… like perhaps Tanaka had managed to save a few things from burning down before he was stabbed, perhaps even before the attack? That’s what I think, and I think there are other interesting things he’s saved, too. Perhaps Vincent’s private journal? Anyway….)

3. As I mentioned in #1, Sebastian was called out of a deep sleep when the earl summoned him. The licensed version even says “coma”, but that might be just to rhyme with “aroma”. And that’s the answer – he was woken from his slumber by the possibility of a delicious meal. (This is part of the Mother3 parallel, since Lucas wakes the Dark Dragon from a deep slumber. Here, the earl wakes the Black Butler from a deep slumber, too.)

4. So, no, I have no reason to believe that Sebastian is Vincent in any way. I don’t think he was personally familiar with the Phantomhives until the earl came along. If Sebastian knows anything and wants his meal in a timely fashion, don’t you think he would have spoken up before now? If it helps his own, personal goal of devouring this soul? No. He is not Vincent. He looks like Vincent because of the contract, most-likely, some emotional element to it as the contract was being drawn-up/forged. A fatherly figure, an authority figure. As far as Vincent is concerned, I think think he’s as dead as Undertaker claims him to be, unless Undertaker is a very good liar (and and actor way better than even Grell). However, I will concede that Vincent probably knew something was about to happen, and he prepared for it somehow, most-likely involving Tanaka (like I mentioned in #2).

5. Similarities, in general, between characters’ physical traits are probably due to two major things: 1) Yana-san’s drawing style has evolved a lot over the years, but even well-experienced mangakas can use the same templates for multiple characters. 2) It’s been mentioned that the aristocracy are extremely interwoven, genetically, so it’s no surprise that many of these characters have similar facial features, etc. It was common for first cousins to marry, particulalry if they are aristocrats or royalty. “Ciel” was betrothed to his first cousin, Lizzie. Queen Victoria really did marry her first cousin, Prince Albert. That Ferdinand I of Austria… it’s said his health and mental problems were due to inbreeding – his parents were double first cousins.

I hope this answers at least some of your questions to some degree of satisfaction. I know there’re still a lot more questions out there than any of us have answers for. Try as I might, I know I just have theories, even if some of them are well-supported….

Thanks again! :)