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black-queen-rising · 7 months ago

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The first thing Rhaenyra felt as The Queen turned was her stepmother's all too familiar gaze of disdain as it pierced her lavish exterior. For a long time she had wondered if anything would be enough to absent her from such an uncomfortable greeting, if only she could find the right thing to say, do, or wear. But those were the misguided hopes of youth, if the past ten years had taught the Princess-Hand anything the previous double had not, it was that the contempt elicited whenever she entered Alicent’s vicinity had nothing to do with her at all.

That gaze had been a constant in Rhaenyra’s life since she had barely hit double digits, it was not evoked by her cosmetics, any luxury, or even propriety at all, at least, not hers. It was the look that embodied her bitterness at the positions where they had all landed in life, the role Rhaenyra had dedicated her entire life working to prove she was worthy of, and Alicent’s belief it still belonged to her son; she was owed it by his very existence.

Aemma did as she was told with well-mannered charm for her age and for that Rhaenyra was very grateful. She, nodded politely at Alicent’s response, adding with well-performed sincerity, “And we are all indebted to your dedication, your Grace.” Then she knelt down to speak to her daughter, managing her skirts with practiced ease as she slipped into their mother-tongue, knowing Aemma in particular always responded better to instructions delivered in High Valyrian. “Do you think you can go with Lily and get dressed for me, sweetling? She’ll get you some breakfast while the Queen and I get some grown-up things out of the way and then I’ll come and we can play for a while before I’m off for the day, does that sound alright?”

She pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek as she finished speaking and Aemma nodded enthusiastically, then held out her pinky, “Promise?” Rhaenyra grasped it with her own, nearly allowing herself to get lost in the brief hug she got in response before her nursemaid led the young Princess back to her bed chamber. She wanted to follow them, she wished for nothing more than to send Alicent away, say whatever she had come for could be handled later, and melt back into the embrace of her little girl. In better times she would have been able to, in better times such a small impropriety would’ve been her right, in better times she was just the King’s Hand. This was not those times, Rhaenyra straightened, and turned her attention back to The Queen.

“Do you have a moment to speak of our discussions from The Council meeting?”

She met the response with another nod, swallowing a sigh, and inviting Alicent to sit as she moved to do the same. “Of course, your Grace, The Hand always has time for matters of Council, especially with the King’s condition. Please, come, sit, would you like me to send for some tea?” Rhaenyra’s mind began to turn with what matter the Queen had been so concerned as to come to her for. To be summoned to discuss matters of state was hardly unusual, to be sought out was a rarity, though perhaps she was reading to much into it; Alicent was a mother too, there was no denying that, and any mildly caring soul would try to soothe a crying babe, neither could she deny Alicent was caring when she wished to be, just not to her.

That said, matters of Council had been even more banally procedural than usual, loathe to make any important decisions with the King in his present state, and near-entirely concerned with the logistics and politics of the hundreds of nobility set to attend the fast approaching Court proceedings. “How may I be of assistance? I’ve been meaning to thank you, actually, for your help with coordinating all our guests, I heard the Lannister host was particularly pleased with their greeting. With the extra responsibility on all our shoulders, the diligence is appreciated.” Rhaenyra’s courtesy waned slightly, however, as she continued, “Though, if you are here to propose we make any political plans, perhaps I ought to summon my Prince Husband. It would not due to make any decisions for the Kingdom while we only represent its fairer half, after all.”

A Beginning

Part of @asongofgoldenfireandblackblood

( Starter with @black-queen-rising )

The annoyance that Alicent had seemingly woken up with only followed her throughout the early morning. She had ordered the maids from her room after the rich, emerald dress for the day had been laid out for her. A new set of jewels gifted to her for the Queen's name day celebrations from a Lord whose name she did not care to know was placed beside her. Her mind raced as it always did; thoughts of her husband's failing health, matters of state, her children and of course the heir herself. Alicent fought against the eye roll that threatened to come over at the thought of the spoilt, immature Princess. Gods, she had to calm herself. Her delicate, ringed fingers moved over the petite, pointed star necklace as it sat on her neck.

Alicent had spent the next few moments brushing her thick, brown locks just as her mother once did so many years ago to count. The melancholy feelings came over her as it always did when the thoughts of her mother came over her and for a moment, Alicent wondered if it was because she had never been able to grieve. Still, those thoughts were not needed and hadn't been for a long time. She decided to have those wavy curls to cascade down her back for today; an unusual choice and one Alicent did not read too much into. It seemed the day would still not be kind to her, she thought to herself whilst resting her arms down her sides. The screaming and sobbing coming from the Princess' chambers had the Queen debating on her course of action for the day. Alicent cocked her head to the side as she witnessed a maid seemingly losing control of the situation. What situation, the Queen was unaware of. "Oh , your grace." The maid called out; breathless and bowing her head in a hurry. Alicent's hand moved down the skirt of her dress; the silk gave her comfort if only for a mere moment. "Is something wrong?"

The politeness, superior air surrounded Alicent as she gracefully stepped forward; those big, doe eyes of hers scanning the door that was open slightly. "It's the children..they want their mother." For a moment, Alicent wondered if her children ever wanted her. "The Princess is not here?" The annoyance slipped into her tone before the Queen was able to hide it. "Mama!!" A shrill call of a child had both the women's head move towards the door as the little Princess Aemma raced through; her eyes wet and face snotty as she cried even more. "I will get her for you, little one." Alicent watched in complete shock as the maid abandoned her and thoughts of punishment moved through her mind.

"Pretty..." The soft whisper of a child called her attention as Alicent stared down and for some reason, the child did not shrink from her gaze. It was only after a moment the Queen realised she was clinging to her skirts. "Thank you.." The awkwardness was clear to see except for Aemma who Alicent had long been ignoring for many reasons. In that moment, all she could think about was her own daughters and something in her face must have softened. "Up?" Aemma tugged on the skirt for more attention as Alicent began to shake her head. It seemed Rhaenyra's spoilt nature had travelled to her children as Aemma began to cry.

Gently Alicent brought the girl into her arms; the weight unfamiliar; her own children were grown and she could not recall carrying them at this age. The silence was welcomed as Aemma was soon distracted by the Queen's long hair whilst Alicent in a gentle move stroked a lock of Aemma's hair from her face.

#Every inch a Queen: Threading

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i-did-not-mean-to · 2 years ago

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A Queen - Part 2

So, after many distractions...here's the second part to this as well...

Thank you for the lovely request, @lathalea!

This time as well with a small cameo from @laurfilijames the OG horsegirl haha (love you, babe)

-> Part 1

Words: 3,2 k

Warnings: Heartbreak

Characters: Thorin x OC, Fíli x @laurfilijames

She didn’t cry, she didn’t yell, she simply turned away.

Fíli felt his shoulders cramp, the muscles bunching into knots of discomfort, as he tried to explain yet again that he felt nothing for that dam his uncle had taken such a liking to. While he could not have cared less for the Lady Íth – beyond benevolent propriety – he minded the king’s happiness greatly and felt compelled to prove himself grateful and worthy of the deep love and bitter sacrifices of his mother’s brother.

“I understand that this is what you have to do.”

It was a cold answer – dismissive and cutting – that made his blood freeze in his veins; he wanted her so much, not least because she truly did understand, and he hated that his duty might cost him the one selfish desire he harboured in his generous heart.

“We are having dinner tomorrow,” he went on, even though he was not sure why he wanted her to know about that, “and they will all be hovering around.”

His hand slid into her long, heavy, dark hair and wrapped around her slender neck.

“I wish I was here instead, with you, alone.”

“We cannot always get what we want,” she replied calmly, “and you should return to your quarters now, Your Majesty, I wouldn’t want to damage your reputation or marriage prospects by letting you be seen associating with your inferiors.”

“Don’t talk like that,” he roared, “you are not beneath me! If anything, I – a disloyal subject and a dishonest son and nephew – am unworthy of one so righteous and noble as you.”

She tensed under his palm, and he let go despite it being the hardest thing he had done since getting up from his sickbed to meet the world head-on once more; he didn’t want to lose her, but he wouldn’t promise her things he was not sure he’d be able to keep either.

“Wait for me tomorrow,” he begged, “I’ll be down as soon as dessert is served.”

She did not believe that he’d be allowed to simply desert his own courting dinner, but – weak and enamoured as she was – she would be lingering in the stables, nonetheless.

Íth had never wanted to go to this charade in the first place, but her mother – old and frail – had implored her to at least go present herself to further the hopes of her sisters; she could not deny that by going to court, she might just strike up an acquaintance that may – in time – lead to an advantageous match for them.

Hence why she had run all the way from her father’s house to the royal inspection of nubile dams and had arrived – dishevelled and disgraceful – to perform the role of the demure lady.

In truth, Íth was thoroughly uninterested in prancing like an adorned and bejewelled pony under the bored gaze of a prince much too young for her; Fíli was undeniably handsome and charming, but she thought of him with indulgent worry more than burning passion. Like any other living creature under the Mountain, she had been eagerly awaiting news of his recovery, but she had never imagined herself in the role of his young queen.

Too many things had happened, too many people had been lost, and her heart was a graveyard in which the dead reigned supreme; there would not be enough space left to nurture the seeds of a whole life – pebbles and plans – within that barren bosom of hers.

When a golden ray fell onto her shoulder only to shiver and die, she realised that she would be late again if she did not make haste; time management had never been her strongest suit but – if one was invited to have dinner with the royal household – such intimate weaknesses were barely acceptable excuses.

Rushing through the necessary motions – and despite being interrupted several times by her siblings – she made it to the heavy, intricately carved doors of the royal dining hall with but two heartbeats to spare.

She was announced and guided in by a taciturn guard who glowered at her under bushy brows.

Íth was painfully aware then of how simple and charmless her appearance must have seemed to him – and thus to the royal family – compared to the lavish silk and silver the other dams had sported when submitted to the critical gaze of their rulers.

Íth was not a vain creature though and whatever adornments she had inherited or bought over the years had been handed down to starry-eyed sisters without reticence; hence, she wore her hair three simple braids – interwoven into a knot at the back of her head – that bore but the customary runes stating her marriage status and her alliance to her family.

As a noble lady – whatever that meant in these times – she was devoid of any exceptional skills other than being a good sister and daughter, and she’d feel foolish wearing an ornament that claimed such inconsequential achievements.

The king looked up and nodded in greeting; his manner was grave and dignified which made her stomach clench around a shadow of hunger that would never be sated by the appetising feast laid out on the heavy stone table. Ashamed of her own girlish weakness, she pushed away the fluttering excitement that overcame her every time she was near that ponderous, awe-inspiring dwarf who had led his people through misery and heartbreak to a brighter future.

Still, those azure eyes – hard and beautiful as precious stones – rested on her countenance like a tiara of unspeakable worth.

Prince Fíli – on the other hand – did barely look at her, a moue of bored annoyance making his moustache droop quite unflatteringly, and Íth felt almost relieved. She knew that she would not reject the prince if he made her an offer – she knew her duties too well – so she could only hope that it would never come to that.

“Pay the lady a compliment about her sensible choice of dress,” Thorin hissed into Fíli’s ear, “and – when you find an opportune moment – invite her to join us for a picnic tomorrow.”

His nephew looked up in confusion; in thought, he had been down at the stables, eating a light supper with his beloved on a bale of hay, and he resented being interrupted in his daydreams by the king.

“Her dress?” he whispered back after throwing a cursory glance at the plain dark green dress his guest was arrayed in; he had to admit that she wore it well – she had the aura of quiet elegance that needed no garish frills and laces – but, as far as simple raiment and natural beauty went, he much preferred the wild, joyous rejection of artifice he had found in his own chosen one.

“This is a nice dress,” he complimented Íth nonetheless, “it is well selected and suits you admirably.”

Íth had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from rolling her eyes; they had not exchanged more than a perfunctory greeting in the past and she highly doubted that the prince would be able to tell what suited her – in complexion or nature – in the least.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” she replied with a polite smile that was as bland and tepid as her own cooking.

Remembering his uncle’s exhortation – and the extensive list of poems, compliments, and gestures to weave into the conversation he had been given – Fíli went on with a little more enthusiasm: “Would it please you to accompany us to a picnic tomorrow? We could take out the horses!”

The idea had come to him in a flash; it was a risky gamble, but the mere hope of being able to abscond for but a few stolen moments with his love, while Thorin would sing his praises to his intended, made his heart race with excitement.

“Horses?” Íth cocked her head; picnics were a common enough courting device, but usually, the assembled company would walk leisurely to the elected spot rather than risk tarnishing their clothes and ruining their braids by trekking through rough terrain on horseback.

“Very well, Your Majesty,” she agreed nonetheless with effortless grace and inclined her head in his direction, catching the king’s intense gaze that had been resting on her moving features – witnessing confusion being replaced by acquiescence – all this time.

As the hours went by, the king’s hawk-eyed attention started to seep into her bones, sparking fires of nervous anticipation; she knew not what he hoped to find in her expression, but – despite her better knowledge – she caught herself basking in that radiant gaze that felt like a spray of stardust on her burning skin.

They went on the picnic – Íth was still convinced that the young prince was nowhere near ready to hand over his freedom and youth to the crown – and for rides; strangely enough, the king himself seemed to always find the time to accompany his heir on those courting missions, for really, their outings felt like a chore to anyone involved.

Within her heart, Íth also suspected that the prince might have set his eye – and potentially even his heart – on a young dam who tended to the horses a good deal and who had been an awkward addition to their riding picnic that second day; the way he looked at her spoke of intimacy and longing while his eyes expressed mere polite patience whenever they fell on her. She was not hurt or vexed by that as – even after numerous encounters – she still felt not attracted in the least to his handsome face and pretty manners.

He would be a good king, she didn’t doubt that, for he managed to lavish generous smiles upon a woman he decidedly did not personally enjoy, but she could not see herself being married to anyone who cared so very little for her interests and sorrows.

Already, she had sacrificed a large part of her life to the satisfaction and safety of others and – truth be told – she yearned to experience something that would make her heart shiver and her soul sing; the prince – kind and lovely as he was – would never manage to evoke such strong sensations and emotions in her though. It was time to end this charade, even if that meant putting an end to the quiet complicity she had hitherto established and shared with their chaperone: the very ruler of Erebor whom she had come to appreciate for his dry humour and his slightly gruff kindness.

“Milady,” a voice suddenly tore her out of her daydreaming as she walked through a small courtyard after another heavy dinner, “has my nephew forsaken you? Have you enjoyed the feast? It seemed to me – to Fíli, I mean – that you’ve expressed a fondness for those berries.”

The king made a face; Íth knew that he had to order the referenced fruits from his neighbours in Mirkwood and that he preferred not to owe them any favours, hence why she had been pleasantly surprised to find them on the menu once more after having, indeed, expressed her favourable opinion a few days prior.

“Thank you so much,” she replied softly, “I see how much you care about this engagement, but…”

She turned around and – in a moment of brazen courage – she grabbed his hand and held it in her own gingerly. “My king, you must see that I am not the woman for your nephew; I appreciate all your efforts…” “You are wonderful,” he interrupted her, “you are kind and generous, you are smart and cultured, you are hardy and brave. Fíli would be the luckiest bastard – forgive the unseemly use of crude language – if he could but win the heart of such an excellent dam. You’d make a great queen.”

Íth inclined her head and nodded pensively.

“Indeed,” she agreed, “I might make an acceptable queen during the time of the reconstruction; I am frugal and patient because I’ve known suffering and loss, but, my liege, I am also too tired and beaten down to help birth and nurture a new generation of prosperity in Erebor. Please, accept my sincerest apologies, but your nephew and I are incompatible in heart, mind, and purpose.”

When his face closed into an expression of stern misery, she sighed: “I am truly so sorry for I know that you’ve done your best to support this match. From the very start, I’ve seen your hand in every gesture and I’ve heard your voice in every word of your nephew’s. It is known that it was you who has chosen the venues, the menus, the activities, even the poetry read to me in an impatient and yet bored voice.”

In Erebor, even the walls had ears and she had felt more than actually been informed in so many words that everyone was aware of how desperately Thorin II had wanted his heir’s wooing to succeed; it felt terrible to have to admit that all his efforts had been in vain for there was no way she and Prince Fíli could ever see eye to eye.

She would not have believed this possible, but the king’s expression grew sourer yet as she went on digging her own grave, struggling against the quicksand of shame and despair engulfing her at an alarming pace now; with another heartfelt sigh, Íth then tried to make him understand that she did not resent or dislike Fíli in any shape or form.

“He has clearly not heeded my advice,” Thorin grunted, disappointment bleak and glaring on his features, “and I admit that I am disheartened to hear that he merely transmitted the pieces of advice entrusted to him rather than adapt and personalise them.”

“Oh,” she answered fervently, “there was absolutely nothing wrong with the things he’s said and done, everything was beyond perfect, but his heart was not in it. Would you wish such misery upon your own nephew and heir? Would you see him betrothed to a dam he deems agreeable but devoid of real charm?”

“He would come to his senses, I am sure,” the king barked, “how could he not?” “You flatter me, my king,” she smiled warmly; to her astonishment and shock, she also realised at that moment that she was still holding his hand – broad and calloused – in her own as if it was the most precious of gifts.

His fingers tightened around her palms and – fool woman that she was – the veil of confused incomprehension was lifted in a single instant; suddenly, she could fully appreciate the man behind all the good parts of her failed dates, and her smile softened further.

“You liked the gifts? The poems? The outings?” he asked almost shyly.

“I did, my king, they were expertly planned and beautifully set up. Someone has gone to great trouble to ensure I was having a good time; I surmise that someone was you?”

“Indeed,” he cleared his throat sheepishly at this confession, “indeed, it was I. It was important to me that you’d feel welcome.”

“Why?” she asked urgently, desperate to hear why he would go to such lengths for a dam who was only one of many eligible candidates as far as he was concerned. He had been watching her so intently all this time and – now that the final moment of painful goodbyes had come – she needed to know what had inspired such intense scrutiny.

"Because," Thorin sighed heavily, “because you seemed the perfect candidate for a queen. Funny, charming, serious, lovely, wise…”

“Serious? Lovely? Wise? Is that the woman you’d bind a young dwarf to?” she laughed, giving his hand a fond squeeze, “You make me sound like a crone, my liege.”

“Not at all,” he protested, but then rubbed his free hand over his face tiredly before admitting that he just might have been blinded in his selection by the things he himself would have cherished in a queen.

“It’s been too long since I’ve been a hopeful, promising prince myself,” he confessed, “and it is possible that my experience made me seek out a match Fíli will hopefully not need for many a year to come.”

Íth thought that this was the end of the conversation, but the king’s hold on her hand did not relent.

“Do you object to the idea of being queen?” he asked her soberly, evidently trying to sort through all the things she had so callously thrown at him without considering that he would have to pick up the broken pieces of his hopes and endeavours on his own.

“No,” she replied honestly, “I just don’t want to be married to someone who does neither love nor truly need me.”

“Would you…” Thorin pulled her closer by the wrist, “would you then consider being wooed by someone who thinks – who has always thought – that you’d make a wonderful queen? Someone who sees everything you are and cherishes it?”

Íth pondered his words for a long time; she had owned up to the fact that she had enjoyed all the little things he had arranged for her and the mere idea of spending time with the person who had gone through so much trouble to ensure that every encounter between them had been enjoyable made her heart quake.

“What are you saying?” she asked calmly, afraid that her hopeful heart misgave her.

“Clearly, my nephew has not won you over with his boyish and slightly careless charm,” Thorin explained ponderously, hiding his own nervousness behind formality, "but I think you are a valuable addition to this court.”

Her face grew cold and he realised that he was about to commit the same mistake his nephew might have made – consciously or unconsciously – so he corrected himself quickly: “And I enjoy your company immensely; you strike me as very sensible in your choices and tastes – most of which I genuinely share – and so, as you have formally rejected Prince Fíli, I would humbly ask you to consider accepting my suit.”

“Is that possible? Is that appropriate?” Íth inquired cautiously; it was hardly proper or dignified for the reigning king to pick up the leavings of his heir.

“I don’t care,” Thorin barked, “I should have been less of a coward from the start and said that you had caught my eye at the presentation. Maybe it was because my sister had told me that she’s given up on me and maybe, it was due to the fact that I had most probably resigned myself to a life of celibacy as well. Either way, I did not dare hope to win a young, charming dam such as you for my own heart. I shall not reign for a very long time, there is no promise of great glory I can lure you with.”

“Can you love me truly? Give me home to rest my bones and a project to work on? Can you offer me hope? We both know that we won’t get back those years lost to misery and strife, but could there be peace and steady productivity to fill the ones left to us?”

“Yes,” Thorin breathed, “yes, all of this and more, that I can vow to you.”

“That is all I asked for,” Íth replied, cupping his bearded cheek tenderly in an overly familiar and shockingly intimate gesture of solace.

“Erebor for a time,” Thorin whispered, pressing his lips against her fair brow, “and my undying love forever.”

So...a happy end for everyone!!! (Well, maybe not yet for Fí, but soon at least)

Yayyyyy!

Lots of love from me 💖💖💖

Taglist:

@laurfilijames, @fizzyxcustard, @linasofia, @myselfandfantasy, @legolasbadass, @midearthwritings, @guardianofrivendell, @mismaeve, @middleearthpixie

#request #IDNMT answers #fanfiction #hobbit #Thorin #thorin x OC #cyrano de bergerac #Fíli #arranged marriage #a dash of romeo and juliet

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irishseeeker · 4 years ago

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i’ve been waiting for you

Summary: Each time Anthony and Kate first meet their children.

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chapter 1: anthony meets edmund

Anthony meets Edmund Benedict Bridgerton on a sunny, Tuesday morning. He had been woken up by a heaving Kate the previous night, saying it was time. Anthony had completely panicked but had managed to compose himself to run for the staff to contact the doctor and wake Mary. Mary, Kate’s mother, had taken up residence with them three weeks ago to help her daughter through the birth.

It was considered improper for men to be in the birthing suite, it was considered inappropriate and nothing a man should be exposed to.

The fact had horrified Kate when she found out, pregnancy and childbirth was something she was completely naïve about until it was happening to her. She could not fathom going through anything anymore without Anthony beside her, especially childbirth. Anthony understood this, even when Kate did not protest the doctor’s instructions for Anthony to leave.

It was not advisable, but Anthony simply told the doctor to fuck off anyway.

No one told Viscount Bridgerton what to do, except his mother and the Viscountess Bridgerton. Kate. How was he supposed to wait outside while Kate, his Kate, was in agony for hours on end? He could not bear it. He would not bear it.

Before going into labour, towards the end of her pregnancy, Kate had expressed to Anthony that she wanted him there. They were wrapped up in bed one evening, murmuring sweet nothings between them until the conversation took a serious tone. Kate had told him how scared she was to give birth, that she knew it was silly but it still terrified her.

He had been at a loss for words, feeling horrifically guilty of this fear and there was not a lot he could do about it. So he would do anything he could to help her. They read books about it, they spoke with doctors, they spoke with Daphne about her experiences.

If Kate needed him there, he would be there.

Anthony was not physically or emotionally capable of denying his wife anything.

It was a long, tedious birth. Kate had been in labour for most of the night, walking around the birthing suite in an attempt to speed up the process or breathing heavily through each contraction. Anthony never left her side. His hand ached from how long Kate had squeezed it through contractions, not that he would dare admit that out loud.

Kate would definitely smack him.

Eventually, the doctor announced it was time to push. Mary was holding Kate's other hand, whispering soothing and encouraging words into her daughter's ear. Anthony had been screamed at to stay at Kate’s side and not dare go look between her legs. Anthony would not repeat the other things his wife cursed at him as she pushed, as much as they amused him. All he could do was hold Kate’s hand and rest the other on her back, supporting her back as she leaned forward. He did not stop speaking to her, telling her how incredible she was, how much he loved her, how in awe of he was.

Every time he thought he could not not love his wife more, she proved him wrong every time.

The piercing cry that eventually broke through the room in the early hours of the morning left Anthony without the ability to speak.

“You have a son,” The doctor announced, holding the baby up to the new parents. He cut the umbilical cord and wiped the wriggling, slightly pink and purple baby covered in a white substance and red splotches of blood.

“Oh my, is he alright?” Kate sobbed, collapsing against the pillows but her eyes did not leave her son. She looked so exhausted but elated, and the tears streaming down her face matched the ones on her mother and husband’s faces. Anthony did not try to hide his tears, how could he? He had a son. A son. “Oh, Anthony. Mary. Look.”

“You are amazing, I love you,” He whispered against her temple, pressing a kiss there but his eyes never left his son as the doctor returned with the baby wrapped in a white cloth, laying him on Kate’s chest.

“Oh darling, you did so well. He is perfect,” Mary said softly, peering closer to her daughter who had adjusted the baby in his arms. “Have you chosen a name?”

The name of their son had been a topic of debate between Kate and Anthony over the last nine months. They could not agree on a name, or one of them loved a name the other hated.

“We have,” Kate murmured, which caused Anthony to raise an eyebrow at his wife. As far as he was concerned, the topic was very much still up for debate.

“Edmund,” Kate declared, looking up from her son to stare at her husband, her eyes lighter than the heavens above and her smile was small and magical. “Edmund Benedict Bridgerton.”

Anthony was speechless.

“I will leave you two,” Mary said, pressing a kiss to Kate’s forehead and reaching over to squeeze Anthony’s arm before she turned to leave the room. “I will give you a moment of privacy. I will be back soon. Congratulations.”

“Kate,” He murmured, making absolutely no attempt to hide his emotions as he moved closer to his wife and son. He could not think of anything to say other than his wife’s name. He could not put what he was thinking and feeling into words.

“There was never another name for him. It is perfect, don’t you think?” Kate spoke softly, resting her head against Anthony’s shoulder. “A great man named after a great man.”

Again, words completely failed him. All Anthony could do was glance between his wife and son, nodding in agreement. It meant everything to him, absolutely everything to him. His father would have loved it. His mother would love it, as would his siblings. All Anthony had ever wanted in life was to honour his father and be the father he was.

In this moment, looking at his son, Anthony knew that was all he would ever try to do. He wanted to be a man and father worthy of Edmund, worthy of their future children, worthy of Kate.

“Here you are,” Kate said softly, snapping Anthony out of his thoughts as she moved her arms close to Anthony’s as she transferred their son into his waiting arms.

The feeling of his son, his son, being placed into his arms was indescribable. He was pink and loud, his little lungs screaming for air and possibly out of discomfort before settling once he was in his father’s arms. Did he know who Anthony was?

Anthony had never felt anything like this, looking at his first born son. It was not his first time holding a baby, he had held Simon and Daphne’s newborn daughter Amelia only last year. The first baby he had ever held was Hcyinth when he was just eighteen years old. He thought he had felt love then, staring into the eyes of his newborn sister that would never know their father and would only ever know him.

Except this time, Anthony was a father. The most important role in his life, not Viscount, but husband was now tied with father.

He was a father.

This tiny baby, with his slightly pointed nose that was Anthony's and cheekbones that were all Kate, was a part of them. Both of them. He was theirs. He was a Bridgerton.

“Wow,” Anthony whispered, terrified to move an inch as he sat perched on the bed beside Kate. One of his fingertips lightly grazed his son’s tiny cheek, which was not even the size of Anthony’s palm, and his delicate skin was so soft.

He was heaven.

Time had always been an enemy of Anthony's, something he was constantly fighting a battle against. He often wanted to reverse it. Except, this time, he didn’t wish he could reverse it. He found himself wanting to stop it, in this utterly distilling moment, wishing he could stay in this moment of holding his son for the first time forever.

“It suits you,” Kate said, breaking Anthony out of his trance as Anthony broke his gaze and looked up at her. She was the most beautiful thing in the world, laying against the pillows on the bed, her dark thick hair slightly matted and damp. She must be exhausted.

“What suits me?” Anthony asked, resuming his staring contest with his son, whose dark eyes were glancing around the room curiously before landing back on his father. “You should sleep, love. You need your rest to recover.”

“It suits you being a father,” Kate murmured, her eyes drooping closed as she settled herself against the pillows. “You were born for it. Mm. I am rather exhausted. For once, I shall not argue,” Her voice teased him, drifting off as she spoke, a small smile settling on her lips.

He loved her. Anytime he thought he could not possibly love her more, she always proved him wrong.

Anthony did not leave the birthing suite once in the hours Kate slept. He wanted to keep an eye on her, hours after the birth were important ones to observe in case something terrible happened. He also could not take his eyes off his son, or was capable of putting him down.

“I’m your father,” Anthony spoke softly to his son as he stood by the window, gazing out at the night sky. He had been awake far too long but the adrenaline running through his veins kept him awake. If he felt slightly drowsy, he just looked at his son and it sent a euphoric buzz throughout his veins. He brought Edmund closer to his face so he could lightly kiss his forehead. "I am completely yours."

“You will meet everyone soon,” He kept his voice low, cautious his wife was asleep close to them. He had been rambling for a while now, talking about nothing and everything. His son was a few hours old and Anthony wanted to tell him everything. “I promised your aunt Hyacinth she would meet you first, so she will come soon. Then there are your uncles and your aunts. There are a lot of people who love you,” He rocked his son back and forth slowly, watching his lips open and close as he shifted in his father’s arms. “You and I are incredibly lucky. We have an amazing family, but nothing compares to your mother. She is everything.”

“You should sleep, you must be exhausted,” Kate’s voice startled him slightly, and Anthony turned his back on the window to look at his wife. He felt his cheeks darken slightly, wondering how much she had overheard. She was sitting up, half-awake and smiling tiredly at him. “Come here. I miss you two.”

“I am well,” Anthony murmured, obeying his wife as he carefully climbed onto the bed, tucking Edmund against his chest as he did so. Kate carefully took the baby, holding him against her chest with one hand and holding his tiny hand with the other. “How are you feeling?”

“Exhausted and sore,” Kate replied honestly, nuzzling the top of Edmund’s head and pressing a kiss to his bald head with a few tufts of light hair. The baby began to fuss and Kate took that as a sign he was hungry, and she pulled down her nightdress to feed him. “I also have never felt happier in my entire life.”

Anthony chuckled softly, curling himself around his family as he pulled the sheets further over the three of them, carefully tucking his arm under the baby and Kate.

Anthony had never been good with expressing his emotions or dealing with emotions in general, but lying there, beside his family, he felt as if he would burst he was feeling so much. He had to say something. He was conscious of how he made Kate feel, given his opposition to any form of love at the start of his marriage. He never wanted her to feel as if he did not love her or appreciate her, but he still struggled with expressing his emotions. “Me too. I- Kate. Thank you, thank you for everything. For him. For being you. I love you, Kate. I love you both of you with every part of me.”

Anthony glanced up at his wife and his breath caught slightly as her dark eyes were glistening, and she motioned for him to come closer. “It was my pleasure, quite a painful pleasure, but I would do it a million times over. For you. For him. For us. We love you too, you sweet incredible man. Now, kiss me before you pass out.”

Anthony laughed, blinking momentarily to try take the sting out of his wet eyes. Anthony had never felt so much in his entire life and he really needed to stop crying. He would only cry in front of Kate, rarely, but he hoped it was out of his system. He leaned forward and kissed Kate softly, squeezing her hand which lay on top of his on their son’s back.

As Anthony fell into a much needed slumber, beside his wife and son, he had never felt so content in his entire life. This was always where he was meant to be.

He was home.

#posting two fics in the same day who am I #bridgerton #my fics #kate and anthony as parents makes me feel things #I could read five books about them with their kids #there will be 7 more parts with them both meeting each baby #kate x anthony #anthony bridgerton #kate sharma #kate sheffield #bridgerton fanfiction #ao3 #fanfiction #canon

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convxction · 3 years ago

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[ today is another day sponsored by ‘what a/nime did inspire faty to make this rant’ corner~ woho. ok jokes aside. i saw something from the a/nime [ g/enius p/rince] and made me think how this is closely related to ferox as a nation (and well, ylisse--the exalt family in the same line.)

basically, it reminded me that in ferox, there are no real ‘monarchy’ but [normal] people ascended to the throne because they proved themselves-- meritocratic kingdom, whether be in the ferox tournament they have to pick champions to represent them in a fight or by the countless feats and deeds they do to gain the respect and a chance to be in the tournament to begin with.

I imagine it would be a culture shock to Chrom knowing about this. Surely, as a royalty, he was tutored about this but hearing and reading about something is not the same as actually experiencing it yourself. The idea of a nation that pick their own leader based on prowess and deeds is strange, yet intriguing. That’s why the prince was more interested in visiting the country than anything. He tagged along with Emmeryn in one of her official business meetings with the Khan and at that time it was still Basilio, the official Khan to Ferox.

To know Basilio could be changed when the next tournament comes or heck, if he proved he is not worthy of his seat, the people could just boot him out was mind boggling to Chrom at first. Being born as a prince, from a holy bloodline, it was built in his cognition that’s how all other places are--monarchy/royal family ruling and people who accepted this. Emmeryn was keen on broadening Chrom’s horizon so he does not assume things without looking into them.

To think that anyone in Ferox could literally become the next Khan was exhilarating on its own because it means every person is capable and strong to take on such role. Honestly, it was at first a terrifying prospect; knowing everyone, ANYONE can suddenly ask for the throne. Had something like this happen in Ylisse, Chrom feared for his sister’s safety. She had already faced a lot of discriminations at first being a child of ten years old and a girl to ascend to the throne but thankfully, she managed to fit her role just fine with her sincere and honest personality that made everyone respect her for what she was trying to do/ and did.

Talking to Basilio made Chrom realize there are a lot of things he can learn and should learn about. How to come on top no matter what the odds are, steeling yourself for what to come, always work hard because there are people who are always counting on that (and scrutinizing your moves), etc etc. But of course, the main thing is that to never regret a decision and no use crying over something had happened, but being able to bounce back right quickly to figure out a new plan of action. True, it was a bit ambiguous at first for Chrom with how Basilio tend to talk but as the prince grew and repeatedly went to visit Ferox, he come to appreciate their way of doing things. It kind of close home to him since he is not about formalities and dressing up his words--action speaks louder than anything. Prove yourself if you want others to look at you and give you respect you want. Respect and recognition are earned things, one will always have to work tirelessly for them.

Knowing that about Ferox, made Chrom even more respectful to the duty he was born with. Unlike Ferox, Ylisse is bound to the monarchy they have--the Holy Bloodline/ The Exalt line--Marth’s bloodline& the First Exalt. It made him more self aware of his duties and the amount responsibility that weight on his shoulders. If the people cannot chose who will rule them, he is ought to be a good fit for the role he was assigned to and make sure the people do not live a hard life because of his choices. It is something he looks up to in his sister. She did not run away from her duty, she did not blame it on her lack of experience, but she kept on learning and bettering herself, taking every opportunity she can to be a better exalt to her people.

Basically, Chrom respect and admires Basilio and Flavia’s ways of handling their positions. It is not an easy thing knowing that the whole country can flip on you if you did not provide good results to show to the people.

I mean, this is one of my favorite scenes in game

chrom: damn. soft gasp flavia: nah boy its ok chrom: ok first of all YOU DAMNED BITCHES OUT THERE TRIED TO KILL ME

tbh chrom already knew about that feroxi diplomacy but since Flavia is someone he just met, he is not going to ‘damn this, damn that’ so when she was ok with it his tongue just ‘okay dont blame me now~’

ferox is one of the fascinating countries in fe world imo and i wish we can learn more about it. harsh weather, strong yet kind people, and they are bunch of people who wanna enjoy a good time and a good fight. not to mention the justice and equality in there. country be booming with time.

#⚔headcanon.⚔ (building up)#⚔ooc.⚔ (faty speaks)#[it is not ground breaking thing but it is always good to remember ferox anyone can be khan if they p rove themselves honestly #[[and that to some extent makes chrom wooow ... and a little bit of concerned lmao

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ramblingguy54 · 4 years ago

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New Gods On The Block: Expectations Of Self Worth & Family Name.

Hey, Scrooge will come to his senses and realize you’re the best adventuring team he’s ever had. Nothing bad is gonna happen.

Well, here I was thinking New Gods on the Block would be a Donald and Daisy focused episode, but it being a mash up between Della supporting the kids self-esteem along with those two’s shenanigans, regarding Storkules interference was a welcoming surprise I very much enjoyed. Della has been on the sidelines for quite a good chunk of Season 3 and what better time to bring her into the fold when these kids are feeling lower than usual after a failed adventure with Scrooge? Scrooge McDuck, despite having grown a very loving connection with them, is still someone that has high expectations for greatness, so when you’ve got children that want to be as strong as their role model, it creates a potential for serious doubts in their minds. Doesn’t help Scrooge is wanting to find more professional people for this current adventure to retrieve an artifact Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby didn’t have the apparent in sync team work to pull off this time. They’ve always admired Scrooge as their elder relative, where hearing him say they are more or less not cut out for the job can make them all wonder, “If we failed this time, who’s to say it won’t become a greater issue?”. We got light of this idea in Dewey’s episode, The Rumble For Ragnorok, where he was greatly worried about the future of inheriting everything Scrooge has stood for. New Gods on the Block puts that perspective into gear with all their worries and concerns about living up their great uncle’s achievements in life. It’s already hard enough trying to make yourself feel happy, but when you’re related to a beyond talented relative it can in turn hurt your pride and ego in the long run.

We got to see a very good contrast between Della & Scrooge’s ways of parenting in how they comfort the children emotionally. Puts into perspective Della’s considering nature of how the kids might feel, instead of herself. Della has made it evident time and time again that they’ve never had to prove anything to be worthy of standing alongside her in adventuring, even though she too has a renowned reputation for what she’s managed to create for herself in McDuck history. We’ve seen this with Dewey & Webby in their own respective episodes centered around trying to impress and earn Della’s admiration in Season 2. Della goes above all else to tell them they don’t need to be like her to feel worthy of themselves because they already were equals to begin with. They’re a family, so they don’t need to compete for someone’s affection. Della has gone to clarify that point as much as possible to make them feel more secure about their place in the McDuck lineage. It’s always important for a parent to never let your kid feel inadequate about their role in the family tree, which Della understands a hundred percent. Scrooge does love and respect the kids with ever fiber of his being, but he can get so wrapped up in himself at points that he forgets to comfort them when they need it, too. That plays an important part in why they took on the test to see who could be a better God. It parallels with how they view Scrooge as someone who’s equal to that level of grandeur. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby are so amazed at what Scrooge can be capable of doing they wholeheartedly believe that becoming Godly beings will help close that gap of inexperience. Something that Della does her best to fully support them in all trying to accomplish with, mind you, unpleasant results.

Della’s heart is certainly in the right place without a doubt. However, allowing the kids to participate in a contest that involves becoming an all mighty powerful being was a recipe for disaster. Although very funny shenanigans ensued, yes, it only threw more fuel onto that fire about whether or not they could live up to the name of McDuck. It’s endearing that Della strives to want the best for them, but this wasn’t a route to take, which comes to a head with Selene saying they’re not ready take on that responsibility and are too inexperienced for it. Della’s goal was for the youngsters to not feel out of place just because of an unfortunate failure. Della’s all too familiar with the concept of failure because of the Spear Of Selene, since she had to work through that and regain her confidence again over time. It’s pretty safe to say Della didn’t want them to feel like how she did under those circumstances, even if this is a very different situation with less higher stakes. Regardless, the kids were near naturally because of their concern for the results of whom Selene might choose. Out of all stuff this was the last thing the children needed to overhear because it makes them feel terribly worse off than before in their thinking about what they can contribute, overall. Della wanted nothing more than for them to feel worthy about who they are, but went overboard with what the resolution should be. It’s not about getting newfound powers to compensate for something else you’re lacking. What’s most important is one thing that every person in a family needs to hear especially. Validation.

Validation that you are more than enough and don’t need a fancy gimmick to earn said love or respect, either. This mindset is one thing Della realizes, where to get toward the root of this problem isn’t about trying to give them new powers, but confront their Uncle Scrooge head on about this big issue the kids are reeling over in emotional pain about. Scrooge’s biggest problem has always been how he can overlook issues when he’s laser focused on his own goals. He’s stubborn, prideful, an egotist to a degree, and deep down very affectionate to each member of his crazy family. Does Scrooge ever communicate those feelings often to them? Well, no, he doesn’t because the stubborn geezer felt confident they already knew that fact with how much Scrooge has helped to better themselves as people. Scrooge’s issue is learning that sometimes actions aren’t enough to show family how much you cherish them, but actually communicating those words to them directly. Actions can speak louder than words, as shown off in the Season 1 finale with their loving hug of forgiveness, but here the kids needed to hear him sing those praises more than anything.

They’re kids! They feel like they need to constantly prove themselves to you. You expect so much.

Maybe I got a little carried away. The kids are the best team I could ask for.

So tell them that!

Scrooge needed to understand there are plenty of times where you’re gonna have to make your affection known through words and not just actions alone. It’s an imperative part of what it means to be a parental figure. You need to acknowledge their strengths for what they accomplish, so the younger ones don’t start getting too self conscious about not feeling like an equal family relative. It must be known for the younger generation that each of them are an important part of what makes your life feel whole when you’re guiding them, like every parent should commit to doing. Della & Scrooge’s aspect of supporting the kids was what made this story a stand out in quality. Their struggles gave us insight into how Della’s parenting is versus Scrooge’s showing us the pros and cons of what makes their approaches work and not, too. All of that is wonderfully paid off by Scrooge’s apology to them about needing to prove their skills to him.

Kids, you are in no way suitable to replace Zeus. You’re ten times more worthy than he will ever be! I’m lucky to adventure with you and call ya family. I’m sorry I made you doubt that! I lost track of what I had! I don’t need different people on my team I just need you!

New Gods on the Block was a welcoming surprise I loved. Very pleased with how it turned out. We got to see more Della bonding with the kids reflecting on how she and Scrooge handle them with their emotional issues. Not to mention, we actually got an apology from Scrooge McDuck to the kids, which is a very rare thing to see him say, as he usually speaks that kind of stuff through remorseful actions, rather than communication.

#dt spoilers #new gods on the block!#ducktales 2017 #ducktales season 3 #scrooge mcduck #della duck #huey dewey and louie #ducktales analysis

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unseeliefaelass · 3 years ago

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Darksiders: Origins

Chapter 5: Losing Innocence

Lilith took over the brunt of the operation from Ale as she'd insinuated previously. Only having Ale around for things like ailments, feeding, and child rearing that didn't involve her teaching them anything. Course Lilith did allow her one piece of leniency. If only because Menahem was taking a bit longer to respond to the pods and Lilith's magics to enhance their aging. Ale made sure not to push the boundaries Lilith placed up, mainly for her Father's sake. However, she wouldn't let up elsewhere in fear Menahem wouldn't thrive. Absalom luckily did get the lad walking easily enough, and talking was only hastened from there. From there Lilith finally allowed a time for her children to interact with each other. Wanting to ensure their bond was strong early on. Each of them being the equivalent of Preschoolers in age. All except Menahem who only got as far as a toddler in age before Lilith gave up using her magic on him. Luckily his closeness to Absalom made bonding with the others a little easier. He was noticeably shy around his sisters; Lazuli, Jadeite, Sio, Onyx, Opal, and Pyrite. Though he was a little curious about Sio. The now older girl did hear him as he approached, but her eyes never developed sight. So blind she had remained, though she did glance his direction. Spotting his smaller outline when compared to her brothers and sisters. After the two acknowledged each other's presence, one of their brothers, Methuselah, stepped over. He surveyed the two silently before sticking around. The three awkwardly observed each other in silence, Sio having the harder time of them, as the others mingled. Lazuli and Jadeite formed a clique with Opal and Onyx quickly. Though much to Ale's concern and Lilith's delight, Lazuli was quick to establish a pecking order. With herself on top, Jadeite following after, then Opal with Onyx on the bottom. At least it started like that before Onyx proved stronger than Opal and Jadeite funnily enough.

The little fight worried Ale, but Lilith raised her hand to stop her, "I won't be needing your kind of interference. If I need any at all, Absalom can break them apart. For now, let them sort it out themselves."

"What if they get hurt?"

"They'll get hurt anyway as adults. Best they learn how to manage it now. The injuries at that age will happen more often, and be much greater. I'd like my little warriors to learn how to take it early on. What good is a warrior who can't handle pain after all?" Lilith chided.

Ale stood back as directed, but truly was at a loss for words. She couldn't begin to imagine the little toddler she'd been caring for becoming so violent. She also observed the two boys that were closest, Cedron and Hebron, laughing together as the girls fought it out. It didn't seem to matter how much Onyx bit and punched Jadeite and Opal before they backed down finally. Not to say Jadeite and Opal weren't vicious themselves. With Jadeite using her environment and Opal using Onyx's body against her. Well as best she could for someone her age anyway. Course when Onyx turned her attention to Lazuli, the blue eyed child had little issue with her. Lazuli zipped around the room they were in, dodging each attack from Onyx and throwing taunts her way. Eventually Onyx was too worn out to continue and begrudgingly conceded with being a lackie to her sister. Lilith's smirk only grew wider as the biggest boy Urias stepped up to test Lazuli. Lazuli at first sicked the still out of breath Onyx at him, only for that to quickly prove a failure. Opal and Jadeite recovered just enough to try helping, again at Lazuli's commands. Urias defeated them just as easily as Onyx. Using his greater strength and fists to great affect against them. Menahem hid behind Sio as Methuselah seemed itching to join in.

Urias then taunted his sister, "Seems all you can do is run away and taunt. You even send minions at me! Too afraid I'll mess up your face sister? Don't have enough strength to fight me?"

"I didn't need it for Onyx, I won't need it for you." Lazuli stated defiantly.

"Ha! Onyx is a weakling compared to me. Why don't you prove you're better than me yourself huh? If you really don't need better strength than me."

Lazuli smirked before circling her brother, "I have nothing to prove. I'm already Mother's favorite, so what are you? If not just a brute who's only good at bashing like a dumb troll. I'll bet even hags like old Black Annis would crush you."

"SHUT UP! You won't be Mama's favorite long if all you can do is be a blabbermouth. Mama wants warriors, not talking and doing nothing!"

Lazuli giggled at him, "You're calling her Mama. Mother doesn't like that. If anyone's out of favor it's you Urias. You're throwing a tantrum like you're Menahem's size."

Urias gave the mightiest battle cry a child his age could before charging his sister. Lazuli only giggled again before unleashing a sudden blast of psychic energy at him. Urias hit the wall so hard he wasn't moving much beyond groaning in pain.

Lilith clapped her hands, "Bravo. Very well done indeed. Though it seems you need a new opponent.", she then looked to Cedron and Hebron, "You two haven't done anything yet. So come here and be useful now."

The boys stood side by side in response as they prepared themselves. Not being nearly as confident as before. Lazuli just laughed at them, "What's wrong funny boys? Scared you'll end up like Urias the troll? Splattered against the wall like a bug."

"We're not scared. We just know what you can do Lazuli, and we respect that. I just think if we're gonna show Mother our best, you should give us a fair chance.", Cedron explained cockily.

Hebron nodded, "Yeah what Cedron said. But we should also ask Mother for ideas too. Surely she wants to see what we all can do right? So let's see how she thinks we should do it first."

Lazuli smirked and looked to her Mother eagerly for an answer. Lilith took but a moment consider the boys' offer, finding herself amused but pleased that they deferred to her. Meaning these two would be easier to control. She smiled and told the boys, "I think you're right. Though perhaps Lazuli should take a break. She's shown me so much already. You boys haven't yet, and need a proper chance on top of it."

Methuselah stepped up in response, "I've been waiting for an opportunity Mother. I go at your command."

"I see. Well then you shall have your chance as well Methuselah. But will you fight Cedron and Hebron alone? Or shall I have you partnered with Sio? To make things more..fair to your brothers?"

"But Mother...Sio is blind she'll...AAAAGH!", Methuselah began to say before Lilith grabbed his ear. Her claws tearing it a bit and drawing blood as he screamed in pain.

She then drew close, too close for Ale's comfort and whispered coyly to the boy, "Now now my son, is that any way to speak to me? Just for that, you get no choice. Your sister fights with you at my command. Am I clear?"

The boy froze in her grasp before telling her shakily, "Y-yes Mother...I w-won't question you again."

Lilith's grip only tightened more as she growled quietly this time, "I can't hear you child."

"YES MOTHER! I won't question you again!", Methuselah screamed at her in fear.

Only then did Lilith release him, and looked over at the two remaining children. Sio had just the same fearful look on her face, before being dragged to her brother's side by her now impatient Mother. Menahem glared and growled quietly at Lilith, getting a bemused snicker in response from the woman, "You will have your chance little one. For now, it's your brother and sister's turn."

Menahem about charged her before Absalom grabbed him, "At ease little one. In time you'll understand how it goes with Mother. Keep your anger in check, save it for when you need it most. She may set you up against Lazuli if you're not mindful." The toddler then glanced at Lazuli who smirked at him eagerly, frightening him. Absalom made sure to hide his reaction with his body and stared Lazuli down so she'd keep quiet. He knew she would through the suddenly fearful expression, "Good. She knows her place under me as well."

Absalom predicted Methuselah and Sio wouldn't do as well as the self-decided twins. Though he did hope they'd at least satisfy Lilith well enough. The brutality wasn't nearly as bad as Lazuli's breed of it, but it was still or terrible thing to witness. Sio was taunted with her blindness by the boys effortlessly, having no clear idea how to fight physically to begin with. Even when using magic she wasn't accurate enough to hit her much faster, and more accurate brothers. Methuselah faired only slightly better than Sio. Absalom could only guess he'd have done much better if the boy didn't focus on being protective of Sio. This allowed the twins to have more openings against him. By the end of it, Sio was bruised severely with only the occasional cut thanks to Methuselah's protection. Unfortunately he himself had taken on the brunt for his chosen role. Being full on cut and sliced alongside his own bruises. His leg was also broken, which ended his ability to continue fighting that day. Sio would've kept going despite her condition from what Absalom saw as the girl kept fighting to stay standing. Only for both brothers to use a shared cord to choke her until she nearly passed out. Lilith only stopped the fight then, seemingly out of boredom more than anything else.

Her only words for both children were, "Worthless. The both of you.", Then her attention settled on the twins, "Now you two WILL face each other next. The one who loses this fight, will fight Menahem next. He is small, so he's not yet worthy of fighting you at your best."

Menahem growled again before Absalom hushed him once more. He then watched as the brothers finally hesitated. Looking at each other in apprehension, before holding their ears shut as Lilith slid her nails across a metal pipe nearby. Absalom, Ale, and the others also held their ears at that. After the reminder of their weaker brother's fate was given to them, the twins finally separated. Cedron was the stronger twin physically, where as Hebron was the more intelligent one. The fight was more evenly matched than expected however, and lasted quite a while. Yet in the end, Hebron could only plan so far and so well. When he concocted a tactic that would've ended things at last, he hesitated on a blow that could've been fatal had he continued. Not wanting to hurt his twin brother. This gave Cedron the upper hand he needed to wrestle Hebron into a hold he couldn't escape. Hebron was only released at Lilith's request, just as bones began to crack. Hebron was given no time for rest or reprieve however as Lilith forced him to his feet.

She then looked at Absalom, "I know he's behind you, now send him over. My patience wears thin."

"Go on Menahem, just do your best for Mother. I know you are capable of beating him. All you need to do is resort to the tactics I have shown you. As well as the others your caregivers have shown you. And finally in order to protect yourself even more so, use your instincts. Even if you abhor them, your life may depend on it. Hebron may not be so keen to hold back for you as he did for Cedron. He might take his inner rage out on you. Use what you've been saving to throw it right back at him in return.", Absalom told him calmly before letting an annoyed Lilith know, "Felt he should be given a slight bit of advice before this fight, due to his size."

Lilith narrowed her eyes before dismissively yet coyly saying, "Very well, I will accept that. I was left little choice to begin with. You and I will..discuss it later Absalom. For now, we have the final fight. Ready yourselves my warriors, and we shall see if little Menahem can prove his worth, or if Hebron redeems himself of his failure. Absalom looked very much uncomfortable to Ale now. She couldn't tell whether it was because of Lilith's tone, or because of the fight to come.

#Darksiders: Origins #Darksiders Fandom #Darksiders Fanfics #Darksiders OCs #Lilith #Absalom #Little Death #Possible Trigger Warning #Possible Lord of Flies Type Scenario

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currentfandomkick · 5 years ago

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Marinette did not sign up for this part 4

hey, so OG chapter 4 will now be chapter 5 as the gremlins hijacked this chapter.

part one here previous part here ao3 here

Damian stared in quiet horror as he looked over Ladybug’s exploits after hacking into Paris’ servers. His sister—the one he took down with little effort—had been defending the city for a month before he appeared. From the video of “Stoneheart” he could tell she was given no training. And her partner was flirting with her! When he should be focusing on the mission!

What gathered from further research was the following: his sister and her ‘partner’ were untrained. Their teammates were also untrained. A team of ten untrained teenagers—perhaps younger—were tasked with keeping a villainous coward from stealing their magic artifacts, and with stealing his in turn. A team lead by his sister. A very alone, scared girl from his one interaction with her. Smart (he saw now she knew how to save her own skin. Redirecting his attention was a good move at the time). She is smart and creative because if she isn’t, then her city and her will lose. Be under the control of some madman.

He had to get there, and he doubted he could convince Jon to help him at the moment—why are kyptonians always fighting one another when you need the assistance of one?

Father would stop him.

The League was keeping Father in Gotham and he didn’t have individual access yet…

He was stuck for the moment, and did not like it. Perhaps Grayson could prove useful? He’d ask once the man was done resting from patrol.

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Cass was enjoying Paris. She spotted the possible sister at the bakery with her adoptive mother. They were happy. Cass likes that.

Cass moved quickly through the crowd, managing to make it to the bakery.

Marinette ran into her.

“Ah! Sorry!” the girl managed to catch her things before they hit the ground.

Cass waved her hands, indicating there was no harm or foul. The girl was no clumsy—Shifu Cheng was ill-informed. Those reflexes and her expression before indicated nothing but an intense focus on something else. On what, Cass wasn’t sure.

Yet.

For now, Cass took a seat in the bakery, smiling at the kind woman working the front. Sabine Cheng, the woman who raised the maybe-Bat.

Cass began doing her own research, messaging Babs that she saw Soup Girl for a moment, and would be assessing her parents. She knew of cases in Gotham where things weren’t always right, and she wanted to be certain that this girl was safe, regardless of if she’s a Bat or not.

--------

Tim decided to ignore Babs offer in the end. The possibility of owing Jason was low given both him and Cass are on the Case. Jason is good, don’t get him wrong, but the chances of Jason actually talking to the girl in a real conversation before the rest of them? As Red Hood?

This is a calculated risk and the odd are in Tim’s favor. (Well, not in Jason's.)

--------

Steph hummed as she went over the designer pool she was looking over. Shockingly low given its Paris—granted 200 girls is a lot to investigate… she didn’t give the others all the information she had though.

According to Damian, she “posts a disgusting amount” which means she’s posting or tagged often. When she used some of Babs old filtering program with social media involved, it brought the candidates down to 30. She could go through thirty teenage designers social media and comb over who at least has some genes that are dominant from the Wayne side. Her natural hair had to be medium brunette at the lightest, so the natural blondes took out seven candidates right off the bat. While blue or green eyes would give them more priority on the list, eye color genes are weird. Weirdly, five of her candidates had attached earlobes, so she only had 18 left after that filter was put on… Bruce’s hair isn’t curly, so two girls with intensely curly natural hair were taken off the list. Bruce’s thin lips only knocked out two more candidates.

That left Stephanie Brown with 14 designers in Paris to find and investigate in the right age range, because she doesn’t think Bruce started having sex at 15, unlike Tim who is allowing college kids into his ‘could be Bruce’s daughter’ mix.

Stephanie is also going to need a plane ticket to meet these girls, and that means getting help from one of Wayne kids… Or stowing away on the private jet that she knows Tim can and will be using sometime today to do ground work himself.

She’s cool stowing away—Babs is covering for her on principle since Tim wouldn’t take the deal. Steph was smart enough to relinquish one piece of blackmail in total in exchange for use of Babs filtering tech—she has more than that thanks to one Supergirl spilling a number of things Babs has done over the years. Has Stephanie mentioned she’s the only one of the Bats to listen to Oracle, Queen of Technology, in this bet? She is, and she is better for it.

-----------

Marinette managed to make it to the Agrests Mansion with little issue this time. Today she was going to one of the production lines with Gabriel to learn how to reset the machines and program them to follow any simple stitch pattern she wanted. It was good.

She also noticed that during none of her times with Gabriel, was there a single akuma sighting. Not an attack—those never happened anywhere near their time together. It was an… interesting pattern. She was beginning to suspect that if Hawkmoth wasn’t Gabriel (he was akumatized, it can’t be him. Get that theory out of your head Marinette), then it had to be someone who worked for him, and high on the food chain.

She made sure to memorize each of his ‘supervising managers’ and partners’ names. One of them had to be Hawkmoth. And Gabriel had to be someone that this Hawkmoth either really respected or really didn’t want handle re-scheduling with. Which would be all of them…

She really wished she had more time to dig into their lives herself. For now, she had to trust Max and Markov to do the research… which reminded her, her name had been pinged on multiple searches in Gotham last night. From numerous devices. If the Bats were planning anything…

Marinette gripped her purse a bit tighter. Her team has her back. She just doesn’t want them caught up in this mess too. She wishes that Aquaman never showed up. If he hadn’t, then the Bats wouldn’t be looking into her civilian life, the one they already knew about but only now deemed worthy of their attention.

She wished they would just stop—she won’t look into the Great Detectives. She knows she’s not one of them. That she wouldn’t hack it in Gotham. But Damnit, in Paris? Her Territory—she does more than hack it. Sure, she may have blown herself up that one time, and yes, there is the timeline where as Princess Justice she may have sort of broke the world by forcing it to conform to that akumatized version of hers’ idea of Absolute Justice (apparently she was ruthless, made no exceptions and took out a third of the Justice League using Multimouse at the time on top of it all). Yes, she is not a perfect leader. Or hero. But Damnit, her (admittedly two) supervillians have been almost caught twice. Her re-akumatazation rate is much lower than any of the Justice League’s heroes’ normal villain or general crime recidivism rate by more than a little. By a lot. She’s not some Detective but she’s a damn good strategist, a champion at improvising and she and her team do work with the public and victims and reworked so much of Paris’ social culture to lower akuma-creating circumstances and keep the public emotionally healthy.

She’s no detective.

She’s a Guardian. That means caring about the details that shift the bigger pieces. That means adaption with what is there and creating what she needs. That means knowing her limits and getting help—to set an example and prove that not even her or Chat are an island. That even superheroes need help, need others and need to work together.

She’s no detective. Detectives work alone.

Her? She’s forged a team that (she hopes) could become the new Order of Gaurdians with her… some day. For now, they’re heroes with the same mission and different roles to play.

Marinette just wishes that she could shut up this hunch since its been disproven. Her instincts on guilt and possible baddies aren’t the best—Adrien’s job is to sense what’s wrong and take them out. Hers is to make whatever is needed to help fix things, to push someone forward and help them grow. Her job to craft a better tomorrow today… and to do that, she lost the parts of her that picked up Danger. She can still find Caution signs (and her anxiety will always invent danger) but real Danger detection went to Adrien when she agreed to become Ladybug in the first place… And until both her and Adrien renounce their roles as the pair wielding the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses, she’ll always be missing it.

The same way Adrien is missing his ability to think outside the box—seeing things as what they could become to help them went to her. He can only see potential threat and act on them. She can only see potential aide and act on that.

---------

Jason grinned when he managed to make it into Paris. The second there was some damn akuma attack, he was grabbing the baby Bat and hunting Hawkmoth his way—she need the jewelry? Fine. She can have it. The guy brainwashing kids? The one that slaughtered the city? He’s Jason’s. ---------

Bruce didn’t like being benched. He doesn’t like not knowing he had another child. He especially doesn’t like that this one is constantly preventing an apocalypse and his allies can’t be bothered to even send him anything about it. Not even a basic ‘she’s not living on the streets’ like Jason did. Or ‘she’s got parents here, calm down’ so he could get this stupid instinct to storm Paris and take on the bastard threatening his family that he didn’t know he had.

Apparently Barbra has a hunch, but isn’t sharing until she has “conclusive evidence” of his daughter’s identity. Damian just isn’t speaking of it. As if being someone’s father biologically gives him a built-in alarm system for when he’s had a child and the ability to track them down at birth. Damian being raised in the League of Assassins should be enough proof to the contrary there.

The others were… he wasn’t absolutely certain, but fairly certain his self-proclaimed ‘middle kid club’ were tracking his missing daughter down themselves. Possibly to claim her as part of their group, specifically.

God, she was so young, It was before he even heard of the League that she was born. In that lifetime before becoming Batman. Would she like him? He was absent her whole life—did she want to meet him, meet the family? They’re a mess, he knows it. But they’re his—he chose them and they chose him. Would she chose him too?

He watched another video of Ladybug in her early days, before she and her partner (dear god he’s cat-themed. Is it genetic? Should he test her and himself for some ‘drawn to dresses-as-a-cat’ gene?) were given any kind of training.

She blew herself up to stop her city from being taken over by ‘Animan’ and his creatures.

His daughter.

Exploded.

(She died. She died and he didn’t know. God he’s a horrible parent, and he hasn’t even parented her yet.)

She died.

To keep her city safe.

She somehow reconstituted. But her face, in that video, she was shocked.

His daughter should be dead but she’s not.

Magic, he’s so glad his daughter uses magic.

He. He’s going to need to consult someone. Raven? Raven should work. He can’t talk to the Justice League—nothing wrong with talking to the half-demon all of his Robins that lead the Titans has worked with.

Loopholes.

The Justice League is horrible at closing them.

---------

Dick wanted to be mad when Damian came clean to him about the needles. He wanted to freak out over almost losing a sister he hasn’t met.

He did.

But.

But this is Damian.

Damian who still has trouble connecting. Who still flinches at certain tones of voice and phrasing. Damian who desperately wants to do Good but… struggles.

Damian who has all of Bruce’s communication problems and then some.

So no, Dick did not scream when he found out Damian only sparred “the blood daughter” because she looked too frail and weak for her to be considered anything resembling a threat to him. He did not sigh when he found out that Bruce didn’t know when Damian assumed he did. He did not hit himself when Damian discussed the various weapons he’d gifted her as a apology with the bouquets over the years and their meanings.

He did take a deep breath, and begin explaining from this baby bat’s stance what had happened.

“Imagine for a moment that it was me before I became Robin, and I was almost killed by someone who only let me live if I never contacted a shared parent or that parent’s known family. How do you think Pre-Robin me would have responded?”

“You would have feared for your life and done whatever you could to prevent contact.”

“Now, imagine I wasn’t told who to be avoiding, only aliases.”

“You would avoid everyone with an alias that you did not help them create, and keep them from unknown aliases.”

Dick snapped his fingers. “Exactly. That’s what this sister, what are we calling her?”

“Her alias is Ladybug.”

“Yes, that is what Ladybug was going through before Aquaman made contact.”

Damian was quiet for a moment. “She must be on edge.”

Dick nodded at that. “She probably is.”

Damian furrowed his brow. “Do you think the League would allow me to contact her and end our agreement?”

Dick rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure, but we can try.”

“… And if they refuse?”

“Then we find another way. We’re Bats,” Dick reassured Damian. He just hoped the missing members weren’t doing anything too rash…

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

Marinette made a (painful) decision. Adrien and her would swap miraculouses—at least until there were less pings on her sites from Gotham. For added protection, she kept the Mouse miraculous on. Chatte Noire was less known, and she doubted Wonder Woman or Aquaman informed Batman about the miraculous of Creation and Destruction’s particular… refusal to let anyone but a pair chosen together to wield them at any point.

Chatte Noire would only be on call for a day or so… what’s the worst that can happen?

--------

the characters are jinxing themselves, and procrastinating the (vague) plot of Shenanigans. i swear.

if anyone can message me on how to add in a read more, that’d be great since i know these can get long to scroll past for mobile users.

@heldtogetherbysafetypins @laurcad123 @raisuke06 @chaosace @jeminiikrystal @toodaloo-kangaroo @kris-pines04 @laurcad123

#maribat #bio!dad bruce #marinette did not sign up for this #part 4 #long post #my writing #i hate formatting #how do i tag

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ninjaslegos · 3 years ago

Note

For her clothing you could make the Accessoires in those colours or search Up a specific theme/Core (example Dark Academia) If you Need Inspiration for the clothes.And would you mind Sharing Info about your oc?:0 she Looks already pretty cool

I didn't think anyone would love her this much I-

I know what I want two of her outfits to be; one is a dress they wear on special occasions, like when they go to the fangblade competition to cheer on their 'dad'. The other is their 'concealed' outfit I mentioned, which looks cool in my head, I just need to get it on paper. I'm thinking they wear a lot of warmer clothes since they're in the sky for a long time, (the monastery in the mountains, The Bounty, riding dragons, etc.) I actually really like the jean shorts and leggings style so I at least know what they'll wear for pants.

Infodump below :)

(warning, IMMEDIATE death mention)

Anya comes to Ninjago after trying to run from home; she slips on ice, falls down a hill, and crashes into a tree, where she essentially bleeds out/freezes to death. They wake up just outside Jamanakai village and feel cold and confused, so they seek refuge in the village. However, upon seeing all these tall, crayon-yellow people, she freaks out, and they freak out, calling her one of Garmadon's goons and attacking her. They drive her under an overturned wheelbarrow, where she hides out until the ninja arrive. Scared, injured, cold, hungry, and confused, they nearly die of heart attack when four very tall men come to beat her up. She acts like a feral cat; growling and hissing, and bares her teeth, curling herself up and pressing far away from them as she can.

As the brave one, Cole treats her like a cat and holds his hand out. Very tempted to bite and run, she's panting heavily, and her eyes are darting around. Instead, Zane warns Cole not to touch her without talking first, so he tells her it's okay, that she's safe, and that she can come with them. Jay is freaking out about aliens in the meanwhile, which doesn't put Anya at ease, so Kai has to walk him away from the situation.

So Zane and Cole get her to calm down, feed her, tend to her wounds, then she goes into hiding again. She just becomes this little creature they have that they put food out for and leave alone while she hides somewhere; they can't find her when she's hiding, thus they can't kick her out. Besides, they know she has nowhere to go. After a week of this, Cole gets brave again and starts hanging around her food areas until she feel comfortable near him to eat beside him, and he can even pet her hair/rub her back.

He does this until one day she just goes "oh by the way my name is Anya." and the ninja freak. They thought she was some sort of animal from another planet and couldn't talk, so they apologize and formally invite her to live with them. They start treating her more humanly, and she's grateful for it. After being treated like some sort of thing to awe at and pity on Earth, she's finally glad to have people actually listen to her.

Her relationship with Cole becomes a father/daughter one. Zane is like her trusted friend/the cool uncle. Kai starts to form a smallish crush on her, but they're clueless as hell, and Cole is ready to throw hands with him. Jay is still really wigged out about the whole situation, but after they talk about it, he feels better about having them around.

Anya turns into a fighter who wears special gauntlets with spikes on them. Because of her power of Will, she can't really die because she genuinely believes she can't die here because she has cool alien powers. So she uses this deathless ability to beat the shit out of people until she is unable to fight anymore. Examples include trying to deck Garmadon in the face despite being half his height, threatening the Great Devourer (which was stupid on their half because if they were eaten the Devourer would've become a literal god), kicking Clouse in the shins for shits and giggles, and eating random things in Prime Empire which made both her AND Unagami sick.

In later seasons, they go on the mission to stop Garmadon to revive the Grundle and turn young, but they get returned back to normal because they get hit with the tomorrow tea. But when Garmadon goes back in time with the other ninja and mess up the timeline, it turns out in the other timeline Kai didn't like her (because in this timeline, she ended up showing up early, so he blamed the loss of Nya on her) so he made her stay behind when they went to the comic shop, so she loses her adult memory and is stuck as a kid and has to grow up again. This makes Lloyd jealous that 'oh she gets a second childhood while I had to grow up too soon'. This plays a big big role in season 4 (where things get worse) and season 5 (where Morro takes her along and Lloyd can see how much she is hurt because of her second life, and finally gets over his feelings about it.)

SPEAKING of Morro, when they didn't know who the Green Ninja was, she trained like crazy because she wanted to prove that she could be strong, and could be worthy of being the Green Ninja. This set off a lot of red flags for Wu and he felt bad knowing they might go down the same path as Morro, but he couldn't do anything because he didn't know what to do to get her to calm down and stop without upsetting her. Luckily things went okay,

Also in season 5, Morro possesses her, which upset her and sent her emotions spiraling so hard that she actually became a big slime creature, but the ninja help her out by singing to her. She calms down, before attacking the Preeminent. Before Morro leaves her body though, she eats the Preeminent, which causes her to transform into a giant monster who, when they eat people, sends them to a peaceful dimension full of food and houses and places to play. People can stay there if things are looking Bad in Ninjago, before they can return home if they're ready (for example, during season 9/10, she contains people in her dimension, then they can escape through her mouth again. They run off because they're scared, and no one sees them for a long time. In season 6, Nya and Jay saw her in the tower with Echo, who has named her Hero. The ninja feel devastated to find this out, so once they go back in time, they make an excuse to find Anya/Hero. She's not there though, because she remembered, and she was scared.

In season 9 though, just before Harumi is killed/crushed, Hero barrels into the rock creature and battles with it. She isn't as scared as she was anymore, and when Cole comes back, he manages to finally calm her down, and she reverts to a human form.

(For those who don't want to read all of it she is full of love AND trauma and was definitely the weird kid who was way into bugs and pretended to be a cat in elementary school)

That's really all for now...but I definitely feel inspired for outfits now! Thank you!!

#I *was* going to work on my oneshots but...a chance to talk about my OC? 😳 deal

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so-i-dont-forget-again · 4 years ago

Text

So I Don’t Forget Again: A Breath of The Wild fanfiction

Entry 99: Lookout Post

We stayed up all night star gazing. His glowing spots were just as memorizing as ever. We read through my journal and his letters. When we got to the part when my mind went to a dark place Sidon simply held me close and said that I at least knew what he would do now. I felt so secure and safe in that moment. So happy. How does he always to this to me? How is it that he always makes me feel so, I don’t know? Any negative feelings or thoughts welding up inside, he doesn’t just make them go away he somehow manages to find the heart of them helps me find a way to change it. Like with my dark thoughts we talked through them, not just ignored them, or my feelings for Daruk and all the others who’ve passed, or my realization that what he pointed out I knew a hundred years ago. We explored and talked through all of them just like that night when I broke down and my conflicting feelings about my past and Mipha came pouring out. He never did anything for me or in my place, he supported me allowing me a greater chance to do it myself. Whenever he speaks of how great I am, that makes me want to do even better! Not just for him but for myself. I feel I have this self-motivated drive that I wouldn’t have if he hadn’t help me kick start it. He doesn’t simply get rid of things he helps to make changes that last. Sidon’s just so amazing. I wish No, what he’s done for me I will do someday for him! I’ll change his life for the better someday! I will be the Sidon to his Link! I try my best but what he does for and to me I can’t truly describe. I can only work towards being the kind of person whom could do the same for others, and for him.

As much as it would have been lovely to stay together longer, I could not just let Sidon stay here. I led him back to where the canyon and desert meet when the sun was rising. Before leaving he gently held my right arm and asked how it was fairing. It was behaving as usual honestly, it was much slower to heal than the rest of me, it still hurts even now honestly. He then closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine, asking me to be a little more careful, and to treat my right arm better because it seems to get injured often.

As he started walking away, he stopped, turning to me saying that he wanted to say one last thing. He said that whether I’m a Voe or a Vai I am adorable. He then paused for a moment before that toothy grin took hold on his lips, saying especially when I blush. He put a big emphasis on the ‘especially’ part. Then added that either way it doesn’t change the fact that I’m the greatest person he’s ever met. With that said he left me with a racing heart and my face feeling as hot as the desert in the afternoon. HOW DOES HE DO THIS!? I’M JUST THINKING ABOUT IT AND MY HEART’S RACING AGAIN!

I’m so happy and so scared to see him go. I believe that he should be safe in the domain, but he was with me when I killed the Yiga clan’s leader. They may target him. There are way too many ‘what if’s’ in this situation. Thankfully some Gerudo women agreed to travel with him so at least they have safety in numbers. Oddly enough, though I was worried about the Yiga in that moment I was more worried about how upset Muzu and possibly his father would be. He ran off without saying a word to anyone I believe.

On the way back to Gerudo town we bumped into Vilia. We chatted for a bit about what had happened and about Sidon. She remarked that we seem very close. It was a short chat though. I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been so I wanted to meet with the chief as soon as I could.

When I reached the audience chamber Buliara asked me what took so long, then said that it didn’t matter. The Chief had given me permission to see her in her room if she wasn’t at the audience chamber so not so willingly Buliara led me to the Chief’s room and stood guard at the door.

Chief Riju stood at the edge of a balcony which overlooked the whole town. She told me that she had been waiting for me. I was apologizing when she raised a hand and said that it wasn’t needed, after all, she was the one who requested that I get the helm back. She thanked me for saving that one guard. She then said that I must have noticed that she is a child. She said that people only look on her kindly but that in of itself hurts a little. She’d tried so much to prove to be worthy of her role to her people and herself. When the Thunder Helm was stolen she felt as if a shadow had fallen over her. She then said that my arrival amongst this chaos must have been the work of Lady Urbosa, the Champion of the Gerudo and a chief too. She then placed the helm on. It was a bit big, so she had to hold it up.

That helm… It lay by their sides on a few pillows. They sat on a blanket, looking out at the marvelous view of the night desert from so high up. Princess Zelda had fallen asleep on her shoulder. She said that I certainly gotten there fast. She told me Zelda was out surveying all day. Then she asked if we were getting along. After a few moments she said that it was okay, my silence spoke volumes. She told me that Princess Zelda gets frustrated every time she sees me with the legendary sword on my back. She feels like a failure when it came to her own destiny. She told me to not worry, none of it was my fault. She said that for her whole life the princess had gone through rigorous daily routines to show her dedication, there was even a time when she had passed out in freezing waters trying to gain her spiritual powers. Yet she has nothing to show for it. She said that’s what motivates her to do so much research. She then added that if she were in her place, she’d do the exact same thing. She said the princess was quite special as she placed some stray hairs behind the princess’ ear. She told me to make sure to protect her with my life, it was an honor to do so. She said that the nights here are freezing so it was time to take the princess in. She paused for a moment, smirking before snapping her fingers causing lightning to strike, startling the princess awake. Seeing her reaction, she couldn’t hold in that hearty laughter.

Chief Riju asked if something was wrong for I had been staring for a while. But then said that it didn’t really matter. She asked how it looked on her. I said it was a tad big. Then in that moment it slid off her a little. She swiftly adjusted it and started to speak of Vah Naboris. She said that within the time it took me to get back it’s reach had already grown exponentially. We could both see a massive sandstorm brewing not far off in the distance. The town, and the rest of Hyrule would very soon be in danger. She told me that as chief it was her duty to protect her people and asked me for help. I obviously agreed. She commented on how funny it was that right before such a dangerous battle ‘hearing a simple, confident pledge of support from you would be what puts me at ease.’ Hearing that gave me a kind of joy I hadn’t felt before.

We left for a place called the ‘Lookout Post’ It was near the storm, but not quite caught up in it yet. There was her personal Sandseal, Patricia waiting for us. Sandseals are the creature used as transportation here since horses can’t run on sand. The rider stands on a large shield or something similar. You use straps to control the Sandseal. They swim though in the sand so a person can’t exactly ride on their backs. The plan was for me to shoot at Vah Naboris’ feet with bomb arrows. It draws it’s power from the ground so if we damaged those enough we’d probably get an opening to the inside. Chief Riju controlled the Sandseal and provided protection from the lightning by wearing the helm. The helm can provide some protection to the area around her so by both of us riding on the same shield I should not get hit by lightning.

Before the fight I changed into my Champion’s tunic since it’s my best armor. I at least wore some ruby jewelry since the sun was setting and it was about to get cold. Chief Riju was surprised to see me. She rarely gets to see voe since they’re not allowed in town. Yet though I certainly look different I wasn’t that different. Though I’m a guy I really liked being a woman for a while. Honestly, I’ll probably wear my Gerudo clothing when traveling even though I don’t need to.

We looked out into the storm and could just barely see the Divine Beast lurking within. It was pretty intimidating. When she asked once more if I was sure I was prepared I said of course. She really liked my confidence. She also told me that if I got too injured or struck by lightning even once she promised that we’d retreat to the lookout post. Though we were going into battle she didn’t want us to do anything reckless under any circumstances. It was then that we finally set off.

The wind was ferocious, and with sand being kicked up aiming and firing was nearly impossible. I was only able to get any shots in if we got extremely close. Lightning exploded all around us, and the crashing noises it caused was defining. I had to focus all of my effort into simply drawing my bow let alone shooting. I have no idea what would have happened should Chief Riju not have been there. Vah Naboris quickly became more aggressive, moving faster and making the storm more like a tornado. The Divine Beast even kicked out one of its legs which got me to fall off the shield. The Chief tried to come back for me, but the Sandseal was scared off and she too fell off the shield. It was about to stamp one of its feet on her when I tossed myself holding a Sheikah bomb at it. My head was ringing, and my body felt numb. Thankfully Sheika bombs don’t use fire or gunpower so all that hit me was just the force of the explosion which is much more powerful than a regular bomb arrow, but I had the sand to cushion my fall, so I was relatively fine. I tried explaining that to the chief, but she was furious with me for doing something to dangerous. Though this did not last long because we realized that Vah Naboris was now falling on us. I swiftly took her under my arm and booked it out of there. We just made it in time to not get crushed. The storm quickly subsided, and the lightning had completely stopped. But I knew that like the other Divine Beasts it wouldn’t stay down long so I went searching for an entrance. I told her that it would be best to return to town given the fact that going in there meant you’d have to fight a living nightmare but she refused saying that it’s her duty to protect her people, and if I continued to throw myself into danger then I’d die before appeasing Vah Naboris.

As we found an entrance it was already getting back up on it’s feet. Once we were inside, though our footing was steady we could still feel ourselves bobbing up and down with the Divine Beast which was such a strange feeling. A voice echoed about in my mind leading us to the guidance stone. This beast seemed to be much more open. There were so many places where I could see the outside from inside.

Whenever I had to fight, I had the Chief stay back. At one point she asked that when she was a little older if I could teach her. The Gerudo are known for being amazing warriors but she could be even greater if she could learn more than just the traditional Gerudo style. I wasn’t sure what to say. I believe learning different styles of fighting is important, but… The battle against the Calamity will be unlike anything I’ve faced before in memory, and last I faced it, I failed. So, how was I to say that I would even still be around to teach her? But I couldn’t bring myself to say ‘no’, so I agreed. I just feel awful now.

Each time we took back a terminal I heard confident words of affirmation and praise in my mind.

Soon all that remained was a control panel. Before placing the Sheikah Slate on it I told the chief that she needed to stay close to me. After placing down the slate for a moment I took the chief’s hand and ran as a mucked black and purple mist exploded forth from the control panel, then taking the shape of a disgusting creature wielding a sword and shield. With that same damned bright blue eye. The thing that had killed Urbosa a hundred years ago. It moved so fast it was simply a blur. Next thing I knew I was clutching the chief against my chest as that thing’s sword was swiftly pulled out of my side. I swung at it as much as I could before it disappeared. I was able to jump out of the way of its next attack while still holding the chief. It soon used lightning attacks which thanks to the chief we were unaffected by. It soon threw down metal rods. Lightning bounced across them, using the magnet ability I threw one of the rods at it, electrifying and shocking it. It was then I was able to land the final attack, finishing it off.

I asked her if she was alright to which she said she was, thanks to me. But she was extremely concerned about the wound I had in my side. I told her that as long as I ate something, I’d be fine. I quickly got back to the control panel and apologized to the chief for her having to deal with my body after I fainted. I then placed the slate on the panel. I heard foot falls behind me. She thanked me for freeing Naboris, and her. We could finally do what we set out to a hundred years ago which was a relief since Gerudo have no tolerance for unfinished business. She said that she’s been waiting for so long for me to rush Hyrule Castle, and for her to use Naboris’ full power against the Calamity. She knew how the princess and I both greatly suffered due to the after math of the Champions falling but that just was how things had to happen. No one need carry the blame. She asked me that I make sure that the princess understood that without a single doubt. To tell her to shed any worries. And to let her know that she couldn’t be more proud of her. Then she told me to take good care of her and Hyrule.

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maze-zen · 5 years ago

Note

for the prompt thing, e/c and “could you be any louder?” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Thanks for your ask @lalyredapollon and sorry for taking a month to write this.

While it was obvious to make it smutty, I got another idea and I hope it works! (and once again I couldn't keep it under 1K - sorry)

The Audition

"Could you try a little louder?"

Christine cringed at the words spoken by the casting director. Auditioning at the Palais Garnier had been a dream of hers ever since her father took her to see a performance there when she was a little girl.

Now here she was, auditioning for the first staging of an opera in this space since 1989 where the Opera Bastille had opened and all productions were moved there, except for the ballet corps and the occasional symphony. However, recent developments at the Bastille had forced the company to move its future productions to the Palais for the time being.

In this occasion of 'turning a new leaf' they'd allowed open auditions for all trained opera singers, something they must've regretted deeply according to Carlotta Giudicelli (yes, THE Carlotta

Giudicelli) who had come to gossip with Christine after they'd both passed the second audition. She was no threat to Carlotta, so the diva had seemed to take her under her wing. Christine was personally glad for the open auditions because it gave her an opportunity to show her worth; something she hadn't done at the Academy where she'd barely scraped through after her father's passing.

But she was ready now. That's what she told herself.

Carlotta had been nice to Christine up until they had both been handed the score of Marguerite at this third and final audition held on the stage itself where they had to prove they were worthy of the famous stage. Christine had been more surprised than the diva, but she'd checked with the casting assistant who'd shown her the list:

Christine Daaè - Marguerite

As much as the written words had frightened her, they had also provided her with a strange thrill. To imagine herself in the iconic role on the great stage of the most breathtaking opera house in the world was a dream come true. Both for her and her late father.

However, the reality of accomplishing that was close to none and still diminishing with every moment. Using the acoustics of the magnificent auditorium was part of Christine's training, something she'd done many times at the Bastille Opera where students of the Academy were trained, but even then she hadn't been very good at it and had often barely managed to get a place in the chorus. The idea that she should be able to fill the Palais with her voice was preposterous.

"Take all the time you need, mlle Daaè," the casting director said politely with a smile that showed she was clearly impatient with Christine. It shouldn't be an issue for an opera singer to use the full capacity of their lungs, yet Christine always felt herself holding back.

She opened her mouth to tell the casting director that she wouldn't be able to do it when a whispered murmur sounded in her left ear. Turning around to see who it was, she found no one. There were stagehands in the auditorium working on getting the stage prepared for the first rehearsals. She must've heard one of them from the orchestra pit, she realized, remembering how easily voices carried here, although she couldn't see anyone down there at the moment.

"Reposition your back," the whisper came again, this time loud enough to understand. "Align your hips and push your chest forward. Good girl," the Voice said and Christine subconsciously found herself its direction.

"Who said that?" She turned to look after the man who'd spoken, certain that it had come from the left side of the stage. Although it had sounded like he'd been just beside her, whispering directly into her ear.

"Said what?" The casting director shot her a look telling her to get on with it.

"I apologize," Christine muttered, feeling a furious blush spreading over her cheeks, "I must've heard a stagehand say something."

"The stagehands are finished for today. There's only us here," the casting director gestured to the near dozen people observing her from the first few rows. It was easy to see Carlotta's condescending smirk.

Had none of them heard anything? She was trembling a little now. Perhaps she'd finally gone crazy, or maybe it was a ghost! She recalled the rumours about a ghost disrupting the rehearsals at the Opera Bastille and then the chandelier crashing into the empty audience seats; it had been the catalyst that forced the company to move back to the Palais Garnier. Was the ghost haunting her now?

No, it was all silly superstition, the managers had promised. The chandelier was old and had been loosened by recent repairs to the ceiling. The disruptions at rehearsals were caused by overly sensitive divas. And no ghost would bother to haunt little Christine Daaè.

She decided once more to capitulate, but as she opened her mouth to stop the audition, the Voice spoke again, this time rapidly. "Ignore my presence, Christine Daaè, but listen to my command and sing like you were born to do. Breathe in deeply and let it out!"

And she did.

She sang gloriously, saturating the opera with her voice as the opera had built to be - as her voice deserved to do. As she had been born to do according to the Voice.

Every time there was a moment to breathe, the Voice would speak - encourage her - so she didn't have time to doubt herself.

"Look into the back row, so the audience will feel your splendor. Lift your arms to open your lungs further. You are a descendant from the greatest to have sung on this stage and now you are where you belong!"

It felt as though the spirit of him combined with her voice, creating the most astonishing sound. While she should've been frightened by the way he seemed to command her with his voice, all she felt was alive for the first time since her father's death.

It was his influence that caused her to complete the aria without a single flaw. When the last note rang out in the massive room, the observers sat silently for several moments while Christine's breathing slowed. Then everyone began to applaud, even Carlotta who seemed awestruck.

"Brava," the Voice supplied and the smooth, sensual tone made her shiver. "Dressing room 11 in one hour. Don't be late."

Christine knew she wouldn't be. She was where she belonged.

#phanfic #e/c #poto modern au #poto fanfic #erik has plans

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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Hey! I want you to know that I adore your BSD meta analysis! Do you have any ships in this fandom? Which ones are your favourites?

Thank you for enjoying my meta! If you have any more Bungo Stray Dogs questions feel free to send them, it’s a manage I could talk about forever. I have a number of favorite ships (Soukoku, Shin Soukoku, RanPoe, FyoGol). If you want me to talk about any of those feel free to send follow up asks and I’ll devote their own answer to each of them. However, since you asked me about my favorite I’m going to use this to talk about my favorite rare pair, Atsushi and Lucy.

Atsushi and Lucy have been one of my favorite ships for the series since the two of them showed their scars to one another. One of my favorite things about the two of them is that they’re so similiar they kind of rub against each other and irritate each other the same way Shin Soukoku do. Shin Soukoku agitate each other’s self loathing, whereas for AtsuLucy it’s like they both challenge each other’s complete lack of emotional intellligence.

Atsushi and Lucy are both well meaning kids (well not at first for Lucy, but she gets there). They’re both orphans who are starved for love. However the problem is because they’ve never been shown any healthy idea of love, or even how to get along with other people they both tend to be super self absorbed. They are more or less raging victim complexes.

It’s just that when they met each other, Atsushi assumed he was justified in always playing hero because he was a victim, and Lucy thought she was justified in only caring about her own survival first before anything else even harming others because she was a victim. They both completely shut out other people’s feelings and kind of always act on what they want, because they’ve been told their entire lives that their own feelings and wants don’t matter. Atsushi and Lucy kind of cut off other people’s feelings and focus on their own as a means of survival.

Which is why they’re so challenging to be around each other. They both kind of challenge the roles that the other plays, Atsushi knows that Lucy’s not a bad girl and denies her her chance to play villain. Lucy also kind of denies him his chance to play hero, because in the end even though she told him to save her, Atsushi was so busy trying to save everyone else he couldn’t prioritize her. Lucy actually gets angry at him for that. And that’s the thing about Atsushi, he’s so focused on getting everybody to love him he really can’t enjoy love from an individual person. He’s so insecure that he can’t believe in any relationship he’s made because he’s too busy trying to prove himself as worthy of love over and over again.

Atsushi is geuinely well intentioned, and wants to save other people, but when it comes to taking care of their feelings he has the emotional intelligence of wet cardboard. Lucy is at least understanding enough of people who are similiar to her, (Atsushi, Kyouka) she’s able to spot that flaw in Atsushi and confront him about it.

It’s like ever since Atsushi and Lucy met they were destined to show each other their scars. It’s my favorite scene in the whole manga, because from that point forward it became impossible for Lucy to deny Atsushi’s feelings. Lucy couldn’t see herself as the only person suffering alone anymore.

It’s a confronation that’s genuinely emotional. And in a lot of manga, characters fight about their feelings rather than directly confronting them and talking about them without the use of violence. It’s a moment where both of them were fragile and vulnerable and because of that it brought about a genuine change in Lucy.

I kind of like how when Atsushi is still so dead set on saving absolutely everybody with no regards to himself, it’s Lucy who sees how self destructive that behavior is and tries to save Atsushi from himself. Considering it was Lucy who ultimately made the decision to change herself, who escaped from the airship on her own and saved herself, I really think Lucy is a person who could be equals in a relationship with Atsushi and challenge him to relate to other people as people instead of always having to play hero. She could be the first person to communicate him that people want him around because they like him, not because he’s useful.

They just interact with each other like real people and not like anime characters? Like, Lucy gets mad at him when he’s oblivious, and doesn’t think about other people’s feelings. They’re bad at communicating, and Lucy doesn’t like it when Atsushi avoids her instead of directly confronting someone. They have little mundane squabbles that kind of bring out the life in both characters. I feel like these are the problems an actual relationship would need to work through, especially between two traumatized kids who have no real idea how to be in a relationship in the first place.

Lucy wants Atsushi to be a person around her, not a hero boy, and I just think that’s neat.

#bungo stray dogs #atsushi nakajima #lucy maud montgomery #atsulucy #spooky speaks #eurekapendragon

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valkyrieelysia18 · 5 years ago

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RWBY Rewrite: Penny Polendina

Salutations Tumblr users! Today, we tackle beloved fan favorite robot girl Penny Polendina.

Now as I stated before, I dropped RWBY after Volume 6 and didn’t really watch Volume 7. I have however heard about certain developments and one plot point made me grateful I got out earlier or I would have rage quit this Volume anyway.

They brought back Penny, with all her memories completely intact.

This destroys one of the best pieces of writing in the show. Penny’s death was meant to symbolize the death of innocence in the show and it led in to the Fall of Beacon as well as Pyrrha’s death. Up until now, the show had been treating it as if a real girl had died. Vexed Viewer on YouTube has done a video on the topic that explains this better than I could. Even if they were going to bring Penny back in some way, she shouldn’t have been exactly the same as if nothing happened. Such as her memory of Vale (and everyone she met) being completely gone or her personality being significantly changed she isn’t even the same person anymore.

So, in this post I am going to be going over her history, role in the plot, and ‘successor’ for the Atlas Arc.

Creation and History

Okay, slight can of worms, but if Doctor Polendina is black, why is his daughter one of the most obviously white characters of the cast?

Alright, there actually is a legitimate reason for that in this rewrite. Penny’s physical features are actually based on Pietro’s late wife Clara Polendina (reference to the Nutcracker ballet) who worked with her husband. The two were very much happy and in love, but Clara died in a Grimm attack before they could have children. Thus, Penny is basically the daughter Pietro never got to have with her. Clara won’t come up that much in the Rewrite, but she was close to both of her husband’s prized students Arthur Watts and Willow Schnee. Arthur would note the resemblance and bring it up during his final confrontation with the doctor (This is what you ruined my life for as well as countless others?! Clara would be ashamed.) Willow would also bring it up and notice the similarities in both Penny and her successor.

However, the Atlas military and Ironwood’s desires to build something like Penny is less heartwarming. There was the original desire of making stronger robots for mass production to protect humans that evolved into infiltration and espionage purposes. But James Ironwood would see Polendina’s plans and see an immense opportunity. A young woman who would never age or die. An individual that they would never have to worry about running away or disobeying orders. Such a person becoming a Maiden would mean that they would never have to worry about the transfer process ever again. That would explain why Penny said that it would be her job to save the world one day, but they don’t think she’s ready for it yet. She is Ironwood’s hope for the future of the Maidens. And just in case she isn’t perfected in time for the next transfer, Winter is being trained and kept in reserve. Ironwood would provide all of the materials Pietro could need, including a crystalized substance that no one knows much about other than it being a classified by the military. It’s source will be noted in a spoiler’s section in this post, but it’s the very thing finally got things to work.

But while Pietro is aware something is up and suspicious of Ironwood’s intentions, he loves his little robot daughter regardless. There will be some flashbacks involving her first days awake (showing her curiosity and determination) as well as her bidding her father good bye when she leaves for the Vytal Festival.

Vale

The only thing I’d really change about Penny in the Vale Arc is giving her more time to interact with the cast, especially Ruby. What we got was okay, but I think it would be much more impactful if Ruby got to spend more time with Penny before her death. I’d definitely like it if Penny would bring up her father during their conversations, saying she was sure that two of them would get along given how much Ruby likes weapons.

It might be also nice for Pyrrha to feel a little off by her sensing all the metal when they first meet, but not realize why or how important that is. Just bit of foreshadowing.

Pelia

So, as you might have guessed by now, Penny will stay dead in this Rewrite. With the kind of story and tone I’m working with, it’s important that there is legitimate consequences to events and actions of the characters. As such, characters who died will stay dead. They may be referenced, appear in flashbacks, haunt our characters’ dreams, perhaps having a spirit linger with unfinished business to help the main characters on their path, but there is no chance of resurrection.

Not that Pietro wasn’t thinking along the same lines as others had considering Penny is a robot. They did manage to retrieve her body and core, but when he managed to build a new body, reboot, and restart, it wasn’t Penny greeting him. Rather, it was a completely personality. And they did not recognize anything or anyone. Pietro was devastated.

Thus I introduce Pelia Polendina, or Pelly. This is reference to the Coppelia ballet that actually includes a toy inventor trying bring a doll to life that he calls a daughter, much like Pinocchio. Only instead of magic bringing a puppet to life, the inventor tries to bring Coppelia to life by stealing a human soul and putting it in the doll. Quite the dark contrast and is actually going to be a bit of foreshadowing. I will say her appearance is actually pretty similar to Penny’s redesign with longer hair, though I would picture her more similar to dishwasher 1910′s design in https://www.deviantart.com/dishwasher1910/art/penny3-0-SD-758463321 . Check them out on DeviantArt, their work is amazing.

Pelia is considerably different than Penny. Whereas Penny was bright, enthusiastic, and rather trusting; Pelly is subdued, talks very mechanically, and is significantly less naïve. While Penny longed to be a part of something greater and be with humans despite her lack of social skills, Pelly avoids most people and is afraid of what Atlas(and by extension Ironwood) wants with a robot like her. This is partly due to her finding about Penny and how the world reacted with the Fall of Beacon.

In regards to Penny, she feels rather guilty about being alive in her place though she doesn’t quite realize that’s what she is feeling. This would lead to her trying to find out everything she could on Penny to understand her emotions, learning about Ruby and the others in the process. Pietro is devastated by the loss and incredibly frustrated with her, not really considering her alive in the same way Penny was which given her personality isn’t that unreasonable to think. Pelia does care about her creator and tries to assist him in what ways she can, but his attitude towards her is not positive and as such she mostly stays out of his way.

Atlas

Pelia’s first proper appearance would be in the Atlas Arc when the group visits Doctor Polendina for weapons repairs after their meeting with Ironwood doesn’t go well and the good doctor isn’t the on the best terms with the General at present. The man is not pleased or in the mood to humor them, though he does defrost a little when Ruby shows her geeky know how on weapons. (He may have also said some rather terrible things about Pyrrha which made the group somewhat grateful JNR wasn’t there.) As the group leaves the building and goes on their way, Ruby looks up to the upstairs window as she feels she’s being watched. She doesn’t see anything, but as she turns and walks away Pelia comes into view from the window. Having recognized who the people who just visited were, Pelly sneaks out and follows the group in the secret for a while.

She finally gets revealed while the group is watching Weiss dance ballet at a Mantle Community Theater. The Atlas Arc is primarily Weiss centric and part of her Arc in proving herself as worthy of the Schnee name will have her prove herself to people of Mantle. One such instance will have her helping out at the community theatre in learning and teaching dance. It’s in which she is showing off her skills Pelia accidentally reveals herself to the group having been incredibly entranced in ballet (little show to her inspiration). Ruby at first mistakes her for Penny so she gets very emotional, only to temper down when she realizes Pelia’s not her. The situation is cleared up and the group gets more insight into the situation of Atlas as well as the strain between the General and Pietro.

Pelia has three distinct dynamics of interactions with the group: Ruby on Penny, Weiss and Winter on siblings, and Oscar on succession. With Ruby, Pelia gets to know more about Penny as a person and Ruby gets a chance to fully process her loss. Pelia’s not Penny, but she comes to appreciate her all the same. Ruby also comes up with Yang in regards to sibling interactions, but Pelia’s focus in this case is more on the Schnee siblings. She’s basically wondering what sisters act like and whether Penny would have seen her as a sister. This lets her get some ballet lessons from Weiss as well as close to Winter. Then there’s her relationship with Oscar with the two of them having to deal with their predecessors and the problems they’ve let them to deal with. The both of them come to realize through talking with each other is that they shouldn’t compare themselves to those who came before. They have their own views and ways of doing things different from their predecessors and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The only thing they can do is do things the best THEY can.

The big turning point in the Atlas Arc for Pelia is when Pietro finds out abut the Winter Maiden and what Ironwood’s original plans were. While I am majorly rewriting the Atlas Arc, I do actually like the idea of an old Winter Maiden who is on her last legs. Pietro doesn’t get all the details of course, but it gives him the idea that the magic could bring Penny back to life. Aside from the whole ‘Dead means dead’ world I’m working with, it’s also a way to show that magic that cannot bring back the dead. I know that’s very much true in the show though not directly stated, but here I want to lay the ground rules down on what magic is and is not capable of.

After being called back by Pietro and assisting him in breaking into the facility where the transfer is soon to take place, the two enter the room that was originally prepped for Winter (who is distracted with everyone else on things going wrong due to Pietro’s interference) with the old woman in the pod. Pietro has explained things and orders Pelia to get in the other pod. Pelia doesn’t move, having been conflicted during this entre plan which shows all over her face. The doctor orders again, much firmer this time. A few moments pass as she thinks it over; fear, doubt, determination all playout in her expressions. Finally, she speaks. “No.”

While Pelia may have been built to be a weapon, she still has free will. Unlike Penny who accepted her role without many doubts, Pelia rejects that her only purpose is to be someone’s tool of war. She wants to help others, but she doesn’t want to fight. I think that if you bring choice into a story as a main theme, you also have to give the characters the choice not to fight, to walk away even if they don’t actually do it. Above all, Pelia doesn’t think that sacrificing others for herself is what Penny would have wanted after having met Ruby and gotten to know what she was like.

She would tell this to Pietro, who would get furious and argue with her. this would continue until they were interrupted by Watts. Watts, with revenge on the brain, would focus on Doctor Polendina and tell Pelia to run along. I know this seems a little hypocritical for Watts to do this considering his advice to Cinder in Volume 5, but this a different situation. Spoilers for the future Atlas Arc Rewrite and future James Ironwood post, go to the next paragraph if you don’t want spoilers. You see, the villains don’t need the Winter Maiden to open the Vault for them because Ironwood already took the Relic of Creation out of the Vault years ago (and is NOT holding up Atlas). In fact, a bit of the power from the staff was used to create Penny which was the the crystalized substance. Watts knows this due to his hacking Ironwood’s system and has already retrieved the Relic and sent it on the way to Salem. This will make the results in Atlas a lot more bittersweet: our heroes will win on the people’s side of things, but lose the Relic. Back to Watts, the man is all about efficiency. While the Winter Maiden’s powers would be nice, they don’t have a vessel for it at the moment and it’s not necessary for their primary goal. Once the business side of things is taken care of, then he’ll indulge in revenge.

Pelia, while conflicted, would run and get to the group to tell them everything. She would then spend the rest of the conflicting helping to escort and treat the wounded, giving her a presence to the people of Atlas. Pietro will be arrested and will be convicted for his crimes, Watts dead but having gotten the last laugh in the end with his technological abilities exposing his teacher and those who left him out to dry.

Once everything is settled, Pelly will stay behind in Atlas as the new right hand of new Headmistress Winter Schnee. Basically, she becomes the Glynda to Winter’s Ozpin (though Winter is a much more hands on no nonsense person). She bids the group goodbye, hoping to Ruby that they will meet again.

After Atlas

I don’t have much in mind for Pelia after the Atlas Arc except for two things. Firstly, that she and Pietro do eventually reconcile and develop something of a relationship when she visits him in prison on her off days. (Jacques is not so lucky in regards to his children.)

The second is when she and Winter will meet everyone at the lowest point of the story. Ruby will have learned some pretty dark truths, including some choices her mother made that’s really made her think. Pelia will actually have a similar conversation with Ruby that she had with Oscar. In how she’s no more Penny than Ruby is Summer. She’ll remark that perhaps Ruby put her mother on a bit too much of a pedestal thanks to the way her family viewed her. When in reality Summer was just a person and people make mistakes. Right now, what choices Summer made in the past aren’t what matters. What matters is what Ruby wants to do now.

Okay, I think I started before the coronavirus stuff went crazy. I am so sorry. Not sure when I’ll get beck to this.

However, I know the next subject is going to quite the doozy...

#rwde #rwby rewrite #penny polendina #dr polendina #ruby rose #weiss schnee #Oscar Pine #winter schnee

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nightowlfandom · 5 years ago

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Kim Taehyung- Amor Fabula~Sound Of Heart (ALSO 200th POST, WEEEE)

Alrighty my friends! Let’s skip the casual talk and hop right into it! Once again this is part of the Amor Fabula Saga over on the @btswriterscorner blog.

Bro...life has been kicking my ass and it’s literally killing me on the inside like wow why does Earth hate me right now?...but Ima push that aside to get this deadline done.

Let’s begin. (I felt like changing it up from ‘leggo’)

...

It was foreign to him. He didn’t know what it meant let alone how to feel it. He walls were so high up, they could rival the gates of heaven. No one knew why. What had hurt him to the point where he was so angry at the very idea of love, or even companionship?

You were the opposite. Not only were you in love with the idea of love, but you seemed to attract it in more ways than one. Whether from your friends, or even random strangers. Even if you had none of those things, the word just seemed to radiate off you like heat radiated off the sun.

With all that being said, make no mistake. You weren’t interested in trying to fix a broken man. You already had yourself to worry about. Who were you to try to love a man who hated the word almost as much as he seemed to hate himself? Who was he to fool himself into thinking anyone could care for him?

These are the questions that need to be answered in today’s world.

...

You were walking down the halls of the office building, staring down at your phone. Deleting emails required a whole other level of focus. You could barely muster an audible hello to the front desk woman who seemed to be in her own little world as well.

“Y/N! “ your work friend, Yuna rushed to your side.

“Hm?” you mumbled, looking up from your phone. You lowered the device and put it in your pocket. “What’s up?” You were on your way to the lounge room when she ran up. She looked a hot mess. Hair sticking up in strange places, sweating bullets, and you were sure she had hauled herself over traffic by foot just to tell you the news.

“It’s The chairman’s son!” she managed to get out.

“What about the chairman’s son?” You curiously raised an eyebrow. “Is he in town to tell us that we’re all trash and should be fired?”

“No, not Duke. The youngest one!”

“You mean...Taehyung? His adoptive son, right??” you raised an eyebrow, just to make sure you and her were on the same page. “The chairman has so many children I don’t even keep count.”

“Yes! He’s the new CEO!” she looked both pissed off and absolutely mortified. “ I just saw him fire Rai and Sera in front of everybody!”

“I would think you’d be excited for that. You hate them. “ You huffed, not really seeing what she was on about. “Like last week you were talking about how you wished Sera would literally get hit by a train.”

“Okay but he sent the both of them out crying! Like he was so harsh it wasn’t even funny enough for me to crack a smile.” she explained.

That was when you realized she was absolutely serious. “Wait...The chairman really stepped down?” you paused. “The original chairman, I mean. I thought he was going into-”

“Change of plans.” she knew exactly what you were going to say. “The chairman insisted. Apparently he’s an old man and all his companies need someone to watch over them while he focuses on his retirement. Taehyung was the first person to offer.”

“Yuna, are you for real?” you grabbed her shoulders. “Be serious.”

“Yes!” she nodded quickly. “Taehyung just sent an email that he’s making cuts to every department!” she looked like she was about to freak out. “I can’t get fired! I’ve worked so hard Y/N!” She looked like she was about to cry and you didn’t like that at all.

“Yuna, calm down! I’m sure the chairman wouldn’t allow that.” you shook your head. “Just because he’s boss now doesn’t mean he can get rid of us.”

“Y/N I love your optimism but you don’t know that for sure.” Yuna looked unsure. “I mean look at us, he’s probably gonna turn this place into a warehouse and just work us all to death! I’m not some kind of puppet! WE’RE GONNA TURN INTO SLUDGE. SLUDGE DOES NOT LOOK GOOD IN HIGH HEELS.”

“Listen, Yuna. I’m not gonna let that daddy’s boy fire you or me. He’ll have to say it to my face before I let him say it to yours.” you seethed.

“Is that so?”

You and Yuna both froze in place.

‘He behind me isn’t he?’ You whispered. She slowly nodded, which made you grumble profanities under your breath. You whipped around and saw the daddy’s boy himself.

“You must be Y/N...you were always my father’s favorite.” he crossed his arms. “I can’t see why.”

“Excuse me?” you put a hand on your hip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly how it sounds Miss. L/N. My father speaks highly of both you and your friend but from what I’ve seen, those accolades are undeserved and could very much be replaced by those who are more qualified, wouldn’t you say?”

Now you were aware of what was going on. He was trying to rile you up. It was working...but not well enough.

“Well..Mr.Kim.” you sighed, straightening out your shoulders. “ I’m sorry you feel that way.” you bowed respectfully. “I’ll make sure to do better to prove to you that I’m a worthy member of the new team you end up building...Yuna, are you coming?” you went to walk past him, Yuna on your tail.

“I think you made him mad!”

“Good, people like him are better off that way anyways. He might be the new boss but as long we we’re in the same age group, he has no power over me. Fuck his rules.”

“Y/N, you don’t know who Taehyung is do you? Like what he does?”

“Not really and I can’t say I care too much.” you scoffed. ‘Why?”

“Kim Taehyung is the current president of the Lottery division for the government.” Yuna stopped you two from walking. “You know that thing where your parents are in charge of giving you a new husband?”

“Yeah? But I haven’t spoken to my parents in 3 years...you know this.” you narrowed your eyebrows at her. Your parents were a touchy subject and you hated talking about them. “What does that have to do with the anything?”

“If your parents don’t decide...HE does.” she emphasized. “Seriously do you even watch the news?”

“No.” you shook your head. “It’s depressing and stupid.” you huffed. “I don’t exactly follow politic either.”

“Well you need to start. Police officers, corrupt politicians...they got nothing on that guy. He’s the most feared man in this government because the population depends on him. I heard he made his ex who cheated on him marry a convicted felon.”

“Then why would he take the role of CEO for a company that has nothing to do with the government?”

“...So he can see whose life he wants to ruin first...either that, or he’s planning something big and needs a time waster like working for a small company like this one.”

You didn’t flinch...at least not on the outside. Yeah you knew about the Sweep Lottery, you just hated thinking about it. You were hoping you could avoid it until the time came. Guess that plan wasn’t going to work.

...

It wasn’t even half a year with Taehyung as the new head of the company and everyone was already miserable! You all were being worked to the bone and you were positive a few team members had quit. 5 months of being yelled at and ridiculed for no reason other than the fact that he was your boss.

“Who does he think he is!” Yuna snapped. “And we can’t even talk to the chairman! He’s in Hawaii for the weekend.”

“He’s literally going to run what Mr. Kim had worked so hard to build into the ground. I can’t stand him!” another friend, Rina kicked back another shot of who knew what. It definitely wasn’t soju. “I swear if I was allowed to, I’d run him over.”

“You guys I don’t like this anymore than you do but-”

“YOU JERK!” You were cut off when a high-pitched scream ripped through the small restaurant. You, Rina, and Yuna all turned to the commotion. A girl was getting ready to throw a drink at someone, but not just anyone.

“Is that Taehyung?!” Rina managed to get the words out through her drunken hiccups. Rina was right, Taehyung was at the receiving end of all that commotion. He just stood there with a partially amused look on his face as the girl ran off screaming at the top of her lungs.

“How much you guys wanna bet he steals baby kittens in his freetime?” you mumbled. Taehyung must have heard your laughing because he turned towards your group. While you and Rina laughed amongst yourselves, Yuna held up her glass in a ‘cheers’ motion as she also held up the middle finger with her free hand. He looked as if he genuinely couldn’t care less until his eyes landed on yours. All you could do was make a heartbreak motion with your hands as your turned back towards your friends. Serves him right.

As the night carried on, you and your friends carried on too. You decided you all drank enough for the night as just made time to enjoy yourselves. You couldn’t help but think of what happened earlier with Taehyung though. That girl just technically embarrassed him and he brushed it off. It made you wonder exactly what he was hiding. Or why he didn’t care.

...

You were now sitting at the bar by yourself. Yuna had taken Rina’s drunk ass home and you hung behind just to gather your thoughts to yourself. If Yuna was right. It just made him look like a huge jerk.

“Bet you thought that was funny, did you?”

You turned around and saw Taehyung standing behind you.

“Absolutely.” you replied honestly. “Side splittingly hilarious.” you said in monotone, lifting your drink to your lips. “Let me guess...a girlfriend of yours?”

“I don’t exactly see you here with a boyfriend.” he rolled his eyes. “Can I sit?”

“Relationships are useless in this country. Go ahead.” you sighed. “...sucks doesn’t it?” you giggled.

“Yeah.” he grumbled. “Mind if I drink?”

You figured since you weren’t at work, you could hold off on hating his guts for a while. You handed your full glass over to him. You stared at him as he took a sip of the liquor.

“Fuck...” he groaned, running a hand through his hair. “Be honest with me, am I an asshole?”

“Yes.” you answered quickly. “A huge festering, fissuring, painfully obvious asshole.”

“Right.” he sighed, sliding the glass over to you. “Figured as such. I can set people up but can’t seem to find myself a mate.”

“Well are you looking for a wife or a baby-maker.” you scoffed, causing him to laugh. “Whatever works for you, I guess.” you shrugged. “You are the one who calls the shots. Someone else could always do it for you.”

“Don’t remind me.” he glared. “Really, don’t.” he hiccuped. “I can’t even talk to a woman without her wanting to kill me. Half the time I’m not even the one doing the Sweep.”

“Like that girl from earlier?”

“No...and she wasn’t my girlfriend either. She threw her drink at me because I appointed her sister to marry boyfriend that apparently was hers.”

“Harsh.” you laughed. “Well, you only have yourself to blame. Taking love and happiness from others must be so tiring you joked.”

You suddenly noticed a lot of people in the bar were glaring potholes into Taehyung’s head. The looks they gave you varied on the pity spectrum. It was easy to see that Taehyung wasn’t the most popular man in town. It must have gave them pleasure seeing that girl throw a drink in his face.

“Well if the people of this country know the rules on government mandated marriage, then they should know what they’re getting themselves into before hand.” he rebutted. “....I overheard you and Yuna talking. You said something about your parents.”

“And the fact that I hate them?” you questioned. “Why?”

“Just wondering why you hate them so much.” he shrugged. “If you want to talk about it.

“...I caught my l mother cheating on my father with a younger man when I was young. My mother cheated on him every week and to an extent I even found her with one of my old high school classmates.” you huffed. “My father ran off with his accountant.” you explained. “Then again they hated each other when they got together.” you laughed. “So much for a loving household. That’s just what the lottery sweep does, right?” you jumped to your feet. “Well, I’m out of here.”

“You’re leaving?” he turned to look at you.

“I don’t exactly have a reason to stay here.” you tilted your head the side.

“The bar or...something else.” he trailed off.

“...Yes.” you replied, not really telling him what you were talking about.

...

To say that you were surprised to see Rina blazing mad. She walked up to you, a red envelope in her hand. However she instantly went from being pissed to absolutely defeated.

“He’s done it.” she quivered in her shoes. She thrust the envelope in your hands. “Read it.” she couldn’t even look at you.

“Um...Okay?” you trailed off, growing very concerned. “Did he fire you?”

“Even worse...just read.”

“ Rina Hiroka, the government is pleased to announce that you have been chosen from the random computer generated list of all the women in the country. You will be engaged to marry...Sung Robin by this time next year?!- Rina you’re kidding me!”

“It’s right there! I got the envelope at my door this morning!” she began to freak out. “I’m only 22! They can’t do that can they?” she asked, taking the envelope back from you.

“....I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out..” you seethed, suddenly recalling what Yuna had told you about Taehyung. “I’m gonna kill that little daddy’s boy executive.” you turned around, walking away from Rina.

“Y/N?....Where are you going!”

“To take the trash out.”

...

You didn’t even knock on the door before entering the office.

“Y/N L/N what makes you think you think you can just burst into my office without knocking first?”

“What makes YOU think you can just marry off Rina like she’s a piece of meat to some random?!” you spat.

“You don’t understand my line of work.” he casually turned back towards his computer. “Go back to work L/N.”

“Well guess what, I DO know your line of work. I understand real fucking well.” you scoffed, shutting the door behind you. “You are reeaalllly fucking sad, you know that?”

You insult caused him to stand to his feet. “What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me! YOU. ARE. SAD. Rina’s 22, she isn’t even out of college yet!” you pointed accusingly. “Yet you’re gonna marry her off? What is wrong with you old ass government creeps. Do you people get off to basically selling young women?”

“Would you be saying this is Rina wasn’t your close friend?” Taehyung laughed harshly. “Hypocrisy is a bad look on you, Y/N.”

“You’re one to talk!” you snapped. “I bet you make sure your friends end up with the girls on their dreams.” you scoffed.

“Even if I had friends....rules are rules.”

“One, that doesn’t answer my question, and Two, has it ever occured to you that the reason you don’t have friends is because you...hm I don’t know...ruin lives?”

“Like you’re any better!” Taehyung raised his voice even louder. “I bet some of your beliefs are just as fucked up and wrong.”

“...Oh you wanna go there?” you said lowly. “We can go there if you want...I am so ready to go there.”

“Y/N, just listen to me.”

"Don't you understand what you've done!? You've ruined so many lives in the past and you can't even bear to look at yourself because you know just exactly who the hell you are! I'd rather be delusional than a monster who just takes happiness from others despite everyone...and I DO MEAN EVERYONE stating just how fucked up this stupid lotto is! You want to talk about me and my beliefs...at least my beliefs don't come with emotional baggage."

“You don’t think I know that!?” he suddenly snapped. “I know, trust me I do!”

“Then why. you let me know because I’m having trouble seeing your reasoning.” you crossed your arms.

“I do this because my lottery makes sure that infidelity, adultery, all of that bullshit is obliterated.” he responded. “Times had changed since your parent’s lotto rules. My rules establish that all forms of adultery are to be punished.”

“Oh really, adultery? Adultery! There are a lot more things to think about other than adultery.” you mocked. “Does it end there? What about abuse, what about rules that enable child protection,what about rules about the death of a spouse? Did you think about that?”

Taehyung was silent.

“Has it ever occured to you that maybe you are so cynical that the thought of other people’s free will just pisses you off?” you challenged. “You think you’re helping people but in reality you just can’t bear to realize happy marriages exist.”

“Like you’re any better than me? You think you’re so great and pure? Your squeaky clean image with your can-do-no wrong attitude, Y/N.”

“Please.” you scoffed. “If you’re trying to rile me up you’re failing miserably.” you huffed. “You know what, whatever. I’m gonna get your father, also known as the REAL chairman of this company, on the phone and see what he has to say..” you rolled your eyes, beginning to walk past him.

“Y/N wait!” The voice was pleading. It was surprising enough to make you stop. “Please....I’m sorry. But...I just don’t get it...what the hell even is love? Are people just happy? 60% of marriages ended in divorce so obviously whatever was there before...isn’t there five to ten years down the line.”

“That’s a lie.” you looked away.

“....Look at how your parent’s turned out.” he dared to say. You’re glare was harsh, if even possible at this point.

“Listen...You don’t believe in love. I get that. However, is your selfishness really a determining factor in other people’s lives? My family was broken from the beginning.”

“What I want know is why do YOU believe in love. What about this fucking word- this concept is so important to you..” he sighed, walking up to you.

“Why don’t you” you refused to look at him. “Being told who I’m supposed to end up with...tell me Taehyung...would you want that?”

“I’m not the one who has to worry about it.” he said lowly.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” you found the wits about you to turn around to face him. “Yes or no?”

“...I can’t answer that.”

“Of course you fucking can’t. My parents hated me...they couldn’t stand me, how I was brought into the world. With all of that hate, and resentment in my heart, Love is the only thing I can turn to to keep me sane. My friends love me, my aunts and uncles love me...and yet-” you paused to laugh harshly. “Yet I can’t seek authentic love from someone else? Especially someone who I’m bound to have an ENTIRE ASS CHILD WITH. Love to me...is the closest thing I have to freedom.” you crossed your arms. “And this isn’t freedom...it’s suffocating.”

“Well good for you...you done?” he feigned boredom, which pissed you off even more.

“You don’t get it do you?” you said lowly. “And you never will.” you shook your head. “...You know what? I quit!” you yanked off your nametag. You threw it at him, which bounced off his head.

“Y/N! Y/N get back here!” he called after you.

When you got into the main hallway, you grabbed your purse and made haste for the lobby. Yuna was comforting Rina at the front desk.

“Y/N? Y/N?! Where are you going?” Yuna called after you.

“I quit.” you mumbled in response, stopping in place. “I can’t work here with him. I just can’t.” you reasoned.

“So you’re just gonna quit? What are you gonna do?” Rina paused her sobbing session. “I hope you didn’t quit because of me.”

“It isn’t just you.” you shook your head. “It’s him, and his ways on thinking and he-”

“Is walking up right behind you.” Yuna finished.

“What what I was gonna say, but-AAH!”

You felt something grab your arm and begin to pull you along. Taehyung was walking back in the direction of his office where you came from.

“Hey! Let me go! This is kidnap! Who do you think you are!?”

Just like that, you were taken back to his office. You were practically thrown into a chair. “Y’know this defeats the purpose of my quitting if I’m just gonna come right back!” you protested. “What do you want...”

“Teach me how to love.” were his only words.

“Excuse me?” you raised an eyebrow. “Teach you.”

“Y-yes! Since I’m so heartless and cruel like you think I am so...you’re gonna show me what love is...and how to do it.” his words made you laugh.

“Y-you want me..to show you what love is.” you burst into a fit of laughter. You quickly stopped when you saw he was dead serious. “Oh...you’re being serious?”

“I never kid, Y/N.” he raised an eyebrow. “ Since you seem so intent that I’m just some broken man-”

“I never said you were broken.” you cut him off.

“You didn’t have to...so you’re going to teach me what love is and if people can really survive with it.”

“How exactly are we gonna get you to believe in love?”

“We’re gonna get married.”

His words almost made you choke on air. “W-wait! Me and you?! Get married?!” you widened your eyes at his literal proposal. “Hold on a second!”

“We’re gonna live together, sleep in the same bed, and do all the things you’re supposed to do in a marriage and if you can get me to fall in love...and fall hard...then ‘ll get rid of the Sweep Lottery.”

Now you were interested, not only because you were surprised he had the power to even do that, but because of the deal he was making.

“You have a year.” he didn’t give you time to verify or deny his proposition. “Do you accept?”

“So you really expect to understand the concept of love in 12 months?” you asked honestly.

“Fine...we’ll be married for two years.” the expression never left his face. “Do you accept?”

You had to marinate on the subject. You have to prove to Taehyung that love was real, in two years. You had to get married to this guy in order to prove a point. Were you that stubborn? Call it selfish, but you were really so desperate to go against this man to prove something. Were you ready to rub such a thing in his face.

“....Bring it on.”

(I meant to post this around 3PM...then life got in the way so you’re getting it at 4:15 as I finish typing)

#btswriters corner #kim taehyung #taehyung imagines #kim taehyung imagines #kpop imagines #kpop scnearios #kpop au #bts #bts imagines #bts au #taehyung x reader #yoongi imagines #namjoon imagines #seokjin imagines #jimin imagines #jungkook imagines #kim taehyung x reader #amor fabula #nightowlfandom

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stargazerxzoe · 4 years ago

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Introduction: Zoe Castille

Terrestrial (2080-2086; Ages 0-6)

Life before the Academy was a blurry, faded snapshot – so distant that when Zoe looked back, she could hardly believe it was a life that had once belonged to her. The chill of an Alaskan winter, looking at the stars with her father through his department store telescope; the taste of hot-chocolate with floating marshmallows, and the colorful, twisting ribbons of the Aurora Borealis dancing over the snow-blanketed horizon.

Zoe came from humble beginnings; her mother a ballet teacher and her father working odd jobs in construction. When the Human Space Initiative (H.S.I.) issued a science-based aptitude test for the public schools to quietly administer to their students in search of recruits to their Academy, no one would have thought the shy, blue-eyed Zoe’s score would have been anything worth their attention.

Until, that same evening, two men in suits knocked on the weathered door of their home with the results: Zoe hadn’t just passed the test, she had improved it. In the margins of the exam, her little scribbles suggested corrections for the questions, pointing out foundational flaws in their logic, and defining concepts she didn’t know the names of, yet – somehow – innately understood. A six-year-old from No Where had somehow managed to untangle and exam manufactured by some of the leading scientific minds in the field.

They had to have her.

An education. A way out. A life. That was their promise. Every parent’s wish for their child, granted – just like that. However, it didn’t come without a price. Her mother sobbed quietly in her husband’s arms as the men turned the pages of the contract, firmly reviewing the details of the agreement. For what they offered, Zoe would be taken from her family. She would be raised in a way that would best nurture her intelligence and groom her for a future they could have never have begun to imagine for her: a life in the stars, one with status and purpose, a role in the salvation of humanity. She would never see them again, and be allowed no contact. It was, “in her best interest,” they said.

The H.S.I. men wasted no time, Zoe was bundled up and carried to the truck (a long goodbye would have been traumatic, the men had told her parents). The realization of what was happening hit her, and she fought as hard as she could to get away from them, her little voice screaming against the ice of the Alaskan air, burning her lungs with the chill. She begged her parents to take her back, to not let them leave with her. She cried, apologized, promised over and over that she’d be a good girl, anything – she’d do anything – if they’d just take her back.

But they didn’t. They stepped inside and closed the door, and that was the last time she ever saw them.

Look to the Sky - the Stars will be Your Compass (2086-2096; Ages 6-18)

She wasn’t sure exactly how long it had taken her to inch out of the miserable daze of depression that the separation had left her in. Hours became days that faded into weeks, into months. The hand of the clock in her small, sterile room at the H.S.I. Academy seemed to tick at a pace far behind the reality of time. But with each passing moment, the memory of her stolen childhood grew slowly more and more distant, easing the pain the farther behind from the present it fell.

And then, the lessons began. Distracting her mind from her memories came her future. She was visited by an endless stream of tutors, each explaining the workings of the world and the theories of the universe in the colorful languages of physics, mathematics, computer science, statistics, earth and planetary science, geography, and chemistry. Zoe became so enthralled with the topics her tutors brought to her that she didn’t have an opportunity to miss her family anymore, not when stacks of books piled upon her desk, or an elaborate physics formula was set before her to be solved. Her mind came alive and stretched wide to absorb every single aspect of the education they offered.

Zoe wasn’t the only child they had recruited. After some time, she attended classes with a handful of others – part socialization, part competition. They had been told that those in the room with them were all that stood between them and a place on the bridge of one of the ships being designed to whisk humanity off planet and begin anew. Zoe’s ambition to solidify her place in the stars gave way to a focused and calculated maneuvering on her part to make sure that she came out ahead of them all – she studied harder, and applied herself at every turn to make sure her intellect what as sharp as a razor’s edge to one by one cut down her rivals. Sure, she didn’t make many friends, but what did that matter when she was finally pinned as their superior?

By the time she was eighteen, the life she’d left behind hardly even seemed like it had ever really happened. The faces of her parents were ambiguous watercolors, their features lost somewhere in the decade that had slipped so quickly past; their voices the faraway whispers of ghosts from another lifetime.

Retrograde Orbit (2096-Present; Ages 18-Present)

Zoe met and surpassed every expectation the Academy had of her, and she became considered worthy to be positioned in such a way to ensure her position off planet, and to perpetuate the H.S.I. philosophies in the worlds to be inhabited. Primarily, this was to nurture and educate humans in such ways that would rival the intellect of Syths. In doing so, they set out to prove that Syths were unnecessary and would be made obsolete again, to maintain and ensure human dominance Off-World, and to eventually phase out synthetics all together.

As an adult, Zoe was set out to make good on the investment H.S.I. had made on her. She interviewed and was quickly hired on with the Sanders Corporation as an consultant for their space travel programs, with a focus on life-sustaining interplanetary navigation. Based out of Elysian Heights, she made significant contributions in their wayfinding systems, and provided vital design elements to streamline their navigation equipment and programing. It was only a natural progression that she would be offered the role of Navigator upon one of the completed ships destined for the stars.

TLDR;

Zoe was recruited to a specialized science academy when she was six because she was a smarty pants.

The academy was a branch of the Human Space Initiative group which ultimately wanted to see Synthetics made obsolete and terminated.

She was recruited to work for the Sanders Corporation and contributed to their navigation systems, which naturally led to her being offered a position on one of the ships as a Navigator.

Zoe is book smart, but that’s about it. She has very little experience dealing with people outside of controlled environments.

#Zoe Castille #Headcanon #survival:intro

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