#he keeps it a secret even from my henry despite that fact that my henry Could Not Do This (he's more skilled at the actual building)

[spring-lxcked]

forever in love with my headcanon of william studying the computer chips of the 80's and becoming obsessed with the idea of the animatronics having actual chips instead of rudimentary tech. massively improves his soldering and makes something without breathing a word of it to henry until he's practically done with it (because it has to be his, he wants that bragging point), and completely changing the face of the animatronics ( + this obv leads to the funti.mes in the end). spends so, so long perfecting it and testing it and than thrives off of the praise he gets for it, especially if from henry because Internalized Rivalry.

[henrysglock]

Lock Him Up And Throw Away The Key

There's something to be said for the wording (words in the words show as usual):

Virginia: Promise me you'll lock him up and throw away the key. Brenner: Understood. Virginia: The Principal’s girl, Patricia Newby.

Patty is equated, here, to the key that could free “Henry” from being locked up. She's literally thrown away in the scene with Brenner, and she was the last thing keeping Henry from falling to the Shadow. She was quite literally a key/the thing keeping him free.

This kind of wording often comes up in relation to the supernatural plot (and I'm sure there are more I can't remember off the top of my head). Joyce loses her keys in ST1 when Will goes missing. Mike speculates that closing the gate would kill Will in ST2, implying that Will is the key that needs to be thrown away in order for the gate to close/the Mindflayer to be locked up. Will is equated to keys. The Russian machine is the "Key", and it holds a gate open, and it takes two keys to close it/lock it. Joyce turns both those keys, equating her specifically to keys. Vecna needed someone (El) to “open the door”, equating El to the Russian “Key”. El is also heavily paralleled to Patty, and they have a number of duplicate lines between the two of them (I have a post drafted about that, it's in the works). El is, then, a key. Scott Clarke, in the pitch, is described as the key to solving the mystery of Montauk, and Alexei, one of the designers of the Russian "Key" is described as a "Russian Scott Clarke". Scott also has the key to the AV room in ST1, which he gives to Mike...which ends in El contacting Will in the void.

Something shrimpresting to me is that the key thing seems to come in sets of three. Two keys, two man rule, two man crew, sure. However. There’s always a secret third guy.

In TFS, Patty's accident took three despite the wings requiring a two-man crew. It took "Henry" unlocking one side, Brenner unlocking the other…and Virginia selling Patty out at all. Patty wouldn’t have had an accident if it wasn’t for Virginia. Virginia’s the secret third guy here.

It took three to close the gate in season 2: Mike in the tunnels, El at the gate, and Joyce to take Will out of the equation as that key. El and Will are the two focal points/the two "keys". Mike, despite the fact that he's not supposed to be there, is integral. He's the secret third guy.

In season 3, Murray, Hop, and Joyce argue about whether the Key is a two or three person job. It ends up requiring all three of them, despite there only being two keys. At above-ground Stargate, it took Mike's planning, El's powers, and Joyce's keys to take down the fleshflayer. Joyce wasn’t meant to be there, but she was integral to completing the mission. Joyce is the secret third guy this time.

In season 4, it took three to knock Vecna down, even if they weren't totally successful: El in the Mind Lair, Nancy in the UD, and Murray with the blowtorch in Russia. El was the late addition, she's the secret third guy. ST4 failed because Nancy's plan was rushed/full of pitfalls, and El's mental/emotional strength wasn't bolstered during the piggyback. Dustin makes specific references to needing both Mike irt the UD and Will irt the Mind Lair, and he was right. Mike's the planner/strategizer; They needed him in Hawkins. Mike would have been in Hawkins, were it not for the vacation. Will has the connection to One/the Mindflayer; it should have been him there with El, rather than Mike (hell, Will is the one who drove the monologue. There's a reason why Hopper said "Getting to Mike, that's the key" irt making mileven break up...). It failed because the keys were in the wrong places.

Will and El are said to be main characters next season…our two keys. Will is a key multiple times on a mental basis, and El is a key in relation to powers...Which means there's and integral secret third guy. And the guy? That’s Mike, baby!

This becomes interesting when we consider Will’s on-film Henry parallels, El’s Patty parallels, Mike’s Scott parallels…plus the boy "Henry" attacked in Nevada and the little black haired boy who sits next to Henry in the “Henry is 7” birthday video. Secret third guy.

It also becomes interesting when we consider this weird “three outcomes, two timelines” deal. Secret third guy.

All this to say...A Henry, Patty, Scott trio as compared to the Will, El, Mike trio irt Edward/Vecna. Come home to me <3

(Also, an aside: In the video, even Brenner sounds taken aback by Virginia's lack of care towards "Henry". He interrupts her to reassure her they'll take good care of him, and she comes in with the "I don't care about that, just make sure I never have to see him again" steel chair. Goddamn.)

[heartofstanding]

After reading your article, marriages like Eleanor and Humphrey, Katherine and John, Henry VIII and Ambeline are described as women seducing men, and men being victims... But marriages like Owen Tudor and Catherine, Richard Woodville and Jacqueta in Luxembourg, will have completely ignored the subjective initiative of women, and the description of men seducing women should be class/gender discrimination?

Hi anon, I think you're asking about what kind of narratives there were around the marriages between men and women of significantly higher status, the inverse of the type of relationships I was talking about in this blogpost I made on my sideblog that focused on Eleanor Cobham, where women married men of much higher status than themselves.

There seems to be comparatively little scholarship in this area and it would be fascinating to see what commonalities and links a study would produce. The marriage of men to women of significantly higher status than themselves does appear to have been fairly common but does not seem to have generated the same amount of commentary and infamy as the relationships between women who married men of significantly higher status. I don't mean that they didn't contract comment but that there was little sustained comment - who remembers Alice de Lacey and Eubulus le Strange? Katherine Woodville and Sir Richard Wingfield? The only high profile case I can think of is Joan of Kent and Thomas Holland.

From what I could find, there does not seem to be the equivalent narrative of the man of lesser status seducing or bewitching the high-status woman into marriage. Instead, what seems to be the common theme is, as Katherine J. Lewis says, "a standard medieval antifeminist notion: that women were naturally inclined to lust and rendered irrational to it."

Lewis was talking specifically about the case of Catherine de Valois. One contemporary chronicler remarked that she was "unable to fully control her fleshly passions" when she married Owen Tudor and even chastises her for keeping the marriage secret "so she did not claim honourable title [of marriage] during her lifetime". Tudor was described by another chronicle as "no man of birthe nother of lyflode", implying his unworthiness. But there seems to have been little rancour or blame directed at Tudor.

It's not until the 16th century where the image of Catherine as governed by her lust became the dominant narrative around her remarriage, perhaps because the rise of the Tudor dynasty and Henry VIII's marital life lent itself to it. One notable example is Edward Hall, who in 1548 described Catherine as:

beyng young and lust, folowyng more awne appetite, then frendely counsaill and regardyng more her priuate affecion then her open honour

He describes Tudor, on the other hand, as a "goodly gentilman & a beautyful person, garnished with many Godly gyftes, both of nature & of grace" - so the issue here is not that Tudor is a social-climber but that Catherine is at the mercy of her sexual desires. Probably the most extreme example of this is Nicholas Fox's claim that Catherine "bey[ed] like a very dronkyn whore" in bed with Tudor - a factoid often gleefully repeated by historians and commentators to proclaim Tudor's sexual prowess despite the fact that Fox made the claim in 1541 and is far from a reliable source. The fact that it has been almost universally used to celebrate Tudor by demeaning Catherine shows how long-lasting this type of narrative is. Polydore Vergil similarly describes Catherine dismissively as "yonge in yeres, and thereby of lesse discretion to judge what was decent for estates" and then focuses on Tudor's lineage and good qualities. Kavita Mudan Finn notes that he "succeeds in suppressing what on the surface to appears to be her agency - a second marriage of her own free will - by literally changing the subject to Owen, and by extension, Henry, Tudor". This same suppression of Catherine's agency appears again in Michael Drayton's Englands Heroicall Epistles where Catherine appears to be acting on her own initiative, wanting Tudor for herself, but Drayton has Tudor displace Catherine's agency by citing destiny as the impulse behind their union. Catherine "is reimagined as a 'a Royall Prize' for Tudor to claim", per Finn. In short, Catherine appears to be cast as oversexed and/or uncontrollable while Tudor's individual qualities and descent are celebrated and their union is seen as governed by destiny and fate.

Joan of Kent has fared similarly to Catherine in that she is primarily remembered as governed by her lust. Famously described as Froissart as "a woman more beautiful and amorous than any in the realm" and by Adam of Usk as a "woman given to slippery ways", Joan had married Thomas Holland clandestinely, then been convinced by her family to marry William Montagu (the son of the Earl of Salisbury). Around eight years later, Holland then petitioned the papacy to return Joan to him, resulting in a public scandal. When Holland died in 1360, Joan made another shocking match, this time marrying Edward of Woodstock, Edward III's eldest son and heir known to history as "the Black Prince". Joan was sometimes referred to the "Fair Maid of Kent" or "the Virgin of Kent", probably sarcastically. Thomas Austin's wife was alleged to claim that Joan's son with the Prince, Richard II, was "nevere the prynses son and ... his moder [i.e. Joan] was nevere but a strong hore". Froissart recorded a conversation between Richard and his usurper, Henry IV, where Henry alleged that a bastard gotten in adultery. W. Mark Ormrod also suggested that various narratives about Joan in the Peasants Revolt built on her carnal reputation and may have reflected even more salacious tales floating around. Thomas Walsingham emphasises Joan's other alleged, inordinate appetites around the time of her death - gluttony ("hardly able to move about because she was so fat") and a love of luxury.

It is, however, very difficult to determine how much of Joan's reputation was shaped to her marriage to a man of significantly lower status or how much it was shaped by her marriage to the man, at the time, was to be the next king of England and to whom her marriage was both scandalous and unconventional. Likely, her reputation was formed by both marriages, both feeding the other. The deposition of her son also meant that her reputation was used as a way of slandering him. Thomas Holland, on the other hand, barely seems to be mentioned, let alone criticised - even if he was in his mid-20s when he married the 12 year old Joan. In fact, Henry Knighton's chronicle positions Holland as seduced by her, crediting Holland's "desire for her" as the cause that she had been divorced from her second husband, Montagu.

Jacquetta and Richard Woodville do not seem to have drawn the same level of commentary. Lynda J. Pidgeon notes that "the marriage ... aroused no comment from English chroniclers until after the couple’s daughter, Elizabeth, married King Edward IV in 1464". though it was recorded in by continental chronicles, such as Enguerrand de Monstrelet, who recorded recorded:

In this year [1436], the duchess of Bedford, sister to the count de St. Pol, married, from inclination, an English knight called sir Richard Woodville, a young man, very handsome and well made, but, in regard to birth, inferior to her first husband, the regent, and to herself…

This has similar echoes to Hall's and Vergil's comments about the marriage of Catherine and Owen Tudor - Jacquetta marries from "inclination" a man inferior to herself but who is otherwise "very handsome and well-made". Hall includes the story of their marriage immediately after his account of Catherine and Tudor, which, as Finn says, "hints at a growing interest - and indeed, anxiety - about women's desires". Like Catherine, Jacquetta is described as marrying Woodville "rather for pleasure then for honour" and "without coū∣sayl of her frendes". Her family is said to disapprove but can do nothing - sentiments also found in Monstrelat and Jean de Wavrin. Rather than dwelling on Woodville's qualities as he does with Tudor's, Hall describes Woodville "lusty" and notes that he was made Baron Rivers, which may indicate . He does, however, mention the marriage of their daughter, Elizabeth, to the future Edward IV, a subject which he promises to return to.

The continuation of Monstrelet's chronicle links Jacquetta and Woodville's marriage to that of their daughter, Elizabeth Woodville's marriage to Edward IV, "thus linking these two unorthodox women together", per Finn. Here's what this continuation says:

After the death of the duke, his widow following her own inclinations, which were contrary to the wishes of her family, particularly to those of her uncle, the cardinal of Rouen, married the said lord Rivers, reputed the handsomest man that could be seen, who shortly after carried her to England, and never after could return to France for fear of the relatives of this lady.

It is likely that Jacquetta's unconventional second marriage helped render Jacquetta's reputation suspect and tempting to speculate that that it rendered her vulnerable to the accusations that she had used witchcraft to make Edward IV marry her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville. The unpopularity in France and Burgundy of her first marriage to John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford and Regent of France may have also played into this view. Ricardians have certainly framed her as her as a seductress and her family as scheming, power-hungry social climbers in that regard - while also treating her as driven by her lust for Woodville. However, there is no evidence that this was the view of Jacquetta at the time, either in England or in France.

Richard Woodville is unique amongst the three men I've mentioned in that he seems to have been reviled as a man "brought up from nought", along with the rest of his and Jacquetta's prodigious offspring. This view has been spurred on by Ricardian historians that have reviled Elizabeth Woodville, where the entire family is depicted as a brood of grasping social climbers. An invasive species, if you will. I think it is likely that Jacquetta and Richard Woodville's marriage has helped furnish this view, particularly for Woodville himself. However, this particular image of Woodville and his children only seems to emerge with Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV and the tensions between Edward, Woodville, George, Duke of Clarence and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick ('the Kingmaker'), rather than Woodville's marriage to Jacquetta.

In short: the tendency seems to be depict the high-status woman as indulging in her own sexual desires and acting on her own will, disregarding reason, counsel and sense, while the man of lesser-status is considered handsome but bears little or no responsibility for seducing the woman. He is of less interest to contemporary chroniclers. Woodville seems to be an exception, rather than the norm, in being seen as guilty of social climbing and there it is the marriage of his daughter, not his own marriage, that gave that reputation. Owen Tudor, as the patriarchal originator of the Tudor dynasty, was celebrated by Tudor-era writers for his qualities and Welsh lineage - it would be easy to conclude that had he not been the grandfather of Henry VII, he would be entirely forgotten.

There do not seem to be any contemporary claims than Tudor, Holland or Woodville seduced, bewitched or raped their wives, whatever historical fiction novelists or pop historians claim. However, it should be noted that there are many cases where other high-status women could be abducted and forced into marriage. One example is Alice de Lacey, Countess of Lancaster. For those cases, I suggest reading Caroline Dunn's Stolen Women. It is far too long and complicated subject to summarise in a tumblr post.

Sources:

Caroline Dunn, Stolen Women in Medieval England: Rape, Abduction, and Adultery, 1100–1500 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

David Green “‘A woman given to slippery ways’? The reputation of Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent”, People, Power and Identity in the Late Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of W. Mark Ormrod (Routledge, 2021, eds. Gwilym Dodd, Helen Lacey, Anthony Musson)

Katherine J. Lewis, “Katherine of Valois: The Vicissitudes of Reputation”, Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (eds. J. L. Laynesmith and Elena Woodacre, Palgrave 2023)    

Kavita Mudan Finn, The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography, 1440-1627 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)

W. Mark Ormrod, "In Bed With Joan of Kent: The King's Mother and the Peasants Revolt", Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain (ed. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Rosalynn Voaden, Arlyn Diamond, Ann Hutchison, Carol Meale, and Lesley Johnson, Brepols 2000)

Lynda J. Pigdeon, Brought Up Of Nought: A History of the Woodville Family (Fonthill 2019)

[superseiso]

*Free ramble card.* Go nuts

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE YAPPING!

So in my au, It takes in vaguely modern times. Most of the characters are based off of Classical literature and fairy tales that I've read or grown up with. Our main character of this story is of course, Henry Jekyll. In this au, Henry got away with it his bullshit as Edward. He lived on and managed to live his double life in peace. Though things start to fall apart when his wife, Cereza (tempt name, I need to stop using this goddamn name for every character with a most red color pallet.) starts to notice some odd things about Edward and Henry. Like why the hell are they never in the same room together despite being business partners, things come to ahead when she starts snooping through his lab. She ends up finding some pretty damning notes so she goes to our boy Utterson to figure out the truth behind Carew's death. As most people think some random thug killed Carew since the maid who saw him in the original book wasn't there to witness. It also doesn't help as even more strange occurrences such as people disappearing after getting a strange disease, So it's a balancing act of Henry trying to figure out what the hell is going on while also trying to keep his double life a secret. It's mostly about exploring Henry's characters and his relationship with the character's around him.

Henry himself, I want to add aspects of himself from the book while also exploring some aspects from how Henry Jekyll is viewed in pop culture. While I completely understand the Jekyll and Hyde fandom's disdain for the whole split personality possession trope that most people who haven't read the actual novella attribute the character's too. (example, The glass scientist. No shade I actually do like the comics.) After all the whole point of the book is the fact Henry is just straight up a bad person who is capable of being good, I kinda want to experiment with a weird middle ground if that makes sense?

Maybe he get's better or maybe he gets worse. Once exam season is over, I'll start posting more about my au. Right now it's a little bare bones since uni is beating me harder then Edward hitting Carew with a cane.

But thank you so much for listening to my ramblings as soon as I get some more free time, I'm gonna start posting more art. <3

[beautifulhigh]

I did not forget the results of the poll, my plan to post a reveal snippet last weekend was curtailed by my OTHER current project, namely my kitchen. Which now has a plumbed in sink!

ANYWAY

For those who are with me on this, here's the Super Secret FirstPrince fic which is, by the end of this post, not quite the Super Secret fic anymore...

Hope you're with me on this ride, and if you're not then no harm no foul just leave quietly so I don't have to be crushed by rejection. Because this one is really waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of my comfort zone and I'm still really nervous about it.

To the Keep Reading!

Alex woke to the soft click of the hotel room door. Apparently his security training was embedded deeper than he'd like because he was hauled from his sleep by the noise and the fact that the other side of the bed was empty.

So many things were wrong with this picture and so despite it still being dark out and probably insanely early he was wide awake.

"Henry?" he called, hoping that the noise he'd heard was actually the bathroom door.

He knew it wasn't but he checked anyway.

He pulled on his pants and slipped the room key into the pocket before moving out into the hallway. As they'd taken over the entire floor they didn't have security every other door as would normally have been merited. He looked left then right, only seeing Cash standing at the end by the elevators.

Cash, who accepted his family's request to move to their private security at the end of Ellen's second term. Cash, who relocated his whole life to New York when Alex moved up there and who dropped hints about getting to enjoy good BBQ when Alex and Henry started talking about Texas.

Cash, who had been there through every high and low of his relationship with Henry.

Cash, whose normally solid posture was broken by a single finger pointing down the corridor to his left.

Alex walked to the end of the corridor, tapping Cash's hand in a subtle low five gesture, before heading to the left. The rooms down here were either empty or used by the security team members who were taking the other shifts, but at the end was the reason why this floor had been favoured and requested: a small meeting room that they had been able to make use of to stay on top of official business.

"Have you said anything to him?" Alex heard Bea's voice coming from the other side of the door.

"And say what?" came Henry's reply. "How do I tell him?"

"You tell him," Bea said softly. "After everything you two have been through—"

"Exactly, Bea," Henry interrupted her. "After everything we have been through to get here, how do I tell him? 'Good morning, darling, did you sleep well, by the way we need to talk about the wedding'?"

"Hen—"

"God, I wish we'd never agreed to this."

"You don't mean that."

There was an awful silence, one Alex felt like lasted forever, before he heard Henry say, "I think I do. Sometimes I wish we'd never wrecked that damn cake."

"You need to talk to him."

"I don't want him to hate me."

"He loves you—" Bea started but Alex was startled from his eavesdropping by the sound of a door opening behind him in the corridor.

He turned quickly, too quickly, and there was a flash of movement and a second when he felt like he was falling before there was nothing.

.

.

.

.

Alex woke up slowly as the light filled the room, rubbing a hand against his face. His arm ached a little as he lifted it, adding to the things that felt a little off. He ignored those thoughts, pushing back the covers and heading to the bathroom. Lifting the lid he started to pee, staring down blindly in front of him as he did so.

The voice in his head was a little louder, a little more insistent, and it wasn't until he was washing his hands that he finally noticed what it was trying to tell him.

Only one wash bag was on the unit: Henry's wasn't there.

He walked back out into the room, looking around for Henry's case but his was the only one there. The other side of the bed clearly hadn't been slept in and even though he knew what the result would be he still flung open the closet to find only one suit bag hanging there,

Panic rose in his chest as he reached for his phone on the side, pulling it free from the charger. As he did so his arm ached again and he instinctively rubbed it. His fingers ran against the raised line of skin and the physicality of it unlocked a memory for him.

"What the fuck?" he muttered, pulling up the sleeve of his t-shirt to inspect the graze there.

It was only when he lifted his phone that all of the horrible, terrifying, impossible pieces fell into place.

One bag in the room, a graze on his shoulder.

His bare ring finger, engagement ring missing.

His lock screen, his childhood dog and not the photo of him and Henry and David.

The date on his lock screen with the calendar reminder already showing.

ROYAL FUCKING WEDDING – TODAY.

The time wasn't what he was focused on, but the date.

Friday, September 6 2019.

"What the fuck?" Alex repeated. 

.

.

.

.

Reasons why this is bullshit

1. I do not live in some science fiction world or whatever and time travel is purely theoretical

2. So clearly this is a dream

3. A very vivid dream in which I can read and write. Apparently I shouldn't be able to read

4. What else can it be but bullshit?

[eunchancorner]

Revenged and Rescued (Part 12)

Lines have been crossed, now decisions must be made

-

“So, it seems like the Wall knows we have Henry…” Galeforce murmured, half to himself as Charles and Henry stood across the table from him. At the end between them, Rupert stood at attention, as though acting as a mediator, despite being the most notoriously aggressive.

“What we need to know first is how they found out we have him,” the pilot reasoned, “We told others that we went to the jungle, not that we brought anyone back, much less Henry. It’d have to be someone who knows that Petrov is looking for him, too.”

“What are you suggesting, Charlie?”

“I’m suggesting that someone’s trying to sell Henry out, though I’m not sure why. Money, maybe? Or maybe a grudge…” his gaze slowly turned to Rupert, who looked offended at what he seemed to be implying.

“Calvin, I may have hated him before, but things are different now. He saved the love of my life, and besides, I’m loyal to General Galeforce. And he wanted Henry’s rescue to be classified information. Maybe Drake mentioned it too loud around someone, you know how he is.”

“Drake hasn’t left camp since we got back from the jungle, Rupert!”

“... right, my mistake. I apologize…” the ravenette grumbled.

“Either way, we shouldn’t be accusing anyone of giving out sensitive information to a random prison-” Galeforce began, before Charles interrupted

“It’s not random! Petrov will stop at nothing to get Henry, and apparently, someone knew that and was willing to spill secrets for something. We need to figure out what this something was, and who it was, because no one is going to endanger Henry like that!” 

“Charles, I can defend myself-”

“Not against Dmitri, you can’t,” Galeforce interjected into Henry’s protests. “No amount of augmentation will be enough. He’s been able to get his hands on top-of-the-line technology that not even we have access to. Every interaction with him will be a gamble, and our loss will be the end of you.”

“It’s not safe having Stickmin here anymore. It only makes us a target for Petrov,” Rupert reasoned with a sigh. “But it’s not safe letting him leave either. He’d be a sitting duck, even with wings and weapons. It’s a bad place to be, and we have… very limited options.”

“We could protect him. Petrov can only handle so many people before he gets overwhelmed. Alone, Henry’s in danger, but we saw what happens when Petrov is outnumbered,” Charles argued, a determined spark in his eyes.

“But who’s going to defend Stickmin every waking hour? Because that’s what we’re going to need to keep Petrov away. At least as a deterrent, if not more,” Rupert questioned incredulously.

“Me. I’ll do it. I’ll keep Henry safe.”

“Charlie, no, we can’t do that to you-”

“General. Sir. I want to do this. I want to protect Henry. I’ll do it with my life if I have to, but I will protect him, whether you believe I should or not. This- this isn’t a matter of any duty or responsibility or anything professional like that, I just… I want to make sure he’s safe. Can you give me that, at least?” Charles asked, almost pleadingly. Henry stepped closer to his tentmate, gently placing a hand on his back. Part of him wanted to ask if he meant it. Another part already knew the answer.

Galeforce sighed in defeat. There was no arguing with a determined Charles, a fact Henry knew he’d understand better than anyone.

“You can look after Henry, but you can’t do it alone. Dmitri isn’t working alone, so neither should you,” he pointed out, and Charles hummed quietly in thought.

“We could help,” a sudden voice offered from the opening of the tent, drawing the attention of the others inside.

“Andrew?” Charles questioned, a bit surprised. “When did you even get there?”

“Been here a few minutes. I heard you guys talking and got curious. Squad C could look after Henry,” the ravenette stated calmly, “I wouldn’t mind, and the others probably wouldn’t either. Even Phlex. Actually, especially Phlex now.”

“He’s right.”

“Oh, hey,” Andrew greeted as he stepped aside, giving Quentin room to step in. 

“We’d be glad to help protect Henry. I can’t say I speak for everyone, but I can say that the others really seem to like him. So, I think that with the whole squad’s help, we could keep him safe. I’d like to see Petrov try to get through all nine of us!” the older pilot said confidently, crossing his arms and standing tall. “What do you say, Henry?”

“I-... I’m not sure what to say, I… I just can’t believe you guys are going through all this trouble after what I brought here. Are you… are you guys really sure you wanna waste even more of your time on me?”

“Henry, look at me,” Charles almost ordered, turning Henry to face him, his arms tight in the pilot’s grasp. “Nothing we do regarding you is a waste of time. I will defend you with every breath as long as it means I don’t lose you again. I know you’re not defenseless, but against Petrov, you might as well be. And I’m not letting anyone take you away, much less some bitch warden.”

He’s so close to me. He’s staring me straight in the eyes and telling me he’s willing to die for me. Am I supposed to say no?

“O-okay…” he agreed, feeling his face heat up at how intense Charles was being. Even as he turned back to the general, one hand was still on Henry’s arm, and he couldn’t look away.

“So I guess that’s settled then. Squad C will officially be the Henry Protection Squad. And I’ll be his main protector, his most personal bodyguard among the squad. I’ll escort him, whether alone or with the others, and I’ll make sure no one tries to take him in the night.”

“Henry, you’re really alright with this?” Galeforce asked, and Henry looked at Charles, smiling slightly before nodding.

“Yeah, in fact, I… I really like that idea,” he decided, turning back to the general.

“Alright then. I’ll make an announcement to Squad C. From now on, you boys are responsible for Henry’s safety from Dmitri Petrov and any of his guards from the Wall. As Charlie says…” the general took a deep breath, as if he couldn't believe he was saying this.

“You boys are the Henry Protection Squad.”

[skaylanphear]

The Marauders

Summary: Heading to Hogwarts for the first time, Remus tries not to let his worries get him down. He has a lot on his plate—truths he can’t share with anyone—and none of it is helped by the bullies constantly casting jinxes and calling him nasty names. Despite it all, though, he has his three best friends—the first friends he’s ever made, in fact.

Yet, it doesn’t take long for Sirius to start getting suspicious, questioning what strange sickness could be keeping Remus in the hospital wing for days at a time. Ever nosy, Sirius takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery that is Remus Lupin, unaware of the tortured consequences that come with knowing such an intimate secret.

A story about the Marauders as they navigate their school years and set off into adulthood.

Year One: The Marauders and the Shrieking Shack - Chapters 1-34 Year Two: The Marauders and the Counting Curse - Chapters 35-?

Start Reading Here

Chapter 14: Three Apologies

Remus was a bit "off" the rest of the week. He was quiet and distant and very unsure. But he did eventually agree to the terms that they could send his parents letters so long as they didn't mention his issue directly. He also got to read them before they were sent out. It was following this decision that he started to slowly return to his normal self. Sirius also had to wonder if being further out from the last full moon helped in putting him back into better sorts. The new moon was at the end of the week—on the last day before they left for holiday—which put him right in the middle of his cycle. Sirius had decided to call this the "sweet spot"—where Remus was most recovered and least tetchy.

"I hope this is good enough," James muttered one evening, the four of them sitting around in their dormitory. Remus was up on his bed, practicing the permanent sticking charm, while the rest of them sat on the floor working on their letters to his parents.

"Lemme read it," Sirius said and held his hand out to James. Looking nervous, James handed over his parchment:

Mr. and Mrs. Lupin,

While we have met before, I would like to reintroduce myself. My name is James Henry Potter and I am best friends with your son. We met on the train to Hogwarts and are both Gryffindors, so of course we are very close. Just as we are close with both Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. But they are writing their own letters, so I will not talk much about them.

Before I talk about the main reason I am writing this letter, I would like to say sorry for Remus always getting detentions. Remus is very smart and sometimes quiet, but I think he would be more quiet if Sirius and I were not so rowdy. Remus is also rowdy, but he might not be if we were better about being good students. I blame myself and Sirius for some of his bad behavior. But he is also a very good friend and gets in trouble with us because it is the right thing to do. Remus would never leave us to be in trouble alone and I think that is very good of him.

Now to the reason for this letter. Earlier this month, Sirius, Peter, and I made a very bad choice and decided to follow Remus to the hospital wing when he was starting to get sick. We have always been worried about him, but we are very good at getting into trouble. When we got to the hospital wing, we heard both of you, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey talking. And when Remus and Madam Pomfrey left, we were very bad and decided to follow them. We followed them all the way to the special area and when Madam Pomfrey came back, we went down into the place we are not supposed to go. When we got all the way to the other side, we found out what we should not have found out and we are very sorry. It is also because we were there that Remus got hurt extra bad and we are also very sorry for that. We did not know better and we were being very nosy. Remus was very mad at us and I think is still mad a little bit.

I want to say that even though we know the thing we should not know, we will not tell anyone. This is my letter, so I will say that I will not tell anyone. My mum and dad have always said that certain things are not fair that should be and I know that certain kinds of people have a very hard time. I would not want any of my friends to have a hard life or for their parents to get in trouble. Remus is still mad, like I said before, and I think does not really trust us about his secret yet, but I promise on my own life that I will never tell anyone. Not even my parents. I am a Gryffindor and I think being true to friends is a very important thing. Remus is the second friend I have ever had (I met Sirius first) and I would never betray his confidence.

I hope this letter makes you feel better and I am also very sorry again.

Best,

James Henry Potter

Sirius nodded and handed it back. "I think it's good," he replied, shuffling his own parchment around a bit. Mostly in the hopes that the other two wouldn't look too hard at it.

Read More

[my-silly-rabbit]

1, 10, 11, + 16 for the self insert asks! for bonbon!!!

1. what are the basics of your self insert? name, date of birth, height, etc.? name: Bonbon Benson

age: around mid 25+ to mid 30's. it depends on the timeline. birthday: 1/12. same as mine! i give all my s/i my bday~

height: mmmmmmmm idk. 5'4 . my height ig lol

likes: FREDDY FAZBEAR'S PIZZARIA! and mainly Springbonnie ~!, pizza, dancing, pop music, video games, and robotics. dislikes: spicy food, uncomfy fabrics, silence but also sudden loud noises, kids that aren't Williams.

fun facts: she ALWAYS wears bunny ears that she made herself.

uummmmmmmmm idk lmao 10. how do the other characters feel about your self insert and f/o’s relationship? oooo i have a lot to this one

henry: depending on the universe, sees Bonbon as a casual friend. he's happy that William found love again and finds her a joy, though can get on his nerves. post..... everything, he sees her as an obstacle to drag around his mission to find William. they both have opposing views and Bonbon has stopped hiding her involvement but she says if he rats her out, she won't hold bad. henry values his plans to die more than just feeling the minor satisfaction of seeing her behind bars plus shes part of all this too. she deserves to be set aflame like the rest of this mess. even if when they find springtrap, they tackle and bite each other and break their hips. they are glued together till shit is settled. bonbon WANTS to die with william. That is her main mission if henry plans to kill him. she would LIKE to take him home but..... she's old and tired of being alone. if complying a bit means seeing him again, she'd...try. but it's not easy. (tbh them actually bonding in a fucked up way might actually be cute but the outcome is the same.) michael" oooh boy. he did NOT like her at first. too clean and cutesy. anyone who likes his dad SUCKS (besides uncle henry). but as she starts babystting, he realizes that she has a bit of a 'cool babysitter' edge. not telling his parents about minor shit and talking with him instead of shouting or ignoring. she knows that the aftons arent the best parents and is blunt with michael about it. Michael is confused why someone like her still cares about people who arent good parents and he never truly got an answer for that.

post....everything, Michael starts to see her as a second mother but bonbon admittedly doesn't try to keep in touch. michael looks too much like him...but she still tries to have him over from time to time he helps her to make sure her house isn't a total mess.

by the time Michael goes missing, she's already hunting William down with henry, and both beet with Michael again at the same time. he gets the biggest hug but Michael, who was most likely told by Henry her crimes, pushes her away and yells at her that she never truly cared and was just around for his father. that she never truly wanted him around and just used him for labor. Despite Bonbon crying after being yelled at.....he's not wrong. bonbon sucks guys can u tell lmao.

Elisabeth: oh boy. bonbon tried EVERYTHING to get this girl to like her. everything under the sun. gifts, praise, ignoring her, giving her space, being in her face, bribes, secrets, but NOTHING would keep this lil lady from stopping her "BONBON IS THE WORST BABYSITTER WE EVER HAD!!" tantrums. even when Michael and even try to tell her to quit it and she is not that bad and lets them off the hook for a LOT, she never quits. maybe its "IM DADDY'S PRINCESS" attitude or just having another girl(?) in the house but she just can't stand bonbon. bonbon loves her dearly! She is William's favorite! how can she not!! she tries SO HARD to get her to like her but NOTHING WORKS.

Even: he's glad to finally have a shoulder to cry on. though Bonbon admittedly has little empathy about his fear of the animatronic. she cant see it and tries to get him to like them to no avail. but she gives up after a while and doesn't torment him with them.

Clara / mrs. Afton: in universes where they are a polycule. Clara adores bonbon. bonbon was very nervous about even the idea of suggesting something together but god., they already were something. she gives her face kisses way too casually, and hugs her every time she sees bonbon. clara thinks bonbon is the best person to include in their family and bonbon adores her right back. she always worries that hes not 'good enough' for such a pretty woman but shes perfect in Clara's eyes. tbh they might be more in love then bonbon and Afton are but there love for each other is just as strong for him together.

11. what kind of outfit(s) does your self insert wear? mmmm take this art and some photoes from my pintrest

16. freebie! name a fact about your self insert you want everyone to know.

UUMM OH! The reason she sews buttons on her clothes is to fidget with them. they are her main fidget and she loves the smooth texture and shapes.

[llumimoon]

Hi there! Taking the bait as well for your Oak family headcanons hehe

*slides one of mine gently across the table*

I'd personally like to think that Henry has bird-themed nicknames for his grandkids, despite Sparrow not following the whole bird name convention. In my mind, Henry calls Normal "penguin" or "pingüino" bc I distantly recall Will mentioning that Normal had a little bit of a waddle as a little kid 🥺 (also it is a little bit ironic since Norm absolutely cannot swim lmao). Hero gets "kiwi" or "kiwi-bird" for no real discernible reason other than the fact that I think it's cute. Also, both kiwis and penguins are flightless birds, so there's that! I'd also like to think that he'd come up with one for Dot, but this is where my creativity runs out, I'm afraid 😅

Anywho, I'd love to hear any of your spare headcanons if you'd like to share 'em! Hope you have a beautiful day, lovebird 💜💜💜

AWWW OH MY GOD I LOVE THAT HC !! Henry giving his family nicknames will always be the sweetest thing to me 🥺 I think if Henry were to ever meet Dot, he’d call them ‘pigeon’!! <3

I’d love to share some of my spare head cannons with you!! :D <33

When the kids were younger Lark tried to teach them basic hand-to-hand self defense! He managed to convince Sparrow to let him do it, since knowing self defense is generally pretty useful to know even outside of apocalyptic situations.

Hero took to the lessons very easily, she’s always been the more hot tempered one of the siblings. I like to think Hero inherited the full wrath of the Oak Family Anger, so learning how to safely take out that anger through physical activity was good for her. Eventually though she switches her coping mechanism to games and anime, and her lessons with Lark trickle to a stop.

Normal was… the complete opposite LMAO he hated the idea of fighting and hitting his family, even if it was just for practice. He outright REFUSED to do it but would sometimes sit in the backyard and watch Hero’s lessons. That also meant he would regularly burst into tears if one of them hit the other too hard.

Eventually instead of learning hand-to-hand, Normal actually takes a shining to first aid! It started out with him insisting on giving Hero and Lark kids character bandaids after every lesson they had.

Later, Lark comes home late at night from a secret daddies mission he didn’t tell anyone about, and Normal just so happened to be awake at the time. It turns into a little impromptu first aid lesson from Lark to Normal, since he insisted on staying and making his uncle feel all better again.

Lark keeps occasionally giving Normal those first aid lessons throughout the years after that! He would never say it out loud, but it gives him a little peace of mind to know that his niece and nephew are able to take protect and take care of each other if they ever needed to.

[willel]

I like the idea of El and Will defeating Vecna together but I don’t see how. They always had the power of love on their side and yet, they haven’t been able to defeat the Mindflayer in the last 4 years. The only thing El could do was to close the gate but now Vecna can reopen one himself, so why would they be able to do it now? I think now that the game changer will come from Henry’s past, or stuff left by Brenner that will be discovered in S5 (by El? Joyce and Hopper? Nancy?). Only then El, and maybe Will, will be able to do something to defeat him.

Hm, we'll let's take a step back.

El didn't know emotions could affect her powers until season 2. In season 2, she was still using her anger and sadness. Season 3 was much the same.

It's not until season 4 that we really start to see it's not just anger and sadness that can act as fuel, but love and happiness as well. In fact, it appeared that love and happiness was stronger than anger and sadness.

We the audience can understand that now, but can El? All signs point to yes, she's finally realized this and has gained a new understanding of herself and her powers.

So no, I don't think they've always had the power of love on their side, but they do now. That could change things.

As for how they'll defeat Vecna together, I've put forth some theories about that in the past. This one for example

The Stranger Things writers are very fond of splitting up the team in the final hour to take on separate tasks that result in defeating the big bad.

In my mind, the split could be between El's team and Will's team (and a secret third team that I can't think about right now)

I've had this theory for a while that if Will tried hard enough, he could enter Vecna's mind all by himself. Like he has a direct link to the inside. The 'back door' Max found.

I think a great final plan could be El facing Vecna/the Mind Flayer head on, keeping him distracted as long as she can. Meanwhile, Will is acting as a spy, sneaking into Vecna's backdoor and freeing all his victims from their captivity (we saw all of them on display in season 4, no doubt Max is there now too)

For every soul Will frees, he becomes weaker, giving El the advantage. He can't fight El IRL AND defend his mind space. Despite this, it's still a dangerous situation for both of them.

El has to stay focused so that Vecna can't get the upper hand and get to Will. Vecna is older and more experienced than her. We've seen him get the upper hand twice even though they're about equally powerful.

Will has to be vigilant and ready to dip if or WHEN Vecna appears to protect his the remaining victims in his mind. There's also the extra danger of Will getting possessed or something. Whatever connection Will and Vecna have it might be a two way street.

Maybe everyone else is working to keep the monsters at bay until El and Will can finish the job. Though even after taking on Vecna they might still have to contend with the Mind Flayer, the monsters, and the gates.

There might be more to Vecna that can lead to his downfall, but I can't speculate on what. Maybe my brain will get more ideas once we hear about the play.

[tetrakys]

Hi. How are you? It's been a while since I have written a message here, but I've always had an eye on your profile and I wanted to thank both of you and Chino from the bottom of my heart for giving us the ANE story of Eldarya we all deserved to have, our little hearts are less heartbroken :))

Now I am wondering just as much as the others in the community how new gen candy is gonna be like. 😂😂😂

Truth be told, I am a little worried that no matter if they're gonna try their best or not, there will be a though crowd to impress due to recent events and I don't blame anyone for being skeptic, it will be hard to beat the original MCL that we all love and grew up with. I never tried Moonlight lovers or Uncoven, so IDK why they've never been an interesting subject of interest. Henri's Secret sincerely should have been left like that, only with the first season, the second one was a waste of time and money.

Getting back to New Gen, unfortunately, because of the comparison that will be between this and the previous series, the risk of not being successful is pretty high and I really hope it won't happen. It will be hard for them to have another failed project like Eldarya ended up for example. I never understood why I loved Eldarya TO so much (do you know how to answer that question for yourself?). I discovered it very late, despite MCL, but it still means so much to me and I'm sad that it's probably gonna end this way, with these 20 failed chapters. 💔

To answer my question, maybe because everything just made sense and worked together perfectly: the plot, the characters, the references, the harsher topics which made it real and somehow relatable.

Anyways, keep up with the good work girl and I will be back with a feedback that you will be asking for or not after finishing the story (I love writing, so who cares as long as I'm enjoying myself 😅). Sending love and hugs to you and the community. 🫶

Hello! Lovely to see you 💕 thank you for following me and the kind message, let me answer everything (long post, I'm putting it under the cut).

About New Gen:

You're very right, it's gonna be hard to impress people, I'm fully expecting part of the fandom to claim that the new LIs aren't as good as the old ones for the simple fact that there's no replacing your first love. I'm also expecting some people to hate on the game just because it's Beemoov and they would hate the company even if they found the cure for HIV. But I also thing that the game has the potential to bring a breath of fresh air to the fandom. Lots of people have left and haven't come back even to play Alternate Life, maybe a similar game but with a new story and new characters will make tired people and new people interested. Personally I just love Chino's characters, the way she brings life to them, in her 3 games I've managed to fall in love every single time so I'm fully prepared to do it again. I've never been able to get so attached to other games' characters even if I enjoyed them. I guess at the end of the day it's just a matter of personal preferences, her writing just click with me. Which brings me to Eldarya...

About Eldarya TO/ANE:

Why I loved Eldarya TO? 🤔 Firstly, as I mentioned before, I enjoyed the characters even the secondary ones, even the ones I hated (*cough*Miiko*cough*), I just got attached to them. I also started playing Eldarya late, it was 2018 or 2019, when the game first came out it was in French only and then I never kept up with it. Then I joined Tumblr, saw people playing and decided to play as well. I started with Nevra because he was the one dressed in all black and looked a little like a bad boy, turns out he was the ladies' man route instead, not exactly my type but I am still attached to him as he was my first. While I was playing his route I got super invested in wanting to tame Ezarel, he was such a bish, so I had to make him fall for me. In the end I got over him the moment I won the challenge and I got him lol, I spent the rest of his route trying to get with Lance with no success, obviously. After that I tried Leiftan because he was clearly in my eyes the "main guy" but I'm a shallow person when I play these games and I've never been able to move past his clothes, hair and general fakeness. I love him though, when he's his real daemonic self, just not my perfect type. Then I played Valkyon because he was the last one left and oh boy... I fell for him hard. I still bonk myself for having left him for last. However, I think we all know here that my one true love is his brother and I've spent years trying to have him to end up with... whatever his ANE version is. As I said I love Chino's characters, and since Eldarya was given to another creator you can SEE that the characters aren't the same. I've seen a couple of people upset when I say that Eldarya's characters aren't the same, they claim that the way they are now is a natural consequence of what they lived through those 7 years time lapse and NO I'm sorry I will never be able to agree with this. Game characters' aren't real people, they exist only in the way their creator makes them exist, if the creator changes they are very literally the definition of different people. ANE LIs are what ANE writer and creator see them as, which is not what TO writer and creator saw them as. It's really, quite literally, a different game. Including the way dialogues and events are written. I LOVED TO's darker themes and I loved the potion plot. TO wasn't a perfect game by any means but it made me feel things, now I just feel nothing when I play Eldarya. It makes me really sad. (And I haven't managed to keep playing since episode 14 :( )

About The Dragon's Call:

Thank you for liking our story 💕💕 writing it is cathartic for me, not only because of the game, but also because life has been a bit tough this past year and I'm fully aware Chino is indulging me only because she cares (and also cares about all the players who love Eldarya of course). I want to get to the point where I have Lance's (and Valkyon's) route complete and I can read it whenever I feel like I miss him. Honestly I wish someone else would've written it so I could've just enjoy it as a reader 😂 but at least I hope I'm doing the characters justice. And yes please come back to give me feedback whenever you want I really appreciate it! 💕

Sorry for the loooong rambling, hope to see you around here again 😊

[lettalady]

What if the journalist was still having her thing with the actor who led her to develop her "actor armour" in The Journalist?

[ Send me a Weekend What If ]

Oh my dear darling nonnie. Her thing that led to her actor armor ::Henners shame on you::

Let's see if I can find that. Let's see if it's even posted or also sitting in the drafts someplace. Whoops.

SO. Errrr the only thing I found was something that is in fact TJOURN prequel related but isn't the actor armor reason specifically is from the word prompt challenges: Fi-fie-fo-fum there’s an American in my bed

But if you want to know the reason why she's got actor armor it has to do with loosely dating and then having your sex life publicly joked about on television. [See this gifset from when Henner's reveals Superman's Diet Plan]

*Incidentally digging to try to find the snippets already written led me to stumble upon a few other Henners things I'd written so. ha. That was a fun surprise -- contained below the cut*

"For cardio's sake... what do you do for cardio?"

Everything would have been fine if he'd just kept that cheeky grin held in place. Simply shook his head and moved on. Ignored the question.

Your coworkers have a field day. Your friends have a field day.

"So that's what the kids are calling it these days."

"Do a lot of running when he's in town?"

"Better run on home."

Everyone is laughing because it's no secret that you let him charm you into agreeing to something less than a relationship and more than friends. He didn't want the 'messy relationship stuff' and didn't want labels. Since he's been out of the country for several months filming it's more than clear the reason why. The downside to agreeing to a lack of exclusivity in whatever it was that you were to one another is you can't really be mad that he's playing the field.

So to answer your What If the long way round. What if things with Henners had gone differently? I imagine we'd have gotten:

Eyes a little glazed over despite the shower – easy to blame the long day of surfing, swimming, and sun… not to mention the drinking – Henry’s smile seems weary, but content. The vacation isn’t quite the trip that had been planned, what with the training to keep his skills sharp that pulls him away for hours and hours. It’s a complaint, yes, but halfhearted. It’s still a trip abroad, still warm weather and sunshine and a magnificent view – not just the scenery.

And while you’re contemplating all this after having snapped a quick photo on your phone, he’s leaning closer to say something that gets lost in the noise of the beach bar. Moment in time safely stored, you refocus your attention, “Hmm? What?”

The small, exhausted smile he’d worn moments prior changes, expanding into a dimple-showing laugh. He leans closer and as he jerks his head in a small nod he flicks his fingers lazily towards your nearly empty pint glass. “Do you want another?”

“No… I’m stuffed and…” Pleasantly buzzing from the drinks that have been steadily coming to your table. Perks of being Superman, everyone wants to send him a drink. He’s fostered more than one off on you. You keep shaking your head, laughter bubbling up through your words, “too many more and I’ll have to be carried home.”

He shifts in his tiki-esque chair and tilts his head to the side, mock pain at the thought, “Ooooh no, don’t even mention lifting anything. It makes my body ache.”

“That’s a comment about all the surfing and –“ Momentarily at a loss for words you shrug and mime a karate chop, aiming at his collarbone, “stuff, not my weight, right?”

“Right. Definitely not.”

As he’s nodding with emphasis to try to make your scowl disappear the waiter appears with the check. When had Henry signaled for it? Was your waiter a mind reader as well an enabler?

It’s a short walk back to the villa that has been rented out for your stay. At least, it would be if the pair of you weren’t taking your sweet time down the sidewalk. Typically not ones to meander and hinder the flow of foot traffic, it becomes the topic of conversation.

“How many more paces, you think?” You glance aside to study him as you ask the question.

Henry’s frown seems slightly sinister when lit from the streetlight overhead. He doesn’t dare to hazard a guess knowing full well you’d take that many and not a step more. “Too many?” Nodding after laughing along with you and passing from underneath the streetlamp, he looks up at the stars just beginning to be visible overhead. “I know. I’m exhausted, too. Might just fall into bed and not move till morning.”

You sidestep to bump into him, feeling him release your hand so that he can wrap his arm around your shoulders. It’s nearly too warm out for such close contact. With just enough breeze and the proximity to the water, the temptation to pull away from him lessens. He might’ve showered before coming out to the bar with you, but that was long enough ago that the scent of his soap has wafted away along with the heat of the day. “Hmmph. Hopefully not that exhausted. You smell like a bar, Henry.” Plus there are other activities you want to pursue after falling into bed with him, most of them requiring movement.

He draws you up short so that he can lean and audibly sniff your hair, “And so do you. Your point?”

“I’m just voting no to sleeping fully clothed.” You lift your eyebrows as you reply, attempting a knowing smile.

He’s adjusting where his hand lies on your torso as he maneuvers the pair of you back into motion, the pressure of his touch trailing down. Maybe he’s getting the hint. “Oh so we’re voting on it, meaning falling into bed isn’t off the table.”

Resisting the urge to roll your eyes, just barely, you shake your head, “Not the falling into bed part that I was objecting to…”

“And did you harrumph me, just then?”

This time you do roll your eyes, “No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. Just shut up and walk, Henry. I’m starting to get sticky again.”

He does sit down and fall backward onto the bed fully clothed, but your steady glare gets him back up again – with a deep, albeit resigned, laugh that makes your skin tingle – and peeling off pieces of clothing. Finally down to his boxer briefs, your displeasure lifted, he settles again on the king sized bed. Only halfway drawing up the sheets, waiting to pull them over you as well, he emits a sigh loud enough to be heard from your position across the room. “Ahhhhh.”

He’s even got his eyes closed. If he falls asleep before you even get into the bed… “Did you brush your teeth?”

Those damned dimples appear, but he doesn’t open his eyes. “Yes.”

“Liar. You didn’t step foot in the bathroom.”

He barely moves aside from the effort taken to reply to you. “Toss me the mouthwash?”

Maximum effort. You suppress a laugh, ducking into the bathroom to snag the bottle and your own toothbrush while you’re at it. He hasn’t budged. “Are you going to catch it?”

“Yep.”

“With your eyes closed?”

“Yep.”

Hmm would he move if you beaned him with the bottle? It’s only a little travel bottle, after all. But then if he’s nursing a bruise it certainly won’t get you closer to your goal, no matter how gratifying it might be in this instance. You’re careful with your aim, the release, and then – WHUMP – the mini-bar-sized bottle lands in the sheets next to his hip. Only then does Henry eek one eye open, first noting the location of the bottle, then to squint at you and note your toothbrush salute.

Teeth and mouth pleasantly clean and unfuzzy, you reemerge from the bathroom. The mouthwash sits on the bedside table next to his watch. Oh-Exhausted-One isn’t snoring, but for all appearances he’s out cold. You twist your lip into a momentary scowl, your libido not thanking you for being nice earlier. You huff under your breath, “Maybe I should have aimed a little to the left…”

The corners of Henry’s mouth twitch into a smile. “Mm very glad you didn’t.”

Ah so not sleeping, not yet anyway. He’s just really enjoying the backs of his eyelids. Maybe if you provide him a little incentive he’ll rise to the occasion. You let the sheets fall where they may as you settle into the bed cause if you get your way they’ll get shoved out of the way anyway. Resting on your side, you nudge him, “You could show me how glad…”

Still with his eyes closed, he lifts his eyebrows. “Tomorrow? Doubt I can even lift a finger right now.”

This time the noise you make is a harrumph, though he doesn’t call you on it. You reach across him to turn off his bedside lamp – saving Mister I Can’t Lift A Finger from having to do that, too – and flop back onto your back to enjoy the darkness and try to figure out how to keep from strangling your celebrity boyfriend in his sleep.

It’s just as you’re about to drift off and enjoy sexually frustrating dreams – you’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t kill him cause (a) too many people would miss him and/or notice right off the bat, and (b) you’ve nowhere to hide the body – that you feel the mattress shift indicating He Who Is Too Exhausted To Move has finally found a reserve bit of energy, probably to go to the loo since he hadn’t done so in prep for bed or while at the bar.

Unexpected contact – his hand seeking out the bottom edge of your shirt and skirting over your hipbone and abdomen – makes you blink your eyes open in surprise, and then annoyance. “Oh! Oh, so you can lift a finger.”

“I think, maybe I can…”

Oh yes he can lift a finger. You attempt to twist and push his hand from between your legs. You succeed just as his fingertips divert towards the edge of your panties, and you feel the fabric ruffle and snap back against your skin as he allows his hand to be pulled away from its task. “Henry… Fuck!” Your loosed explicative comes out breathless as you fall back on the bed again, once again sweating and hot in more ways than one.

His chuckle vibrates the bed, “That’s the idea, honey, though that does require more than a finger.”

[sweetscenes]

 So... the three new muses I was talking about earlier was these three from Fire Emblem Awakening! Henry, Ricken, and Olivia! I’ll write a little blurb for each! FE:A has kinda taken over and with Ricken now in heroes I have to put these three in. 

 My first boy is this dude! His name is Henry, and he’s a bit... yeah. So Henry was born to parents who dropped him off orphanage that doubled as a wizard school. However, since this place was in Plegia, it wasn’t the best. In fact, it was downright awful. Henry was incredibly gifted, but that still didn’t save him. In fact, the type of magic he was best at, Dark Magic, made him even more of a target. Henry was physically and mentally abused awfully. His only friend was a wolf, that was killed. It got to the point that he now has an incredibly high pain tolerance. 

 Seriously I am not even gonna say how fucked up his childhood is bc what the fuck-

 Anyways Henry is recruited to join the plegian army, who he betrays after they get their asses kicked even though he had fond memories of all of them. Not out of cowardiance, but because he wants to go where things are the most exciting. 

 So Henry’s personality~

 Henry is someone, who while has a dark aesthetic, is quite different than he appears. He’s cheerful, and almost always bright. He typically is in a rather passionate mood, bouncing around or engaging in one of his hobbies. He’s rather enthusiastic, making it easy for someone to talk to him. He’s rather social, liking to talk to people and make new friends. He’s also eccentric, having an atypical attitude towards many things which will be talked about later. 

 He also is a secret romantic, enjoying flirting or otherwise being a suave and smooth operator. He’s delightfully macabre, cracking morbid jokes and showing interests in things that are creepy and ghastly, such as torture methods or poisonous snakes. He’s so cheerful about it though, you almost forget he can recite deadly statistics at the drop of a hat to make himself feel better. Sadistic and Masochist lil bitch. 

 Henry, however, is not all wilted flowers. He has a skewed view of morality, finding himself rooting for the wrong side most of the time. His reason for spending his dark magic talent for the Shepherd’s cause isn’t because of some moral champion or perceived higher ground, but rather because he likes to be where the fun is. He has next to no loyalty to any concept or idea. Henry will swap sides the second he feels things are boring. Henry tends to follow people or a person rather than an idea, his loyalty once earned by someone is never failing. He also loves crows, which is great.

 He believes that she shouldn’t judge others based on whether they are good or bad. He’s got morbid interests. And can be creepy and off putting if someone talks to him long enough. He also can be quite mercurial, switching between moods fairly regularly. Either from overwhelming happiness to gloominess. It’s hard to tell what mood he enjoys more. For he has a philosophy, one shouldn’t avoid darkness and despair, but rather embrace it for it shows who people really are, and it’s better to feel raw emotions rather than hiding them away.

 Despite being gloomy and melancholy sometimes, he’ll keep his bright smile! Because it’s easier to laugh at the pain than cry at it.  I do have icons for him. I also can place in him different verses.

 My second boy, Ricken! He’s not nearly as dark as Henry, so there’s that! Basically he is from a noble house who’s fell into dishonor and poverty. He ran away to join Chrom’s army at a young age to become a brilliant mage AND become a war hero so that his family name can be restored. 

 Ricken is someone who insists he’s so mature, but he’s not tbh. He tries his hardest, but he still gets insulted easily, and he is always trying to prove himself. Ricken is brave, curious, and is said to be the best with animals in the army. He is gentle and extremely kind. 

 Ricken has a sensitive heart and demeanor, he hates killing and despises hurting others, having empathy for those that even tried to kill him. Empathy is just a common theme with him tbh. He is easily frustrated, and can say some really mean things when he is mad. He doesn’t follow orders very easily, and will do something for the greater good even if it goes against his own health. 

 He has a hero worship crush on Chrom. It’s really adorable. Ricken is on a journey of self reflection and maturity. I do not have icons for him. I can also place him in different verses! 

 Last and not certainly least is my dancer girly, Olivia! She is deathly shy, and she doesn’t like talking to strangers and even gets tongue tied talking to friends. However, it all goes away whenever she dances, of which she is gifted. 

 I don’t have much to say about her because I’m still figuring her out, but there’s that! I do not have icons for her. I can also place him in different verses! 

[phatskoreanlitblog]

Week 9 Blog

I’ll Be The One

Lyla Lee

Pages Read: 130 - 180

Word Count: 452

Summary

This week's reading is focused on Skye and Henry's relationship. After getting paired up for the dancing round. Skye invited Henry out for tacos and they started to get closer and develop a friendship. Henry took a pic of Skate and later posted it on instagram. Causing people to go crazy because he’s a celebrity and Skye is a normal person. She attacked and asked Henry to take it down. He later feels bad and keeps his distance from Skye so he doesn’t cause anymore trouble. Skye talks to him and gets them back on track and later Henry takes Skye to his secret personal practice room to work on their final performance.

Critical Analysis

"My face heats up as I scroll through the comments. I always hear about celebrities getting bullied off social media, but I never really understood what that was like until now. I know I'm going to have to get used to this if I want to be a K-pop star. And if I were more established, or if I even had a head-up before this happened, I'd have been more okay with it. But now I just feel like the wind's been knocked out of my lungs. And I hate how weak and crappy everything makes me feel." This quote speaks out a lot about the consequences and the things that people will do to bring down another person. The fact that Henry and Skye hang out and their picture got posted. It kinda brings Skye's world upside down the way people attack her, call her name, and just take pictures of her without permission. Making her feel uncomfortable for the simple fact that they are just hanging out with her friends. The K-pop industry is really crazy for what the fan can really do to ruin another person's life and image. So the fact that Henry just casually posted a picture of another girl on his insta as a celebrity without thinking of what people will say. It’s kinda stupid.

Personal Response

It's cute that they’re hanging out together despite their differences. But at the same time I feel like they should keep it a secret from other people because the fact that one of them is a celebrity who hangs out with another girl after his breakup can severely damage their image. Especially when they’re in a competition where their faith is up to the people. One wrong step and they will immediately be eliminated. Plus the way Skye talks to Henry and flirt with him is kinda really cringy. Especially when they’re alone together in the practice room.

[thesoulesscollection]

Hidden Love (Request)

Request: Here's a request I have: so, in a "Triple Threat" ending, Henry slowly realizes that he's in love with both Charles & Ellie and that he don't want to choose between one of the two. Whether he confesses is up to you, but it's that, him being in love with his two best friends and being very happy when he thinks about it, some good fluff.

 

Oftentimes Henry likes to daydream, an escape from reality where it soon becomes a daily occurrence for him to drift into his mind surrounded with his inner thoughts. 

'I like you. Both of you' Henry would let himself imagine saying to his best friends though he was unable to muster up the courage, afraid they wouldn't return his feelings, 'I love you'

So he dutifully kept it a secret to allow his friendship with the two to remain intact, simply bottling it up. Now it's post-mission, they're back at their shared apartment, and he was pleasantly smooshed in the middle of an affectionate, strictly platonic cuddle pile he dimly presumed. Warmth radiating off them breezing past his skin causing sensitive goosebumps. Despite being tired to the bone the ex-thief couldn't fall asleep, his eyes glued to the ceiling. What hadn't helped was the pair snuggling close to him. 

Shamefaced Henry knew he was enjoying this deep down, obvious in his attraction for his two dearest friends he was being overly needy, desiring their comfort. 

"Okay over there, Henry? You seem a little out of it?" Ellie curiously asked, weeks prior she caught him staring in oblivion. 

"I'm fine. Little tired that's all" Henry then lied, he didn't admit he was in fact staring at her and Charles with adoring love in his eyes. 

Then Charles scooted over and Henry could feel the man's soothing presence next to him, "You're sure? You can always talk to us if something is bothering you?" 

"Hm. I'm fine" Smiling with noticeable strain, Henry's careful to pick the correct words to not further worry them. "Maybe I'm just thankful to have you two in my life. To have you as my best friends" 

"Oh, you can be so mushy sometimes" Her boisterous laughter rang in Henry's ears as she made her way to sit next to the man, ensuring he was comfortable. 

"Yeah. Yeah. I can be appreciative, can I?"

"You can, you big, soft baby. We didn't know you had this in you?"

Charles instantly joined in, bubbly voice ringing in the air, an arm loosely hanging off Henry's shoulders, "Awe. Thank you, Hen. We care for you too. Underneath all this silent appeal you keep on" Lightly poking a finger into the man's side, he cheerfully continues on, "You can be amazing. So priceless and clever. Very charming. That's exactly why we like you so much" 

In the present time, around midnight to be precise Henry noticed on the clock he's anxiously nibbled at his inner cheek, "I love you guys" 

Guiltily knowing they were fast asleep and he was wide awake he was freely able to admit his feelings in the open. Even if his friends weren't there to hear the words leave his lips, he was relieved to some extent to get it off his chest. Maybe one day he'll share it with them, a bit hopeful they will share the same sentiments back however he was content in his current position. Cuddled against them, wrapped in a blanket burrito and closing his eyes Henry fell asleep. 

[androidcharles]

And we're back! I'm gonna try to update every Wednesday (or every other Wednesday depending) but in the meantime, under the readmore is Chapter 2! Enjoy!

Chapter Directory First (also Previous) | Next ->

A week had passed since Charles had been kidnapped by the N.E.R.Ds. The case they were working had everything to do with them, considering that they were now out in the open. Despite the fact that they were expected to work together (as that’s what they did super well), Henry and Ellie were the only ones really doing anything about the case, searching the city for any clues as to where the new hideout for the N.E.R.Ds was.

Charles, meanwhile, had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the Toppat girl who was behind the strings of robberies. So far, it had been quiet on her front, but Charles was keeping an eye on the locations that had been hit thanks to Henry and Ellie’s book keeping.

“It seems like those nerds have found a new hiding spot,” Ellie said, pouring over a map of Stickburg while Henry played with some string, “We’re having a hell of a time locating them though. What about you Charles?”

“I don’t know, maybe she knows we’re onto her…” Charles said. He didn’t know if Ellie or Henry knew the Toppat was an android as well. Maybe they already knew but that was very unlikely. Still, it was almost upsetting that she was hiding out again. But it’s as Wendell said; Toppats were always a bit slippery.

“Well, it’s alright. She’s been slipping away from the authorities too. We’ve been running ourselves ragged trying to find these guys though. We’ve managed to arrest one or two, but the general said ‘Deja vu’ whenever we capture them because they didn’t have much to go on,” Ellie said.

“Kinda like the Toppats…” Charles muttered.

YEAH, YOU GUYS WERE HAVING A TIME PINNING THEM DOWN BEFORE YOU GOT MY HELP, Henry signed very smugly as Charles puffed his cheeks out at him.

“You act like you did ALL the work. I helped you, you know. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have been able to get those documents!” Charles said. Henry shrugged as he went back to work on the string.

“Maybe there’s a connection… do you think the N.E.R.Ds are working with whatever remaining Toppats are out there? Some had to get away!”

“Not too many. Other than our mystery girl, most of the Toppats that got away were low ranking goons among the bunch. Not enough to really inspire or kick start a new frontier, according to the general,” Charles said, “Heck, I’m going against protocol looking after this girl for you guys.”

“What?! Charles if you’re gonna get in trouble, than me or Henry-”

“No, no, it’s fine! I could use the practice on the field. I might have to start somewhere considering you know… I’m not very good at fighting and all...” Charles said.

“Well that’s true. We just don’t want you to get in trouble,” Ellie said.

“Pfft, please. I’ve been in trouble before for doing things I wasn’t supposed to. Most of the time I got a slap on the wrist. Other times well… mopping the complex is very hard when Rupert keeps nagging you about how I convince him to do dumb things,” Charles said. Henry let out a small ‘hmph’ as Ellie gave Charles a sort concerned look.

“I just don’t want you to push it. One day you’re gonna get in a situation where not even General Galeforce can really back you up. Your safety net can fray at any time you know…”

“I’ll be fine!” Charles said, “Besides, you guys wouldn’t have asked me to keep an eye on her if it wasn’t important. I just have to not use government equipment when doing it.”

“Aren’t you technically government equipment?”

“I’m my own person Ellie, geez… they can’t pull that whole ‘you’re a piece of equipment’ bullshit on me. If I quit, they can’t exactly take out my weapons or erase my memories of the time I spent there… well they can erase all the top secret information that I have on me right now, including the launch codes…”

“THE WHAT!?” Henry and Ellie shouted. Charles pursed his lips as he pressed his fingers together.

“You didn’t hear that.”

“Fine,” Ellie said, “What are you gonna do?”

“Well, for the past few weeks, our Toppat has been going in a pattern around town. She might hit either this store or this store next,” Charles said, “At least, that’s what Henry said.”

“Well, Henry used to be a thief, but if it were me, I would throw them off, and hit a more secluded location away from the pattern,” Ellie said.

MAYBE SHE’S DOING IT TO GET ATTENTION. TRY TO KEEP THE TOPPAT CLAN A THREAT WITHOUT IT REALLY BEING ONE, Henry said.

“I have to agree with Henry here. I mean, if I wanted to plan a comeback if I was part of a criminal syndicate, I would probably try to get as much attention as possible…” Charles said. The three were silent as Henry suddenly came to a realization.

CHARLES… WHERE ARE REG… THE TOPPAT LEADER AND HIS RIGHT HAND MAN LOCKED UP?

“Very secure prison. Not even the Wall can compare. They’d have to get assistance from some top tier prison breakers in order get out. Even than, security is air tight…” Charles said.

“Henry you’re being paranoid… but than again, she’s kind of like you. She always seems to have the right thing at the right time. You don’t think…”

IN ALL HONESTY, IT WOULDN’T BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR OTHER PEOPLE LIKE ME TO EXIST. BUT I HIGHLY DOUBT SHE’S ANYTHING LIKE ME. IT COULD BE POSSIBLE THAT SHE’S JUST CRAZY PREPARED…

“So you think that this girl is eventually going to try to find out where these guys are being held and break them out? I don’t know… why wouldn’t she have done that a long time ago? Why wait?” Charles asked.

“Maybe to keep the government off her heels?” Ellie said.

“But than why the robberies? She’s not exactly hiding her face. Even from far away, you can kinda tell what she looks like,” Charles said, “Ugh, either my processors are out of date or this isn’t making any sense!”

“The latter, more likely.” Ellie set down her coffee cup and scanned the map, “So why don’t you stake out the location you had in mind for her next robbery. Me and Henry will continue to work the N.E.R.D case.”

“What? I’ve been staking out pretty much every night for the past few days. Are you sure you guys don’t need my help?” Charles asked.

“We’ll manage Charlie. Just stay out of trouble,” Ellie said, “And don’t hesitate to call us if you need our help.”

“Got it.”

- - - - -

For the fourth night in a row, Charles was sitting in an alleyway, trying to keep a low profile as he watched the street carefully for any signs of strange activity. He had gotten used to this at this point, but he wondered how so many people could keep it up without getting completely bored. He checked his internal clock, groaning that it had only been an hour since he started. Maybe he should bail and take Ellie’s advice; look into an out of the way jewelry store.

“HELP! THIEF! STOP HER!”

“SHE’S GETTING AWAY! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!”

That’s my cue!

Charles jumped out of the alleyway, practically sprinting down the sidewalk as he followed the sound of the ruckus before he suddenly flinched at the huge explosion. He gasped as from the smoke emerged the girl, carrying a sack presumably full of stolen jewelry as she suddenly leapt fifty feet into the air before running across the rooftop.

“Damn, she’s good…” Charles muttered as he turned his arm into a grappling hook, pulling himself up to the top of the building and pursuing her. He leapt from building to building, trying to keep focused on her (mostly due to the fact that she was giving off a wi-fi signal) and keep himself from plunging to his death below.

He came to a screeching halt as he suddenly came to a gap he couldn’t quite jump over. He growled as he grabbed the ledge of the building, cursing his dad and the general for not allowing him to have any flight capabilities. Where was she?

“You’re tracking me…”

Charles gasped as he turned around to see the girl, her eyes filled with curiosity as she walked towards him, bag still in hand. She tossed it to the side as Charles tried to look intimidating, crouching down into a fighting stance as she charged at him. He was quick to dodge as he grabbed her leg and tried to trip her up, but she was faster, immediately turning her hand into a laser cannon and firing at him. Quickly dodging, he flipped back, trying not to look nervous as he turned his hand into a laser sword in an attempt to be intimidating.

“Really, Unit CC? You’re gonna do that?” Amelia said as she turned her own hand into the same thing.

“Unit… how did you know my old name?!” Charles shouted as she charged at him.

“You don’t remember me? A little thing called Project SAI!?” she shouted as she slashed at him. He dodged the attacks as he swung back, his swings impacting her own sword as he gritted his teeth.

“Why would I remember you? I barely remember the first year of my life!” Charles shouted. She gasped as she jumped back, a sort of shocked look on her face.

“You… you don’t remember me?” she said softly.

“AM I SUPPOSED TO!?” Charles shouted, “Either way you’re a Toppat, so I’m going to take you down and arrest you, right here and right now!” Charles’ hand turned into a laser blaster as the girl gasped before she charged at Charles, knocking him down off of the building, his blast going flying into the sky as he panicked.

He turned his hand into a grappling hook and hooked onto the nearest building, swinging around as he scanned the rooftops for the girl, before going back to his usual tracking methods. Suddenly, a chat box popped up on his UI, aggravating him a little.

“NOT NOW!” Charles muttered, trying to close it, before a message popped up.

GlitterToppatGirl: You aren’t going to get anywhere trying to track me. If you attack me, I’m just going to attack you. No matter how much it hurts.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: Why do you care? Charles typed in response, And how did you know my old name?

GlitterToppatGirl: How come you don’t remember me? Did the government erase your memories?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: No, they didn’t. I was found without my memories.

GlitterToppatGirl: How do you know that? You can’t trust them you know.

xXBold_Action_ManXx: I trust them. Whether you like it or not. And I’m gonna find you again whether you like it or not!

“We’ll see about that…” Before Charles could even say anything, Amelia was right behind him. He didn’t have a chance to attack her before she shot him in both of his legs, causing him to cry out as he fell to the ground, shaking as she looked at him with her cold blue eyes.

“I’m sorry Unit CC…” she whispered before running off once again.

“No… god damn it… my self reparation… C’mon, c’mon…” Charles muttered as INSUFFICIENT MATTER flashed on his screen.

These picky things I swear, Charles thought to himself as activated his cell phone, calling Ellie.

“Charles? What’s going on, what happened?” Ellie said.

“My legs… the girl blasted them. She’s an android just like me!” Charles shouted.

“What!? How come you didn’t tell us!?”

“I… I just found out too!” Charles lied, “Anyway, I need your help. You need to get to Donavan Street and bring me something to eat OK? Any matter will do!”

“We’re on our way!” Ellie hung up as Charles pressed his head against the ground, whimpering a bit, not only at the pain but at the fact that he let the Toppat get away. Why did this feel so familiar?

Meanwhile, from the top of the building, Amelia watched as Charles lay on the ground, feeling a bit guilty about leaving him there.

“Why the hell does this have to be so complicated? Why did he, of all androids, have to saved by the government?”

- - - - -

Charles lay back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling as he mindlessly watched a Newtube video to get his mind off of things. He heard a knock at the door and turned his head.

“Hello?”

“Hey.” Charles perked up as he saw his friend Henry walk in, all smiles, but his eyes full of concern.

ARE YOU FEELING ALRIGHT NOW? LEGS IN PAIN?

“Not anymore,” Charles said, “They just sustained a bit of damage, but it was mostly minor. I hate to say this, but I don’t think she was trying to hurt me. I think she was just trying to prevent me from chasing her.”

THAT’S GOOD. I DON’T WANT YOU TO GET HURT. YOU’RE VERY IMPORTANT TO ME.

“Red flag alert…” Charles muttered, half jokingly as Henry walked towards him, sitting next to him and rubbing his back. Charles hugged him tightly, smiling as Henry giggled.

FOR AN ANDROID, YOU’RE QUITE WARM.

“I… well, you know. Processing and all that,” Charles said, “My self replicating nanites also serve as a coolant though, so I’ll never overheat, hehe…”

KINDA LIKE BLOOD… ARE YOU REALLY ALRIGHT?

“I’m fine Henry. Don’t worry,” Charles said softly, “I’ve been in worse pickles. One time, half of my face came off of my… well face, and man was it hard to explain that to Konrad and Calvin. They thought I was like… a Terminator or something.”

I WOULDN’T BE SHOCKED.

“This is the part where I’d quote the movie but… I’ve never watched the movie,” Charles admitted.

GUESS I KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING FOR MOVIE NIGHT, Henry signed hopefully. Charles smiled as Henry relaxed against his shoulder, giving Charles a warm fuzzy feeling as he sighed, trying to figure out what to say next.

“Henry, I’m sorry that I didn’t catch the girl. I was kind of hoping I could catch her because she’s so dangerous, you know. I mean, a Toppat that’s equipped like that, what if she tries to break the leaders out of prison?”

I THOUGHT YOU SAID THAT PLACE WAS SECURE.

“It is! For the most part, but the question is; is it Henry proof?” Charles said smugly. The two giggled as Henry shrugged.

WHO KNOWS? I’M JUST GLAD YOU GUYS MANAGED TO CAPTURE ME. I KNOW I TRIED TO BE A BIG SHOW OFF EARLIER TODAY, BUT IF IT WASN’T FOR YOU, WE WOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN THE TOPPAT CLAN DOWN THE FIRST TIME. I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU BRO.

“Ditto. But according to the soldiers, it’s almost like you wanted to be captured… why was that?” Henry shrugged as he waved his hands, smiling sheepishly at him as he stood up, getting ready to go bed for the night.

JUST GO AHEAD AND HEAD INTO SLEEP MODE OR… HOWEVER YOU WANNA CALL IT. I’LL SEE YOU TOMORROW.

“Mhm! See ya tomorrow Henry. Have a good night,” Charles said softly. Suddenly he thought of something and as Henry approached the door, he looked up.

“H-hey, Henry?” Charles asked. He wanted to ask why Henry was always so overprotective of him, why he always seemed to be the most concerned whenever he was hurt or in danger.

“What’s up?” Henry said softly. Charles sighed as he shook his head.

“Nevermind, it wasn’t important,” Charles said, “Good night.” Henry waved as he headed out the door, closing it behind him as Charles laid back on his bed, trying to think of anything besides what happened today. What did that girl mean by him not remembering her? Was there something to what she said. His processors spun out of wack as a couple of error messages appeared on his UI, aggravating him a little.

“Shut up,” Charles muttered, laying down on the bed and putting himself into sleep mode. Maybe his dreams would make a little more sense.

But in a way, they didn’t make sense.

Here he was, back in a place he didn’t recognize, in a dark room sitting down, not being able to move. And a cold steely gaze looking his way as he shook in place, trying to make sense of what was going on as his head started to pound. It was funny, he didn’t usually experience the phenomenon known as the headache in the waking world, but here, it was always so clear. Especially when the graphics that were holding his dream together kept glitching.

“Hello… who are you?” Charles said softly as the eyes suddenly moved, causing him to reach his hand out. He felt a sharp pain in his arm as he did this, cringing a bit as he finally stood up, shaking and shivering as he started to head towards the edge of the dark room.

It was hard to tell where the room ended and where it began, but for the longest time, it felt like he was swimming in an inky blackness, with the occasional sharp twitch from his RAM not quite cooperating with him.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up…” Charles muttered as he saw the error messages popping up in his peripheral vision. Finally, he bumped into a wall, groaning as he rubbed against the walls, finding a sort of turn wheel. He strained himself as he turned it, until it finally let out a small hiss, the pressure causing a door to open. He squinted against the new light, pushing the door open as he found himself in a grain field.

The world around him seemed distorted somehow. Fake, but not exactly real. He could feel the grain against the palms of his hands, but for some reason, it felt like the wheat was going right through him at the same time. A horrible pain shot up in the back of his head as he continued forward, trying to keep his mind off of what was happening as he saw a small town in the distance.

As he walked closer and closer towards it, he began to feel sort of funny. The world around him was glitching more and more as he headed up the stairs towards the windmill, feeling like he shouldn’t do this, like something would go wrong. He finally reached the top of the stairs, error messages alike flickering in his vision as he saw the silhouette of… someone…

Their body wasn’t quite right. It looked like someone he should recognize but at the same time, he didn’t know who it was. He wanted to know who it was, but at the same time he couldn’t quite figure it out. The figure glitched as it reached out towards him, as if trying to speak to him.

“Who are yoAUUAAAUGH!” Charles cried out, suddenly falling to the ground as he clutched his head. He tried to look up, but the world around him was slowly falling apart.

He couldn’t move.

ERROR! FILES MISSING OR CORRUPTED!

ERROR! FILES MISSING OR CORRUPTED!

ERROR! FILES MISSING OR CORRUPTED!

Shut up…

ERROR! FILES MISSING OR CORRUPTED!

SHUT UP….

ERROR! FILES MISSING OR CORRUPTED!

“SHUT UP!!” Charles screamed, suddenly rocketing up from his bed. He shook in place, taking deep breaths as his processors worked overtime trying to keep him calm as the error messages flickered away. This wasn’t the first time he had this nightmare, but it had been a while since he’d had it.

The last time he had it was after he had helped Henry infiltrate the airship. It was strange, because back than, he couldn’t think of anything that really prompted said nightmare. Maybe it was something he had done or someone he had talked to. Either way, he let out a small sigh as he sat up in bed properly, wondering if maybe it was connected to something. A bad decision, something that could go wrong, maybe even his own paranoia?

And now he was hearing things, he thought to himself as he heard a soft tapping. It sounding like someone tapping against glass actually… coming from behind him. He turned and saw the Toppat girl, looking at him through the window as he felt a small pressure in his abdomen. He remembered Ellie telling him that’s the equivalent of having a stomach ache. Suddenly a chat message popped up on his UI.

GlitterToppatGirl: Can we talk?

xXBold_Action_ManXx: No, good night. He tried to hide under the covers as another message popped up on the chat log.

GlitterToppatGirl: Please?

Charles groaned as he pulled himself out of the covers, looking at the girl, who had a sort of soft look in her eyes, nothing compared to the cold stare she had given him earlier. He sighed, feeling as it he had no choice. Slipping on his slippers and making sure that Henry and Ellie weren’t awake, he carefully opened his door and closed it quietly behind him. He grabbed a key for the apartment as he opened it quietly, closing it behind him before locking it.

He scanned the area, looking for the girl before he got another ping in his chat log.

GlitterToppatGirl: Up here.

She was right.

He headed down the stairs before pulling out his grappling hook, shooting it up towards the roof and finally ascending, feeling the cold evening air rushing around him as as he scaled the building, panicking a bit as he slipped. He looked down to see his slipper had only fallen off of his foot. He let out a small sigh, finally climbing onto the roof and saw her, staring at him intently.

Her bright blue eyes shone in the low light of the moon as she walked towards him, almost nervous.

“Hello,” she said.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t tell Henry and Ellie about you right now,” Charles said firmly.

“I just wanna talk,” she said, “Please, don’t do anything drastic.”

“I have to. You’re a Toppat,” Charles said, “So give me one good reason, right now…”

“Please, just listen to me,” she said, “I’m sorry that I blasted your legs. I had to get away from you because I wasn’t ready…”

“READY TO WHAT, GET ARRESTED?!” Charles shouted.

“Please, keep your voice down!” she shouted back.

“I can be as loud as I want to be! Just give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you arrested!”

“BECAUSE I KNOW YOU!”

Charles gasped as he saw the desperation in her eyes, almost pleading as he suddenly backed off, feeling strange. Wait, he shouldn’t feel bad for her. She’s a Toppat, but still, at the same time, he felt like he shouldn’t let her down.

“I’m sorry, OK, I’m sorry that this had to happen this way! But the fact that you don’t even remember me or anything, it’s just scaring me! I don’t know what to tell you, but you really should remember me. They erased your memories, didn’t they?”

“The government? N-no, not at all. In fact, I’m not sure what would make you come to that conclusion. My memories were gone before I was even found by the government. The only thing I remember is a cold dark room with bright blue eyes watching me…” Charles shivered, trying not to think of his nightmare.

“So you remember that… what was the first thing you remember when you first woke up?” she asked.

“I remember, General Galeforce… back than he wasn’t a general, he was just a captain. He… he wanted to liberate me. To have me repaired because they thought I would be useful,” Charles said softly, “And than I went to sleep for another month… and when I woke up, I was fully repaired and completely operational. What about you?”

“So they saved you… I can’t believe they saved you. I wish I had known… oh god…” she sighed as she put her hands in her face, trying to process what was happening as Charles tipped her head to the side.

“Um… I hate to ask, but who are you? I really need to know,” Charles said.

“So you can have me arrested?” she said coldly.

“N-no… so I can at least know what to call you,” Charles said.

“You can call me Amelia. Just Amelia for now,” she said, “I’m sorry that I freaked out at you earlier. I just can’t understand why you don’t remember me or Project SAI.”

“Project SAI does sound familiar,” Charles said, “I remember my dad talked about it, but other than that-” ERROR “-drawing a blank.”

“So you only know about Project SAI through word of mouth. Well I lived every moment of Project SAI, from when I was first booted up to it’s downfall at the hands of the government. Including the eradication of any androids associated with the project.”

“Is that why you became a Toppat? Because you can’t trust the government?” Charles said softly.

“Why would I? I was pretty sure they would have had me dismantled as well. And for about six years I had convinced myself that you were dead too. I’m happy that you’re alive… even if you don’t remember me,” Amelia said.

“Uh, that’s good, so now I have questions about that. How do you know me?” Charles asked.

“We used to be close. We were inseparable, according to the other androids. To the other androids, however, you were considered defective, due to some kind of strange malfunction. One day, you were tasked with something that you couldn’t easily do so they declared you defective officially and had you carted away to be… used for spare parts…” Amelia looked up at Charles as if she had just realized something as he tipped his head to the side.

“You… they erased your memories. Why would they do that? It’s not like… why would they…” Amelia felt like she was trying to put together the pieces of a twisted puzzle.

“OK, I hate to interrupt your freak out, but I gotta head back inside, because I don’t know how quiet I was when leaving and my friends are going to assume I’m missing. Again,” Charles said.

“Wait, we have to keep meeting up, right? We can still talk to each other?” Amelia said.

“What? No we can’t! We’re not on the same side and besides, even if I could, it would still be wrong!” Charles shouted.

“Please, I have to talk to you again, even if we’re not on the same side, I just have to!” Amelia said.

“There’s too much for this… we can’t exactly justify this kind of thing…” Charles said. But my heart says otherwise. I mean I don’t have a heart, but at the same time, it’s all in the mind, right?

It can’t hurt to meet with her again. Especially if we don’t exchange any sensitive information, it should be OK right?

“Alright, here’s the deal. We’ll meet again. Twice every month or so. But the rules are we can’t say anything about our respective jobs. We keep everything locked up tight. We ask about our days, we talk about movies we’ve seen, et cetera, et cetera. That’s it. If I promise not to pump you for information, you have to do the same for me as well. I’m not gonna tell you anything and you won’t say anything to me,” Charles said.

“And this stays between us?” Amelia said.

“As long as we can. I mean, the odds of us getting caught are pretty high, but in all honesty, I’m willing to take the risk,” Charles said.

“Alright than. Maybe I’ll see you in a few weeks than…” Amelia waved goodbye as she ran across the roof before jumping on top of a nearby building, running off into the night. Charles sighed, wondering just what he had gotten himself into.

Maybe it’ll work out. And maybe if I do get caught, it won’t be so bad. After all, I’m not going to be exchanging any sensitive information. It’ll all work out in the end, right?

- - - - -

Amelia stepped into her own apartment, looking around before letting out a small sigh. She started to take off her formal clothes, quickly changing into something more comfortable before she sat down on the couch, looking up at the ceiling.

“Rough day?” Amelia looked up and saw Burt hovering over her, fiddling with his cane as she nodded her head.

Burt was the only Toppat they had managed to get out of the Wall so far. While Amelia would have prefered Sven or Carol or heck, even Red Crimson, Burt being here was still refreshing. Especially considering his own knowledge in technology and computers, being the former head of communications for the Toppat Clan. She was happy to work with him too, considering how close they were before the entire Clan was arrested.

“Did you find a seller for the jewels?” Amelia asked.

“Hmm, nothing yet. It’s only been an hour. We’ll get some bids soon though,” Burt said, “And than we can keep paying rent, giving those sweet dollars to those techno geeks-”

“-And of course, ensuring a budget for ourselves in the event we can actually get the rest of the clan out of the Wall. And than we can rescue my dad and the Right Hand Man…” Amelia said.

“Yep, but I wouldn’t count on it happening in a week. It’ll probably be another month or two before we have an actual concrete plan. Wendell himself said so,” Burt said.

“They promised they wouldn’t hurt the… government dog anymore. So I have less to worry about now…” Amelia paused as she said this, wondering if that was completely true.

“That’s the look of someone who made a promise that they’re not sure they can keep. What happened?” Burt asked.

“You know I snuck out?”

“Why do you think I’m awake?”

“Mmm… I’d rather not say right now. Just know that it’s not for our benefit.”

“Hmm.” Burt sat down next to her, letting out a small sigh.

“It’s at times like this I bet you miss your dad though. He’d probably offer some fatherly advice of some sort,” Burt said, putting his arm around her shoulder.

He’d probably tell me I’m making a big mistake. Say that I’m taking a huge risk. Maybe even get onto me for not pumping information out of him… Amelia thought to herself.

“Dad wouldn’t have really… approved of what I did, to be honest…” Amelia said.

“Aw, don’t say that. You’ll always be his little princess, no matter how old you get and how many bank heists you manage yourself,” Burt said.

“Yeah… I’m his little princess…” Amelia said, “I’m gonna turn in for the night.”

“For real this time?” Amelia smirked as Burt’s eyebrow shot up.

“For real this time.”

Meanwhile, across town, Charles had managed to sneak back to his room before he felt something tap his shoulder. He turned around to see Ellie looking at him with a sort of agitated look on her face, a slipper in her hand. His slipper.

“Lose something?” Ellie said softly as Charles snatched the shoe out of her hand.

“Don’t touch my stuff,” Charles muttered, “I’m not in the mood right now.”

“Can’t help if it was outside, you know, where you definitely don’t sleep. Just what are you up to?”

“Nothing. Nothing important anyway. It’s fine, I just had to… take a walk,” Charles said.

“With one slipper?” Ellie asked.

“I had to get the full sensory experience of having one shoe off. Just… GET OFF MY BACK ALREADY!” Charles shouted, before slamming the door in Ellie’s face. It didn’t really help that Ellie was practically cursing at him as he leaned against the door, trying to think about what to do next.

“It’s OK, Charles… you’re doing the right thing…” He pulled his head up to his knees, hugging his legs as he did.

At least I hope I am...