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moodywyrm · 2 years ago

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book patrol

hello i am returned after months at war (college) my love for the tlou from middle school is back in full force and tlou2 is fucking me up so here's some sweet patrol content for Ellie in a world where the events of TLOU2 just don't happen. let her be happy ok. also that dealer Ellie thought I had is festering idk when I will write it but it’s there

Ellie Williams x Fem!Plus Size!Reader

WC: 2.5k

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Ellie was going to throttle Jesse – if she could manage to get out of bed first. He was pounding on her door with absolutely zero respect for the sanctity of sleep and a level of audacity only he could possibly possess.

Hauling herself out of bed and dragging a (questionably) clean pair of jeans up her bare legs, Ellie made her way to the door and yanked it open to reveal an irritatingly fresh-faced Jesse. He had all of his gear ready, dressed for the uncommonly warm Jackson weather.

“Rise and shine cupcake, we have patrol in, like, now. Tommy and Y/N are down at the stables already,” He said, leaning against the doorframe as Ellie put on a ratty pair of converse and pulled an old green flannel shirt over her tank top.

“I’m going, dickhead, you didn’t have to wake up the whole fucking neighborhood.”

“The whole neighborhood is already awake, so… ”

“Oh fuck you, let’s go.” Ellie scooped up her pack and locked the door behind her as Jesse lead them out, laughing as he went.

They kept pace, making their way through Jackson as the town got to work. Jesse looked over at Ellie and zoned in on her hyperfocused expression. “So, from what I’ve heard, you two are gonna go out to the town a bit farther west than usual while Tommy and I clear the area between here and there. The other patrols have already been sent out.”

“Cool - Wait, what? Why isn’t Tommy going out the farthest?”

“Because you and Y/N can handle it? Maria wants Tommy home early tonight for some reason, wouldn’t say why,” Jesse answered, guiding them towards the stables where Ellie could see Shimmer all geared up and ready to go. From on top of her own horse (affectionately named Leaf), Y/N was holding Shimmer’s reigns and talking to Tommy. When she spotted Ellie and Jesse approaching, a butterfly-inducing smile broke out on her face.

“Where have y’all been? It’s time to get going,” She chided, handing Ellie the reigns and turning towards the gate. Ellie hauled herself up onto Shimmer and followed after her, taking stock of the extra saddlebags on both of their horses. Jesse and Tommy followed close behind.

“This one woke up maybe ten minutes ago. Blame her.” Ellie glared at Jesse, letting it go when she heard Y/N snort.

The four of them trotted up to the gate, readying themselves for patrol. Tommy shifted slightly, addressing the group. “Alright, y’all head west past the usual checkpoint. You’ll hit a small town, ‘s mostly houses but there are a few shops. Clear any infected and gather what you can. Jesse and I’ll clear the area between here and there, y’all just ride through.”

“Be smart about it,” Jesse added, locking eyes with each girl, “Get back alive and safe.”

“You got it, dad,” Y/N quipped, sending the two men a genuine smile anyways.

Ellie caught herself staring at the soft roundness of her face, the curve of her smile, and the conviction it held. Taking one deep, grounding breath, she pulled her eyes away and turned to the men. “Alright, let’s head out.”

As they raced through Tommy and Jesse’s patrol zone – keeping the noise level to a minimum – Ellie couldn’t help but stare at Y/N, who had taken the lead on this route. Thick, soft thighs strained against tight denim jeans that Maria had altered for her, what with larger sizes being hard to come by. Ellie had seen those thighs more times than she could count, but they’d been haunting her thoughts for months now.

As of late, Ellie had caught herself thinking about her bestfriend more than usual. Obviously, she always worried about her – in the five years they’d known each other, they’d both experienced an insurmountable amount of traumatic events that would have scarred any nineteen-year-old, let alone the unreasonably burdened fourteen-year-olds they had been. In all that time, worrying about Y/N had become second nature for Ellie. Whatever was happening now was entirely different.

Now, her mind was filled with thoughts of soft curves and strong hands, incredible competence in all manners of survival – thanks to her unofficial adoptive father – contrasted with exceptional gentleness in Jackson’s library. A laugh that made her heart ache and a voice that could catch her attention from anywhere. It scared the absolute shit out of her, but Ellie was certain she was falling in love with her bestfriend – that is if she wasn’t already in love the entire time. The thought scared her so much, it pulled her out of her little reverie only to realize that Y/N was saying something.

“-okay, Ellie?”

“Huh? Shit, sorry, I wasn’t listening.” Y/N huffed out a laugh, slowing her pace just enough to fall beside Ellie. Ellie, in turn, tried really fucking hard not to stare at her thighs bouncing on the saddle.

“I noticed, I was asking if you’re okay?” She asked, sending Ellie a look of concern that totally didn’t manifest as a swarm of butterflies trying to escape her tummy.

“Yeah, was just thinking, ‘s all.”

“About what?”

Ellie let her eyes drop to her chest for a split second before snapping her head forward. “We’ve known each other for a while, still feels crazy that we’re almost twenty now.”

She tried so hard to not focus on the look of pure softness that swept over Y/N’s face but failed miserably.

“Yeah, feels like just yesterday I was getting scolded by Joel for teaching you how to shoot a pistol,” She smiled, glancing over at Ellie, “and now you’re almost as good a shot as me.”

“Oh well excuse me, not all of us had dads who happened to be fucking doomsday preppers.”

“Prepper, singular. Frank was never really like that – did teach me how to alter clothes like a pro, though. And excuse me, you have Joel, who is probably a way better shot than either of us, so, no excuses.”

“Oh haha, very funny, he didn’t even want to teach me for months,” Ellie commented, picking up the pace until they were both galloping towards the checkpoint.

They made idle chit-chat, trying not to make too much noise while passing through. Wouldn’t want to startle a bunch of infected before they even got to their official patrol area. A little less than an hour later, they strolled into the dilapidated town Joel and Tommy had found a few days prior. Ellie pulled Shimmer over to a beat-up metal fence, loosely tying her up while Y/N tied Leaf a few feet down.

Adjusting their packs and making sure all weapons were easily accessible, the two made their way to the first house. A broken-down old thing with two stories, would have been gorgeous in its time. Now, it was just a collection of punched-out walls and cracked support beams, peeling wallpaper and sagging furniture. Ellie could hear a familiar clicking, signaling for Y/N to stay quiet and put on her mask. She abided, following Ellie into the house through a hole in the door, careful to avoid any noisy detritus on the floor.

They crept through to the kitchen, pausing when they saw a hunched-over Clicker hobbling away from their location. Y/N listened in for a second, trying to sound out any clicking that wasn’t coming from this one. Deciding that it was a loner, she signaled a ‘one’ to Ellie, who crept up behind the infected, wrenched its head back with a firm grip on the fungal face plates and pushed her switchblade into its exposed neck, and pulled. Y/N kept watching behind her, taking note of the straining muscle of Ellie’s forearms, fully on display as she lowered the struggling Clicker to the floor.

“Think that’s the only one in here,” She murmured, moving away from the corpse and listening for infected.

“Mhm. Check for any supplies and regroup.”

Systematically, they moved from house to house, clearing infected and gathering supplies. Every now and then Ellie would send Y/N back to the horses to fill up the saddlebags, keeping an eye on her the entire time.

Two hours later, sore and covered in bruises, they’d cleared all but one store at the far end of the main road. The girls made their way down the street after one last supply run to the horses, trying to seem less exhausted than they were. Ellie tried – and failed – to hide her injuries, courtesy of the runner that slammed her into a kitchen counter. Anyone else – except for Joel – would have completely missed the wince in each step Ellie took, but not Y/N.

“Want me to take a look at that? Or do you want to wait until we clear this place?” She asked, shifting so that Ellie’s injured side was between them, no longer exposed to the rest of their surroundings.

“Ah, uh, I can wait. Thank you, though,” Ellie said softly, smiling at her friend. The smile she got in return made her nerves fizzle.

Moving round to the back of the store, they spotted the back door hanging on by a single hinge. They shared a cautious look, hands on their weapons and ready for a fight. Ellie entered first, crawling through the opening made by the ill-fated door and immediately turning to help Y/N in.

Right as both girls stood up, a screech came from their left and a Clicker slammed into Y/N, knocking her down and trying to claw at her. She slammed a broken pipe against its neck, keeping her hands away from its mouth and pushing with all her strength. Claws caught against her shoulders dulled stings erupting beneath the cotton of her shirt. Leveraging all her weight against the Clicker, she managed to flip them over and pin it down with the bar.

As if on autopilot, Ellie crouched down while pulling out her switchblade, slamming it into the Clicker’s neck and wiggling it in for good measure. The second it stopped moving, Y/N recoiled from the body and leaned into the wall, chest heaving.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, letting their hearts return to a normal pace before Ellie looked up.

Standing to face her, Ellie gently grabbed her friend’s arms and scanned all visible areas for bite marks. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m okay. Just a couple of scratches, but, no bites.”

Ellie’s eyes snapped up, searching for confirmation on her face. When she deemed everything relatively stable, she sighed and let go.

“I’m gonna go ahead and assume that he was the only one in here since we’re not being fucking stormed.”

“A fair assumption, but be careful anyways.”

“You got it, princess.”

“Fuck you.”

The familiar rhythm of their banter calmed Ellie down exponentially, standing to her full height and gently nudging Y/N out of the way so she could open the door for them. The door gave way with little resistance, leading into a room that made both girls pause.

Bookshelves lined every wall, with rows of shelves covering most of the main floor. Vines crept in from the broken windows, claiming some of the shelves, but for the most part, the books looked shockingly well preserved. Crooked signs dangled from the ceiling, marking all the genres this little store used to sell.

Ellie stood gobsmacked in the doorway until Y/N guided her inside, immediately heading for a shelf for spectacularly intact fantasy novels. The top and bottom shelves were more or less molded, but the middle three were dry enough that she started rifling through the books to see if she could take any back.

Snapping out of her momentary shock, Ellie drifted past Y/N, scooting behind her with a light hand on her waist. Not that she noticed the way her friend tensed up or the heat that rushed up her neck. No, Ellie’s attention was completely captured by the science fiction shelf which included plastic-wrapped copies of Savage Starlight comics alongside plenty of novels. The softest little “holy shit” escaped her mouth as she picked out the volumes she didn’t have.

Y/N looked over, cracking a smile at the childlike wonder on Ellie’s face. It’d been too long since she’d last seen it. “Having fun there?”

Ellie snapped her head up, and the look she sent Y/N made her heart go so fucking weird she had to take a deep breath.

“I’ve never seen so many in-tact copies in one place. And all these books? It’s a fucking miracle…”

“Haven’t had this much luck with books since … never, I guess.” Y/N had squatted down next to Ellie, staring at the salvageable lower shelves. Looking down, Ellie flushed at their positions and pulled her eyes away from strong thighs and soft arms.

“We should bring the horses over, load ‘em up for the library.” Even though Ellie was definitely gonna snatch most of these comics and some of the sci-fi novels for herself, the smile she got from Y/N made her profusely grateful for her flash of charity.

“Good idea, but I am totally snatching some of these for myself,” She said, slinging her backpack off and returning to the fantasy shelf she started at. So maybe charity wasn’t top priority. Ellie laughed and followed suit, stuffing her backpack with five new volumes of Savage Starlight and a handful of novels.

By the time the girls had loaded up the horses with all the books they could safely carry, their arms felt like complete jelly. Once they’d both safely mounted Shimmer and Leaf, Y/N looked over at Ellie and sighed.

“Fuck, I am so excited to get back home and just read,” She smiled, trying not to focus on Ellie’s face being backlit by the sun, the slope of her nose, the soft curve of her cheek. Ellie turned to face her, the sun spreading out like a halo behind her.

“You could come over tonight, have a reading party?” She sounded so hopeful and so goddamn cute that Y/N had to stifle an adoring whine.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. I’ll even grab us some food from Maria’s.”

“Or I could cook for us? Contrary to popular belief I am allowed around a stove,” Ellie offered, leading them toward the path back to Jackson. She could’ve sworn she heard Y/N choke right after she said that, but it must’ve just been her imagination.

“Careful Ellie, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you were asking me on the nerdiest date in the world.” Now it was Ellie’s turn to cough, turning her face to hide the blush.

After a deep, steadying breath, she managed to answer, “And what if I am?” Y/N’s pause made her heart nearly stop, but her response practically jumpstarted it.

“Then it’s a date,” She murmured, smiling at Ellie, “now, let’s get back to Jackson.”

“Yes ma’am.”

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I hope y'all enjoyed that!! pls like and reblog if you can, it is always greatly appreciated :) have a wonderful day or night <3

#ellie x fem reader #ellie williams #ellie tlou #tlou2 #tlou part 2 #plus size reader #chubby reader #Ellie x chubby reader #Ellie Williams x reader #Ellie williams x reader fluff #tlou2 fluff

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laurelsofhighever · 1 year ago

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Hey, just saw your fic with Maric x Serving Girl Alistair's Mother. I read your author's notes on Ao3, and were you hinting at conflicting information on Alistair's mother's identity? Or is my tired brain misinterpreting? I'm all for writing whatever you want, go nuts, no problem with the fic. But this peaked my interest, because I've never heard of anything disputing Fiona, given 'The Calling' novel. Does it have to do with there being no acknowledgement in DAI if you have Alistair and Fiona at Skyhold at the same time? Any information or clarification you provide would be appreciated. I always loved Maric.

Hi Nonny! This has consumed my entire evening and I hope you’re prepared for the splurge about to be unleashed. Thank you for the ask! The disclaimer at the top of the fic is there because historically the subject of Alistair’s mother has been a… charged subject, for reasons that I won’t get into now because it’s not really relevant to your ask and I don’t have a horse in that specific race.

However, if you look into canon, there is indeed a bunch of conflicting information about the identity of Alistair’s mother – or rather, there’s a bunch of information that conflicts with the Word of God confirmation from David Gaider that Fiona is Alistair’s mother. Which… is also not exactly true. In an interview from 2014 when asked specifically about it, he said (after a long, weary sigh), “I never actually meant for it to be a thing … I thought the book was fairly obvious and then people were asking and I just never confirmed it … it comes up in the game and I will leave it at that” (timestamp starting 35:28 if you want to check it out yourself). Thing is, it doesn’t come up in the game, either in DA:O or in DA:I – which may be the game he’s referring to, since the interview is mostly to hype its release. It isn’t clear.

We do come close to getting in-game evidence for Fiona: in DA:I, the Inquisitor can ask her about her past, and if you read between the lines there is wistfulness there, and she’s sorry he dies, but her comments about it being “too late” to know him could just as easily be taken as being about her time as a Grey Warden if you haven’t read The Calling (TC) – she never comes out and directly says it, and we never witness a conversation between them, even if he’s a Warden presumably curious about how she became immune to the Calling (I have thoughts about this, but we’ll get to that later). In the DA:O end slides, it says someone orders an investigation into Alistair’s parentage that comes back “inconclusive” – but even without the dubious canon of the end slides (given that some, like Cullen’s, got heavily retconned in later games) this is a shaky piece of evidence at best that Alistair’s mother was anyone other than a servant. An inquest is politically motivated, after all, and would have been more concerned with his connection to Maric than the identity of his mother.

So where does this leave us? Well, we could go in circles debating what should count as canon or not, which isn’t entirely useful because people can draw lines in the sand wherever they like to make the points they want. We could argue that BioWare is really good at retconning and muddling its own lore and that the simplest explanation – that the devs made a mistake in some of the details and no one caught it – is the most likely, and that caring about it more than Gaider obviously does (with his well-known dislike of Alistair as a character) is kind of a waste of time.

Unfortunately, you’ve asked me about it, so what we’re actually going to do is go through every relevant piece of Dragon Age media, assume it is all canon, and weigh the evidence in the text to try and offer some clarification. Where things contradict, I will give more weight to the version that targets the broadest possible audience, i.e. the games > the books and novels. Where things contradict within the games, I’ll be considering which source of information is more authentic and direct within the game’s context, i.e. Alistair should know more about his history than a tavernkeep who’s listening to rumours.

Having said this, let’s start with TC, where all of our problems begin. In the last scene of this book, Fiona introduces Maric to a baby she says is theirs, and asks him to find it a home where it can be free of the stigmas of being the child of an elven mage. Fair enough. However, as conspiracy-brained as this is going to sound, there is no direct evidence to confirm that this baby is Alistair, and one or two things that suggest it isn’t. I’m not so shallow in my literary analysis that I count the fact that the baby is never named as one of those pieces of evidence. That would just be petty. Far more compelling is:

Timing: TC is set after Queen Rowan’s death. There’s some quibble about dates in World of Thedas and whether it was supposed to be set in 9:10 or 9:14 bur really that’s a numbers game and it’s beside the point, because it’s built into the plot that Maric decides to go with the Grey Wardens specifically because he’s feeling depressed and reckless through grief for Rowan. This is important because, as gets mentioned quite a few times in DA:O, Alistair was hidden in Redcliffe because Rowan was still alive. This is a conflict of information, and as already stated, games > novels.

There’s no amulet: Giving Alistair his mother’s amulet is a pretty significant moment in DA:O. It’s all he has of hers, and it’s something that ties them together narratively. If this was all meant to wrap up neatly, then the least Gaider could have done would have been to mention Fiona taking off her Andrastian amulet and gifting it to Alistair to be something of hers he can keep even when she’s not with him anymore. The fact that this doesn’t happen makes this scene emotionally empty when we know he got an amulet from a person whom he considered to be his mother. If not Fiona, then where did it come from?

'“He’s human,” [Maric] exclaimed out loud': if there’s one thing a lot of DA fans can agree on, it’s that “human/elf hybrids are totally human” is bullshit. It’s not how genetics works, it has some yikes implications considering how heavily the devs took inspiration from oppressed minorities to create the elves, and it’s not a plot point that’s ever used in an interesting way (we will get to Michel de Chevin in a moment). It’s also not true. In DA2 there is an entire series of quests about a character named Feynriel, who was born to a Dalish mother and a human father, and who is visibly part-elven. He has points on his ears! He has facial proportions halfway between the humans and elves in the game! He’s rejected by both sides of his family because of it! Now, there is also Michel de Chevin, who in The Masked Empire (TME) is revealed to have an elven mother, but this is never mentioned when he appears in DA:I, and is kind of a non-issue in the novel as well. This is the most nebulous piece of evidence by far, as it relies by default on picking which bits of material are canon, which I've already said we’re not doing here, and to be honest the physical differences between elves and humans are only really noticeable in DA2 where there was an effort made to make them look deliberately nonhuman.

Except for the timeline of the book, the evidence in TC is circumstantial. We get to more definite evidence in Until We Sleep (UWS), the third volume in The Silent Grove comics storyline, where Alistair gets to meet and talk with a dream version of his father, Maric. When Alistair asks his father to come home, Maric says, “I had a life. The people I love are all here – Cailan, your mother, Loghain… none of them are in the real world any longer, are they?” (A+ parenting there btw). Since this series takes place before DA:I, Fiona is definitely still alive, so Maric can’t be talking about her. Also, it’s interesting to note that this too is written by David Gaider, so it’s not a case of writers being at cross-purposes or not getting any intra-office memos. There are continuity mistakes in these comics, but these are mostly confined to the fact that neither Alistair nor Isabella match their in-game appearances – and remember, the games have more weight than the comics. Having said that, it does conflict with the "official" story.

With all this said, let’s come to the other beginning of all our problems, most people’s proper introduction to Alistair’s character, DA:O. In this game, it is a significant plot point that Alistair is the son of a servant from Redcliffe: it is explicitly stated in Alistair’s codex entry, and furthermore, it is something that multiple characters assert is true, including Loghain and Alistair himself.

First, Loghain. If you spare him at the Landsmeet, he joins your party and has dialogue options that talk about Alistair and why he was kept at Redcliffe. According to him, Maric nearly acknowledged Alistair, but “had more than his honour to think of”, namely the effect it would have had on Rowan and Cailan (implied: how that would have affected political stability in a Ferelden still recovering from the Orlesian Occupation). He points out that Alistair "would have been a continual reminder to Rowan of Maric’s infidelity”, which as mentioned above, means that she would have still been alive when Alistair was born.

As for Alistair, yes he was a baby at the time so doesn’t really have an objective viewpoint, and it’s not confirmed whether the person he considers his mother died in childbirth or just in his early years – the codex entry says “when he was young”, he says “when I was born”. Nevertheless, it’s clear he’s asked questions about her because he knows roughly who she was and what she did, and also at some point learnt the name and rough location of the person his entire companion quest (and Fade dream) revolves around.

Let’s talk about Goldana.

Really, she is the biggest wrench in the certainty that Fiona is Alistair’s mother, because there’s no way to square away that fact with her existence, and by extension the existence of the servant in Redcliffe who was her (and Alistair’s) mother. But what if she’s just an exceptional liar, thinking she could make a quick sovereign out of the king’s bastard by playing along? It’s possible. However:

When you take Alistair to meet her, she’s the one who brings up Maric (“I said the babe was the king’s, and they told me he was dead, and gave me a coin to shut my mouth”) – Alistair until that point has only mentioned his mother and that she worked in Redcliffe Castle. If she was hedging her bets, wouldn’t it make more sense for her to accuse him of being Eamon’s bastard?

If she were talking nonsense, why would “they” bribe her with hush money? It would be very easy for someone as powerful as Arl Eamon to dismiss or debunk such claims, and he shouldn’t care what a random servant’s kid has to say – unless there’s a kernel of truth in it that he doesn’t want anyone looking at more closely

On that same note, why would “they” tell her the baby was dead if it wasn’t, if it was just some random’s kid? Either there’s an entirely separate baby that Goldana believes for some mysterious reason was fathered by the king, which Alistair – actually fathered by the king – replaced at just the right age that nobody noticed, or they’re the same baby. One of these options is far more plausible than the other

If she’s that good at lying, why is she still just a washerwoman living in a hovel and asking three copper per load? She should be running Denerim!

Facetiousness aside, Goldana’s story confirms that at the very least there was a serving girl in Redcliffe Castle who had a baby at roughly the same time that Alistair was born, and that for whatever reason, she was connected enough to Maric that multiple people in the castle suspected he was the father (and resented Alistair because of it). If this was an entirely separate baby, then it makes Maric an absolute shit of a person to have taken one son and used him to replace one that had just died in childbirth. Either that or a complete idiot for sending his actual son to a place where he’s rumoured to have a son and deciding that’s a secure hiding place – because you can’t tell me Eamon wasn’t aware of what was going on under his own roof. Even the fact that Alistair himself knows and was aware of it from a young age suggests that it wasn’t a very well-kept secret.

So where does all this leave us? From here, things get a little more suppositional, a little more Doylist, and a lot more subjective. To start with, taking into account all of the above evidence, if Fiona is Alistair’s mother, then his arrival at Redcliffe relies on a – I would say – plot-breaking set of contrivances.

1: Fiona, somehow cured of the darkspawn taint enough to have a child, arrives in Denerim with Alistair, who isn’t old enough to be weaned yet, asking for somewhere to put him that won’t draw attention. She does this after walking pretty much all the way across Thedas even though, as mentioned in TC, the Wardens already have procedures in place for fostering children born to their ranks, presumably ones that don’t involve so much steady exercise.

2: Instead of using his kingly resources to track down a woman in Denerim who has recently given birth and telling her to take on an extra kid, Maric decides to send the baby to the other end of the country, to the house of an unmarried nobleman who will definitely not stir any gossip if he shows up on his own doorstep with an infant he wants someone to care for. Where did the baby come from? Don’t ask. Are you happy that everyone will think this kid is your bastard? I’m sure it’s a decision that won’t have any negative consequences for me in the future. But you are going to tell everyone he’s your bastard to keep up the ruse, right? No, now stop asking questions.

2: Luckily, there’s a woman in Eamon’s household who has recently given birth, or is at least close to it, and they can substitute? add? this baby to that baby without having to pay her off, because she’s an employee. The bait ‘n’ switch is timed so perfectly that no one notices that there are in fact two babies, or that the baby is suddenly several months older than it was before (truly, a medical miracle). Unless they’re exactly the same age, in which case what are the odds.

3: Somehow, despite all the secrecy, this woman’s other child knows that the baby is the king’s and won’t shut up about it, to the point where someone has to pay her off and send her packing. But that’s all unnecessary, because the woman – and her original baby I guess? – both die and leave no witnesses.

4: Rowan still manages to be mad about this and everyone is worried for her reputation despite having been dead for two years.

It’s a level of convolution that does not exist with the alternative, which has been pretty common since forever in the real world: powerful man sees pretty woman, decides he’ll have that, doesn’t want to face the consequences, makes everyone miserable in the process. Alistair’s mother being an ordinary person caught up in the orbit of someone she can’t resist is so much more narratively coherent, if significantly less romantic.

And this is where we get into the biggest problem that I have with Fiona-as-Alistair’s-mother: it has no payoff. These are fictional people, structure is important for narrative, and while I’m not saying that every little thing has to have purpose or direction, a pretty significant amount of Alistair’s character arc in DA:O is wiped away if his mother isn’t who he thinks it is. His story is about social class and identity and whether legacy is even worth it: Fiona’s identity means nothing to him, and that’s not something that ever changes. In DA:I she looks a bit sad when she mentions him, but there’s no work ever done to explore that, or to explore how Alistair might feel if his mother is actually alive but abandoned him, and how awkward that makes things for him if he’s king. OR to have him hear that she’s now immune to the taint and be just a little bit curious about how that came about. There’s no conversation, no status quo shift. Instead, the devs rely on the fans who know this metatextual fact to do the emotional heavy lifting for them and extrapolate the consequences they don’t want to deal with themselves.

It is lazy writing.

In some cases I also think it becomes a prop that invalidates the point of his character arc – and even breaks the worldbuilding a little, turning what was originally a struggle to forge an identity separate from people’s expectations, into a straight case of nepotism. The two most egregious examples?

Is he able to use templar abilities without lyrium because anyone with enough training and discipline can do it, and the lyrium is just the Chantry’s way of keeping its army leashed and loyal? Nope, it’s because he’s special because his mummy was a mage and it gave him special latent mage powers. That’s far more interesting than examining the ramifications of a religious order using addiction and brainwashing to make sure its soldiers will commit atrocities without question.

Is he a Warden because of his strength of will and determination to survive, chosen from the ranks of the other potential recruits because he had a spark of something that Duncan knew would be valuable in the fight against the darkspawn? Nope, it’s because his mummy was a Grey Warden and gave him special taint immunity powers, and also she was best friends with the current Warden-Commander so he was picked even though there were better fighters among the potentials competing that day. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that all Wardens secretly have Warden blood already because that would be ridiculous, it’s just Alistair who needed that extra leg-up because otherwise he’d be useless at everything.

I promised myself I would rein in the sarcasm but from a storytelling perspective it really annoys me that this shift turns him from an ordinary person into the specialest boy in the world, because it denies him his agency and takes the teeth out of his achievements. I’m not even going to get into how it lets BioWare off the hook for representation, insisting he is half-elven and taking a gold star when he’s never identifiable in-world as a member of an oppressed minority, and it never has any bearing on how he views the world or how it views him. It feels like it’s giving the devs far more credit than they deserve, especially when the effort they put into this (minimal as it was) could have gone into giving Zevran more to say on this. exact. subject. He’s right there, and he is perfect for exploring this aspect of the worldbuilding when he isn't being overlooked.

This is getting a little ranty now so I’ll wrap it up with thanks for your patience, Nonny, if you’ve made it this far. What’s the conclusion? At the end of the day, people can make up their own minds with their own reasoning, all I’ve attempted to do here is lay out the various threads untangled from the snarl that is BioWare’s incomparable ability to fuck up their own lore. Personally, I think Alistair’s mother being an ordinary servant makes his journey and the themes of his character arc more compelling wherever he ends up, and I like that this means his parentage is a facet of his identity rather than the only interesting thing about him. I also think the weight of evidence in DA:O, the game where he’s first introduced, is greater than in a tacked-on scene at the end of a tie-in novel written by a guy who seemed to just think it was a good idea at the time. But hey, I’m not the authority.

However, if there’s one solid takeaway from this then here it is: don’t give BioWare more credit than they deserve, don’t do their work for them, and especially don’t assume they’re leading us down a merry path with super-secret truths for enlightened minds only when the simpler explanation is that no one stopped (in this instance) David Gaider getting carried away.

#dragon age #dragon age meta #bioware critical #dragon age: origins #dragon age: inquisition #the calling #dragon age 2 #alistair theirin #maric theirin #alistair's mother #arl eamon #teyrn loghain

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bleue-flora · 3 months ago

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Oh I was actually thinking more of Adhd based on my own experience! Sometimes I get overwhelmed and go kinda numb? I'm not autistic at all so that's what I was basing it off :]

(Also... Tommy looks like hes more anxious then a purebred race horse)

But it's just a silly fluff headcannon of a silly fluffy au, so I didn't want to define something specific since I'm not the most knowledgeable person about every single neurotype ever (/nm)

Yeah :]

(Thank you for your explanation tho :D)

[context 1 & 2]

That’s fair and based off of your description it sounds like genuine struggle with your ADHD <3 and I’m sorry your family isn’t helpful or nice about it. I mean only to say I don’t think Tommy I’d but of course you are welcome to project. :)

Well certainly after Exile though that tied to his paranoia and PTSD, though yea we could make a case for an anxiety disorder lol.

*dramatic hand to chest* How dare you call this au fluffy! Only angst here with the occasional wholesomeness. I don’t do fluff what do you mean?!? I’ll have you know it’s very angsty I don’t know what you’re talking about! Which child should I traumatize more to convince you >;)… who should be an orphan someone has to be an orphan clearly XD (not Technos fault though lol just to be clear) mmm maybe it should be Skeppy…“Quackity! Get over here! They’re saying it’s fluffy I need you! Quick, go ‘accidentally’ stab Dream or something!”… XD

#lol <3 <3 <3 #hello there #playdate au #that’s fair sorry for jumping in you <3

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watermelonsloth · 1 year ago

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Boruto Shipping Opinions

I’m gonna put a brief aside here to say two quick things to keep in mind before reading:

I am not going to go into great detail or analysis here because I’m holding off on that until the manga wraps up.

I am caught up with the manga, I am not caught up with the anime. I have watched up until the arc the new team 7 infiltrate a prison, the second chunin exams, and whatever clips/moments I’ve stumbled upon being discussed. I am not an avid fan, I do not know all the ins and outs of character dynamics, and I don’t even keep up with that part of the fandom. I have no horse in this race.

BoruSara

I don’t like this ship, and I don’t know if that’s an unpopular opinion. I’ll try to avoid saying “they have sibling vibes” or “they’re just friends” because, coming from someone who has used that excuse in the past, it is very difficult to explain/defend argument. So much so that now it just comes across as cheap to me.

I will, however, say that I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like NejiTen. It comes across as “he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?” It feels like it stems from the idea that boys and girls can’t just be friends. If the dynamic was introduced with an edge of romance (like how Naruto and Sakura’s dynamic was introduced with Naruto having a crush on her), maybe it would be a different story. But as of right now, it feels like the fandom reading into something that doesn‘t need to be read into.

KawaSara

I hate to say this, but I’m guessing this ship stemmed from SasuSaku fans reading them as “next gen SasuSaku”. Look, everyone can ship whatever they want or choose to refrain from shipping, but I’m sick of the fandom projecting old ships on new dynamics. I have seen BoruSara compared to SNS, NaruSaku, and SasuSaku (for some reason). I have seen BoruSumi compared to NaruHina. I have seen MitsuSara compared to SasuSaku and SuiKarin. I have seen KawaSara compared to SasuSaku. Every single time I thought to myself, “The manga starts with Boruto asserting that he’s not his dad and this isn’t his dad’s story.” I get that comparisons will naturally arise since it’s a sequel series, but these kids are not carbon copies of their parents and they don’t have the same dynamics their parents did.

Now that my rant is out of the way, I think a hypothetical child between them having black hair with pink highlights would be cute and that’s about it.

MitsuSara

I wish these two had more of a dynamic. Both characters have interactions with Boruto and clear dynamics with him, but they don’t really have much going on with each other. They both have recognizable personalities, but they mellow each other out whenever they interact and it makes them boring (I’m guessing Ikemoto isn’t interested in them together). They also only tend to talk to each other about Boruto (at least in the manga). Say what you want about them, but at least Sasuke and Sakura had a dynamic.

Anyways, funny ha ha, Orochimaru gets an Uchiha in the way they least expected.

MitsuBoru

Gayer than any of the Naruto dynamics and that is saying something. However, I struggle to like the ship because I’m just so confused.

First, why does Boruto have so many lancer/foil/rival characters. Kawaki, Sarada, and Mitsuki all act as lancers. I get that writing doesn’t have to be formulaic, but they aren’t even all lancers to each other, having dynamics that bounce off of each other, they’re just lancers to Boruto. At least for me, it’s already gotten really boring and ends in the three’s dynamics with each other falling flat.

Second, the sun and moon symbolism makes no sense to me as a writing decision. The obvious problem is that it’s redundant; it’s already been used for multiple Naruto dynamics. The less obvious problem is that it contradicts Mitsuki’s manga introduction. Mitsuki was introduced as the middle between Boruto and Sarada’s two extremes, taking up a role similar to Sakura’s in the og team 7. If he’s supposed to be the moon to Boruto’s sun, why is he introduced to us as the earth? The admittedly more minor problem that distracts me is that Orochimaru was the one that Mitsuki down this road. Why? Orochimaru wasn’t redeemed by Naruto and has never shown interest in him or this philosophy before now. My best guess is that they’re fascinated by Naruto’s affect on Sasuke, but that still leaves me with questions.

It makes me think that the writer didn’t have any ideas when they introduced these two.

BoruSumi

I don’t like how the fandom is making another love square, but I doubt there’s anything I can do to stop them.

This ship is boring because Sumire is boring. That one anime arc made her interesting, but it’s referenced and relevant so rarely that she goes back to being boring. I’d like this more if the story let Sumire be morally gray or treated her like a redeemed villain more. As of right now, I think the only leg the ship has to stand on is writing tropes and I do not care.

KawaSumi

This ship feels like the product of the same people who ship SasuHina/SasuIno/SasuKarin/KibaHina out of spite. My last post/reblog went into why this happens but the short of it is that it’s easier to ship something in peace if the biggest “threats” to it are paired together. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling most KawaSumi shippers also ship BoruSara.

KawaHima

Please… just stop. If not for yourself, then for me. I’m already barely coping with how popular NejiHina is. Why have I seen this as much as I have??? This feels like a personal attack on my sanity. They’re siblings.

Other

This is the section for all the ships I have little/no opinions on. I think MitsuCho is too boring for how popular it is, I think ChoSara should be more popular, I’m disturbed by all of the Eida x next gen ships because she looks and acts like an adult (at least how adults are portrayed in Boruto), and I’m surprised Code x Eida isn’t more popular, but I also think that Code has gotten the Kabuto treatment and isn’t very popular in the fandom.

The ships I haven’t mentioned I either have so little fucks to give or so little information on that I have ZERO thoughts about.

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sh4tt3rg1rl · 8 months ago

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Hey! You probably don’t know me, but I’m sorta in the orbit of TAOCC? I’m mutuals with a bunch of the main mods (half? two thirds? Unclear because of the chaos) and care about their wellbeing, which includes TAOCC, and also have been wanting to join for about a month now. Mostly the reason I haven’t joined is simply because I’m having writers block with coming up with new characters. I’m saying this because I want to make it clear that I do have a horse in this race. Usually I’d send this to Autumn but she’s mostly on break and I definitely don’t want to stress her out more when she gets back and you seem to be one of the “main cast”

Anyway all that to say that before we/y’all make decisions or even do more polls, there needs to be a system for communicating the discussions themselves with everyone. Like literally it could just be a tag. But it will make life so much easier. And I don’t think that we/y’all can make a decision at all if people can’t find the posts. Someone could also make a temporary “key” blog. Honestly if it needs to be done I would be willing to run it as a less biased and also less stressed out outsider if people want that, although I’m only moots with half-two thirds of the circus so I don’t know how people would feel about that. Once again I’m just trying to help my friends, so I’ll do honestly as much or as little as is needed to help this circus.

-Hugs (@hugs4neth)

Ooo! Interesting idea!! What do we think, folks

(also psst you can join the taocc anytime its convienient)

#xeyasks

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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 2 years ago

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A Recipe for Disaster (Chap. 6)

Pt. 1 | Pt.2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | on AO3 here

“Robin! Robin, wake up, dammit!”

“Steve? What the hell? What time is it?”

“Robin, look.” Steve thrusts the note into her face

Blinking blearily, she manages to clear the sleep from her face and reads the note “Oh my god?” she says as if she knows she should be reacting, but doesn’t know why.

“Robin, he went back and took care of Sandy.”

She blinks at him twice. “I’m not following.”

Steve launches into what happened after Sandy ran off, how Eddie followed just to make more fun of Steve.

“Wait, hold on, that’s what you got from that?

“Uh yeah?”

“So the man races after you, who is on a terrified horse’s back, on foot (“He did?”), was the first one to get to you, and you think he did that just to give you your hat back and make fun of you?”

“Why else would he do that?”

She shrugs, “Maybe he’s got a crush on you? At the very least he cares about you.”

“He does NOT have a crush on me; and really? ‘Crush’? What are we, twelve?”

“Like I said, he at least cares about you. Did you not hear what I said? After being one of two people to rush forward and try to calm Sandy, he took off running after you. On foot. In damn dress shoes that probably cost a million dollars by themselves.”

Steve’s quiet. Silently willing himself to keep any sort of hope at bay.

“That’s not what’s happening. He’s trying to weasel his way in and throw me off.”

“Steve–”

“No, why else would he leave a passive aggressive note like this?” Steve stands and starts stomping back and forth in front of Robin’s bed. “‘She’s feeling better now, hope you are too.’? Obviously he’s insinuating that I can’t look after my own horse or myself.”

“Oh my god.” Robin groans, throwing her hands over her face and falling back on the bed. “Fine Steve, you win. He’s the big bad wolf and has zero other feelings besides ‘passive aggression towards Stephan Artur Harrington-Renaldi’. Can I get back to sleep now?”

“Robs, you keep poking fun at it, but the whole reason he’s here and even a factor in my life at all is because he’s literally trying to overthrow me. You say he cares, I say he’s pretending to to get me to let my guard down so the literal over-throwing part will be that much easier.”

She huffs out a long sigh, “Okay fine, I admit that could be a possibility.” she says, and sits back up “But can you admit that my thing may also be just as true?”

Steve thought it all back over again.. “I thought we made a real connection on my birthday, before I knew who he was, I don’t think you can fake that.”

“Yeah you really were down bad almost immediately.”

“Shut up. But then I find out he’s trying to take the throne, and that immediately puts the brakes on any feelings.. I was crushed Robs.”

“Yeah Dingus, I know. I was there while you wallowed that time, remember?”

“He looked so innocent when I saw him in his room that time, just a real person with a real hobby.”

“Your Peeping Tom moment, yes, I remember.”

“Then he was totally flirting with me when Dustin found us in that closet. But again, he could just be faking it more in order to throw me off.”

Steve’s head hurts.

“And now we’re here. Post-disaster. Post-’Eddie risking bodily harm to calm a literal giant of a horse and save Dingus then runs full speed after Dingus to make sure he’s okay’, post-’Eddie comforts Dingus’, and post-’Eddie leaves Dingus a love note’.”

Steve stares at her, slack-jawed.

“Robin, does Eddie have feelings for me?”

Her look softens at his tone, “I don’t know Dingus, you’d have to ask him.” She throws her covers off and steps up to hug him tight around the middle. “Though, if I was a betting man, I’d bet on it.”

He returns her embrace, “Not everything I hope.”

She shrugs, “I’ll keep you posted.”

–

The morning following the reviewing of the guard, Eddie finds himself outside Prime Minister Henderson’s office door. His stomach a rat’s nest of nerves, he gives a quick succession of knocks to the heavy wooden door.

“Come in!” Wayne’s gruff but friendly voice replies.

Eddie opens the door and sees his Uncle’s face scrunch into confusion.

“Eddie?” he hefts himself up from his seat to stand as Eddie enters the office.

“Hi Uncle Wayne, long time no speak.”.

“Please come in, sit down, is everything alright son?”

Oof, leave it to Wayne to hit him with the ‘son’ right off the bat. “Not entirely.” Eddie closes the door behind him and sits down in front of his Uncle.

“Uncle Wayne, I need your help.” Eddie puts his palm up to stop Wayne when he goes to speak. “Wait; let me apologize first. I’m sorry I haven’t stayed in better contact, I don’t have an excuse for anything that’s happened in the last few years. I thought dad knew best and only recently found a reason to believe otherwise.

The reason should have been you every other time you’d been in my corner, should have been your new family, the one I should have made the slightest effort to know, it should have been our last conversation, but it wasn’t. It’s–”

“It’s the prince isn’t it?” Wayne cuts him off.

“What? How did you kn–” Eddie clears his throat, “What makes you think it was Steve?”

“A hunch. Also, you just called him ‘Steve’.”

Eddie balks at Wayne’s crooked mischievous smile. “You bastard, how do you know me so well?”

“Eddie, my boy, I’ve always seen you as a son to me. You know that right?”

Suddenly, Eddie’s cheeks are wet, and some of his hair is already sticking to his face. He’d left it loose but now he’s gonna be stuck swiping tear-soaked locks from his face for the rest of, what he’d been hoping would be, a serious conversation.

“Oh, Eddie…” Wayne once again hefts himself out of his chair and circles around his desk as quickly as he can while Eddie remains rooted in his seat.

Wayne’s arms are around him in no time at all, but Eddie’s heaving sobs by time he does, wrapping his arms around his uncle.

“Eddie, you were always too good for my no-good brother. I’ve always believed that.” Wayne’s rubbing soothing circles on his back. “I thought I’d lost you to that son-of-a—” Wayne clears his throat and Eddie smiles into his shoulder, “I’d always hoped you’d break out from under him and find your own way.”

“But you have Dustin now,” Eddie’s voice is small “Why care at all?”

Wayne pulls back and crouches in front of his nephew, pulling a hair tie and a handkerchief from his pocket as he does, and hands them over. Eddie takes them, and the new round of sobs that come with the gesture as he shakily pulls his hair back away from his face.

“You were there first.” Wayne grins at him and Eddie is grinning around smaller sobs and sniffles.

“Now, what do you need, son?”

“Honestly Wayne? I think it was this. I came here to ask for your advice. And to tell you what it is my father is plotting.”

Wayne nods, and circles back around his desk to take his seat. “Hopper told me his suspicions about what happened yesterday.”

“Well he kept the snake, if that tells you anything.”

Dustin accompanied Steve to Prime Minister Henderson’s office the morning after the review, intending on stopping there to let him know where Joyce will meet him for their next meeting before heading to the kitchens for breakfast with Max, Robin, and Nancy.

“It’s no problem at all, Aunt Joyce, we’re heading past there anyway so it’ll be super quick.” Steve had assured her.

“Thank you dear, you are a lifesaver; Wayne’s notorious for never checking his email so if there’s a change, he must be told in person or he’ll never show up to anything.”

Dustin gave Joyce a big toothy grin “Yes ma’am, that sounds like him. We’ll let him know.”

Stopping outside Wayne’s door, Steve wasn’t entirely surprised to hear voices from the other side, Wayne’s deep one accompanied by another slightly less deep one. He gave a questioning look to Dustin, who shrugged then short rap to the door.

“Come in!” Wayne called

Steve pushed open the door and upon seeing him Wayne stood and so did..Eddie?

“Apologies for intruding, Prime Minister, Lord Edmund, I was on my way through to breakfast and her majesty asked me to let you know that your 2pm conference was moved into the parliament chambers. She knew you wouldn’t have seen the email.” Steve gave Wayne a smile and a short wink.

Wayne smiled warmly back at him, eyes crinkling, “Thank you your highness, I will be sure to be there.”

Wayne gave a short bow, and Steve risked a glance at Eddie. He looked calm and collected, but his eyes looked wrecked, deep circles beneath them and slightly bloodshot. The fact that those eyes had already been boring into Steve before he’d spared a glance to the curly-haired brunette made Steve’s heart jump into his throat and look away just as quickly as he had laid eyes on him.

“Awesome! Thanks Mr. Henderson. I’ll let her know I was able to tell you.”

“Wayne, your highness; Wayne is just fine.”

“No can do Mr. Henderson,” Steve was already ushering Dustin back out the door “You’ll be Wayne when you just call me Steve!”

“Touché, your highness.” he said with a laugh “Bye Dustin.”

“Bye Dad! Bye Eddie!” Dustin waved around Steve, who was closing the door.

As soon as it was, Dustin said “What was that all about? Wayne’s not that scary, there’s no need to feel like you need to escape. And you didn’t even say bye to Eddie.”

“Yeah, but you did, what’s with that? You know he’s trying to overthrow me right?” Steve started walking, and Dustin followed.

“He’s a good guy, you just gotta give him a chance.” Steve scoffed at that but Dustin continued “I’m serious, Steve.”

“You just like him because he plays that nerdy game of yours.”

“That’s not it, he’s als_wait, how’d you know he plays??”

Oh shit. Steve feels his face burning up “Uhm, I saw you guys when you did finally play.” Dustin looks absolutely floored. “I was passing by and caught a part of the game, you seemed to be having fun.”

“Well yeah, we were. ‘Cause Eddie’s fun. And a cool dude.”

Steve scoffed non-committedly and they continued in silence for a moment.

“He looked sad.” Steve whispered, almost just to himself.

Dustin looked at Steve incredulously, but must’ve seen something in his face that kept him from saying anything snarky, just replying with “Yeah, you’re right. He did.”

“Edmund, can I ask you a question?” Queen Joyce asks him. She’s sitting beside where he’s been baking up batches of cookies for the hoard of teens he’s found himself with lately. M&M for Dustin and Max, chocolate chip for Mike (and for the young Lord and Lady Sinclair, when they did end up joining the party), and oatmeal raisin for the wonder twins.

How they’ve managed to get him wrapped around their fingers this quickly is truly astounding.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Joyce gestures for him to sit beside her at the small table in the kitchen where she’d planted herself next to the hot baking sheets. He does, and she continues, “Why are you so against Steve becoming king?”

Eddie isn't. Far from it. He can’t explain why he doesn’t just tell her as much, but he says “My father feels that Prince Steve does not know the people.”

“And feel that you do? Know the people?”

“Well yes, I was born here, I went to primary school here…I am a true Genovian. Steve didn’t even know he was Genovian until much later and my father believes he’s spent too little time here since then.”

“Well I happen to think he will be a great ruler. He’s incredibly kind, sensitive, caring…”

“I know that.” Eddie whispers, not meaning to respond to the queen at all. Oops.

“You do?” She’s shocked.

“Yes. Yes I_I do, but, in his words, ‘how can one rule the people, if they do not know the people?’.”

Joyce smiles, “Touché, that’s a very good question.”

–

Being 100% honest, this is not what he thought would come of his conversation with Joyce. She really took the ‘not knowing the people’ part literally, and now here he was at a garden party not two days later, Steve bouncing between groups of people, smiling, tall, bright, and handsome, Prince Charming himself. In a pastel pink suit no less.

Chrissy caught him gawking, “Ah, so this is the unfortunate object of your affections?”

“Rude. Why are my affections unfortunate?”

Chrissy shrugs, giving him a shit eating grin.

He’d invited his good friend Lady Cunningham to accompany him, hoping to introduce her to Steve; help out with his ‘knowing the people’ any way he can. Chrissy was very influential to the affairs of dignitaries of all walks, she was sweet and charming and hadn’t met a single person she’d not got on with. Not even his father could resist her charms and consistently berated Eddie for not “hitching his wagon to that one”.

“And to think I was going to marry you.” Eddie shook his head and got an elbow to the ribs.

“Shut up, E! Someone will hear you and think it’s real.” Chrissy whispers, “You know people have already started ‘shipping’ us because you refuse to ask anyone else to be your date to these kinds of events.”

“You’re the one who keeps accepting!” He whispers back. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you’d want all this for real.” Eddie gestures to himself and waggles his eyebrows at her.

Chrissy’s loud laugh calls the attention of almost the whole garden, some people hiding their own laughter when she starts snorting.

“Steve, look who’s here.” Nancy nudged him in the ribs with her sharp elbow

Steve turned and followed her line of sight, and there, at the entrance of the gardens, with an absolutely stunning woman on his arm, was Eddie.

“Ah. That his…girlfriend?”

Someone scoffed behind them, and they turned to look. It was a passing guest grabbing hors d'oeuvres from the table. “Edmund doesn’t have girlfriends. He has ‘dates’.” The guest looked up at the two, seeming to realize who he was talking to when he did. At the sight of the two royals in front of him, he blanched, and quickly scurried off.

“Well then…Shall we?” Nancy asked, wrapping her hand into the crook of Steve’s arm.

“Shall we what?”

“Say hello, of course.” She started off toward the other couple, pulling him along despite his protests. She was damn strong and ignored him, knowing he would come along at the very least just to make sure he doesn’t make a scene.

Suddenly, they were stopped and Steve dared to look forward, taking in the couple before him.

The woman was indeed stunning; a petite thing, especially next to Eddie’s tall build. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and it was wrapped in an emerald green bow that perfectly matched her dress.

Eddie’s curls were pulled back into a bun, a few soft tendrils pulled out around his face. The white suit Eddie was wearing suited him just as well as any of his all black ensembles did, and Steve couldn’t help but notice that the suit paired with his pastel pink button-up was the exact inverse of Steve’s own pastel pink suit and white undershirt.

“Well don’t you two look nice!” Eddie’s date mused, giving a bright grin. “I’m Lady Christine Cunningham, but please, call me Chrissy.”

She extended her hand to Nancy first, who took it “Nancy, very nice to meet you Chrisy.”

“Hello, Lady Christine, thank you for coming.” Steve took her hand and brushed a soft kiss to her knuckles in greeting,

“Chrissy, please, your highness.”

“If you’re Chrissy, I’m Steve.” He smiled at her, he always offered this informality, not minding when folks ignored his title, but no one ever took him up on it.

“Very well, Steve.” She grins easily. Wow, that’s a surprise.

“So how do you two know each other?” Nancy asked Eddie, who’d remained quiet so far.

He cleared his throat, “We went to school together, been friends for a long time.” He smirked down at the petite woman beside him. “She’s quite the academic.”

“Really? What was your major?” Steve asked Chrissy

Eddie interrupted, “She actually majored in primary school education, she is looking to become a teacher.”

Not knowing why, Steve felt the need to come in for Nancy’s defense, “That’s amazing Chrissy! You know, Nancy here is currently pursuing her masters in journalism.”

Again, Chrissy looked like she was going to respond when Eddie responded instead, “Your highness, that’s amazing! Chrissy went to our local university, are you attending locally?”

Nancy made a small noise, but Steve was already (admittedly) bragging. “Nancy’s actually completing online courses at Harvard.”

Eddie started saying something else but Steve caught Chrissy trying to say something, so he cut him off “Chrissy is actually trying to say something, yes, Chrissy?”

Giving him an odd look, Chrissy addresses Nancy, “Nancy, I feel like they are just going to continue their “my horse is bigger than your horse debacle”, care to join me for a cup of tea?”

Eddie rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment before Steve can, so he shoves his hands in his pockets and ducks his head to hide the flush to his face. ‘Damn, what the fuck was all that?’

“I thought you’d never ask; let's go find Robin. I’m certain she’ll be better company.” Nancy takes Chrissy’s hand and pulls her back toward the rest of the party “You know, his horse actually is pretty huge..”

There’s a moment of awkward silence and Steve starts to say something to break it when Eddie beats him to it.

“So she knows how big your horse is, does she?” Eddie gives him a sly wink and stalks off towards the palace’s hedge maze.

Steve is stunned, frozen for a good ten seconds before he follows after Eddie.

He’s been through this maze enough times that he knows exactly where he’s going. A fact that Eddie doesn’t seem to know, because he calls back out to Steve from not that far ahead “Better get moving, Stevie, don’t want to be caught by the minotaur.”

Steve’s mind is instantly flooded with a myriad of confusing feelings about Eddie calling him Stevie, but then is almost laughs at that minotaur comment, ‘What a fucking dork’ he finds himself thinking.

He catches up to Eddie as they enter the center of the maze, where a huge fountain sits right in the middle. It’s not fully on at the moment, but is usually spraying extra decorative spouts of water in addition to the column in the center.

“How dare you insinuate anything having to do with my private life.” he growls at the back of Eddie’s head.

Eddie throws a sly smile to Steve over his shoulder “I’m not insinuating anything, Your Highness; well, only that she’s met Sandy.”

Steve splutters. ‘Ah fuck, he’s got me there.’

Eddie spins and stalks backward instead. “But judging by your response, I don’t think I have to infer anything about that part of you anymore, now do I Stevie?” giving Steve an appraising look up and down.

Steve’s face turns beet red, fucking hell. He rolls his eyes and looks away, acting like he isn’t flustered by the thought of Eddie knowing what he’s working with. He stops walking when Eddie does, right at the edge of the stone fountain and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Wouldn't you like to know..” he grumbles under his breath.

There’s a pause before: “Maybe I do.”

Steve’s head snaps up and there is no snarky smile, no malice in Eddie’s face. Only a shy hint of a smile and bright red cheeks.

“Well tough shit.” Steve is pissed. How dare this man make him have feelings for him, crush him, then he wants to return them? Fuck that bullshit. “You could have known all about me, known all about what I'm working with, but you and that snake of a father had other plans.”

Eddie’s eyes widen and his smile drops; good, he knows exactly what Steve is trying to confess then.

“It could’ve been you, Eddie.” Steve says quietly, thinking he might as well spell it out. “I really thought we connected and I happen to feel like we could’ve been great together.” The images he’d conjured back when Nancy had asked him if he could see himself with Eddie flash behind his eyes. “You know, Nancy asked me once if I could see myself with you.”

“She did?” Eddie’s voice is whisper-quiet.

Steve nods, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I told her how I had fallen head over heels for you during your damn lie dance,” Eddie’s short chuckle at that sounded wet, and when Steve looked up, there were tears swimming in the older man’s eyes.

“Then she asked. I told her no. But that was a damn dirty lie because I could picture it so clearly, Eddie.”

Eddie’s mouth drops open in surprise, but Steve cuts him off before he can mutter a single syllable.

“Don’t worry, I stuffed all those pictures into the back of a drawer up here,” Steve taps his temple, his anger coming back into his voice. “But I can’t risk seeing them ever again so I’m going to burn them. Wipe them from my mind forever.” Another lie, he’s going to hold onto those as long as he damn well pleases, but he doesn’t have to know that.

“I am engaged to be married to a wonderful woman who supports me as I am, and will be there to support me when I take over the throne from my Aunt.” Steve mimes wiping his hands together then shaking them off, boring his sight into the depths of Eddie’s wide eyes. “I’m wiping my hands of you, Edmund Muñoz. You will be a pain in my side until coronation, then after that, it will be as if you never existed.”

He turns to leave, feeling both lighter and weighed down after his confession. Lighter knowing that Eddie now knows his feelings, but weighed down knowing he lied to him about wanting to be rid of him.

“Steve, wait!“ Eddie grabbed his elbow and for some reason, Steve let himself be whirled around and into Eddie’s embrace, chest to chest, heart to pounding heart.

From the look on the taller man’s face, he hadn’t expected them to end up so close either, but as soon as Steve was in his embrace, both men immediately lost every thought in their heads. They both started leaning forward and closer to the inevitable until finally, finally, their lips brushed together.

Steve let his eyes droop, heavy-lidded while they were drawing closer, but now, he closed them and every other sense off in order to take in only the man in front of him. Pressed himself fully to Eddie. Eddie, whose lips were soft on his in even this, barely a breath of a kiss. Eddie, whose arms he fit into like they were made only for each other. Eddie, whose large, warm hands traveled up Steve’s arms to cup his jaw with the softest touch imaginable.

There was no way he was ever going to recover from this.

Steve reveled in the kiss for the longest moment he could. He let himself feel the fireworks in their touch, the lights of the same bursting behind his eyelids, never to be seen again; he allowed himself this for a single fleeting moment, then forced himself to come back to his senses. Even when the flame in his heart for the man currently holding him like he was precious, grew to an overwhelming size and temperature.

“Mph–what the hell are you doing?” Steve pushed Eddie off of him, the other man looking just as stunned in what just happened, what was currently happening. Then, as if seeing it in slow motion, Steve registered Eddie’s face morphing into panic as they both realized at the same time that he was now tripping and falling backwards towards the pool at the bottom of the fountain.

“Oh shit, Eddie!” Steve lunged forward and was able to wrap his arms around Eddie’s waist, but it was too late. The momentum of Eddie’s fall had them both falling, right into the frigid waters.

Steve fell half onto Eddie, and half directly onto one of the spouts for the fountain’s water show. The spout jabbed directly under the ribs on his left side, and punched the breath out of his lungs. He took in a mouthful of water and shot himself up out over the surface of the pool.

Hacking, coughing, side hurting, and feeling like he was going to hurl, Steve managed to catch something coming from the man beside him.

“—ou alright?”

Steve took a wet, shuddering breath and stood shakily, stepping carefully out of the fountain before he responded. “How about you stay underwater and I’ll count to a million?”

“Stevie—“

“No!” he spun around and winced at the pain in his side, clutching at it over the suddenly more see-through material of his suit.

For a moment, he was taken aback by the sight of Eddie. Sitting in the pool, the majority of his curls now free from their bun, sopping wet and hanging from his head, plus the pained expression he wore made him look like a kitten that's been left out in the rain.

Now his heart hurts, along with his side.

“No, Edmund, you stay here and figure out why you think it’s okay to go around kissing people; specifically engaged people.” he turned on his heel and hurried back through the hedges toward the party.

“Steve! Stevie, wait, you’re hurt!” He could hear the splashing and sloshing as Eddie got himself out of the water as fast as he could, but he didn’t turn back. Couldn’t turn back.

Steve steps into the light outside the hedges and nearly crashes into Dustin.

“Steve? What happened?”

“Doesn’t matter, help me inside?”

“Sure, no problem man, are you okay?” He could see that Steve was clutching his side, and probably could see something in his expression in addition to his soaked appearance.

“Honestly Dusty? I don’t think so.”

They walked along in silence for a moment, luckily not running into many people on their way toward the palace. Until they reached the end of the gardens.

“Steve? What are you–”

“Aunt Joyce, you don’t want to know.”

Her gaze swept over him and settled on his face. The fire behind her eyes told him otherwise.

“Head inside and get cleaned up, I will meet you after supper.”

Steve only nodded, and Dustin sent in a call over his mic as they started in. “Sparrow returning to the birdhouse; Eagle remains in the yard.” Giving him an appraising look, he also calls “Inform Robin of Sparrow’s whereabouts; she will pass it to Owl.” before asking “You think it’s a bad idea for Robin’s callsign to be Robin?”

“I think it’s hilarious actually.”

–

“Stephan, you tell me right this instant what your exact feelings are for Lord Muñoz.”

Steve had gone to wait in Joyce’s suite after they’d finished supper, knowing he’d want to get this done and over with sooner than later.

“You are found in a closet with a man who is not your betrothed, come out of a fountain dripping wet with the same man who is not your betrothed? What kind of message is this sending to the people, to Parliament? We are supposed to be on top of things around here.”

“I don’t know what to tell you Aunt Joyce, it’s not like I plan for these things to happen.” Steve huffs.

“Start talking Stephan.” Joyce sits in front of him with her cup of tea and waits.

He thinks it over. It could be so easy to tell her (and tell himself) that he doesn’t have any feelings for Edmund, that he’d left them there with the same man in that damn fountain. It should be easy to do so. Lie to himself now and make himself believe it.

But he can’t.

Even with as much as he wants to, Robin’s words and Eddie’s actions tell him that he and Eddie both had feelings for each other. Have feelings for each other.

“Oh Steve, honey.”

Joyce’s words snap him out of it and he realizes tears have started falling from his eyes. ‘Why the hell am I so emotional lately?’ he thinks to himself.

“It’s been a very stressful couple of weeks darling, I can assume that’s why.” Joyce sits beside him and wraps her arms around him.

“I said that out loud didn’t I?” he returns Joyce’s embrace, sinking into it fully.

“You did, yes.”

“Joyce…I am head over heels for him. I don't know how I can make it stop.”

She holds him and rubs his back comfortingly for a minute or two.

“Steve, honey, I can’t tell you what to do. No one can. I can only tell you what you already know.”

“That I have to keep parliament happy if I want to become King.”

She’s quiet again and continues rubbing circles into his back. “I will support you no matter what, honey, remember that.”

“Thank you, Aunt Joyce.”

She pats his back and sits up tall again, "Now try to get some sleep, you'll want to look your best for the Independence Day parade tomorrow.”

Steve heaves a deep sigh. "I will try.”

Chap. 7 here!

Yay tags!: @henderdads @steveshairychest @sidebarre @resident-gay-bitch @kaspurrcat @melkene @livewondrousss @sadcanadianwinter @steddieasitgoes @mightbeasleep @princessstevemunson @totallybitchin @potentialheartofdarkness

#princess diaries au #steddie princess diaries au #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #nancy wheeler #joyce byers #dustin henderson #steve x eddie #st #stranger things #st fic #stranger things fic #princess diaries #stephan artur harrington-renaldi #lord edmund munoz

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buzzybee3 · 3 months ago

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I’ve been on a trip in Mexico. I now have ideas for a chapter. Might just rearrange it for keeping it cleaner but just- the bois-

This is very long. Encapsulated two weeks of my life. Read at your own risk.

(Tw for almost throwing up. Fish carcass. (Unrelated) And a few other questionable but not really things.)

Greenhouse au ideas

•Going to Guadalajara. Also reader has larger family/ is traveling with a large group for the first half. And yes they are technically Hispanic. Or in non Hispanic terms, you passed Spanish class.

- On the first day you buy a bracelet because it reminds you of sun and he is ecstatic. Later you buys one that reminds you of moon.

- There is a swimming pool that is see through so it looks like an aquarium tank.

- You swim there with family/group. Boys watch and have fun. (100% dressed in the outfits sun-e-chips made for their waterspark au) You pretend to be a mermaid. Sorta. You raced some people one on one and lucky you, you won like 50% of the time! Almost drowned at some point but you tried to make sure the boys didn’t realize. They did. That was a fun night. (No it wasn’t)

- The next day you buy a cowboy hat, a leather belt, some leather boots, and a phone holder to attach to the belt, also made of leather. Sun had a field day with that. And then bought all the same things to match, and you love it.

- they go to the beach and you swim in the waves. That day you end up only spending half of the day in the water. When the sun goes down there’s a thunderstorm and sun almost dies trying to get your attention to get you out of the water (yes he is sorta water resistant but he got scared for your safety and you were relaxing too much.

- The next day you all end up going to crab island. The water is clear there and you swim for a few minutes but you hate it because there are a ton of crabs.

- When you go back to the beach you end up brushing along something, it happens a lot, so you pick it up to see what it is and it’s a fish carcass, half of it at least. The tail. 30 minutes later your sister/close female friend finds the exact same carcass.

- It’s horrifying. You end up staying in the water until sundown.

- They go to Islan del Río Nayarit and climb cristo Rey (you die lmao)

- There’s a kid on the way up in one of the houses. Your mom/some older women, asks if he can help them the way up. He says ‘if you don’t kidnap me I’ll help you!’

- This makes you and sun laugh because no one here has need for more or any kids.

- There are a ton of cats.

- (The climb back down they are very worried because your legs are shaky. Shouldn’t have tried to show off your strength climbing a mountain, Jesus.)

- On the trip from cristo Rey to tequila they are trapped in the car for hours but the air is fine. They are in a giant bus/car thing. It fits 19 people not including the driver, plus all of their suitcases so there’s a good amount of space.

- Los dos carnales by el envidioso plays in the background while you start to focus on what’s happening. Around the end of the song someone make it louder so it feels like the intro to a movie. The three of you (you, sun and moon) joke about that.

- We move to a different bus but forget to say bye to the og driver.

- You thinks about him (no not og driver. He will be revealed later in the story) But are reminded that you have sun and moon now. And are happy. Because there are no seatbelts you sit with the boys. They are your seatbelt.

- For the last 9 days they stay at European lifestyle hotel, there are three separate rooms but sun/moon charge in your room for the nights. Cosy.

- They go to ride horses on the third day at the hotel. In Guadalajara in a park with a castle and Japanese gardens called bosque los Colomos.

- The next day you go to Ahihi and Chapala, and buy a moonchim that reminds you of moon with elephants on it.

- In Tonalá you finds a giant fan for only 75 pesos and manage to barter it slightly to make it 70. Its huge. You are very elated.

- In San Juan de Dios, there are tons of artisan shops. Sun finds an apron of loteria that says ‘El Sol’ and buys it without a second thought.

- In same location: man comes up to their group, asking if they want a phone charger that does massages. Goes to the first person (dad/older man in the group) and places it on his shoulder/ back and then the second person too (little brother or Gregory) before getting to you and retracting his arm. Maybe it was your glare or sun’s ‘touch her if you dare look’ but something deterred him.

- Later on in the day everyone goes to the center of Guadalajara and some women does the same thing but they get to you first. Sun is enraged because it makes you scared (you jump and are very embarrassed) and he knows you don’t like touch that you don’t expect. But he manages to smile at the women and tell her ‘we don’t need any’. Mutters afterwards that he’s plenty good at massaging. It makes you laugh (but he’s being serious).

- You sees a dress shop that will make a custom dress for her while on their walk. You really want it but alas it’s around 750 US dollars and therefore too much for you to pay for. Sun and moon are really touchy the next few hours, hugging your waist and sometimes it’s funny or weird for some reason, your hips or even your chest but you don’t think too much on it. They disappear for a few minutes (almost a good hour) the next day while your group is at the the Guadalajara center again. (They are planning something).

- You find a fruit cupshop while they are gone and buy some mangos. Best damn mangos you’ve ever eaten.

- Later of the day of the first disappearance, your group goes to Tlaquepaque (sun and moon are not left behind). When taking a photo in front of the sign you laugh softly because of a kid who is messing around and ask him is he’s taking the photo with you guys. The kid runs and both you and sun laugh. While taking the photo you both stand next to the A because it has sun and moon decals yippee.

- Same day you do the shock game with your family and sun is horrified that humans do this for fun. You enjoy yourself, and get very shocked. You make it to level 5 in the group one but then you go by yourself and it’s much… much worse. You still make it to 5 but you can’t move your arms and sun is still very worried for your safety and also notes, sort of, that you have a lack of self preservation skills.

- The next day they go to Mazamitla. You go to pet tigers and do tons of crazy things like:

- Sun thinks you’re crazy. Notes that you 100% have lack of self preservation skills.

- You guys are in a very precarious van. It’s taking you on this tour. Seats held up by rope and very dirty. You have fun with all the giant divits in the ground as the rickety bus drives. You think it’s very entertaining. Sun is once again horrified. (Even more notes for lack of self preservation)

- Then you go on a zip line while there’s rain. Sun is not happy and goes in the car with you guys. Wearing a coat of course. The truck is rickety and worse, you and everyone else going on the zipline are in the trunk. You meet some very nice, very funny people(Sun is not amused by them) Sofia-Sofie 15, Miguel-migi 17, Viviana-Vivi 17, Alya-Aly 15, and two others who you don’t get the names of but they are both 27 years old.

- (Yes I met these randos in the trunk car ride up the mountain in freezing cold pelting rain. Nothing was gonna stop me from going on that zipline.)

- At some point the rain gets so bad that you all have to wait inside the car smooshed together. Very interesting and smelly but you manage to make it up the mountains by foot to the zip lines.

- The first one is slower, you get more of a view. Holding onto the rope that is attached to you. You almost miss catching the persons hand at the end and almost get stuck further away, when sun arrives (because of course he had to get on now that it was raining) he insists on going first on the second one. The second one goes so fast it sounds like a helicopter. You get specific instructions to hold on to the metal and hang with your legs facing as forward as possible. You get scared and focus more on getting the signal ti let go of the metal, that you miss seeing everything. You see sun at the end though. Very clear yellow against the dark green background.

- When you make it to the end Sun catches you by the waist, holding onto the precarious stairs/platform up in the trees instead of taking your hand, insisting that he didn’t want you to get stuck again.

- Very embarrassing for you yes (and also you blush but we ain’t talking about that) but his mechanical heart was in the right place. He helps you down by sort of lifting you and hurriedly taking your helmet off, knowing that you were gonna be late for your ride, the poorly held together bus. Staying inside of the truck sorta made you behind because it was raining so much.

- You take off the harness as fast as possible. A 4 year old being the one to take your things. It’s a surprise but you follow her instruction and within the minute, sun is carrying you slightly towards the bus. (He doesn’t want you stepping in mud, such a gentleman)

- When you reach the bus, it has a tarp over the windows to protect people from the harsh rain.

- The bus driver sings songs all the way down the mountain which sun, and you, are concerned about because he was also driving.

- He sings 3 songs, very nicely might you add, you wonder why he’s a bus driver. Sun sings to some, obviously accessing the internet to do so and somehow sings in Spanish… (he was fishing for compliments 100% because he didn’t like that you were complimenting the driver so much)

- When you guys get off the bus it’s pouring so hard you can’t go anywhere. You enter Mia’s boutique to get a better sweater, because yours is not meant for rain. You end up just getting a poncho but sun gets one too. You joke about him riding horses now will make him look like an actual cowboy.

- You eat at a random restaurant, ordering a beef hamburger with fries and sit at a two seater with Sun. You eat your fries first happily, and start to drink your lemonade before taking a bite of your hamburger and making a face before setting it down. Getting embarrassed you tell sun you’d rather not eat it because it tasted really strange. Sun scans it and says it’s a mix of pork and beef apparently. Great.

- You go to get a crepe instead. Enjoying it despite the overtly sweet strawberry tinge flavoring. You asked for chocolate… oh well.

- As you eat it you slowly have a harder time swallowing being the flavor is just not agreeing with your taste buds.

- By your last big bite you almost throw up. The bile rises through your throat as you desperately try to keep it all in. It works but sun notices and takes you to the side. Holding you to let you sit on the bench without getting wet (because of the rain) and talks to you about stuff.

- He asks why you tried to finish it even if you knew you didn’t like the flavor. You refrain from telling him about how you were used to always finishing/ being forced to finish your food even if it meant throwing up, and you instead tell him It was just expensive so you didn’t want to waste money. The best lie is the truth after all and that was part of the reason you finish it.

- On the trip back to the car you trip slightly. Sun try’s to catch you even though you don’t fall and the position that leaves you in is very fun! (Once again no. Mud sucks)

- The ride back to the hotel you sleep together in the back of the car, (family/friends are driving) very relaxing 10/10 experience.

- The showers have been having issues, very hot then very cold, but at this point you are used to it.

- Next day you go on a new tour bus. First stop was to Vicente Fernandez’s ranch and pet a ton of horses and see so many new cool flowers that you 100% are adding to the greenhouse.

- Then you go to a tequila factory.

- You taste 5 separate flavors of the 7 being served. All of them you hated. White, peach, mango, coffee, and one other that you don’t remember the name of.

- You don’t feel uneasy or sick at all afterwards. Yay you’re not a lightweight go Mexican genes.

- Then you go at a nice restaurant back in Ahihi. (I don’t think I spelled it right)

- Then on a boat ride on a very questionable boat. You live, but have anxiety about sinking the whole time.

- Then you go to Chapala. You buy a sunflower cowboy hat because it reminds you of Sun.

- Then you buy another Sun related thing, a yellow jar with sand and tiny trinkets inside.

- Now you need to get two moon related things. It’s only fair of course.

- You start to run out of time.

- You don’t end up finding moon things. And see ultimately upset about that. Sun and moon were fine but you still felt really bad about that. It meant a lot to the both that you were so upset about it not being fair though.

- Then you remember you bought the moon wind chime so almost all is forgiven for yourself.

- This time on the way back you end up falling asleep so moon stays with you awake until it’s time.

- You guys end up back at Guadalajara center.

- You start going to the area with the yummy fruit and pass by a clown show. The one from the first week.

- You don’t know how you end up in the situation but one clown is waiting in front of you while everyone chants “beso! Beso”

- You end up saying ‘lo siento pero no me gustan los payasos. Prefiero los jistes.’ (Im sorry but im not into clowns, I prefer jesters)

- Sun/moon are pleased and the crowd goes ‘ahh’ disappointed

- You give sun/moon a kiss on their faceplate and the crowd goes ‘aww’ happily.

- You go buy another mango cup because it’s so yummy, and sun and moon are amused you get it from the same spot as you did only days earlier.

- Second to last day you go back to Guadalajara center and find a necklace that has a moon on it and you are ecstatic. Balance has been restored.

- You go back to the mango shop and learn that the magos they use are Kent mangos? THe most amazing mango’s you’ve ever had that’s for sure.

- Last day at your hotel you start going over everything. Everything you have gets packed into 3 suitcases and 2 duffle bags.

- Sun had a ton of stylish outfits because of course he did, the diva 😒.

- Then he presets the dress he bought. 725 US dollars. Because he knew you really wanted it. You practically cry as you hug and and thank him over and over again.

- You buy a doughnut from Krispy kream at the airport.

- The riee in the airplane is fun, it leaves at 11:30 and lands at 1:55.

- You draw the whole way back. Sun is… he finds the art to be flustering. Because you drew someone’s human sun design getting pulled into a kiss with your self insert. You thought it was funny because sun was right next to you and you wanted to mess with him.

- You almost throw up on the descent because you get dizzy for no reason. It takes 10 minutes for the nausea to go away and sun is worried the entire time.

- When you get home you hardly recognize anything but after you eat lunch you literally forget you even went on a trip.

- You shower and then sun asks if you’ll try the dress on. So you do.

- It’s perfect. The inside was comfortable and soft, and it matched the theme for your greenhouse perfectly.

- When you leave the room you go show sun he is stunned silent.

- You just found the perfect outfit for the opening of your greenhouse.

#buzzywrites #sun fnaf #moon fnaf #literally just drabbles #but i mean cmon #now i need to see sun and moon going on a trip with reader.#sun x reader #moon x reader #fnaf daycare attendant #dca x reader #forgive me #theres way more sun stuff than moon #because these things happen during the day and well..

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alexeiadrae · 2 years ago

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Mega Brand Q&A with Hajime Kanzaka 1/2021 to 6/2021, translated

So if Naga and Amelia ran into each other and had their faces covered and fought, would they recognize each other by their fighting style?

06/2021 Q: How much weight can the spell of "levitation" levitate? It would be useful if we could float the bed of a wagon stuck in the mud. Can you lift the whole house and move?

KANZAKA: This will change depending on the person's affinity with the attribute and magical power, so I can't say it unconditionally, "Even if you are inexperienced, it is OK if you weigh up to about 100 kg including your own weight."

Naturally, people who are inexperienced and weigh more than 100 kg cannot be lifted by this technique. If you're a user, you can lift a small horse-drawn carriage, but it's impossible to lift a weight as heavy as a house. Even if it were possible, the pillars and walls of the house would not have structural connections.

Q: In the world of Slayers, there are dragons that act like animals and dragons that have intelligence like golden dragons. From the point of view of the golden dragon, is the former dragon something like a monkey to humans? Or is it because they can't understand each other's language, so they just behave roughly when interacting with humans?

KANZAKA: "I wouldn't go so far as to call him a monkey, but if I had to say he'd be more like that. Rather than distinguishing between races, there is also a difference in intelligence between individuals, so dragons will not be discriminated against simply because of what color they are.”

Q: About Lina. How do you store valuables such as treasures and magic items? It seems difficult to move while in the cloak, but there were times when you couldn't get it back even if you put it in your luggage. What happened when you were being chased by the enemy in a situation where you couldn't exchange money?

KANZAKA: Of course, if I decide it's necessary, I'll throw it out and run away. Basically, I don't take unnecessary risks by sticking to such treasures.

05/2021

Q: Are the "spirit kings" and "tyrant kings" in the "powerful words" of spirit magic "named" high-ranking beings like the dragon kings and the five demonic lieutenants? I would appreciate it if you could answer my question. Thank you in advance.

KANZAKA: "The name is only an image. There is not a being named "Spirit King."

Q: I have a question about Gorun Nova. We are aware that Gorun Nova was brought into the world of Lina and her colleagues by someone and customized so that it can be handled by humans. Does that mean that someone can cross between different worlds? The Dark Lord sent Gorun Nova back to the original world, and the Demon Lord of the North summoned (created?) a talisman with the power of the Demon Lords of other worlds. Does this mean that such a thing is possible for some higher level of being? If that is the case, could it be that there are relics brought in from other worlds besides Gorun Nova? I am also curious as to how Gorun Nova first came into human hands. Was it taken half-heartedly by a demon that had some other purpose at the time, like when the talisman was given to Lina from Xellos, or was it given to humans to carry out its purpose? If that is the case, it seems strange that the Dark Lord does not seem to know how it happened, but perhaps he is simply not interested. I also fantasize about the possibility that there are ways to obtain otherworldly beings through human hands, but that it is a lost-technology kind of thing.

KANZAKA: "It is a situation where it was brought into the Slayers world half by accident and half by chance, rather than being brought in by someone with a clear intention. In that sense, it would not be surprising if something else came to that world. I'm not going to go into the details here, because I'll just say so and forget about it.

Q: The sword of light was returned to its original world by Fibrizo in volume 8. I think this is only the hilt, but what happened to the other parts (the temporary blade, sheath, and needle for dismantling)?

KANZAKA: "The temporary blades and needles were not brought from another world, so they are still in Gourry's possession.”

04/2021

Q: Can Blast Bomb, Dragon Slave Guard magic, and Enhanced Megabrands used by Copy Rezo be used by the original Rezo as well? Or is the above magic a benefit of magical synthesis and cannot be used even by original Rezo?

KANZAKA: "Not all magic, but there are some magic that only Copy Rezo can use. Even though the original Rezo was inhabited by the Demon King, it did not exceed the limits of human beings prior to its awakening. In contrast, there are some techniques that Copy Rezo can use by taking advantage of the increased magical power they have gained through body modification."

Q: Zel learned "healing" from Amelia, but did Zel ask Amelia to teach him this? Or did Amelia ask to teach him? If it was Zel who asked her, what was his reason for wanting to learn and why did he ask Amelia and not his old friend Lina? If Amelia approached him, why did she approach him and why did Zel respond?

KANZAKA: "Until then, Zel had almost never been in a situation where he himself was injured, but as long as he was working with Lina and her friends, he decided that it would be more convenient to be able to use recovery magic in case his friends were injured. He asked Amelia because she is the expert when it comes to recovery magic."

Q: Has Amelia gotten bigger since she was with Lina and the others? Is she going to get bigger from now on? I didn't feel much change in volume 16 because my nostalgic feelings took precedence, but even though she has changed somewhat, will she grow to rival Naga in terms of height, chest circumference, and human capacity?

KANZAKA: "I think she has grown somewhat taller. However, it is not as if she has grown visibly, since it is not as if a great deal of time has passed since she was created. I think she has been educated as royalty, so I hope she will become a person of large capacity in a different direction from Naga."

03/2021

Q: Left-handed people are in the minority in modern Japan, but what about in the world of Lina and her friends? Are any of the major characters left-handed?

KANZAKA: "Basically, left-handed people are a minority in that world as well. Furthermore, since items for left-handed people are not sold as they are today, most of them are forced to become right-handed when they are children. Some families, such as those of knights who can afford it, may be raised left-handed because it gives them an advantage in actual battle.

Gourry and Zel are at least trained to handle weapons with their left hand in case of emergency, but they are not necessarily left-handed."

Q: Dark Star, Chaotic Blue, and Death Fog are from other worlds that are glimpsed in the main story. Between the four demon kings and Shabranigdu is there any spiritual interaction or connection of any kind? Or do they have only enough in common to be mentioned in the book, and they don't interfere with each other and seem to be independent?

KANZAKA: "Basically, there is no mutual interference. If they wanted to, they could at least communicate with each other, but they don't have the will to do so. To use a human analogy, let's talk to a stranger on the first floor of the apartment complex in the next town! I don't have the desire to do that."

Q: Have Amelia and Naga ever met in a sibling rivalry or in the name of testing each other's abilities? If yes, (and I know they don't meet in each medium), have the two ever confronted each other under cover of their identities? Can they notice each other like Gourry as he noticed Luke and Lina as she noticed Zel?

KANZAKA: "There has never been a fight between sisters or hand-to-hand combat, etc. If they fight with their face shapes hidden, Naga will notice Amelia, but Amelia will probably not notice Naga. If anything, she might even hear Naga's high pitched laugh and not notice."

02/2021

Q: In Slayers Volume 8, Fibrizo reduced the bodily functions of Amelia and Zelgadis in order to alter their sense of time, but was this possible because they had Fibrizo inside their bodies? Or is it possible for demons to interfere that much from the outside if they are dealing with humans?

KANZAKA: "They had Fibrizo in their body, so it was through interference from there. But it is also possible to control it by causing a drop in external temperature or misinterpretation of visual information. I believe it was a synthesis of those means."

Q: Question about age. Who is older, Milgazia or Xellos? Also, I have the impression that the demons above Xellos are stronger in the order of their existence first, is that right? Is there an order, first son, second son, youngest son? If so, are they stronger in that order? Or did they exist at the same time? Are they equally powerful? What do you think?

KANZAKA: "Milgazia-san is slightly older than Xellos. The first born is not necessarily stronger, since the subordinates are different based on what concept they were created for."

Q: I heard that Lina is famous among the demons, but why didn't Xellos tell his friends what Lina looks like? Even without a picture, I think it would be a good idea to show Lina's appearance, since they can take on human form, so that information can be shared.

KANZAKA: "In the first place, there is no such thing as an all-demons' meeting among the demon tribe, nor do they have a social networking service or anything like that. It is solely hearsay in the form of rumors."

01/2021

Q: I have a question about the spell "Aqua Create" for slayers. Is the water that appears here moved from somewhere by the spirits? Or do you extract the moisture contained in the air at the location? If so, it could be used indoors as an alternative to dehumidification, what do you think?

KANZAKA: "Aqua Create is a spell to collect moisture in the atmosphere. Therefore, as you pointed out, it is a powerful dehumidification spell if used in an airtight room. Also, if it is used repeatedly in an airtight room, the amount of water collected will become smaller and smaller. However, the inhabitants of that world seem to be aware that the spirits bring the water from somewhere."

Q: I remember seeing somewhere that the reason why Slayers characters don't have a birthday is because the calendar is different from this world. So here is my question. Do you have any ideas for a calendar for the Slayers world? Since the concept of "age" seems to exist, it is assumed that the unit of "one year" exists...For example, I would like to know if there is a concept of a "month" that is shorter or longer than 365 days, and if so, how many days are in a month. I would also like to know how many hours are in a day.

KANZAKA: "Although different from this world, there is certainly a calendar in the Slayers world. However, if we set it up strictly, it would create various complications in terms of management, expression, etc. Therefore, we have not set up the details, nor do we intend to do so in the future."

Q: I understand that image training is required to use magic in addition to chanting, but does direct acquaintance with the target of the technique increase the power of the technique or speed up its activation? For example, is there any difference between before and after Lina fights the Shabranigdu?

KANZAKA: "Of course, it is true that it is more advantageous to know the subject well, since the power of the person in question's image is important. However, if we consider how much the act of directly fighting demons deepens the human understanding of demons, the effect is not so great."

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kenokola · 2 months ago

Text

For the reference:

Male Human Noble Warden - Stoic and sometimes kind of aggressive, yet he still does the right thing

Male Mage Hawke - Sarcastic of course, because he’s the best

Male Qunari Inquisitor - Diplomatic, always willing to help others, which comes out as odd considering the view the people of Thedas have about his race

Also, I’ll have them answering as if the three are being interviewed. Picture them sitting on the same big couch, like a talk show.

Your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor's opinion on Orlais?

Warden: I’m not a fan of having to deal with them, but I do appreciate Empress Celene for keeping Morrigan and Kieran under her protection while I was away.

Hawke: I did get away with murdering Duke Prosper with no repercussions and I would rather not tempt fate with Orlais ever again. They are pretty good at holding grudges.

Inquisitor: Even after the Winter Ball, I still don’t think I get those people that much.

Are they skilled in The Grand Game?

Warden: No

Hawke: Fuck no

Inquisitor: The people of Orlais must believe that I am better than I really am, but not every night you will be served on a silver plate everything you need to blackmail three of the most powerful people in Orlais, with the extra help of the Venatori.

Opinion on blood magic?

Hawke: The tool of the weak. Nothing good ever comes from it

Inquisitor: I share the sentiment

Warden: If Morrigan has taught me something, is that there’s not evil magic, only evil mages

Attitude towards Andrastianism?

Warden: I was raised as an Andrastian, and I pretty much maintain my faith, but I’m not what you would call a devoted believer.

Hawke: I still try to be a proper Andrastian, for my mother and Bethany’s memory

Inquisitor: I wasn’t raised under any form of religion. If you would ask me what I do believe in, it is to respect other people’s beliefs.

Attitude towards the Chantry?

Hawke: They could have prevented the mage-templar war if they would have gotten their heads out of their asses for just a little bit, and it pisses me off to even say this because it makes me partially agree with Anders.

Inquisitor: There’s still good people in the Chantry that want to do good. I just hope Leliana can lead them in the good direction now that she’s the Divine.

Warden: That would be a refreshing sight, because for too long they have been more worried about themselves than anything else.

Attitude towards the Qun?

Warden: I wouldn’t want to have to fight Sten in the future

Hawke: Same, I think one Arishok is enough for a lifetime. How about you Inquisitor?

Inquisitor: Never been part of the Qun and I’m happy with that. I’ve heard enough from both my parents and my old mercenary company to give me a clear enough picture.

If they had to choose one person most important to them, who would that be?

Warden: You are asking me to pick either Morrigan or Kieran. Fuck you.

Hawke: Varric, but please don’t publish that. Carver is going to get mad at me again.

Inquisitor: Cassandra.

Who do they hate the most, and do they have an arch-nemesis?

Hawke: Maybe in another time I would have picked Corypheus, but now he’s dead. Thanks for that Inquisitor.

Inquisitor: You’re welcome

Warden: I’m too good at putting down my enemies to ever get an arch-nemesis.

What is their love language?

Warden: You won't see neither Morrigan and I using pet names or fanciful words. We see what we want, and take it. It works for us

Hawke: I’m just terrible with relationships

Inquisitor: Cassandra likes the ideal. Poetry, candles, flowers. She’s a very romantic girl. Wait, I shouldn’t have said that. Don’t publish it!

Are they good horse riders?

Warden: Yes, my father taught me.

Hawke: Good enough. Kirkwall is not very horseriding friendly city to begin with.

Inquisitor: I’m good, and you can’t go wrong with Dennet’s steeds.

What are their religious beliefs, if any?

Warden: Didn’t you ask this question before? I said I’m Andrastian

Hawke: Yeah, same

Inquisitor: I already answered as well.

Attitude towards Mabari?

Warden: They are the best

Hawke: They are the best

Inquisitor: I wish I have one :(

Their thoughts on the Grey Warden order?

Inquisitor: Ok, apologies to you Hero of Ferelden. I do think that the Grey Wardens can be a noble order, but they are so focused on their mission against the Darkspawn that they are not able to see the trees from the forest.

Hawke: Can’t disagree on that.

Warden: Hey, do you see me upset? I couldn’t believe how stupid they were when I got word of what happened in Adamant Fortress.

Who are they closest to from their family?

Warden: Morrigan and Kieran

Hawke: Carver, but it doesn't mean that much when the only family I have left besides him is my uncle.

Inquisitor: My parents are not here anymore, and the Inquisition became my family.

Preferred weapon of choice?

Warden: Sword and shield

Hawke: A staff with a sharp end for stabbing.

Inquisitor: A big two-handed sword

Do they get sentimental about their weapons or armor?

The three at the same time: No

What were they like as a child?

Warden: What you would expect from the second child of the Cousland family. I don’t think they expected that I would be such a good warrior. By the time I was fifteen I could already beat Fergus.

Inquisitor: I demonstrated talents for fighting at a very young age as well. I’m pretty much self taught by observing training grounds from a distance. The people at the Free Marches won't be more welcoming with a qunari just because you're a child.

Hawken: I had to look up after my siblings especially after our father passed away. We liked to go exploring outside of Lothering a lot. You know, no templars out there.

Do they have any irrational fears?

Hawke: Spiders, I admit.

Inquisitor: Oh yeah, that’s what we saw in the Fade back then.

Warden: Wait, you guys don’t like spiders as well?

Are they afraid of death?

Warden: No

Hawke: Kinda

Inquisitor: I’m more afraid of failing someone by being killed.

Where would they like to be buried?

Hawke: Buried? We Andrastian are cremated.

Warden: And I already told Morrigan that if I die first, to cremate me and take my ashes to Castle Cousland.

Inquisitor: Well, even though I’m not Andrastian, I think Cassandra would want me to have a proper service and all. I suppose not doing it wouldn’t look good for the Herald of Andraste.

What is their biggest regret?

Warden: Missing my son’s birth

Inquisitor: Haven

Hawke: Where do I begin?

Have they ever been to Tevinter?

Warden: Not really.

Hawke: Me neither, and I haven’t heard that many good things to want me to visit.

Inquisitor: Dorian has invited me, but I haven’t had the chance yet.

Do they have, or want to have, children?

Warden: I have Kieran

Hawke: I already told you I’m terrible with relationships. Do you think I would be better as a father?

Inquisitor: Can a Qunari and a human procreated to begin with?

What languages can they speak?

Hawke: The common tongue in Thedas

Warden: Same

Inquisitor: That and some Qunlat.

What did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

Warden: I didn’t have any plan, and probably my life would have turned out to be pretty boring.

Hawke: We were a family with two apostates. Our day to day was trying to not get caught doing magic, so as you can see, I was more living in the present than thinking about the future.

Inquisitor: I suppose I would still be working as a mercenary, but despite everything I wouldn’t change what I have now.

Do they get a happy ending?

Warden: I don’t believe in happy endings

Hawke: The fact that I’m still alive after all the shit I’ve been through is enough.

Inquisitor: No until I stop Solas and save him from himself.

This was fun

your canon DA worldstate

as veilguard's premiere comes closer, an ask game with a couple of lore-heavy questions for your warden/hawke/inquisitor — answer for all three in your canon worldstate, or for the protagonist of your choice.

your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor's opinion on Orlais?

are they skilled in The Grand Game?

opinion on blood magic?

attitude towards Andrastianism?

attitude towards the Chantry?

attitude towards the Qun?

if they had to choose one person most important to them, who would that be?

who do they hate the most, and do they have an arch-nemesis?

what is their love language?

are they good horse riders?

what are their religious beliefs, if any?

attitude towards Mabari?

their thoughts on the Grey Warden order?

who are they closest to from their family?

preferred weapon of choice?

do they get sentimental about their weapons or armour?

what were they like as a child?

do they have any irrational fears?

are they afraid of death?

where would they like to be buried?

what is their biggest regret?

have they ever been to Tevinter?

do they have, or want to have, children?

what languages can they speak?

what did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

do they get a happy ending?

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shewhoeatssand · 2 years ago

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General TG characters and what pets they should/shouldn’t have

When I say “general” I mean the ones either from Anteiku or ones that were introduced before :re and aren’t shown to be part of an organization. I’ll do CCG and Aogiri characters later.

Hide - Our favourite blond boy! I think it’d be illegal for me not to let him have a golden retriever. He’d take it on walks to Johoku Chuo park on the weekends, and he’d name it Ethan after the first blond boy in The Blond Boys (the one who performs for the other boys with a ribbon baton).

Kaneki - A house cat. Just an American shorthair or calico from off the side of the road. This cat would probably live a very calm life, sitting on it’s owner’s lap while he reads, before suddenly being thrown into a house with a bunch of strangers and being fed scraps of human meat lol. I think it’d be very therapeutic for Kaneki to have a cat though, and Touka can look after it while Haise is happening.

Touka - A rabbit!! She should absolutely have a rabbit. She already loves rabbits, and I imagine the only reasons she doesn’t have one yet is because she doesn’t have the space, money or time to look after it properly, but if she did, she’d have a rabbit. Heck, she could have multiple rabbits. And she would spoil them rotten too, and buy them cute outfits and take them for walks to shrines and stuff (can you walk a rabbit? I hope you can). Just. Touka with rabbits. It would be amazing.

Tsukiyama - He must have horses. A bunch of them big sprinty bois. I don’t know horses very well, so I can’t tell you exactly which breed of horse he’d own (though I’m pretty sure I remember someone making a post about it!), but let’s say he has multiple horses of a variety of breeds. They’d probably live on a separate property dedicated to his horses, with a lot of land on it for them to explore. Shuu would also take photos of them in beautiful places a lot, and run a blog posting about his horses.

Yoshimura - A cage full of budgies, that would be named after different teas and flowers that Ukina used to like. They’d live upstairs in Anteiku, and be evacuated to Yomo’s shipping container when the CCG came to destroy Anteiku. Yoshimura would probably put pretty potted plants inside their cage for them to investigate every once in a while. I can also see him putting a large tank full of goldfish for the customers to watch inside the shop.

Uta - Another bird. But this time, it’s a big bird. Uta would probably like owning an African Grey bird, because it can be trained to say more words than most birds, and can therefore be used in some of the best pranks. Imagine being a dove, and chasing down a ghoul, but then it disappears around a corner and you hear “quick! He’s over here!”. Then this voice proceeds to lead you around in circles for 20 minutes, before the ghoul you were chasing earlier appears with a bird on his shoulder and kills you while laughing his head off. Typical day for investigators once Uta gets himself a bird.

Roma - Every time I see the name “Roma”, I think of the tomato. Which makes me think of gardening, which makes me think of guinea pigs. Roma would probably own exactly 2 guinea pigs, and they would be called Felony and Misdemeanor, however she would tell most people that they’re called Felix and Missy. She would feed them lettuce from her neighbor’s garden, and join race groups to put them in guinea pig races, then if her guinea pigs ever came last, she would kill everyone at the tournament.

Nishiki - I can’t believe I got this far without remembering Nishiki! He would have a chihuahua that was originally bought for his girlfriend Kimi, but then he ended up taking it for walks instead of her, and then it got really attached to him and now he sleeps next to the chihuahua more often than he sleeps with Kimi. If anyone ever laughs at him for owning a chihuahua, he will flip them inside out and hang them from a telephone pole, which he will make very clear to everyone. Good job Nishiki.

Koma - I can think of two things for Koma - either an entire giant catfish (yes! A whole catfish!) or a squirrel monkey, but I’ll go with the catfish for now because it’s funnier. Originally he wanted a trilobite, but when he found out they didn’t exist anymore he bought a giant catfish instead. Obviously he couldn’t fit the catfish in a regular fish tank, so he took it to a hidden pond in the woods and marked out a trail with a sign that said “Koma’s catfish trail” on it so he could remember where to go. He even put a collar on the catfish with a tracker before leaving it, and sent an Ape to the woods each day to feed it and update him on how the catfish is going. However, the government did not enjoy having a catfish trail that lead to an actual catfish in their forest, so they sent someone to remove it and set it free. So when Koma received news that someone moved his catfish, he tracked them down, brought 50 ghouls to their house, yelled at them for 2 hours, stole their toenails and threatened to kill them if they or another person moved his catfish again. Then he orchestrated a mission to find his catfish, followed the tracker, got his catfish and put it the fuck back because no one moves his goddamn catfish.

Irimi - A black doberman, as a group mascot, and a little pink axolotl that she buys miniature hats for. The hats usually fall off though. She takes the dog for walks in the same park as Hide, so sometimes when they see eachother they have to awkwardly say hello while their dogs yap at eachother very very loudly and attract the attention of everyone around them.

#suddenly felt in the mood to write headcanons yesterday #so now we have pets!!#yayy #sandy speaks #tokyo ghoul #kaneki ken #nagachika hideyoshi #kirishima touka #tsukiyama shuu #kuzen yoshimura #tokyo ghoul uta #roma hoito #nishio nishiki #koma enji #irimi kaya #tokyo ghoul:re #haise sasaki #tg #tokyo ghoul headcanons

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ijustwant2write · 3 years ago

Text

Reconnect-Finn Shelby x Reader

(GIF credit to @peakystitches)

Masterlist

Tags: @captivatedbycillianmurphy @jenepleurepasbaby @amirahiddleston @bloodorangemoonlight @haphazardhufflepuff @mzcrazy2

Requested by anonymous: ‘Hello! May i request an either tommy or finn shelby x reader? (Whicheverr one u think suits best) for this prompt i found: character A and B have been in a longterm relationship and nothing can get in between, until one day something does and they drift away. But then they reconnect emotionally and everything feels like the first time again (first kiss, first meal together etc) 🙏🏼💜 i love ur writing thank u’

Characters: Finn Shelby x Reader, Polly Gray x Reader (platonic)

Meanings: (Y/N)=Your name

Warnings: Swearing, arguing, finance issues, drinking, fluff

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Finn, is that you?" I called out from our bedroom as I heard the front door open. I tensed up when I didn't hear a reply, only to let out a sigh when I heard him giggling.

He was drunk again, it happened almost every week now. Tommy would have given him something important to do for the gang, and whether or not Finn succeeded with that task, he would go out and celebrate with his mates. I would sometimes tag along if I wasn't tired from the week of working, but after seeing our finances, I realised we needed to stop acting like teenagers and start saving wisely.

"Hello my gorgeous girl." he slurred out as he entered the room.

"Hello Finn." I replied as I received a sloppy kiss to my forehead.

He flopped down beside me in bed, taking the book out of my hands and throwing it to the floor. Finn wrapped his arms around me, snuggling into my lap. I took off his hat, stroking back his hair. He was cold from the brisk walk home, causing me to shiver.

“You should have come out tonight." he said.

"I got off work late."

"He kept you again?"

"No, I decided to stay."

"Why? You always say you're tired."

"I'm tired because I'm picking up extra shifts and hours so that we can start saving up for a house."

"I've told you, we don't need to worry about that. Business is good."

"Finn, we're not going to be given the money. We have to earn it."

"Tommy will help us."

"He might help but he won't give us a lot. And even if he did hand us a house, we've got to have enough money for the bills, furniture-"

"It will be fine."

"Finn, we've not even had our wedding yet!"

We had been engaged for half a year. We were wanting to be married sooner, but problems arose with the Peaky Blinders it distracted us both from it, especially since our lives were in danger. I desperately wanted to have enough money for the wedding and house, though it looked like it was going to be one or the other at this point.

"What's wrong with the flat?" Finn now sat up.

"Did you seriously ask me that question? There's only so much I can do to this dump to make it look somewhat liveable. It just doesn't feel like home."

"We'll get the money. Don't worry. Look, look," he took my hands in his,"we will get a house. I promise. And believe me, I want to marry you as soon as I can, there needs to be another ring on that finger. And I need to see my name at the end of yours."

I stupidly believed him. Those adoring eyes I once trusted had lied to me. Finn kept his promise for a week at max, soon breaking it. I didn't mind him going out with friends, we both needed to socialise, I just disagreed with the amount of times he was out and the amount of drinks he was buying each night. He would always offer to get the next round, and although he was a Shelby, the discounts didn't make much difference at the end of the night. I decided I had to go with him to ensure that our money wasn't being poured away, struggling to stay awake for those long nights, and making work even harder every day. It was impossible to keep an eye on him like that.

Usually Finn would tell me if he was going out that night so I wouldn't worry. That stopped too. My mind was never at ease. How did I know he wasn't lying in a ditch somewhere after a job gone wrong? Or what if he was trapped somewhere by a rival gang? I could only rest when he returned, which he always luckily did. I pretended to be asleep, trying to not push him away as he slipped his arms around me, cuddling me for the rest of the night. My patience began to grow thin. I was too scared to speak up about it, worried that we would just end up having an argument. However, I knew we would have to bring it up soon, because our money was only disappearing instead of increasing.

One morning when I was leaving for work, I noticed that the drawer we locked our savings away in was slightly ajar, meaning someone had unlocked it and stupidly left it open. Of course it had to be Finn, no one had broken in during the night. My eyes widened when I saw how much he had taken, enraged that he would think me so foolish. Why would he take the money without asking? What was he using it for?

As I stormed towards the shop, I heard whooping from men in a car further up the street. My face turned into a deep frown when I recognised the car, managing to catch a glimpse of the people in it. They hadn't seen me, and I had to make sure my eyes were deceiving me.

I didn't care about the looks on me as I burst through into the shop, making a beeline for Polly's office. I harshly knocked on the door, entering when she called me.

"(Y/N)? What's wrong?" she asked, a lit cigarette in hand.

"Where's Finn?"

"Off out with his brothers, why?"

"Where are they going?"

"To the races."

I scoffed, placing a hand on my head in defeat.

"Why? What's wrong with that?"

"He told me he would be in the office all day today."

"So? Things change."

"No, he specifically told me that. I never even asked about it. He made a point meaning he didn't want to risk me waltzing in. That means he's hiding something."

"(Y/N), they're only going to bet on horses today. They're mingling."

"They're betting today?!"

She stood, putting a hand on her hip."What am I missing here?"

"Pol, he's using money that we don't have! I need a car, I need to get to him."

"Look, even if my nephew is being the biggest idiot, it's a bad idea to go there."

"Why?"

Her eyes widened."Don't snap at me young lady."

"I'm sorry, I just, I just know he's going to be stupid with what little money we have at the minute."

Polly was silent for a few seconds, and I didn't know if she was just staring me out, trying to make me leave. Perhaps she didn't think it was anything to worry over. But it was to me. She surprised me when she went into one of her drawers, pulling out a set of keys.

"Come on. I'll get one of the girls to call your work, say you're sick."

I tightly clasped my hands together as Polly drove. I was furious, trying to think of what to say to Finn when I got there. He stole our money. He went behind my back, gambling away the money we worked hard to earn. I had never said it, but Finn had it much easier than I did. For one, he worked with family, and although I liked my job, the boss could sometimes be an arsehole; second, he earned a lot more than me, so he was the bigger breadwinner between us, but I worked longer hours. Yes, he was in a gang meaning he had more days where his life was under threat, but he seemed to be having a jolly good time anyway. Really, it wouldn't have mattered who worked longer or harder, or who earned more, it was still our money to spend on our house.

As soon as Polly parked up, I was straight out of the car. She quickly followed grabbing my arm and warning me to not get lost in the crowds. I couldn't make a scene, especially since there could be potential business partners or enemies about. I refrained from rolling my eyes, knowing she was right but also knowing that I would find it extremely hard to not scream at Finn.

Polly guided me to where the men would be, ignoring the shoving and shouting. I wished for her to walk quicker. We swiftly entered the posher boxes, almost stopped by a doorman until his accomplice shut him up. I even heard him whisper 'That's Polly Gray you idiot.', the one time I was glad we had a reputation. She only paused to scan the room for the boys but I spotted them first. Quickly moving past her, I couldn't stop my fists from clenching, seeing Finn joyfully drinking and laughing with his brothers only added fire to my fury.

"Finn!" I snapped, quickly catching his attention.

"(Y/N)?" he exclaimed, struggling to stand and clattering the plates and glasses on the table."W-what are you doing here?"

"Stopping you from spending our money like a fucking idiot! Where is it?"

"Oh, Finn boy is in the doghouse." John chuckled.

"Shut up!" I fiercely pointed at him.

"Where's what?" Finn brought me back.

"Our money!"

"I told you, you do this outside." Polly warned, shoving Finn in that direction, and I knew I had to follow him.

Luckily, we were left alone. Finn continued on, finding someplace we would be alone. Once we were in the clear, the distant roar of the crowds covering our conversation, I saw him sigh quietly, running a hand down his face when he realised what was coming.

"Where's the money Finn?" I asked, calmer but with a mean tone.

"Let me explain first.”

"Explain how you took our money without asking? How you just waltzed out this morning without consulting me?"

"Tommy said that there was a good chance, a very good chance that this horse would win, and I thought it would help us if we put our money on it. Imagine how much we'll have if it wins!"

"If it wins Finn, if! You're gambling our money, why would you do something like that?"

"Because you went on about not having enough money! And here I am trying to help!"

My mouth dropped open in shock."You really don’t see the problem here."

"No, actually, I don't." he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Finn, you stole money from the drawer! You then go behind my back and bet it away. Have you thought about what we'll do if that horse loses?"

"But it won't, Tommy said."

"And what if Tommy is wrong this time? Also, don't pin this on your brother, I know he hasn't even suggested this idea."

"I'm not-urgh!" Finn groaned."Why don't you trust me?"

"I can't trust a gamble Finn. I don't think you realise how many nights I've spent lying awake, worried that we'll never have enough for our own home, and thinking that you don't even care anymore."

"Of course I care. This is why I've bet the money."

"How is this not getting in your head?"

"(Y/N)," he took my hands in his, but I couldn't even look at him,"in a few minutes we will hear them announce the winner, and we will start jumping for joy when we realise how much money we're going to get back, and we're going to be so much closer to getting our home."

"Finn, I desperately want to believe that. But even if we do win, you're in deep trouble." I took my hands away from him, turning around. I couldn't even look at my own fiance.

On queue, we heard a man come over the intercom, it was muffled to me but I knew Finn was listening intensely. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched for his reaction, turning around fully when I saw his expression. We had lost. We lost all that money.

"How could you be so fucking stupid?!" I screamed at him, throwing slaps onto his chest."Why couldn't you just listen to me? I don't understand why you had to lie to me Finn!"

I broke down crying, shoving him away from me. My sobs were loud but I didn't care. Finn could watch, see how much he upset me. My heart sank at the thought of it all gone, Finn had left scarcely any money in the drawer back at the flat.

"I'm sorry (Y/N)." Finn pathetically said.

"You know how you always go on about your family never trusting you enough for the big jobs? That you never get to go out with them and help? This is why. Because you do things like this, you fuck everything up Finn. Fuck!" I wiped away my tears, even though more spilled out."You know I've always stuck beside you, but this is the last straw Finn. I can't be with someone who doesn't want to put effort into their future."

"What are you saying? (Y/N), I can fix this. I promise I'll get the money back, I'll-"

"How? That took us so long to build that up. And you were spending our money almost every night on useless drinking. I can't Finn, I can't live like that anymore."

He ducked his head, and I almost wanted him to say something. When he didn't, I knew what I had to do.

I took a deep breath before speaking."I'm going home. I suggest you stay at Polly's tonight."

"Let me take you home-"

"No!"

"What's going on?" Tommy suddenly appeared, he, his brothers and Polly approaching.

"Your nephew, your brother, just gave away almost all of our money betting on a horse. Not only that, but he took the money without telling me. That was money for a house." I angrily explained.

"Is that true Finn?"

Finn shamefully nodded.

"We can get you your money back (Y/N)."

"It's not about that Tom. He's lied to me. He promised me he wouldn't spend our money every week, yet he did. And then he takes our money without asking me about it first."

"I'll fix it (Y/N), I promise I will." Finn was begging at this point.

"Another promise that you're bound to break. I've had enough today."

"Let's get you home love." Polly said, putting a stop to this argument as she stepped forward, taking me under her arm.

Finn didn't come home that night. I didn't sleep. I was sat at the tiny dining table, staring at the ring on my finger, wondering what to do. It broke my heart to think about leaving him, but it also broke my heart thinking about how reckless he had been. Did I really want to be marrying someone who acted like this? Would he mature? My heart wanted to believe he would, but my mind kept telling me that today confirmed he wouldn't. That was one of the worst nights of my life.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I couldn't stand this job any longer. But it was the only thing keeping me alive. It was crappy work, the pay was just above minimum, enough for me to buy food, pay my rent and have the tiniest amount left over. Saving up money was hard when it was just you. Even after two years, I didn't have enough to consider looking at places of my own, or with less roommates. It was exhausting keeping up with these girls I lived with, there were 6 of us altogether. It was a big change when I moved away from Small Heath.

"You ready (Y/N)?" one of my roommates called out to me as I finished applying my lipstick.

"Just a second!" I replied, checking myself in the mirror.

It was the rare occasion that I was going out with them, the one time we could all go out together at all. I was looking forward to a few drinks, and although that sounded hypocritical, I realised that I had to have a night or two in at least a month to relieve myself of the stress I put upon myself.

We arrived at the small club we always went to, it had the cheapest drinks this side of town. We all shivered in the cold weather, walking as fast as we could to make it to the club. The warmth was very welcome, as well as the loud music that drew us further in. It was the usual routine, a few of us grab a table, the others get the drinks in, then we would all make our way to the dance floor. Hours passed, and I had to get away from the heat coming from the dancing, stepping back towards our table to get a drink. I saw my roommate stumbling in the direction of the bar, rolling my eyes as I went to help her, perhaps getting a drink whilst I was there. However, once I got closer, I stared at the man she was starting to flirt with.

"Isaiah?" I said as I got closer.

"(Y/N)!" he smiled, bringing me in for a hug.

"You two know each other?" my roommate asked, looking disappointed.

"He's an old friend. Just that, nothing else."

Isaiah let me go."How long has it been? Two years?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, two years. What are you doing here?"

"Business. Nothing dangerous though, you girls are still in for a good night. Especially you if you're good." he winked to my roommate.

"Is he...is he here?" my voice suddenly went shaky, and I felt almost completely sober.

Isaiah's playful nature dropped."Uh, he is. He's really misses you (Y/N). Hasn't even looked at another girl since you left. He's just not been the same." I wasn't sure how to reply.

"I can't not tell him I saw you. Imagine if he found out, he would be so upset with me."

"I know. I wouldn't want to hurt your friendship."

"Maybe you should see him. It might do you both some good."

"Or the opposite."

"He still loves you. Even if you don't feel the same, it could bring closure. But I know you (Y/N), I can tell what you're thinking."

"You were always annoying like that."

"He's out front, in the corridor. That's all I'm going to say."

I looked at him for a few seconds, trying to make my mind up."Well, this one is a handful, just so you know."

"I think I can handle her." Isaiah smirked.

"I was warning her about you."

I giggled at his reaction, walking away and leaving him in his natural habitat of flirting. But as soon as I turned around, my stomach dropped, nerves filling up my entire body. He was here. I hadn't seen him for two years, though I thought about him everyday. Would he look different? Did I look different? What was he going to say? What was I going to say? My brain didn't want to think of any words, maybe I was about to babble absolute nonsense to him.

Upon seeing him, my throat tightened, the cool air slapping me in the face; oh, now I was sober. He hadn't noticed yet, leaning up against a wall, hands in his pockets. Wow, he had changed. His boyish charm was still there, yet he had matured into a handsome young man. It was like I was seeing him for the first time all over again. I was just happy that he would be seeing me in my finer clothes rather than catching me after work.

Urging my feet to move, I almost sighed at how small my steps were. I really was scared. Isaiah had said reassuring things, yet I couldn't even walk up to him. It was too late to back out now, especially when he finally looked up at me. I froze on the spot, not knowing what to do. Finn seemed the same way.

"(Y/N)." he said, I only just heard it.

"Hello."

Hello? Really, that's all I could come up with?

He pushed himself off the wall, coming to stand in front of me, though not too close."I...I can't believe you're here."

"I could say the same about you."

"This is where you've been living then."

I nodded."It's not too bad. I mean, I'm on a night out."

"Who are you with?"

I knew he was wondering if I was with a man."My roommates, I live with five other girls."

"Oh, that's a lot."

"Yeah, it's the only place I could afford."

"I hope it's nice."

"I shouldn't complain. A lot better than other places."

We both knew we were making an awful attempt at small talk. I was sure he had so much to say like I did, we just didn't want to dump it on each other in case the other ran away. It was like we were teenagers again, awkwardly trying to think of something to fill the dreaded silence.

"I really want to talk about us (Y/N)." Finn said.

"You do?"

"I...I just have so much to say to you. I can't do it now, but what about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Tomorrow, um, yes, yes tomorrow works for me. It's the weekend, so I'm not working."

He smiled slightly."OK, good. I'll come get you. Um, I need your address."

"Oh, here." I dug around in my purse, thankful there was a folded up tissue and a pen, it was good to be prepared. I wrote down my address, handing it to him.

"I'll pick you up at one. I would want it to be earlier, you just never know what time you'll be back with this sort of thing."

"I understand Finn, I did live this with you once."

I barely slept, even when we stumbled in at three in the morning. Luckily I hadn't seen Finn, Isaiah or any other Peaky Blinder that evening, no doubt settling business behind the scenes. Despite the lack of sleep, I was wide awake the next morning, up before everyone else who were nursing their hangovers, trying on multiple outfits in a desperate attempt to look nice, but not as if I put too much effort in. The clock was rolling onto one o'clock, and my heart was beating much faster than usual. I was about to make my way downstairs when something glistened on my small vanity. Should I take it? Yes, I would.

Finn knocked on the door, and I waited a few seconds before opening it. We smiled as we greeted each other, not going in for a hug or kiss on the cheek, something I was worried about. That was the first hurdle jumped over.

"How was your evening?" Finn struck up a conversation as we walked further into town.

"Much better than yours I presume?" I smirked. He chuckled."Yeah, didn't exactly get to enjoy the music. Small fight, nothing we couldn't handle."

It was strange hearing about Blinder business again."Well I'm glad you're all safe."

"I thought we could go out for lunch, saw a nice place round here."

"Oh, that would be lovely."

"We don't have to, if you don't feel comfortable."

"No, no, no, it's not that. It's just a lovely thing for you to do."

We both bashfully smiled, luckily the restaurant was just around the corner. I had expected nothing less when we walked into the fancy place, not because I thought I deserved it, but because Finn wouldn't be seen anywhere else. His clothes were even more tailored now than they had been the last I saw him, indicating that the gang had been doing well, more money was coming in. We both immediately picked up our menus as we sat, hoping someone would speak first. Our eyes glanced over the top of them, it was as if we were on our first date again, only this time in a better establishment.

"You look beautiful." he said, still hiding part of his face.

"Thank you." I blushed.

"I'll never forget what you wore when I picked you up for our first date. That blue dress you just bought, with a matching purse, and those heels that you hadn't practiced walking in. Well, you used that as an excuse to latch into my arm all night."

I smiled, placing down my menu."It was a good plan, wasn't it? And I did struggle in those heels, I just didn't want to embarrass myself."

He copied me."I liked holding your hand all night."

"What a sweet sentiment."

"I mean it. And I mean this date. That didn't sound right, but...what I'm trying to say is that I want to make it all up to you."

"You do?"

"Yes! I really didn't expect you to leave. I mean I did, but I didn't want to believe that. I didn't want to believe that I had been so selfish that I couldn't even see how much I had hurt you."

“That was the hardest decision I ever made. Most days I battle with myself whether I made the right choice. All night I kept making deals with myself. If you came back, I would hear you out, and if it was good enough for me I would stay. But then you didn’t, so I said to myself ‘Give him another hour.’. An hour went by, and I said the same thing to myself. That went on for the whole evening until I found myself angrily packing my things. Even then, I sat by door on top of my suitcase for another hour or so.”

“I thought you just got up and left. I didn’t realise how long you waited for me.” he sighed into his hands.“I’m such a fucking idiot.”

I could tell he was full of regret. Although it sounded sadistic, I was glad that he was upset when reflecting on our past relationship, it meant he realised his mistake. On the other hand, I hated seeing him sad. I took his hands away from his face, hesitantly reaching into my handbag to pull out the engagement ring I kept.

His eyes widened.“You still have that? I looked everywhere for it when you left, guessed you took it to sell.”

“I won’t lie, that was my intention at first. But it meant too much to me. It was like selling a piece of my soul. I kept it hidden, I didn’t want to risk any of the girls seeing it, they would just ask too many questions.”

I kept my eye on the beautiful ring as I spoke, slowly twirling it around to catch it twinkling in the light.

"I had such a hard time picking that out. I knew what you wanted, but I had to get it right for you. I'm so glad you kept it."

"I did try to sell it. I was stood outside of a shop for ten minutes debating with myself. It would have helped a lot for the deposit on the room, but I couldn't do it."

We were silent, both staring at the ring. We used to do that a lot actually. Finn would take my hand and hold it up as we laid in bed together, both giggling as we watched it glisten like it was in present times, before squealing at the thought of us being married to each other. I constantly fiddled with it when he was off on business, a habit which never wore off, even now; whenever I was nervous or worried, I would automatically do the same action, just without the ring.

A waiter awkwardly interrupted us, and I hurriedly put the ring back in my bag, sharing an embarrassed smile with Finn as we ordered. Once he was gone, I quietly sighed, looking out of the window. We were in such a nice part of town, so many ladies in beautiful dresses and men in smart suits strolling around.

"Are you...are you OK for money?" Finn boldly asked.

I was a little shocked by that.

"I don't mean anything by it. I just want to make sure you're OK, I would hate for you to be struggling, if you were."

"Uh, no, no I'm fine actually. It's not as generous as my old wage but it keeps me alive, I can live with the bare necessities."

I could see him itching to say something else, to keep the conversation going. I wasn't sure if we could go back to the serious topic we had before. However, I also wanted to bring it back up, it felt like we needed to talk about us.

"How's the family?" That's all I could come up with.

"They're fine. Everyone is the same. Well, they're not, they're a bit more serious nowadays."

"They weren't in the first place?"

He smiled."I suppose they were. Tension is the right word, tensions have been rising. Tommy's taking on a lot more, Polly knows all these secrets that no one else does, Ada is rebelling against anything Tommy says, Linda is still annoying, Esme and John have been popping kids out left, right and centre. Arthur is still crazy."

"Sounds like business as usual to me."

"They miss you too."

"Do they?"

"Yeah. Almost as much as me."

I cast my eyes down as butterflies rose in my stomach.

"I heard nothing else for the next few weeks after you left. They all told me what an idiot I was, that I was an extremely reckless, stupid and immature boy, and that I had let the best thing in my life get away from me. And they were right. I knew all of that already."

"I...I don't really know what to say right now."

"You don't have to say anything, let's just enjoy this meal, no more of that talk."

The nerves making my stomach flip built at that. What if we had nothing else to talk about? What if it was too weird to dive into our separate lives? I didn't want to sit across my ex-fiance, painfully and politely smiling through forced conversation.

The spark was still there.

When the waiter had returned with our drinks, we were already deep in talk about what had been happening in our personal everyday life. We were non stop, even as we ate through dinner. The waiters had trouble catching our attention each time they checked on us. I was deep in those eyes again, the ones I always dreamed of seeing. We were laughing hysterically, not at all acting how we should have in that establishment (there were a few eye rolls from other patrons). As if time had gone by in a second, the bill was slipped towards Finn, though I still reached into my purse.

"Are you mad? No, put your money away, I'm not taking it." Finn stated as he carelessly threw down some notes, surprisingly taking my hand in his and guiding me out of the restaurant.

I was tense as we walked, and I saw a flash of realisation in Finn's eyes as we made it outside. Both looking down at our interlocked fingers, Finn broke away, clearing his throat.

"Sorry, force of habit."

Hesitating, I smiled up at him, lacing our hands together again."These are new heels I'm breaking in. Need help walking in them."

He chuckled, pulling me closer as we walked down the street. We were silent, feeling like kids in love again. I couldn't deny that my feelings were still strong for Finn, I missed him dearly. At first, part of me had been wary of all this, wondering if he really had good intentions, or just thought he could get a quick shag in from an ex before he left; but the effort he went through, the things we spoke about, trying to heal old wounds, Finn had matured and he was wanting to fix this. I wanted to fix this, my heart was aching for my old life with him.

“We’re not done yet, are we?” I timidly asked.

“Not unless you want it to be.”

I instantly shook my head.“No, I’d like to stay out for longer.”

“Even though you’re struggling in your heels?”

I smirked.“I know a nice place we can sit down.”

I took him to the local park, it had a huge lake with benches dotted around, luckily it wasn’t busy, there was somehow a hint of privacy here. We sat down close to each other, hands still entwined.

“You still hungry?” I asked.

“Hm?”

I dug into my purse, producing a bag of sweets I had bought the previous day. I laughed as his eyes lit up, taking one without even asking. I took one too, reminiscing on how we used to do the same thing as kids. It seemed he was thinking about it too.

“Just like the old days.” Finn said.

“We spent way too much money on sweets back then. It’s a wonder we still have our teeth.”

“Wish I got out of that spending habit. We could be married and in our new house by now.”

“So you never wanted to move on? You didn’t give in to those girls wanting to be with a Peaky Blinder?”

“Never. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even fathom being with anyone else, it was always you (Y/N). Did you date?”

“No, I felt exactly the same. Which is why I was angry at myself for a long time. I was supposed to be upset with you, not still in love.”

His head whipped round to face me.“You still love me?”

My mouth was still open, unsure how to answer. It seemed I didn’t have to as Finn leaned in, placing on hand on my cheek as we kissed. Instinctively I kissed back, placing my hands on him where I could, hearing the bag of sweets fall to the ground and spill its contents. This kiss was needy, the type of kiss you gave your partner when you had missed them, when they had been away for a long time; and although we had our hands on each other, our touch was still gentle.

“Get the ring.” Finn breathed out, our lips still almost touching.

I carelessly got it for him, heart beating extremely fast. He took it from me, pecking me on the lips one last time before standing up. He straightened out his suit, took a deep breath and got down on one knee. I was just as emotional the first time he did it.

“(Y/N), I know I messed up everything in the past, I was careless when I should have been supportive and helped to build our future. I learnt from those mistakes, and I really, really want to go back to how we were. I need you (Y/N), I love you so much. There aren’t enough words to express how much love I have for you. Will you marry me?”

I didn’t need to think about my answer. I blurted out a yes, waiting for him to slide the ring back on my finger before throwing myself onto him. We stumbled back onto the ground, our arms around each other as we laughed and cried. I believed him this time, I truly believed him. He put in the effort to show me his changes, he wanted to fix everything. I wanted things back to the way they were with my man, and we were back to building our future and living the rest of our lives together.

#finn shelby #finn shelby imagine #finn shelby x reader #finn shelby imagines #finn shelby one shot #finn shelby fanfic #finn shelby fan fic #finn shelby fanfiction #finn shelby fan fiction #peaky blinders #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders imagines #peaky blinders one shot #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders fan fic #peaky blinders fanfiction #peaky blinders fan fiction

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randomshyperson · 4 years ago

Text

Sorry for your loss - Final Chapter

Summary: When your wife Natasha passes away in a car accident, a part of you dies with her. It takes a few months of mourning for your psychiatrist thinks the best alternative is for you to join a grief group. And there you meet Wanda Maximoff, and learn to live again.

Warnings: (+16) mentions of death, panic attacks and anxiety, grief, self sabotage, mentions of abusive family background, mutual attraction pining, explicit consent, therapeutic conversations about death, self-deprecation, healthy methods of coping with grief, possible triggers about anxiety, domestic Wanda, hurtful behaviors.

Chapter Warnings: Mention of Smut, Brief Smut.

Tag list: @mionemymind / @abimess / @stephanieromanoff / @yourtaletotell / @tomy5girls / @justagaypanicking / @thegayw1tch / @idek-5 // @myperfectlovepoem // @imapotatao // @aimezvousbrahms / @ensorcellme/ @helloalycia // @myperfectlovepoem

Author’s note: I don't know what to say exactly, just good reading, and sorry for any spelling/translation errors. I hope you enjoy the ending, and who knows, maybe a second season?

Read on AO3 || Serie Masterlist here

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Chapter Five - I will love again

You were up early on the weekend.

Since you were going to travel to New Jersey for Wanda's father's wedding anniversary, you didn't want to keep her waiting.

When you arrived at Wanda's house, she was already on her feet, running back and forth through the house, trying to find Tommy's lost toy, who kept crying that he wouldn't travel without it.

"Make yourself at home, I just need to find that bear." She said to you as she opened the door. You placed your only luggage on the floor as you looked around. Billy was watching television, and Tommy was sitting on the kitchen counter, crying.

You walked over to him.

"Hey, Tommy, why are you crying?" You asked stopping beside him, keeping your voice calm so as not to make him more nervous.

"I want my teddy bear!" He cried out between tears.

"Mommy will find it for you." You reply. "What is the name of your teddy bear?"

"Star Lord." Sniffles the boy. Your distraction is working, because he stops crying to talk.

"Wow, that's an incredible name!" You say. "How did you get the Star Lord?"

Tommy sniffles again, wiping his tears with his forearm.

"I got it for my birthday." He counters. "Billy got a skateboard, but Star Lord is cooler."

"Is that so?" You retort with interest in your voice, realizing that Tommy was barefoot and his socks were on the countertop, you show him that you are interested in hearing him talk as you help him finish getting dressed for the trip.

"Yes, it came in a huge, red box." Tommy counted with a smile as he gestured at the size of the object. "And he sleeps with me every night, so I need him to go to Grandpa's house."

"Oh, yes, of course you do." You agree with a smile as you tie the boy's shoelaces. "Do you remember the last place you played with Star Lord?"

Tommy sniffles thoughtfully.

"I don't know." He replies tearfully, you rush to ask about his favorite memory with the bear to avoid him to cry again, and it works.

When you finish tying the child's shoes, you pick him up on your lap as he tells you about the day he took Star Lord swimming, and then you sit him down in the living room next to his brother, and he is distracted enough by the cartoon on the TV to forget about the teddy bear.

Wanda joins you in the living room a minute later, looking nervous and with her hands empty.

"Hey, I think I have an idea." You tell her as you mentally review the things Tommy said. "Finish getting them to the car, I'll go find the bear."

You found it.

Ten minutes after you left the room, inside the pool.

Wanda couldn't hold back her laughter when you arrived in front of the car with your wet clothes up to pool height.

"Your idea was to get into the pool instead of using the cleaner to reach the bear?" She teased as soon as you handed her the toy. You laughed awkwardly, watching her give the bear to Tommy and seeing the boy celebrate excitedly. "You're not getting in my car wet like that."

You laugh, and then you have an idea. Approaching Wanda with open arms, you see her raise her finger in warning, but you are already hugging her with wet clothes, making her laugh.

The joke only ends because Pietro is parking the car in front of the house next, looking at you both curiously.

"Should I let dad know we're going to be late?" He teases putting his sunglasses up. You let go of Wanda as both of your giggles slowly stop, the two of you looking like children who have been caught up to mischief. "Come on girls, we have a road ahead of us."

"Shut up Pietro." Wanda grumbled humorously, starting to push you into the house by the shoulders. "Watch the boys while we get changed."

"Yes, ma'am." He retorted wryly as he took off his seat belt and got out of the car. You let Wanda push you inside.

Upstairs, you had smiles on your faces as she searched for clothes that would fit you.

"Are you sure it isn't better if I grab something I brought in my suitcase?" You ask distractedly as Wanda rummages through the closets.

"I don't want you to be one change of clothes short, I don't know what we'll end up doing over there." Wanda retorted. "And don't worry about it."

Wanda eventually handed you a set of very soft sweatshirts and underwear. You smiled in appreciation, looking away from the clothes in your hand to the woman in front of you.

As you turned toward the bathroom, Wanda spoke.

"You can stay."

Swallowing dryly, and ignoring the unregulated beating of your heart you turned to her again, one eyebrow raised not sure you had understood correctly.

Wanda sighed heavily, as if she was gathering the courage to say it again. But her gaze said it all. She was inviting you to change in front of her.

You felt your face heat up, but you gulped dryly, forcing yourself to reason correctly.

"I... I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?" Wanda retorted in defiance, and you let out a breathless laugh. She seemed to misunderstand your reaction, because her expression immediately fell. "Oh, you don't want to. Damn it, I..."

"What?" you interrupted quickly. "No, Wanda. I want to." You confess half breathlessly. "I really do."

"Oh."

You shift your weight between your feet, feeling your stomach turn with the way Wanda looks at you.

"But not like this." You say, swallowing dryly to confess correctly. You approach Wanda slowly as you speak. "Not in a hurry." Wanda breathes heavily, leaning back against the cabinet. You stop walking just inches from her body. "I want to be with you, with enough time to kiss every inch of your skin.” You confess again her lips. “Touch every spot that will make you lose control and scream my name."

"Fuck." Wanda gasped against your mouth, almost near enough to touch while closing her eyes.

Ignoring the tightening sensation at the tip of your stomach, you fought your baser instincts and pulled away, sighing.

"Let's hurry before your brother comes to get us."

You smiled at Wanda, ignoring the urge to kiss her. She just nodded, trying to normalize her breathing. You took advantage of her lack of reaction to turn around and walk towards the bathroom. You had better get out of there soon, because you feel that you couldn't resist that woman again.

//-//

Tommy and Billy were singing in the back seat as you drove to New Jersey. You laughed at the scene, thinking they were adorable.

Your gaze was watchful on the road, following Pietro's car to his father's house.

When Wanda began to murmur the song, you looked at her for a moment. Absolutely stunning, with her red hair flying in the wind, the smile in the corner on her lips. The sunlight making her eyes sparkle.

Turning your attention forward because Wanda caught you looking, you bit back a smile, feeling your heart race a little. But neither of you commented, and you didn't care that Wanda was looking at you now.

//-//

When you arrived, you whistled impressed at Erik's residence. It was practically a mansion, but really it was just a very well built summer house. The neighborhood was very nice too. Wanda smiled playfully at you when she noticed your reaction.

The boys ran out of the car, excited to hug their grandfather who was already waiting for them at the door. They also hugged Charles, who was a short, balding man, very friendly.

"Grandpa, can we go ride the horses?" Tommy asked excitedly, and the man laughed lightly.

"Go wash your hands and get something to eat first okay, boy?" Erik said to the boy, ruffling his hair.

The child agreed, entering the house along with his brother and his cousin, who had gotten out of the cars shortly after.

You were unpacking the bags from the car after parking and felt your breath catch when Wanda picked up one of the bags and caressed your hand with her fingers as you handed it to her. She smiled innocently, passing you to walk toward the door, and you cleared your throat before closing the trunk and following her.

"You must be Y/N." Erik greeted you as soon as you came to the door. "It's very nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Erik." You replied with a smile. "And you too, Charles."

The man smiled, giving you room to pass him and enter the house. Wanda was standing in the living room next to Pietro and Monica, who had their suitcases on the floor.

"Papa, which rooms are empty?" She asked the man who had entered behind you.

"You can occupy any one upstairs." Erik warned closing the door as he and Charles entered.

You accompanied the group upstairs. Wanda placed the boys' backpacks in one of the bunk rooms, since the children always slept together.

"You can have the room down the hall." She said, showing you the direction. "Next to mine."

She whispered the last part like a secret. You wanted to ignore how your stomach churned at the suggestion. Pietro and Monica passed you both, the man gave you a playful look, but made no comment. They would be in the room across from yours and next to the children's.

You guessed that the other door at the other end of the hall belonged to Erik and Charles

After putting your suitcase on the bed, you left the room. Pietro opened the door at the same moment.

"Come on, Y/N, I'm going to give you a full tour of the Maximoff residence." He announced excitedly and you giggled, following him around the house.

//-//

The Maximoff residence was much larger than you thought it was. There were even stables and a large wooded area that was part of the place, but Pietro didn't take you there, he just pointed you in the direction. You eventually discovered that the place used to be a simple farm, inherited from Pietro and Wanda's paternal grandparents, and when Erik married Charles, they renovated the place with money from the Xavier family, who were British and had a fortune built up in the vineyard area.

Pietro led you back to the kitchen when he finished showing you the property, patting you on the shoulder as he sat down on the kitchen counter, grabbing the jar of candy on the counter.

"The guests will be here soon, Pietro, get down from there." Warned Erik noticing his son's position. He was in the kitchen too, finishing sorting out some of the appetizers. During the tour, you noticed the decorations set up in the gardens, some tables and chairs and party decorations.

"Yes, papa." Grumbled Pietro as he obeyed. He reached over to accept the tray of food his father handed him.

"Take that outside please." Erik asked and you moved to get out of the way of Pietro, who gave you a wry smile as he passed, making you laugh slightly.

"Can I help too?" You asked noticing that there were still things to be carried.

"Thank you, dear, you are very kind." Erik said as he handed you one of the trays. You nodded and then turned around.

The garden was really nicely decorated, you noticed now that you were up close, placing your tray on one of the tables. There was also a small stage, which you imagined was meant for Erik and Charles to repeat their wedding vows. You smiled, remembering how your marriage to Natasha had gone. It was just nostalgic to think of her now, and it didn't make you unhappy anymore.

"I think you're all set now." Erik said behind you, arriving with a tray and placing it on the table next to yours. Pietro who had left earlier, was stealing one of the candies and received a disapproving look from his father. "Really, boy?"

Pietro laughed, raising his hands in surrender.

"I'm hungry, papa." He playfully retorted and you laughed at the interaction.

"Go help the ladies with the kids." Erik commands with a grimace, and Pietro laughs as he walks away. When he leaves, you feel slightly anxious about being alone with Wanda's father, but his posture is friendly. "I haven't had a chance to talk to you properly, Y/N. Would you like to take a walk with me before the party?"

You ignore the nervous feeling in your stomach when you agree. And Erik takes one last look at the decorations before leading the way.

//-//

A few minutes of walking later, where Erik asked you several questions about your life, your job, your age, who you lived with, that sort of thing, you reached a plantation area. You imagined it to be the vineyards of the property.

You could see the manor house in the distance, and the backyards, and a lake many meters away. The landscape was breathtaking.

"It's beautiful here." You comment beside him.

"Yes." Erik agrees with a smile, also looking at the scenery as you do. "I enjoyed your conversation, you are as lovely as Wanda usually tells us."

The comment makes your cheeks warm, the image of Wanda talking about you makes your heart soar. Erik seems to appreciate the way you react to it, smiling gently as he adds, "It's nice to know she's found someone nice to love."

You swallow dryly, glancing quickly at the man next to you, but he has his gaze on the landscape. You feel a warmth in your chest, mixed with embarrassment and happiness.

"Thank you, Erik." You say clumsily.

"For what?"

"For accepting me here I guess." You retort with a smile. "For having me into your home. And well, for saying those things about me and Wanda." You say and he makes an understanding noise through his mouth. You are silent for a moment, until he speaks again.

"You know, when Magda, their mother, passed away, I thought I would never love anyone again.." Erik tells nostalgically. He keeps looking at the field in front of you, but you stare at him, attentive to his words. "But then I met Charles. And well, it did. It's different from what it was before. And I wouldn't change it for anything."

You nodded in understanding, letting the words echo in your head. You also think about how Agatha said you could move on. There was no problem in loving again, as intensely as before.

"I figured I'd be uncomfortable talking about someone marrying my daughter, but here we are." Erik comments humorously a moment later, making you chuckle awkwardly. "I guess it must be the way you look at her. You look like a lovesick puppy. "

You scratch your neck awkwardly, looking at the scenery, making Erik laugh at your blurriness.

"Don't get upset, I'm just teasing you." He comments with a smile, patting you on the back. You laugh clumsily.

"Do you guys have a garden around here?" You ask trying to change the subject, just as you notice the glass structures in the distance, capped by the vineyard. You figured if you turned around you would find your way to them.

"Oh, yes." Erik confirms. "Charles loves gardening. We have two greenhouses over that way. Would you like to see them?"

"Yes." You confirm with a smile. "But it can be after the party."

"Oh yes, I should get back and welcome the guests." Erik agrees as he checks his watch. You start walking back to the area of the house next.

//-//

You meet a lot of people at the party. It's a little overwhelming, because you really didn't expect Erik to invite so many people, and although you're glad that they had so many friends, your anxiety has increased a little. You were smiling politely at two ladies who said they were Charles' college friends while trying to pay attention to the story they were telling when Pietro rescued you.

"I need to steal my sister-in-law for a second ladies." He said and you widened your eyes. He only realized the mistake of his words when he noticed the looks on the women's faces in front of him. " Shit, I don’t mean like she got married to Wanda... I..."

You snuck out from behind Pietro when the ladies started attacking him with questions about the wedding, and when the ceremony had taken place and why the family wasn't called. You took the opportunity to escape when Pietro was convincing the ladies that you were not Wanda's wife, and that there was no secret wedding.

Walking over to one of the far tables, you frown in disbelief as you watch Luna run under the food table, clearly looking for a place to hide from her cousin, who is looking around a few feet away.

You crouch down, pulling the towel up to speak to the child.

"Luna, honey, maybe that's not the best place to play." You tell her with a smile. She looks around.

"Sorry, Aunt Y/N." She asks. "I'm hiding from Billy."

"Oh, is that so?" You ask extending your hand to her. She accepts, and you help her stand, taking care that she doesn't hit her head on the table. "Do you remember the path we took when we first got here? Try to hide behind that tall statue, I'm sure Billy won't find you."

"Wow, that's right, Auntie. Thank you." She mumbles, leaving with her head down next, watching for any sign of her cousin. You smiled, knowing that everyone at the party would get a glimpse of the children playing if she stood where you spoke.

You noticed that the two women who were talking to Pietro looked at you, and not wanting to be dragged back into that conversation, you made your way back to the house.

Bumping into Wanda on the way, you giggled.

"There you are." You remark.

"Where were you?" Wanda retorts with a mixture of curiosity and humor, noticing your "escape mode" posture.

"Well, apparently all of your father's friends like to meet everyone, so I've spent the last thirty minutes being introduced to everyone at the party."

Wanda gave a pout of pity.

"Sorry, dear." She says and you smile awkwardly, feeling your cheeks flush. "I'm looking for the boys, they need to change for the suits."

"I saw Billy in the gardens." You tell her as you gesture briefly in the direction. "I'll go find Tommy for you."

Wanda smiles, biting her lips. You nod but when you make mention of moving away, she holds your forearm and moves forward, depositing a kiss on your cheek.

"Thank you, sweetheart." She whispered, smiling mischievously at you before she turned away and left the kitchen. You bit your lip, feeling your heart racing. You didn't understand why Wanda was teasing you, but you weren't complaining.

//-//

Non Readers Pov

Wanda laughed affectionately when Billy launched himself onto her lap as soon as she found him in the backyard.

"Luna, dear, your mother is calling you too." Warned the red-haired woman to her niece who nodded turning toward the direction her aunt pointed.

"Mommy can I play after I change my clothes?" Asked the boy as the woman carried him back to the house.

"Of course honey, but you have to be careful, okay? You can't get your suit dirty."

Just before she reached the entrance, someone called her name, causing Wanda to turn her head curiously.

"Sweetie, I need to ask you something." It was Ruth Eisenhardt, a nasty distant cousin of Wanda's known for gossiping, and lots of it, about all her relatives. "I just heard from Aunt Susan that you are dating that pretty girl you brought over."

Wanda felt her face heat up, but kept her expression impassive. Before she could add anything else, the woman was speaking again.

"Of course we are all happy for you, but when I went to share the good news with Uncle Jeff, he said that Pietro had already denied this affair. Now I'm left not knowing if you're really going out with that beefcake."

Wanda let out an awkward giggle, frowning slightly at the way her cousin spoke.

"We're not exactly together, cousin." The redhead replied. "But that's not really your business."

Ruth grimaced in surprise, but then her expression changed to one of malice.

"You know, I'm just confirming it. Because after all, we don't have pretty things like that lying around in New Jersey."

Wanda clenched her jaw. Ruth was exactly the kind of girl who had a mania for taking what didn't belong to her.

"Cousin, don't flirt with her." Wanda said. "I'll only warn you this once."

Ruth giggled, surprised at the reaction. But Wanda didn't continue the subject, turning and continuing toward the entrance of the house.

"Mom what's flirt?" Billy asked next, drawing Wanda's attention away from her own not-so-pleasant thoughts about someone taking what was hers.

"It's a way adults talk, honey." Wanda explained, biting her lips thoughtfully briefly. "When they want to be more than friends."

"Like best friends?"

Wanda laughs briefly, denying it.

"No, Billy. Like lovers."

Billy makes a noise of agreement. "Why can't Aunt Ruth flirt with Aunt Y/N?"

Wanda sighs lightly, forcing a friendly expression so as not to confuse her son.

"She can."

"But you told her..."

"I know." Wanda interrupts with red cheeks. She takes a deep breath, smiling at her son. "Can I ask you something sweetie?" Billy nods in agreement. "If mommy started dating someone, would you be upset?"

Billy frowns, denying it.

"Mommy, you want to date Aunt Y/N don't you?"

Wanda's eyes widen in surprise.

"Where did that one come from?" she asked.

"You didn't like it when Aunt Ruth flirted with Daddy either, I remember Aunt Monica's birthday." He tells, and Wanda sighs slightly, remembering when she caught Ruth complimenting her husband as she ran her hands through her hair, and Wanda might have gotten a little carried away by accidentally flipping a wine glass in her cousin's lap. On the way home, when the twins asked, she said that she was upset with the way Ruth spoke to their father, and now Billy was able to understand everything. "And now you don't want Aunt Ruth to talk to Aunt Y/N like that." He concluded as if it was obvious. Wanda smiled as she went upstairs, careful not to trip on the steps with Billy on her lap. "Mommy, if you date Aunt Y/N will she move in with us?"

"I don't know dear." Wanda replied with a shy smile.

"If she lives with us, will you let her sleep in my room?"

Wanda laughed, looking at Billy curiously.

"And why is that?"

"Because she knows how to play dragon. And also tell fairy tales." He says counting on his fingers. "And she also helps Tommy with his headache, so she can sleep on our rug and when he wakes up at night, she helps him."

Wanda smiles fondly, shaking her head slightly.

"Those are very good reasons indeed." She says. "But I think Y/N would like to sleep in a bed, no? The floor is uncomfortable."

Billy looks thoughtful and Wanda laughs briefly as she sets him down on the floor, already inside his room. She helps him out of his clothes to put on his party suit that is already on the bed.

"I can sleep in your bed mommy, and then Aunt Y/N sleeps in mine next to Tommy so he won't be alone."

Wanda laughs again, denying with her head. She bends down to button her son's shirt.

"Tell you what. Y/N sleeps in my bed, and if Tommy feels bad, she goes up to his room, how's that sound?"

//-//

Reader pov

"I think it sounds amazing." You spoke as you entered the room, a mischievous smile on your lips. Wanda startled slightly, surprised that you arrived at that moment, but she smiled shyly as she looked at you before turning her attention back to her son.

"Yay, mommy!" Billy spoke excitedly. Wanda sat him down on the bed again, helping him put on his shoes. You guided Tommy gently by the shoulders to the bed, and as soon as he had a look at the suit he began to undress.

"I didn't know you were going to live with us, Aunt Y/N." Tommy comments as he removes his sneakers.

"I didn't know either." You retort, biting back a smile at the sight of Wanda's reddening cheeks. "I guess your mother forgot to invite me."

Wanda mumbles at you to shut up, making you smile.

"Mommy, you have to let Aunt Y/N know that she is going to live with us now." Billy said making you cross your arms, and turn to Wanda, joining in on the joke.

"Yes, Wanda! You need to let me know about these things." You say with false seriousness, and Wanda rolls her eyes in amusement, finishing putting on Billy's shoes and getting up to face you.

"Y/n, honey, you're going to move in with me when we get back home, okay?" Wanda asks in the same tone. You bite back a smile, ignoring how your heartbeat has quickened. You can't help but look at Wanda adoringly however, and her expression goes from playful to shy in microseconds.

"Okay, Wands. I'll love living with you." You say to her next, sounding slightly affected. The twins let out an exclamation of excitement, and break the bubble you are in. You clear your throat slightly as you turn your attention back to them, looking away from Wanda.

"Wow, you guys look great." You comment as you see the boys properly dressed next. The suits are very nice indeed.

"You can go back to the party, but be careful not to get your suits dirty. No playing in the dirt!" Wanda warns the boys, who are already running excitedly outside.

"Okay, I'll go get ready too." You say next, thinking to check your cell phone as well, since you haven't turned it on since you left New York. "See you at the party?"

Wanda nods in agreement and you turn to leave.

At the door she stops you, pulling you by the forearm lightly and raising her hand to your neck, then bringing your lips together.

You both sigh and you feel your whole body tense up and heat up all at once. Wanda pulls away in the next moment, breathing as out of rhythm as you do.

You want to ask her why she did this now, but you think the question can wait until later, because she brings your lips together again, in a kiss far less innocent than before. Wanda closes the door with one hand, and with the other she pushes you against the wood.

You gasp, letting your tongue run across her lip, and she gives you passage.

Her taste intoxicates your senses quickly, your hands moving up to her waist as hers move to your hair, deepening the kiss. You both gasp for air against each other's mouths, unable to separate.

Panting, you feel your head spin as Wanda moves her tongue against yours, slow and sensual, and you can't help but squeeze her waist tightly, enjoying the feeling of her sighing against your lips.

You switch positions next moment, pressing Wanda against the wood of the door, your knee coming up between her legs.

"Oh." Wanda moans breathlessly breaking the kiss. You move your kisses down her jaw to her neck, sucking on the skin and releasing just before marking. Your fingers play with the hem of her blouse, and Wanda brings your head up, kissing you again.

You press your body against her, wanting her to be touching you everywhere. The sensation makes you breathless, and hot in all the right places, causing you to moan.

You think you could kiss Wanda forever if she'd let you. The feeling of having her in your mouth is the best you have ever felt.

There are noises of footsteps coming from the stairs, and you both sigh when you hear them. It's Monica coming up with Luna, who is chatting animatedly. It's just what you need to snap back to reality, and slow down the kiss.

You keep your foreheads together, and your hands around Wanda until the sound becomes distant, signaling that Monica has entered their bedroom with Luna.

You let out a giggle, and Wanda follows you. You look just like two teenage girls making out in secret. When you stop laughing, you kiss her again. Calmer this time. Before you let go, she bites your lip, tugging lightly, and making you gasp before letting go.

"Come on, go change." She commands, pushing you lightly. You smile because she keeps her grip against your blouse as she tells you to leave.

"It is you who are keeping me here, Maximoff." You tease with a smile. Wanda smiles too, and steals a kiss from you before letting go. You stumble backwards out of the room, grinning like an idiot, but you don't care, because Wanda looks at you just the same.

//-//

Wanda looked stunning in her party dress. You wanted to kiss her again, but you knew that if you did you would smear her lipstick, and she would have a lot of inconvenient questions ahead of her. So you just smiled, and breathlessly confessed how beautiful she looked, enjoying her flushed cheeks.

By the time you joined the party, the guests were arranging themselves at the correct places, and you joined a conversation circle with Wanda at your side, greeting a few more people.

As the sun set, Erik and Charles signaled that the ceremony was about to begin.

//-//

It was all very beautiful.

Maybe you cried between one confession and another, but everyone was emotional, so no one really cared.

Your cell phone had lots of pictures on it when you came back to the house, after saying goodbye to the guests who left when the party was over. You were holding Tommy by the hand, while Billy went with his mother, and the boys looked very tired.

"Let's go to bed, okay?" Wanda warned the kids as they followed her upstairs.

Erik wanted to open a bottle of wine, so after the kids were in bed, all the adults were outside on the balcony. Wanda sat very close to you, and you resisted the urge to put your arm around her.

"I guess I'll never get used to parties." Erik then comments, smiling nostalgically, making the group smile.

"I hope you're looking forward to the twenty-year anniversary one, papa." Pietro humorously retorts, and Erik laughs, looking at his husband tenderly.

"I look forward to it."

You smiled at the passionate way the couple looked at each other. You wondered what it must be like to stay married for so long.

"I know we are all tired, but I had something to tell you." Erik then says, exchanging a look with Charles before continuing. "It's about the farm."

"What about the farm?" Pietro asked curiously.

"It 's yours."

Pietro frowns in confusion, looking at Wanda, who has the same look on her face.

"Papa, what?" Wanda asks, and Erik lets out a short laugh.

"You know I've always wanted to remodel this place, ever since you were kids." He recounts. "And Charles and I finally did it. But now we're old. And you two have your whole lives ahead of you, and well, you are our family. So Charles and I agreed that the house should belong to you both."

Wanda and Pietro exchange incredulous laughter.

"Papa, what? Are you sure?" Wanda asks looking from her brother to her father and stepfather. The older men just smile and the next moment they are hugging their children. You and Monica exchange looks of amusement.

"So, does this mean we're moving?" Monica comments once everyone is seated, and elicits a giggle from the group.

"Let's save all this serious talk for tomorrow, shall we?" Erik asks with a smile. "Today, let's just enjoy the stars."

"Someone is feeling romantic." Charles jokes making the group laugh.

"Papa, tell us some of your stories." Pietro asked with a smile, and Erik sighed, taking on a thoughtful expression.

"Um, let's see." He begins. "Have I ever told you about what happened in Budapest...?"

//-//

It was quite late when you and Wanda were finally alone, after Charles and Erik came in, you stayed talking to Pietro and Monica for a few more minutes, until they walked in as well.

You smiled at Wanda as she leaned back in her armchair to face you cross-legged, and you mimicked her position.

"Hey." She called out to you with a smile.

"Hey."

"Did you enjoy the party?"

"Yes." You assured her tenderly. "It was pretty good actually."

Wanda nodded slightly, her gaze falling momentarily to your lips.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything you want, Wanda." You retort, making her smile.

The redhead looks intently at you.

"Did you mean it?" She asks and you blink in confusion. "About moving in with me."

You feel your cheeks heat up, but you smile.

"You're not even going to ask me out first, eh?"

Wanda laughed, looking away with flushed cheeks. You swallowed dryly, lifting your hand to turn her face toward you again, stroking her cheek lightly. God, Wanda was beautiful. Her bright green eyes looking back at you, the way her hair fell around her face, every part of her.

"Don't you think we're happening too fast?" Wanda asks insecurely, you don't put your hand down, enjoying the feeling of her skin.

"It depends." You answer letting your gaze wander to her, your free hand searching for hers in your lap, twining your fingers together.

"On what?"

"If you care about me..." You whisper as you bring your faces closer together, stopping when your lips are almost touching, and you and Wanda both close your eyes in anticipation. " As much as I care about you."

You kiss Wanda before she responds. Sweetly and softly. The sensation makes you smile against her lips, and you ignore the urge to deepen the kiss to pull away.

"Is that your way of saying you're in love with me?" Wanda teases half breathlessly a minute later, her tone playful and confident, but her rosy cheeks give away how affected she is. You think she's irresistible.

You laugh lightly, brushing a strand of hair from her face before looking into her eyes.

"I'm in love with you." You confess simply, watching her blink in surprise and amazement. "So, you still think it's too fast?"

Wanda smiles, denying it, and then approaches you.

"I'm in love with you too" She confesses as a secret against your lips. You feel your stomach rumble with nervousness and excitement, but you don't say anything else, because Wanda kisses you again. She asks for passage with her tongue a second later, making you sigh.

You hold your mouths together in a passionate kiss for long minutes, panting against each other' lips as Wanda moves to sit on your lap with her hands on your neck while your hands move up to her waist. You feel hot and bothered, squeezing her skin as if you want to merge with it. It is only when your kisses begin to move down to her collarbone that Wanda gasps saying that you two should go upstairs.

She moves off your lap, breaking the kiss, and you bite your lips, chasing her mouth again. Standing up, Wanda slides her tongue against yours one last time, making your head spin, before she pulls away, smiling at you as she pulls you by the hand into the house.

She signals with her finger for you to be quiet as you enter, and you swallow dryly as you observe the way her eyes are dark.

Getting to your room seems to take forever, especially since you can barely breathe, but finally you arrive.

Wanda locks the door after you enter. And then the atmosphere changes, because you both know what is about to happen.

She smiles shyly at you and you hold out your hand to her, leading her to sit on the bed beside you.

You exchange a glance before you sigh softly, slowly moving closer to her face. When you kiss her, much more tenderly and gently than any other time, Wanda melts.

She raises her hands to your neck, deepening the kiss as she falls onto the bed and takes you with her. You kiss her firmly, swirling your tongue around hers slowly, making her shiver.

There is no rush in what you are about to do, and you certainly want to enjoy every second of it.

You rest your weight against Wanda, enjoying the feeling of having her beneath you, and the sound that escapes her throat. Your mouth separates from hers only for you to move your kisses down her collarbone, causing Wanda to close her eyes and sigh.

Your hands reach behind her back to pull down the zipper of her dress. When your fingers make contact with her exposed skin, Wanda bites her lips, entwining her legs together in search of more friction.

Your kisses move down as you pull the dress off her body, Wanda shifting on the bed to help you undress her. You move away from her neck to remove the piece completely, your gaze falling to her exposed skin the next moment. The redhead blushes at your stare, but all you can do is admire. The sight of her bare breasts makes your core throb, and you feel the urge to touch and kiss every inch.

You kiss her again in the next second, but part your mouths again quickly to move your lips down her body.

At the first touch on her breasts, Wanda gasps loudly. You smile, controlling the urge to tell her not to be so loud, but you are distracted by the growing heat in your core when you suck on her nipple and she whimpers, bringing her hand to your hair to keep you there.

Dividing your attention between the nipples, you kiss, bite, and suck the sensitive skin, keeping enough of it in your mouth for the skin to be marked red, which elicits a hearty moan from Wanda.

As your kisses begin to descend again, Wanda's body tenses. You kiss at the height of her navel before looking up, and already find her looking up at you with darkened eyes, biting her lip.

"Everything okay?" You ask in a sigh, trying to reason properly out of the bubble of lust.

Wanda's hesitation causes you to raise your face back toward her again, keeping your hands by her side so as not to fall against her body.

"What's wrong?" You ask gently, trying to find any sign of discomfort.

"Nothing." She says with a shy smile. "It's just... it's the first time I... since..."

"Yeah, I know." You interrupt half breathlessly, knowing exactly what she is referring to. "Mine too." You confess, but at this point, you knew she should have guessed it too. You have been grieving partners for quite some time, after all. "Do you want to stop?"

"No." Wanda quickly denies, biting back a smile. "I feel good."

You smile, nodding in agreement.

"Me too."

You kiss Wanda gently again, but before the kiss gets more heated, you pull away to whisper against her lips. "Let me know if you feel uncomfortable at any time."

Wanda nods, bringing your lips together next.

//-//

When you awake, it is probably the best sleep you have had in months. Wanda is curled up on you, her clothes spread across the room lit by the sunbeams from the window.

You mumble that you have to get up because the children will be up soon, but Wanda says that her father will take care of them, and kisses you until you completely forget where you are.

When you finally get up, and go downstairs for coffee, neither adult comments at all on the way Wanda's hand remains in yours throughout the meal.

//-//

While Wanda is talking to Pietro and Erik about how they are going to organize the inheritance of the farm, and the children are playing in the backyard in front of the veranda, you decide to call your mother.

You end up learning that she got a buyer for your apartment, but you tell her that you would deal with these matters when you get back. After checking email and that sort of thing, you turn off your cell phone again.

Taking one last look at the children, you walked back into the house, catching a small piece of the conversation of the others in the living room about what would be done about Wanda's flower shop, but you didn't intrude.

"We know a lot of people around here, Wanda." Charles was counting. "I'm sure we'll be able to find a new location for the flower shop."

Wanda looked slightly apprehensive, probably considering all the consequences of the relocation, but she relaxed her posture completely when you entwined your hand with hers.

When the conversation was over, it was decided that the families would move to the farm. Selling the properties in New York would take some time, but they would still move to the city during the vacations. It was going to be a rush, but Erik and Charles were willing to help too.

Since you guys were leaving that afternoon, you went back to your room to pack. And Wanda joined you a moment later, kissing you on the cheek before sitting down on your bed.

" All good?" You asked as you folded your socks.

"Yeah." She confirmed with a smile. "I'm just trying to believe that all this is really happening."

"It's not every day we get a farm, is it?" You joke making her laugh. Wanda bites her lips next, looking at you fondly, and you look away to your bag, feeling your face heat up.

"I forgot to ask you something yesterday." She begins somewhat shyly. You frown slightly, muttering for her to ask. "Are we dating?"

You laugh in surprise, throwing your folded party clothes into your suitcase, before approaching Wanda, raising your hand to her chin.

"What do you think, love?" You ask against her lips, dragging your mouth down her jaw to the height of her ear. "After what you did with your tongue yesterday, you're not going anywhere."

Wanda gasps, clenching her hands in the bed. You smile because you know the memories have hit her all over again. But you turn away next, smiling innocently at the woman in front of you before turning your attention back to the suitcase.

"I don't get a ring?" She teased next, making you laugh briefly. You looked back at the door before advancing against her, kissing her firmly, completely overturning her confident posture. When Wanda sighed against your mouth, you pulled away, and she grumbled, her hand reaching up to grab your belt and pull you back to her, but noises of footsteps made her give up.

Soon the boys came running into the room, talking excitedly about living on the farm and riding every day, and you wanted to laugh at the way Wanda had to disguise how affected she felt by your small make out session to answer her sons' questions.

//-//

After saying goodbye to your hosts with hugs, you sat in the back seat with the boys, because Tommy insisted that he wanted to show you a video game. Wanda drove you to your apartment, and after getting your suitcase from the trunk, you waved goodbye to the boys, and approached the driver's window.

"I'll call you, okay?" You tell her with a smile, Wanda nods, and you kiss her. Tommy and Billy make disgusted noises in the back of the car, and you and Wanda laugh as you part.

Waving to everyone in farewell one last time, you wait for Wanda to leave with the car before you go into the house.

"Kissing girls on the doorstep, heh? Looks like high school all over again." Your mother teases from the kitchen just as you enter. You laugh as you close the door.

"Spying through the kitchen window, Mom? And I thought I was a grown-up." You retort in the same tone as you walk to the kitchen to greet her with a kiss on the forehead, tossing your suitcase on the counter afterwards.

"Are you really dating then?" Your mother asks and you murmur in agreement. She smiles. "I'm so happy, honey. I can't wait to prepare for the wedding."

You roll your eyes humorously, picking up an apple from the countertop.

"We need to talk about your apartment, by the way." She starts again, looking through her briefcase for something. "I've found buyers, and well, I'm already looking at some houses for you, too." She says as you take a seat next to her at the table. "Of course I love having you here, but we both know you can't wait to have a place of your own again."

You sigh lightly.

"Yeah, Mom." You confirm. "About that..."

//-//

"You're late." Agatha remarked as soon as you stumbled into her office. You gave her a lopsided smile, closing the door as you entered.

"Sorry, I had a date and lost track of time."

Agatha raises her eyebrows at you.

"A date, hm? Let's talk about it then."

//-//

You had just deposited Melina's share of the apartment in the bank when your cell phone vibrated.

A message from Bucky, asking if you were coming to therapy with him today, as he was already at the station. You reply with an emoji, and a text saying coming.

//-//

"I am immensely happy for your progress, even though I am upset that you will not be continuing with us." Stephen says to you and Wanda, in your last group session.

"Well, New Jersey has its support groups. But this one is always going to be special." You tell him as you lightly tap his arm. Stephen smiles as he hands you the progress brooches. Wanda has her hand intertwined in yours, and the man in front of you looks at that before commenting.

"You know, I always find it curious the way pairs develop in the group." He comments. "We never ask that the activities be romantic, but still, many of them end up falling in love."

You and Wanda exchange a mixed look of embarrassment and happiness.

"I guess we have you to thank for that." Wanda says next, but Stephen smiles, denying it.

"Not at all. I'm happy for both of you. After all, I always thought you would get along together." He hints last, making you and Wanda laugh softly.

//-//

"I just need to lock up and grab a few last things in the office, and then we can go." Wanda told you when you arrived at the flower shop. The establishment was now empty, as the moving crew had already passed by.

You waited for her in the reception area.

With the key to the flower shop in hand and the last files that were there, Wanda hesitated. You looked at her, standing in the center of the place, eyes watering, and smiled as you approached.

"Everything okay?" You asked as you touched her arms, stroking her to calm her down.

"Yeah." She sighs, looking around one last time before looking back at you. "It just feels like I'm ending something. Like a chapter in my life."

You swallow dryly briefly, nodding.

"Are you scared?"

Wanda smiles.

"Terrified." She confesses. "But I have you, so I know I'll be all right."

You smile, lifting your hands to your neck to kiss her. It's brief and sweet, and it's exactly what you both need to be sure you're doing the right thing.

"You're a flirt, aren't you Maximoff?" You tease with a smile, and Wanda giggles lightly against your lips.

"And you are breathtaking, love."

You felt your face heat up, kissing Wanda again.

"Are you sure about what we're doing, Wanda?" You let the words escape your anxious brain next. Wanda raised her free hand to your face, caressing your cheek.

" Absolute." She assures. "You are my future."

You swallow dryly, affected by the intensity of the confession. A shy smile escapes your lips in the next moment.

"And you are mine."

#wanda maximoff #wanda x reader #wanda x you #wandaxreader #wandaxyou #wanda maximoff x reader #wandaxyn #wanda x yn #marvel imagines #sorry for your loss

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 4 years ago

Text

Dream SMP Recap (February 26/2021) - ...What?

DreamXD helped George build a McDonald’s, Quackity’s double joined, Jack and Andrea went on a date with Sam and Foolish joining in as wingmen, Andrea was lured to the Egg, Wilbur (non-canonically) had a heart attack during a horse/footrace and died...

Just an average day in the Dream SMP, I suppose?

---

VOD LINKS:

Ranboo

Captain Puffy

Georgenotfound

Jack Manifold

[Andrea’s VOD was deleted due to leaked info, nothing to worry about though!]

---

- Puffy and Foolish work on their fast food restaurant

- After attempting to solve the mystery behind why George was banned on TikTok, Quackity decides that George should build a McDonald’s in Minecraft.

- DreamXD, the god of the server himself, appears to help them. As the owner of the land, he suggests that they renovate the Deal or No Deal house into a McDonalds. He happens to have some very convenient stacks of supplies.

- They burn down the old house and begin to build. Wendy’s replies on Twitter and Dream ratios them.

- Quackity starts chasing George so he calls for Dream’s help and DreamXD attacks him as Quackity repents for his sins. Quackity logs out and DreamXD builds a pit and they fill it with lava.

- George shouts for Quackity to log in while dramatic music plays.

Quackity: “Then so be it. So be it! I don’t care! So be it, George! If this is the destiny that I have to face, then I’ll face it with honor, George!”

- He’s known it all along...Quackity is the one who got him banned. Quackity’s the one who got them all banned! Quackity begins to chuckle. George finally put together the pieces.

Quackity: “You have no idea how much power I have, George...and guess what, I have no issues doing it over, and over, and over again.”

- Quackity decides that he’s not going to log in so that he won’t give George the satisfaction of watching him die. DreamXD types a suggestion to ban Quackity in chat.

George: “I have Dream on my side! DreamXD, he is the god of the Dream SMP server! He will RUIN you! He will delete you from the lore!”

Quackity: “DreamXD...you think gods scare me, George? Gods don’t scare me, George, they don’t.”

- Bad falls into the pit and has to get out.

George: “He’s quacked!”

Quackity: “I’m gonna walk out the door with honor, George, and I’m never giving you the satisfaction of watching me die.”

- Suddenly, DreamXD hits George into the pit of fire, revealing that he’s been with Wendy’s this entire time! George perishes in the fire as Quackity taunts him.

Quackity: “LOOK AT YOU! Look at you fall into despair and death, thinking you’re one step above, but you have no one on your side, George. Nobody...nobody is on your side. Nobody has ever been on your side, George. That’s the funny part! That’s the funny part. Your little moments, your little moments where you think you have any sort of power...they’re just amusing, George. They’re so amusing to me. Have you realized it yet? Have you realized how you hold no power, ever, at all? Take this to the grave, George...you’re nobody.”

- DreamXD tells Quackity it’s clear to log on, but Quackity still doesn’t die. DreamXD then says that it was all an attempt to trick Quackity into logging in and calls for George to log back on.

DreamXD: “I was never with him, George...I’ve been by your side since the beginning, George...I promise.”

- They walk back to McDonald’s. DreamXD assures George that Quackity will pay for this. He murders Bad to cheer George up. DreamXD also makes George a server operator for a short moment.

- George runs back, shouting at Quackity to log in. Quackity replies that as long as he’s outside of George’s realm, they have no power over him. The instant he logs in, they have control. He won’t give them that satisfaction.

- George threatens to canonically ban Quackity for eternity. Bad warns him of the mark this might make on his soul. George presses enter...and it doesn’t work.

Quackity: (laughing) “George...you really thought you had the power! You really thought you could do anything to me! George, you can’t! You can’t do anything to me! Not now, not ever, not as long as I live, George.”

“Long live Quackity, George...I never die.”

- Quackity announces that he will be building a salad store right across the street from George’s store, and there’s nothing George can do about it!

- quackitynumber2 joins the game. George tells him that if he sacrifices himself to the lava, he’ll forgive him. Quackitynumber2 does just that. They rescue real Quackity from the lava.

- DreamXD takes George to the Oogway Shrine to “pray.”

- Sapnap comes on, very confused. They continue to ratio Wendy’s.

- Jack preps for his date. Foolish gives him a pep talk, then Wilbur briefly joins to ask if Andrea’s there yet. Antfrost arrives in a maid outfit.

- Andrea eventually comes onto the server. She dies once and Sam declares it canon. Sam gives Jack gifts for the date at Spawn.

- Jack and Andrea ride around in a boat a bit. The date continues as Antfrost and Sam work as diligent wingmen.

- Sam turns Jack into the waterman and shouts about Dreamons as he attacks. Jack runs away and waits for the invisibility to wear off while Sam, Punz and the others show Andrea Egg propaganda.

- Sam says they can see the Egg soon! Punz remarks that the Egg is nice. Jack freaks out when he hears about this and runs over, eager to stop Andrea from being mind-controlled.

- Jack makes it to Puffy’s McDonald’s and reunites with Andrea.

- They continue to walk around, near the Eggpire meeting room. Sam greets them there, leads the two into the egg building and tells Andrea to stand in the center. Jack and Andrea jump down into the Egg Room.

Sam: Break it Andrea. Save the server. Do it.

- Jack warns her against breaking the blocks. Andrea jumps down from the Egg and looks at it.

Sam: DO YOU WANT TO BE A HERO??

Andrea: SIR

Andrea: MR AWESOME DUDE

Sam: Yes?

Andrea: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN EGG

Andrea: THAT IS NOT AN EGG

- She says this reminds her of health education classes. A fun way to teach people about the reproductive system. Sam tells her to break the Egg again.

- Sam tells her they need to break the Egg to leave, but Andrea dies by lava instead. Jack warns her that she only has one canon life left.

- Jack struggles to swim back up to the surface through the chute. Sam tells Andrea that he doesn’t see her surviving the night.

- Jack makes it to the surface and tries to get back to Andrea. Meanwhile, Sam tells Andrea that he’s way richer than Jack is.

- Jack meets Andrea and Sam at Lemon City. Sam gets Andrea a horse. They decide to do a race. Andrea proposes that they sacrifice the loser. Foolish accuses Sam of cheating on Ponk.

- Ponk comes online.

Jack: Hi Fonk

Sam: LETS RACE

Ponk: Shut up home wrecker

WilburSoot joined the game.

- They make a call for all the racers. Wilbur joins and asks Jack for a few words in private.

- Once alone, Wilbur urges Jack to get out of there. This is not going well, he says. Jack insists that everything’s going fine! Wilbur tells Jack that Andrea asked him to serenade her.

- Jack points out that Wilbur did this last time. Wilbur tells him that was just him being a silly quirky goofster. This is him being real.Wilbur tells Jack to trust him.

Wilbur: “I have a plan...basically, you’re doing a race, right? What’s the worst thing that can happen during a race, you may be asking? I’ll tell you what:

“Wilbur Soot has a heart attack and dies.”

- The plan goes as follows: they start the race, Wilbur has a heart attack and dies, and in his last dying breath, he asks Andrea to tell the truth.

- The two rejoin the call with the plan in mind and meet at the Community House with Sam to begin the race.

Wilbur: “I sure hope my arteries will hold up!”

- The race begins! Jack, Andrea and Sam all start running, Andrea still on horseback. Wilbur calls out that his chest is hurting and Jack turns around to run back to him.

- With his last dying breath, Wilbur says to Andrea that she should tell Jack what she said to Wilbur. He then dies before they can perform CPR. Sam points out that Wilbur Soot is not the type to waste his last words. Andrea replies that they were going to sacrifice him anyway.

- Jack has the messages from Wilbur.

Sam: “Can you read those to us please? I wanna imagine that he wrote them about me.”

Jack: “Okay, he said -- you’re gonna struggle, it has my name in it.”

Sam: “Well, just, when you read your name, just say ‘Sam’ instead.

Jack: “Okay, he says, ‘I want to date Sam. That sounds fucking brilliant.’”

Sam: “Wilbur said that about me?! Oh my god, I have chills. I literally have chills right now. I got ghost bumpies.”

- Andrea asks what’s going on between Jack and Wilbur, and questions whether Jack is really in love with her. She decides to run away.

- Sam shows her the prison he built and brags that he’s the warden. Andrea’s horse explodes. Sam asks if they should lock Jack up, and Andrea says they should.

- After Andrea sings “My Humps,” Sam rapidly comes to the conclusion that he no longer wants anything to do with this date.

- Jack and Andrea’s date continues as he leads her to the restaurant he made.

- Afterwards, they go back to the mainland and Andrea sees L’manhole. Jack explains that this is where L’manberg was destroyed, and he fell into Hell. Andrea remarks that there used to be a sign here that said “I <3 Andrea” that now says “You </3 Little Penis” instead.

- They sail out into the ocean together.

- Afterwards, Jack brings her to Foolish’s Temple of Undying. Jack says he’ll see her on their next date, if he’s still alive by then.

- Andrea leaves, and Sam speaks with Jack alone.

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #long posts

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