#he would’ve made a good Aladdin too but I didn’t know how to create that story in MCs pov

[all-things-mlqc]

What do you think Shaw's fairytale could have been, had he been included in the "Wonderland after Dark" event?

First and foremost, now that I’ve written my response, I went way over the top with this idea. Was originally going to just summarize this idea and maybe slap Shaw’s face on Disney’s “Robin Hood” fox as a shit edit for funsies yet here we are with a whole HC. Anywho, I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment what other fairytale stories you guys think Shaw would’ve been good for!

Honestly my first thought was Aladdin or Robin Hood. I’m trying to think what best goes with his personality and how you could twist those stories into something new like they have with the other boys. I honestly feel like Robin Hood fits his personality especially with his latest event where he basically pulls a Robin Hood move, stealing from an antique store that was trying to sell fakes for the price of authentic pieces. He “took care” of the owner and people who were involved with this shameless exchange and by took care I mean beat them to a pulp in the alley, stole the items, and even got the shop closed down. While he didn’t necessarily steal valuable items and distribute the wealth to others like what our known Robin Hood does, what he did still protected many people without them knowing. Shaw has that sly, fun way of living life and really does help others without their knowledge. Even if it’s in his own dumbass way which can be selfish at times, I think he could’ve had a pretty good Robin Hood story in this event.

Robin Hood Shaw

Here’s your shit edit that took a total of 4.6 minutes to make

I imagine it would’ve gone something like this:

Shaw as Robin Hood would never settle in one place for too long. He enjoys adventuring around and would often be found visiting many different villages.

There were rumors in nearby villages of a vigilante who would supposedly ambush criminals, bandits, and even rich folks in the nearby villages who were involved with some sort of dirty business.

While he is a stubborn moron who does stupid things and can be selfish at times, he’s never once harmed or stolen from innocent people. He finds it thrilling when he’s able to let loose and be on the verge of getting caught, so fighting criminals/bandits/bad people within the village was how he enjoyed living life.

While most of his reasoning behind it may be selfish, the people of the nearby villages still considered him a hero.

He enjoyed taking out the rumored bandits outside of the village, getaway criminals within the village, and most of all, he enjoyed stealing from tactless, arrogant “royals” is what these people call themselves who used dirty tactics to gain the wealth they had.

Shaw loved the thrill of sneaking in and stealing their valuable belongings that were acquired unjustly with the chance of getting caught. And what he loved more was seeing their infuriated expressions after realizing they had been robbed.

To cover up his tracks, he would distribute the wealth among the good people of the village. He insists his good deeds are nothing more than him wanting some good entertainment and only gives the villages the wealth to cover up his tracks but we all know he’s secretly soft. Under all that bitchassness ofc

He would, however, always keep one item for himself. Whatever seemed to have caught his eye in that moment. The items he collected varied. He didn’t always care about their worth and would often take whatever seemed interesting to him.

Most of the money he used to provide food, clothing, and shelter came from the bandits and criminals. He had plenty of money to get around.

So in this date, I imagine MC going around village to village looking for this vigilante so called “Robin Hood” to help her village. Similar to Disney’s “Robin Hood” film, the people of the village are forced to pay an unfair amount of taxes to the people in control who then use those taxes for their own selfish desires, leaving the people of the village to suffer.

MC uses Robin Hood’s latest sightings from different villages as clues to where she may be able to find him, but many villagers tell her it’s hopeless, that he never shows himself as Robin Hood in public.

While asking around in a nearby village, Shaw overhears her conversation and catches her outside the village during her departure back home.

He asks why she’s looking for Robin Hood so she explains her village’s current situation vaguely to him.

Without explaining himself, he joins her on her journey back to her village.

She was uncertain about him tagging along without an explanation but soon had some friendly banter I say friendly but this man is just annoying as hell and we love it with one another. Y’all know how friendly Shaw is. Annoying but good at making conversation. Ya know... like his usual self.

Anywho, they come across some bandits on the way back where *enter Robin Hood Shaw*.

While Shaw fends off the bandits, MC also joins in and surprises him with some fighting skills of her own which ya’ll know damn well he’s gonna like.

MC was able to piece things together after seeing his fighting style and capability in which she asks if he’s Robin Hood.

He chuckles and responds with a simple “let’s go” as he continues towards the direction of her village.

She follows suit with way too many questions like mood mc, I wanna know what life is like as a bitch vigilante too but you also gotta remember he’s an annoying asshat

To be honest, her first impression after realizing he was Robin Hood was something like “wow wasn’t expecting him to be a dumb bitch” after all that friendly banter. But then again what do you expect from a man who purposely gets himself into danger?

Her questions included those as such: Why did you become Robin Hood? Have you ever been caught? Why do you always keep one stolen item from each place you rob?

His response was a question of his own “Why do you need the help of Robin Hood when you are capable of fighting, yourself?”

She pauses and explains she isn’t capable of helping the village all by herself and thought if she could find Robin Hood, the village would have hope.

Shaw pauses and states his own desires, “I’m not the person people make me out to be. I don’t do these things for the people, I do them for myself. Whether or not you want to believe I help people, in the end, I’m only doing this for myself.”

With that being said, MC suddenly felt a wall being built between them. Not that they had a well developed relationship beforehand

Still, MC explains her village’s situation in much more detail in hope of coming up with a plan.

MC throws out a few ideas while Shaw asks questions about her village and the men in control and then offers his own ideas.

After a lifetime of teasing and bickering, they come to a conclusion.

Once again bringing in Disney’s classic “Robin Hood” film, I thought it would be fun to include a fox in this story and even did some research on Chinese mythological creatures.

Huli jings are fox like mythological creatures that have the capability to shapeshift.

So to add a little twist in this story like the rest of the boys, MC’s village just so happened to be guarded by a huli jing spirit, or so the legends within the village say.

Shaw, with his sly, sneaky Robin Hood persona decided to use this to his advantage.

For days after returning to MC’s village, they gathered materials for their plan for the next time taxes would be collected.

With Shaw’s skills, he would dress as the huli jing spirit shapeshifted as a human wearing a fox mask and fight those who come by to collect taxes, threatening them to leave the village and never return while MC was in charge of special effects to make the “performance” seem more realistic.

He thought the idea of these awful villagers being frightened half to death by a “spirit” was rather entertaining and would make this mission much more satisfying in the end after everything going according to plan. Basically his thought process was “imagine pulling something off so ridiculous yet so incredible”

Slowly driving one by one out of the village, Shaw continued to “haunt” and threaten anyone involved.

However, it was only a matter of time when one of them realized it was all staged after finding MC off to the side, helping Shaw with his “performance”.

MC was then taken to the person in charge and held captive.

Once Shaw realized she had gone missing, he suspected the remaining few caught on and had her as a hostage so he finished his job more quickly and efficiently. Mr. iM dOiNg ThiS fOr mYsELf

Being stuck with the man in charge who was responsible for the village’s suffering, MC began asking why he did everything he had done, why he doesn’t help the village like one should. Oh MC, sweet sweet MC, there are some terrible people in the world and you should know this

After talking with the man for some time, there was a loud crash following the man being knocked to the ground by a powerful force.

“I’ve come to steal you away” is all MC hears before being swept up into Shaw’s arms.

With the man on the ground letting out painful cries, Shaw reveals himself as Robin Hood, receiving an appalled gasp from the man lying on the floor as he demands him to leave the village for good and never return.

The man refuses to give up, calling for backup only to be met with silence.

Shaw: Oh? You haven’t heard? They all fled the village. The remaining ones have been dealt with as well. It’s best you do the same if you value your life.

With this being said, the man got up and frantically stumbled out of the building.

As Shaw carries MC outside, the villagers thank him as they distribute the wealth found within the mans home among everyone, now safe from their continued suffering.

Enjoying her embarrassed expression, Shaw quietly teases MC while continuing to carry her away from others.

MC: You can put me down now, Mr. Every man for himself.

Shaw: Oh? I guess I found that time spent with you is utterly amusing and would be a shame to lose such entertainment.

MC: Well if you don’t go back soon, everything will be taken and you won’t be able to get your reward.

Shaw: And what reward would that be?

MC: The one item you choose to keep from every theft you’ve ever done.

Shaw chuckles while leaning close, whispering in her ear, “I’ve already taken my reward”.

Bye, I’ll be suffering while wishing we actually had Shaw in this event because he would’ve been 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[jcmorrigan]

I saw the tag- I am gonna ask you about the crossover universe- (omg I’m literally gushing about this)

OH, IT IS TIME!

 So you can find a lot of this on the “What is the WHAM ARMY?” page on my blog – I’ll try to remember to link it; I’m drafting this in a word processor first so I don’t use it. Essentially, this is the universe I’ve created for my fanfic “Taking Back the Crown,” which is about…basically my favorite villains all moving into the same house and trying to take over the multiverse. And then it got lore. And more lore. Because I cannot write anything normal. The fic is nearing its 150th chapter and I’m nowhere NEAR exhausted of all the ideas I want to put in it – it’s just my big playground for hyperfixation fun. Anyway, here’s a rundown of the major points of it!

 THE CAST

 The main characters are the eight villains who are the founders of the WHAM ARMY. The faction name is an acronym of their first initials. They’re my ultrafaves, the villains I always get fluttery heart for, and probably the biggest collection of losers you can imagine. I’ll put them in order of the acronym and give you some background on how each entered the team.

Wuya (Xiaolin Showdown) – So the connecting factor between these people is that Mozenrath (his name is a few slots down) is their team leader and the one who decided to build a team in the first place. Wuya was recruited when Mozenrath found her puzzle box in an ancient vault. This is set post-series for XS (and Chronicles is not at all canon), so what had happened is in the big Showdown right after Raimundo was named team leader officially in the finale, the Xiaolin Monks won ALL the Shen Gong Wu to their side and stuffed Wuya in the box. So Mozenrath found her and let her out so they could be pals. A magic potion let her regain human form fairly early on, and her power isn’t even nerfed either the way Chase Young would’ve done.

Huntsman (American Dragon: Jake Long) – ADJL is also post-series in this timeline. Mozenrath has the power to resurrect people from the dead at will because he’s memorized an ancient and incredibly complex ritual that he can execute mentally (note that this means you can remove this ability from him by tampering with his memories). The Huntsman was resurrected so as to show Mozenrath around the old Huntsclan vault (which is where they found Wuya’s puzzle box). No other Huntsclan member survived the purge except Rose (and 88 and 89, but they don’t count and aren’t in this story), so the Huntsman is starting from square one.

Ayam Aghoul (Aladdin: The Animated Series): Basically just got sick of losing. He’d teamed up with a few other rando Aladdin rogues to try and pick a fight with Maleficent, and she sent him packing. So he ended up finding one of the few residents of the Seven Deserts who was powerful enough to match him AND had a similar grudge against Maleficent.

Mozenrath (Aladdin: The Animated Series): The man of the hour and the creator of the entire team. He starts the fic by crashing Maleficent’s KH Disney Villain alliance and trying to add himself to it, but…ends up being such a disrespectful nuisance that Hades just drags him straight down to the Underworld. That moment inspired him to get his OWN band of friends and start making a name for himself.

Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls): Met Mozenrath in the Underworld after his death in film canon. Annoyed Hades one too many times by claiming that he wasn’t actually supposed to die, seeing as he isn’t allergic to dairy (he is), so Hades threw him in the same cell as Mozenrath and…

Roman Torchwick (RWBY): I started writing this fic in 2016, immediately post-V3, so it’s canon-divergent after the last episode of V3 (but I got all the later-game characters to show up eventually). Which means Roman is ALSO dead at the start of this fic. He ALSO comes storming up to Hades insisting he’s not even supposed to be dead. At the same time as Snatcher is already pestering him. Which is how Mozenrath, Snatcher, and Roman end up in the same jail cell in Tartarus and get the idea that maybe they should break back into the world of the living and try to build something BETTER than what any of the three had beforehand.

Mad Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone): Mozenrath, immediately after breaking out of the Underworld, attempted to take over Arthur’s kingdom by just walking in and throwing magic around. It backfired horribly when Merlin showed up. But then Mim showed up to counter Merlin and realized that maybe she had a potential friend here who was as blackhearted as she.

Yzma (The Emperor’s New Groove): Post-TENG, no KNG or TENS (but I reference things from TENS every now and again). Merlin turned Mozenrath into a rat, so Mim brought him to Yzma’s Secret Lab to change him back. There, they found Yzma as a cat, and she so desperately wanted out of her living situation that she added herself to the team. She was also restored to human form shortly thereafter.

 There is a potential ninth member of the core in the form of Vexen (Kingdom Hearts). KH is canon-divergent after DDD and basically ignores almost every game that comes out after Fragmentary Passage. Vexen, as Even, was trying to integrate into life as a hero in Radiant Garden, except everyone annoyed him way too much, so he decided to go be with people that would give right back any insults he dished out. And then realized he was much happier being on the evil team and doing mad science with no ethics. However, he will not be promoted to the upper ranks because 1. it would spoil the acronym and 2. he is unanimously agreed-upon to be the biggest wet blanket of the group and nobody wants him at the founder parties.

(Imagine my disbelief when the actual canon arc for Vexen was THE REVERSE ONE IN WHICH HE JUST DECIDES TO GO LIVE AT RADIANT GARDEN AND NOT BE ANNOYED BY ANYTHING and that’s why JC doesn’t like Kingdom Hearts III)

 Anyway, this crew is a bunch of silly friends who enjoy partying, singing, dancing, drag, indulging in vices, causing mayhem, taking over cities, arranging for mass murder, piecing together smear campaigns…but they’re all pretty much ride or die for each other. And that goes double for the ships of the set: Mozenrath/Huntsman, Mim/Aghoul, Wuya/Yzma, and my favorite ship to end all favorites, Roman/Snatcher (RedHatBlackHat is the ship name).

From there, you have a B-Squad of, like, seventy other people based on my faves. Nonnie, I know you saw this because of Vincent Edgeworth, Victor Blake, and Albert Krueger, and they are three of COUNTLESS examples. It’s a found crime family that keeps getting bigger as I get more fave villains and there’s hardly a rhyme or a reason. Currently, they live in a floating fortress designed when they stole Terra Cyclonia (Storm Hawks) and hefted it out into the aether between worlds with crystal technology.

 They have a rival hero faction in the form of the Cinnamons: a gathering of people who they’ve wronged who turned out to make pretty good friends themselves. While the WHAM ARMY are the villain-protag team that you feel slightly bad loving the escapades of, the Cinnamons are the rainbows, fluff, sunshine, (secret crippling depression and anxiety), and pep-talkers of the multiverse. They’re the deuteragonist team as opposed to the “villains” of the story. They also have eight “leaders,” but they were picked up a little less quickly than the WHAM ARMY founders, instead coming together over the span of a much longer quest. These people are:

Sora (Kingdom Hearts): Heart of the team and the person who pulled them all together, because Sora loves everyone. He, Riku, and Kairi witnessed the WHAM ARMY wreaking destruction on both Radiant Garden and Disney Castle, and Sora decided no one gets to treat his homes-away-from-home like that and get away with it! Between Mozenrath and the still-looming threats of Maleficent and Xehanort, he’s now collecting pals from all worlds to fight against evil and do as much good as they can do! (While having sleepovers.)

Ruby Rose (RWBY): Before she, Nora, Ren, and Jaune could get into Mistral, Sora interrupted them on their path and directed them right back around to Vale with the news that Roman Torchwick was back in action. After an incident involving the Destiny Trio and Team RNJR having to team up and actually kill the massive Grimm unleashed in the V3 endgame, they all headed out to Radiant Garden together to continue their mission.

Papyrus (Undertale): Sora found him while exploring worlds and they clicked immediately as pals. Then the WHAM ARMY, who was living in Mt. Ebott at the time, sparked an anti-monster racist sentiment through the town, and Papyrus was advised to leave the world for his own safety, so he went traveling with Sora.

Stork (Storm Hawks): Maleficent, who is also an active player in this game, made a power play by destroying the Condor with the entire Storm Hawks team onboard while they were on the Far Side of Atmos (post-series). Stork, believing himself to be the only survivor, attempted to take his own life – only for Sora to show up just in time and offer him something better: hope that his friends survived, and new friends to tag along with until they could prove either way.

Jasmine (Aladdin): The Cinnamons came looking to Agrabah for more information on Mozenrath. When Jasmine heard he was causing chaos, she decided to get personally involved.

Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender): Post-ATLA, no LoK. Sora made a trip to the Fire Nation to see if he could head off the WHAM ARMY’s latest scheme, and ran into the Gaang along the way. After helping Katara, Aang, and Zuko protect the Fire Nation from a very near miss, Sora invited them to come travel with him. Only Katara accepted at first, the other two wanting to clean things up on their homeworld.

Kazuichi Soda (DanganRonpa): Post-SDR2, no DR3. Xehanort requested Izuru Kamukura be used as a vessel, and Kazuichi went in Izuru/Hajime’s place so his buddy didn’t have to. But the first chance he got, Kazuichi turned and ran from the Castle That Never Was…where Sora had just crash-landed. Kazuichi patched up Sora’s ship, and immediately became part of his crew. (Worth noting: in this AU, the Remnants of Despair were never brainwashed and were completely aware of what they were doing. Kazuichi is basically a redemption story, trying to be a better person to make up for the hell he caused. Also, while on the Despair side, he’d hacked off his leg to sew Junko’s in its place, disabling himself – that leg goes through an arc regarding what prosthesis is in its place.)

Rapunzel (Tangled): After the Vardaros arc of S2 of Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. Rapunzel was targeted by the WHAM ARMY because she was essentially a living MacGuffin for one of their spells. Sora showed up, and Rapunzel decided to go along with him for safety AND fun, leaving Cassandra to continue the pilgrimage to the Dark Kingdom. (Wrote this before KHIII was out. And before the Evil Cass twist.)

 And just like the WHAM ARMY, these folks have a huge B-squad that lives in the Radiant Garden castle and helps them deal with the various tragedies they have to clean up after. Riku, Kairi, and Jaune Arc in particular get a decent amount of stage time.

 As you can see, Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty/Kingdom Hearts) and her forces are another big set of chess pieces on the board! After she sent Mozenrath to gay baby jail and it didn’t stick, she’s been trying to continue plans for domination as usual but ALSO wipe the WHAM ARMY off the face of the multiverse. She, Jafar (Aladdin), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), and Hades (Hercules) all came straight here from KH. But I’m working to model that team’s inner circle on the team in “Quite a Glittering Assemblage,” the sister fic by gavillain (it’s basically this premise but Maleficent gets a team to start instead, but similarities end there, his is a whole different, fresh, and fun flavor). I’ve just gotten all these characters intro’d instory, but the other biggies are Loki (Marvel – I based him in the Cinematic Universe but he’s kind of just an amalgamation of Lokis), Dr. Doom (Marvel), Captain Hook (Once Upon a Time), Russell Edgington (True Blood), and Fish Mooney (Gotham). Currently, they operate out of the Forbidden Mountain in the Enchanted Dominion.

 There’s also a very new addition as of the 140’s chapters: the Heathens. This is a squad of villains with moral lines in the sand (and some antiheroes or corrupted heroes). Basically, these aren’t your killers for fun. These are the people who steal candy from the gas station and think they’re slick, but the point is they’re enjoying themselves so just let it happen. The four founders of this one are Harley Quinn (DC – based on The Batman but an amalgamation of Harleys that leans sympathetic), Yang Xiao Long (RWBY), Giovanni Potage (Epithet Erased), and Velvet Crowe (Tales of Berseria). Currently, they operate out of the old mansion in Twilight Town.

 The Xehanorts are here, and that team is largely who you think it is – though I stripped away Vexen, Demyx, Marluxia, Larxene, and Luxord in order to replace them ALL with Xaldin. More crossover shenanigans to come on this front. This team isn’t very active – they’re waiting for the Keyblade War – but they’re operating out of the World That Never Was.

 There’s also another side villain faction: the Morbians, led by Mirage (Aladdin: The Animated Series). These are the demons of fear, the stuff that lurks in your nightmares, and…the villains I really like but who I don’t quite think fit in with the WHAM ARMY or any other more prominent group. But to give you an idea of what the flavor of this team is, she’s recruited not one but TWO Boogeymen – Pitch Black (Rise of the Guardians) and Oogie Boogie (The Nightmare Before Christmas).

 There will be more villain factions to come, and I kind of want to splinter the Cinnamons to multiple bases as well. Obviously it’s easier to split villains up because they’re fun to write at war with each other – when I have hero teams come up against each other, usually they end up becoming best buddies instead of fighting, and that’s how I like it, but that’s why there’s just ONE BIG HERO TEAM as opposed to the many villain squads rattling around.

 THE SETTING

 So as you have probably gleaned, the multiverse setup is largely based on Kingdom Hearts, which is one of my favorite things (in the KH1 through Fragmentary Passage era anyway). There are many worlds that can be visited either by Gummi Ship or Corridor of Darkness. Basically any evil-aligned sorcerer can use Corridors in this ‘verse – they’ve opened their souls to Darkness and have magic, so they can do so.

 The implication is that every world represents a separate “story” or part of one. As in if it’s a work of fiction HERE, it’s a world THERE. Some characters are actually savvy enough to know they’re fictional (e.g. Megavolt from Darkwing Duck, Xayide from The Neverending Story). Most of them aren’t built to handle the news, though, and just shrug it off if told. (No, really, the cosmic order prevents them from taking that news seriously if they’re not from something that regularly leans on the fourth wall anyway.)

 But sometimes, things get AU’d in without their full worlds. I was inspired by how Final Fantasy is treated in canon KH, and once I started bringing in more FF stuff by the same method, I felt motivated to do that with MORE fandoms if I felt the characters could be divorced from their settings and histories easily. I’ve done it for most Disney Channel non-animated properties as well as Satellite City (ain’t that the worst combo you’ve ever looked at). I’m planning to do it for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn because I’m coming up on a location I want to delve into the civilization of but don’t have many canon characters for, so guess what, you get the FE cast now.

 Major worlds or relevant locations in play are the Cyclonian warship, Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, and occasionally the Enchanted Dominion, but we move from plotline to plotline with journeys to many, many, MANY worlds of things I want to play with the settings and casts of. Also, the Cyclonian warship is about to get replaced with another WHAM ARMY base; we’ll get there.

 THE STORY

 For the first major “book” of TBTC, the WHAM ARMY has found a spell that they think will let them conquer the entire multiverse by giving them control over Kingdom Hearts itself. All they have do to is collect a bunch of MacGuffins that correspond to twelve elements: fire, water, earth, air, light, darkness, life, death, time, space, entropy, and aether. In order to do this, they visit the worlds of KH, RWBY, Avatar, Storm Hawks, Okami, Undertale, Wakfu, The Legend of Zelda, The Neverending Story, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and many many more. The Cinnamons catch wind of what they’re doing and start assembling. Meanwhile Maleficent is on the hunt for the Book of Prophecies and starts hiring villains on her team as well. After many madcap adventures and some devastating tragedies near endgame, the Cinnamons accidentally put the Book of Prophecies in Maleficent’s hands at the same time that Maleficent finally captures Mozenrath and gets him under heel. The WHAM ARMY and Cinnamons both launch attacks on Maleficent’s forces, and each walks away with what they came for. This is also the part where we slowburn up to the four major WHAM ARMY ships and many Cinnamon ships. In the end, the WHAM ARMY actually gets all the ingredients for their spell, but what they don’t know is it will actually cause the DESTRUCTION of the worlds. So an outside force intervenes (Discord from MLPFIM, who later joins the WHAM ARMY because he wants friends who actually appreciate him as a villain and won’t make him change) to stop them, and the next thing they know, they’re starting from square one.

 We’re now in the second “book” of this story. The Cinnamons are gathering up all lost friends – the rest of Team RWBY, the Gaang, the Storm Hawks (who did in fact survive the explosion), the lost KH characters. The WHAM ARMY, on the other hand, is gathering up more villains to bolster their forces for a new evil plan: to conquer the worlds one by one, starting with Atlantis (Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire) and using portals to link to other territories of interest. While the WHAM ARMY is essentially working through a to-do list of what they need before they can launch such a massive invasion, the Cinnamons are finding strength in numbers because the writing’s on the wall that between Mozenrath, Maleficent, Mirage, and Xehanort, things are going to get worse before they get better, and as evil builds, good will need to rise to protect the innocent. As for Maleficent, she’s no longer able to chase the Book of Prophecies, and so, because she’s got Hades, Loki, and Salem (RWBY) there and they’re all like “Even though we’re pretty godlike, we are not that happy with how the gods we knew have run things,” Maleficent’s new goal is to slaughter the gods of all pantheons (minus those in her care) and replace them with her allies.

 Anyway, as I had said in the post you saw, Anon – I basically take everything fictional I love and shove it into this AU for daydreams because it lets me imagine my faves having CROSSOVER INTERACTIONS and doing cool epic stuff on a multi-world scale. (But as much as I’ve talked up the epic aspect, a lot of it is just…like…people fucking around and hosting karaoke nights.) Anyway, I hope this gave you a good sense of the madness, and I hope it serves as a reminder to everyone that they can and should just. Make a daydream and/or fanfic universe that’s indulgent as hell. Just do it.

[kingofthewilderwest]

princesstokyomoon replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

kovu was the first crush baby me ever acknowledged i had, so seeing simba on this list is very validating lol

[high fives] Disney made those lions way too hot for their own good. Kovu would probably be on my list if I had watched the second Lion King movie more recently. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember being gripped by him when I was younger. So if he magically appears on that list later...... a rewatch happened.

writingstellar��replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

-is queer -has a type -that type involves dark hair and eyes ...my dude do you also like them kinda damaged? Because I think we have the same taste lmao

Bruh. Bruh. I wasn’t going to admit it in the tags, but TOTALLY. When they’re damaged is when my heart melts. I relate to their struggles and issues, I yearn to care for them, I feel for them, I love them. [high five on the same taste]

maski1 replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

"Elizabeth Hawkeye" ? I think it was stated her name really is "Riza" ? When I watched ATLA when I was little I didn't like Zuko. Now he's my favorite character XD Gotta watch The Dragon Prince but before, I have to watch TLoK (and before that, read the chapters that were never adaptated). I'm curious, why Aladdin? Linguini is underrated

I started replying to you in the comments of the original post, but you always have such fun conversations, so I had to hop onto here and expand!

1. Regarding how I present the names on my list, I try to give a character’s full name, so long as there is strong evidence-based canon that gives or implies their name. In a few rare cases, like Elizabeth Hawkeye, there are fans who would dispute me on this, but I can give a very good account based deeply in canon for why I have the name listed as it is. If people want to agree or disagree with me at the end of the day, I don’t mind either way.

Regarding Riza... there are two types of scenarios she is called “Elizabeth” in Arakawa’s writing. One scenario is when everyone in Team Mustang is given code names. I imagine zero fans care about that as evidence. Havoc’s code name is Jacqueline, and that obviously isn’t his real name. Riza being called “Elizabeth” on the phone when Roy is disguising his operations by fake flirting doesn’t count for proof by itself. But the other instance is Roy calling her “Elizabeth” to Madame Christmas. I think most fans read that as Roy simply extending the code name for anonymity reasons. However, given Madame Christmas knows a ton about Roy’s emotional investment in Riza, and I’ve encountered some..... translational difficulties that the official English versions have with names... I think the latter’s a good cue.

Riza in older English translations and older merchandise was legitimately named “Liza,” and Liza is a common nickname for Elizabeth (especially for the time period Fullmetal Alchemist is roughly evoking). I talk about the translation weirdness here in much better depth. As you may know yourself, given your own language background, this would not be the first time the English translators made stupid mistakes with FMA names. Viz Media initially gave Xerxes the clusterfuck spelling ‘Cselkcess’ before they realized what the word was supposed to be. Ling Yao’s name has danced between Ling and Lin, despite Arakawa herself putting the Romanized spelling of his name in some drawn panels. I have seen Ranfun, Ranfan, and Lan Fan all within official FMA merchandise. Viz Media couldn’t even get a kid’s name “Kyle” down right in their translations... originally he was called “Khayal,” because at that point in time, they didn’t have a good grasp of the world (and ergo name base) that Arakawa was drawing from. Jean Havoc’s name should have been given a French pronunciation rather than sounding like ‘Gene,’ and if you wanted to Anglicize his name one step further, you could’ve named him John Havoc more accurately than what we got in the anime dubs.

With all that said and done, a character named Liza who is sometimes referred to as “Elizabeth” seems to me a logical enough indication she would have been born as “Elizabeth Hawkeye.” In any other circumstance, if I met someone who was called Liza but at one point got called “Elizabeth” by people who knew her in her past, I would conclude she was named Elizabeth. So yeah. Some people may disagree with my logic, but that’s the short of why I have it. XD

If other people are curious: another character whose name might disputed on my list is Rufus from Deponia. There’s some information in the obscure Deponia roleplaying book that says his father used to be named Landgull. Rufus was offended when his father changed his name from Seagull to Landgull to distance himself from Rufus (ergo, it wasn’t a first name change, which would’ve been irrelevant to disowning your blood relation to someone); Captain Seagull was always referred to by a title which usually goes with a last name; and ergo it’s likely Rufus could’ve grown up as Rufus Landgull. Even though the games never ever ever actually call him that.

2. NOW GOING ONTO THE ZUKO THING. Dude, I feel you. When I watched Season 1 of ATLA, I hated Zuko. By Season 3, I loved him and he was my favorite character. They did a magnificent job not just creating the character and giving him an arc, but allowing his personality to be increasingly revealed to us as audience members.

3. Why Aladdin? As a kid, I was obsessed with Aladdin. Now that I’m older, I still think his cheeky, adventurous, charming, but genuine yearning spirit are appealing. And he has sUCH pReTTy eYeSSS!!! So yeah. 

4. Linguini is VERY underrated. What a dear.

[pitch-pearl-void]

Aladdin AU, Pitch Pearl style

An hour after arriving, Danny was still gawking at the room and all the furniture inside. Phantom reclined on some cushions in the corner and watched the human explore the luxuries like a kid in a candy shop...or like an orphaned street rat who never knew when his next meal would be. Did Danny have a home before he met Phantom? The way he was touching the bed made Phantom wonder if he had ever seen one before, let alone one stuffed with feathers.

I could have given you a bed when we were traveling through the desert, Phantom thought, watching the quiet wonder grow on Danny's face. I could have fed you dates and all the apples you could have wanted.

But Danny had never asked. It had never even occurred to him despite how Phantom flaunted his powers that Danny could take advantage of his services. The masters before him had seen Phantom bring a horse into existence so he could ride unobtrusively beside his master through the marketplace and thought: His horse is better than mine or He could create a whole herd for me to sell. They had asked about it, and Phantom had smiled and required them to use one of their wishes.

Danny had seen Phantom produce a thick blanket in the desert during one of the freakishly cold nights, just one more scheme to trick his new master into wasting his wishes. Danny had seen but instead of being envious or greedy, Danny had asked if they could share.

Share.

Such a novel concept. Even Phantom hadn't known the full meaning of the concept until Danny, responding to Phantom's hesitant acceptance, slid under the blanket and snuggled close to his new genie. At some point he had even draped an arm over Phantom. It hadn't been possessive or sexual or anything Phantom had experience with, something he understood. It had simply been to...share body heat.

To Phantom's surprise, he had enjoyed it. Despite not needing sleep, there was something deeply...satisfying about laying under the blanket with Danny, feeling the cold toes and slight shivers from the too skinny body decrease as the human slowly fell asleep against him.

In fact, he had enjoyed it so much he had created a blanket the second night and suggested the same arrangement himself. And the next. And the next.

There would be no such arrangement tonight. Danny had his own blanket now. He had his own bed. Danny had all the luxuries a prince inside a palace could ask for, what need he of a genie's generosity? All he wanted for now was the heart of another, and that was something no magic could give him.

Phantom closed his eyes and leaned his head back with a sigh. Danny announced he was going to see Princess Samantha, and Phantom raised his hand to bid him good luck, the bangles of his enslavement jangling as he waved.

He expected the sound of a closing door, but apparently Danny was hesitating. "Are you okay?" he asked, worried. "Did the parade wear you out? Is there something I can do?"

You could stay, Phantom thought, but aloud he said, "I will be fine, Master. A little rest is all I need."

That should have been the end of it, and yet Danny lingered. Phantom could sense his master's confusion and unease. "Why..." he started, paused, and then tried again. "’Master’? You can still call me Danny. Just because we're inside a palace now doesn't mean you're no longer my friend."

It was a nice sentiment, Phantom was glad to hear it, but it missed the point. "I must call you master or I will forget myself."

"Forget yourself?"

Phantom pried his eyes open and looked at Danny. The human, dressed now in princely garb but still slightly slouched like the street rat Phantom had first met, had abandoned the door and the bed, the fruit and the balcony, and was walking toward Phantom, blue eyes concerned and focused solely on the genie.

Phantom had to close his eyes again and look away. Danny had no idea what he was doing to him, the pain he was causing. "It's nothing you need concern yourself with, sire. Proceed with the wooing of your princess before she retires for the night."

Danny sat on the pillows nearest Phantom. Nearer than any other master had dared unless they were trying (and failing) to convince Phantom to serve them in a different way. Unlike them, Danny didn't caress Phantom's bare chest or finger his slave bangles or pull at his chest piece. Danny dared sit beside him because they were friends. He dared touch Phantom's shoulder because he had never been afraid of his friend.

And Phantom had to resist resting his cheek on Danny's hand because friend was a woefully inadequate word for what he was feeling. What he was feeling was simply not allowed. More painfully, it was not wanted. When Phantom first materialized before his new master, he had chosen to form himself as a reflection of his master, albeit a reflection with different colored eyes and hair. In the past, doing so had protected him from certain types of masters. In the present, it shielded him too well, and yet he liked the form. He might just keep it.

It wasn't anything like the black haired, violet eyed beauty Danny was infatuated with, however, so what use was it currently?

"Phantom," Danny insisted gently, "what's wrong?"

With the excuse a conversation granted him, Phantom allowed his head to turn, his cheek to fall on Danny's hand. He opened his eyes to meet Danny's. His master's eyes were so close Phantom could see the web of lighter blue fibers weaved around the iris, so fascinating, so beautiful. Phantom had never thought a human could have this pull on him, that he would find any form of theirs attractive, and yet here he was. A fool.

"I'm not one for castles," Phantom said, dodging the greater truth and landing on a lesser. "Too many bad memories, you know? Humans who seek power and status always wind up in one eventually. And then I am trapped behind these walls, forced to watch their greed twist a once great land to suit their purpose."

Danny frowned. He connected what Phantom was saying to the returned use of 'master' and landed at the wrong conclusion. "You think that will happen to me? Phantom, I promise, I'm only here because I want Samantha."

Phantom's eyes twitched. His mouth thinned slightly. "She is all you want? Then why not wish her free from her palace instead of you within it? From what you told me, that's exactly what she would've wished for herself, or do you think she ran away from the palace simply because she wanted to stretch her legs?"

His words seemed to strike Danny harder than he intended. He recoiled, his hand sliding from beneath Phantom's cheek. Phantom bit his lip. "I don't--I mean, I didn't--maybe I could have--her family--"

Phantom caught Danny's wrist before he could pull away too far. "Don't make excuses for yourself," he said in a softer tone. "There is no need." He turned Danny's wrist over and brushed his thumb along the bulging veins, the jutting wrist bone. "You were seeking to provide for yourself--and her--in the only way you knew. Starvation and danger is the world you are trying to escape. Isolation and responsibility was hers. I understand."

Danny watched him. He didn't say anything when Phantom's touch became less pointed and more like a caress. Perhaps he didn't notice. "Are you upset with me?" he finally asked, confused.

Phantom sighed and released his wrist. "A little," he admitted. "More at myself. I can't keep my emotions in check." He stretched, arching his spine in a way that, had Danny been receptive, might have been suggestive. "Go along, though. I will sort myself out."

Danny didn't leave. After a few minutes, Phantom looked at his master and saw him staring thoughtfully at the balcony. Moonlight was shining through the sheer curtains, a light breeze stirring the fabric into an inviting dance.

"Would it help you to get away for a bit?" Danny asked.

Phantom eyed the balcony hungrily. "It would," he replied, somewhat reluctantly, "but it wouldn't do much good. I am bound to the lamp. I can only go where it goes. I would be trapped and forced to return before I cleared the palace grounds."

"What if I go with you?"

"With me?"

"Out there." Danny turned his head to look at Phantom again, something alive and wild in his eyes. "To see the world. Let's get out of here. Just for tonight."

Phantom sat up. If he had a true human heart, it would be pounding. "Are you serious?"

"You said you wanted to, right? Once you're free? I know it's not the same, but..."

Phantom had said that. It was his dearest wish. The freedom to go wherever he pleased, to see sights he had only heard about. That dream did not involve being chained to his master and the lamp at the time, and yet...

"What would be the point of seeing the world if you weren't there beside me?" Phantom said slowly, realization dawning in his mind. Danny's eyes softened as he smiled, and Phantom felt elated, weightless, and heavy all at the same time.

This human is going to destroy me, he thought, staring into Danny's eyes. I can't have him. I can't. I'm just going to get myself hurt.

Phantom looked from Danny to the balcony, to Danny, and then to the carpet. The only other magical being in the room had perked up as well. They had known each other for millenia, it knew Phantom as well as he knew himself. It must have felt Phantom's ambient magic pulling uselessly at Danny's emotions, like a dog outside a house begging for scraps of love and affection, but would it help him? Wanting Danny was such a useless, ridiculous, pointless--

The carpet leapt into the air and flew in circles around Phantom and Danny, its tassels at one point brushing Phantom's white hair.

Danny laughed. "Looks like Carpet wants to go too!"

Phantom smiled. "It would seem so."

He watched Danny climb onto the carpet and settle into a cross-legged position and wondered. Wondered, wondered, wondered. The flight Carpet offered was a powerful tool to earthbound humans. With it, Danny could have easily swept Samantha into a romantic flight, free of all the restrictions that had once kept her tied to her palace. Yet Danny was offering the night to Phantom.

And, whether Danny intended it or not, the potential to sweep a human off their feet remained. If Phantom could show Danny the freedom they could have, together, away from a palace, away from responsibilities that came with marrying a princess, could he, an enslaved genie, win back the heart that had already been given to someone else?

Maybe, Phantom thought, hope rising within him. Maybe, maybe, maybe...

It was a foolish hope, but what did Phantom have to lose?

So instead of flying alongside Carpet as he had done out in the desert, Phantom sat on Carpet behind Danny, his knees bracketing Danny's, his arms encircling his waist.

Danny may have missed the other signs of Phantom's growing interest, but this one he caught. His stomach muscles tensed beneath Phantom's arms. "Uh, Phantom?"

"We'll have to fly faster if we're to see anything in only one night," Phantom explained, neglecting to mention he intended to stretch the night out as long as his powers were able. "Can't have you falling off. This thing doesn't come with seatbelts."

Slowly, the tense line of Danny's spine relaxed. He didn't lean back against Phantom. Not yet. "Seatbelts?" he asked.

"Not important." Carpet drifted toward the balcony, and with a swipe of his fingers, Phantom willed the curtains to part for them. "Where do you want to go?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"

Phantom shook his head. "I don't know what all your world has to offer. I don't even know where we are in relation to the ones I do know. It's a whole new world for me."

"Me too." They flew over the balcony rails, and Danny's arm pressed against Phantom's, his hand grabbing Phantom's forearm. A human instinct to the fear of falling, Phantom supposed. "I'm a street rat remember? I've never been outside the city. Well, aside from the trip to the cave."

Phantom smiled. He wanted to rest his chin on Danny's shoulder. He wanted to hold him against his chest. But no. No, not yet. Not yet. "Pick a direction," he suggested.

Danny thought about it a moment as Carpet flew lazily upward, higher and higher above the city. Phantom took the opportunity to stare at Danny's face. It was highlighted by the moon, and some of his black hair had fallen near his eye. Phantom could brush it aside. Maybe. His eyes dropped to Danny's lips and lingered there, heat rising within him as he watched Danny thoughtfully bite down on the plush skin.

Danny pointed toward the distant mountains with his free hand. "There. I always wondered what was beyond those. They're like a wall."

Phantom followed Danny's hand and nodded. They were, weren't they? "Sounds good. Let's go!"

Carpet took his word as a command and shot forward, its speed strengthened by Phantom's magic. Danny had never flown so fast, and he yelped as he was thrown back against Phantom's chest. His other arm wrapped around Phantom's arms, holding on tight to the genie. He yelled out in delight and urged the carpet to fly higher, into the scattered clouds, closer to the moon.

Phantom rested his chin on Danny's shoulder, held his master a little closer, a little tighter, and smiled. Tonight would be everything Phantom could wish for, and Danny was the one giving it to him.

[edda-blattfe]

You are absolutely amazing!!! Can you do more on how the boys would react to the movies?

Daaaww, thank you, darlin’! *cackcles maliciously* I will gladly do so! 😆

(I’ll just do the house leaders for now. If y’all want me to do any of the other characters send in an ask and I'll be happy to answer.)

Alice in Wonderland

- “What even is this movie?” -Leona, before falling asleep on Mal’s shoulder. He woke up at the end when Alice was getting chased down and had no clue what was going on.

- Almost everyone is confused, except for Riddle and Kalim. Those two are oddly invested in this film.

- For whatever reason, Riddle just does not like Alice from the very beginning. Maybe it’s the “know-it-all” attitude or that she’s completely hopeless in a world that makes perfect sense. Whatever it is, he won’t stop glaring at the animated girl and muttering insults towards her at every opportunity.

- Azul had to stop himself from questioning the movie’s logic. There is no logic, just absolute madness.

- Every time the Queen yells “off with their head” Riddle giggles....it’s getting kinda creepy tbh.

- Kalim is the only one who liked the “it was all a dream” ending. Riddle was disappointed that little blonde brat didn’t get her head lopped off. Meanwhile, everyone else was just glad it was over.

The Little Mermaid

- The movie’s opening sequence actually grabbed everyone’s attention immediately! Even Idia found himself swaying along to the music while Kalim and Azul hummed the tune.

- Vil is surprisingly enthralled with the animation and underwater backgrounds. The artists must have poured so much effort into their craft to create such beautiful scenery, he can’t help but admire it!

- Azul finds Ariel interesting. Her naivety makes her weak, yet she has such a fiery spirit gives her a streangth he can’t help but admire.

- Ariel: I’m 16 years old, I’m not a child!

Kalim: You tell him, girl!

Riddle: Yeah!

Leona: *scoffing* Kids.

- *Fletsum and Jetsum show up on screen*

Leona: Hey, it’s Jade and Floyd!

Azul: *does a trouble take* ...They do look similar, don’t they?

- Azul was the only one who felt the ending should’ve been different. After all, Ursula was only trying to keep her contract! Why should she be punished for that?

Aladdin

- Another great opening. The desert scenery has Kalim jumping in his seat as it reminds him of home, he even tries to sing along to “Arabian Nights” despite not knowing the lyrics. A month from now he’ll be annoying Jamil with the little ear worm.

- Leona wolf whistled the moment Jasmine appeared on screen AND I SHIT YOU NOT, KALIM PUNCHED THAT CAT WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT AND IT ACTUALLY HURT A LITTLE!!! HE WASN’T EVEN SMILING IT WAS SO FREAKING WEIRD!!! KID WAS ACTUALLY ANGRY, WTF?!?!?! But then they found out she was 15 in the movie...Vil went ahead and smacked the back of Leona’s head for good measure.

- Iago really grew on Idia. How could the underground sass master not love that salty bird?

- Azul: If you had three wishes-

Riddle: Don’t you dare finish that question! You’ll just use our answers to try and cut a deal in the future.

Azul: How do you know I wasn’t genuinely curious?.......Pft! No, never mind. Not even I can believe that!

- Malleus does not understand why all of the protagonists are getting married when they’re literally children. But whatever.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

- Leona fell asleep again during the opening credits. That’s what happens when you open up with soothing music and no animation.

- Snow really doesn’t strike Vil as a significant character, she lacks any sort of spunk and just looks like a child. Yet, she’s the fairest in the land? He swears the mirror must be lying. It has to be of the Queen thought she was the fairest in that outfit!

- Malleus: Isn’t that your throne?

Vil: You’re thinking of the Pomefiore throne, certainly looks like it. It is an heirloom passed down from the Fair Queen herself. The artists truly captured it’s splendor, I’m impressed!

- Azul was impressed by the huntsman’s ruse to fool the Queen, it was quick thinking on his part. Also gave him time to get out of dodge before she found out the truth. Too bad she didn’t respect his convictions, he would’ve made a great ally.

- Kalim: I wish animals would come when I sing.

Idia: I-it’s probably not as fun as you think...imagine the noise they’d make.

- And just like that, Grumpy becomes Riddle’s favorite Disney character after the Queen of Hearts.

- After the hag’s death scene, Vil is visibly shook. Like he just saw his life flash before his eyes and it was ugly as the witch.

- Everyone is confused when the prince just carries Snow off without saying anything. Not a word! Is that really ok? Isn’t she like 14?

The Lion King

- Malleus actually found himself admiring Mufasa. Not only did he strike him as a competent ruler, but also a responsible father. The only thing our fairy king can fault him for is allowing his brother so much freedom. If he had done something, anything, his family and kingdom wouldn’t have had to endure all of that suffering.

- Simba’s cocky attitude kinda got on the Savanaclaw leader’s nerves at first, but the kid slowly grew on him. How many kids could force themselves to permanently leave home, much less run through a desert until they faint from exhaustion? Points for determination. Then he grew up into a totally chill dude with no cares, no responsibilities, or worries? What Leona wouldn’t do for that! Was really disappointed when Simba chose to leave his carefree lifestyle in order to save the kingdom that was already in ruins. He could kinda understand why the kid would choose that, but come on! That boy really had it good and Scar was bound to die at some point, why not wait until then? Leona doesn’t say it, but he thinks Scar would’ve actually liked his nephew if he’d only stop obsessing over the kingship and got to know him a little.

- *Grown up Nala enters scene*

Leona: Well, someone grew into a fine huntress~

Vil: She’s a lion. An actual, quadrupedal lion. No human aspects whatsoever.

Leona: Your point is?

Idia: S-she is...kinda pretty...

The other leaders: .......

Idia: *goes back into his emo corner* never mind....forget I said anything...

- You know that scene where Simba pins Nala down and she totally gave him the bedroom eyes? Yeah, Kalim and Riddle weren’t allowed to see any of that. The parents Vil and Azul immediately covered their eyes. WTF Disney, isn’t this supposed to be a kids movie?!?! It didn’t help that Leona kept jokingly telling Simba to “get some”.

- The hulla scene has inspired Scarabia’s next party. The other leaders are already placing bets on how Jamil will react to the news.

- Scar being slaughtered by his Hyena army is gonna haunt Leona for the rest of his life.

Hercules

- Azul is LIVING for the muses’ musical numbers.

- Idia doesn’t like how “bright” Hercules is. He’s just way too optimistic for our gloomy boy’s taste.

- Riddle: That’s the underworld? It looks like the Ignihyde dormitory!

Idia: Which is exactly why it’s perfect!

- *Megara shows up*

Leona: That girl is bad news.

Riddle: She’s the love interest, she can’t be bad news.

Leona: Kid, I have experience with women. Girls like that always have an ulterior motive.

*a few minutes later, when Hades shows up*

Leona: I should’ve put money on that bet.

- The more famous Hercules gets in the movie, the more Idia low key hates him.

- Kalim actually started crying when Megara died. He cheered up when Hercules saved and delivered her soul, but that was a rough few minutes for the kid.

Sleeping Beauty

- *Maleficent does her thing with the curse*

Kalim: The witch cursed Aurora just cause she didn’t get an invite? WHO DOES THAT?!?!

Malleus: You wouldn’t?

Kalim: ........

the other leaders: *Concerned*

Malleus: Flora wanted to turn her into a flower. At least Maleficent gave her a chance to live!

- Without having to say a single word, the boys unanimously agree that Flora is the absolute worst. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

- Something about Aurora caused Malleus to go perfectly quiet....it was a little unsettling. He watched her scenes with cold, distant eyes. It was almost as if he were watching a ghost.

- Leona almost fell off the sofa upon hearing Mal softly sing along to “Once Upon a Dream.” No one was expecting him of all people to sing something so romantic. It didn’t sound too bad, to be honest.

- If anyone liked the end of the movie they were too scared to say so. Mal’s aura had grown oppressive within the span of the film. He promptly excused himself during the credits and didn’t come out of his room until he next day.

[mulanxiaojie]

We were all thinking it, and finally someone had to ask: Why on earth would Disney cut Mushu? “Well, we made it 10 minutes in,” joked Mulan producer Jason Reed.

In case you missed the trailer, the headlines, and the tweets — so many tweets — the live-action Mulan will cut Mushu, leaving it bereft of the comedic energy from a dragon sidekick. The world has changed since 1998, and Disney has made a serious, more violent Mulan that’s truer to the Chinese folklore.

“Obviously Mushu is a beloved character, and one of the most memorable elements of the animated film,” Reed explained to a group of journalists huddled inside a tent on Mulan’s mountainous New Zealand set in October 2018.

“It turns out that the traditional, Chinese audience did not particularly think that that was the best interpretation of the dragon in their culture. The dragon is a sign of respect and it's a sign of strength and power, and that using it as a silly sidekick didn't play very well with a traditional Chinese audience.”

It's one of many indications that unlike with The Lion King, Disney is not going for a by-the-numbers Mulan remake.

While a classic to kids of a certain generation in the West, 1998’s Mulan flopped in China, released a year late after Disney was effectively banned for releasing the film Kundun, a film sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. On screens in Mulan’s birthplace, Hunan, the film only made $30,000 at the box office after three weeks.

You could blame the film’s late release in China, which caused some audiences to watch pirated versions months before its eventual arrival in theaters. But it's also likely that local audiences didn’t warm to the idea of Americans taking on a Chinese legend, especially one which already had multiple adaptations on film, TV, and stage.

“This is not a Chinese dragon," one Chinese moviegoer told The Baltimore Sun in 1999. "I can tell the people who designed the dragon are from America."

In that light, Disney’s resistance toward a comedic dragon sidekick in the new Mulan makes financial sense. Once chump change for Hollywood, China’s film market is set to overtake the U.S. this year. For Disney, its three biggest 2019 releases in China — Captain Marvel, The Lion King and Aladdin — accounted for more than $320 million in takings.

Despite the omission of Mushu, Reed promises the film will be funny. Just admittedly not Eddie Murphy funny.

"We have some scenes that, although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

“Take one of the greatest comedians of all time, make them a dragon, have him prance around, and give him like, two years refine the jokes — we're not gonna beat that, in terms of raw slapstick comedy,” he said.

“But we have added a couple of elements to this movie which I think really do the same thing of grounding it, bringing you into it, we have some scenes [that], although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

Other big changes are afoot as well. There aren’t any of those singalong theatrical musical numbers like “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” “Reflection,” or “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, although Reed promises there will be “songs that you recognize and remember” in the movie.

Also gone is the cathartic scene in which Mulan cuts her hair in preparation for battle, which Reed admits he gets mocked for during meetings in China. “[It’s] actually a Western anachronism,” Reed explained. Chinese male warriors wore their hair long, and to cut Mulan’s hair would make her look more of a woman.

Nor will you see Mulan’s smart-mouth grandmother, Fa, or Li Shang in the live-action film. The latter decision has been particularly controversial, given Li Shang’s status as a bisexual icon. Reed was surprised by the backlash, but the decision was made in the light of the #MeToo movement.

“I think particularly in the time of the #MeToo movement, having a commanding officer, that is also the sexual love interest, was very uncomfortable. We didn't think it was appropriate and we thought that in a lot of ways, that it was sort of justifying behavior that we're doing everything we can to get out of our industry,” Reed explained.

Instead, the character of Li Shang will be split into two characters: Commander Tung, played by Ip Man star Donnie Yen, will serve as Mulan’s surrogate father and mentor in the film, while Chen Honghui, a role filled by New Zealander Yoson An, will be an equal to Mulan in the army and her eventual love interest.

It still leaves questions about how the queer element of the relationship between Mulan and Honghui will play out, or whether it will even be present. While homosexuality was decriminalized by China in 1997, Chinese censors are infamous for cutting out LGBTQ TV and movie scenes.

Chinese moviegoers saw no reference to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody, while Call Me By Your Name was pulled from official screenings (although it soon gathered a cult following). Disney doesn’t believe censorship will be a problem for Mulan, with Reed explaining it worked “very closely” with censors and its releasing partners in China.

“We feel that we are secure in the censorship issue, that we have our permits approved and I believe that we will continue to have a good relationship with the releasing entities in our various partners in China,” Reed claimed.

While the storyline will largely remain similar, new characters are joining the fray. A powerful shapeshifting witch, portrayed by Gong Li, will feature alongside the main antagonist Bori Khan, played by Jason Scott Lee. The story will begin with Mulan as a child, and she will have a younger sister in the film, something present in other adaptations of the folklore.

“It makes it more than just her having to take care of her father and mother, who are sort of in the role of taking care of her,” Reed said. “By adding a younger sister we thought that it added sort of a broader emotional context, and added more motivation for her, particularly for the end.”

On the monitor inside our tent, actor Yifei Liu is effortless in her swordplay. It’s no surprise she’s landed the titular role; she is Mulan. Liu battled through a tough physical audition for the role, admitting to us she couldn’t walk properly after.

“I wanted to thoroughly explore this girl,” Mulan’s director Niki Caro told Empire in February 2020.

“Because I needed a warrior, and I needed a partner. So she did this grueling audition and then we sent her straight to the physical trainer to do an equally grueling physical assessment. Weights, push-ups, pull-ups, everything. She was brilliant in the dramatic part of the audition, and in the physical part she never stopped, never faulted. I knew at the end of that day that I’d found my warrior.”

Liu has plenty of experience acting in wuxia films, a genre of martial arts films in China. Besotted, Mulan's filmmakers even pushed back production five months for Liu.

“She was doing a television show and so she wouldn't be available to a certain point, and the point when she was available was terrible weather for us,” Reed said.

Liu, who exudes confidence onscreen and is praised by her co-stars for her professionalism, is more reserved in conversation. She said she doesn’t try and think too much about how Chinese audiences will perceive her as Mulan. Nor would she be drawn on a question comparing the character of Mulan in the animated and the live action version.

“I would not really compare, because I think each creation was its own form, and I really respect that,” Liu explains. “I’m also open to Mulan’s possibilities. We tried not to fix too many things.”

For Honghui actor Yoson An, who only has a handful of credits — mostly in his home country of New Zealand and in Australia — the whole international fame thing hasn’t quite set in.

“I don't think it’s hit me yet, I don't know where it's gonna go until this movie’s released, I guess. I'm still kind of rolling with things, just one day at a time,” An said.

Admitting that he would’ve been looked over if the live-action Mulan had been a musical, An said he only picked up acting in his late teens, disillusioned with his university studies.

“When I heard that Niki [Caro] was set to direct this movie back in 2014, I was like, ‘Oh, so cool. A New Zealander is set to direct Mulan,’ and I was just walking back to get my car and I was like, ‘Wouldn't it be cool if I played the love interest?’, just like a little thought in my head, and I'm thought, ‘No, that's never gonna happen.’ And then, four years later, here I am,” he said.

"It really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films."

The world of Mulan is inspired by the Tang dynasty, a golden age of imperial China during which it experienced flourishing trade with foreign nations and cultural advancement. In An’s eyes, Mulan could be a major moment for Asian diaspora worldwide — although Liu’s praise for police during the Hong Kong protests last year has prompted calls for a boycott of the film.

“In this film, the cast, you see people from different kinds of cultures interacting with each other and every single character has a multi-dimensional layer for them. So it really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films,” he explains.

“And with what Black Panther has done for its community, and I really feel that Mulan is gonna do the same for the Asian community as a whole, taking on what Crazy Rich Asians has already done for Asian community, with the momentum it created.”

Like Crazy Rich Asians, Mulan looked far and wide for Asian actors. There’s a mixture of Asian New Zealanders, Asian Australians, Asian Americans, and of course, Chinese actors. Mulan is mostly in English, to the joy of the subtitle-averse out there, and thus all actors are aiming towards a Chinese-influenced American dialect — a goal which Reed admits has been “complicated.”

It’s no problem for An, who said he’s performed Chinese accents on screen before. Reminding us how young he is, An mentions he practiced as a kid to YouTube videos of Canadian stand-up comedian Russell Peters, who went viral a decade ago for his “Be a man! Do the right thing!” bit.

“You guys know Russell Peters? Right? As a kid, I’d watch his stuff and do exactly as he did. But that's a very comical version of the accent, it’s very different to what we’re doing,” An said.

In research for its live-action reboot, Reed and the production team went back to the original ballad and the “many, many variations” which told in China since, including several modern film and television adaptations made in China — before watching the Disney animated version again, thinking how Mulan would appeal to multiple audiences.

With the coronavirus shutting down all 70,000 of the country's theaters since Jan. 24, it's unclear — and more unlikely every day — that multiplexes will reopen in time for its planned release.

"It certainly has worldwide and global appeal, but there's no denying that this is a very important film for the Chinese market," Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a huge blow for Disney if it doesn't release in China." Disney president of production Sean Bailey told the publication he's "looking at it day by day."

Whenever and wherever it arrives, the hope is that Mulan will appeal to four audiences: the Asian diaspora community worldwide; women; Disney movie fans; and of course, a Chinese audience. But why would a Chinese audience watch another adaptation of Mulan? The answer lies in the hope that Disney can create something exceptional this time around.

“One of the things that was made clear to us from the very beginning was, make a Disney movie. Don't try to make the Chinese version of Mulan, because they've already made it several times, and they've already seen it,” Reed explained.

“So if you wanna make something that's going to play to the Chinese audience and be interesting to them, make the Disney version. And what that meant to us, was that we had to bring the highest level of execution, production, design, costume, hair and makeup, the cinematography.

“The people that we hire, they were hired with the expectation that we wanted awards-caliber work, and they weren't meant to think about this as a kids movie or an animated remake, or any of those things.

“Our references are David Lean and [Akira] Kurosawa — we're not looking at 101 Dalmatians.”

[killian-whump]

I know you weren't a big fan of s6, so if you could rewrite it, what would you change?

Everything.

No, I’m kidding. I mean, there were some things I liked about S6 and would definitely keep around. I thought the S5 finale set everything up for S6 really well. I was excited for the Land of Untold Stories, and all the tales that were hinted at in the scenes that took place there, and I love Regina, especially when she’s the Evil Queen in flashbacks, so I was all amped up for the dual Reginas storyline. S6 looked great from that point.

Then it all went to shit.

The Evil Queen thing was SO over-the-top, and Lana was playing her in a campy and ridiculous way that didn’t appeal to me at all. In hindsight, I can see that they were trying to keep her “redeemable” and play up the whole “still Regina, even as the Evil Queen” thing for the storyline resolution, so they needed her to only be quasi-evil instead of evil-evil. Okay, fair enough, but it was still super disappointing and even downright cringey, and I will never forgive them for turning one of my favorite parts of the show into a circus act. Honestly, if they weren’t going to do the Evil Queen justice, I would’ve rather they hadn’t gone anywhere near her. So that would be change #1: Drop the camp or drop that storyline entirely.

And they could’ve dropped it entirely. That exciting land of Untold Stories they teased us with in the S5 finale was... a let-down. Yes, we got Jekyll and Hyde and Captain Nemo... but the Aladdin stuff they gave us was more fairytale than literary classic, and wtf was up with the ridiculous one-off shit like the Count of Monte Cristo? There were SO many classics they could’ve visited, and greater detail they could’ve gone into with the ones they DID visit... and the Land of Untold Stories was so COOL looking, with its wild mix of architecture and dirigibles and steampunk style. WHY would you create such a fantastical and fun-looking world, and then take everyone from that world and put them in OUR boring ass world? S6 should’ve taken place IN the Land of Untold Stories and brought us a lot more fresh takes and characters from that land than the pittance we got. AND MORE STEAMPUNK, FOR FUCK’S SAKE.

I’m also still angry that they teased me with an asylum plot in the press before the S5 finale, then gave me a taste of it IN that finale... and then ripped it from my greedy, hot little hands. They didn’t even put Killian Jones in a straitjacket while they were there. What the fuck, guys? Who does that? That man was born to be put into a straitjacket for my enjoyment and you had him RIGHT THERE and even put someone in a straitjacket, but it was the wrong fucking someone. Had S6 stayed in the Land of Untold Stories, we could’ve had untold opportunities for more asylum whump, and they could’ve put Killian in a straitjacket and made all of my dreams come true.

And why the SHIT did they actually kill off Hyde when Sam Witwer was the best thing to happen to that show since Colin, himself?! I mean, yeah, the Jekyll and Hyde storyline was probably planned from the get-go to end in their deaths, but when you see what a complete GEM Hyde is, what with his penchant for the Evil Queen’s cooking and his ridiculously awesome facial expressions and his dashing dapper-do and Sam Fucking Witwer’s everything... change whatever the fuck you need to change to somehow keep this man on your show. And then they even went and full-on made this man redeemable and gave him a heartbreaking backstory right before they killed him. Like, fuck you? Seriously. Fuck everyone for that one. I will never forgive them for killing Hyde.

Okay. Moving on from my general complaints, we come to my Killian-specific complaints. And there’s a lot of them. S6 did that character SO wrong SO many times... I really just want to take it out back and beat the shit out of it.

For starters, his relationships were ALL thrown in the shitcan. It was like S3-S5 just never happened and he was right back to Square One with everyone, being that dastardly pirate that can’t be trusted and that no one could ever care about. People who clearly cared enough about him to go to the fucking Underworld for him in S5 were suddenly calling him a pirate like it’s a foul word, and blatantly telling him he’s not good enough to be part of the family. Yeah, I get it, they wanted some dramatic negativity before showing these characters fully accepting and embracing him as part of their clan... but you know what makes for really awesome storytelling? Realistic relationships that grow and evolve over the course of several seasons - which was what they fucking HAD before they threw them all in the shitter for fake “developments” that had already happened. And FYI, Henry was actually nastier to Killian in the beginning of 6x06 than he was during the Spell of Shattered Sight. Like, did no one at the writers table even pause in their pursuit of drama long enough to realize that if Henry really ever had that much animosity towards Killian, it would’ve come out THEN? Or, you know, at any point in the course of the last four seasons?!

And it goes without saying: I would never, ever, ever have had Killian be the murderer of David’s father. Or, at the very least, I would’ve never had the murder go down the way they showed it in the flashback. Have it be an accidental death. Have it be a pirate duel. Have it be anything but cold-blooded murder. First of all, it’s just not believable that David could forgive him so easily and so quickly for depriving him of a loving father for no fucking reason. Secondly, they spend four whole seasons showing us flashbacks of a pirate with a deeply-buried heart of gold, who kept wanting to make the right decisions... but ended up making the wrong ones time and time again. They never showed us, before this ridiculously cheap dramatic ploy, a man who willfully murdered people just for shits and giggles. Finally, Killian Jones is a motherfucking pirate. Stealing from the King is par for the course, but the whole “Dead men tell no tales” thing makes ZERO sense. Pirates thrive by striking FEAR into the hearts of their enemies, and you don’t get a solid reputation for being a cut-throat villain to be feared by literally killing off all the witnesses to your evil deeds. Pirates are like, one step short of going “BEHOLD! It is I, Captain PirateGuy, here to steal your gold and seduce your ladies! Be sure to tell all your friends and neighbors about this when we’re through.” So... yeah. Way to throw a completely nonsensical spanner in the works that makes literally NO sense and flies in the face of everything else you’ve said and shown about this character in the past. It’s shit, and I refuse to accept it, and they should be sorry for its very existence.

And then there’s Captain Swan. *sigh* This relationship fell prey to the same shit that ALL of Killian’s relationships were destroyed by throughout S6. Only it was much, much worse here - because this is supposed to be (and has been!) his closest, most important relationship. And yet... We see Emma blow him off and then lie right to his face in the very first episode. Then she lies some more in each of the next few episodes, and when her lies are finally revealed, she doesn’t even seem to give a shit about the trust she’s betrayed or the hurt she’s caused. And the fact that they even filmed that deleted scene with Emma giving Killian a flippant “I said I was sorry...” just shows how fucking tone-deaf those writers were. If someone lies to your face, repeatedly, over something of life-or-death importance and for a lengthy period of time, then basically gives you a “I said I was sorry, what more do you want from me?” twenty minutes after their lies are revealed, because you’re still sore about it... get the FUCK out of that relationship immediately, because that person does not give two shits about you.

Things only got worse when she snooped through his belongings, pushed him to propose on her terms and when she wanted him to (despite the fact that he was clearly drunk and troubled by something at the time), called off their engagement when he dared to keep something from her (despite the fact that she’d just recently spent weeks lying right to his face), believed that he would just abandon her completely despite everything they’d been through, lied to him again right before their wedding in the course of once again shutting him out and not letting him help her with something (even though that’s literally the EXACT reason she ended their engagement when HE was the one doing it)... I mean, come on. That is NOT the CS I signed up for, and I refuse to accept it as the CS that is my OTP.

Hence, the Dark Emma explanation was born in my head. And when it comes to changes to S6... I’d either completely re-write about 90% of S6′s CS storylines... or make my Dark Emma theory a reality. The theory is as such: Since Emma did not die in 5x11, but merely had her Darkness sucked into Killian/Excaliber before HE died... some residual darkness remained in her. Nothing much was seen/noticed in 5b (though Killian DID make a comment about her not sleeping...) because she was too focused on saving Killian. However, once she was back home, safe and sound with her man, the Darkness started showing itself. She lied to those she loved. She made uncharacteristically selfish decisions. She hurt people. She eschewed all she’d learned about letting others in and getting help from the people who love her. And it wasn’t until her literal and figurative death at Gideon’s hands that the Darkness was truly eradicated from her - and only THEN could she truly find her Happy Beginning.

Oh, and by the way, I also hate the writers for even HAVING Killian walk to the docks with a packed bag and even consider boarding the Nautilus and leaving town. No. Just... no. Having him even CONSIDER doing that is even worse than having Emma believe he WOULD do such a thing to her. It’s like they got the S6 writers out of a Cracker Jack box and not a single one had ever watched an episode of the show or seen this couple before in their lives. Their whole fucking SCHTICK is that he would NEVER abandon her, that he would follow her to the end of the world or time itself... and that, despite a lifetime of fears and abandonment issues, Emma Swan has come to TRUST that he would never leave her. YOU CAN’T JUST GO “LOL, THAT’S NOT TRUE NOW” AND EXPECT ME TO ACCEPT THAT SHIT. No. Fuck you. Fuck your entire season AND the boat it rode in on. Just... fuck, man. FUCK.

The wedding was nice, though. I loved the musical aspect. Everyone did great in it. It was a truly lovely episode in almost every way, although I didn’t care for Emma’s dress and especially not her hairdo. It was too stark, too severe, but somehow too fancy at the same time... and it seemed more Jen Morrison than Emma Swan to me. Other than that, though, it was lovely. Everyone looked lovely. The singing was lovely. The vows were lovely. Shame about the whirling black vortex of doom, though.

Speaking of things that suck, I would also like to set that fucking doily shirt that Emma wore in 6x17 on fucking fire. And she actually DARED to rescue my man in that atrocity. Did she not realize I would need to SEE that shitty article of clothing every time I admired that dashing rescue? Did no one think of the KWs of the world who would suffer from this fashion faux pas?!?!

Oh, and I hate that they literally had Emma burn Killian’s image in the curse and not have any kind of recollection. I mean, I get that they wanted Henry to make her believe, and the way they got him to do that was cute, but did they HAVE to show Emma looking at Killian’s picture burning in the fire and being like, “Eh, he might ring a bell, but not enough to bother thinking about for more than a second or anything.” I could’ve done without that scene, honestly, because it just comes off like, “This love isn’t strong enough to break through this curse!” and EXCUSE ME, but where’s the fucking fun in that? Haven’t any of those bitches ever read a goddamn fanfic?! LOVE BREAKING THROUGH A CURSE IS ALL THE RAGE, GUYS. That’s the kind of shit we like to read and see in our OTPs. What’s with this “Eh, let that handsome fucker on page 172 burn” shit??

Oh, but that scene where Fiona serves the charred remains of the book to Henry on a platter would need to stay. That shit was stone cold savage. That bitch came to play, and that scene straight up told you that she was NOT going to be sitting at anyone’s Thanksgiving table next year, asking someone to pass the potatoes like she was just named People Magazine’s Redeemed Villain of the Year or something. She meant business.

Finally, I think I would’ve ended the show with the S6 finale. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed S7 and I loved KnightRook and Wish Hook and all the excellent Colin content we got that year... but in hindsight, the Hail Mary play of rebooting the series really just didn’t work, and S7 ended up as the “extra chapter” the series itself didn’t need. It’s not that I would want to give up the awesomeness of what we had... It’s just that I feel like if we hadn’t had it, we’d be unaware of what we were missing out on anyway, but the series as a whole would’ve maintained more of its impact and dignity.

But then, we were blessed with Wish Hook and the wonders of S7 Hooked Queen, so... :D I mean, coulda shoulda woulda, I’ve got ‘em now and you can’t take that away from meeee...

[iminyourhandskara]

A Second Schott At Love - Chapter 2.

It seemed like Friday night couldn’t come soon enough, for both the couples: Kara and Mon-El had a really good feeling about it, while Eve and Winn were a bundle of nerves. Winn kept texting his friend asking for an opinion on which flannel shirt he was supposed to wear, meanwhile Eve begged Kara to go shopping with her, she wanted to look her best, even if Kara repeatedly told her that her usual style would be perfect for the date, she didn’t need new clothes. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me anything about Winn?” “I want you to find out yourself at the date, directly. And I don’t want you to run out of questions, you’re welcome.” “I hate you for being so right.” Kara smirked, as they walked to another shop, looking for a blouse that matched her pencil skirt: Eve was lucky that her style was so similar to her friend’s.

“Can you tell me more about Eve?” “I really don’t know what to tell you, since our only date was ruined by yours truly by talking only about..” “About?” “Uhm, listen, I need to tell you something, but promise me you won’t tell anyone yet.” “Of course, I promise.” “Well..Kara and I are dating.” Winn gasped, “Since when?” “Valentine’s day, more or less.” “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” “What?” Mon-El cringed thinking he had hurt his friend’s feelings in some way. “I owe Alex 30 dollars, I told her you would get together after Valentine’s day. She bet that you would get together on Valentine’s day..” “Okay, wow. But Kara hasn’t told Alex yet, so you can spend that money on the date first.” “So..you blew your date with Eve because you couldn’t stop talking about Kara? How does she not hate you both?” Mon-El chuckled, “I don’t know, but that surely means that she has a big heart and doesn’t hold grudges, she’s very supportive.” “I feel a little less nervous now..If she met the me from last year, things would’ve gone in the exact same way. Don’t worry, I’m over her! Anyway, I’m really happy for you both, truly.” Winn put his hands on Mon-El’s shoulders, then he hugged him. “Thank you so much, I hope you find the same happiness I have found with Kara.” “Fingers crossed.”

 It was finally time to go at the restaurant, Kara and Mike planned to go a little earlier than Winn and Eve, but obviously, they couldn’t let themselves be recognized by their friends: they “borrowed” a short red wig and fake moustaches from the DEO and prayed they looked somewhat believable. Winn arrived perfectly on time, he seemed pretty nervous for this date; Eve got there just a few minutes later: “It’s showtime!” Kara whispered to Mon-El from the nearby table.

“Hey, I’m Winn, you must be Eve, right?” ‘Why am I even saying this, I know it is her!’ he thought. ”It’s great to finally meet you, Winn.” They shook hands. “You look really, really pretty.” “Oh, thank you so much.” Eve blushed so hard, as if she’d never gotten a compliment before. Winn walked her to the table and moved her chair to let her sit, “Thank you.”

“So, have you ever eaten here?” “No, no, it’s my first time here..in a place like this.” Winn confessed. “I read the food is delicious: you know, I always try to check reviews before I go somewhere new, not that I don’t trust Kara—“ “No, I totally get it, I do the same thing with books and movies.” “That’s nice, I really enjoy books and movies as well. Especially books, since I also studied literature.” “Right! I forgot you attended Yale, that must’ve been incredible.” Winn’s eyes lit up, he could feel the conversation flowing naturally.

The waiter arrived to take their ordination, but then they picked up right where they left. “Yeah, I’ll admit that was a really challenging part of my life, but I’m really proud of all the amazing things I’ve learned. What about you?”

“Eh, I didn’t have the best family growing up, I was pretty lonely until I moved here from Newark, five years ago. Then you know, I met Kara and James and.. CatCo was pretty fun: I’ve had great moments there, even if Cat didn’t get my name right once.” “Typical Cat Grant.” They laughed together. “I came up with the theory that if she gets a name wrong, it means she actually likes you: she always knew my name perfectly, but she always called Kara “Keira”, and you?..” “Will, I think?” “..so she definitely liked you more than she ever liked me.” “That actually makes a lot of sense, wow. You’re smart. Also in a non-academic-cool kind of way.” “Well..” She tucked a hair strand behind her ear.

Besides them, Kara smiled widely with pride at the match she’d created, “I think they’re getting along really well..” “I think so too..but we’ve finished eating like five minutes ago, shouldn’t we go?” Mon-El feared being caught. “Ugh, just ten more minutes!” “Okay..okay.”

 “You mentioned books earlier, and I’m really dying to ask you a question, it’s kind of a deal breaker for me.” “Shoot.” The blonde was curious. “You’ve read Harry Potter, right?” “Oh my gosh, of course! That’s actually where I got this passion for literature.” Winn made an exaggerated sigh of relief, “Good, that’s good. What’s your house?” “If it wasn’t already obvious, Hufflepuff, but with a hint of Slytherin. You?” “Gryffindor! Should I be worried about that ‘hint’?” Eve chuckled, “I don’t think so, but let’s just say you don’t want an enemy like me.” She raised her eyebrow and smirked. “Do you have a favorite Disney movie?” She continued changing the subject. “That’s a terribly difficult question to answer, I think I’m gonna say Aladdin, though.” “Why?” “I don’t know, orphan that has nothing and then has everything, great friendship and love stories, amazing songs I’ll admit I still know by heart..” “Oh, don’t worry I know every Disney song by heart. Everyone.” “And what’s yours?” “Beauty and the Beast: I’ve always seen a little bit of myself in Belle, and God knows how many Gastons I have met in my life..I was also in love with her yellow dress. I hate to say it but I was kinda disappointed by the live action trailer. I still love Emma Watson, though.” “Yeah, same for me..What was your first job? Did Disney or Harry Potter influence you there as well?” “Ha, not at all. I don’t know if you’d count it as a job, but I got my first money from my roommate in college.” “What? How?” “Let’s just say, she’s made a bunch of bad decisions in high school and she’d pay me to cover her Ryan Seacrest tattoo when she had to go out with her boyfriend.” “Wow, and I thought that my Hot Topic experience was odd..” “Yeah, my experience is definitely unique..I really like your shirt, by the way: blue is one of my favorite colors.” “Seriously? Well then, I’m your perfect guy, since 90% of my wardrobe is blue.” Winn didn’t even have the time to cringe at what he said because their food had arrived, so they started eating in a comfortable silence and Eve didn’t seem shaken by his sentence: truth was, Winn and Eve had a lot of spontaneous chemistry and their date was slowly climbing up to be on top of their charts.

“Do you want a dessert?” He asked shyly. “I have a better idea..the food here is delicious, but the portions are kind of..” “Small? Agreed.” “Oh, good. I thought you were gonna think I was an insatiable monster.” Winn chuckled at Eve, “Not at all! So what’s your idea?” “Big Belly Burger?” “Yes, yes-yes-yes-yes! I haven’t been there in a while, actually. Let me go pay.” “No, we can split.” “Nuh-uh. But you can buy me chicken nuggets later.” “..Okay, deal.” Eve finally gave up with a sweet smile.

 “Okay, I think we can go now, they’re leaving too.” Kara whispered to Mon-El, “I think they had a nice time.” He replied. “Yeah, I think so too: I can’t wait to hear their point of view tomorrow.” She let out a little squeal and Mon-El shook his head at the adorable dork that he was lucky enough to call girlfriend. A few minutes apart, the two couples left the restaurant; one was headed home, the other wasn’t.

Winn sneaked a few looks at Eve as she looked outside her window, observing the life around them, the atmosphere of a Friday night in National City: she was really beautiful, her smile was so contagious and she made him feel good like he hadn’t felt in years. Suddenly, Eve turned around and caught Winn staring, but he immediately looked back at the road, embarrassed, though it was too late now to be unnoticed: however, she didn’t seem to mind at all, on the contrary, she smiled at him before looking outside again. Now, they knew they both felt happy with how the night was proceeding; “we’re here.” Winn parked in the almost deserted lot: they were lucky that the Big Belly Burger was open 24 hours. They took two burgers, fries, the aforementioned chicken nuggets and two milkshakes: apparently, they both loved junk food and they had a lot of appetite, even if it was almost midnight. Eve talked a lot, yet he loved listening to her opinions and thoughts on a lot of things, Winn was absolutely fascinated by this tiny but mighty woman. On the other hand, he made her laugh a lot: she felt like she didn’t have to keep her guards up and she was free to be herself, it was like she had known Winn for years and truthfully, Eve already cared about him very much.

“I have to say it, this has been the most fun date I have ever had, so..thank you.” Winn confessed, as he finished his chocolate milkshake. “Definitely. Even if my stomach will probably hate me for all this food, I had a great night with you.” “I gotta thank Kara and Mike, because they totally made up for the crappy date I’ve had the past weekend.” “Agreed.” All the bad experiences they’ve had in the past were just a blur now, it was just them now, sharing a happy moment that would’ve hopefully turned into something more. “I almost forgot to ask..can I have your number? I..I would really like to hang out again.” He scratched his cheek. “I was just gonna say the same thing, of course.” As Eve typed her number on his phone, Winn had a really wide grin on his face, but he didn’t care at all: he did the same thing and then they walked outside the door.

They almost dreaded the ride back to her place, they didn’t want this night to end, even if it was just the beginning: he turned on the radio, at a low volume, but both of them found themselves humming to the songs. “That’s my building.” Eve pointed, Winn stopped the engine. “Again, thank you so much for everything. You’re a really great guy, Winn.” He wasn’t used to compliments, so he remained speechless for a couple of seconds: “Thank you, Eve. By the way, you’re incredible, I don’t know how anyone could ever screw up a date with you.” There it was, another joke that wasn’t even a joke but made her laugh, always so effortlessly: Eve grabbed Winn’s coat and pulled him to her, catching him by surprise, but in a positive way; he gladly returned the kiss. “Wow.” Was the only thing he managed to say after that. “I..I couldn’t help it.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, before opening the door, “goodnight Winn.” “Goodnight Eve.”

He watched her walk away, and still dumb folded Winn muttered to himself. “Damn, that girl really knows how to make an exit.”

[swanqueeneverafter]

What Dreams May Come, Pt.30

Storybrooke. Swan-Mills House. (Emma pulls on her leather jacket and readies herself for what lies ahead.) Snow White: (Entering:) "Well, I've just come back from Camelot, and Guinevere agreed. Lancelot will lead their army into the Dream World. (Noticing the pensive look on her daughter's face:) Are you all right?" Emma: "Yeah. I mean, I've got to be, right?" Snow White: (Shaking her head:) "I hate that Morpheus is separating you two like this, and making you relive your cursed life. Do you know how he plans on doing that without the Dark Curse ingredients by the way?" Emma: (Shrugs:) "He's a god. I'm pretty sure he can do whatever he wants." Snow White: "If that were true, Morpheus would've enslaved us all by now. Zeus doesn't want him to succeed any more than we do." Emma: "Then why doesn't Zeus stop Morpheus himself? Why must we be the playthings of the gods?" Snow White: "I don't know. Hercules never understood it either, but I know you won't be alone for whatever comes." Emma: "Yeah, about that, are you sure coming with me is the best play here? I mean you and Dad have lead armies before, you'd be of more use on the battlefield." Snow White: "Emma, the realms are united because of you and Regina. Frankly, they owe you their support and their armies that go with it. All of our friends and family who are capable of fighting are going to do so. Plus, with Tiana rallying the people of Wonderland, Ruby and Mulan convincing Merida to lead her army, and Jasmine preparing her men, there will be more than enough leaders when the battle comes. (Pulling Emma in for a hug:) Many years ago, David and I made a choice to sacrifice your future to save ourselves. Today we're choosing you." Wonderland. (Tiana looks out at the gathered crowd nervously. Will, Alice, Robin & Regina stand with her.) Tiana: "I'm sorry. I don't think there’s enough beignet magic in the world to get the people to agree to this." Regina: "You won't need magic. I've heard about what you've managed to achieve here. From one Queen to another, you've got this." Tiana: "Right. Queen. (Taking a deep breath, she walks forward and addresses the people:) Folks. Please listen. Our people, o-our friends are in trouble and..." (The people talk among themselves, not listening until...) Will: "Oi, you lot, listen up." (The people fall silent.) Tiana: "Since I became your queen, Wonderland has done things differently. Unlike rulers our land has known in the past, I like to think that I've listened to my people. Together, we created a council of advisers to make sure everyone's voice would be heard. This will all end the moment Lord Morpheus gets his way and that is why we must fight. These are strange times, and we need to stand together more than ever. Your realm needs you. Your Queen needs you."

Dun Broch. (Ruby and Mulan stand by as Merida speaks to the clans.) Merida: "Only a coward would start a war he has no intention of fighting in himself. That is who Lord Morpheus is, a so-called god who refuses to even show his true face. We didn't ask for this, but we will fight with everything we have. We're not ashamed of who we are. So let's show them what happens when you face the combined might of clans DunBroch, Macintosh, Dingwall, and Macguffin!" (All those gathered raise their arms and roar in approval.) Agrabah. (Jasmine stands in front of her father, The Sultan, as they discuss Agrabah's role in the upcoming battle.) Jasmine: "Trade agreements?! You won't allow the army of Agrabah to join the battle because of trade agreements?" Sultan: "Jasmine, my angel, how can I possibly dedicate our troops to fight in this conflict when Arendelle does not? It will make our partners look bad." Jasmine: "Elsa isn't sending her army because they will be protecting those from the combined realms who cannot fight! Arendelle isn't abstaining, they're defending." Sultan: "The fact remains, they are not sending troops, so neither can we." Jasmine: (Emits a scream of frustration:) "Oh, this is insane. I cannot believe you sometimes. But you know what? Maybe this is for the best.” Sultan: "Good, then we're in agreement." Jasmine: "Absolutely. Aladdin and I shall go, while you and Agrabah's army stays here like the bunch of inadequate imbeciles you are." (Jasmine storms from the room without another word.)

Underworld. Present. (Morpheus/Hades stands over Hook, admiring his handiwork.) Morpheus/Hades: "I'm afraid the time has come for me to leave you, Captain. You have been a most wonderful distraction, it's been exciting hasn't it?" Hook: (Bloodied and beaten, groans in pain and rolls over slightly:) “It will be... when I kill you.” Morpheus/Hades: (Laughs:) You can't kill me. I'm a god. (Chuckling:) This...  where we are now, is death.” Hook: “Well, then, I'll find whatever's worse and do it to you.” Morpheus/Hades: (Kneels beside him:) “The only thing that could kill me is the sword forged by Zeus from the remnants of the Olympian crystal. Even then, it can only work if it is wielded by the one true king to unite them all. Zeus placed it in my realm in an attempt to stop me, but luckily, no one knows where that is.” Henry’s Dreamscape. (Richard is seen wielding the sword... using the hilt to crack walnuts with.) Underworld. Continued. Morpheus/Hades: “So, Captain, (Pulling him to his feet:) since you are neither the one true king or currently in my realm, I’m not too worried.” Hook: “You’re just going to leave me down here?” Morpheus/Hades: “Oh I certainly could, but no. I’m going to give you a shot at redemption. A chance to escape the Underworld and return home a new man.” Hook: “And why would you do that?” Morpheus/Hades: “Because when I become the supreme ruler of all the realms of story, I’ll need someone to tell the people that I’m not such a bad guy. Orpheus and Eurydice, do those names ring a bell?” Hook: “I can’t say they do, no, but I’m sure you’ll tell me all about them.” Morpheus/Hades: “They are the only two souls known to have ever escaped the Underworld.” Hook: “How?” Morpheus/Hades: “Orpheus helped Eurydice escape by feeding her ambrosia, the food of the gods.” Hook: “And where exactly do you get some of that?” Morpheus/Hades: (Smiles:) “Glad to see you’re paying attention but, seeing as you’re not really dead, you won’t be needing any ambrosia. Which is good news because the real Hades chopped down the tree where the ambrosia grows from a long time ago. However, you will still need to follow in the lovers’ footsteps and find the room. Inside, there will be a portal that will take you wherever you wish to go. Now, listen closely, I shall say this only once.” Giant's Lair. Past. (Arlo and Jack are fighting. Meanwhile, Prince James is filling a sack full with treasure.) Jack: (Thrusting her sword into Arlo's heel:) “Uhh!” Arlo: “Aah! Ha!” (Arlo pulls the sword out from his heel. He lunges forward and grabs Jack.) Jack: “AAH! James! Aah! (James turns and sees she needs help, but he just stands there. Jack grunts as she tries to free herself before Arlo stabs her with her own sword:) UHH!” (Arlo drops Jack. Prince James goes back to filling his sack at a faster rate than before. The poison of the sword takes effect. Arlo loses his balance and collapses. Anton enters.) Anton: “Arlo? (He sees Arlo on the ground:) No. (Anton falls to his knees next to Arlo:) No, no, no, no!” (Prince James finishes filling his sack and starts to run toward the beanstalk.)

Jack: “James! (Prince James stops:) Please.” Prince James: “I'm sorry, Jack. But I have a kingdom to run. I'm sure you understand.” (Prince James runs off. Jack lets out a weak groan and dies.) Arlo: “Anton... the poison. It's in my blood. Did you...” Anton: “All destroyed. The fields and every last bean.” Arlo: “Oh, good. Good. That's what's important.” Anton: “No. Everyone else is dead. You can't die, too, please.” Arlo: “I know your path is hard. But someday you will know which road to choose. And when you do, (He pulls out a vial:) you will need this. A preserved cutting from the stalk. (Anton takes the vial:) Plant it. New beans will grow.” Anton: “But you had me salt the land. Nothing can grow here.” Arlo: “Then someday you will find... new land.” (Arlo dies.) Anton: “How? Arlo? Arlo?! (Whispers:) No.” Storybrooke. Present. (David stands looking down at the magic bean in his hand while Anton continues handing out beans to the others.) Anton: "It's been a good harvest this year and the beans are plentiful, but I've never heard of them being used in the Dream World before." David: "There's no guarantee once we're in Morpheus' realm that we'll all arrive at the same location. The beans are our best shot at gathering everyone in one place, it just may take a few tries."

Anton: (Reaches Emma and Regina:) "I heard what Morpheus has planned for you guys and er... I think you should take three each." Regina: "Thank you." Emma: "Thanks, Anton." (They hug.) Alice: (To Zelena:) "What did the people of Oz have to say?" Zelena: "Well, I've warned them. Whether any of them will turn up to do their part is another thing. But then again, what good would Munchkins be in a fight anyway?" Tiana: "Actually, you'd be surprised." Zelena: "What about you, any luck?" Tiana: "We took a vote and it's mostly going to be those who fought with me during the Black Fairy's curse and a few Lost Boys joining us." Zelena: "Better than nothing, I suppose. (To Robin:) Are you ready for this?" Robin: "Oh yeah, and while we're helping Aunt Regina, Alice and Will have a plan of their own." Zelena: "Really?" Alice: "Yep, Will and I have a history in the Dream World and we might just be able to use that to find Henry."

(Anton makes his way over to Rumplestiltskin and Belle.) Anton: "Regina and Emma told me Morpheus has plans for you too. So here, take a few extra beans." Belle: (As Rumple takes the beans:) "Thank you, Anton." Anton: (Nods. To Will:) "Will?" Will: "I'll take as many as you can spare, mate. I don't feel good about this at all." Rumplestiltskin: (Chuckles:) "Great. Now I'm in agreement with Will Scarlett." Belle: "Listen to me, Rumple. You have survived way worse than this. I know you'll find a way to save Henry and come back to us." Rumplestiltskin: "Belle, I don't know what I'd do without you." Belle: (They kiss:) "After this, you'll never have to find out, I promise." Henry’s Dreamscape. (Gareth is polishing his armour in his room when Madelena enters.) Queen Madelena: “I'm sorry your birthday's been such a bust. I really tried to get someone to hit you.” Gareth: “It's all right. It's just nice to know you care.”

Queen Madelena: “But I do have one last birthday surprise that unexpectedly arrived. I think you're going to love it. (Lord Morpheus enters the room:) How would you like an unprovoked war to seize control of all the realms?” Gareth: (Stands, throwing his sword over his shoulder:) “Best birthday present ever.” (Both Madelena and Morpheus laugh.) Morpheus: “Dingdong.” Storybrooke. (With their friends, family and several armies behind them, Regina and Emma stand in front of the sapling.) Emma: "So how does this work, exactly?" Blue Fairy: "As both of you share True Love with your son, when you touch the sapling together while thinking of Henry, a portal should open, taking you to him." Regina: "Morpheus said he'd send Emma and I to different realms as soon as we stepped into the Dream World. So once we open the portal, we need to be the last to enter. (To Emma:) Ready?" Emma: (Nods:) "Let's do this." (Taking each others hand, they both reach out and touch the sapling, causing the cave to fill with a brilliant green light.)

[visanimus]

Can i request a Hakuryuus scenario? The plot is she can see a red threat between two people but she saw her red threat is with Hakuryuu who love someone else. So she decide not to love him but he thinks differently because he love her present that help him forget about Morgiana after that is up to you hehehe thank you, hope my plot doesnt confuse you, thank you~♡

It wasn’t confusing at all, so don’t worry about it dear.

~

| Ren Hakuryuu

Some would call what you saw a gift. That you could help others find their soulmate. That you could help others find their one true love and spare the heartache of heartbreak. It was nice, you would be called the “Love Oracle” by those in your village, or any other village your visited as you helped others find their loves.

Being able to see how the red lines of fate connected one person to another with small differences others wouldn’t notice, made you feel happy when you were able to help two people feel love. The only time the red line would appear was when both people were suppose to find their soulmate.

All would agree that you are blessed by a god to have the ability to see such a phenomenal thing. You would’ve agreed with them until the day that you saw a familiar, glowing, red line tie itself around your finger in a bow. It was a single bow then, when it led you to meet a group. That’s how you met Aladdin, Alibaba, Morgiana and Hakuryuu. Your eyes took in the how the red line that was wrapped around your finger was leading to a red line that connected to a matching red bow on Hakuryuu’s finger.

That was then. It was a small bow that wrapped around your finger once.

But now it was wrapped around all the fingers of your hands before wrapping itself in an intricate pattern on your arm. It would’ve been beautiful to see a matching one on Hakuryuu - if only he returned your feelings.

How hand only had the same bow as when. You first met him and everyone in the group before he confessed his love to Morgiana.

Hakuryuu didn’t love you.

You may have been an Love Oracle, but it didn’t anyone any special gifts or magic to see how in love he was with her.

The most depressing thing about this was how Morgiana had a red line creating an interesting pattern on her arm, almost the same as your own, but for Alibaba who was blind to her love. He continued on with his life and looking at other women as Morgiana watched in the background, Hakuryuu not far behind on offering her solace.

Morgiana and you had the same problem. A strong one sided love for someone who only had eyes for someone else.

“If only I could stop seeing this red string that only leads to my misery.” Words were hushed as you fingers traced over the patterns from your arm to your palm as you laid on the bed you would share with the fanalis. It was good you decided to sleep in early and spare yourself the misery of watching someone you love not even look your direction.

“Though it seems I’m not alone in this endeavor.” More mutters to yourself as you turned over to view the waters of the ocean constantly moving.

Your feelings weren’t blind to the Magi of the group who had more than enough of seeing you upset and decided to follow you back to the shared room and waited for you to take notice of him. A frown pulling at his childlike face as he softly patted your shoulder in order to again your attention. When he saw your face, how hollowed out and sad your eyes were, he knew he needed to say what he wanted to say.

“Miss _____, if you want Hakuryuu to see you, then please go talk to him. I know you love him.” He spoke so calmly, and straight to the point like a child that it seemed his words were making sense until you realize how difficult it would be to actually do it. Still you did not rouse from your spot as you continued to listen to him, “I know Hakuryuu may love Morgiana, but we both know that this isn’t what destiny chose for them. Now please, go talk to Hakuryuu, I don’t want to see a pretty lady like you so sad anymore. Please.” The innocent sincerity of his words face you the strength to sit up and face the blue haired child.

A soft smile pulled at your lips and softened the hardening edge of your eyes. You fixed up your clothes and your hair before getting up to give Aladdin a hug, “Thank you Aladdin. I…..I needed to hear that….. Thank you for being a good friend.” The quiet words of gratitude was enough for Aladdin to go back to his beaming, happy, and bubbly self once more as he looked at you with a light in his eyes, as if you had gotten him the greatest gift of the world.

“Will you go back to smiling again? Like when we first met? Will you go back to laughing with all of us?” His words bounced around in the small cabin room as he started to bounce impatiently again.

You only laughed and nodded a small yes for him to see, “Yes, Aladdin I will, but first I need to talk to Hakuryuu and see if we can get this destiny right first, ok?” You explained to the hyper child who only nodded in acceptance and waved at you to hurry.

Quiet, but hurried steps barely echoed through the hallways of the ship as you scanned around in order to spot Hakuryuu to tell him how you truly felt and what you saw. So far the only person who knew what you saw was Aladdin, he knew your destiny from your rukh and knew what you saw from that while others of the group were more skeptical of your ability due to the fact that you were not a dungeon capturer or a magician.

You were different. You were special. You couldn’t explain why, but you were and Aladdin accepted it without doubt. The rukh told him what he needed to know and he only smiled at you in acceptance.

Standing alone on the deck of the ship, leaning on the railing of the wooden railing that saved others from drowning in the cold beauty of the waters. The moonlight bouncing from the waters face him a ethereal lighting that caught the breath in your throat, stopping you completely in your tracks. The calm and almost vacant expression of his features only added to the fact that he was too beautiful to be mortal.

His eyes were lost in the mesmerising blue of the water, enough that he didn’t hear you, but he felt your aura approach him. Hakuryuu looked to see you fidgeting with the hemming of you tunic and he gave you a small smile as you settled yourself next to him. He didn’t know what to say to you besides a greeting.

Some time past between the both of you, as you both stared at the moonlight reflecting in the water. Neither didn’t know what to say, or what topic to open up on. The red string contrasted so much with the blue of the dark waters. It wrapped so beautifully on your skin and when you looked to see the rest string on his hand, it wasn’t only on his finger anymore - it was wrap all his fingers from his hand to his wrist. How did you not notice his red string changing during these last two months on this boat ride?

Clearing your throat you stared into his topaz eyes, “Hakuryuu, I know you have feelings for Morgiana-,” he made a choking sound as he sputtered back poor defense, “- and I can understand why you do not believe I can see the fate strings that connect one to their soulmates, but…….” Gathering your small amount of courage from Aladdin’s earlier talk, you signed calmly through your nose and turned to face the prince completely. “I have feelings for you and I can see my fate tied to yours. I only wanted you to know that my feelings for you are stronger than that of friendship, but you still love Morgiana. I don’t-”

His eyes widened just a bit as his hand shot out to grab yours, “Miss _____, I don’t love Morgiana anymore. My feelings for her aren’t here anymore. I……I love someone else now.” He hoped you had gotten the hint of what he was trying to say and the way he kept staring at you. You kept looking at your intertwined hands and prompted him to continue with his speech, “I don’t know if I can believe that you see destiny with your very eyes, but I want to be by your side reguardless.” He finished as he leaned in to rest his forehead against yours. “I have feelings for you _____, will you allow me to court you?” The pleading look were swimming in the depths of his ocean color irises, searching for a hint of you answer.

Hakuryuu didn’t want to screw up his chances with you, but he didn’t know what else to say to you that would convince you that he was honesty and sincere about his emotions for you. He loved you. He cared for you. Hakuryuu started to see how you cared for others and wished to make them happy. How you eyes sparkled with their own light when you helped two people meet each other and help them with their love for the other. Your laugh was contagious as you told jokes and danced around with Aladdin and Morgiana when it was dinner time.

He just wished that you would give him a chance to make up for all the times he stared at Morgiana in a hopeless romance. He knew that he needed to make up for everything he put you through for the last 4 months before this trip. Closing his eyes he braced himself for the inevitable answer that he deserved for being so blind to what you and the rukh were telling him before.

“Hakuryuu,” his brows furrowed as he waited, “I will give you this chance. The rukh and the date of this world led me to you.” His eyes snapped opened to see your smiling at him with a blinding smile he hasn’t seen in forever.

[lalallicat]

could you write a fitzsimmons story with this as a prompt? :D fartgallery(.)ca/post/144981770082/genie-i-grant-you-3-wishes-what-is-your-first

Hi!  Sorry it took me so long to fill out this prompt.  Everything I wrote accidentaly devolved into long rants about Trump and social inequality and institutionalized racism and I had to delete it all and start over.  

Also, your link didn’t work and so I had to google it and it was surprisingly difficult to find and by the time I found it, I had already made up an outline just based on the word “genie”, so yeah.  I went with it.  Also, I would’ve had a hard time making anyone wish for someone to fall in love with them because it goes into issues of consent and can you tell that I definitely overthink everything?  Which is funny because I have a four-month-old and most of the time, I’m just barely functioning.

This is probably more than you need to know.  You probably just want to read the story.

How About a Little More Baklava

Fitz’s first thought is that genies wear far more leather and black eyeliner than he expected.

Not that he knew he had expectations for genies at all.  But when Jemma accidentally knocked over the actual ugliest lamp in existence while antique shopping and Fitz reached out to catch it, and all of a sudden there was a poof! and a young woman was standing in between him and Jemma, Fitz’s immediate reaction had been, Oh. Genie.  Which means that in some far corner of his mind, he held the supposition that genies at least exist.

Fitz’s second thought is, “Oh, shit.”  Because he’s read countless stories and has seen both Aladdin AND Kazaam!, and he knows this whole genie thing never turns out well.

“I wish for your freedom!” he yelps frantically.

The genie raises her eyebrows in disbelief.  “What?”  

The owner of the store pokes her head out from behind the back storage area.  “Everything alright out there?” she asks.

“We’re great!” Jemma exclaims far too enthusiastically.  Jemma always covers up nerves with enthusiasm.  It’s what makes her such a terrible liar and such a great test-taker.

The store owner just looks perplexed.  “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asks, not quite suspicious but rapidly getting there.

The genie picks up the lamp and raises it towards the owner.  “Yeah, we’d like to buy this lamp.

As it turns out, there are A LOT of genie laws, and one of them is that if a genie’s owner wishes to set their genie free, they have to do it with their third wish.  

“But why?” Jemma asks as she opens the door to the apartment that she shares with Fitz.  She’s been taking this whole “genies are real” thing rather well, despite her insistence that magic does not exist.  Though now that Fitz thinks about it, Jemma’s undoubtedly running through possible scientific explanations for Daisy’s tether to the ceramic Pepto-Bismol-pink lamp and matching ruffled lampshade.

Daisy shrugs.  “Bureaucratic bullshit.”  She sprawls out on their sofa.  Now that Fitz is actually looking at her and isn’t blindly panicking anymore, he sees that the Daisy is about his and Jemma’s age, but a lot more world weary, with dark circles under her eyes (though it could just be the make-up) and frown lines at the corners of her lips.  “Oh my God, you have no idea how good it feels to stretch out my limbs.”

“Is it cramped in there?” Jemma asks, poking at the lamp distrustfully.  “I sort of assumed it would be like the TARDIS.”

Daisy looks at her blankly.

“You know - bigger on the inside?” Jemma supplies.

Daisy turns to look at Fitz, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  “What’s a TAR…tar-what was that again?”

Jemma and Fitz exchange looks of concern.  “Have you never seen Doctor Who?” Jemma asks.

Daisy raises an eyebrow.  “Do I look like I own a television?” she asks flatly.

Jemma and Fitz stare silently at each other for a few long moments.  “Do you…?” Jemma asks.

Fitz nods gravely.  “Oh, absolutely.”

——-

“See, THIS is why I don’t want to use any wishes,” Fitz complains, gesturing towards the television screen, where Rose and her father are reconnecting amid Reaper attacks.  “The unintended c-conse…conse…it would turn out bad.”

“Nah,” Daisy disagrees, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth.  If she notices Fitz’s stuttering, she doesn’t say anything.  “I can’t bring anyone back from the dead anyways.  Or go back in time.  You should be fine as long as you phrase your wishes right.”

“What else can’t you do?” Jemma asks, curious.

Daisy ticks them off her fingers.  “I can’t make anyone fall in love with you.  I can’t make something out of nothing.”

“So the law of physics do still apply!” Jemma bounces in her seat a little and claps a little.

“I can, however, make things out of thin air, so as long as you’re not starving for oxygen, I can make pretty much whatever you want.”

Fitz’s amused half-smile falls and he looks down at his lap.  

Jemma wrings her hands a little before rising from her armchair and moving to sit next to him, taking up the middle cushion between Fitz and Daisy on the sofa.  “Oh, Fitz,” she murmurs, placing her hand tentatively on his.

Daisy frowns.  “What’d I say?” she asks.

“You might have noticed that Fitz doesn’t talk much.”  Jemma looks down at their hands.  “He was in an accident about a year ago - suffered from oxygen deprivation.  He’s had a bit of trouble talking ever since - though it’s not nearly as noticeable as he thinks it is,” she adds quickly.  “And he’s improved so much since then.”

“Don’t for-forget ‘bout my fine motor skills,” Fitz adds bitterly.

“Shit,” Daisy groans, flopping back into the sofa and covering her face with her hands.  “I’m sorry.  I mean, I knew my jokes were shitty, but this is on an entirely different level.”

“It’s fine,” Fitz mumbles.

“You know what?”  Daisy stands and stretches.  “I should just turn in for the night before I shove my foot any further in my mouth.  Just let me know when you’re ready to redeem that first wish.”

Jemma jumps to her feet.  “Where are you going?”

Daisy gestures to the lamp as though it should be obvious.  “Home?”

Jemma looks slightly horrified.  “You can’t go back in there!”

Daisy shakes her head slightly.  “Why not?” she asks, confused.

“You spent half the night complaining about how uncomfortable it is in there,” Jemma points out.  “Just sleep on our couch.  I mean, I know it’s not ideal, but it’s got to be better than sleeping in a lamp.”

Daisy looks between Jemma and Fitz.  “Are you sure?” she asks Fitz.

Fitz shrugs.  “Yeah.  It’s all yours.”

—–

As Fitz struggles to think of what to wish for, Daisy makes herself comfortable in their apartment.  Even though Fitz and Jemma don’t wish for anything, Daisy seems to think nothing of using her powers to make their lives easier.  If Jemma opens the fridge and observes, “We’re out of milk,” a new carton will magically appear on one of the shelves.  If they spend too long arguing about whether to order pizza or Chinese food, Daisy just rolls her eyes and provide them with both.

When Fitz and Jemma come home one day to find a new sofa in the living room, Daisy just shrugs and says, “This one is more comfortable.”

“Maybe you should just make yourself a new bedroom,” Fitz suggests dryly.

“You know I can’t do that,” Daisy says without taking her eyes off the television screen.  She swings her arm with the Wii remote, sending the animated tennis ball flying over the net.  “Not without reducing the size of the rest of your rooms.”  She lets out a loud grunt as she swings again.  “Maybe you should just use up your wishes.”

“Fine.  I wish for world peace,” Fitz snaps sarcastically.

“I know you’re just joking, but you seriously don’t want to do that,” Daisy tells him.  “Seriously, last time someone did that, the entire world ended up under a single Orwellian totalitarian regime, and he had to use his third wish to undo it.”

Fitz snorts.  “Yeah, I figured.”

“Just think of something small,” Daisy suggests.

“Fine, I wish for a Wii.”

Daisy grins as she bounces back and forth on her toes.  “Sorry,” she says, swinging her arm again.  “Retroactive wishes don’t count.”

—–

Fitz is pretty much used to being in love with Jemma.  In retrospect, it might not have been the best idea to agree to share an apartment with her, but it’s fine.  He’s handling it.

And he would never wish for Jemma to fall in love with him, even if it were an option.  But he would like to know if she does.  Love him, that is.  And the simplest way to find out would be to just ask, but it’s also the most terrifying way, and he’d rather not create an uncomfortable situation.  If she moves out, he’d never be able to afford the rent on his own.

Well, he could.  He could wish for a winning lottery ticket or something.  But it seems far less complicated to just ask Daisy.  There can’t be too many harmful consequences attached to asking for information, right? After all, Daisy’s always going on about how information should be free.

“I know my first wish,” he tells Daisy one night while Jemma’s away at a conference.

“Finally!” Daisy exclaims.  A bottle of champagne appears on the kitchen counter.  “We should celebrate.  This feels like a momentous occasion.”  She pours the champagne into two flutes.  “Alright,” she says, passing Fitz his flute and clinking them together.  “I’m ready.  Hit me with it.”

Fitz squares his shoulders back.  “I wish for you to tell me if anyone is in love with me.  Romantically.”  He pauses.  “Not for you to tell me romantically - for you to tell me if anyone is in romantic love with me.  I probably should have written this out beforehand.”

“No.”

Fitz feels his heart sink into his stomach.  “No?” he repeats.

Daisy slaps the back of Fitz’s head.  “No! There’s no way I’m letting you waste your first wish on something you can easily figure out for yourself!  I didn’t even need to use my powers to figure that one out.”

“If I could easily figure it out for myself, do you think I’d be asking you?!” Fitz protests.

The champagne disappears.  “I can’t believe it took you five weeks to come up with that wish,” Daisy shouts at him.  “You suck at this.”

“Are all genies this belligerent?” Fitz complains.

“I wish Jemma had rubbed the lamp,” Daisy grouses under her breath as she climbs onto a bar stool.  A laptop appears in front of her on the kitchen counter and large headphones appear over her ears.  “Don’t talk to me.  I’m going to be on YouTube watching videos of unexpected animal friendships until I feel better.”

—–

“What would you wish for?” Fitz asks Jemma as they eat dinner on their couch, Planet Earth playing softly in the background.  With Fitz’s permission, Daisy has taken an impromptu trip to Vegas, leaving him and Jemma alone for the first time in two months.  

Jemma prods distractedly at her Pad Thai.  “Why are you asking me? They’re your wishes. You can’t tell me that there isn’t anything you want.”

“Daisy has vetoed all of my wishes so far,” Fitz complains.  “She says they’re too dumb.  She’s the worst genie ever.”

“To be fair, I’m the one who told her you’re not allowed to have a pet monkey,” Jemma admits.

“She’s my genie!  Why is she listening to you?”

“Ovaries before brovaries.”  After marathoning through all of Doctor Who in just two and half weeks, Daisy moved on to Parks and Rec, leading to her and Jemma creating increasingly affectionate and ridiculous nicknames for each other.

Fitz rolls his eyes.  “Seriously, Jemma.  I wished for her to leave the apartment so I could have a night of normalcy for a change, and she said she wanted to leave anyways, so it didn’t really count as a wish.  I’m never going to get to my third wish.”

Jemma frowns.  “Do you want to be rid of her that badly?”

Fitz sighs and leans back against the couch cushion.  “I don’t want to be rid of her completely.  I like having her around.  But I would like our couch back at some point in the future.  Besides, I never get to spend time with you anymore.”

Jemma wrinkles her nose.  “We live together and we work together.  When are we not spending time together?”

Fitz feels his face flush.  He looks down at his food.  “I didn’t…it’s not…” Fitz huffs.  “I mean, it’s never just the two of us, you know?  Like it used to be.  And I like hanging out with Daisy, but I like it when we’re alone too.  You’re my best friend.”

Fitz chances a look at Jemma.  She seems to be flushing a little too.  “Oh,” she manages.  “That makes sense.”  Jemma is silent for a long moment.  Finally, she puts her takeaway container down on the coffee table and turns to face Fitz.  “You know, when you were in the hospital and after, when you were recovering, I just…I was so angry at him.  I still am, sometimes.  It drives me crazy that he’s never had to take responsibility for what he did to you.”

Fitz rubs the back of his neck.  “I’d rather just forget the whole thing.”

Jemma shakes her head.  “I’d rather forget it too, Fitz, but I can’t.  Those nine days were the longest days of my life.  I was so terrified.”  She pauses, then says, her voice cracking, “He needs to pay for what he did.”

Fitz looks at Jemma with concern, his eyebrows wrinkling.  “So, what - you want revenge?”

Jemma’s eyes widen.  “No, not revenge.”  She reaches to take his hand.  “Justice.”

—–

Fitz and Jemma write it out before going to Daisy with it, just to make sure that nothing goes wrong.  “I wish for Grant Ward to be safely apprehended by the proper authorities and to receive justice, either through a fair trial or the acceptance of a plea bargain, for the actions that led to me getting injured.”

Daisy’s eyes glint dangerously.  “Grant Ward?  Yeah, I know exactly who the proper authorities are.”

—–

Fitz doesn’t know exactly why Daisy wants him and Jemma at the police station.  He supposes she wants him to know that she’s making good on his wish.  It really wasn’t necessary - he trusts Daisy to do what she says she’ll do.

Just like Daisy should have trusted that Fitz would have gone to the police station on his own if she asked him to.  She didn’t have to just make Fitz and Jemma magically appear there.  It causes a lot of confused stares, and he shifts uncomfortably until he notices that Daisy is there, holding onto a handcuffed Ward’s arm.

Ward looks just as surprised to be there as Fitz and Jemma are.  “What - Skye?” he sputters in disbelief.  “What the -?”

Daisy shoves Ward down into a chair and produces an envelope out of her jacket.  “This is a handwritten and signed confession,” she tells the detective behind the desk, handing it over to her.

Ward is looking wildly around the precinct, and Fitz draws in a sharp breath when Ward’s eyes meet his from across the room.

“Are you kidding me, Fitz?!” Ward yells, jumping to his feet.  Jemma’s hand flies out to meet Fitz’s chest and she steps in front of him protectively.  “You have an actual genie!  You could have wished for her to fix you instead of actively ruining my life!”

“He doesn’t need to be fixed.” Jemma says fiercely.  “There’s nothing wrong with him.”  Fitz turns to look at her in surprise.

Daisy pushes down on Ward’s shoulder so that he falls back into his seat.  He glares at her.  “Did you put him up to this?” he demands.  “To get back at me?”

Daisy rolls her eyes.  “You know, at some point you’re going to have to stop thinking of yourself as a victim. If you can’t be around other people without hurting them, then you don’t get to be around other people.  That’s how this works.”  With that, she disappears.

Jemma turns to look at Fitz with alarm.  “What do we -” She stops talking when they find themselves back in their apartment.  Daisy’s sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce on their armchair.  “I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Jemma complains.  “It’s quite disorienting.”

Fitz sits on the couch.  “I got the impression that this was not your first time interacting with Ward.”

Daisy folds her arms over her chest.  “He owned the lamp for a while.”  She looks down at her lap.  “He wished for a lot of things I didn’t really want to grant.”

Jemma sits down next to Fitz, her thigh touching his even though there’s lots of space for her to sit on the other end of the couch.  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asks Daisy gently.

Daisy shrugs, still refusing to meet their eyes.  “Not really.”  She sighs heavily.  “I think I just want to be alone for a while, actually.”  She disappears and her lamp flickers on.

Jemma turns to look at Fitz.  “It must be pretty bad if she’s willingly going back into her lamp.”

Fitz doesn’t even have the capacity to think about what’s going on with Daisy - he’s still struggling to catch up with the events of the last 20 minutes.  Fitz takes Jemma’s hand and squeezes it.  “Thanks.”

Jemma raises her eyebrows.  “For what?”

Fitz doesn’t quite know either.  All he knows is that he’s profoundly grateful that he gets to face everything with Jemma next to him rather than alone.  “For being by my side.”

Jemma gives him a fond smile and squeezes his hand back.  “Where else would I be?”

——

“Okay, what about now?” Fitz asks Daisy while Jemma’s in the shower.

Daisy furrows her brow as she focuses far too intently on digging a spoonful of ice cream out of its carton.  “What about now?”

“That thing I tried to wish for the first time?  About whether anyone loves me?  Can I use it for my second wish?”

Daisy shoots him an unimpressed look.  “Anyone?  Really?  As if you care about anyone besides -”

“Jemma!” Fitz interrupts, as Jemma emerges from the bathroom in her robe.  

Jemma stops in her tracks.  “Yes?”

“Uh, nothing. It’s nothing,” Fitz stammers.  “Uh, how was your shower?”

“It was fine?” she says slowly, squinting at Fitz and Daisy.   “Everything alright?”

“Yup,” Daisy grins.  “Fitz just wanted to see if my powers could extend to making sure water always runs at the perfect temperature.”

“Oh!” Jemma looks up at the ceiling in thought.  “I suppose the temperature did fluctuate a bit, but it didn’t bother me.”

“Great! Thanks for the feedback,” Daisy calls out as Jemma disappears into her bedroom.  She turns to glare at Fitz.  “I told you I wasn’t going to let you waste a wish on that.”

“You told me you wouldn’t let me waste my first wish on that,” Fitz corrected her.

Daisy rolls her eyes.  “Like I said, wishes aren’t retroactive.” She shoves her ice cream in her mouth, apparently deciding to take out her frustration on it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Daisy pulls her spoon out of her mouth and points it at Fitz, “It means you already know someone loves you.”  

“Do I, though?”

“You’re pathetic,” Daisy informs him.

“Well, forgive me for wanting to be 100% certain before I go and ruin my relationship with my best friend.”

“Like I said. Pathetic.”

—–

It’s not that Fitz is opposed to money.  Money is nice.  Money is good.

It just feels so selfish.  And besides, the money has to come from somewhere, or else previously non-existent currency will be added into circulation and will probably crash the economy.  Even if Fitz wishes for a winning lottery ticket, he’d probably be taking the winnings away from whoever would win it if Daisy hadn’t fixed it in his favor.  There’s definitely a lot of people out there who actually need the money.

And Fitz isn’t rich, but he’s not poor either.  He’s doing okay for himself.  It’s not like it was when he was little, when his dad first walked out on him and his mum, when they were just scraping by.  He earns a decent paycheck now, sends some of it to his mum to make sure she’s comfortable, lives in a nice apartment with his best friend, flies across the pond to visit his mum when he can.  It’s a nice life.  

So Fitz doesn’t really know what to wish for - at least nothing that wouldn’t accidentally fuck up the whole world.  

“What do people usually wish for?” he asks Daisy.  It’s been six months at this point, and Daisy has slowly been making upgrades to their flat that has rendered it practically unrecognizable.  They have granite countertops in the kitchen, a state-of-the-art entertainment system, and one of those Japanese toilets that shoots out warm water at their asses after they take a shit.  It’s all stuff that Fitz could’ve wished for if the thought had even crossed his mind.

Daisy shrugs as best she can while keeping up with playing Just Dance.  “A lot of them wish to lose weight.  Or to have more muscles.  Or a bigger penis.”

Jemma drops her Wii controller and scrambles to pick it up.  Daisy snorts at her.  “Whatever,” Jemma mutters.  “I’m still beating you.”

“A few of them wanted to be famous, but they didn’t ask for a specific talent, you know?” Daisy continues.  “So they ended up being like, Internet famous.  Like, a video of them goes viral and then they get to go on Ellen.  Or they get their own reality show or something.  I’m pretty much responsible for Bravo’s continued existence.”

Fitz wrinkles his nose.  “I don’t understand why anyone would want to be famous.”

Jemma accidentally bumps into Daisy, and Daisy pushes her away.  “Constant validation?”

“Then why not just wish for constant validation?”

Daisy grins.  “Because then they get sick of me following them around and continuously telling them they’re the hottest and the smartest and the best at everything and have the biggest penis.”

“I’m sensing a theme here,” Jemma observes, her voice dry.

“Is the theme that guys are insecure about their penises?” Daisy asks brightly.  “Is that supposed to be news?”

Fitz groans.  “Okay, can we be done discussing penises now?” He stands and starts to shuffle towards his room.  “I’ll think of a non-penis-related wish, okay?  Jesus.”

“You can wish for me to never have to shave my legs again,” Jemma suggests.

Daisy makes a noise of disapproval.  “You don’t want to make that wish if you want to keep your legs.”

Jemma wrinkles her nose.  “Oh.”  She looks at Fitz with sympathy.  “This is hard.”

“That’s what she said!” Daisy exclaims.  She holds out her open palm towards Jemma.  “Up top!”

Jemma just looks at her, unimpressed.

“Get it?” Daisy prompts.  “Because penises?”  She looks at Fitz, who just crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head.  “Come on, guys!” Daisy complains.  “I’ve missed a decade of ‘that’s what she said’ jokes!  Just give me a win.”  

“You have definitely been around for the past decade,” Jemma reminds her.

“Yeah, but my previous masters didn’t let me make fun of them or watch tv all day,” Daisy pouts.

And that’s what it takes for everything to shift into place.  “Wait,” Fitz realizes.  “Is that why you’ve been vetoing all my wishes?”

Daisy avoids Fitz’s gaze.  “You’re not making any sense.  Do you want in on this next one?”  Another controller appears in Fitz’s hand.

“Daisy, do you not want me to set you free?” Fitz asks, incredulous.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Fitz,” Jemma scoffs.  “Of course Daisy wants to be set free.”

Daisy shrugs with forced indifference.  “I mean, freedom would be cool, I guess.  But I don’t mind staying here, you know.  It’s not that bad.”

It’s clear Daisy doesn’t want to talk about it, but Fitz and Jemma exchange looks that make it clear that it’s a topic that will be picked up again on another day.

—–

As far as ideas go, it’s a pretty bad one, but it’s one that has the potential to solve both Daisy’s inability to just even (as evidenced by Daisy floating above the couch, limbs hanging limply beneath her, repeatedly groaning “I just can’t even.”) and Fitz’s general inability to relationship.

“I wish for the courage to tell Jemma that I’m in love with her.”

Daisy perks up at that and lowers herself to the ground.  “Oh, Fitz. You’re the best!” she enthuses, reaching over to pinch Fitz’s cheek.

Fitz swats her hand away.  “And why’s that?”

Daisy grins at him, delighted.  “You didn’t give me a timeline.  Which means that I get to choose when and where it happens.”

Fitz’s eyes widen.  “I meant courage as in, like, a general sustained feeling of optimism.  Not for you to puppeteer an actual love confession.”

“Too late!” Daisy actually does a little clap and hop, which is disconcerting because she’s way too giddy for someone who’s dressed like she raided the bargain bin at Hot Topic.  “This is going to be so fun.”

—–

In hindsight, Fitz definitely should have been suspicious when Daisy roped him into being her taste-tester in her sudden aspiration to be the Bertie Botts of vodka.  But it’s Friday, and work was awful, and Jemma’s out getting coffee with Milton because he’s in town for a conference, which, why did she even need to stay friends with him after they broke up?  Milton’s the worst.

“Okay, the birthday cake one is good, but I can’t taste the sprinkles,” Fitz slurs, pushing his empty plastic cup across the coffee table towards Daisy.

Daisy rolls her eyes.  “Sprinkles don’t even have a taste.”

“They do,” Fitz insists.  “They taste like happiness and rainbows.”

“See, all you have to do is capture the taste of light refracting through water droplets,” Jemma jokes.

Fitz does a double take.  “Jemma?  When did you get here?”

Daisy squints at Fitz.  “Holy shit, you’re way drunker than I thought.  She’s been sitting next to you on the couch for like an hour.”

Fitz turns to inspect Jemma, who’s suppressing an amused smile.  “Don’t get back together with Milton,” he pleads.  “He’s the worst.”

“That’s the third time you’ve said that since she got home,” Daisy informs him.

“God, I love you.” Fitz leans against Jemma, burying his face against her shoulder.  

If Jemma is shocked, she doesn’t show it.  She just sort of pats his back and murmurs, “Oh, Fitz.  I know.”

“Okay, but I mean like in a super romantic way,” Fitz clarifies.

“She knows that too - it’s also the third time you’ve said that tonight,” Daisy says, somehow sounding both amused and exasperated.

“Daisy,” Jemma warns.

Daisy rolls her eyes.  “Fine, fine - I’m leaving.”  She disappears into thin air because God forbid she should ever actually use her feet to walk anywhere,

Fitz sprawls across the sofa and lies down with his head in Jemma’s lap.  “I want to marry you and have your babies.”

He can practically hear the smile in Jemma’s voice.  “That might be difficult.  You’d have to use your second wish on a uterus.”

“I can’t.  I already used it.”

“On what?” Jemma starts petting his head and Fitz doesn’t believe in heaven, but he imagines that this is what it would feel like.

“I wished for the courage to tell you how I feel.”

Jemma’s silent for a moment, considering.  “So you basically wished for Daisy to get you plastered.”

Fitz frowns.  “No.”

“I could’ve done that without any magical powers.”  Jemma switches over to scratching his scalp.  Fitz leans into her touch, like a puppy starving for affection.  “Remember your 21st birthday?  I mean, we’d been legal at home for years,  but you wanted a proper American celebration.”

“I didn’t wish for booze, I wished for courage,” Fitz repeats stubbornly.  “So I could tell you how I love you.”

“So, liquid courage.”

Fitz frowns.  “You should’ve gotten the lamp.  I’m no good at wishes.”

Jemma leans down and plants a quick kiss on his forehead.  “I don’t know.  I think you’re doing okay.”

—–

All things considered, Fitz’s hangover isn’t terrible.  He almost wish it were, so he would have something to distract him from the stale aftertaste of regret in his mouth.  (“Regret” being the combination of banana bread flavored vodka and caramel coconut Kahlua that Daisy made him try.)

But the scent of bacon is wafting into his room, which makes him feel generally optimistic.  Jemma wouldn’t be making bacon if she were planning on moving out.

Jemma’s smile when Fitz walks out of his room is so bright and warm, it feels like basking in actual sunshine.  “Good morning Fitz.  How are you feeling?”

“Mostly embarrassed,” Fitz admits, sliding onto a barstool.  He props his elbows on the kitchen counter and buries his face in his hands.  “I’m so sorry.”

Jemma turns to face him, frowning in concern.  “What are you sorry for?”

“For vomiting my feelings on you.”  Fitz pauses.  “And also, for vomiting my vomit on you.”

Jemma smiles softly at him.  “The vomit only hit my feet - Daisy cleaned it right up.  The benefits of having a genie.”  Jemma turns back around to prod at the eggs in her frying pan.  “The part about your feelings, though.  I, uh…I didn’t mind it.  It was fine.”

Fitz studies the back of her head.  “It was fine?” he repeats.

“Go wash up, Fitz,” Jemma orders him, only sounding marginally exasperated.  “You smell like death.”

It’s not like ‘It was fine’ sounds especially promising, but Fitz still feels hopeful that Jemma is making him brush his teeth because there might be kissing involved in their immediate future.

When Fitz returns to his seat at the kitchen counter, there’s a plate waiting for him with toast, bacon, and over-medium eggs.  Jemma’s perched on the seat next to his, halfway through her own breakfast.

“Thanks for breakfast,” Fitz tells her.  “You’re too nice to me.”

Jemma tilts her head, studying him.  “You know I love you too, right?”

Fitz ducks his head.  “I mean.  Yeah. But -”

“In a super romantic way,” she adds teasingly.

Fitz figures that’s as clear a signal that he’s ever going to get, so he reaches over to slide his hand into her hair and presses his lips to hers.  He can feel Jemma smiling against his lips as she kisses him back.

“I can’t believe you were afraid to tell me,” Jemma says fondly when he pulls back.  “There were so many other ways to use that wish.”

“Like what?” Fitz challenges.

“Lifetime passes to Disneyland.”

“Okay, but once we’re there, food still costs a fortune,” Fitz points out.

“Lifetime passes to the science museum.”

“We get free annual passes through work.”

“Lifetime backstage passes to the monkey habitat at the zoo.”

That one does sound pretty cool, but Fitz is too stubborn to tell her so.  “So what I’m hearing you say is that you’re planning to spend a lifetime with me,” he teases.

Jemma leans forward to kiss him again.  “Yeah.  That’s the plan.”

—–

“Personally, I would have gone with Hamilton tickets,” Daisy says from the kitchen.  She’s slicing bananas for her peanut butter and banana sandwich, even though she’s perfectly capable of producing one out of thin air.

“He’s not my founding father,” Fitz points out.  He and Jemma are watching weird Pixar knockoffs on Netflix, and it’s the same as any other night except for that his arm is around her shoulders and Jemma’s snuggled into his side.  He has zero regrets with how he used his wish.

“Aw, Fitz.  Are you still so bitter about losing the Revolutionary War that you have to pretend you don’t care about seeing award-winning, critically-acclaimed musicals?” Daisy teases.

“Bitter? Definitely not.  I mean, Trump is president now, so it definitely worked out better for us than it did for you,” Fitz shoots back without looking away from the television. “I’m sure if any of you wanted to come back and admit this whole thing was a failed experiment, the Queen will welcome you back with open arms.”

“Are we pretending that Brexit didn’t happen?” Daisy asks.  “Is that a thing?”

“Daisy, just because you don’t live on the couch anymore doesn’t mean you can’t hang out in the living room anymore,” Jemma cuts in.  “You’re more than welcome to join us.  We’re only ten minutes into My Friend the Rat Chef.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Daisy says, carrying her plate back to Jemma’s former bedroom, which became her bedroom when Jemma moved into Fitz’s bedroom.  “Besides, you guys are being all nauseating and cute.”  She says it like she found gum under her shoe, but she’s totally smiling.

Jemma rolls her eyes.  “Don’t act like you didn’t want this to happen.”

“It really should’ve happened without my interference, but you two are surprisingly dense.”  Daisy pauses in the doorway.  “Speaking of dense, I made the wall between our rooms thicker.  And soundproof.  You’re welcome.”

Fitz squints at Daisy.  “I can’t tell whether you want us to thank you or apologize.”

Daisy opens her mouth, then closes it again.  “You know what?  Both.  Definitely both.”

“Thank you, Daisy,” Fitz says obligingly.  He tightens his arm around Jemma.  “But I’m not even a little bit sorry.”

[jonasmaurer]

Looking back on 2019 + my goals for 2020

Hi friends! I hope you’re enjoying the new decade so far. What are you up to today? I’m going to get in an arms workout at the gym and start blasting through my editorial calendar for the new year. I have my new planner ready to go (major nerd vibes because new planners make me oddly excited) and am pumped to get content ideas together. Thank you again to those of you who took this year’s blog survey!

I thought I’d share a little look back on the past year and my goals for the upcoming year. I’d love to hear about a highlight from your 2019 and any goals you’re going after this year!

Here are some of the major highlights from 2019:

– The Pilot came home after a 7-month deployment! He immediately was hired by the airlines, which I’ll share a bit more about below

– I attended my first Beautycounter conference (and we saw Michael Buble that weekend! AMAAAAZING)

– I launched HIIT Bootcamp

– Baby August was born! I love this little guy so much. 

– We explored Vancouver and took our first Disney cruise to Alaska

– I got to meet up with Julie and Anne at the NOW Foods trip to Chicago

– We went to San Diego for the 4th of July

– I launched my first pair of leggings with Four Athletics

– We got two guinea pigs, Donut and Lollipop, and we love them

– Did a couple of Phoenix staycations (like the opening weekend of Great Wolf Lodge Scottsdale)

– Went back to San Diego and Disney for a fall trip

– I turned 35 (AH)

– I took Liv to NYC for her first time! We saw Frozen, Wicked, Aladdin, went ice skating at Bryant Park and ate the best pizza

– We celebrated our second year of holidays back in Tucson partying with the fam, but the Pilot was out of town

2019 ended up being a challenging year for me. It was studded with more beautiful memories than difficult, but I thought/hoped this year was going to be a bit of a “reset” and much-needed reprieve from the stress and tireless effort of the Pilot’s deployment. As it turns out, it became another solid year of trying to keep my head above water. See, the Pilot spent the down time of his deployment refining his airline applications and preparing for potential interviews, so when he got home, he immediately got his medical stuff updated and put in his apps while he finished separating from the active duty military. While everyone would’ve loved a little bit more of a break just living our normal lives here, there was no telling how long it would take to hear back from a major airline. As luck with have it, the Pilot had interviews lined up (and was hired) shortly after settling back into Tucson. Of course, for him, that meant traveling for a months of training and jumping into the first year’s schedule with both feet. For me, that meant an immediate return to being the full-time caretaker for the girls while also running a business from home. I absolutely love being with our babies and feel so thankful that I’m the one here and not away, but at the same time, you always have to be “on.” I also felt a lot of pressure from financially supporting the fam and keeping things afloat during the first year. I know it’s not always going to be like this, but for now, I just know it’s my time to hustle and I’m running with it. 

As far as the airlines go, I know I’m venting a lot here, but we do love the Pilot’s new job and his company, We couldn’t be more thankful to have the security of a great second career, and we expected an intense first year paying our dues, but it’s been tough. I feel more used to him being gone than here. Sometimes it’s very lonely, which is why I feel so happy we’re near the family and also to connect with all of you. 

I’ll definitely be ok if 2020 is a more low-key year than 2019. I have some goals set, but am trying to reduce some of the pressure I put on myself. I’m looking at these goals as concepts I’d love to work towards, but if they don’t all happen this year, that’s ok. Mostly I was to emphasize creating time for the things that make me feel fulfilled, and spending time together as a family of 4 whenever possible.  

Health and fitness:

– Continue to follow my gallbladder protocol so I have a good ultrasound in February. This protocol is totally self-imposed and I haven’t written about it in detail because I’m not a medical professional and I have no clue if it’s actually working. My next ultrasound is in February and if the polyps have grown, they want to take out my gallbladder. I can’t go into the ultrasound without doing everything in my power to have an awesome result. Obviously a lot of it is out of my control, but I’m all about taking every step I possibly can. I really, really don’t want to have another surgery for a very long time so I’m crossing my fingers that I can keep my gallbladder. 

– Stay consistent with my current routine. I feel like I’ve hit a stride with my workout routine and love the mix of classes I’m currently taking. Each week, it’s a mix of Orangetheory, Telos (CrossFit-ish), barre, hot yoga, Peloton, outdoor hikes, and Les Mills On Demand workouts I’ll do at home. It’sfun to mix it up depending on what I’m subbing and how I feel that week. Nutrition-wise, I stopped counting macros a while ago (I feel like it was too much for my gallbladder to eat when I wasn’t actually hungry) and am just trying to get in protein, produce, whole grains, healthy fats, and lots of water. 

Family:

Make it through the first year of airlines (and I’m not even the person flying the planes lol). Whooooaaaaaa we’re halfway there. We’re definitely having a party when we hit 2nd year!

Keep supporting our babies in any way possible. I just love them so much and want them to know I’m always their advocate.

Really start to figure out a budget and long-term plans. This is something we’re going to work on for the following year, especially since we have some big long-term financial goals. I guess I’ll dust off my old Excel skills and get a spreadsheet together. 

Focus on things that fulfill my soul:

– Audition for choir (again). You guys know the choir audition I bombed? I’m going for it again. If it doesn’t work out, there are a few other local options to explore. I think that singing again would make my heart happy and a choir feels like a safe bet. 

– Join a volunteer organization. I always say I want to volunteer more and end up feeling overwhelmed with options and don’t end up doing it as often as I’d like. We’re going to be joining a specific organization that has requirements and I’m excited because the Pilot and I are going to do it together, and will also be held accountable.

– Reading every night before bed. I enjoy it so much and sleep better when I read for even 15-20 minutes before crashing. 

– Meditate at some point each morning. I’ve been using the Calm app and love it! My tips for starting a meditation practice are here. 

– Make time to hang out with friends and other couples. We’re at a point in life where it can be tough to get together with friends. I was doing a cooking club here in Tucson, but after a couple of months, no one could make it because everyone is shuffling kids to dance class and sports practice/games. I’ve found that with young kiddos and such a busy schedule, you won’t hang out with friends if you don’t make the time and concrete plans. (Instead of “Let’s meet up this week!” it has to be something like, “Do you want to grab breakfast at 10 on Friday?”) Since I work from home and the Pilot is gone a lot, I feel a bit more sane and happy when I have time to meet up with friends.

Pick up some regular fitness classes to teach. I’ve been subbing classes at a couple of studios, but didn’t take any of my own classes mostly because of childcare. I put it out to the universe (= Facebook) that I wanted to start teaching a couple of my own classes in the new year and was offered a HIIT class where I’m subbing that will start in February. I’m excited to be teaching more regularly again!

Continue therapy. I started seeing an incredible therapist the morning my grandfather passed away. I had made the appointment over a month in advance and figured I couldn’t cancel it, because if you ever needed a therapy appointment, that would be the day you should take one. So I went, and sat in her office and sobbed for 30 minutes. She told me that her office loved tears and I needed to truly feel everything I was feeling, and since then, she’s wrapped me in so much kindness and compassion. She’s become an extremely valued member of my tribe and even though I only see her every couple of weeks, it’s changed my life. It’s helped so much with my anxiety and my relationships, and if you are on the fence about therapy in the New Year, do it. It’s so worth it. 

Travel: 

– Traveling is one of my very favorite things, so I’m hoping for more in 2020! It gives us a chance to fully be present and enjoy time with each other while exploring a new, or beloved place. We have a cruise planned already (YEAHHH) and I’m also hoping we can start planning our next Italy trip. 

Professional:

– Finally find time to focus on SEO. It’s a wonder that my blog has survived this long considering that I know nothing about SEO. I’ve picked up a couple of tips over the past couple of years but I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m going to take a course and also am looking to hire an SEO expert to help me update old posts that are performing well. 

– Hire an editorial assistant. I have a couple of amazing team members who help behind-the-scenes with Pinterest, editing (not this post since I’m writing it the night before it goes live so sorry for the typos…), and Beautycounter. I’m looking for someone local who can help with filming/editing and kitchen days so I can post more recipes in the new year. 

– Update the podcast more consistently and focus on producing video content more consistently. 

– Work on opening my own studio. It may be next year, it may be 5 years from now, but it’s a huge goal of mine. 

– Run more online challenges through the blog. HIIT Bootcamp was so much fun (we’re going to do another one towards the end of January!) and I’d love to create more video packs with full calendars to follow. 

– Hit Senior Director with Beautycounter. Beautycounter has become one of the best things I’ve added to my business, especially because it’s given me the opportunity to connect with some many incredible friends and women, while creating an additional income stream. I’d love to hit Senior Director this year! You can read more about what it’s like being a Beautycounter consultant here. 

– Finish my second book! I signed my second book deal in December and I’m so excited to get this one out into the world! I’ll share more details when I can, but it’s geared more towards my beginner friends who are just getting started. 

If you made it to the end of this post, here’s a high five because this was a long one! 

Thank you so much for being here with me on the crazy 2019 ride. Thank you for being here and being so amazing. I can’t help but feel like I dropped the ball a bit this year (especially on the podcast and posting as much as I’d like) but I have a feeling that 2020 is going to be a good one. Honestly, if I get lots of time with the fam, a good report on the gallbladder front, and make a lot of cheese boards, I’m calling it a win. 

Cheers to the new year! Tell me, friends: what goals do you have set? Please share a personal and professional goal with me in the comments – I’d love to hear them!

xoxo

Gina

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