#i know she once yelled at luz because she just wanted a normal life but she didnt try to kill her like everyone else here has lmao.

[phobiaexists]

My beloved doppelgängers who’ve beefed with the original.

[trobeds]

alright last thing for tonight:

scenarios for raeda!! tell me as many as you want i’d love to hear them all

HAVIIIII ILY THANK YOU FOR SENDING ME RAEDA !! needed to talk about my Vision because im insane about it so this is much appreciated

ok so during the hiatus i got incredibly fucked up over the idea of raine being possessed/under mind control and eda like. pleading with them to listen and like grabbing their face and calling them rainestorm and saying sorry for pushing them away and trying to talk to them because she doesnt want to hurt them!! she just wants them back :( and now that raine is actually confirmed possessed by belos i have remembered and now i cannot stop thinking about the final battle n shes just trying to bring them back and they keep trying to fight her but shell let herself get hurt. she just cant hurt them. and eventually when they wont listen she loses her fucking mind like she blows shit up and her owl beast is coming out n shes so full of rage that people keep taking raine away from her and shes crying. there are tears 100% her vision is blurry shes so angry and so so so :( btw i KNOW im cringe but if eda had a whole ass monologue where she apologized and tried to tell raine how much they meant to her between trying to defend herself from belos-raines attacks and like raine started trying to fight the mind control. i would not be opposed. i would not be opposed at all. would also not be opposed to eda kissing raine to try and get them to stop being possessed. also its gorgeous the colors n lighting are stunning. i have a vision in my mind and it is So Pretty also very dramatic. gay ppl are known for having dramatic gay fights

ALSO ANOTHER SCENARIO

eda leaving her room to visit puppet raine is CANON i am winning life being the raeda stan i am but like . she comes to them every time she needs comfort n misses luz or wishes things could go back to normal and she will hold raines hand and call them rainestorm in this voice i can picture so clearly in my head. i am like soinsane somebody help she sits with them in silence when she misses the feeling of home. kill me.

also a few happier hcs:

luz educates eda on milfs and eda is like. that is ME so she buys raine an 'i love milfs' shirt that they r so embarrassed to wear but they secretly love it

raine loses their fucking mind when they see edas new look. they are going to make the same eyes they made at harpy eda and i know because i know raine better than all of you actually

they are gonna be soo insufferable when they get together like they will 100% be THAT couple. theyve been separated long enough that they r gonna be attached at the hip and really annoying about it once theyre back together

eda the owl beast n raine curled up together in edas nest :( somebody sedate me

they have conversations through glances and they perfected that art way back in hexside. would just look at each other whenever they got caught pulling pranks to try n plan their next move while principal faust would yell at them, and now theyre just incredibly good at reading each other. married behavior honestly

sometimes raine will be sitting n doing nothing and eda will rest her chin on the top of their head and bother them just because she can <3

they are just so beloved to me i might sob actually. sorry this was so long aha but thank u for the ask !!

[drabbles-of-writing]

Bleease feed a sleep deprived anon with more four years/new age Luz and Amity and co terrorizing poor people of the human realm? And is Camila just on the side having tea with Steve and sighing?

this late but here u go

Camila tries SO HARD to pretend she doesn’t know any of them. but thats a little hard when two of them are your dumbass gf and your equally as dumbass daughter. she is. So Tired. so ofc pretty much everyone in the town knows that when disaster strikes, theres a pretty clear swerve around Camila so she doesn’t get hit w it. they ask for her secrets. all she can do is shrug and say “they play favorites with family” and refuses to explain. everyone is too scared to ask how the hell she’s related to any of them.

Luz DOES own normal clothes but refuses to wear them when in public of her old town. she wears her whole-ass rebellion getup and you CANNOT stop her. she has to be dramatic at all times. but whenever she’s with her mom in her house n not doing wild shit she Will wear a regular outfit. once during these times someone from the town came to drop off something and as Camila was taking it they spotted Luz sitting on the couch, drinking tea, and looking like the most everyday person you can imagine. she was wearing like a sweater turtle-neck and if it weren’t for the scars on her face and tattoo on her hand she would’ve looked frighteningly normal. they made eye contact for a solid 8 seconds before they quietly left without a word.

Willow really only shows up to nab human realm plants and see what she can do with them but there IS that one person who has a really big garden she steals from quite often. at first they thought it was some hungry wildlife but then they went outside at midnight and shone a flashlight and got a feral Willow deer-in-headlights with her glasses reflecting back at them standing in the middle of their garden. Willow was like a damn raccoon she nabbed the plant and BOLTED and scared the life out of the inhabitants. they are unsuccessful in catching her.

Luz has absolutely taken Amity on dates in the human realm but they’re not exactly ‘dates’ (although to be fair almost none of their dates are normal). usually results in Luz stealing things like ice cream or some weird tourist items and being a dork w Amity on the roofs. sometimes its during the day but normally its around dusk whenever they do this. Amity doesn’t understand a single thing going on in the human realm but Luz is always super excited so she doesn’t comment. Luz may or may not have roped Amity into doing some stupid shit with her this way. there are endless scuffs and foot marks on nearly everyones roof.

Once when it was winter and Luz was stalking about she tried to do the roof climbing but proceeded to slip off bc ice. this happened four times before someone finally came out to see what the fuss was and Luz BOOKED it. winter for the owl fam in the town was a bit of a disaster. nobody could keep as good a grip as normal and due to how dark and muffled everything was they ended up giving off a much creepier vibe than intended, especially when they started being loud and there were no other sounds around.

Multiple people in the owl fam would be the assholes who sing from really high and ridiculous places like a bunch of roosters at like 3am. its a common occurrence that, whenever this happens, someone opens their window and throws an object at them to get them to shut up. theres like a whole point system. if you manage to strike one of the offending witches with said object they all IMMEDIATELY scatter like cockroaches. I could write a whole list of the random shit yelled @ them whenever they decide to be the assholes singing on the roofs dont test me. but, to be fair, they normally only do this for Actual (kind of) Reasons. usually because they want to piss off someone specific. again, theres a List of reasons they’ve done this and the most common offenders are the Blight twins & Luz, as usual.

[atomicblasphemy]

So, that before opening credits scene at the grom episode, I’ve been putting a lot of thinking into it. Here’s the thing, we see the portal open and King is watching so videos on Luz’s phone, right? Moreover, there’s a charger there that leads straight to the aforementioned portal. Now, this means that they are pretty much siphoning electricity from somewhere in the human realm. And we know for a fact that the human realm side of the portal is in a ran down shack that’s pretty unlikely to have power, also its in a pretty isolated wooden area. This leads to the unavoidable questions of: a - where the hell is the outlet?  b - how long is that damn extension cord (and where can I buy one as long as that)?

For all we know, Luz and Camila’s home is the closest building to that ran down shack, i.e. the most likely answer to question a. This raises a few interesting scenarios, because it means that someone from the owl house would need to go through the portal, probably carrying an obscene amount of electric cables, go into Camila’s home, plug it, and make sure that Camila won’t unplug it.

First candidate for the job would be King, obviously. Problem is, he probably wouldn’t stand for such a lowly job. Besides he is likely too tiny to carry all that  amount of power cables.

Second candidate: Luz herself. This should be even more difficult.

-----------

“Mija? What are you doing?”

“Oh... Hi, Mami... Nothing, just uhhh charging my phone.”

“Why here, though? Don’t they have power at camp? Is that why you’re not returning my messages?”

“They... uhhh...” *sprints back to the portal*

-------------

And, of course the third candidate would be Eda.

------------

“Miss Noceda, I understand you are in a lot of distress right now. But I need you to try again and tell us what happened in a calm manner. You said there was a break in, right? Where did the intruder go and when did this creature appear?”

After taking a few long breaths, looking at the officer’s eyes she continued. A few meters behind a large feathery figure lay asleep, it’s body coated with the colors of many tranquilizing darts.

“I... I was trying to get some sleep. I have long shifts and little chance to rest so this normally comes pretty easily. But as soon as my head hits the pillow I start hearing noises from downstairs, like someone going through my stuff. So I grab the first heavy object I find and start making my way there. So... In the middle of the living room is this tall white lady, striking ambar eyes, long grey hair going all the way down to her hips... and that tight fitting burgundy dress, like something that she had worn multiple times, but she still looked surprisingly elegant in it...” “Ma’am, please stay on track. You mentioned she said her name was ‘Edalyn Clawthorne’, most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles. Is that correct?”

“Right, sorry about that. But yeah, that’s correct.”

“We have checked, many times actually, for an Edalyn Clawthorne and nothing came up. Needless to say the same goes for those ‘Boiling Isles’. Did the intruder present any other form of behavior that you, especially considering your line of work, would understand as indicative of drug use or anything along those lines?”

“Humm... Well... Right after she introduced herself she said she was there to steal my power, some of my stuff... then she took a long look at me and said ‘and with some luck, your heart’. Then she winked at me and... I believe the kids call it fingerguns... She did that. That’s pretty much all that happened before I remember this person was invading my house and then I started yelling and trying to hit her with my bedside lamp. That’s when... Look, you won’t believe me anyway...”

“Why don’t you try me anyway?”

After taking a deep sigh, Camila continued.

“Right... At first she seemed like she was trying to calm me down or something. Then all of a sudden her eyes started going all black...”

“Mhmm”

“She let out this blood curling screech. It sounded almost as if she was in pain.”

“Mhmm”

“Then the feathers started appearing, her body started growing... I really thought she was going to kill me.”

“I see... That being the case how do you explain the first officers in the scene reporting they found the creature cuddling up to you in the front porch and the two of you watching Up! on your phone?”

“Well... First of all, shiny things seem to calm her down. Second, I didn’t know birds could purr.”

Meanwhile, the house’s backdoor is open, a long white cord snake in. It’s end laying a few inches from an unused outlet.

---------------

Suffice to say Eda would be a no go either.

This leaves Owlbert. He is used to the human realm, but there’s again the problem of size. Nevertheless, the biggest problem is he obvious cuteness, which means that if Camilla is anything like her daughter, means the lady will try adopting and we might get some kind of weird reverse version of the show staring Camilla and Owlbert.

This leaves one final option. And I think it is important at this point to remind ourselves that it is of the utmost importance that the power cord remains connected to an outlet in the Noceda household at all times.

------------

Camila had just laid her head on the pillow. The softness of the fabric was a great contrast to the sounds emerging from downstairs. There was no question: her house was being burglarized. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence around those parts, she wanted to afford Luz the most safety and comfort possible but there was only so much her limited income could do. She was terrified, but also curious. After all, it stands to reason that criminals more often than not use discretion as their best weapon, the way the make sure to be long gone before the victim ever realizes that there even was a crime.

Whoever was downstairs, they had not intention of making their presence a secret. They had broken through the window and the shattering glass was loud enough in the mostly empty house, but that didn’t seem to be enough for whoever was down there. It sounded as though a tornado was taking place entirely on her living room and kitchen.

Curiosity defeats fear. She opens her chamber door, tentative steps heading towards the stairways. She was never a reckless person, she knew the costs and consequences actions can have. But something deep in her being, churning up her guts, screamin that what was taking place in her home did not belong in this world. That whatever it was she would never have another chance of witnessing and no amount of adult responsibility can defeat the childish urge for wonder. She thought of the daughter she so missed. And such novelties are hardly ever divorced from the fear of the unknown.

The final step and she was at last on ground level. Sure enough, she could see plenty signs of the devastation. Furniture upturned, shelves spilling their contents on the floor, dirt and mud splattered in all surfaces. But, nothing missed. Not much broken either. Whoever was there, their intentions evaded her entirely.

The kitchen. A loud metallic bang came from the kitchen.

When had she start shaking?

She regrets her former bravery, but she was a Noceda, she crossed the sea in search of a better life. She faced monsters before. She was no coward.

Camila Noceda was no coward. She looked into the kitchen.

There was the intruder, whatever it was. She lacked names for the being, no, the monster making a ruckus in her kitchen. In it’s beak a plug it tried to jam into one of the outlets on the wall and surprisingly enough it was the one closest to the window it had entered through. And she knew that that had been the entry point better than she knew her own name at this point. It the shattered glass on the flower was not incontrovertible evidence enough the damning proof was that the being had not yet finished crossing that threshold. Perhaps it never would. Its body, this elongated yellow mass of yellow feathers was still on the window, going back into the woods to an unfathomable distances.

This monster, she knew did not belong in this world. Reality was unkind, and working with the healing of bodies she knew nature could be cruel. But this. This was madness. And finally when the creature seems to notice her presence the void in it’s eyes seemed to voice agreement with such belief.

It’s birdlike face inched ever closer to Camila’s. She couldn’t move. The power cord still in the creatures beaks. Camila would have once considered owls as the most precious and adorable birds. No longer.

It offered the power cord to the human. She plugged it. Mortals could not challenge the designs of immortals, after all.

The creature seemed satisfied. It’s face grew even closer to Camila’s, and finally a sound in a surprisingly screechy voice echoed through the ravaged home and it’s denizens soul:

“H O O T”

And before perception could catch up, it was gone.

She would live in the house for the remainder of the many decades of her life. Things would change, new pieces of furniture, new colors, adaptations to accommodate an aging body.

Much would change in the Noceda home over the years. But that plugged power cord would be a constant. A heirloom she would pass on for generations. An offering to make sure whatever demon, or god she made acquaintances with that night would remain satisfied, not to return to this world, not to ravage it one home at a time again.

--------

So yeah, I’m pretty sure Hooty was the one that made sure the owl house has a reliable source of electricity.

[prinxlyart]

Now that i think of it. How would it be the Willumity trio with a jealousy situation before and after they confess to each other? Like, a very handsome man comes to Luz and talk to her while Amity and Willow just want to destroy him or something like that.

So I actually addressed this in one of my first Willumity posts but I only did it with Amity so I’ll go into more detail about each of them because buh da bup bup bah, I’m Lovin This

Luz:

Before they all start dating, Luz just sort of deflates whenever she sees someone else flirting with her girls. Especially when they’re flirting with each other. Because she wants to be happy for them, they’re receiving positive attention!!! Romantic attention!!!! And Luz is Too Chicken to do it herself so she just bites the inside of her cheek whenever she sees it happening and goes quiet (always a strange occurrence, everyone knows something is wrong if Luz is quiet).

Also mentioned in one of my very first willumity posts: Luz is extremely insecure about her feelings towards Willow and Amity, especially when she realizes she’s having these feelings at the same time. Their friendship was broken for so long but once they started mending it? Luz could see their chemistry coming back to life. She liked to tease Willow about it sometimes too, but she didn’t do that often. Normally she would use that to deflect Willow’s worried looks aimed at Luz.

After they all start dating? She gets a little passive aggressive, ngl. That is, until she gets Directly Aggressive. If she sees someone flirting with one of her girls, she’ll sorta subtly go to their side and wrap her arm over their shoulders and insert herself into the conversation (usually only if she can see that her girls are uncomfortable. She knows Amity and Willow are more than capable of handling themselves). If the person trying to flirt just keeps going though, Luz will go into Sniper Mode. They’re not getting the hint? She will zero in on them and deliver a devastating line to properly deter them. And if that doesn’t work, she’ll go full-throttle Feral Mode and just start yelling. If she makes a big enough scene, she knows the other person will either flee or a big enough crowd will draw to see that someone is supposedly harassing them.

Again, Willow and Amity are totally capable of handling themselves so it rarely ever comes to that. There’s been maybe one instance where Luz has gone Feral™️ on someone who just couldn’t take a hint and someone had to physically subdue her before she ripped them to shreds. At that point it isn’t even about jealousy, it’s just about basic respect and decency.

Her jealousy doesn’t creep up as jealousy, at least not usually. It mostly manifests as a deep fear of Willow and Amity somehow coming to the conclusion that they like each other more than they like Luz and will end up leaving her behind. She’s scared of losing them, so she does get clingy sometimes, but not usually in situations where she’s scared someone else is going to take them away from her.

Willow:

Similarly to Luz, she suffers in silence whenever someone flirts with Luz or Amity before they all start dating. A lot of people flirt with Luz because, I mean, why wouldn’t they? She’s smart, she’s a human learning magic, she’s faced the Emperor and lived, and that’s not even accounting for how cute and funny she is. How genuine she is. Willow hates seeing other people make Luz blush tbqh; it takes her a hot minute to figure out why it makes her so angry but when she realizes it’s because she has a crush on Luz she just sort of dies inside. Whenever she feels that rage start to build up, she has to excuse herself to go outside and rage in a secluded section of the surrounding forest; she can’t constantly cause property damage to the school by disrupting its foundation with her vines.

She especially resents the Blight twins for making Luz blush every now and then. She knows they’re just doing it in jest but that doesn’t stop that oddly jealous curl from forming in her chest. It’s different though with Amity??? She’s not sure why (at first) but Amity making Luz blush just makes Willow’s chest fluttery because she does like watching Luz blush. And for some reason, she doesn’t mind it when Amity is the cause of said blush.

After they start dating, Willow isn’t one to actually get jealous all that often. She may get concerned if someone started flirting with Luz or Amity, mostly just if she’s never seen this other person before. But she has a weird sense of peace about her girls being flirted with once they are all dating; she knows they’re all polyamorous and any love they might feel for someone outside their little group doesn’t have any effect on the love they have for each other. So unless this anonymous person is actively making her girls uncomfortable, she likely won’t step in.

Amity:

She can get almost unreasonably jealous. She’s extremely protective of these relationships she’s somehow managed to curate with two of the most important people in her life. If she sees anyone outside of their immediate friend group even look at one of her girls in a potentially suggestive way, she is immediately by their side and glaring at the person that dared to think of flirting with her girlfriend.

Of the three of them, she’s the one with the most anxiety about them being “exclusive” despite being a polyamorous triad. She’s so worried about losing her girls to literally anyone else. It takes a while for the notion to really settle in that her girlfriends won’t be swept away from her by some stud with an animal sidekick. I think maybe Luz or Willow even gets a crush on someone outside of their little triad and it sends Amity into a panic spiral she thought she’d already dealt with. She really doesn’t want to lose them.

That original post I made about Amity’s jealousy had her be the type of jealous where if she saw one of her girls being hit on and was clearly uncomfortable, she’d stomp her way over and dip her girlfriend into a searing kiss that leaves them breathless and just stares down the person that dared to make her girlfriend uncomfortable. Which I’m defo still here for. Those girls are hers, and she’s not about to let just anyone get close to them.

I think maybe for the first....year? Two years?? They’re dating? They have to sit down frequently with one another assuade fears and clarify boundaries. Being in a polyam relationship is hard work and everyone needs to be clear with their feelings and concerns. They do figure out their rhythm though and once they are secure in their relationship and feelings towards one another, if anyone ever catches even just a fleeting sensation of feelings for someone outside their little group, the other two will start teasing them relentlessly.

Also thank you for giving me that good Willumity Prompt, it feeds my soul

If anyone else has headcanon questions they’d like to send me, please direct them to my owl house sideblog @edasnest !!!! Oh and go bug @sterling-jay in the meantime because their headcanons are the poison that kills me and the salves to my emotional wounds and it’s killing me

[eastofthemoon]

Feathered Friends

A silly one shot that wouldn’t leave my head.

Archive of Our Own

Rating: G

Series: The Owl House/Ducktales 2017

Summary: Luz tries something to get her back to the human realm, unfortunately the human part wasn't present. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Luz rubbed her hands eagerly as she looked over the handheld mirror. “Alright, mysterious device of arcane mystery, let’s see if you can bring me back to the human realm!’

“Are you sure you want to do this, kiddo?” Eda asked as she crossed her arm. “We know even less about this thing than your last portal attempt.”

“But the inscription says it leads to another world when you twist the handle,” Luz said as she clasped her hands.

“Doesn’t mean it’s the human realm,” Eda added. “There are plenty of bizarre worlds out there. For all we know this thing's connected to a world of man eating toe bats or something.”

“Where did you two find this outrageous ornament anyway?” King said as he poked the mirror.

“<i>We</i> didn’t,” Eda said with a deep sigh, shoving King’s paw away. “Hooty coughed it up and apparently doesn’t even remember where he picked it up.  Not that he remembers much to begin with.”

King grimaced. “Yuck, he really needs to be more aware of what he eats.”

“Anyway,” Luz continued as she put her hands on her hips, “it’s still worth trying.  Worst case it should lead back here, right?”

Eda sighed as she ruffled her hair. “All right, but I’m coming with you. King, how about you?  Up for a little interdimensional exploration?”

“Naw,” King said as he left the room. “My tummy is craving hot chocolate and I’ve decided to graciously fulfill its demand.”

“Save some for me,” Luz said as she picked up the mirror. “This shouldn’t take long.”

“Well, those are some ominous last words, but let’s give it a go,” Eda said as she placed a hand on Luz’s shoulder.

Luz bit her lower lip as she gave the mirror handle a hard twist.

The mirror sparked madly, before suddenly erupting with blue energy.  The mirror seemed to shine, and the energy formed into a swirling portal.

“Alright,” Luz said with a deep breath. “Here goes.”  Holding the mirror close to her chest, Luz stepped through the portal together with Eda.

They found themselves in a room. A very normal human looking room with a bunk bed and human style clothes scattered around it.

Hope flickered in Luz's eyes. Was it possible? Had she made it home?! Did she-

Someone, not Eda, cleared their throat and Luz turned.

Her joy evaporated.

Four pairs of eyes were staring at her. Eyes belonging to what seemed to be humanoid ducks. One was wearing a pink dress with a cute bow, another wore a blue shirt and a stunned expression. The third wore a red hat and shirt and seemed to be working out what question to ask first, while the fourth wore a green hoodie and held a soda can.

“Um...Hi,” Luz said slowly with a nervous smile. “Please don’t freak-”

The duck in green growled as he rubbed his eyes and set down the soda can.  The actual soda can, Luz found her eyes drawn to it. “Dewey, I thought you promised not to invite extra-dimensional beings into our bedroom again!”

“It wasn't me!” the duck, likely named Dewey, objected. “I mean, it was me that other time, but in my defense the number of views for my show have never been higher.”

“While that may be numerically true, that is strictly relative,” the duck with the red hat replied dryly.  "The number of views were even higher that time you left the camera on for twenty minutes of Mrs. Beakley cleaning the carpet."

“Uh….” Luz said as Eda looked around.

“Talking ducks? Hey, I think I’ve been to this world,” Eda muttered.

Before Luz could ask what she meant, the duck with the cute bow bounced up to her.

“Hi, I’m Webby!” she greeted and pointed behind her. “That’s Louie, Dewey and Huey! What’s your name?”

“I’m Luz, and this is Eda the Owl Lady,” Luz replied, slightly amazed by her chipper attitude. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to barge in-”

“Boys, what was that noise?!” shouted a female voice with a British accent.

“One second,” Huey said as he poked his head out of the room. “A portal opened and now we've got visitors from another world.”

There was a brief pause. “Are they dangerous?”

Huey pulled his head back. “Hostile or non-hostile?”

“Well, some call me a foxy mama and I've slain many a heart, kiddo,” Eda said with a wink.

Huey raised an eyebrow and glanced at Luz. “Non-hostile then?”

Luz nodded as Huey poked his head out again.

“They’re not dangerous, Mrs. Beakley!” he shouted.

“Alright, I’ll be up once these dishes have been dealt with,” the voice shouted back.

“You guys are oddly calm about this,” Luz said as she tilted her head.

Louie scoffed as he shoved his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. “Please, on average we get at least one weird portal opening in our house a month.”

“It was twice last month,” Dewey replied and shivered. “I still can’t get that centaur’s song out of my head.”

"Averages, Dewford!"

“Okay, then,” Luz said, wondering to herself exactly what kind of life these ducks had.

Huey pointed to the mirror in Luz’s hand. “So, given the evidence, my hypothesis is that this is what created the portal.  It wasn't red, so I'm assuming it doesn't use the same method as the Solego circuit - is it magic?  Runic designs, or some sort of divine blessing?”

Luz blinked and blushed realizing she had almost forgotten she was holding it.

“Uh, yeah, again sorry, we kind of just found it and were experimenting,” Luz said as she held it up. “I’ll just turn so we can-”

“Now, hold up, kiddo,” Eda said with a smirk. “I’ve been to this world before and it’s actually pretty fun. A lot more accepting of avian people than the Boiling Isles, if you catch my drift.  It might actually be worth having a short visit here.”

“I can’t help but note you’re not asking our opinion here,” Louie asked.  "I should really start charging tolls on interdimensional travel..."

Dewey stepped forward and pointed. “More importantly will you or will you not come onto my show for an interview?”

“How much are you willing to pay?” Eda said.

“Nevermind that,” Webby said as she grinned at Luz. “Are you a magic user?”

“I’m, er, a witch in training,” Luz said as she rubbed the back of her neck. 

“Oooh, I should introduce you to Lena and Violet,” Webby continued. “We can compare notes - do you have a scrapbook of arcane secrets too?!”

“Oh really,” Luz said as her eyes sparked. That did sound like fun.

“Kids,” a female voice called out and another duck - female-sounding, wearing a pilot uniform - entered the room. “Beakley mentioned something about a portal-”

Suddenly, she gasped and pointed.  “Eda Clawthorne! Is that you?”

Eda frowned and tilted her head. “You look kind of familiar? Do I know you?  You're not a debt collector, right?”

The duck laughed and pointed at herself. “It’s me, Della Duck! Remember? I took your staff for a joyride? We had a bonding experience over nachos?”

Eda blinked, and a smile appeared as she snorted. “Della?! Ha! Wow, it’s been ages! You got old girl!”

Della laughed. “You're one to talk! Didn’t you have red hair?”

Eda snorted as she ran a hand through her hair. “True, but I am still a foxy mama though.  Silver is in.”

“I have several questions,” Huey asked.

“And I smell the start of a delicious backstory,” Luz added as she rubbed her hands.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Della said. “Scrooge, Donald and I ran into her once during one of our adventures.”

Eda chuckled. “Yeah, that was a fun ride. Hey, did Scrooge ever get over the ‘you know what’?”

Della paused, and suddenly sucked air in and looked anywhere <i>but</i> Eda. “Yeah, about that. Great catching up and all, but you should probably leave before he hears that you’re here?”

Eda froze. “Y-you've got to be kidding.  Don’t tell me that old coot is still alive-”

“EDA CLAWTHORNE!”

All heads turned and Luz spotted an old duck wearing a red jacket, a top hat on his head and an angry scowl on his face as he pointed a cane at the visitors.

“YOU HAVE SOME NERVE SHOWING UP HERE!”

“Oh boy,” Eda said as she grabbed Luz’s arm. “Time to go, kiddo!”

“What?” Luz cried. “But what about-”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Scrooge yelled as he wrapped his cane handle around Eda’s wrist. “YOU AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU RETURN THE COPPER PIPES YOU STOLE YOU SHIFTY SHORTCHANGING CHARLATAN!”

“Copper pipes?” Louie asked in disbelief. “Really?  In this economy?”

Eda rolled her eyes as she wrapped her hands around the cane. “Aw come on, Scroogey no need to be so hostile-”

Scrooge snarled. “I have every right to be horrendously hostile you-”

“Even when I specifically came here - across the dimensional void - just to bring back those pipes?” Eda gestured to the corner of the room. “All six of them, right over there!”

“What?” Scrooge looked. “I don’t see-”

Eda kicked Scrooge off his cane and watched the duck tumble flat on his face.

“And that definitely makes it time to go!” Eda said as she took the mirror, twisted the handle and sparks started to fly. “Say your goodbyes, kid, because we are out of here!”

“Uh, okay,” Luz said as Eda pulled her towards the emerging portal. “Sorry about this!”

“No worries,” Webby said as Dewey helped Scrooge up. “Send me a letter! I've always wanted an extradimensional pen-pal!”

Luz could see Scrooge rallying to give chase, but her view was abruptly eclipsed by the swirling blue of the portal as she was pulled through. Both Eda and Luz collided at the foot of the couch as the portal disappeared behind them.

King sipped his hot chocolate as he peered over them from the couch.

“So!  How was the site of my future conquest?” he asked.

Luz pointed an arm up. “Not the human realm, but we met some friendly talking ducks and I got Eda backstory so I'm still calling it a win.”

“And I got a free cane,” Eda declared as she waved the cane up in the air.

Luz narrowed her eyes. “You should really give that back.”

Eda snarked. “Luz, trust me, that guy has a ton of these things.” She held up in the air and fiddled with the handle. “I wonder if-”

A laser blazed out of the cane's tip without warning. Hooty yelped, spiraling out of the way it shot through the wall behind him.

“...Oooh, Mama like,” Eda cooed, eyes sparkling as she raced outside. “Let’s see what this bad boy can do!”

“Mass destruction! Untold mayhem! Unfettered obliteration!  It's my turn next!” King shouted as he gave chase.

Luz sighed as she put down the mirror. “Alright, so...I can check off the mirror at least.  Not a way home, but not bad.  Maybe leave the Owl Lady here next time.”

Luz heard more blasts being fired, and the growing sounds of rampaging fires. She briefly considered going outside to reduce the carnage, but decided it might be better to write that letter to Webby instead.

[polar534]

Hockey AU: Practicing

So. This is a shorter shot that's already been done and typed for a while now. I'd say it's probably going to be a part of a larger arc involving the Semi-Finals in general and the build up to Hockey Injury.

Anyways I'll stop explaining and let you get into it. No warnings this time. Just expect a mostly Luz focused piece featuring best friend Willow.

***

Luz Noceda has never given up on anything in her life. Not when she was told by her mother that she couldn't climb to the top of giant fake cat tree at the local pet store, or when the local kids bet her that she couldn't stand out in the snow with no shoes for longer then 30 minutes.

Or even when she was told (multiple times) that human's couldn't perform magic.

Now, finishing the last line of her glyph, she proved them all wrong once again as she gently tapped the edge of the giant ice spell she had created. In a glowing flash, a large circle of ice formed under her feet.

She was Luz Noceda. And she could do this.

"Luz!!" Willow called out worriedly as Luz's body almost immediately hit the ice with a loud smack.

She didn't know what happened. One second her legs were under her and steady and the next she's sprawled out and spinning slightly.

As she turned, she watched as Willow attempted to cross the ice to get to her. Panicking only slightly, Luz piled back together her limbs and got up on her knees.

"No!! Wait. I got this!" She yelled back worriedly, holding her hands up to signal to Willow to stop.

She set them down beside her and slowly, carefully, tried pulling her legs to a standing position.

It worked for about 1 millisecond before they were once again sprawled out on the ground with Luz's face going straight into the ice.

Luz let out a muffled groan.

She heard Willow slide onto the ice next to her. Spinning herself in a circle, Luz sat up and watched as Willow plopped herself into a sitting position, leaning supportively up against Luz.

"How's it going?" The plant witch asked playfully.

Before she could answer, Luz felt her butt sliding and suddenly she was sprawled out on her back.

"HOW?! I wasn't even moving!" The human exclaimed in frustration.

She heard Willow chuckle lightly.

"Ah. So not good." She observed wisely.

"I just don't understand how I can be so bad at this! I'm normally so perfectly in control of my gangly teenage limbs!"

This immediately caused Willow to fall back in laughter as she landed on the ice next to her friend.

"Rather bold of you to lie to your best friend." She chuckled.

Luz groaned again.

“I just want to be able to stand up. For like 2 SECONDS!”

“Why are you trying so hard anyways? You love it when Amity holds you.” Willow teased gently.

Luz chose not to answer. Instead she lifted her legs above her head and attempted to stand again. The momentum brought her to her feet, before she suddenly summersaulted forward and onto her face.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Luz mumbled as she accepted her fate and melted further into the ice, feeling the frozen liquid cool the burning in her face.

Why was this so hard?

"Oh Luz. Perhaps we should get off the ice for a bit. Before the ice gets an imprint of your face." Willow suggested helpfully.

"No!" Luz exclaimed suddenly, attempting to put her hands out in front of her and keeping them still. "I can do this. I have to do this."

Somehow, finding grip, Luz pulled herself up to her knees.

Good. She was steady.

Time to stand.

Luz felt her foot stick underneath her. Taking it slow, she felt the other foot stick next. Suddenly Luz was standing on the ice. For a moment, she let herself celebrate the small victory. Glancing down she grinned broadly at Willow as she attempted to take a step.

***

Luz held up a small bit of cracked ice up to her newly busted lip, trying to calm the swelling that would surely get her in trouble with not only her mother who was a nurse, but her girlfriend who was always on her about being careful too. Willow stood by her silently and carefully concentrated as she summoned some grass to cover the large field of ice that refused to melt.

"I still don't understand why you insisted on trying this again. Luz, you're hopeless on the ice." Willow sighed as she released the magic and caught her breath.

Luz held the ice tighter to her face, letting the sharp, cold pain distract her.

"Well, you know me, can't let anything get me down." Luz mumbled the best she could through her swelling.

Luz felt Willow lean against her shoulders.

"Yeah, but this is different. I can tell. I know you. You don't get a fat lip, just because."

"Please tell me?" Willow's pleaded with her with large, wide eyes.

Luz scrunched her face into a scowl before realizing just how much that hurt and growling lowly.

"Finnnnnee. I just want to be able to walk out onto the ice with Amity for the finals. It's the only time I'm actually, you know, officially allowed on the ice. All the players get to bring someone out with them." She admitted grumpily.

"Ahhh. There it is." Willow smiled warmly, before sliding down against Luz's back, facing away from her.

They sat there, back to back for a few moments, basking in the silence of the Boiling Isles woods.

"You know, you don't need to be good on the ice for Amity to like you." Willow spoke up after awhile.

Luz sighed and leaned further into her friend.

"I know. It's not even that. It's just, being out on the ice always makes Amity so happy. And I'm always just bungling it up, every time I try and share that with her." She admitted dejectedly.

"I just... and I know she wouldn't ever do this so I don't even know why I'm so worried. But I don't want her to leave me behind. Or be any sort of burden on her..." Luz continued, feeling her heart twist.

She felt Willow tense.

"Luz. You aren't a burden. To anyone. Much less Amity."

"I knowww. I just... I want to walk out onto the ice with her without taking away from her moment. She's worked so hard, the entire team has. I'm just going to hold them back when I go out there."

Willow sighed so heavily that Luz could feel it ripple through her body. The plant witch leaned forcibly against Luz, pressing the human down with her body, prompting a small giggle out of both them. Luz let herself be crumpled and with it, felt the tension she had been holding in melt away.

After awhile, the witch relaxed the pressure and sat back up.

"Luz. I love you. You are my best friend." Willow stated plainly. "But you will never be able to operate on the ice. And that's ok." She chuckled.

Luz felt herself smile, before wincing in pain as her lip split even further.

"Have you brought up any of these concerns to Amity?" Willow asked after a short pause.

It was Luz's turn to sigh. "No. You know Ami, she wouldn't let me get away with doubting myself even slightly. She'd just waste more time trying to teach me the impossible. Rather then enjoying herself out on the ice."

"Amity just enjoys being with you. On the ice or off. You have to know that."

"I hope so. I mean she has kept me around this long. Guess I've made some sort of impression on her." Luz joked half heartedly.

Willow elbowed her side gently. "Yeah. Kept you around. Day dreamed about you. Held your hand and absolutely gay panicked just about every time she's seen you ever since you guys first met."

Luz felt herself blush. How was it possible she was this lucky?

Or at least that oblivious.

"How about this. Instead of worrying about walking out there by yourself, just worry about walking out with Amity. That's all she's going to care about. That you're there with her. Whether or not your clinging to her for dear life is irrelevant." Willow suggested sagely.

"I guess I can do that. I do really like being held by her after all." Luz admitted sheepishly.

"Just like I said." Willow said smugly. "Now, can we please put all of this ice practice behind us?"

"For now. At least until my lip goes back down to normal. Then I'll be right back to practicing." Luz grinned determinedly.

She was Luz Noceda and even if it was ok to not be proficient on the ice, she wasn't able to give up. Until that moment that her limbs finally decide to agree to those terms, Luz supposed it was alright to be held close by her girlfriend and just enjoy being near and with Amity.

***

Psssst. Like this? Want to read more like this or figure out what the heck is even going on? Check out the Masterpost.

[novelist-becca]

I’m getting old and I need something to rely on

Ko-Fi Commission for @liesminelli! I’m so sorry this took so long. 

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: Teen

Relationships: Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne

Summary: Eda misses her magic, and Lilith makes her feel worse. Luckily, she has a kid to remind her she’s not alone. 

Title is from the song Somewhere Only We Know by Keane.

AO3 link here

FFN link here

Also, part of the argument scene was inspired by this post by @sterling-jay and the hug scene was inspired by a scene from Ponyo, where Lisa tackle-hugs Sosuke. Watch that scene if you want to see what I had in mind.

Losing her magic was the pits.

Eda knew that she wouldn't escape petrification completely fine, but it was still a bummer when she tries to cast a light spell, or any other spell, and nothing happened. It felt like there was a phantom ache, like something was ripped out of her.

And she remembers what Luz said.

“It's okay. I can teach you what I know, and what we don't know, we can learn together.”

Eda said she looks forward to it, but…she doesn't know if she's ready to accept that her magic might be gone for good. She doesn't want Luz to feel bad, either. The kid wants to help her. Still, her magic is not the same…

But you gotta let her.

Thanks to how long they were up and what they went through, nobody started waking up until 10:30-ish. When Eda walked into the kitchen that morning and saw Lilith there, her stomach churned. She'd almost forgotten that she let her stay.

Lilith had only started to make things better by using her pain-sharing spell and bringing her back to her cursed form. She couldn't just leave her out there after that. But…it was long overdue. They both knew that. Lilith may be her sister, and she may have removed half of the curse, but she is still the one who cursed her in the first place. She's still the one who said nothing for years, who thought the best solution was to have her arrested instead of facing her and talking to her. Hell, she even mocked her “weakened” state a few times before! And worst of all, she was still the one that had hurt Luz.

Of course, Eda warned her the night before about what she'd do if she ever harmed or disrespected Luz again. She hopes she'll take it to heart.

“Oh, good morning Edalyn.” Lilith greeted. Unlike yesterday, her hair was…a bit less neat. It was…somewhat refreshing.

Eda said nothing and only side-eyed her as she made her cup of apple blood. She doesn't have the energy to talk to Lilith right now.

Lilith shrugged and started searching the kitchen for something. “Ugh, I need some coffee. Honestly, Edalyn, how do you find anything in here?”

Eda rolled her eyes. “Look in the cabinet. And it's not that messy.”

“I see.”

While Lilith made her drink, Eda sipped hers, wondering when Luz would come down. She supposes that the girl is sleeping in. Understandable, given last night. Luz will wake up on her own time.

Or maybe I should go wake her up, Eda thinks, feeling worry build up.

Lilith sat across from her, staring into her mug. “So…it turns out that I still have some of my magic.” She began.

That made Eda look up. “Oh?”

“Of course, it's weakened, so I'm not as strong as before, but at least I still have it.” Lilith said with a small smile.

“And you're telling me this why?” Eda said, narrowing her eyes. A part of her was jealous, and angry. Why does Lilith get to keep her magic after everything?

“Because I can help you now! You may have lost your magic completely-”

“Don't remind me…”

“-but I still have mine! I can still help you! Isn't that wonderful?”

Eda stared at her sister. She talked about how she still has her powers as if it's some miracle. But to Eda, it feels unfair.

“What, you think I'm useless without magic?” Eda glared.

Lilith looked taken aback. “N-no, of course not! I just mean that I think you could use a lot more help now that you've lost your powers.”

“You think I'm weak? You say this like it'll comfort me somehow, but it's doing the exact opposite.” Eda said. The last thing she needed was somebody making her feel inferior.

“I thought that at the very least you'd be happy.” Lilith said sternly.

Eda stood up. “Happy? You think I'd be happy that you still have your natural magic after everything you did?” She sneered.

Lilith stood up as well. “I share the curse with you now! I thought you'd appreciate that I'm making an effort now!”

“Well, I do appreciate it. But what else do you have to answer for? Oh right. Not saying anything about the truth for thirty fucking years, trying to have me arrested as a solution…” Eda listed, clenching her fists.

“Edalyn! You know I was only trying to help!”

“And there's also how you thought our tyrant of an emperor could cure me! You call that helping?”

“You wouldn't understand! You're being very unreasonable! Don’t forget I saved you!” Lilith tried.

“No, Luz did, which is another thing, you tried to kill her to bring me down!” Eda yelled. The image of her own sister tossing Luz over the bridge would never leave her head.

“Edalyn! I'm not the only one who played a part in your suffering, you know!” Lilith argued, slamming her hands on the table.

“Oh really? Your part in my suffering? Who else was involved, sister? Do tell me.”

“I admit, Emperor Belos is a deceptive liar, and I was a fool to believe him. And the petrification may have played a part in taking away your powers. And the hu-”

Eda pointed an accusing finger at her sister, glaring daggers. “Apupup! Stop right there! Don't you dare finish. Luz has nothing to do with this.”

“But if she hadn't-”

“Hadn't what? Luz was only trying to help me.” She growled. “And she definitely helped me more than you did. You don't get to blame her for your mistakes. Not on my watch.” Eda took a deep breath to calm herself. She hoped their argument hadn't woken up Luz. However, at that moment, she noticed the girl coming down the stairs, only to stop mid-step, watching the sisters, looking unsure if she should intervene or not.

Shit, we probably woke her up. I hope she didn’t hear anything she shouldn’t have...

“Why can't you just trust me? I thought that we had a chance at making things better!” Lilith said angrily.

“Why should I?” Eda said lowly, crossing her arms.

Then, at that moment, the conversation was interrupted by Luz grabbing King, trying to keep him from running into the kitchen.

“No, don’t!” she muttered. Eda and Lilith turned to see her looking up sheepishly and slowly making her way back up the stairs. Unfortunately, King had escaped her arms and began shuffling around the kitchen for food. Lilith’s shoulders slumped.

Eda pinched the bridge of her nose and turned back to her sister. “Lily, listen to me when I say you can’t just split the curse with me and expect everything to be instantly better again. You have a long ways to go before you can expect me to forgive you. Think about that.” Then she turned around towards the stairs. “I need to be alone.”

~

As soon as Luz saw Eda pass in the hallway, she got up and made her way towards her mentor’s room. She knows Eda might want some privacy, but after hearing the fight downstairs, she couldn’t just...leave her alone.

And Luz definitely knows Eda would do the same for her.

When she reached the door, she raised her fist to knock. “Eda?” she said. “It’s me, can I...can I come in?”

After 10 seconds, Luz pushed the door open and let herself in. Her mentor was splayed out face-down in her nest, one arm hanging over the edge. She’s hurting, I know it, Luz tells herself. She walks closer.

Eda senses the girl’s presence, but says nothing. Normally, she’d tell her to go away, but she didn’t have the energy to do so. She found the kid’s company comforting anyway.

Luz stood in front of the nest, looking down at the witch. “I...heard you and Lilith. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I promise!” Eda said nothing. “I understand how you feel. You’re not the only one who lost something, you know?” Luz continues, hoping Eda was listening. “You lost your magic, and...I lost my only way home.” Luz lifted a hand to stroke Eda’s hair, feeling her throat start to tighten at the reminder of her loss. “We’re in this together, okay? I-I’m gonna help you, promise. I owe it to you.”

Eda looked up, seeing Luz looking out the window. Her heart warmed at how unbelievably understanding the girl was. Once again, she was reminded of how much she had changed since Luz had come into her life. Her beloved, sweet, caring kid was like a light in the darkness. In a sudden burst of affection, she reached out.

Suddenly Luz was yanked into a tight hug. “Ah-!” she grunted, startled by the sudden mood change. Eda had flipped herself over, squeezing her girl affectionately and holding her close.

They were in an awkward position, but Eda didn’t care. Titan, she loved this kid so much! “You’re so good!” she said. Then she sat up, still holding Luz. She pulled away slightly, looking down at her. “Don’t you worry, kiddo, you don’t owe me a thing. I know that as long as we’re together, everything’s gonna be okay.” She moved a hand up to ruffle the girl’s hair, then moved it to cup her cheek. “I love you so much.”

Luz smiled, leaning her head against the witch’s chest. “Okay.” Her heart warms at how much Eda cares. So she laid there, letting Eda hold her.

The pair sat there for a moment, Eda cradling her kid close and resting her cheek on the top of her head. It wasn’t often they got a moment like this, and she wanted to cherish it. There’s no way she deserved somebody this wonderful.

It was Luz who broke the silence first. “I know you miss your powers, but, will you let me know when you’re ready to try glyphs?”

Eda loosened her grip a little bit so Luz could move to sit in her lap more comfortably. “I think I can try them out for you.” She said. Luz was right. Glyphs may not be the same as her old magic, but they’re still magic. If Luz can figure it out with that big brain of hers, then why not her?

Luz smiled, satisfied with that answer. She wrapped Eda in another hug.

Another minute massed and Eda pulled back. “You know what? How about we go see what we can scrounge up for breakfast? I’m starving, and I’m sure you are too.”

Luz nodded. “Heck yes I am! But, it’s almost noon, so, don’t you mean brunch?”

Eda rolled her eyes. “Eh, what the hell, I was close.” she playfully flicked Luz’s forehead, earning a giggle from her. “And after that, you can try to teach me, got it? Let’s see what you can do with that big brain of yours.” she said, ruffling Luz’s hair affectionately.

“Eda, you’re the best!”

[citadelspires]

Finally Following Through On Explaining That MP100 Lumity AU

Aight so a few days ago I promised to describe the basic layout for this Mob Psycho 100 Lumity AU I’ve been thinking about. This is that.

A marginal bit of context up front. You don’t need to have watched MP100 in order to understand any of the things I’m about to say, but I do recommend watching it anyway because it’s a wonderful show and an absolutely essential experience. Anyway, for those who haven’t watched MP100 this is all the context you need, for those who have you can just skip to the next paragraph. All y’all need to know is that MP100 features people called espers and they all have these vaguely defined "psychic powers." The actual abilities tied to these powers vary from person to person, some people just have telekinesis, some people have special moves and abilities they've trained, there are people with fire, people who are really fast, a dude who's psychically reinforced a plastic sword to be infinitely sharp and durable, just, loads of stuff. All espers have the ability to see spirits, which are, ya know, the spirits of people who have died, though the level at which their humanity is still intact varies. As a general rule the more powerful you were in life (particularly in the psychic capacity) the more powerful your spirit is. Aight now to the actual stuff.

We’re gonna start with the Blight family cause they were the first people I really got figured out for this thing so it’s just fitting.  The Blight family has had at least one powerful esper per generation as far back as anyone can remember. They're an overwhelming presence in the esper community of the city they live in, though most people without psychic powers aren't really aware of their existence, as the Blights have always viewed themselves as above regular humans. For this reason a long time ago the Blight family gathered with a group of other powerful esper families to found a school exclusively for young espers so their children would not have to associated with "the ungifted." In the time since the family has relinquished a good deal of its hold over the school, having deemed directly running it a waste of their resources, as long it sticks around they don't really care. That being said they still hold a large amount of authority in the community. 

 Edric and Emira are both naturally gifted espers who've never had trouble demonstrating their powers and the 'superiority over the rest of the humans' that their parents desired. The only setback they've faced is that they trained and developed their powers together a bit too much. See, Edric has trained his whole life in using his psychic powers to create projections aka illusions, and Emira has power-based abilities, in which she can give Edric's illusions the full force of their imagined attacks. Separately neither of them can make or do anything worthwhile but together they're top students. Fortunately they've been able to hide that drawback from everybody so far.

Amity, on the other hand, has never displayed any sign of even the potential for psychic powers. Her parents consider her to be both a failure to the entire family and their greatest embarrassment. That didn't stop them from enrolling her in a school exclusively for people with psychic powers though, cause they would much rather force Amity to find some way to lie and cheat around her entire life than reveal to the world they have a talentless daughter. They force Amity to become friends with children of their choosing, who will help her cover up her 'failure' and they assign Ed and Em to watch out for her and make sure she doesn't 'destroy the Blight family name.'

That’s about all the background for her thing, and I’ll get to what Luz is up to in a moment, but first I’m gonna make a momentary stop to talk about Willow (and kind of Gus). Willow is also an esper, though she honestly would rather not be. She enjoys the affinity with plants that she's built up over the years but she'd trade it in a heartbeat if it meant she would get to go back to normal school instead  of this fancy esper school with all these stuck up superpowered narcist teenagers who hate her. The only reason she even goes anymore is because she doesn't want to disappoint her parents, who were just so proud of her when her powers developed. Though one day she did ditch school to go visit a normal high school, just to see what it was like. There she met Gus, who happened to be the only member of a fanclub for espers, on account of everyone else in the school doesn't believe in espers and think he's crazy. Well, there was this other girl but... She’s not around anymore. Anyway so Willow befriends Gus and shows him some of her plant affinity thing and he thinks it's amazing, and Willow has a pretty terrible lack of people her age who think anything she does is remotely notable, much less amazing, so she and Gus develop a friendship pretty quickly.

Aight, now finally onto the main event, Luz and Lumity. So Spotlight on our girl Luz, who just so happens to be a spirit at the moment. I'm not sure what actually happened to her to, ya know, unalive her, but it sure did happen. Still, she managed to hold on to the world long enough to form as a spirit, just through sheer willpower and certainty that she wasn't done yet. Essentially she dies and starts to drift off but like right before everything fades to black she just like, jolts back up like 'hey no absolutely not I had dreams and a family and there is so much going on here that I am going to see and do and nobody can stop me.' And, as Luz do, she decides to focus on the positive bits of this instead. 

 See, cause back when she was alive our girl happened to be something of an esper enthusiast. And the thing about being a huge nerd about espers is that she managed to do some digging on the notable espers of the area. So, naturally, she found out about the Blight family. And she just so happened to find out about Amity specifically while she was at it, and perhaps she had discovered this information about a girl her age belonging to the most important esper family of the city and decided that this girl would be her rival in the field of becoming the best esper she could be, despite, admittedly, not knowing how to make the esper part even happen in the first place.

So, now with a spirit body not bound by the laws of physics and other such inconvenient matters, she searches out the Blight manor, intent on finding Amity, this whole preconceived notion in her head about how this is all going to go, some fanficitony plot unfolding in her imagination about how once they were bitter rivals but now Luz will have to convince her to work with her so she can achieve her dream still.

But when she gets to the manor she finds it warded against spirits. Not to be deterred, she waits outside the gates for Amity and latches onto her backpack, waiting for a good time to reveal herself to Amity, though she questions a bit why the girl doesn't see her in the first place. She hides with Amity all day, surviving a whole day in a school full of espers who could exorcise her with a flick of their finger, solely because she was with The Amity Blight, and anyone who noticed her energy just assumed Amity knew what she was doing and left her alone. The drawback to this, though, was that Luz kinda got directly smacked in the face by her preconceived notions of what Amity would be like, and while initially she had intended to reveal herself to Amity in order to ask for help, after seeing her be rude and pretentious to literally everyone all day she instead reveals herself to basically just yell at Amity and get really mad. Fortunately for Amity she's not an esper so she can't see spirits anyway.

Except the thing is. She's walking home by herself, like she always does, and then she starts to hear this whispering coming from nowhere, getting louder and louder, until eventually she just hears someone yell her name out of nowhere. See, Amity had never seen a spirit before, but also, a spirit had never gone out of its way to appear to her before. Essentially Luz accidentally reached out to her and lit the spark of her dormant psychic powers (everyone has at least some level of psychic powers sleeping within them it's kind of a whole thing). So Amity spends the entire time Luz is yelling at her just, staring open mouthed at this spirit that appeared for her out of nowhere after 14 years of hell. She doesn't even acknowledge any of the stuff Luz said about her, she was far too overwhelmed by just the fact that after being a failure her whole life she suddenly wasn't, at least, not entirely.

Luz eventually notices that she is getting far from the anticipated reaction and she quiets down. At that point the two talk things out and, while Luz is still seriously disappointed in the person Amity turned out to be, she doesn't have any better ideas of who to talk to, she kind of needs someone to be her communication piece to the real world at this point, and Amity finally has something she can use to actually do things with her 'psychic powers.' Cause they've been awakened now, yeah, but she quickly realizes she can see Luz and Only Luz. So the two of them begrudgingly work together, each kind of starting off mutually aware that they're just using the other for their own goals, and being perfectly okay with that.

So that's the general relationship dynamic between the two of them at the start, and eventually they get to know each other better. Amity stops viewing Luz as a spirit and starts learning more about the person she was before she died. (Amity just calls her "spirit" for like, at least the first week. The first time she uses Luz' name is a whole thing). Meanwhile Luz learns more about what Amity's life is like behind the scenes and everything that's happened to her.

[robbyrobinson]

OWL HOUSE X CTHULHU MYTHOS FIC: THE GODS AWAKEN (PT. XIV)

“Lord Belos, the Owl Lady and her acquaintances have arrived.”  

The entrance to Belos’ throne room opened widely. The Owl Spy came in first accompanied by Eda, Lilith, and King. They wore heavy shackles on their ankles (but it proved to be more cumbersome for King due to his tiny body), and cuffs were fixed on their wrists. To add salt to the injury, Eda and Lilith’s fingers had additional bindings so they would not attempt to draw circles in the air.  

Emperor Belos was slouched in his throne, his right hand holding up his forehead. The Titan’s heart once again was beating, but now it was a more noticeable tremor to it. Belos exhaled sharply and then deeply exhaled the air from his lungs. It had become a very circulated fact that Belos had seen better days. Somewhere in his fifty-year reign of the Boiling Isles, his health declined. With no heirs known either legitimately or otherwise, Death may as well knock on his door one of these days. Belos clutched at his chest from the sudden sensation of a deathly cough violently scratch its way up his airbags. The most powerful witch of the Boiling Isles wheezed a squeaking tune. His chest convulsed a few times. The Owl Spy and the guards carrying the prisoners stood in place pondering if he would cough up a lung or two.

Kikimora stood at the left side of Belos’ throne. She was informed of her lord’s coughing fits earlier and never took her eyes off him. When she heard the spy say that the Owl Lady had been captured, that was the one time that she did direct her attention from Belos. There Eda was: rather than being cursed into her monstrous, owl-like form, Eda was back to her normal appearance from her grayish-wild hairstyle to her clothes. Kikimora was conflicted: she never denounced Belos as a liar or for being incorrect. But here was the Owl Lady back as her own treacherous self. Seeing her this way for the first time made Kikimora start to ponder her master’s claims of being the Titan’s representative. But even humoring the idea that Belos was a fraud filled her with a sudden dread that Belos could be reading her thoughts at that moment. Oh, Titan, what would he do to her for her lack of belief? There were many ways for witches and demons to die in different, creative ways.  

Belos lifted his head sluggishly in a sideways glance at the prisoners. His exposed blue eye stared at them to study them. “It is such a pleasure being in the presence of you, Owl Lady.”  

Eda scoffed. “That makes one of us.”  

Belos ignored her snark and inspected Lilith again. “The Prodigal Child returns as well?”  

“Enough with your flimsy peppering of words, what do you want from us?” Lilith demanded.

Belos sighed. “You know that only the most qualified of witches can join my coven?”  

Lilith nodded. True, twenty odd years ago, joining the Emperor’s Coven was Lilith’s ambition for a long, long time. A dream that she shared with her younger sister, at least until that awful, terrible, reprehensible day she decided to curse her sister to give herself a better chance at narrowing her way to victory. A curse that was supposed to last for a day instead made Eda’s existence miserable, and ostracized her from witch society. Lilith’s bottom lip quivered from the acknowledgment Lilith placed such a heavy load on her sister’s shoulders all for a meaningless position due to Belos lying to her. From the deepest, darkest pits, a fire was raging.  

“I made my decision to defect, Lord Belos,” Lilith announced with conviction.  

Belos was speechless at first likely to digest the words his former servant was spieling out. “And I am sure you know what becomes of witches bereft of a coven?”  

Like he alluded to her back when she captured her sister the first time, Belos lifted his staff and directed it towards the murals comprised of painted, stained glass. While Lilith anticipated this the moment she betrayed the Emperor, the thought of being on the receiving end of the most cruel and unusual of punishments in accordance to the Isles did make her step back on her confidence for a smidge.  

“If it means atoning for all the horrible things you made me do in your name, I will accept that. But please, spare Edalyn and her dog’s lives. As well as Luz’s.”  

As she spoke, two imperial guards came in holding the unconscious bodies of the two girls. The girls were being carried the guard’s stout shoulders. The girls’ arms loosely swayed back and forth behind the backs of the guards. They were placed on the ground with minimal gentleness. Belos stood from his throne and knelt down to further inspect the girls. With his staff, he tapped the limbs of the girls and then their backs. He pressed his index finger and thumb on the chin of his mask inquisitively.  

“By the Titan, these two girls actually managed to do it.”  

Eda smirked. She did have some shred of doubt that Luz may have failed and that the likelihood of her becoming braindead as a result of the brew did concern her, but she also knew that Luz could pull it off. It gave her all the more reason to be proud that she was Luz’s mentor.  

“Yeah, that’s right Belos,” she bragged, “and when she gets the book, we will do everything in our power to keep you from getting your grubby hands on that book!”  

“Ho, oh!” Emperor Belos retorted “a most charming dream, but tis be the nature.”  

Belos slammed his staff on the ground and returned to his throne. There was a side door behind the mighty throne of Belos which creaked itself open. Out from it walked Odalia Blight holding the staff she was entrusted with by Nyarlathotep. It was made of the same breed of tree most witches of the Boiling Isles own, but instead of a palisman adorned on the top, there was a gem which glittered in the light. A large, ruby gemstone accompanied with a low murmuring sound. Befitting of her social status, Odalia had a haughty grin from ear to ear. Odalia stepped aside to allow a few more of the imperial guards to exit.

“Well, what have we here? Enemies, traitors, and lowly demons.”  

Eda tilted her head. “You...one of the Blights I assume?”  

“Of course, darling,” Odalia bragged, her hand squarely on her breast. “One of the most esteemed, exquisite, and powerful of the Boiling Isles.”  

She brags a lot about her bloodline, Eda thought to herself. Sure, Eda would tend to think of herself in high regard, but Odalia was taking it leagues above. She sensed a small bit of tension in the air: the Owl Spy had disappeared from the room the instant that Odalia strolled her way in acting top class.  

“Yeah, yeah, go suck a griffin egg,” Eda groaned, “I still remember all the bragging you did back at Hexside.”  

Odalia smirked. “At the least I didn’t become a criminal.”  

Odalia tilted her head back and laughed like a noblewoman. For whatever reason, Eda felt the growing urge to punch the lady over and over until she was an unidentifiable pulp. One that not even the dark arts could ever hope to revitalize.  

“Wait, you are a part of the coven now?” Lilith asked.  

“Indeed, I am,” Odalia boasted.

“How? I could have sworn that you lost the competition of joining the coven years ago. As much as I hate the Emperor, at the least he always remained consistent on the qualifications to join the coven. I mean, that is the very reason we have the coven system.”  

“I am very aware of my lack of qualifications, but I was granted audience with Lord Belos, and he entrusted me with acting on his will.”  

Odalia towered above her daughter’s body. From the way she was fixed, Eda was unable to read any emotion on her face. Odalia then turned away from her daughter, returning her accusatory glare at the Owl Lady. “Is this the nature of being on the run; scouting people into your ranks?”  

“Amity chose of her own volition to help Luz acquire the book,” Eda clarified, “maybe you do not understand your daughter as much as you’d like to think?”  

“You and your human pest have been nothing but a thorn in the side of my family,” Odalia yelled, “perverted thoughts spreading rampant, disrupting the bloodline.”  

“That is absurd; Amity was a girl who was always tired of the way that you were restricting her freedoms. Instead, what do you want her to do? Study. Work hard. Study some more. You try to control every aspect of her life including those that she hanged out with. And yet once you get off your high horse, you do not understand why your daughter is having her rebel stage now? It’s because you are trying to mold her into being just like you. You keep on going on and on about bloodline this, bloodline that...maybe you can take one second to think about what your daughter actually wants instead of making decisions for her?”  

Odalia held the staff firmly between her eyes and loudly ground her teeth. “She is not my daughter; she made up her own mind to follow an inferior ape, so I now acknowledge that I have two older children who will listen to every word I say and continue down the right path of making our family name immortal.”  

Odalia clapped her hands and brought Edric out. The Owl House residents almost fainted from what they had seen: Edric was emaciated and skinnier than usual. His skin was now paper-thin and very suspect to bruising easily. Edric’s eyes became small, golden pupils because of their sunken position. Odalia took the liberty of dressing her son for the day in his casual clothing, but the clothes were slipping off him because of his sudden thinness. Edric’s legs lacked enough muscle to protect the bones from snapping like a pair of chopsticks. New waves of pain washed over the young witch with every step he took.  

“What have you done to him?” Eda asked horrified.

“The staff that I was given requires magic to fuel it...an excessive amount if you so please.”  

Odalia held the staff in front of Edric and activated it. A swirling cloud appeared in the gemstone and began to draw once more on Edric’s magic. Edric howled in excruciating agony the sort of pain that could rip a person inside out. Green vapor filtered through his body orifices and collected inside the gemstone. Edric dropped on his knees the surge of affliction still flowing through his veins. He looked up at his mother before a whooping cough manifested. At certain intervals, Eda and the others could catch glimpses of his stomach and chest during his fits; his rib cage was poking against the flaps of skin.

Lilith clenched her teeth. “Can’t you see that you are putting your own son in such pain and for what cost?”  

“He is making the Blight family proud immortal,” Odalia simply said with a cold flair in her explanation, “small sacrifices need to be made, and my son is more than worthy of the title.”  

“From the looks of it, your son is barely hanging on by a thread,” Eda interjected, “what if you kill him?”  

“My son will provide the way of the Blight family name becoming renowned and feared by all of creation; the powers that be – the Titan, or perhaps one of the greater gods – will greatly reward him.”  

Two guards came into the throne room and each individually held the thrashing arms of Emira Blight. She reared herself up to take a swinging kick at her kidnappers, but it was no use. Her struggles subsided upon catching sight of her twin brother. “Edric!?”  

The guards let her go at that moment. Without much prompt, Emira raced towards her brother and clutched his head in her hand. “Speak to me, please!”  

Edric weakly opened his eyes to see tears running down his twin sister’s face. She tried to fight back the treacherous tears with all her might, but her throat was growing larger from her increasing despair. “Mom, can’t you see that you are sucking him dry?!”  

The gemstone’s inherent ability of stealing magic was greater than that of the basilisk that infiltrated Hexside months ago and nearly drained all the students of their magic. Emira held her face over Edric’s her tears now falling on his. He stared into the matching eyes of his sister for a long time likely to say whatever was at the top of his head, but the agonizing pain was preventing him from performing what amounted to a simple task.  

Eda and Lilith attempted to wiggle their fingers out of their restraints. “Odalia, you have gone too far, you have to be stopped!” Lilith proclaimed.  

Odalia ignored them and looked at the staff again. It murmured the same low drone it always did. Before the prisoners, Odalia conducted a conversation with the staff. There were a few nods implicating a mutual understanding and deal-making. She studied Emira and took a few glances at the magic staff. “The staff is still unsatisfied.”  

Odalia pointed to Emira. “Once your brother had served his use, you shall be the next one that the staff consumes.”  

Emira shook violently. “Mom, you’ve become insane!!”  

Odalia flicked her hand to the guards. “Keep Emira imprisoned here; once I lead the army on the Earth realm, I will return to offer more sacrifices to it for Belos’ victory.”  

The imperial guards surrounded the green-haired teenage girl. At any time, Emira would be more than willing to administer a thorough beat down on her enemies, but she was sorely outnumbered. They came down on her in a frenzy and stole away the girl. They disappeared behind the second door her screams fading away the further they ran. Belos stood up and raised his arms.  

“Now with that settled, Miss Blight, you have the honors of enacting the Day of Unity!”  

Odalia obeyed and went to walk back to the other room. She momentarily stopped to glance at Edric, again what she was really feeling in that moment being uncertain, and exited the throne room. Eda, Lilith, and King were forcibly grabbed as well and were being walked out.  

“So, you are going to execute us?” King asked.  

“My furry friend, no, this is not the Titan’s will. After all, how else will you enjoy the experience of the Day of Unity?”  

Lilith shook her cuffs. “For years, you have told us without fail of this Day of Unity, but you never told us what it entailed. So, before you condemn me, please enlighten me.”  

“That’s the old Lilith I remember,” Belos said in a disconcerting tone.  

“Yeah, and why do you have such interest in the Earth?” Eda asked “you could have visited as many times that you wanted now that you have the portal door in your possession.”  

While Belos’ true face was always concealed behind a mask, it was relatively easy to imagine that he was smiling malevolently.

“I have a score to settle with someone that you may or may not know,” he stated, “I will leave it as a surprise.”  

Eda, Lilith, and King were marched out of the throne room to the dungeon of the coven. Alone with his thoughts, Belos cackled in ecstasy despite his wheezing cough.  

“The Day of Unity is finally upon us! Go, go my servants into the human realm! Go and slaughter all in your path!! Reduce their cities to rubble! Leave not one stone unturned! Darken their skies and poison their lands!! Reduce their world to ashes and blow those ashes into the farthest reaches of space! By the name of the Titan, the Earth will be laid to waste, never to be remembered or missed.”  

[justthinkingofwaystoavoidbusses]

Blindsided

Hi there! This is my first time requesting a B.O.B reader insert, but I was thinking that if you could make a reader!combat nurse/Joe Liebgott ( one sided Skip Muck) where the reader has a crush on her best & childhood friend, Skip Muck, but is blind by Joe’s feelings towards her. After Skip dies, the reader finds out that Joe’s comfort and friendship towards her slowly makes her fall in love with him. I know its kinda cheesy, but I hope you would accept it! - anon

A/N- sorry this has taken so long but I may have gotten a little carried away, this has taken like three weeks to write and got way longer than i intended but i hope you like it

—

Faye Tanner was perfect in every way. She was sweet, beautiful and funny, you couldn’t even hate her. There was no question as to why Skip had fallen in love with her. Skip was your best friend and always had been, you couldn’t remember a time in your life when he wasn’t in it, you realised that somewhere along the way you had fallen in love with him, only it was too late. He was in love with Faye Tanner, the girl who had moved into town a few months ago.

You tried to hate her, to find a flaw that made her unworthy, but she was perfect and nice and love him back. They were the perfect couple.

Skip didn’t stop hanging out with you, perhaps that would have been easier, he remained your best friend and you still did everything together with the notable addition of Faye. Then Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and started a whole mess, when Skip joined up to fight you weren’t going to let him go alone. So, you joined up to be a combat nurse, by some miracle you were assigned to tag along with the company that Skip was in.

You trained separately to the company with the other nurses and occasionally the medics would join you, whenever you got the time you would seek out Skip and his new friends Penkala and Malarkey. He was always talking about Faye, it hurt but you kept a smile on your face - you didn’t want to ruin your best friend’s happiness. He talked about her so much that the whole company knew about sweet Faye Tanner.

Faye sent him a multitude of letters which would always have him gushing to you about her, you couldn’t stop the thoughts about what your life would be like if Skip felt the way he felt about Faye about you. You knew one thing for sure, Faye was the luckiest girl in the world.

—

The restaurant you had set up as a med bay was full of soldiers, most of which had been bandaged up by now. “I’m gonna go see if I can round anyone up,” you told Roe as you walked past and out into the streets of Carentan. You kept close to the walls lest there were any more German soldiers hidden.

You rounded a corner and saw a soldier holding another who was bloodied and lay on the floor. Rushing over you dropped next to them, “It’s Tipper,” you looked up and met Joe’s eyes. You pulled out some sulfa and began to sprinkle it over the wound on his face, eyeing his leg with concern.

“Go get a stretcher,” you order the other two soldiers who ran off quickly.

“Will he be okay?” Joe asked quietly.

“Of course,” you replied, though there was worry in your eyes. He needed some serious medical attention and soon. You patted Joe’s shoulder and helped him lift Tipper onto the stretcher the others had brought back and carry him back to the med bay.

—

You were laid out on the steps with Skip as the sun shined brightly on you, he and the guys were gossiping about Speirs who had supposedly gunned down 20 POW’s on D-Day. You were so enthralled by Skip’s story telling that you didn’t notice Liebgott looking at you from across the courtyard. “As long as he sticks to shooting POW’s then I don’t care,” you commented.

“Well I heard he shot his own sergeant,” Penkala countered.

“What?”

“No way!” you exclaimed, this was the first time since D-Day that everything felt almost normal again. Sitting around with Skip and your friends, laughing without a care in a world, though the absence of Faye did seem almost unsettling - you hated to admit that seeing Skip without her felt wrong now. You pushed the thought aside, this was the first time in forever that she hadn’t been at Skip’s side and you were going to enjoy this time together; it’d be like old times, with the notable addition of German artillery.

—

Everyone was going to London on 48 hour passes and Skip had saddled you into going with him, you managed to bag a window seat on the train with him and Malarkey before it got too jam packed. You paid half attention to their card game as you looked out the window, the two got on incredibly well - you didn’t even mind that Don could be considered Skip’s best friend because he was always so nice and genuine, plus Skip hadn’t edged you out because of him (he was too caring to do such a thing which was why you had fallen for him so hard).

London was busy and smoggy and so full of life, it was easy to get lost in the winding streets but somehow all of the easy boys had managed to end up in the same pub. A small live band played an uptempo tune, most of the guys were playing cards or flirting with the local girls. You stayed close to the bar as Skip and Penkala had a game of darts beside you and sipped at a beer, not your favourite drink but it was something to do. “We’re on leave, you’re supposed to look happy,” Joe smirked as he slid in next to you.

You shot him a smile and turned to face him, “Drinking beer at the back of a pub is hardly a girl’s idea of a good time.”

He smirked, “Well, then can I have this dance?”

You were a little shocked but nodded, “Sure thing.” You took his hand and let him lead you to the dance floor where a few other couples had congregated to dance to the band.

You swayed with him and let out a surprised squeal when he suddenly spun you outwards then tugged you back in, you gently collided with his chest. “Oh, that’s how you wanna play?” you laughed with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, ma’am,” Joe smirked.

“Don’t call me ma’am,” you restored as you tugged him suddenly into a correct dancing position and he let out a surprised ‘oof’. “I’d let you lead but I don’t think you’d know what to do,” you teased.

“That so?” He stepped you back and you were shocked that he knew the right steps to the dance, the two of you stepped quickly in time to the beat of the music not noticing the attention you began to get from the patrons sitting at the tables. Joe spun you around effortlessly maneuver the two of you across the dance floor, this was a thousand times better than watching the dart game you had already forgotten about.

The song cane to an end just as Joe dipped you, you received a round of applause and a few whistles as he brought you back up causing you to smile and duck your head to hide your blush. “That was really fun,” you grinned, the band started up a new song and the bar returned to their previous activities and Joe les you off to the side. “You’re such a great friend, Joe.”

You didn’t see his smile falter. “No problem,” he gave you a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes, though you had no idea why.

“Hey, Y/N, come over here!” Skip yelled across the bar.

“I’m coming,” you yelled back over your shoulder, “Thanks for the dance,” you smiled at Joe once more before making your way over to Skip.

—

Winters came up to you after the attack, you were patching up a small wound on a man whose finger had gotten jammed in his gun. “Y/L/N, can I speak to you for a second?”

“Of course, sir,” you tightened the bandage and stood up to face him, “What is it?”

“I just sent Liebgott back to HQ, he has a gunshot wound that I don’t think he’ll get patched up.”

You nodded with a frown, “I’m on it, sir.”

You caught up with Joe just as he had dropped off the German POW’s and your eyes instantly hones in on the bloodied bandage tied badly around your neck. “What the hell is this?” you cried, hands flying to his neck to assess the damage but he brushed your hands off.

“It’s fine.”

You shot him your best unimpressed look that you had to use on soldiers reluctant to have their wounds looked at. “Sit,” you stated firmly, pointing at the wooden boxes that lay outside the building.

With a roll of his eyes he sat and you knelt in front of him, you could feel his eyes on you as you undid the bandage and sprinkled some sulfa over the wound. “You’re lucky, it’s not infected. It’ll leave a scar, though,” you told him and tied a clean bandage securely around his neck.

Leaning back you made eye contact with him, “Keep it clean.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I thought I told you not to call me that,” you smiled as you packed up your aid kit.

His eyes flashed with something you couldn’t quite identify, “Must’ve forgot.”

—

You were sat next to Skip as you watched the film in front of you, it was your tenth time seeing it and Luz had been doing impressions for the last eight so you had learned by now sit as far away as possible from him.

“Skip! Come on! -Where you been?” Malarkey came into the screening, leaning over you to get to Skip and earning shushes from Lipton and Toye at the front.

“Well, l was at home in Tonawanda then Hitler started this, so now I’m here,” snarked Skip and you chuckled quietly.

“How’d you make out in craps?” you asked Malarkey.

He grinned and produced a wad of cash and handed over to Skip, “Here’s the $60 l borrowed.”

“You’re paying me back?” Skip asked incredulously, no one ever got the money back that they had borrowed other guys.

“And as thank-you,”

“Surprising.”

“A tip!” Malarkey gleefully handed over another handful of cash.

“Jesus!”

“Shut up!”

“Only $3600 left.”

“What’ll you do with that?” you asked.

“Blow most of it in Paris as soon as possible.”

“Give me a tip.”

It was not to be, the movie got shut off and you were told that you were going to be shuffled onto the front line again. You had no food supplies, ammo or winter clothing. You were fucked.

—

You were squished into the back of a truck, pressed against Joe’s side and desperately trying to steal warmth from the guys around you, you had tried to get in next to Skip but the truck had filled up too quickly leaving you exposed to the frosty air at the back of the truck with Joe.

“Christ I miss those C-47’s,” Guarnere complained and you were inclined to agree.

“Where are we going with no ammo?” someone question, as a combat nurse you couldn’t carry a gun but not that it would make much of a difference. You could feel it in your bones that you were all walking into something bad.

“Hey, kid, what’s your name?” another guy bothered a replacement.

“Suerth Jr.”

“You got any ammo junior?”

“Just what I’m carrying.”

“Any extra socks?”

“A pair.”

“You need four minimum,” Skip piped up, “Feet, neck, hands, balls.”

“Extra sock warms them all,” you chimed in with the rest of the guys with a small smile that was tucked away in your jacket collar.

Skip laughed, “Good, we all remember that one. But did we remember the socks!?”

“I want a cigarette.”

“I want ammo and socks.”

“I bet juniors got plenty of both.” The replacement protested but the guys were all throwing requests at him.

“A hat?”

“Extra ammo?”

“An aid kit?” you chipped in, knowing you’d need all you can get your hands on.

“How about a coat? You got a coat?” Joe asked.

Someone figured out he had smokes which quickly got passed around, you didn’t smoke yourself but you appreciated the hot smoke that was coming off the end of Joe’s right next to you even if it was only minuscule.

—

You shivered against a tree and scooped up a spoonful of beans, you were sick of Bastogne. As if the cold wasn’t bad enough you were called out of the safety of your foxhole during almost every barrage or after to treat another man severely wounded, with no aid kits to go around. You were using bed sheets from the hospital in the town.

The only thing you couldn’t complain about was the company, you watched with a grin as Skip narrated the wounds the guys had garnered since Normandy. “George Luz has never been hit, you’re one lucky bastard, George.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Ah, consider us blessed.”

“Better keep it that way gentlemen,” you tossed over, you smiled but it was the truth that you never wanted to treat another friend.

“You bet,” Skip winked at you and your heart fluttered, you ducked your head to hide your blush, glad that the cold made your cheeks flushed already.

—

“Hey, Y/N, can I talk to you for a second?” Lipton crouched at the edge of your foxhole.

“Sure, what is it?” you flashed him a smile. He sighed heavily and looked away and a bad feeling settled into your gut. “What is it? Is someone hurt?” You stood up in an instant.

You were halfway out of your foxhole when- “It’s Skip.” Your heart stopped cold.

“Is-is he okay? How bad is he hurt?” you asked frantically.

Lipton sighed heavily and shook his head, “I’m sorry.”

You swallowed hard, “Where?” your voice was thick and your eyes stung but no tears fell.

Lipton lead you over to a crater that was already being covered with a dusting of snow. This was where it had happened. This was his foxhole. Here one minute and gone the next. It was a direct hit. You vaguely registered the chatter of the men around you, Muck and Penkala.

In the corner of your eye you saw Luz hand Malarkey a piece of broken rosary but your eyes were fixed on the foxhole. He was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be alive and go home and marry Faye and have babies and live a long happy life.

Luz came and stood next to you, snapping your attention away from the ground. “I saw it happen.”

“Was he in pain?” you asked, you could barely hear yourself your mind was so full of grief.

“No,” Luz shook his head, “No, they didn’t feel a thing.”

Eventually they began to filter away until only you and Malarkey remained, both overcome with sorrow and unable to express it.

Malarkey held out the broken rosary, “You should have this, you were his best friend.”

You glanced at the rosary in his outstretched palm, thinking back of the perfect choir boy he had been when he wasn’t getting himself in danger, you closed Malarkey’s fingers back around the rosary and shook your head. “No, he would have wanted you to have it.” There was no way you could have faith in God after this.

You gave him a sad smile and patted his shoulder as you walked away, Malarkey was the only one who came close to knowing exactly what you were going through. The only difference being he wasn’t secretly in love with your mutual best friend, at least as far as you were aware. But you couldn’t bring yourself to stay with him, you had duties and now wasn’t a time to grieve.

Someone had to answer the calls for medic, someone had to tell Faye, someone had to make sure everyone was doing alright. It had to be you and you wouldn’t lose yourself to this loss, not now when you were on the front lines.

—

You heard snow crunch above you and you tensed, relaxing when you saw Joe’s silhouette appear at the edge of your foxhole and crouch. “Lieb? Do you need something?”

“You got a foxhole buddy?” he asked.

“No, hop in.” Joe jumped in and sat next to you, it wasn’t much but the extra warmth was appreciated as you tossed your blanket over him and squished into his side.

“How you doing?” he asked quietly and you instantly knew what he meant.

Despite your earlier promise to push off the grief you couldn’t stop your eyes welling up and your throat becoming thick, “It’s not fair.” That was the sentence that broke the dam, tears fell freely and you shook from the sobs and the cold.

Joe wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you close to him as you sobbed silently against his chest, “It’s okay,” he murmured, “It’ll be okay.”

—

You don’t know how it happened but you found yourself coming back to Joe often, no matter which foxhole he was staying in. He was the only one of the guys (barring Skip) who had ever seen you cry, seen you so vulnerable and the fact that he didn’t blab about it sparked a connection.

It was easy to feel overcome with misery as you watched Foy endlessly and hid away during barrages, losing yet another friend in your arms. Joe was a comfort, a small relief from the horrors you faced daily.

“Hey, Joe,” you slid in next to him, your teeth chattering. After a moment’s hesitation Joe wrapped an arm around you and pulled you close to warm you up. You smirked, “Cuddling, Leib? Didn’t take you as the type.”

“Shut up, it’s cold,” he reasoned.

“Sure,” you rolled your eyes with a small smile, noting that your teeth had at least stopped chattering.

—

“Smoke?”

“Sure.”

Joe couldn’t contain his surprise when you plucked the lit cigarette from him and took a drag, by now so used to the smoke permeating from the boys that you only choked a little.

“What’s with the change of heart?”

“We might die today.”

“We might die every day,” Joe pointed out.

“Today in particular.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Joe sighed as you looked out across the open field before Foy. Dike had asked you to stick with him and Luz during the assault, maybe it was because he didn’t trust you or maybe it was because he didn’t want to have to wait for a medic if he got hit. Either way you were unhappy with the choice.

You smoked the cigarette until it was burning your fingers and crushed it into the snow beneath your boot. You were not going to die today.

“I’ll see you on the other side, alright?” Joe squeezed your shoulder and went to join his platoon.

—

Speirs was a godsend, bat shit crazy but you were glad he was on your side. Morale was significantly raised, Dike was done for and we had captured the town we had been looking over for a month. You were stood next to the soldiers on the tank who were singing for the cameras when a gunshot sounded.

A man above you fell from the tank, just as you were about to check another shot sounded at the same time as you felt something embed in your stomach. You fell back to the ground as a searing pain spread through your abdomen.

You were unaware of the chaos as you stared up at the sky, it was grey and clouds swirled above. You couldn’t feel the cold, though you shivered and convulsed as warm blood spilled over your fingers, down your wrists, spread across your OD’s.

A muffled shot, applaud, then Joe’s face appeared above yours and blocked out the sky. His lips were moving but you couldn’t hear what he was saying, more faces gathered in your vision but you couldn’t focus on any other than Joe’s frantic face. You tried to speak but your tongue was heavy, you were so tired. You were going to die today. Your eyes slipped shut and someone patted your cheek gently, then hard.

Snapping your eyes open you saw Roe had taken Joe’s place, his eyes full of fury and worry at the same time.

At the same time as the voices could be heard again a sharp pain sparked through you. You screamed out in pain.

“Stop it! You’re hurting her!” Joe’s voice yelled near you.

“There’s no exit wound. Gotta get the bullet out,” Roe snapped back, jaw clenched as his fingers dug into your open wound.

The pain lasted for 15 more agonising seconds before he procured the bullet and tossed the crumpled bloodied metal aside. It was a strange relief and you sagged against someone who had propped you up into a sitting position. You could feel the blood pulsing heavier now.

Roe expertly sprinkled half a pack of sulfa, all he had left, and tied a bandage tightly around you. You glanced down and saw the pool of blood on your clothes and snow around you, you had gotten so used to seeing it but it still shocked you.

“Will she be okay?” You heard Joe ask, you realised he was the person who you were leaning back against.

Roe gave a nod, “She’ll live.”

—

Despite the thought that you would be taken off the line the company pressed on, Noville and Rachamps were next on the list. You weren’t allowed to take part, obviously, but there was no aid station nearby. You hung back with Perconte and a few others, unsettled by the sounds of the battle you couldn’t help with.

At the end of it all the company was given board in a church, the first time you had slept indoors in a month. Perconte was laid out on a stretcher near you and you were sat next to Joe on a pew. The bullet hadn’t hit anything major so you knew you’d be back soon, and the guys were getting pulled off the line tomorrow anyway.

All you wanted to do was sleep but you wanted to savour this moment, safe, warm and listening to the sweet voices of the choir. It reminded you of being dragged to church back home, sitting next to Faye as Skip sang in the boys choir. It still hurt to think of Skip, you wondered if Faye knew yet, what surprised you was that though the pain of his loss was deep for the first time you weren’t associating Faye with your unrequited love.

Skip would always be your first love but maybe now he was gone you could move on, maybe that sounded selfish but you knew that he wouldn’t want you or Faye to be hung up over him. Joe had played a big part in keeping you sane, you wished you could have done more to help Malarkey who was sinking into himself like you would have done if not for Joe.

“What are you thinking about?” Joe whispered.

“Everything.”

Nothing else needed to be said, the choir began another soft song that you didn’t know the words to. You reached an laced your fingers with Joe’s which layed on his leg. Out of the corner of your eye you saw Joe look at you in surprise but you kept your gaze forward on the choir until he too averted his eyes from you. Finally you let your eyes slip shut, warm and content with Joe’s hand in yours.

—

Webster walked along the line of trucks trying to find second platoon, finally he recognised the guys on the back. “This second platoon.” The men looked at him silently. “Some lieutenant from first told me to come here.”

“Yeah this is second.”

“Jackson, right? Help me up?” Jackson reluctantly helped pull him up onto the truck and he looked down at the few men on the back of the truck.

“So, you just got back from the from the hospital?” Jackson asked

“Yeah.”

“Must have liked that hospital, because we left Holland four months ago,” Liebgott inputted, not looking at him.

“l wasn’t only there. There was rehab, the replacement depot,” Webster tried to explain.

“I’m sure you tried to bust out and help us in Bastogne..”

“How would l have done that?”

“Popeye found a way. So did Alley, back in Holland. And Guarnere–”

“Where is Guarnere? He still platoon sergeant?” “No.”

“Well where’s Y/L/N? She get transferred?” Webster asked, noting the lack of their female combat medic.

He saw Joe tense up, “No,” he bit out, “She got shot. Sniper in Foy.”

“Is she going home?”

Joe scoffed, “She’ll be back.”

“Let’s go.”

“Bill got hit in January,” Babe said as they hopped off the truck.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, he got hit. Blew his whole leg off.”

—

The aid station was hell, there were hardly enough beds or supplies but thankfully you managed to stay with Perconte who was on the bed next to you.

You were both were healing nicely, well at least enough to go AWOL so you didn’t get lumped in with a new company. Easy hadn’t been pulled off the line and they needed whatever help they could get. You had been keeping an eye on the rounds the nurses made looking for the right opportunity, you were both dressed in clean uniforms and showered (what a fucking blessing) and you were anxious to get back to the guys, back to Joe.

You managed to sneak out of the hospital and hitch a ride to the city centre, badgering people on where Easy was until you caught word of a small town named Hagenau near the Rhine. That was where you had to go, you got a ride on the back of a runner’s truck and you bounced your leg the whole time.

The town was drab and grey, mortar damage evident. “Where shall we start?” Perconte asked.

“Supply room?”

“Of course.”

You heard squabbling coming from within, recognising the lilt of Joe’s voice, there was some very serious talk of hershey bars. Frank stepped into the room first and you followed after him, you were surprised to see Webster back amongst the men and a new Lieutenant which was less surprising. “Hey fellas.”

The group turned their attention to the two of you standing in the doorway. Joe’s face lit up at the sight of you and you gave him a beaming smile back. Martin came over and slung his arms around yours and Percontes shoulders, “Would you look at that? I try and get these two out of the war and they come straight back.”

“No kidding, I’d be lost without my boys,” you grinned and walked over to join the group. You stood next to Joe, “Hi,” you whispered.

“Hi back,” he whispered.

“Here’s a hershey bar,” George tossed Perconte a chocolate bar, “And for the lovely medic,” he passed you one and winked exaggeratedly.

“Such a charmer,” you flirted back, a large amused smirk on your face. George was the first one to break character and laugh, you followed seconds after.

“They get a fucking hershey bar?” Joe asked indignantly.

George shrugged unapologetically, “They got shot in combat.”

“I’ll share mine,” you told Joe quietly, glad to see a small smile slip back on his face.

“I heard the Germans are done for,” Perconte said as he waddled over.

You saw everyone shift. “Yeah well just to make sure they want us to row across the river tonight, grab a few and make sure.”

“You’re serious?”

“Wish I was. Welcome back Frank.”

You sighed, you were officially sick of war.

—

You watched Joe speak German to the prisoners of the camp, there were too many thin frail bodies in the crowd to get to him yourself. You saw him collapse onto the truck bench and the other soldiers began to herd them back into the camp, you pushed on through the crowd and sat next to Joe who was still sobbing.

You wrapped your arms around him and pulled him to you, Joe clung to you tightly as he cried for his people and what he just had to do. No words were said, they didn’t need to be, you would always be there to comfort one another without judgement. It was just how you worked.

—

“Do you have enough points?”

“No. You?”

“No.”

You sighed, you were sick of the waiting game to jump into Japan. You heard through the rumour mill that Winters had applied to transfer to the 13th airborne to get it over with and you were tempted to do the same but you couldn’t leave easy. You couldn’t leave Joe.

For months now you had been pushing aside your feelings towards Joe. Perhaps it was the relative peace you now lived in, the rolling hills and glistening lakes did little to quell these thoughts. You didn’t know when they began, was it Bastogne or even earlier? Either way they were here and didn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, you always did fall much too deeply.

“If we make it out of Japan what’ll you do?” Joe asked. The two of you were laying back in a field, enjoying the sun and cloud watching having just come off from patrol duty.

“I never really thought about it,” you admitted, “What about you?”

“Get my job back at the cab company.”

“What if we never see eachother again?” you thought out loud.

Joe turned his head to look at you, “We would if you moved to San Francisco.”

You huffed a laugh, “And where would I live in San Fran?”

Joe bit his lip, “You could live with me.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” Joe huffed, turning away from you, “Don’t act like it’s such a big deal.”

You rolled your eyes and tugged him back to look at you, before you could lose your nerve you planted a kiss on his lips. “I’d love to. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Joe smiled, pulling you back so he could kiss you again.

****

A/N- This was hell to write, let me just tell you. I have no idea how to write cheesy fluffy things so I hope this is good enough for you. Thanks for reading xxx

[himbowelsh]

Can I request headcanons? Luztoye, Webgott, Baberoe, Winnix, Speirton & when both or one of them quits smocking? How they cope and how they help each other?

Luz/Toye

oh god, these two would be disasters in totally different ways.

luz is a chainsmoker. that’s just the way he is. anything else would be weird, and kind of unluzish, so the very idea of quitting gives him big time anxiety.

it’s only when joe decides he’s gonna quit (joe, being a physically fit guy, isn’t wowed by what smoking is doing to his stamina) that george decides he has to do it as well.

he stands by joe, supporting him as much as possible, and making a point not to smoke around him. gradually, his own hypocrisy catches up to him; he feels terrible seeing joe suffering and knowing he’s not doing the same.

joe doesn’t handle withdrawal symptoms at all. he can’t sleep at all for the first few nights (and george stays up with him to keep him from breaking). he gets nervous, agitated, and blows up at george at the worst times.

only when he gets his temper back under control (after the first few days, when the symptoms aren’t as bad) he apologizes, and thanks george for being so supportive. “it really means a lot to me.”

george feels like he’s been punched in the face.

after that, he KNOWS he has to quit. so once joe has gone an entire month without smoking, he announces it too.

george has an even harder time than joe. he can’t hold still for more than a few minutes; his head feels like it’s splitting open; and he doesn’t sleep for sixty-seven hours.

when he starts crashing, joe is there. joe calms him down, not reacting even when george starts cursing at him for “talking me into doing this”. he forces him to lie down and rest against him, rocking him back and forth and singing in his deep voice until george finally gets to sleep.

he wakes up after sleeping an entire day away, and he feels a lot better. that’s when he knows he’s beat it.

(once they’re both nicotine-free for a month, george goes out and buys joe a cigarette-shapped cake to celebrate. he thinks it’s hilarious, even when joe smacks him)

((the cake is delicious.))

Webster/Liebgott

webster is 200% the guy who bemoans what a disgusting habit smoking is and how they should quit while he has a cigarette in his hands.

liebgott is very reluctant to quit, but with all the persistence of a dog terrified of fireworks, webster wheedles him into it.

liebgott gets nicotine patches – because he says webster will never be able to handle the stress of withdrawl, but the truth is he isn’t sure if he can do it.

they stay on the patch for about two weeks before webster is feeling great. his withdrawal symptoms have shrunk down to about nothing (not that he had many in the first place) and he no longer craves a cigarette. he’s so proud of himself that he convinces lieb they’re both ready to go off.

liebgott smokes again that afternoon.

“okay,” webster says calmly, in the dying embers of their massive blowout argument over the topic which culminated in the relationship equivalent of “IT”S MY LIFE, MOM.” “that’s fine. i’m happy if you don’t want to quit.”

“no you’re not.”

“yes i am.”

“you’re not.”

“i am.”

“you’re a goddamn liar, web.”

so liebgott starts his quitting journey again, cold turkey.

it’s… ugly. there’s no better word for it. there’s a lot of stress, a lot of screaming, and liebgott somehow breaks an entire table. it was an accident. neither one knows how it happened.

finally liebgott just slams webster against the wall and kisses him, and that’s how they get out their frustrations for those few days.

by the time liebgott finally crashes, webster is so exhausted that he goes down right along with him. the next day liebgott is chipper and teasing him. “why didn’t we try this before?”

(there are a few bumps in the road, but liebgott manages to kick the habit. web has never been prouder of him.)

Babe/Roe

gene knows how bad smoking is for you! he’s a doctor, okay, he gets it, and he needs everyone at work to stop giving him those loOKS

renee is the one to finally guilt him into it, and once she does he ropes babe into it as well because “no way am i suffering alone.”

they try three times, and every time one of them breaks. there’s just no winning. one of them admits defeat, and then the other follows them for a smoke break.

babe finally realizes that if they’re going to do this, they’ll have to do it one at a time – so he volunteers to be the sacrificial lion.

it is actual hell.

by the middle of the second day babe is anxious and twitching. everything stresses him out; he yells at bill and hangs up at him when the sound of the phone ringing irritates his headache. he even snaps at the dog, which is something he never does (babe lets their dog get away with murder)

gene approaches it from a strictly clinical perspective. he knows all the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and is convinced he can help babe through it with medicine as his guide.

that certainty shrivels and dies when babe’s shaky hands drop a glass in the kitchen, causing it to shatter, and he just starts crying.

gene has to reassure him that it’s okay, bundling him up and sitting on the couch to watch babe’s favorite comfort films as they wait it out.

he stays depressed for a few more days, and it kills gene to see his normally sunny boyfriend like that.

then babe is finally through the storm, and he is THRILLED with himself.

“you gotta do it too gene, come on, you’re gonna get though it like I did… you’ll be better than me, you handle things way better, come on…”

babe is unprepared to handle a nicotine-deprived gene,

it’s like gene without his coffee in the morning, only WORSE. this gene is closed off, testy, and snaps at babe over the stupidest things. he doesn’t mean to – and he apologizes a few minutes later – but it still hurts.

babe takes his eyes off gene for a few minutes and finds him fumbling with a cigarette pack.

“i can’t do it, babe. i can’t, i’m sorry, i tried –”

babe does the first thing he can think of – he traps gene in a bear hug.

gene can’t move, he can’t light a cigarette, and babe is content doing this for three entire days if he has to.

it’s only when gene finally drops the cigarette pack that babe lets go and looks him in the eye.

“do you want to do this?”

“yeah.”

“do you really want to do this?”

“yeah, babe, i do. i really do.”

“then…” leaving the cigarette box on the floor (he’ll throw it away later) babe guides gene into the kitchen. instead of smoking, they cook together – it keeps gene occupied, and babe can keep an eye on him.

that becomes their new hobby, instead of smoking together. it’s a lot more productive.

Winters/Nixon

lol richard “real life captain america” winters smoking? yup, probably not.

however, nix smokes like an ancient car one minute away from giving out on the freeway, so of course he has to bear the full brunt of dick’s silent but poignant disapproval.

he’s the one who decides to quit, and brushes it off with some comment about, “seemed like it was time to change it up a bit. may as well put myself through hell while i’m at it.”

dick is THRILLED, and ready to support him in any way possible. he’s got water bottles, movies, puzzles, anything to keep nix’s brain occupied. he reads up on smoking symptoms, and is sure he can handle it.

nix is derisive about the whole thing until he actually DOES it.

it’s as hellish as he thought, and he can’t stand it. he doesn’t actually lose his temper at dick, but he is restless and irritable all night. finally he storms off for “some air” and dick is sure he’s lost his will.

he comes back past midnight, shoulders slumped and frown deepset on his face. dick has waited up for him.

reassurances are on the tip of his tongue, promises that he can try again, that this isn’t the end – when nix looks up at him, and gives a close-lipped smile.

“i didn’t give in,” he says, and the pride in his voice is unmistakeable. “i didn’t, dick.”

they spend the rest of that night watching netflix and kissing each other until nix finally falls asleep. dick couldn’t be prouder of him if he tried, and he makes sure nix knows it.

Speirs/Lipton

i definitely think after lipton picks up smoking, he’d be eager to quit the habit as soon as possible.

for speirs it’s a bit harder, because he’s smoked for most of his life, so he’s kind of confused what he’d do without it.

so he sort of watches lipton kick the habit before deciding to do so himself.

it’s torture for speirs to see the love of his life (he’s referred to lipton as that more than once, because he’s shamelessly romantic like that) go through it. lipton is too stressed to get any work done for almost a week. he’s anxious, he has trouble sleeping, and towards the end of the week he’s so lethargic and depressed that speirs is genuinely worried about him.

but he comes out stronger than ever, and is so proud of himself that he delight is infectious.

the next week, speirs quits smoking.

he doesn’t lose his temper, and he doesn’t get nervous. he just… doesn’t sleep. for three days. he doesn’t stay still, he doesn’t stop moving. he deep-cleans the entire house. he cooks dinner for them, then for winter and nixon, then for kitty and harry, and goes out to deliver them all. he works out until he can barely walk. he cuts down a tree.

(its the dead tree in their backyard that they’ve been meaning to cut down for ages, but still.)

lipton is worried.

he eventually coaxes speirs into the bathroom with a request for help with the shower. a bath is already set by the time speirs gets there.

lipton is patient; he helps strip his boyfriend and settles down into the bath with him, allowing him to relax against his chest. he washes his hair, massages his aching muscles, all the while scattering light kisses along his neck.

by the time they get out, speirs is already half-asleep. lipton guides him to bed, where he collapses, and stays there for the rest of the night.

once they’ve finally quit, they’re so proud of themselves that they go out and join a gym together. speirs insists it will be their new “habit”; lipton isn’t thrilled about all the running, but is willing to go through it for his boyfriend’s sake.