#is she though? or is snow just easier to dislike cause of her personality and the weak facade she puts up to the others?

[nexo-nex]

the evil queen is such a good manipulator that she even made some people in the audience think that she's a good mother

[carminite-wyrm]

A Genshin Impact Hermitcraft AU Idea, God Help Me

Last year, on September 28, a particular gacha rpg game was released and I, occasionally regrettably, fell straight into playing it. In honour of the fact that this will mean I have lasted nearly a whole year (I got the game a week after bc uni) determinedly not spending any money on Genshin whilst also trying to roll good characters…here’s a bunch of Hermitcraft Genshin AU ideas that I initially came up with at roughly 2.40 am.

The general idea of this AU is that the Hermits end up in a new world that has Genshin-esque mechanics, on top of the usual Minecraft shenanigans. So, Visions and stuff. Also, we’re gonna just…briefly ignore the actual Genshin lore in regards to how Visions and Gnosises (Gnoses?) come about, for this one.

Post-S8, the Hermits are travelling to a new world, ready for another season.

The moment they arrive, it is clear to them all that…something is different. Something is vastly different with this world, for all that it appears much like the previous servers that they have lived in and travelled to. There is something of a…presence to it, in a sense.

When the Something Different doesn’t appear immediately, being the demigods/almost-deities that they are, they go about their days, setting up starter bases, gathering the basic resources and tools, the usual beginnings.

Things change when Doc wakes up one morning after a hard day at work building a new redstone machine, to find a small glowing chess piece lying next to his head, crackling with an ethereal purple light

Upon picking it up, he feels a burst of energy, almost like that one time in the previous world where he and Ren built a lightning-summoning tower

However, the changes it has wrought become apparent later that day when Scar comes out of nowhere with the recording of a creeper’s tell-tale hiss and explosion, and Doc sends him flying backwards with a startled blast of lightning

At first, they chalk it up to ‘Something Funky With Doc’s Current Project’, but after some tests, some experimentation to confirm if it was a one-off reaction…they end up confirming that they may have found out what the Weird Thing about this season’s world is

The duo go to Xisuma with their findings, and, to their collective surprise, X can’t find anything blatantly broken in the server’s code, but he does find a few interesting lines within.

By all appearances, this is not a glitch, but simply an intended feature of the server

Seven lucky hermits, designated as Archons in the server code, will receive a Gnosis, an artefact of elemental power that the server can assign, given to the ‘player who best suits the element’

The server notes speak of how the power granted (and represented through the chess-piece-shaped item) will grant the receiver the capability to shape the land around them

By random chance, other players on the server will also be gifted a Vision, a somewhat lesser artefact that will still grant them a form of elemental power

Given that the Hermits are practically gods in their own right, considering they are already capable of shaping the worlds they arrive in as they see fit…are more curious than worried, at this point

They agree to keep an eye out, to see how chaotic the sudden acquisition of elemental powers will turn out

The next person to receive a Gnosis is Grian, who delights in the bursts of wind he can use to buffer his flight, gliding across the server with naught but the turquoise magic the server has seen fit to grant him

After that, most of the Hermits soon receives some sort of Elemental power from the server

A Summary of Who Gets What (That I can think of so far):

Doc: [Electro Archon]

Can summon lightning, without need for a trident, a thunderstorm, or a machine that can generate an ongoing thunderstorm for as long as its activated

Can also generate an Electro shield, though it does require his active concentration to maintain for longer than a few seconds. This shield appears like a charged creeper’s aura, except purple

Capable of generating a thunderstorm at will, but rarely does it on account of mob spawning dangers

Has found that by channelling a low level of Electro energy, he can in fact power redstone machines just by tapping them/being in close proximity to them

This has proven to both be a blessing and a curse, considering that on occasion, when startled, he has short-circuited some of his machines

Grian: [Anemo Archon]

Generally, uses his powers as a free rocket boost for flying around the server

Upon finding out that he can use the Anemo energy to create pockets of energy that can boost flight, he takes to leaving them all over the server, in convenient locations to make flight that much more efficient

Yes, he absolutely sets up a fancy elytra course that makes use of his flight-boosters to send players rocketing around a course at breakneck paces (poor Scar experiences many instances of kinetic energy)

Bdubs: [Geo Archon]

Suddenly, making mountains and other works of major terraforming is a lot easier

Certainly, he still prefers to sculpt them and detail them by hand, but bringing the basic shape of the mountain forth by brandishing the power of Geo is something that he can do with ease, in this world

A new shop pops up in the shopping district rather quickly after this realisation: Bdub’s Landshaping Service, Now offering quick terraforming at a budget price! (it is, in fact, a service that makes him quite the amount of money)

And when he wants to sleep, without the other hermits breaking his bed? A glowing shield of steadfast golden magic takes care of that.

Gem: [Dendro Archon]

The patch of the server that Gem has claimed for herself quickly springs to life as plants of all varieties grow to surprising proportions, energised by the power that she now can radiate

The effect is most notable in and around her home, of course, but wherever she travels, the plants grow more vibrantly for days afterwards

Adding a forest of birch around her house takes little more than a thought, a fact she uses to prank some of her friends, those who in the last world were rather vocal about their dislike of non-stripped birch

Another power Gem finds herself with is the ability to summon vines even without a surface for them to initially grow upon, and thus it is not uncommon to see Gem building or resting in a hammock of woven vines

Cub: [Cryo] (cannot make up my mind if I think he’d be Archon material or not)

Gathering powdered snow has never been easier, as instead of waiting for a storm to form and last longer than it takes a Hermit to get into the nearest bed, he can simply clap his hands together and a lump of snow shoots out from just above his shoulder.

It does hurt, getting hit by the sudden snow barrage that Cub is now capable of, but except for the occasional snowball fight, his newfound snow-creation ability is used for making increasingly more insane mob farms and snowy building decoration

False: [Pyro]

The magic her Pyro Vision grants her doesn’t become apparent, not for a while, until she visits the Nether for the first time in this world

A mis-swing in a bastion, and suddenly a horde of piglins and hoglins are chasing after her, and there isn’t enough time to pillar away.

She readies her sword and shield, ready to fight, and suddenly her blade crackles to life with bright flames, unlike the fire aspect enchantment in that it actually is on fire.

Every attack she lands, whilst her sword is alight, seems to invigorate her, return strength and stamina that was lost when she had first tried to flee the enraged inhabitants of the bastion

Xisuma:

The admin is one of the few to not receive a Vision or a Gnosis

Quietly, he does admit to being relieved, considering his powers as an admin are already much greater than that of the other Hermits, for all that they are still his equals

And then, one day, whilst X is placing his diamonds to sign up to one of Grian’s newest competitions, he feels a rush of foreign magic, so unlike the familiar ordered pulses of server code

The blast of wind that comes with a swing of his sword, much later whilst he is mob-farming, is greatly surprising, if not unexpected.

The funny thing about all these new powers, granted by the server itself in the form of artefacts that can easily sit in one’s palm, is that for all they are miraculous on their own, the natural capabilities of the Hermits are already enough to rival them

In the hands of an ordinary person, an ordinary player, the powers from this world would bring them close to the near-omnipotence of Creative, could even be the driving force of server-wide conflict.

Powers such as these, while they can build great things, can so easily be used to destroy, to cause war and destruction, and in other realities, they have.

Perhaps whatever trick of fate that caused the server to be capable of granting these powers hoped to create that conflict, to see what would happen when only a few of their number were gifted such strengths.

Later, when the initial surprise and rush to test out the limits of the server’s granted magics dies down, Zedaph approaches Xisuma, one of the few to not possess an artefact of elemental magic, with an observation

Zedaph notes that, from his studies of the Hermits’ new powers, almost all of them are oriented vastly towards combat, whether they be summonable blades of frost, elemental shields, or even the ability to soothe aches and hurts

And even though the Hermits have all found ways to make those powers work in the ways that they wish them to, it does not take away from the fact that the likeliest original purpose of this server’s magic was for fighting

Any other server, any other group, Zedaph quietly says, and there would more than likely have been bloodshed, given the inequality in the range of power granted

At the end of the day however, unexpected gifts of power or not, the Hermits, at their core, are a group that creates and innovates, a band of friends that shape entire worlds with naught but their own ideas and willpower, and regardless of what powers they now possess in this particular realm, that will not change.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

“Why do you lie?”: A look at a gay Mike Wheeler

This is a sort of a companion post to Will Byers and Growing Up Gay in the Pre-Internet Era, which I posted last year. I looked into what could have possibly been going on with Will as someone with a gay identity at a time when there was little support. Now I’d like to look at Mike, who would have his own unique challenges towards accepting a positive identity. This isn’t meant to be a post for why Mike is gay, as I (and several others) have already addressed that. Instead, I want to look at some of the psychological processes that may be at work in how Mike develops through the series. I will be treating Mike as if he were a real person, rather than a fictional character, and, so, I will attempt to ignore narrative devices (foreshadowing, parallels, etc.) as much as possible.

“Friends don’t lie” is one of the prevailing messages in Stranger Things. It more or less becomes El’s personal motto, so it ultimately became associated more with her than the person who taught it to her: Mike. Despite attempting to instill this value onto El, Mike himself is shown to have a lot of trouble living up to it. While Mike spends quite a lot of time in Season 3 lying to El, she is not the biggest victim of his lies. No, the one he lies to the most is himself, and he seems to have been doing that since Season 1.

According to the Cass Identity Model, a journey to a positive gay identity requires several steps: confusion, comparison, tolerance, acceptance, pride, and synthesis. This is not a perfect model, but it is one of the better attempts to create a general framework for how it worked for many gay individuals, at least in the time it was created (1979). A general way to look at it is that, at least at the time, individuals would work their way through this process as they engaged with the gay and lesbian community and started to see it as less of a bad thing and more as something to be proud of until it finally becomes just another part of who they are.

As I mentioned in my Will post, there is little opportunity for a kid in Hawkins to engage with the gay and lesbian community. There is no internet, nor is there any (known) place for local gays to gather in Hawkins. This results in the only real mention of homosexuality being the slurs thrown around by school bullies and people like Lonnie. A town like Hawkins would be a very difficult place for a young gay person to grow up. This makes it hard for even the initial stage, confusion, even occurring. Mike has deep feelings for Will, but the confusion stage requires that he acknowledge his feelings as homosexual in nature. Instead, I think Mike has been hiding from his own feelings, and it may not have been until the finale of Season 3 that he finally acknowledged them for the first time. So what comes before the first stage? 

Lies! Well, sort of. Defense mechanisms are how our minds protect us from the anxiety and social consequences of unwanted thoughts and desires. We all use them, unconsciously, to some extent. The next time you come home from a hard day at work and yell at a family member, ask yourself why you’re angry. Odds are it’s nothing the family member did. Getting angry at work can be a risk to your employment, so, instead, you unconsciously find a “safer” target. In this case it’s still bad, but getting forgiveness from a family member is easier than talking a boss into rehiring you. Mike has similar processes going on to protect him from his budding attraction to Will.

It’s impossible to tell when exactly Mike started thinking of Will as more than a friend, even if he doesn’t label the thoughts as such. He already shows an intense concern for Will in Season 1. When the boyish-looking El shows up and provides an opportunity to find Will, Mike risks his friendships to make use of her powers. He also goes over the top in disguising her as, well, a girl. It probably would have been easier to disguise her as a boy, but Mike decided to put a wig and dress on her, and then apply makeup to her. This could be a combination of displacement and reaction formation. Mike is redirecting his feelings for Will onto El, and also making her as obviously female as he can. 

Mike’s bond with El came very quickly, and even caused a rift within the Party. While Dustin and Lucas would come around and value El as a trusted friend, their process with her is more natural than Mike’s rushed, forced relationship with her. Dustin and Lucas had no weird feelings to hide from. Their search for Will contained no unwanted implications, they simply wanted their friend back safe and sound. Still, we would see Mike on the opposite end of this type of interaction in Season 2.

Max is the first “normal” girl to show interest in the Party. Mike reacts to her presence and attempts to join the party with hostility. There is little reason for this, as he was more than willing to allow El to be their friend. He doesn’t truly hate her, and in his own words he can’t hate her as he doesn’t even know her. He simply wants nothing to do with her. His only given reason is that the party is full as it is, which seems to fall flat. It could be that the presence of a girl reminds him of El, but we don’t see him acting hostile to girls in general. It seems, instead, to be his friends’ interest in her that gets Mike to dislike her. While the theory that he is jealous at Will’s interest in Max is intriguing, there isn’t much to go on aside from Will showing a curiosity about her and then letting Dustin and Lucas bring her along for Halloween. Instead, Mike may be projecting here. He shows incredulity that Dustin and Lucas could be so interested in Max despite never having talked to her, suggesting that he thinks getting to know someone is important in regards to being romantically interested. This runs counter to his interactions with El in Season 1. He resents his own behavior, but takes his anger out on his friends and Max instead when he sees them doing something similar.

Mike is very protective of Will throughout Season 2. He also spends a lot of time reaching out to El via his SuperComm, though he admits it’s likely a fruitless effort. His guilt over what has happened to the both of them is another sign of his mixed up feelings for Will and El. On Halloween, Mike and Will open up to each other about how crazy they feel, and they share a smile at the end of a conversation that is arguably a masked love confession. However, as Mike twice brought up El as a part of their conversation, it further reinforces the displacement of Mike’s feelings to her. However, soon after this, Mike finds himself caught up in another Will-related crisis, and El is out of his thoughts until her return at the end of the season.

Mike also shows a lot of willingness to allow himself to be vulnerable with Will in Season 2, something which isn’t seen in his interactions with anyone else. In these moments, Mike’s body language shifts. His tone becomes softer, his head dips slightly, and he peers at Will through his lashes. His aforementioned conversation on Halloween is just one example, but it is also seen when Will is asked if he remembers Mike, when Mike recounts meeting Will as they try to break through to him, when they’re at the movies, and when Will is packing at the end of Season 3. The moment in the shed is perhaps Mike’s most vulnerable moment. He shares a cherished memory, and unashamedly cries while doing so, perhaps even so lost in the moment that he forgets other people are in the room. His feelings, driven into overdrive by the fear of losing Will for good, are beginning to overwhelm him, but he still maintains his “Will behavior.”

This shows an uncharacteristic degree of trust and/or submission. In interactions with other characters, even El, Mike often displays assertive, or even aggressive, tones and stances. Mike doesn’t realize he does this, but we do see him sometimes use similar body language with El, further suggesting that he is redirecting his affections.

Perhaps the biggest moment we see him act this way around El is at the Snow Ball at the end of Season 2. Mike had been having a great time at the dance until Will had gone off to dance. This is strange considering Mike seemed to urge him to go with the girl in the first place. He appears shocked as the pair walks to the dance floor, his mouth agape, and wide eyes staring off into space. This isn’t the body language of someone expressing pride at a friend’s unexpected boldness, but rather it suggests a disturbing revelation. It is at this point that Mike could potentially have moved into the Confusion stage of the Cass model, as he sits on the sidelines (despite Dustin briefly there for company) watching Will dance. Any progress he may have made is instead halted when El arrives unexpectedly. This allows for him to continue using her as an outlet, and gives him a convenient escape from where his thoughts would likely take him.

Season 3 is the first time Mike had to deal with having both El and Will in his life at the same time, and it’s where his defense mechanisms begin to break down. In therapy, the goal is to shine light onto defense mechanisms in order to deconstruct them, so the patient can see and deal with what is actually going on. 

We find out Mike has been largely ignoring his friends and spending most of his time with El. He makes a big show of his relationship with El, including leaving early after Dustin had returned from camp under the false pretense of a curfew. The others don’t buy it, and Mike likely knew this. He wanted them to know he was going off to make out with El. When we actually see them alone, they do indeed make out, but, curiously, Mike twice takes steps to make it less intimate. He stops to sing along to the music, for example, despite El not enjoying it. He also removes El’s hands from her face, leaving them both simply leaning forward at each other without additional contact. There is a suggestion here that Mike is not enjoying what he is doing and limiting just how intimate they get. 

We continue to see his lack of a desire to be close to El. For her part, El shows behavior that could only be considered clingy. It is she who initiates nearly all of their physical contact, and, at one point, she even literally clings to Mike as Dustin is showing off his gadgets. A close inspection shows that Mike is standing with his arms crossed during this, making no active attempt to return the physical contact. None of this physical intimacy is for his own benefit. While being with El means he doesn’t have to worry about his feelings for Will, it does not really allow him to express those feelings to his satisfaction. This may be why he goes on movie “double dates” with Will, Lucas, and Max in between spending time with El. 

The occurrence we see at the movies is clearly not the first due to Steve’s frustrated reaction and their familiarity with his threat. They are late, so there are not enough seats, but there is no hesitation as Mike goes with Will to sit apart from Max and Lucas. Mike is so comfortable with reaching into Will’s bag for the snacks that it suggests it’s happened multiple times before. We also see that, despite his reclusive behavior with El, Mike still has Will on his mind when he asks if Will is ok. His tone again soft, head slightly dipped as he peers up through his lashes. He glances briefly down, possibly at Will’s lips, suggesting he needs to remind himself that it’s not El he’s with at this moment. He is otherwise very content to be “alone” with Will at the movie. 

Mike ultimately needs the relationship with El to protect himself against his feelings for Will, and it all comes to a head when they fight after Will’s attempt at a campaign. Mike’s continuous theatrics lead to not only Hopper forcing him to spend less time with El, but to him getting busted as he allows Lucas to lead him through a plan to get El an apology gift. We later see that he has no difficulties apologizing when he feels he should, so his grand gesture is another sign that his relationship with El is more of a show. He puts up no fight when El dumps him, acting annoyed and accusing Max and El of conspiring against him. He’s hiding from his own complicity in order to avoid acknowledging that it doesn’t really bother him as much as it should. He wants El to come back to him to continue his show, but he can’t do anything about it without confronting his feelings. El leaving didn’t hurt him; it just made him angry. This complicates things for him. It was easier for him to shift his feelings to El when he didn’t actually need to do anything about it.

Will loses it at Mike’s disinterest in his campaign, particularly his attempt to abruptly end it. Mike seems to be trying to be just another too-cool ladies man, and he is disallowing himself to enjoy the game. Still, he can’t bare to have hurt Will, and he chases after him when Will tries to leave. Mike struggles to maintain the lie while trying to placate Will. When Will accuses him of ruining everything to make out with “a stupid girl,” we see Mike lash out, saying it’s not his fault Will doesn’t like girls. While this hurt Will, it was likely another case of projection. Mike hates himself for spending all of his time with El because he doesn’t actually like girls. He can’t even stay angry at Will when he sees how hurt Will was with what he said. He tries to explain that this is just how it needs to be, and he appears sad as Will leaves. Unlike with El, Mike is hurt when he loses Will, and he chased after him to apologize. We don’t actually get to see him apologize, however, as the threat-of-the-season kicks into gear, resulting in Mike needing to get El.

Mike thus is able to bounce his feelings back to El. He maintains a physical proximity to Will, but also tries to avoid interacting with him. The apology he never gets to make to Will ends up clumsily being offered to El. Mike’s vulnerable, genuine behavior is absent as he goofily attempts to make nice with his ex-girlfriend. He awkwardly attempts to invoke previous conversations with Will, suggesting an increasing desperation to re-establish El as the safe target for his affections. Cracks had already been forming in his carefully constructed subconscious defense mechanisms as a result of the contrast in how El and Will dumping him made him feel. Mike is starting to see the truth, and he needs to fix it.

Ultimately, the Byers decide to move away. A few months pass between the end of the season and the epilogue where they actually move. Mike seems to be on good terms with both El and Will, but we don’t really know what happened in the interim to get him there. Mike has conversations with both El and Will. His demeanor in each again demonstrate that, despite what he wants others to think, it’s Will who Mike can’t bear to part with. With Will, Mike again shows his vulnerability when Will goes to give away his D&D books. Mike is clearly afraid at the implications, that Will will move on from him, but Will is able to allay his fears, assuring him it’s “not possible” for him to find a new party, and that he expects to just use Mike’s set when he returns. Mike shows no vulnerability with El. In fact, he seems quite at ease as he explains how they’ll talk all the time, so everything will be ok. El suddenly attempts to bring up his previous attempts to talk about feelings, and he feigns ignorance, seeming uncomfortable. There’s a suggestion that they never re-established a romantic relationship. She says she loves him, and he seems perturbed. She kisses him, and he stands there, unresponsive. As she leaves, Mike stands confused and disturbed. He was not expecting that, nor did he enjoy it. Previously, after such a vulnerable moment with Will, Mike would have jumped at the opportunity to shift his feelings to El. Now it seems that he is finally accepting the truth. Defense mechanisms, being elaborate unintentional lies, only work when the individual remains unaware of them. Insight results in the truth being revealed.

As the Byers leave, Mike stares longingly at the cars. His friends all bike away, but he hangs back momentarily, looking back at Will’s house one last time with a pensive look on his face. All his walls have come crumbling down, and he can’t deny it anymore. He can’t pretend it’s El that he loves. He rides home, walking into his home in a daze. We last see him seeking comfort in his mother’s arms, seeking that unconditional love he craves so much. Mike is now confused, consciously aware that he loves Will, dealing with not only losing him, but also the acknowledgement that he’s likely gay. He’s no longer lying to himself, though it remains to be see how he reacts to the truth.

From here it’s all speculation, as we have little to no knowledge of Season 4. Based on the Cass model, Mike needs to explore his gay identity by meeting other gay people. He needs to see that not only is he not alone, but that being gay isn’t a bad thing. This process isn’t easy, and he will need to deal with the social implications of what it means. He may well choose to attempt to maintain a straight image. El being away means he can claim her as his girlfriend without them needing to be intimate. On the other hand, with support, he could work his way through the model and learn to love himself as he is. 

Note: I tried hard to stick to a conceptualization of Mike, but this does not mean this is how the writers see him. 

[malfoymanortings]

lavender and velvet //part six

SUMMARY: she had her fathers eyes, his aristocratic looks, her grandmothers spite, her mothers heart, but the one thing she didn't have was the love of her father that her god brother received. juliet black finally meets her father who has already decided who his child is.

PAIRINGS: to be decided.

hello! i am so happy to see im nearly at 200 followers! once i hit that milestone, i have something special for you guys ;) hope you all like this chapter! also, if any of you cared to give me your opinion, how are you feeling about juliet’s relationships with everyone, romantic or otherwise? i just want to make sure im doing a good job at portraying her and that she is not coming off as a mary sue. thank you all, and as always if you want to be added to the taglist, let me know!

Juliet had never so thoroughly misjudged a school year before in her life.

She really should have taken the summer as a forewarning towards the hell that awaited them at Hogwarts. Then again, she doubted anyone could have really predicted the horror that was Dolores Umbridge.

The wretched old toad was a horrible excuse for a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She had told them they would not be doing magic of any kind, even though the entire point of them attending Hogwarts was to learn magic. To add insult to injury, she had the most disgusting personality, and for whatever reason, she absolutely fawned over Draco.

Well, not for whatever reason, she thought to herself, his father’s ministry contributions surely had a lot to do with it.

Of course, given her parentage, Umbridge absolutely despised her. Draco, because he loved being an utter twat, found it to be the funniest thing. It had caused a few genuine arguments between the two, because he didn’t understand that it truly bothered her. It wasn’t like the teacher didn’t like her because she was a bad student, because she wasn’t. Umbridge hated her because her father was the escaped alleged murderer Sirius Black.

Draco couldn’t seem to understand that, and per his usual behavior, he would beat a joke to death. 

The only thing keeping her from being over the edge was the meetings with Dumbeldore’s Army. George had told her about it, and despite the tension that had been there between her and Harry, she had to admit he was a great teacher. It was easier for her to put aside her jealousy of him while they were at Hogwarts, as the presence of her father was absent, and she found herself enjoying his company. He was much more sassy than she would have thought, and could keep up a banter with her that would have the others annoyed in no time. 

Being a Prefect wasn’t half bad, either. She enjoyed helping the younger students, finding it joyful to do so. It made her feel useful, and needed. The only thing that was annoying was trying to keep Draco in line, as he preferred bullying and intimidation rather than helping them. 

Due to Draco’s behavior, there was a growing wedge between them. She didn’t know how to fix it, and it upset her. 

“Black,” Blaise Zabini snapped his fingers, breaking her out of her thoughts. “Nott’s been trying to talk to you.”

“Oh,” Juliet cleared her throat, her eyes flicking from the fire to Theo, who looked at her with a smile on his admittedly handsome face. “Sorry, Theo. What is it?”

“I was wondering if you were going to Hogsmeade tomorrow.” Theo paused, waiting for his reply. His blue eyes stared at her, and she found herself self conscious under his gaze.

“Erm, I suppose so,” Juliet replied, lifting an eyebrow as she appraised the boy. “Are you?”

Theo nodded. “I was wondering if you would fancy grabbing a butterbeer.”

Juliet blinked. “With everyone?”

“Well, I was thinking just the two of us could,” he paused, raising an eyebrow. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“No,” Juliet paused. “I would like that.”

As Theo smiled, Blaise snorted. Juliet glanced at him, her eyes narrowed.

“That was bloody awkward,” he shook his head. “Good thing the two of you’ll be on your own.”

“Aw, so sorry Blaise,” Juliet fake pouted, resting her chin on her palm. “Perhaps if you catch Parkinson when she’s not sucking Draco’s cock, you could go with her.”

Theo laughed at that, while Blaise flicked her off and turned his attention back to his Transfiguration homework. Juliet smirked, looking back at the fire with her chin in her hand. She couldn’t help but think of George.

He had begun casually seeing Alicia Spinnet, or at least that was what was heard around the castle. She almost didn’t believe it, but she had caught them snogging once. She hadn’t said anything, instead she acted like she saw nothing. It had hurt her, and she really wasn’t sure why. She should be happy for George, that he had finally gotten himself a girlfriend. She should have teased him, when she caught them kissing, yet, she had backed away slowly as her chest tightened.

“I’ll be so glad when Christmas break comes,” Draco sat down next to Juliet, lying his legs across her lap. “I’m so tired of having to help pathetic little first years.”

“You used to be a pathetic little first year at one point,” Juliet reminded him, shoving his legs off her, ignoring his protest. “Now look at you, a pathetic little fifth year.”

“Oh, shove off,” Draco rolled his eyes, ignoring the laughter from their friends. “Yeah yeah, you all are right gits.”

Crabbe and Goyle had arrived with Draco, both sitting in separate arm chairs. They had snacks, obviously having just come from the kitchen. They ate loudly, smacking their lips and chewing roughly, making Juliet’s stomach churn.

“Nott’s asked Juliet to Hogsmeade with him.” Blaise informed Draco, flicking through his book. 

“Did he now?” Draco looked from Theo to Juliet. “Shall I sound the bells?”

“Oh bugger off, Draco,” Juliet hit his arm harshly, standing up from her seat. She had felt her fake Galleon burn in her pocket, signaling a new date had been set for Dumbledore’s Army. “Just because you can’t get a friend to go to Hogsmeade with.”

“I’m going with Pansy tomorrow.” Draco responded smugly, crossing his arms.

“I said a friend, not a stalker.” Juliet called over her shoulder, smirking when the others laughed.

She checked the Galleon to see that they were set to meet tomorrow night at nine, probably their last meeting before they went home for holidays. Heading up to her room, she turned in for the night, thoughts of Theo and George swarming in her head.

“You’re going to miss breakfast if you don’t wake up soon,” Pansy woke Juliet up the next morning, swishing her curtains open. “Wouldn’t want to go to Hogsmeade with Theo on an empty stomach.”

“Blimey, word travels fast,” Juliet grumbled, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stretched her arms over her head, her joints cracking as she did. “Draco told you.”

Pansy shook her head, her short black hair styled wavy this morning. “Theo did. He was practically grinning ear to ear. Made me positively sick.”

“Oh, little Parkinson can’t handle the thought of someone caring for someone other than herself,” Juliet mocked, making her way to the bathroom.

“Piss off, Juliet.” Pansy called after her, annoyance laced in her tone.

“Love you, Parkinson.” Juliet called back, smirking on her way to the shower.

After she had showered, she dressed nicer than usual. Instead of leggings and a sweater, her usual weekend attire, she wore a baggy cream sweater tucked into a short pleated black skirt belted at the waist with a thin green strap, and knee high socks. Her dark hair, usually tied back in a low pony, was free around her face. She put on more makeup than usual, spritzed on her perfume, and walked down to breakfast. 

“You look pretty,” Theo complimented her, pouring himself pumpkin juice. “And you smell nice.”

“Merlin, Theo,” Draco rolled his eyes, stabbing at his eggs. “We get it, you fancy her. Save your lovey dovey talk for when you’re alone.”

“I pity your future girlfriend if you think compliments are saved for when you’re alone,” Juliet shot back, fixing her tea. “Thank you, Theo. You look nice as well.”

“You know Draco, she has a point,” Pansy sniffed, pointedly looking down at her seemingly new blouse. “Compliments are what you give when you like someone and want them to feel nice.”

“I love when they do this,” Blaise muttered to Theo, a smile on his face. “Get on his case. Teach him manners. It’s brilliant.”

“Oh, do shut it Zabini.” Draco snapped, rolling his eyes for the second time. 

After breakfast, they split up, Theo and Juliet walked alone together to Hogsmeade. It was an unusually nice day, thankfully, even though snow dusted the rooftops and covered the ground with a thick layer. 

Walking with Theo was nice. He was very kind, and intelligent. They spoke about their homework due Monday, and their mutual dislike for Umbridge. The latter conversation carried them all the way to the Three Broomsticks, where Juliet told him about how she had gotten two detentions from her so far; because she had pointed out that they were at Hogwarts to actually practice magic, whereas Theo had not gotten the lovely opportunity. 

“Merlin, she’s awful,” Theo shook his head, looking down at her arm. “Is there still a mark?”

Juliet rolled up her sleeve to show him the faint scar that remained, reading, I must be respectful of authority. Theo’s fingers brushed gently over the raised lettering, his fingers soft against her skin, giving her goosebumps. 

“I suppose Dumbledore can’t do much about her,” Theo said quietly. “After all, she’s ministry appointed.”

“She sure is,” Juliet murmured, pulling her sleeve down once more. “The ministry is a fool.”

“Right on that,” Theo said darkly, taking a drink of his butterbeer. “Suppose it makes it easier on us, though.”

“How so?” Juliet questioned, taking a drink of her own.

“Well, with our parents,” Theo shrugged, noting how Juliet tensed. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Theo,” Juliet paused, biting her lip. “Are you referring to Voldemort?”

“This really isn’t the place for that conversation.” Theo responded quietly, but nodded his head. 

“You started it,” Juliet pointed out, her stomach lacing with knots. “Are you.. On his side?”

Theo shrugged again. “I think he’s got the right idea on some things. It’s kind of hard not to be a supporter, anyways. Family business, and all of that.”

“It’s not my family business,” she replied quickly, shaking her head. “I don’t think he’s got the right idea.”

“Not entirely, of course,” he agreed with her. “I’m just saying, it probably would be better for the muggles if they had our help, y’know? I don’t really believe in the mudblood hatred, of course, I mean look at Granger, muggle born and still the brightest witch of our year.”

“I like you, Theo,” Juliet began, pausing again to bite her lip. “But I don’t know that we can get anywhere if you really support him overall.”

“Perhaps you’ll have to change my views then,” Theo replied lightly, reaching out his hand to brush his thumb over her knuckles. “Open my eyes.”

“I can handle that.” Juliet cocked her head at him, a smile on her face. Theo’s touch was nice. She felt butterflies in her tummy as they continued talking.

At some point during their conversation, Theo had taken her hand in his, across the table. Their butterbeers were long gone, but they kept talking. She was trying her best to change his opinion, and by the time he suggested they head to Honeydukes before returning to the castle, he had admitted that she made some rather good points.

A familiar voice caught her attention from where she sat with Theo, and she turned her head to see the twins head in, with two girls trailing behind them. Angelina Johnson was holding Fred’s hand, while Alicia Spinnet held George’s. Juliet felt her heartbeat quicken, and she was suddenly hyper aware of her surroundings. 

Theo noticed her change in energy, and clasped her hand in both of his as he asked if she was alright.

Juliet nodded, swallowing hard as Fred noticed her first. He caught sight of her holding hands with Theo, and nudged George while pointing over towards her. Juliet glanced away before she caught George’s eye, feeling her chest tighten at the thought.

“Looks like your twins are headed our way,” Theo remarked lightly, his hands tightening on hers. “Should I be nervous?”

“He-They, aren’t mine,” she corrected him, nerves tightening her tummy. “And no, you shouldn’t be.”

“Little Juliet, you look rather dashing today,” Fred greeted, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. “Long time no see. Out on a little date, are you?”

”Same as the both of you,” Juliet remarked, raising her eyebrows as she forced herself to look at the redheads. “Hey Fred, George.”

“Theodore Nott, hm?” George asked her, his eyes tight as they looked at each other.

“Alicia Spinnet, hm?” Juliet echoed him, raising her eyebrows and giving him a look as she dared him to say more.

“I’m with Angelina Johnson, if anyone cares to know,” Fred joked, breaking the tension. “Where are you two headed off to after this?”

“Honeydukes,” Theo replied, giving Fred a friendly smile. “I bet you lot just came from Zonkos.”

“Smart man,” Fred snapped his fingers, giving him a grin. “I like him, Jules.”

“Thank you.” Juliet murmured, looking away from George.

“Well, I suppose we’d better let the two of you be on with it then,” Fred gave Juliet a hug. “See you later.”

“Bye Freddie,” Juliet hugged him back, looking hesitantly at George, who was staring back at her with that odd look he had given her at Kings Cross, when he had said goodbye to her. “Bye, Georgie.”

George nodded, turning around with Fred as they headed back towards their dates. Juliet swallowed hard, unsure of the feeling in her tummy that had traveled to her chest and her throat.

“Shall we?”  Theo asked, standing when she nodded.

They left the three broomsticks, and Juliet didn’t dare look at the twins again. She didn’t understand why she had gotten so upset when she saw George. They were best friends, so why did it seem like they were both upset with each other?

Theo bought her two sugar quills, and a package of Droobles Best Blowing Gum. He had gotten an assortment of other things, for Christmas presents, he informed her. Which then, of course, made Juliet realize she hadn’t gotten any presents as of yet. She would have to remind Remus to take her.

He held her hand as they walked back to the castle, his warmth welcomed as the wind picked up. By the time she made it back to the castle, her thighs were red from the cold.

“I should’ve given you my robe,” Theo blushed, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Juliet looked up at him, smiling. “I should’ve probably worn jeans or something.”

“I quite liked the skirt,” Theo’s voice was low, and he eyed her up and down. “You are positively gorgeous, you know.”

They were alone in the corridor outside the Slytherin common room, and it seemed both of them were much aware of that fact. Theo cupped her cheek, tilting her head up slightly. He pressed his lips against hers, his lips still sweet from the chocolate frog he had eaten on their way back. Juliet reached a hand to the back of his head, tangling her fingers in the light brown strands that brushed his neck. His lips moved against hers, his tongue tracing her bottom lip. His hand stayed against her cheek, keeping her head tilted upwards. 

“Bloody hell, save it for somewhere other than the hallway!” 

Juliet and Theo broke apart, their cheeks red from the lingering cold and embarrassment, to see Draco rolling his eyes while Pansy glared at Juliet with odd anger.

“Sorry, mate,” Theo apologized, although there was little sincerity behind it. “To be fair, this hallway was private until you two showed up.”

Draco shook his head, and he and Pansy entered the common room. Juliet and Theo entered next, and Juliet excused herself to go get ready for the meeting with Dumbledore’s Army.

The feeling of Theo’s lips lingered on her own, and for a reason she couldn’t fathom she felt slightly upset by the thought that he had taken her first kiss.

taglist: @person1839 @big-galaxy-chaos @spooderham @iamashlynmarie 

[iturbide]

Oh damn, edelgard doesn't have a support with Flayn! Clearly she's racist against flayn!Oh wait, tons of characters don't have supports with flayn, and aren't able to spare seteth and flayn. I guess everyones just closet racist. :/

And Lindhardt didn't say "We aren't bringing edelgard cause she'd kill the dragon."

He ASKED to keep the trip a secret since the location concerned the saints of seiros and a holy weapon. Hell, Lindhardt even TELLS the professor to tell Edelgard about what happened for him.

You can't claim edelgard is racist towards all Dragons, when the only dragons she CAN be racist to all belong to the church she considers corrupt and are her enemies. She doesn't hate Rhea BECAUSE she's a dragon, she hates Rhea BECAUSE she's the head of the church she considers corrupt and the cause of the whole crest system.

Look, if you disagree this intensely with me, you really can block me. I'm not trying to change your mind, but this is my blog, and therefore a place for my opinions; said opinions never get much spread because I have a small follower count and my posts generally don't get reblogs, so blocking me is a very quick and effective way of making both our lives a heck of a lot easier, since you don't have to deal with me and vice versa.

With that said, though, she literally said that dragons were monsters. It is an actual in-game quote from her. I legitimately don't know how that can be spun into her not being anti-dragon.

Also, please not that I'm not saying calling into question that Flayn doesn't have supports with other characters in the game at large. I'm saying that the other House Leaders, who consistently have supports with every member of their house -- which includes Flayn since she's scripted to join if you pick them -- have supports with her, while Edelgard doesn't. I personally find it noteworthy because if you bring Lysithea on board -- whether it's just as a support character or full-on recruitment -- Edelgard can have at least a C support with her even if you eventually go on a Silver Snow run, at which point they can't go higher in their support chain. There's really no reason why Edelgard couldn't have had a C-B Support chain with Flayn, except that -- given her general feelings about dragons on the whole -- she may well have been purposefully keeping her distance from Flayn, knowing that she's actually a dragon. Again, there is the fact that only Byleth can spare Flayn, not Edelgard: it's not that she doesn't dislike either of them, it's that she kept a lot of her feelings under wraps until she was ready to make her move -- after all, she certainly played nice enough doing the archbishop's bidding up until the Holy Tomb mission.

In addition, going from saying "there's an option to spare Seteth and Flayn" to "anyone who can't is clearly racist" is a bit of a leap; the game is coded so that only Byleth has the option to spare several characters, while other units automatically treat them just as enemies. You can't have it both ways, saying that Edelgard's not anti-dragon because the option exists at all or that anyone who doesn't have the option has the same mindset. It's just how the game is coded. Honestly, Edelgard not having the option to spare them because of said coding is a knock that could be made against my argument, too -- but I'll own up to that.

And I really don't understand why Lake Teutates being "associated with the Saints" would be a problem for Edelgard if she wasn't directly opposed to dragons. There is literally a Saint there, and Linhardt seemed to have a feeling they'd meet up with Indech; if Edelgard weren't going to pose a threat to whatever they encountered, why would he recommend excluding her? He also asks Byleth to let Edelgard know "when the time is right" -- which doesn't sound like that time is now.

Here's the thing: Edelgard really, deeply believes that dragons are a problem. It's not just that Rhea's the head of the Church which she considers a problem: if that were the case, she wouldn't have said that Rhea is the leader of the monsters who have been controlling Fodlan. Heck, in the chapter where you face Claude, she asks Byleth "should the one leading the people of the world be someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will?" In her own words, several times throughout the course of the game, she makes it entirely clear that she does not regard dragons as human in any sense, and seems to view them without any kind of empathy whatsoever. Again, in the chapter where Flayn was kidnapped she didn't try to accelerate a child's rescue and in the end helped the Death Knight escape; even without knowing the internal politics between her and Those Who Slither, if she viewed Flayn as an actual child she could feasibly have done something to get her out of there sooner and passed it off as Byleth figuring things out themselves, because she's the only one of the three House leaders who has inside information into that situation.

There are very few dragons left, judging by the situation in Fodlan that we see in the game: most of them were massacred by Nemesis and their corpses desecrated to grant Crests to the Ten Elites and forge Heroes' Relics for their use. The few dragons who remain went into deep hiding or ended up associated with the Church (or both, as is the case with Indech and Macuil, who are considered Saints but left). But Edelgard, in her own words, says there are "monsters controlling Fodlan in secret" when confronted with The Immaculate One -- not that this is the monster who's been controlling Fodlan, but that this is the leader of them. Based on textual evidence, including her own personal words, she considers dragons to be inhuman monsters who have been manipulating mankind: that, to me, screams anti-dragon sentiment.

[iamdeku]

Friday (I’m In Love): Oikawa x Reader

You don’t know Oikawa Tooru. You don’t want to know Oikawa Tooru. But when fate and circumstance bring you two together, you’re forced to confront, over a series of Fridays, your worst fear. You might have been wrong. Also, you might be in love.

Wordcount: 4.3k

Warnings: Some brief bullying from a girl I accidentally named Annoying. Pining.

Oikawa Tooru was one of the most obnoxious guys you had ever met. He thought he was the coolest guy in school, and he was not at all shy about sharing that opinion. He never stopped talking about himself in that high-pitched, whiny voice of his. You hated him. 

So why you had agreed to tutor him was beyond you.

You supposed it paid well enough, but you were dreading your first session. You had prepared yourself to bite your tongue until it bled through his mansplaining. You were probably going to want to die by the end of the experience, but at least you would have some extra cash for the holidays.

Your boots kicked through the drifts of snow, pure as a coal miner after a long day doing overtime. The cold ice crunched under your weight, and you pulled your coat closer, wishing you had a scarf to help provide protection against the biting wind from the cold flushed skin on your face. Your headphones offered some protection to your ears at least, blasting your favorite song in an effort to raise your spirits.

The warm rush of the library’s heating system slammed into you in a wall of heat as you searched for the annoying setter. It took you longer than you thought to find him, expecting the loud man you knew and instead finding someone significantly more studious. He was hunched over one of the library tables, gray cardigan wrapped around his body, glasses perched on his nose.

You hoisted your satchel more firmly up your shoulder, bracing yourself for whatever weird thing was about to happen. Was he trying to look like he knew what he was talking about? Did he want to show off? You really weren’t sure.

You were hesitant to venture forward, but you did anyway, taking a seat next to him. Oikawa immediately looked up, blinking at you a couple of times before giving one of his usual smiles.

“Oh good, you’re here! As much as I’m great at everything, I have to admit that this has been giving me a little bit of trouble. I was so happy to hear you could help me. Iwa-chan won’t anymore, that traitor.”

You couldn’t blame Iwaizume for getting frustrated with Oikawa’s behavior, even if he had chosen to befriend the disaster sitting casually in front of you. You pulled out your books, writing utensils and laptop. You were a self-professed nerd, so you had brought a surplus of pens, highlighters, and other instruments to the table. You had a reputation to keep up after all.

“Well, I guess we should get to work. What part of this are you having trouble understanding?” You asked, pulling open your textbook.

Oikawa explained his troubles to you, and you were surprised to find how intelligent he was. Everything he found difficult to understand was...well, understandable. You could see why he would struggle in those areas, and for some of them you had struggled as well, despite this being your favorite subject. 

Even more surprising, you found out he could be a good listener when he wanted to be. It was alarming, actually, how attentively he could listen. Damn it, he took notes on the things you said, writing down the important parts of your explanations.

As you started to pack up, you saw sparks of the Oikawa you knew.

“Thanks for that, cutie. You’re pretty smart, you know? Of course, you’re smart enough to already know that. Besides, I wouldn’t have asked you to tutor me if you weren’t the best.” He winked. “See you next Friday.”

He didn’t even ask if you wanted to meet him next week. Gosh, he was the worst.

 Even with Oikawa “I’m the Worst” Tooru dragging you down, you were still resolved to keep showing up to these tutoring sessions. They weren’t half as bad as you thought they would be, and you hadn’t stopped needing the money. You could have gotten a better gig, but frankly this was a pretty easy job, easier than you thought it would be. It was, loathe though you were to say it, the best option.

Besides, you were the kind of person who kept their promises, though you weren’t sure you could say the same of Oikawa.

He was late. He was a whole 3 minutes late and you were only on your second session. If he kept up this kind of behavior you were going to have to have a serious discussion with him about timeliness. Your time was valuable, and none of this had anything at all to do with you needing something to justify your dislike of him.

You were halfway through writing your future lecture on timeliness when Oikawa arrived, slightly breathless and windswept, cheeks pink from the cold. Despite looking as though he had run all the way here, he had the nerve to still look all handsome and charismatic. It irritated you.

“Sorry about being late. The guys and I were practicing volleyball and we totally lost track of time.”

He gave you a sheepish smile, recognizing his mistake, and something in the general area of your chest did a little flip. It was probably a rib rotating in disgust.

“It’s alright. Just don’t let it happen again.”

Oikawa gave you his signature charming smile as he sat next to you.

“You know, you could stand to loosen up a little. I know you’re more fun than this, somewhere deep down in that nerdy little heart of yours.”

You rolled your eyes. “It’s not my job to be having fun with you.”

“Ah, but it could be.”

“Just open your textbook, Oikawa-san.”

He pulled the book out of his bag, flipping it open on the desk but not bothering to look down at it.

“Come on. Seriously. I got a way better grade than usual on the pop quiz we got this week. I feel like I should thank you for everything you’re doing for me. What are you doing tomorrow?”

The truthful, sad answer was that you were doing nothing at all, actually. You had tried to make plans with your friends, but they were all “busy” with something or other. While it pained you deeply, Oikawa was right. You had no social life.

You sighed. “I’m not busy tomorrow.”

“Well, that settles it then. The guys and I have practice. You can come watch the end of it if you want, and then we’re all going out for dinner. You should come.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Oikawa’s face lit up in a way you hadn’t expected, and he smiled down at his textbook as he turned it to the relevant page.

“Good. Prove to us that you can have fun after all.”

“Watch it. You’ll remember it’s in your best interest to stay in my good graces.”

Oikawa just laughed at your threat like it was meaningless. He was right to do it. You hated to admit it, but even now he was starting to grow on you.

Oikawa started explaining what he was having trouble with, and just as you were really getting into your subject, you were interrupted by a shrill scream. You stiffened in immediate panic, swiveling in your chair to find the source of the sound. Oikawa, on the other hand, looked momentarily annoyed before pulling his Prince Charming façade into place.

“Oh my gosh!!! Tooru-kun is that you!”

You felt a wave of deep-set annoyance go through you at the girl’s tone of voice. Not only had she caused you to be genuinely alarmed, but she was clearly being way to familiar with Oikawa, unless he had a girlfriend you hadn’t heard about.

“Hey there!” Oikawa turned to face the girl headed towards you, an indulgent smile on his face.

“Oh my gosh! I saw your practice earlier and you were like, so good.” The girl gushed.

“Thank you. That’s very nice of you to say.” Oikawa seemed genuinely flattered at this, if you were so bold as to assume you could tell the difference between the fake him and the real him.

The girl giggled, stars in her eyes before they turned to you, darkening dramatically. “Oh, who is this? Is she like, your girlfriend or something?”

You didn’t like the turn the girl’s tone of voice had taken. There was something distinctly catty to the way she said the world ‘girlfriend’ that made your stomach turn. You had met plenty of mean girls in your life, and now alarm bells were going off in your head.

“No, no. Just my lovely tutor. She’s helping me out in my worst class. She’s very talented.”

Oikawa seemed to have picked up on the change in tone, shifting slightly to be in front of you. Presumably, this was to block you from the daggers the girl was glaring at you.

“Remind me your name, would you?” Oikawa’s smile had grown tense.

“Oh, my name is Miko! How could you forget?” She pouted elaborately.

“Silly me!” If at all possible, Oikawa’s megawatt smile grew brighter as he caught her attention again, drawing her in once more. “I remember now. How have you been, Miko-san?”

You smirked to yourself at the honorific, so different from how she had referred to him earlier.

“I’ve been great! Way better now that I get to catch up with you. I missed you!” She stuck out her lower lip like she was trying to catch something with it.

“Well, I hope to see you at my next game, once we’re back in season. Thanks so much for stopping by!”

Oikawa’s body turned towards the table, clearly indicating that the conversation was over. Miko didn’t get the message.

“What are you studying? Maybe I can join you. I’m pretty smart, you know.”

You had officially had enough. You stood from your place, glaring at the girl in a similar fashion to how she had looked at you earlier, but for very different reasons.

“Listen, Miko-chan,” you said, purposefully pitching your voice up into an imitation of her own calling for Oikawa. “I don’t know who you think you are, but this is a tutoring session. So unless you intend to pay me for my services, I really am going to need you to find somewhere else in this rather large library to study.”

The girl turned to you, and you expected some kind of temper tantrum, maybe a few crocodile tears before she walked away, but what you got was far worse. She smiled at you sickly sweet, planting a hand on your table and leaning in.

“Pay you for your services? Oh, so I guess you’re nothing more than a common who-”

Oikawa stood from his chair, the legs loudly scraping across the floor as he grabbed her arm. He turned her to face him harshly, and you would never forget the look on his face. You had seen the prince of Aoba Johsai wear many faces, most of them some version of the charming, charismatic boy you knew. You had never before seen the look of cold rage he wore now, grip firm on her forearm as he practically snarled at her.

“You’re not going to call her that. You’re not going to call anyone that ever. If I see you at one of my games, I will make sure you are promptly escorted out. Leave. Now.”

The girl stood still for a moment, frozen in terror, before turning on her heel and bolting as Oikawa released her. You blinked in shock a few times, unaware that your classmate was capable of such emotion, let alone such anger.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” you said quietly, the first words to cross your mind. “She’ll go around telling everyone you’re an awful person now. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got in trouble or if she started some kind of weird hate club.”

Oikawa scowled as he sat back down, mind clearly still elsewhere.

“I don’t care. People shouldn’t talk to you like that. Nothing about what she just did was okay. Whatever repercussions I face for that, so be it.”

You stared at him in surprise. Oikawa had come to your defense, at no personal gain to himself. Sure, anyone should have done that, but you never thought he would. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“Hey.” You nudged his side gently, and he softened, looking down at you. “That invitation to your practice still open? I think I’d like to see you play. I hear you’re ‘so great’ or something.”

He smiled again at your gentle teasing. “Yeah. We’d love to have you.”

  As the months went on, you began to acknowledge that Oikawa was not what you had thought he was. Reluctant as you were to admit it, you considered him a friend now. As you had grown to know him better, it became obvious that everything you had thought about Oikawa before had been a mask he put up to impress people.

“If you keep poking me with that pencil, I will stab you in the eye with it,” you mumbled, not bothering to look up from your paper until a soft spring breeze floated through the library door as it opened.

“Iwa-chan! She’s being mean again!” Oikawa whined.

Iwaizume, ready to join your Friday study session, cast a lazy gaze over the both of you, assessing the situation in half a second.

He shrugged. “It looks like you deserved it.”

“I’m wounded, Iwa!” Oikawa threw an arm over his chest, falling back in his chair.

You rolled your eyes even as a smile tugged at your mouth. You had gotten used to Oikawa misbehaving. Some might go so far as to say you liked it. Some might even go so far as to say you liked him.

You would deny it if asked, of course. The way you blushed when he complimented you was the same as the way you blushed when anyone complimented you. The warm tingle left on your skin when he touched you was just because he was warm, infecting you with it, burning you alive. And the way you couldn’t breathe around him sometimes? Well, nobody could prove that.

Nobody could prove that Oikawa Tooru was your best friend, and nobody could prove that you were in love with your best friend.

Oikawa rested his head on your shoulder, and you wish you could say you had long learned how to ignore the jump of your heart, but you were only human. You still caught your breath, still felt an ache somewhere in your chest when he did it. It was the sort of feeling you got when you saw something in a shop window you couldn’t have but amplified by a million. It was so strong that sometimes you wanted to scream it out, wanted to stomp your feet and throw a fit like a kid in the grocery aisle because you wanted something you couldn’t have but oh, how you wanted it.

It consumed you some days, the way you wanted Oikawa. The way you wanted to peel back his layers, make him reveal that real self you caught glimpses of when he was with you. The soft boy who cried during sad movies, the brave boy who fought for you when you were sad, the silly boy who made faces just to get a rise out of you. It creeped like a sickness through your bones until you wanted to throw up, wanted to lay in bed all day in your sticky sweet misery and sob taffy tears, taste them on your tongue.

“Who are you going with to the spring dance?” Oikawa asked you, breath blowing against your neck in a way he couldn’t know sent shivers through you.

“I’m not going,” you said, returning to your textbook now that Iwaizume had established his presence.

Oikawa sat up, posture stiff with his indignance.

“Not going? How can you be not going? I know for a fact there are at least 5 boys planning to ask you.”

“They asked. I said no. I’m not going.”

“Why not? It will be fun!”

You grit your teeth, trying to ignore the nasty feeling in your gut. You couldn’t very well tell him that you didn’t want to go just to watch him dance with every member of his little fan club. You refused to explain how absolutely heartbreakingly awful it would be to go and watch him rotate through his carousel of girls, all of them beautiful, all of them wanting him, none of them you.

“I’m studying. You know, that thing smart people do when they want to pass their classes?”

Iwaizume snorted.

“I know what studying is.” Oikawa glared. “I thought you would want to come, though. I figured you would already have a dress picked out and a date and everything.”

For a guy trying to convince you to go to this thing, Oikawa sounded almost sad talking about it. He especially seemed rather melancholy at the prospect of your date. You wondered if maybe one of your potential dates was somebody Oikawa hated or something. Not that it mattered, since you had turned them all away.

“I don’t really want to go. These things aren’t really fun anyway. Besides, all the guys who asked me were jerks.”

“That’s true,” Iwaizume said. “Didn’t Itsuki ask you? That guy got in 4 fights just this week. Pretty sure I heard him in the bathroom bragging about…actually, never mind. Point is he’s a jerk.”

“Trust me, I know. They were all like that, too.” You groaned. “If one decent guy had asked me, maybe I would have gone, but apparently there’s something about me that draws in the Itsuki’s of the world. So, I’m not going. I’m just going to stay home and watch tacky movies and do homework.”

“Go with me.”

You froze at Oikawa’s offer. He couldn’t be serious. Didn’t he already have a date? Didn’t he already have girls lining up around the block to go to this stupid thing with him?

“Don’t you already have a date? I thought…” You trailed off, unsure what exactly you had thought.

“No. I…I heard the person I was planning to ask was rejecting everyone who asked her. Didn’t want to risk it.”

For whatever reason, Iwaizume rolled his eyes from where he sat across from you.

“Okay. Well…can’t you just go with one of your fangirls?”

You weren’t sure why exactly you were fighting this. This was what you had wanted, but not like this. You had wanted him to ask you because he liked you, not because he was too afraid to ask some other girl who was apparently too good for the student body population.

“I don’t want to go with them. I want to go with somebody I like.”

Oikawa’s soft brown eyes were too earnest staring into your face. You couldn’t say no to him when he looked at you like that, so open and vulnerable you could almost pretend it was a confession. It would have been terribly cruel of you to turn him down now.

You sighed. “I guess I have to buy a dress now.”

Oikawa smiled. “Yay! You don’t deserve to be cooped up all night in your room. I promise I’ll make this fun for you.”

“You’d better,” you teased. “I’ll tell you once I know the color of the dress. That way you can match your tie.”

“Perfect.”

If you closed your eyes and didn’t think about it too hard, you could almost pretend it was a real date.

 When the Friday night of the dance came, you really did almost believe it was a real date. Oikawa had told you he was going to pick you up, but he hadn’t told you that he was going to bring a corsage or charm the pants off your parents. He was acting like you were the girl he had wanted to take this whole time.

He opened your door for you before you got into the car, taking your hand to help you balance as you stepped into the car in your heels. You were dumbstruck when he reached over to buckle you in and make sure you were safe before heading over to the driver’s side. You tried frantically to control your breathing as he got the car started.

It was a short drive to the school, but the whole way there you could barely talk to him, trying to figure out his game. Was he doing this because he didn’t want you to feel like you were missing out? That had to be it. He was probably just trying to show you what a good date was like.

When you got to the school, he helped you out of the car, and you finally admitted it to yourself. When he escorted you in, despite everything, you sort of felt like a princess. Oikawa looked so dashing in his tux, his tie matching the shade of your dress, everything coming together perfectly for a moment before it came crashing down with the realization that you were not the person he had wanted to take to this thing.

In spite of that, though, he seemed intent to act like it. Oikawa’s fan club mobbed you as soon as you entered, but he ignored all of them entirely for once.

“Sorry ladies, but as you can see, I am escorting my date. Any other day you know you all have my attention, but I’m afraid tonight is all about us.” He flashed you a shy smile as he said it, cheeks turning pink on the word us. “Do you want to dance?”

“Uh….sure.”

He was being weird about this. You didn’t have much time to think about that though before he swung you out on the dance floor, swaying you to the beat of the music. The first few songs were fast, but eventually they played a slow song, and so you two danced a slow dance, Oikawa’s hands settled gently on your waist and yours around his neck. He had you pulled close though, enough so that his head curved over your shoulder and your ear pressed against his.

“So, I was thinking,” he said.

“Oh no. That’s always dangerous.” You laughed a little bit.

“Haha, very funny. But seriously, we’re graduating soon, and I…I don’t want to lose you.”

You couldn’t see his face with the position you were in, but you could hear the tenderness of his voice. Your heart ached with it even as he voiced the thought you had been having for a while now. You were coming to the close of your final year and you had wondered if, when you were no longer in school, you would have to face the reality of Oikawa no longer wanting to spend time with you.

“I don’t want to lose you either,” you said softly.

“Yeah but…” Oikawa released a shaky sigh. “I don’t know if that means the same thing to you.”

Oikawa pulled back, far enough to look you in the eyes. You were too astonished to protest, staring up at him with your mouth fallen open in surprise.

“I want something more. I know you’ve just barely accepted me as a friend and you hardly even tolerate me and I know I’m annoying and loud and brash and obnoxious. I know all of that, but I need you to know that you’re everything I’m not. You’re gentle and smart and careful and considerate and you were the one I wanted to take to this dance. You. Not anyone else. That’s all I have to say.” He laughed bitterly. “I guess that’s my confession. I don’t expect you to accept it.”

Before you could stop him, he let go of you, starting to retreat through the crowd of dancing bodies around you.

“Tooru!” You used his first name in your excitement, forgetting any need to pretend distance.

He stopped when he heard you, a look of desperate hope on his face. You grabbed his hand, pulling him back into you.

“I wanted to come to the dance with you too. You’re my best friend, but you’re so much more than that. I’m so stupidly in love with you, but I never thought that you would feel the same. I do accept your feelings. All of them. Even the big, loud, obnoxious, dramatic ones. I love them. I love all of it. So let’s not lose each other. I was thinking that after we graduate, I’m probably going to go to college, but I don’t know if you have plans to go pro with your volleyball, or maybe-”

You were cut off when he grabbed your face between his hands, crushing your lips to his. Right there, in front of everybody, Oikawa Tooru started making out with you in the middle of the dance floor. Nobody really noticed the two extra teenagers kissing on the dance floor, but you felt your heart soar.

“We can work all of that out later. For now, I just want to dance with you.”

“And kiss me?” You teased.

“Yes. I would very much like to keep kissing you.”

You laughed, leaning into his shoulder again. The song changed, picking up pace to something more upbeat, and you changed your dance style in accordance with it. You could see Iwaizume on the side of the dance floor looking at you two approvingly, and when you made eye contact, he gave you a thumbs up.

Later, you would have to worry about college and volleyball and everything else. Eventually, it would all work out in the end, though not without some troubles. That Friday though, you danced the night away with your best friend turned boyfriend, and finally admitted to yourself that Oikawa Tooru was the best.

[keijikunn]

The things we do for love

── A @babythotshq​ collab “Winter Wonderland”

BUILD A SNOWMAN

Pairing: Kunimi Akira x fem!reader  Tags: time skip, fluff Summary: Kunimi Akira learned to love the snow through the years. All because of you.  Word count: ~2.5k

Author’s note: This is my piece of Winter Wonderland, and my Secret Santa is Mimi from @mimi-cee-hq​! It’s the first time I’ve ever written for Kunimi, so I hope I didn’t mess up too much. We don’t talk that much, but you are very dear to me, Mimi! Hope you had a great holiday and an even better New Year!!

Kunimi Akira hated snow. It bothers him how it wets his clothes, how moving around gets complicated because of the iced streets and, obviously, the cold weather. The boy couldn't see the appeal of the traditional white cover of the winter. He has to wear layers of coats to protect himself, not to mention the constant need to remove the snow from the sidewalk. 

Leaving bed in the morning was hard, going to practice wasn’t pleasant - not that the other days were, in Kunimi’s opinion. Whenever the forecast announced the first snow of the season would fall soon the raven haired boy's mood instantly dropped. As a child, no one could talk to him as soon as he woke up - his young version needed his sweet time to get warm and cozy inside his school uniform. 

The adult life didn’t make it any easier, only adding to his dislike. After moving out of his parents’ house at the beginning of his second year in college, Kunimi faced all the problems of snow by himself. He had to clean up the muddy trail his boots left at the entrance, shoveling all of it every morning before classes and the worst of all, in his opinion, the constant black outs because of heavy snowfall. 

Kunimi absolutely hated snow. 

Contrasting his opinion, there were yours. You loved the iced water that falls during winter, painting Miyagi in white. This season of the year has some magic in it, you couldn’t really explain; but ever since you can remember, early december mornings meant bundling yourself in your thickest coat to play with the first snow. 

His first impression of you wasn’t the greatest, since you were the reason why he got a cold. 

Kunimi wasn’t in his best humor. 

He adjusted his scarf around his neck, pulling the strings of his hoodie together, trying to prevent the cold wind from hitting his ears. He underestimated mother nature, not believing it could snow as much as it did during the morning while he was in class. Kunimi’s clothes, though they seemed to be warm enough to the cold day of winter, didn’t suit the wetness of melting ice on the street. 

“I hate this.” The boy muttered under his breath, taking another step into a thick layer of snow. His socks, drenched in a ridiculous freezing water, could be enough to stop his blood circulation on his feet. “And people wonder why I despise snow.”

The familiar beige wall of his house appeared on his eyesight, ripping a sigh from his chest. Kunimi was so ready to reach his home, take a long and hot shower and confine himself under his fluffy comforts to sleep. All he needed to do was take a few more steps, then he’ll be- 

A sudden touch on his back made him fall over, his arms barely reacting on time in order to prevent major injuries on himself. The weight of a second body on top of him knocked the air out of his lungs, said sensation intensified by the cold snow wetting the front of his hoodie. His feet were already cold, the tip of his nose was red and now this? Kunimi was fuming to say the least.

“Oh my gosh, Kunimi-kun, I’m so sorry!” He recognized that high pitched tone, it was his neighbour’s daughter, Risa, and an unknown girl trailing behind her. The older one sported an apologetic smile on her face, but her gloves covered in snow gave away she wasn’t that sorry. “I didn’t mean to bump into you. I was building a snowman with my cousin, Y/n, but then she decided to throw snow at me!” 

“Sorry!” She was pretty, Kunimi had to admit it, even though she was wearing a white beanie matching with a scarf hiding almost her entire face. A pang of jealousy struck him at the sight of such a comfortable and warm outfit she’s wearing. 

“Whatever.” Kunimi exhaled deeply, evidencing all his annoyance, not sparing a second glance at both girls. Risa exchanged a few words with her cousin that he couldn’t make out- and he didn’t care at all.

Now he had another reason to arrive quickly at his house. He definitely needed a warm bath. 

No words could describe how pissed off Akira was the next morning, when he woke up with a sore throat and high fever. He didn’t know if he was more angry at nature for having snow as part of it, the pretty cousin of his neighbour or himself for not checking the forecast. Either way, he still was sick and cranky regardless of the blame he desperately wanted to attribute to somebody else besides himself. 

His parents were off to work, leaving him by himself in the house. At least I got to stay in bed the whole day, Kunimi reasoned with himself, letting a content sigh escape his lips. He snuggled into his soft covers, turning to his side to reach out his phone to kill some time. The first thing that caught his eyes was the little icon on his forecast app, indicating it wouldn’t snow that day. Kunimi rolled his eyes at the coincidence, exactly the day when he hadn't to leave his house he checked the weather. 

“I should sleep, it’s not like I have many free days to do whatever I want.” He muttered under his breath, voice raspy and a few octaves lower than usual.

The boy didn’t know how long he slept, but he was harshly pulled off from subconsciousness by a loud knock on his front door. He groaned in annoyance, turning to face the wall, covering his head with the black covers over him. Kunimi thought that pretending no one was at home would make the unexpected visitor leave after a few tries. 

“Kunimi-kun, I know you’re in there. Your parents dropped by Risa’s house asking me to check on you. Heard you’re sick.” A feminine voice shouted, making him wonder how old his parents thought he was. Ask for the neighbours check on me? Am I 7 years old, mom?

Having no choice but to open the door for the strange girl, Kunimi put on the nearest hoodie he found and a disposable mask his dad left on his desk. He didn’t realise the sickness made him weak and gave him body ache- after all, he spent the whole morning lying down. Preparing mentally to have that social interaction, the black haired boy unlocked knob, opening the entrance. 

The familiar beanie, now with a dark blue scarf, hiding almost her entire face - besides her eyes - came into Akira’s sight. Behind the girl, he could see the little path that led the gates to the door was cleared from snow and he wondered when his dad had time to do it between his tight schedule. Focusing once again on the person in front of him, Kunimi noticed a thermal bag in her hands. 

“Hi, Kunimi-kun, I’m Y/n- Risa’s cousin. We met yesterday.” She bowed quickly, minding the object she had in hands. 

“How could I not remember?” Kunimi shot back under his breath, but he knew Y/n heard what he grumpily said, offering him half smile. 

“Your parents stopped by Risa’s house in hopes to talk to her parents, but they’re off on a business trip and I’m babysitting that little rascal,” Y/n started to explain. “They told me you were sick, and I imagined that me and my cousin had some blame on it. So we cleaned the doorstep and I made okayu* and a bottle of shogayu** as apology gifts.”

“You didn’t have to Y/n-san.” He faked a smile, you actually had to, it’s your fault I’m sick. “Thank you for these, though. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it!” She answered passing him the item and slowly stepping away from him. “Get better soon. And next time, wear thicker clothes!”

“Thanks, I will.” Kunimi scoffed, finally closing the door from the outside’s cold weather. 

His first impression of Y/n was terrible. She liked snow, she made him sick and teased him about his questionable choices. Kunimi hoped he’d never see her again. 

Oh, how wrong he was.

Kunimi’s first encounter with you pulled him out of his slumber, a faint smile on his face as he remembered the very first time he saw you. Almost three years after that, he found himself lying on the bed you share with him. 

Life is funny, huh?

He was quick to notice you weren't there beside him, your side of the mattress still a bit warm - indicating you just left your position. Rubbing the sleep away from his eyes, the black haired man got up and headed to the bathroom outside his room. The water was unnecessarily cold, though justified by the season: it was winter after all. The exact period of time Akira grew to tolerate by your side. Much to his surprise, since the very first winter you two spent as a couple he watched his words about your favourite weather. 

You were at the living room, staring through the glass door that led to the backyard. The man quickly noticed the reason that captured your attention: the snowflakes danced in the air, slowly falling down. The first snow always captivated you, and Kunimi didn’t understand why, just like he didn’t wrap his head around the fact the iced water could be actually nice. 

“I’m surprised you’re not out there desperately trying to get a cold.” Kunimi teased, voice still husky from the long period of inactivity of his vocal chords. You turned to look at him, a smile plastered on your face. “Good morning, weirdo.”

“Morning, grumpy.” You extended your hand, signalizing the boy to scoot over - which he complied. The sensation of your arms wrapped around his waist was comforting, emanating enough warm to face whatever winter storm that has yet to come. “Will you build a snowman with me?”

“Is this a nicer way to say you want to knock me down on snow just like you did when we first met up?” He asked sarcastically, causing you to let out a loud laugh as you recalled said memory. “I got sick for days that time, it wasn’t good.”

“But I did clean your doorstep and made you food, Akira.” His facade broke at your beautiful smile. Of course you would pull this card, you always did when you two would playfully banter about how Kunimi always manages to get sick after spending some time outside during winter. “And I always take care of you whenever you get sick.”

“Touché, hm?” The pad of his index finger ran softly across your cheek, then Kunimi’s large hand cupped your face lovingly. The man recalled the past three years you spent as a couple, traditionally going out to please you; followed by a couple of days of Akira’s bed rest and tons of missoshiro*** to ease his aching throat from the cold he always manages to get. “Let’s go change clothes, yeah? I know later the snow will be stronger, and I definitely don’t want to be out there when it comes.”

The sparks in your eyes never fails to swell Kunimi’s heart, resulting in a soft look he casts at your back as you retreat to your shared bedroom to change from your fluffy pajamas. As the time passed in your relationship, Kunimi learned how to… tolerate little things he usually doesn’t - all because of you. You definitely changed his sour winter spirit. 

“C’mon, Akira!” You screamed from the other room, too excited to wait any longer for your lazy boyfriend.

“Don’t rush me, woman, the snow won’t melt in five minutes!” 

Kunimi’s hands were stupidly cold. Even the leather gloves he has on weren’t enough to keep the warmth inside, all because he had to help you build a snowman. It wasn’t working, the snow was too soft to form any shape you wanted, but he hadn’t had the heart to tell you this - not when you were so happy to be in your backyard with him. 

So, instead of complaining, Kunimi kneeled down to scoop more snow, trying to create a well sized ball to be the base of your personal Olaf (he called you dumb for this). After a couple of attempts, and slightly giving up on making in perfectly, the black haired man managed to finish his task. It was falling on the edges, the top slowly crumbling due to its softness and Kunimi held back a scowl at the sight of it. 

“Oh, Akira! You did it,” you beamed happily, bringing a pile of snow that he assumed to be its head, and placed it on the top. The two of you completely ignored the proportion, as the body was way larger than the head, but that didn’t seem to upset you. Instead, you clapped your hands, quickly assembling the branches you found to make its arms and a few stones from your flower pots to make its eyes and mouth. “It would look better if Olaf had his carrot nose, though.”

“No, we’re not using our food in this.” Kunimi quickly denied, earning a huff as response from you. He stood next to you, carefully eyeing the poorly-done snowman, cringing at the fact he actually did it. 

“It looks terrible!” Your sudden comment was followed by you bursting into a fit of laughter.

“Yes, because you can’t wait a few days to play in the snow like a 10-year-old kid.” He said back, bumping his elbow lightly on your side. As you protested at such action, Kunimi decided to unwrap his scarf around his neck, gently putting on the snowman in front of you. “Still looks like shit, but I guess it’s a bit better. Now, let’s go inside before I freeze to death.”

“You wanted to take off your scarf, dumbass!”

“I did it because you’d pout if I didn’t!”

The bickering continued even after the two of you took a nice and hot shower, slipping once again in your pajamas. While you were freshening yourself, Kunimi busied himself in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. It probably was a psychological effect, but he could swear his throat already itched a bit, even though any cold barely had the time to affect his system. 

The things we do for love. 

His train of thoughts were quickly interrupted by a tight embrace on his waist and a light pressure on his back. Your perfume overpowered any aroma the food in front of him emanated, filling his senses with the smell he associated as home. His left hand dropped from the pan on the stove, resting it on the top of yours on his abdomen. 

“Thank you for this morning, Akira.” It was such a trivial thing to thank another person, but it wasn’t for you and him. Because you knew he despises snow. 

“You better take care of me when I get sick from this, huh?” He playfully demanded, but he meant well- and you knew it. 

The things I do for love.

*okayu: Japanese rice porrigde **shogayu: ginger tea ***missoshiro: miso soup 

WINTER WONDERLAND MASTERLIST

DO YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED IN THE FUTURE RELEASMENT? FILL THIS FORM AND BECOME A BOOKWORM!

[toonytoodles]

Some of my story ideas, there's a lot here, but if you read let me know which ones you like/dislike, what ones you would or wouldn't read, feel free to leave comments or suggestions, and just give me your opinions 😊 So without further ado, some story ideas I had (some are still being workshopped, if you have ideas for those just let me know ❤)

-

Don't shed light on it!/ The scales aren't in my favor;

Avery is shedding and is embarrassed, making an attempt to hide it, especially from her friends... She's the only reptile amongst her friends and is worried that she'll be seen as weird and gross if they see her skin falling off.

-

A "little," cold?/ Emma and the giant cold;

Emma catches a small cold, and after falling asleep at school (and partially on the building), she's sent home, so Avery brings her her homework, and ends up volunteering to hang out with her and help her out with stuff until she feels better, which is a lot harder than Avery initially thought, because Emma's house is difficult for her to navigate without Emma... But she really wants to help so tries to get around without her, hiding the difficulty she's having

-

Big fear/ A crushed dream;

Emma has a nightmare in which she hurts her small friends accidentally, and can't stop thinking about it the next morning. She begins avoiding them in fear that she'll do something terrible, she stops talking to them at school, and eventually stops showing up to school at all. Avery goes to her house to confront her on it, which only makes things worse...

-

Cat fight/ Sibling rivalry;

Andy and Andie are fighting, more than usual, and decide that just because they're siblings doesnt mean they have to be friends, and end up spending some time apart.

-

Mixed Results/ Goin' through the potions;

When stocking the shelves in the shop, Avery accidently knocks over several potions, ensuing chaos when the effects of each vial takes place at the same time.

-

Slumber party / Girls night;

Ave & friends girls night! Followed by a camp out slumber party

*needs a little something

-

Love Bug/ A push in the right direction?;

Emma and Avery's friends work together to put the two through various scenarios in an attempt to make them finally become a couple, believing they need a push to make it happen. When all else fails, Andy foolishly uses a love bug to get the two to confess their love, as messed up as that is, it gets even worse once he loses the bug.

-

Big problem/Little problem;

Emma gets frustrated at being so big, and wants to be shrunken down, just for a little while. She asks Avery for a potion, but Avery refuses to give her one, causing a fight between the two, it escalates to the point where Emma steals a potion from Avery, that she doesn't know how to use, causing a little problem...

-

No title/ Lost title;

The gang faces off against a herd of memory trolls in the woods, but they don't remember that. They wake up in the middle of the woods with most of their memories gone, they struggle to get along and struggle to find their way back home, it's a strange journey back to Tradeskeep

-

How to raise a Draconic / Eggstraordinary origins;

A look into how Avery's egg came to be with her parents, and how they managed to raise her

-

Smitten kitten / Head over heels;

Andie and Sofia have a crush on the same guy and have a small fight over him, Sofia usually never speaks up about things like this, and it makes Andie mad that this is when she tries to take a stand, she's not giving up on getting this guy. Sofia gets scared and backs off, so the fight kinda ends up being one sided. Andie ends up being mean to Sofia over it, and doesn't realize how mean she's being until she does something stupid and petty she regrets

-

Avery meets Emma/ Emma meets a bean;

Kid Avery attempts to make friends with a nervous giant, but the young giant, Amelia, has never been around someone smaller than her before and doesn't know what to do

-

Oh Deer/ Magical mishap;

Clementine has been studying magic, and attempts to do a few advanced spells, all of which go horribly awry

-

The centaur of attention / Marely passing through;

A young centaur adventurer is passing through Tradeskeep, and during her stay she encounters a group of girls around her age, though she's a bit hesitant at first, she ends up quickly befriending them. She stays around for a couple days before she moves on, but she keeps the stop and her new friends in mind, visiting every now and again.

-

Dreaming/ Awaken;

Something happens to the small town of Tradeskeep, causing its people to fall asleep, all of them. People in the market, the tavern, their homes, the school- they're all asleep. Adventurers heroes and travellers passing through attempt to investigate the small town, soon becoming drowsy, they must investigate from the outside. While others search for a cause and a cure, the people of Tradeskeep dream of altered realities and terrible nightmares.

-

The big date/ The insecure dragon;

Avery and Emma have a date at a giant restaurant, and shortly after they arrive, something happens that causes Avery to ask Emma to take her home. Emma attempts to talk to her, but it only makes things worse... A few days later they're able to talk it out, and try it again, with it going much better the second time.

-

Evil Avery/ Dragonic Dopple ganger;

Avery means to take a Duplicate potion to allow her to be in more than one place at the same time, but gets mixed up and instead uses a Doppio potion. This causes her to be split into two versions of herself, a neutral good version, and a chaotic evil version. One Avery keeps running off to help people, while the other keeps running off to hurt people.  Unable to tell them apart, people are confused as Avery comes over and causes a problem, then runs back in and fixes it. The two need to be together to be able to reverse the potions affects, but getting the two together and keeping them around long enough to undo it is much easier said than done.

-

Snow way to the dragonlands/ Snow way home;

During the holiday season, Avery is eager to go to the dragonlands and participate in the Fire Festival, but due to heavy snowfall surrounding Tradeskeep, travel is nearly impossible. This makes Avery incredibly upset. That night as she packs a bag, steals several potions from the shop, and leaves to go to the dragonlands. Her parents go to check on her, and when seeing that she was gone began to panic and call around, trying to figure out where she could've possibly gone. Upon receiving the phone calls, people began to go out and look for her. It begins to snow again, meanwhile Avery isn't doing as well as she thought she would, she's cold, tired and hungry, and soon she's lost. Everywhere she looks is just blankets of snow, and new snow fall quickly covers her tracks. There's no way home now, and it's getting colder.

-

Avery, Andy, & Drew;

Avery Andy & Andie have basically known each other since birth, this story basically explains how they grew up together, and how they've changed over the course of time. Andy goes from awkwardly trying to be extroverted and cool to being comfortable with being a quiet nerdy introvert, Drew becomes her true self, Andie, and Avery, well, Avery never really changes. The three of them have been through a lot together, and this slice of life side story just tells some of those tails~

-

Water you?/ Wets be friends!;

Young Andie, Andy, Avery & Emma meet a young Pond, they're immediately intrigued by her, and well, as little kids, it's sorta easy to become best friends quickly

-

A new friend/ Hi deery;

Clementine's new to Tradeskeep, but makes friends with a group of other kids

-

Pink with Envy/ Not berry subtle;

Audrey starts flirting with Emma, and, uh, Emma doesn't seem to be arguing it... Avery tries to brush it off, Audrey sorta just has a flirtatious personality and Emma's really nice... But literally everyone who sees them talking thinks they're hitting on each other, making Avery's anxiety worse about it. She's really worried about Emma seeing how much better Audrey is, and she starts to become genuinely concerned that Emma is losing interest in her... She tries to keep her jealousy and insecurity in check, but Emma can tell somethings up. When they talk about it, something happens that shows Emma how Avery really feels, and Emma tells her that she feels the same way, so though Avery is still mildly annoyed by Audrey, she's not really worried about Emma breaking up with her or leaving her for some one else anymore. After what happened, she realizes how silly she's been.

-

Blank space/ Making my mark;

Ty wants to get his mark, and Avery tries to help him, but to no avail. They spend the whole day trying different things to try to get his mark to appear, trying out different hobbies and activities, there was bound to be something that he likes, and Avery intends to help him find that passion, but she gets a bit over involved and starts trying to push him, to help of course.

-

The egg/ Whatever it takes;

Avery finds an abandoned egg, and, sorta projecting onto it, is determined to reunite it with its parents no matter what it takes, cause no one should ever be abandoned like that. Her friends are understanding to her need to take care of it, they're quickly able to put together why she has to do this, and help her out with finding the parents, which proves to be sorta difficult... But eventually they find the parents, and everything's alright again.

-

Kalvins wish/ You remind me of the babe;

Kalvin is upset by how fast Avery's growing up... If only she could be a little kid, just for a little longer... But he never expected it to actually happen. Avery begins to age backwards, slowly losing her memory as she regresses. It's a race against time as her parents rush to figure out how this happened and how to fix it. They try to keep it quiet at first, but end up having to call in reinforcements to get this fixed as quickly as possible.

-

A head in life/ Do you need a dullahand?;

Frustrated, Sofia shares some of her struggles as a dullahan, which Avery mistakes as an ask for help. She attempts to find ways to help Sofia out, but Sofia just sees it as Avery treating her really weird. Sofia gets mad at Avery, and the draconic thinks that she's not helping enough, so this goes on for a while until Sofia gets really mad, and Avery realizes that she was just venting, and didn't actually need anything. In the end they just sorta laugh about the misunderstanding and become closer because of it. At least now Sofia knows she can a ask Avery for help when and if she needs it.

-

Swap meet/ The perfect present;

Clementine finds a magical artifact at a swap meet, but they won't take her money, they want a different item, so Clementine runs around swapping items to try to get the item she wants. Meanwhile, Andy and Andie go around the swap trying to find the perfect birthday present for the other.

-

Andy's birthday / Andie's birthday;

The kittwins are celebrating their 17th birthday! They celebrate with a get together outside the tavern, with their parents and their closest friends. They spend the afternoon getting presents from their loved ones and eating cake and ice cream.

*needs a problem/conflict of some kind

-

Sapphire & Kalvin / The pirate and the mercenaries;

Mercenaries Micheal and Kalvin are in search of treasure they were hired to find. However, they weren't alone, as pirates came to find the same thing. The treasure was in a booby trapped dungeon with a multitude of traps and dangerous wildlife, but the mercenaries were ready for anything, unfortunately, one of the pirates weren't. A member of the crew, a fairy, got captured in a carnivorous plant with no chance of an escape. While Michael went after the treasure, Kalvin saved the fairy. This fairy was named Sapphire, and after Kalvin saved her life, she decided to join them and became their partner in hired crime. Later on though, Sapphire and Kalvin became actual partners, and they'd go on to retire and open a potion shop in the small town of Tradeskeep. Michael would meet them again later on after he retired.

-

Dulladad/ A whole new life a-head of me;

A retired mercenary, Michael, meets a young dullahan girl on his way to his new home, and instantly falls in love, wanting nothing more than for her to be loved and protected. After learning she's an orphan, he feels that Fate has planned this and he takes her in. The two journey to Tradeskeep together, and the man adjusts to his new life in a small town as a black smith and a father, and neither was as easy as he thought it'd be. And although Sofia is happy and excited, she's also sorta scared. She's overwhelmed by the amount of changes happening so quickly, and struggles to adjust. Things are made easier though when Michael meets up with some old friends, and Sofia makes some new ones.

-

Ponds problem/ Element-emotion-al;

Ponds parents are having another kid... Yay?... Pond has... Mixed emotions on it... She's not mad at her parents, or against another kid, she just... She'd never considered her parents having more kids, she's been the only child her whole life... Everything's gonna change... Luckily Emma's a big sister, and she gives her some advice.

-

Rainy day/ Video chat;

Since its pouring in Tradeskeep, schools been cancelled and shops have been closed, so the girls decide to video chat all day to prevent boredom. We get to see more slice of life stuff as they're stuck at home for the day, seeing some of Emma's younger siblings filter in and out and wanting to talk, over hearing parents, chatting while doing chores or studying, stuff like that.

-

Ponds pal/ Invisibuddy;

Pond becomes quick friends with an invisible named Travis after being paired up with him for a school project. The two begin spending a lot of time together and become close, basically becoming best friends within a month.

*needs a problem/conflict of some kind

-

Wave hello/ Baby Brook;

Ponds new sibling is here! A water elemental named Brook. Ponds still a little nervous to become a big sister, but instantly falls in love with her.

*needs more, idk what tho

-

[alien-rainbow]

The Princes Of The North and South (1/3)

Solangelo fic, Royalty AU, kinda sad ending, kinda not, Will is betrothed to Bianca 

Word Count: 1,732

The moon reflected off the snow and pretend up the through room witch was covered in shadows because the only light was coming from the candle chandeliers and the huge heath that sat in the middle of the room. The castle of Phoebus or The Sun Palace, as Will's family called it, was made to allow in the most natural light possible. The snow was falling gently covered the ground in a cold silence that matched the moon inside of the room. Will perched on the ebony chairs and stared silently at his dinner that sat on golden glistening plates. It was a wonderful assortment of meats, potatoes, berries, gravy, and biscuits though he had lost his appetite. 

Kalliop, the queen had just informed him that he would be wedded the princess, Bianca Di Angelo of Olympus. The kingdom of Olympus took months to get to from William’s castle in the South while Pluto, the crown city of Olympus was placed in the north. While it didn't snow much. The castle was almost always cold and was wedged in between two huge black mountains. Will had interacted with all the royal children throughout the continent at a once every ten-year ball, though he had never talked personally with the princess. Even if had talked with her then he wouldn't remember her. It had been ten years since the last ball and there would be another this spring. Will had been only six and the Princess would have been seven, Will believed that she also had a younger brother who would have been five. 

Will could only remember a few things from that night, most of the memories were of a blur of music, sweets, other people of all ages dressed in the fancies things they could find. The memories that were solidified in his mind was one boy, he was a head shorter than WIll and a year younger. He had olive skin, dark brown, maybe black hair, and dark eyes. He remembered those eyes sparkling with mischief as he and Will ran around tormenting the older royalty. It pained Will that he couldn't remember the boy's name. When Will had first met the boy he had remembered the child's bright smile and how the first thing Will said to him was how beautiful he was, back then it was fine. It pained Will that he couldn't remember his name. Though he knew if he ever saw the boy again he would remember. Will had never met someone like him, his pale confection and dark eyes were not common in his kingdom.

Will also remembered thinking that the older girls looked ridiculous wearing so much material. The older the people looked, the sadder they looked. He remembered the strange looks they gave him and it wasn't until years later that it was confusion. They had forgotten the beautiful innocence of childhood and the time when they believed that royalty meant that would have everything they ever wanted. Will knew he was privileged but it didn't mean that parts of royalty didn't suck. 

There was no way for him to marry someone from love because marriage was an alliance and always had been that way. Also, the fact that Will fancied men didn't help. His father was the only one and had known about him but after he died and his mother took control over the kingdom, he had to hide himself to stay alive. If he died then, Austen would just take his place as next in line. The queen, Wills "mother" hated him. Will's real mother was a musician with whom witch his father had had an affair. The queen's real son, Orpheus was dead days after his birth, Will had been born a few days earlier so they just put him in as the king's child. Though the queen refused to gove Will her son's name. She couldn't stand Will and wanted him dead but since he was the king's firstborn and the fact that his father had loved him unconditionally, she wanted to honor his memory and allow Will to take his place as the crown prince. Though she didn't make anything easier for him. One slip up and he would be punished for it, something like being attracted to men would get him killed.

Will was snapped back to reality when his mother harshly spoke his name, "William, you will respond to me when I speak to you," she said tightening her lips, forming a thin line of displeasure. His siblings looked at him with pity, Austin and Kayla looked worried for him. They knew that Will hated the idea of marrying, though they didn't know that it was the female part of marriage he disliked. His older sister Eriopis looked longingly at him, she would have given anything to be able to rule her own father's kingdom. The queen also disliked Eriopis but only because she was a reminder of Apollo's first marriage, while Will was a disgrace upon the family name. 

"Yes, mother," was all Will could manege, he felt as though his collar was tightening around his neck. He knew this day would come but he didn't think It would come so fast. He had also held the small hope that he would have some choice as to who he married, but then again, the queen saw him as the crown prince and not her son. "I'm not feeling well, may I turn in early?" Will asked politely trying to not upset the queen further. She studied him quietly then slowly nodded her head. 

"You will need your sleep anyhow," she said waving a jeweled hand through the air, they will arrive tomorrow morning," Will did everything he could to not gasp or show any sign of shock. 

"Ye-Yes, Mother," WIll studied then turned on his heels and walked quickly out of the dining hall as four soldiers turned to follow him. Will glanced behind him in search of a familiar face in the guard. He made eye contact with Cecil Markowitzn and after he gave him a small nod, Will broke into a sprint down the hall, he didn't care who saw him or what he did, he just needed to get out. He ran down the halls and almost tripped onto his face multiple times before reaching a back door that led into the garden. Goosebumps formed on his skin as the cool air slipped through the cotton shirt and wool and fur cape. 

"Will?" a quiet voice whispered. Will whipped around to see Markus slip out of the wooden door and walked swiftly over to the taller male and wrap his arms around him engulfing the prince in a hug. "What happened, I only saw you sprinting through the castle as the guards struggled to keep up with your gazel speed," Markus let out a small laugh at the fact that WIil could put the royal guard to shame when it came to sprinting.

"I'm betrothed," Will leaned his head against the man's chest, Markus's solder length hair was earth brown that matched his brown eyes. Those eyes now gazed sadly at Will.

"Oh..." Markus and Will had flirted years ago but after about a year of considering themselves together (secretly), they broke up. They were now friends with benefits and Markus was the only person Will felt like he didn't have to pretend around. Markus tightened his arms around Will as tears started to slip out of the prince's eyes. Markus continued to rub the blonds back in a soothing motion and after a few minutes asked, "Who?" Will took a deep breath and let out a shaky breath before speaking.

"Princess Bianca Di Angelo of Olympus," Will said slowly as if testing the words. Will lifted his head to look into Markus's eyes, like his younger siblings, they held worry and pity. Markus then smiled gently and bopped Will's nose causing the prince to let out a small laugh. 

"Whatever happens you will be a great ruler Will," Markus gently took Will's hands and pressed kisses against his fingers. "You have more kindness in the tips of your fingers than most people possess in their whole body, whatever happens, You will be a great king. That's a fact." Tears started to flow even harder cascading down his cheeks, feezing before they even left his face. "You'll always have me," Markus said continuing to smile at the prince. "I may be nothing but a stable hand but I'll always be here if you need to talk."

"You're more than just a stable hand, You're my best and only friend." 

"And that's, why I'll never leave your side, My king," Markus said bowing dramatically then looking up to smile at him. Will didn't want to go through with this marriage but knowing that he would always have Markus made it a bit easier. 

"I should get to bed, the future queen is arriving tomorrow." Markus also seemed surprised by the lack of notice considering the fact that it took months to travel to Wills kingdom from the Di Angelos country in the north. 

"Of course, I need to get back anyway," Markus pulled Will into one last tight hug before running in the direction of the stable, choosing to go around instead of through the castle. Will watched the shorter boy jog back when he rounded of the coroner and Will could no longer see him did he head back into the castle. He walked quickly through the halls knowing that someone would get in trouble if the queen found out how much he ran off and for how long. Will turned into the hall that his room was in and he saw four guards standing at their positions next to his door and Cecil talking with them. When the gaurd caught sight of him he jogged up and began to scold him for running off though Cecil had never once tried to stop him. Will acted like Cecil’s lecture was working and once he was pleased with Wills acting he allowed Will into his room. Will excused his servent and tore off his clothing himself though struggling greatly. After he had stripped himself and slipped on a simple cotton nightgown, Will fell into the soft silk of his bed and passed out the second his head hit the feather stuffed pillows.

[koorinohebi]

OC ABCs: Y1 through Y5, please!

1. How old were you when you created them?

Let's see. Oh wow, to be honest I had to do a bit of math here since I've had Kiomi for so long. SOOOOOO long. And guess what. Even I'm surprised to remember that I created her back when I was 13 years old. It's been what, 17 years since then. Man, time sure flies. 

2. What inspired you to create them?

Often times my inspiration to create characters (either making an OC or taking up a canon) is due to friend influence. Kiomi was probably the only one that doesn't share that. Because I was relatively new to the Naruto fandom back when I first made her and I just wanted some interaction from people who played in the verse. (I didnt even know what canon was back in the day. Like, I had no idea that they were called that.) So I made a character with attributes that I liked, elements that I like, etc. while learning all about jutsus and stuff, and how the verse operated. I'm a bit rusty now specially since I've been on a very long Hiatus, but yeah. My inspiration for her came from the desire for interaction and story weaving. That's when I met my first friend in the verse, which just so happened to be an Orochimaru. They were very apprehensive and iffy about OCs but apparently, we were able to hit it off well enough that they were comfortable about interacting with my muse. So apart from just story building, my friend's Orochimaru was part of the inspiration, specially for the environment that she grew up in.  

3. Were they different when they were first created?

Well, for starters she's less of a brat now than she was back then. She was so problematic when I first made her. She was so ridiculously rebellious to the point where she throws things at her lord when she becomes pissy and throws tantrums. (One thing hasn't changed though. If Kabuto tells her to behave, she behaves. xD) She's better at handling that now. 

Her personality is fleshed out better too. Years of interaction with Muns and Muses alike have allowed me to explore her persona and characteristics. That enabled me to add the layers that were necessary to make her feel more organic. 

Let me just say that I love Naruto movies and plotting with friends. Back when all I had was the fact that she's from Yukigakure and that her family was part of a genocide, I was wondering how to tie stuff into the verse more properly. Because of the history of the Kazahana's in the Land of Snow, the technical advancement the place had, I've been able to incorporate that knowledge into creating information for her clan. 

Those are just some of the changes that's happened for my muse over the years, but I think my favorite part of the changes is the fact that she has some bonds now that are relatively real. Something that she believes is worth fighting form. Loss is a very big part of her character evolution. The more loss she experience, the more her personality shifts. She's always tethering along the threshold of wanting and protecting bonds, and not wanting to have anything to do with it. 

I love the fact that she doesn't feel the desperation for a bond until it's there. Back then, she really wouldnt have given a crap. But now, when she experiences something genuine, she develops an eagerness to protect it. However, when it comes to bonds, the one thing that hasn't really changed is the fact that she'll try to avoid it as much as possible, until she realizes that she can't. 

Kiomi's also actually pretty defiant. But I found that mellowing over the years too. When she realized how that gets her into too much trouble, she eventually toned it down. However, it's been replaced by her chronic lying-- which isn't too good a thing either. But the chronic lying is basically her defense mechanism now, because from the start she is bad at dealing with people. Being honest lands her in disadvantageous situations, so she resorted to lies. (She just doesn't know it yet, but that'll get her in bigger trouble. Dont tell her, okay? ^_~ ) Also, being a liar helps her interact better with strangers for intel gathering. When she's faced with strangers, you can bet your horses that the first thing she lies about is her affiliation with Otogakure, because she's learned that not a lot of people trusts shinobi from the Hidden Sound Village. So it's not too strange to see her pretending to be a civilian. It's also the reason why she's often without her hitai ate. 

But you know what, Kiomi is inherently a good kid at the core. It’s just that she ended up growing up in an environment that didn’t allow for too much of that. This is why if you’ll notice in some of my threads, she’s actually quite nice to people in similar situations such as her.

 4. do you enjoy writing them more than other characters?

I do, actually. Among all of my OCs, I have an attachment to Kiomi. It's probably because I've had her for so long that I can't get enough of her and her growth. 

This has reached the point where, if ever I go RPing on another verse or when I return from a long Hiatus (like I have done as of recent) I always end up penning for Kiomi. It's not that I like my other muses any less, it's just my one brain cell has a tendency to pick what it likes and it does like this particular muse. 

I'm surprised how well she can adapt to other verses as well, which makes it easier for me to integrate her in certain verses whenever I get a burnout for Naruto. For example, I've played her in Devil May Cry before wherein the two verses kind of semi-merged. It was fun. From shinobi, she casually just got a job in Devil May Cry for devil hunting, I got to make her her own Devil Arm, etc. I've played her in a Fate Stay Night setting where she's the master of the world's oldest bully and even if they dont get along very well, they're able to function as a master-servant team when the need arises. Otherwise she's Gil's personal mongrel. I think one of my favorite crossovers had to be in Magic The Gathering where she's an apprentice to Sorin Markov. 

So yes, I do love writing for her, so much. 

5. what’s your favorite thing about them?

My favorite thing about Kiomi is her personality. Specially now that I can play on the complication of her emotions. 

The best thing that ever happened to her was the fact that she made bonds that she didn't want to lose while knowing for a fact that her the friends that she made belonged to the enemy side. That gave her a lot of things to think about. Decisions of whether she throws away years of loyalty for something new is something I enjoy playing out. Although eventually I know where she returns and whom she returns to, depending on how much she grows attached to the other muse and how willing both parties are to make it canon, that's the only time that it may change.

The good thing about the Next Gen setting is that Otogakure has better relations with Konoha...at least compared to when the entire Naruto series began. This allows Kiomi to have a little freedom in terms of socializing with the little friends that she actually made. 

Love's an aspect that I want to explore, but yeaaah. That's hard for her because she dislikes the notion very much. Although I'm sure that if the right person comes along, the possibility of her opening up and feeling for the other person still exists. As much as there's an RP outside tumblr where she does love someone. I do have her as a mutli-ship so basically all bonds are different per verse. 

One of my other favorite thing is that she works well with people she hates. It's really funny because I find that-- for starters, Kiomi dislikes Sasuke with a passion. This is pretty much a classic case of Genius vs Hard Work. Sasuke's pretty much a stark reminder of everything that she wants. He's chosen by Orochimaru, he's strong and talented, he's a cut above the rest, for sure. All her hard work gets blown out of the water along with her desire to be the vessel because a favorite exists. But above all, she's actually pretty jealous that he still has a family in the form of his brother. But yes, she hates him so much, but apparently whenever I roleplay with Sasuke's they seem to have certain areas for synergy. Mainly because Kiomi will prevent him from getting killed (that's her job). So she'll help him out, tend to his wounds, spar with him, etc. So there's a certain dynamic there which I enjoy. That's why, to be fairly honest, Sasuke interactions is probably one of my favorites because the rawness of Kiomi's feelings come out. And I really love the fact that I can make this hate canon so easily because she doesn’t need an initial validation from him. She can just hate him on her own until such a time when they meet. It’s great because the more he ignores her, the more she gets pissed off, the more she works harder. Even up to Next Gen, Sasuke’s still her goal, albeit with decreased animosity. *Cough*Frenemies Please*Cough*

( Here’s an ugly doodle from ten years ago.)

It's a freaking meme for me, but I love how she gets into a fight with every Katon user she meets. She didn't get Katon'd, sure, but her worst run in was probably with an Itachi who Tsukuyomi'd her. That was really fun to play out but stressful. They became associates after. xD 

Also, her awful way of phrasing some things. Sometimes, when she has a hard time of expressing herself, she ends up blurting things that's easy to misinterpret. It's pretty funny, all the trouble it causes. 

[chicagocityfclanspromoblog]

Percival ‘Percy’ McCormick III → Charlie Cox → Dhole

→ Basic Information

Age: 228

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: January 22nd

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Religion: Jewish

→ His Personality Percy has very rarely failed in his life. This is not necessarily because of his skills or brains, but mainly his family’s money. He is a creative and often idealistic person, who is focused on pushing the envelope to see what else is out there. He is confident and charming, and has managed to make most things he creates work. One thing that isn’t working is his idea of a joint pack. It began in the 1930s as a way to bring people to Chicago and keep themselves above boat during the Depression. It worked for a while, but in the last 20 years has begun to spiral. Violence and hatred have gotten to a boiling point and the pressure only rises with new members moving in every month. He still thinks it is working and an idea worth fighting for, however even he is feeling the cracks. Percy has become an insomniac and his emotions are so high strung that his eyes frequently flip back and forth between white and his typical brown. He has taken to carrying sunglasses to hide his effect from those in and outside of his pack.

He has recently decided, under Liz’s recommendation, that he needs to destress his life. Percy gets self-confidence and pride from his work, so slowing down feels as though he is failing more. It has allowed him to attempt to fix his relationship with his wife. He is absent at best and neglectful at worst when it comes to Rose, and he realized he had started to become exactly like his father. He wants kids and he wants his kids to see two people in love raising them. Percy has a habit of thinking about those who benefit from all his actions, rather than those who must suffer with the other side. He is willing to sacrifice the few for the many and even if it hurts others, may refuse to give up what he wants.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Head of the Triumvirate and Owner of WJDF station, The Chicago Herald, McCormick Media, and a conglomerate of publications.

Scars: None

Tattoos: Up to Player

Two Likes: Sunglasses and Skyscrapers

Two Dislikes: Close minded people and Conspiracy Theorists

Two Fears: Bankruptcy and People thinking he’s fraud

Two Hobbies: Genealogy and Proofreading

Three Positive Traits: Idealistic, Charming, Confident

Three Negative Traits: Assertive, Proud, Unyielding

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Percival McCormick II (Father): Percival II built the media in Chicago from the ground up. He initially ran the telegraph and telegram stations out of Chicago and eventually created The Chicago Herald and the radio station. These catered to humans, but also supernaturals. There were special channels to broadcast supernatural news and it created the foundation for other supernaturals to create content and information for themselves. Creating an empire so expansive was not without cost. Percival II was rarely home and treated his wife and son as merely objects set out to impress. It left him with a constant need to prove to his father that he was just as clever as he was, even in death. Percy III created the first television station and has expanded into the internet and digital sphere as time has gone on.

Pamela McCormick (Mother): Pamela was not frequently involved with Percy. She was there for the worst moments to comfort him, but she was dealing with her own issues and didn’t have the time to help both. She was never cruel and often was willing to listen and entertain his imaginative ideas.

Sibling Names:

None

Children Names:

None

Romantic Connections:

Rose McCormick (Wife): Percy is admittedly a horrible husband. He’d like to blame it on the way he was raised, but even he knows he could stop that cycle whenever he wants. Rose is smart and fierce, but didn’t fully know what she was getting into when marrying him. He needed someone to stand by his side and have no desire to get involved in his life. He’d provide for whatever she wanted as long as she’d keep everything in their marriage private and eventually have a kid with him. It’s been a decade since they’ve been married, and they’ve kept up their deal. She has her own bedroom and they only typically see each other over dinner. Rose hates him and he understands why. Recently, Percy has begun to think being open with his wife and mate may calm him down more. He wants to start a real relationship with Rose, and is attempting to show that to her. She is becoming more receptive though she doubts him.

Platonic Connections:

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Snow (Best Friend): Percy knows Liz better than anyone else. Liz is the only one who has truly seen him at his most vulnerable. They understand each other and the choices they make and support one another fully. It’s hard not to fall in love with someone who knows you well, and Percy was not immune to this. However, he knew it would never work. He found a dhole shifter who would agree to what he wanted from a marriage and tried to block out any thoughts of Liz, unsuccessfully. He still is much more emotionally connected with Liz and confides in her, rather than in Rose.

Simon Brodeur (Packmate): Percy has over 90,000 nimbles in his care and would be lying if he said he knew all of them by heart. However, Simon has recently popped up on his rader and Percy has been keeping a worrisome eye on him. Percy has never had a bad experience with Simon but when Simon’s mate was obviously killed by a hunter, Simon had blacked out causing a mess for Percy. Simon had gone into a frenzy and changed a few humans. Percy and Liz were able to cover it up and Simon was released punishment free but Percy is unsure what his next step should be and whether to go after the hunters who did this.

Austin Semler (Packmate): Percy is familiar with Austin work and the work of Austin parents. Percy knows potential when he sees it and Austin is bursting with potential but it is clear to Percy that Austin isn’t ready yet.

Isla Johns (Packmate): Isla acts as the speaker for the prey members of their clan and is also a member of the Triumvirate. Percy and Isla are nearly never on the same page making Liz their referee on larger impact topics. They can never have a strong relationship while he knows what she thinks of him and how he runs the clan. It would both him more, if he wasn’t as confident that Liz saw his vision and wanted it to succeed.

Anton Kowalski (Unsure): Anton has not been a part of his clan for long but Percy isn’t blind to how Anton avoids him in comparison to the way he flocks to everyone else. While Anton isn’t the first coywolf that Percy has met, he is one of the first shifters to transition into Chicago in decades from a single shift nimble pack; meaning their pack one had one type of nimble species. He’s been keeping an eye on Anton and plans on giving him a proper introduction soon.

Clarisse ‘Clara’ Fields (Clan Leader): Percy and Clara have known one another since they were kids. While Asa and Sam preferred leaving him in the dust, Clara was always a bit more willing to be friendly. He was glad when she took over as head of the Heavies and they often end up on the same side in council meetings.

Chris Bialar (Clan Leader): Chris stated once that he would be neutral when it came to nimble affairs and Percy has done the same for him. Percy personally doesn’t care about the local cat clan and only communicates at council meetings with them. Percy, however, has recently heard rumors about Chris and Ellis discussing a supernatural schooling system and wants in on the project.

Ellis Watts (Clan Leader): Percy has little interactions with the jackal clan and stands neutral when it comes to Ellis. Percy, however, has recently heard rumors about Chris and Ellis discussing a supernatural schooling system and wants in on the project.

Nick Hamelin (Clan Leader): Nick has been around for a while and was friends with Percy’s father. This made things a little easier when it was Percy’s time to take over. Nick and Percy are the closet of allies and their clans often work together to gather information. Percy’s people teach the rats reporting and/or journalistic investigating skills in exchanging for information and leads.

Isaac Baker (Clan Leader): Percy rarely has to deal with the wolves. When he does he typically sends Isla to discuss any incidents they come across with the wolves. Isaac certainly brings more spontaneity to the votes and certainly makes council meetings more interesting.

Scorpius Getta (Clan Leader): Percy is indifferent about Getta and the vampire community as a whole. The only time they communicate is at council meetings.

Sirius Cobic (Clan Leader): Sirius and Percy have come to an understanding as the police and media to keep the people of Chicago from finding out that over 1/3rd of their population is composed of supernatural beings. Their people work closely together but Percy personally deals with Sirius each time as a sign of respect and good faith.

Hostile Connections:

Sam Thompson (Childhood Bully): Sam and Asa used to bully Percy as a child. They would bring him into the middle of the woods, shift and then run. He frequently got lost, and only found his way back by accident, or by Clara helping him. He thinks Sam believing he could be the head of the Heavies is laughable, and ignores any contact that Sam tries to make with him.

Asa Fields (Childhood Bully): Sam and Asa used to bully Percy as a child. They would bring him into the middle of the woods, shift and then run. He frequently got lost, and only found his way back by accident, or by Clara helping him. Asa disappeared about a hundred years ago, which Percy was grateful for. Unfortunately he’s returned and apparently wants to make things right within his pack.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background)

→ The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Charlie Cox (Percival “Percy” McCormick III) [1][2][3][4]

[emospritelet]

Key to the Cell - chapter 8

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [AO3 link]

Gaston is, yet again, a piece of shit (please check full tags on AO3), and Belle makes another deal

x

Belle found the ball dull after the Dark One had gone, and was half-hearted in her participation. She doubted that anyone noticed; she danced as much as she could, and made the right noises when guests talked to her of the latest court gossip and rumours of ogres marching in the east. That last topic of conversation was a concern, and she resolved to ask Gaston and her father what they planned to do to protect their adjoining lands from any attack. As soon as they had sobered up, anyway. Gaston had spent much of the ball getting progressively drunker, and as a consequence was absent from breakfast the next day. Belle spent a pleasant morning chatting with her father and eating pastries, free of the oppressive presence of Gaston in a foul mood.

Some of the guests had stayed over, but all seemed to be suffering from an excess of drink, and so Belle took a morning walk in the gardens alone, twirling her parasol between her fingers to shield her face from the autumn sun. The gardeners were at work on the endless job of weeding the flower beds, and she stopped to admire some of the late-blooming roses, breathing in their heady perfume.

“Excuse me, milady?”

Belle turned at a familiar voice, and broke into a smile as Gerta bobbed a curtsy. Her blonde hair was hidden by a neat white scarf, her ragged too-large dress replaced by neat livery in Gaston’s house colours of green and white.

“Gerta!” said Belle warmly, taking her hands. “I see you took me up on the offer of service. Has the chamberlain been kind?”

“Kind enough, milady,” said Gerta. “He wasn’t too keen before I gave your name, but he’s given me a place as a maid. I can’t thank you enough.”

“And your children?”

“Back at our cottage with my sister and her little one,” she said. “We’re all very well provided for. Thanks to you and to— well, never mind me going on. We’re well, milady, I promise you. Enough food to see us through the winter, and now with this wage coming in, we’ll be able to fend for ourselves as a family.”

Belle didn’t miss her slip, and her curiosity about the deal Gerta had made with the Dark One was almost too much to bear. She decided not to mention it, as Gerta clearly didn’t want to discuss the matter.

“I’m glad to see you looking so well,” she said.

“I - I just wanted to say thank you,” said Gerta. “I’d better go and clean the windows in the library, before the chamberlain thinks I’m getting above myself.”

She bobbed another curtsy and hurried off, and Belle smiled after her, her spirits lifted.

“Lady Belle?”

Turning at a familiar voice, her smile widened, and she spread her skirts in a curtsy to answer the deep bow made by Prince James. He was a handsome young man, with close-cropped blonde hair and wide blue eyes above a pleasant, open face. He also seemed to be one of the few nobles that genuinely seemed to care for the poor in his lands, and to dislike war. She got the impression that he was something of a disappointment to his father King George.

“It seems we’re in the minority this fine morning, Your Highness” she said, and he smiled as he straightened up.

“Father doesn’t drink much,” he said. “He was up early for a ride, but other than that, I believe you’re right. Too much wine makes for a late breakfast.”

“Or a late lunch,” she observed. “Sir Gaston will be hunting alone at this rate.”

“Oh, I suspect the prospect of killing things will drag them from their beds,” he said, in a dry tone. Belle smiled, and fell into step beside him.

“How are you enjoying the gardens?”

“Very much,” he said. “You grow some roses here that I haven’t seen before. I always enjoyed growing things.”

“You must ask the gardeners for some cuttings,” she said. “Although in reality, these gardens belong to Gaston, not to me.”

“Not yet,” he said, looking across at her. “You marry soon, isn’t that right?”

“So I’m told.”

She wanted to bite her lip at letting her bitterness show, but Prince James shot her a look of understanding.

“Having certain expectations placed upon you is a burden,” he said carefully. “My father has very specific ideas about who I am to marry. I can’t say that my own feelings on the subject carry much weight.”

“I can sympathise.”

“Sometimes,” he said. “I wonder if we place too much emphasis on gaining lands and power. Surely happiness and love must come into it somewhere?”

“I couldn’t agree more,” she said, and he turned to face her, making her halt her progress.

“I’m not sure if the fate of a Prince is any easier to change than the fate of a Lady,” he said gently. “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, does it?”

Belle got the impression he was talking to himself as much as her, as though he were steeling himself for something. Standing up to the King, perhaps. She reached out to him, squeezing his hand.

“Of course we should try,” she said. “We should never stop trying.”

He returned her smile, putting a comforting hand over hers.

“Well, I see at least some people are up.”

Gaston’s voice made them jump, and Belle pulled back, turning to face him as he came striding towards them, a scowl lowering his brows. He bowed his head to the Prince.

“Your Highness.”

“Sir Gaston,” said Prince James, easily. “A fine party last night. I was just admiring your roses. Lady Belle suggested I ask you for some cuttings. I’d be happy to return the favour next time you visit the palace.”

“Lady Belle is generous to a fault,” said Gaston coolly, eyeing her.

His tone made Belle nervous. It seemed as though there was a dark cloud hanging over him, and she hoped it would pass when his hangover wore off. She pretended an interest in the roses near her, still feeling his eyes on her.

“Are we still hunting today?” prompted Prince James, and Belle felt Gaston look away, his glower turning from her and making her sigh in relief.

“I’ll get the horses saddled,” he confirmed. “We may be a little later than I planned, but I daresay there’ll be game enough for us to enjoy the chase. Come! Let’s wake the others. I feel the urge to get some blood on my hands.”

He let out a deep laugh, slapping the Prince’s shoulder, and Prince James bowed his head to Belle.

“Good day to you, my Lady.”

“Enjoy the hunt, Your Highness,” she said. “Good luck.”

“Are you not going to wish me good luck?” asked Gaston, his voice still cold. “Hunts are dangerous things, Belle. Can I not depend on my intended’s good wishes?”

“Good luck, Sir Gaston,” she said demurely. “The deer don’t stand a chance against you.”

He huffed, mollified.

“Indeed they don’t. Until later, my Lady.”

He grasped her upper arms possessively, pulling her to him for a rough, hurried kiss, and Belle froze in his arms, eyes flying wide open in shock. It was over in a moment, and she watched him stride away with the Prince at his side. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, shuddering. If he gets gored by a stag I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep.

She immediately felt guilty for wishing harm on another person, and irritated about feeling guilty when he had caused so much harm to others. Yet again her desire to do good appeared to be all too easy to ignore, and she wondered if she would ever feel truly at peace with herself. Perhaps she would get the chance to find out when she made her escape.

x

With Gaston and most of the men gone, it was left to her to entertain the ladies. Only a few had stayed over, and it was easy enough to organise a picnic by the lake, making the most of the early autumn sunshine. Princess Snow had invented a game that involved doing impressions of the gentlemen that were out hunting, resulting in gales of laughter from the assembled ladies. Belle couldn’t stop giggling at her impression of Gaston, fists on hips and legs spread wide with her chest thrown outwards as she called for more wine in a booming voice. The servants looked at them askance as they refilled glasses and passed around plates of cakes, and eventually Belle suggested that they return to the castle for some music. Princess Abigail played the harp, and a number of ladies were skilled singers. Belle slipped out halfway through to check on the plans for dinner, and was told that the hunt was returning.

The men had been drinking all day, it seemed, and some were barely able to sit in their saddles. Gaston was not one of them; he was skilled enough to know that a swift hunt required swifter reflexes, and so he returned relatively sober, boasting about the game he had brought down. He made up for his sobriety at dinner, downing pints of ale and wine and following it with brandy. Belle sat quietly by his side, not wanting to antagonise him. He seemed to have been in a bad mood with her all day, and she wasn’t sure why. It meant that he had ignored her for most of the dinner, so it wasn’t all bad, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was building himself up to shout at her again, and she didn’t want to feel as helpless and afraid as she had the last time it happened. Nervousness stole her appetite, and she picked at her food, wishing that the dinner would end and she could go to bed.

At last she was able to excuse herself, after making plans for a morning ride with some of the ladies.

“I’ll accompany you on the ride,” said Prince James. “Two days of hunting is a little tiring. I’d prefer to take things easy before we journey back to our own castle, what say you, Father?”

“Ride with the women if you so choose,” said King George coldly. “Perhaps it’s closer to your nature. I myself will be hunting.”

Prince James glanced away, trying to hide the irritated twist to his mouth, and Belle felt the need to defend him.

“I’m sure we would all appreciate an escort,” she said. “I for one would be delighted to have you accompany us, Your Highness.”

“I’m sure you would,” drawled Gaston, lounging in his chair with a glass of wine swinging from one hand. “That’s my girl. Always so obliging. Can’t resist a pretty face.”

Belle flushed, and Prince James frowned at Gaston.

“The Lady deserves more respect than you give her, Sir Gaston,” he said.

“I’ll speak as I wish in my own house,” growled Gaston. “Who’s gonna stop me? You?”

“Are you threatening your Prince?” asked Prince James quietly. There was a steely edge to his voice, the air around them growing thick and oppressive, as though a storm was coming. Silence fell, the other guests picking up on the change in atmosphere, and Belle stood up, her heart thumping with anxiety.

“I’m sure Sir Gaston meant no offence,” she said. “A little too much brandy, perhaps.”

“Don’t speak on my behalf, woman!” snapped Gaston. “You’re not my wife yet, and when you are you’ll speak when spoken to!”

Belle squared her jaw, lifting her chin, and jumped as the King banged his goblet on the table.

“Stop bickering, all of you!” he snapped. “Sir Gaston, keep a civil tongue in your head in the presence of your betters! James, don’t insult Sir Gaston in his own castle! I swear, young men today have no sense of duty or honour! What say you, Sir Maurice?”

“Too ready to drink and fight, Sire,” agreed Sir Maurice, holding out his cup to be refilled.

“They need a good war to knock some sense into them,” added the King. “Fortunately, one seems to be brewing. The two of you can go and take your tempers out on the ogres.”

The conversation turned to the ogre threat, and Belle heaved a sigh. She made her excuses, earning a sharp look from Gaston as she slipped away. His eyes were on her as she left the room, a sharp pricking between her shoulder blades, and she quickened her pace, feeling something like relief as she moved out of sight. She reached her bedroom, and rang the bell for Marilee, kicking off her heeled slippers.

“Do you need me to prepare anything for tomorrow, milady?” asked Marilee deferentially, as she helped Belle out of her gown.

“I’m riding in the morning,” said Belle. “My blue riding habit, if you please. Our guests will be leaving after luncheon, so perhaps the pink gown when I return.”

“Very good, milady.”

“I’d like some warm milk to drink, if you can arrange it,” she added. “I’m feeling restless tonight, I think I need something to help me sleep.”

“Of course.”

Marilee took the gown from her, crossing to the wardrobe to hang it and returning with her nightgown as Belle stepped out of her petticoats and tugged off her chemise. She held up her arms for the nightgown, letting out a sigh as cool silk slipped down over her body. Marilee bundled up the petticoats and chemise in her arms.

“I need to fix your hair, milady,” she said.

“I can do that,” said Belle tiredly. “If you could please hand me my robe?”

Marilee fetched the embroidered silk dressing gown, and Belle pulled it on, belting it at the waist.

“I’ll send the maid up with some warm milk, milady.”

“Thank you.”

Belle sat down at the dresser, beginning the lengthy process of taking the pins from her hair and unfastening the braids. The pins went into the small porcelain pot ready for the next day, and once she had her hair loose around her shoulders, she began brushing it, dragging the brush in sweeping strokes to make it shine. She gazed at her reflection in the mirror, counting the strokes as she counted the days to her freedom. Nine days. Nine more days. I can hold out that long. The squeak of the door opening caught her attention.

“Put the milk on my nightstand, if you please,” she said.

“I’m not the maid.”

Gaston’s voice made her jump and drop the brush in fright, and she turned around, getting to her feet and clutching the robe tight across her chest. He was looming near the chair where she liked to read, his coat off and his waistcoat unbuttoned. She could smell brandy on him from six feet away.

“Gaston,” she said, her voice wobbling a little. “It’s - it’s late.”

“You’re awake, aren’t you?”

“You shouldn’t be in my room,” she said. “Father wouldn’t like it.”

“We’ll be married soon,” he said. “What does it matter? Your father sets too much store by tradition. I prefer a more modern approach to these things. As do you, I imagine.”

“Not when it comes to my honour,” she said stiffly.

“Your honour?” He chuckled. “I’ve seen little enough of that the past few days. It’s like you can’t stand to be around me.”

“I’ve been tired, that’s all,” she said. “Can we talk about this in the morning? You’re drunk, and I want to sleep.”

“Well, whether I am or am not drunk is not the issue,” he said, taking another step towards her. “And we’re gonna talk about it now.”

“Gaston, please…”

“These past few days I’ve been getting the feeling that you’re not too excited about the idea of marrying me,” he said. “Set your sights elsewhere, have you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Really? Then can you explain why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I haven’t!” she insisted. “We’ve had guests, I had to entertain them.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of how seriously you take that duty,” he spat. “Where was your honour when Princess Snow was making fun of me? The servants told me everything.”

“She - she was doing impressions of all the men, not just you,” she said, inwardly cursing the servants’ loose tongues. “It was all in jest, she meant no harm!”

“And you thought you’d laugh along with her, did you?”

His anger was rising; she could see his nostrils flaring, his eyes protruding, and it was making fear ripple through her. She eyed the door, but he stood between it and her, and so she held up her hands in a soothing gesture, hoping she could calm him down enough to get him out of her room.

“It wasn’t malicious,” she insisted. “You have my word!”

“Your word means nothing, it seems to me!” he spat. “I’ve seen you whispering and giggling with those bitches that think they’re better than me!”

“I haven’t!”

“Flirting with every man that comes to the palace!” he went on. “Throwing yourself at Prince James! What, a noble knight isn’t enough for you? You have to set your sights on the Prince?”

“I was only being friendly! He was—”

“Did he touch you?” he demanded. “Did any of them touch you? What about the man you were so taken with at the dance, hmm? How many of them are there?”

“No one!” she insisted, “There’s no one, I swear it!”

“Don’t lie to me!”

Belle backed up against the dresser, her heart hammering in her chest, mute with fear as he approached, hands opening and closing, as though he wanted to squeeze the life from her.

“You think you can make a fool of me before we’re even married?” he rasped. “You think I would allow that?”

“I’ve done nothing wrong, I swear to you!”

“Perhaps you think it’ll get you out of this match,” he went on. “You think you’ll get a better offer, is that it?”

“No!”

“You are mine!” he growled. “I told you that when you were promised to me, but it seems you didn’t believe me.”

“Gaston, please!”

“Well, if I take you now, you won’t be able to marry anyone else, will you?”

Belle shook her head in horror, unable to take her eyes from him, and his mouth curved into an ugly grin.

“If I take you now, you won’t have a ch—”

A crash of breaking pottery cut off his words, and Belle clapped her hands to her mouth as he slumped to the ground, broken shards of her water jug rolling on the floor. Behind him stood Gerta, wide-eyed with shock, the handle of the jug still clasped in her right hand and a spilled cup of milk on the floor at her feet, still steaming a little. Belle let her breath out in a sigh of relief, trying to calm her racing heart. She shuddered at the thought of what could have happened, what would have happened, had Gerta not been willing to intervene. The jug handle dropped to the floor with a dull clink.

“Oh - oh gods!” stammered Gerta. “I’ve killed him! I swear I didn’t mean to, milady, I just wanted to help!”

Belle sat down on her heels, skirts spreading around herself as she felt for Gaston’s pulse. It was throbbing away fiercely, and she looked up.

“He’s not dead,” she said. “Just unconscious. I daresay he’ll have a terrible headache, and if he remembers what happened, we’ll both be in trouble.”

“I assaulted the lord!” said Gerta wretchedly, wringing her hands. “They’ll have me flogged, milady. That’s if they don’t just hang me. What shall I do?”

Belle pushed to her feet, shoving away her panic as an idea formed.

“You called on the Dark One,” she said, in a low whisper, and Gerta looked fearful.

“How - how did you know?”

“Because he told me so,” said Belle, grasping her hands. “Please, don’t be afraid, I’m not angry. I think he can help us.”

“You shouldn’t get mixed up with the Dark One, milady!” she said urgently. “Not for my sake! I’ve heard tales of what he can do, of what he has done to those that crossed him!”

“He doesn’t frighten me,” said Belle firmly. “And didn’t he help you? Why fear him?”

“He - he saved me and my children,” she admitted. “He kept his word, milady, but - but it’s dark magic! My mother always said that no good came from messing with magic, and dark magic especially!”

“You let me worry about that,” said Belle. “All I need from you is how you summoned him.”

“Why, with his name, of course.”

“You - you know his name?”

“Heard it from my aunt,” said Gerta. “She said he’d saved her farm from the famine and her family from the plague, some years back. She said that he always kept his word, but to beware his price. My mother had thought her mad to call on him.  She’d have thought me mad too.”

“What price did she pay?” asked Belle nervously, and Gerta swallowed.

“Her new baby,” she whispered. “Just weeks old, she was. Taken away and never seen again. I - I was so afraid, milady. Afraid that he’d take one of my children, but I was desperate! I’d have lost them both to starvation if I hadn’t called on him!”

“And because of you, they are safe and well,” said Belle soothingly, putting her hands on Gerta’s shoulders. “You said you called his name. Can you whisper it to me?”

She nodded, and Belle leaned forward, Gerta taking a breath and whispering in her ear. Belle felt her brow crease at the unfamiliar word.

“Rumplestiltskin,” she murmured, then, louder: “Rumplestiltskin!”

“Yes, yes, no need to shout!”

He appeared in a puff of red smoke, and Gerta squeaked in alarm and darted backward. Rumplestiltskin’s eyes narrowed, but then he swept a deep bow. He was dressed all in black leather, the trousers tight around his slim thighs and the coat fitted to his body over a shirt of black silk.

“Lady Belle,” he said, glancing up at her. “So, you learned my name. Resourceful, aren’t you?”

“When I need to be.”

His mouth quirked, and he straightened up. He was standing still, but he tapped his fingers together rapidly, as though his body was filled with an energy he couldn’t quite shake. If he had been anyone but the Dark One, she would have thought him nervous.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you quite so soon,” he said.

“I need your help,” said Belle quickly, and he glanced at the prone body of Gaston.

“Disposal of corpses is a speciality of mine,” he said cheerfully. “I won’t even charge you for the privilege.”

“He’s not dead,” said Belle, shooting him a dry look. “And I told you, no killing. Could you please ensure you get him to his room and - and somehow make him forget that he was here and that Gerta hit him? I don’t want her in trouble, she was only trying to protect me.”

Rumplestiltskin looked deeply amused, fingers twirling in the air.

“What did he do that merited you breaking a jug over his head, pray tell?” he asked snidely, and Gerta gulped. Belle stepped forwards, putting a hand on his arm.

“Please, Rumplestiltskin,” she said urgently. “Please. Before he wakes up, or one of the servants sees.”

He had glanced down at her hand on his arm, and she quickly took it away again. When she looked up, he was watching her, amber eyes wide and curious.

“There’s the matter of my price, my Lady,” he said quietly, and she nodded.

“I thought about that,” she said. “Why don’t you let me do something for you?”

“Such as?” he drawled. “Embroider me a cushion, perhaps?”

“No,” she said, and raised her chin. “Let me try to return what was taken from you.”

He stared at her for a moment, then waved his hand dismissively, as though it were an afterthought, his eyes still fixed on Belle’s, bright and burning. A plume of red smoke engulfed Gaston, and when it lifted he had disappeared. Gerta squeaked again, and Rumplestiltskin glanced at her.

“Go and tell the chamberlain that his master took a fall from his bath and has taken to his bed,” he said. “When he wakes, which won’t be for a few days, he will remember nothing of this incident, and will be just as vile and obnoxious as ever, I assure you.”

Gerta dropped a curtsy and hurried off, and Rumplestiltskin turned back to Belle.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked quietly.

His voice had changed in tone, grown lower and warmer, the accent stronger. He sounded more human, more real. Belle hesitated.

“No,” she said. “No, he - he scared me, that was all.”

“You’re absolutely sure you don’t want me to kill him?” he said lazily, fingers flickering. “I’m more than willing to change the deal.”

“I’ve already paid the price for you getting me out of the marriage.”

“Oh, I’m always happy to throw a little murder into the mix, in a special case like this one.”

Belle shot him a flat look.

“We made our agreement,” she said. “I gave you my name, and you said you could deal with him without the need for violence.”

“And so I can.”

“Good,” she said. “About the new deal I propose, then?”

Rumplestiltskin pursed his lips, fingers twitching in the air again.

“You wish to return my dagger to me?”

“I do,” she said. “You said that you knew where it was, but you couldn’t tell me. I presume you can’t take it back for yourself, so I’ll do it for you.”

“I don’t even know if that’s possible.”

“Well, it certainly won’t be if we never try.”

There was a hint of a smile at that. He turned away from her, beginning to pace back and forth.

“The Blue Fairy will have protected it,” he said. “I suspect there’ll be more than just the barrier spells to keep me from it. You could get hurt.”

“Without risk, it wouldn’t be much of a price, would it?”

He glanced around at that, his eyes gleaming.

“And you wish to put yourself in danger in return for me saving the man that abuses you?”

“I wish not to have his blood on my hands,” she said. “You promised me that you would protect me and my people from him without the need to cause him harm. I’d prefer that if possible. I won’t drag myself down to his level. There’s been too much suffering in these lands already.”

He was silent for a moment.

“You are a very singular young woman, my Lady.”

“So you’ve told me,” she said. “And frankly, coming from you, it’s a compliment. Do we have a deal?”

He smiled, the light gleaming on his strange, scaled skin.

“I can’t take you back with me this way,” he said, gesturing between them. “You’ll need to use the book again.”

“I can do that.”

“And you’ll need something to - to protect you,” he said. “It’ll take magic.”

“A good thing you’re the most powerful sorcerer in the land, then.”

His smile grew.

“You’re fearless, my Lady.”

“Oh, I’m really not,” she said. “There are many things I fear, Rumplestiltskin. But not you.”

“Good,” he said softly. “Then we have a deal.”

[idk-my-aesthetic]

past, present, future

aka mal, evie, and carlos on magic, their parents, and the isle

this is actually a repost of this bc freaking tumblr deleted all my text when i tried to change on tag on the og post so i had to delete it bc it started glitching. sigh. 

*jay is getting his own fic which is why he’s not in this, more info below

***comment on the mal part i use a weird combo of the live action remake maleficent and the og one. Its like maleficent was still queen of the moors but she was actually evil and not all sympathetic like she is in the live action movies…. 

TW!!- obvious discussion of child abuse in semi-graphic detail for the majority of the fic, and a breif s*lf h*rm refrence. It's only a sentence or two long, a general ref/description ig, basically has to do w/ evie freaking out if ppl think she is ugly/a failure bc of her mom’s abuse. 

=========================================================================================

To Mal, magic was her blood. It was her history, her lineage. She was a fae, birthed to continue her mother’s legacy. Created to reclaim the throne her mother lost in her madness and cruelty, to conquer their lost land, to live up to the expectations put upon her at birth. Her magic was but an extension of that, her birthright, everything she was supposed to be, everything she would one day become. 

Using it was both terrifying, and liberating. She was evil, something she’d known for years, but she feared becoming like her mother. A fear she had admitted only once, whispered to three others in the dead of night. 

There was a difference in their evil. Her mother’s was unnecessary, powered by delusions of grandeur, random cruelty brought about for her own amusement. Mal saw her own evil as practical, an armor she would use to protect herself, and later her crew. She would use it to get them food, make enemies too afraid to attack them, keep them all as well and alive as she could. She could use her evil, and the fear it caused, to get whatever she wanted, whatever they needed. It gave her power.  

Evil was power. 

Power was safety. 

(Though, could you truly call a child seeking protection evil?)

She knew she would one day have to complete the tasks her mother set out for her, but she refused to do them like the woman herself would. She refused to turn to unneeded cruelty, to hurt those she cared for. She would reclaim their homeland on her own terms. 

She would be her own kind of evil, different from her mother’s, even if they used the same magic, read the same spellbook, had the same blood. She would burn her mother's legacy and build her own, build herself from the ashes and leave her mother behind as nothing more than a faded memory, forgotten in her daughter’s shadow. And she would rise from the beaten depths of the Isle, bringing those most important with her, and give them the lives they deserved. 

(That was her dream, fueled by Carlos’s invention and their new ability to steal magic from the barrier. To free them all, and give a better life to those she loved. It would come true, one day soon, different than she ever expected. Though she was right that she would reclaim her birthright on her own terms, those terms have nothing to do with the evil she now thinks she is.)

(She will learn she was never truly evil to begin with. She will make her magic truly her own, completely untainted by her mother’s wishes. She will reclaim the lost moors, and she will fill it with the love and light her mother destroyed, those she loves by her side.) 

-=+=-

To Evie, magic was a tool. She had no real feelings to it, like how a writer feels no fondness for pens, nor a painter for brushes. She used alchemy books to mix beauty products for her mother, keeping the old woman preoccupied with something else, allowing Evie precious moments of freedom from her mother’s “love”. The word was so mutated in the queen’s mind, as if her unending barrage of insults was the same as Mal’s soft smile, Carlos’s beautiful rambling, Jay’s protective arms. 

The best use for her magic was concocting healing brews, things she could give to her gang to save them even a bit of pain. A cream to clear the bruises on Carlos's chest, small packets for Jay to trade so he need not steal while injured, a bite of apple to save Mal’s life. Things to protect the three most important people in her life. 

(Though, she had a hidden use for these healing salves too. A secret mix to hide scars, to blend discolorations in with the rest of her skin. She used it only when she truly needed, the others would easily tell if every scar she once had disappeared. But, if she ended up bleeding in the middle of the night, scratching at her skin and sobbing because her mother was right she was so ugly and useless and worthless, and said scratches disappeared before morning, well, no one would ever need to know they ever existed.

Because, truly, what right did she have to complain? What gave her the right cry and sob because her mother said something cruel? The others had parents who beat them till they bled, how could her mother’s words ever compare? Even if her mother screamed until her voice was raw, even if she repeated that Evie was ugly and worthless until the girl could do nothing but believe it herself, even if she forced her to avoid even the small amounts of food they could scrounge up, weakinging her to the point of fainting, possibly death if the others hadn't shoved food in her hands and forced her to eat, as if hurting herself would make her more beautiful. 

Even if the Evil Queen, known for her own effortless beauty and even more effortless cruelty, hammered that lesson into the child’s head. That beauty is pain and the only way to have worth is to hurt and you must hurt to be loved, and if you are not in pain you are not beautiful you are not trying hard enough you are failing and they will all leave and you will be left with nothing but pain and your own ugliness.) 

So, Evie was thankful for her magic, thankful she could heal those she loved, and hide things that would hurt them. Thankful she could keep her mother’s suspicion away, when the old woman’s view shifted from seeing Evie as an extension of herself to seeing her daughter as a competitor, someone who was out to betray her and take her place. A gift could appease the woman, at least for a bit, reminding her that the child before her had hair too light, skin too dark, lips too pale to be the girl the queen despised. Not that the queen wouldn't try to change that, pushing the child to look more beautiful than the girl who bested her, then punishing the child for being more beautiful than herself. 

Her mother’s erraticy gave Evie some odd mix of both hatred and jealousy for her half sister. Her mother wanted her to be more beautiful than Snow White, going as far as to try and even bleach her daughter’s skin, forcing Evie to be the subject of dozens of ill advised experiments to make the girl “beautiful”. Evie hated her sister for the standard she set, for leaving her on the Isle, for their mother’s obsession. But she was desperately jealous of her, desperately wanted to be just as beautiful, partly so her mother would leave her be, but more so she would never lose the love she held so dear. 

She feared that more than all, more than death itself, losing those she loved. 

She’d heard tales of true love since birth, heard the idea scoffed at and hated. Told it was something for Aradon royalty, something she would never have, should never want. And yet, despite all that, despite the evil in her, the evil surrounding them, she had it. Had it with three incredible people she loved more than anything. But she knew she wasn't as beautiful as the princess in auradon, knew she wasn't as good as them. What if she lost it? What if the most important people in her life left, because she wasn't beautiful enough to be worthy of their love? 

(One day, she will learn that beauty is not worth. One day she will learn her three-turned-four lovers would never leave her, least of all over something so meaningless. She will learn that she is beautiful because she is kind, and that those who love her do so for her mind not her body. And she will learn that she need not live to please them, that they will always exist as pillars of support in her life, but she will be able to go and become her own person, do what she wishes without worrying if what she wants would make them dislike her, make them want to leave. She will be able to grow and heal with them, work with them to build a life for themselves and a safe world for the other children like them. One day she will speak with her sister, using the cup bought just for her, something she will have done a thousand times before. And she won’t be cured, the memories of her mother’s voice will always haunt her, but she will have people who love her back home, and wedding rings comfortably heavy on her fingers, and kids to pick up later from school, and the knowledge that the lost children of the Isle are free, and the memories will be pushed away with ease. 

One day she will use her magic to help her heal, not hide her pain. 

That future may be far away, too far for her to see where she is now, trapped on the Isle, believing lies about love and herself. But it exists, and it’s waiting for her.) 

-=+=-

To Carlos, his magic was inconsequential. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t exist. The only evidence of it was a flash of pain, quick, white hot burning in his chest when he pulled pure magic from his device on accident. And when he blinked the stars from his eyes, when he managed to pull breath into his lungs again, when he finally quelled the panic rising in his chest, he forced himself to ignore what had just happened. He made himself believe that the pain, the sudden surge of power, the overcoming sense of dread, was some kind of fluke, some byproduct of the barrier. Pure mortals must not handle magic well, he decided, and let the memory fade to the back of his mind. 

Because it was easier. It was easier to let himself believe that he had no magic, to deny the obvious in front of him. It was easier to ignore the instinctual feeling that this magic was his, that there was something darker about it, darker than the magic of the barrier or Mal’s spells. 

It was easier, because to accept it would be to face it. And to face it would mean he would have to use this magic, this magic that felt so instinctually wrong, yet so much his.

The magic felt evil, and even on this Isle of the forgotten, where evil was revealed in, evil was celebrated, he feared becoming evil himself. Because to him, there was very little true evil on the isle. The evil belonged to the adults, the ones banished for their actions. Jafar, Maleficent, the Evil Queen. His mother. 

The other children may see themselves as cruel and evil, but he saw the truth. They were neutral, survivors in this abandoned wasteland. Born with evil inside them, and countering it with enough good to turn their black hearts gray. Protecting each other, caring for others, helping in the backhanded way you only understood if you grew up in a world where kindness brought pain. 

And yet, despite the fact that any impartial party would tell you they were all the same, he saw himself as different from the rest. He could see the good they did, see them balance the scales to keep themselves from falling into evil. But no matter what he did, it never felt like enough. He felt as if he was teetering on the edge of a cliff, held up by nothing more than a fraying rope. And if he accepted this magic, it would slice straight through, sending him to his doom. 

(He was too close to see the good he did. His mother’s screaming of how he was so horrid to her, how he brought her so much pain, how much she wished he was a good son confused him. He saw himself as bad, and saw that as an easy descent into evil, an easy descent into becoming those who had hurt him and those he loved.) 

(He didn’t want to be evil, evil like Maleficent who would snap Mal’s bones with cold eyes. Evil like Jafar who’d beat Jay for bringing one to few things home. Evil like the Queen, who’d lie and scream and dim the brightness of Evie’s smile. Evil like his mother, who would hurt and hurt and hurt and never stop as long as it got her what she wanted, never feel remorse for the pain she brought.)

So he did with his magic what he did with his other problems, forget. Forcing them to the back of his mind, focusing on the immediate, focusing on surviving day to day. And you can’t blame him, not really. On the Isle every day is about making sure you live to your next, and that you can bring a handful of others with you. 

And it may not have been his fault, but in doing so, in pushing aside the pain it brought and forcing himself to forget, he created more problems for himself. Because his magic would not go away, same with how pretending his mother didn’t exist didn’t simply make her disappear. 

(One day, he will be forced to face this magic, to accept it as part of himself. It will bring him pain he doesn't deserve, but he will overcome it, four others by his side. He will realize that the evil he felt was nothing more than a reflection of his own fears, that he could never truly become evil. Because he didn’t want to be, won’t want to be, will never find joy in causing others pain. The things that will make him happy are bright days and small animals and unconventional dates and the laughter of children trying chocolate for the first time. 

He will realize he could never be evil, never turn into those who hurt him. Never become his mother. And he will face his other problems, the ones so buried he hadn't thought of them in years, and he will overcome those too.) 

-=+=-

im trash so i didn’t bother putting the italics in. it takes 20 minutes im sorry....

edit: i wnet back and added them uwu 

jay’s getting his own fic which is basically one of these^^ but longer w/ fully written scenes lol. and uhhhh idr what i put in my a/n before but this is related to my other works/part of a series so please check out my ao3 ily  https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Pluto

edit: so i felt like i needed to give more info ig?? i gave carlos magic bc im using it as a metaphor in my d1/d2/d3 rewrites, which uhhh part of are posted but not really the magic parts yet.... trust me for rn lol,,,, ty for reading!!! 

[argentdandelion]

Possible Health Problems of Hybrid Fanchildren

No, think of the children!...your hybrid children, that is. Contains lovely ideas for angst.

Hybrid fanchildren are common in the Undertale fandom. It is likely this is because the main characters of the game cover multiple "breeds" of monster, and there are in fact canon cross-breed couples (Undyne and Alphys, RG01 and RG02). Fanchildren are also a creative exercise where one combines the looks and personalities of the parents into a new, distinct character design.

In-universe, if hybridization is even possible, it's likely common. However, hybridizing could cause problems.

Where potential mates of their own species are rare, animals might hybridize with closely related species. Furthermore, animals might make hybrids if they're compatible species kept in the same enclosure (e.g., lions and tigers in zoos). In birds when one species parasitically lays its eggs in the nests of another species, the offspring might imprint after its host parents in looks or song, and so only be interested in birds that look or sound like its host parents.

All these things likely happened when monsters were sealed underground. While it’s unclear if different monster breeds interbred before the war, given monsterkind’s massive casualties it’s likely monsters’ options within their own breed were limited. (This would surely be especially true for monster breeds that were rare to begin with.) Staying underground, especially if they all stayed in just one city for a long time, would also work like captive conditions. Furthermore, the devastation might have meant a whole lot of orphans, which might have been raised by different breeds. Such orphans might, like the parasitic birds, prefer breeds like the ones they were raised by. It’s certainly clear monsters have variable preferences and can imitate other monsters (e.g., Papyrus catching a thrown stick in his mouth)/have variable behavior, after all.

Biological Problems

For some breeds, even if hybridizing is possible it would likely cause health problems. This is especially obvious for fire monsters, such as offspring of the Sans X Grillby ("Sansby") pairing. Though skeleton monsters are apparently1 insensitive to cold, it's unclear whether they're insensitive or immune to heat too. Fan works often assume Grillby's fire is painfully hot, and becomes much hotter when angry. While (dry, human) bones can withstand greater temperatures than human flesh without (visible) damage, being on fire constantly might be a problem. Even if the hybrid children can withstand it, it's possible (and more likely) that they might hurt themselves from the higher temperatures if they ever get angry.

Pain can make people easier to anger, so being burned by their own flames might cause a self-destructive feedback loop of pain and burning. If they can't quickly heal burn markings from such events, they might become anxious about it, akin to obvious scars or burn wounds.

Environmental Unsuitability

Environmental unsuitability is also a problem. While a hybrid's parents might be well-suited to distinct environments, the hybrid may be unsuited for either or require unpredictable intermediate environments.

For example, the fish monster Undyne is vulnerable to heat stroke/dehydration when travelling through the dry, hot caverns of Hotland; Alphys is not. Evidently travelling through Hotland is enough of a danger to Undyne that Alphys installed a water cooler for her halfway to her lab, even though Alphys' lab is only a few screens into Hotland. While Undyne says she dislikes "snow", she's evidently not in danger standing outside Papyrus's house indefinitely. This might not be true for Alphys: while some fish can live in cold water, reptiles either die or hibernate in cold environments like Snowdin.

A hybrid child of the two might do well in an intermediate environment (e.g., hot but humid, like south Florida) or take after one or the other unpredictably.

Some assume Undyne can breathe underwater through gills; what if the child prefers most of their body to be dry but needs to keep their gills moist? What if the child prefers dry, but not hot, environments? With such a potential blend of preferred environments, they all might need custom rooms (e.g., humidifiers, pools) in one house.

Most dangerously, what if Undyne can breathe water through her skin, but a reptile-skinned but otherwise fishlike child cannot? One work, Scramble Saga, suggests Undyne sleeps in a water-filled bathtub rather than a bed. If a helpless baby that can't breathe underwater is put in a tub-crib, the baby might drown. The child might drown, too, if Undyne is playing boldly and aggressively in the water and mistakenly assumes the child can breathe underwater.

Psychological Problems

No Horns

(The picture is based on goat skulls; notice they don't have horns. Picture modified from here.)

In goats, horn buds don’t grow directly from the skull, but from a specialized patch of skin. Only later do they start to merge to the skull.

Assuming Boss Monsters’ horns grow like that of goats, a Boss Monster-skeleton hybrid might not have horns. (Many such fanchildren have no skin, after all.) While many monsters do not have horns, this might still make the fanchild self-conscious about not having horns. (Perhaps similarly to Kris of Deltarune, though Kris is a human.)

The Problems of Papyrus x Mettaton

“Us ghosts spend our whole lives looking for a proper vessel. Slowly, slowly, we grow closer to our new bodies... Until one day, we too may become corporeal beings. Beings able to laugh, love, and dance like any other...” - Mad Dummy

It is unclear whether ghosts’ desire for vessels (or “bodies”) is biologically or culturally driven. Either way, hypothetical fanchildren of Papyrus and Mettaton are likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies.

LordLaharl’s Vassal made a convincing point that Papyrus may have body dysmorphia issues. The Wikipedia article on the subject suggests part of the variation in body dysmorphia issues in the population (or “heritability”) can be explained by genetics. If this is true, and also true for monsters, a Papyrus x Mettaton child could have twice the body issues of either parent.

It’s unclear whether the child would be born/the equivalent of born a ghost fused with a skeleton body, a ghost possessing but not fused with a skeleton body, or be born separately as a ghost body and a skeleton body. If the Papyton child has a handy skeleton body from birth/the equivalent of birth, the child might not develop ghostly psychological problems, as the child could do normal non-ghost things with it.

Related Reading

Inter-Species Socialization

Do Monsters Have Instincts?

Dialogue from Papyrus is contradictory; he explains how he can live in Snowdin's cold environment saying "I have no skin" but complains about the Annoying Dog having cold feet. ↩︎

[mikexfaisty]

My first IT fic and it’s finally reddie! Terrible pun but please go review! I’m going to be posting more IT related stuff on my AOA account. I have a couple ideas in mind. Send me prompts! I’ll write about any of the losers! 

 https://archiveofourown.org/users/amanderrpanderr

Title: Forever

Summary:  Eddie reveals to Richie he's leaving Derry. Takes place after IT Chapter 1.

"My mom's selling the house".

It had came rather abruptly and for once, the loudmouth Richie Tozier was too stunned to speak. He turned to look over at Eddie, who was looking away from him. Maybe he had misheard his best friend. Eddie had his scarf so tightly round his neck, it was covering his mouth. He looked like the little brother from A Christmas Story. Perhaps Richie had just misheard him.

"I'm sorry did I hear you correctly? Your mother is selling your house?" Richie asked when he was finally able to find his voice. Eddie nodded, refusing to look at him.

Richie should have known something was up since earlier that morning. Eddie had been oddly quiet, not quite himself. It was the first week back since winter break. February had been a harsh winter for Derry. This past weekend had brought a lot of snow. It was Thursday and the pair were doing what they had always done, walked home from school together. Usually, they would have taken their bikes but that was hard to do in the winter. It was easier, and safer, to walk in the snow. Lucky for them, the sidewalks were neatly paved. Though it hadn't been that way on Monday. Derry high school didn't close for shit and Richie had spent the whole walk listening to Eddie freak out about how they were going to get frostbite. Though he had played off being annoyed, he secretly liked Eddie's little rants. God, for once he wished it was still Monday.

"Fuck," Richie muttered, before getting louder, "Fucking christ this sucks the rot Eds! First Bev, now you" He kicked angrily at a rock that was in their pathway, watching as it sunk into the snow, "Maybe no one will take it," he added quickly. His mind coming up with a million reasons on why and how this move was not going to happen, "I mean, who in their right mind would move to this shit-hole anyway".

At first, Eddie didn't say anything. He didn't even object to his hated nickname. But then Eddie had stopped walking, which in turn caused Richie too as well. Eddie looked nervous, his eyes darting everywhere except at Richie, "She already sold it," he mumbled softly, twiddling with the zipper on his jacket, "We leave for New York right after school ends..."

Richie was dumbfounded, "Are you fucking serious?! That's only like...four months from now". This was all happening way to fast. He had been to Eddie's house nearly everyday the past few months. Not once did he see a for sale sign or any other indication that Sonia had been trying to sell, "I guess property value goes up when the child eating clown gets killed! Who the fuck knew!" It had been several months since the defeat of Pennywise and nearly as long since they lost Beverly to Portland. The once seven members would soon be down to five.

Eddie had always knew his future laid outside Derry. After all the shit he had been through in Derry, he knew he couldn't stay here for the rest of his life. It was being separated from his friends that was going to be the hard part. He thought he had three years till they would all go off to college. Now he would have to start high school all over again at a new school... with no friends. Eddie shook his head, "She sold it pretty quickly. I didn't know until she had already done it".

"I can't believe we had to spend our last summer together nearly getting eaten by that shape shifting fuckface," Richie said angrily, "What's so great about New York anyway?"

The smaller boy was looking a little green, "My mom's sister lives there. She's got cancer and mom wants to be closer to her. We're the only family she's got," Eddie sighed, "Plus what had happened this summer".

Sonia Kaspbrak had always disliked his friends, that was abundantly clear. After his arm accident on Neibolt, she had sworn that he would never be allowed around them. Hell, if she had had it her way, he probably would have never left the house unless it was to pick up his medicine. Oddly enough it had been Gretta who had freed him from his mother's lies. After he confronted his mother about his medication, it had been a whirlwind. The night he had returned after the defeat of Pennywise had been particularly rough. Unsurprisingly, she had freaked out when he had come home covered in filth and shit. After he had taken a shower and convinced his mother he was physically alright, they had continued their talk from earlier that day. She had once again denied making up his illnesses and was quick to blame his friends for his problems. Eddie had been firm. It took a lot of convincing, and mild threats that he'd never speak to her again, for her to back down. Their relationship was far from perfect, but he had hoped this would set them in the right direction. Although, there was no convincing his mother to at least hold out till he graduated. The house was sold. There was no going back now.

"And the others? Do they know?"

Eddie shook his head, "No. I-I want to but..." he was shaking a little now. His left hand was deep in his coat pocket, digging, "I was thinking maybe tomorrow bu-but,"

Richie stared at the inhaler which Eddie had removed from his pocket. He frowned, "I thought you got rid of that thing," Richie grabbed it, much to Eddie's protest. He shook it and sprayed, holding it out of Eddie's reach, "Gazebos remember?"

"Yeah I know just..." and Eddie continued in his attempt to grab the inhaler, "Stop you're wasting it!"

"You don't need this stuff," Richie said firmly. He had stopped spraying but still help it above Eddie's head, "Not anymore,"

The inhaler had sat on the nightstand in his room since the day they defeated Pennywise. Eddie hadn't thought he would ever need to use it, not since the confrontation with his mother. The day she had revealed they would be moving, he had felt drawn to use it. He had lasted about a week, before he had slipped it on his coat early this morning. It had sat there all day. As soon as he had announced the move, he could feel it weighing down in his pocket. Eddie knew Richie was right. He didn't need it. But there was still a part of him missed the comfort the inhaler once gave him. He stopped reaching, "Fine I wont use it,". Richie didn't look to convinced, "I wont", he insisted again, "Just give it back. Please". At first, Eddie wasn't sure Richie would. But after a beat, Richie had capped it and placed it in Eddie's open hand.

"Fine," Richie said shortly. He watched as Eddie hesitated, before it was slipped back in his coat.

They continued to walk for another two blocks. Neither of them spoke until they had reached Eddie's house. There was no car in the driveway indicating Sonia was still at work. The two stood in silence, as if waiting for the other to speak first. The person ended up being Eddie. He was shifting back and forth in his spot, his bottom lip quivering, "Remember what Stan asked in the club house awhile back?" he began, once again refusing to meet Richie's eyes, "He asked if we'd all remain friends....if we'd still remember each other"

"No way I could forget that ugly mug of yours".

Eddie's eye twitched, but he once again ignored the jest, "We'll still be friends right?"

Forget the losers? Forget Eddie? Richie wasn't sure it was possible to forget them. They weren't just his friends, they were family. The thought of losing touch with any of them was scary to Richie. And he could tell Eddie had similar feelings. But after all they had been through, they were worth fighting for. Richie had to believe their friendship could withstand distance.

"Forever," Richie said, trying to sound as confident as he could. Eddie nodded but the worried look on his face stayed the same. Richie gripped Eddie's arm, "I mean it Eddie. Derry, New York, wherever. You'll never be able to get rid of me," he said teasingly. He let go of Eddie's arm before adding, "No way I'm letting any of you guys go," and for a moment, Richie could feel a twinge of pain on his hand where Bill had sliced it.

"Forever," Eddie echoed back.

Richie could see Eddie was relaxing a bit. He nodded "We'll make sure to do everything," he promised. As he gazed at Eddie's house, he felt a bit uneasy. The thought that by this time next year, some other people would be living there crossed his mind. He pushed those thoughts away, putting on his best smile, "We'll see ever movie the Aladdin has to offer, the arcade, sleepovers with the other guys, panty raids, finally getting someone to touch your dick beside your right ha-"

"Bee-beep, asshole," Eddie interrupted, shoving Richie lightly. He tried to sound annoyed but Richie could tell he was trying not to smile.

"I'm serious spaghetti man! Make me a list of all the stuff you wanna do and we'll do it," Richie was already coming up with a million other ideas, "And...and I can visit New York,". Fuck his parents better let him. Even if he had to do extra chores all year. Hell, he'd hitchhike to New York if he'd have to. Although, he'd probably have more of a problem convincing Eddie's mom.

For the first time of the afternoon, Eddie smiled, "Thanks Richie,". He then made to turn towards the path that led to his house. But suddenly, Eddie stopped himself. He turned back, slamming his body into Richie's and wrapping his arms tightly around him. The hug had took him by surprise, though definitely not unwanted, causing Richie to fumble back a few steps. Then sudden warmth had brought a tint of red to his cheeks and caused his glasses to began to fog up. When he got his bearings, Richie returned the hug. After what seemed like forever, Eddie finally pulled away and headed up to the house.

Before Eddie made it inside, Richie called out to him, "Give your mom a kiss for me!"

He watched as his friend paused at the door. Not bothering to turn around, Eddie slipped Richie the finger. Richie laughed and watched as Eddie went inside.

No way I'm letting you go...

[thecorteztwins]

Ok so @shattered-catalyst since you asked here’s some stuff on the OCs that I’m developing >.> Under a cut cuz long eta: oh and @sammysdewysensitiveeyes since you asked for more too!

ASHTI YILMAZ 20something, Yazidi Kurd from Germany, receptionist at a ritzy spa Tender, wistful, melancholy, manipulative, explosive. Far more emotional than logical, and quick to let her bleeding heart and overpowering passion take her reins, whether in sympathy or anger. Easy to hurt, tease, and rile. Prone to sulking, pouting, and brooding, but can shout too when pushed far enough. Has strong feelings, but these make it hard for her to take a strong stance on complicated matters, since her emotions get pulled both ways. Always feels a little out of place. Beats herself up over little things. Fancies herself the mom friend but actually needs a mom friend. Moody, immature, unconditionally supportive. Will say awful things she doesn’t mean in anger and prone to emotional blackmail when upset. Fatalistic, often just accepts that powers that be must have a plan, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it. Warm but wary; always friendly to new people externally, but inside she's on the lookout for any sign they dislike her or are making fun of her, which sometimes leads her to read too much into innocent remarks or innocuous expressions. Feels more experienced than people from more privileged lives and groups, but also like they’re smarter and more accomplished. Tendency toward tortured bad boys and getting her heart trod on. Ashti definitely has very normative ideas about gender. Nothing exceptional, just common generalizations like women are more emotional, little boys like the physical play, men can be total brutes whereas women attack with cattiness, etc. Ashti prone to romantization of bad relationships, like that jealousy means passion, control means protection, and sticking together through all your fights proves how strong your love is instead of calling it quits This not only means she is likely to get into and stay in toxic relationships herself, but give her friends dangerous advice to do the same when they come to her with romantic troubles One of her biggest flaws is she doesn't know her flaws. She thinks her flaws are being insecure, emotional, and loving too much. And these aren't untrue. But she's missing a whole lot of the less flattering, less endearing aspects of her personality. She’s always on the side of the common masses against those in power, but it’d be a lie to say she didn’t watch Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette “ on wistful repeat or secretly fantasize about somehow being the lost Princess Anastasia Romanov. MARAT ALIBEK 32, businessman from the city of Taraz in the Jambyl region of Kazakhstan - Seems confident and self-assured but also very businesslike at first meeting, playful and silly when with people he considers friends (while still being daring and upbeat) - Very sociable and sophisticated - Wants to be a heroic type of person but has never had occasion to put this into action - Has a fiery, go-getter personality, he charges forward and seldom stops Strength: Organizing and multitasking at work, gutsy and takes chances (can also be a weakness), loves a challenge (but only if he wins in the end), always knows what time it is Weaknesses: Impatient, competitive, doesn't want to look weak or lose face, sore loser, Raising your voice and being argumentative is common in business negotiations in Kazakh, even expected, but it does not go over as well in the US. He knows this, he tries to make sure he doesn't do it, but he might still do it and fuck up a meeting big-time. Has a small stutter, about every 7th word or so. It's not because he's shy or stressed, it's just how he speaks. Always has been. He was in speech therapy from ages 4 to 10, and this is as good as it's getting, and he learned to get over worrying at the tender age of 13, so everyone else can just chill too. He's the one who has to live with it, ok? The way he learned to be okay with it because when he was 13 was when kids really got MEAN about it, and weirdly, that galvanized him to be defensive and accept himself proudly in defiance, when previously he had been embarrassed. That tells you a lot about him right there. Since childhood, he's always had an imaginary  alter ego of himself as a traditional warrior on horseback, flanked by a pet eagle and snow leopard. TENZIN ALTING 38, art dealer/curator at a gallery, British-born with a Dutch father and Tibetan mother - Aloof, alluring, witty, smug and self-assured, and her confidence makes her fearless, adventurous, and optimistic, always ready to take risks, meet people, and try new things. This also means that she's prone to biting off more than she can chew, and having no idea how to cope when she's in over her head---though she can fake it quite gracefully! - Likes changes, challenges, rolling with the punches, and coming out on top flawlessly every time as she's become accustomed to - She really hates it when very intelligent people spout very ignorant views. They’re harder to argue with because they’ve got the brains to make their idiocy almost seem to make sense so there’s the peril of coming off looking like the dumb one herself if she isn’t just as keen and quick with her rebuttal…and if she’s not, then she feels not just like they’ve won, but that their viewpoint has scored a point. - She is independent to a fault. The fault being, she hates having to check with anyone about a decision she makes, or consider their input, or how her actions will affect them. Thus, she avoids these situations, but when she can't, and has to consider these things...she often just doesn't. Sometimes she genuinely forgets because she's so used to being a free agent, but sometimes she just deliberately disregards these things and expects the other person to just deal with it. But her independence also means that Tenzin owns her mistakes, her being the only one making her decisions means she’s the only one accountable for the blame INDRANI “RANI” YUAN 37, from Mauritius with a Tamil Indian mother and Hakka Chinese father Rani majored in environmental science and is an environmental engineer for a land development firm - A bright and driven go-getter - Persistent, practical, touchy, determined, responsible, all-business, no-nonsense - Hard time showing affection even to those she loves, she tries to express it through material means such as tickets to something they like - She is stingy and shrewd, and is not generous at all for the most part. The exception is people she's close to and genuinely cares about; she might spend downright extravagantly on her loved ones. Similarly, she's not charitable UNLESS it's for a tax write-off or it's to a cause she's truly invested in, usually something environmental. So she's not a total Scrooge, she just prioritizes. This does, unfortunately, often make her quite cold to those in need who don't make her cut. - Low-key sassy and assertive, glad to let fools fuck up and then not say "told you so" afterwards but DEMONSTRATE it - Uses bad humor in tough situations - Responsible, dependable, reliable - Craves stability and routine, and it's hard to find jobs in ecology conducive to that, which is why she worked for a company rather than something like a Fish and Wildlife Department - She is outspoken, argumentative, and has a hard time letting go of her positions even when she's internally realized they're flawed or wrong. It's a pride thing. She doesn't want to admit she was in error, especially if she has to admit it TO someone else. For instance, if she's having an argument with someone, and they bring up points that she's never considered, and she realizes "oh shit, they're right about this", her reaction is to feel threatened and thus dig her heels in even deeper in defense of her stance, even though she knows that's asinine. - She also has an easier time forgiving someone for being wrong than she does for being right, mainly if they proved her wrong in the process. - Rani tends to assume the worst, especially about people, especially about their responsibility and capabilities. She just doesn’t trust anyone but herself to do anything right. - She might be pessimistic about people, but she's positive and passionate about her work. She loves the environment and believes she can make a difference. Rani majored in environmental science and is an environmental engineer for a land development firm. It's extremely difficult for her to make her case to her superiors whenever it comes to making ecologically ethical decisions with their activities, but that's why she stays with the job; she doesn't believe anyone else could do it - Plays snooker. Takes more skill than billiards. KWANG 22, college student I guess? Recent grad? Born in Thailand in the Korat province but parents moved as soon as they could afford it, felt she’d have better opportunities and accomodations in the US, as she was born without legs * Kwang is a common Thai nickname for girls meaning "deer". In Thai culture, children are given very long formal names but then also a much shorter, usually-unrelated nickname which they are almost always called by instead. Her full FORMAL name is Khakkhanang Kannokkorn. Understandably, she typically introduces herself as Kwang Kan. It might seem a bit cruel to call a legless baby after an animal known for its graceful running and leaping, but to her parents it was a symbol of hope for her. * Very active, strong likes and dislikes, is social and outgoing and loves being liked by people. Gregariously informal, laidback attitude she's developed that helps put people at ease, since folks tend to get uncomfy when they meet her since they don't know how to act with someone with an obvious disability, how to be polite, how to avoid offending her, etc. So she presents herself as someone who isn't going to be easily offended. Which, she's not. Kwang is a chill, chill girl. However, she's also assertive, and not easily pushed around. She doesn't make a big deal of it unless pushed, though. That said, she never says things “Yes ma’am” more like “okay, since I have time” and “oh, alright, I kinda felt like doing that anyway” when told to do something. Just to make it clear she's doing this because she wants to, not because someone said so. She's got clear boundaries. She's also very confident in herself, and seldom feels the need to justify her tastes, opinions, or decisions to others. She's the girl who would like Twilight and One Direction without shame or the need to say she was only enjoying it "ironically". Likewise, she extends the same courtesy to others; you don't need to convince her that it's fine for you to like something. She won't lie if she doesn't like it, but she's also not making a judgement call on you for it. You read that bad fanfic, girl, if that's what you like, and don't let anyone make you feel bad for it. Snobbery of any sort sucks, even the counterculture kind, and she rolls her eyes at people who proudly complain how "weird" they are compared to "boring normal people" like what are you thirteen? If all you've got to define yourself is being unlike the norm, then that's still letting the norm define you. * Kwang ditches negative people, including those who treat others badly(even if they treat her well) but also those she couldn’t support through a bad time. * Strengths: Great sense of direction/good navigator, you know how when you’re having problems with someone but they’re really close to you, like your best friend, so you don’t know how to bring it up because you’re afraid of what will result? She’ll do it for you, she'll walk up to them and tell them what the issue is, but she still thinks you should do it yourself. Very open romantically and tends to make the first move with no nerves or hesitation * Likes: Fruit salad, phone charms, beach/swimming toys (especially huge ones you can ride), old-school polaroid cameras/photos, big colorful ear-covering headphones, stickers on her stuff, obstacle course shows (ex: American Ninja Warrior) *Dislikes: Long discussions, people trying to make something "all philosophical" when it doesn't need to be or are using big words in an attempt to sound smarter than everyone else (brevity is the soul of wit, dude), when people think she watches extreme sports out of some sad wistful longing for legs like what she can't just like seeing people kick ass snowboarding?, most dairy (ice cream and frozen yogurt being the exceptions), butt chins (she feels bad about this because she knows better than anyone you don't get to choose stuff like that but THEY JUST BOTHER HER) Kwang doesn’t have patience for people who clearly just enjoy being sad or who she feels are trying to manipulate others into “bringing them out of their shells” for attention. Like, you say you don’t wanna go to Prom? Okay then, she isn’t going to try to convince you, she’s just gonna go have a good time herself. What, why are you sulking? Is that what you WANTED? Yeah, she’s got no time for that DIONNE GOLD Black trans woman, 28, Customer Service Rep for a luxury goods boutique , comes from Trinidadian-American family in Naranja, Florida * *Named self after the Ancient Greek word for a goddess (dion), Gold for the connotations of beauty and glamour and VALUE. * Fastidious, fussy, perfectionist, uptight, a Virgo in Leo's clothing * She puts on a bold, confident front, all glamor and poise, but it's not the real her, she's so much softer and unsure than she tries to seem * Her real flaw is fear, specifically fear of rejection and vulnerability to being rejected; she was afraid at the prospect of being rejected by her family, so she ran away. She wants to reconnect with them but is too afraid to, for the same reason. She puts on a false personality, because she's scared of the real her being rejected. It goes on and on. And she’s got good reason for it. But she still managed to embrace who she is and go through with everything she needed to feel like she was finally herself. * Strengths: Great memory, great poker face, hard worker, incredible patience, very reliable * Weaknesses: Over-critical and judgey, pouty and passive-agressive when she has a problem with something or someone instead of addressing it head-on, uptight and easily bothered by small things, needs everything just-so. - Poor spender; after four years of denying herself even the smallest of non-essential purchases in order to save for HRT and SRS, she's now splurging to make up for her years of asceticism. She especially can't resist things like dresses, shoes, and jewelry; after not ever getting to be a little girl, she's going through her long-overdue princess phase now, and can't seem to stop. - Really wants to comfort her friends and will always try, but she's bad at giving advice to friends, her reaction is mostly to just go "there there" and agree with everything they say when they talk about their problems. - She is also bad at keeping secrets if they’re something that causes her guilt, such as concealing something she feels is immoral or that the other person should own up to, but good at it if it's a secret that could put them in danger if others knew (since she's used to keeping THAT kind of secret about herself) This one didn’t make it on to the sketch, but here’s another: AVERY RUE UNDERWOOD White American trans girl, early 20s, goth She can recite "Cassilda's Song" by heart, and talk for hours about the racism and insanity of Lovecraft, and how both these things are misunderstood and misconstrued equally by his devotees and detractors alike. Her icon is Mommy Fortuna from The Last Unicorn, who chose her death and kept it close to her, caged and hers til the end when it tore her to pieces--welcomed by her with open arms, still hers, hers forever. Collects antique silver plated hair brushes. She thinks a lot about how everyone has a life and internal thoughts and we just don’t know we can never really know another person. She likes to go to lonely personal blogs and Twitter accounts and the like and just follow. She rarely “likes” and even more rarely comments, she just wants to watch this little window into a random life that doesn’t have an audience to be performing for like the big accounts. Maybe it’s creepy and voyeuristic but she feels such a strange tenderness for these screen names that she never speaks too. They’re human souls, every one of them. And maybe there’s no God to hear them, but she does. Studies existentialist, nihilist, and absurdist philosophy. She learns less towards the middle, more towards the other two. Morbid and macabre she might be, but she's an idealist at her core. Some of her other interests include obscure mental disorders (Cotatd’s delusion, Capgras syndrome) , photos of the decomposition process, and the historical use of plants as both cures and poisons. She feels kinship with carrion-eaters like buzzards and hyenas, society sees them as disgusting and evil but they play an integral part in the ecosystem She believes that existence precedes essence. So she doesn't believe she was born with a female soul or anything like that. She just doesn't believe she was born with a male one either. Her family is best described as "neutral" in terms of acceptance. They're not at all hateful, and barely questioned her decision, but they're not involved closely enough with her to be really called "supportive" at all. Everyone in her clan, including herself, are too wrapped up in their own lives to really care one way or the other about each other's, and she's good with that. She prefers it. She'd rather not be interviewed, even from people trying to be helpful; this is deeply personal to her and she finds it invasive. She is pretty good at “being the bigger person “ and not escalating things in a conflict, if only because she just doesn’t give enough of a shit to. She tolerates getting yelled at, even undeservedly, really well. She’d be brilliant in retail, she can cope with Karens all day long and not snap or get worn down. Apathy is a hell of a shield. She doesn’t hold on to people, this is good and bad. On the one hand, it means she escapes jealousy and co-dependency and needing anybody. On the other hand, some people feel it makes her disloyal or uncaring. But she's an island, and she accepts the transience of life. She doesn’t seek outside validation or feel the need to be seen as right even when she knows she is. This has allowed her to avoid a lot of arguments and stress. She might not fear violence from a philosophical viewpoint, but she sure does in her natural animal instincts. This makes her edgy around certain demographics. Straight men, religious people, right-wingers, those sorts of groups. You could argue that she's unfairly stereotyping them, much as others have unfairly stereotyped her and people like her. Sure, fair enough, but she'd still rather avoid getting her head bashed in as much as she can. It's not that everyone in these groups is a violent bigot, it's just if there's going to be a violent bigot, they're statistically more likely to be in these groups. Like when was the last time you heard of a transgender woman being murdered by a liberal lesbian atheist, right? So yeah, she's stereotyping. But she'd rather be alive and a "reverse bigot" than fair-minded and dead. She's not THAT much of nihilist. Avery’s self esteem is best defined as contrarian, taking pride in herself more based on what she’s not rather than what she is, and playing Devil’s Advocate to her own ego. She’s the first to admit that not being something bad is not the same as being something good, and in fact tends to disdain those who do the same as she does and praise themselves simply for not being fascists or bigots or abusers, but it seems like the best she can successfully argue to herself. LIKES: * Urban legends, occultism, cryptids, preserved oddities, the unknown * Deep seas, the night sky, vast storms, huge caves, eternal forests * The crowded isolation of the city at night * Abandoned buildings * The sigh and feel of old velvet and raw silk * Deep sea creatures and weird starfish and giant squids * Hozier, The Sisters of Mercy, Cocteau Twins, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, lo-fi, dreampop, shoegaze, every Lumineers song that has a girl's name as the title, and obscure local alternative bands that the art college radio stations only play late at night * Djarum Black clove cigarettes * Symbolist paintings (especially "Salome" and "Sisyphus" and "The Sin" by Franz Stuck) * Angela Carter, Caitlin R. Kiernan, T.K. Kingfisher, and Nabokov's lesser-known novels like Pnin and Pale Fire DISLIKES * Pettiness * The smell of smoking meat, it makes her nauseous, and she's never been able to stomach a steak * Trimmed lawns and pruned gardens * The hypocritical pretentiousness so commonly found in any “alternative “ scene * So-called "horror movies" that are really just gross-out torture porn * Creepypastas that over-explain or don't know when to end * People who pride themselves on "sticking to their guns no matter what" as that seems to her to just be another way of saying they never listen to other opinions or new information because they're so sure in their own rightness * People who forget that everyone else has as much depth and life as themselves, you’re not the protagonist and these aren’t NPCs in a game * Avery is an Aquarius and even though she doesn’t believe in astrology, she still likes reading about it, and it bugs her that her sign is classed as “positive “ and “masculine" * Misuse of the term "social construct" WEAKNESSES * Gives up easily; her transition is really the only difficult thing she's ever stuck with * Navel gazing, over-thinking, gets lost in her own head * Can't make a hard decision quickly * Insomniac * Loses track of time easily * Messy slob, her apartment is DISGUSTING, don't ever be roomies with this girl * She doesn't own a car, but she can drive. She just can't park. She's terrible at parking. She goes in crooked, she goes over the line, she has to pull out and go in again a million times to get it right. STRENGTHS * Comfort with solitude, doesn't get lonely * Equally at ease with both existentialism and nihilism * A veritable whiz with subway routes and schedules * Doesn't sweat the small stuff * Hopeful at her core