#cloud flames are a total cheat and I love them

[elder-dragon-93]

TFW in trying to solve a problem an OC would run into in a fic, you wind up completely retooling their fighting style to match the solution.

For context, I have a KHR fic in the works with a pseudo-self-insert reincarnating into the world of Katekyo Hitman Reborn as Tsuna's twin sister, Sawada Chiyohime, who developed Cloud, Mist, and Sky Flames. And at some point is introduced to blacksmithing, discovers she likes it, and (because she's a massive fucking nerd) decides to recreate weapons from her favorite video games to use as her own weapons, starting with the Buster Sword. Problem is, Chiyo is about 47 kg (100 lbs) when she first makes the thing at twelve, and the Buster Sword, with its estimated dimensions and assuming it's made using a metal similar to steel, would be about 87 kg (191 lbs), nearly twice her weight.

Now, anyone who is familiar with physics will know that a sword that much heavier than its wielder is going to fling said wielder around with every swing, even if the wielder has super strength and is able to lift it.

Thankfully, Chiyo has Cloud Flames, and Cloud Flames' major thing is Propagation. Multiplying. It took me all of five seconds to think of the solution of Chiyo increasing her weight to mitigate the effects of momentum and inertia. And figuring this out gave me an epiphany about her fighting style as a whole. She didn't need to be a special sweeper like Tsuna. She could be a heavy-hitting tank.

Now, it still takes her a few years to figure out the best way to wielder Buster, but adjusting her weight quickly becomes one of the best skills in her arsenal, even when fighting hand-to-hand as she often is, with the very Mist-appropriate result of her fighting style being its own distraction as her opponents try to figure out how the hell she's doing what she's doing.

This is going to be fun.

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

I’m on mobile, so ya know, but for @five-rivers @floralflowerpower and I just checked, lemme amend to @uwuplasmiusuwu

This is Fathering a Phantom

It was a bright summer day in Amity Park, Danny Fenton was in the grove - no one wanted to say “Amity Park Park” - doing a handstand while braced against a tree. “See? I told you I could do it.”

“You’re not using your powers to float into that position, are you?”

“Sam, I am offended that you would imply that I, of all people, would cheat at things with levitation.” Danny laughed, flopping down onto his belly in the grass. “Appalled, really, how dare you?”

Laughing, Tucker ripped up a handful of grass from his side and sprinkled it down into Danny’s bird’s nest of hair. “No of course, you are the most noble in character there is. As we have seen, you are a superhero through and through. Complete with bedsheet cape.”

Danny groaned while the three of them laughed and shook his head. “Alright, listen.”

“You, wearing black and white alone, looked at me and asked if I was willing to wear bright primary colors, Danny.” Sam patted his shoulder blade and Danny rolled his eyes. “A ghost asked a goth to wear bright colors. You shall never live that down.”

“There are pastel goths,” Danny countered with a pout. “I checked, there are goths who wear bright colors. It’s a mindset, not a fashion statement.” Tucker draped yet more grass on Danny, who turned to stare at his best friend and deadpanned, “Dude that’s kinda gay.”

Tucker snorted and laughed himself back into the tree they were sitting in front of. “H-how exactly is that gay?”

“Grass, in flower language, represents homosexual love,” Sam supplied.

Tucker covered his heart with a hand and gasped loudly. “Oh goodness me, I, a bisexual nerd, cannot be gay good sir and madam, that is simply unacceptable. Truly, this is the end of my world.”

“I will write you a gorgeous eulogy seasoned with memes,” Danny said, patting Tucker’s thigh as the latter flopped over, putting on his best ‘dying’ act. Then a chill completely at odds with the summer sun shining down on them went up his spine and out of his mouth as a cloud of icy mist. “Shit.” Danny braced for impact, a dome of green light erecting itself over the teens just in time for five missiles to strike it and explode.

When the smoke cleared and Danny transformed in a flash of light – pale skin tan, snow white hair, glowing green eyes, black and white jumpsuit, all the staples of half dead teendom – Danny locked on to his attacker. A large, mechanized man with flaming green mohawk was grinning down at him like a predator baring teeth to prey. “You’ll have to survive to his funeral first, whelp, and I assure you that’s not happening. I’ve gotten a few upgrades since last we fought, and The Hunt is on.”

While Skulker popped out a new cannon, Danny turned to check on his friends, both of whom were pulling out their own Fenton ecto-pistols. When he turned back there was an explosion of golden light and the screeching of tearing metal, and Skulker was missing half of his mech before Danny could even quip at him. Danny dropped his shield, turning to stare at the source of light with everyone else, and found his jaw had dropped very literally to the ground.

Something that could be a bear mixed with a goat, an electric eel, and at least three kinds of birds was aiming a bow at Skulker, an arrow made of golden light already knocked and shining brighter with every second. Each feather was a different color, oscillating in intensity, but overall, it was both hard to look at and impossible to look away from. “Hi there,” the ghost said with a voice that could have been a thousand people speaking in tandem. “You are going to leave in the next five seconds, or I am going to traumatize these children by showing them just how one Ends a ghost. Four. Three.”

Danny had never seen Skulker fly away so fast, especially with only one turbine to boost himself. He couldn’t even blame him, not with the burning fountain of energy beating their kaleidoscopic wings in front of him, aiming at Skulker until buildings were in the way. Danny charged up an ectoblast of his own even as the arrow dissipated. “Well, ever since all this ghost stuff I didn’t believe in guardian angels. Get lost in the Zone?” Much to Danny’s pleasant surprise, the angelic ghost laughed.

“Gods, your aura is screaming ‘fight me,’ did you know that?” The ghost turned to Danny and all the animal features melted into each other until Danny was looking at what could almost pass for a regular human being. Blond hair, brown eyes, some weird old-timey robes, and a single pair of feathery wings that reflected the light catching them like crystal glass. In the next moment, Danny was being dragged into a tight embrace, cut off from the world by arms and feathers alike, and he blinked several times, tense as a bowstring.

“I’m gonna need you to back up before I zap you,” Danny said with his hands up and a buzz traveling from his chest toward his fingertips. The ghost backed up, hands held up where everyone could see them, and wings half folded around him like a cloak.

“Apologies, my response to seeing kids almost getting hurt is to hug them. I should’ve asked first.”

“That’s very true,” Sam said with narrowed eyes. “Who are you, exactly?”

“Yeah, we don’t get many new ghosts around here who know how to speak English,” Tucker said. “Or any who help us.”

The strangely human looking ghost took a deep breath, eyes glowing from brown to golden-orange and clasped their hands together in front of their face. “Well, that explains a few things I’ve observed of you in the past two minutes. Right, so, first thing’s first; hi, I’m Tobias Lumano, you kids can call me Toby. He/him and all that.”

Danny shook the hand extended to him, ignoring the fact that a hand was held out to all three of them. “Danny, Phantom currently.”

“Tucker Foley.”

“Sam Manson. What exactly did you observe of us?” Sam still held her pistol, ready for a fight. Toby chuckled and shook his head.

“Well, Danny here is screaming ‘fight me,’ with his body language and if all you’ve ever met are hostile adult ghosts then that makes sense. You’ve got that Still Warm feel to you, like you’re only recently dead. Which makes the rumors about you impossible, of course, cause I’m pretty sure none of you are even close to being adult humans unless people look a lot younger per quarter of their life in this Realm.” Toby settled with his wings crossed over his chest, relaxed but not quite limp, and Danny cocked his head to the side.

“How do you even see with those glowing in your face all the time?”

“What about Danny screams ‘fight me,’ exactly? He’s totally chill right now.” Tucker gestured at all of Danny, bobbing idly up and down on some kind of current that he had yet to identify.

“Oh, my dear summer child, ghosts communicate in ways that non-psychic humans cannot perceive fully. You see this?” Toby brushed a feather against Danny’s glow and the teen made a face, drifting away from the odd sensation. The glow stretched with his movement before Toby backed off. “That’s your aura, little man, and it’s currently positioned in a way that’s sort of giving the finger to everyone around you. How long have you been liminal if you don’t know about your aura?”

“How long have I been what now?”

“I think he’s talking about you being half ghost,” Tucker said, whipping out his PDA and tapping away at the screen. “We’ve never actually heard a term for it before other than Sidney Poindexter calling Danny a halfa. No offense to Poindexter but that’s a really dumb name.”

Toby laughed, covering his face with a hand, and shaking his head. “Right, ok, you’ve got a lot to learn, but I think I can help with that.”

“We should probably take this discussion somewhere a bit more private than the open park,” Sam hissed. “This is supposed to be a secret, remember Danny?”

Danny rolled his eyes and turned his head around 360 degrees. “There’s no one here right now, Sam.”

“Well, if you’re keeping this a secret then yeah, you should probably find somewhere secure to talk about this at.” Toby rolled his eyes and became translucent, spreading his wings and circling around the three of them. “Here, you take this feather and just break it when you feel ready to talk with me. I’ve got some things to figure out around here.” One such feather fell into Sam’s hand, taking on the hue of several leaves in a gradient, and Toby winked at Danny before vanishing entirely from view.

[lananiscorner]

FE3H route review and thoughts - Crimson Flower

This was the third route I played, and one that I was really looking forward to. I wanted to like this route. Edelgard is the villain of the story and that's great—I can route for villains if they are well-written and well-used (Cersei was one of my favorites in Game of Thrones). Unfortunately, while I appreciate what this route was trying to do in terms of Buddhist symbolism—showing Byleth taking the path of the beast, the path of hatred, greed and ignorance, compared to the other three routes where people have to let go of exactly those vices—I believe the intended message was lost to the Western audience, partially because the narrative was already too subtle about it for someone without a buddhist background, partially because of mistranslations that whitewash Edelgard and demonize the church. Instead, this route came across as one of total tonal dissonance, where everybody just up and forgets that White Clouds ever happened. Flame Emperor who? Blood experiments what? But I am getting ahead of myself. This is my least favorite route by far. Even so, I do have some good to say about it. Rest beneath the cut because it got long:

Things I really liked about this route, in no particular order:

Hubert was unapologetically hammy evil. This man is a treasure. I love him for the same reason I loved Peter Baelish in Game of Thrones—here's a character who would flat-out tell you "oh you misunderstand, distrusting me is the first smart thing you've done since you got here". He simps for Edelgard and is willing to lie, steal, cheat and kill for her. I may not agree with him or his methods, but I can respect his talents and dedication. Easily the most competent and enjoyable character of this route.

Edelgard lied to her closest allies to demonize her enemies. Again, I may not like it, but I can respect the dedication. Say what you want about Edelgard, but she does not back down and that's good.

While fighting Rhea and the Lions was painful, I appreciate that we got two unique maps in Tailtean and Fhirdiad (or is it Firediad?).

Dimitri's and Dedue's alternate death scene was some of the gayest shit ever and I cried. Absolutely superb.

Bernie got out of her room at last! Good for her.

Dorothea and Lysithea having doubts about the Arianrhod lie. Kudos!

Things I didn't like/would have changed:

While changing school class from one professor to the next is not really a big deal, choosing to side with the country who declared war on yours is. Therefore, I believe with the exceptions of Lorenz, Hanneman and Manuela, and the Ashen Wolves*, all recruits should have been automatic defectors post time skip. Those who do actually suffer from the crests they bear or the ideals of nobility should have been recruitable again post time skip if defeated and convinced by Edelgard (Sylvain, Felix, Ingrid, Lysithea, Marianne, Mercedes), everybody else, only if defeated by Byleth (Shamir, Alois, Ashe, Annette, Raphael, Ignatz, Leonie).

Even with this new recruitment, let more characters point out the dissonance between part 1 and 2. Let them ask the heavy questions. For example, Leonie/Lysithea/Alois/Lorenz/Faerghus Four: What about all the kidnapping and murder the Death Knight did under Edelgard's employ? What about Remire? What about Captain Jeralt? Mercedes/Marianne/Ignatz/Annette/Sylvain/Lorenz: How can the goddess be false if Byleth was blessed with her powers? Marianne/Mercedes: How are the archbishop/church supposed to have abused their powers for riches and greed when working for the church specifically includes abstaining from greed and the church supported orphans, rebuilding efforts, sanctuary for stranded enemies etc.? For that matter, just because someone is not human, doesn't mean they are not deserving of life and peace. Leonie/Raphael/Ashe: Curious how the only Black Eagle who wasn't made a general is the self-made commoner. Also, many of us would not be here in the first place if we had had to rise and fall solely by our own merits.

Related to that, let more people doubt the Arianrhod lie. In short: let other characters point out the holes in Edelgard's narrative and let Byleth purposefully ignore them because of their personal attachment to Edelgard.

Change Dimitri's line to Byleth to make it clear for the western audience what he is trying to say here. In EN, he currently says: "Why did you choose to walk this savage, bloody path?" In JP, from what I have seen written by people who actually speak this high-context language, it is clear that he refers to the path of the beast, the Buddhist concept of straying from the path of enlightenment by giving in to the three poisons. Make that clear in the English translation: "Why did you choose to walk this path of ignorance, hatred, and greed? The path of the beast?"

Crimson Flower got done dirty in the cutscene department. At the very least, Dimitri's execution should have had a cutscene (with a gore discretion shot of course), potentially even his alternate death scene. Edelgard’s reunion with Byleth in chapter 13 also should have had one, as well as Byleth’s “death” in chapter 12, because as it currently is, that scene makes zero sense.

Change the choice in the Holy Tomb from a very loaded "I must protect Edelgard./I must kill Edelgard." to "Side with Edelgard./Side with Rhea."

Translation choices that whitewashed Edelgard and demonized the church were a mistake (e.g. leaving out mention of her "information campaign", adding "kind" to her attributes for her desired successor, implying Edelgard's life span was affected by her double crest in her ending with Lysithea, which is literally not stated anywhere else and not what the JP source says, that NPC that went "I embezzled money from the church, because my village was attacked" which had "and the church didn't put in enough to rebuild" tacked on in English, or the commandments of Seiros being changed from "don't hurt others without a good reason" to "don't hurt others unless by command of the goddess").

Have Ferdinand, Linhardt, Caspar, Constance, Hubert or Edelgard mention the other Hresvelg children who died at least once or twice outside of her supports, so they don't feel like badly tacked on backstory, which they currently do. All of these characters are nobles of the Empire and we know that unlike in Faerghus, Empire nobility usually reside in the capital. Ten imperial children dying leaving no impression on any noble in the same city just makes no sense. Unless Edelgard was lying of course (very possible), in which case, we should get a clue about that. For example, change Ferdinand's explore dialogue in chapter 14: Ferdinand: "I have been wondering. If things had gone differently, where would I be now? Who would I be? Do you ever think about that sort of thing, Professor?" Byleth: "1) Like if I had not sided with Edelgard? 2) Like if one of her older siblings had become Emperor instead? 3) No, I don't." Ferdinand, if you pick 2) and she was lying: "Siblings? Edelgard is an only child, professor. Always has been. As son of the prime minister, I would have known if there were older siblings in the line of succession at any point." Ferdinand, if you pick 2) and she was telling the truth: "I... must admit I have not thought of the other Hresvelg children in a long time, but now that you mention it... some of Edelgard's older siblings were very different from her, yes."

Byleth slaying Rhea and Sothis’s crest stone disappearing from her heart should have had clear consequences, instead of the writers trying to have their cake and eat it too. Either let Byleth die (they were stillborn and only managed to live because of the crest stone) or make Sothis's S rank unachievable and make it clear in Byleth's ending that the shining sword she's wielding is Seiros's sword, as seen in their ending with Jeritza, rather than the Sword of the Creator.

Make it so that Nader's dialogue in Edelgard's paralogue changes if Claude died, e.g. "Break through the locket and make them pay!" and when he attacks Edelgard: "On this day, I will make you pay for what you took from us!" Because even if Claude was considered an outsider by many, we do know that Nader cares about him and Nader having no reaction whatsoever to meeting the woman responsible for Claude's death (potentially) makes no sense.

* My reasonings for these exceptions: House Gloucester always sides with the Empire by default, Hanneman and Manuela side with Empire by default if unrecruited, Yuri would stick around to keep Abyss safe, Hapi dislikes the church, Constance needs Edelgard to restore House Nuvelle, Balthus would benefit from Edelgard's intended future and has no other allegiance

[billiedeanhwrd]

mind is just as frail as it's frame, you know i'd leave it alone

billie dean howard x reader

summary: you're fighting a losing game with your disorder, let's hope it's not too late when your ex-girlfriend shows up in your apartment.

warnings: eating disorders (bulimia), depression, sad ending

word count: 1730

a/n: this is basically a vent i dumped into my notes app in one sitting after not being inspired to write for way too long, so, pls don't judge too harshly and pls DONT READ THIS IF IT COULD TRIGGER YOU

gif credits to @mildredratchds

You had fallen into the dark, deep blue again. Time and time again you fell and you fought your way out, you fell and you picked yourself up again. Not this time though, you were drowning and there was nothing you could do to get back to air. You were trapped in this pool of misery as if it was locked on the surface, and there was no way you were getting out of it by yourself.

The last time it got this bad you had Billie, sweet, sweet Billie, who would've sacrificed her life to help you in any shape or form, but she was gone. Her departure left a cavity in your heart, yet you couldn't be mad at her. She had tried. But you locked her out when you needed her the most. There really was no one else to blame for the decaying of your heart, but you.

Nothing particularly bad happened that would've caused you to spiral this extremely, it was simply the fact that everything was bad, everything is bad, and everything would always be bad. In reality, your problems weren't getting worse, but the continuous strain of having to deal with the same troubles every single day was eating away at your resistance. You could feel the energy and willpower to keep going creeping out of your body, leaving you with the empty shell of who you used to be.

You hadn't talked to Billie in months, after repeated tries to break down your walls and being pushed away every single time, she gave up. You did it, you pushed away the one person who truly cared for you. Your mind was clouded by self-hatred and anguish, it was as if your eyes were shielded by a grey layer, making it impossible for the world to look anything but cold and loveless.

There was not a single thing that could spark up the joyous flame inside you. Nothing was even remotely good anymore. Nothing.

You were here, but at the same time, you weren't. As if you had taken a step back from reality. The feeling of not being real blurring the lines between good and bad. At certain moments the light inside you would flicker, pulling you back and guiding you to the right thing. But it was only a flicker. It was weak and it was temporary. The disordered desire to completely destroy yourself was starting to consume you.

Everything was blurry, the line between good and bad, the one between acceptable and inappropriate and most dangerously the one between you and your illness.

Were these your authentic thoughts or were they caused by a disorder?, was a question you often asked yourself, but never actually answered.

You had long reached past the point of not caring, now you wanted it, actively wanted absolute destruction. You resumed all your old unhealthy coping mechanisms and made no effort to stop your current ones.

Who would really care if you died? no one, at least that's what you made yourself believe.

Total isolation from friends and family was necessary so you could spend all your time focusing on your eating disorder.

Instead of spending your nights in the arms of the woman you loved, you spent them hunched over the toilet, hurling your guts out.

You felt weak and disgusting at all times, nothing about what you were doing was anywhere near glamorous. Well... except if anyone finds choking on your own vomit or all kinds of gross digestive issues glamorous.

You couldn't recognize the girl starring back at you in the mirror, who the hell even was this red-eyed girl? Her puffy cheeks stood out to you immediately. Snot, vomit, and bile were running down her face, probably picking at her skin. And her eyes... well, except for tears and popped blood vessels there was nothing in them. Not a single glimpse of happiness or remains of a person.

It was a heartbreaking sight that left you cold.

Dizzily you walked to your bed, too tired to do anything. The tiny remains of energy you had left you with the content of your stomach.

It was 5 in the evening and you were laying in bed, staring at the spinning ceiling, until your eyes fell shut.

Your friends had contacted Billie, she was the only one who used to be able to help you at least a little bit. She was there for you, always, and she never judged. She stood by you in your darkest times, supportively holding your hand and not letting go even when the going got tough. You were constantly terrified of dragging her down with you, the last thing you wanted was to rob the world of her angelic presence.

She would hold you close when you were down, which was admittedly most days. She would clean your apartment and do your laundry, things you didn't feel like you could do in the state you were in.

She loved you and you loved her.

Of course, you returned the favors, you were there for her as well, but you knew it was different. It was a bigger challenge being with someone so deeply intertwined with their illness, but she still did it.

She was your everything, and you had lost her.

Not only was she your light in this pitch-black hole others called life, but she was also your soulmate. The one you laughed with most. The one who got you, everything about you. You shared a myriad of beautiful moments that outshined any bad time for her. She wanted to marry you one day, of course, you didn't know that until you kicked her out of your apartment and discovered a red, velvet box weeks later when you finally cleaned out her drawer.

You were moody, irritable, impulsive, and horribly depressed. It seemed as if your actions didn't have consequences, life was a game of numbers. Calories in. Calories out. Nothing else mattered.

You felt no remorse when things ended with Billie. The realization only really hit you when you found the 18 carat Tiffany diamond.

For a second your eyes opened wide and your lips curled into a smile, despite having ruined the surprise proposal. Then, boom, it hit you and your heart crumbled. There was no surprise to ruin, anymore. You two were done. She didn't need you, she had moved on, appearing with a new side-piece on the covers of tabloids weekly.

Why would you even care though? You ended things. you could hear a painful laugh erupting from you, you didn't need her, you didn't need anyone, not when you had your innermost nervosa.

Eyes wide and dead, smile big and stiff, you looked horrifying. But what did it matter? Sanity was a hoax anyways.

When your friends called Billie she dropped everything for you, like she always had and always would. The second she heard how you were behaving, her heart rate went sky high. It was happening again, and this time, she wasn't there to throw you a lifejacket, this time, you were drowning on your own.

It was 6 in the evening, and you were laying in your bed, facing the now still-standing ceiling.

Billie chuckled to herself as she used the spare key you hid in your not-so-secret-secret hiding spot to open your front door. The apartment was just how you had left it.

After you had practically inhaled the kitchen until you were painfully full and then, of course, ritualistically aggressively forced your hand down your throat to un-do what just happened. That's what appealed to you about bulimia. The control. Life didn't have an undo button, so you had to create one for yourself. You cheated in the dirtiest games of them all and your pride overthrew every bit of rationality that was left. Not once did the thought "I shouldn't be doing this" enter your mind, this was after all normal to you, blurry, but normal.

It doesn't work that way though, you can't undo anything or cheat your way through life just because you're unable to give up control. And a part of you knew that, a part of you wanted to listen to what your therapist had told you. She was right, you could drop dead at any second, the chances of having a sudden heart attack rising after every heave.

The smell of vomit invaded the medium's nose when the door creaked open, and her heart sunk. She wanted so badly to help you through this, stand by you, and overcome this with you, but you wouldn't let her. You made it impossible for her to be apart of your life. She had no energy to keep up the fight and so she left, like you wanted her to, like you said you wanted her to.

She called out your name. no response. you must be asleep somewhere, she thought. Your ex-girlfriend made her way through the food packages and dirty dishes on the floor to the bathroom, it wouldn't be the first time she'd find you passed out on the cold ceramic tiles. She flushed the toilet and wiped down the blood and vomit-covered toilet seat before stopping in the doorway to collect herself. Fiddling with her pearl necklace before taking a deep breath, she left the bathroom.

It was 6:10 in the evening when Billie switched off the light in the bathroom and headed to the kitchen, her red pumps echoing through your deadly silent apartment. She stopped in her tracks and seriously considered cleaning for a second, like she used to do for you when you were dating.

She missed you, a lot. She missed seeing the relief on your face when you entered your freshly cleaned kitchen after beating yourself up for nights for not being able to just. Do. IT. She missed the way your eyes sparkled when you looked at her, she missed your bear-hugs and cuddles, she missed everything about you. Billie shook her head, cleaning could wait, she needed to talk to you.

It was 10 past 6 in the evening and you were laying in your bed, which was how Billie found you a few seconds later.

Because everything was just how you had left it. Dirty dishes on the floor. Lights on. Vomit in the toilet. A lifeless body facing the ceiling.

[hanawrites404]

Well, since everyone has been posting their Arcana OC's bio-data and all, so why don't I introduce my OC too?? I know many of them would not be interested in knowing her *sniff sniff* but, here we go.

The story may contain some suggestive topics (which will include underage sexual assault trigger). So be careful bruh. Also, this character is multi-fandom

Name : Wynne Priddell Toprak

Age : 22 (she is ageless anyway)

Sex : Female (she/her)

Sexuality : demi-pansexual, prefers men

Zodiac Sign : Virgo (25 August)

Patron Arcana : The World and Ten Of Pentacles

MBTI : INTJ

Occupation : Fashion Designer

Height : 5 feet (152 cm)

Weight : 42 Kg

Relatives : Shah Toprak (father)

Gwyneth Priddell (mother) (deceased)

Kelebek Toprak (paternal grandmother) (deceased???)

Yusuf Toprak (paternal great-grandfather) (??????)

Asra Alnazar (childhood sweetheart)

Lucio Morgasson (close friend)

Origin : Half-British and Half-Egyptian and was born in Vesuvia

Race : Sorceress

Powers : Fire, electricity and ice manipulation.

Backstory : Her mother was assassinated when she was just a month old, which is why her father always kept her near even when he was on duty. When her father has to go on a mission where she cannot come, Count Lucio himself would take care of her.......or at least tries to.

Her father was rarely there, so Winnie had no one to play with her in the palace. Lucio was kind enough to become her playmate and soon they both became best friends in less than a month and he was the only one whom she would listen to.

Winnie has friends of her age too. She met Asra when she was exploring the city by herself without her father and Lucio to accompany her. She also made other new friends too who were children living on the streets. That day Winnie slept with a swollen butt because of escaping the palace but it was worth it.

Winnie did saw Muriel once, but never interacted with him.

One day, Winnie got very sick. So her father had appointed a doctor to take care of her. He was good and friendly to her at first, but then he started touching her where he was not supposed to. When Wynne asked him why was he doing it, he would excuse himself saying it was for 'research'.

The day when the doctor went too far, she snapped, and flames of fire erupted from her hands and engulfed the doctor, burning him alive.

Shah can never forget the day when his daughter ran to him wailing with her lower region bleeding and staining her dress.

The day after the incident, he packed his possessions and left Vesuvia along with her daughter to settle at the clouded mountains and they both started farming there.

Along with her farm work, she trained with her father to improve her magic skills, along with receiving education at her local village school. And she totally didn't cheat in her math exams every time.

During her school days, she discovered how much she loved the topic of fashion and the art it carries in its fabric, and that's how she slowly aspired throughout her teens to work hard and establish her career.

She also missed everyone from Vesuvia deeply, so she used to write letters to Asra accompanied with some paintings made by her and he in return used to send her herbs and charms from Vesuvia which were surprisingly always fresh even after coming from far away.

Personality : When she learned about the plague, the people of Vesuvia, her friends' and Lucio's death, her heart broke, and the mischievous and cheery Winnie slowly turned into a grim and dour Wynne. A chronic sense of depression had enveloped her like a spider's web, and she still bears the wounds in her heart. But to be more honest, the self-inflicted wounds on her arms speak louder than what she hides from everyone inside her soul, even when muffled by her sleeves.

However, very deep inside her, her old self is still alive, surviving on her past bright aura filled with sweet memories and boisterous moments she made during her childhood and teenage.

After 15 years she returns to Vesuvia for meeting her only surviving friend as a forbidding, dark-auraed, straight-faced, down-to-earth and mature grown up lady. She does have a cuter soft side, but it's once in a blue moon.

Interesting Facts : Don't you dare refer to her as 'The General's daughter'. She wants everyone to know her as something more than the daughter of the general.

She does not like being called cute.

Her hobbies are gardening, a little of singing, drawing and dancing.

She is the Gordon Ramsay of cooking and fashion designing (it's her profession). She cannot stand torn clothes, bad food or any kind of mess.

She is obsessed and always running behind perfection and completion of goals. Failure and incompletion is one of her fears, hence her Arcana is The World.

She always carries a small journal with her where she notes down literally anything which interests her. She also carries a small sewing kit just in case.

She is allergic to coffee (Julian : ಥ‿ಥ)

She is a heavy sleeper like Snorlax.

Her favourite flower is sunflower and her favourite colour is white.

She likes sour and spicy drinks and food. Her spice tolerance is pretty good. Her favourite food would be spicy ramen or sushi. And her favourite drink lemon tea or lemonade. For dessert, lemon tarts for the win.

She has an asthma problem and sensitive skin. It's also prone to sunburn.

She has a nice sense of taste and smell.

Her pain tolerance is very bad for a member of a warrior family.

Sometimes, she is prone to short term memory loss.

She smells like roses, nail polish and sugar.

She has some big breasts but she appears flat in her usual dress because she wears a tight corset underneath to squeeze them in. To her, big breasts are a disadvantage especially during work days.

She can run fast and climb walls.

She is THE WORST at jokes.

She cannot swim, but she will beat you in ice-skating.

With English, she knows Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (mandarin) and Egyptian Arabic.

Her golden eyes can glow, and some strands of her hair too

Familiar : She has a small turtle named Ichigo. Ichigo means strawberry in Japanese as he likes eating them. He has good telekinetic powers and can speak but his voice is only heard in the minds of those he is speaking to.

Ichigo was gifted to Winnie by her father on her 10th birthday, and he has protected her from many disasters like a falling cabinet or a wild boar. If he accompanies her, Winnie would keep him on her head so that he could see around properly.

Voice Claim : 💜 (it's the voice of the little boy if you are confused lol)

Upright Ending : Wynne battling with The Devil and her emotions, finally defeats him through sheer determination, strength and the hope she recieved from you. Yes, you are her hope, her strength that this chaos can be prevented, her support to balance her heavy emotions, her sole reason to live in this cruel world.

You are her love, you are her soul, you are her everything. And she wants nothing but to protect you and shower you with the same love and affection you showered upon her, even after she refused. And she wishes to do everything for you. And so, after the battle which caused her many wounds and blood, she will recover and start a new life together with you, and she promises to make it the best for you. Because she loves you to the most.

Reversed Ending : She failed.......she failed everything. She failed to save Vesuvia, she failed to save her friends, she failed you. Her hope and energy died during the battle, resulting The Devil to easily capture her in his trap and suck all of her powers, leaving her like an empty vessel.

And now with her faded appearance, her void black eyes, her heart seen through her chest and her mouth sewed by her own blood veins, and her inky blood painting every corner.

She rots in the darkness without ever dying, because she is now a doll, and she will live forever, and suffer forever.

And it's all your fault..........

Appearance : She has ivory skin with shoulder-length, royal blue hair which she got from her grandmother and honey yellow eyes from her mother. She is somewhere between skinny and fit. She has double-dang chest and a baby peach for a butt. She also has a ball tongue piercing and has her nails painted black.

She usually wears a purple lolita dress along with black high socks and black flat shoes.

Present Wynne (by mah boo @hokorri)

Her Daily Clothes

Her Masquerade Outfit

Heart Hunter Chibi by @move-im-vesuvian-thirsty

[pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles]

As She’s Walking Away

I haven’t been active much lately. Between my job and some health issues this summer was a lot and I haven’t written anything in a month or so. This is just a wee blurb, no smut but kinda angsty, just to see if I still had anything in me.

Calum thanked the bartender and lifted the bottle to his lips. He normally didn't drink American light beer, tasted like watered down piss, but it was dollar domestic night and he wasn't trying to get wasted to start the night. He'd finished his meetings earlier than expected today, and his friends wanted to meet up at Marguerite's. It was a decent enough place. Once a dingy Tex-Mex restaurant the owners gutted the interior and turned it into a pool hall. They took most of the kitchen out except a tiny space to make and press sandwiches. It was usually crawling with people, but Calum beat the crowd in, hoping to have a moment to relax before the night got started.

Outside on the terrace to his left he could see a handsome older gentleman setting up a chair, a guitar case at his feet. Javier played every weekend and the flamenco music was Calum's favorite thing about coming here. He grinned as he spotted two women lingering at separate tables watching Javi tune his guitar. Calum knew the guitarist had a way with the ladies, but he also knew from personal experience groupies could be a pain in the ass. Calum shook his head at the thought of the early tours. Intoxicated by the female attention, Calum racked up a body count, allowing him to indulge in every adolescent porn fantasy he and his friends could think of.

Between the booze, women and the grind of tour life, he'd almost flamed out. He'd found his first great love, which after two years broke his own heart when he cheated again, and she refused to give him another second chance. Since then he'd had a few relationships, nothing too serious. While most of his friends settled in relationships, a couple even had kids, he was satisfied being a single man and dog dad. He made a mental note to go to Petco tomorrow and get Duke some chicken stick treats he loved.

They propped the terrace door open with a fan, allowing the opening notes of Javier's first set to float throughout the bar as a few more people started coming in, claiming their spots at the pool tables. Calum sent out a group text telling everyone to hurry if they wanted dibs on a good table. He finished his beer and ordered another. He could smell toasted bread from the kitchen mingling with the night blooming jasmine as he listened to Javier switch to a slower song. People were steadily trickling in, but the room was still less than half full. He decided against ordering food and texted his friends again when she sat down across the bar from him.

Her silver bangles caught the light refracting off the cheesy disco ball hanging over the bar and slid across the polished wood of the bar, catching his eye. He looked up, catching sight of her as she carefully dabbed her eyes with the back of her hand. She swiped a pattern on her phone and Calum watched as the brightness of her phone lit up her face. The glow giving her skin a silver blue tint as she pursed her lips and typed out a message.

She was jiggling in her seat, annoyance or anger, possibly both radiating outwards from her reaching Calum sitting six feet away. He rolled his lips back, fighting a smile as he watched her read and reply to each message. She's cute when she's mad, he thought. His eyes taking in her large dark eyes and full lips. She wore silver hoops on her ears and left side of her nose as well as having a labret piercing peeking out under her bottom lip. He couldn't tell if her hair was short or just pulled back from this angle as she slouched over her phone. He felt like an intruder observing a private moment even though they were in public surrounded by people, but he couldn't tear his eyes away.

He racked his brain for an excuse to go up and say hello. He had enough alcohol to cloud his thinking, but not enough to lower his inhibitions so his shyness would fade. Women usually hit on him, if he was honest. When he had to chat someone up he usually led with a terrible joke, but given the way she was aggressively stabbing at her phone with her finger and muttering furiously Calum thought that approach would go nowhere. She looked up and caught him staring. Calum felt like she knocked the wind out of him when their eyes met. She looked away quickly and then stole a second glance before her attention returned to her phone.

Calum thought he saw the faintest smile before her gaze dropped back to the screen. His heart fluttered. He had to make a move. The only problem was his heart couldn't find the words he needed to say. She wiped away a tear and closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell as she took several deep breaths. Calum wanted to get up, see if she was ok and maybe comfort her if he could.

His mind was clouded with doubt, afraid he'd look like another opportunistic jackass circling around her like a vulture. Some men were already lurking, hoping alcohol and sadness might lower her standards to look their way. Calum clenched his fist at the thought. He might not know her name, but she was definitely too good for the guy who just tried to give her an overpriced wilted rose he bought with his drink.

The bartender ran him off and switched out her drink. Calum saw a genuine smile of gratitude before her eyes flickered over to him once again. He dropped his eyes, feeling his cheeks burning. He had to say something now, or he'd look like a total loser. He received a text saying his friends would be there in ten minutes, and he knew he had to make a move before those idiots showed up. Calum took a deep breath and stood up.

He looked up and saw she was wiping away tears, but this time with a smile on her face. She was telling another woman who was scrolling on Calum's dream girl's phone while listening and nodding to the story. He stopped and watched them talking, feeling a sense of panic rising in his chest. Should he interrupt the conversation? Should he linger and hope for an opening? He couldn't let this moment pass. He had to talk to this woman. He wanted to know her name, if she had an accent, what perfume does she wear, anything and everything she wanted to tell him.

His feet moved on their own before his brain could stop him. He'd just rounded the corner of the bar when he heard a voice say, "Let's go." He watched her grab her purse and her friend grabbed her hand so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd. Calum felt like everything moved in slow motion as his mystery woman looked up at the last second. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she saw him coming towards her. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything she was pulled into the crush of people surrounding the bar. The crowd closed in and Calum lost sight of her.

Thinking quickly, he handed the bartender a $20 to cover his $5 tab and elbowed his way to the door. He saw the top of her head heading towards the exit. He apologized to several people as he pushed past them, only to be caught just before he reached the door.

"Calum, what's the hurry, we just got here?" Luke shouted, throwing his long lanky body at Calum wrapping him up in a hug.

"Luke, I love you but let me go," Calum pushed away and Luke immediately let go. His friends stood in shock as Calum shot out into the parking lot just in time to see her get into an Uber and shut the door. His heart was pounding in his ears, but his throat was dry, his feet heavy and stuck in place. He was too late.

@sexgodashton​ @sublimehood​ @notinthesameguey​ @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995​ @rebelwith0utacause​ @maluminspace​ @mermaidcashton​ @malumsmermaid​

[iris-ymir]

Guilty or Innocent - Iris

Asked someone to marry you? 

“No. Not mi thin’. The whole... damn idea about marriage and shite? I dunno. Like... spending rest or yer life with the same person? Absolutely! Its just... Dont get mi wrong here! But the whole mess about marriage, and such.. It sounds so damn artificial. Do I wanna live with someone for the rest of mi years? Sure! But I dont need a fockin’ ring to prove it to anyone.. Then again.. If someone was to ask mi to marry her? Yeah, why not? If ya want a damn ring, lets get a damn ring!”

Kissed one of your friends?

“Shite... Well, yeah. About that... I have kissed many of mi friends actually.. And let mi tell ya. It always ends up into a fockin’ mess. One way or another! I... guess I should stop kissin’ mi friends..?”

Danced on a table in a bar / tavern? “You.. happen to know what Im doin’ for livin’? Yeah. Basically that.”

Ever told a lie?

“Just show me a fockin’ person who has not, and I’ll show ya a bastard who’s lying right there, on dat very damn moment! We all lie... Some more than others, but thats not the point, righto?”

Had feelings for someone you can’t have?

“Yeah... Ya remember I just told ya about kissin’ mi friends and shite? Well dat. I messed up real good. Like... the royal mess up! I still have feelin’s for her... Could rip mi damn heart out for her... But I think she just might be lost for mi for good... Im not giving up though! But as thin’s are.. What happened between us... Heck. It might be a lost fockin’ cause.”

Ever kissed someone of the same sex?

“Im... so very much a bean flicker, ya know? Never had interest in opposite sex... Does dat answer yer question?”

Kissed a picture? "No? Seven hells, why would I be suckin’ on some damn piece of paper?”

Slept until 5pm? “Im a night owl.. I wake up sometime durin’ the afternoon. So yeah. I will sleep until 5pm, if you dont come and wake mi up. Which is fockin’ annyin’ by tha way.. Just let mi sleep..”

Worked at a fast food chain / restaurant “Nope.. And dont have a slightest interest in such! ...I would make a fockin’ horrible restaurant worker... Now this.. may sound rather miserable, but my current job is actually mi first real day job ever! ...Or well.. A night job? Anyway.. Yeah.”

Stolen something? “I would say... Try living on streets of fockin’ Limsa Lominsa for good 10 summers, and then... if yer still alive and kickin’, try asking yaself dat question! ...Yes. I have stolen for livin’.”

Been fired from a job? “As I mentioned just a moment ago, this is mi first day job ever... And I have been able to keep it so far! ... And Im about to keep it! I want to see the faces of every poor bastard, who ever said I could not get, let alone keep a job! And well... I actually kinda like mi job, so there’s also dat. And I get a decent money out of it.”

Done something you regret? “... Really? We need to go back to this again? I had.. a really bad week some time ago, ya know. I did.. lot of shite.. The whole thin’ is just.. so foggy in mi head, its annoyin’! But yeah. I think I almost slept with mi friend.. broke lot of stuff.. a damned heirloom notestand.. And in the end, I went and kissed another friend against her will... The... one I fockin’ love.. Damn, I miss her. But it was not mi damn fault!! I had just like the shittiest week ever! ... I dont know... Maybe some of it kinda was.. Can we just go on? I focked up, okai..?”

Laughed until something you were drinking came out of your nose? “Nnno. Cant remember such thin’. Sometimes a drink has gone like... into mi nose for one or another reason... But actually out of it? I dont think so. Then again, who am I to say! One just cant remember everythin’ ya know?”

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? “No, I have not. Tha Shrimp does it, so.. technically I have? But as miself? No. I have not. On purpose at least.”

Sat on a roof top? “Used to do that in Limsa Lominsa. It was.. an awfully calming feeling, ya know? To get away from all the shite, going on down on the streets. Just... sit alone, watch the ships getting loaded.. Watch them sailin’ away. I dont do it anymore though.. The roofs in Ishgard are fockin’ slippery.”

Kissed someone you shouldn’t have? Iris gives the other a long, dead stare. “... Fockin’ really?! Didn’t I just told ya dat. Ya want some heckin’ details?! Right!  So, yes, I was wasted... I shouldn’t have to... And damn yes, it was foolish of mi! Silke. The gal I fancy.. Ya know the type that just... puts damn butterflies into yer tumtum.. rises yer head up to the fockin’ pink clouds faster than anythin’ ya can buy from the streets of Ul’dah.. A damn purdiful fockin’ lass... Damn best thin’ that ever happened to mi... And I focked it up by hecking going and kissing her! So... Ya happy with dis subject now, or are ya gonna poke dat infected wound some more? If so, Im done with dis...”

Sang in the shower?

“Ummm... No.”

Been pushed into a body of water with all your clothes on? “Pushed? I... dont think so! Thrown into water with mi clothes on though... Yes! And I tell ya now! That damn merchant had a heckin’ cart full of those apples! Most of dem would have gone on waste aniway! But nooo.. I get thrown into sea, for one damn apple! One apple!! And it was not even worth it. The apple was dry like Sagolii sand the merchant’s fockin’ muffin-hole was propably full of!”

Shaved your head? "Well, I did not!! Blacksoul did durin’ the time he fockin’ kept mi as his personal damn doll or somethin’.. So yeah! It is growin’ back now, but if it looks like a damn rake-raped crow’s arse to ya, its not my fault!!”

Made a boyfriend / girlfriend cry? “I... dont know, actually! Not during mi time with her, no. We kiinda only had a fleetin’ moment though, so did not ‘ave like... too much time to make the lass cry! ... I guess she still believes mi to be dead though. So its possible she cried for mi presumed death in the hands of her husband’s underlin’s... I hope she did... Yeah.”

Shot a gun? “I did, yeah! Ya know... One of those Ishgardian ones. Loud... lot of smoke... A decent kick. Kinda like a bar night to live for! You know, Im actually even rather decent with guns.. Not my style, though.”

Still loved someone you shouldn’t? “You gotta be kiddin’ me!! ... Oh wait. Someone I shouldn’t? I dont think so... Seven hells, we heckin’ belong together!! ...She has just... yet to understan it... She will! Sooner or later... Hopefully sooner. Fock’s sake, I miss that silly gal and her nice ass...”

Have / had a tattoo? “Yeah, the one around mi eyes. I also have another one on mi thigh... Iris flowers and thorns... Four of dem. For four kinda important people in mi life. From which, I have actually lost... every single one... Fock’s sake, whats wrong with mi?!”

Liked someone, but will never tell who? “Nno. I have... some difficulties in the ‘never tell’-thingie. Im more of a... ‘tell too much’-type o’ person. But ‘ey! Kinda honesty is a good thing, right?”

Been too honest? “If bein’ too ‘onest means kiinda colorin’ the truth a little to make it hit on the mark better. Yeah. I guess so. I just may overact a bit time to time! But den again... Makes the truth more interestin’ huh?”

Ruined a surprise? “No, I hardly part-take in suprises in general...”

Been told that you’re beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? “Actually... No. I dont know!! Well, mi first girlfriend did, but did she totally mean what she said? Damn, I dont know... Considerin’ the fact she... most likely kinda sold mi out not too long after, it makes it heckin’ hard to believe anythin’ that ever crossed those sweet crimson lips of hers! I wonder why no-one has ever said it though... Im smokin’ hot!! ... So tell me. Am I beautiful..? Hm?”

Stalked someone? “If we call people watchin’ stalkin’ here, then Im damn guilty as a plague rat! But like... in the creepy wai? No! Why the heck would I do somethin’ like that. Dats just sick...”

Thought about murder? “If someone has just taken a royal shite on ya, sweet damn, thats reason enough to just shank the bastard, and scatter the innards into the sea! Most people are so fockin’ rotten though, I dunno if even damn fishies care for their foul organs... Could always make dem into a bagpipe and gift it to their family and friends... Maybe then they could actually get a taste of whut kinda shitebag they been hangin’ around with...”

How about mass murder?

“... Well, as dey say... Apple does not drop far from a tree, and sometimes those apples are rotten before dey hit the ground. So yeah. The last question in mind, why not?”

Cheated on someone? “No! Think anythin’ you want of mi, but Im fockin’ devoted!! ... Well, I have only had one relationship, that lasted for like... couple of months... But damn I was devoted... Up until she choose her husband over mi...”

Gotten so angry that you cried? “Happens time to time... Cryin’.. cleans the system, ya know. Just... Get into middle of nowhere, and scream yer lungs out!”

Tried to stay away from someone for their own good? “... Im kinda doin’ that right now. Dey will be better off without me. She’s got her damn hero dere, taking care of her... Where does she even need mi anyway? Heck, we barely even knew eachother... ... I think Im better off without dem too.. Shite.. Dey were awfully nice towards mi though.. Do I really miss dem? ... Maybe. But it all went down in flames and bloody sheets, can we talk about somethin’ else?”

Thoughts about suicide? “Sometimes the road just rises up against you... I kinda understand it on some occasions! But overall? Kinda waste...”

Had a girlfriend / boyfriend? “Yes? That one mess I mentioned earlier? Ya payin’ attention to dis?”

Gotten totally drunk during a holiday? “Used to... Especially in Limsa, it was kinda mi way to get over the holidays. Hated to see bastards walking around all merry and shite. So I drowned mi holidays in a glass. Last Starlight was different though.. Blacksoul kinda forced mi to stay sober over the holidays... Well.. Mostly sober... Dont ya go tellin’ the old goat, but I... I think I kinda liked it. The whole Starlight with Blacksoul and Gramps... I had never really celebrated it with anyone... As miself. Heck, I just wanted mi Silke to be there, heckin’ messin’ around... I wonder if she ever got mi gift...”

Tagged by wonderful @mai-takeda​!! 🌹 This was lot of fun..

Tagging @umbralich​ (Silke) @sharkycatsifoh​ @hangedemperor​ @kyrie-silverwings​ @under-the-blood-moonlight​ @alun-ura​ @isuke-ejinn​ @ishgard​ @torr-sceadu​ @lydha-lran​ @glorysworn​ @lavender-hemlock​ @kazexvoss​ @glorified-thieves​ @captainkurosolaire​ @illia-ast​ @thefreelanceangel​ @sdavi-kitanni​ @kitsune-kirei​ @violet-warder​ @desimirffxiv​ @unatobajhiri​ @gildedandgolden​ @eo-sul​ @robyn-sawyer​ @eitur​ & anyone who wants to do it! Cansider yourself tagged!

[iknownothingihearnothing]

Game of Thrones 8.3 “Battle of Winterfell”

HOLY SHITSICKLES, YOU GUYZ!

That episode was AH-MAZING. I know it wasn’t exactly the shower of death we expected--I mean, there was TONS of death, don’t get me wrong, but our ultra-beloveds are still safe...for now--but it was still epic. Totally worth having to squint for over an hour at a laptop screen brought obscenely close to my face.

Honestly, I thought it was just me until I logged onto Twitter after the episode and everyone was like:

I also made the grievous error of signing into social media before the episode aired and I saw that “Arya” was trending. I thought that she had been killed and I was about to riot. 

My brother had actually seen the episode before me--we share an HBO Go account with my uncle because as a lifelong bachelor, he can afford all those channels we cannot--and when I turned it on the battle was at the midway point; I was spoiling myself. I texted my bro “I WILL KILL YOU” and he replied with an emoji of a house. IDK if he plans to defend himself with a house or hide in a house or drop a house on me like I’m the Wicked Witch of the East.

As the episode opens, it’s nighttime (of course it is), and Sam’s hands are shaking because it’s really fucking cold. The Winterfellians are ushering everyone who ain’t fighting into the supposedly SAFE IT’S SO SAFE YOU ALL WILL BE SO MUCH SAFER crypt and performing last minute prep. Theon and Co are wheeling BranBot to the Weirwood tree where he will be used as bait to lure out the Night King. 

Sansa and Tyrion and Co. are up on the ramparts. Sansa, naturally, does not look very excited for this party.

The actors’ also. They had to shoot 55 nights in a row.

We get our first glimpse of Drogon and Rhaegal of the episode, AKA the Good Dragons. Because we need to decipher on this show. 

Everybody’s in position. The canons are ready. The awesome catapults are ready. The Dothraki are ready. The Unsullied are ready. 

All the animals, too, are in place. Including Ghost!

Jon/Aegon approaches Dany and her dragons on a hill overlooking Winterfell so they can get a decent view of the happenings below and get better air on their dragonplanes. 

There is SO much to unpack with Jon and Daenerys. They have lots of, uh, “stuff” to deal with, like that he’s technically her nephew and she’s more concerned that he has a claim (and a bigger one) on the Iron Throne than that he’s her blood relation and they’ve had lots of sexy sex. And also that the brother she grew up hearing raped Lyanna Stark actually loved her and married her in secret, thus producing Jon. 

But, er, now is not the time and they know that so they gots to put aside their feels and kick some ice zombie butt and save humanity. I imagine this is how Sophia Bush felt when she still had to work with Chad Michael Murray on One Tree Hill knowing he cheated on her with a teenaged extra. 

Sort of. Minus the whole “we might die” part.

Melisandre rides up after being in Volantis all this time. Remember how she said she’d come back to Westeros just one more time? Well, that time is here. The Red Woman asks Jorah to tell the Dothraki to lift their swords, which he hesitantly does. Melly grasps the front dude’s Arakh, chants some freaky Lord of the Light mojo, and then all the Arakhs, one by one, become alight in flames like Beric Dondarrion’s.

Even Tormund is awed.

The Red Woman continues on, wishing “Valar morghulis” to Grey Worm, who instantly returns with “Valar dohaeris”. Davos, up in the ramparts, having been warily watching Melly, finally gives the order to open the gate. He...is not a fan of Melisandre. She may have brought back Jon from the Great Beyond but she burned Shireen alive. 

However, now is not the time for disputes among the Team Alive population. If they wanna beat Team Undead, they gotta work together. 

Davos goes to meet her and she assures him that there is no need to execute her or anything cus she’ll be dead before dawn. 

Davos:

Up on the roof, Arya catches Melly’s eye. And she don’t look like she’s throwing out the welcome banns.

Melisandre is on there because she kidnapped Gendry all those seasons ago. You know, to do that sexy, leechy blood magic on him. 

And BOOM. The first wave sets off. Mostly consisting of Dothraki on horseback, with Jorah  leading them into battle. Huge alight boulders are also placed inside catapults and set flying. Ghost is seen running beside the horses, teeth gnashing.

Srsly, they need to save that direwolf. The PTB at GoT have already killed the other wolves, with the exception of Nymeria, who has run free, and David and D.B. have confirmed that Crazy Cersei killed Ser Pounce after Tommen died. There is NOT a good track record with pets on this show. 

All the Dothraki race into the fray to meet the undead, ululating and shouting war cries in the Dothraki language. They’re proud. They’re confident. They are WARRIORS. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been raised on this shit.

And then...

That’s the ENTIRE DOTHRAKI HORDE! Just...gone in a few minutes, holy shit .Did GoT just erase the Dothraki?! Just like that, what the fuck?!

Anyone else feel indignant on behalf of the Dothraki? 

Jaime looks like he’s about to shit his Iron Pants.

The second wave all look at each other like “WE ARE SO FUCKED” until some animals and finally people--including Jorah--return to the line. Ghost better be one of them! 

Up on the hill, Dany’s in a panic because, again, the dead desecrated her entire Dothraki forces. And she is understandably devastated; they weren’t loyal to Jon, they were loyal to her. She was their Khaleesi. Their original plan was for them to remain on the hill and take flight there and wait for the dead to come to Winterfell’s gates but we all know that ain’t gonna happen. Jon, awkwardly, tries to intervene when Dany begins to leave, but Dany perseveres. The dead are already here and the Night King is a-comin’.

 On the line, everyone’s waiting with bated breath. Sam looks about ready to pass out. Tormund’s glorious red mane blows in the wind, which the captions keep telling me “whistles”, so I know it is strong. Grey Worm puts on his helmet. The Unsullied army bend and position their weapons and....

The ensuing scuffle is pretty much insanity and confusion. There are dead body parts mixed with the same people we know and love trying to fight them off and, like, totally forever kill them. Brienne shouts “STAND YOUR GROUND!!” like a badass but is immediately overwhelmed and Jaime, upon glimpsing his CO and fellow knight (and maybe something more?) going down in the mud, jumps in to help her. 

Dany and Jon ride in on the backs of Drogon and Rhaegal and it is never not awesome watching dragons spitting fire at their human overlords’ enemies.

Up on the roof of Winterfell, Arya and Sansa are flabbergasted as they watch with dismay the battle below. The blood, the fire, the (good) dragons. Finally, Arya turns to Sansa and implores her sister to get into the (VERY SAFE EVERYONE WILL BE SAFE THERE SWEARSIES) crypt.

Sansa doesn’t know how to use it, she is not trained in combat. Arya just tells her to stick the wights with the pointy end.

Good advice, Arya!

At the Weirwood tree, Theon and Co. are doing their bestest to keep the BranBot safe while he attempts to lure Ol’ Nighty out of his hidey-hole. And on the battlefield, Jorah falls off his horse decapitating ice zombies, Jaime is going through the dead like toilet paper (or whatever they used back then...what did they use?), and Sam is...well, he’s trying, poor lamb. Ultimately though, he becomes overwhelmed and Mr. Edd has to save his butt.

Sealing his fate.

Stabbed through the back of the head, that is quite dolorous. 

Sansa goes down into the crypt, where all the nearby tenants who have no fight training are gathered already. Wordlessly, a ball of nerves, she meets the eyes of Missandei and Tyrion, the latter of whom, naturally, takes a drink.

I’d drink, too, in that scenario.

In the air, Jon and Dany are on the backs of their respective dragons, which I guess is the ye olde version of aerial warfare, battling the elements as well as the gross horde down below. It’s snowing and raining and they’re stuck in a low hanging cloud or maybe some fog idk I can’t SEE.

Someone shouts to fall back and the gates to Winterfell are opened--by Lyanna Mormont’s command, that pint sized badass--and men start piling in. Grey Worm orders the Unsullied to protect the retreat as best they could and stand their ground, damnit.

Jon finally comes out of the cloud but Dany doesn’t, and he lands with a worried look on his face. More men pour in through the gates while Brienne and Jaime usher them inside. 

Arya, from the top of Winterfell, uses her archery skillz to take out the munchers creepin’ up behind Woof.

It’s a milestone every teenage girl reaches and it brings a tear to your eye, it does.

Grey Worm gives the order to fall back and light the trench and we the audience are like--

I cannot say enough how dark this episode is. I have my screen up to 100 percent brightness and I am still squinting doing this recap.

He’s really referring to Dany here, whom he’s trying to signal with torches, but she and Drogon are still stuck in that wholly inconvenient cloud/fog thing. Truly, the worst weather has converged on this one location in Westeros on the one night that they really need clear skies. All that’s missing is a hurricane. 

But Davos speaks for us all. 

So, Team Alive is all scrambling around trying to light the trenches with torches but they can’t because they’re kinda preoccupied battling the undead. That is where Melly steps in. After reciting some of that weird mojo in High Valyrian, the deep trenches throughout the Winterfell grounds become alight.

And the rest of us blink our eyes repeatedly in thanks.

The wights are separated from Winterfell behind the trenches and the Hound’s kinda freaking out because he doesn’t exactly like fire, having had his face nearly melted off by his brother, the Mountain. So he disappears. 

Down in the crypt, everyone is hearing all the crazy going on upstairs and Varys is like “At least we’re already in a crypt, eh?” and no one’s amused.

Tyrion is anxious. He wants to be doing something, damnit! Like he did at the Battle of Blackwater. Maybe seeing something that no one else has figured yet. But Sansa, Lady of Hindsight, tells him to sit his ass down. It won’t do anyone good if Tyrion joins the Army of the Dead. Tyrion makes a smartass remark about how there is no organization less suited to his abilities and Sansa, Milady Logic, is all “Witty remarks won’t help you, all we can do now is wait. That’s why we is down here, because we can’t do nothin’” and Tyrion pauses before--

Tyrion, Lord of Winterfell? A Lannister?! Why not? Weirder shit has happened on GoT. Weirder shit is happening right now.

Then, Sansa squashes that by laying this on the table: it’d never work between them because of the Dragon Queen. Their divided loyalties would come between them. But before Tyrion can reply, Missandei, who has been eavesdropping on their convo, cuts in like “Yeah, damn that Dragon Queen! Y’all wouldn’t have to worry about that crap without her because...we’d all be dead, so...”

Whatever you think of Dany, there is no way the North would live without her and her armies and dragons. They’d be overrun within minutes. 

At the Weirwood tree, Theon and Co. have formed a barrier before BranBot. Theon remarks that the trenches have been lit, then, haltingly, turns to BranBot and starts to apologize for, yanno, turning on the only family that ever loved him and claiming Winterfell for himself. 

Dime store psychics around the globe should replace their crystal balls with miniature BranBots.

Then he says he’s going to go now, just like that, and he wargs into a raven to find the Night King’s position.

Gee. Why didn’t I ever think of that to get out of conversations? 

“Hey, Bee, how’d you do on your stats exam?”

“...oh, uh, I did, er, ok. I’m gonna go now.” Wargs into chicken. 

Ah, there’s Ol’ (really Ol’, Ancient Ol’) Nighty, riding Viserion, looking all creepy and stuff.

Not quite, Nighty, not quite.

Zombies are an impatient lot. They’re hungry and dead and they’re doomed to shamble around the earth forever. So, if a few have to be sacrificed in order for the rest of Team Undead to cross the trenches, so be it. One by one, the ice zombies literally throw themselves on the line of fire, sandwiching their ewwie bodies until the rest of the horde can safely use them as a bridge to cross. An Undead Bridge, if you will. 

When Davos realizes what they are doing, the look on his face is quite classic horror movie:

You know when you’re watching a scary movie and the protagonist or whoever hears something or sees something but isn’t quite sure what it is, only knowing that it’s bad mmkay? That is that look.

Davos shouts the order to man the walls of Winterfell. Elsewhere on the battlefied, Jon is still in the same spot he landed, anxious about Dany. He glimpses a dragon emerge from the fog and, at first, he thinks it’s Daenerys but it soon becomes evident that it’s the Night King riding on Viserion.

Winterfell, meanwhile, is all cloaked in a cloud of mud and rain. The soldiers and Northerners are clambering to keep the White Walkers from penetrating the walls of the castle. 

They have to keep them from legit climbing the damn walls.

If I’m ever a zombie, I want the Night King to make me. Apparently, rigor mortis is not a thing in wights.

The wights keep climbing until some of them start to get over the wall despite Jaime, Brienne, et. al. slicing off head after head. They just keep coming. The Team Undead horde is massive.

I bet the denizens of Winterfell are wishing for a nice, stationary mall right about now.

Soldiers are going over the railings, Sam’s whimpering butt has to be saved again, and the Hound is utterly frozen. It’s all just anarchy. 

Beric and his Flaming Sword of Justice attempt to get Woofie’s attention again but to no avail. Arya’s doing her thang with her pointed staff, taking out wight after wight with Davos looking on, impressed (knight or not, you have been bested by a teenager, old man).

And then, this:

ZOMBIE GIANTS!

ZOMBIFIED MOTHAFUCKIN’ GIANTS. 

“Fee, fi, fo fum, I smell the blood of EVERYONE.”

It pushes her to the side like she’s a goddamn sack of potatoes and it’s smacking people around with its club like they’re nothing but rag dolls. Arya falls down a set of stairs as wights group in to attack her and smacks her forehead on the side of a wall. Not up to her usual Faceless Man self after that, she stumbles and nearly falls off the roof, which finally energizes the Hound to action. 

On the ground, Lyanna’s had enough of being tossed around by White Walker McGigantor. 

She screams, races toward it, it grabs her in its huge fist, and, blood pouring out of her mouth and nose and it crushes her, she STABS IT THROUGH THE FRIGGING EYEBALL.

It’s a fitting end for an awesome character. Lyanna made such an impression on everyone and her cumulative screentime was just over fifteen minutes on the show.

In the air, Jon and Dany are finally reunited again when out of nowhere sails the Night King and his trusty Undragon.

Looks like someone has been chewing too much Winterfresh!

Viserion lets loose a stream of Winterfresh friendly fire and Daenerys ducks and whimpers as her undead baby tries to kill her. When the Night King sails off, Jon and Dany look at each other before mutually agreeing in some unspoken communication to dive.

Aww, they are communicating without words already! Bestill my lowkey-shipping-for-incest heart.

In Winterfell, the White Walkers have managed to break into the halls of the castle and, in less...white climes, they look less frozen and more, well, zombie. Arya, with her trusty staff, is attempting to sneak through her ancestral home without alerting Team Undead.

Unfortunately, she stumbles into the library and, weird, there are a lot of wights in the library. I didn’t know ice zombies were such avid readers.

What? Ice zombies need wank material, too, you know.

That is, if their genitals haven’t fallen off.

Our girl is creeping through the library, dodging errant undead in her wake. Desperately, she dives under a table, but the blood from her head wound is dripping on the floor, which attracts a nearby wight.

You know, like a shark.

The wight bends down and almost catches her, giving us all a mini heart attack, but Arya is gone. Phew.

BT-dubbs, that wight is none other than Javier Botet, who has made a sort of career playing monsters, including as the Leper in 2017′s It. 

He was cast on purpose because he can contort his body in absurd ways. And I apologize for making you look at the Leper again. Yeesh. 

Grabbing a book, she sails it across the floor to distract the zombies, runs into one going around the corner who then meets the fun end of her blade, and escapes the library. 

Who knew a library could be so dangerous?

Arya escapes into a chamber and softly closes the door behind her, leaning back against it. She seems to be safe for a moment and then--

Ser Brus of House Bannyr. He’s a buddy of the Mountain.

Wights start pouring in and Arya runs. She runs, runs, runs--down through the narrow, damp, ill-lighted walls of Winterfell, bleeding from her head wound. 

Meanwhile, just below her down in the crypt--

It’s SAFE it’s so SAFE, you guys.

The denizens of the crypt wait with bated breath and gasp when two desperate soldiers ram against the crypt door, begging to be let in. Sansa looks conflicted, wanting to help the soldiers but not at the cost of any of her people. 

In the corridors, Beric Dondarrion and his Flaming Sword of Justice and the Hound are tiptoeing through Winterfell when they hear battling and growling noises (thank you, captions) and Arya falls through a doorway with wights quickly after her. The Hound picks her up and they all race down the hall, Beric throws his sword at a couple of White Walkers but they soon begin to overwhelm him. Arya gazes back at him in desperation as the Hound tries to get her away, and Beric is stabbed by one of Team Undead. He stands there, limbs akimbo face aloft as if praying to the Lord of the Light.

I love this scene. It further underscores how much Arya has come to mean to the Hound. Before, he was frozen, nothing could jolt him out of his panic but the image of Arya in peril. And he spends the rest of the episode fighting not so much for the living but for her. 

Beric manages to stumble down the hall after Arya and the Hound and they lock a door behind him. Arya sits him against a wall while the Hound barricades the door with anything nearby.

Muttering unintelligibly, the man who was resurrected six times closes his eyes forever.

 Melisandre appears behind them after Beric passes, letting them know that he served his purpose. Arya knows her; the Red Woman promised her that they’d meet again and there they are. She also promised that Arya would close many eyes in her young life, which was also right. Brown eyes. Green eyes. And blue eyes. 

The wights are growling and scratching at the door, eager to come in and kill and feast on human flesh and blood. Arya stares while Melly bends down and whispers in her ear--

At the Weirwood tree, the wights are finally a-comn’ for BranBot and Theon and his men get into position with flaming arrows (I am now really in the mood for smores). Simultaneously, Dany/Drogon, Jon/Rhaegal/ and Ol’ Nighty/Viserion are duking it out in the air above them, the archers below attempting to knock the Undragon out of the sky. 

It’s like a WWII aerial dogfight, but with dragons. So, like, a dragonfight.

Someone has entered his rebellious goth phase!

Srsly, what other show offers a mid-air dragon fight?

The dragonfight ends, somehow, only with the Night King falling off his chosen Undragon.

Rhaegal makes a shaky landing--there is plenty of turbulence in the North, after all--and Jon rolls off his favorite dragon. Dany continues the hunt for Ol’ Nighty and when she finds him, she gives the order for Drogon to do his thang.

It...doesn’t work out as hoped.

The Night King grins and throws his ice staff at Drogon, the weapon that took down Viserion. Fortunately, the ensuing hit isn’t fatal and Dany turns tail and gets out of there before it is.

Jon whips out his trusty sword and begins following the Night King. But when Ol’ Nighty realizes he’s being followed, he turns around, bestows upon Jon a “teacher catching you doing something naughty” stare, and...does his thang. 

Team Alive desecrated many of your army? Just make a new one like that. Using his dark hippity doo da, the Night King raises all the soldiers (formerly) of Team Alive who fell in battle. And there’s a fucking lot of them. Including fallen Unsullied back at Winterfell’s gates and even Lyanna Mormont. 

At the castle, Jaime and Grey Worm look on in confusion and horror.

New inductees to Team Undead swarm in on Jon as the Night King and some of his disciples make their way to Winterfell. 

In the crypt, it was only a matter of time until this happened:

Y’all need some stronger building materials. This cannot be up to code. What would the leader of the HOA say?

Everyone in the crypt scatters in panic, minus the unlucky few who become Thing Food.

At the Weirwood tree, Theon and Co. are doing their best Robin Hood while BranBot is still checked out. I guess he’s in the raven, trying to get a location on the Night King? BranBot, do us all a favor and crap on his head.

(You missed! He was totally open, Bird! Damn.)

Jon almost gets overwhelmed until Dany and Drogon come to the rescue and manage to char the ice zombies without turning the one guy who is alive into a crispie critter, too. She tells him to go, be the hero we need, and he runs off. 

However, before Drogon can fly off, he, too, is quickly overcome with wights, tearing at his wings, climbing all over his spine. He roars and twists and turns and Dany goes tumbling off.

Drogon flies away with some wights still hanging onto him, trying to get all the annoying dead OFF. They must itch like crazy. 

He leaves his mommy behind and suddenly Dany is alone in a battlefield surrounded by Team Undead. She has no weapons. Her main weapon was Drogon. He is how she defeats her enemies. What the hell is she gonna do now?

One of the wights falls off Drogon and has blue eyes only for Dany. Who is alone. Vulnerable. Fucking sitting in the dirt. 

But, what luck! Jorah of House Fryndzonne appears out of nowhere to decapitate the wight with Heartsbane and protect his Khaleesi. 

I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that. Not a big anime fan but I love Hetalia. 

Jon makes his way back to Winterfell, stickin’ and stabbin’ and gruntin’ and growlin’ and bein’ manly. He’s had it up to here with them ice zombies, you guys.

Theon and Co. are working all the harder to protect BranBot while he’s still Like A Bird. Theon’s men all go down and soon he’s left alone to defend the automaton that was once Brandon Stark.

In the crypt, Tyrion and Sansa are hiding behind a cement monument. Their wordless communication, expressed through the eyes alone, sends a chill down my spine. There is so much unsaid in that mutual gaze, and the acting here is superb. Props to Peter Dinklage and Sophie Turner. 

Sansa, shaking, whips out the dagger Arya gave her, and Tyrion kisses her hand.

If they both live through season 8, maybe those crazy kids could make it work? Tyrion would be a kick Lord of Winterfell. I can see him in a furry cape.

Elsewhere, Viserion is utterly destroying Winterfell.

Dany and Jorah are desperately stabbing at ice zombies on the battlefield. Tyrion and Sansa carefully run out from behind the monument. Jon just barely dodges a wave of blue fire as Viserion continues to destroy Winterfell. Theon is doing is damndest to shield BranBot from the White Walkers, but he’s evidently slowing down.

And then, oh crap, there he is. In slow motion, like he knows all eyes are on him.

Hey yeah yeah, they’re Calyfornya. 

Jorah is working alllllllll his muscles trying to protect his Khaleesi. Jaime and Brienne are backed up against a still standing wall of Winterfell as wights close in around them.

The Night King and his Night Kronies are coming for BranBot.

The remaining wights part for their Icicle Overlord. He stands there glowering down at Theon and BranBot. BranBot tells Theon he is a good man and thanks him and the audience is like--

I thought BranBot wasn’t programmed to say thank you. Ask Meera. 

Theon grasps his pointed staff firmly, yells, and runs toward Ol’ Nighty, who, of course, grabs it and stabs him right through the gut.

Sorry, Theon. You managed to survive Ramsey (and getting your Reek cut off) but the Night King was your undoing. You lasted most of the show, though. That’s more than can be said for most characters.

Speaking of lasting most of the show--

Beric, Theon, now Jorah. Everybody stab now!

Jon is hiding behind some debris. The Night King walks ever closer to BranBot. Jon gets up and screams at Viserion for some reason. BranBot gazes up at the Night King. The Night King begins to reach for his ice sword, and then--

Arya Stark, like the fucking avenging angel she is!

I love that she was the one to destroy the Night King. She and Lyanna Mormont were both frigging awesome this episode.

Moral: don’t mess with a girl.

Maisie Williams said in EW that when she initially read the script she was afraid people would think she didn’t deserve it or something. To that I say pish posh. “Arya” has been trending for days. 

After he explodes, all the wights begin to fall, including Viserion. Team Alive was right. Kill the Night King, his disciples are toast, too.

The crypt people come out of their hiding places and silently view the carnage. Arya looks over at BranBot and smiles a little. BranBot just sits there without offering a thank you. I guess he only malfunctioned that one time with Theon.

Unfortunately, the zombies aren’t the only ones that fall. Jorah is hurt and hurt badly. He buckles on the battlefield, surrounded by inactive wights, bleeding from seeming every orifice. Dany bends down before him, crying and holding his head.

He dies in her arms. A fitting end for Jorah of House Mormont, forever loyal to his Khaleesi.

So is Dany’s dragon.

Aww. That’s...cute. Like a dog with wings. And scales. That breathes fire.

The Hound, Melisandre, and Davos walk out of Winterfell just as dawn is breaking. The Hound and Davos stop at the door but Melisandre keeps going, looking determined. Shedding her trademark red cloak, she marches forward, ridding herself of the ruby necklace that has kept her young for centuries.

And then, growing older before their eyes, she perishes. Her mission is complete.

And that’s the end of the episode. Cue end credits.

Salt and crackers, that took FOREVER. Every free moment I had I was recappin’. But the episode was awesome and the cast says the next episode is even more awesome so I can’t wait!

Now comes the march on King’s Landing, the taking of the crown, and, hopefully, Cersei gonna die. Who’s gonna have her head? Will it be Jaime? Arya? Tyrion? My bet is Jaime.

Also, congats are in order for our Sansa Stark. Sophie Turner got married to Joe Jonas last night after the Billboard Music Awards. In Vegas with an Elvis impersonator presiding, which is fantastic. 

[stahvie]

I hear requests are open! Would it be possible for a Doctor Strange x artist! Reader, in which they meet in the city spontaneously. If not, totally fine! Hope you’re having a lovely day!

This got buried in my inbox but I’ve loved the idea since I first saw it so I had to go looking for it. Sorry it took so long!

Word Count: 1551

If there was one thing being an artist had led you toappreciate, it was colour. Most city dwellers would say city life was dull,basically just concrete and stone, they made it seem bleak. You saw beyond thatto the pops of colour that made the city beautiful. The weathered band postersplastered on walls. The pride flag that hung in the window of your neighboursapartment across the road. The tiny weed patch that lived in the crack of thesidewalk outside your building that just wouldn’t die no matter how many timesthe woman next door drowned it in weedkiller.

Colour was life for you but you wanted to prove it wasn’tthe only thing that made the city beautiful. You set yourself a challenge; you’donly work in black and white. If you could make the city look good inmonochrome, maybe that would help people see how amazingly colourful it reallywas.

So far, a few days into this challenge, your results… well,they weren’t what you were hoping. If you were brutally honest with yourself,everything you’d produced so far was a little boring.

Today would be different. You dragged yourself out of bedbefore the sun had a chance to wake up for the day. Once you’d gathered yourpreferred materials, you set off for the park. It almost felt a little likecheating to use the park since it was already beautiful, but with the addedchallenge of trying to capture the sunrise, an event famous for beingcolourful, you felt like it evened it out a little.

You plonked yourself down on the grass just inside theentrance of the park, and tucked into the bagel and hot beverage you’d boughtfrom the 24/7 donut shop on an adjoining street. Their bagels were amazing andtheir donuts were even better. Whenever you were in the area it was usually astruggle to convince yourself you weren’t actually hungry, but this wasbreakfast, so that was different!

The sky was starting to get lighter. Sunrise was close. Youretrieved everything you needed and waited. The one thing you hadn’tanticipated however, was the weather. Clouds that had hidden behind the tallbuildings in the distance began to crawl across the sky. You tried to capturesomething, anything, before the sky was almost completely hidden, but theresult wasn’t anything you’d want to show to anyone. How disappointing.

It probably wasn’t your brightest moment. Greyscale sunrise,what were you thinking? Still, at least the clouds didn’t look like they weregoing to rain, and the sky above you was still pretty clear.

Not far from where you sat, the air seemed to spark. You’dnever witness the air spontaneously bursting into flames and didn’t really knowhow to react, you just sat there stunned. The orange spark quickly took shape.An oval. From it a man appeared.

“Morning.” The stout man said as he walked past you.

“…Morning…” You answered back.

This wasn’t a normal thing… right? Your eyes left thestranger as he exited the park and focused on the sparkly thing. A portal?

“Wong!” Shouted the portal.

Another man appeared. Silver accented his dark hair, and hisfacial hair was meticulously groomed. He was older than you, but that wasn’t a dealbreaker; the man was handsome.

“Wong! Sprinkles! Pink ones! Wong?” Your eyes were stuck onthis new stranger, but from the look on his face, it appeared like the first manhad heard him. Now just realising he had an audience, he turned to you. “Hey.”

His eyes crinkled as he smiled at you. Ugh, he was attractive.You managed a small ‘Hey’ andreturned his smile with a soft one of your own. The following silence lingeredfor a little too long.

“They do good donuts down there. Have you…?” He began toask. You raised the bag your bagel came in to answer him. “Ah, you have.”

Realising a substantial conversation wasn’t about to occur,he nodded a silent goodbye to you and disappeared back into the portal. Onceyou’d mentally returned to your body, you noticed just how beautiful the orangesparks were. Now, more than ever, you regretted the decision to only work inblack and white.

You packed your things up and rushed back home. You werechanging the challenge. Monochrome pictures with pops of orange. Rushing backto the park with the orange pigment now safely in your bag you found you weretoo late. The portal was gone.

For the next few days you sketched down any out of placeorange things you could find. None of them had the same kind of oomph. You werejust going to have to track him down.

“They call him DoctorStrange.” “How can you not know who that is?” “Have you been living under arock?” and other similar things poured from the mouths of your friends, allwith incredulous looks on their faces. Honestly, you’d lost track of all those kinds of people, the ones thatsaved the world. You were thankful of course, but there were a lot, and morejust seemed to pop up every week.

You had a lead now. It wasn’t long before you were stalkingthe man who could generate orange sparkles from his hands. Never getting tooclose, you captured the gorgeous glow Strange was able to produce. Like any bigcity, there were plenty of weirdos around, you felt lucky that artists rankedlow on the weird scale. Most people ignored you as you snuck around trying tocapture his orange with your own, however, you lost track of Strange a fewtimes due to the occasional nosy person trying to look over your shoulder atyour art.

While tailing him you’d discovered that Strange or Wongwould sometimes visit the donut shop in the morning. Lately it had been Wong, butthat didn’t matter too much. What was really important was recreating the magicthey produced. You were really getting the hang of the intricate details andwere finally happy with the way you could now capture the glow.

Once again, beating them to the park, you got your own donutto tide you over until the sparks started. You sat a fair distance away fromthe area that their portal opened, you didn’t want to attract attention toyourself.

Right on schedule the portal appeared. Strange emerged. Youwere surprised but you assumed Wong had gone too many times in a row, so it wasStrange’s turn. He didn’t seem to notice you. That’s fine, you didn’t want toembarrass yourself with this crush you were having. Wait, no, not crush.Admiration. You just appreciated everything he did, it had nothing to do withhow he looked. Your cheeks burned, calling you out in your lie.

You got to work onyour first picture of the day. It was slightly foggy this morning making theportal eerily beautiful. Strange’s magic was an artform of its own. You wishedyou knew how it worked.

Strange was on his way back so you didn’t have much time.The problem was, when he was in view, it was a lot harder to concentrate. Youprobably would have had a lot more finished pieces if he had just been a tadless attractive.

Flicking your eyes back towards Strange just in time to seehim wrestle awkwardly with the cardboard cupholder from the donut shop. Itlooked as though he was trying to free his drink to take a sip, instead itescaped his grasp and fell to the ground.

Strange stood in place. He stared at the unfortunate puddlehe’d created. What a terrible way to start the day. He stretched his hand outin its direction and produced a green light.

What.

In.

The.

Hell…?!

“Green?!” You shouted. “Green? Are you serious right now?!”

Strange had never given the slightest hint that he couldproduce green magic in all the time you’d stalked him. If you’d known, youwould have brought green with you! How could he drop this bomb on you?

“Seriously? Green?” You got up, collecting your thingshastily, and marched over to him. “I didn’t know I had to bring green along!All I have is this orange. All this time and now… Green?!”

Strange wasn’t ready for confrontation, and neither were youto be fair, but you’d started it and now you were committed. He stared at you,confusion on his face, outrage on yours. For a moment the two of you stoodthere in silence not really knowing what to do next, you in his personal space,him leaning away slightly. Thankfully, Strange reacted first.

“You’re the one that’s been following me.” He said takingyour half-drawn artwork and replacing it with his goods from the donut shop. “Thisis really good. You’re very good.”

“Thanks.” You said after some hesitation.

Strange returned your picture to you and took back his food.He turned back to the puddle. Green runes spread up his forearm and in no timeat all, the drink was back to its original state in his hand.

“You didn’t see that.” Strange smiled at you and made hisway back to the portal. “C’mon, I’ll show you more.”

[pftones3482]

Good Vibes

Commission for @kriss-the-writing-nerd. Ugh, sorry this took so long. It was a lot of fun to write, though! 

Klance/hunay/shallura/krolivan (is that their ship name cause it should be) ahoy. Under a cut for length.

~~

They floated for a long time in front of the glowing, purple light in front of them, lion tails swishing aimlessly in the void of space as they all drifted closer to one another without meaning to.  

“What is it?” Pidge finally asked.

Allura shook her head, squinting at the light. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Coran?”

Coran shook his head, twisting the corners of his mustache. He had an uneasy look on his face. “Not a wink, Princess. Perhaps Krolia?”

“I’ll wake her up,” Shiro offered, ducking from the cockpit and into the cargo hold, where Krolia had been sleeping off her portion of watch. He returned mere seconds later with the still somewhat sleepy Galra in tow, her gaze alert but her jaw splitting in a yawn. It froze when she saw the light in front of them.  

“By Antok,” she muttered, leaning over Keith’s seat and staring in awe at the light. “I haven’t seen one of these in...ages.”  

“You know what it is, then?” Coran clarified.

Krolia nodded once. “Yes. It is not harmful to us. You must fly through it.”  

Hunk frowned. “Through it? We could just go around it though, right? It ends a couple hundred feet up.”

A smile quirked at the edges of Krolia’s lips. “It seems that way, yes. But this field is impossible to bypass. Frankly I’m amazed you haven’t come across it before.”

“What is it?” Lance asked, lifting an eyebrow.  

“The Blades call it “The Light of Peace.” It’s a literal term; when you travel through it, you see what would most bring you complete peace.”

Everyone relaxed. “That’s not bad, then,” Pidge said, a small smile on her face. “I’d...probably see my mom and dad and Matt, right?”

Krolia pressed her lips into a thin line. “Potentially. However, The Light often shows people things that they aren’t expecting. So you may expect your parents or Matt, or perhaps what you really need to feel most at peace is just a long nap. There is no telling what you will see. Any of you.”

“Well...that’s still not a bad thing,” Keith reasoned, shrugging. “We just go through and come out, right?”  

Krolia’s nose wrinkled this time. “Yes, but you will all see each other’s needs.”

That made everyone shut up for a moment, and then Romelle spoke, her voice hesitant. “Well if we can’t avoid it...we don’t really have a choice then, do we?”

“Romelle is right,” Shiro agreed, nodding. “We’ll go through. Whatever you see of each other, whatever happens...everyone stays respectful. Krolia, is there any order to whose we see first?”

Krolia tilted her head. “Yes. Generally, whoever is first in the group to enter. You will not see anything until everyone is in the light, though.”  

“I’ll go first,” Allura volunteered. Her cheeks were a bit flushed. “I...Coran and myself...I can probably imagine what we will both see.”  

She lifted a hand and squeezed Coran’s reassuringly, and then man nodded. Pidge tilted her head. “I’ll go next,” she murmured, glancing towards Kosmo, who had taken to sleeping in her lion, as it was quietest. “Just me and the dog, right?”

They all slowly piped up, verbally drawing straws. Keith, Shiro, and Krolia, being in the largest lion, would bring up the flank so that they could keep an eye out for safety purposes until everyone was in.  

Allura’s grip tightened on Blue’s controls and Pidge swerved Green up to drift just behind her. Everyone else fell into line, Hunk after Pidge and Lance and Romelle following.  

For a minute or two, everyone was silent. The purple light slid over everyone and, true to Krolia’s word, no one saw anything but the light and each other as they pulled forwards.  

The moment Black’s tail curled into the light, however, everyone’s visions went white.

~~

Coran.  

A man with dark skin and twinkling silver eyes turned and tucked a flower behind Coran’s ear, his lips curled up in a laugh. A toddler with pointy ears and bright orange hair clung to his hips, trills of “Daddy!” reaching everyone’s ears. Her mouth was wide with a smile, and there were grass stains on her knees.  

Another child, slightly older, played in the distance, zooming rocket sounds falling from his mouth as he swerved a miniature Castle of Lions around the heavens. His hair was dark and curly, eyes glistening oceans, and he was wearing a cardboard paladin suit.  

They were on Earth, or at least, what looked to be Earth, if Earth were made up of only the tidbits the paladins had given him. They sat in the grass, but an ocean lapped on their left. Clouds drifted through the sky, sprinkling water every so often.  

On another rise, in plain view, sat the paladins, laughing and shoving at each other, no longer in uniform. The lions sat behind them, guarding and silent, and chuckled rumbles filtered over the land as Hunk started a food fight.  

A hand settled on Coran’s shoulder and he turned, finding a much older man standing there, orange hair grayed to almost silver, hints of the pumpkin color sparkling here and there. The wrinkles around his eyes were kind, and he nodded to the castle ship in the boy’s hand.  

“You did well, Coran. I forgive you for blowing up my ship.”  

~~

The stabbing feeling in the gut startled everyone as they slipped from the vision, blinking and wide eyed. Everyone instantly turned to the feed from the blue lion, where Allura had twisted back in her seat and was holding Coran’s hand tightly.  

The man’s other hand was pressed to his mouth, and they could all see the trembling of his shoulders. Allura’s words were gentle, soft, and no one had time to join in, because the next wave rolled over them.

~~

Allura.  

“And here is my favorite juniberry field!” Allura exclaimed, spinning in a circle of flowers.  

The paladins watched her in amusement as she took Romelle’s hand and dragged her into the field, her gaze bright. “You have been missing out,” she laughed.  

Romelle snorted, looking around the land with awe. “I can see that,” she agreed. “Altea really is quite lovely.”  

“Isn’t it? I’m so glad you could all be here to see it,” Allura said, turning to the paladins with a small smile. “I cannot wait to see Earth now that you have gotten to see my home.”

“Allura!”

She turned to find her mother leaning out the door of the palace, waving a hand. “Come along! Your father has prepared dinner for you all!”

“Coming mother!”

Allura skipped over to the paladins, wrapping a tight arm around Pidge and lacing her fingers through Shiro’s human hand with ease. He drew it up to his lips and pressed a quick kiss to her skin.  

“Come on!” she said. “My father makes the most amazing Baked Termasin. It is simply to die for.”

Hunk lifted an eyebrow. “Think he’d give me the recipe?”

Allura laughed. “Only if you could actually find Termasin on Earth. It cannot be substituted.”

~~

“We’ll have a moment of reprieve,” Krolia said as the vision faded. “Since there was a gap between the blue lion entering and the green lion. Pidge, be ready at any moment. It will feel very real to you.”  

Pidge nodded seriously, but everyone was looking at Allura, who had her face, flaming red, buried in her hands. Shiro shifted awkwardly in the black lion, his cheeks pink. His mouth opened, and then closed, and then Lance spoke.  

“We said no judgement,” he said, his voice soft and calm. He looked incredibly at ease with what they had all just seen.  

Shiro’s shoulders seemed to relax and he nodded firmly. “Absolutely,” he agreed, tone gentle.  

Allura peeked up through her fingers and managed a weak smile.  

~~

Pidge

“Come oooonnnn, Pidge,” Matt teased, dragging her by the hand to the convention center. ”Your paladin outfit is totally going to blow the competition away!”  

“Matt, I AM a paladin! I can’t just enter the costume contest, that’s cheating!”

“The others are doing it!”

Pidge glanced over his shoulder and snorted at the sight of the other paladins, also dressed in their armor, standing around and chatting while they waited for the siblings. She glanced back at the car and waved at her parents with a roll of her eyes. “If I don’t come back, it’s ‘cause Matt killed me with embarrassment!” she shouted to them.

Sam gave her a very cheeky thumbs up and they sped off before Pidge could protest further. As they got closer, the group noticed her and started calling out, yelling teasing jaunts that spurred her on further.  

“Our first Comic Con after we save the freaking planet and I’m an attraction,” Pidge grumbled, crossing her arms. There was no fire to her words, only mirth, and Matt laughed.  

His eyes twinkled in the sunlight as he shook his head and shoved her the last few feet to her friends. “Come on, Pidgeon, you’ll have fun.”  

“Where are you going?” Pidge demanded.  

Matt winked. “Oh come on, you didn’t think I’d come here in jeans, did you? I’ll be right back!”

He jogged off and Shiro shook his head. “He’s definitely dressing up as a rebel from Star Wars.”  

Pidge guffawed. “Oh my god, he so is,” she realized.  

Lance grinned, cheeky, and slung his arm around Keith’s shoulders. “We should have all brought our own Star Wars costumes just to fuck with him.”  

“Language, Lance,” Shiro scolded, though his face quivered with a grin of his own.  

Lance stuck his tongue out and Pidge laughed, looking up at the convention center. “I guess if we’re our own attraction, we should probably go inside,” she mused.  

“This will either end badly, or we’ll get mobbed,” Hunk said.  

“Hunk, neither of those things are good,” Allura pointed out.  

“You’re right.”  

~~

Kosmo

Keith was smiling.  

Hunk squatted next to Kosmo, scratching him behind the ears in the best spot and feeding him something tasty. His tail flipped with excitement.  

Keith was smiling more. Hugging Shiro. Hugging Lance. His mom.  

Lance was laying against his flank, talking out loud and pointing at the stars. Kosmo couldn’t understand him, much, but he could feel the happiness radiating off the boy.  

“What about Kosmo?”  

“I like the name Kosmo!”  

Kosmo liked the name Kosmo, too. It was a good name.  

Pidge put her glasses on his nose. He couldn’t see, but that was okay. She was laughing.  

Keith was smiling.  

~~

The flash passed, and Pidge turned to look at Kosmo, eyes wide. The dog looked at her expectantly, letting out a soft woof, and she chuckled, reaching out and scratching the dog’s head. “Guess he told you his name, Keith.”  

Keith scoffed, though his face was soft. “You guys totally influenced him.”  

~~

Hunk

The sun rose over the Balmera with a burst of orange and yellow, and Hunk’s mother gasped in delight, covering her heart with her hands and letting out a soft sigh of delight. Hunk’s father hummed in approval and wrapped his arm around the woman, a smile on his lips.  

Hunk grinned at their reaction and turned to Shay with a laugh. “I told you they’d like it.”

Shay smiled, eyes flicking to Hunk’s parents and then back to Hunk, her shoulders shaking with laughter. “Yes, I suppose you did. I am glad they like it. Do you?”  

Hunk’s smile softened. “Of course I do, you know I do.”

“And the others?”

They glanced back at the lions, waiting patiently. The other paladins were tiny specks up on the shoulders and maws of their ships, only the colors of their armor differentiating them. Allura and Shiro stood shoulder to shoulder, Pidge seated a bit of a way from them on Green. Kosmo was curled around her hip, and Romelle sat next to them.  

Keith and Lance were sitting on Red’s nose, pressed side to side, Lance leaning in close to presumably say something. Coran stood behind them on the top of Red’s head, a respectful amount of space between him and Krolia.  

“I think they do, too,” Hunk promised, turning back to the girl.  

Shay hummed and leaned against him, her arm curling around his shoulders.  

~~

“Hunk, you player!” Lance teased.  

Hunk squawked, sinking in his seat. “I thought we said no judgement!”

“We did,” Allura said, glaring at Lance.  

Lance lifted his hands, cheeks a bit pink. “Hey man, no judgement. You and Shay? Total couple goals.”  

“We’re next,” Romelle noted, her voice soft. “Unless the cow-”

~~

Kaltenecker

Green. So much green. Everywhere.  

Pretty flowers. They tasted like honey.  

A blur of colors, mice. Running up to her nose.  

They squeaked. Happy sounds.  

Friends.

~~

Everyone blinked and Hunk snorted, shaking his head. “Figures the cow would have the easiest time being at peace.”  

“To be fair, she is in a giant war ship right now,” Pidge pointed out. “I’m sure she wants nothing more than to not be in space.”  

“Relatable.”  

`~~

Romelle  

“Romelle! Mother says it’s time for supper!” Bandor called out from the door of their house.  

Romelle turned to Allura and Coran, her eyes twinkling. The wind around them billowed her skirts, lifted her hair around her shoulders. The light drifted across the hills surrounding them, bathing the Alteans in a soft light. “I cannot wait for my father and mother to meet you. Father has always talked of the ancient Alteans with a fondness.”  

Coran chuckled, settling a hand on Romelle’s shoulder. “I’m sure I can tell him all about ancient Altea, if he’d like. I have some fantastic stories from my days of youth!”

Allura winced. “Perhaps...perhaps leave those out of your tellings.”  

“Why ever would I do that?”

Romelle giggled and took Allura’s hand tugging her towards the hut. ”I’m sure father would love to hear of all the eccentricities you indulged in, Coran. And Allura, my mother is a seamstress. I’m sure she’d love to hear of the royal clothing you wore.”  

“Of course,” Allura laughed. “I would very much be happy to describe them to her.”  

The grass tickled their feet and ankles as they walked, and, just before they got inside, Romelle turned back. “Will the paladins be joining us?”  

“In a matter of time,” Coran said with a nod.

Romelle clasped her hands together, eyes twinkling in delight. “Wonderful! I’ll go tell Bandor to add more place settings!”  

~~

Romelle frowned as the light faded, tears streaking her cheeks. “That felt so...short, compared to the others.”  

Lance reached over and squeezed her wrist reassuringly. His mouth was set in a thin line as he prepared for his own vision. Krolia spoke up after a moment of silence, answering the implied question. “The less you need to feel peace, the shorter the vision.”

Romelle sighed, looking away, and let her hand slip into Lance’s so that she could return the reassurance.  

~~

Lance

Lindy wound her arms tight around Lance’s neck, her pigtails billowing in the wind as they watched the sunrise from the top of Red’s nose. “Uncle Lance?”  

“Yeah baby?”  

“Can I drive Red someday?”  

Lance spluttered a laugh, twisting to plaster a kiss to his niece’s cheek. She squealed in disgust, bouncing away, and Lance kept a careful hand on her hip to keep her from falling off the edge. “You better be able to reach the floor with your feet, first, silly.”  

Lindy pouted but accepted the answer, and Lance stood, scooping her into his arms and descending into Red’s cockpit and out of the lion all together. She clung to his jacket, breath warm against Lance’s neck, and when Lance stepped outside he handed her off to his brother. “You’ll be home for lunch?” he asked, shifting Lindy to his hip.  

“Absolutely. I’ve got something to do first, though. Mind if I bring some guests?”  

“Go for it,” Marco chuckled. “I’m sure Mama is preparing extra in anticipation of that.”  

“Thanks, man.”

Marco waved and trudged off with his daughter, leaving Lance to rock on his heels and stick his hands in his pockets, staring out at the surf and at the rising sun. The sky was plastered in vibrant pinks, yellows, and oranges, dusting the clouds with rose gold and looking more like a painting than real life.  

“If you stare at the sun too long your eyes will burn.”  

Lance snorted and tossed a look at Keith as the young man stepped over, his nose wrinkling as the sand shifted under him. “Shut up, Keith.”  

Keith stuck his tongue out and stopped next to Lance, their shoulders bumping. Behind him were Pidge, Hunk, Romelle, and Allura, splashing through the surf with a very wet and slobbery Kosmo, who appeared to love the ocean almost as much as Lance. Krolia and Coran watched from the shore, and Lance could see Shiro sneaking up behind Allura from under the water, a grin on his face.  

“You know, Shiro really is just a teenager in an adult body,” Lance mused, watching as Allura was tackled and Shiro immediately got punched in the face.

Keith, also watching the scene, choked on a laugh. “God, you have no idea. You know my hover bike?”

“Yeah?”  

“He taught me to ride it.”  

Lance nodded, humming. “Ah. That explains...pretty much everything, actually.”  

Keith chuckled and looked back to the sunrise. His hand stretched over to Lance’s, and their fingers twined together without hassle, Lance’s thumb rubbing soothing circles over Keith’s knuckles. “Seriously though, you should stop staring at the sun. You’ll go blind.”  

“You’re not my mother.”  

“Thank god for that,” Keith snickered, pressing a quick kiss to Lance’s cheek.  

~~

Dead silence.  

Lance was gone from his screen, and so was Romelle, Red seemingly on auto pilot, so everyone instead turned to Keith, whose face was bright pink. Pidge lifted a slow eyebrow. “Okay, uh...?”

“No judgement,” Romelle snapped, appearing on screen again. Her eyes were flashing more violently than anyone had ever seen prior. Her gaze shifted to Keith, and the harshness faded a little. “No judgement.”  

Keith swallowed and nodded.

~~

Krolia

“You lived...here?” Kolivan asked, his nose wrinkling as he took in the forlorn shack in front of him.  

Krolia, in jeans and a t-shirt, huffed and shoved at his arm, a playful grin on her face. “Shut it! Not like many other people would have taken in a quiznaking alien, and you know it!”  

Kolivan rolled his eyes but glanced to her, his smile softening. “I’m glad he did take you in. It was noble of him.”  

Krolia grumbled but nodded, ducking her head. “Yes. It was. According to Keith, he was a very noble person.”

“Seems Keith gets it from both sides, then.”  

Keith, as if he had been summoned, popped his head from inside the cabin, a grin on his face. “Mom! Kolivan! Come on, you’re going to love this card game! It’s right up your alley! All sarcasm and violence!”

Krolia snorted and shook her head, taking Kolivan’s hand and leading him into the shack, where the paladins and Coran were gathered about the floor, all of them with a set of seven white cards in their hands.  

Pidge was leaning over to Coran, Romelle, and Allura, pointing between the white cards and the black cards on the floor and explaining the rules. Lance was attempting to sneak a peek at Keith’s cards, left on the table, but Keith dove in and swatted him off before he could.  

Keith scooted over and patted the floor next to him and Krolia smiled, sinking to the ground next to him and tugging Kolivan down with her. Hunk appeared from the kitchen with a massive platter of nachos and settled down next to Allura, handing around the plate as Krolia drew her set of cards.  

“All right, explain the rules.”

~~

“Mom, you flirt,” Keith teased, though his cheeks were still pink.  

“You know, all I’m getting from all of these visions is that everyone wants something to eat,” Allura laughed.  

~~

Shiro  

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said, voice soft. “I’m sorry that you...that you had to go through all of this without me.”  

Adam sighed and ran a tired hand over his eyes, glasses pushed to his forehead. ”Takashi, I...when I thought you were dead...that was the hardest time of my life. The last three years, knowing you were alive? It gave me some time...gave me some time to think.”  

“Me too,” Shiro murmured. He sighed, shoulders slumping, and looked away, rubbing his jaw. “Adam, I don’t...we can’t go back. To where we were. I’ve had a lot of time, most of that time fighting for my life, and I’ve grown.”  

“I know,” Adam said. His voice was careful, but his eyes were knowing. “Plus it’s...it’s not me anymore, is it?”  

Shiro glanced over his shoulder at the paladins, who were excitedly showing Coran and Allura around the Garrison. Allura looked up mid-laugh, caught him watching, and waved cheerfully. He waved back, tentative, and then turned back to Adam, who was eyeing the interaction with a soft sadness. “It’s not,” Shiro admitted.  

Adam took a breath and Shiro reached out, dusting a hand across his cheek. “It was, once,” he promised. “And I know it was for you to me, too. But if you’re telling me that after almost five years without me, you didn’t find someone else?”  

Adam’s shoulders dropped and he nodded, slow. Shiro let out a shaky sigh. “Then I hope you’re happy. I am. I want you to be, too.”  

“Thank you, Takashi. I am. And I’m glad you are.”  

Shiro nodded once, and then pulled Adam in for a tight hug.

~~

Shiro shuddered as the vision left, pressing a hand to his mouth. Krolia’s hand settled on his shoulder and Keith’s on his hand, and the knot in his chest loosened a little.  

“I didn’t know you and Officer West were...”

“Your gaydar is seriously broken, Hunk,” Lance grumbled, and everyone jumped, no one having seen him return to his seat.  

Hunk huffed and threw his hands up. “Apparently!”  

“Last one,” Krolia announced.

~~

Keith

The doors to the castle pool slid open and Keith stepped inside, promptly getting smacked in the face with a beach ball.  

“Sorry Keith!” Pidge cackled, racing past him and scooping up the ball before flinging herself back into the pool.  

“You’re definitely not!” he snapped back, laughing as he rubbed his head.  

“Yo, emo! Come join us!” Lance shouted from the deep end.  

Keith flipped him off and dropped his towel on the chair next to his mother, tugging his shirt off and throwing it down as well. ”Sure you don’t want to get in?” he asked.  

Krolia lifted a slow eyebrow. “And get tackled by 100 soaking wet pounds of Kosmo? I think not.”  

Keith hummed, glancing around the Altean pool for his dog and spotting him paddling next to Hunk. “Understandable. HEY KOSMO!”

The dog woofed and vanished from the pool. Keith side stepped rapidly, running for the pool and flinging himself in just as an outraged Krolia got a face full of wet space wolf. “YOU’RE GROUNDED, YOUNG MAN!”  

Keith whooped and hit the water with a flurry of bubbles. It had only taken the simple press of a button to flip the pool around, though Coran and Allura were confused about why they couldn’t all just walk up the walls and get into the pool that way. It took a lot of explaining to convince them that humans could not spider walk up the walls of anything, let alone a slick tiled pool wall.  

He popped up next to Lance, giving him a toothy grin, and Lance smirked back, nodding to Coran, floating nearby on a blow-up raft. “Thinking what I’m thinking?”  

“We’re gonna get murdered by his mustache?”  

“Oh totally.”  

“Let’s.”

They dove in sync and swam for the underside of the raft, Lance jerking up with his chin and floating just under it. He held up three fingers, brought them down slowly, and the moment his pointer went down, he and Keith shoved up as hard as they could.  

Coran was sent flying into the water with a yelp and Lance and Keith broke through the surface, bumping into one another and laughing as Coran came up, cursing in Altean, his mustache drooping.  

“If you die, I’m not saving you!” Allura called out.  

Shiro promptly dropped in on her, grabbing her by the shoulders and dunking her underwater. Lance burst into a new set of giggles, grabbing Keith’s hand and paddling them to the edge of the pool tile.  

Coran climbed from the water, mustache streaming, and shot them both a glare. “You will NOT hear the end of this,” he growled.  

Keith saluted and Lance shot him a set of finger guns before turning back to Keith. “Think he means it?”  

Keith snorted and ducked in, pressing a soft kiss to Lance’s lips. “Probably. We’re gonna die tonight.”  

“Well shit.”  

~~

The field ended, the light fading behind them before the vision was totally gone, and the cockpits of all five lions were silent.  

“Okay, my gaydar is SERIOUSLY broken!” Hunk yelped, spinning in his chair.  

Lance’s face was bright red, hands covering his eyes, and Keith was a similar mirror image. Allura and Shiro were both blushing, refusing to meet each other's gaze. Krolia coughed.  

“That was...certainly a learning experience for all of us,” she managed.  

“YOU KISSED ME!” Lance spluttered, whipping up and pointing accusingly at Keith.  

“UM, SO DID YOU!?”

“YEAH, BUT MINE WAS ON THE CHEEK!”  

“IT STILL COUNTS!”  

“Hang on,” Pidge said, interrupting the gay crisis going on in over half the lions. Everyone froze, looking to her, and she frowned, glancing at Allura’s lion. “We saw Kaltenecker’s and Kosmo’s visions. How come we didn’t see the mice?”  

Everyone turned their gaze on the mice, standing silently on Allura’s shoulders. “That’s a...good point,” Shiro said, brows furrowing.  

Platt squeaked and Allura burst into laughter, shaking her head. “Platt says they’re happy with what they all have. Except they want more food.”  

“Apparently we all do,” Pidge said with a snort.  

Coran coughed into his fist. “I suggest we set up camp for the night. It seems there are some...things...that some of us need to discuss with each other.”

“Where’s the nearest body of water?” Lance groaned.  

“Do NOT.”  

[brianna-lei]

Butterfly Soup Asks #16

This time including the squad as DnD characters, Liz facts, Noelle getting her yaoi education, and more

I’ve only played Dungeons & Dragons once (1) in my life so I’m no expert! I’d consider my thoughts suggestions (like with my takes on the charaters’ MBTI types, which I’m not an expert of either): 

Noelle as a Wizard sounds right, since she definitely can’t do anything reliant on physical strength. She would be an asshole and attempt things like building a Clone Army

AKARSHA THE BARD. Rogue sounds too cool for her

Diya: I actually want to say she’s a Ranger because the Wiki on 5th edition says “The Beast Master archetype forges a connection between civilization and beasts, allowing the character to interact with animals in certain ways including gaining an animal companion to control.“ Fighter and Knight also sound plausible though! 

Min: Barbarian with high Strength and no Intelligence and Wisdom

I don’t want to say too much because I want to save things for the sequel, but here’s some stuff:

She actually played against Diya in youth leagues before she transitioned. That’s why she recognizes Diya+specifically approached her to sign the baseball club form while Diya doesn’t recognize her. At the first club meeting Liz tells her “I was at one of your games when you were little” -- This is purposefully ambiguous/misleading (sounds like Liz was just watching) because she passes and doesn’t want to out herself to a bunch of club members she doesn’t know well

After transitioning she quit baseball and switched to softball. It was weird being the one trans girl on a team of cis dudes, and additionally when she was younger she sort of felt like she had to prove she was a girl; she naturally has feminine taste, but she’d overperform it by 25%. It wasn’t until she got close to Chryssa and found out she also liked baseball that she reclaimed her interest in it

She has a nice resting face so strangers tend to ask her for directions 

Sunburns easily

Yesss check the FAQ guys! Fangames are fine as long as you explicitly say it’s a fangame!! 

I’m almost mad I didn’t think of this myself. I’m one of those people who overuses “spoopy” 

All art in the game (including the title screen) can be downloaded here!

NO!!! 

Noelle. The day the others find out will be the End of her

Akarsha was reading some yaoi so it came up in conversation, and since Noelle had never heard of it Akarsha gleefully educated her (to Noelle’s horror). Noelle was extremely scandalized that Akarsha kept sending her inappropriate images, and Akarsha was like “i’m doing this out of the kindness of my heart! it’s for ur education!! me: Master Teacher. call me sensei”  

Following this Akarsha changed her chat name to YAOI SEME as seen at the beginning of the game 

Diya and Noelle: Never tried it

Min: Has tried it 

Akarsha: She constantly makes weed jokes but actually only does it rarely 

Yes, I’m planning on exploring this more in the sequel! 

Diya; Dee-ya. Rhymes with “See ya”

Min-seo: Korean way, but most characters like Diya pronounce it like Min-so, with the “Min” rhyming with “win” (not like “mean”). The “so” is one syllable (not like “see oh”)  

Akarsha: uh-KAR-sha

Noelle: No L 

I was planning on making the sprites blink! I’m still a bit sad I didn’t end up doing it

It’s supposed to be fall 2008 when they’re in high school, but I took a LOT of artistic liberties when it came to the references. For example, Akarsha makes a Durarara reference even though the anime didn’t come out until 2010, and there’s a lot of modern memes that ended up in there too...I couldn’t hold back...

The IGF trailer video is especially modern-day meme-wise -- since it broke the 4th wall, it was like, all bets are off. Don’t think too hard about it!

I wanted to put a lot of 90s and early 00s hits in the game for the nostalgia factor, like Complicated, Rock Your Body, Dilemma, etc. I think it would’ve made the experience even more surreal for players who are around my age!

I don’t own the rights to all the music so I can’t distribute it around for people to download! Here’s where you can find everything:

Thought Projection by Ketsa

Holding Your Breath by Ketsa

Thoughts of You by Ketsa

2011-13 by Ketsa

Miyauchi Yuri/110515 (miltata remix) by Miltata

Night Tourist by Miltata

Sound413_Images(short) by Miltata

Sound429_Floating Cloud (draft) by Miltata

Side by Side by Miltata

Blooming by Miltata

Romaras by Miltata

Little Circle by Miltata

Daydream by Miltata

Calling Project 2 by .que

Flame of Love by YOSHI

Valar Morghulis by Bloodgod

Overflowing by Tatsuya Kato

My Heart Will Go On - Recorder By Candlelight by Matt Mulholland

At one point Diya finds out what it means on her own. After she finds out, she uses it for the actual meaning :) (added this to the FAQ now) 

I can totally relate to all of them, but I’d say Diya! (added this to the FAQ now) 

that sounds a bit alarming

(I added this to the FAQ page now, thanks for reminding me)  I’m fine with people shipping whatever!! The only thing I can think of that’d make me uncomfortable is incest and shipping Diya and Min with male characters – other than that, go nuts

Oh noo im sorry, that must’ve been stressful! For those who don’t know, I chatted about my game for a few minutes last week with MEGA (a USC club I used to be in!). I’ve adapted them here with what I assume what the questions were: 

1. Is that your cat on your Skype icon? 

yeah it is!! it's burrito 

(people think it’s a cute name) 

LOL glad you guys approve

2. Was the game made in Renpy? What do you think of Renpy vs. Twine? 

yep! it's made in renpy! I actually started out in twine -- twine is impossible if your game is like longer than an hour and is image heavy. the engine started lagging so bad it would take 30 secs to do anything

2. Would you eat a tiny 2 inch man for $100 million?

LOL it's hard..it's a lot of money. I don't think I would

(but you could use that money to save many more lives! utilitarianism) 

it's a real dude tho! i'd feel awful for him haha it's hard when you have to physically do it LOL

3. How long did it take for you to make Butterfly Soup? 

FOREVER. I thought of it in my junior year over winter break

4. Was it for school (like an assignment)? 

nah! just on my own

(people saying that’s impressive) 

yeah!! self motivation

5. What’s your favorite part of the game? 

hmmmmM I like the "date" with min in the dream. it's so fun, with the dog park

6. Which character do you relate to the most? 

diya!! social anxiety queen, so relatable

(people comment on how she runs around when anxious) 

i really did that before my sat once, ran 2 miles at the school's track

7. Are you from the San Francisco Bay Area

yeah i'm from the bay! east bay

8. Which year did you first come up with Butterfly Soup? 

winter 2014 i think

(people trying to calculate which year was my junior year) 

i graduated a year early so junior year was also senior year

9. Are you making a sequel? 

yes!! once ihave more time. i have a lot of ideas for stuff that goes after

10. Was this a prequel to Pom Gets Wi-Fi? Or maybe spiritual successor?

this is a prequel. i dunno about spiritual successor tho, they're a bit differnt

11. Any tips on how to balance schoolwork and working on personal projects? 

hmm...i honestly sucked at this and could only work on it on breaks lol...if you can try to work it into your school projects, like some bit of it...

other than that i cant think of anything LOL it's hard

12. How did you organize yourself making such a long game? Any tips? 

it was SUPER hard to organize, i was really lost until i split it into 4 sections with each character. so if you're planning on making a game this big definitely think about forcing yourself into sections like that

the art was the most confusing to do bc of how many assets there were. i was going to say "have consistent naming conventions" but that's literally impossible LOL it'll always become inconsistent no matter how hard u try

13. What part of the game took the longest (writing? art?) 

writing, actually, despite how much i complain about art assets. it's really hard making sure the structure and themes come across correctly. like pacing is so hard. art is like #2 biggest time sink

14. How early in did you write the Akarsha/Min skateboard scene?

that came pretty late haha i put it in at last second

15. Are the characters based on real people? 

they're all inspired by combinations of ppl i know! i wouldn't say based on them, tho. for example min is like a combination of 3 friends i have, strategically arranged to play her part in the story

character design is design so u still gotta be deliberate about it

16. Who’s the other cat on the computer? (they’re referring to the cat on my desktop wallpaper) 

that one's maru! he's a famous japaense cat. he's super photogenic

(people speculating that he’s the “tube one”) 

the tube one? probably. he's famous for going into stuff

17. What was your favorite aspect of working on the game? 

definitely getting to put specific Asian-American experiences into it

i was like HAHOH i can do this and no one can stop me! it was really fun getting to do this without any creative direction from like, a studio or anything. so i could just go bonkers. i hate pitching stuff so

18. Any writing advice? 

definitely have other people beta your writing as soon as possible! they always catch stuff you missed. also this is like a cheat, make your characters really extreme. like find one aspect of yourself, and turn it up to 11 and make it into a character. that way they'll be relatable and memorable at the same time. i think most people don't make their characters extreme enough so they're all kinda samey

19. (I can’t remember what they asked me here, sorry! They were asking if a specific meme was in the game)

LMAO nah it's not. i did briefly think about it though, i will admit

20. Would you eat a Gusher the size of your hand? 

that would be pretty cool. i don't think i could eat it all at once tho...i would try to save it. like half

You’re welcome, I’m really happy to hear it helped the game feel relatable!!  

Thank you! I hope you have a good day too!!

haha I feel like my game is almost propaganda bc so many people wish they had girlfriends after playing it! the agenda...Thank you for waiting for the sequel, it makes me super happy to hear people are looking forward to it! 

You’re welcome!! I’ll do my best!!! 

You’re welcome!!!! :>

You’re welcome!!! 

same I’m really happy so many people find them relatable! you’re welcome!! 

You’re welcome!! my kids can never get enough love im very happy 

I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for the support! TT_TT

[assbuttyourlife]

When We Were Young - Chapter Thirty

Pairing : Misha/OFC

Warnings : Language, Fire, trauma, PTSD, family members death (including child), therapy, flashbacks (not in every chapter), injuries, cheating. Sexual content. Violence. Non Con/Threats of rape. Long fic. Angst, fluff, Smut. Mention of suicide.

Words : 3522

Summary : After her grandmother’s funeral, Lily must return to the place she lived in when she was young and has to confront the ghosts of her past. She will run into an old friend that she thought was lost forever.

This story is also available on AO3

Tags : @jhudawnareeves

Drop an ask if you wanna be tagged :)

CHAPTER 30 - DEJA VU

Northfield – June 29th 1990

The sun just appeared at the horizon, offering a stunning show of colorful waves among the foliage.

In the cabin near the pond, Lily had just woken up, gently pushing Misha's arm away from her waist so she could get up and admire the beautiful morning light. She yawned and looked down at him, he was still sleeping silently. She smiled... he was so beautiful. She was so damn happy.

She walked out of the cabin barefoot, stepped on the cold and moist wooden pier, walked all along and sat at the very end, putting her feet in the chilly water.

It was one of those summer mornings, at the time of the day when the air was still a bit cold and humid on her skin, and when the nature was waking up. The frogs and the crickets were getting more silent, but the birds were chirping louder all around her already.

It was safe and peaceful. She was so, SO damn happy.

She stretched, extending her arms as high as she could, then she laid back down on the pier, observing the colorful sky above her with a smile, breathing the fresh air deeply. It would be a great day today, there was not even a single cloud to stain the perfect sky.

“Stunning view!” she heard Misha's sleepy voice behind her. She sat up and looked back, he had just woken up and was slowly walking towards her on the pier, barefoot too, wearing only his boxers, his eyes still red and puffy from the night, his hair in a great mess as always, but damn was he beautiful! Anybody else would've wondered who the hell was that boy and what he was doing in this property looking like he was out of the woods after months living like a hermit, but for Lily, no one could make her happier at this moment, and there was no one else as handsome as he was in her eyes.

That thought made her laugh.

“Yeah.” she smiled at him. “I wanted to see the sun rising to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation. It definitely is stunning.”

He walked right behind her and crouched to quickly kiss her lips.

“I wasn't talking about the sky.” he confessed in a whisper.

She scoffed and turned to face him, allowing him to take her in his arms.

“Lily, you're cold! Go get dressed.”

“Says the half-naked guy... I'm fine.” she protested snuggling in his warmth.

She was dressed… kinda. She was wearing a T-shirt and her panties, that was supposed to be enough for a summer day. Misha rubbed his hands over her bear arms giving her goosebumps.

“Come on Lily, you wouldn't want to get sick for summer, would you?”

She huffed a laugh. “I'm a big girl, don't worry, daddy.”

“You teasing brat.” he gently pinched her waist making her giggle. “Are you ready for today?”

She sighed. She'd forgotten about today...

“Do I really have to do this today?” she whined.

“Lily... you promised me.”

True... she promised she would tell her mother that they were engaged. But really she didn't want to. Not because she didn’t love Misha enough to make it official, it was quite the opposite actually, but she was terrified because she knew exactly how it would turn out, what she would say (or scream…), and it would probably end in tears, with both women pouting, not talking to each other for weeks because she’s insouciant and blinded by love and too young and blabla blahh.

“Can't we do it at the end of summer? Before going back to school... if I'm grounded at least it won't ruin my vacation. She will get insane, I know it.” she asked him hopeful, still hidden in his chest.

Misha pulled away to study her. He knew Lily’s mother would not be surprised since actually, she already knew and was just waiting for her daughter to trust her enough to talk to her.

“Why would she? She knows me, right? I know I'm not the ideal step-son for her daughter but still... or... maybe... is it because you're having second thoughts? Or you said yes just to please me but you weren't serious... you can tell me, you know. I'll understand.”

There... she did it again. She hurt his feelings because she was a coward…

“Nooo!” she framed his face with her hands, looking into his saddened blue eyes. That same dark, deep, hurting sadness she always saw in him since he was nine years old. The feeling he wasn't worthy, or good enough to be his friend, boyfriend... or husband. That shameful, self-loathing look that always made her want to slap herself for being so selfish.

“Misha, no.” she declared with a firm voice, squeezing her hands a little on his face to prove her point. “I am serious about this, and I definitely want to be your wife.”

She pulled his face closer to kiss him deeply.

“I love you. Don't you ever doubt that.”

He swallowed but finally smiled. “I love you too.”

She sighed closing her eyes. “I'm just terrified of her reaction. That's all.”

“You sound like she's evil... don't you think you're overreacting here?”

He knew the answer to that question already. Lily was the champion of overreaction. The queen. Plus he definitely knew that Mary was already aware of his proposal since Mr Adams went to tell her when he surprised him carving the tree. She was totally okay with it, just waiting for her daughter to talk to her. Obviously she wasn't that trustful at the moment...

“Why wouldn't she be happy for you? For us!”

“Because we're barely sixteen, we even haven't finished high-school yet, and she will say it's too young to take such a huge commitment. Ugh! I can already hear her in my head!”

“And that's why we're waiting after college. No big deal. Do I have to remind you that your parents got married at 18? And that you were born when she was only 20? Maybe you should… I don’t know… trust her a little more?”

He was right. He was so right... How come Misha was always right? That wasn't fair! Still she couldn't find the guts to tell her today, the day was too beautiful for that.

“Okay... I'll tell you what: she has to drive Ryan and Sasha to Greenfield today, but tomorrow we've planned to go dress-shopping together. I'll tell her then, deal? Not today. Please Misha... not today.”

She hugged him tight, fearing his reaction too now, but was relieved when she felt him sigh in defeat.

“Fine. But if you don't talk to her tomor-”

“I will. I definitely will. Cross my heart!” she smiled and kissed him one more time, slowly leading him back to the cabin.

She didn't know that this beautiful morning would be the last she would spend in Misha's arms for a very long time. She couldn't figure that this would be the last day she would see her mother, that it was her last chance to tell her she had found the man she would spend the rest of her life with before her whole family, her house, her dreams, her hopes would turn into a nightmare of flames and ashes.

**********

Northfield's cemetery –  June 29th 2017

When she dreamed about her wedding day, Lily pictured it at the farm, she of course dreamed Misha would be the one, and her family would be here with her, happy for them.

But dreams don't always come true, or at least not exactly the way we picture them.

She didn't think a second she would be here, in front of her family's grave, the day before she would marry Misha, to bring flowers and talk to them through a tombstone, more than two decades after they got engaged.

She wanted to say a million things, mostly that she loved them and she was sorry, but she felt a bit stupid here, standing alone before that... piece of stone. She wanted to tell them how much she missed them, how she would give everything to have them here with her tomorrow, how happy she was to marry Misha but how devastated she felt not to have them with her to celebrate.

Misha's family was already here. But hers... she had none. Not a single soul left to walk her down the aisle. Oh how she wished she could grip her dad's arm tomorrow! How she wished her mom and nanny could be here to get her ready, to take pictures... but no... she would have no pictures of her with her family on her wedding day.

And Ryan... how would Ryan look today? Would he be married too? She could even have nieces or nephews today if only...

“Hey.”

She jumped from her thoughts.

“Sorry, I didn't wanna scare you. You okay?” Misha walked next to her and Lily immediately fell in his warm embrace, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

“Yeah... yeah I'm good. It's just in moments like these that-”

“I know. I wish they were here too.”

She looked up at him and smiled tenderly, her chin resting on his chest, her arms firmly squeezing his waist.

“You were right, Misha... I shouldn't have waited that long back in 1990. I would give anything to be sixteen again and tell my mom we're getting married.” she confessed. “I would love to hear her scream at me that I'm too young and that I need to think about my education first.” she laughed bitterly. “She would also have yelled when I would've told her you'd want to be an actor... my god I can hear her saying it's not a safe job, that it's reckless and dangerous to live like that...”

Misha chuckled “reckless? You're loaded! You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth! Where the hell is the risk?”

Lily feigned being shocked, her mouth hanging open.

“Who's gonna walk you down tomorrow?”

“Sorry….” she smiled and kissed him teasingly. “No spoiler”.

“Okay I get it, I'm too curious. Do you need more time here or do we go back now? My dad can't wait to meet you.”

She looked back at her family's grave and sighed, brought two fingers at her lips before brushing them against the golden letters carved in the tombstone. “Hagen's Family”.

“I love you”. She whispered to them and looked back at Misha with teary eyes. “Let's go.”

He rubbed a hand on her back affectionately and led her to the car.

Time to meet papa Krushnic.

***

Lily always thought Misha got his goodness side from his mother, but meeting his father made her realize both his parents were true angels on earth.

She met Richard Krushnic at the farm, where everybody was staying until the big day tomorrow. He was so nice it was almost hard to believe. They talked for a long moment in the backyard, just the two of them, mostly about Misha's childhood.

That was a delicate subject to speak with Misha when he was young. Lily knew he was hurt by the fact his parents were so far away from each other, not talking, and the few times they did, they were mostly fighting.

Maybe that's why Misha was so close to Lily's grandfather, always at his house doing any kind of work or out in town to go shopping with him, or outside just hiking. He needed the father figure, and he knew it was impossible with his own father living so far away from Northfield. He just needed the stability, the “normalcy” of her family. At least until Mr Hagen died when they were 13, which literally broke Misha's heart.

Richard even apologized to her for not being here when his sons needed him, but he was immensely grateful her family had been.

“You're here now, that's what matters, right?” Lily had said when she saw his eyes getting red. “I know he’s grateful for that.” She gave him a hug and just like that, Richard understood why Misha was unable to stay away from her, and why his life crushed when he thought she'd died.

She never realized, but Misha had quite a big family. Thank God the farm was restored enough to allow a lot of people to stay. Lily and Misha were staying in the cottage.

Once more, it made the void of her own family even bigger. Richard was here with his wife and his two daughters, Misha's step-sisters (that she also never met before, just saw a few pictures.) No need to say the whole property was full with kids running everywhere, people greeting and laughing all around her. It was even a bit overwhelming.

Darius was here with his wife and kids, Sasha of course (who was naturally Misha's witness and best man), with his family too. Jensen, Jared, and Cliff, were of course present with families and kids, among a few other friends that she didn't even know yet. Even Vicki stopped by to leave West and Maison at the farm and went to stay in town with Rachel despite Lily's protests. She would be here tomorrow though, and again, she thought there couldn't be a more amazing woman on earth.

On Lily's side though… it was only Katie and David. With no kids yet... but Katie was now 7 months pregnant so it was a matter of time. And that was it right now... two people. Three if you counted Dr Dorville who was supposed to arrive on the evening. Three people that changed (and probably saved) her life after she left this place completely broken.

Four if she counted Darius, who was one of her best friends too when she was young (despite the fact that he was always messing with her and Misha!) so technically he was here for both of them.

“And finally I found the bride. Everybody's looking for you.” Katie's voice resonated among the quietness of the pond where Lily went to find some peace.

She looked up from her reverie and smiled at her best friend, her sister, walking towards her on the decorated pier. There were flowers and ribbons everywhere, among lights that were not lit yet, because this was the place Misha and her chose to get married. It made sense, it couldn't be somewhere else. Lights that of course Lily insisted would NOT be candles despite Katie's vigorous protestations!!

When she stepped near Lily at the end of the pier, she laboriously sat next to her to sink her feet in the water too.

“Oh my God this was not easy with that freaking whale belly.” she panted making Lily chuckle. “Eww it still smells like vase in here.”

“I kinda like the smell now.” Lily confessed. It reminded her of good times.

“You’re aware Misha is looking for you everywhere and he's ready to call the cops, the FBI and the US Air Force, thinking you disappeared again, right?”

Lily rolled her eyes “And he wouldn't think of me being here? Come on it's the first place he would check, you're exaggerating Katie.”

Both women turned at the same time when they heard Misha's voice behind them:

“Barely, I just hung up with Mister Secretary of Homeland Security. He’s on his way.” he slowly walked toward the women, an amused look on his face.

“Ladies...” he greeted them with a nod and crouched down “am I interrupting?”

“You are!” Katie whined “I just got here and it took me five minutes to sit down here so don't you dare tell me I have to go for you two to talk alone or I swear to God I'll cry.”

Misha chuckled “Take it easy Katie, I just wanted to make sure everything was fine since nobody saw her for a while.”

Lily placed her hand on Misha's “I'm fine. I just needed time away from the constant screaming of kids. I'll be back soon.”

“Okay. I'll be in the farm. Everybody's ready for dinner. Love ya.”

“Love you too.” he left a quick peck on her lips before getting up and walking away from them.

“Aww you twoooo!” Lily turned to look at Katie who was now... crying?

“Katie! what's wrong? Are you in pain? Don't you dare deliver your baby too early on my wedding weekend!”

“Nooo I'm fine! You two are just so cute I can't! Stupid hormones are making me emotional! Ugh, I'm not gonna survive tomorrow...”

Lily scoffed looking down at her feet swaying lazily in the water. “I might not either.”

Katie's look darkened.

“Lily-Bee what the hell? Did you just lie to your future husband saying you’re fine when you’re actually not?”

“No I just... Everything's great it's so not usual. I can't help thinking that if Misha and I were torn apart 25 years ago it was maybe because we were just not meant to be together, that something will come up between now and the wedding and it will ruin everything, that Vicki will stand up to stop Misha from ruining his family, or that Mr Adams will show up from behind the trees to kill someone else... I just wish I could stop thinking for 24 hours, that's all.”

Katie burst out laughing.

“Oh my God and I'm the one exaggerating? Do you hear yourself?”

She grabbed her friend's shoulders so she would face her and looked at her in the eyes.

“Listen to me closely now: You were torn apart because a psycho in love with your mother was blinded by hate, rage and jealousy. That very old psycho is now stuck in a wheelchair and can't move so he won't show up. That shit is over. There are no people more made for each other than you and mister cute butt Mish-Mish over there, and I won't even talk about Vicki because that woman is ridiculously perfect so you can relax and shove your fear up your ass.”

she rolled her eyes before Lily replied.

“Yes!! That's exactly what I mean! She's ridiculously perfect so why in the-”

“Oh no no no! Stop it now!” Katie stood up (again very laboriously) “I know exactly what kind of crap you're gonna say and I won't let that happen. Misha chose you when he was nine fucking years old, and that won't change, period.”

“Actually-”

“Nope! Not a word! Now you're coming with me...” she grabbed Lily's arm to get her up. “We're going to go to the farm, eat too much, drink wayyy too much too... except I can't but you'll do it for me, then you'll go back to the cottage with your fiancé and I don't even wanna know what you'll do to him and after a good night sleep you'll come back here in your pretty dress to marry him and spend the rest of your life happy. That's all you have to think about right now. I won't allow anything else, trust me.”

Lily smirked, taking her best friends hand in hers. “I knew you were the perfect maid of honor.”

They both chuckled, Katie put her arm around Lily's shoulders and they headed to the farm together.

***

It was nice having so many people at the farm after so long. They had to put tables outside because it was really too many people to stay inside, plus it was a nice summer night so they thought they would enjoy the yard and the stunning view it had to offer, especially when the sun went down and the fireflies' lights started illuminating the trees around them.

After dinner, most of the adults were a little drunk (Darius a lot!), and the kids were over-excited to go camping all together near the woods right behind the farm.

Misha and Lily went back to the cottage after everyone went to sleep, and no need to say they were more than happy to celebrate their last night being not married without West and Maison constantly trying to go in their bed.

They both fell asleep late that night, but they were happier than ever, knowing they would be finally married a few hours later.

And at 4 am that same night, Misha's eyes flew open when he smelt a very familiar scent... smoke. And just like that, everything went spiraling again. He woke Lily up with a super panicked voice knowing his children were out there sleeping in tents, and when she smelt it too, her heart stopped and she knew she was right earlier when she was talking to Katie, when she was terrified something bad would ruin everything.

Obviously, sadly... she was right.

[caindoglover]

Rebound

All the tagged ships really are in here.

This is my first try at writing any of these characters, so don't be too hard on me. I really wanted to do a series of escalating moments like this and since I can't draw, I wrote it. Thus no scene is super long, but they are all very much linked.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12715395/1/Rebound

Enjoy!

“I’m baaaaaack!” Star calls out to anyone who might be listening, Marco in particular. She prances across the room and towards the stairs.

Marco pops into view at the top of the stairs. “Hey, Star. You look happy.” He smiles as he makes his way down. “So how was it? Was it as miserable as you said it would be? Or did you,” he gasps and lays his hands over his mouth for dramatic effect, “have fun?”

Star swats at him, smiling despite herself.

Marco laughs. “Honestly though, I don’t know how you could not like that stuff. I mean…pretty dresses, free food, dancing, and-”

“Dancing!” Star’s eyes light up and she grabs Marco’s wrist. “Marco! Marco!” She jumps up and down. “Tom and I – we got back together.”

Marco’s face goes blank. “What?”

Star releases him and waves her hand about as she says, “Yeah, we had to dance cause royalty stuff and it was actually nice. Soooo much better than that Blood Moon Ball thing. So we decided we’d try again.”

“Oh. Really?” Marco’s brow creases as he contemplates her.

Star frowns. “What’s wrong?” A mischievous glint shines in her eye. “You jealous?” She nudges him.

“No.” Marco rubs the back of his neck. “It’s just that, it’s sudden. I mean, not for him, the guy’s totally in love you.” He half laughs. “But for you…you hated the guy just hours ago.”

Star shrugs. “Love’s a crazy thing.” She skips past him and up the stairs, her eyes lingering on him as long as she can manage before she goes around the corner.

Marco watches her go, thinking hard on her words, and as she disappears his frown lifts and he too shrugs. “I guess so.”

…

Marco steps through the portal and into Tom’s bedroom.

“What’s up, dude?” Tom smiles and looks to Marco with his third eye while keeping his others firmly planted on the video game in front of him. His fingers tap away as he completes combo after combo.

“That ball landed on our usual game day, so I figured I’d come today instead.”

“Yeah, sure, just gimme a second.” His tongue sticks out in his concentration as he mashes out another combo. Another. Another. “Yes!” He throws his hands in the air. “In your face!”

Marco snickers. “You get way to into these games.” He strides over.

“No, you don’t get into them enough.” Tom snaps his fingers and another chair appears besides him. “That’s why I always beat you.” He smirks.

“No, you win because you cheat.” Marco plops down next to him.

“Rude.” Tom swishes his hand and floats the second controller into Marco’s hands. “It’s not my fault my games are made for demons.”

Marco rolls his eyes but smiles anyway. “Just hit start.”

They play through at least ten rounds before Marco stops counting and loses himself in the fighting. After that he isn’t sure just how long they go back and forth, all he knows is he wins a grand total of one time. One. Well, it’s a record he supposes. Although he has a sneaking suspicion Tom let him win so he’d keep playing.

Tom grins. “Ready to give up yet?”

“You realize that for most people beating them into the ground usually ends with them not wanting to play with you ever again, right?” Marco raises a brow.

Tom chuckles. “Yeah, well you aren’t like most people, now are you?” His smile falters as a thought crashes into his brain. “I mean, most people wouldn’t have even forgiven me in the first place.” He drops his eyes to the floor.

Marco’s brows knit together and his eyes shine with sadness. Lingering on bad thoughts is never good, particularly not for Tom, so he doesn’t try and cheer him up, instead he switches tracks entirely. “So,” he stretches out the word, “you and Star, huh?” He tilts his head.

Tom pauses for a long moment, still caught somewhere in the moments before, and then his face lights up like a firework. “She told you?” He half laughs. “Honestly, I almost thought she was making fun of me at first.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I mean, before that dance I was pretty sure she hated me. But…that dance…” He smiles fondly. “It was just like before.” His heart beats a little faster.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” Marco smiles.

“You say that like you’re not.” Tom shoots him a dubious look. “What? You jealous?” His cautiousness shifts to humor and he grins.

“Oh my God.” Marco throws his hands in the air. “If one more person says I’m jealous I swear to Mewni. I am not jealous.” He scowls.

“Chill, dude.” Tom laughs. “I’m just kidding.”

“I just think it’s sudden. Just like you said. And I don’t want things to blow up, you know?” He shrugs.

“It’s okay. I’ll be okay.” Tom’s eyes muddy despite his words. “Even if we don’t last. I’ll be happy I got even this much time.”

Marco nods and smiles despite the feeling stirring deep within him.

“Still, don’t be so negative. That’s my thing.” Tom nudges Marco. “It doesn’t suit you.”

Marco chuckles and his smile turns genuine. “Just like winning doesn’t suit me apparently.”

“Now you’re getting it.” Tom bobs his head. “Another round?”

“Another round!”

…

“Double date! Double date!” Star bounces in place, her dress rising and falling with her. This time it is blazing red, a single simple color that makes her pop amongst the furniture around the house.

Marco walks down the stairs and falters as he sees her in her fancy dress and with her hair held back in a barrette. “Oh, um, you’re going like that?”

Star’s eyes flit to her dress and back to him. She puffs out her lip. “What’s wrong with my dress?”

Marco shakes his head. “Nothing. Just…was I supposed to dress up?”  He gives a nervous smile and tugs at his hoodie. “I thought this was gonna be more…chill,” he stretches the word out and slides his hands in a smooth line.

“Dresses can be chill.” Star waves her wand and a splash of pictures appear on her dress – bunny, dog, and cat faces, rainbows, clouds, and a heart right on her chest. “See? Chill,” she mimics his tone and movement.

Marco shifts from one foot to the other. “Well, I guess-”

“Good. Let’s go!” She snatches him by the wrist and races out the door. They run all the way to the restaurant where they find Jackie waiting.

“Oooh, nice dress.” Jackie smiles at Star. “Next time I’ll wear mine and we can match, yeah?” Jackie tilts her head.

Star beams. “Yeah.”

Marco eyes Star’s hand still curled around his wrist and he frowns. There’s no way she doesn’t realize it. Still, no need to fuss. He simply tugs his hand out of hers and brushes it off.

A trace of a scowl lights Star’s face as she notices Marco brush his wrist off.

Marco looks to Jackie, a renewed smile on his lips. “You, um, you look pretty. Even without a dress.” He smiles bashfully.

Jackie giggles. “You’re as sweet as ever.” She steps forward and kisses him on the cheek.

Star looks pointedly away and grumbles beneath her. No, it’s cool. Tom will be here any second now. He’ll-

A burst of flames appear and when it subsides Tom stands before them. “Hey.” He gives a slight wave.

“Tom!” Star leaps at him and throws her arms around his neck.

Tom catches her around the waist and draws her close. “Missed you too, Starship.” He leans his head down toward her.

Star stretches up and brushes her nose against his in an eskimo kiss.

Tom lowers her so her feet touch the ground. “Beautiful as always.” His smile is tender.

Star giggles, a soft blush coloring her cheeks. “You’re looking pretty spiffy there too.” She smiles coyly. He is wearing the same suit as the night of the Blood Moon Ball.

Jackie looks Tom over. “So, you’re the demon dude, right?”

Tom eyes her with uncertainty. “Uh, yeah. That’s me. And you are…?”

“Jackie.” She wraps her arm around Marco’s shoulder. “Marco’s girlfriend.”

Marco smiles sheepishly. He still isn’t quite used to her calling them boyfriend and girlfriend. It’s nice, definitely, but it never fails to knock him off kilter.

Star’s eyes snap open and her face lights up. “Hey! Marco!” She nabs her phone from her pocket and tosses it at him.

Marco yelps and scrambles to catch it, fumbling with it before finally clamping his hands around the device. He makes a face at her.

Star laughs and grins from ear to ear. “Take a pic of us, okay?” She leans her head against Tom and nuzzles into the crook of his neck.

Marco frowns, but he does as she says. He lifts the phone and snaps a shot, capturing their moment of sentiment.

Jackie peeks over his shoulder. “You two are super cute.” She nods to them. “You match and everything. Same as me and Marco. We’re like the perfect couples.”

“Power couples.” Star pipes, waving her wand. “We’ve got the powers.”

“And we’ve got the couples?” Jackie laughs.

Star laughs with her.

Marco opens his mouth to speak and reaches out to offer Star her phone back, but he doesn’t get a chance to accomplish either.

Star loops his arm through Tom’s and tugs him forward. “Alright, alright, enough of this. Let’s go eat. I hunger!” She throws a hand in the air.

“Yeah, come on Marco.” Jackie slips her hand into his and draws him along.

Marco tries to fidget with his fingers and is made all the more aware of the phone still in his grasp. He tilts the device and glances down at the image. It stares right back. What was the point of taking this if she wasn’t even going to look at it? Maybe the excitement of it all has affected her focus, causing her mind to flit from one thing to the next even quicker than usual. He’d like to think that. But it isn’t just that. She was unusually affectionate just now. He has never seen her dating someone, sure, but something about it just didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like Star.

“Marco?” Jackie’s voice breaches his thoughts.

Marco blinks and shakes away his daze. He looks up to meet Jackie’s eyes. “Sorry, what?”

“Time for your order, dude.”

“O-Oh, right, yeah, for sure.” He shoves the phone in his pocket, shoves it out of his mind. He won’t let his weird insecurities mess this night up. So what if she forgot the phone! So what if she is being extra lovey! Love does crazy things. He has to believe those words.

…

Marco hops from his bed to go grab something to eat. Probably nachos so he can continue to play his video game. Plus it isn’t quite time for lunch. As he makes his way to the stairs he pauses halfway through passing Star’s room and peers in.

Star sits crisscross on her bed and right beside her is Tom. She has her hand held out to him as she stays more still than Marco has ever seen her.

Tom is intent, his gaze set on her fingernails as he works.

Oh. Fingernail painting. Marco smiles. Cute. He moves to keep going, but the slight movement is all it takes.

Star gasps and pops her head up. “Oh, Marco. Marco, look!” She jerks her hand away from Tom and tilts it forward so Marco can get a better look. “Tom’s doing my nails. Isn’t he the sweetest?” Her eyes shine.

Marco goes to answer immediately. Yeah, of course it’s sweet. Because of course it is. Only…those eyes. They stop him. There’s a hint of something there, and it isn’t happiness. Hope, maybe? A hope directed at him. Does she want his approval? It’s never seemed to matter one way or the other before…before…her crush. He stifles a grimace. No, stop it. He needs to stop thinking like this.

“Helloooo. Earth to Marco.” Star laughs.

Marco blinks and his creased expression smoothes out. He even smiles. “Yeah, it’s super sweet.”

Star giggles. “Right?” She lays a peck on Tom’s cheek.

Marco nods and with that continues past her room. While he is proud of how sincere he sounded, he can’t ignore the truth. That feeling has returned – full force. It gnaws at him and eats away at any joy he might have derived from Star and Tom being so happy. Why? Why won’t it go away? He groans and throws his head into his hands.

Maybe he is jealous. Just like they said from the start. But…is that right? He doesn’t think so. He loves Jackie, really and truly. And that feeling is just as powerful as the deep seeded wrongness lying within Star’s eyes and actions. Then what…? He can only pray he doesn’t find the answer, that this fragile piece of happiness everyone has right now doesn’t shatter.

…

“Ok.” Marco stands before their team. “It looks like we’re gonna have to split up for this mission guys.”

“Oh, Tom! Tom!” Star zips over to Tom’s side and seizes his arm. “I called him.” She rests her head on his arm and grins up at him.

Ponyhead shoots her a look. “Girl, this is like the millionth time. You don’t have to call it anymore.”

Kelly places her hands on her hips. “Seriously.”

“Pssh.” Star releases Tom long enough to wave a hand dismissively. “You never know guys. Janna likes to steal him sometimes. Right, Marco?” She leans into Tom more as she looks to Marco.

“Eh.” Janna shrugs. “I’m over it.” She has stolen enough of his books so she doesn’t have to ask him about any of his supernatural junk.

Marco narrows his eyes at Star and makes a sound beneath his breath. They’re right. She jumps on Tom at every possible moment. Not to mention it is becoming more and more over the top. What started as innocent pictures to remember a double date has escalated to something Marco finds increasingly hard to ignore.

“Marcoooo?” Star calls to him

Marco nods. “Yeah, right,” he realizes his voice is a bit tight, but there is nothing he can do about it. Nothing he wants to do about it. His suspicions have turned to ever rising agitation and he really just needs her to tone it down. Otherwise…he has a bad feeling. About her, Tom, and perhaps most of all himself.

…

It is late at night and Marco knows better than to venture out of his room, but he does it anyway. He does it knowing what will happen, maybe he even does it because of what will happen. He can’t be sure anymore. Either way he ends up walking to the kitchen, hungry for nachos, and on the way he must pass through the living room.

He steps carefully along the floor, tries his best to avoid all the boards that creak, but to no avail. He hits a particularly loud spot and goes stiff.

Star shoves herself up from her spot laying against Tom’s chest. “Marco?” She grins as her head appears over the top of the couch.

Marco breathes deeply out. He turns to her. “Yes?” He puts on a smile.

“Why don’t you join us?” She nods over and over, as if trying to silently prompt him to agree. “We’re watching a Love Sentence movie. Your favorite.”

Marco grinds his teeth. Yeah. His favorite. And one of her least favorites. She may be into Love Sentence, but when they watched the movie she complained about it for weeks. There is no reason for her to pick that besides to try and lure him near. He could choose to believe she did it for Tom, but he is done convincing himself of the pureness in her motives. It isn’t for Tom. It never has been. And he’s done with it. “Nah, I think I’m good. Kinda tired.” He shrugs.

Tom sits up and comes into view a moment later. “You sure dude? It would be really fun to see it with you again.” He smiles.

Marco stares longingly. Truth be told he would love to watch it with Tom – a true fan. It was their thing first. Not to mention he just misses doing things with Tom period. Ever since he and Star started dating again they haven't been able to meet up and play games or do…anything. But he refuses to play into Star's whims like some kind of puppet, no matter how much he'd love to chill with Tom. "I really am tired," Marco says weakly. Her expression sags, worn and helpless.

Tom’s brow creases and his smile falls. “Yeah, that’s cool.” He drops his eyes.

“Your loss!” Star pipes before diving at Tom and taking him down on the couch. She presses her lips to his, a strong deep kiss.

Marco clenches his fists and gnashes his teeth. But he says nothing. He turns hard on his heel and marches up the stairs, his hunger replaced with a roiling fire. That’s it. No more. He saw her eyes flicker to him as she kissed Tom and he. Has. Had. Enough. He refuses to let this drag on any longer. It may ruin what little he has left in his relationship to Star, but he barely cares anymore. What she is doing is wrong. She is wrong – the wrongness he has felt from the very beginning. And now he’s going to end it.

…

It’s harder than Marco thought it would be, but eventually he catches Star in a moment where she isn’t with Tom and they aren’t on a mission. He finds her in her room and he doesn’t give a courtesy knock or even pause so that she sees him, he just walks right in.

Star lays stretched out on her bed with her head in her hands. At the sound of the floor creaking she pops her head up to see who it is. “Oh! Marco.” She swings her legs around and bounces into a sitting position. “What’s up? Wanna hang?” She laughs.

“Star. You need to stop.” He crosses his arms. “Now.”

Star blinks up at him. “Stop what?” She frowns. “Trying to hang out with you?”

“Oh, stop it.” Marco stares stone cold at her. “You may be naïve, but you’re not stupid. And I’m not stupid either. I can see what you are doing with Tom.”

“Um, dating?” her tone is flat as she raises a brow and looks at him as if he is in fact stupid.

“Using him,” Marco snaps.

Star’s mouth gapes. “I’m sorry, what?” She half laughs, an edge curling around the sound.

“You heard me. I just can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out.” He sneers at himself. “I knew, I knew from the start that it all happened way too suddenly. There was no way you could have fallen for him all over again in the span of a night.” He starts to pace in a short line and throws his hands in the air. “But no, I couldn’t stick to my guns. I had to let your cliché ‘love does crazy things’ get to me. And every time after that – the picture, the clinging, the…everything. I let myself believe in your goodness, no, forced myself to.” He stops hard in front of her. “I wanted to believe the Star I knew wouldn’t do this. So I made it so. And that makes me just as wrong as you.” He shakes his head. “But don’t think it absolves you.”

Star’s eyes catch fire. “Ex-cuse you.” She shoves herself to her feet. “I’m sorry if hugging, kissing, and wanting to be around someone all the time offends you somehow, but that’s what dating is Marco. It’s exactly like you and Jackie.” She smirks.

Marco’s lips curl in disgust. “Jackie and I are nothing like you and Tom. I don’t parade her around like some prize and shove her down your throat to try and make you jealous. I treat her like a person – a person I genuinely care for. You…” He sneers. “You don’t even treat Tom like a human being. All he is to you is an object – a convenient tool to try and get my eyes on you. You kiss and cling and wave every little thing you two do around in my face, hoping that I’ll bite and suddenly want you as badly as you want me.”

“What’s the matter, Marco?” She leans forward, her eyes glinting with something between mischief and malice. “Jealous?”

Marco scoffs and takes a step back. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He levels her with an intense look. “But I’m gonna tell you what I told Tom before – you can’t make someone love you. They have to want to.”

Star makes a soft sound of acknowledgement.

“So stop it. Stop using him. Stop toying with his emotions. And stop chasing me. Because you’re not making me jealous.”

“I can’t stop something I’m not doing.”

Marco shakes his head. “Keep telling yourself that. It won’t make it any more true.”

Star scoffs. “Same to you. Because just like you’ve seen me, I’ve seen you over these past months. There’s something rising within you. It started out as a simmer, but now it’s finally boiling over.” She crosses her arms and watches him with self-satisfaction. “You’re jealous.” She turns and walks toward the exit, pausing to shoot him a look over her shoulder and say, “I see it in your eyes.” With that she leaves the room.

Marco stands there for a long time. He doesn’t move and honestly he isn’t sure he even breathes. Thoughts fly through his head at a million miles an hour, tumbling over and crashing into each other in the frenzy. Him…jealous? No way. He has felt nothing but contempt toward Star over her actions and even in the beginning while he was giving her the benefit of the doubt he wasn’t jealous that Tom was the recipient of her affections. That wasn’t why the situation felt wrong. And he certainly knows his own feelings, and far better than her. Still…her words eat away at him, replacing the burden of the wrongness with something much more frightening. Jealousy...there’s just no way. He shakes his head and promptly leaves the room. Too bad those feelings can’t be abandoned just as easily.

…

Nothing changes. Because of course it doesn’t. Star is dead set on her objective, no matter how futile. Marco draws in a deep breath. Which means he’ll have to talk to Tom about it. It’s not that he is afraid of Tom or what he might do – he has gotten so much better about his emotions triggering his powers and they are too close for Tom to ever want to do him harm – it’s more about what this will do to their friendship. One wrong word is all it will take to set Tom on the defensive and cause their well-built foundation to crumble.

He tightens his hold on the dimensional scissors. He’ll just have to be extra careful. He opens a portal and steps through into Tom’s bedroom.

Tom starts and blinks up at him from where he lays on his bed. “Oh. Marco. What are you doing here?” They didn’t have any plans, did they?

Marco frowns and his eyes dim. It hurts to see Tom so surprised by his appearance. Used to he was over so frequently Tom wouldn’t even bat an eye when a portal popped up and he stepped out. How could it really come to this? Star or not, Marco should never have let it reach this point. “I…I need to talk to you.” He moves his foot in small circles.

Tom frowns. “Okay…”

“It’s about Star.” Marco looks anywhere but at Tom.

Tom stiffens and his grip on his controller tightens. “What about Star?”

Marco makes his way over to Tom’s bed and sits at the edge. He wants to find comfort in this familiar position, but what he gets is the exact opposite. He feels so much like Star. She sat just like this when he faced her. He sorely hopes this doesn’t turn out like that. “I don’t know if, I mean…I’ve been getting this feeling of-” He sighs. “Are you happy?” He can’t believe himself as he falls back on that question.

Tom sets the controller down and stands, walking toward Marco.

Marco swallows hard and ducks his head. Please don’t stop in front of him. Please don’t stop in front of him. Please.

Tom doesn’t hesitate, he takes a seat by Marco’s side. For some reason his friend is already squirming and he knows that feeling all too well. Facing him will only make him more nervous.

Marco lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.

“What’s wrong with you, dude?” Tom raises a brow as he watches Marco’s profile.

Marco blinks twice. “H-Hey! I asked a question first.” He tries to puff himself up to look indignant, but he knows by Tom’s expression that he fails miserably.

“You look like you’ll freak out if I so much as touch you.” Tom pokes Marco’s arm.

Marco smacks at Tom’s finger. “Stop it,” he fusses. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, ok.” Tom shakes his head. “And yeah, I’m happy with Star. Just like I said the last time. Why?” His brows knit together and he studies Marco intently.

“Sorry, but I…I don’t think she really loves you.”

Tom’s face goes blank. “What?”

Marco tugs at the sleeve of his hoodie. “I don’t mean to hurt you, really, but Star just has not been acting right from the very beginning. You have to have seen it too – how she flaunts you in front of me.”

Tom’s face loses all its creases and he clenches his fists. “Seriously?” he says flatly. There is no warmth in his eyes.

Marco straightens and looks dead into Tom’s eyes. “Tom, come on, don’t take it like that. I’m saying this because I care. I don’t want to see you get hurt because of how selfish she is being.”

“Selfish? Her?” He grinds his teeth.

Marco watches him carefully.

“You told me months ago that you weren’t jealous. And I believed you. But you…” He shakes his head. “You have the nerve to call her selfish?”

Marco gapes. “What?” His eyes bulge. “Are you kidding me? I told you. I. Am. Not. Jealous!” he all but shrieks it. His chest heaves. “I…I just want you to be with someone who really cares about you,” his voice gradually softens, “and I know it hurts, but she…doesn’t.”

Tom scoffs. “You don’t know anything about us.”

Marco makes a face. “I know everything. She lives with me for crying out loud – has lived with me for nearly a year. The same goes for you too. You’re one of my closest friends.” He lays a hand on his chest. “Please, don’t do this to yourself.”

Tom pins him beneath his blazing gaze. “I guess we’re not as close as you thought.”

Marco starts and his expression wilts, the words cutting so deep it’s almost physical.

Tom doesn’t react to Marco’s shift. “You had your chance.” He stands. “You can’t change your mind just because she wants me now. That’s not how it works.”

Marco swallows hard and musters up his sternest look as he stands to match Tom. “I don’t love Star,” he barely keeps his voice from wavering. “And you shouldn’t either.”

Tom gapes for a split second before his lips curl into a snarl. “A real friend would never say that to me.” Tom’s eyes flicker red.

Marco is crushed as Tom rubs salt in the wound. He takes a step back, slowly drawing the scissors from his pocket. “Tom…” He wants to say something – something that will take this disaster and turn it to his advantage or even just something to salvage what remains of their friendship. But he finds nothing. And he knows when Tom has reached his limit. He cuts a rift next to him, his eyes never leaving Tom. Only as he steps through and Tom disappears from his view does he let his gaze fall. Even then the image of Tom’s expression still burns into his brain. He sighs and hangs his head. Things will definitely change now, but not for the better. Now he’s lost both Star and Tom.

…

“I…messed up,” Marco lets his face fall into his hands. He hides his shame from the world and Jackie in particular as they sit on a bench in the park.

“You mean with Star?” Jackie tilts her head.

Marco mumbles into his hands, “Uh-huh.” Really that isn’t even the half of it though. He messed up with everyone involved. Well, at least he has Jackie.

“Wanna talk about it?” Jackie lays a hand on Marco’s shoulder.

Marco is quiet for a long moment, probably too long, but she doesn’t urge him on and eventually he sighs. He raises his head from his hands and looks to her. “Well-no, first…can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Jackie smiles.

“Do you think Star has been acting, I don’t know, weird? Like…more weird than normal?”

Jackie taps a finger against her chin and lifts her gaze to the sky. She hums as she contemplates. “Maybe. I mean, she’s always kind of weird.” She half laughs, but when she drops her gaze to meet Marco’s she becomes completely serious. “But I guess you mean with Tom. So, yeah, she has been a bit…much?” She shrugs. “I don’t know what to call it.”

“Really?” Marco holds his breath and brightens ever so slightly. “Or…are you just saying that to make me feel better about the mess I made?” She is really sweet so she would do that for him, wanting nothing more than for him to feel better. Still, he wants the truth.

Jackie frowns and shakes her head. “Nah, dude. I mean it. I’ve felt weird about it for a while whenever we do the whole double date stuff, but it didn’t seem important enough to say anything. Everyone looked happy, so…” She shrugs. “Eh. You know?”

Marco ekes out a laugh. “Yeah…eh.”

“So,” she stretches out the word, “I guess you did say something then, huh?” She smiles knowingly.

Marco deflates. “Yeah…”

“So what happened?”

“Well…” Marco rubs the back of his neck and averts his eyes. “I thought I knew what it was, that weird feeling, and I thought it was that Star was trying to make me jealous by pushing her relationship with Tom.” He grimaces. “But…they both called me jealous. So…”

Jackie blinks. “Both?”

“Oh. Right. Um, after talking to Star I tried talking to Tom too.” He sighs. “Even dumber. I…I don’t even know if we’re friends anymore.” The light is extinguished from his eyes.

Jackie frowns as she contemplates him. “Marco, you and Tom are friends, pretty close by the way you talk about him all the time.”

Marco’s cheeks color. “I-I do not talk about him all the time!”

Jackie snickers. “Yeah, ok.” She quiets her expression. “But good friends don’t just stop being friends, not over something like this. He just needs time to think.” She shrugs. “Same as me after Star said she had a crush on you.”

“Oh…” Marco says softly. So that’s what she was doing while he was on Mewni.

Jackie chuckles and tucks her hair behind an ear. “Yep, I did that. But seriously, don’t get so down.” She gives him a peck on the cheek and smiles. “He’ll come around. Trust me.”

Marco smiles back. “I trust you.”

…

Marco isn’t sure how much time passes. He stops counting the days after a while. All he knows is that Tom and Star still haven’t talked to him since he confronted them. And with each and every day that passes the weight he feels increases. You sure Starred this whole thing up. Star’s words play in his head. Wow. That was so long ago. She didn’t have feelings for him, he wasn’t with Jackie, and he…hadn’t even met Tom. How is it that it came to this from such an innocent place?

Marco doesn’t notice the presence, not until a board squeaks from across the room. He snaps to attention and jerks his hands into a defensive pose, eyes wild and heart racing. He doesn’t know what he expects, but when he focuses he is stunned to see Tom standing before him. He stares blankly.

Tom doesn’t even flinch. He simply stands there and stares right back at Marco, the only difference is in his eyes there is a deep sadness. It’s etched in every crease on his face.

Marco grapples for the words to say. This is it. This is the moment he has been waiting for all this time. There is so much he could say, he just needs the right words. What comes out is, “You…did you…walk in?” He mentally face palms.

Tom blinks. “Oh, um, yeah…” He rubs the back of his neck. “I guess I did.”

Marco chews on the inside of his cheek. He fidgets in the silence as it wraps itself around them in a death grip. It becomes so unbearable he can feel his skin crawling. He has to break it. He opens his mouth, “I-”

“I’m sorry,” Tom blurts out.

Marco comes to attention. “Huh?”

“I’m sorry. You know…for what I said. That you weren’t a real friend.” He drops his gaze to the floor. “It was cruel.” He chuckles, but it is a bitter sound. “I should know that more than anyone. But I did it anyway.”

Marco swallows. “It’s alright.” He stands and walks closer. “I’m sorry too. And maybe…” He shrugs. “Maybe I was a little jealous. I mean, I wasn’t getting to spend much time with either of you anymore.”

“No, you were right.” He sighs. “I felt it too. The same as you said. I just,” he clenches his fists. “I didn’t want to believe it.” He shakes his head. “I wanted it so badly. Wanted to be happy, and with her. For as long as possible. I willed myself not to see the lies.”

Marco frowns. “You can still be happy. You don’t need her for that.” He looks hard at Tom. “You know that, right?”

Tom nods stiffly. “Yeah…but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. Not right now.” He bites his lip.

“It’ll get better.” He lays a hand on Tom’s shoulder. “It just takes time.” Like everything else. “Oh!” Marco glimpses his game console from the corner of his eyes. “So hey, how bout we play a round?” He motions toward the system. “Huh? Maybe I’ll win for real this time.” He grins.

Tom is thrown by Marco’s sudden shift, but most of all by how genuine his smile is and how bright his eyes are as they focus on him.  “Marco?”

“Hm?” He dials back his excitement, but he keeps a smile on his face.

“You…” He tugs at his sleeve. “You really forgive me? That easily?” He knows Marco isn’t one to hold grudges. He’s seen it time and time again. Still, something of this magnitude, he can’t quite believe it.

Marco frowns. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“But…aren’t you angry? I…I was so…” His face creases and his lips curl in disgust as he stares down at his own hands.

Marco smiles tenderly. “Tom.” He steps forward and engulfs Tom in a hug. “I was never mad at you, just hurt. Hurt and afraid you’d never talk to me again.”

Tom’s eyes widen and he stiffens. For a moment he swears he stops breathing and that maybe even time itself stops.

“Even if I was mad…you’re my friend. I care about you. So as long as you mean it, I’ll always forgive you.”

Emotion wells up in Tom and tears roll down his cheeks. He buries his face in Marco’s shoulder and wraps his arms around him, digging his fingers into the space between Marco’s shoulder blades as he holds on tight. “Everyone else would leave me,” he whispers.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m not like most people.” He pulls away and smirks. “At least that’s what someone told me.”

Tom puffs out a laugh and a smile lights his face. “Yeah, you’re not.” He wipes away the tears. “Which means I don’t have to feel sorry when I win a hundred times.” He runs past Marco and to the game.

Marco shakes his head and rolls his eyes, but the smile doesn’t fade. “I’ll win! You’ll see.” And as he sits next to Tom, for the first time in months there is no terrible feeling deep within him. There is only happiness.

No, a million times no I do not want this to actually happen in the show because if Star used Tom like this and was that jealous I would genuinely hate her character. I just really wanted to play with the idea and so I did. Also I already know that the dance won't play out like this in canon, it just served as a good jumping off point and I seized the opportunity.

I may or may not continue this, not sure. Either way I hope it still stands as a good complete piece even without another part and that you loved it as much as I loved writing it.

[caveartfair]

8 Famous Artists Who Turned Heartbreak into Art

Auguste Rodin couldn’t bear it when an argument temporarily ruptured his romantic relationship with fellow sculptor Camille Claudel. “In a single instant I feel your terrible force,” he wrote to her in a passionate 1883 letter. “Atrocious madness, it’s the end. I won’t be able to work anymore…yet I love you furiously.”

But Rodin did work throughout their volatile romance, creating some of his most desperately passionate sculptures, including both The Kiss (1882) and The Eternal Idol (1890–93).

Like Rodin, countless artists throughout history have channeled feelings of heartbreak into their work. The resulting pieces run the gamut from impassioned and cathartic to deeply mournful. Below, we explore how artists from Edvard Munch to Frida Kahlo to Felix Gonzalez-Torres have responded to the agony and upheaval that follows losing a lover.

Frida Kahlo, Little Deer (1946)

La venadita (little deer), 1946. Frida Kahlo MCA Chicago

“I suffered two grave accidents in my life: one in which a streetcar knocked me down.…The other accident is Diego,” Frida Kahlo said in a 1951 interview. Kahlo was referring, of course, to her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera, with whom she had a deeply volatile relationship. Their marriage toggled between passionate highs and bitter lows; the latter were often inspired by Rivera’s insistent cheating, and infidelity on Kahlo’s part, as well.

Nearly 10 years after they married, Rivera began an affair with his wife’s sister, an indiscretion Kahlo couldn’t tolerate. The two artists temporarily divorced in 1939, a year when Kahlo also painted The Two Fridas,a direct response to the split. The masterful canvas presents two self-portraits: the Kahlo loved by Rivera, and the Kahlo dismissed by him. One figure, which holds a small pendant depicting Rivera, boasts a heart that is intact and full. The other holds a pair of scissors dripping with blood; a hole in her chest reveals only the remnants of a maimed heart. Other later works, like Little Deer (1946), might also refer to the pain inflicted by the relationship, as well as Kahlo’s immense physical suffering from the numerous surgeries she underwent during her life.

Edvard Munch, Ashes (1894)

Edvard Munch, Ashes, 1895. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Norwegian Symbolist Edvard Munch routinely plumbed the depths of his own anguish, using it as source material for his work. Illness, existential woes, and the untimely deaths of loved ones informed some paintings; others drew inspiration from the tempestuous romances that marked his life. In the mid-1880s, when he was in early twenties, Munch met Millie Thaulow, an older, married woman whom he’d see in secret. He was infatuated with her, then devastated when she ended their liaison.

“An experienced Worldly woman appeared and I received the Baptism of Fire,” Munch wrote of their affair and its collapse. “I was subjected here to the whole Disaster of Love—and I was for several Years nearly mad.” Munch painted several works responding to the mind-altering heartbreak he endured. In Love and Pain (1893–94), a vampiric woman with flame-red hair looks less like she’s embracing her ashen paramour than draining the life from him. Ashes (1894) explores a similar motif: A woman stands virile and triumphant in the center of the canvas, while a man cowers in enfeebled misery to the side. A charred log connects the two figures, alluding to the fiery demise of love.

Marina Abramović & Ulay, The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk (1988)

The Lovers, 1988. Marina Abramović Sean Kelly Gallery

Soon after meeting in 1975, Marina Abramović and Ulay began collaborating on performances inspired by the physicality, intimacy, and gender dynamics of their relationship. In Breathing in / Breathing out (1977), the artists locked mouths for almost 20 minutes, relying on each other’s breath to stay alive. Several years later, they conceived of their most ambitious work: Each would walk from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, meeting in the middle to wed. But in 1988, when the time came to realize the piece, their relationship had disintegrated. “Now we were no longer lovers and, as seems to be the fate of romantics, nothing was as we had imagined,” Abramović later remembered. “But we didn’t want to give up the walk.”

As planned, the artists traveled for 90 days—walking a total of 2,500 kilometers—along the wall. When they met in the middle, they ended their relationship, then continued walking past each other to cement the act. “For her, it was very difficult to go on alone,” Ulay said of The Lovers: The Great Wall Walk, as they titled the piece. “For me, it was actually unthinkable to go on alone.”

Sophie Calle, Take Care of Yourself (2007)

Take care of yourself. Feist, 2007. Sophie Calle Perrotin

When French conceptual artist Sophie Calle received a break-up email from her boyfriend, he didn’t know it’d become fodder for her next project. At the 2007 Venice Biennale, Calle unveiled an exhaustive, mesmerizing dissection of her ex’s letter, titling it after his sign-off: Take Care of Yourself. The piece began as a form of therapy to soothe the heady mix of heartbreak, bewilderment, and shock that comes after a lover unexpectedly severs ties.

In an attempt to make sense of the email, she invited 107 women to“analyze it, comment on it, dance it, sing it…dissect it…[and] exhaust it” using their professional expertise. A lawyer applied methodology rooted in constitutional law, determining that he was “punishable.” A forensic psychiatrist assessed him as a “twisted manipulator.” A sharpshooter used the note for target practice. Performers like Feist and Laurie Anderson put his words to heart-thrumming music. “After one month I felt better,” Calle said of the catharsis that followed. “There was no suffering. It worked. The project had replaced the man.”

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled (1991)

"Untitled", 1991. Felix Gonzalez-Torres PinchukArtCentre

Conceptual artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres once described his oeuvre as “one enormous collaboration with the public.” Elements of his installations were meant to be happened upon, touched, disseminated, and taken home; the social concerns they addressed were amplified by human interaction.

This concept reached something of an apex in 1991, when the artist mounted a potent image on 24 billboards across New York City. It showed an empty, rumpled bed, where the impressions of two bodies were still discernible: deep, soft indentations in cloud-like pillows. Gonzalez-Torres made the work the same year his partner, Ross Laycock, died from an AIDS-related illness. The piece simultaneously addressed the artist’s personal grief and universal emotions like love, intimacy, and loneliness, as well as the politics surrounding the AIDS crisis.

Francis Bacon, Triptych–In Memory of George Dyer (1971)

Triptych in Memory of George Dyer, 1971. Francis Bacon Marlborough London

English painter Francis Bacon’s work seethes with the raw pain of agony and heartache, expressed through figures who wail and contort as emotions course through them. He created some of his most searing paintings in response to the 1971 suicide of his longtime lover, George Dyer.

Bacon had previously saved Dyer from numerous attempts to end his own life, but this time, he was unsuccessful. A series of triptychs showing Dyer’s knotted, suffering body represent the subject’s pain, as well as Bacon’s own feelings of guilt and unbridled grief. “It seems mad to paint people once they’re dead, since you know that, if they haven’t been incinerated, their flesh has begun to rot,” the artistonce said. Even so, he processed his despair by reviving Dyer on the surface of his tumultuous canvases.

Lee Krasner, Charred Landscape (1960)

Charred Landscape , 1960. Lee Krasner "Women of Abstract Expressionism" at Denver Art Museum, Denver

Between 1959 and 1962, Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner made a series of immense, dusky, turbulent compositions sometimes called her “Night Journeys.” She embarked on them several years after her husband, famed drip-master Jackson Pollock, died in a car crash, and the canvases expressed an intoxicating mix of heartbreak and liberation.

“Let me say that when I painted a good part of these things, I was going down deep into something which wasn’t easy or pleasant,” she recounted to her friend Richard Howard in 1979. While wracked by grief, Krasner had also been freed from Pollock’s shadow and the pain of his insistent philandering. The dark slashes of paintings like Charred Landscape (1960) seem to represent both deep melancholy and untethered exuberance.

from Artsy News

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