#but they’re not really important except for here so I ain’t gonna bother

[thekingofthenameless]

IT’S HERE BITCHES

[tense-gemstone]

Now, afore’s you kids go off into the world, there’s a certain thing ye gotta know about the Other Folk. Ye might see all sorts when you leave the homeland, and they’s all got their own funny ideas bout this thing they like to call “gender.” Now that word comes from the humans, but they’re not the only ones who use it. In fact, this is where us folks are the odd ones out! But let’s start with humans.

Humans have two main genders, called Men and Women. There’s plenty of other ones, but ain’t none of them can agree on what they are so you’ll just have to be sure to ask ‘em. They’ll tend to assume all of us are Menfolk, since that’s the more public gender. Don’t bother correctin’ em, I’ve found; you’ll just confuse everybody involved. Mens are generally tasked with politics, as well as huntin’ and the bulk of the farmin’. The other one, Women, generally stay indoors and take care of the household, plus shoppin’ and visitin’ family friends. I know it’s weird and arbitrary, but they do have different clothes and hairstyles that you’ll get to know if you spend any length of time in human areas. Until you do, try not to guess too much. They get offended if you get it wrong - especially if you call a Men a Women. Y’see, humans in particular tend to think of Men as the better gender - stronger, smarter, and just all round more fit t’be in charge of things. Men-parents and Men-spouses are in charge of their families. Family names come from Men. And they don’t tend to listen to Women, even when the Women are bein’ perfectly reasonable. They’ll tell you they’re just different roles and not a judgement on anybody, but they’re lyin’. Ain’t none of us ever figured out if it’s just us or they selves they’re lyin’ to.

On the other side of the savannah, do y’all remember which Other Folk live there? That’s right, the elves. I don’t speak their language and couldn’t pronounce their genders if I tried, but if you wanna go that far east you can spend a year or three in the falls-city and learn enough to get by. Elves have got four important genders - I know it’s a lot but it’s simpler’n it seems. They’ve got one gender for the first fifty years a their life, then when they come of age they pick out an adult one. One gender is specifically for their sages, dedicatin’ their lives the the tree gods or whoever. And the other two are pretty similar to Men and Women. Men-elves do sharp-dangerous work an’ Women-elves do social-intellectual work. But elves consider the social-intellectual work to be more important, and so they reckon their families as comin’ from Women-parents and Women-spouses. The way my teacher explained it to me was that Men-elves are s’posed to be tools and weapons in the hands of their Women-spouses, not wielders in ‘emselves. We think that’s one a the reasons human-elf diplomacy is so deeply fucked. The Men-humans don’t think Women-elves are worth listening to, and the Women-elves don’t think Men-humans are worth listening to. And ain’t neither of ‘em are gonna debase themselves sendin’ the “wrong” gender to do their negotiatin’. So y’see that’s why we don’t really have a direct tradin’ route through the human-controlled grassland to get to elvish woods, and silk only comes in up the river Jynna, even though it’s a couple hunnert more miles’n it would be in a straight line.

Speakin’ of the Jynna - ye’ll recall it’s the border ‘twixt the humans and the orcs. Most any orc’ll tell ye there’s exactly two genders, and insist that that applies to everyone includin’ us. Here’s the weird thing, though. Orcs value the sharp-dangerous work more than the social-intellectual work. Their warriors are the family leaders and the diplomats. But they’ll insist on translatin’ their warrior-gender as Women-orcs, and their private-gender as Men-orcs. A human could probably explain it best, actually, since they’ve got the most interest in categorizin’ and linguistics and such. And it wouldn’t matter, really, except that it explains why orcs and elves get along so well while the humans aren’t liked by either. They consider their warrior-gender and the elves’ elegant-gender to be the same gender, despite doin’ entirely different things. So they understand each other, and send the right gender to interact with each other, and are a bit confused but not nearly as angry as when either of ‘em interacts with humans. Now orcs are a raidin’ culture, and the Jynna is often contested territory. They like as to go plunder up and down the river, and by sea to our western neighbors. They don’t have the technology to get into our mountains by force, and it’s right easier to go steal from our tradin’ partners than to steal from us directly, but there’s a reason the elves are the ones with all the merchant-boats and not us. They fly elvish flags and they have treaties worked out with the orc-leaders and they don’t get set on fire.

The Holbytla live to our west, protected on all sides by the sea and our mountains. They've got seventeen genders and all of ‘em want their verbs conjugated differently. Plenty of our merchants and such don’t even bother to learn ‘em, cause it’s so hard to tell the difference, but if any of y’all have your hearts set on bein’ politicians ye’ll have to eventually. I’ve got some cousins and in-laws that actually live down in halfling-country, so’s I can speak well enough to get by, but whenever I go down to visit I just use the infinitives instead of botherin’ to conjugate anything. It’ll get ye mocked, but it won’t get ye stabbed, which is the important thing. No I will not be tellin’ that story, we’ve run over time for today already! Go home, ridiculous children! And there will be a quiz on this tomorrow!

[leupagus]

Who’s your County Executive? and other steps to becoming a valuable pain in the ass

I fired off a tweet thread this morning, but I feel like a lot of folks here might benefit from this info, too. Which is: if you want anything to change, from police abolition to getting statues removed to passing local ordinances requiring masks to removing local legislation putting limits on abortion (just for some random examples), you need to get real familiar with your local reps. As in, you need to know who they are, what they do, how they’re elected/appointed, how long they’ve been doing that job, what their history is and how you can pressure them into doing what you want. Using hashtags and sharing links and signal boosting can only do so much. Talking to the people who are actually able to implement the change you want is a huge part that I don’t think gets discussed enough; and although it requires some preliminary work, once you get into the groove it’s surprisingly easy.

First, find out where you live! Which you may think is a stupid step, but —do you live in a city? Are you sure? I live in a city, for example, but I actually live in a township/suburb of that city, not the city proper. (Fortunately due to what I suspect is some white flight-related weirdness, I can still hassle the city proper.) There are entire towns inside of some cities, like West Hollywood and Los Angeles. Double-check; you might be surprised.

Then, find out who’s in charge of said place. There are quite a few people, actually. You probably have a mayor — but they might be called a supervisor. Or you may have a city manager, or executive, or clerk, or all three, or someone else entirely, who’s actually doing the day-to-day running of the place — for instance, while Austin has a mayor, it also has a city manager, and the city manager does WAY more than the mayor does. You also have people at the county/parish level — a county executive is I think the most common term, although sometimes it’s the county clerk, who can have entirely different duties depending on the county. Whatever way it works where you live, find out. While you’re at it, find out who’s in charge of your local elections. Sometimes that’s the county clerk (actually I think it’s almost always the country clerk, but sometimes it’s the county auditor or something weird like that); sometimes they’re elected and sometimes they’re appointed. Find out. Get names, put their contact info in your phone. (More on that later.)

Then, find out who represents you on the city/town council and the county legislature, or whatever they’re called where you are. Finding out what district you’re in can sometimes be hellaciously frustrating; when in doubt, an email to the county or city council can often get you an answer if you provide your address. Also bear in mind that different places have different ways of apportioning council members; sometimes they’re all “at large,” sometimes they’re elected according to districts, sometimes it’s a combination of both. Sometimes (not often I don’t think) they’re not elected at all but appointed by someone. Find out who! And don’t leave out things like school boards and zoning boards and community college boards and anything else you happen upon that has a representative you didn’t know existed. They exist, and I guarantee they’ve got power.

Note: find out who represents you state-wide, too. Often calling the governor isn’t that effective (at least for me, calling Cuomo ain’t gonna do much; if you live in Delaware or Montana or Iowa or somewhere relatively less populous, definitely get your governor’s information), but your state reps are usually pretty eager to talk to constituents, even — and this is really important these days — ones who aren’t of the same party. I’m represented by a GOP state senator, for example, but he ended up voting for this bill that just got signed into law. Most states are bicameral (except Nebraska, heyooo), so you likely have a state senator and a state rep/assemblyman/whatever. Make sure to get info for both. (Unless you live in Nebraska, in which case tell Ernie I said hi.)

Next, find out what the court system looks like where you are. Are your state/county/district/etc judges appointed? Elected? What are their terms? Who’s your District Attorney? Who’s in charge of your Public Defender’s office? (I actually haven’t bothered to look up that myself until today!) What courts handle which offenses in your area? Collect that information.

And what do you do with this info? You put it into your phone contacts, or whatever you use to keep your contacts organized, I dunno, maybe you still use your Wizard from 1992. No judgement. However you do it, put all of these contacts somewhere they’re all together — for example, if you have a letter in your directory that isn’t used much. I have a kind of weird method of organizing my contacts, which is that I put their first and last names (and their handles, if I know them online) in the Firstname field, then the Lastname field I use to say how I know them. So all of my New York-based friends are listed as “NYC, Holly Golightly/moonrivergoddess” or whatever. So for me personally, I just put all my political contacts under “Y” as in “Y do I have to keep pestering you to make you do the right thing.” So a county clerk would be listed like so:

Y, County Clerk Horace Vandergelder

In the “Company” field, I usually put their party and when/if they’re up for election next as well as term length, so Horace would be “Dem, 2020/2024.″ And then I might add any links I thought were helpful as well as notes about, say, what staffer I may’ve talked to or if there’s an important bill coming up etc.

And now you’ve got that information, it’s time to fuckin’ use it. Was there a protest that happened in your area that ended in arrests or violence? Call your mayor, register your displeasure. Call your DA, ask if anyone’s being charged. Call your city council member, ask them what legislation they’d support to end police violence. What do you know that you want them to know? Alternatively, was there a protest in your area that was really great and positive? Call these people; ask if they attended. If they did, offer support for them and say that you want them to follow up with actionable steps. If they didn’t, ask why. (BTW, it’s election season — look at the candidates, too! That state senator I mentioned earlier is retiring this year, and a pretty awesome Democrat is in a good position to get his seat; I’ve started volunteering for him in part because he’s got a history of agitating for police reform and has been regularly attending the protests here.) You can email, too; you’re welcome to c&p form emails, but once you have all these people’s contact info at your fingertips you’d be amazed how easy it’ll be to write something from you, that will be far more effective.

It’s also important to keep a record for yourself of who you’ve talked to, when you talked to them, what they said, if you want to follow up etc. I’ve got a little section of my planner for this; it has dates, names, topics, the works. It’s been really helpful to me over the past few weeks making sure I’m exerting pressure to a variety of people in a variety of positions, not just repeatedly calling one office and leaving the same message over and over again.

But if you really want to, as I put it on twitter, tighten the sphincter of local government, nothing beats face-to-face (or, these days, facetime-to-facetime). And here you’ve got a shitton of options. You can see if a particular politician/government office is taking virtual one-on-one meetings, where you can lobby either your politician or (more likely) one of their staffers to support legislation or policies or whatnot. This is, and I cannot stress it enough, HUGELY EFFECTIVE, especially if you are a demo they don’t often see (aka if you’re not a white Boomer). Local politicians are both desperate for and terrified of an engaged constituency; they want you to care but they’re very much aware that anyone showing up to an office (or a zoom meeting) could make their lives very, very difficult.

If one-on-one isn’t your style, there are also committee meetings, which... holy shit, you would not believe the number of committees there are. Committees for art festivals, committees for transportation, committees for public safety, committees for pretty much everything you can think of and a few I’ll bet you can’t. Noodle around on your councils’ and county’s websites, including their facebook page (nine times out of ten there will be more — and more up-to-date — info on the facebook page) to find out what committees meet when. And here is where your specific priorities will be important, because usually you can attend and in some cases even become part of these committees. Do you want to advocate for better public transportation? Find out when the transportation committee meets. Go to that meeting. If they have a Q&A, get some fuckin’ Qs ready and demand some fuckin’ As.

And then there’s the big kahunas of council meetings and state legislature sessions. Most city/town councils have a segment of their weekly/monthly meetings to hear from the public (this is different from a public hearing, FYI, although they too are really important and you should find out if there are any going on where you live and when). Do you have something you want to get in front of the whole council? Get your ass on the list! In Austin I think you had to call or email the council’s office by the day before; in my town you just roll up and get in line when it comes time. Then for state legislatures, often there will be specific bills on which they ask for “citizen input” or however else they describe it. This is less practical because we don’t all live in easy distance of our state capital, but if you do, consider getting involved there. (And right now with the pandemic, your state legislatures may have new rules about citizen participation that actually make it easier for you to get involved, for once.)

Mostly, though, this is about local involvement — find out who’s in control of your city, your county, your precinct and district and all the other ways your home is demarcated. Talk to these people, even if it makes you nervous; their power to make effective change comes with their responsibility to listen, and your power to make them listen comes with your responsibility to speak.

[firelxdykatara]

bumbleby and kataang for the honest ship ask??

MONA PLEASE DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO DIE -sobs-

I already answered kataang here and was pretty thorough, but one extra thing I will say is that I absolutely hate it when the response to someone not liking kataang or thinking they shouldn't have ended up together is 'but what about Aang? he'd be so hurt!' like... so?

I mean that genuinely. So what? He was a twelve, maybe thirteen-year-old kid by the end of the series. He'd get over it and move on and be just fine if his childhood puppylove crush didn't like him back and wound up dating someone else. 'But what about the cloudbabies???' Do y'all think Katara's the only woman on the planet???? I promise you, Aang would be able to have kids with anyone else if he grew up and fell in love with someone who could bear them--and considering that Tenzin didn't look anything at all like Katara, he and his airbending kids could easily have come from Aang's relationship to literally anyone else.

But also, like, heaven forbid I focus on Katara's feelings and what she'd get out of a romantic relationship without thinking about how much that might hurt her canon boyfriend. Who cares? This ain't about him. He could easily move on and find someone else, that's not the issue here. The issue is Katara. Focus on her, please.

Bumbleby:

Ohhh boy you really wanna stick me in hot water huh kdljfghkdjfhg OK BUT LIKE. REALTALK. At the end of the day, there's just... nothing there.

I know there's meant to be, and I know it's supposed to be a big deal that Yang lost her arm protecting Blake and then Blake ran away and then Blake came back and all of that, but like... it's really not reflected in their relationship at all. They don't talk about anything they went through. They get a couple moments in v6 (but no real conversation), they get Blake promising to never leave again (which is not even remotely a healthy mindset for beginning a relationship, especially when we see the fallout of that declaration--indirectly, because of course these characters never actually talk about anything important--in v8) without ever actually discussing why she left in the first place or why Yang was so hurt by it, then they kill a man together in the v6 finale and never talk about that (and this isn't me saying he didn't deserve it, this is me saying that I don't care what kind of wretched son of a bitch someone might be, killing another human being is traumatic and will have an affect on you, and the fact that Blake and Yang never fucking talk about or work through that trauma is.... very bad), and that was it for v6.

Then in v7, aside from superficial nonsense about going out dancing instead of to a political rally bc I guess Blake doesn't really care about Faunus Rights anymore, Blake follows Yang's lead and lies to everyone about the Robyn situation which leads to even more bad shit happening when Ironwood figures out what they'd done, and then in v8 you have the most bland argument ever between Yang and Ruby and Blake seeming to be ashamed when they reunite (as if she thought Yang would be disappointed in or angry with her for.... going with one half of the group to accomplish a goal???? yeah ok sure that makes sense), and like................that's it

There's nothing else to their relationship. There really is no relationship to speak of, and the fact that the shippers have said 'bees are definitely gonna kiss this episode for sure! they're super canon and are gonna show it!' every single episode for two volumes straight now is a testament to that. And you could maybe say 'you don't need a kiss to show a ship is canon' except that RWBY has said that you do. The only canon romantic relationships between main cast members have been confirmed via liplock--Arkos in v3, and Renora (whom a lot of people assumed had already been together-together by like v5) in v7. Other couples/feelings among the side characters have at the least been confirmed via dialogue--the Cotta-Arcs, Ilia's one-sided feelings for Blake, etc. In absence of a verbal declaration, the only way we have to know that two characters are a couple is kissing.

And if that's not the case, and we come to find out later on that Blake and Yang have been in a relationship this whole time, then that means that the one singular same-gender relationship among the mains is being treated differently (no kiss and no verbal declaration of a relationship) than the different-gender relationships, and that is, itself, a whole other level of Not Great.

Ultimately, though, I think what bothers me most about Bumbleby is that so much of it relies on like... color-coding, vague allusions, hand-holding and forehead-touching (all of which we already had two volumes ago) and not much else, which makes it seem like the show is just stringing along the audience, knowing they will keep tuning in waiting for the couple's inevitable canonization without having to actually commit any resources to developing or exploring their relationship. People keep calling bumbleby a 'slowburn', but the thing is that nothing is burning anymore. They are in the exact same place in v8 that they were at the end of v6. That's not a slowburn anymore, that's a holding pattern, and literally nothing has changed! Let them just fucking kiss for the love of all that is holy and put the rest of us out of our misery, please.

send me a ship and get my (brutally) honest opinion!

[lvllns]

it don’t matter to me (wherever we are is where i wanna be) [3/3]

the wayhaven chronicles. felix hauville x kincaid anderson (nb detective). teen and up rating for language. established relationship, mostly fluff with some angst. 2100+ words. (5900+ words total.) — starting over, chapter 3 of 3.

notes: little bit of angst, some more soft felix and kincaid. some of my favorite parts from this whole thing are in this chapter.

[ao3 link]

—

There’s a bonfire burning, flames licking at the rocks that surround the pit, and Kincaid is singing softly under his breath, everyone else having turned in for the night already.

Felix’s cheek rests against Kincaid’s chest, right over his heart, and he’s sitting in his lap. Kincaid has an almost empty glass of whiskey in his left hand, his right hand drifting up and down Felix’s back slowly. Like he’s committing each and every bump of his spine to memory. He laughs, the sound rumbling through his chest, and it warms Felix up from the inside out. He smiles. Turns and presses his face into Kincaid’s neck for a second before he leans back and just...looks his fill.

There’s an ease to Kincaid that Felix rarely sees. No tension in his body, eyes bright in the flickering light of the fire. His head tips back, baring his throat, and he hums, half-lidded eyes drifting from Felix to the sky above.

“You’re thinkin’ pretty loud darlin’,” he says. His touch moves to Felix’s hip and he squeezes gently. “You good?”

Felix nibbles on his bottom lip and thinks, really thinks, because something is chewing at him. Clawing at his ribs and tearing at his throat but he can’t place it. It’s been burning in his chest since they got here, this weird, amorphous something that sits white hot in his gut. He thinks about how they dealt with dinner, how they shared one plate and Kincaid kept picking at it, the conversation enough to keep attention away from how little Felix ate. Though what he did eat wasn’t bad, it was just overwhelming and he tapped out early. Felix thinks about how they’re leaving early tomorrow under the guise of getting on the road to get back by the afternoon. How Kincaid had grinned, shrugged, and made a comment about the work piling up.

Felix tries, and fails, not to think about how if he weren’t here, Kincaid could stay as long as he wanted. There would be no leaving early to avoid breakfast, no worry about an accidental slip up—

(Nate still sometimes brings up the human comment Felix made when this whole situation first started.)

—no lying to the people he considers family and there, that’s it.

Or part of it, at least.

“Fee?” Kincaid’s voice is soft, concerned, and he cups Felix’s face with both hands, his left a cool shock against the heat of the fire. “Baby, you drifted. What’s wrong?”

“Are you happy?” He whispers, eyes moving from Kincaid’s face to the dark fields behind them.

Kincaid blinks slowly, and brushes his thumbs over Felix’s cheekbones. “That’s...worryingly vague, but yes, I’m very happy.” He cocks his head. “There’s a bit more to that, ain’t there?”

“Are you...are you happy with me?”

“Felix,” Kincaid says as he sits up, all traces of whatever tipsy, half-asleep stupor he’d been in vanishing in an instant, “Of course. I am so happy with you.” He leans forward. Rest his forehead against Felix’s. “Here, let’s, let’s get into the apartment and talk, it’s gettin’ fuckin’ cold,” he grumbles, breath washing over Felix, and he smells like whiskey and smoke and cedar.

He smells like home. Like something safe that Felix wants to crawl inside of.

It’s all he can do to nod, to climb to his feet and ignore how unsteady he is. Kincaid stands and stretches, back popping as he groans, and then he catches Felix’s hand. Pulls his fingers to his mouth and kisses his knuckles. His wrist. The middle of his forearm. And he’s looking at him like he’s searching for something that Felix doesn’t know how to hide so he just smiles, weak and watery, and that makes Kincaid frown. He wants to apologize, or, no, not apologize...explain, maybe. Try to put the thoughts rolling through his head into words but his tongue is stuck to the roof of his mouth.

The walk to the barn is quiet and dark, the fire behind them smothered. Kincaid holds his hand like he’s afraid Felix is going to leave, vanish into the night sky, and he runs his thumb along Kincaid’s fingers. An attempt at reassuring him that he’s as okay as he can be. He gets an affectionate squeeze in return as they head up the stairs.

The door shuts behind them with a soft, ominous click, and then Kincaid drops his hand. Wanders off to go flick a light on. Felix moves to sit in a chair, head lolling back to rest against the fabric, and he throws an arm over his face.

He’s kind of cocked this all up, hasn’t he?

“So,” Kincaid says from somewhere not close by. Felix forces himself to look and finds his partner sitting on the bed, boots off and hands hanging between his legs. “Somethin’ has been bugging you since dinner.” He shifts. Sighs and scrubs a hand over his face. “Is—Did I do something or—”

“No!” Felix jerks forward, almost falling off the chair. “Absolutely not, it’s just, I don’t know.” He frowns, scrunches his nose up and groans. “I didn’t realize what was bothering me until like ten minutes ago.”

“And?”

He looks down at his hands. Tangles his fingers together and takes a deep breath. “All of this would be so much easier for you if I wasn’t here.” He hears Kincaid move but he doesn’t look up. “You wouldn’t have to get here late to avoid lunch, weasel your way through dinner, leave early to avoid breakfast. There’s so much lying you’re doing, Cade, and it’s...it bothers me that you have to do it.” Felix taps his thumb against his thigh for a moment. “This place and these people are important to you, and I hate feeling like I’m...I’m...I don’t know, taking this from you. Tainting it or something. You’re so happy out here.” He shrugs.

Silence.

Absolute, utter, silence.

Felix looks up. Finds Kincaid staring at him from where he still sits on the bed, bright eyes wide and lips slightly parted. When his gaze drops to his mouth, Kincaid clicks it shut and shakes his head.

“Can I touch you?” His voice is hoarse, thick. Felix nods and Kincaid is kneeling in front of him immediately, one hand on his thigh and another resting along the back of his neck. “First, I love you,” Kincaid says. “Second, and I know this probably won’t make you feel much better right this moment, but it’s not lyin’, it’s a little...skillful avoidance of the truth.” He grins and Felix can’t help but smile back, it’s infectious, seeing those dimples up close. “I have to do it to everyone now, it’s not you that’s makin’ me do it anyway, it’s the Agency and everything. It’s not you.” Both hands cradle his face now, Kincaid’s broad palms rough against his skin. He leans into the touch, greedy for it and the reassurance it provides.

Kincaid rocks back on his heels before he sits on the floor, fingers slipping from Felix slowly, like he can’t bear to break the contact until the last possible second. And then he grabs Felix’s hands, reconnects, and pulls until he slides from the chair and into his lap. Felix wraps his arms around Kincaid, buries his face against his neck, and allows himself to melt. To sink into the warmth of his partner and bask in it for a moment.

He wants to say something but before he can, Kincaid murmurs, “And I’m happy here because you’re with me,” against the crown of his head. Whispered like a secret just for the both of them to share. “I’ve gone through a lot out here, Fee, and not all of it was good. But this place, as much as I love it, Felix, this is my past.” Kincaid leans back. Takes Felix’s chin between his thumb and forefinger to tilt his head back until their eyes lock. “I don’t need this place like I did when I was growin’ up. There’s nothin’ for me out here anymore except to share it with you. I want you to meet these people, see this place, but…” Felix is pulled closer, arms wrapping tight around him as Kincaid presses a kiss to his neck. “My future is with you.”

Oh.

Felix swallows hard around the sudden lump in his throat. Buries his face against Kincaid’s chest and squeezes his eyes shut before he gives in and lets himself cry quietly. Sure they’ve been together about a year, but Felix still finds himself thrown every single time—

“I chose you Felix, and I’m gonna keep chosin’ you,” Kincaid says against his temple.

“Shit,” he says, the word muffled by the shirt his face is pressed against.

Kincaid snorts, body shaking as he tries to suppress his laughter. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” Felix takes a gulp of air. Holds it for a moment before slowly exhaling. When he sits back, there are thumbs gently wiping tears from his face before he can think to do it himself.

“Little bit better?”

“Yeah.” Felix nods, smiling lopsidedly when Kincaid kisses his cheek. “I would have told you sooner but I couldn’t figure out what was upsetting me.”

“‘S fine Fee, we talked about it eventually, though this is probably gonna come up again given, well, you know.” Kincaid runs his fingers up and down Felix’s back. “For the record, you could never taint anything, and I would do a lot worse than lie for you.”

Felix wiggles closer, arms slipping around Kincaid’s neck with a gentle squeeze.

“Aside from—” Kincaid waves a hand around. Felix snorts and kisses his collarbone through the fabric of his shirt. “—this, did you like it out here?”

“Mhm,” he says as he shifts his face enough to press a kiss to Kincaid’s jaw. “It’s quiet out here, peaceful. I like it.”

“Not boring?”

“Nah, it’s...I think I hadn’t realized just how much I’ve been moving since I tumbled through the portal.” He leans back and finds Kincaid’s eyes in the dim light. “I liked being able to slow down for a little bit.” A kiss to Kincaid’s cheek, brief. “Can we get off the floor now?”

Kincaid chuckles, the sound rumbling through his chest. “Read my mind.”

They untangle from each other. Limbs sliding apart, touches breaking, only to find each other again when they’re both on their feet. Felix slips a hand beneath Kincaid’s shirt, thumb smoothing over the skin that cloaks his ribs. His own shirt gets tossed over his shoulder, and then jeans are kicked off. Boots bumped against as they stumble to the bed, exhausted. Kincaid flops onto his back, Felix pressing himself against his side, arm over his waist and head on his chest.

He listens to Kincaid’s heart, the slow, steady beat of it. Each breath deeper and deeper until Felix says, “We should get a farm.”

Kincaid’s chest rattles with laughter beneath his ear, hand drawing sweeping lines up and down Felix’s back. “Are there cows on this farm?”

“No,” he says, nose wrinkling. “They stink.”

More soft laughter, fingers moving to touch along his shoulders. “Right, no cows. Horses?”

Felix scoffs. “Duh, I like them.” He slings a leg around Kincaid’s, hooks his foot around his calf. “Maybe...an orchard or something.”

“Hmm, fruit trees.” Kincaid shifts. Drops a kiss to the top of his head before leaning back against the pillows. “Gotta make money somehow, ‘specially if we’re not raising cattle.”

“Is that how they pay for this place?”

“Partly. Steph’s a software engineer, works from home mostly now, but they’re able to keep goin’ because of that.”

“Okay, so, maybe I’ll keep working for the Agency.”

Kincaid snorts and cracks one eye open to look down at him. “Kickin’ me out to the country, I see how it is.”

Felix pinches his side until Kincaid squirms away, laughing. He leans up, rests a hand on Kincaid’s chest to steady himself, and kisses him. Slow and deep. “We can put a warehouse on the property. Like the barn apartment but bigger, keep everyone close.”

“Ah,” Kincaid murmurs against his lips, “right.” He snorts then. “Mason might be the only one who’d appreciate that.”

“They’ll get over it.”

“Okay so, we’re moving everyone out to our ranch that has horses and some kind of fruit tree. Anything else?” Kincaid’s touch gentles, and falls down to Felix’s waist, fingers tracing every dip of muscle.

“Just you.” Felix kisses his chest, right over Kincaid’s heart. “You’re really all I need.”

Both of Kincaid’s eyes flutter open, soft in the darkness, and he smiles. “Love you,” he whispers, words slurring together as he drifts closer to sleep.

“I love you too,” Felix says, speaking the words against the skin of Kincaid’s throat.

The silence stretches easily, moments passing in languid touches and deepening breaths, and then he realizes that Kincaid has fallen asleep while rubbing his thumb over the ring finger on Felix’s left hand. He buries his face against Kincaid’s chest and slips into an easy slumber with a smile on his face.

[fizzingwizard]

Episode 32 arrives! It’s, I gotta say, quite an improvement on what we’ve had lately. Quite an improvement. Even so, it’s nothing that’s gonna rock the world... but hey, I was so desperate for something different to happen that y’know what, I’ll take it.

Pic of the week:

A Digimon who just wants to roll around in the grass. Go’way, baddies.

More below!

So as you probably gather... we start with Takeru this week! Haha! Good riddance Taichi! I luv ya but I’ve had enough of ya! Take a break!

jk I totally missed him the whole thirty seconds he wasn’t on screen

Takeru and Patamon are running for their lives, of course! Patamon makes a valiant effort to evolve to protect Takeru but...

... Poor baby. He gave it the ol’ college try but he just ain’t as young as he used to be.

Things look grim until Komondomon shows up with a creepy disembodied hand sticking out of his fur!

Phew, it’s just Sora. Her brilliant plan to rescue Takeru is to grab his arm and drag him along with them... I mean... sure... Whiplash has been proven Not A Thing in this universe so...

After getting rid of their pursuer, the group checks in with the others. I’m reminded of how silly separations feel when you can just communicate with each other by walkie-talkie. Yamato’s been riding Garurumon for a long time now lol. At least we got to see him...

He sweetly encourages Takeru and tells him the best thing he can do to help Patamon with his evolution issues is be there to support him. Then he tells Taichi “I leave Takeru in your case.” Ok sure, like Sora’s not right there...

Taichi: In my care? Should I point out that I already lost one little sibling to the dark side? Nah...

Seriously, though... that’s the current situation. Taichi is actively going over SkullKnightmon to get Hikari back. If Takeru stays with him that just means Takeru gets to go into danger again too. Of course, it seems that the dark side is suddenly uninterested in Takeru and Patamon so... I guess it’s okay 9_9

We then check in with Mimi! Who is being her awesome Mimi-tastic self. Ugh I love her.

Wondered what happened to Golemon. Turns out there was nothing much to worry about because no one loves a macho boxing match like Tachikawa Mimi. If there’s ever a season where these kids grow up, I hope Mimi is like, a big fan of sumo or something.

Taichi: O... kay... well... Mimi sure is... an intersting person...

Agumon: Hey you should make her your girlfriend!

Taichi: what nOOO BAD IDEA ABORT ABORT

Meanwhile, the situation with Jou is, um, questionable to say the least...

(how is keeping that towel on)

Jou: HEEEEELP!!!

Taichi: ... you didn’t hear anything, did you? Me neither. *closes link*

Finally we check in with Koushirou. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what he says. -__-;

At least we see him get bombed a bit. He’s okay though.

Meanwhile unconscious Patamon gets a visitor from baby angel Lopmon, who tells him about hist lost memories.

He adds that the other legendary warriors have lost their power and it’s up to Patamon and his bond with Takeru to save the world more or less.

He encourages Patamon to find his hope.

Patamon: Who am I? What am I? All before me is dark. I know not what path to take.

The others, having nothing better to do, peep on Patamon’s crisis of faith.

Takeru relates a story about learning to swim and being scared of the water, but Yamato stayed with him so eventually he was able to learn to do it. Aww. Not quite comparable to Hikari’s “I wet the bed and Taichi changed the sheets and then told our parents that he was the one that did it” from the 99 series but still pretty good.

The sweet moment is interrupted by a flash of light! Then dark! Then light! Then dark!

It’s another scary Digimon! Oh dear. It’s Kerberomon. A three-headed Cerberus as I’m sure you figured out. Once again, this show does not how to convey what the stakes are. After everything we’ve been through, it’s hard to take random nobody Digimon as serious as each episode wants us to take them... but it’s obvious from the build up here that Kerberomon’s going to be tough to beat for Reasons.

Greymon gets hit and says, “I let down my guard!” MAYBE DON’T DO THAT THEN

Also it is very windy.

Le ouch. This is the Digimon from earlier whose name I forgot to take down. He’s come back with his friend...

... Scarier-in-the-dark-mon.

They’re surrounded~ Oh noes and whatnot.

Taichi is a bit cool here, clinging to Komondomon’s helmet and directing the battle like a war general. Mostly he’s telling them how to avoid getting hit by Kerberomon’s powerful attacks but I like that we get to see him using his head like this.

What I think is happening here is, Komondomon isn’t as fast as the kids could be if they were on their own, so their speed is hampered and that plus the number of assailants makes this battle tough. I am sure we’re supposed to assume that the reason WarGreymon doesn’t appear is because it takes a lot of energy to bring him out, even though last time he appeared twice in the same episode -.-;

Sora decides to be useful and goes to help Takeru get to safety.

... She is immediately struck by an attack and collapses, badly hurt somehow. This is so dumb. First of all, they don’t even animate her getting hit. There’s a flash and then she’s down. She should at least get to throw herself over Takeru protectively or something. Geez. 90s anime did it so much better. She’s just standing there and gets hit. What, did she forget there was a battle raging around her?

Second, WE ALREADY HAD DAMSEL IN DISTRESS SORA. It was Jou’s motivation to be cool way back when this show was rather more interesting than it has been of late. Why do the boys need Sora to get SERIOUSLY INJURED to be able to fight?? WHY?? Like, Taichi gets caught in the line of fire ALL THE TIME, but he never gets injured to the point where he can’t continue on. (Except for that one time with Devimon but those were exceptional circumstances!)

Like, why are we making Sora so weak?? This is so unnecessary.

I guess Yamato was right by entrusting Takeru to Taichi instead of Sora though...

... Uhhh.... never mind X’D

Taichi: Whew... m-maybe no one saw that...

Our be-bibbed god reappears to offer sage advice.

Patamon recalls his final moments as Seraphimon... being enveloped into darkness.

This is cool - we see his angelic wings turn to demon ones briefly before he slides back to lower levels. Not sure if it means anything but we have been theorizing that Patamon could still be infected by the evil that wounded him in the past.

Patamon then recalls things that happened after he was reborn and I’m reminded for the billionth time how much harder the emotions around Angemon’s death hit in the 99 show...

Suddenly Patamon realizes - his hope is Takeru, and he is Takeru’s hope.

The boys put on their game faces. This is what I mean by Sora really didn’t need to get hurt here. I get that it gives Takeru a reason to be protective, but the thing that evolves Patamon is Patamon’s feelings, the same way Agumon’s feelings were what rescued them from Devimon etc. That’s an interesting thing about this show - the Digimon’s feelings seem as important to evolution as, if not more than, the kids’.

Patamon evolves!! Very creepily! But... not to Angemon!

He becomes Pegasusmon! Who... looks a lot bigger than I remember, even considering Takeru is very small... xD

So this is pretty cool! I’ve been wondering how on earth the show was gonna keep introducing evolutions after already using up so many key players, especially for Taichi. But it looks like Armor Digimon can appear, and that makes me think that we could see all kinds of evolutions for the entire team that we’ve never seen before. I like that idea, but I don’t really know if this show has time for it. Maybe it will just be Pegasusmon and Nefertimon who are available to Takeru and Hikari so the writers can preserve the angels for the most epic moments only. That seems the most likely way things will go here, and the only qualm I have with it is, they’ve played all of Taichi’s cards already, and he’s the main character. He has to have something else in the future...

He attac!!!!

Kerberomon doesn’t last long, although why is wholly inexplicable. What about Pegasusmon gives him the edge when MetalGreymon and Garudamon couldn’t handle it? Is it because he’s an Armor Digimon? That may be it but the show doesn’t bother to explain.

Another thing I’d love to see, if there are gonna be more than just one evolutionary tree for the partners, is the kids actually strategizing when they decide which evolution to use. One of the cool parts of Tamers was the kids actively supporting their partner with skill as well as heart. I don’t think that’s gonna happen in this season, but you know, a girl can dream.

Takeru: Hurray for murder!

The three Digimon work together to put the lid on Kerberomon. Garudamon has the coolest moment. Squash.

Taichi checks on Sora who seems fine now. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Aw, but these two really are adorable.

What a sweet ending card T_T I want more of these.

Okay so yeah, this episode was a much needed upper after the stream of “watch Taichi fight random forgettable monsters” episodes we’ve had lately. I’m glad we got it. I still, just, like, why can’t they get the emotional build up right?? I wouldn’t say 99 Adventure did anything insanely unusual in how it treated the various crises the kids faced, but it def did a better job than this show. In 99, they understood the importance of moments of reflection, of talking about things, of showing expressions and how other characters react... And I still feel like this reboot DID do that, at least somewhat better, in the beginning. Like what went down between Yamato and Taichi after Ogremon was killed. That was pretty good.

They’ve totally lost what makes Digimon great. I hope this episode is a sign that they’re gonna take it back, but, my heart just hearts y’all.

Next episode... I’m rather surprised since we are REALLY overdue some face time with Yamato, not to mention Mimi and Jou, but apparently we’re sticking with Taichi. At least it looks lke we’ll get some new plot stuff related to Hikari.

If this all leads up to something that makes sense, I will retract all my complaints, I swear. Except about the gratuitous nonstop fighting. But the rest, I will take back.

Taichi’s determined!! This is Digimon Adventure! Let’s go on a freaking adventure!!

[themonotonysyndrome]

The Holy Quintet in Twisted Wonderland! (all 7 dorms - Part 1)

This is the third piece of TW x PMMM crossover! The girls have been sorted to their respective dorms and now we have them interacting with the other 6 dorms. This is also gonna be a long one separated to a few parts so buckled up!

Hope you guys enjoyed it! I appreciate the patience. 

-

Akemi Homura & the other dorms (except Scarabia)

HEARTSLABYUL!

Seeing that there’s so many unpredictable danger in TW, Mami wanted the girls to improve their magic in case they’re ever in a pinch. 

Since Sayaka hasn’t unlock the full potential of her magic, Homura figured that it’d be beneficial for them as a team if she lends a hand or give her a few advices (after countless time loops, Homura is aware on what Sayaka could do with her magic without the danger of turning into Oktavia).

The students of Heartslabyul at first bar her from entering their dorm and Homura was about to brush them off and just freezes time for being such a nuisance until one of them explain that they needed to announce her presence to Riddle and Trey first before they could enter. Then they brought her to the lounge.

They warned her of the Queen of Heart’s many, many rules and that their Dorm Leader would be crossed if she would break them and that had her wondering how the exuberant Sayaka survive here.

She noted in mild interest when the students eagerly inform them that Sayaka is doing well for herself in Heartslabyul and fondly calling her their cute knight after she helps out with their Unbirthday Parties and protect the hedgehogs and other small critters.

Riddle caught Homura conversing with the students in the lounge and took this opportunity to invite her to their Unbirthday Party that they’ll be having in a few hours. Curious about this fussy dorm, Homura accepts.

Homura, Sayaka, Ace and Deuce ran around handling the cute hedgehogs and pink flamingos. Ace wanted to leave the chores to Homura since she could round the animals up in a blink of an eye but Deuce stops him before Trey or Riddle could hear him. When asked about Homura’s magic, Sayaka retort not to bothered. She and the rest of the girls don’t even know the full details about it.

When the long table is laden with food and drinks and everyone’s having a good time, Sayaka and Homura sat at the furthest end of the table where it’s quieter. Normally guests are supposed to sit beside the Dorm Leader and Vice Dorm Leader, but ever since his Overblot episode, Riddle let them to talk amongst themselves when Homura insists it’s important.

As the two girls talk, the Heartslabyul gang couldn’t help but observe their interaction. Homura’s expression remain serious the moment she steps into the dorm and as the seconds grow longer, they saw Sayaka’s smile slowly turning into a scowl. Trey and Cater already jog to them when Sayaka raised her voice and Homura is frustrated.

“Why should I listen to you about my magic when you’re never honest about yours? How would you even know about what my magic can really do, hah?”

“You’re as foolish as ever, Miki Sayaka. If you don’t even know how to use your magic, how can you even call yourself a Magical Girl?”

“Whoa, whoa, everything alright here? C’mon, it’s a party! Everyone is supposed to have fun!”

“Thank you for inviting me to your Unbirthday Party, Rosehearts-san. I’ll be taking my leave now.” In a flash, Homura vanishes without so much as waiting for a ‘by your leave’.

After that exchange, Sayaka had to explain to everyone that despite how Homura would sometimes aid them in hunting and killing Witches, they’re not exactly good friends. Homura is as shady as they come and keep her information very close to her chest. Not to mention that her odd attachment to Madoka is a little troubling.

The Heartslabyul gang took her words with considerations but the boys wanted to judge Homura for themselves.

To Ace and Deuce, it’s kinda comical to see Kalim hovering around her, cracking jokes and trying to make her laugh but only receive a fond shake of her head instead. Other than that, she kept to herself and if she isn’t studying, she's eyeing their magical crystal with a dangerous gleam in her eyes. The duo subconsciously put away their pens whenever she’s around.

Trey found Homura to be polite and reserved when approached. She’s willing to help you out with any mundane things as long as you ask nicely. But sometimes, Trey feels that Homura has a skill in avoidance. No one really see her in the crowd of first year students heading to class but then there she is, the first one in her seat! Trey hopes that Kalim and Jamil can help her relax a little because something in Trey tells him that she’s a ticking time bomb.

Cater wants her for a selfie! His Magicam followers would never believe that NRC has a mysterious raven beauty as a student. When word spread of Homura’s ability to disappear in a blink of an eye, he takes it as a challenge to snap her pic. When he told her about this, Homura rolled her eyes. He can try.

Now, Riddle. He couldn’t help but frown whenever he sees Homura passing by in the hallways. Her bickering with Sayaka during the Unbirthday Party left quite an impression on this Dorm Leader (he has a soft spot for Sayaka after the whole overblot ordeal. Sure, it left him bruised and bloodied for days afterwards but she did saved his life. Plus, she also apologised for not realising her own strength). 

Despite presenting herself properly, Riddle wonders if she’s a little like him. That she has something dark brewing inside her based on some traumatic events. He understands that Homura means well when she tried to advice Sayaka about her magic (after all, he did try to impart on his dorm mates the importance to maintain order by following the Queen of Hearts’ rules).  

Maybe if ever they crossed path, he could share his experiences with Homura in hopes that she opens up a little. Telling her that her friends will gladly help her if she just asked them.

Dragging herself through many, many timelines not only hardened her as a person, but they also made her jaded. Nevertheless, Homura quietly promise to herself once Riddle left; to try and save not only Madoka from Walpurgisnacht, but also her friends from their fates. She continues to hope once more.  

SAVANACLAW!      

Like above, Homura would only approach the Savanaclaw dorm if she has to talk to Kyouko. Only this time, she didn’t bother announcing herself. Just freezes time and walk right towards Kyouko’s room. Once time is unfrozen, the students will comment on an unfamiliar feminine scent that somehow walk past by them undetected! 

Kyouko wasn’t surprise that Homura suddenly appear in her bedroom. Already well-used to her antics. Boredly, she asked what Homura wanted as she lied on her bed. Packet of snacks scattered around her.  

Since Kyouko often spar with the Savanaclaw students, Homura request for a favour. She wants to observe her fights against them just to see how far their magical crystals can be push before overblotting. 

Kyouko refuses predictably until Homura offered her help in classes. She’s even willing to help her cheat in a test if Kyouko want. In the end, Kyouko accepted Homura’s requests. 

(Homura didn’t bother to persuade Kyouko to use her magic. It’s up to Kyouko to overcome her past in order to wield her illusions power again)

When Leona’s actually in the mood to spar a little, especially against Kyouko, Homura is at the bleachers with her arms crossed against her chest. Students from other dorms sometimes watch their trainings but never one of Kyouko’s girl friends before other than Sayaka. 

(Sayaka has a habit of loudly cheering from the stands, jumping with glee whenever Kyouko kicked a burly student across the field. Kyouko would preen and smirks at every cheer. This lead the boys wondering if there’s something more going on between the two of them; the Heartslabyul Knight and their Savanaclaw Brawler) 

Leone felt like he’s under a microscope during their spar when he noticed Homura staring at them. Kyouko made no secret of her request and Leona’s quirk an eyebrow. Well, she’s not Rook but Leona’s gut is telling him that as someone who’s skilled in hunting Witches, Beastmen would be a good practise for this girl. 

But Leona wants to show off so that in the next Magishift Tournament, Homura knows just who she’ll be facing. This lion ain’t backing down! 

Leona can be petty, too. After Kyouko’s explaination, he ordered Ruggie to use his Unique Magic on her. Forcing her to show her own magic for once. 

Ruggie steal the opportunity during lunchtime. A harmless prank, really. He just wants her to trip and drop her food tray. However, he never expected to be frozen in time. Unlike Mami’s ribbon, Ruggie’s ‘Laugh With Me’ couldn’t hold her. So the moment her body suddenly acted on her own, Homura uses her shield to froze time and found a student in similar uniform to Kyouko mimicking the same moves as her. Disgruntled, she packed her food and left the cafeteria before releasing her magic. 

Ruggie is left standing, dumbfounded that Homura could escape his magic! She’s trickier than he expected. When he reported back to Leona, it just fuelled him to really uncover what she’s hiding, though he knows that Kalim and Jamil won’t appreciate him meddling with one of their student.

Jack is put off with Homura’s aloofness and that says something! He sees her friendship with Kyouko as something that’s build on necessity with little trust. Always lurking around and her head in books as if she’s chasing after something. 

He would curtly nod at her if they walk by but never do anything more than that.         

For Homura, she couldn’t care less about Leona, Ruggie and Jack. As long as they don’t butt into her business, she sees no conflict between them. Plus, they kept Kyouko preoccupied. 

OCTAVINELLE!     

On the second day as a student of NRC, Kalim explains about the other dorms to Homura as best as he could. Bless his heart, Jamil had to fill in the rest and more important characteristics of the dorms. 

In the beginning, all she knows about Octavinelle are that the students are intelligent, most of them are mermen and the Dorm Leader is someone named Azul Ashengrotto and his Vice Dorm Leader, Jade Leech. 

Before Kamil and Jamil left for their own classes, Jamil murmurs to Homura to watch herself when it comes to those two and someone named Floyd Leech. 

One day, Madoka - who wanted to spend some time with Homura - suggest that they have lunch at a café called the Mostro Lounge. Homura did her best not to show her hesitation to Madoka when she realised that they needed to step through a mirror since the café is in the Octavinelle dorm.  

It’s still a bit early before the lunch rush, so the girls were quickly seated and attended to by a few servers from the dorm. 

Trouble begins after they ordered their food and Floyd stroll in with Jade in tow, ready for their shifts.

Not one to miss an opportunity to interact with these otherworldly girls, Floyd loudly introduces himself and Jade with a bloodthirsty grin. Homura already disliked his presence. 

Seeing how unresponsive Homura is to his twin’s greeting and Madoka’s shy reply, Jade smoothly interjects. Playing the part of a perfect gentleman, he inquiries if the girls have ordered their food and drinks, have they gotten used to their dorms and etc. He’s not at all deter at Homura’s clipped answers or Madoka’s nervous stammers.   

After all, Azul wanted to know what magic these girls bring to their world. If possible, the Dorm Leader wanted to strike a deal with them.  

The atmosphere around the table is already tense and Homura wondered if it’s best to leave for the cafeteria instead when Azul enters the fray. Like Jade, he made sure to behave properly, offering a courteous smile as he introduces himself.  

“I’m happy that the Mostro Lounge receive such beautiful patrons today! Truly I am lucky.” 

“T-That’s nice of you to said that, Ashengrotto-san.” 

“...”

“Please, the pleasure is all mine. If you or any of your friends have any trouble adjusting to this college, I’ll be more than happy to a lend a hand for a... right price.” 

That set warning alarms off in Homura’s head. Immediately.  

Thankfully their lunch went by peacefully, though Floyd continues to irk Homura of his pestering, but the decor and otherwise calm atmosphere made their meal pleasant. 

It’s only when Homura caught rumours that those who made a deal with Azul must signed a contract for their wish to be fulfil but it always ended up kicking them in the asses. 

Homura made the decision to stay away from him and the Leech Brothers at all cost and if Azul approaches her or god forbid, Madoka, she’ll made him regret it. 

She’s not looking forward to deal with another Kyuubey. (besides, she might not be able to kill the Incubator but a bullet between Azul’s eyes should do the trick. She never kill anything other than a Witch before, but should Azul threatens Madoka then it’s a first time for everything). 

Azul sees Homura as a tough nut to crack, so pulling information from her would be a waste of effort. Better focus on the other girls. He thought that he held his demeanour perfectly during their little lunch, so why is she glaring at him whenever he had the unfortunate chance thei path crossed? 

Floyd finds Homura boring. She hardly react when he tries to get a rise out of her. Though the slap Homura gave on his hand when the eel boy wanted to touch Madoka’s ribbons was surprisingly strong. Like Cater, he made a little game catch her off guard, but by squeezing her. She’s so slippery though. It’s fun! 

Jade doesn’t really have any problem with Homura. He’s curious about her; why does it feel like her wariness of them is something personal? Has she been taken advantaged before?  

Jade has not forgotten how quick she attack the headmaster during the entrance ceremony. He’ll play it cautiously and see what he can use against the girl. 

It’s not fair if Homura holds all the cards to herself.   

POMEFIORE! 

Homura actually stumble across Mami and Rook during their shooting practise in the archery field. They were supposed to meet up for research but she waited until they noticed her.  

It was sweet how Rook treated Mami and it was surprising to Homura that she accepts every praise with a small smile, her cheeks red.  

In a way, their interaction assured Homura that Mami wouldn’t be lonely in Pomefiore. Hopefully that means she’ll be able to emotionally grow while they’re stuck here in TW. 

It was only when Rook packed up that he realise Homura has been watching them the entire time. No one ever stalked the hunter before. Coloured him impressed! 

Rook offered Homura to joined their shooting sessions whenever she’s free. Her aim during the entrance ceremony was precise and quick just like Mami. It’d be nice if the three of them could get together sometimes. 

Homura didn’t made any promises, but she informs him that she’ll keep his offer in mind. 

Mami and Rook brought her to the study rooms in Pomefiore. There are a few students studying nearby and Homura noted how the boys would pull a chair out for her and Mami and offered their assistance if they need any books. Like a princess, Mami thanked them but require nothing for now. 

“The students here are very... gracious.”

“You’ll get used to it, Akemi-san.” 

Homura presented Mami her books and data that she could gathered and in return, Mami toss theories back and forth. The two were at it until Epel came over to asked Mami for an impromptu Alchemy tutoring. He backtracks when he spotted thick papers and books between the girls. 

Homura agreed without a fuss to change their research for school work. She needs to go over her own Alchemy notes as well. 

To Epel, Homura is intimidating. Not as severe as Vil, but there’s an ice cold wall she erected around herself. Even when she helped grammar checked his notes, she gives off an impression that she’s waiting to be dismissed. 

Unfortunately for her, a Pomefiore student came by to announced that Vil and Rook has invited Mami and any of her company to tea. Before either Epel or Homura could run, Mami accepts on their behalf. 

“Schoenheit-san is an amazing person, Akemi-san. He taught me a lot during out short stay here.” 

“Other people would have a different opinion, Tomoe-san...” 

“Al-Asim-san mentioned that he’s very strict towards the students in this dorm. And that he also hold himself in high regards.” 

“The way I see it, he earns the right to do so. Would you like to understand him better, Akemi-san?” 

“No point in refusing now.”

“Urgh, tea time with Vil. This is gonna be a drag.” 

The setting that Mami brought them is picturesque. Apparently, Pomefiore has their own fairytale-like garden; well maintained and immaculate. 

“So this must be your elusive... companion, gem. A pleasure. I am Vil  Schoenheit, Dorm Leader of Pomefiore.” 

Throughout their tea time, Homura did her best not to squirm under Vil’s scrutinized eyes. He would promptly correct her when she reach out for the wrong silverware and not to slouch. Mentally, she sympathise Epel for having to endure Vil’s nagging.

(There’s no way Kyouko would survive 5 minutes in this dorm) 

Although Homura did not carry herself in the same way as Mami does, Vil regard her as a flower that only blooms at night, so only a few could witness its beauty. He offers to make her look more beautiful the next time she visits Pomefiore. 

Rook asked how she’s settling in Scarabia and how the students are treating her there. He’s genuinely surprise that if the topics aren’t about her personal life or magic, she can talk quite a lot. Homura told them about the refreshing mint teas that they introduced her, how despite energetic and loud Kalim can be, he understood when she needed some space and how patient and hard working Jamil is in attending not Kalim, but the entire dorm as well. 

Mami let Homura talk away with a small knowing smile. It’s good that Homura is focusing on other things than Madoka for once. 

Before she left, Homura humoured Vil’s request when he wanted to see her Magical Girl outfit. He ‘hmm’-ed and nodded to self, commenting how her heels and dress are designed for practicality rather than to show off; it’s a little plain though. Like Mami, he sketch her outfit in his drawing book for inspiration. 

Homura felt like she should feel insulted over Vil commenting that her Magical Girl outfit is plain but in the end, couldn’t find it in herself to be bothered.

IGNIHYDE!

Among the students in NRC, Idia is the first one who uncovers Homura’s time magic. 

Since he doesn’t attend classes physically and have eyes around campus through surveillance cameras, he caught Homura’s disappearing act more times than he can count. This boy is instantly curious on how she could even evade his cameras! 

So he analyse the surveillance cameras and noticed that whenever she uses her magic, her Shield would crack open; showing spinning gears and purple sands gleam like stardust but in the next frame, the Shield is closed. Idia deduced that her Shield must be her Unique Magic. But how does it work? What’s the connection between the sands and gears?  

Idia actually feels a little bad stalking Homura through his cameras, but his curiousity has been itching him ever since the girl directed her strange weapon at the headmaster. Isekai’ed weapons are the coolest!

His luck came in the form of Ortho. From his room, Idia watches as his little brother and the Magical Girl interacted in the courtyard. Ortho was carrying some snacks for their gaming session, bought from Sam’s shop and Homura happens to be done with her classes for the day. 

Idia saw Ortho trips and Homura is suddenly holding him steady by his arm, the snacks are secured in her hold. That shouldn’t be possible when Homura is nowhere near Ortho. So Idia rewind and replay the footage but again, it explained nothing. 

When Ortho return to Ignihyde, he didn’t waste any time to tell all about his new friend! How she swooped in and saved him like a hero. Homura was taken aback when she discovered that he’s a cyborg and Ortho explained that Idia was the one who built him. When Idia asked if she did anything strange, Ortho just commented that Homura keeps touching her ring. Could her ring be her magic crystal? 

The next time Ortho and Homura meet up, he invited her to hang out with him and his older brother at their dorm. Idia could’ve die from a heart attack the moment he heard her voice outside of his door. 

On a bad day, Idia could barely stand to be around people, but a pretty girl in his bedroom? Playing games with him and his brother? Dear Hades save him! 

Meanwhile, Homura recalled what Ignihyde meant to represent. An advancement of magical technology. In a way, her time Shield is a magical technology, so is that why her magic reacted positively with Ortho and this dorm itself? 

Despite the gloominess of Ignihyde and Idia’s skittish personality, Homura actually found herself enjoying the Shroud brothers’ company. Ortho is a sweetheart; patiently instructing her how to play their games and explain how most of their techs work. 

When Idia wouldn’t stop squirming beside her, Homura calmly ask him to spit out what’s on his mind. She didn’t rebuked him when Idia asked how she’s been escaping from his cameras. That he didn’t mean anything bad, just curious. 

Homura sees this as an opportunity to strike up an alliance. She told Idia that she’s willing to tell him about her magic, but it needs to keep between them and in return, she hopes that he could help her with her Shield. 

Idia is overjoy to discover such an OP Unique Magic! To him, Homura’s magic is a cheat code that he sometimes daydream of having when classes are a drag! He’s like a kid in the candy store as Homura withdraw books, a comb and a flash bang from her shield (so it’s also a dimensional storage!), demonstrated by holding his and Ortho’s hands how her time magic works and lets him take a closer look at her Shield. The dorm leader is more than happy to help improved her Shield and see how far they can push the limit of her magic safely.

If you think Madoka and Malleus’ friendship is odd, Homura and Idia is equally so. Even if their alliance is purely professional, Homura always made time to hang out with Ortho and when Idia ventures outside, Homura would walk alongside him so he won’t be overwhelmed. Passing students would murmur when they see the two of them together.  

To the Shroud brothers, Homura is a good friend, if a little aloof. Idia likens her to a stray cat; she welcomes to visit Ignihyde (oh gosh, a girl actually wants to hang out with him in his room!) and goes as she please. He enjoys debating on the difference of their magic and that she doesn’t judge his hobbies and games. 

Ortho is just happy that his older brother has a friend! One that can match his online snarky and hammy persona with her sarcasm and wit when they livestream together. Plus, she would come over and ask Ortho he needs help whenever she’s free.  

DIASOMNIA!

The second TW’s character to uncovers Homura’s time magic is Lilia. And that was completely accidental! 

You see, words has gotten around NRC of Homura’s vanishing and appearing act and being a trickster who loves to appear out of nowhere and startle the other students, Lilia wanted to surprise Homura the most! 

When the ancient Fae asked Madoka while they were in her room (she allows him to comb her hair and how can she refuse seeing it makes Lilia so happy) if she knows how her friend does it, Madoka shook her head and reply that none of them actually know the full extend of Homura’s magic. Just that she can summon and stored firearms off any sizes inside her Shield without any limit.

Lilia then asked Malleus, Silver and Sebek if their magic could discern what sort of magic Homura’s uses. Since Malleus’ magic is broader and more in tune with otherworldly aspects as a dark Fae, Malleus could only put into words that her magic is something that acts as a foundation of their dimension, in a sense. Metaphysical. Unfortunately, Homura has been using her magic sparingly so Malleus didn’t actually had enough time to decipher what it is. 

Malleus’ words weight heavy in Lilia’s mind. In all his ancient years, he has never come across a human with such powerful magic! A magic like that would definitely come with a heavy price. After all, humans can never control powers that are beyond their realm of understanding. 

(Ouch, hitting a little too close to home there, Lilia).

So one day, when Lilia caught Homura leaving the Ignihyde dorm (Idia sure love to brag about her whenever he and Lilia are playing online tournament matches), Lilia snuck up behind her. What he didn’t expect though, was Homura’s fast reflex. However, when she turn around to grab his hand before he could touch her, her Shield freezes time right at that exact moment. So Lilia witness with wide eyes how the world around them stood on a standstill and easily figured out her magic.  

“Ho, ho, what a surprise! To think a young human possess the ability to bend time to her whim! I understand now.” 

Well, Homura’s first introduction to Lilia Vanrouge went off a rocky start. Seeing how upset he made her, Lilia is all smile, promising that he won’t spread the truth about her magic. He also encourage her to trust her friends about it, since anything could happen after all. 

When Homura puts away her shield, Lilia offer to make it up to her. Madoka has actually been waiting to spend some time with her. Why don’t they all have a midnight tea party at Diasomnia? Doesn’t she wants to see how Madoka has been faring in their dorm? With Madoka as the bait, he chuckles when Homura accepts his offer without hesitation. 

It’s Lilia that floated near the staircase inside of Diasomnia, watching how Madoka happily invite Homura in. From how coldly she treated him earlier that day, she’s docile when Madoka grab her hand and gently pull her along, how soft and sweet her voice is when she answered Madoka’s questions. 

The moon is full when they arrive at the rooftop. The table and tea things are laid out and their company for the evening were waiting for them. Silver is lightly dozing, his head resting on the table. Sebek is fussing around the table, pouring tea for Malleus first before the other cups. Malleus flash a small welcoming smile to Homura who nods in return. 

Homura let Madoka be, heart at ease that she’s comfortable and happy with this group. Unnoticed by her, Lilia is observing Homura the same way. Well, she’s polite if reserved, but tend to smiles more around Madoka though she grimace when Madoka told her that they’ve been helping Madoka hone her magic better. It’s clear she wanted to interject but held herself back. 

Later in the privacy of his bedroom, Lilia realised that Homura has the eyes of a soldier. Hardened and weary, but one that is still fighting. Now what foe could Homura be fighting against even after crossing over to this world? 

There is a story hidden that only Homura is aware of and until the day arrive when she could finally be honest with not only herself, but also her friends, all Lilia could offer is his assurance that Diasomnia looks after their own. Madoka is no different. 

Malleus wonders if he and Homura shares a lot in common. The two tend to brood and kept to themselves after all (though Malleus suspect that the later might be a personal preference for Homura). Madoka had nothing but good words about the raven haired girl so he figured there must be something else going on in the background. 

He could only detect the basis of her magic when she vanishes near him. He wonders if her magic is as powerful as his and how good of a fighter she is. After their midnight party, the two often nod at one another if they passed by in campus. Malleus appreciate that she will sits beside him in class when Lilia and his group aren’t with him. 

Silver doesn’t know a lot about Homura to actually hold an opinion about her, other than what Madoka told them. He’s aware that people can be biased when it comes to their dear friend. But since she and Malleus seems to be a lot more amiable than before, he hopes that Homura won’t try do anything against them. 

Sebek treats Homura the same way how he treats the other human students. If they don’t have anything to do with his lord, then he doesn’t care about them. Though he will tolerate her presence when Madoka invites her into Diasomnia. He overheard Lilia mentioning that Homura reminds him of the soldiers that he fought alongside with all those many years ago and Sebek wondered what does that add into her mystery. 

As for Homura? She’s the last person to judge the Diasomnia gang and if they truly care for Madoka then perhaps she can pour her energy and time to planning on how to return home. 

She won’t admit it but Homura respect Lilia. When she’s feeling practically brave, she would quietly ask for advice on how to expand her magic and how to learn hand-to-hand combat.  

Sebek is just too loud for her taste. Does that boy ever calm down? He can dismiss her all he likes, it good to know that Sebek has a 1 track mind when it comes to Malleus. That makes him predictable to Homura.  

When Silver suddenly drop to sleep in front of her, Homura startles. Thinking that he’s ill or worse, she actually call for help. Only when the other students about his habit of falling unconscious at any given time or place did Homura let out a sigh of relieved. But just in case, she made sure that Silver is sleeping at a safe and open spot so the Diasomnia students could see before leaving. 

Malleus exude the same type of yearning that Mami has, Homura figured that out after their midnight tea party. They yearn for bonds to ease their loneliness. No doubt that Madoka would definitely help this tall Fae come out from his shell little by little. As of now the two have a mutual respect of one another.    

-

Wow, this took 2 days to write! Yeah, it’s a good idea to separate this part into each girls. Anyway, sorry for any grammar or spelling errors! Editing this took time. 

[tantantantanjirou]

Kimetsu Gakuen AU Headcanons

This one doesn’t usually have any order depending on character, so enjoy this huge headcanon salad that gets more meme-y as you proceed.

Despite also working in order to help his family’s bakery, Tanjirou still gets really high grades and Zenitsu still wonders how he manages

The fact that he literally delivers bread to students and his personality made Tanjirou quite popular

At times students all over school come to him to get advice and    b r e a d

To note that Nezuko is quite popular too

Tanjirou, Zenitsu and Inosuke formed a group a little time after the school’s beginning. The group took Kanao and Genya in, and later added on Muichirou

And he sometimes accompanies the group in lunch breaks

Muichirou was supposed to be a junior high student however since he’s a genius, the discussion of him skipping classes and grading up to high school surfaced. Muichirou doesn’t want to grade up though, because it means leaving Yuichirou

The members of the group love each other so much that they pulled a prank on Tanjirou by setting a cute picture of him as their phone wallpaper and Tanjirou didn’t notice it for months lmao. They refuse to change it though (Got this idea from a comic I saw and really wanted to add this here! It’s from @hyolks! It’s really good!)

It’s a rumor that some of the customers come only to see the sunshine children

Tanjirou literally advertised the family bakery because the breads he gave were very g o o d

Zenitsu lives with his grandpa and big brother

Kaigaku is like a strict and cold brother to him but there are times when he shows his care (Let it be. The need a rest.)

The Kamado family sometimes visit the big uncle Yoriichi (Let’s say that he’s not that old here) and they have great time talking about anything and everything with him. They give a relief to Yoriichi’s loneliness and he is grateful for that

Zenitsu excels in every instrument, like, whoaa

Inosuke lives with his mom, and has a weak spot for her (who doesn’t love their loving mommy?)

Like he’s all feral and angry by default but when he’s with his mother he goes soft

It’s possible to see Nezuko biting onto different kinds of bread depending on day and time

And Zenitsu went out ‘’sightseeing’’ to find different kinds of Nezuko like it was h e c c i n p o k e m o n G O

It became Tomioka’s usual thing to chase kids who break rules with sticks

Seems like he especially targets Tanjirou.

Tanjirou steps in the school’s garden and they start the heccin tag

Giyuu: (swipes his stick lowly as the student jumps not to get hit in one of their tag games) 

      Shinobu: is this a new training regimen? (get that reference?)

Nowadays Inosuke learnt about the art of gopnik  so you can find him squatting around the school

At corners, on desks, on heccin teacher’s table, anywhere and everywhere.

He even brings semechki

Zenitsu asked him to cut it out because it attracts birds during their damn lunch

It’s not easy to understand Nezuko’s muffled words under that bread but it’s not important, she’s adorable!

And she ain’t going to bother taking it off or finishing it quickly. Bread is bread. Gotta take time eating it.

Giyuu is the whole damn academy’s one-man discipline department lmao (since Zenitsu doesn’t do anything)

Legends say that he studied urban Russian language to detect if Inosuke’s using bad words

Even the teachers and the principle don’t care about it. It’s like the students are allowed to do whatever they like at this point

 ‘’I think it’s wrong to force students and shape them all according to rules.’’ – Principle Oyakata, at some point

About this strict math teacher thing with Sanemi… Reminds me of some certain Baldi-

Sanemi staring at student trying to solve math as he rhythmically slaps his bendy ruler to his free hand.png

But no he doesn’t smack you if you get it wrong

He YEets you out of the heccin window-

Poor Genya.

Legends say that Genya can’t go out if he doesn’t do his maths :(

Muichirou and Yuichirou love pranking them neighbors. The classic twin prank. Oh yes.

Shinobu doesn’t do anything that’s straightly against the rules but who doesn’t love pissing Giyuu off? She loves it.

Kanao was taken care of by the Kocho family and they already look like real siblings. They wear similar butterfly ornaments and the idea of them standing near each other in the age order is very cute ( ´ ω ` )

The only thing that Shinobu doesn’t like about her house is that. biccass. neighbor. Douma blyat.

‘’That loudass excuse of a neighbor should talk with his bicces somewhere else or I’m gonna-‘’ - Quote, Shinobu

Kanae plugged Kanao’s ears so don’t you worry.

The first visit of Kamaboko Gang to Kamado’s house was d̶i̶s̶a̶s̶t̶r̶o̶u̶s̶ remarkable

Zenitsu’s first thought: ‘’How do they manage with this many children?’’ (That’s a question I ask myself considering the money and stuff…)

Inosuke has finally found his place: The ‘’Chest out in the open’’ Gang.

The gang includes: Inosuke, Kaigaku, Akaza, Sanemi when he’s too fed up and thankfully not Mitsuri. The gang’s open for anyone who has their chest out in the open.

Makomo and Nezuko are buddies.

Legends say that Kaigaku legit took Zenitsu out and rode the night on his motorcycle at full speed.

Of course they got beaten by good jii-chan Jigoro.

‘’The Twelve Demon Moons’’ are the legendary students who are known for their rule-breaking record. They incredibly popular throughout the school.

They’re following the tradition that was handed down by ‘’Master Muzan’’  who was the naughtiest student signed up to the academy, ever.

Inosuke was hyped when he met Akaza.

Kaigaku tries to be one of them.

Mitsuri is very well-known throughout the academy, much like Tanjirou, but if you mention her name to someone, they have the chance of knowing at %100

Tanjirou is already the embodiment of sunshine but what happens when he interacts with Rengoku and Mitsuri? BOOM

Say goodbye to your eyes because you’ll be blind for hours

Looks like lone man Tomioka found company. Sabito accompanies him in lunch breaks

It became a thing to gift Rengoku sweet potatoes and yell WASSHOI together on his birthdays

Senjurou is in Junior High. He is very quiet and he gets lost in the corridors pretty easily. (the academy is one complex building) One day Nezuko found him, after that day they became friends and she helped him find his way.

Senjurou protection squad where you at?

If you think Genya is different from his brother and rather silent? No that’s just an illusion you get under when he’s near Sanemi. He’s as angry as Sanemi and Inosuke with the exception of being able to speak without shouting

Well that’s it for now

[zhuilingyizhen]

Have you ever considered a time travel au? Like sizhui (+ the other juniors?) going back to when wangxian's generation was their age,, or wwx and lwj ending up in their younger bodies or smth

Ooh!!!

I have one idea, but it’s.... kinda dark? Jin Ling gets erased out of existence?

Hmmm I said no sad, but it’s like crack-sad so I think it’s okay.

So, this whole idea started when I thought “what if jingyi & zizhen, the ultimate matchmaking team, went back in time and unknowingly got yzy and madame jin together?”

Then I realized, “what if that made a big oopsie?”

Anyways, this is the “oh shit, i screwed up” kinda time travel AU. Be warned.

Jingyi and Zizhen are in the Cloud Recesses library, reading through some random books, when they stumble upon one that looks older than Lan Qiren. One of them is a journal, documenting a time traveler.

They read it, and it’s super cool! Fun! Woah!

Jingyi, thinking it probably won’t work anyway but hey, why not try? tries the tailsman with Zizhen.

Suddenly, they’re back in time.

But they don’t know that & thought they failed.

Just then, an uNknOwN Lan disciple walks in and demands to know wtf they’re doing there at this time of night!!

Jingyi is confused, bc who is this strangely familiar disciple? A new transfer?

He voices his ?? and is met with “I am Lan Qiren. Why are you imposters in here? Where did you get that ribbon?”

He’s droning on in true Lan Qiren fashion, and Jingyi and Zizhen kinda look at each other because hOLY SHIT THAT ACTUALLY WORKED!!!

They immediately get tf outta there (guess it’s their turn with the brain cell) and start checking out all the differences. Zizhen deduces that they should be forty or fifty or so years in the past, since LQR be old.

They’re wandering around for a couple days (future tailsman in Zizhen’s pocket) and have fun exploring all the different stuff.

And then, Jingyi realizes that the Wens are kinda alive. And he has a moment, where he realizes they could bring Sizhui back here!! Surely Sizhui would want to learn about his past, right?? This would be the perfect opportunity!

He may or may not have bought a Wen(tm) jewelry for his very platonic best friend, but we don’t talk about that.

And then, they meet a rando young woman practicing her sword fighting. Zizhen thinks that she feels familiar, but has no idea why.

The juniors approach her, and ask what’s up, because she be really murdering those dummies.

She introduces herself hesitantly (she’s a little sus of them), as Yu Ziyuan.

Zizhen & Jingyi definitely failed their history tests, because they don’t know who she is, only that she’s very gay for her friend.

And Jingyi and Zizhen hatch a plan to help this rando stranger who certainly isn’t important to the plot or anything get with the girl!

And bOI DO THEY TRY

They help Ziyuan out by suggesting flowers, sweets, even give her a template for an undying love confession!

She’s kinda cold towards them at first, but Ljy and oyzz shan’t be hindered! They persist, and she eventually asks her friend to elope with her and escape their arranged marriages.

Jingyi gives Zizhen a side eye like “whoops” but also cheer as they ride off into the sunset!! Woohoo!

Then they go back in time, and... oh boy. Shit happened. Time rippled. The universe was changed.

Because Jingyi & Zizhen may or may not have erased Jin Ling from existence by getting his grandmothers together.

Because then those two ditch and jc & jyl are kinda not alive, though wwx still gets taken in (and maybe they pretend he’s jfm’s child so jfm can make him sect heir??)

And ljy & oyzz are shook.

And then they freak out and go to the only sane, responsible person they know: Lan Sizhui

bEcaUse sUreLy hE wOulDn’T bE diFferEnt

Actually, they search the whole Cloud Recesses, but he’s not. there. And Jingyi asks the now-old Lan Qiren, who has no clue who Sizhui is.

Then Zizhen has a brain cell moment and remembers, oh wait, wasn’t Sizhui a Wen??

They look at each other and bolt towards the Nightless City, which is not dead bc plot convience and. Maybe yzy and madame jin started their own sect and they saw through the Wen’s bs? They’re still alive tho

And Sizhui is an innocent bb farm boi in the middle of nowhere 🥺

COUNTRY BOII I LOVE YOUUUUUU

Jingyi literally tackles him into a hug and Sizhui freezes bc who da FUCC is this

But even in this timeline, he is :)) so he just kinda asks, v. politely, “who are you”

But then he sees Zizhen and lights up

“A zhen! What are you doing here?”

tHEN

Sizhui smiles shyly and kisses Zizhen on the cheek and ljy & oyzz both have whiplash

bc this is time for my zhuizhen agenda and they be dating

they have to somehow convince Sizhui that they’re from a completely different timeline

And it’s really confusing until Jingyi just starts listing off everything he knows about Sizhui, bc he is not giving up his status as Sizhui’s best friend just bc they’re in different timelines.

& the stuff Jingyi know is... a lot.

“Your favorite color is white, you hate herbal tea, you think that putting your hair down is a hassle, and when you were twelve you thought you were cursed bc two of your rabbits died in a week and placed stone tablets near every door in the dorms—”

Sizhui is kinda shook so he goes with them, though he doesn’t believe them at first. And he ain’t letting his bf (oyzz) leave immediately :/

Sizhui helps them with the ritual, and lets them leave. Then, he goes home to his peaceful farmer boi life, confused. 

They have better luck next time they go back and don’t help anyone. They don’t do anything extreme, and they don’t do anything! Right?

Yeah no, cause zizhen sees this little, dirty child out in the streets and goes uwu and gives the child some money (and maybe a motivational speech?? life changing??).

That child grows up to be Jiggy, bc ofc ofc, and he and his mom manage to use to money to leave (I mean, sect heir oyzz has to have a decent sum, and it was worth more back then). Jgy becomes a respected vendor, hating his dad like every other child of jgs but still living da peaceful life.

So he never helps them with the Wens. And the Wens may or may not win. (honestly I don't remember the plot of mdzs, so this is probably inaccurate. I gotta reread it; my memory’s trash lol)

A lot of people get dead. Zizhen is horrified.

This time though, WQ and WN stole baby WY and left. The Wens,, didn’t really care (maybe they noticed wq left, but they have other, not as competent, healers). 

They seek refuge, but the Cloud Recesses is kinda burnt and the Jiangs ain’t looking so hot either (plus that ain’t a good idea, jc is probably not ok with that)

They don’t bother to check up on anyone this time.

Zizhen and Jingyi go back to the past, stare at each other in true mamma mia, here we go again fashion.

But this time, they dig a hole in the ground and hide there for a couple minutes, before finally, finally, finally going back to the future

And it’s fine, except they screwed up and ended up a little too far into the future.

Like, as in they accidentally time travel to Jin Ling and Sizhui’s marriage fast-forward.

Revelations are made, and this has somehow worn even Jingyi to the point of exhaustion (also, is there any world where he gets to be with a Yuan??)

So they go back several years, energy depleted, and end up right where they started.

Zizhen and Jingyi look at each other, and have a mini-celebration because they did it! They got back and everything seems normal so they’re gonna assume it’s their timeline.

On their way to burn the magical time travel book, they bump into Wei Wuxian.

Zizhen asks how his husband is doing, and they find out that WangXian hasn’t gotten together in this timeline yet.

Jingyi screams, and Zizhen goes to cry in a hole. They’ll be okay. Eventually.

Wow, this ended up really Zizhen/Jingyi-centric...

[wendibird]

SPN 15X18 Observations

Let me preface this by saying, I apologize ahead of time if I and/or my notes seem a bit cynical. I’ve had a rough week. (I think everyone has.) But for whatever it’s worth, here are my notes, observations and meandering thoughts on tonight’s episode.

Oh, one more thing though. For episodes 19 and 20 (and anything really to do with them) in addition to my usual tags for the episodes and season, I’ll be tagging them with #dontspoilthefinalhunt for any who wish to avoid spoilers for them.

Pre-Episode thoughts:

So, I’ve heard enough rumors already to know that mooooost likely Cas is going to die this episode. And let me be clear, he’s my second favorite character in this show after Sam. But I have trouble feeling strong emotions for something when I go in knowing that I should. But I’m going to try to go into this one with an open mind. 

Also, in the past I liked Billy as a character because though she still had some biases, she still seemed mostly neutral, like OG Death had been. And from previews it looks like maybe they’re turning her into an outright villain like they’ve done with God? Yey. 

- Where’s Chuck? Did he just bampf off?

- So he’s gonna blow up in the Empty?

- Yep.

- So now Dean cares about him? (Jack)

- Poor Jack. He doesn’t get what’s going on. 

- Yey! Jack is back! 

- “You’ve snapped me out of worse.” When?

- They’ve prayed to Michael? Yey for not overlooking options! (Not being sarcastic.)

- Charlie!!!! And yey she has a girlfriend! (Are they gonna kill her?) 

- Aaaaaaand there she goes.

Commercial thoughts:

So, I get the whole narrative idea of taking a character that everyone assumed was kinda on your side and revealing that they were always working towards their own interests. I get it. And it can be effective. I still don’t like it with Billy. 

I’m glad Dean said what he did to Sam. Even if Sam says (and probably thinks) that he doesn’t need to hear the apology, sometimes it needs to be said anyway. And I think saying it all helped Dean a bit too. He needed to know that Sam understood. 

I’m glad Jack’s back though!

- Oh Jack. You’re worth more than your death. 

- I’m glad Cas is saying this, but sadly, I think the “we” only applies to him and Sam. 

- So Jack is powerless when he came back? Did the bomb thing burn out it all out?

*is confused*

- Yey! Eileen! (Please don’t have her just vanish….)

- I’ma cry….

- Oh no……

- “If I let myself go there I’ll lose my mind. I can’t go there right now.”  

- Oh Sam. Always trying to push down his feelings because there’s other shit going on. 

- Hug!!!!!!!

- Sam’s gonna drive Eileen’s car. Just shoot me now….

Commercial thoughts:

So yeah… Wonder what Billy’s plan is here with this random picking-off of people but not like, all at once. She COULD do it all at once, she has the personel. (The Empty didn’t kill all her reapers.) 

I think she’s setting her own kind of trap or something. 

Also, I take it Chuck just vanished? They didn’t say anything about it but that seems to be the impression given.

Still pisses me off though that after bringing Eileen back and only half-assing her role they just had her vanish. (At least Rowena’s in charge of hell, so if she wound up down there again, she SHOULD get a better shake than she did the first time.) 

- Donna!!!!

- Eileen’s Car…… *cries* 

- Sam’s got so much emotional stuff going on this episode. He’s got this grief for Eileen in the background and he’s worried about Jack and trying to help him, and trying to save all these people.

- OUch……. Double ouch. (Were in references to the expressions on Sam’s face when Donna first comforted him about Eileen and then Charlie made her comment about not wanting anyone else to go through what she did.) 

- (Yes, I’m worried about Dean and Cas too.) 

- Sam’s still their “Chief”.

- That's weird….. Why does his touch kill plants? (Not people at least.)

- Yeah, she (Billy) was waiting.

- Oh dear…..

- So what IS causing this?

- NO! NOT DONNA!

- WTF?!

Commercial thoughts:

So Chuck is doing this? I mean, it makes sense. He’s gotten petty enough. But now what? 

Also poor Sam. I mean, he tries so hard to save people. And time after time it just doesn’t work out. It could be seen as part of “Chuck’s Plan” because of how he wants his big story to go. So now I guess he’s just being more direct about it. Sam isn’t allowed to do well unless it’s been authorized by the Narrative. (AKA, him.) When he tries, he just gets shown the error of trying. (But he’s beaten down if he doesn’t try too. Like S8.) 

Also still don’t like how Billy’s character has changed.

- She thinks she’s Freddy Kruger?

- Heart attack? His first “death” was supposed to be his heart. (In “Faith”) Wonder if that’s intentional here?

- Oh god… please don’t tell me they’re going to…. 

Commercial thoughts:

Okay. I don’t ship Destiel. At all. I’m not an anti though, cause I’m firmly a ship-and-let-ship kind of person. 

But that scene while very heartfelt just didn’t do anything for me because it felt more than a bit like revisionistic history. However, I will say, congrats to the Destiel fandom. They killed Cas, but that scene was definitely for you all. 

They’re killing off so many people though it’s like… this is one of my problems when I’m going into a situation where I’m “supposed” to feel a certain way. It makes me awkward. (Like the Episode “Lebanon”.) 

- Gah, poor Sam. 

- WTF?! Is Chuck taking everyone in the world? 

- FUCK?! THAT’S WHERE THEY’RE LEAVING IT OFF?!?!?!?

Okay, so my hope is now, since they’ve gone THIS far with what Chuck is doing, that unless the ultimate resolution of the story is going to be “everything goes away forever” they’re going to have to leave some way to bring people back. 

I’ll be honest, I had trouble connecting emotionally with this episode. But that may not be the episode’s fault. I’ve been working some long hours lately and I just today found out that someone I work with has tested positive for Covid. (I just got tested today.) Plus with all the election stuff still going on, there’s a lot of real-world things on my mind. 

Also, as I said, knowing that these are the final episodes, it’s pretty much a given that things are going to ramp up. (And the people involved with the show have been telegraphing the hell out of Cas’ death, so it wasn’t unexpected. And I get it. Some people really do need that time to prepare emotionally and adjust their expectations.) But I still feel like a lot of the things they’re asking/expecting us to care about, they haven’t put the actual effort into the storytelling to make that happen. I love the absolute shit out of Eileen, but for most of this season she’s been written as little more than an accessory to Sam. And just so he can have some “feels” about someone. And then she gets vanished without so much as a last glimpse of her? (And this episode was filmed before everything closed down due to Covid.) 

I mean, his reaction STILL tore me up, because Jared is that damn good at conveying those emotions. But once again, like LAST time they killed her off, it was amongst so much other shit that there’s barely time for him to even feel it. In fact, he even said that he couldn’t because of what else was going on. And by the end of the episode pretty much everyone else in the world is Thanos-snapped too? 

And I get it, this episode is clearly not about her. It’s about the whole situation. It just still feels like a disservice to the character.

And speaking of disservices to characters…

So, about what Cas said in his speech/confession to Dean. The revisionistic retelling of history has been strong this season, but that was especially bad. We know from past episodes that Cas has ALWAYS had “a crack in his chassis” and always had sympathy and love for humanity. We know that he cares about a lot of people, and has put a lot of effort into becoming a better being. (Just a few episodes ago he talked about how he truly found his purpose when he became a father. And he also had talked about finding his true family.) But no. Apparently all of that character development was just because of Dean. What bothers me isn’t that he told Dean “I love you.” What bothers me is that it truly feels like Cas’ entire character was reduced to one half of a ship. 

Okay, and what also bothers me is that Sam was literally an afterthought in all of that. When for most of these years, Sam has been the one who’s been the most supportive and understanding of Cas. Sam is the one who lately has had the closer connection with him. But naw. He ain’t important, except as an extension of Dean. 

And I get they were trying to throw some fanservice to that corner of the fandom, especially since Cas was slated to die 3 episodes before the end. But they could have done it better. I’ve read fanfic that handled Destiel in a more believable way. (I was reading for the Saileen content as they’re often put in as a sister-ship and it can be hard to find fic of them without it.) And technically this wasn’t even requited. Dean looked more shocked than anything, though I admit that's up to interpretation. But someone in one of the discord servers I'm in posted a picture of that part of the script for this episode and it outright said in the directorial notes that Cas said what he did knowing that Dean didn't/couldn't return his affection the same way. So, there is that.

There were other aspects of the episode I also had thoughts on, like, wtf is up with Jack not having his usual powers but wilting plantlife? Some extension of the bomb-thing? Is he radioactive now to anything with “Celestial energy”? But wouldn’t that have made him give Cas problems too? Or is this supposed to be indicating something else? Amara did that too before she started turning lighter, back in Season 11. Is he somehow turning into the Darkness? Or did he come back from the Empty partially possessed by Lucifer? Gah. I don’t even know. I’m just throwing ideas at a dart board now. *LOL* 

And at this point, wtf CAN they even do against Chuck? I really don’t know. I’m hoping the next episodes are better, but I know 19 was written by Buckleming and they don’t have the best track record. True, a few of their episodes I’ve actually enjoyed. But sometimes they fall short on writing the Brothers Winchester. 

Anyway, I think I’ve probably rambled enough for now.

[devourer--of--books]

Callis was Gavaldon’s first witch gynecologist and here’s why

Okay so, in this post we’ll be discussing topics such as sex, contraception, and some religion in the context of it being used as a mean to control people sexually. 

If you’re younger than 13, honestly, this post isn’t for you. 

If you’re unlucky, like me, and your school didn't give you proper sex ed, I beg you to ask someone about it. Your older sibling, your mom, someone, okay? Ask google. It’s important stuff you need to know.

First of all, for composure’s sake, let’s all pretend I didn’t start thinking of this due to me writing a smut fic. At 4am, on my tablet notes. On my defense, tho, there’s an astonishing lack of E-rated fics on this fandom and someone ought do it, okay? Moving on.

So, where shall we start?

Let’s get context out of the way, welcome to my analyses, the actual headcanons are here, I promise, let me just bore you to death first:

The SGE book series overall is set in fantasy fairytale land (The Endless Woods), with the exception of Gavaldon, aka, the reader village. Due to this, there’s not really a time period liking the SGE world to ours, neither can it be presumed by the world building, as Soman mixes traditional medieval elements  with modern elements, which I know bothers some of you too, it ain’t just me, but nevermind that right now.

The point is, the arguments I’m making on this post are based on aspects mentioned in the books, but I’m also going to draw some information from the real world.

A big chunk of the first two books rely on the world the existence of a patriarchal structure in that world, as do some plot points during the rest of the series, but if I were to dive into that we’d be here all night. Talking about the Endless Woods social structure is very complicated, specially with the ‘no labels in the woods’ stuff combined with the misogyny. It’s messy. 

Thankfully for this post, we’ll only go into Gavaldon, because I feel things there are more… explicit (pun intended).

So here’s what we know of Gavaldon’s social structure pre-book 1:

It’s a decent sized village with no official government. There’s no political figure of power, such as prince or a mayor, as they eventually get in QFG. There also doesn’t seem to be an actual economic class distinction between the people of Gavaldon, other than mentions of beggars (pretty sure it’s just one tho, but I might be wrong). Everyone works and trades amongst themselves, with people having more or less the same things (except for Callis and Agatha, due to them being social outcasts). 

Who has power in Gavaldon?

The Elders Council. They make the laws, they are respected, they have influence, and therefore they have power. These dudes stopped people from selling food to Stefan’s family during book 2, and threatened his new family in front of everybody during book 3. And everyone in Gavaldon loved that man. Why are they powerful tho?

Power is born out of inequality. If you have what we have not, we follow where you lead. Gavaldon has no nobles and no bourgeoisie. Geez, I wonder which powerful class we’re missing.

The clergy.

Personally, I hold no love for the church. I’m an atheist, but, as this post is about SGE and not religion, I’ll try to be as neutral as possible, as the point is not to offend or disrespect anyone. When I mention ‘religion’ or ‘clergy’ from this point on, I’m talking about religion as an Institution. As in the Medieval Catholic Church (which if you don’t agree was at least kind of very evil, I don’t know if I want you reading my posts anyway, so feel free to leave).

Most likely, the members of Elders Council of Galvadon were linked to its Church, whatever religion they may have. I can’t see any reason why they would have so much influence otherwise. Who appoints new men to the positions once one of them dies? I’m gonna guess the remaining members of the Council. 

And no one said anything? For centuries. Okay. Corruption? Never heard of her.

Also, burning unmarried women as a way to solve problems claiming they were witches? Wonder where I’ve seen this before.

The fact they’re men, should get mentioned too, just in case you forgot. I bet there are women just as old and wise, if not wiser than the members of the council. Hm, wow why they’re not part of the council.

This hypothesis ties in with the fact that the education given to the kids is limited to the local school, which, given the lack of government and simplicity of work relations, is probably funded by the clergy. We don’t see any proof of this, but again, if we’re comparing Galvadon to a medieval village, it would make sense.

What is even taught at this school? Math and whatever language they speak there, sure, but like they have little to no history that we know of, geography would be pointless, there are no foreign languages, science who, and with these clowns running the village I’ll bet there is no philosophy or social studies and... Doesn’t matter, let’s not do this right now.

Callis briefly mentioned that all girls in Galvadon must marry before the end of their school education, or they are deemed witches. The Elders Council even chooses the matches, in case those aren’t naturally formed or if they disagree with pre-existing ones. These kids are what,15,16, maybe younger?

(this makes me so mad, you have no idea-)

ANYWAY. They form these child marriages, for... look I’m gonna presume is because of population reposition. They need an average of 2 kids per couple or they’ll have more people dying than people being born. Let’s just presume it’s because of this because if it’s because of some tradition stuff I’ll scream, okay?

Maybe they have a low life expectancy in Gavaldon (which is another evidence for the case that the elders are part of the clergy, they probably don’t work, so they live longer). 

So have them teenage girls poping them babies, I guess.

Also, a miracle they have survived this long, because the genetic pool for Gavaldon must be the worst ever, everyone is related to everyone, ew. At least, in theory, there would be no STIs.

In theory.

Ahem… During the middle ages, all forms of birth control tended to be frowned upon, at least here on the west, including coitus interruptus (aka, pull out method), (tho it depends of who was the pope at the time, some of them were cool with this one if you already had too many kids and was like super poor), because sex was supposed to be about procreating, so a marriage with no kids was ‘pointless’. 

(hear me raging in the background, this context is stressing me out, i just wanna get to the headcanons-)

We can assume this view is probably compatible with the Elders Council mindset, as they are marrying CHILDREN. 

If there were any available contraceptive methods, you can bet they weren’t teaching this stuff at school. They probably have no sex ed, and if they do, it’s going to be just about periods and vague stuff. Gotta love them church schools (I never went to one, officially, but honestly, I live in Brazil, what even is Secular State).

(“Don’t have sex before marriage, you’re gonna get pregnant and die”, - one of the teachers at the Galvadon school at some point, I bet)

Let me also mention that there is an specific Gavaldon law that states that if a girl is pregnant she is going to marry the boy who knocked her up. Which, specially in Vanessa’s case, makes no f-ing sense. Could she prove it was Stefan’s? Did she sent it to a DNA lab? If Stefan was the Elders favorite why would they not take his word?

I digress, let’s say Stefan didn’t deny sleeping with her and only said he was under a spell, which, hm, how dumb do you have to be to do that, it’s lying 101, Stefan c’mon, but okay, you do you.

So they are probably super “moral” in Galvadon. You know, the kind of moral who just swipes stuff under the rug. Like, yeah, Stefan you’re now doomed to marrying Vanessa, but ain’t nobody gonna say a thing if you cheat on her as long as you don’t do it during plain daylight.

(The amount of closeted gays in Gavaldon is probably astronomical, can you imagine?)

And then you have Callis. Whom I think is probably responsible for the introduction of birth control in Gavaldon. We have arrived at the headcanons. Hear me out:

After Stefan saved Callis, she was deemed a witch. She’s a ‘witch’ doctor for the town. Only the most desperate of people seek her out. 

That means she normally wouldn’t get a lot of patients. Like, Idk about you, but Gavaldon doesn’t seem big enough for her to have people looking for her everyday. And she probably had to feed Agatha somehow.

But, while her being a doctor for normal diseases wasn’t really working all that well, everyone knew she had a hand in Vanessa’s miracle child. So ‘infertile’ women and women who had been getting sickly during pregnancies start looking for her, asking for her to help them. 

Callis obviously doesn’t use her magic, but as she can’t say she used magic for Vanessa, she gives them generally good advice about herbs and stuff they can add to their food to make it ‘more likely’, aka stuff that reduces stress, telling them how to eat better, stuff they should avoid, etc. She’s no big expert, but at least in the Endless Woods they had sex ed and she was witch, she just knows stuff.

So she becomes this sort of witch gynecologist for Gavaldon’s desperate women.

It works for a while, but then people eventually share these tips amongst themselves to avoid going to see her. Then, it’s back to slightly starving herself so baby Agatha could eat.

One day, a teenage girl arrives at her doorstep in the middle of the night, trading food for her help. If she could ‘make people more fertile’, she could surely make them miscarriage. Maybe this girl got pregnant by sleeping with someone the elders didn’t aprove for her to marry, maybe it was something else a bit darker, but we won’t talk about how that could be common, given you could literally force someone to marry you if they had your child.

Callis panics, because she wasn't ‘making anyone more fertile’ really, she was making them healthier and therefore more likely to have a healthy kid. If she were to tell her to do the reverse of what she told the others, not only it wouldn’t work, but it would actually harm the girl’s health.

At first she’s like, “I can’t help you…”, but then she hears baby Agatha crying, poor thing, so hungry all the time. So Callis decides, “you know what, might as well”.

There’s probably many potions made with magic one could take to not have a baby in the Woods. Even ones that cause abortions with no side effects or danger to the woman. But there also more natural ways, ones that maybe aren’t 100% effective, but would work, tho it had some side effects.

So Callis, makes her a potion to take. For real life comparisons, let’s say she used Queen Anne’s Lace, which works a bit like Plan B. The girl is thankful, and goes on her way.

Soon enough, everybody knows Callis can do these potions. You have girls sneaking to Graves Hill in the middle of the night to get help in exchange for food and while the elders know something is fishy, they can’t do much anything about it. They ask Callis what is up with that and she’s like ‘nope, just ya know, helping them have babies, plan b who’.

She tries to introduce a variation of the potion, one that acts as birth control, because it would stop people from being irresponsable all the time, but the Plan B one is the one every girl wants, because well, it’s easier. You can be unsafe and then take a potion and it’s fine. Soon, it’s not just girls. There’s full grown women there too, who should really know better.

She is pissed, so she says she won’t make them any more potions unless people stop being so careless.

Someone tries to make a knock-off potion, but it ends tragically, because people don’t really know what Callis puts in it. And well… you know what looks a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace?

F-ing Water Hemlock, that’s what.

After that incident, people listen to Callis when it came to ingesting stuff. And thus, birth control culture is born in Gavaldon. Other people started trying out other things to avoid dealing with Callis, like animal-based condoms, pull-out method and inserting acacia gum into your vagina before you had sex,but she had a good clientele overall.

The Elders? Pissed. But since they couldn’t just prove this was her fault, they just kept on hating on her from a distance.

After Agatha has her first period, Callis sits her down and pretty much gives her the talk. Agatha doesn’t really see a point to it, boys are gross, but she listens nonetheless. 

Callis gives Agatha the best sex ed homeclass ever, you can bet she will teach her correct anatomy, debunk myths the school told her about both periods and her own body and even promised her to teach her how to make the birth control potion once she got older.

Again Agatha doesn’t see a point, but okay.

When Agatha comes home with Tedros, years later tho. Callis is... worried.

She tries to ask Agatha if she’s being safe but her daughter just... stops functioning. Blushing like crazy. 

 (“We just kissed, like, once, mom.”)

That being said… Callis doesn’t live long enough to teach her how to make the potion.

So when Tedros and Agatha’s relationship starts to progress (hm… if you wanna read something about it, maybe wait a couple of days, I might or my might not have a sin fic in the works, it wouldn’t be one of my posts if it had no self-promotion, I’m my own sponsor after all) she’s unsure of who to ask about this.

And it makes her extra sad about her mother’s death, so that’s great.

I honestly don’t know who she would ask. If you have any ideas, please tell me. Because I’m kind of inclined to think that maybe Merlin might have predicted this and handed a recipe to her as a semi-joke, but idk. Maybe Uma?

But yes, Callis was totally Gavaldon’s first witch gynecologist. And after they made Stefan mayor, I want people to remember her for the absolute legend she was, okay?

[anyotherwriter]

To Trust Again (2)

Daryl Dixon x reader, Post Season 8, slow-burn 

Word Count: 1.7k

**I’ve never been known for my updating consistency, but I’m really going to try.** Daryl felt bored. He never thought that this post-apocalyptic bullshit would ever allow him the chance to feel that. The only things he had to do were the things he wanted to do...which were slim and already done. His bike was already in as good of shape as it could possibly get, his stock pile of bolts was tall enough to topple out of the crumbling cardboard box, and he had enough firewood to last him the next year.

His normal visits to the Hilltop weren’t eventful, and they typically became a drop and run anyway. He loved to see everyone, make sure they were all still safe. He just had no desire to stay there with them right now. As the communities began to rebuild, he gracefully bowed out and took no responsibilities other than providing meat whenever possible. 

Daryl kept that note in his back pocket, tucked inside a pack of cigarettes he had found a week ago. He wasn’t sure why it felt so important to him, but it was something he didn’t leave his cabin without. Maybe it was because he had done something nice for a change. The last few years were all years of selfishly fighting for survival. This was something small he did to help someone without anything in return. He often found himself hunched over his fire, eating well, and wondering how they were making out. Did they have any crops? Fresh water? Soon the questions began to bother him. He started leaving jugs of water and a squirrel or two in the same milk crate at that trap. Everyday he went back, it was still there. He was frustrated at the meat now spoiled in the heat, but more frustrated that someone finally decided to listen. 

With the war with the Saviors over, the land was at a level of quiet the wildlife hadn’t heard in a long time. They all began to emerge and make his part much easier. He’d sit in his perch and watch as the animals played and ate and resumed life like it was before - like they had no enemies. Even this bored Daryl. He wanted something new, even if it was just a different tree to climb into until his knees were numb and locked. So he walked a little further each day. Two times, he wandered far enough that he knew he wouldn’t make it back by dark, so he slept in a tree. His body screamed at him for his entire trek home the following day.

He was also blatantly searching for that community. How hard would it be to find a group of thirty? Many people had run across his group when there were smaller numbers, but apparently this group knew how to fly under the radar. And they probably would’ve gone undetected if Daryl hadn’t decided to wander into a development one day to see if there were any supplies that hadn’t been scavenged.

Always light on his feet, he was tiptoeing across a back porch of a run-down rancher. He heard some shuffling inside and assumed it was just a walker. He gently twisted the knob as he peeked through the window. He saw movement in the front room and readied his bow in his sight. 

At the same time, he heard the very familiar sound of a shotgun reload behind him.

“We don’t have nothing for you.” A man said behind him, trying to be as menacing as they could. Daryl was also able to recognize the very faint tremble in his voice, too. He dropped his bow down, and began to slowly step away from the door.

“I ain’t here for trouble.” Daryl said quietly, turning to him. It wasn’t the same man as before, but he shared similar characteristics. His clothes were worse for wear, his cheeks were sunken in a bit, and his hands were covered in dirt. “Thought it was empty.”

Daryl had walked east today, the same direction that Joe had pointed to that day. He understood why they were so low on supplies if it was this easy to walk right up to them. No walls, no walker traps… nothing. Chances of this man shooting him were pretty good. As starved as they looked, he thought they may eat him too. He’s seen weirder shit. He wasn’t sure how to get out of this one, but he didn’t let that show on his face. 

“Where are you from?” He asked Daryl, gun still raised with no sign of it dropping. Daryl knew better than to tell him the truth, and he wasn’t above lying. 

“Georgia.” Not a lie, but not the answer they wanted. He glanced around, noticing a couple more men around him. They stayed at a distance, but they all had a gun trained on him. “You gonna risk firing?” He asked quickly.

The man across from him seemed confused.

“You got no walls. Nothin’ to keep those dead fuckers out of here. The more noise you make, they’re comin’ right for ya. All y’all gonna shoot me?” Daryl asked, his shoulders relaxing as the man in front of him looked around hesitantly. 

“We do what we have to.” He said with a false bravado. Daryl scoffed at the stupidity, knowing that protection was number one priority. If you didn’t have it, you couldn’t start anything else. 

“Joe here?” Daryl asked out of the blue. He watched as the man’s eyes widened, still confused, not sure if he should answer. “Gave him a possum the other week.”

Nobody answered.

“I’ve been lookin’ for him for a while. Wanted to offer some help.”

“What could you possibly do for us?” He demanded. 

“Got a few communities close by. Large ones. Food, water, clothes… deals with barter. You got somethin’ they want, you can have what you want.” Daryl laid out, offering something he was almost sure nobody back at the Hilltop or Alexandria would easily agree to.

“No communities, we’re all that's left of the last one. There isn’t much trust left around here.” He said, his words validated as he still pointed his gun at Daryl. “But...Joe told us about your traps.”

“What about ‘em?” Daryl shrugged.

“We want them.” 

“You ain't gettin’ mine. I got people to feed.” Daryl argued. “I can show you how to make your own.”

And that’s how Daryl found himself, led at gunpoint, to a large three car garage a few houses over. It acted as their storage, but Daryl couldn’t figure out for the life of him what was worth protecting in there. There was scrap metal, but nothing large enough to build with. The shelves were barren, except for a few small cans of food. The only thing worth a damn was the empty barrels they had shoved in a corner, surrounded by rotting plywood and trash. 

Daryl walked in on his own accord, kicking through piles of random junk. Pots & pans, wooden frames from old canvases, rusted lawn ornaments… Nothing of value, but he could work with it.

He pulled the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, pulled one out, and lit it. He inhaled deeply, as he took a final sweep around him. He looked back at them men standing in the bay entrances. They still had their guns pointed at him.

“Man, put that shit down.” Daryl said with a swat of his hand. He was becoming agitated with them. He could understand their hesitation, but mixed with the heat inside the garage and the same old bullshit Daryl seemed to always walk right into made him irritable. 

***

Y/N stood in the kitchen window of the house just across from the commotion. She could see the guys surrounding him, guns aimed, most likely unloaded. They had no ammo, and if they did, they wouldn’t waste it on a raider. She was in the middle of grinding up more grain when she saw the men leading him to their storage. A pitiful storage, really. They kept shit there that they thought might be worth using. Y/N knew it was all trash. They just wanted something to call their own. This was the longest place they stayed at in quite some time. The plan was to stay as long as possible, but no one really knew how. 

Everyone had their specialty. They have a cook, a nurse, a construction worker, a thief… The only thing they didn’t have anymore was a hunter. Losing her was the beginning of their downfall. Every now and then someone would get lucky, catching a few small fish in the creek a mile away, but for the most part, they were starving. 

Y/N knew that bread wouldn’t keep these people alive, but she tried anyway. 

“He still out there?” Anna, the oldest of the women, sauntered into the kitchen behind Y/N. She lent on the counter just beside her and gazed out the window. Y/N didn’t answer, just turned away and continued to grind her wheat. Y/N thought about the field nearby that was sprouting random bunches of wheat and how she wanted to cry. She spent the whole day cutting down all that she could, most of them carrying it back by the armful. That was the first time she felt hope in a long time. She even started a large jar of sourdough starter, something she hadn’t been able to do in many years. Yeast wasn’t a thing you could just find in the apocalypse, but her mom taught her a thing or two about wild yeast. 

“Says he knows Joe.” Anna tried again, hoping Y/N would indulge her. “That possum came from him.” 

Y/N didn’t react the way Anna hoped, but she did spare her a glance and then another through the window. She couldn’t see the stranger any longer, just the guys surrounding the entrance to the garage. Their guns dropped at this point. 

“What are they doing?” Y/N asked quietly, trying to stay focused on what she was doing. 

“Couldn’t hear much through the window, honestly. Just little bits. Offered some help, there’s other settlements around. Don’t know if I believe it.”

Y/N didn’t. This new world didn’t offer up many strangers with good faith. Most of them were murderers, thieves, assholes… you name it. Not many waltzed right in and offered to help. They could certainly use it, but they didn’t have high hopes in receiving any.

“We’ll be just fine without him.” Y/N assured Anna confidently, though she knew that was most likely a lie. Someone had to keep good spirits to take focus away from all of them currently starving to death. 

[mittensmorgul]

Eleven years since an angel and a hunter walked into a barn... I had to write something. :)

Rating: T Words: 2297 Tags: it’s just these two nincompoops actually talking about their feeeeeelings

Read below, or on AO3.

The case had proven to be sad more than scary or dangerous. An abandoned house. The ghost of a woman who only wanted to be reunited with her husband, stuck mourning his loss in the house they’d shared for decades, unable to move on after she died. It would’ve been a simple matter of salting and burning her bones, if it had been Gloria Radcliffe’s bones trapping her there.

It was Cas that finally got through to her, assuring her that her husband was waiting for her in Heaven if she could only let go of the home they’d made on Earth. She could go and find peace and happiness forever, but it had to be her choice.

Or that’s what finally convinced her to let go, at least.

Dean knew Cas had told her the beautiful lie everyone wants to believe about Heaven. Sure, you’re there with your loved ones, eternally living out your happiest memories, but how much of it is really real. Dean had been there. He knew. It kinda tarnished the illusion just a bit.

It had weighed on him the entire ride back to the bunker, the strange melancholy he couldn’t shake. The spirit’s grief was all tangled up with his own, spiraled out through the events of his entire life. Maybe it was just the cooler autumnal turn the weather had taken over the last day or two, or the fact the hunt ended with a good cry instead of a good fight, but Dean felt itchy and restless, like there was something important he’d forgotten, or maybe hadn’t even figured out yet.

He sat in the kitchen long after Sam turned in, picking at the leftover pizza they’d brought home and wishing they’d thought to pick up something sweet. It was an ice cream kind of night, he thought as he slowly sipped a beer and stared at the mostly empty pizza box.

“Dean, you’re still up?” Cas asked, finding him still sulking at the table a little while later.

Dean snorted but didn’t look up from his half-drunk beer. “How could you tell?”

He didn’t have to look up to know the sour face Cas made at that comment, or to know that Cas would come over to the table, close up the pizza box and take it to the fridge. Cas had been getting a lot better at knowing exactly what to do in situations like these. Not just how to deal with a melancholy Dean, but how to be patient enough to wait out Dean’s bullshit long enough to wheedle the truth out of him. If his patience was often displayed through the performance of various household chores, Dean wasn’t about to complain. Hell, he enjoyed this more laid back Cas. If he was being honest with himself, he was becoming a lot more laid back, too.

“Something about today’s hunt has been bothering you all night,” Cas said, sitting down across from Dean. He didn’t need to say anything else. He just sat back and waited Dean out. His tactic paid off eventually.

“Imagine being married to someone for 67 years,” Dean said, picking at the label of his beer bottle, the contents long since gone warm and flat. He finally looked up at Cas. “67 years, and then not having any idea how to let go of that life, even after the person you loved that much is gone.”

Cas nodded slowly, letting Dean work out why this was bothering him so much.

“You told her he was waiting for her in Heaven.”

Cas shrugged. “Gloria will bring his memory with her, whether or not they’re true soul mates who will share a heaven. She’ll be happy there. Much happier than she’d been stuck in her empty house alone, mourning the life she’d lost. Her life with her husband was a gift she can treasure for an eternity now.”

Dean nodded, shifted uneasily in his seat and went back to picking at his beer label. “They had a long damn time to make memories together. Some people don’t get near that long.”

Cas frowned and ventured a guess. “Are you referring to your parents? Because I assure you that your mother was joyously happy in her Heaven.”

“They only had ten years,” Dean said. “Ten years from when a cupid forced them to get together to when she burned.”

“This is why we make the most of the time we’re given, to hope the good outweighs the bad, and find happiness where we can,” Cas said softly. “Ten years can change everything.”

Dean let out a tired laugh and rubbed his eyes. “Might as well be a million years in my case. I ain’t never gonna have that kind of relationship.”

Cas sat quietly for a moment, frowning at him. “What do you mean?”

Dean turned serious, pushing his beer bottle aside and leaning his arms on the table. “The longest relationship I ever had lasted less than a year, and it ain’t exactly a barrel of happy memories. What do I even have in my life besides Sam, who’s practically married to Rowena now, and you?”

Cas shook his head, his eyebrows pinching together as he squinted at Dean. “Me?”

“Yeah, dumbass. You’re about the closest thing I’ve got to settling down with someone. Except, you know, we’re… not… that...”

“We’re not what?”

“You know,” Dean said, raising his eyebrows and waving a hand between them. “A thing?”

Cas nodded slowly, this time Dean letting him get there on his own. “But you want to have a thing… with someone?”

Dean shrugged one shoulder. “Never really thought I could, you know? Spent most of the last decade playing cosmic catch up. It didn’t really leave a lot of time for a social life.” Dean snorted at the recollection and then grinned at Cas. “Even you judged me once for never going to parties.”

“Well, it’s tr--”

“When’s the last time you went to a party, huh?” Dean said, cutting him off. “And drinking a liquor store during the apocalypse doesn’t count as a party.”

“There was that time at that nursing home,” Cas replied. “There was cake.”

Dean blinked at him for a second, trying to remember. “You mean the cake that exploded? What did you call it, a pastry mishap?”

“It was still a party,” Cas replied defensively.

“Weren’t you invisible at the time?” Dean asked, a grin spreading across his face. “It’s not like you were on the guest list.”

“I was still there,” Cas replied. “You only arrived after the cake exploded.”

“Yeah, I missed the festivities.”

“Fine, so neither of us has had a lot of time for celebration.”

Cas turned and looked at the clock on the wall. It had finally passed midnight. He got up and went to the fridge, and pulled out a small white box pastry he’d hidden behind the beer. He slowly slid it on the table in front of Dean and then took his seat again. Dean looked up at him, confused.

“Open it,” Cas said, gesturing at the box.

“This your idea of a party?” Dean said, lifting the lid. His smirk faded as he got a look inside. He stared down at the small cake, decorated with rainbow confetti sprinkles and the number 11 written in green frosting.

“I was saving it for later, but it’s officially the 18th now. Happy anniversary, Dean.”

Dean sat there, dumbstruck, looking between Cas and the cake, finally processing exactly what day it was.

“September 18,” he finally said. “Shit, has it really been eleven years?”

Cas nodded. “Eleven years since I gripped you tight and raised you from perdition, yes.”

“That’s longer than my parents had,” Dean said quietly, rethinking what he actually had with Cas in an entirely new light as he came to terms with what had really been upsetting him all day. “Guess we met because of angels, too. Only we both had a choice in the rest of it.”

Cas smiled at him. “And we’re still choosing every day.”

Dean stared at him, wondering how he hadn’t seen it sooner, appalled with himself for assuming this shit didn’t mean the same to Cas as it did to him. It wasn’t as if he’d never entertained the notion before, but it had always seemed so laughably impossible. Cas struggled to understand some of the most basic human concepts, and this was the one he got on the first try? Then again, he’d been trying to get this one since day one, hadn’t he? Good things do happen, Dean.

Cas had said everything could change in ten years, and he hadn’t been kidding. Eleven years ago, he was fresh outta hell and was still coming to grips with the fact that angels were real, and now he was sitting in his own kitchen just chilling with one. The same kitchen where God had once cooked them up pancakes while Cas had still been possessed by Lucifer. The same kitchen where he’d sat with his resurrected father and cooked dinner with his resurrected mother. The same kitchen where he’d told Sam he couldn’t imagine living any other life than the one that had led him right here, surrounded by the people he loved and loved him in turn. And it had all happened in little more than a decade.

This was still uncharted territory, though, so Dean took it slow. He took a deep breath and let Cas’s calm patience with him guide his next words.

“You know, busting into that barn with the light show and everything, you put on a pretty decent party.”

Cas snorted. “You contributed to the decor.”

“Coulda used a buffet, maybe an open bar,” Dean replied. “Still, it was better than Hell.”

“Most things are,” Cas said, fighting a grin.

Dean got up and returned a moment later with two forks, handing one to Cas. He pushed the cake box to the middle of the table between them.

“Dig in, Cas. We’re celebrating. We got eleven years. You think we’ll get 56 more?”

They each took a bite of the cake. Underneath the white icing and the rainbow of sprinkles, it was filled with rich chocolate. Dean went in for another bite around a hum of satisfaction while Cas watched on with a smile.

“I think it matters far more what we make of our time than how much of it we’re given.”

Cas carefully took a bite of the cake, stared at it for a moment, and then ate it. Dean smiled at him and nodded to the cake, shoving another bite into his own mouth.

“Good, ain’t it?”

Cas swallowed and licked the frosting off his teeth, nodding as he went back for more. “It is.”

They let the conversation hang there, unfinished, while they slowly devoured the cake. Eventually Dean broke their silence again.

“So, is this a good use of our time, you think?”

Cas shrugged. “Any time spent in your company is well spent. I said a lot can change in a decade, and I meant it. Knowing you has been the best part of my life.”

Dean blinked at that, because Cas had said that before, too. He’d pushed it aside at the time, because Cas had been dying, and then a demon tried to finish them all off. When they were all safe and whole and healthy again, they’d had even more worries to deal with, and somehow Dean had never gotten around to asking Cas exactly what he’d meant by that. That hadn’t stopped him from thinking about it, maybe obsessing over it. An angel, billions of years old, and the decade he’d spent with Dean had somehow topped his highlight reel. It was a terrifying and ridiculous thought, and yet now that Cas wasn’t dying and they were actually having a conversation about the past and the future, he still calmly insisted it was true. And if it were true, Dean finally understood what had upset him so much about the ghost of Gloria Radcliffe.

“I got her grief,” Dean said, not taking his eyes from Cas. “Gloria, the ghost. That kinda longing, the loss, I know exactly how that feels.”

Cas raised an eyebrow and waited for Dean to finish. Dean took a deep breath and let it out.

“I lost you a couple of times already. I know how losing everything feels, but what I don’t have is all the shit that’s supposed to lead to that at the end of the road.”

“And you’d like the long and happy life to go with it?” Cas asked, leaning forward across the table.

Dean just nodded, as Cas smiled.

“I think I’d like that, too.”

“So, where do we go from here?” Dean asked, feeling slightly giddy at the profoundly underwhelming sense of relief at a decade-overdue conversation. “I feel like we’re already doing this backward.”

“Where would you like to go, Dean? I’ll follow wherever you lead.”

Dean considered that for a moment and then leaned over the table, his face only inches from Cas’s. “How about we start with this.”

He leaned in ever so slowly, giving Cas all the time in the world to back away. Instead, Cas surged forward until their lips met. Dean leaned back, blinking at Cas like he couldn’t believe they’d actually done it, but from the contented smile on Cas’s face he knew it had to be real. He’d never seen Cas look so satisfied with himself. This definitely couldn’t be a dream. If it was real, then Dean needed to continue this experiment immediately. They had a hell of a lot of time to make up for. And they had all the time in the world to do it.

[ambitionsource]

Idk what schools are like in NYC, do kids have hooks to hang up their coats? Lol this is such a lame question but anyway, anything to add?

i found this question SO funny on first read, like i just want you to know this is the first thing my brain thought of in reaction:

GJFKDLSJGKLFDSJHGSD anyway. i think the equivalent to what you’re asking here in the states is like... lockers. and the thing is this is actually a revealing question, because whether you use your locker (and for what purpose) is pretty telling of your personality. for example, i never used my locker in the last 3 years of high school and just kept everything in my backpack. this was kind of necessary when we only had 6 minutes of transition time in a huge school, but you get the idea.

farkle uses his locker, and his is kind of centrally located so its easy for him to come and go to it between classes. he doesn’t use it so much for schoolwork (he has his messenger bag for that), but he’ll keep spare items in there just in case like a jacket, a blazer, dance shoes, etc. in the early school years his locker is very sparsely decorated (because he has no friends...), but as we’ve seen canonically over time he decorates it with pictures of his friends, which grows in variety as the series goes on. the interesting thing about farkle’s locker is its more of a set piece than other character’s -- in certain episodes like 208, it basically IS farkle when he himself is absent. so his holds a lot more visual power than everyone else’s.

maya doesn’t use her locker. she keeps everything stuffed in the extra pockets of her dance duffle, which also doubles as her backpack. she takes it everywhere and rarely stops at her locker. if you opened it, there’d be nothing but a few crumpled assignments from like, freshman year that she never completed.

riley uses her locker sporadically, sticking mainly to keeping things in her backpack. she’ll leave a few textbooks in there or extra pairs of things like dance shoes and clothes if necessary, but she rarely goes to it. she has a couple of photos hung up inside, but otherwise she just doesn’t spend much time in there. she might also leave her coat in there if it’s a wintery day, but by senior year she’s more likely to drop it in the booth.

zay doesn’t really use his locker except to store his dance duffle between classes. he has photos in it (including the one of charlie featured in 211), but it gets updated infrequently since he doesn’t spend a lot of time there. he basically swaps out his backpack for his duffle, and his backpack is like standard green and one he’s had for ages so it’s flimsy but he’s decorated it with pins, buttons, and doodled all over it over the years. another thing is that he has this thing of letting his best friends over the years doodle something / “sign” his backpack, so he has stuff from his friends in middle school as well as yindra, nigel, riley, and yes, even charlie.

charlie is someone who uses his locker religiously (ba dum tss), partially i think because it gives him some place to orbit around as he goes through his day. there are a lot of canonical scenes with him talking to people at his locker, so people kind of know that’s a place to find him between classes. he has photos of his friends (well, Known friends, like haley + clarissa, pics with yindra from les mis, his sisters, church friends, etc), and he also has a little divider in the lower half that acts a shelf so he can separate his dance shoes and stuff from everything else. he tends to keep his backpack and dance duffle in the locker unless he needs it for a specific class, and then collects all his things at the end of the day each day.

isa uses her locker pretty efficiently as well, and she takes care to make sure it’s very organized. dividers, magnetic whiteboard with a to-do list, yeah she’s that bitch. she doesn’t necessarily go back and forth to it a lot each day (she knows how to get use out of her backpack), but she has it all worked out so that everything is exactly where it needs to be when she needs it. she doesn’t have a lot of personal affects in it though.

lucas... well. he didn’t use his locker at all until he was kicked out of the booth, because the booth was like... basically his locker as well as his semi-home lmao. like why bother to use your locker when you’re just gonna come back to the booth at the end of the day anyway? but once he got ousted he kind of had to recalibrate, and he uses his locker solely because he still just has a lot of... Stuff at school. he’s basically a little nomad and so he’s got his whole travel duffle stuffed in there at all times since it can’t be in the booth anymore. that said, even though he uses it, i don’t think lucas decorates it. that’s just not who he is and ain’t nobody got time for that.

asher most certainly uses his locker, and we’ve seen him use it more than a couple times in canon. he’s somewhere around charlie and isa in terms of how he uses it, but i think his has slightly more personal touch to it. he’s also got a back-up stock of like... every important thing he could ever possibly need in a little bin at the bottom of it, like an emergency first aid kit but for also like. self-care and school supplies lmao. in freshman year he had a mirror in there but when he became friends with lucas and dylan who would, incidentally, end up slamming his locker door a lot on accident, he got too nervous the mirror would shatter and got rid of it (which is probably a good thing because it effectively forced him to stress about his appearance about 34% less than he would’ve otherwise). he has some pics of the techie crew and pics + letters from dylan hung up now instead.

dylan has shit in his locker but he doesn’t really use it for school. he’s basically created a little quick shoppe out of it and has stores and stores of things like gum, extra writing utensils, candy, snacks, water bottles, and during testing season, scantron bubble sheets. he’s basically like... a dealer, only its school supplies + self-care stuff and he won’t charge you any money lmao. the interior door of his locker though is stuffed full with photos of his friends, family, and asher like 15 times. he also 55% of the time doesn’t even have a backpack. like he will show up to school with literally nothing and yet, somehow it doesn’t seem to matter. cory hates him for this and eric was suspicious of the locker shoppe for a while (even though once he got to know dylan as a person he was like okay yeah nvm he’s fine lol), but they’re just hatin bc dylan is using the system in his own way! he won’t do it the way they’re used to and they’re gonna have to DEAL WITH IT!

-- Maggie & Es

[jzixuans]

Hey, I've been feeling down recently and was wondering if you had any Logince headcannons. Platonic or romantic work, whichever you feel more comfortable with. Sorry if I'm bothering you.

aw lad don’t worry about bothering me i’m glad to share some headcanons ! i hope you feel better soon!

now, might i interest you in some childhood friends-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers logince? [PREPARE FOR A LONG ASS BULLET FIC I’M SO SORRY (google docs says it’s 4.2k words oh my god)]

they’ve known each other since the first grade because oh my god they were neighbours

they were the kind of childhood friends that were aware of each other’s presence and they hung out a little on the playground and worked on group projects but they didn’t really click

there WERE occasions tho where their parents would sit them down together for play dates bc one or more of said parents were Occupied with Important Adult Stuff

and since this was way back when they were wee lil smols, they were hyperactive lil children

so they played lots of adventure games, lots of role-playing, play fighting, that kind of stuff (twas often the dashing daring prince accompanied by his wise magickal advisor)

okay, so maybe they did click, but only a little (so they say)

they liked most of the same stuff, reading, learning, doing stuff with all that knowledge in those big brains of theirs, and that was pretty much the base of their close-but-not-that-close-friendship

and then they got older, and as all kids do, they started prioritizing different things

logan still loved learning and applying that knowledge, but it was more of a ‘learn and apply what knowledge can make you really successful’ and that was how he found his love of science

for roman, it was more of a ‘take what you’ve learned and use it to create your own path to success’ because he planned to go into music and theatre

as a result of this, both boys were exceptional students, except logan cared maybe a little too much about the academics and roman not enough

as the years went by, logan threw himself into studying, making schedules and routines so that he could make sure he knows what he needs to know and maybe a little bit more on the side, who cares if he lost an hour of two of sleep?

roman just learned to go with the flow, so he took everything in stride, took in what he needed, left the rest, and focused on his art instead, even if he’s started to grow an unhealthy apathy to school

and maybe logan falls just short of perfect on his tests, and he looks over and roman has glowing one hundreds in red ink on his

logan looks back down at his and the teacher has written ‘Think outside the box!’

meanwhile logan answers every question in class with scary accuracy, beaming with pride whenever the teacher praises him, and after school that same day roman gets pulled aside with an ‘I know you’re smart, so why don’t you want to put in the work?’

of course logan’s parents wonder why his grades don’t match his progress work, and roman’s parents wonder how he can spend all his time singing and dancing and still come out with high nineties (“is he cheating?”)

and the two have been drifting apart enough as it was, but now they kind of hate each other because ‘why can’t i just be more like him?’

logan starts hating roman because ‘he doesn’t even CARE, how is he doing better than me?’ (part of him misses the days when roman cared so much about anything and everything)

roman starts hating logan because ‘he’s so stiff and condescending, why can’t he just be happy for me?’ (and part of him misses when logan would so willingly stand by his side as his faithful warlock advisor)

so naturally, competition just kind of,,,, grows between them, until they’re constantly at each other’s throats and everyone else watching the shitshow go down has absolutely no idea where the hell all this animosity came from

at this point logan has a new friend in virgil fray and roman has befriended patton hart (virgil and patton know not to bring up the boys’ ‘rivalry’)

of course, being neighbours, they can’t exactly escape each other, and their rooms are adjacent to each other’s (they used to just lean out their windows and talk side by side, but they haven’t in yEARS)

so it’s nearing summer, and it’s hot out so roman’s working on his homework with the window open when he hears this cry of frustration, the angry pushing back of a chair, and the throwing open of the door

his first thought is one of smug satisfaction knowing that logan is dealing with school worse than he is, but then a flash of black catches his eye underneath his window

he makes it to the window just in time to see logan hop the fence in his backyard, and that only means one thing: he’s going to the old park behind their houses

neither of them have touched that park in ages

roman is Intrigued™, so he caps his pen, turns off his lamp and tells his parents he’s going for a walk before dashing out the back door

when he gets to the park, logan’s somehow managed to climb on top of the roof of the play structure

and roman ain’t slick so he just stands at the bottom and yells up to him

and logan is Lost In Thought so he nearly falls off (lbr roman thought it was funny)

“what are you doing here?”

“well excuse me, suck-rates, i happened to notice that you weren’t doing too hot and wanted to see if you were okay.”

“like you’ve ever cared.”

“woah there, is blink 180-ew rubbing off on you?” 

“lay off of him.”

“alright, alright, fine. forgive me for checking in on you.”

“you have a horrible way of showing people that you care, then.”

“well you have a horrible way of being a good friend.”

it just kind of,,,, slipped out, and now both boys are Oh Shit

but both boys are also not the type to back down from their feelings so they kind of have the Silent Stare-Off of Stubborness

roman decides to be the bigger person (bc any chance to one-up logan) and cave first 

“so uh, what’s been bothering you?” (psh you thought he was gonna apologize first? not yet fam)

logan rolls his eyes bc this asshole amirite, but he wants to vent and this is probably his best opportunity to tell roman what’s really been bugging him

“i don’t know how you manage to do it.” 

“do what?”

“do so well in school! you don’t even try!” and damn dude that one stings because he sounds exactly like his parents and every other teacher

“so you’re angry because you’re jealous that i’m better than you at everything.”

“that’s not what i meant and you know it.”

“i’ll have you know that i do try.”

“but you don’t care.”

“about school.”

“what?”

“i mean yeah, sure, i don’t care about school that much because i don’t really need it to go into music or theatre, but i still do my work.”

“but―”

“don’t you dare say anything about my grades because you know damn well that you’re smarter than me.”

“am not―”

“besides, weren’t you the one that told me in the fifth grade that ‘grades don’t mean shit’? my my, what a foul mouth for ten-year-old logan crane.”

“shut up.”

“nah.”

and by now logan’s decided that roman’s probably not going to rip his head off so he climbs down to stand beside him

and maybe the sun is setting bc i’m a classy romantic

and they’re having a Soft Quiet Moment

“…please don’t tell me that school was the only reason why u hated me.”

“… why did you hate me?” smh lo you’ve got to stop deflecting

“…”

“are you kidding me.”

“YOU STARTED IT”

“what no you did shut up”

and wOw now it’s awkward so 

“oh would you look at that, it’s getting late, my parents are gonna think that i’m slacking again, better go. good talk let’s do this again sometime okay byee” and whoop roman just zooms off

and logan realizes that maybe roman’s life isn’t as perfect as he makes it out to be

but too late roman’s gone and he doesn’t want to look like he’s following him so he waits a good half hour before trekking back home

logan doesn’t finish his homework that night because he’s too busy rethinking the past many many years

the next day, he’s frantically trying to cram his work in during his lunch period

virgil takes one look at him and he says “dude, are you okay?”

“no”

“cool, let me know if i can do anything to help.” and maybe it’s a cold answer but logan and virgil are cold edgy people so that’s just how they do

after like twenty minutes virgil takes out his earbuds like “you haven’t complained or sent one angry glare in roman’s direction what the fuck is up kyle”

“i’m just…. stressed.”

virgil, externally: “yeah of course i feel u dude.”

virgil, internally: “i’ve seen you start a project at 3am the morning it was due without breaking a sweat but go off i guess.”

skip to later that night, logan finished his shit (he needed a distraction from the Roman Crisis) so he leans out his window for some Fresh Summer Night Air

and oho would you look at that roman had that sa m e  i d ea

but it’s one of those clear nights where you can actually see the stars and logan just got roman off his mind so he’s a lil distracted

but of course roman notices and now that they’ve gotten some of their ‘rivalry’ out of the way, he remembers how much logan loved to drag him out to the park as late as they were allowed to stay up to watch the stars, and logan looks so at peace here (he’s only really seen logan’s angry face recently)

roman wants to say something, because part of him really wants to make up with logan

but before he can work up the courage he’s interrupted by his mom calling him

“roman! are you done all your work?”

“yeah, mom! almost!”

“you better be going to sleep early tonight!”

and roman is about to duck back inside before he gets yelled at even more but oh no too late logan’s already noticed and now he’s staring at him

“uh, hey.”

“hi.”

“are you, uh, are you feeling better?”

“for the most part, yes.”

“that’s good. look, uh, i gotta go, but i’ll see you at school?”

“oh, right, yes. good night, roman.”

“night, lo.”

roman falls back into his room with a crash because ‘oh my god why was that more nerve-wracking than any performance i’ve ever done?”

logan sinks back against his wall with a sigh because ‘is roman avoiding me now?’

the next day at school the two actually say hi to each other in the hallway and it’s like the entire world stops moving. students are staring and whispering, virgil and patton exchange looks, and logan and roman only just now realize how big their rivalry had gotten

the two lock eyes and burst into laughter because something as simple as a passing greeting in the hallway has turned the school on its head

and the rest of the school has absolutely no idea what just happened when the two part ways, virgil and patton trailing behind them, dumbfounded

they catch each other on the way home, though they walk in silence

that night, they’re back at their windows, side by side once more, and they exchange small talk

a couple weeks later, exams are coming up around the corner and both boys are stressed out of their minds

logan’s still working well past midnight when he hears the old creak of roman’s window opening

“i see your lamp. are you still up?” he hears roman whisper, and maybe it’s the late hour, but his voice is hoarse and wobbly, and logan is most certainly not used to hearing that

“that’s a ridiculous question, of course i’m still up,” logan replies, still not looking up from his computer because his history final project is due in two days

except roman doesn’t reply, and all he can hear from his direction is shaky laughter, and then a wet sniff

“of course i’m ridiculous. it’s not like i’m smart or anything.”

“what?”

“if i were smart i wouldn’t’ve procrastinated this english paper and i could probably be getting some sleep right now,” roman continues like he forgot that logan was there

“roman―“

“and sure, i can do other stuff, but it’s not like it matters or anything, not to my mom, or mr. schmitt, or you―”

“roman!”

roman’s babbling stops and logan worries that he’s scared him off until he looks up and sees roman leaning halfway out his window and now logan’s worried that roman’s going to fall out and break his neck on his patio

roman’s eyes are red and his nose is rubbed raw from crying. his usually-perfectly-coiffed hair is messy and greasy from running his hands through it, his clothes are rumpled, and his grip on the windowsill is trembling

yet he’s still half out the window, eyes comically wide, and logan can’t help but shake his head at how big a dork he is

“i’m sorry.”

roman’s so startled that his elbows buckle and he barely manages to land back in his room so he doesn’t fall (didn’t expect logan to apologize first, didya?)

he’s barely back out the window when logan starts talking again

“i shouldn’t have dismissed you so quickly. you are intelligent and you are capable and you absolutely didn’t deserve any of my anger or bitterness or hatred. for that, i’m sorry.”

roman is, SHOCKED, to say the least. when they were kids, usually it was roman who apologized first, if at all, logan only after being prompted to by parents or teachers (which might’ve contributed to their drifting apart)

“i’m― thank you.” 

there’s a pause because it’s late and logan is really really bad at this

“i’m sorry, too. i only really hated you because everyone kept comparing us. that wasn’t really fair of me.”

“i guess not.”

“so i guess we both agree that we’re both assholes.”

“essentially.”

“cool.”

“what were you going to talk to me about?” and roman has an ‘oh yeah’ because he completely forgot what he came out here for

“i guess i just missed doing this.”

“i did too.”

and they’re not completely in the clear, because they have years of hurt to clean up, but in that moment, they just sit and talk, and maybe missing one assignment amongst a whole year of perfect grades won’t hurt

they’re butts tired in the morning but neither of them regret it, regardless of virgil and patton’s comments of ‘how much sleep did you get last night? you look like you’re about to pass out.’

that weekend, their finals are all handed in, exams don’t start until the next week, and they’re both sick and tired of studying so logan invites roman over and they lounge in his star-speckled room, talking about everything and nothing

roman’s busy going through logan’s stuff (“what? i haven’t been in here since the summer before the seventh grade”) so logan has a free minute to just,, watch him, and he just now realizes how much he missed having this ball of energy in his life (in a positive way)

after that day, the tension between them is almost gone and conversations are so much easier (virgil and patton get to sigh in relief because ‘thank god, i love them, but they needed to get their shit together’)

but alas, exams approach and roman calls logan late one night, in tears and stressed beyond relief, begging him to meet him at the park (he would’ve called patton, but patton’s never really been under forced academic pressure, and logan’s just a smidge more familiar for him)

logan’s out of the house without another thought, and he sees roman sitting up on the monkey bars with his knees tucked up to his chest (‘oh my god roman don’t you dare fucking fall’)

“i’m sorry, you were probably sleeping, but i just needed to get out of the house and―”

“please don’t apologize for reaching out. what― what’s wrong?”

“i just can’t! my mom’s been threatening to pull me out of music if i don’t do well on this exam because ‘math is more important than music’ but i don’t know anything! i’ve been scraping by pretty well on tests but i can’t fucking study and none of the information is sticking and―”

“roman, you’re hyperventilating. you need to breathe―”

“don’t tell me what to do!” roman regrets this Immediately because logan recoils his hand like he’s been burned. great, just another thing to feel Bad about. “i-i’m sorry, i shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

if this was a month or two ago, logan would’ve had a scathing remark about roman’s inability to control himself but now he just places his hand back on roman’s shoulder and taps gently with his finger

“you remember that school assembly from grade nine? the one about mental health?”

“yeah?”

“can you do that breathing exercise?”

“probably”

ten minutes later, roman’s cried himself out and he’s stopped hyperventilating but he can’t seem to stop his hands from shaking

logan has absolutely no idea what to do but he’s seen patton do it before with some of the younger kids so he holds his arms out (v awkwardly) and goes, “would you― would it be― would a hug help?”

this gets a lil laugh out of roman because he’s trying and that’s adorable so now he’s cry-laughing into logan’s shoulder

“your mother sounds an awful lot like your horrendous dragon witch. i suppose we must simply team up to defeat her.”

roman draws away so fast he bumps into logan’s chin

“OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBER THAT”

“like i could forget it”

“oh my god”

“i mean, i wanted to, but those were… fun times.”

“hell yeah they were.”

“when’s your exam? i can help you study, if you want.”

“in about seven hours.”

“…change of plans, you’re coming back with me, you’re going to sleep for six, wake up, get a cup of tea, and we’re going to do a brief review before school.”

“…okay.”

so they walk back to logan’s house (roman makes sure to tack a note to his bedroom door for his parents, he’ll face the consequences later), and they just, collapse into a pile of leggy boi on logan’s bed (they were too tired to argue about formalities)

logan wakes up with roman clinging to his chest and he very sorely misses that warm cuddly heat but Nope he is Determined™ to help roman get that bread

so he wakes roman up, plops his notes down in front of him and tells him to flip through it while he goes to make breakfast

roman is a jittery Mess all the way up to the exam, but logan promises that he’d be waiting in the cafeteria for him (it was his lunch period’s exam day so he a Free Boi) and he leaves roman with a “you are more capable than you know. you already have everything you need to succeed. and no matter what, you are valid.”

two hours later, roman comes out and he has Zero Confidence in his results, but logan greets him with a clap on the shoulder and the reassurance that “at least you’re done with this.”

they meet up with virgil and patton and go for lunch, and oho, perhaps this is the beginning of a New Squad

at the end of the week, on exam review day logan’s waiting out in the hallway to go to his next class to see his results when he sees roman sprinting down the hall with the biggest grin on his face

“i got an 84!!! thank you, you beautiful blessed nerd!!” because honestly? roman expected nothing more than a 52 so this was a very pleasant surprise, and now roman’s hugging logan so tight that logan swears he heard his elbow pop

the other students of the school are still processing because it was literally only been a little over a month since they started talking to each other again, and anyone out of the loop just got hella whiplash

(and if this burst of happiness and gratitude left a weird, bubbly feeling in logan’s stomach, well, he’ll just keep that to himself)

the next few summer days are spent hanging out, in their rooms, at their windows, at the park, and sometimes, virgil and patton join them

sometimes they’re in roman’s room, roman typing away on his computer with a dozen open notebooks scattered around him while logan lays on his bed, and the two bounce ideas back and forth for the next adventures of the daring prince c and his faithful advisor logos

and then they’re two weeks into the summer break, virgil’s off visiting family in china for the next few weeks and patton’s in the caribbean, so they’re just aimlessly tossing a ball back and forth in roman’s room while they talk about their futures and stuff because “oh my god they’re gonna be high school  s e n i o r s  in the fall“ ((‘gee, blink, don’t u think that’s a lot of drama for 16 y/os?’ yes absolutely, shut up))

roman chucks the ball at logan, who catches it in one hand and he’s smirking and roman has to take a moment to catch his breath because ‘why was that so hot omg’

over the next couple weeks the two are basically joined at the hip, and when they’re not hanging out, they’re texting or calling each other and it finally feels like they’re really making up for lost time

at the same time, they may or may not be falling for each other and they have no idea what to do with these Feelings™ 

logan doesn’t know how to what to do because virgil is v aro and the only other person he can talk to is roman, whOM HE HAS A CRUSH ON

meanwhile roman is v frantically texting patton like bro pls call me as soon as u get back there’s a cute boy hELP

it’s nearing the beginning of august when the two go into town to get food and ice cream and they’re laughing and joking and waving melted strawberry ice cream in each other’s faces and they’re sitting on a bench when they lean in real close mid laugh and ‘oh no his face is rIGHT THERE’

they draw away real quick but both of them realize that ‘that wasn’t horrible?’ and they slowly look back at each other and ‘oh.’

“is this―”

“um―”

“is this― i mean if you want it to be ―  is this a date?” and roman holds his breath because ‘dear god, please say yes’

“i’d like it to be, yes.” logan is terrified because he does  n o t  want to fuck this up

except now roman has the biggest grin and he absolutely does not care that he’s got ice cream dripping onto his leg

roman tackles logan into a hug because ‘he’s on a date with logan fucking crane’

logan is thrilled because now he gets to keep this excitable ball of energy who’s made him smile and laugh more in the past couple months than he has in years

(no diss against virgil and patton, but they can’t relate to logan and roman as well as, well, logan and roman)

they both have ice cream on themselves but neither can be bothered to care at this moment because they’re so damn happy

even after they go home that night, they stay up real late at their windows, side by side, just appreciating the company

it’s the next day, and they’re at the park, the sun is setting ((listen,,,, it’s an aesthetic)) and they’re sitting on the swings, holding hands ((they’re in love, babey!!))

“are we… does this make us boyfriends now?” logan is a v technical, official terminology person, of course he’d be the one to ask

“if you want to be boyfriends.”

“i don’t think i’d be asking if i didn’t.”

“then yeah, yeah we’re boyfriends.”

logan walks back into his house with a giant smile, and he plays that event over and over and over again in his mind as he lies awake in bed that night

roman calls patton immediately

and they may or may not scream about it together

logan sends virgil a short text that goes along the lines of ‘roman and i are dating now’ but in real life he’s so giddy that his fingers shake as he types it out

they have their first kiss in roman’s bedroom a couple days later

when school rolls back around in the fall, they walk through the doors hand in hand

and now their rivalry is nothing but a legend that the seniors tell the freshmen whenever someone complains about ‘that one couple that keeps making out in the math wing stairwell, excuse me, i just want to get to class’

[coffeestainsandcashmere]

‘All that’s best of dark and bright’ - a Draco x Hermione x Theo story - Chapter Three

For anyone reading on Tumblr and not on Ao3, here’s Chapter Three. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on Ao3 - you made my entire life with this. My venomous tentacular is fed and watered, and my creative patronus charm is nourished.

Chapter One here: Tumblr | Ao3

Chapter Two here: Tumblr | Ao3

“Right you are,” Hagrid beamed, shuffling a little bit on the spot. As he looked down at her, she realised that he was wearing the same, achingly worried expression he had when they’d all shown up that night with Ron hurling slugs and Hermione in tears. Somehow remembering that almost made her smile. “You, uh, want somethin’ to drink? Pumpkin juice? Tea maybe?”

Automatically, she shook her head. “I’m fine, thank you, Hagrid.”  You’re not being a bother, and he asked you, she scowled silently. You’re allowed to ask for things you’d like. “No, actually, a cup of tea would be lovely, if you’ve got the kettle on.”  

“You know me, Hermione,” Hagrid chuckled, obviously glad for something practical to do. “Kettle’s always on ’ere.”

Hermione smiled and watched the enormous man bumble back inside his modest, stone hut, and inhaled deeply. The air was cool and damp here on the edge of the forest, sheltered from the prevailing winds, and it carried with it the eerie, haunting croon of thestrals and the other creatures that lived in the forest, accompanied all the while by the soft susurrations of the breeze through the pine trees. If she strained her imagination hard enough, she could pretend to hear the swish of Buckbeak’s wings, or the hoarse croaks of young baby Norbert. A faint waft of cold smoke coiled up from the empty ashes in the fire pit, and the green scent of earth filled her mind for a long moment, stilling it for the first time in weeks. If anywhere felt like home now, it was probably here.

Alone for a little while, except for Fang, Hermione sank down onto a log and then, just because she felt like it, she lay down along its length and crossed her ankles. The wood formed a cool pressure right along her body, grounding her, and she sighed, hair splayed out beneath her head in a wild riot of curls.  

Fang immediately plonked himself down on the ground beside her, the old dog leaning against the log as if it needed him to buttress it up, and she hooked her arm affectionately around his thick neck. “You’re like a giant teddy bear,” she chuckled as he tipped his head in her direction and tried to lick her face. Mercifully, he was just out of range. “An incredibly slobbery giant teddy bear, I’ll grant you, but still.” She was glad that, despite everything, Fang had made it through the war. He felt as much a part of this place as Hagrid did.

“So how’s things?” Hagrid asked as he emerged once again, the strong, milky contents of two giant mugs slopping slightly over the edge as he jostled with the door. He put one down on the log next to her to cool a little, and then eased himself down onto a log opposite her.  

It groaned ominously, but held.

“Busy,” she said honestly and he chortled a big, rumbling laugh, belly shaking.  

“Yer always busy, Hermione!” he said, still chuckling fondly. “I’d be worried if yeh weren’t. But how’s things without Ron and Harry? Yer not lonely, are yeh? And how are they getting on?”

She sucked the insides of her cheeks suddenly to keep from crying, emotions swelling inside her again as if under an engorgio charm. “I suppose they’re busy as well,” she said carefully, but her voice still trembled.  

Fang nosed at her hand and licked her fingers gently.  

“You ‘suppose’?” Hagrid asked, the quiet promise of thunder in his gentle voice.

With a heavy sigh she draped her free arm back over her head, enjoying the languorous stretch and feeling a bit like Crookshanks in his favourite sunny spot back at The Burrow. “I thought… I thought it would be alright without them,” she began. “And it is, for the most part, honestly. But… you know they’re both doing grown-up things like Auror training and earning a living already - Ron’s working in George’s shop in Diagon Alley - and meanwhile I’m… well, I’m still at school, Hagrid. It’s no wonder they haven’t bothered to write to me. They’re probably both too busy being important.”

“Oh Hermione,” he crooned gently, that thunderously protective edge still lurking in his voice, “Don’t talk like that. Yer bloody brilliant, you are. Yer gonna get the best marks anyone has ever seen at Hogwarts - better ‘an Dumbledore and McGonagall put together - and then yer gonna go on to do wonderful things when you leave here. It ain’t a rush and it ain’t a competition.”

Despite the fact that she laughed at his earnest, honest words, tears suddenly spilled from the corners of her eyes and disappeared into her wild hair as she lay there on her back. Fang shuffled himself around and tried to lick them off, but she really did draw the line at that and gently pushed his muzzle away before he could smear his hot tongue and vile slobber over her face.  

“Thanks, Fang,” she said gently, knowing that the dog was emotionally intelligent, if maybe not quite so intellectually. “I’m just… I just… I feel so alone, Hagrid. I’ve got Ginny, of course, and Neville and a few others, but no one else has been through everything that we did - not the way that Harry and Ron and I did - and I feel like no one else… understands that. Ginny does, to an extent, but she was still sheltered for some of it.”  

Always running; setting up the wards and constantly jumping at every last noise; foul, out of the way places to call ‘home’ for a few nights; exhaustion; fear bordering on mania; bickering; tempers fraying; desperation; isolation; helplessness; pain; the agony of loss again and again…  

She stroked Fang’s smoke-soft coat for a bit, fingers skimming the silvery fur, and eventually began to feel a bit better for the contact. Hagrid didn’t speak and she loved him for his quiet patience.  

After a while, she added, “Don’t get me wrong, Hagrid, I’m glad no one else had to go through it all, but… Sometimes I feel like the only person here at Hogwarts who has been through as much is… well… is Draco Malfoy, so you can imagine my sentiments about that.” But… what were her sentiments about that, exactly? She found that she didn’t like to dwell on it, actually, since examining it only seemed to muddy the waters.

Hagrid was quiet for a just moment longer before he said quietly, “He came to see me on the first day of term, you know?”

At that world-tilting revelation, she looked over at him sharply. “What?” she barked.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his beard and taking a huge gulp of tea. “Can’t say I was too happy to see him, o’course, but… before I could set Fang on him, he just apologised. Stood there with his hands in his pockets and said he was sorry for… for Buckbeak, and for my house getting burned, and everything. Said he knew he couldn’t make it right, but he wanted to clear the air a bit.”

“What did you tell him?” she asked faintly.  

“I told him that if he really meant it, then… well… I’m no acromantula; I won’t hold a grudge forever. But if he’s really sorry for everything - an’ I mean everything - then he’ll start to do some good with that name of his, instead of bad.”

She snorted and looked back up at the sky. A patch of blue in the shape of a Welsh Green dragon had opened up above her and was drifting lazily overhead towards the Forbidden Forest. She watched it as she said, “Can’t imagine he took that very well.”

“Actually, he just nodded and said ‘yeah’ before walking back off to the castle on his own. I had to have a whole mug full of firewhisky just to settle myself down afterwards,” he snorted. She didn’t blame him. She’d felt like she needed a whole bottle of the stuff after Malfoy had apologised to her in Potions, and that had been over something fairly inconsequential. “He looks awful. Like someone took all the starch out of him, Hermione. Like he’s got nothing left no more.”

She sighed and found herself nodding in agreement. “It’s like I keep seeing two Malfoys, Hagrid. There’s the snotty little pureblood boy from first year who was just awful and defensive and volatile, always seeking approval and validation… and then there’s this haunted young man with all the weight of grief and guilt on his shoulders, and… I don’t know how to reconcile the two. Or if I even need to. Or if I should!” She cringed, realising how shrill her voice had grown, and Fang whined softly. “Sometimes I really think he’s changed and he’ll surprise me - like today, when he made a flippant comment and it took me completely off guard. Then he apologised afterwards and I nearly passed out. I couldn't believe that Draco Malfoy was apologising to me - especially for something so petty!”  

“Imagine how I felt,” Hagrid said wryly.

Another sigh rolled out of her but before she had time to say any more about Malfoy’s cruelly snapped comments and acrid personality, footsteps on the gravel path leading down to the pumpkin patch drew their attention. Fang didn’t budge from her side, but he gave a low, warm ‘woof’ of greeting, as Neville came intro sight.  

“Hello Hagrid, Fang,” he beamed. “Hermione!” he added when he spotted her.  

“Hi Neville,” she replied, sitting up again and dusting off her skirt. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Likewise. Thought you’d be in the library!”  

She tried not to let the innocent comment sting and Neville carried on while she drained half of her mug of tea in one go. It was strong enough to tan leather, but the taste of it fortified her somehow.  

“Come to collected those chizpurfles for the venomous tentacula’s weekly feed, Hagrid, if you don’t mind. And some more doxy venom if you have it. Professor Slughorn asked me to pick some up next time I stopped by.”

“Right you are,” Hagrid grunted as he got up off the log and stumped off into his hut.  

Hermione looked up at Neville over the rim of her mug and realised just how much he’d grown up too. He was almost handsome now. He met her eye and flashed her a curious frown, and she laughed softly and set the mug down. Fang began to lap at the remnants and she abandoned it happily enough to him. “I was just talking to Hagrid about how much we’ve all grown up since first year. How’s life as Professor Sprout’s teaching assistant?”  

Some of the few ‘eighth years’ had been adopted by various members of staff as teaching assistants, and she’d been approached by no fewer than three. Muggle Studies was plenty enough for her though.  

“Oh it’s going great,” Neville beamed. “Professor Sprout’s letting me grow the squill on my own and they’re doing really well so far. Slughorn needs them for his Felix Felicis class later this term.”

“That’s great,” she said, and she really meant it. He deserved to be happy after everything. Rumour had it that he and Hannah Abbott were getting closer and closer too.

“What about you? You seem busier than ever…” he said.  

With a long inhale and a knowing look, she nodded. “Yes. Speaking of, I should stop talking Hagrid’s ear off and get back up to the castle. I’ve got three essays to finish today and Charms at sixth period.”

Hagrid emerged a moment later with a small crate of assorted things for Neville and he chuckled fondly. “That’s our Hermione, eh Neville? Never sitting still for more ‘an five minutes at a time!” He paused before handing the crate to Neville and added, “Yer welcome here any time - all of you lot, you know that. You need a cup of tea, or a cuddle with Fang, yer more ‘an welcome to it.”

Her throat closed up a little and she promised herself she wasn’t going to cry. “Thanks, Hagrid. And you, Fang,” she smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of his head and earning a thwack around the calves from his tail for the effort.  

“You going back up to the castle, Neville?” she asked and he nodded.  

“Well, greenhouses,” he amended.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all.”

“See you Hagrid!” they both chimed and she headed back with her chest feeling considerably lighter. Something did lurk in the background though, like a grindylow in the weeds, but she tried not to give it any attention. Malfoy. It was all their talk about Malfoy. And she didn’t want to think about him just then. Neville, it seemed, had no such concerns about bringing up the Slytherins.  

As they neared the greenhouses, footsteps crunching on the compacted gravel pathway, he asked, “How are your prefect patrols with Nott going?”

“You heard about that, huh?” she grinned.  

“Ginny mentioned something about prefects being paired with different houses. Is he alright? I never really knew him ‘before’.”

Before. That word carried such weight. She tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear only for it to spring loose again immediately. “It’s not bad, actually. I was wary at first, but I’ve got to know him a bit in some of my classes too, and he’s honestly not awful. He’s a cocky little shit, don’t get me wrong, but… he’s also kind of nice.”

“For a Slytherin…” Neville snorted playfully.

“No, for anyone,” she said evenly. “He’s extremely smart, and surprisingly considerate, and he’s even rather witty. I don’t mind being on a rota with him at all.”

Neville shot her a long look but eventually shrugged. “What do Harry and Ron have to say about it?”

Her chest twisted painfully and she looked away. “They’re not my keepers, Neville,” she snapped under her breath.  

“I didn't mean it like that,” he said patiently. “I just… I just meant… never mind. I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” she insisted. “I’ve been in a funny mood all day. I’m sure Luna would tell me it’s wrackspurts or something.”

Neville smiled and they parted ways at the greenhouses with a promise to catch up at lunch.  

All in all, Hermione wasn’t sure that her trip to Hagrid’s had done much other than fill her up with mightily strong tea, but the walk had probably done her good and put some colour in her cheeks, as her mother used to say. God, she missed her parents. Kingsley Shacklebolt had promised to send agents to check in on them from time to time, but he’d sent no word lately of how they were doing. No news, she assumed, meant good news at least.  

The remainder of her day passed relatively uneventfully, and she got the homework done in good time, just as she’d planned.  

It still felt oddly as if she were drifting about the place, more of a ghost than any of the genuine spirits who haunted the halls of Hogwarts, but she half hoped she could get the chance to talk to Malfoy again in Charms that afternoon. The tentative truce they’d shared in the first few weeks of term - polite nods and tersely academic conversation - seemed in danger of fracturing and shattering. If it went now, she wasn’t sure they’d get another chance to repair the damage done by their shared history.  

Malfoy, however, sat beside Nott and didn’t look up at all from his textbook, except to perform an impressively nonchalant flick of his wand to transform some vinegar into a rather inviting-looking glass of champagne at Flitwick’s invitation. He even transfigured the glass in the same sweep to turn it from a squat, ugly tumbler into an elegant flute.  

“Very nice, Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Flitwick chirruped. “Now, Miss. Granger, can you tell us why such a charm is taught here in this classroom, and not in Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall? Extra transfigurations notwithstanding,” he added with a flash of his eyes at Malfoy.

Because taking classes with obnoxiously stubborn Slytherins drives one to drink… “Well, simply put: oxidation of the ethanol in the wine forms ethanoic acid which produces vinegar. All this charm does is force that oxidation reaction to run the other way, and return the vinegar to its original, reduced state. You can repeat the charm as many times as you like, oscillating between vinegar and wine, but that’s all you could do. It’s why you couldn’t use this charm to convert orange juice into champagne. You’d need to transfigure that, as Malfoy did rather neatly with the glass,” she added in his direction.

Malfoy’s silver eyes darted from the page in front of him where he’d been doodling - small drawings of owls and serpents, she thought, though it was hard to tell from that angle - and found her face. She offered him a tiny smile, and to her surprise, he returned it, though the gesture was barely more than a twitch of one corner of his full lips.  

“Very good,” Professor Flitwick said, returning to the front of the small classroom. “Now, for our next charm, I have something a little less… frivolous in mind. Miss Granger, if you’d be so kind as to come down to be my demonstration partner?”

She shunted her chair back and stood, smoothing out her skirt automatically before coming down to the front of the room. It felt odd to have everyone’s eyes on her, and she almost had to close her own for a moment to remind herself that she was not back at the Ministry, and Malfoy was no longer on trial. Her eyes flickered up to his shot of silver hair in the back row, but he was doodling again. She was at Hogwarts, and she was supposed to be listening to Flitwick so that she knew which bloody charm he wanted to demonstrate with her.  

“…is a protective charm that will create a barrier around the caster and keep them from the view of people on the other side,” Flitwick said.  

Oh heck, did she know this one. And she’d probably cast it accidentally in her sleep a hundred times since returning from their life on the run.  

“Hermione?” Flitwick asked, “Are you alright? You’ve gone a shade… green.”  

“I’m fine, Professor,” she smiled, tamping everything down inside her again. “You want me to cast it now?”

“If you would be so kind.”

Bringing her hand up, she flicked her wand and muttered, “Cave inimicum.”  

The shuddering wall of magic descended around her, muffling and distorting the voices of the class. From the safety of her invisible bubble, she could stare openly at Malfoy and she discovered, to her surprise, that he’d been wearing an oddly intense expression as he’d watched her cast. Nott, sitting beside him, looked as casual as ever at first glance, but now that she took the time to look a little longer, she saw an intense light in his dark blue eyes that had only kindled when Malfoy had leaned forwards on the desk, long fingers folded in front of him, his icy grey eyes alive and roiling with emotions she couldn't read.  

“Thank you, Miss Granger,” Flitwick’s voice echoed dully through the barrier to her ears. “Presuming you’re still there, of course.” He chortled amusedly at his own joke. “Now, if I stick my hand through the barrier, it will disrupt it, but if I step inside entirely —” he did so, and she smiled as the tiny wizard looked up at her and the charm fractured but held tenuously, “— you will see how easily the illusion is shattered. Of course, you can still hear through one of these barriers, so the caster will have to use other enchantments to reduce noises.”  

Someone made a predictably crass comment about having a quickie behind the broomstick sheds with this one, and half the class snorted. Those students among them who had already discovered such charms either kept extremely still in their seats, or flushed slightly. Hermione managed to do neither, but she thought she detected a slight warming of Theodore’s freckled cheeks. Interesting. She’d not known him to have shown any romantic interests, but then again, she’d had slightly more important things on her mind than who was sleeping with whom in sixth year. Except for Ron. She’d known exactly who he was sleeping with, and it had made her nearly mad with jealousy. That she’d been so petty over the business with Lavender - rest her soul - was something that still gnawed away at her. In the end, Hermione and Ron had been better off as friends anyway. She often wondered if Lavender would have been good for Ron in the long run. She’d never know now.

Mechanically, she took down the enchantment at Professor Flitwick's request, and returned to her seat.  

“Used that one before have you, Granger?” a blond seventh year Slytherin seated on the second row leered. He reminded her so viscerally of Cormac McLaggen that her gut twisted unpleasantly.  

With her expression stony, she paused just behind him and replied in a voice just loud enough to carry, “Came in handy once or twice last year for evading snatchers, yes,” she said tartly before sitting down and glaring at her textbook. Malfoy said nothing nor looked at her.  

She snuck a sidelong look at him a minute or two later as Flitwick wrapped up the class, and saw that he was gripping his wand in his left hand so hard his knuckles had faded a few shades lighter than the rest of his skin, and a muscle in his jaw was pulsing. Theodore shuffled beside him and a moment later, the tension eased in Malfoy. He let out a long, slow breath through his nose and then Draco looked at her. The pain in his eyes - the open, unshielded, raw pain - stole her breath. Unthinkingly, she almost reached for his shoulder, but she caught herself in time and instead offered him a smile. ‘I forgave you’ she tried to convey with just her eyes.  

Malfoy’s face hardened again and he looked away.  

As the bell tolled for the end of class, he stood up and left without a word, shoving past Nott and leaving the room in a swirl of black robes.  

Hermione pulled a face and found that Nott was offering her a matching grimace. The rest of the class streamed out,  but the two of them remained in the lecture room.  

“We knew it wouldn’t be easy,” Hermione said, eyes on the doorway where Malfoy had vanished. “After everything… There are bound to be things that come up in class now — potions, spells…” she paused and said pointedly, “Even curses… which, you know, we’ve all used to get by in one way or another. Tell him…” Tell him what? “Never mind. Just — “ she let out another little frustrated huff and shook her head, curls bouncing wildly. Her last hair-tie had spontaneously snapped in the library and she now felt like a real Gryffindor lioness, wandering around with a wild, curly mane haloing her head. There were smoothing charms, but she didn’t fancy messing about with magic in the girls’ bathrooms. She’d done that before, with mixed success. “I’ll see you for patrols tonight,” she said, defeated.  

Nott nodded and stepped aside to let her pass out of the row first. 

___

Part Four

If you enjoyed, please reblog and share! I’m new to the fandom on here and appreciate all the help I can get!

___

writing masterlist | Ao3