#he died trying to restore his family honor in canon after all

[turrondeluxe]

I must also ask... Do the turtle tots know about their grandpa Splinter? And how do they see him? I assume they don't view him in a very good light, but I wouldn't blame Michelangelo for not telling them the more disturbing details at first

They do know about their grandpa since a kid's curiosity is Vast and the kids asked Mikey if he also had a papa himself. Mikey didn't negate the fact but also didn't exactly gave them a lot of info about Splinter in the first place.

I feel like Mikey would honestly have a hard time talking about Splinter to the kids, specially when small so when younger the kids just got told that their grandpa was, like their uncles, no longer with them.

If the kids asked about their grandpa Mikey would answer but mostly he just never truly talked about him unprompted and he made sure that the info he gave out about Splinter to the kids came from good memories. Because of this the kids grew up seeing Splinter in a good light. However. Since very young they noticed that Mikey seemed sad whenever he talked about Splinter, and it was in a different way than when he talked about his brothers. So, not wanting to make their dad sadder the kids actually promised between themselves to talk or ask the less they could about their grandpa, just because they didn't want their dad to be sad in that way.

When older though, and after learning the whole Family Lore, they kinda grow bitter towards the memory of Splinter and finally understand why Mikey looked so sad when talking about him.

Splinter doesn't stay in their minds for long. They don't like to even remember him.

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Episode 7

Their first vow together. So nice! I actually do like the parallels here between Lan Yi and Wei Wuxian, and Baoshan Sanren and Lan Wangji: you have one set being reckless and untamed (I said it) and the other set trying to restore order. It’s kind of funny that the ancestors are switched, though. So here we have Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji vowing to bring all the Yin Iron pieces back to the cold spring pond to neutralize them, and of course Lan Wangji’s first reaction is, “None of your business.” It’s cute how Lan Yi takes Wei Wuxian’s side and has a sense of pride for her close friend’s disciple. I think he’s an honorary Lan in her eyes.

And then Lan Yi gives them a warning to not make the same mistakes she made. Wei Wuxian’s like, “Yep, got it, I promise.” But we all know from the beginning that this obviously doesn’t go well for him, since he dies in the first five minutes of the series. He will go on to make some questionable decisions, most of which are driven by his emotions, which are often not in check. Side note: I love this series, but I don’t like how they took a great grey character like Wei Wuxian and turned him into a character where many of the things that went wrong were caused by other people.

Another side note. That fucking Yin Iron fell on the guqin so many times, and it didn’t dent it at all. Is the guqin made out of iron too? I thought it was wood. If I did that to my violin, I guarantee you the violin would not fare very well.

Forever a favorite moment. It was great enough that they were tied together by Lan Wangji’s headband, but even better that Wei Wuxian fell on him. So great—such a tease to the audience. And this is as close as we get to the scene in the book when Lan Wangji uses the body binding spell to keep Wei Wuxian on top of him all night (ooh, my heart skipped a beat when I read that).

Also, taking the screenshot, I noticed you can see the impression of the little metal piece from Lan Wangji’s headband. Little things like that interest me for some reason. I wonder if it bothered Wang Yibo—did it press too hard on his forehead? I remember him saying he’d get tan lines from the headband.

I love this little smirk he does. A moment when Wei Wuxian’s gift to gab really pays off. Instead of letting Lan Wangji talk and explain the situation, Wei Wuxian keeps speaking, lying about what they were doing. I’d like to think he does it in part to protect Lan Wangji and to stop him from breaking any of his clan rules, but likely it’s another chance for him to prove himself as someone Lan Wangji can trust. And I take Lan Wangji’s little acknowledgement of him there as his silent “thank you.” It says a lot, I think, that Wei Wuxian is willing to lie to Jiang Cheng in order to protect the Lan Clan’s secrets.

I’m sorry, but every time I hear Nie Huaisang say, “You were gone a whole day and night,” my mind immediately goes to the gutter—like the implication is that they were doing something inappropriate during that time. I keep expecting a sex joke, only to remind myself that this was on Chinese television and that would, of course, not happen. Jiang Cheng says a similar thing (and my mind goes the same way that time too), but in that case, canon book Jiang Cheng does later accuse them of having a more-than-friendly relationship, and he does not say it in a nice way.

Also, throughout the scene that precedes this, where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are discussing what to do next with Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen, it really feels like wangxian just want to go on a buddy road trip together, and they are so disappointed when they are turned down. Oh, I didn’t screencap it, but Lan Wangji has the saddest sad face at the end.

I think Lan Wangji is a little impressed here but he doesn’t want to admit it. Wei Wuxian has a great gift to come up with ridiculous stories and lies at the drop of a hat. I love that Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to come up with a scary snake story when he could have just told Nie Huaisang what he’d already told Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing, but he does anyway. Mad respect.

This also kind of amuses me because Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji can never really have a moment alone. They keep getting interrupted by other people when I think they just want to talk about what they experienced. Instead we just have all these shared glances. Nothing like a big fat secret to get close to each other, right?

Omfg Jiang Cheng is so jealous! I thought maybe I was imagining it or just projecting my own ideas onto him, but NO—he is jealous! He’s all like, “If you like Lan Wangji so much, why don’t you marry him?” I mean, that basically happened. I’ve gone on about this before, but I love the tension between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, and the fact that it continues even after Wei Wuxian dies makes it even better. Jiang Cheng is so stubborn and continues to hold a grudge against Lan Wangji, and it bothers the fuck out of him that there’s someone out there devoted to Wei Wuxian, by whom Jiang Cheng feels so betrayed.

And, I mean, by this point, it’s already started. As soon as they get to the Cloud Recesses, Wei Wuxian starts paying more attention to Lan Wangji than he does to either Jiang Cheng or Jiang Yanli. And Jiang Cheng likes to say, “You’re worrying my sister, you’re hurting my sister” when he really means, “You’re worrying me.” His stupid pride gets in the way of having a good relationship with Wei Wuxian. And I don’t think Wei Wuxian would ever put Lan Wangji above Jiang Cheng, who he considers his family—at least not at this point. It’s not until the second half that things switch, and really, even then, in the CQL-verse, the two are probably equal in Wei Wuxian’s mind. He backs off from Jiang Cheng due to Jiang Cheng’s attitude toward him.

Okay, Jiang Cheng’s jealousy aside, I love how steadfast and supportive Wei Wuxian is of him. As soon as he catches on that Jiang Cheng is jealous, he immediately starts trash-talking the Cloud Recesses and talking up Lotus Pier. It’s very cute, very sweet. He’s a good brother to him, really.

Now who’s jealous? Just kidding. I love his wistful expression here, as he watches them go off. Anyone who’s read the book knows that Lan Wangji does get jealous at times and certainly frustrated with Wei Wuxian’s coquettish behavior. I would say he is more longing at this moment, maybe even wanting to get closer to Wei Wuxian, without really understanding why himself. There’s such an isolation to his world: even though he’s surrounded by other disciples, he doesn’t have any friends. He’s maybe regretting how quickly he refused to the invitation to Lotus Pier. I think, on the one hand, Lan Wangji has found one person in this world who not only shares a secret with him, but who has similar goals—on the other hand, his code of ethics are all over the place. His heart and mind are conflicted: he wants to get closer, but he doesn’t want to make the wrong decision. To his Gusu Lan Clan mind, Wei Wuxian is all wrong, but his heart says otherwise. And I’m not saying he loves him already—but he is already seeing a kindred spirit in Wei Wuxian, someone who he can rely on, someone he can trust, someone who has his back, even if it means bending a few rules. And in a relationship, you have nothing if you don’t have trust.

I never noticed that they were communicating telepathically here. Or something. I dunno. I guess it’s not that clear.

Also if it feels like I’m ignoring all these parts with the Wen Clan, it’s because I am. I mean, not really, but this is all the Yin Iron stuff that I don’t really care about. And I’m not in the Xue Yang fan club either, so I’m not going to spend time on him until he’s actually in it in Yueyang (possibly) and Yi City. Actually, confession: I’ve never watched the Yi City flashback episodes. I read it, so I know it, but I never watched it hahaha. I will this time around. I made that pact with myself.

AWWW, HE SMILED!!!

Ahem, excuse me. This is too fucking cute, though. The rabbit lantern that Wei Wuxian drew just for him, his cute baby smile, and the Wei Wuxian pointing it out with a grin. Cuteness overload��my heart can’t take it.

But I also had a sad thought that if Wei Wuxian hadn’t come over, Lan Wangji would be sitting here alone. He’d make his lantern all on his own, send it off into the sky, say his own prayer to himself, and never hear Wei Wuxian’s, which likely sends Lan Wangji over the edge with his feelings. Everything he thought about Wei Wuxian was true, and maybe it’s okay to like him, maybe it’s okay to consider him a friend, maybe it’s okay to trust him that way.

Just a shot that I liked. Enjoy.

I feel so bad for Jiang Yanli here. I also feel bad for Jin Zixuan, even though he’s a complete dick. I understand how they both feel here—to be tied to someone you don’t know, from the time you were small children is incredibly unfair in my eyes. That being said, I know this still happens in other parts of the world, and it’s implied that it’s common in our CQL/MDZS world (which would make sense, of course). I like the feeling of siding with Wei Wuxian, wanting to come to Jiang Yanli’s defense and protect her honor, while also still having an understanding of how Jin Zixuan must feel about the whole thing. His choice has been completely taken away. And he’s, what, 17 here? What 17-year-old boy wants to be reminded constantly about how he’s already engaged? It’s not typically a young man’s dream to settle down and get married—not that it can’t be! But the implication here, with all the girls tittering about it, is that they’re all excited about marriage, and he wants nothing to do with it. Of course, Jiang Yanli isn’t either. I think she really just wants to get to know him and spend time with him, before even thinking about marrying him.

Ah, a momentous occasion: the first time Lan Wangji tries to stop Wei Wuxian from getting himself into trouble (not counting the first time they met, when he was literally trying to police him while breaking Cloud Recesses rules). I like this shot, because you have Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji on either side of Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli in the front, literally putting her body between him and Jin Zixuan (actually this parallels her final scene). It kind of shows the depths of their relationships (or at least what the director wants to show us). You have Lan Wangji, who grabs onto Wei Wuxian to try to stop him from further brawling; Jiang Cheng, who stands beside him, but isn’t really involved otherwise—standoffish, in a way; and then Jiang Yanli, who physically gets in the way. She’s the quintessential big sister. And I’m not saying Jiang Cheng doesn’t care—he does, but I think his first thought always has to do with the honor of the Jiang Clan and, while he’s standing beside Wei Wuxian, it’s almost as if he doesn’t want to show any involvement with this brawl, because that would look bad.

Ah, the old dudes meeting, while Jiang Cheng stands off to the side awkwardly, wondering if he should be there or not. At the outset, this meeting to decide their children’s future seemed kind of bad, but it actually turned out nice, with them agreeing to call off the engagement. Very progressive, I thought.

Two things I learned in this scene: Wei Wuxian doesn’t want to marry a woman and he doesn’t want to leave the Cloud Recesses yet (TL: he doesn’t want to leave Lan Wangji). He seriously looks so disappointed when she says they’re going home soon.

This feels like a mixture of “I’m worried about you” and “I don’t want to be left out.” We already know at this point that Wei Wuxian doesn’t want to leave the Cloud Recesses (more that he doesn’t want to leave Lan Wangji, because he doesn’t like all of the rules, obviously). He also is very interested in what’s happening with the Yin Iron, as he has also vowed to protect it with Lan Wangji. He is very perceptive—he knows something is happening, that Lan Wangji is going to go off on his own, and he wants to go with. It’s kind of hard to say if this is more out of duty or his adventurous spirit, but either way, he wants to help Lan Wangji.

“After his leave, things will be as quiet here as before.”

Look at how sad he is! The only person he considers a friend has just left, and at this point, he doesn’t know if he’ll ever see him again. It’s possible, sure, but then only at clan gatherings, and that’s if Wei Wuxian and Lang Wangji even happen to attend the same one. I believe we know from the book that Lan Wangji doesn’t typically attend gatherings (when he’s older), he often skips them. And Wei Wuxian isn’t necessarily important enough to even be invited, so he would have to be a guest of Jiang Cheng. Obviously we all know that they do go to gatherings and see each other again, but this is what I’d be thinking if I were Lan Wangji, okay? Like, when am I going to see him again? Will I ever see him again?

I leave you with a wholesome picture of Wei Wuxian and a rabbit. Also adorable that he contemplates bringing the bunnies back to Lotus Pier, but doesn’t because Lan Wangji might get lonely. MY HEART!

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |

[samwpmarleau]

How do you think the Martell family dynamics would have changed if Elia and her children had lived? Do you think Oberyn would've named his fifth daughter Elia if his sister was alive? Would Arianne and Quentyn have been closer? (Personally, I think they'd be one of the happier, most functioning families in Westeros, but that's because I want nothing but good things for them at all times.)

This post and this post touch on that a bit, though are centered more around what the Martells would do re: the crown if Elia lived. This more in-depth answer to your ask got a lot longer than intended, so I’m putting it under a cut.

I don’t think the dynamics strictly between Elia and her brothers would change all that much, honestly. Elia and Oberyn have always been really tight, and that I think would continue. I do think Doran and Elia would grow a lot closer, which canonically they weren’t really by virtue of Doran being nine years older and fostered away from Sunspear most of the time, but they still wouldn’t have that same history together that she and Oberyn did so there’d probably still be a gulf there.

Perhaps the most stark (heh) difference would be between Doran, Mellario, and their kids. With Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon alive and well, Doran would not be caught up in getting vengeance, he wouldn’t be brokering arrangements to send Arianne to Tyrosh, and Quentyn might not even need to be forcibly fostered away either. Doran could try harder to sue for peace with the Yronwoods, or Elia could try, or maybe Aegon would be sent there instead of Quentyn. He may very well still have to be due to reparations for Oberyn’s foolishness, but at the very least, Elia would be able to temper the massive rift that caused between Doran and Mellario.

Speaking of which, while Doran and Mellario would still have the normal couple squabbles and Mellario would still feel the culture clash, I think there’s every likelihood they’d stay together. Elia felt a massive culture clash as well when she married Rhaegar, for example, and had to deal with unfamiliar and harsh realities where her ethnicity and society were Othered.

Mind you, to my recollection the Dornish don’t seem to have any particular disdain for the Essosi (Aliandra married one in Drazenko Rogare and I don’t remember anyone taking issue with Mellario herself either), but Mellario did canonically feel like an outsider. So Elia commiserating with that, having first-hand experience, I think would help a lot. And vice versa! While Elia did have female friends, she never had a sister, so I think she and Mellario could come together in that respect.

There would be a profound change, too, in Arianne. Doran would never be pursuing a Targaryen restoration, thus would never write that letter about making Quentyn the Prince of Dorne (with the intent of Arianne being queen), thus their relationship would never become so fractured, or at least not because of that. The domino effect extending to Arianne and Quentyn: Arianne would have no need to be jealous or angry towards her brother, so their relationship would be far better than it is in canon. Perhaps they’d be just as close as Elia and Oberyn, even.

As for Elia Sand, I don’t see any reason why Oberyn wouldn’t name her after his sister. The main reason in canon was to honor her, and that wouldn’t change here. After all, Oberyn’s three other children by Ellaria were also named after family members — Obella = Oberyn, Dorea = Doran, and Loreza presumably named after his mom. Oberyn was closest with Elia and would be ever so happy that she was back in Dorne, so it makes perfect sense that he’d give his daughter her name.

So yeah, I think your assessment is spot on: the Martells would indeed be one of the happiest, most functional families in Westeros. Sure, they’d have their issues, and Elia would undoubtably have some aftereffects from what she suffered due to Rhaegar and Aerys, plus there’s the matter of her kids being half-Targaryen and royal by blood, but returning to Dorne again would be healing for everyone.

It would also make a difference outside of Dorne. What about the threat Rhaenys and Aegon pose to Robert? What about them being lingering reminders of Rhaegar? Would Viserys and Dany go to Dorne? I feel it’s very probable they would, since the Martells are the only family they have left...though, of course, Dany wasn’t born until 284, so would Rhaella have gone to Dorne once Rhaegar and Aerys died instead of Dragonstone? Being given proper medical care and less stress, would she never have died? Would she, Viserys, and Dany stay in Dorne or would they, for example, go to Essos to start completely over?

Would Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon being alive mean Ned was a whole lot closer to Robert and didn’t have quite as much PTSD from the war, since one of the major sources of that is the slaughtering of Elia and the kids? On that note, what would the relationship be like between the remaining Starks and the Martells? Would Elia being front and center to Aerys’s tyranny mean she’d be sympathetic to Ned’s plight, or would her also being front and center to Rhaegar’s betrayal, and therefore ostensibly Lyanna’s, mean she would have none? Would Ned tell her that Lyanna didn’t stay with Rhaegar willingly? Would he tell her about Jon? Without the falling out that he and Robert had over Elia, Rhaenys, and Aegon being killed, would Ned even have found Lyanna, let alone before she died? What about the Kingsguard? Would Rhaenys and Robb get together and be an amazing power couple?

And on and on the hypotheticals go. The books and fandom downplay Elia’s importance to a disgusting degree, and yet a frankly ridiculous amount of things and people would be altered had she lived, even more so had her children also lived.

[sometimesrosy]

What does your instinct say as to how the Bellarke story will end? Whats your prediction? Me hoping for endgame ♥️

I am almost positive that Bellarke is a romantic endgame, because the story places them at the center of the narrative and their relationship has gotten more and more romantic as the seasons continued.

I am not so positive that Bellarke will get a happy ending and live together the way we’d like. They might die together. Which would be a bittersweet ending, as they’d be TOGETHER, but their journey would be over. 

I don’t think one would die leaving the other behind, although JR MIGHT go for that tragic ending. But it would leave one of them just surviving, rather than living, so it’s pretty grim. But if it DOES happen, they will be romantic canon before that happens and probably have a baby, which means it would have to be Clarke surviving, even though I think that story HAPPENED already, with s4. Although it’s possible that Bellamy could survive and in his grief be alone, although Echo MIGHT be there to pick up the pieces. That would be terribly tragic, but at least he wouldn’t be alone. I dont’ think it a likely ending though. 

Back to that Clarke surviving, with a baby. Okay, like i said, that happened in s4 (with madi as the child) and she nearly broke, but did manage to make it through. In order for this ending to happen, though, I think it would have to be TRANSFORMED so that we can see the development of the characters. It can’t just be a replay. They have to do it RIGHT this time. We’ve already seen Bellamy saying he can’t do that again, and he’s managed to fix the story there. 

But what if it’s reversed this time. And BELLAMY is about to be the one who stays behind to save everyone, thus sacrificing himself, and at the last minute, instead of closing the door and leaving him behind like Bellamy did in s4, she closes the door with HERSELF on the outside too, and joins Bellamy in whatever noble self sacrifice he’d intended in order to save his people and all humanity. 

“Together,” she says. Of course. 

No more, “I left her behind and we all die anyway.” He regretted it immediately, that leaving her behind. He would have preferred to die with her. 

Only she didn’t die, did she? 

So the tragedy there is that Clarke was ALONE, and Bellamy thought she was dead. So the way to replay that narrative, with the twist of the development the characters have been through to FIX the situation, is for Clarke to stay behind with Bellamy and do whatever it was together. 

ONLY

Plot twist: Bellamy and Clarke don’t die. It’s the anomaly, so instead of killing them, it sends them somewhere, or they get left in disconnected stream of time, idk. In my mind, the place they need to go back to is the earth. That’s the dream, right? From the opening scene of The 100. 

The rest of their friends and family think they are dead and sacrificed. Maybe they close the anomaly, I don’t know, no one else can follow it. Or not. Who knows. BUT whoever is left behind, Raven, Murphy, Madi, etc. They can’t stay where they are. Maybe Jordan, as his father’s son, believes he has the ability to fix the earth. Probably with algae, let’s be honest. So maybe instead of fleeing sanctum and the five colonies, our heroes get on the Eligius ship, go into cryo and go back to Earth as a MISSION to heal what has been broken. 

Maybe Octavia decides to go, as she’s finally taken on Lincoln’s concept that we are responsible for our monster when we let it out. And that means humanity has to fix what they destroyed. The earth. Raven takes off from Sanctum, and for once, she’s taking off of a planet that’s not on fire. 

They go back to earth where Green is going to attempt to make it green again (Make Algae Not War.) And land on the one spot that’s green, Eden of course, and find a thriving peaceful civilization.

75 years in the future (since they were in cryo) Bellarke never died. They were sent back to earth by the anomaly, to the destroyed earth. And they were left to live their lives in peace and happiness, to create that society and life that Miller, Bryan, Monty and Kane dreamed. And they either meet the ancient Clarke and Bellamy, or see a video of their lives where they are talking to their friends finally coming back to earth, and we see them get older, have kids, have survivors from the dead earth show up so they can make a new world, a new earth.

A beginning for humanity, without war.

That’s my spec. I’ve been working on it since the s5/6 hiatus. I used to think time travel, but the anomaly is more like space travel with time hijinks. I used to think they’d go back to earth at the end of s6, but s6 and s7 seem to be one continuous story. But there are some elements that need to come together. Bellarke need to be together. They need to go back to earth to fix what they did to it. Octavia needs to be fully redeemed as the symbol of humanity, in order for humanity to be restored. Bellamy needs to have his “mythic name” like Wanheda, and I suspect it might be something along the lines of “key.” Bellarke need to mirror Marper’s ending, the bittersweet happy ever after. Their PEOPLE need to win the battle, even if Bellarke is sacrificed to get it (that’s the bittersweet. They have victory but lose the people they love.) Jordan can fix the failures of Monty and Jasper, he can recover from his trauma from sanctum, like Jasper couldn’t, and his algae can save the world like Monty’s couldn’t. And Raven gets to take off of a planet without it being on fire.

This is a theory I’ve shared before, although this one comes from a different direction. Check the tags to see what else I’ve said. It’s changed and grown over time. I JUST figured out that Green will probably be a verb for Jordan which means like in s5, Monty’s algae WILL be the answer. And he said he could use it to make the land grow again, just like he did the cryo farm. 

The earth HAS to come back, otherwise they’ve failed as heroes saving humanity. Becuase humanity has to be responsible for the damage they did. They can’t just leave it behind and find new planets, that’s colonialism and turns humanity into a cancer, that spreads from planet to planet using up resources. (didn’t jasper say that human’s were the disease? also in one of JR’s references, the anomaly was the cancer, and they had to stop it. so it wouldn’t be so weird if humanity was the cancer in this one. or parts of humanity.)

So this theory would actually have Clarke and Bellamy dying in the end. Or near the end. Fandom will be DISTRAUGHT.

But what i’m saying is they won’t be dead, they will be transported. DEATH IS NOT THE END, yo. And long after our heroes think they are dead and try to continue on without them, BOOM. Here they are, living marperly ever after in the after life, paradise, peace on earth and chickens in the yard. Honored by their society as the people who saved humanity.

It’s a bold speculation,  but I’m seeing a lot of clues. Of course I won’t get everything right, but over the past year this theory has developed along with the new revelations. The anomaly and the other colonies are still the biggest wildcard. Also cadogan and sheidheda. I don’t know their stories. Or how they work. I suspect there’s an anomaly on earth. There’d have to be if cadogan is there since we know he was on earth with Becca when she died. 

Oh. Maybe Becca and Cadogan figured out the tech to do the anomaly, and Becca tried to stop it, because the last time her tech went rogue and killed everyone, so this time she’s wary, and she sees the potential for evil with the anomaly. So she tries to pull the plug. Which Cadogan (probably the ‘him’ who let ALIE out) does not like, because he’s a doomsday cultist. This would explain Becca’s dying words, “You dont’ understand Cadogan, I’m trying to save us all.” Or such. So he kills becca, enacts the anomaly, flees to another planet with hsi followers, but maybe someone stops the anomaly from being used again on earth or whatever. Or maybe everyone from shallow valley was actually FROM the anomaly, and they forgot it all after the anomaly faded. Oh these are all new theories. sorry. and not bellarke. 

[carnistcervine]

Avatar Lu Ten AU

I’ve got some kind of mojo going, so lets keep posting my dumb au ideas. :’D

Okay, so most non-Zuko fire nation Avatar AUs tend to follow the Fire Nation getting more of an unfair advantage because they have the Avatar on their side. And that's fair, the Avatar is all but explicitly stated to be the most powerful being in the Avatar universe. Basically a physical god. But, I've always wondered, what if the Avatar Spirit and past Avatars don't agree with the current Avatar's allegiance? I mean, we never see an "evil" Avatar in canon, well except maybe Unavaatu, but he's a clear exception and not the Avatar that the series is named for.

And also, Unalaq and Vaatu are completely aligned. What I want to explore is an Avatar who is in opposition with the Avatar Spirit. A battle of wills between Lu Ten, and not only his predecessors, but also the very essence of the Avatar that lives within him.

Yeah, I'm gonna have fun with this. :3

-Lu Ten is surrounded on the battle field. All of his allies have fallen, and he feels the strain of his injuries begin to weigh on him. The earthbenders close in, but Lu Ten refuses to back down. As he prepares to take his final stand, a familiar whispering fills his head and white overtakes his vision.

-This isn't the first encounter Lu Ten has had with his inner Avatar. Every since he was small, he would hear faint whispering in the back of his mind. The voices were always to faint to make out. As a child he would spend time sitting quietly trying to make out their words, but to no avail.

-As he grew older, the voices grew clearer, but he pushed them to the back of his consciousness. Deciding to focus his energy on his training in both firebending and military.

-Once he turned sixteen he began to suffer from sleep paralysis episodes where Raava would loom over him. Not that he recognized the strange, faceless spirit that occasionally haunted him.

-He considered going to his dad about the strange dreams/sleep paralysis episodes, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth worrying him about. Besides, the spirit never harmed him or said anything. It just appeared and loomed over him. He figured that it meant no harm.

-As for the Fire Nation's knowledge of the current Avatar, they have no idea that Aang had drowned at sea. Never knew that Korra died in the frozen wastes after being banished for firebending. Were never aware of Xin Hu, who died of plague and rests in the sands of the Si Wong.

-They're still looking for the Air Nomad who got away, not realizing that his remains rest at the bottom of the sea. They have no clue that the Avatar now walks among them.

-No one knows. :^)

-The fateful battle takes place during the summer solstice. Not only because firebenders are strongest in summer, and the longest day mean more time at full power, but also because the summer solstice marks the ascension of the sun spirit, Agni.

-Of course, the solstice is also a day when the material and spirit planes intersect, boosting spiritual power, and allowing them to cross over.

-The earthbenders surround and launch their attacks at Lu Ten. There's a bright flash of light as the elements collide. And much to the earthen soldier's great surprise, when the dust clears(or rather is cleared away by a sudden strong wind), it is not a Fire Nation soldier standing there, but rather the late Kyoshi herself. She stares down at them, her searing white eyes commanding respect. Not sure what else to do, the simply stare on, shocked as she wordlessly turns towards the Fire Nation army.

-The soldiers part as Kyoshi marches on, they follow a safe distance behind her. Out of respect rather than cowardice.

-Kyoshi decimates the Fire army. Using Lu Ten's body as a conduit, she unleashes her bending upon the world once again. It gets back to Iroh that not only has Kyoshi risen from the dead to stop him, but she also came from Lu Ten's direction.

-Feeling the sting of not only loosing his only son, but also fearing that he had angered the spirits, Iroh abandons his conquest and returns to the Fire Nation a failure.

-Seeing the Iroh depart and the Fire army fall apart, Kyoshi returns to the walls of Ba Sing Se as the sun sets on the solstice and she returns to the spirit world. Leaving a confused and fading Lu Ten to collapse to the ground. He looses consciousness as the Earthen soldiers close in on him.

-When Lu Ten awakens, he's lying on a simple cot.

-He hears footsteps approaching, but also feels the same feeling from before he blacked out. He does his best to resist, not wanting to loose time again, but whatever is pulling him is stronger.

-The next thing Lu Ten knows, he's standing in the clouds. A figure stands across from him, Avatar Roku. He recognizes him from his history lessons(or at least that's what he tells himself). Behind Roku is a long line of people, all staring stoically ahead. He faintly recognizes them, despite never seeing their faces before. He keeps his focus on Roku.

-Roku tells Lu Ten that he's the Avatar, but Lu Ten doesn't believe it, the last Avatar was an airbender. And just like that an airbending child appears in front of Roku, shrinking the gap. Okay, well even if the airbender had died that still leaves water. And a waterbender appears. Shrinking the gap more, Lu Ten grows concerned. Only one space between him and the Avatars left. He defends that earth is before fire and an earthbender appears, closing the gap between Lu Ten and the Avatar's lineage. Lu Ten's heart races as the Avatar's all turn to him, glowing eyes staring him down.

-Panicked, Lu Ten backs away from the Avatars and falls into the abyss. As he falls, the spirit that haunted him back in the Fire Nation appears and swoops down, catching him with it's tendrils. It holds him close and his mind swims. He gives into the darkness and as the world closes all around him he hears a single phrase.

-"We will be together for all of your lifetimes..."

-While he's sure it was meant to be assuring, he only feels further unsettled.

-When Lu Ten finally awakens, he's in Ba Sing Se. And they know he's the Avatar. They have no intention of letting him return to the Fire Nation. He knows that they plan on using him to take down his country. He overhears plans to control and train him, and more disturbingly, he overhears that Kyoshi had apparently possessed him during the solstice. So even if he chooses not to fight against his family, if he really is the Avatar, he may not have a choice.

-But of course, he can't possibly be the Avatar! No, there must be some mistake. He can't be the Avatar. He just can't.

-He'll prove it by finding the real Avatar! Xin Hu was from the Si Wong Desert. (And no he doesn't want to go down the rabbit hole of how he knows this) But in order to find Xin Hu, he first has to get out of Ba Sing Se.

-If he thought getting into Ba Sing Se was hard, getting out is a NIGHTMARE.

-Especially when his escape attempts make Long Feng decide that it's brainwashing time.

-Thankfully Lu Ten is able to escape before the mindbenders can get to him.

-Lu Ten manages to find Xin Hu, or at least Xin Hu's ghostly specter who is standing as a silent sentinel over his final resting place.

-Meeting Xin Hu's spirit and standing with only a few feet of sand between him and his previous life is what finally cements to Lu Ten that he really is the Avatar.

-He has a heart to heart with Xin Hu, who gets him to open up to a new perspective on the war. Xin Hu tells him to find the remains of the other Avatars and to speak with their spirits.

-So Lu Ten goes, he travels south, meeting with Korra, then Aang, then sneaks to the Fire Nation where he meets with Roku. Each Avatar gives him another perspective on the war, and his eyes are opened to the truth.

-He agrees to meet his destiny and stop the Fire Nation. But he's going to do it his way.

-The previous Avatars reluctantly decide to allow him this. But they make it clear, if he doesn't live up to his promise, they will take over and ensure the world's safety.

-But of course, this'll be hard with the whole Earth Kingdom looking for him. And word even spreads to the Water Tribes, who also want to see the Fire Avatar trained and healed from whatever corruption the Fire Nation had instilled into him.

-Only a few years later and a new force joins the hunt. A freshly burned and banished prince looking to restore his honor. And the Avatar's unknowing father.

-I can't wait to have Iroh meet this legendary Avatar face to face, only to realize it was the son he thought died years ago.

[lwiamatkaarchive]

DISCLAIMER: all relations to canon characters are subject to change depending on the partner!!

Cintra used to be a highly regarded Hold, both in the North and in King’s Landing, with House Raven being proud and skilled warriors, Cintra’s wealth coming from its wonderfully talented jewelers, sculpting gold in the most beautiful and detailed ornaments.

Everything changed, when Lord Coram Raven passed away, and his 18-year-old son Corbett married Lady Elen of house Mormont. They only had one child, Dagorad, who was the first Lord of Cintra, whose name didn’t start with the letter C. Supposedly his father was too drunk to notice, that Lady Elen named her son a slightly only changed name of her own grandfather, Lord of house Mormont, Dagread. And then it was too late.

Everyone knew that Corbett meant trouble. From his youngest years his favourite activities included drinking, hunting and fornicating, with no real regard for the well-being of his Hold and his people. Cintra’s power withered away, with Corbett starting drunken fights with other norther Lords, including gravely offending Lord Edwyle Stark, refusing to aid him in the battle with Wildlings.

He didn’t treat his wife well, either, to the point when Lord Mormont threatened to take his daughter back to the Bear Island. However Elen refused as her son’s future in Corbett’s dangerous court would be uncertain if she left. It was so bad that on more than one occasion, Corbett would drunkenly proclaim he had had enough with his “sanctimonious” wife and he’d promised one of his many women on the side an imminent wedding and elevation to the position of Lady Raven. However, he never got the chance as he died before Elen at just 30 years old, from a possible combination of syphilis, overdosing on medicinal drugs, or possibly even poisoned.

It was then, that barely 12 year old Dagorad took his position as the Head of house Raven. The time of his reign was one huge, and difficult battle to restore the good name of the House and the Hold that Corbett ruined. This battle was not always victorious. Not only amongst the Northmen, such as Starks, Lockes, or Freys, but also in distant houses such as Lannister or Tyrell, there was the widespread opinion, that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, and that Dagorad in his father’s castle couldn’t learn anything else but drinking, villainy and debauchery.

That opinion of him couldn’t be further from the truth, Dagorad was in every aspect the very contradiction of his father - he was a calm and sedate boy, a modest and prudent man, a loving husband and father, a calm and intelligent politician.

The most difficult - and as a result bloody - battle Dagorad had to fight in his own Hold. Arrogant minions, unruly mistresses, spoiled confidants and mannered with all the honors comrades of Lord Corbett did not think of stepping down after his death, nor did they think to give way to and accept the new rule. They believed, that they would easily wrap the young boy around their finger, and if it would turn out necessary, then they would easily get rid of him. There was a harsh surprise awaiting them. The young Lord acted fast, and thanks to gaining the support of many of his subjects, including the troops, soon the heads of the elites rolled off the scaffold.

He befriended Lord Rickard Stark, having won many battles against the Wildlings by his side and, quite surprisingly, married a young lady of House Lannister - Adalia, by some called a Fairy, sealing the alliance with the second most powerful House in all of Westeros. They have met when Adalia was a handmaiden to Queen Rhaella, and Dagorad had visited the Red Keep, with the young Lannister woman falling in love with him at first sight, and marrying him soon after thanks to the Queen’s support. It was then, that the crest of House Raven changed - from a black raven on blue background, to three jumping golden lions on blue background. Adalia and Dagorad were a loving couple, and had only one, beloved daughter - Calanthe.

There was only one thing that Dagorad inherited from his father - it was love for hunt. And that was what ultimately lead to his demise. He had been wounded durning one of the hunts beyond the wall that he attended alongside Rickard Stark and, having been wounded, shrugged the injury off, as it wasn’t very deep. Sadly, it got infected, and Dagorad passed away at the age 35 of blood infection, leaving his wife Adalia and his teenage daughter Calanthe behind.

Aged 14 at the time, Calanthe was being underestimated by her own people, and the lords of the North. They even offered Adalia to take the position as the Lady of Cintra instead of her, until Calanthe married someone who could rule in her place, but Adalia refused.

Calanthe had won her first battle with the Wildlings being barely 15 years old, standing in the front line together with her people, and earning herself the title of Lioness of Cintra, that also touched on her relation to house Lannister.

In her youth, Calanthe refused to marry a man, and when she finally agreed, after many persuasions, it was hard to find anyone willing to take her hand. Rumours would be spread of incestuous relationships in her family, of romantic adventures, of “hot blood” and even of a romance between Calanthe and her own cousin, Meve of house Mormont. They had to look far, and they found on easternmost side of the North. For an insignificant third or fourth cousin of Lord Hornwood, Roegner, marriage to the Lioness of Cintra was a huge honor and he agreed without hesitation.

Calanthe, so they say, almost lost interest in marriage again and she was supposed to try and sabotage the whole thing, pretending in front of her bridegroom a crazy hag and hellcat… But she changed her plans when she first saw Roegner - the Lord was in fact devilishly handsome!

Barely a year after Calanthe and Roegner married, the Baratheon Rebellion started. Calanthe, with her skilled cintrese troops, was one of bannermen for Eddard Stark, and arriving together with him and Lord Hoster Tully, they turned the tides of the Battle of the Bells. In the middle of the battle, as advised by her mother Adalia, Calanthe and a few of her most trusted men sneaked away to help Queen Rhaella escape to Dragonstone safely. After the Sack of King’s Landing, Calanthe and her troops returned to Cintra, supporting Robert’s claim for the throne, despite the blood ties that connected her and the Lannisters. However, she also stood against Eddard when it came to sending Jaime to join the Night’s Watch, with him being her cousin.

Barely a year after the rebellion Calanthe fell pregnant with a daughter - Pavetta. Having befriended Catelyn, Calanthe would spent surprising amounts of time in Winterfell, as well as invite the Stark children to the warmer Cintra, resulting in Pavetta and Sansa forming a close friendship. Recognizing Calanthe and Cintra’s impact on the success of his rebellion, Robert would also think of her as a friend and stop in Cintra whenever the Royal Family would visit the North.

During this time, Calanthe tried to give Roegner a son, but sadly, they lost the baby twice and never again tried after that.

11 years after the rebellion, in year 294 AC, Calanthe is widowed, as her husband dies of smallpox. After that, she found herself with numerous marriage proposals - including several times a sailor from Iron Islands, Eist Tuirseach had proposed to her, but the lioness never agreed to marry again.

The Game of Thrones begins in 300 AC.

[gunnerpalace]

YourIchiRuki (Neapolitan Ice Cream): The BattleTech AU

SUMMARY

A very slow burn (500,000+ words just for setup) of Yoruichi, Ichigo, and Rukia trying to figure out how to deal with feelings and making a relationship work in a universe beset by war and political intrigue, as complicated by the fact that they are A. mercenaries, B. members of the nobility, and C. more than a little incredulous as to how they wound up in this mess in the first place, as set within a Bleach-y adaption of the BattleTech setting.

SETTING OVERVIEW

It is the year 3016. The Inner Sphere, a region approximately 1,000 light-years in diameter encompassing some 2 million stars and 2,000 inhabited planets, is split among five Successor States of the defunct Star League, each ruled by a Great House:

The Lyran Commonwealth, ruled by House Kuchiki

The Draconis Combine, ruled by House Shihōin

The Federated Suns, ruled by House Shiba

The Capellan Confederation, ruled by House Fujita

The Free Worlds League, ruled by House Hasegawa

The Periphery and Deep Periphery beyond their reach remain comparatively disorganized. Earth and the Sol System are ruled by ComStar, currently headed by Primus Sōsuke Aizen.

The Third Succession War, one in a series of conflicts waged nominally to restore the Star League, rages onward and is entering its 150th year. It is fought through all available means of combined arms warfare, but the premiere platform of the conflict is the BattleMech, an armored walking war machine piloted by a MechWarrior.

The young Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth, Byakuya Kuchiki (26) has come to learn of the acquisition by the Federated Suns of the so-called Halstead Collection, a trove of Star League-era documents recovered during a military strike against a Draconis Combine staging area that was under construction. Realizing that House Shiba is nearing completion of their New Avalon Institute of Science to study the collection, he devises a plot to infiltrate the institution and gain access whatever secrets might have been found.

The linchpin of his plot is the world of Edo[1], a massively developed commercial and industrial hub. The cosmopolitan nature of Edo provides an easy means of inserting an agent into the society of the Federated Suns who can assume the identity of a native and then work their way onto the staff of the NAIS without raising suspicions. To this end, Byakuya dispatches his "adopted" younger sister, Baroness[2] Rukia Kuchiki (22), on an infiltration and reconnaissance mission, in order that she might prove herself. She is afforded a BattleMech[3] painted in Draconis Combine livery for the sake of additional deception and self-defense should anything go wrong (the Draconis Combine long having had designs on Edo).

After analyzing available data, Rukia decides that the best method of completing her mission and winning his approval is to infiltrate through what she reasons to be the soft underbelly of Edo: its countryside (or what passes for one). She selects the relatively sleepy city of Karakura, on the continent of New Tama, as her entry point.

Unbeknownst to either of the Kuchiki siblings, or indeed anyone in the Federated Suns, this is exactly where a former Duke of the Federated Suns, Isshin Shiba (from a branch of the main Shiba line, and now going under the adopted surname of Kurosaki) chose to flee from his responsibilities and raise a family. Although his wife died tragically some years prior, his son Ichigo Kurosaki (21) is in college, while his daughters (and fraternal twins) Karin Kurosaki and Yuzu Kurosaki (16) are in high school.

Likewise an unknown factor is that Kisuke Urahara (29) and his mercenary company (the Urahara Wild Cards) are in the same place. They have been reduced to the sorry state of having only two pilots, his chief officer (and former Coordinator of the Draconis Combine!) Yoruichi Shihōin (28) and Tessai Tsukabishi (34), as a result of most of the others having decided to go their own way (to form a company of their own called Visored). His company is actively recruiting.

The stage is set for a most curious complex of circumstances to unfold...

INITIAL PLOT SUMMARY

The idea behind this is that, although the setting features mecha, war, and political shenanigans (especially what with at least three people from the Great Houses about), I really wanted to use that as a framework for developing interpersonal relations. So, the general gist of the timeline would be that it starts off sort of like Bleach. 

Rukia shows up in Karakura and starts conducting her mission, but things quickly get out of hand. The canonical Federated Suns present themselves as being as honorable and democratic (or, at least as much so as an aristocratic system could be) but there are still vast wealth inequalities and social stratification in their lands, so my feeling is Rukia sees something or other which flips her chivalric and noblesse oblige switches, and she gets involved (eventually using her 'Mech), which draws the attention of the local military forces.

This results in a Fishbone D-style fight, which Ichigo and his family get dragged into. (Perhaps Rukia's 'Mech winds up being pushed into a residential area as she tries to retreat?) Rukia takes a hit to the cockpit while trying to shield Ichigo, getting injured by some shrapnel, mostly in her right arm. (Whoever she's fighting gets knocked down by her counterattack at the same time.) Ichigo clambers up into the cockpit (probably one side of it being torn open) to try and get to her, and finding her injured, decides he's got to fight in her place after getting her out of the ‘Mech[4].

Since he's the child of a Shiba, Isshin has probably subtly been training him to do something like pilot a 'Mech over time somehow, even if it wasn't obvious that's what it was training for. So, Ichigo is fairly naturally able to work with the 'Mech despite no prior official experience, and manages to take out the opposition without destroying the entire neighborhood in the process. He then passes out from heat exhaustion because Rukia's 'Mech is overheating and he doesn't have any kind of cooling gear on.

This is when Kisuke shows up (as in Bleach), having observed this battle from a distance and sensing an opportunity. He and his team scoop up Rukia and recover both her 'Mech and the Federated Suns one that continued pursuit, basically scouring the place for obvious evidence. Things go from there.

Ichigo wakes up the next morning in bed. Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin are fine (maybe they were knocked out through concussion or falling debris or being thrown against walls or something, but are alright; this is a bit handwavy but whatever, no one really cares that much) and seem to think it was a gas main explosion or something. The authorities are basically covering it up as exactly that. Ichigo remembers, but dismisses it as some kind of nightmare.

Until he meets Rukia on his college campus.

She's been patched up enough to be ambulatory but her arm needs time to recover and she can't pilot properly, and so she enlists Ichigo to help her with her infiltration mission by helping her with school and generally blending in and pretending to be a Federated Suns citizen. He refuses at first, but as she saved his life (and he is rather politically disaffected) and he finds there to be a charm in her notions of what honor and chivalry mean, he eventually comes around and grudgingly assists her. (It later turns out her 'Mech is in the care and repair of Kisuke, who is essentially billing her for the services and making her trade on token favors in the meantime.)

A month passes, much as in Bleach, with Rukia living out of Ichigo's room. During this time they converse quite a lot and grow close (as in Bleach and more especially its live action movie). Rukia comes to appreciate the comparative freedom of life in the Federated Suns (even compared to being a noble in the Lyran Commonwealth) and starts to genuinely doubt her mission and cause, finding them to be incompatible with how she interprets chivalry. During this time, she assists Ichigo in getting revenge on a criminal who was responsible for the death of his mother years prior (Grand Fisher equivalent, probably personal combat rather than a 'Mech fight). This is the final straw in her deciding to desert her mission and go native. She stops sending reports back to the Lyran Commonwealth.

Although Kisuke technically owns the Urahara Wild Cards, the reality of the situation is more complicated. He and Tessai were formerly retainers and subordinates of Yoruichi’s from her time as the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine; when she deserted her post to save them from certain execution (due to a convoluted conspiracy), they all wound up as dishonored ronin. Still, he shows her all due deference (if sometimes playfully) from their former lives. He prefers to take an administrative and executive role, leaving day-to-day operations to her, and logistical matters to Tessai.

It is around this time that Yoruichi returns from elsewhere on the planet, her own independent recruiting efforts in more populated areas not having yielded any results. Finding out what's been going on in her absence (with Kisuke having determined Isshin's real identity in the meantime), she's pretty stunned. (As the former leader of the Draconis Combine, finding out that both the sister of the Lyran Commonwealth's Archon and a plausible claimant to First Prince of the Federated Suns are present on such a world is pretty wild.) She joins Kisuke in taking an immediate interest in this situation, but takes care not to make her presence known around Ichigo or Rukia, reasoning at least the latter might be able to deduce who she is (or rather, used to be).

There is growing involvement from Ichigo's college friends and acquaintances (i.e., Chad, Uryuu, Orihime, Tatsuki) who get drawn into matters for personal reasons. (I'm leaning toward including them for contrast, use as sounding boards and interaction for the mains, additional pilots, and for side stories and subplots.) Of these, Uryuu might have his own (Light) 'Mech[5] already, with the Quincy perhaps being some sort of independence movement or armed militia group. (I find it debatable whether Keigo and Mizuiro should be included, but for once they rather plausibly could be.)

Another month passes, and Rukia decides it's time to leave, having come to reason that her mere presence puts Ichigo and everyone else in direct danger. Unfortunately for her, she is too late: shockingly, Byakuya himself arrives on Edo, along with a rising LCAF military commander, Renji Abarai, in order to retrieve her (again with Draconis Combine-styled 'Mechs). Byakuya has come to view her "failure" as a matter of personal honor.

This is where things start to diverge much more heavily from Bleach. Although Uryuu and Ichigo intervene, their ‘Mechs are no match for Renji's 'Mech[6], let alone Byakuya's[7]. All hope seems lost until Yoruichi, Kisuke, and Tessai deploy into battle in heavy and assault 'Mechs[8]. Suddenly outnumbered 2:5, Byakuya and Renji are forced to withdraw and retreat. However, this skirmish draws the attention of the local military much more heavily than even Rukia's initial actions.

The Urahara Wild Cards immediately make ready to leave the planet, and extend an offer to Ichigo, Rukia, and company to join them. Faced with little choice given the attention about to be brought to bear, Ichigo and Rukia choose to leave, prompting the others to join them too. (Rukia having already been prepared to leave, and Ichigo really not wanting to be apart from her but openly reasoning he was planning to leave home anyway after college. The others perhaps view it as more exciting and amenable than staying behind)

They all depart the planet and, after returning to Kisuke's orbiting DropShip (the Geta-Boshi[9], which is too large to make planetfall) soon also leave the system behind. Although Rukia initially finds the idea of becoming a mercenary distasteful for cultural reasons, a speech by Yoruichi[10], who chooses this moment to properly "introduce" herself, results in the six (or eight) deciding they might as well apply their skills as mercenaries under Kisuke's employ, bringing Urahara Wild Cards up to (at least) two full Lances worth of pilots.

The next several months are spent training and taking odd jobs. The young adults from Edo (Ichigo, Tatsuki, Chad, Orihime, and Uryuu [and maybe Keigo and Mizuiro]) come under the supervision of Yoruichi and Tessai for proper basic 'Mech training. Rukia, having received LCAF training, also gets roped into this as a co-instructor. Ichigo winds up being the star pupil of this program by virtue of his history, although Uryuu is not at all far behind.

They settle on a force structure that roughly balances out relative skill while still affording a strong main team and a good reserve team, yielding Alpha Lance (Yoruichi, Rukia, Ichigo, Chad) and Bravo Lance (Tessai, Uryuu, Tatsuki, Orihime). (If Keigo and Mizuiro are there, they're basically backbenchers until the Urahara Wild Cards get at least two more pilots[11] to form a third Lance, Charlie Lance, which would bring them up to Company strength.)

Rukia and Ichigo continue on much as they had before, on Edo. Although they both, along with everyone else, are issued fairly comfortable and private quarters (owing to the size and nature of the construction of the Geta-Boshi), more often than not Rukia chooses to spend her time in Ichigo's quarters, often falling asleep there. It relatively quickly becomes common for them to share a bed, although their relationship remains nebulous and unofficial; almost everyone else treats them as though they are a couple, but they remain very emotionally and personally intertwined rather than lovers.

The Ichigo-Yoruichi and Rukia-Yoruichi reactions are from the outset established on the basis of mutual respect, but as time goes on admiration, care, concern, and physical attraction start to creep into them. Ichigo winds up often getting additional training and instruction from both Yoruichi and Rukia, though more often from the former. He winds up becoming good friends with Yoruichi off-duty as much as on. They have sort of similar interests and approaches to things, and often wind up talking shop about hobbies or knowledge. Yoruichi and Rukia become fast friends due to a mutual background and lifestyle focus; although the Kuchiki and Shihōin are nominally bitter enemies, it turns out they have a lot more in common than it might first seem. They swap more advanced piloting techniques and train together frequently to keep each other sharp. They also spend time together when off-duty, and in the process also become closer with Tatsuki and Orihime, as there are relatively fewer women aboard the Geta-Boshi and the MechWarriors tend to stand apart from the ship's crew and the engineering staff.

A bunch of little incidents also take place that heighten their growing closeness. Two examples: 1. Ichigo winds up walking into Yoruichi's quarters to ask her a question and accidentally catches her in a state of undress; he retreats in (appreciative) embarrassment, but Yoruichi also realizes she doesn't mind that he saw anything. 2. Yoruichi, deducing during an R&R stop on a planet that Rukia is more than a little repressed, and inexperienced to the point of not even knowing how to please herself, offers to show her how as a fellow woman, then reveals she didn't know what she was doing either the first few times she tried.

If the initial time in Karakura were to take roughly 75 chapters (at about 4,000 words each), then this all would probably take at least another 75 chapters, and probably more.

Eventually, one evening Ichigo winds up joining Yoruichi at the only bar on the Geta-Boshi and they trade stories and talk about themselves and each other (although only he drinks). Yoruichi gradually realizes over the course of the evening that she enjoys the sense of connection they share, and that she genuinely finds him attractive, and has the sense that he feels the same about her. Although she's (very) well aware of Ichigo and Rukia's "not-a-relationship," she's also discerned they're not actually lovers, and although that leaves her a bit conflicted, she still chooses to act on her impulses, reasoning she's not doing anything wrong by pursuing him.

After they leave together, she gets him alone (in his 'Mech rather than in either of their quarters, not wanting to make it about power) and reveals her attraction toward him. Her understanding of her feelings is often physical, and she comes onto him, even though she knows that what she’s feeling isn’t purely lust; it’s something more emotionally meaningful and leaves her vulnerable, and the way she takes control of it is by being a bit forward. Ichigo has a kind of similar attraction and doesn’t fight her, having a sense of her perspective and emotions. They have sex, both wanting and needing it, but it’s not just that, and it’s great. Feeling awkward about just doing it and then going their separate ways, Ichigo goes back to her quarters with her, where (despite some innuendo) they probably just shower and fall asleep together (with maybe more in the early morning). This has been prototyped out as about two chapters.

Although Yoruichi initially only considered the idea of it as being a one-time thing, despite her feelings, it keeps occasionally happening over the next few weeks (maybe about every 3-5 days or so) as both of them enjoy the physical comfort of their connection, and the pillow talk afterward.

Meanwhile, Ichigo often spends his other nights finding Rukia asleep beside him, and starts to think about how deep his emotional connection to her is, and how comforting that is too. It leaves him more than a little conflicted and he starts to focus that feeling in on himself as he tries to figure out what to do.

POINTS OF DISCUSSION

This is where my sense of the plot becomes a bit less certain, and where I felt that input could be particularly insightful.

My sense is that Rukia, smart cookie that she is, would figure out what is going on very quickly. (Probably having a sense of it almost immediately, and piecing it together within a week.) Considering the undefined nature of her relationship with Ichigo, I don't think she'd be mad at him or upset with him. I do think it would also make her reflect on her feelings toward him, and together with her own growing recognition of her sexuality, would lead her to be curious and to want to try and have a physical connection with Ichigo too.

So, I think that she would prepare herself mentally and wait until a night when he was in his quarters, and make the first move. And Ichigo would not resist and quickly start to cooperate, wanting to make Rukia feel good. It'd be different between her and him than with him and Yoruichi, but just as intoxicating.

Probably the next morning, Rukia would slip out early and go to see Yoruichi to try and discuss things, having some sense of Ichigo's emotional turmoil and not wanting it to go on further.

I think they'd talk in Yoruichi’s quarters (as I don’t think Rukia would be intimidated by talking there), but they might also go somewhere private on the ship, maybe a kind of industrial or disused area as neutral ground.

Rukia would begin with just a frank admission of, "I've slept with Ichigo," not wanting to make the talk confrontational or anything.

Yoruichi would say something like, "Good. It's about time."

"That's all you have to say?" Rukia would be surprised more than anything.

Yoruichi might maneuver closer and get in her personal space, assessing her carefully and critically. Rukia might tense up a little but would hold her ground, not afraid.

Eventually Yoruichi gets closer still and leans in to just softly kiss her.

Rukia's stunned, then like, "What are you doing?!"

Yoruichi would pull back and consider her, then cross her arms over her chest as she looked away. She'd say something like, "I know you will, but make sure you take care of him," making it clear she approved.

Rukia would be stunned for a moment, giving Yoruichi the opportunity to begin to gently quiz her on the experience. Did she like it? Did Ichigo? Was it good? Where do they want to go with their relationship?

I think Rukia would see through it, and although she would answer, she would press Yoruichi on her own feelings. It would turn into a kind of Self-Sacrifice Olympics because Yoruichi would be willing to step aside, and Rukia feels bad about that because she can tell that it wasn't purely physical on Yoruichi's part, and back and forth.

They would talk through things for longer than they might have thought they would, with Rukia discerning Yoruichi's care for Ichigo and Yoruichi truly grasping how considerate Rukia is.

I think Rukia would be moved, personally, and she'd eventually return Yoruichi's initial smooch but for a different reason, to make it clear how heartfelt her respect was.

Now, of course, the goal here was to set this up together gradually, so I think that given their shared history to that point, Yoruichi would return it and it would turn into something more, more mutual and a bit handsy.

By the time they pulled apart and looked at one another, they'd both have expressions like, 'Well. What do we do now?'

I think it'd be Rukia who said, "We'll have to see what he says... together."

I don't think they would immediately become a trio from there, it'd be a lot rockier than that, with each having their doubts about the matter before them. 

Ichigo would be worried that they were just doing this for his benefit and that he didn't deserve either of them. Rukia would be less confident in her newfound sexuality and lack of experience and might have a bi crisis (or recurrent bouts of it). Yoruichi would be secure in her sexuality but be worried about hurting them and how that could affect them all professionally (to the extent of even getting them all killed).

I also think it'd take them a fair amount of time to try anything all together, even just cuddling. So it'd be a drawn out process of discovery rather than them all just jumping into it. Movie nights, hanging out, going on dates in pairs and as a trio, and splitting off to take turns as duos (Rukia and Yoruichi at first having an understanding, and eventually taking the step of trying being with each other). It would probably take almost as much time to process through as it did to set up before they finally fully settled in together. 

Meanwhile, the surrounding situation would also obviously be growing more complicated...

In addition to mercenary adventures and dealing with the continuing wrath of Byakuya and the Lyran Commonwealth, there is an even larger picture owing to the Third Succession War.

While, obviously, this does not slavishly follow BattleTech's history as it is, nor will it going forward, taking elements and using them seems prudent. In BattleTech canon, the Third Succession War ends in 3025 with the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns signing a defensive pact (in 3022) which is ultimately designed to unify them (into the "Federated Commonwealth"). The Free World League, Draconis Combine, and Capellan Confederation then ink their own agreement to counterbalance the threat of this.

My feeling is that the FedCom pact could have an interesting basis in Ichigo and Rukia coming together (and, because I'm a basic and predictable bitch, Byakuya and Kuukaku getting involved), although Yoruichi's presence would make things more interesting and complicated. Regardless, I think that with three Great Houses being represented (by Yoruichi, Rukia, and Ichigo) the crew would wind up playing some sort of role in the Third Succession War's resolution.

Other characters can be integrated variously throughout in different ways as well.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Likely standing in for Robinson in the actual BattleTech setting. [2] Rukia's official title of nobility is quite low considering her relation at this time. [3] Rukia, operating on behalf of her brother, has a rare customized 'Mech: an FS9-H Firestarter with 3/4 of the Flamers replaced by Medium Lasers, changing its BV (2.0) from 694 to 883. The rear-facing Flamer is the one retained. This would give it decent staying combat power for something so light. Looks something like this. [4] In BattleTech, the Successor States lost the knowledge of many Star League-era technologies ("lostech"). One of them was cooling suits for MechWarriors; "typical" garb is instead a cooling jacket and as little clothing as possible, usually a sleeveless leotard. So this could be a kind of funny scene if that's kept. (How hard is it to turn a vest into a suit though...) This would make Yoruichi's preferred taste in attire in Bleach fairly normative, though. Alternatively, the standard could be more like what was envisioned in one of the latest video game adaptations. [5] Probably a bog-standard LCT-1V Locust, the most common sort around. Looks something like this. [6] Perhaps an HBK-4G Hunchback. Looks something like this. Renji can have an ugly 'Mech to start with. [7] I'm thinking of a stock VTR-9B Victor. Looks something like this. [8] I think Yoruichi might have a TDR-5SE Thunderbolt (looks), Kisuke might have a MAD-3R Marauder (looks), and Tessai might have a BLR-1G BattleMaster (looks). [9] Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Tessai have somehow found (and renamed) the Argo. [10] It's notable that the Draconis Combine hates mercenaries, so that Yoruichi is here (with Kisuke and Tessai) doing mercenary work also Says Something. [11] As I am constantly saying Fullbring should’ve been introduced early in Bleach, maybe they meet (and beat) rival mercenary group Xcution and take on the remnants (probably Jackie, Yukio, and Riruka) as pilots?

[sireneia]

W a i t you're making a game? I literally just stumbled across your blog, can you explain what it's about?

For reference to people in the future, this ask is referring to a deleted status post I made on this blog to just make people aware of why I was being inactive.

Yes, I made a game! It’s a visual novel that I made for my class (I do this kind of thing fairly often at my university) and it takes place in a Fir/e E/mblem fanmade continent that’s separate from all the canon ones.

It’s technically available on itch.io but I also am of the mind that a game I made in a week is very embarrassing and I’m not sure if it’s worth sharing, but I’ll go into the details of the plot, characters, and gameplay under the cut. 

The game takes place as a sort of side story to what a full FE game would be like, placing less emphasis on the big scale war and more emphasis on a group of characters that, if this were a normal FE game, would not be plot important at all LMAO

Queen Selene, the hypothetical main lord, is a recently coronated royal of the Kingdom of Sirius, a kingdom famed for its pegasus knights and light mages. Selene, though young, has risen to the throne after her father died in the recent war against the country of Antares. Sirius was victorious in the war but suffered heavy losses, something their neighbors, Sargas, plans to take advantage of by launching another war on Sirius right afterwards while they’re weak and weary to expand their domain.

This little side story focuses on the tale of three half-brothers. There are three chapters in the game, and each brother gets one chapter each where they are playable. Actions taken influence how that character will behave in future sections when they are NPCs instead of playable, leading to different variations of conversations, dynamics, and mix-and-match endings. The relationships between the characters is ultimately decided by your actions in each of the three chapters.

You play first as Cyrus, the middle brother, then Levant the eldest, then Elios the youngest.

Levant as said before is the eldest brother. He has looked up to his mother since he was young, the siblings’ shared mother being a high-ranking officer in Sirius before she died giving birth to her youngest son. Despite the fact that pegasi hate men, Levant was determined to be just like his mother and through sheer will and determination managed to get her steed to tolerate him. He is infamous in Sirius as their first male pegasus knight, but he was overeager and overconfident. When he was first made a squadron captain, a troop of Antares soldiers marched past where his unit was stationed. He ordered the other soldiers underneath of him to launch a ‘surprise attack’ on the Antares soldiers but actually they all were led into a trap. Levant was the only survivor of the skirmish and though he was expected to continue to fight but in a different unit, he deserted the royal army entirely, unable to cope with the consequences of his actions.

Cyrus is the middle brother. He holds the platonic ideal of knightly philosophies but has an issue with idealization as well as being the most hot-headed of the cast. 

Since his childhood, he has always placed Levant upon a pedestal. He sees Levant as a perfect, historic person and changes his tune once Levant becomes a deserter. Cyrus finds himself unable to reconcile with the idea that the person he viewed as the best knight ever actually being afraid of death (both for himself and those around him) and transforms all that worshiping into bitter resentment. He no longer approves of Levant’s lackadaisical nature since Levant no longer has the prestige to back it up, and he condemns Levant for being a layabout, an alcoholic, and a gambler after the incident.

Cyrus enlists in the royal army to try and restore their family’s name and honor— to prove they’re not all like Levant. He is tireless in this effort, spending every moment of his life attempting to get in good with the various officers of Sirius as well as studying and training instead of pursuing any real hobbies. He is devoted to the act of being a knight and nothing more.

Elios, the youngest, is regarded as a prodigy. However, he does not at all care for the values of chivalry or glory that Cyrus does. He thinks both his brothers are unnecessarily complicated, thinking the both of them are just not honest enough with their feelings and they could save all this hassle if they actually tried to understand each other. Elios himself is honest to a fault, much to the chagrin of others.

He holds a joy for traveling and odd jobs— something he found out while shadowing a mercenary group. He is currently employed with said mercenary group as a necessary act in order to rise to being a full-fledged pegasus knight, a goal set not by himself by rather by Cyrus so as to not waste the large amount of talent Elios has. however, Elios holds trepidation about this future set out for him, not wishing to follow either of his brothers’ footsteps. 

Elios, unlike Cyrus, forgives all of Levant’s bad behaviors. He does this because Levant is the only one who spends time with him in a nonstressful manner considering how much time Cyrus spends on training and studying. Levant being unemployed guarantees more time to spend with Elios, which helps ease the unrecognized fear he holds of ending up alone. He is excessively easy on Levant consequently.

Lily is a peer and friend of Cyrus. She is the daughter of a noble and is a pegasus knight to show her family’s devotion to the royal family of Sirius. She is constantly trying to test herself and make herself stronger, making Cyrus her training partner and comrade due to how analytical and steadfast he is. Where he’s serious, she’s quite a bit bubbly. She hopes to one-up him at some point.

She maintains her happy-go-lucky exterior by venting her frustrations through her poems, and while she tries to maintain a stance of being open and transparent, she will often stop herself from voicing out any actual serious complaints or deep emotions she has— a result of her strict upbringing.

[thepringlesofblood]

aight tis theory time for taz amnesty bc of the latest episode (spoilers)

#1 i love what they’re doing with clint but ngl I 100% thought that Aubrey was trying to Necromance Ned and then they said “thacker” and I was like 

#2 when Sylvane disappeared, she went to Earth, because Earth (back a couple centuries ago at least) was a healthy planet who could help her heal. the source of Aubrey’s powers comes from her family’s continued contact with the crystal shard - she has a more instinctual and direct connection to Sylvane (who, again, is staying with Earth until she is healed enough to go back) hence why putting on the necklace for the first time activated her powers, and why it took so long for magic to be in Aubrey’s family - just wearing the pendant isn’t enough, it is the lifetimes of her ancestors wearing the pendant that gives her that direct line to Sylvane, as well as the fact that Sylvane needed all of that time to heal from the attacks and become strong enough to manifest. That’s why touching the crystal restores some of Sylvane’s former glory - Sylvane is channeling herself through Aubrey. With Earth becoming sicker (i.e. pollution + global warming), she realized that she would have to go back soon, so she started forming this bond with Aubrey. 

This also explains the kinda plot hole of “oh ya the residents of amnesty lodge need to connect to the earth bc of their former connection w/ Sylvane”, bc Sylvane was there on Earth with them. What remained of her power in the crystal is a finite resource of her essence leftover from the millenia she spent there - hence why Aubrey wanted to touch the crystal so bad - that was her connection to Sylvane guiding her towards replenishing that supply

Also Aubrey is now helping the underground residents of Amnesty lodge and also Janelle’s people to keep themselves secret and safe. She was able to heal Dani from the Quell bc I doNT KNOW IF I CAN HANDLE DANI DYING and also she was able to heal Thacker who was entrenched in darkness for decades and dani only got the quell recently so its probably less of a big deal? 

#3 I would fucking die for Minerva. Recognizing your past sins and attempting to prevent others from committing the same ones? I big fuck with that. Also I fucking love that she literally came out of Duck’s head like the Actual Real Goddess Minerva came out of Zeus/Jupiter’s head when she was born. my only issue with her is that I fucking hate the Romans so I wish she was named Athena, especially considering that the Romans nerfed Minerva so they could have their own war goddess, Bellona, without the association with Greece’s strongest city and center of resistance, Athens, but I recognize that Griffin isn’t as much of a nerd about that whole thing as I am so it was probably unintentional and idk if there’s a planet called Athena. I know we got Pallas in the asteroid belt but it’s like a dwarf planet and Pallas is one of her epithets and not her proper name, long story but basically Athena had a homie named Pallas who died so Athena took up Pallas’ name after that to honor her. 

#4 I know that Hal Lublin has had a long and storied career but every single time I hear his name I’m like “STEVE CARLSBERG???”

#5 my  favorite thing in TAZ is when you got a scene with one PC and then griffin playing Everyone Else In The Scene, and this episode was a rare treat

#6 my other favorite thing is when Griffin does a preface like “things are going to get a little buckwild in this episode, we did it differently than we normally do things so sorry if you don’t like it” and then it’s a fucking awesome episode and at the commercial break he’s like “sorry for the weirdness it’ll be normal again soon” and it’s like MY FRIEND DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR ART!

#7 love the canon acknowledgement of Agent Stern’s incompetence/double crossing, v good

[lwiica-archive]

ASOIAF/GOT VERSE - FULL BIO

DISCLAIMER: all relations to canon characters are subject to change depending on the partner!!

Cintra used to be a highly regarded Hold, both in the North and in King’s Landing, with House Raven being proud and skilled warriors, Cintra’s wealth coming from its wonderfully talented jewelers, sculpting gold in the most beautiful and detailed ornaments. 

Everything changed, when Lord Coram Raven passed away, and his 18-year-old son Corbett married Lady Elen of house Mormont. They only had one child, Dagorad, who was the first Lord of Cintra, whose name didn’t start with the letter C. Supposedly his father was too drunk to notice, that Lady Elen named her son a slightly only changed name of her own grandfather, Lord of house Mormont, Dagread. And then it was too late.

Everyone knew that Corbett meant trouble. From his youngest years his favourite activities included drinking, hunting and fornicating, with no real regard for the well-being of his Hold and his people. Cintra’s power withered away, with Corbett starting drunken fights with other norther Lords, including gravely offending Lord Edwyle Stark, refusing to aid him in the battle with Wildlings. 

He didn’t treat his wife well, either, to the point when Lord Mormont threatened to take his daughter back to the Bear Island. However Elen refused as her son's future in Corbett's dangerous court would be uncertain if she left. It was so bad that on more than one occasion, Corbett would drunkenly proclaim he had had enough with his "sanctimonious" wife and he'd promised one of his many women on the side an imminent wedding and elevation to the position of Lady Raven. However, he never got the chance as he died before Elen at just 30 years old, from a possible combination of syphilis, overdosing on medicinal drugs, or possibly even poisoned.

It was then, that barely 12 year old Dagorad took his position as the Head of house Raven. The time of his reign was one huge, and difficult battle to restore the good name of the House and the Hold that Corbett ruined. This battle was not always victorious. Not only amongst the Northmen, such as Starks, Lockes, or Freys, but also in distant houses such as Lannister or Tyrell, there was the widespread opinion, that “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, and that Dagorad in his father’s castle couldn’t learn anything else but drinking, villainy and debauchery. 

That opinion of him couldn’t be further from the truth, Dagorad was in every aspect the very contradiction of his father - he was a calm and sedate boy, a modest and prudent man, a loving husband and father, a calm and intelligent politician. 

The most difficult - and as a result bloody - battle Dagorad had to fight in his own Hold. Arrogant minions, unruly mistresses, spoiled confidants and mannered with all the honors comrades of Lord Corbett did not think of stepping down after his death, nor did they think to give way to and accept the new rule. They believed, that they would easily wrap the young boy around their finger, and if it would turn out necessary, then they would easily get rid of him. There was a harsh surprise awaiting them. The young Lord acted fast, and thanks to gaining the support of many of his subjects, including the troops, soon the heads of the elites rolled off the scaffold. 

He befriended Lord Rickard Stark, having won many battles against the Wildlings by his side and, quite surprisingly, married a young lady of House Lannister - Adalia, by some called a Fairy, sealing the alliance with the second most powerful House in all of Westeros. They have met when Adalia was a handmaiden to Queen Rhaella, and Dagorad had visited the Red Keep, with the young Lannister woman falling in love with him at first sight, and marrying him soon after thanks to the Queen’s support. It was then, that the crest of House Raven changed - from a black raven on blue background, to three jumping golden lions on blue background. Adalia and Dagorad were a loving couple, and had only one, beloved daughter - Calanthe. 

There was only one thing that Dagorad inherited from his father - it was love for hunt. And that was what ultimately lead to his demise. He had been wounded durning one of the hunts beyond the wall that he attended alongside Rickard Stark and, having been wounded, shrugged the injury off, as it wasn’t very deep. Sadly, it got infected, and Dagorad passed away at the age 35 of blood infection, leaving his wife Adalia and his teenage daughter Calanthe behind.

Aged 14 at the time, Calanthe was being underestimated by her own people, and the lords of the North. They even offered Adalia to take the position as the Lady of Cintra instead of her, until Calanthe married someone who could rule in her place, but Adalia refused. 

Calanthe had won her first battle with the Wildlings being barely 15 years old, standing in the front line together with her people, and earning herself the title of Lioness of Cintra, that also touched on her relation to house Lannister. 

In her youth, Calanthe refused to marry a man, and when she finally agreed, after many persuasions, it was hard to find anyone willing to take her hand. Rumours would be spread of incestuous relationships in her family, of romantic adventures, of “hot blood” and even of a romance between Calanthe and her own cousin, Meve of house Mormont. They had to look far, and they found on easternmost side of the North. For an insignificant third or fourth cousin of Lord Hornwood, Roegner, marriage to the Lioness of Cintra was a huge honor and he agreed without hesitation. 

Calanthe, so they said, almost lost interest in marriage again and she was supposed to try and sabotage the whole thing, pretending in front of her bridegroom a crazy hag and hellcat… But she changed her plans when she first saw Roegner - the Lord was in fact devilishly handsome! 

Barely a year after Calanthe and Roegner married, the Baratheon Rebellion started. Calanthe, with her skilled cintrese troops, was one of bannermen for Eddard Stark, and arriving together with him and Lord Hoster Tully, they turned the tides of the Battle of the Bells. In the middle of the battle, as advised by her mother Adalia, Calanthe and a few of her most trusted men sneaked away to help Queen Rhaella escape to Dragonstone safely. After the Sack of King’s Landing, Calanthe and her troops returned to Cintra, supporting Robert’s claim for the throne, despite the blood ties that connected her and the Lannisters. However, she also stood against Eddard when it came to sending Jaime to join the Night’s Watch, with him being her cousin.

Barely a year after the rebellion Calanthe fell pregnant with a daughter - Pavetta. Having befriended Catelyn, Calanthe would spent surprising amounts of time in Winterfell, as well as invite the Stark children to the warmer Cintra, resulting in Pavetta and Sansa forming a close friendship. Recognizing Calanthe and Cintra’s impact on the success of his rebellion, Robert would also think of her as a friend and stop in Cintra whenever the Royal Family would visit the North. 

During this time, Calanthe tried to give Roegner a son, but sadly, they lost the baby twice and never again tried after that.

11 years after the rebellion, in year 294 AC, Calanthe is widowed, as her husband dies of smallpox. After that, she found herself with numerous marriage proposals - including several times a sailor from Iron Islands, Eist Tuirseach had proposed to her, but the lioness never agreed to marry again.

The Game of Thrones begins in 300 AC.

[bonkaisecretsanta]

Happy holidays @shayspencer from @fuckitimfangirling​!

Summary: They're doomed, probably. He still wants that heartbreak anyway. Warnings: Role reversal of sorts; pre-show/S1/S2 AU; alternative Salvatore backstory to fit the story and bc some things in canon did NOT fit Civil War era customs; bg DE; KC and SK if you squint; dark themes; abuse; bullying; murder; violence; underage not-quite-smut; dead and dying characters; angsty bullfuckery; mentions of suicide; anachronistic storytelling 💔🔫 = past, 💀🔫 = present (s1/2 AU stuff); de-aged Kai (b. 1991)

Grams makes her put on her nice dress, the one reserved for special occasions at church. It's pretty, yellow and red, and super fluttery - it makes Bonnie feel like a princess - but it's also too layered and itchy for the muggy weather. The AC in the old courthouse is down, and the windows are open while electric fans whir. The relief is transient when the rotating air cools her form. Bonnie, in all her seven year old discomfort, feels oppressed. Wearing so many layers of cotton and gauze in such heat is probably against the law. She'll ask Judge Kincannon.

But Grams had been stern and left no room for argument when she woke Bonnie early to braid her hair and get her dressed, so Bonnie suffers in silence. The older Bennett woman seems anxious, looking at her watch repeatedly as they wait for someone to arrive.

Truthfully, Bonnie is confused. They arrived nearly an hour ago and after speaking briefly with Old Sheriff Wilson and Mrs. Forbes, who quickly disappeared, Grams told her she would make a new friend soon. It was exciting news. But it's been an hour and she's bored.

Her legs kick the air in patterns. Left, right, left, right. The swinging makes them feel heavy and cold, like metal. Bonnie is made of steel, like Superman. She bet she could be a hero like him too, save lots of people and everyone would love her like they love him.

“Bonnie! Bonnie!” the crowd cheers in her mind. Her imagination is distracting, to the point she misses when Grams stands up. She doesn't miss the sharp swat on her shoulder or the side-eye from her Grams as she hops to attention. Bonnie smoothes her dress out and clasps her hands behind her back like they teach in school, and smiles pretty. Her knew friend must be coming!

Mrs. Forbes is back, this time without Old Sheriff Wilson. Bonnie can't really see him at first, because he's half hidden behind Mrs. Forbes’ legs, but then the police officer comes to a stop and Bonnie can see the little bruised hand gripping at her belt loop.

“Come on, honey,” Mrs. Forbes coaxes. It's the same voice she uses at sleepovers, when it's time Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena to settle down into bed. Blue-grey eyes peek out out from behind her, small face as bruised as the knuckles. The other little person is a boy, smaller than even her. Bonnie thinks he must run around a lot, if he has so many scrapes. Grams is always yelling at her not to run for fear of getting hurt.

The boy glances between her and Grams then retreats back behind Mrs. Forbes.

“No, no, Malachai,” the blonde officer states. “This is Miss Sheila Bennett, your foster mother. You'll be staying with her now.”

She moves herself so that she's standing behind the boy, her hands on his shoulders and patting soothingly. Bonnie can see the sling that holds his left arm and the patch of gauze taped to his head. His hair is buzzed short, to the point where she can see a scar zigzagging across the top of his head. It takes her by surprise and she can't stop the tumble of words from leaving her mouth.

“What happened to you?” the question sounds almost accusatory, even to her own ears and she flinches at herself even before Grams swats her again. The boy grimaces as well, looking down as Grams tells her to apologize. He swallowing hard and he looks like he's biting back tears. Bonnie is instantly apologetic.

She steps forward and tries to take his good hand, but he pulls it away from her. Bonnie doesn't pursue it.

“I'm sorry,” she says. “I didn't mean it. I'm Bonnie. Want to be my friend?” This time she holds out her hand, leaving the choice up to him. The boy stares at it and takes a breath and reaches out and Bonnie feels hope flutter. And die, when he pushes her hand down gently and walks past her to her Grams.

“May we go now, please ma'am?” He says politely. Grams looks between her and the boy - Malachai Mrs. Forbes had called him - and nods.

“C’mon Bon,” in her Grams’ voice, she can hear the implied try again later and so she follows dutifully behind, anticipating an awkward drive home. Bonnie's hand burns where Malachai touched her.

💔🔫

The drive is awkward and so is dinner. Kai (he asked to be called this instead of Malachai) is her age, but where he is polite and obedient towards her Grams, he all but ignores Bonnie when he can. When he must interact with her, his responses are short and he avoids her space like she's diseased. It's infuriating. He acts like she isn't there and it makes Bonnie’s temper flare. She wants to shake him and scream at him until he looks at her, says or does something. It's the most destructive feeling she's ever felt and it overwhelms her.

By the time her dad arrives to take her home, Bonnie’s fists ache from being clenched. She doesn't know why she’s so angry. He wasn't even mean - Tyler Lockwood had dumped a bottle of glue on her head once, the meanest thing anyone’s ever done to her, and they were friends. She shouldn't be so put out by Kai’s non-reactions.

But the anger is still there when she gets ready for bed, when her dad tucks her in, when she goes to sleep. It seeps into her bone marrow, takes over the fresh blood cells that enter her body. It remains when she wakes up the next day.

If Kai doesn't want to be her friend, fine. Bonnie will hate him like no one else has before.

💔🔫

Maybe he should've tried harder to be her friend. From Miss Sheila’s sighs and and heavy looks, Kai knows that she at least thinks he should have. But her perfect little granddaughter looked so pristine in her dress, like some sort of rose, green eyes pricking him like bramble. It was uncomfortable at best. Then she looked at him with something like disgust twisting her pretty face as she asked what happened to him, the likes of which she couldn't possibly fathom...Kai hated her in that moment. He'd never felt so low for what his dad did, never fell victim to self-blame, never thought he could have done anything to prevent it until that question.

What happened to you?

And shit (and he knows better than to use that word around Miss Sheila, he can tell how strict she is) maybe it was. Maybe if he wasn't what he was, maybe if he'd still been of any use to the coven.

What happened to you?

Joshua Parker did. It's not his fault. His dad was crazy.

Kai insists on doing the dishes, but Miss Sheila only allows him to clear the table because of his arm. He wants to help and his arm is healing nicely - it's his head that's killing him - but she hears none of it. When he finishes, the older witch shows him where he'll be sleeping and he gets ready for bed without prompt or protest. He doesn't want to cause any trouble. But sleep tugs heavy at him and his bad arm is starting to ache real bad along with his headache and he just wants to take his medicine and go to sleep. The faster he finishes his self-designated chores, the sooner he can do that.

When his head hits the pillow he decides he'll try once more with Bonnie. He'll apologize for his behavior and they'll be friends and when he starts up at school with her, she'll introduce him to her other friends and he can be himself without any worries about covens or merges or restoring family honor. It will be a fresh start, a new life better than the last. An adventure. Kai likes adventures.

His will start in the morning.

💔🔫

Joshua’s house is a gory mess when Jason finishes his walk through. He's back where he started, the spot where he found his brother attempting to beat his own son to death.

The Supreme feels sick, staring down at the small puddle of his nephew's half-coagulated blood.

He'd felt Melissa go first, then Josette quickly after. It was sudden and felt so violent that Jason doubled over from nausea and pain as he felt his coven members leave him. He'd summoned his Enforcers and the Board of Regents immediately then ported to his brother's house the second he was able. He'd been too late to save Joey and he'd barely been able to save Kai. Kai, his favorite of his nieces and nephews, whose tiny body felt so light when Jason had scooped him up. If it hadn't been for the boy’s shallow breaths and their faint connection, he might have thought his nephew dead like the rest. He can still hear his older brother's mindless, angry rants.

It should have been me, he had screamed. If you weren't an abomination, you could have made it right, he'd yelled at Kai.

Jason scowls at the memory. Josh hadn't ever deserved Kai. Any of his kids, really. His crazy older brother had been right in some respects. Coven leader was his potential birthright, but his own twin had died in a freak accident. Jason and Isla had been the spares.

But Kai was not an abomination and Jason would fight tooth and fucking nail to prove it to anyone who said otherwise.

He peels his eyes away from the browning puddle. Kai is safe now and the Gemini Supreme intends to keep it that way. Joshua is in coven holdings, preparing to be dealt with. Jason hopes he goes crazy trapped alone in the prison world he has ready for him.

For now though, there's an injured little boy that needs him.

💔🔫

He’s not able to talk to Bonnie the next day. She has school and he has a doctor’s appointment and a meeting with his uncle’s lawyer at the police station. The other man is a Gemini witch that Kai vaguely recognizes. He talks to him like he’s very slow and Kai doesn’t know how to tell him he has a prodigious IQ, that his dad’s break down didn’t erase it.

Although maybe his head injury did.

The police set up a camera and Kai answers all the questions as best as he can. Getting his head cracked open with bat didn’t make him dumber (luckily), but it made that night fuzzy. He can barely remember anything, just the fear and the stink of Joey’s pee. Even that memory makes him sad. He misses his brother.

“And where was your mother when you and Joey were hiding in the wardrobe?”

“She was with my dad in the room, trying to get him out. She was asking him to stop. She kept saying ‘calm down, Josh,’” Kai answers mechanically. He feels distant. Like he’s watching TV, but the TV is his body. His own hands don’t look real. The doctor used fancy words for it at the hospital. Trauma dissociation. Kai is dissociating because he suffered trauma.

He answers the rest of the questions like a robot, pretending he’s the Terminator. He wants to go home, back to Portland, before May ninth, before his dad hated him.

When it’s over, the lawyer thanks him and tells him he’s a strong boy. That he should focus on living a good life and that he’ll never have to worry his father hurting him again. Kai doesn’t want to know. Ever. The camera is off, so the lawyer blesses him and the familiar heat of friendly magic feeds Kai. The feeling wears off soon, but it’s enough to remind him of home.

By the time he gets back to Miss Sheila’s, it’s late and he’s started shaking. Kai falls in the older witch’s arms like the little boy he is and cries himself to sleep. He never gets to speak with Bonnie.

💔🔫

Kai doesn’t get to apologize the next day either. His head hurts and he’s sick from the magic being worked on him at a distance. Sheila explains that his coven leader is severing Kai’s connection from the Gemini Coven so that Joshua can’t track him that way. It’s for his safety, she assures. Kai still feels abandoned.

The boy cries himself to sleep. He never gets to speak with Bonnie.

💔🔫

When the connection breaks, it wakes Kai up. It’s very weird, like something he’s suddenly been dropped into ice water when he’s always been warm. He doesn’t like it. His back itches, feels colder than the rest of him, and it tastes like magic, so Kai gets up and goes to the restroom.

He has to take his sling off to remove his shirt and he jostles the cast slightly. He hisses quietly, rubbing at it until the sting fades, then he turns and twists so he can see his back.

There’s an intricate scar on his upper back. It looks like someone branded his skin with clock cogs, but when he runs his fingers over it, the skin is smooth and cool and sensitive to the touch. Kai shivers, retracting his good hand. The design looks very familiar, like something he might have read before. Kai racks his brain, but he’s tired and can’t think of it. It’s magic related, so maybe he can ask Miss Sheila later.

Curiosity satisfied, Kai puts his shirt in the bathroom hamper and goes back to bed. He feels better now, still a little sad, but he thinks tomorrow, he’ll finally be able to set things right with Bonnie.

💀🔫

Things never really get right between Kai and Bonnie. For that interim between when they first met to when they'd been able to spend more time with each other, the combination of Sheila’s initial focus on him and Kai’s dismissive attitude had poisoned Bonnie to the idea of building anything fruitful between them. Sheila’s refusal to divulge anything magic-related to Bonnie was another point of contention between all three of them. Kai disagreed with Sheila, but kept the secret, and Bonnie, nobody's fool, could tell they were keeping something from her, which led to her jealousy and resentment.

By the time Damon Salvatore swaggers into town with his bourbon and black leather and blacker moods, the animosity between Bonnie and Kai is a well-fed beast. Kai had resigned himself to merely keeping it contained between the two of them.

💀🔫

Bonnie didn't have a lot a people she cared about. She could count them literally on one hand: Elena, Caroline, her dad, Grams, and in some weird way, stupid Kai Parker. To some extent, she cared for Elena and Caroline’s families, but only in that they belonged to her best friends and were a part of them. Her relationship with every single one of her people was complicated.

Elena and Bonnie were closer to each other than Caroline, but they didn't always like each other either. Caroline was too insecure and competitive towards Elena and too dismissive of Bonnie. Sometimes, she preferred other cheerbots to them. Elena wasn’t coddling enough for Caroline’s ego and too often took Bonnie for granted. Bonnie wasn’t trusting enough towards either of them sometimes, because Elena was too selfish and Caroline was too controlling. Blonde and brunette both agreed Bonnie could be too ruthless or too passive with no in-between. They were best friend from childhood though, with a deep platonic love, and any of the girls would kill for the other two. It was a weird tumultuous relationship between the trio. Sometimes they were more enemies than friends.

Rudy cared, but he was a textbook workaholic. If Bonnie kept herself out of trouble and Grams didn't report any misgivings, Rudy Hopkins was content to give his daughter all the freedom and funding in the world. Grams was something weird. She was Bonnie's favorite person in the world, no doubt, but she was always lying to Bonnie about something big - something Kai knew about - and it angered Bonnie. At first, she figured it had something to do with Kai because whatever happened to him had been so bad that the records were sealed and the newspaper clippings had limited information regarding the events. Regardless, Bonnie had some resentment towards both parental figures.

Her dynamic with Kai was the most convoluted. They were arch-nemeses, their antagonism comparable to what Elena had with Jeremy, but worse. Bonnie used to do everything she could to get him kicked out, before she learned the timid truth. Over the years, they’ve had friendly moments, because he was Grams’ foster son and Bonnie was often at her Grams’ home when her dad wasn’t around. They’ve seen each other at their worst, in states no one else ever got to witness, not Elena or Caroline, or whoever Kai’s Elena-or-Caroline was.

But they were never friends. Bonnie can’t be friends with Kai, and he can’t be friends with her, and neither one can pinpoint exactly when the opportunity passed. No matter what weaknesses she sees and let’s him see, it was only ever between them. Bonnie had her friends and suitors who never stuck around. Kai had his little flings. None of their people were able to get in deep with them the way they got in with each other. So much of Kai occupied Bonnie, because so much of who she was hinged on negating him. It was the same for him, she could tell. There was no room between them for anyone else.

Bonnie cares deeply for very few people and she's not incredibly receptive to strangers. They tended to fuck things up.

💀🔫

Which is why, that Wednesday night when that bourbon-drinking, wearing-leather-in-the-summer freak shows up on Grams’ porch, she hates him immediately. Her mood is already at an all time low. Her Prius is getting a tune-up and because Grams’ works an hour outside of Mystic Falls, Kai is the one taking her home from Elena’s parents’ funeral.

Caroline had offered, but the blonde’s own absentee parent had showed up and Bonnie encouraged her to spend time with him. Between Bonnie’s AWOL mom and Elena’s orphan status, both girls wanted Caroline to soak up her parents’ presences.

Kai drives them from the funeral, says nothing to her and expects nothing from her. The air in the old Toyota is somber and Bonnie doesn't even look up from her phone until she hears him mutter “who the hell is that?”

He's squinting up at the porch, where a dark-haired man is sitting on the porch swing, elbows braced on his knees. Even in the dusky twilight air, his blue eyes are bright and piercing and focused on them. It unnerves her.

“Friend of yours?” Kai inquires. Bonnie wants to snap at him, but his tone is neutral and the question makes sense. She shakes her head in a negative.

“Let's go somewhere else,” she tells him. It's unlike her and Kai eyes her and turns off the car. She scowls.

Of all the times for him to be contradictory, it's when a potential murderer is gawking at them from her grandmother's porch. Typical.

She follows him out, sticking close. Bonnie hates Kai on a good day, but he's familiar to her. She trusts him to antagonize her, to annoy her, and hurt her feelings. She also trusts him to keep her safe. This guy? She doesn't trust him at all. He watches them watch him.

“Someone die?” he greets. Bonnie's opinion of him plummets more. Kai just hits him with the quirked brow. The Gilberts were a pretty beloved family - their funeral procession had been huge.

“Yeaaaah,” Kai stretches the word out. “Did you know the Gilberts?”

The guy's face does something weird. He appears mildly amused. “I knew some Gilberts, yes.”

His expression becomes serious and he stands. “Does Sheila Bennett still live here? I need to ask her something.”

Bonnie peeks from where she's been using Kai as a human shield and glares at the guy.

“What do you want with Grams?”

The guy assesses her, tilting his head and letting his eyes wander up and down her form. It’s predatory and makes Bonnie feel like meat before Kai rearranges himself between them. He's thumbing at his rings like he tends to do when he's agitated. The guy in leather smirks and answers her as though Kai wasn't there.

“Well, little bird, I'm in need of a Bennett witch.”

Bonnie almost laughs, but the way Kai's body stiffens in front of her chases off her amusement. She can see his default devious expression shift into something dark and angry. It sends Bonnie's belly to the floor.

With a grunt, the man follows Bonnie's stomach, crashing to his knees and clutching his head. Kai ushers Bonnie into the house, quickly following her.

“You need to leave,” Kai snaps at the stranger. “Your kind isn't welcome in this town, let alone at this residence. If you come back, I'll report you to the Council.”

With that he slams the door shut, leaving Bonnie with dozens of questions on her tongue.

💔🔫

About a week after Kai's banishment, his coven leader shows up on Miss Sheila's stoop. She lets him in with a smile, then leaves him and Kai alone with a pitcher of lavender lemonade and a round, blue tin of old lady cookies.

Kai picks at a thread hanging from his shorts. His uncle, feeling just as awkward, chugs two glasses of lemonade then plays with the cup. Man and boy peek at each other and are surprised to catch eyes. Jason makes a funny face and Kai chuckles. The tension eases.

“Kai,” the Supreme starts. “You know it's not your fault right? None of this,” he waves his hand around, indicates the general this. “Is your fault. Josh was sick and he heard something he didn't like and he snapped.”

Kai pulls at thread. “Dad said I was an abomination. He said if I'd been worth anything, the Regents would have let you name me and Jo as your heirs.”

Uncle Jason’s face gets dark. “That’s not really your fault Kai, no matter what anyone says.”

“If I was a normal witch and not a siphon, they would have said yes and dad wouldn't have done what he did.”

Uncle Jason grimaces. “Fuck Josh,” he growls lowly and runs his hand over his face. He looks so much like Kai’s dad (Like Jo and Joey. Like Kai.), it physically hurts Kai to look at him, some odd mixture of fear and longing hitting the child.

“Kai, I want you to listen to me carefully,” the Supreme reaches out and clutches his nephew's shoulders. The hold is firm and gentle and Kai basks in his uncle’s warmth.

“The Regents gave a conditional no. They wanted you to go through some intense training before naming you a prospective heir. Your dad was for it, but I vetoed the option.”

At Kai’s dismayed look, Jason wiggled his fingers under the boy's chin and smiles when Kai squirms.

“The training is very dangerous and an extremely outdated and prejudiced practice. The point is to overload a siphon with so much magic they absorb it permanently. It doesn't work. Most siphons die, slowly and painfully, because the spell leaves them open to all kinds of magical backlash, the constant influx of which causes deformities and madness. Do you understand? You would have been tortured to death by your own family.

“Trust me Kai, none of this is on you. Josh was sick. He was willing to let you go through torture and very likely die just for the prospect of being named heir.”

Jason ruffles Kai's dark hair. “You think I would’ve let that happen to my favorite nephew?”

Kai shakes his head. He feels happy and sad and angry and warm. He used to always wish to himself that Jason had been his dad. The thought used to fill him with guilt, but now Kai utters it without any thought.

Jason looks sad. “Me too,” he mutters. “But only if I just got you. No merge to lose you to.”

Kai feels...a lot. He launches himself at his uncle, who grunts, but hugs the kid. He pretends not to notice Kai’s sobs.

Jason strokes his back and stands, walking around and letting Kai cling to him. It's embarrassing. Kai’s eight, a smart and mature third-grader, not a baby. But he feels safe for the first time in months, so Kai lets the embarrassment go.

“No matter what, Kai, you've got me okay?” the Supreme rubs his back, where the intricate pattern adorns Kai’s skin. “This means you're safe. From the coven, the Regents, your dad. But you have me, whenever you need me, okay? Not just as your Supreme, but as your family. I love you, kid.”

Kai holds onto those last four words like a lifeline.

💀🔫

Bonnie screeches like a damn banshee when she's angry and Kai's tight-lipped disposition has her incensed. His ears are fucking ringing like bells by the time Sheila slips through the front door and takes control of the situation.

“Sit your behind down,” she calls after Kai when he tries to slip away.

Kai makes a face while his back is to her, careful not to let her see it. Sheila is a good mother, for all intents and purposes, but she's quick with discipline if she senses disrespect. It's mild to what Kai’s dealt with before, but she ran a tight ship that he’s careful not to rock.

“Now what happened?” she questions and holds up her hand for silence. when Bonnie starts up again about strange men, witches, and Kai being a freak.

“Speak up,” the Bennett matriarch commands him. Kai feels a headache coming on. He tells her everything about the visiting vampire anyway.

Bonnie’s obviously in a state of disbelief listening to him, except she had witnessed Kai drop the vampire with a thought. The mundane denial she'd been raised in wars against her nature and witch’s intuition. The inner conflict makes her waspish and snarky, to the point even Sheila loses her temper.

The fireplace blazes to life and the dining set levitates.

Bennett fire, Kai thinks watching Sheila watch Bonnie. Both generations of women are tense.

Instead of addressing her grandmother, Bonnie turns her attention to Kai. He's not even surprised. It's easier for her to spit vitriol at him than her beloved grandmother.

“Is this what you've been lying to me about all these years?”

There's a challenge in her eyes and a plea in her voice. Kai can't tell what she wants from him, but he gives her what he can. He ignores Sheila’s warning glare and tells Bonnie the truth.

💀🔫

Sentimentality and a sense of masochism made Damon stop at the bridge in the sleepy Virginian town again.

Mystic Falls was still a hole-in-the-wall, barely a blip on anyone's map. The grand return of The Comet was around the bend, bringing with it a slew of hatred and bitterness Damon had housed for the better half of a century. His grudge against Katherine Pierce had become a lifelong companion, his food, his bedmate, his liquor. Take away everything from Damon and he'd still have his hate.

His mood is dense. It settles on him like the fog he conjures and he thinks maybe killing someone would ease the hurt. It used to help. He'd find a pretty brunette and pretend she was Katherine and torture her to death. Soon enough the practice lost its appeal, but the indulgence of bloodlust was cathartic. Klaus had always encouraged it.

He sips bourbon a silver flask said Original has gifted him. Damon had been loyal to him for decades now - since the first Great War. World War. Whatever. It had been nice to meet another vampire on the front lines, to tell his story without any edits or omissions. To miss Stefan and have someone understand that depth of grief, how it had consumed him for centuries, how of course he could never forgive the conniving devil woman that led both brothers to their respective ends.

Imagine his surprise to learn that Klaus had also had it out for Miss Pierce. Petrova. Bitch wonder. Whatever.

So Damon agreed to work for him in pursuit of Katherine. The doppelganger had been his white whale, and he'd waited patiently for the advent of a new Petrova doppelganger. Imagine this surprise when that line guided him back to his hometown.

He almost didn't come. But he's already established that he's a sentimental masochist. Damon downs the last of his bourbon, stares out at the yellow DO NOT CROSS tape and orange roadblocks that wall off the broken bridge.

The night he ripped the human doppelganger out of the car...it had been his bad. He'd wanted to see her, wanted to frighten the family, have bit of a laugh before compelling them to forget the encounter. Instead he'd frightened them right off the bridge and into the water below.

Honest to god, he almost just walked off. He'd sped to the edge and spent almost two minutes just staring at them, wondering if anyone would come by and save them. When it became clear no one was around, he had dived in to save the girl.

Klaus would probably kill him if he found out Damon was the reason he had to wait another five hundred years to break his curse.

He pulled her out of the wreckage and breathed life back into the girl. Wet eyelashes fluttered and he compelled her to find help, that an animal ran out on the bridge and her dad instinctively tried to go around, driving off the bridge. He told her to stay safe because he was coming back for her.

And now he's stuck here, waiting for Katherine to show up like a mouse to a mousetrap. Waiting to give Klaus the green light to snatch her ugly heart out of her chest and for both men to get their revenge. Waiting until the Bennett witch (witches?) can be persuaded to lift Klaus’ curse. It's been so long and having the end in sight is a welcome thing. Soon it will be over and he can rest.

Damon is so tired after all.

💀🔫

He arrives after the kids leave for school. Sheila is tired and not in the mood for company, so she putters around inside before she finally decides to meet him. The vampire Kai described the night before is waiting on her porch swing when she steps out and Sheila pauses in her motions, facing him. He tips an imaginary hat to her.

“Morning ma'am,” he greets. “I'm Damon.”

The old antebellum accent he speaks with sounds completely natural on him, as at odds as it is to his appearance. Sheila studies him, her brow wrinkling in thought.

“You look like that Salvatore boy that runs the boarding house.”

He chuckles, seemingly surprised.

“Zach?” he questions, accent gone. “He's my great grandson.”

Sheila takes a seat in the rocking chair adjacent to him and indicates that he should continue. Damon licks his lips.

“You're not afraid of the big, bad bloodsucker?” he questions. His tone is something odd. Amused and apathetic. Bored and tempestuous. Even when he'd been hamming up the accent, he'd been both too distant and too emotional about it.

“I heard you were looking for me. Seems unlikely you'd attack if you need a Bennett witch to do your bidding.”

The vampire smirks, stretching his arms out along the back of the of the swing. His leather jacket sits in his lap, black like the rest of his attire. Boot-clad feet push the swing as he tips his head back, eyes closed. The gloom in his aura matches his look. Mighty handsome as he is, those angelic looks hid a soul blackened by the worst of human emotions.

“In 1864, I was doing quite well for myself. I'd done all a good first-born southern boy was supposed to do at the time. Married well, had a boy I adored, partnered with my father in the family business, funded and fought in war I didn't believe in, and came home due to injury,” here he pats his shoulder sardonically.

“The ideal Virginia gentleman, even though I hated myself for it. I never wanted to do or be any of that, but I loved my little brother more than life itself. I had few freedoms so Stefan could have them all. That's what older brothers are supposed to do, you understand.

“1864 was also a year when Mystic Falls was infested with vampires. It was quite unbeknownst to us Council members, but one of your mighty ancestors Emily had teamed up with a vamp named Katherine for one thing or another -”

“Safe harbor,” Sheila interrupts. “Suspicions about Emily being a witch were high, I'm sure you're aware. Especially after she turned down Jonathan Gilbert’s...employment offers. Katherine was to make sure Emily and her children made it safely to the Gemini coven in Oregon. She got the children there, by the way.”

The vampire stares at her and nods slowly.

“Noted. Anyway, Emily had made these nifty daylight rings for Katherine and her friends,” he waves his own through the air. “So they went undetected by the Council for a while. My own father housed Katherine as a refugee displaced by the war. It was during that time, she got her hooks in Stefan. When the Council discovered her true identity, she was captured with the other vampires with the intent of burning them all alive.

“Stefan attempted to rescue her. I attempted to stop him. But he was my brother and he fancied himself in love, and he pleaded with me to let them go. Said she was his heart…,” the vampire trails off, lost in thought. “I let them go, but my father was nearby and witnessed the whole thing. He shot us both to death rather than risk the family name being tarnished. Katherine ran off, saved her own skin - and your ancestors’ as well, I reckon - and I watched my brother die reaching out for a woman who didn't look back once as she left him there to die.”

Sheila is quiet. She can sense the anger brewing under his skin, but had Katherine not left the brothers, she and hers might not be here. She understands his pain, but it is what it is.

“Imagine my surprise,” Damon continues. “When I wake up in transition. Emily was there and explained that Katherine had been sneaking me her blood and compelling me to forget. I was to be a surprise for Stefan. Or leverage, depending on your perspective. To convince him to transition for her. She'd wanted him to choose to be like her, so he didn't have any vampire blood in his system when he died. But in doing that, she took my choice away. She left Emily behind to die as well - or whatever they had worked out - and your ancestor offered me a monster’s ring and told me what remaining options I had.”

“Why did you choose to be a vampire?” Sheila inquires, curious. “You seem to not be your kind’s biggest fan.”

Damon shrugs. “It is what it is,” he unknowingly echoes her sentiments. “I'd already lost everything - my father had spread word Stefan and I died trying to stop Katherine’s escape, so I couldn't go home. But I could have revenge.“

The silence that follows is heavy. Sheila absorbs his.story, filling in the gaps of his story with what she'd read in Emily’s grimoire. No matter how she turned it, Katherine’s role in moving Doris, Eileen, and Charles to Oregon had been fairly minimal. Emily had had back-up plans, which she wrote like Katherine had been aware of, so Sheila finds herself having a hard time condemning the man.

“And you need me for this revenge?”

Damon smiled coldly. “Why yes ma'am, I do,” he replies. The accent is back.

💀🔫

Bonnie ignoring him isn't anything new. Neither is her bullying him or encouraging her friends to bully him.

He doesn't know what he expected. This weird combination of making him miserable and pretending he doesn't exist wasn't it though. After he drops her off for summer cheer practice, she finally deigns to look up from furiously messaging on her phone to let him know Caroline would take her to pick up her car.

When she gets out, she greets Tyler who looks after her like a hungry puppy before turning a hard gaze on Kai.

Shit.

Kai tries to pull out but another car is blocking him. He's trapped. His car door is slammed open and he's yanked outside. No magic on mundanes, he tells himself right before throwing a punch at whoever had him gripped.

It's like six on one, but he refuses to be the only one leaving with bruises, so he doesn't bother holding back his temper. Kai is six feet, one-ninety pounds but the football players are all his size or bigger, so the fight back is difficult. He makes sure to nail Lockwood in the fucking face though. Jerk.

Tanner’s whistle blows and the players dissipate, leaving behind Kai and the asshole history coach. The two men eye each other before Tanner speaks.

“We have a wrestling team, you should consider trying out.”

Kai frowns at him. He can't tell if that was sarcasm or a legitimate pitch, but he doesn't care. He gets in his car and drives off, angry and biting it back.

Leave it to Bonnie to punish him for telling the truth. Nevermind his good intentions.

💔🔫

The next time he finally sees Bonnie, it's his first day at school. She's a grade below him, but she's one of the town’s three sweethearts, so everyone in nearby grades sat as close to her table as possible.

“Hi Bonnie,” he greets when he's able to push to the front. A blonde-haired boy eyes him suspiciously, but Kai ignores him. Bonnie, in turn, ignores Kai.

“I wanted to say sorry for the last time we saw each other. I was really rude to you and it doesn't matter what else happened, I shouldn't have been so mean to you,” Kai apologizes. Bonnie doesn't look away from her chattering friends. Kai's temper rises.

“Bonnie, listen to me!” he snaps, grabbing her wrist. Temper flaring, he forgets himself. He forgets that for all Bonnie's magic is latent, it’s still there, just beneath her skin, in her blood and part of her very soul. He forgets he's a soul eater. In his anger, Kai unintentionally siphons her.

Bonnie yowls, yanking her arm away, but Kai had thrown her away at the very first taste of Bennett magic on his skin. She looks at him with betrayal, clutching her arm to her chest. Everyone is staring at them in shock.

“I-I'm sorry. I didn't - I didn't mean to, Bonnie, I'm -,” Kai stammers. Bonnie interrupts.

“Go away! I hate you, just leave me alone! You freak!” At her outburst, the chatter picks up.

“Yeah, go away, freak.”

“Did you see what he did to Bonnie? What a jerk.”

“A monster.”

Someone grabs his lunch tray and dumps the contents on him. Someone else shoves Kai off the lunch bench.

“Go away.”

“We don't want you to sit here.”

“Disappear, freak.”

Food and wrappers are tossed at Kai, and he stumbles away, out of the cafeteria. Two lunch aids, talking to each other, stop him when they see him trying to leave. Kai says he slipped and dropped his lunch tray, and that he was going to the restroom to clean up. They let him pass.

Kai spends the rest of the lunch period quietly crying in the big stall.

💀🔫

She said no. Of course, she did, Damon had expected no less. Regardless, the comet is weeks away and Damon is on a mission. If Sheila won't do it, maybe her pretty little granddaughter might find incentive. He doesn't particularly care if Sheila gets the Council sniffing after his tail. He just needs the girls, the wolf boy, and Katherine, then finally, finally he can rest.

Through his ravens, Damon watches the Bennett girl and her blonde friend through cheer practice. The doppelganger isn't with them, probably still grief-stricken. They leave for the town garage and the blonde drops the little bird off. They make plans to meet at the Mystic Grill and when the blonde girl is sitting alone in her booth, Damon slides in opposite her.

“Mind if I sit here?” he croons, meeting her gaze. He watches as a familiar carnal hunger fills her face and her pupils dilate. Hook, line, and sinker.

It pays to be patient.

💀🔫

School starts. Kai is a senior, so his last science course is one of three electives and he chooses astronomy over psychology and forensic science. Kai’s had his fill of both over the years. Of course though, Bonnie is fast-tracked and an honors student. They're in the same class and Mrs. Galloway partners them for the course.

Kai’s still bruised up from two weeks ago, an ugly yellow settling under the bags if his eyes. Whatever. Prickwood’s nose is still splinted.

They get their syllabi and look over it as Mrs. Galloway explains the year long partner project. They're supposed to track the progression of a constellation over the course of the school year and make a presentation at the end of the year of what they tracked. And of course, because it's Mrs. Galloway’s class, she wants three written reports for the project, the first being a five-to-seven page partnered paper on their constellation’s history and the last two being individual reflective papers on the project that they'll turn in with their final presentation.

Kai sighs internally and considers dropping the class along with the other chattering seniors. He doesn't really want to do so much work in his last year, let alone have to partner with Bonnie. But Mrs. Galloway comes by with a cup of constellation names and a warm smile, and dammit she was Kai’s favorite science teacher. Physics with her had been bitchin’. Bonnie draws out their constellation and Mrs. Galloway writes down what they got.

Of course. They get Gemini.

💔🔫

A pretty little blonde thing opens the door when Klaus knocks. A frown mars her face.

“Who are you?” she questions, almost rudely. Niklaus is charmed.

Damon appears behind her, pulling a thin, black v-neck sweater over his damp hair. At least he seemed to be ditching his infernal jackets, Klaus muses as the younger vampire grips the girl's chin and makes her face him.

“Caroline, this is my friend, Klaus. Klaus, this is our host, Caroline. She was just about to invite you in,” he compels her.

“Please come in, Klaus,” Caroline says in that dreamy way compelled humans speak. Stepping inside, Klaus smiles at her and presses a kiss to the back of her hand.

“Please call me Nik,” he insists and gets taken in by her immediate flush. She'd be so lovely to paint. Damon rolls his eyes.

“The Bennett Matron said no, but she has a granddaughter on the cusp of an Awakening and a ward who also appears to be a witch. If she won't do it, I'm sure they can be persuaded,” Damon informs him, crossing his arms and leaning back against a wall. His eyes dart at Caroline, indicating to Klaus what he means by “persuaded”.

Klaus nods, then turns to Caroline, compelling her to forget anything she might hear them say and not to mention them to anyone at all. He tells her to occupy herself and she leaves them be.

Damon is staring at him.

“What?” Klaus asks.

“She'll probably die,” Damon states bluntly. “It's very likely I'll kill her at the end of all this.”

Klaus scowls at his friend. “I was just being friendly, since you seem to be your usual charming self.”

Damon shrugs. “She's a dead girl walking - what's the point in being pleasant? It's not like she'll remember.”

The Original is over the discussion and waves a hand, telling Damon to move on. The antebellum vampire reports everything, from his findings, to his confirmations, to his tentative plans, which they work through together. Klaus’ phone beeps and he answers without looking. Very few people have his number.

It's Elijah, informing him that Katherine has made contact about a Petrova doppelganger. The excitement in Damon’s face is immeasurable. Klaus soon ends the call and looks over his old friend and follower. He clasps his shoulder.

“Lay low and wait for my signal. Don't give away your presence,” he hands a stone beaded bracelet to Damon, who slips it in without question. “Let the witches think you left and wait for my signals. Soon, your hunt will be over.”

Damon nods, striking blue eyes practically glowing. He closes them off and sighs. “Just a few more weeks,” he mutters. “And it will all be over.”

Klaus heart breaks a little for Damon. But Damon Salvatore the man died over a century ago. In his place is little more than a vengeance seeking wraith. Death would better when it all ends.

💀🔫

It must be a year of bad luck, Bonnie muses. Maybe the town's chakras are misaligned. Maybe she should ask Grams and Kai, if they decide her worthy of any honesty.

She sighs, comforting Matt. She knows she's being harsh, but things are just so fucked up lately and she doesn't understand how two - maybe three, if her father knows - of the people she cared about more than anything else could lie to her face like that for so long. Maybe Kai, but it was unlike him. He preferred to hurt her with the truth than with lies. And he wasn't the type to use lies to protect anyone. He didn't care.

So that left her grandmother.

Bonnie almost wishes she didn't know shit. Ever since the night she learned about vampires, and witches, and werewolves (oh my!), shit in Mystic Falls had gotten so odd over the last few weeks and it seemed to center around her. First, Elena's parents. Then Tyler ends up hitting and killing a drunk and high Vicki Donovan when she wandered out of nowhere to end up in front of his speeding car. Matt is having a hard time looking at his best friend whom he both blames and doesn't blame for his sister’s death. Tyler's made himself scarce, wrestling with his grief and guilt in his own way.

On top of that Caroline has been acting weirder than usual, like all of this bad shit is just a pesky manicure that needs to be fixed and not, like, actual life and death.

And now, sitting in the police station holding a sobbing Matt, she overhears Sheriff Forbes talking to a distraught Jenna Sommers.

Elena’s been missing for 24 hours. No trace of her anywhere. Her phone, her car, and her keys left behind. Kidnapping is suspected.

Bonnie wants to rage. Apparently she has all this power, but she's never felt so helpless. Her people are falling apart and missing and lying to her and all she wants is to find a familiar place to feel safe. She thinks about calling Grams. Instead, she calls Kai.

💀🔫

Nervously, Katherine twists the napkin in her hand until it shreds. Her water, which she ordered for show, sweats for her in anticipation. She really can't stand Klaus. Waiting to bargain her freedom from him in a small booth isn't at all on her list of things she likes to do. But a small public diner is better than being alone with him.

A man slides into the booth seat opposite her.

“About time,” she mutters, looking up. Klaus smiles.

“I would apologize for keeping a lady waiting, but alas,” he indicates her. Katherine smiles tightly.

“Ha. Ha. I take it you found my information sufficient, then?”

“Indeed,” Klaus nods. “My people have apprehended the girl. Consider your debt to me paid.”

Debt, Katherine mentally scoffs. Choosing to live over letting herself be sacrificed for some stupid curse she had nothing to do with had put her in the Original’s debt. Only a Mikaelson.

“So if I leave, you won't pursue me? No revenge chase, no take backs, nothing? Our business is done?” the vampire doppelganger checks.

“Like I said, Miss Pierce - your score with me is settled.” His eyes flick over her shoulder. “With me, that is.”

A cool body flops down next to her. Katherine has time to take in black hair and clothes, pale skin, and flashing blue eyes before a butter knife is rammed through her wrist and into the table below. She cries out loudly, but no one turns.

A trap. Fuck, she should've known better.

“Hey, Kat,” Damon drawls. “Long time no see.” He slams her head into the table several times and the last thing Katherine sees before her world goes black is cold blue eyes shifting to a warm hazel. She almost calls his name, but then she remembers.

Stefan’s dead.

💔🔫

Bonnie can't stand her grandmother's foster son. Grams had gone out of her way to give Kai a nice birthday - taking them both to the amusement park in Whitmore, buying him a delicious mint chocolate chip ice cream cake - Kai's favorite, and gifting him with a plane ticket to Portland to visit family members who should've been taking care of him instead of Grams.

But he was ungrateful, and Bonnie can't stand him. He was turning unlucky thirteen, finally taller than her and about as sullen as can be.

His birthday is mid-April and it's warm as hell. Bonnie is sweltering in the eat, so she swallows down as much of the creamy Baskin Robbins cake as she can. Kai only picks at his. They're waiting for Kai’s case worker, and Bonnie has a mouthful ready to report about her “uncle's” living conditions. He's been extra snappish lately, escalating their usual bickering to all out brawls. He bruised her ribs, but she sprained his wrist - the same one he wore a cast on when he arrived almost five years ago. She'll lie through her teeth if it meant him finally being out of her life.

Kai's case worker finally arrives and she joins the for ice cream cake and pleasantries. She even brought a gift for Kai, a small collection of graphic novels that he must have told her he liked to read. Bonnie is itching for their interview. Anything, anything, if it meant he'll be gone and taking this uncomfortable feeling he elicits in her chest with him.

Her plan fails. His case worker is looking at her pityingly by the time Bonnie finishes her rant.

“Honey,” the case worker says softly. “He can't go home to Portland. His family want him as far away from his father as possible and the one they trust with him is your grandmother. He’s not going anywhere.”

Bonnie snaps. “But I hate him! He's weird and quiet and mean, and he creeps me out! Why can't one of his family members move here? Why does he have to take mine?”

The case worker softens. “Bonnie,” she soothes. “He's not taking away from your family, he's adding to it. Give him a chance, I'm sure you'll find that you enjoy his company more than you despise it.”

The Bennett girl is stubborn. She may have no choice but to accept Kai in her life, but she refuses to enjoy his presence. The next day she looks up abusive fathers in Portland in 1999. She finds a short newsclip about a man named Joshua Parker who killed his wife and two of his three children. None of the children's names are released so as not to reveal the survivor's identity, who was first in protective services, than the foster care system. The child's records were sealed.

Bonnie eases up on Kai. He's still a freak, but at least she has a better grasp on why. She'll let him stay. It's not like she has to like it.

💀🔫

Kai had picked her up from the station, drove Matt home, held her through her break down, then guided her to his room at Grams’ place. The older Bennett woman is out with the search party. The Sheriff had issued a curfew for everyone 17 and under to be home by 7 p.m., so Bonnie's sitting in Kai's room so that neither teen is alone.

He turns on his TV, leaves it on Chopped Jr, then goes downstairs to make dinner. Bonnie's hands shake. She feels cold, even bundled up in her warm PJ's under Kai's down comforter.

His room is cozy and masculine, shades of navy and light blues and soft greys and creams everywhere. Framed comic posters are lined up sharply on one wall, between two neat but overfilled bookshelves. His bed is in the corner opposite his nerd wall and his desk, the second largest furnishing in the room, is by the bed’s headboard, lined under his window. There's a clean desktop computer and game system set-up on it. The TV is on the dresser between his closet door and the entrance, which are both on the wall facing across the windowed wall. There's textured fabric everywhere, down comforters, knit pillows, microplush throws, a rough carpet rug on the wood flooring - it makes the room cozy.  She's never really been in here before. It was an unspoken rule between them that bedrooms were off limits. His room is kind of like a nautical watercolor, themed and clean. Bonnie smiles to herself as she realizes just how domestic Kai is.

Think of the devil - her foster uncle opens the door. He has two bowls of mac’n’cheese casserole and he hands her one before sitting at the desk and wolfing his own down. He says nothing, watching the TV as though having a red-eyed Bonnie Bennett in his room were a regular occurrence and not weird at all. Bonnie picks at her bowl - it's good, Kai's a pretty decent chef - before she sets it on the desk next to him.

Her adoptive uncle looks at her from his periphery. It's a creepy little habit he's adopted, watching her while pretending he's not watching her while she pretends to not notice. Bonnie's done with pretending.

“Kai-,” she starts.

“Not hungry?”  he interrupts. “I'll go wrap it for you.”

Bonnie purses her lips, but remains silent when he grabs their bowls and disappears again. She can hear downstairs, but then it's quiet. She lowers the volume on the TV and waits. Almost three minutes pass. Nothing from downstairs. Bonnie glowers.

Did he leave?

She gets up and throws open the door only to find Kai leaning against the frame. She starts, clutching her chest. Watches him peer up through his lashes at her.

Something in her belly flutters and her pulse speeds. Kai's hot. Distantly, she was always aware of this, but it's disconcerting to push away her feelings towards him - the vast majority of them negative - to acknowledge odd truths like that.

“You leaving?” he asks her. His voice is soft in the hush surrounding them. Bonnie shakes her head.

“I thought you left. I was going to look for you,” she answers just as quietly. Kai smiles sardonically. Holds up his clocked wrist.

“It's eight-thirty,” he replies. Right, she thinks. The curfew. Kai straightens up and walks into the room. Too close to her personal space and she steps back at an angle. He follows. Bonnie stops when her knees brush the bed. Kai stops when his chest brushes hers. He reaches out and Bonnie closes her eyes.

“I'll scream,” she whispers. Kai’s hands cup her face. They're warm and large and a port in the recent crazy. She's fes safe, with Kai of all people.

“As loud as you can,” he agrees. His thumbs rub at her erratic pulse. Bonnie's breaths come in ragged and a heavy, loud in the air.

“I'll hurt you,” she mutters, finally looking at him. His eyes are dark and focused. Whatever he sees on her face must encourage him because he brings them closer. His lips brush hers, teasing when he whispers back.

“I'll like it.”

💔🔫

Jason had buried his sister-in-law, his niece, and one nephew two days after he sent the other nephew to Virginia for safety. Kai's visiting for his thirteenth birthday and the Supreme had wanted to see the coven members he failed before picking up the one he won't from the airport.

Three pristine headstones look up at him, the two smaller ones with dates that break his heart. 1993-1999. 1991-1999.

Joey hadn't even made it to six yet, dying a few months short of that birthday. Josette barely made it to eight. And the boy who shared her birthday? Jason can only hope he has many birthdays to come.

Sheila's calls had alarmed him. Kai was acting up, skipping therapy, flushing his meds, contemplating suicide. He was fighting and being bullied, one of the perpetrators being Sheila's granddaughter no less, although Kai never ratted her out. Sheila intervened when she could, forced them to spend time together, but fixing that relationship was between the kids.

Kai had a particular fascination with death and death mythology lately. It might have been a phase of it might be serious suicidal ideation. Either way, Jason and Sheila split the cost of a roundtrip ticket for Kai, so that the Supreme could spend time with his favorite nephew.

Jason picks Kai up and they go shopping first, because none of the clothes Kai has really suits his personality. Then they hit up Voodoo Doughnut and a Trail Blazers game and Jason relaxes when he feels the gloom and doom in Kai’s aura lift.

“What about girls?” he asks when Kai finishes telling him about what he likes about Mystic Falls. His nephew’s face falls.

“Or boys!” Jason rushes to assure him. He didn't think Kai was gay, but it's better not to assume anything. “Or whomever you like! I don't care! I mean, I care, but you know in support, not because I think anything's wrong with you or-,” he's rambling, but it's okay. Kai's having an uproarious laugh at his expense.

“I like a girl,” Kai says, still chuckling. His face falls. “She doesn't like me though. Pretty sure she hates me, actually.”

Jason looks over Kai, feels out his aura. It clicks.

“Oh damn, kiddo,” he says. Kai grimaces. “Is that why you never try to get Bonnie in trouble?”

Kai frowns. “No, it's because I'm not a snitch.”

Jason stares. Kai shrugs. “At least when she hates me, I'm on her mind. And she's weirdly possessive about me. It's better than her not caring.”

That….that is fucked up. Love isn't supposed to be like that, let alone someone's first love. Jason says as much. Kai shrugs again.

“I have her,” he says. “It's better than being Tyler Lockwood, who does everything she says in hopes she'll finally do something about his boner only to be disappointed every time she doesn't even notice. I'm in her and she hates it, but I'm there. It's better than every other guy who likes her, but doesn't even ping on her radar. At least she sees me and thinks about me.”

Kai shoves another doughnut in his mouth and Jason sighs, letting the subject drop. It'll either change for the better or get worse until it dies. He just hopes it doesn't leave either child too scarred.

💀🔫

Bonnie's mouth is painful on his and their embrace goes from warm to hot, and she's wet under him, then wet surrounding him. He has to slow down, first for safety (That safe driving slogan, “better safe than sorry” plays in his head when he slides a condom on.), then for consideration, because he hadn't realized popular, beautiful Bonnie Bennett had made it to her junior year of high school without letting anyone have her like this. She clings to him and his kisses soften from bruising to comforting when her tears come. He’s not small, and he never wished he was, but maybe she wouldn't be in so much pain if he had been. He rubs her back and holds her and when she wraps her legs around his waist and encourages him, he feels like he's finally come home.

It's good. Not great, but Kai's nervous and Bonnie's never done it before. He makes sure she cums. Touches her and licks her until she screams, just like she told him she would. Just like he encouraged her to. When they finish, he discards the bloodied condom and offers to run her bath. She shakes her head and holds him instead. Kai traces shapes on her back and closes his eyes.

“What's going to happen?” she says into the dark.

“We'll be safe,” he replies. She shifts, sitting up. Naked flesh moves on naked flesh and Kai's cock stirs awake again.

“How do you know?” Her green eyes glow in the dark like a cat's and he strokes down her dark curls. The sight of her like this makes him ache. Kai’s hated and loved Bonnie in equal measure for most of his life. He has no idea if this is her using him for comfort or her finally giving in to their weird chemistry now that she fears she might lose the people she loves.

He almost doesn't want to know. He certainly doesn't want to think about it.

So he tells her about his coven in Portland instead.

💀🔫

When Elena comes to, she has no idea where she is or how she got there. The house is unfamiliar, but nicely furnished and clean, if not obviously abandoned. Her head throbs and she assumes that's the reason for absent memories. Slowly, the brunette sits up and looks around. She tells herself to stay calm even as horror stories about human sex trafficking and slave trades come to mind. Checking her limbs and body over, Elena is surprised to learn that she's relatively uninjured and unchained.

Another girl with dark hair is slumped over in the corner. She’s looks like a similar height and build to Elena, reinforcing the girl's thoughts of human trafficking. Even her hair shade is very close Elena's own chestnut locks, the only difference being that the girl’s is curly. Unlike Elena, she is chained up. Maybe she fought. If Elena can help her get out of her chains, maybe they can work together to get free.

Looking around, Elena quietly makes her way across the room to the other girl. She's a few feet away when a voice rings out.

“Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

Elena starts, whirling around. A tall, dark-haired man with piercing blue eyes is sitting on a chair Elena is one hundred and ten percent sure was empty, just seconds ago. He looks comfortable like, he's been there for a while.

He cocks a brow at her. “She bites,” he informs her nodding at the form behind her.

“Fuck you, Damon,” a woman's voice replies behind Elena.

It sends a shiver through her body. It's eerily similar to her own and Elena recalls the obvious similarities she noted earlier. She whirls around and is nearly floored.

The woman behind her...looks exactly like her. Doe-eyes meet doe-eyes, one set surprised and the other mocking. It's like looking at a mirror. Or an identical twin. Except Elena didn't have a twin.

The woman mirrors Elena’s dumbstruck face. “Oh, poor girl. Not only are you not as pretty as me, you're dumb and mute too.”

Elena shakes her head and steps back, looking between the two dark-haired strangers.

“What the hell is going on?” she demands. The face-stealer grimaces.

“Not so loud,” she rebukes. “And you're a human sacrifice. Welcome to the not so glamorous life of a Petrova doppelganger. My advice is to go vampire and not look back.”

“Because that worked out so well for you, right, Kitty Kat?” At he man speaks up and stands. He moves to where Elena is and grips her elbow. She tries to pull away, but he seems unmoved, merely tightening his grip and staring at her unnervingly. His grip becomes blistering painful and Elena cries out, falling to her knees as she tries to get away. She hears the chains rattle behind her.

“She's not me, asshole. I'm right here. If you want your revenge so bad, meet your maker like a man and stop picking on little girls.”

Damon lets Elena go, turning his icy gaze to her... doppelganger?

“Hush, Kitty Kat. No need to act like a jealous old crone,” he sneers. Katherine smirks.

“No need to act like a jilted lover. So what Stefan chose me over you? Your brother was a man grown, not your child or your wife. You already had one of each, but apparently they didn't occupy you like they should've.”

Damon's face grows hard, dark veins filtering onto his face. The chains rattle again as Kat stands.

“You should act like your doppelganger, Katherine, and keep your mouth shut.” He smiles and it's not friendly. “You'll both be dead soon anyway.”

With that, there's a rush of air, and he's gone. The doppelgangers stare at each other. Katherine tugs at the chains but they merely creak in protest. Steam rises from where they press her skin and the woman hisses.

“I don't suppose you can grab me stiff drink, can you?” she asks Elena. Elena just stares and with a shrug, looks for a kitchen.

💀🔫

“Oh my god, I'm a South Park Canadian,” Bonnie says, pulling her sweatshirt back on.

“What?” Kai questions, amused. Bonnie shrugs.

“I'm an uncle fucker,” Bonnie smirks at him. Kai lets out a shocked chuckle.

“What?! I'm not your uncle,” he laughs. He's beautiful, but she is stupidly, stupidly disgusted with herself. Why, she's not sure yet. She strokes his hair and kisses his cheek.

“I don't know...my grandmother adopted you. For all intents and purposes, you're my mom’s white little brother.”

Kai laughs again, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her between his legs where he's sitting on the edge of his bed. He smiles up at her.

“I'm fostered, not adopted,” he corrects. “Therefore, not your white uncle or anything. No incest here, Bonster.”

She starts at the nickname. He used to call her that when he would catch her crying over her dad choosing to work on holidays than spend time with her. He rarely calls her that, and it's always said in soft tones of comfort, never used in moments when she's dead certain he probably wants to kill her.

“Well damn,” she teases. “There goes that forbidden factor.” Kai laughs again, then pulls her back on the bed, spinning so that he's on top of her. His hands nestle beneath her shirt, playing with her belly button.

He kisses up the column of her neck. “Still very forbidden, lover.” He nibbled at her ear. “Sheila would probably kill me for defiling you.”

Bonnie snorts, but it's like Kai's words were a summoning. The front door slams open and Grams is shouting her name. Both Bonnie's and Kai's eyes widen comically and Kai practically launches himself into his desk chair and grapples for the remote to turn the TV on. They both hear Grams start up the stairs and Bonnie wraps herself up in one of Kai’s many blankets and pretends to be immersed in Tony Stark’s misadventures.

Kai's door bangs open and both teens sit up with a jump, not even faking their startle. Sheila’s hands go to her hips.

“You two deaf?” she demands. “And since when are you hanging out in each other's rooms? With the door closed?”

Kai stares at her, convincingly innocent. If Bonnie didn't know better, she'd believe his next words. “We're just watching a movie. Waiting to hear news.”

Sheila snorts. “Mhmmm. And I'm Barbra Streisand. Both of you get your tails downstairs. There's much to discuss.”

Grams turns sharply down the hall and Bonnie and Kai glance at each other before following.

In the kitchen, Grams is heating herself up some of Kai's casserole. Her back is tense and Bonnie can see the weariness that lines her body. A bad feeling settles in the girl's bowels.

“Grams?” She ventures. “What's going on?”

Sheila sighs and turns around. “You eat already?” she asks them. Kai nods and Bonnie shrugs, and Grams nods like this was about what she expected.

“Sit down,” she commands. When they're seated, she crosses her arm and states matter-of-factly. “We've found that along with Elena, Tyler Lockwood and Caroline Forbes are also missing. Since all of the appear to be friends, at first it's suspected they've run away together. But there was blood found in Tyler's house that matched his DNA, indicating a struggle. Caroline went missing on her way home from the mall in Talon Falls. Her car was found in the parking lot.”

She keeps talking, but her voice is drowned out by a loud ringing in her ears. Her breaths come in gasps. Her friends are missing. Her friends are missing. Her friends are missing. The room is too light, then too dark and Bonnie feels clammy and cold. She grips the table in front of her. A sharp slap to her face snaps her out of it.

Bonnie rubs her cheek as Grams lowers her hand.

“You okay, sugar pie? I wasn't trying to alarm you but I needed you to know the truth. Have you noticed anything strange going on lately?” Grams asks her.

Bonnie shakes her head. “No,” she states, her voice cracking. Her face crumples into tears.

This is too much. First, the uncovering of the supernatural, now her friends dying or disappearing left and right. She's never felt so powerless. The afterglow from her time with Kai fades. The self-disgust from earlier settles. She was letting Kai fuck her while her friends were going missing. How could she be so selfish like that, seeking out happiness from a guy she didn't even know how she felt about when her friends’ futures became uncertain? Her distress overwhelms her and she feels hot, like fire was boiling in her veins.

Strong arms wrap around her. “You need to calm down, Bonnie,” Kai's voice rumbles by her ear. “It's not your fault, okay? I understand, but you need to calm down before you burn the house down.”

His words don't make sense, but when Bonnie looks up with teary eyes, she sees her grandmother frantically waving her arms over flames that keep popping up.

“Hold it together, Bonnie!” she calls out.

Kai grabs her face and soothes down her hair. “I'm going to have to siphon you if you don't calm down, Bonster. Deep breaths okay? Don't let your emotions overwhelm you.”

Listening to his words, Bonnie let's herself be calmed. The flames die down. The young witch looks around the charred kitchen.

“I did that?” she whispers. Kai smiles softly and nods.

“Happy Awakening, Bonnie. Let's figure out how to save your friends.”

💀🔫

Greta arranges the casting circle in the field and spells the occupants asleep. Damon dumps Katherine - the vampire, the Lockwood boy - the werewolf, and Elena - the doppelganger in the cages where Greta indicates they should go.

“Bennett blood needs to be spilled from the eastern end, where the comet will enter the Gemini constellation,” she informs Damon. When he looks at her blankly, she sighs and a flaming ‘X’ chars the ground several feet from them.

“Over there,” she tells him. Damon grins and salutes, then takes a moment to look around. The three main ingredients for the “sun and moon curse”, all trussed up and ready to die. How beautiful.

He can hear Caroline crying as Klaus gently guides her back to the field. Damon frowns at that. It's weird, Klaus’s sudden fixation with baby Barbie, but to each his own. Damon doesn't know and doesn't want to know what the hell is up with that.

Movement catches his eye and Damon turns to look. The human doppelganger is stirring. She's been eerily calm about this whole ordeal, taking to the supernatural like a duck to water. It’s nothing at all like Katherine, reminding Damon of his brother's calm disposition and his widowed wife's faithful practicality. Her dark eyes meet his light ones. Warm earth to winter sky.

They study each other in silence, before she breaks it.

“Do you think this will make you happy?” Elena inquires. Damon shrugs.

“It doesn't have to. It just has to be over. I get revenge on Katherine by handing her over to die in away she never wanted to. Klaus gets to break his curse. Klaus compels me to forget and I get to rest.”

“To die.”

“Indeed,” Damon shrugs. “I wanted revenge and now it's here. What more after that? I never wanted to be a vampire.”

Elena’s somber face twists him with guilt and he glares at her.

“Maybe you should learn to live again,” she said. “Save yourself like you saved me that night on Wickery Bridge.”

Damon huffs a laugh. “You know I caused that accident, right? I didn't save you out of guilt or some hero complex. I did it because letting you die then would be an inconvenience.”

Elena's conviction seems to falter, but then Damon watches her literally arm herself with determination.

“You're not a bad person,” she insists. “And you can't convince me otherwise. I know what it looks like when grief kills who you are inside. To feel like the walking dead.”

Damon turns his back to her and closes his, but he's a vampire. He has super hearing.

“And I know that grief can be overcome. Maybe not now or tomorrow, but someday, you'll feel alive again and you can only do that if you keep trying.”

Damon opens his eyes. “What do you know?” he jeers lightly. “You're dying young.”

💀🔫

Shortly after her meltdown, Bonnie's phone rings and she hears Caroline's desperate voice pleading in her ear.

“Don't come Bonnie okay, they have Tyler and Elena and they want you to do something weird, please Bonnie don't come, they're gonna kill us, just call my mom.”

The phone gets taken away but she hears Caroline scream something about the woods and Bonnie writes that down for Grams to see. Kai grabs her hand when another voice, make and British, fills her ear.

“Nonsense, love. Caroline will live so long as you're willing to play your part, miss Bennett. All you need to do is prick your finger and recite some Latin. Very easy.”

“Who is this?” Bonnie asks. “You don't sound like that other guy.”

The man chuckles. “My apologies, darling. My name is Niklaus Mikaelson. That other guy was my associate Damon. He can be a little hard to like, I will admit. But he was only acting on my behalf. I need a Bennett witch for a favor, and I promise you handsome compensation.”

“Like my friends back home safe?”

“As many as possible, darling,” he replies. “But none at all if you or grandmother refuse compliance.”

Kai gets up and grabs his phone. He's texting someone furiously, listening as closely as he can to their conversation. He nods at Bonnie, backed by her Grams’ nod. Bonnie takes a breath.

“Okay,” she tells him. “I'll be there. You're in the woods?”

Klaus hums his agreement. “In a lovely little meadow near the falls. I'm sure you're aware.”

At Bonnie's quiet “yeah” he continues. “And I'm sure there's no need to tell you what will happen to any interlopers you bring along.”

He ends the call and Bonnie looks between the more experienced witches in her family.

“Who’s Niklaus Mikaelson?” she asks them.

Grams is eyeing the liquor cabinet. “Bad news,” she replies. “A very old vampire, one of the first.”

“An Original,” Kai said. He sounds excited. “I texted my uncle and asked him what an Original would need a doppelganger and a Bennett witch. He wants to break the hybrid curse!”

Both women look at him, unable to comprehend his excitement, or in Bonnie's case, what the hell he was even talking about. He smiles.

“It's enough for a powerful coven to run intervention. Like say, the Gemini Coven.”

“Let my coven stop the beasts. We're going to save your friends.”

💀🔫

The Original looks up when the Bennett girl and her grandmother step into the clearing. Damon comes to stand beside him and looks over the women.

“No Prince Charming tonight?” he presses.

“Your friend said no interlopers,” the younger one speaks up, glaring at Damon. He glares back.

“And you didn't even consider being non-compliant? Not to save your best friends?” The raven-haired vampire demands. This time the older Bennett woman smiles.

“Have you considered that we don't need them?”

Damon’s hackles, which had been raised all night, appear to settle.

“Touché,” he concedes and steps back.

Niklaus smirks at the exchange, amused. He nods to the Bennett witches.

“Ladies,” he greets. “This way if you will.”

Bonnie glares at him, but follows to where he leads them. It is Sheila who takes the spellbook from him, reading over the incantation. She looks at him sharply.

“You do know what you're asking, don't you?” she queries.

“Of course,” Klaus replies. “And I understand the risk you're undertaking. I promise to reward you well.”

Sheila scoffs, shaking her head but she turns to Bonnie and guides her through the beginnings of the incantation. Klaus watches them, puzzled, but goes to take his place where Damon is holding the human doppelganger.

“This is too easy,” Damon voices his thoughts. Klaus nods, agreeing. But magic is heavy in the air and it's affecting him like it should, do he decides to accept this lucky streak for the time being.

“We will watch,” he tells Damon. “And should they betray us, we will extract the price in their blood.”

Damon nods, still appearing tense and Elena stares after him pleadingly as he passes her along to Klaus.

“Please, don't do this,” she pleads, but Damon is stone tonight. His attention is focused on the older doppelganger.

He's barely focused on the younger one when he replies, “I have to.”

Klaus grins down reassuringly to Elena. “It's just a little bite, Elena. You’ll barely feel it.”

The magic is rough inside his body. The Bennett's reach the first crescendo and there's a cry from where Damon rips out Katherine’s heart. There had been a brief exchange between them, but Klaus was too preoccupied to take notice of the context.

The next crescendo comes and Greta raises her knife to sacrifice the world not. As it descends, Klaus's eyes close and he leans forward fangs extended for the last influx of magic. He can feel the chains on his inner beast being shredded and the world narrows to Elena's neck and the magic filtering his blood. The final crescendo hits and he bites into the doppelganger, who tries to flinch away.

But his body is breaking apart and coming back together all at once, so he doesn't notice Damon’s warning cry. Not until an ash-covered dagger is jammed in his back. Damon is rushing towards him, but as Klaus falls, he sees the other vampire fall to his knees, a magic whip putting bloody stripes down his back.

Klaus looks up to see Caroline, eyes teary as she grips Elena and pulls her away from him. Clutching her bloody neck, the brunette stumbles after her tall friend to the edge of the clearing. The desiccation takes hold and the last thing Klaus sees is a coven of witches apparating into the clear, glowing green Gemini mark overtaking the clearing.

No Prince Charming tonight? Damon had asked.

Therein lies their answer.

💔🔫

Joshua stares up at his little brother’s projection, the little crown stealer. The Supreme fiddles with his belt then sighs, stepping back to reveal the Ascendant. Hate surges through Joshua Parker

“This is Kai’s,” Jason informs him. “I modified the spell. Your little abomination will hold your life in his hands. This Ascendent will tie you to him, and when he chooses, your life will be sacrificed to fulfill whatever function he sees fit and not one moment sooner. This is your punishment.”

Jason’s projection begins to fade.

“Blessed be, big brother.”

💀🔫

Two weeks later:

Elena watches the weird new dynamic between Bonnie and Kai, before the witch (and that's weird as well, to think of her best friend in those terms) breaks away from his embrace to come sit with them. Caroline is still withdrawn. Her memories from her own kidnapping had returned slowly over the past two weeks. At first Damon had merely used her as a means of food and shelter, virtually ignoring her until he needed a human touch. With Klaus, her treatment had been upgraded, but it meant posing for hours on end for paintings. In their private moments, Caroline had said she can't really explain why the interactions with the Original left her so shaken, only that his attention both frightened and aroused her.

Oddly enough, both Elena and Bonnie could relate.

That night, Kai had murdered the witch working for Klaus and sacrificed his father to protect the Bennett's from the blowback of the spell. Elena didn't exactly understand it all, but she knows it meant a lot to Bonnie. Some tide had shifted between Elena's friend and her grandmother’s ward.

They have lunch. Elena's neck is still healing, but it no longer hurts to swallow or talk, which means she's ready for that spicy avocado ranch chicken wrap from the Grill. Which she's having now, because oh god, yeah. Caroline picks at her food, but she eats more than she has been. She's taking the supernatural reveal hardest, wanting nothing more than to go back to her normal life. But she can't forget and it's left her shaken to know how easily creatures that go bump in the night were willing and able to throw away her life.

She ends up leaving first, being picked up by her mom. Bonnie follows soon after, some kind of magical training she and Kai have to do now that Bonnie's magic is awakened. Elena waves after them, intending to enjoy a second wrap without judgement. It arrives quickly and as Elena takes the first huge bite she looks up to see blue eyes watching her with mild disgust.

She has to laugh at his expression.

“You came,” she greets. Damon nods, sitting opposite her.

“I did,” he said. “You don't think your little friends might see this as a betrayal? I'm pretty sure Blondie would be willing stab me like she did my oldest friend.”

Elena smiles. “Of course she would. You made her feel unsafe.”

Damon leans forward, bracing his cheek on his hand. He's almost devastatingly handsome.

“I'm not sorry,” he declares. Challenges. Elena meets it.

“Neither are we.” She takes a bite of her wrap. “How's living treating you?”

It doesn't sound right through her mouthful of chicken, but Damon seems to understand, making another face at her manners. He huffs and rolls his eyes.

“You shouldn't have interfered,” he chides. “You should have let the witches kill me.”

“What kind of punishment is that?” Elena teases. “Death isn't redeeming. You can't make things right with anyone from the grave.” She takes another bite. Damon watches her.

“I spent a century waiting to kill a woman who looked just like you,” he informs her. “When she died, she thanked me for giving back her heart right before I ripped it out of her chest.”

Elena stares at him and swallows her food. A lump stays in her throat. “Are you going to kill me too?”

He smiles. “Now, now. What kind of punishment is that?” He leans back.

“I think I'll stick around. Hang out with x-greats-grandson Zach. Uncle Zach?” he muses. “He looks older than me: I was only 25 when I turned. Uncle Zach.”

Elena smiles. “Well in that case: Welcome to Mystic Falls, Mr. Salvatore.” She holds out her hand. “I'm Elena.”

“Damon,” he replies after a brief hesitation, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

They share a smile. Neither really notices when he doesn't let her hand go.

💀🔫

Kai wakes with start when someone small and cold slips into his bed. He grumbles, but shifts so that Bonnie can make herself comfortable.

“Shut up, freak,” she mumbles and pulls his arm around her. Kai presses a kiss to her head. She's quiet, stilling long enough for Kai to start to drift off.

“Do you regret it?” she asks. Kai grunts, not opening his eyes.

“Killing your dad? Killing that witch?”

Kai shakes his head, burying his nose in her hair.

“Them or you, Bonnie. I pick you any day.”

“Even though I was awful to you for so long? Even though you hated me?”

Kai sighs. “I never really hated you. Hush before Sheila pops in to yell at us.”

She back-elbows him gently. “I mean it.”

“Me too,” he grunts. “It doesn't matter, Bonnie. I'd still pick you, any day. Over anyone. Even Grams. Even my uncle.”

Bonnie's quiet. “Why?” she chokes. He pulls her closer.

“You know why.”

With a sigh, she settles to sleep. “I never really hated you either,” she whispers. Kai hums, relaxing.

After a moment Bonnie sits up straight, wide-eyed and distraught.

“Oh shit,” she wheezes, scrambling out if the bed. Kai sits up slowly, somewhat cranky now.

“What now?” he croaks. Bonnie glares at him, then snaps:

“Our first constellation report is due in astronomy tomorrow!”

💀🔫

A/N for shayspencer: Hello shayspencer! I'm donutworry (fuckitimfangirling on Tumblr), your Secret Santa. Feel free to call me Allie. I hope you enjoyed your fic, it was pretty fun to write. It was a little tough to write, bc I think I tackled each of your topics at least once in other works and I didn't want to produce anything too repetitive. I'm also sorry for any typos, this is unbeta’ed and was written during bouts of free time - I work in healthcare and holiday season is the busiest. When I wrote it, I kind of focused on how Bonnie was the one to pursue the bad blood between them and Kai being the one to always offer the olive branch, even if it was after he hit back. I know the high school AU aspect was pretty loose, but I wanted to focus more on how their lives are supposed to revolve around school and how the supernatural disrupted that. Hopefully, I managed to do so.  Hopefully, the Delena was enjoyable. I did my very best, even though I'm neutral towards most non-Bonnie TVD ships. I know KC and SK where probs not what you wanted, but I think it's important to show how push-pull ships like this don't always work out. I did get pretty into Steferine because of you though, lol. It seemed you would be okay with darker stuff, so I went pretty emo because I wanted to bring you the feels. Did it work? If my sadism here wasn't enough, I've got two other WIPs inspired by your prompts to bring the pain. 😝 Happy holidays, enjoy any breaks you might have and any holiday pay you might make! Happy BK Secret Santa! I'll post this on FFN, Tumblr, and AO3 in 2018 after you've had a chance to enjoy for yourself.

[soft-butch-cassidy]

Since I dont understand tumblr messaging I use an ask to thank you for existing

💜💜💜💜💜

as for hanzo and genji’s interactions.... what happens in the game isn’t exactly “canon” in the overwatch universe. it’s been described as something like action figures? it’s all hypothetical: what the characters might say when at this place, or with this person, etc. it explains why there can be multiple of one hero on a team (tracer and d.va both have interactions with another tracer or d.va on her team), multiple of one hero in a match, and why certain characters who would never work together can be on a team (reaper and winston, junkers and zen/bastion/orisa, lucio and sym, etc)

with regard to those two, specifically? the lore in-game and those interactions were planned before the game’s release, mostly. so a lot of genji and hanzo’s interactions were made before a lot of the lore was released; namely, before reflections comic. which is also why hanzo’s interaction with widowmaker is different from his with doomfist regarding his joining talon. “Talon could restore your family’s empire.” “but at what cost?” compared to “you should consider joining us. i think we’d see eye to eye.” “I would have little to gain from such an arrangement. No, I will find my own path.”

hanzo himself, likely still after reflections but at least of the dragons short, has been dealing with severe depression, guilt, and self-loathing. not only had he killed his brother, he fled his own responsibility to take up the mantle of leading the clan. he ran away-- he thinks himself a coward, and he thinks himself weak. but he’s also got an ego built by his own grooming. he’s a trained killer, and he knows that’s the one thing he can do. he can kill, and he can do it well. he is well aware of this, and probably as current canon, is really starting to realize how fucked up his childhood was, and how he was groomed by the clan. 

he’s also very, very bitterly jealous of genji. genji was beloved by their father. he was given so much slack, and while still receiving a lot of the same ninja/samurai training as hanzo, genji was allowed to go and be a goofy playboy. he played games at the arcade a lot, he likely spent a lot of time at the ramen shop, he was always flirting with people. hanzo never got that freedom. his childhood was rigid, planned for him, every step and every word out of his control. 

which is also why he killed genji in the first place. it was his duty. he was to protect the clan; they came first. their honor came first. and i remember reading something, about how if someone became dishonored (such as by... yknow, fucking around and slacking off and not doing his job for the clan) his honor could be restored if he died at the blade of a fellow samurai. death in battle, and i think in the same vein as seppuku? i’m not super knowledgeable about this myself, but I think that’s right. 

he was trying to restore genji’s honor and that of the clan’s, and follow his own orders. and hanzo’s only human, as well. he was probably overcome with jealousy as he fought genji, knew he was a better fighter, knew that he was better than genji in his own mind and what he thought was what was important. but then when it was done, he had the reversal of those emotions, and realized that he wasn’t just a yakuza samurai; he was a twenty seven year old guy who’d just murdered his little brother.

and in the dragons short, we see a lot of that self-loathing and inner conflict. that “i killed my brother, and i hate myself for it, but i had to do it for the honor himself, for the clan, and for myself.” the shock of seeing genji alive-- he didn’t kill him after all. which shook up his own perspective on honor. had he done the honorable thing in killing genji? was it null and void because he wasn’t dead after all? had genji claimed his own honor since then? hanzo hadn’t fulfilled his own duty to the clan, after all. 

so there’s more conflict on top of what he was already dealing with. and then the jealousy and bitterness came rushing back. “real life is not like the stories our father told us.” hanzo never learned how to control his emotions, so he lashes out. he gets angry and violent. 

genji himself is, despite all he’s been through in the past few years, still trying to completely bring himself to forgiving hanzo. there’s still pain, and hatred, and jealousy, and bitterness. genji is a little bit arrogant, if playfully so. he thinks he’s better than hanzo now, in a way. he pities hanzo, and hanzo realizes this, and he hates it. hanzo doesnt want pity. 

and on top of all THAT, genji is a cyborg! “what has... become of you?” hanzo couldn’t even look at him when he asked that. “i am at peace with what i am.” not who i am from genji. there’s discrimination against omnics, and genji isn’t human, isn’t omnic. his cybernetics are beyond a typical prosthetic. the shimadas obviously weren’t really about that sort of thing, though hanzo doesn’t necessarily seem to see omnics as “lesser” or as monsters or anything, like zarya and the junkers do. 

hanzo and genji’s in-game lines are very sad and very angry, at themselves and each other. 

but i think, if they do a reflections skin (PLEASE GOD PLEASE), it may have some unique lines. they may update his voice lines entirely. of course his depression isn’t magically gone, and you can’t undo a lifetime of trauma and grooming in a few months, especially when you’re a wanted ex-yakuza and therapy isn’t readily available. but he’s clearly starting to at least see something brighter in the world and in himself. he’s moving on. 

so who knows? perhaps there is forgiveness for himself. he can find his own redemption. his own path. and maybe he can reconcile with genji, learn under zenyatta much the same way. 

we just have to hope the writers do him good.

[maddie-grove]

The Stark Romance Saga--Book #3: A Fire in Winter

Previous Installments: Loved I Not Honor More (Book #1, Robb Stark/Jeyne Westerling), The Iron Scoundrel (Book #2, Theon Greyjoy/Asha “Not His Sister in This Universe” Harlaw), and Kissing the Kingslayer (Book #2.5, Catelyn Stark/Jaime Lannister).

The Style

Sweeping old-school Susannah Leigh or Jennifer Wilde, but less offensive.

The Leads

Jon Snow, 20 years old, rising star in the Night’s Watch and (HE THOUGHT!) Lord Ned Stark’s illegitimate son. Tries very hard to be good and never admit to himself that he wants anything that the Night’s Watch can’t give him. Secretly full of hurt feelings and pent-up sexual energy, but he’s hoping to wear himself out with fighting, ranging, and Wall-maintenance for the rest of his life so he’ll never have to deal with it. Has a bad-ass albino wolf-dog, Ghost.

Ygritte, 23 years old, a wildling spearwife who longs for unity among the Free Folk and an end to the Others. Fiercely proud and righteously angry with the “kneelers” who have trapped her and her people beyond the Wall. Otherwise has a friendly and mischievous nature. Fond of archery, music, and pretty lads. Quietly grieving for family and clan members lost to the Others. Will never admit that her loss and displacement has made her feel lonely.

The Prologue

The confrontation between Jon and Catelyn at Bran’s bedside, largely unchanged. Jon, half-determined to prove himself in the Night’s Watch and half-resentful that all the adults responsible for him agreed so swiftly that he should join, visits his comatose half-brother despite his reluctance to anger Catelyn. He says goodbye to Bran and tries to offer sympathy to Catelyn, only to be harshly rebuffed. (Catelyn probably just snaps at him to get out, as in the show, rather than offer up the book’s crueler, more deliberate “it should have been you.”) He also reflects on how much he’s going to miss his dad and siblings.

The Set-Up

Not that different from canon, except for the part where she dies. Jon, marginally wiser and older, is on a dangerous mission in the Skirling Pass with Qhorin Halfhand, grizzled old Night’s Watch veteran. Jon reflects a bit about how he came to this literal and metaphorical pass (basically, he learned not to be a thoughtless dick to his smallfolk peers, plus it turns out White Walkers are real). Then Ygritte and her raiding party descend upon Jon and Qhorin. Jon manages to capture her, but they have a Moment and he lets her go instead of killing her. Later, he and Qhorin are surrounded by the Free Folk (including Ygritte, who personally captures him right back).  As per the mission, Jon kills Qhorin and pretends to join the Free Folk. Despite their differences and the complicated situation, Jon and Ygritte find themselves liking each other. They’re sleeping under the same furs at night, and one thing leads to another. (The consent issues in the book might still fly in a romance novel today, but I found it unnecessarily unpleasant and complicated even in ASOIAF; didn’t Jon have enough painful issues around sex with the bastard stigma?) They keep on doing it, and the cave scene happens verbatim. 

Then comes the raid on the Gift, where the wildlings attack an old man and Jon, horrified, comes to his defense. Having blown his cover, he rides back to the wall, full of arrows and regret. Ygritte consequently realizes that Jon turned his cloak on her and vows to hate him forever.

And that’s when things get weird. 

The Middle 

After making it back to the Wall and recovering from his injuries, Jon finds himself in another pickle: some of the senior members of the Night’s Watch  want him executed for killing Qhorin and doin’ it with a wildling. Despite Maester Aemon’s arguments on his behalf, things aren’t looking too good for Jon...until he’s kidnapped and thrown on a ship in the dead of night by some mysterious Essosi dudes who turn out to be Unsullied. One of the Unsullied (a Common-Tongue-speaking fellow who named himself Drogon the Human after one of the instruments of his freedom) eventually explains that Jon is secretly the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. It turns out that Daenerys Targaryen left Slaver’s Bay in the hands of the former slaves (who are doing quite nicely, as they had a plan in place that only needed some judicious use of dragons to work) and sailed to her birthplace of Dragonstone, where her people discovered Rhaegar’s secret diary (sample passage: “I’m going to use dishonest means to get fifteen-year-old Lyanna Stark to run away and have PROPHECY BABIES with me!”). Now Daenerys wants an alliance between her forces and the North...and how better to do that than to marry the half-Northern, half-Targaryen Jon Snow?

Jon’s not so sure. He’s going through a crisis, feeling undermined in his Northern identity and family relationships but definitely not feeling like a Targaryen either. He’s doubts that his illegitimate Targaryen half brings anything to the table politically, partly because he doesn’t share Daenerys’s view that Westeros wants a Targaryen restoration. Finally, although Daenerys is lovely and charming and kind and brave, he can’t feel anything romantic for her...and it’s not just because she’s his aunt, which is kind of weird. No, he also misses Ygritte, and it kills him that he’ll never see her again. After Daenerys guarantees that she’ll help all his family members and the smallfolk and the wildlings, though, he knows marriage is the best choice. Because nothing will get them good PR like marrying in the Sept of Baelor, they agree to postpone the wedding until after they take King’s Landing.

Meanwhile, Ygritte has been having a rough time. After surviving the Battle of the Ice, she and a small band of Free Folk try to eke out a living north of the Wall while planning their next move. (Without Jon’s leadership, the Free Folk never have the option to go south.) Her group is attacked by White Walkers and becomes even smaller. Heartbroken and lonelier than ever, Ygritte is at a loss...until she realizes that she’s pregnant. At first she feels happy, then pissed off about being happy, then worried how she’s going to raise a child in this frozen horror show. At last, she swallows her pride and resolves to go see Jon at the Wall. Obviously he doesn’t love her, but she figures he’ll feel obligated to help her, the baby, and maybe even the Free Folk as a whole. Unfortunately, when she sneaks into Castle Black, she finds out that Jon mysteriously disappeared right before he was supposed to be executed. “Oh, fuck, no,” she says, but she’s not sure what to do other than go to Winterfell and inform his family that some bullshit is happening. 

During Ygritte’s journey to Winterfell, Daenerys and her army successfully take King’s Landing. I won’t go into details, but the victory is just difficult enough to keep the battle from being anticlimactic. It happens just after Tyrion’s escape from King’s Landing, so the only remaining Lannisters are Cersei, Tommen, and Kevan. (Jaime is, at Catelyn’s secret request, in the Riverlands searchng for Arya.) Kevan dies in battle; Cersei and Tommen disappear mysteriously. The Tyrells and most of the other families shrug and side with Daenerys fairly quickly, because she has dragons. The smallfolk are like, “Huh, well, maybe she won’t be a volatile sadist like Joffrey; after all, most of the Targaryens weren’t like Aerys.” Their doubts are further assuaged when Daenerys’s policies turn out to be relatively egalitarian. Jon is happily reunited with Sansa (more about her later), even though they weren’t super-close as children, but is heartbroken to find no sign of Arya. He and Daenerys begin to make wedding plans.

Ygritte gets to Winterfell and is greeted by sympathetic new mom Jeyne Westerling and a moody, troubled Bran. (Robb and Catelyn are fighting in the Riverlands again; Rickon’s actually doing swell for once.) They’re both happy to offer a home to their unborn niece/nephew and its mother; Bran even takes her reports of the White Walkers seriously and starts to confer with the other bannermen as the Stark in Winterfell. Yet Ygritte isn’t anywhere near happy. Seeing Jon’s home has made her see how different their worlds are, plus she’s angry and hurt that he was off marrying his aunt while she thought he was dead. She’s about to head back north when Bran and Jeyne persuade her that Jon would never truly want to marry his aunt and sometimes you just to risk everything for love, respectively. Ygritte realizes they’re right and rides hell-for-leather to King’s Landing.

The Conclusion

The wedding’s about to happen. Sansa, initially enchanted by her secretly royal half-brother’s imminent marriage to a beautiful young queen, senses that all is not well and asks Jon if he really wants to go through with it. He says no, but he has to go through with it because it’s his duty and he’ll lose what little honor he has if he backs out. Sansa realizes that his motives are all wrapped up in bastard stigma and talks about how she used to think that everyone, including herself, would be okay if they just did what society told them to do, but then she discovered that the world was wrong. Her speech affects Jon, but not enough for him to call off the wedding so late...until Ygritte appears on the steps of the Sept of Baelor, out of breath and vocally angry with him for leaving her behind. 

“I’m sorry,” he tells Daenerys, who nods in a gracious and dignified manner. She’s secretly relieved that she doesn’t have to make a third political marriage and can just concentrate on ruling for a while (plus banging Daario Naharis on the sly). 

Then Jon tells Ygritte everything he’s learned: he thought he was wrong to love her and break his vows, but instead he was wrong to leave her. He never dared to hope she would want him back, but if she’s come all this way, maybe she would be willing to marry him? 

“You’re only saying that because I’m pregnant!” Ygritte shouts. Then she goes on for a little while about his precious duty and precious honor.

“You’re pregnant?!” Jon finally interrupts.

“Wait, what?” says Ygritte. But she’s convinced, finally, that he meant what he said. Otherwise, why would he give up marrying Daenerys in such a publicly embarassing way? 

Daenerys gives a hastily improvised speech about how Jon and Ygritte’s marriage symbolizes unity between all different types of people in Westeros. The crowd is like, “huh,” but the wine is flowing pretty freely and it’s something to talk about. 

Jon and Ygritte head north the next day, Sansa in tow, and are joyously reunited with Bran, Rickon, Jeyne, Robb, and the rest of the Winterfell household. (Theon and Asha send them a pineapple from the Summer Islands for the wedding, but it’s probably called something stupid like a spineapple.) In private, Catelyn stiffly thanks Jon for bringing back Sansa and apologizes for being unkind to him as a child; it doesn’t really change the past, but he can appreciate it for what it is. Jon and Ygritte are married in the Godswood. Afterwards, there’s a feast. It’s not entirely a happy occasion, though, because they all feel the absence of Arya deeply. A place is set for her at the table, though, in hopes that one day she’ll come home.

The Epilogue

Jon and Ygritte are living together at the Wall. Reforms have been made to the Night’s Watch, partly thanks to Daenerys’s unconventional views and partly thanks to the North’s commitment to fighting the White Walkers. Members can now enlist for ten-year shifts, not just for life; women can join; and, perhaps most pertinently, members can marry!!! So Jon goes down on Ygritte and it’s 100% legit.

Subplots

Sansa goes through most of her A Storm of Swords plot. Now released from her betrothal with Joffrey, she thinks she’s found allies in the Tyrells; however, her planned escape via marriage to Willas Tyrell is scotched when she and Tyrion Lannister are forced to marry by Tywin. Under the circumstances, she cannot love him, yet she appreciates his decency towards her and feels sorry for him because his family is cruel to him. When Joffrey dies, she and Tyrion are both arrested, leaving her to wonder whether he left her to share the blame for the crime; she feels betrayed, somehow, by the possibility. (Littlefinger tried to get her out, but there was a hitch in the plan, so he shrugged and sailed to the Vale without her.) She’s overjoyed to be returned to her family, yet she feels like she doesn’t quite fit with them after her experiences.

“Arry,” still suffering from amnesia and now calling herself “Nan” (short for Nymeria), has escaped from Harrenhal with her friends Gendry and Hot Pie. They join up with the Brotherhood without Banners, where she finds some small measure of peace. However, she’s still massively traumatized and troubled by her lack of identity. It becomes less painful, eventually, to stop wondering who she was and move on with her life. (Let’s assume that Beric Dondarrion et al never got a good enough look at her in King’s Landing to identify her.) At one point, Sandor Clegane tries to kidnap her, insisting that she’s Arya Stark, but she thinks he has worse intentions than ransoming her and manages to run back to the Brotherhood. 

Bran, also traumatized by the events of The Iron Scoundrel, continues to have troubling psychic visions. Taking action against the White Walkers as the Stark in Winterfell helps, but he still struggles with feelings of helplessness and isolation. Also, he knows his mom is secretly in love with Jaime Lannister and understandably thinks that’s really fucked up.

Sam and Gilly fall in love as they journey from Craster’s Keep to the Nightfort and then try to deal with all the crazy shit happening at Castle Black. They get married once the Night’s Watch reforms take place (perhaps in the epilogue?) in a subsequent novella.

[tumblunni]

MAN NOW I’M RANDOMLY GETTING THE GHOSH FEELS AGAIN

damnit i just think of an oc who vaguely resembles him and now I’m back in the quicksand?? seriously i literally HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME all i’ve done is see a bunch of lets plays that’re always filled with ~lol gross he looks gay here~ type jokes and gahhh...

And seriously i still don’t know if any of those Kinda Gay Moments were intentional or not, cos the playstation version is really badly translated sometimes. maybe I’m just projecting :P

and seriously he’s SUCH A WASTED CONCEPT! He does nothing! he only exists to be a vague obstacle in other people’s plots to cause stuff to happen. His rivalry with the player is never really explained and never gets a conclusion either way! I was really thinking ‘holy shit this guy looks like a romance route’ but nope instead like three other people get to have the tsundere type smoochies and he just gets a fuckin fully drawn swimsuit scene that appears for five seconds and seemingly serves no purpose. Seriously fuckin walks into your swimming pool in tiny speedo and says ‘ohohoho you should be grateful i am here’ but NOPE NOT A ROMANCE OPTION, NEVER

A HETEROSEXUAL MAN WHO TOTALLY HATES YOU

Seriously, you get SO MUCH consistant hints that he DOESNT hate you, though! its like The Lore is hinting he’s a more complex guy who’s gonna get some kind of payoff to this but NOPE even if you don’t believe that the fact he follows you around everywhere and constantly tries to impress you and his sister says he never shuts up about you and asks ‘seriously, what is your relationship with my brother?’ is actually supposed to be Potentially A Gay Character Whose Route Was Removed, then seriously it still comes off as like.. dude does not hate you He feels like a very performative parody of the weirdness of these rival characters. Why can’t i get my settling our differences route? Why cant i get a conclusion of him actully doing ANYTHING in the plot?

and seriously even if he was supposed to be 100% hateable and just exist to get his ass kicked, he DOESNT EVEN DO THAT! there’s no resolution to the rivalry, there’s no way to actually prove him wrong! i was pretty much only invested in doing [blablabla insert gameplay thing here] because the game always had ghosh come in and be all ‘ha ha u cant do it’. And then even when you max out the whole town, clear the tower, defeat the big bad and are dating all the girls simultaneously, he still doesnt even mildly change his dialogue. You can convince the whole town you’re awesome except him! And you dont even get any kind of knock on effect of that! He’s so defined by being The Better One, yet he doesnt even get to react in shock when you succeed at the stuff he was also aiming for?? And his personality doesnt get even slightly humbled by that? And he just continues doing the same generic rival dialogue even though the tower has already been finished and he’s already lost?? HIS PLOT IS LIKE THEY GAVE UP HALFWAY IN

and DEAR GOD I am just so re-obsessed with this damn game now that I know there was a gameboy port/adaptation/spinoff that ACTUALLY DID GIVE GHOSH A GODDAMN PLOT there’s no dating routes and no town customization and it’s generally universally worse gameplay, but apparantly the few characters who didn’t get removed in this version all got LOTS MORE DEVELOPMENT WOW and fffffff this game is so obscure and i cant even find much info on this even more obscure version!! all i know is that there’s this mythical Ghosh ending, and they renamed the monsters better translated names, and there’s some new characters added that have Backstory Importance so apparantly the whole plot got a real good sparkling lick of paint, not just mr rival dude

and like.. okay... I don’t actually know if this is true or not since I’ve never played the gameboy version and nobody has done a goddamn half decent lets play anywhere as far as I know but tvtropes says ghosh’s expanded role includes ‘his father was also killed by the final boss’, which seems like a bit of a lame way to give him a sympathetic backstory. literally just he had the same sympathetic backstory as you. And seriously who WAS his father? your father was the bad guy’s former friend he betrayed, who made this big sacrifice to stop his evil plan. How could they manage to slot in a second dad into that plot, even? so like, even if this fact being true would COMPLETELY DISPROVE my dumb fan theory, HERE IS MY DUMB FAN THEORY:

What if Ghosh’s father WAS the big bad?

Seriously, its always struck me as odd that him and his sister have no family resembelance, and the only character in the cast she looks like is inexplicably the bad guy. Seriously its quite uncanny! Ok kinda spoils to talk about it, but here’s Ghosh’s sister (not the spoils bit) and here’s the mystery bad guy. And in the brief time you get to see him pre-superform, you can see his outfit looks super similar to Ghosh + sis! I don’t know if its just a coicnidence, or maybe Selfi wasn’t intended to be Ghosh’s sister in pre-production, or something? But I do have this wild theory that this dude was supposed to be their dad and it just got cut out. A lot about the endgame is quite rushed in the playstation version!

So like.. here’s my theory/way to make Ghosh actually relevant/way to make the big bad come less out of nowhere at the very end of the plot, and have to exposition his entire backstory at you in his one and only cutscene. Cos seriously if he was your dad’s best friend who supposedly vanished alongside him, why does NOBODY EVER MENTION HIM? nobody in the town seems to have known he existed! What! My thought is that it coulda been way better integrated if you just hear all these lil stories throughout the worldbuilding about how Ghosh’s dad was totally a great hero too, and stuff. And it’d maybe give Ghosh a bit more motivation to have started his rivalry with you in the first place, if he’s had to deal with being constantly compared to you in a lesser sense. Cos that’s the thing about ‘my father died too’ as a plot point that really should have been expanded upon! The player’s dad is specifically The Most Famous Legendary Monster Tamer, who almost succeeded at beating the tower. Ghosh’s family is rich, yeah, but you’re The Famous Kid. Even if you start off as a total newbie to monster taming and it feels like everyone in town hates you cos theyre saying you wont be as good as your dad, all Ghosh can see is ‘they wont stop talking about your dad’. And sure, maybe he’s just a normal jerkass jealous guy, but maybe its a bit more sympathetic cos its ‘my dad died too, and nobody even remembers him, because he was a ‘failure’’. That would make a lot of sense to define his entire personality into what it is nowadays! And of course he would feel all tsundere as fuck about seeing you as a friend, its like his entire reason for being your rival is just because of something you didnt even do, something HE didnt even do, something two dads did a decade ago and he’s got only second hand info on. And he’s trying to retroactively justify it by finding evidence you’re totally as weak and terrible as you NEED to be, in order to fit this narrative. But also ‘hey I’m defining my life by defeating you and restoring my father’s honor’ can kinda turn into ‘hey i’m defining my life by following you around everywhere and impressing you and asking if you want to hold my hand a little’. (Seriously if the game wasnt intentionally writing him as a love interest, they made one hell of a coincidence! And then like 45 other coincidences every ten minutes in every dialogue!) And then your friendship route with him could just be him loosening up once he gets to know you and realizes all his preconceptions were complete nonsense. And like.. ‘hey ghosh i still like you even if you’re not the most famous and most rich guy ever’. It could be quite easy to make his character more well-rounded just by saying he’s so boastful to compensate for some self esteem issues? Seriously MAN I know none of this is canon but it just frustrates me that it would slot so well into canon!! so much potential!! you dont even have to change a thing!!

AND THEN the reveal of the bad guy could actually mean a bit more! I mean, its still a ‘whoa’ and quite sad just because you’ve spent the whole game hearing how your dad was such a cool guy (theory: his full name is literally Cool Guy) and then you get confirmation that he is indeed dead after all this time of trying to find him. And that he got betrayed by his best friend and all. But.. we dont know anything about the best friend!! he was never mentioned before! He only makes a big impression cos he’s very scary in the ten minutes of screentime he gets the only personality he has is just generic mwahaha villainy and like.. a vague implication that his motive was jealousy or something? thats what got me started on wondering if him and Ghosh are related, cos it would be a really interesting story parallel if the rivalry was destined to repeat itself with their kids. And like.. in the original dads it was a guy pretending to be a friend when he really only saw your dad as a rival, and now its his son trying so hard to be a rival when really he's in denial about being your friend. And it could be SO COOL to explore Ghosh’s reaction to this revelation! The betrayal would feel so much more personal cos we’re not just hearing about this guy betraying someone else a decade ago, we’re seeing him betray a main character right now. And like.. in the original we just hear ‘yeah, your father Guy thought he was good when he was really bad’, we the player are never fooled into thinking this guy isn’t bad, cos the first time we even SEE him is when he does [spoily thing] and [spoily character] is [spoilstuff] and then wham final boss, the end. I guess they kinda substituted it with that other twist? Betrayed by a different character even if this backstory betrayal is super obvious non-twisty. And like.. it could be an excuse to give big bad dude a bigger plot role, too! like, we could hear abot him second hand from Ghosh, we could maybe see some other flashbacks of his journey with your dad prior to the betrayal. Maybe he could even appear in person before the big reveal scene on the top floor? You could find him inside the tower and he could be like a mysterious mentor dude who seems good before the big reveal. And the dad thing could be a great misdirect! The player could think ‘oh, the reveal is gonna be that he’s secretly ghosh’s dad’ and not expect that ALSO he was a bad guy all along! Oh and MAN what if he does the whole ‘come join me, we can rule together’ thing with Ghosh??? Loyalty to your pedigree bloodline that you were once so proud of, or to the protagonist you’ve always pretended you had no loyalty to, but secretly admired as a friend...? And srsly the similarities in their characters are such a good thing for a conflict like that, even if they WERENT supposed to be related! It could be a piercing question to Ghosh, how far are you willing to go in order to prove your the best? Would you kill for it? I mean man Ghosh has more deep plot metaphor connections than the protagonist could ever dream of! A confrontation between these two would have been so damn cool!!

Oh and MAN what if it isnt just one short scene of ‘yeah no fuck u dad i’m saving Koh’, what if he gets a full arc of maybe temporarily switching sides for a while?? That could be SUCH a good twist on the formulaic nature of Ghosh’s role in the plot! So much would change if he was suddenly absent from his comic relief appearances in every scene of everyone else’s plot forever. And it’d be so depressing to see the second floor of the tower finally be empty again for the first time since the tutorial level! (In the game itself, one of his only real roles he fills is being an optional boss fight every time you pass this early room, and giving you a variety of helpful items if you win. he’s kind of an honorable rival beneath all that trash talk!) And like.. man.. imagine how on earth you’d explain this to his sister! it could even be a chance for a big ‘the hero’s fall’ type part of the story? after all this time of winning over the loyalty of the townsfolk, you could suddenly be back to unpopularity cos nobody believes you about Ghosh. he was the town hero! he would never have done that! And even if you chose to lie about it to uphold his positive image with the town (+5 Ghosh romance points?), you’d still get a negative reaction cos you cant explain why he went into the tower with you and never came back. You get treated as if you committed the sin that the bad guy did all those years ago! And maybe this could be another way for the romanced characters to have a minor effect on the plot? like, only if you finished their route do they believe you, and become the few people who keep supporting you from this point on. (Mom would be the only one otherwise, cos she really needs to get a chance to shine. It sucks that her role is so minor after the prologue!)

And then maybe ultimately you find out Ghosh’s betrayal was a lie and he just tried to trick his dad into thinking he was on his side so he could help you take him down in a big ol spectacular battle scene! Woo! Like, instead of [spoily spoils] being brainwashed by big bad and not being able to resist him in order to not kill you, but somehow being able to resist him in order to summon a lgendary sword you can use to win in a glorified cutscene, because the whole fight meant nothing and blablabla. (That sucked! At least the LP I saw last had the player try a bunch of cheats and kick the dude’s goddamn ass with overpowered monsters in an awesome montage just to prove that this was indeed unwinnable.) Nah, it’d just make more sense if your dad’s legendary sword was sitting there the whole time from when it first happened, and like... it just becomes unsealed when the villain starts his spell using your blood and etc. ‘Whoops I accidentally armed you with the key to my own demise’, karmic takedown! And maybe Ghosh plays a role by tossing you the sword, or holding the guy back while you get it, or something? And [spoily character] could still have a redemption cos maybe they could do a ‘kill me to kill him’ moment. Can’t break free of his control, can’t not attack you on his command, but since they’re now linked together in a terrifying final boss body horror mashup, they could sacrifice themself to be a weak point to him. It would make more internal sense than ‘i cant disobey him until the most plot important moment for no reason’. Also it would clear the air a bit about whether that character is meant to be like.,. actually choosing to betray you, or being brainwashed? Either way I’d still love them tho, its still a good plot to think of someone who was used as a literal weapon for so long that they lost hope in ever escaping and just agreed to do spoily things and trick you into thinking they were an ally, just because it meant they could get a chance to pretend to be a normal person for a few months. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS FOR YOU, SPOILY CHARACTER! OR there’s also the consideration that this endgame plot was so vague and badly translated that the first time I saw it I thought that it meant [spoily character] was actually like an artificial creation from big bad splitting himself into two. Which would have been a real good plot too, if someone literally born from the bad guy’s blood could still choose to be good and turn against him!

And also I dunno, maybe we could have a bit more explanation on why on earth big bad can even do this brainwashy fusion thing in the first place. Honestly, just saying ‘he’s Ghosh’s dad’ would kinda explain that? Cos Ghosh’s lil sis is the only mage in the town and its implied to be rare or something that humans can have magic without the assistance of monsters. So like... just say that her dad’s particular magical talent was this thing of stealing other people’s powers. ...tho again it makes it weird that her and Ghosh dont have any resembelance and he’s just a sword guy?? Hmm ADDITIONAL THEORY: ghosh isn’t actually a blood relative, he was big bad’s adopted son. that could give him even more reason to blindly believe his dad was good even though he doesnt know anything about him. And even more reason to be excessive about reminding people he’s Totally The Heir To The Richy Richerton Family, Here Look At My Cash. And like.. defining himself by proving his own worth as the town’s one true hero.  Mannnn goddammit why am I stuck having so many feelz about a minor as fuck character in a game nobody’s even played...

Oh and I did not know that Ghosh is an indian name meaning ‘quiet’, thank you google! Its a bit confusing tho cos some sites say its pronounced ‘goash’ like I assumed, but some say ‘gosh’? Then again, there are names that’re just pronounced differently. *shrug* I wonder if they intentionally picked that name as an ironic one for him? or, well, the game has a lot of random english names for ‘exotic factor’ so they might have picked it randomly too. Seriously, there’s literally a girl named Selfie. TFW your english is so bad you accidentally predict slang from years in the future...

[utterlypure]

A story for Ariadne

You were born on the isle of Crete in ancient times, in a year when your people still danced in honor of the bull. But for you, there would always be a dark secret behind that dance—

Your trouble must have started with your name. Your parents named your sisters sensible things for princesses: Phaedra, the shining one; Xenodike, justice for the stranger. But you they dared call Ariadne, and what mortal woman can live up to such a divine epithet? "The most holy" — you were born a mere girl. "The totally chaste" — like all women, you were fated to marry someday.

Were you old enough to know what it meant when the beast was born into the world? Surely you were old enough, as time passed, to recognize the shame that Minotaur brought to your family, to your people. What could you do then? You did the most you could possibly have done, princess: you stepped up among your siblings to claim responsibility for tending him.

From the court artificer you learned the secrets of the Minotaur's prison, the labyrinth built to contain him; from your people you learned the sacred dances through that terrifying place; from within yourself you drew the magic to empower them. There in the court of Knossos, you danced to keep the bull sane and contained by the foreign sacrifices to him. For centuries the bards would remember your performances; someday, the singers of the Iliad would recall your mysterious dancing grounds in the designs on the shield of Achilles.

And in your dance alone, you knew you were whole and holy, just as your name claimed.

But you grew older, and your innocence began to fade. You knew what you danced for, and you knew how much blood was shed. You knew your twirling steps through the labyrinth fell to the beat of death. And what mortal girl could live with that? Still you danced, but your heart wept.

When you were a young woman grown, then, a hero came to the island, bright of face and full of hope like the proper servant of the gods he was. He was the prince of a city across the sea, full of sunlight and olive trees, with no dark secret at its center, and he came to put an end to the beast you danced for and save his own people in the process. You loved him desperately.

So for this prince you betrayed your name: you profaned the holy bonds of family and gave him the secrets of the labyrinth which let him kill your brother, the Minotaur; you gave him a magic thread which led him safely to the beast. You betrayed your name twice: in your heart you desired this Theseus, and you planned to throw away your pure maidenhood with him and become his wife.

He slew the beast and he took you away.

But mortal men always make mistakes, and Theseus made the mistake of stopping his ship at the little island beyond the port of Heraklion, Dia; that little island known to be holy to the Nysan god, he of the bull and the vine. You were both tired, though. Perhaps he simply couldn't have known.

And as you slept there on the shores of that isle, exhausted from your adventure, Theseus looked upon you and saw who you really were and where you really belonged. The gods to whom he was loyal whispered dire threats in his ears of what would come if he took you away from your sacred home. So with their blessing, he fled, and he left you there—

When you woke, you saw his ship departing, and you were alone. You raged then in the surf; you yelled curses after him as you saw your love sailing away. You had betrayed your name once for him, but you hadn't even had the chance to consummate it.

Dionysos stole you then. He came to you, dancing as you once had with the joy of his love for you, and so the bull-god offered to take you home as his bride.

You saw in him terror and beauty, and you saw you could love him more than you ever loved a mortal prince, if you let yourself.

In the darkness of Dia, you turned your face away from him, and you did not listen to his pleas.

At last he offered you a gift: a holy crown of laurels, shining as bright as the stars, and he swore to lift you to the sky with its power. He swore to make you a queen among the gods, where you belonged.

So you let him place the crown upon your head, and you let him raise you up to the stars, where you could dance with him for ages to come.

No two ancient sources tell the same story of Ariadne. This is not uncommon; the concept of a single overarching religious canon is a relatively new concept in the West. Some Classical poets attempted to popularize pan-Hellenic versions of myths, but they were not authoritative.

The above is my version of Ariadne’s story in the Homeric through Classical eras — the one that has come down to us from the Greeks. Most of my actual sources are collected here on Theoi.com, but my reasoning for assembling them the way I did bears further discussion.

A number of my ideas come from Károly Kerényi’s (also called Karl or Carl, if you’re looking him up on Amazon) section on Ariadne in his book Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. I don’t take all of his conclusions as gospel, especially given that the author died in 1973 and therefore sadly missed almost half a century of research and discussion, but he had a useful habit of explaining his sources and logic such that readers could follow along and draw their own conclusions as necessary. Combine that with the fact that he is one of the very few Dionysian scholars who even gave Ariadne serious consideration, and he’s an invaluable source to me. The aforementioned book itself was the first major study of Dionysos that I read, and I highly recommend it to devotees willing to slog through somewhat dry mid-twentieth-century academic text and step lightly around some questionable inferences.

Now to address my story.

You stepped up among your siblings to claim responsibility for tending him. There is no direct historical evidence for the idea that Ariadne was specifically the caretaker of the Minotaur, but of all the children of Minos and Pasiphae, she is the one whose name comes up most in connection with her half-brother and his dwelling-place the labyrinth. As I make a point of trying to give agency to Ariadne where the original texts do not, I made this her decision.

The court artificer. A number of elements in this tale are attributed to one “Daidalos,” often identified as a singular culture hero by that name. However, Kerényi devotes some verbiage to discussing how this name originated in a pan-Hellenic title rather than one man’s name. It is likely that the name’s use in Crete predates the concept of Daidalos as a single trickster-hero. To keep the focus of this story on Ariadne, I’ve identified him simply as a fixture of the Knossian court.

The biggest change I’ve made to the common tale was to add Ariadne’s past as a performer of sacred dances. This is, again, an idea I borrowed first from Kerényi, but which I feel suits Ariadne very well. Its usage here in specific may be traced to a single line in the Iliad, as mentioned in the story, where the labyrinthine design on the shield of Achilles is compared to “the dancing grounds Daidalos made for Ariadne.” On its face, this is slender evidence for quite a significant addition. But given the persistent association of Dionysos and the women around him with ecstatic ritual dance, I consider it an important part of Ariadne’s story that should be restored here. I will talk more about the significance of dance to Ariadne and the “Dionysian women” in another post. It’s quite a daunting subject.

The choice to characterize Theseus as a loyal “servant of the gods” comes from another source entirely: Morris Silver’s Taking Ancient Mythology Economically, which mentions that the earliest Linear B appearances of the name Te-se-u describe its bearer as a servant of the gods. The text goes on to speculate that this meant he was a hired worker of some kind, but in later sources, he was definitely a prince, and that’s important to this story, so I kept that part.

It’s common to suggest that Ariadne, like her cousin Medea, was compelled by a goddess to love and assist the heroic prince who came to her land, but I haven’t found many good sources on that. In any case it doesn’t fit with my version of the story, where she falls in love with him because he represents freedom from the darkness of her duties in the labyrinth.

So for this prince you betrayed your name. I have discussed Ariadne’s name before, both in this story and in earlier posts. It’s interesting to note that despite being named as the ultimate holy virgin goddess, she persistently betrays that expectation.

That little island known to be holy to the Nysan god. The earliest sources for the story of Ariadne place her death — and therefore, as I have discussed, her meeting with Dionysos — on Dia, not Naxos. It was probably transferred to Naxos to fit better with later holy sites of the Dionysian cult. I name Dia as a holy island here, rather than just some random bit of rock, for two reasons:

Its name. Dia is transparently a geographical version of the very persistent root Dios, which simply means “god” or “the divine.”

Being the place where Dionysos married Ariadne would probably have conferred some divinity upon the little island anyway, as well as an association with the god himself.

Incidentally, Dia today is an uninhabited national park accessible by boat.

So with their blessing, he fled. The stories do not agree on why Theseus abandoned Ariadne; many don’t even give a reason. But some of the stories say the gods commanded him to, and multiple pieces of ancient art show him being spirited away from the sleeping Ariadne by gods or a god. I take from this the implication that the gods believed Ariadne already “belonged” to another, more powerful entity than Theseus, and as their loyal servant in this story, Theseus would have accepted that judgment.

You had betrayed your name once for him, but you hadn't even had the chance to consummate it. When the Odyssey refers to the story of Theseus and Ariadne, explaining that she was struck down by Artemis on Dia rather than abandoned by her prince, the text notes that Theseus “had no joy of” Ariadne before her death.

Despite the violent undertones to the language casually used by the ancients of Dionysos taking Ariadne as a bride (see my earlier post on the matter), those sources that actually go into the marriage in detail tend to describe him making advances on Ariadne but leaving the decision to reciprocate up to her. The texts repeatedly focus on the presence of the crown of laurels, which Dionysos would later place among the constellations as Corona Borealis to symbolize Ariadne and his love for her, as a bride-gift. It is my final touch in this retelling to cast the crown and the power it represented as the object that swayed Ariadne’s heart — she would return to the home she’d fled from, but only if she could go back with the power of a queen and a goddess.

[shinneth]

Gem Ascension Tropes (White Diamond-specific: R - Y)

Primary General Post ♦ Full Article ♦  Primary Peri Post ♦  Primary WD Post 

Redemption Rejection: While she’s not above begging for an Energy Donation, White never once has any inclination to see the light despite Steven going far out of his way to make his friends grant her mercy.

Reduced to Dust: All that remains of White Diamond after her self-destruction is pretty, glittery dust floating around the void in space where Homeworld used to be.

Restart the World: Late in Act III, White Diamond reveals this is why she’s striving to make the Diamond of Miracles a reality, as she would have the power to restore Homeworld to how it was in the beginning, when it was “perfect”. Interestingly, this does ultimately happen, although it’s going to be far from an instantaneous restoration. White also doesn’t live to see it.

The Scottish Trope: Peridot explicitly states in Act I that even speaking White Diamond’s name is considered extremely taboo in Homeworld society – this extends to even speaking of her indirectly. Only under extreme circumstances is the name ever uttered, and almost every time it’s done so in confidence. Most gems on Homeworld are aware of White Diamond’s existence but know little else of her due to this… which is how White Diamond prefers it. Even fewer ever see her in person.

Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: The presumed progenitor of all gemkind might have used her powers for genuine purposes and fostered life for the species at one point in her life, but it’s been a long time since White has used her powers for anything other her own selfish gain. She has the means to cure corruption, but outright refuses to do so. Most likely, she could even cure pallification, but White’s too invested in worldwide surveillance to humor such a concept. In GA, White’s very nonchalant about using her powers to play dirty; it was literally the only way she was able to break Peridot.

Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Technically, it’s implied that Yellow Diamond was actually the one who was behind creating Homeworld’s caste system and the laws surrounding that, but being that White is indisputably above Yellow in overall authority, it can be inferred that there was no law Yellow passed or mandated without White’s approval. And White is even more hypocritical and ruthless than Yellow when it comes to resorting to drastic measures that would be highly illegal for anyone else on Homeworld. At the very least, running your own planet into the ground should be illegal even for the Diamonds...

Self-Disposing Villain: White Diamond’s fate – the Despair Event Horizon proves to be too much for her to bear. She was already on the edge of the metaphorical cliff after losing everything she had to her name; the humiliation of Peridot nearly scaring her to death and Connie – a human – disfiguring her appearance as punishment for trying to use Steven’s generous Energy Donation as a final parting shot to the Crystal Gems… those moments finally break White, and as the Crystal Gems are safely departing from the remains of Homeworld before its complete destruction, they see White explode into a ring of glittery remains.

Smug Snake: White reeks of this.

The Sociopath: She makes Peridot’s former Homeworld persona look like a saint by comparison.

Super Empowering: While Peridot naturally had the components needed to make her Chartreuse Diamond, White had the power to prematurely develop Peridot’s diamond that would have taken centuries on its own and awaken the abilities Peridot otherwise never would have known she had.

Superpower Meltdown: After spending almost her entire life as the supreme ruler of her kind, feared and respected in equal amounts, White Diamond is unable to cope with no longer having a planet nor any subjects to live for the sole purpose of pleasing her. Even worse, White’s enemies who put her in this position no longer care enough to even kill her off. Once she’s regarded with indifference for the first time in her life, White Diamond’s Villainous Breakdown leads to an attempted attack In the Back, which almost results in a Backstab Backfire courtesy of Peridot. However, Peridot holds off when she realizes a low-caste gem like her was able to scare the living hell out of White Diamond. Then Connie chips in with the final parting blows with her hammer for good measure, meaning White Diamond in mere minutes was brought down from Evil Overlord to being rendered terrified of a worker gem from the rock-bottom of the caste system and damaged by a human. After they leave her without any more acknowledgement, White is pushed past her limit. Presumably out of sheer humiliation, she self-destructs shortly after the Crystal Gems leave Homeworld.

Term of Endangerment: Frequently referred to as White-Di by Amethyst.

“They Still Belong to Us” Lecture: Even after Chartreuse pulls a decisive Heel-Face Turn, White Diamond seems to take it in stride and still speaks as if Chartreuse is part of the family who will fulfill her role in her ultimate plan soon enough. Once she forcibly fuses with Chartreuse and becomes Celadon Diamond, she taunts the Crystal Gems by claiming she won over Peridot for good and will never break out of the fusion of her own volition. The Crystal Gems don’t buy this even for a second.

This Cannot Be!: This is White’s mildest reaction when she finally sees with her own two eyes that she was never meant to be part of the “Diamond of Miracles” legend.

Time to Unlock More True Potential: White is responsible for unlocking Steven’s “awakened” form, Pink Diamond 2.0, or at least completed the transitional state seen earlier in Act III.

Torment by Annoyance: On the receiving end of this while she has Peridot as a captive. It takes her a long time to force Peridot out of her gemstone, and once that finally happens, the Genre-Savvy Peridot, who knows her value as a Hostage MacGuffin and therefore knows She Wouldn’t Shoot Her, gives White Diamond the vilest verbal abuse she can dish out. Peridot knows full well she’s pissing White off, and naturally it drives White up a wall. Needless to say, the frustration stemming from this plays a big role in how badly White torments Peridot in future chapters.

The Ultimate Life Form: Per canon, though downplayed. White fully believes she is this, but not as herself; rather, as part of a double-diamond fusion that would create the “Diamond of Miracles”. Ultimately zig-zagged; the ULF is a double-diamond fusion, but it’s the one fusion that White Diamond herself is not part of.

The Unapologetic: Apologizing for her actions is a concept that never once crosses White Diamond’s mind throughout the entirety of GA. She doesn’t even bother giving out the sarcastic variety; White legitimately believes she’s done nothing that warrants an apology for anyone.

Undignified Death: Heavily implied that White Diamond blew herself up out of shame.

The Unfettered: Played very straight. Even when it’s proved late in Act III that White is not part of the Diamond of Miracles prophecy and that Homeworld is beyond saving, she’s still focused on destroying the Crystal Gems.

Ungrateful Bastard: Steven had every reason in the world to just ignore her request for an Energy Donation, but he still honored it despite White’s ever-growing list of criminal charges. However, his mercy and generosity is disregarded by White Diamond, as she’s more concerned with Steven and everyone else treating her with indifference before completely ignoring her. That, by her logic, justifies her using the very energy Steven gave her to stab this group In the Back. Or attempt to, at least, before Peridot deflects it.

Villainous Breakdown: Celadon Diamond had more of an overt moment of this caliber, but White definitely suffered a more intense variety in the final chapter of GA Act III when she’s faced with the truth that she has no part of being Iridescent Diamond. Then after being smacked around by Alexandrite and Moonstone, she faces the reality that Homeworld is about to completely fall apart, there are no longer subjects to serve in her name, her entire civilization has collapsed, and she is basically powerless. Once the Crystal Gems completely lose all investment in her personally, White loses it enough to screw up her final chance at redemption and perishes soon after out of sheer humiliation.

Villainous Legacy: Though White Diamond’s time is over as of the end of Gem Ascension Act III (and her death ensures she won’t make any future appearances outside of flashbacks), her influence on the refugee Homeworld gems lives on. The Crystal Gems’ biggest future challenge in Era 3 will be how they’ll go about liberating so many gems from this influence that has persisted for several millennia. 

Villain Antagonist: To Peridot’s Hero Protagonist.

Villain Takes an Interest: Throughout Act I, White really doesn’t acknowledge Hero Protagonist Peridot’s existence any more than she does for any other Crystal Gem not named Steven. Come the end of Act I, Left for Dead Peridot’s stuck with only White Diamond for company. The latter soon discovers Peridot’s Mismatched Eyes, and just like that, becomes way more invested in Peridot personally from there on out. It’s hinted at the end of Act II (and confirmed early in Act III) that unbeknownst to all, Peridot was actually a pet project of White’s prior to her emergence as Homeworld’s final Unwitting Test Subject. Peridot becomes an element White Diamond can’t possibly ignore and a vital component to her own agenda, so the latter goes out of her way to sell herself as The Mentor Peridot needs (after Mind Raping The Determinator, of course). White gives Peridot the illusion that They Can Rule Together, but really, White’s just saying whatever she thinks Peridot wants to hear to maintain control.

Villains Want Mercy: After her defeat, White asks Steven for an Energy Donation to heal her many wounds. Everyone finds this request suspect given White’s notorious pride – as well they should, since White’s eventually driven to use that very energy to shatter the Crystal Gems In The Back.

We Can Rule Together: In Act III, she tries to sell this trope to Peridot and Steven frequently (more specifically, their Diamond Alter Egos) – especially Peridot – but she really isn’t fooling anyone.  

We Have Reserves: Until Chapter 7 of Act III, this is justified. White Diamond’s body-snatching ability has enabled her to have this trope as a solid insurance policy for most of her reign.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: White tends to have this very attitude about everything that eventually goes catastrophically wrong. Probably the biggest offense is White deliberately running her own planet into the ground and banking on fulfilling some obscure ancient prophecy reboot her world back into its perfect state…

What is This Thing You Call “Love”?: Believes this and friendship are nothing more than weak illusions.

White Hair, Black Heart: Per canon, and much more exaggerated in this continuity.

Withholding the Cure: Even the Crystal Gems are aware that White Diamond knows she’s a necessary component to curing the corrupted gems (and later the pallids) yet won’t even humor the idea of lending her services to heal her subjects. The only way she “contributes” to finding a cure is through Pearl forcibly drawing out a sample of her essence when White Diamond is unable to fight back.

Woman in White

You Have Failed Me: Invokes this on Yellow Diamond to justify killing her off near the end of Act I.

Your Soul is Mine: Since the concept of pallification is not yet fully understood (and White herself certainly had no interest in giving any helpful information to the Crystal Gems), it’s a toss-up between Just the Soul or Killed Too in regards to what happens to a gem after pallification. The body is still functionally alive, just with their conscious minds entirely evicted in such a way that even White does not know (nor care) what happens to the souls after this and whether or not they can be recovered. For all they know, White could have just consumed them without realizing it, as she does directly consume Yellow and Blue Diamond’s souls along with their bodies.