#it feels like something needs to happen between the sisters some kind of reveal some kind of confrontation SOMETHING

[oblako]

249 episodes and we still know barely anything about shinhye

[jihyoruri]

❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ 𓍢 UNEXPECTED kim minjeong x reader

↳warnings: yn is a member of ive and is described as a loser a lot (like they keep coming for my girl)

for all the years that minjeong knew her ex girlfriend, she never knew the girl had a sister until after they broke up, which is insane when she thinks about it more and she still hasn’t met the girl till this day.

she remembers it like it was yesterday, on the first of december is when the hit girl group ive debuted, yes a lot of people raved about the two ex iz*one members debuting but what made more rave was the girl that looked almost identical to jimin and it wasn’t an exaggeration they had the same last name and some unreal similarities between the two girls that even had minjeong asking jimin as she seen the new idol but the only thing jimin responded with was a laugh.

it was later revealed that the girl was in fact jimin’s little sister which brought a lot of shock to the world including minjeong and a little bit of betrayal, it was weird that jimin never mentioned her little sister, even when they were dating but she never pushed on it not wanting things to become more awkward than it normally was with them lately.

it’s been almost three years and minjeong has had interactions with almost all of the ive members but she’s never had a single interaction with jimin’s sister who she learned name was yn, well not until today.

all four girls sat around each other in their own worlds with their faces in their phones, there’s comfortable silence in the room that jimin breaks.

“my sister is coming over to pick up something.” the leader says grabbing all of the girls attention, “she’ll probably stay for a couple minutes as well.” she says her eyes still on her phone while the other girls look at her like she told the most shocking news in the world.

“wait, we’re actually going to meet your precious little sister?” aeri asked, this was big news for the other girls, jimin never brought her sister around she never even talked about her, “are you being for real?”

“yeah… she should be here in like a minute.” jimin now looking up from her phone and looking at the rest of girls like they’ve grown two extra heads, “is that a problem?”

“no!” minjeong cuts in, “it’s just you never talk about her, you never even told me about her we were dating.” she says before wincing at her words both aeri and yizhuo cringing as well as awkward silence fills the word at the topic of the girls past relationship.

“well… who cares that’s the past.” jimin says looking off to the side, “just don’t jump on her guys, I know my sister and you guys are really intense sometimes.” she says and rolls her eyes at the offensive looks she gets from her members, “she’s quiet and shy and can be weird sometimes, she’s kind of a loser, like mega loser, so please give her some space when she comes in.”

loser? she doesn’t look like a loser from what ive seen minjeong says to herself, she was kind of nervous when jimin said yn was coming over but if yn really is how jimin is describing, then there’s no need.

the girls nod their heads at the leader and silence takes over the room again but not for long as a knock on the door interrupts the silence.

jimin jumps up from the couch she was on and walks over to the door opening it immediately, minjeong hears a soft voice and jimin’s laugh before the door closes.

jimin walks back to where the girls were sitting but this time with someone behind her, minjeong feels something happen in her stomach when she lays her eyes on the girl, she’s on the taller side and pretty lanky but her arms show a slight tone to them she watched as the girl she pushed up glasses up the bridge of her nose looking down at the ground not making any eye contact with girls.

“this is yn,” jimin says putting her hand on the taller girls shoulder pushing her slightly to showcase her to her members, “my baby sister.” she says teasingly patting yn who still looks at the floor.

“fix you posture and look up,” jimin says to yn who immediately straightens up and looks up at the rest of girl showcasing her heart stopping face, aeri whistles quietly earning a nudge from minjeong who can’t seem to take her eyes off the girls face as well.

“im gonna go find what you want, so just sit with them while you wait,” jimin says before sending the girls a warning look before heading to her room.

yn stands awkwardly, while aeri clears her throat, “you can sit between minjeong and I.” she says pushing minjeong over and patting the spot between them.

yn puts her hands in her jean pockets and slowly walks over to where minjeong and aeri are sitting and sits between them, she talks out her hands from her pants and plays with the rings on her fingers and looks down in her lap and minjeong can’t help but let her eyes travel down to the girls toned hands.

“so…yn.” aeri starts, “this is our first time meeting you isn’t that insane?.” the girl says trying to start a conversation but there wasn’t a single thought in her mind as well, just like minjeong her eyes are fixated on yn’s rings.

yn is silent for a second and minjeong shifted uncomfortably in her seat, feeling a strange mix of curiosity and nervousness as she stole glances at yn. despite jimin's description, there was an undeniable allure to yn's demeanor.

“uh, yeah.” yn responded, now getting bored of her rings, she focuses on a keychain of saturn on her pants playing with it, “jimin never talked about you guys much as well.”

“oh really?”yizhuo cuts in with a offended tone, “I’ll talk to her about that.” she says obviously just wanting to troll the leader she gets up, “you should come too aeri unnie,” she says grabbing the other girls attention that was still on the quiet girl.

“uh, sure…” she says getting up and leaving both yn and minjeong on the couch, “I’ll be back.” she says before walking off with yizhuo.

silence fills the room again and all minjeong can do is look at the girl who’s attention is still in her lap, losers shouldn’t be this attractive is the only thing she can say to herself, she’s happy that yn is so in her own world to not notice her staring.

at least that’s what she thought, minjeong quickly turned her head around when yn looked up and turned her head to make direct eye contact with her, she got that feeling in her stomach again, this is embarrassing.

yn stared at her for a second before turning her gaze back to the front and leaning her head back letting out a sigh, minjeong hears her mumbling to herself about how long jimin takes with things.

she awkwardly cleared her throat, “jimin unnie is always taking long right?” she says to the girl who just nods and brings an arm up to rest of the back of the couch.

“so um,” minjeong starts, “isn’t it weird how I was literally jimin’s girlfriend and still never knew about you.”

yn lifted her head back up and looked at minjeong, “jimin had a girlfriend?” she asks bluntly there’s silence before she quietly laughs at the look on minjeongs and it was the first time the other girl has seen her smile since she came in here, it was cute.

“I’m joking,” yn says now looking to side, her demeanor automatically going back to the way it was before, she scratches the back of her neck and angels it in a way that minjeong can see the tattoo that peaks out, “I knew about you, not much though.” “you like tattoos?” minjeong asks, causing the girl to look at her again, “sorry, I noticed the one on your neck.”

“uh, yeah.” yn responds looking down again, “I have more, I can strip and show you the rest.” she says causing minjeong’s face go red.

“sorry,” she laughs awkwardly, “that was a joke, a horrible joke to say to your sister ex.”

oh yeah, for a second minjeong forgot that yn was jimin’s sister, because of how hypnotized she was by the girl, “no, it was funny.” she says moving closer to yn who immediately noticed and tensed slightly.

minjeong felt more confidence, realizing that she was the one in control in this situation, “from the looks of you, somethings telling me you get a lot of girls and guys ”

“uh,” yn says glancing at minjeong before looking back down, “no, not really.”

now this shocked minjeong, why does nobody want the attractive losers? the quite ones are the best she’s never had one in her lifetime so far, but yn is making hard not to want one.

“so, you’ve never been in a relationship?” minjeong asks.

“nope.”

“unbelievable.” she says leaning closer to yn, who fidgets with anything she can at the girl’s closeness.

“I should give you my number.” the girl states which causes yn to just nod, “if that’s what you want, can I ask why? she responds.

minjeong holds her hand out and yn grabs her phone from her pocket and gave it to the girl who added her contact and gave it back, “making new friends is good, sometimes they can lead to more.”

yn awkwardly laughed at the last part and put her phone back in her pocket.

minjeong opens her mouth to say more but is cut off by the footsteps of her members.

“found it!” jimin says walking into the room and aeri and yizhuo trail behind her, it’s a old dsi animal crossings game. “why did you need this?”

yn gets up immediately and takes the game out of jimin’s hand, “I found my old dsi, and I want to play on it, for when yujin unnie yells at me for having my face in my other games for too long.” minjeong couldn’t help but frown realizing that this means that the girl is leaving now, she waves at yn along with the other girls.

“you’re such a dork,” jimin laughs while yn makes her way to the door, “you’re not gonna say bye to the girls?”

“oh yeah, bye.” she says before immediately leaving.

jimin closes the door and looks at the girls, “well, that’s my sister.”

your awfully attractive sister, minjeong says to herself, of course she would find herself being attracted to her exs sister, this was definitely unexpected.

she knew how messy a situation like this could be, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

[justporo]

A Scorching Letter

Brimsterton | A Staevstarion Regency AU

PREVIOUS PART | MASTERLIST | AO3

A/N: Yes hello, I know I haven't posted something I wrote in quite a while. Let's just say I've been busy, but mostly behind the scenes. This however I had written quite a while ago (end of June I think) and I need to get back into the saddle again with posting. So here we are, another trip into Regency AU with @velnna's beloved Staeve (thanks as always for letting me stick him in a costume) and Astarion. Picking off where we left off after the chaise longue incident.

Summary: With a lot mixed feelings after what almost happened between them, a scorching letter is written that reveals genuine truths and brilliant emotions. But the response might not have been what either of them had hoped for...

Pairing: Astarion/Staeve Wordcount: 5,1k Warnings: light implied nsfw

-----

Hands hastily tore open an envelope. On it, in elegant cursive handwriting that couldn’t be mistaken for anyone but Astarion’s, a name was written, boldly and with gold ink even: Staeve Brimstone.

Shivering fingers took several pages from the torn away paper and unfolded them. Immediately, it was visible that the letter had been written with a plethora of intense emotions: some parts seemed barely readable as if the pen had scarcely made its way across the paper in hesitancy. Others were quite obviously written with such vigour, that the sheets were almost torn and stained with blots of ink from a pen that had been pressed too harshly and hastily onto the paper - way too eager to get out the words.

The hands holding onto the letter kept trembling as the letter was studied. It read:

“My dearly beloved Staeve,

It seems we’ve gotten ourselves in quite the compromising position, haven’t we?Apparently, we do have a knack for this kind of thing, don’t you agree? It is nothing new for either of us, truly. How often have we gotten in trouble for something over the years? Quite frankly it might be a big part of the reason why my parents will finally be sending me off to the continent. I figure they fear what two - now grown - young men could get themselves into. And wouldn’t they be right?

A million times have we conspired together. A million plans. A million times it was us against the world. Together.

To our own surprise we haven’t always been discovered. But then again too often than we would have hoped. And yet we have always gotten out of a cornered situation.

This time it is different though.

I take it your sister hasn’t taken notice of what has happened that night. Or it might be that she doesn’t care - I was never able to read her well. And I do not dare to push her on the matter.

What could have happened had we been discovered in that moment? Truly discovered?

But to be quite frank that isn’t what I am concerned with. Not if I am being honest with myself.

You know I am a man of few regrets, Staeve. But I do regret having left like I did that fateful night. My mind kept whispering malicious things to me while my chest was burning, set ablaze by you and your lips. My heart was prepared to scream it all from the rooftops. But yet my anxious mind had me flee like lest we be found out.

But yet my heart keeps burning, the flames impossible to smother. I promise you I’ve tried. Only to find them flickering higher, brighter, hotter, whenever I tried.

And it has been hard to calm it for even just a moment since that fateful night on that chaise longue.

In the end, it has won over my mind even quicker than I thought as I still feel my chest burn with every single beat of my yearning heart. This is what my mind has been toiling with. This and the enticing idea of what would have happened had we not been disturbed, this impossible game of “what if”.

Would we have lost ourselves within each other, unravelled by our hands and touches. Would we have been void of words with only our bodies to speak the yet unspoken? Would we have gone all the way into oblivion together torn and then reformed together. And all to only be unravelled again and again until there had been nothing left but strings?

Strings we might have been able to have knitted into something new, something thoroughly intertwined?

Only the heavens may know.”

The words at the end of this page were thin; anxiously so. The author’s worries and fears clear already by how the words seemed to trail off at the bottom. In hopes perhaps, that they could just be shaken off the page lest they fall on deaf ears.

The next fresh page though started with bold writing again, even bolder than before. The written words proud, tall and unashamed:

“But I do know this: at night I lay unable to sleep with that blistering desire inside of me, slowly scorching me from the inside out. And when the heat becomes near unbearable, I lay there with nothing but the moon as a witness, touching myself while imagining - hoping - it was you. My hands wandering down over my own body and finding pleasure so easily and quickly - so intense - as they stroke and caress. Simply because it is you in my mind. The thought of you nearly enough to lose myself time and again.

I know I am a sinner for this, for my thoughts and my actions. But could a sin truly feel this heavenly? If this is what hell feels like, I will let it take me, gladly. I would welcome doom with open arms for just my actions, but truly, I’d much rather be doomed together with you, Staeve.

The feeling of your mouth on mine has been imprinted on me. I cannot forget it. I will die with the memory of your soft lips on mine on my mind as the last breath leaves my earthly body.

You've touched me a thousand times - a hug, a tap, a taunt - but not like this. Never like this. Not with that enticing intention, not with that need: giving, pleasing but also taking -  possibly all of me. And if I’m being true and honest to myself: I would give you all of myself - body, mind and soul. You may take it all!

Do you feel the same? Because even writing this letter I feel how restless my fingers are, how they itch to touch you again as well, how they need to feel you again: your lithe body, the skin of your face, your silken hair.

I just want to feel the warmth of you again, enveloping me, your body moving against mine as we fall together, endlessly.

And when your hands know me by heart, I want to feel your mouth all over my skin, tasting me before swallowing my confessions to you directly from my very own lips and tongue.

I want you to know me as deeply as no one has before. I fear no one else could ever understand me like you do anyways. And I hope, dearly, this is what you want too. I surely know it’s what I want with you: knowing you inside and out, better than myself.

Back in that moment it surely felt like that.

But memories are fleeting, fickle little things. Already I am questioning if I really saw the same yearning in your eyes I keep feeling in my very soul. But then again, it's not like this only transpired yesterday, hasn't it? Hasn’t this all been brewing for what feels like an eternity?”

Up until this paragraph the writing had been bold, the elegant cursive letters leaning so far it was easily distinguishable that they had been written without pause. Words that had  been too powerful to not let out.

But those next ones were more hesitant again. The pen had been pressed down to start many a time and then hastily taken off again, judging by how several blots and scratches of ink clouded the first letter of the next sentence.

But in the end even these words had found their way - either way:

“I reckon you know the feeling in the atmosphere before a thunderstorm approaches - when the tension is so dense it makes your hairs rise up. When the whole world seems to hold its breath, awaiting the inevitable.

Aren’t we just like that? Awaiting what deep down we have known for so long?

Aren’t we inevitable?

How long have we been like this? In that terrible limbo of potential and not yet made resolution?

Only for it to unload in but a blink of an eye, lightning hitting us both, scorching us through and through, down to our furthest depths - setting us brightly ablaze where light has never even reached before.

There is no way in which we could ever proceed, pretending as if we both haven’t been changed forever in this moment, changed at our innermost core - wouldn’t you agree?

At times I fear that all it would have taken was that one night. One night of scorching flames to then see the fire smothered. This - us - nothing but a quick intermezzo, a short crescendo that is quickly muffled and not to be heard again.

But whenever I think I’ve forgotten about this, about you, for a just moment, there it is again: the thought of you, impossible to get out of my head.

You are always there with me, Staeve, with every breath and every step.

You didn’t just light a candle inside of me, you started a wildfire.

And I welcome it - with all the heat, all the power, all the destruction it might bring but also the all encompassing warmth it might spend. I welcome it to be consumed by it!”

Before the final words of the letter there was generous space left. Quite obviously the author felt the need to let his final words take up room. The final conclusion to the letter read:

“I am in love with you, Staeve Brimstone.

I am in love with you - and looking back it feels like I have always been in love with you. From the moment I first laid eyes upon you up to the my last moments on this earth.

And even more than that: I need you. I fear I cannot live without you.

And even though it might be selfish - but we both know that I am -: I hope you need me too.

I hope to love you, Staeve, forevermore. And if I’m fortunate enough, that you will love me too.

Forever yours,

Astarion”

As eyes ran over the last page, the hands holding the letter had begun to tremble. They were gripping the paper so hard by now that knuckles showed white.

Then when the end had been reached they were shaking so much no word could have been made out anymore. The grip was crinkling up the paper now. Up until the pages were deliberately being crumpled angrily, pressed into a ball of paper, letters and emotions alike forced into an indiscernible mess.

With a few steps only, the way was made to the lit fireplace and the pages were given to the flames. The fire eagerly licked at the papers, ate it up until there was nothing left of the words and the long suppressed feelings they had finally expressed.

~~~

The Brimstone family had sat down for dinner. Or at least for their approximation of it. Viscount and Viscountess Brimstone were idly enjoying their dinner talking a bit of business, politics and gossip. Meanwhile, their son Staeve was more enticed by the workings of a small golden mechanical beetle his father had brought him as a souvenir from one of his business trips than by the meagre meal of roasted pork and vegetables he’d thrown onto his plate as more of an afterthought. The sleeves of his white linen shirt were rolled up to his elbows as he had discarded his doublet long ago to be able to move better and one of his suspenders threatened to give up on its job as it was dropping off his shoulder in his hunched over position. He had wholly reengineered what dinner time meant for him, much to the grievance of his parents. But dozens of tries to change first the boy’s and then the young man’s behaviour had failed. So at some point they had given up as long as he knew to behave when guests were over and was still honouring the family gathering times.

That usually meant that he was at least present during family dinner times, physically at least. But he’d only eat later, once it had all gotten cold. And then would sneak into the kitchen to grab seconds when he would have realised once more that tinkering around didn’t sate his bodily hunger. At least not enough.

His mother had long given up on trying to teach Staeve manners. When he had been a child she had been sure he would grow out of it. But once she had realised that his quirks had only been growing with him, she’d come to realise that it was for the best to just leave him be and hope for the best.

Only occasionally did she still try to enforce his older sister Nita as a role model to him. It never worked.

So, as Staeve was fumbling with his current project and his parents were lost in conversation, his sister Nita - void of any option to make dinner time pass any faster with her parents talking and her brother with his mind elsewhere - moved around some asparagus on her gold rimmed plate and wished she could’ve found an excuse to go eat with her younger siblings in the kitchen. Even they would have been a more ample entertainment discussing their playtime or perhaps their current tutor lessons.

That was until she thought of a way of hopefully grabbing Staeve’s attention for more than a fleeting moment.

“So, Staeve, have you found something to do yet, something to cope?”

Her brother’s tuft of green hair lifted shortly from where it had been bent over the small, intricately built beetle and some similarly delicate tool with which Staeve meant to dismantle the small object - thereby probably irreparably destroying it.

But the younger Brimstone shortly looked at his sister in irritation. Then his gaze snapped back to his hands and his workings and he began tinkering again.

“What?”

Nita rolled her eyes. “You know you are supposed to use full sentences, right?”

“Whoever has the time for that?”

“Ah see, he does speak in full sentences.”

Staeve grunted at his sister’s sarcasm but didn’t reward her with another glance.

Nita tried again.

“So have you?”

“I don’t think that was a full sentence.”

She was about ready to throw her fork at him, hoping it would drive the audacity right out of him - or at least take an eye. For a moment she debated just letting the silence draw out. But honestly she hadn’t been the one starting to be petty.

“You know, Staeve, I really get why even Astarion has decided to suddenly leave town when you’re being such a prick!” Nita almost shouted. That even had caught her parents’ attention now who immediately scolded her for her unladylike demeanour and choice of words.

She pouted, annoyed at how she had been the one being called out now instead of her brother.

And when she turned her head around again to throw him an angry glare she suddenly found she had finally caught his attention. Maybe even a bit too much of it because Staeve was now staring at her, eyes wide, face void of colour.

“What do you mean Astarion is leaving?”

Nita was about to snap at him again. But something in her brother’s gaze and his sudden stillness made her abandon the thought immediately.

“Didn’t- didn’t he tell you? I thought you always knew everything about each other.”

Immediately hurt flashed through Staeve’s teal eyes, too irritated to even try to hide it.

“Leaving when? Why?” Staeve’s voice was nothing more but a croak. A strand of hair had fallen into his eyes. He didn’t even bother pushing it out of his face.

Suddenly Nita felt unsure of what to do. Unsettled by her brother’s sudden burst of emotions. The only thing she came up with was snapping at him again.

“The Grand Tour, you idiot, what else.”

Staeve’s eyes widened even more. He set the small golden beetle and his tool down with a distinct thud, so hard, it even made their parents become silent and turn to their children in irritation.

“When?” Staeve simply followed up again. His words were terribly silent all of a sudden. Nita didn’t have it in her anymore to try and purposefully try and upset her brother. She threw a glance at the big mechanical clock - one of the few Staeve hadn’t disassembled yet: “I think right about now. They’re probably going to travel all through the night to catch a ship in the morning at one of the great harbours.”

Staeve didn’t wait for Nita to finish her sentence. He jumped up, almost making his chair fall over, staring at the clock. Their parents’ heads swivelled around trying to understand the cause of the commotion. But their son was already storming out of the room, not even sparing their scolding and quizzical looks another thought.

Immediately, Staeve made his way through the manor and down to the stables. As he rushed along servants, through a plethora of rooms and finally got outside, he realised that the weather was about to turn: an early summer evening threatening to bring a foreshadowing of yet far away autumn. The oncoming storm, announcing itself with distant thunder and dramatically darkening clouds, though, only felt like a fitting backdrop for what was brewing inside of him.

Questions filled Staeve’s mind as he made his way, and worries - and memories.

Every moment for the last couple of weeks since that fateful night had he basically been thinking about what happened. It only ever took him a split second to conjure up the scene again in his head: the last couple of breaths in which he had stared into Astarion’s eyes and how it had felt like he could see through them right to the bottom of his friend’s heart, the burning feeling of Astarion’s lips against his own and this desiring ache within him, physically and emotionally, threatening to rip him apart from the inside out.

He had been so sure Astarion had felt the same. And hadn’t his friend been the one looking up at him with such pleading in his crimson eyes, lips already parted in anticipation before they had met halfway?

But maybe Staeve was remembering it all wrong. He certainly must be. Why else would his lifelong companion leave him now unannounced?

Loads of feelings were forming up inside his chest, waiting to burst - like thunder after lightning had struck in the far off distance.

Staeve made his way to the stables to grab Freckle while his mind was somewhere completely else. He didn’t even stop to put a saddle or reins on her. A terrible premonition told him he hadn’t any time to waste. And the mare was used to being ridden like this, after all they were a well-practised team.

The young Brimstone led his horse outside and immediately felt raindrops seeping through his thin linen shirt and trousers. He couldn’t have cared less. Wasting no more time he jumped onto his mare’s back and with a click of his tongue and soft nudge from his boots they were off in a dash, cutting through the oncoming rain.

As Staeve thundered down the small trodden out road from the Brimstone estate towards the Ancuníns’ residence the rain turned from just a trickle to a pour - the kind that would turn grasslands into swamps for a good while after and dust roads into murky rivers. His mind was racing at an even more outrageous speed as the gigantic manor of his friend’s family came into view.

Lifting his head while holding onto Freckle’s mane as the horse felt his owner’s urgency and gave him her all, Staeve searched for the familiar sight of that one particular window with a light on inside, hoping it would betray his sister’s words. The one where Astarion often already had been peeking out of in wait for his companion to come by. The one where they had sat countless of times, talking, laughing, smoking some stolen cigars and choking on the burning smoke when they had been only boys.

But the lights were off.

And Staeve’s fears turned into all encompassing panic as he closed in on the giant building as he didn’t dare to let himself hope anymore. The rain around him had him fully drenched by now, his loose shirt clinging wetly to his body. Already he felt hot tears adding to the uncomfortably cold rain running down his face.

When he finally came around the manor, he found nothing but an ill-fated stable hand rushing through the downpour, perhaps tasked with a few last things before being allowed to flee the bad weather. Not even hesitating Staeve rode up right next to him making the poor boy shriek and stumble back from the horse making the gravel fly with a sliding stop.

“Astarion Ancunín?” he only managed to scream against the rain.

The boy just stared up at him, obviously too startled at the sight of Staeve like this. He probably looked like a madman. And he felt like one: not properly dressed, drenched to the bone on his equally aggregated steed. Even more so the more time he spent chasing down a man in this storm who so obviously tried to get away from him without him knowing.

But he needed to see him, at least a final time. One more try.

“The Duke’s son?” Staeve shouted again at the stable hand. And finally the boy seemed to have recovered from his stupor.

“Left. With his father the Duke, in the fancy carriage,” the answer came back, shouted against another thunder in the distance - the heart of the storm was coming closer.

Staeve’s chest clenched. Freckle became nervous beneath him. Even a well trained horse like her didn’t want to be out longer than needed in this weather. But just a moment more.

“When?” he screamed.

“Dunno exactly, couple of minutes, just when the storm started.”

Staeve needn’t hear more. Time was of the essence now. He spurred on his horse once more and left the befuddled boy behind who even forgot to finally rush inside and instead stared after Staeve racing off again.

The roads were already muddy, an endless amount of puddles strewn across them while Staeve made the decision to go for the hill overlooking the Ancunín lands, the one with the weeping willow. There he’d be able to see how far out they were already on the country road leading away from town.

But when he arrived at the foot of said hill and dashed on with Freckle, his horse slipped and almost took a tumble. And since his or his horse’s broken neck surely wouldn’t make him be any faster, Staeve slid off his mare’s back and continued on foot.

The rain kept pouring onto him as he rushed up the hill, his booted feet sinking into the wet ground. Several times he almost took a tumble when his boots sank in too deep. Illustrious curses that would have made his mother blush and his father scold him, left Staeve’s lips as he ran up the grassy hill as fast as possible, barely able to see anything anymore with the rain slashing his face. He didn’t even notice how the freezing cold crept into his body, his limbs, how his fingers began to become stiff. His whole body was shaking, as much from the cold and the wet, as from the feelings still burning inside his chest - the only thing still spending a bit of warmth.

Staeve reached the top of the hill and the weeping willow atop of it - honouring its name as rain kept dripping generously off its tendrils. Trying to wipe at least some of the rain out of his face and panting heavily from running, Staeve’s eyes flew along the road leading out of town, willing the carriage to be there, so he’d know he could still catch them. Or at least a glimpse, of him. To at least wave a last goodbye. Because he didn’t know when - if - his friend would ever return.

And he spotted the carriage. Right there, at the very end of what Staeve could make out. Just before it disappeared around a final turn of the road - and out of sight.

~~~

Inside the carriage Astarion was craning his neck only a little to see Ancunín manor slowly disappear behind the lazily sloping hills of the countryside as the wagon rattled along the road leading away from town. Now the ancient weeping willow was the last familiar landmark before the road would lead them along faceless fields and forests rushing past them, only there to be forgotten again in an instance. The storm was doing its part to make Astarion’s last impression of his home even more dull: clouds and the rain almost washing all of the colours out of this final sight.

This might very well have been the only time in his life when his heart actually ached at the thought of leaving home - or rather him.

Only a few weeks ago had he hoped to spend an incredible last summer with Staeve, his childhood friend. Especially as he had been sure of something new budding between them, something that could have meant them being more than companions possibly. Something that either might have been honestly terrified to explore. They could have gone down this road together.

But it seemed that instead of choosing this final adventure and what treasures and secrets might have been ahead, Staeve had chosen utter and complete silence. To his letter as much as his departure. Astarion had been unable to figure out what to make of it.

However, wasn’t the absence of an answer a response of its own?

Questions, regrets, fear and hurt were all swirling around inside of Astarion’s chest as he feigned indifference staring out the small window the rain kept drumming on. He was covering most of his face with his hand turned away from the other passenger in hopes it would make him look bored and hide his frown - and more than anything, the tears burning dangerously in the corners of his eyes.

Writing that letter, taking a leap of faith had taken nearly all of his courage.

When that kiss had happened after that invaded soiree, it had been easy. Fueled by the evening, laughter and lots of liquid courage it had been easy to fall into Staeve’s arms. It had been easy to be open about what had been building up inside of him for so long.

But writing this letter stone cold sober had been near impossible: opening up about everything that, all his life, he had been taught to keep hidden behind his orderly closed button border, tugged away behind a starched collar closed so firmly it made one choke. Admitting to desires that would make him a wretched sinner in the eyes of his family and society. And finally confessing his feelings to his lifelong friend, risking everything they’ve had. It had been taxing, hard, painful.

And in the end, apparently, he had paid the price.

In front of him, the Duke Ancunín kept talking about their travelling plans while Astarion could feel his heart get torn into pieces the further away from home they travelled. A piece of it begging to be allowed to stay.

“Son, it is a great honour that Monsignore Constantin will take you in for a few extra weeks as his disciple. He is very strict but he is the best,” the Duke repeated his words in a sharper tone when he noticed his son not paying attention. “He will make an upright man out of you, Astarion, I know it.”

“Oh, will he? I can barely wait,” Astarion replied with bitter sarcasm in his voice. His father, in response, was near boiling with anger at his son’s insolent behaviour.

“He has his methods, son, you will see. He will let none of your nonsense slip, I will make sure of it!” The Duke’s words cracked like a whip. But the young man didn’t care, his eyes were still trained on the outside, on the weeping willow becoming smaller in the distance. He didn’t honour his father’s wrath with another response.

The carriage filled with nothing but the sound of drumming rain and thunder rolling ever closer. When the older Ancunín apparently realised his anger would get him nowhere he tried a different route of grasping his son’s attention.

“Hasn’t the young Brimstone come to say his goodbyes to you, my son? Is that why you keep brooding?”

Astarion’s gaze snapped to his father, immediately betraying that he had spoken the truth. He felt how his brows drew together as pain flared up in his chest even more. Trying to get it back under control quickly he looked back outside the window as the carriage shook along the road in worsening conditions.

But his father had cracked right open what had been bothering him and finally Astarion gave up on trying to hide. What did it matter now anyways? The cards had been dealt.

The young Ancunín let his hands fall into his lap but kept looking outside as he felt how the tears in his eyes threatened to become overbearing.

“He hasn’t actually,” Astarion admitted. “In fact, I haven’t seen him in a few weeks. Not since I’ve sent him a letter a while ago,” he continued, voice flat and emotionless.

“A letter? How uncommon for the two of you,” the Duke threw in with a tinge of irony coating his words like bile. In a knee jerk reaction Astarion’s crimson gaze burned in anger at his father’s vile words. But in the end he wasn’t wrong. The young noble resorted to throwing a last glance upon the willow up on the hill.

“Come to think of it though, my son, I do remember seeing the letter,” the Duke rambled on. “And I remember handing it over to the butler so it may get delivered quickly.” Astarion turned away a little further once more from his father as he felt his composure threatening to break fully. “A difference of opinions maybe?,” his father finished.

Astarion didn’t see the slight tilt of the corners of his father’s mouth as he let the words roll off his tongue, not hiding his distaste for the young Brimstone.

The young Ancunín only could feel the final nail being put into the coffin with his father’s final words. His last string of hope he had been holding onto snapped in two just like that.

“Possibly,” Astarion simply replied, kneading his hands in his lap, emotions threatening to overwhelm him fully.

“Maybe even more than that,” he added after a while as he finally let his gaze fall from the last sight of his hometown.

Had he averted his eyes just a moment later he would have made out the figure of a dark-skinned, green-haired young man appearing beneath the weeping willow in the storm. But like this, thunder cracked as the carriage took a turn and Astarion’s home and his lifelong friend went out of sight.

[vegaseatsass]

Rewatched My Stand-In eps 2 and 3 tonight, and I'm definitely newly fascinated with Ming POV/Ming's internal concept of what was happening between him and Joe that entire time. I forgot just how much we got of Ming's home life and family in episode 2, and my brain is abuzz trying to connect all the dots. His relationship with May is so interesting. She clocks that he and Joe are together on Christmas, and is immediately careful to conceal it not just from their parents but from Tong. May and Ming have this "us against the world" vibe where they protect and cover for each other, going back to May giving herself pneumonia saving Ming from drowning. I absolutely believe there's more going on in their family than mom pressuring Ming to marry women any time he goes home - I actually suspect things about his family are being obscured for future painful reveals - but May is a safe space for him. Until Tong is added into the picture, and Ming has to flee the country for four years to get away from his big feelings. It's just kind of bonkers to me that he had this intense, safe and presumably very grounding relationship with his sister, but made his obsession with a random movie star the centerpiece of his world instead. Why did he imprint on Tong? Is it really just Joe's sexy back muscles that drew him in? Did he think if he could land a famous movie star his parents would accept him being with a man? Was it subconscious self-sabotage of his only safe relationship lol? I genuinely have no idea!! What I am stuck on though is when he told May he was working through something, and would tell her when he was ready, but he promised he'd get through it. On rewatch, it seems very obvious that what he's talking about is the torch he's carrying for Tong, so to me that's a reveal that he's deliberately trying to move on with Joe - not using him as a sex doll replacement, but throwing himself into something real. (What's messy obviously is that Ming started this for the proxyfucking, but I think overhearing Joe confess his love for Ming to Sol is when Ming started making a determined effort to choose Joe.) There's also his reaction to Joe's Christmas gift where the watch becomes a metaphor for Joe himself (vs. Tong): Ming doesn't need the "top" one, why can't he want the "normal" one?

The first time I was watching this, I assumed that Ming just has no internal awareness of how important Joe is to him, he just feels pure need and acts very very normal when his emotional support stand-in is ripped away. I assumed Ming believes he's in love with Tong and thinks he's just passing some time with Joe. It doesn't help that every time Joe presses him on anything emotional Ming shuts him down or outright negs him lolllll

But like for example, in the scene where they're shopping together and Joe gets excited about the couple mugs, first Ming snaps "What makes you think we're a couple?", then he tries to mitigate his slip by playing it off: "after living with me, you'll realize you don't want me as a boyfriend." His kneejerk impulse to shut Joe down and say cruel things is imo a defense mechanism, a really maladaptive one that helps convince Joe later on that there was never any love there, but I'm starting to think it's triggered in response to actually wanting the intimacy and primacy that Joe is pushing for, and being terrified of that.

It would make so much sense for somebody who is terrified of needing anybody else, of being vulnerable or feeling anything real, to decide they're in love with a complete asshole movie star who uses their family for money and them personally for favors, and shape their life around that. Especially now that I understand how young Ming was when he first fixated on Tong (17ish??), I just feel like that entire imprinting is your classic teenager-who-is-not-ready-to-be-in-a-real-relationship parasocial spiral. I used to do it with male celebrities too!!! (I am a lesbian. lmfaooo)

It's interesting because while there's something conceptually romantic about the back Ming first got obsessed with being Joe's all along, it ultimately doesn't really matter to me WHO the onscreen person that he fixated upon was. What matters is how ill-equipped Ming has proven to handle real feelings for a real person in front of him, and the journey he has from here to learn how to human. I can't wait. P.S. Other thing I forgot happened in episode 2: - Ming made drunk!Joe sleep on the floor of Joe's own home - BEFORE Ming moved in or had any claim to the space - AFTER Ming told Sol he would take "really really good care of Joe" as a way of trying to claim Joe in front of the competition His journey to human is going to be a loooooooooooooooooong one, methinks... 😈

[worlds-oldest-teenager]

I’m interested. How do Apollo and Artemis’s desire to protect each other drive a wedge between them?

I'm glad you askeddd. Thank you for being my first anon ever btw. (@crowmakeska-boom idk if you are the anon but anon, whoever you are, sorry for the wait). This is probably not a very good meta cause it's mostly vibes, gut feelings and filling in the blanks with below the bare minimum of textual evidence but oh well. 

First I'd like to talk about why I think Artemis and Apollo's relationship is kind of distant. They're a confusing duo. When you first meet them in the titan's curse it may seem they don't like each other much or atleast Artemis seems to not be paticularly fond of her brother. Calling him “irresponsible”, “lazy”, “big headed”. But reading between the lines reveals how much the two of them care for each other, especially on Apollo's part from all the illegal help he was dishing out to the questers.

But then when you read some more, their relationship just feels a tad too distant to completely take what they say as just banter. When we see them on Delos in Blood of Olympus the distance is literal. They're recycling banter that's getting old and you can tell that even if it had been lighthearted before, it’s definitely getting on both their nerves now (stolen from fsinger lmao). They’ve both been playing the part for a long time but it feels like they don’t have the closeness anymore to recognize they’re both just playing parts. 

So what happened?

I think it's their need to protect each other that's causing this rift between them. From my point of view Artemis & Apollo are protecting each other from different things but Olympus is at the core of it for the both of them.

The twins have a very different experience of Olympus. Since her introduction Artemis seems pretty critical of Olympus. According to the hunters she's the only one who can get the ball rolling during solstice meetings and she's shown to not really act the Olympian way. Taking the sky off the shoulders of a mortal girl. Shrinking herself down to make the human heroes feel more comfortable and demanding they get rewarded.

It wouldn't be far fetched to assume that she's never fit in with Olympus and doesn't agree with most of the views of her family.

Then there's Apollo.

Who fits in so perfectly with the messed up inner workings of Olympus or so people think. He's perfected his mask over the years and no one is the wiser about the abuse he's gone through or even the fact that this isn't actually who he is.

To me, Artemis wants to protect Apollo from Olympus' true nature. In her head she's got every part of Olympus figured out and for the most part she has. Even if it's not something that works for her I think she would want to protect her younger brother from knowing what the kind of people he surrounds himself with are truly like.

I feel like Artemis would be conflicted on it for other reasons too because if Apollo is aware of the kind of people the Olympians are and he's alright with that, what kind of god is Apollo?

So she'd much rather think of him as stupid and irresponsible cause those atleast mean that it isn't he isn't a bad person. But I feel deep down she doesn't really believe completely that what she knows of her brother is correct.

But then she sees the way Zeus loves Apollo and cares for him and in her mind it's the right decision to let him live this way. He is safer now than they ever were as children.

Apollo on the other hand wants to conceal their father's true nature from Artemis. We know that he cares deeply about appearing fine on the surface because of how others would worry and who would worry more than his older sister.

Artemis and Apollo may be the protectors of youth but the first ever youth they protected were each other. It's the foundation of their relationship and caries on into the present day. Both of them feel a desperate need to protect each other.

I would go so far as to say that this is THE relationship they have with each other. The both of them never find comfort in each other, only protection. You can tell that comfort is not something they usually derive from each other from the way they're both completely blindsided by simple things like an "I love you" , a hug and just concern in general.

Comfort from each other is not a priority for them no matter how much they crave it. The twins purpose to each other is to protect.

So of course Apollo would never tell Artemis about the way Zeus hurts him.

I also think there's a little bit of denial on Artemis' part on just how abusive Zeus is. Cause Apollo is dropping hints. Even the way Artemis talks during Blood of Olympus makes it clear that she understands Zeus is gonna massacre the guy. She just doesn't want to believe it will be permanent.

And it's got a lot to do with the fact that she wants to protect him. Because if she acknowledges this isn't a situation Apollo is gonna come out from unscathed that means that she's incapable of protecting him. That means that she's failed to protect him before and cannot protect him again.

So she'd much rather pretend that Zeus is persuadable and not that bad. That it's Apollo's fault Zeus comes down so hard on him and if he were a little better and a bit more like her he could be safe.

And this would hurt Apollo because Artemis can pinpoint exactly what Zeus is like. But instead of comforting him she confirms for him that this is his fault. That if he could be better none of this would happen. Artemis helps prevent but never helps heal because helping her brother heal means he was in a position to be hurt in the first place.

All this mess and miscommunication and disbelief stemming from the fact that they love each other and never want to see each other hurt creates an impossible distance between them.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Slowly but surely they're trying to comfort/ seek comfort instead of just protect each other.

I wept on my sister’s shoulder. I felt like if I let go of Artemis, I would fall back into Chaos. Huge parts of my identity would shake loose, and I would never be able to find all the puzzle pieces. “Whoa, there.” She patted my back awkwardly. “Okay, little fella. You’re all right now. You made it.”

Apollo's trials sucked. But I'm glad it's given the twins the opportunity to bridge the gap between their relationship again.

[gracesmusings4adults]

I promise.

Xavier x Reader

Reader: Wednesday’s twin, the twins can share powers because they are connected, and Y/N can control electricity.

“I tried being your friend,” he scoffs. “Look where that got me.”

“This isn't about us, Xavier.”

He lunged forward, chains rattling, he points at me. “No, it’s about you!”

His eyes flicker over to Wednesday. “Every time you both get involved, people get hurt.” He makes eye contact with me. “You’re toxic. All you ever do is make things worse.”

Wednesday takes a step toward the cell, an effort to put some distance between us.

I put my head down and close my eyes. Wednesday watches as I wipe all of my emotions away. She steps away from the cage.

I open up the page revealing the picture of Wednesday and I on the battle field with the pilgrim.

“Tyler warned me that something bad was coming. And I think—“ “No!” Xavier raises his voice. “You’ve already shown me that. I don’t care.”

Y/N gulps. Wednesday feels a wave of grief wash over her. This is her fault. She was the one who pushed her sister to indulge in a friendship with Tyler. She is the one who tried to shove off her sisters need for love and affection onto someone else. She is the one who turned her against Xavier and sent her to the lions den.

“Do you want to stop this? Then leave. Both of you, go far away and never come back.” Wednesday can feel her sisters heart shattering. “Do you understand? That can’t happen if neither of you aren’t here. That’s how you save everyone, okay. So, go.”

“LEAVE!” His chains rattle and for the first time Wednesday sees her sister jump. Tears in her eyes, she closes the paper, and leaves.

Xavier watches her go and then turns to Wednesday. “You too, Add—“ Wednesday steps forward and grabs his shirt. “Never, talk to my sister like that again. You want someone to blame? Someone to hate? You hate me.” Wednesday shoved him back.

Xavier scoffs as she walks away. “She never doubted you. Even when she saw your paintings. She always believed that you weren’t the Hyde.” Wednesday doesn’t look back, but she waits a moment and when all she is met with is silence she leaves.

His body goes limp and he falls to his knees. “Up you go!” Galpin says, keys shaking in his hand. “Time for the transfer.”

Xavier’s eyes seek out any sign of the Addams but he is quickly shoved into the back of the sheriff's police car.

Closing his eyes he remembers all the times that Y/N had shown him kindness. She put on a hard exterior like her sister, but he knew better. He remembered their whispered stories from the first time they met. They were just kids, but even then Y/N knew that she was different, even from her own family of misfits. When they arrived at Nevermore, Xavier knew that she was just as in love with him as he is her. But the Addams twins had perfected their united front. In many ways, Y/N had trained herself to disappear. She now appeared to be a copy of Wednesday.

And she fooled him. She made him believe that she did not care for him. That he was simply a means to an end and then it turned out he was the end—for a while atleast.

“What are we doing?” Xavier asks when the car stops. Sheriff Galpin talks on the phone for a minute and then pulls out his personal phone and looks at his son’s location. “You tracking your little monster?” Xavier scoffs. Tyler was another mistake he made. Xavier should have seen him for what he truly was. He should have warned Y/N. Instead, he allowed her to push him away and befriend a monster.

“You shut it.” Galpin shuts off the car and gets out.

“Hey, wait. Wait! Hey! What about me? What…” Xavier slams his hands onto the wire mesh. “Oh, you asshole!” Xavier kicks the seat and screams in frustration. There is no way to get the chain off and even if he gets out of the car, he is at risk of tripping and hanging himself with the restraints that tie his hands and feet to his neck.

Closing his eyes, the scene from the jail cell play like a movie. He could see the hatred in her eyes that she thought she was hiding. At the time he was telling himself that it was directed at him. But he knew as soon as Wednesday stepped inbetween them that it was a self hatred that was clawing inside her.

Xavier screams once more.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Y/N whispers. She pushes up on her elbow, being careful not to disturb the corpse too much. Xavier nods, but then remembers that his new friend can not see him because they are in a closed casket. “I’m not like the rest of my family.” She sighs. “Sure I am weird and love dancing with seriel killers, but I am diffrent.” Xavier leans over the dead body.

“One summer my parents hired this man-killer nanny and she sent us away to summer camp so she could marry and kill my uncle…” Xavier hangs onto every word. “I have never told a soul, but I loved it. Sure the company was horrendous, but I loved camp. I also love the color pink.” Y/N laughs. She goes through a lists more things that she likes.

“Dont get me wrong, I love my sister. I have killed for my sister—and we have this weird twin thing where we can see the same vision or memories as each other, but I am diffrent.” Xavier stills as her breath washes over him. “I am me.” “I see you.” Xavier says. “You promise?” “I promise,” Xavier grasps her hand and sparks appear. “Hey, Xavier, what if no one finds us?”

Thump, thump. “Yes!” Xavier yells as Thing slides down the back window. “Yes! Yes! Yes, Thing!”

After Thing releases him, Xavier thanks him and takes off running to the school. No one tries to stop him as he grabs the bow and arrows from the archery range and rushes to the courtyard. “Stay away from her!” He shouts. Arrow aimed at the pilgrims heart. He takes in the sight. The courtyard is burning and in the middle stand the Addam’s twins and the pilgrim. “No!” Y/N shouts as he releases the arrow. Wednesday looks at her sister and then jumps infront of Xavier. Both twins fall to the ground.

“We’re fine!” Wednesday shouts, her hands reaching for Y/N. A large black and purple brusie forms on Y/N’s chest where the arrow is impaled in her sister. “Oh my—“ Xavier looks at them both with wide eyes. “Go!” Y/N shouts. “Get them out of here.”

Xavier hesitates and locks eyes with Y/N. “I see you.”

“You promise?” She looks at him with wide eyes. “Yes, I promise. That is the only reason I am going right now.” Xavier squeezes her hand a bolt of electricity shoots up his arm. “Now!” Wednesday shouts. Xavier runs towards the other students. He turns around and watches Y/N pull the arrow out of Wednesday. Both of them stand. Wednesday grabs the sword and Y/N’s hands spark with electricity.

At the gate, Xavier stands with the school as they wait. “Where’s Y/N and Wednesday?” Enid asks, her body shaking. Xavier looks around at his friends and then Enid is pushing through the crowd. Before his thoughts can catch up his feet are running towards Y/N.

Enid falls into their arms. Without thought, Wednesdays pulls away from Enid, her hand entwined with her sisters seperates them as well. Xavier’s eyes rake over Y/N. Her black school uniform is ripped and underneath it is a pink shirt. After a second, both of the twins throw their arms around Enid and bury their heads in her neck.

Looking up, Y/N’s eyes connect with Xavier’s. She pulls away from her sister and Enid. Wednesday hesitantly lets go of her hand. “Xavier—” Y/N goes to explain. Xavier steps forward. “I’m so sorry.” Her eyes gloss over at his words. “I am sorry too. I should have told you that I see you too.”

She reaches out towards him. Her hands stop just before tey touch his face. He leans forward. The buzz of electricity dances along his skin. “I see you, Xavier Thorpe.”

Xavier pulls her into a hug.

Xavier leans on the railing and smiles at Y/N. His cheeks flush a pretty pink when she smiles back and tugs her sisters hand, leading them up the stairs.

“Addams,” Xavier shoved his hands in his coat pockets. Wednesday raises an eyebrow at him. “Hurt her and she will kill you herself.”

Xavier smirks. “Then I’ll raise you from the dead and kill you again,” Wednesday smiles. Xavier’s smirk wavers as he looks into her dead eyes. “Message recieved.”

Y/N steps toward Xavier and their hands intertwine. Wednesday mutters something about the car. “Hey, Wednesday.” Xavier turns his head to look at her. “Thank you.” “Now it’s your turn. But this time, don’t save me. Save my sister.” Wednesday disappears down the stairs.

“Come visit me?” Y/N whispers. Their noses touching. His hands grip her waist. Her new pink sweater a beautiful contrast to her black hair. Xavier tilts his head. There lips centimeters apart. “I promise.”

Y/n smiles and leans back. “Good, because i got something for you if you do…” She smiles and then twirls out of his arms. “Got to go.” “Me too,” He reaches for her one last time. Their hands meet and then she pulls away.

Thinking about doing a series of Oneshots. Y’all interested? Smut to come of course.

Requests are open

Phone calls with Xavier.

[leighlew3]

Hi Leigh, hope you are doing well!

Maybe you have answered this question before: how would you have written the Supergirl reveal to Lena?

You still have the elements of it being so late in series and that Lena actually already knows.

I wonder how a good writer would approach this because in the show it was an actual train wreck- Lena wanting to expose Supergirl’s identity at the Pulitzer party before Kara actually said it?! So out of character. And all that stuff after? So stupid.

Anyway thanks for answering this question :)

Hi! Hangin' in there, thank you. 🤗

Well, it depends on what point the launch off was.

Let's say she learns via Lex, just like in the show (rather than rewrite the whole damn series in this post, haha).

Just thinking on the fly, here goes... I woulda just had her reeling, feeling betrayed, and isolating rather than putting on a front.

Kara doesn't understand what's happening, but wonders if maybe Lena is secretly angry with her for killing Lex (remember, Kara believed she took him down in that final fight at the end of S4). This is hammered in further after Alex plants the seed that, evil or not, Lex was still Lena's brother, and so some level of sadness is likely to still exist there. She advises Kara to give Lena time and space.

Kara, further worried by Lena's worsening isolation and mood, ignores her sister's advice and makes efforts to connect, but increasingly senses the distance and her guilt grows.

Meanwhile Lena -- between finding out the truth that Kara is Supergirl in such a terrible way, while also hiding that she killed Lex (to protect Kara, ironically) truly spirals and starts to think that Kara perhaps never was truly her friend at all, only using her to be able to eventually take down Lex. A means to an end. Feeling like that's all she's ever been to anybody, including her "best friend" who meant the world to her, Lena becomes darker and more cold, sure -- but never takes those ridiculous 'villainous' actions of any kind.

Alex pulls a typical Alex move and starts to suspect that Lena's isolation and darker vibes could mean trouble as "She is a Luthor." and she's worried she'll carry Lex's torch now that he's gone, and her isolation means she's up to something. Kara of course doesn't buy it -- much like in the show, defending Lena, rebelling against the notion.

After ramping the tension throughout Season 5A on these fronts, a dramatic series of events eventually leads Kara to go to Lena and try to have a much needed conversation. Lena thinks she's perhaps finally going to confess, and she allows herself to feel hopeful again -- alas that hope is dashed, when instead Kara simply apologizes for killing Lex (so she thinks she did), and not realizing how much doing so would cause Lena pain. Lena finds this ironic, Kara's concern for her pain, considering she's lied to her all this time and still won't be open with her. Lena then decides that if nothing else, she won't lie.

She tells Kara that Lex died at HER hand, not Kara's.

Kara is shocked. She's pulled away by an emergency before they can discuss this further. And thus, Kara now believes Lena's distance and darkness is driven by guilt over killing her own brother, and Kara now feels more guilty than ever that she went through that, and that she continues to keep Lena in the dark, even though Lena opened up to her. As we approach mid-season, the two have several 'almost' moments where it seems Kara might actually confess her identity. And we make it clear that she wants to. But the more she sees how hurt Lena is about having to kill Lex, to protect her no less, the worse she feels and the more she's terrified to tell Lena her secret, believing that Lena's done so much for her, meanwhile all she's done -- is lie. It wrecks Kara. And her anger issues start to rise up again, and that comes out a lot in Crisis crossover (in which our world's Lex is NOT yet present again btw), which is of increasing concern to everybody.

Post Crisis, in which Lena and Kara work together to save everybody even though they can barely even look at each other, we have these two idiots with their secrets, both struggling tremendously -- Kara with her anger and guilt, and Lena with her sadness and pain. And both with their regrets. And the rest of the group is noticing these tensions, between missions / various genre adventures.

It ramps up, until finally, shit hits the fan in a 100th episode. Lena is held hostage by someone threatening to kill her if Supergirl doesn't reveal her identity (similar to how it was in the show, but without the Mxy stuff, or at least using it better) -- Kara is fully willing to reveal herself to save Lena. She prepares to do just that, and even goes to the press conference, but just before she has to do it, her friends find a way to save Lena without the reveal needing to happen. But Kara is also nearly killed in the battle. The closest she's ever come to dying.

In the aftermath, Lena has now seen how far Kara would go to protect her -- both in terms of being willing to give up her life AND reveal her identity to the world. Lena of course forgives Kara (quietly, to herself) and decides to let Kara have her secret, even if it means they both pretend the other doesn't know, silly as it it. Alas, what she doesn't expect, at the end of the episode --

Kara reveals her identity to Lena (at Kara's place after everyone else goes home). Turns out almost losing her life made her realize she didn't want to die a coward and a liar on this front. And also, Lena not knowing put her at worse risk than knowing. And she deserves to know, so she can protect herself. So Kara can better protect her.

After/during her confession, Lena sheds a tear, and Kara starts to profusely apologize, thinking Lena is devastated by the revelation. But Lena confesses that it's tears of relief, because she's already known. She was just wondering if Kara would ever trust her enough to tell her the truth. Kara is shocked to know Lena knew, grateful she's kept the secret for her, and heartbroken to know she learned it from Lex, before killing him. She also makes it clear she didn't keep it from her because she didn't trust her, it was never about that. It was simply the belief that not telling her protected her somehow. But now she's seen that was foolish, in this case. Realizing now they've both been dumb and their secrets have done nothing but cause each other, and themselves, so much pain -- they agree: no more secrets.

And they hug it out -- because besties! Just gals being pals right?!

*eye roll*

Then the rest of 5B becomes all about Lex popping up alive, and being furious that Lena and Kara are closer than ever, and that his attempt to destroy their relatio- I mean "friendship" failed. And he comes at them harder than ever, with Lillian's help. And so on. And by the end of S5, in an epic battle, Lex is finally stopped and captured once and for all and hauled off to prison, but not before sending Kara to the phantom zone.

Lena is devastated, as she and Kara only recently had all cards on the table and were growing closer than ever, so S6A then becomes all about the super friends trying to find Kara in the Phantom Zone (with a LOT less cheesy stupidity, and a lot more focus on Kara's traumas and torture while in the PZ rather than any dumb filler crap with her dad being alive -- perhaps she sees him, but it's just a cruel illusion).

Meanwhile, Lena, at wits end, visits Lex in prison, hoping to get information out of him as to where and how they can find Kara in the PZ. But he taunts her, plays games with her, etc until finally, she tells him goodbye for good. He doesn't believe she'll be able to stay away forever, especially as long as he knows how to find Kara. But she finally sees through it all, basically tells him he's full of shit, that he has no idea how to reach Kara in the PZ, he's a liar, always has been, and his power over her is gone. She vows to find Kara on her own and to never be anything like him, as he's selfish and cruel and insane. And she finally walks away from him. And he can't believe it.

Now that she's found her inner strength, Lena is able to think more clearly, less out of anger and desperation, and thus she, Alex and the Superfriends eventually embark on an action-packed retrieval of Kara in the Phantom Zone, ultimately saving her in the mid-season finale.

The final half of the final season (6B) focuses on Kara's deep traumas experienced/re-lived in the phantom zone, as she struggles with doing her job as "perfect" Supergirl while mentally screwed up. No one really notices but Lena, because Kara hides it well. Alex is just happy her sister is back, busy planning a wedding, focusing on vigilante work, etc. And the Superfriends have lots of other issues to focus on as well. But Lena sees Kara's struggles because she knows a thing or two about trauma, and she's there for her. Especially after Alex and Kelly get married with a few episodes to go and Kara doesn't want to burden her sister, who is finally so happy.

The final episodes feature Kara facing her demons, internal and external (as villains from past seasons pop up to haunt her, as it turns out the events post Crisis brought them into this universe, and now they've come after her, and they've all got to take them down).

In the end, the show wraps up with Kara finding a level of peace she never had before, having faced the past and all she's gone through and lost, in great part thanks to having Lena by her side.

And the show ends focused on Kara, for an episode called KARA. Not focused on Lex, nor the supporting characters, not on shoe-horned cameos, nor other bs. But Kara herself, and her journey, her healing from a lifetime of loss and trauma, her relationships to her family and friends, and rediscovering that which is always going to rest deep within her soul, even if it gets a little lost sometimes...

Her unbreakable sense of HOPE.

The End.

[buddiebeginz]

Since everyone is so up in arms over Ryan's recent interview I wanted to compile some of what he's said in other interviews this season. There are a lot of breadcrumbs here that show Eddie's sexuality storyline is in the works it's just going to take some time to get fleshed out especially since there has been so much focus on Buck and his coming out this season.

----

But what about Eddie and Buck? Is there still a chance for romance between them?

"As far as [Eddie's] sexuality, I think it's pretty clear that he's tried to fill in this motherly, this wife type role—that's all he knows," Guzman explained. "And he's a man [that] first off, he's Catholic. Second off, he's from the military. So those are very straight-edge kind of lifestyles that don't offer too much of exploring. But through the 118, he's had this epiphany each year, like, 'Well, maybe I don't know as much as I thought I did. And maybe I should be exploring a little bit more and maybe I should understand myself a little bit more and even seek a therapist,' which is something new for Eddie. So I feel the representation is reflective of the inclusivity that Ryan Murphy's show likes to have and Tim Minear likes to write."

Parade

----

Did you have a personal reaction when you found out about the reveal of this moment and the change in Buck's character? Was it something you saw coming, or was it a surprise?

GUZMAN: Since there's so much talk about our characters, it wasn't a shock to me. For Buck's character, I feel like it kind of tracks. And I think that we trust Tim [Minear], to be honest. He's such a great, incredible writer, and he's very inclusive in his writing. And it shows beyond the sexuality, beyond representation. It shows humanity, and that's what I love about these characters. You can do whatever you want in the bedroom, but at the end of the day, that love remains, brother-sister, intimate relationship, whatever that kind of connection is. We allow the audience to get a sense of the human side. And I think we explore that in new ways every single season. So, this season, getting that opportunity to see Buck evolve into who he is has been just a beautiful storyline.

You've mentioned it a little bit already, but I can't not talk about the potential of romance between these two characters. It's such a huge aspect of the fandom around this show and around the commentary of this show. Did the reveal make you consider a romance between these two characters? Have you considered it seriously before? Or was it always, "We'll see where it goes, we'll see where it takes us"?

GUZMAN: It's always kind of been a "we'll see where it goes, we'll see where it takes us." Because, at the end of the day, it's a fine line between giving the fans what they want and also staying true to the characters themselves. As an actor, your one job is to give your character truth. And what I love about this whole world that we play in 9-1-1 is that truth changes at a moment's notice. So, we allow ourselves to stay open to all possibilities. At this moment, Eddie's got so much going on in his life as far as his relationship with himself, and Marisol, and God, that he's got his plate full. And to take on anything else at this moment, I don't know, he might crack again! [Laughs] So, who knows what happens with him, and we're here for Buck and his relationship. And, again, I think that strengthening of that bond is crucial.

I don't think either of these characters are ready for this yet. They need to settle their own lives first before anything happens in that direction!

GUZMAN: Yeah.

Collider

----

Do you think it was the right decision for Marisol to move back out?

Eddie has shown himself to go from zero to 100 all the time. He finds one girl that checks off a couple boxes in his list and he's like, "Ah, that'd be good enough. Let's get married." This time, thank God, he didn't need a Carla in his life to say "Slow down." He did it himself. He had a conversation with Bobby, he had a conversation with Buck, he figures it out and he goes, "Okay, maybe it's time to have some growth on my end." He is doing a big thing for not only him, but for his son. He's not trying to fill in this space that was left open by Shannon and he's taking care of that relationship that [Gavin McHugh's] Christopher has with his mother that passed. He realizes he has to take it a lot slower. It seems like a step back, but it is so many steps forward for Eddie in what that means to him and his family dynamic.

How did you react when you found out Buck was going to explore his bisexuality? And what did you think when you first read the scene where he comes out to Eddie?

I think we felt this scene was coming one way or another — and we knew we had to handle this with care, because there are so many people who have attached themselves.... Oliver and I are so grateful for the people who have attached themselves to our characters, and what they do with it. And so we really wanted to give this scene a sense of groundedness. And luckily for me, I've had an experience in my life where a friend trusted me with their own coming out, and I got to understand first person that it wasn't so much about me accepting them, it was more about me allowing them to feel safe and loved. So I wanted to exemplify that in this scene. Like, "Hey man, you can say whatever you got. I'm not going anywhere. Okay? This connection remains." That was something that forever changed my life — in my personal life, with my friend — so this had to feel the same for the millions of people who are going to see it, because some may not be getting this from their friends. Some may be scared to do this in front of their friends, and maybe this gives them the opportunity to find their own bravery, as Buck did, and go to their closest friend and say, "Hey, this is how I feel nowadays. Can you explore this with me?" I love that scene.

What else can you tease for Eddie this season?

Now that Eddie's taken that step forward with Marisol, that offers a lot of new obstacles. This is unknown territory — much like Buck's character, it's unknown territory. And that is something to be a little bit more scared of, to be honest, because we have no clue how to handle the unknown. So I think with Marisol and Eddie, their relationship is strengthening, but there's so many traumatic moments that Eddie still has yet to answer for himself in his own past. So how that plays into this present moment is a balancing act. And what I'd like to see is him handle it with ease, but that doesn't offer great TV. So yeah, he's going to be a mess just as much as he was — as we all are, really.

EW

[beanghostprincess]

I was also thinking during this whole thing of Robin taking care of usopp he learns how to read poneglyphs. This was not intentional and did not teach him how to read it. After the incident with the buster call, she probably wanted to write down some of the stuff she knows about poneglyphs including the alphabet. So she has it with her all times. Also just in case something does happen to her, the information is still out there to be learned . He taught himself while looking through Robin's journals and kind of watched her while she works.

He thought it was a word game trying to decipher the squiggles on the paper. Well she's working he curiously asks like what's It's an ancient weapon? She's freaking out asking him how much he knows and how he learned how to read it. After giving his explanation she firmly tells him not to tell anyone that he knows how to read poneglyphs not sanji not his dad no one this is a secret between him and Robin.

Robin feels terrified and also guilty knowing that if the world finds out that this little boy knows how to read them, everyone will be after him whether to use him or to kill him. She spent years running she doesn't want that for usopp, if yasopp finds out he'll be pissed and would probably kick her out or turn her into the marines. (He would never do that yasopp is a lot of things but he's not a monster.) also someone finds out that he knows then they'll find her and they'll do a buster call on syrup village and she can't go through that again and she won't let usopp go through that.

So they keep it a secret. When he's older he insists on learning more about it and asks Robin lights so important to keep it a secret. She reveals her past her real name and her history doubling down on why he needs to keep his information limited. He doesn't push her further after.

Years later Luffy gets a hold of them. Water 7 happens. It's very traumatic but you know everyone is okay now. Robin pulls usopp aside and decides to teach him everything she knows about them. Realizing that what happened during water 7 was a close call If everything didn't happen how it did she would have been dead and all that information would be gone. She doesn't want that to happen. Someone has to know about this, someone has to keep this knowledge alive and Usopp is the one to do it. If something happens to her, He has to carry on her legacy. So he gets her inherited will of knowledge and keeping history alive.

This is killing me because she's such an older sister/second mom to Usopp and it's just,,, So sweet,, I love Usopp finding out on his own and Robin protecting him at all costs. Robin telling him all she knows after Water 7? I love them. I can't stop thinking about the fear Usopp might've felt when Robin was taken away from them. The way he shows up as Sogeking and she just knows it's him because he used to do that as a kid too. And,, It's just so sweet, the way they love each other,,

[sasusakucore]

What would have happened if

1. Katniss didn't volunteer for Prim, so Prim and Peeta compete in 74th Games.

2. Gale and Katniss compete.

3. Katniss and Peeta's brother compete. Before, he volunteered for Peeta.

The Questions :

A.What strategy would Haymitch made for District 12?

B.What would Katniss do to them? Would she become an ally with those 2 boys?

C.Who would be the winner in the end?

Thank you so much :)

@curiousnonny

i) If katniss didn't volunteer for prim, so prim and peeta compete in the 74th hunger games

[Now, personally even if katniss was at the death door, she would have still volunteered for prim. She loves her sister so much that she would kill and die for her but let's just say for some reason katniss was unable to volunteer(prim might have prevented her or something because prim also loves katniss dearly)]

Personally haymitch would have lost hope on those two because those two are like the most gentle people out there. I think in this scenario, peeta had to get more aggressive with haymitch inorder for him to take both of them seriously. Now, knowing peeta, since he a gentle soul and has a crush on katniss, I think he would sacrifice his life to protect prim since in his eyes nobody needs him anyway and prim is loved by many especially his crush and that prim is young. So he convinces haymitch that prim is worth saving by telling her about her sister katniss' abilities and prim might have learned something from her. I think compared to katniss, prim has a little bit more charm and though she would hate to sacrifice a kind boy like peeta, she would agree with his plan plus I think peeta would reveal his plans to her because he needs her cooperation for the plan to work. Now onto haymitch's advice, while prim can't hunt let's assume that she has learned other survival skills(if she didn't the chances of her surviving are less)from katniss(like climbing trees, following animals to find food and water, snares(to subdue not kill)etc.) plus with the fact that she is good healer and is knowledgeable with plants and peeta might be gentle but he is good at wrestling(and since he is not planning to win the games), camouflaging and cooking, haymitch's advice would be for them to stick together, get supplies if they can but running away from the cornucopia is priority number one and find a place to hide. Now for the sponsors, one way would be if they get scores like 7 or above like how peeta got 8, I think prim can get a decent score of like(5-6 mostly) by her knowledge of plants and healing and I think only one or two would consider to do that just for the sake of rooting for the underdog so the next one is stylists and interviews. Both of them would heed haymitch's advice of being nice to their stylist(though I doubt they would get someone like cinna because he choose to go to 12 because he was moved by katniss volunteering for prim so let's assume they miraculously got a decent stylist) and now for the interview, both would work together unlike in the canon with katniss and perta and they somehow manage to create a story that would make some folks at the capitol like them(it's going to be like brother-sister angle or some platonic angle). So the best chances for them in arena to win is probably if most of the tributes kill each other and the mutts kill the remaining and those two avoid the mutts. I also like to think they might ally themselves in a typical alliance(haymitch might advice them to probably ally themselves with someone other than the careers, possibly district 11)with rue and thresh(I guess peeta could try to convince them separately by highlighting their similar situation but I think he would mostly manage to convince rue and it would be a miracle if thresh agreed). Between prim and peeta, I feel like peeta would sacrifice himself so that she could win and if due to circumstances prim dies and peeta survives the games I don't think he would be able to show his face to katniss since in his mind she would loathe him and that he feels guilty of not saving her. Now katniss would feel so hopeless in this situation because her sister is in a death match and she can't do anything to save her and I feel like if prim dies this might either radicalize her to join the rebellion or she might act like her mother did when katniss lost her father. But if prim manages to win, katniss would be so happy and relieved and would be protective of prim due to all attention she might get as the youngest Victor. She would give condolences to peeta's family regarding his death and would silently thank him and see him in a more positive light.

ii)Gale and katniss compete

Now in terms of fighting and surviving, they have way more chance than peeta and prim. Both have good survival skills and instincts and they are hunting partners so haymitch definitely thinks they will have better chances of winning compared to the previous victors. He tells them to get supplies and weapons if they can though running away from the cornucopia should be priority number 1(this is applicable to peeta and prim). He would tell them to hide and all though since they are good at archery and snares, if they manage to get their hands on a bow and arrow and some materials to make traps, they should use them. Now they would definitely get high training scores and this might put a target on their back but also give them some sponsors. Now these two would follow haymitch's advice of being nice to their stylists(though it would be hard for gale but if he manages to then its good news, plus katniss' stylist is definitely cinna since she volunteered for prim so they would get good outfits) but the main problem is interviews and that would be haymitch's main concern since both katniss and gale lack charms. So only by great difficulty, they would actually do decently well in the interview(haymitch probably told them to highlight their teamwork and their lives at home(with some filter), they won'tbe able to play the romance angle so I don't think they wouldget much sponsors from their interviews). So I think katniss and gale can ideally win if they manage to get their hands on bow and arrows and some snare materials, avoid getting injured,avoid killing unless necessary and if they have to kill, they can do it by shooting at the tributes while being at a safe distance(eg being on the trees). If had to pick a winner between the two, both have equal chances and I don't think they can kill each other so if they are the ones alive so they would go their separate ways until one of them gets killed by mutts or arena events/dies by illness etc. Katniss is both glad yet distraught that gale got reaped with her because on one hand she has her trusted friend with her but on the other hand either him or her will die. Both of them promised to each other that if one of them survives then they would take care of the other's family.

3) Now, we have zero information regarding peeta's brother so if we go by assumption that he has a lot of strength due to working in the bakery or probably like peeta has participated in wrestling tournaments so that's one advantage he has and i explained katniss' skills above. Now haymitch only has hope with katniss because the boy might be older and stronger but that's just it and those skills alone won't help. Katniss and peeta's brother definitely don't trust each other much though I don't think they would actively try to kill each other since both might feel guilty due to katnuss being the sole breadwinner and being the crush of peeta and peeta's older brother being peeta's brother. Now haymitch might tell them to coordinate for interviews since both volunteered for their respective siblings and it has touched the hearts of some capitol citizens. Now we don't know whether peeta's sibling is as charming as peeta but I think he is more charming that katniss so the interview part might go well if they coordinate properly(again no romance angle, just some sob story and probably the love for their siblings, they might get sponsors but it would be less). And since katniss volunteered, cinna might become her stylist and I think they can pull of being nice to their stylists so the stylist issue is not much of a concern. Now training scores, katniss gets a 11 which puts a target on her back as well as sponsors and peeta's sibling gets like a 8 or something if we assume he is good in the strength department(don't know about camouflage). So between the two it's definitely katnuss who would survive. I think katniss would most likely avoid teaming up with him because she doesn't want to be the one to kill him especially since he is peeta's sibling and unlike peeta with prim, I don't think she is willing to die for his sibling since she is breadwinner of the family. And even if they do tram up due to circumstances, I think in a scenario if the two of them are left then katniss might either shoot him or just avoid him until he dies of infection or something or gets killed by mutts. If she kills him then she would feel guilty because he is peeta's sibling and like peeta regarding prim, she would avoid peeta for the rest of her life.

Edit: Just realized that the winner question refers to who is likely to win the games overall and not who is likely to win the games between the two people mentioned above.

So in the first one, the ones most likely to win overall are definitely the careers, foxface and thresh. Prim and peeta would need a lot of luck on their side to win.

In the second one, it's definitely going to the careers, katniss, gale, foxface and thresh who are most likely to win.

In the last one, it's the careers, katniss, foxface and thresh who are more likely to win.

But we should never forget that while skill, charisma, good health and being capitol favourite is important, luck also plays a major role which even the capitol can't control.

[shanofarcadia]

i’m not one to tear down a successful queen ever, but there are moments throughout 3below where aja genuinely needed to get off the screen and let krel actually exist as one of the co-protagonists of the show, and allow me to drop some helpful examples:

the fight with halcon (1x07)

not saying that aja should be erased from this completely, but something that always pissed me off about this is that instead of letting krel help and fight alongside aja, he just gets knocked unconscious. which, okay, sure, stun him for a second like halcon did to varvatos, but when he comes to he can help! but then when he DOES wake up, he’s… instantly knocked out again, like literally instantly. what the fuck. not to mention, when halcon first attacks, it’s on krel (and ricky) alone (one of the rare moments that krel’s part of something without aja involved), so you’d think they’d give krel some stake in the final fight against halcon. and i’m not saying he needed to be the one to get the dramatic final blow on her either, in fact i love how varvatos just wakes up and one-shot blasts her to pieces in the sky. i’m just saying i think krel should’ve been an active part of the fight.

the battle of the bands (1x12)

this one’s not really as major, but it only slightly annoys me because i’ve always felt like most people were cheering because of aja’s vocals/dancing rather than krel’s music (save for eli and seamus who directly compliment him, they’re real ones) especially when krel literally has to clarify that HE’S the main act when someone in the audience cheers for aja. again, not the biggest deal, just a silly music competition, but it feels weird for the show to frame it as krel’s major legacy moment when moments earlier he was still being sidelined by people in favor of his sister.

rescuing varvatos (2x02)

this is by far the one that pisses me off the most. as we see in both 1x12 and 2x01, krel is VISIBLY more emotional and affected by varvatos’ betrayal being revealed. to the point where tears ROLL down his face, and he ALMOST EXECUTES varvatos on the spot, and his emotion in the season 2 premiere coming out in apathetic anger, but then we see him curl up and break into more tears when finally confronting his feelings on what happened. it’s literally HIS IDEA to go to the moon to save varvatos anyway. only, when the plan gets enacted, it’s… aja who gets to free varvatos from his cell. so where’s krel? playing dress up in the space tavern’s main room and getting hot-potatoed between dozens of bounty hunters. this makes me unbelievably upset. you show that krel is massively more affected by the events than aja is, but then he’s not even granted the courtesy of the 1-on-1 that aja and varvatos get as she frees him? say what you want about anything else i’ve mentioned, but this is a moment that 110% should’ve belonged to krel and not aja. also the fact that krel doesn’t even really speak directly to varvatos for the remainder of the episode once he’s freed. if anything, they kind of just gloss over krel’s internal conflict of being angry at him vs wanting to rescue him, another flaw in the usage of krel as a character.

also keep in mind that this is in no way meant to come across as anti-aja or anything like that, especially when she’s my 2nd favorite protagonist and 3below is my favorite show in the trilogy by a long shot. i mainly am just trying to criticize the show’s handling of its one and only dark-skinned protagonist and how him going severely underused in his own show and look at things through nuance, because there were plenty of moments krel could’ve been a part of things where he wasn’t, and it sucks that in both canon and fan spaces he goes so criminally underlooked. this has just been my two cents. this is longest tumblr post i’ve made in a while actually.

[goodqueenaly]

You're great at answering Asoiaf what ifs, so I'm hoping you could give me your opinion on one. Do you think anything would have changed for the Starks at KL during AGOT if Ned had given Sansa the wolf pack lecture instead of Arya? It seems that Sansa was more in need of it after everything that happened. Or did he pretty much consider her more of a Lannister than a Stark at this point, and knew she needed to put Joffrey ahead of her family?

To be clear, it's not like Ned didn't give Sansa something of the same lesson very shortly before his conversation with Arya, albeit in warning rather than in private discussion:

Sansa lifted her head. “It will be a splendid event. You shan’t be wanted.”

Anger flashed across Father’s face. “Enough, Sansa. More of that and you will change my mind. I am weary unto death of this endless war you two are fighting. You are sisters. I expect you to behave like sisters, is that understood?”

Sansa bit her lip and nodded. Arya lowered her face to stare sullenly at her plate. She could feel tears stinging her eyes. She rubbed them away angrily, determined not to cry.

As far as Ned might have seen in that moment, Sansa had taken his words to heart - openly nodding in agreement - while Arya had resisted any outward show of the same. In turn, when Arya lost her temper at dinner and locked herself in her room, Ned may well have thought that he needed to give Arya a more personalized version of the reminder he had tried to impress upon both of them earlier.

Nor do I think it's fair to say that Ned at any time "consider[ed] [Sansa] more of a Lannister than a Stark ... and knew she needed to put Joffrey ahead of her family". Indeed, the above is not the only time he showed open irritation toward Sansa's lack of sororal feeling toward Arya. When Sansa assumed, following the dress incident, that her father had called the two of them in for some parental censuring and immediately blamed Arya - even adding that Arya "tries to spoil everything, Father, she can’t stand for anything to be beautiful or nice or splendid", Ned told Sansa "Enough", in a voice "sharp with impatience”. Likewise, following his announcement to the two of them that he would be sending them back to Winterfell, Ned pointedly responded to Sansa's protest by saying that "I'm not sending you away for fighting, though the gods know I'm sick of you two squabbling". Naturally as well, Ned was not at all afraid to break the betrothal between Sansa and Joffrey, even before he confronted Cersei about her children's paternity, because of the danger he (not incorrectly) saw was posed to the Starks by the Lannister faction; in this moment certainly, what mattered to Ned was Sansa's status as his daughter and a Stark, not any loyalty she should have to Joffrey.

I'm not saying I don't wish we had more Ned-Sansa scenes, and I'm not saying that Ned could not have been more communicative with Sansa during their time in King's Landing together. But I don't think what happened to Ned, Sansa, and Arya (as well as the Stark household in King's Landing) had anything to do with Ned not telling Sansa (in a heart-to-heart conversation, anyway) that she should show Arya more familial love. Ned, as an ask I got once put it so well, kind of done goofed in his role as Hand; additionally, his unwillingness and failure to explain anything to his daughters about why they were leaving King's Landing on the day he decide (and why Sansa could not say goodbye to Joffrey before they left) motivated Sansa to reveal information to Cersei which Cersei then used to imprison Sansa and set a trap for Arya (as well as attempt to catch her).

[copiousloverofcopia]

Ok Primo lovers! The next installment of Potpourri is LIVE!!!!

Thank you all for once again being patient with me as I work on things and juggle my IRL responsibilities as well. I appreciate you all so much.

Please if you like my work, share it!

Potpourri

During his retirement, Papa Primo Emeritus falls in love with a new Sister of Sin who has suffered a tragic loss. While the new sister settles into the Abbey, Primo can't help but grow more infatuated with her. Promising to give her everything she desires, but can he win her affections when she still can't let go of the past?

Chapter 6: Potpourri

Also available HERE on AO3! Haven’t started yet, start from the beginning HERE!

Read below the cut

The night of the new sibling initiation had come and gone. Days passing as gently as the spring breeze and the Abbey returning back to normal routine. Only the memory and the new titles of newcomers remained. That was for all except what happened between Primo and Gwen. 

The Abbey was practically buzzing with it. The normally composed and eldest Emeritus son had been spotted ravishing one of the new siblings during initiation, a truth that had been on all the mouths of those who dwelled in the Abbey. Both ghouls and siblings alike were intrigued by it. Though carnal interactions with siblings were commonplace for his younger brothers, this kind of conduct wasn’t at all what the Abbey inhabitants had come to expect from Primo. 

All of them, smiling and whispering whenever they saw Papa and the new sister together. It took all Fiona had not to spill the small juicy details she had acquired of her friend's affair. Though what she and everyone else had been conjuring up was far more salacious than reality. While they had crossed a definite line during the ritual, every night since had been a slow, chaste passing. 

Both of them, choosing to get to know one another before anything else—maybe even become friends. Gwen was still so fragile and Primo wasn’t about to be the one to break her. He knew that it was meant to be and that if he was right, eventually, she would come around. Her wounded heart only needed the time to heal before they might be something more. He had, however, begun to grow impatient. 

Primo tried his best to push away the thoughts, but more often than not he found himself needing to release. To relieve his built-up sexual tension with his own hand. The thoughts of Gwen constantly on his mind. The way she felt as he slipped his fingers inside her. The sound of her moaning in his ear. He wanted desperately to know what she’d feel like while he pounded into her. Feeling her all around him as he spilled himself inside her—so that he might give her the child he knew she so badly wanted.

Even though it had been weeks since their night together, Gwen hadn’t made any hint of wanting anything more than Primo's companionship. They were becoming closer, at least that's what he told himself. He had even begun to teach her about conjugation and spell casting. Choosing to focus on simple things like inanimatum manifestationem and charm spells. Gwen, however, was most interested in communing with the spirit realm. 

It was in the quiet times between them that Gwen shared with him too. Not about anything so magical as Primo, but about her life leading up to the arrival at the Abbey. A little more revealed of herself as each moment came. The most recent story being that of the day she lost her child. It was then that Primo had felt the full weight of it. 

As the words left her, he could feel the constant ache that afflicted her. The wound of the soul that Gwen thought might never heal. She had also told him about her failings in love. Lamenting that things had always been very one sided, though it took her some time to realize it. 

The subject of love had come up again whilst Gwen and Primo worked to prepare the chapel for the evening's Black Mass. Gathering up the spent incense and emptying the vases of the old dried out arrangements. Primo followed Gwen back into the sacristy determined to have her see that things would get better. “You know they were wrong to overlook you cara mia.” Primo said as he placed his hand over hers. 

“If you say so Papa…maybe…” she sighed, still clutching the dead, dried flowers, “I feel as though I am nothing. Like these dead plants. Just a shell of what I once was.”

“No...” 

“I’m sorry?” Gwen asked as she went to toss the bouquets into the trash. Primo gently grabbed her wrist before she could release them. Both of them, locking eyes as Primo began to speak.  

“The life in these flowers is gone, but they can still be a part of something beautiful.” Primo explained.

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked him, looking more than a bit confused. Primo’s face was now more serious than ever. A look that made Gwen swallow back a bit as he took the flowers from her. Pulling the dried buds from their stem and placing them gently in a small basket in the center of the table. 

“They can be an offering—or even made into potpourri…they are not the same as they once were, that is true, but these blossoms can still be something beautiful.”

“I see.” she replied knowing that he was most certainly alluding to her. Primo was in love with her and Gwen very much felt it. It was getting harder for her too to deny the feelings she had for him. Worried that she’d regret acting on them. And she already had too many regrets to speak of. 

A moment however had reached them. Gwen could sense it—something about the way he looked at her. The sweet charm of his romantic, but cliche, speech and the soft smile on his face that made her guard fall. Primo must have sensed it too because he reached down to take Gwen’s face in his hand. Slowly bending down to kiss her fully on her lips.

She didn’t pull back, instead leaning into him. The taste of his mouth like the sweet nectar of fruit. The gentle touch of silk that was his lips. This was the first kiss she had truly wanted. Not some pity and haze-induced endeavor, fueled by outside forces. No—this was only them. 

Gwen brought her arms around Primo’s neck, kissing him harder. Tears streamed down her face as they continued. Primo, taking the leap of faith as he brought his tongue into her mouth. Slow and sensual, not the lustful and rushed way he had before. They melted into one another.  

When Gwen finally, and reluctantly, did pull back she smiled. Both of them, a bit breathless and flushed. This was all she could do for now and there were responsibilities she had to tend to. Primo seemed to understand, even without her saying it. Helping her adjust her veil before fixing his own cassock. Hoping that the swell in his pants was hidden well enough to not ruin the sweet moment between them. 

“I must be going Papa…thank you for…um…everything.” Gwen smiled more.

“Of course, amore." He told her. Gwen turned to leave and Primo knew he couldn't just leave it at that, "...would you? Would you sit beside me in the pews tonight? I would very much appreciate your company.” Primo asked, watching with joy as Gwen nodded. Progress—Primo was thrilled. Watching with hopefulness in his heart as Gwen took her leave from the sacristy. 

Hours had passed since their kiss and Primo still couldn’t get it off his mind. The whole night spent in blissful merriment, especially with her seated next to him in the pews. He had managed to hold her hand throughout the sermon. Gently gliding his thumb over the top as Terzo went off on one of his rants about pridefulness. 

The two of them, glancing at one another endlessly. Looking as if they wished to sneak off together. Gwen had even allowed Primo to walk her back to her dorm. The two of them, finding Fiona waiting up for her friend—along with a whole row of little eavesdroppers. All spilling of their rooms from their doorways as Papa left her there. Another gentle kiss on the lips before the door closed and Primo would return to his chambers. 

When midnight struck, he was still tossing and turning in his bed. Thinking about Gwen's sweet face. Primo was finally beginning to drift when he startled. The phone, ringing loudly and echoing in the vast openness of the room. Primo rushed out from his sheets towards the old rotary that sat near his favorite armchair. Lifting up the receiver and bringing it to his ear. 

"What could you possibly want at this hour?" He chided, unsure of exactly who was on the other line. Thankfully it was Secondo and the revelation allowed Primo renewed justification in his ire. 

"Oh, calmati, vecchio sciocco." Secondo scoffed, practically able to see the way Primo's face contorted on the other end. 

"What do you want fratellino?" Primo asked him, clearing his throat and trying to keep his patience.

"The prodigal son returns tonight. Thought we may indulge in a game or two. Stay up until his return…that is if you can manage it?" 

"Pfft…I'll be down soon." Primo replied, already knowing exactly where to go. 

Primo made his way down from his chambers to the main hall. Feeling the wear of the day and his lack of sleep upon him as he found this path in the dark. When he reached his destination he was met with Terzo, Secondo, and Saltarian staring him down. The three of them, sitting in the clergy break room as Primo stood in the doorway, all awaiting Copia return. 

The hours were now steadily creeping into the early morning and the normal show of fanfare would be held off until morning broke. Just the way Copia liked it. The fourth Papa, preferring to get adjusted to being home before all the “hullabaloo” commenced.  

“Were the fuck have you been? We’ve been waiting for over an hour.” Secondo scoffed.

“It's late fratello. Give…what did you call me before? An OLD man a moment…I am here now. Deal me in.” Primo responded. Their youngest brother’s arrival seemed the perfect excuse to play cards and, for Primo’s brothers, an opportunity to grill him. Now along with Saltarian’s help they could find out just what his intentions were with his mysterious and melancholic sister. 

“And what shall we play…Uno?” Mr. Saltarian laughed, trying to inject some humor back into the conversation. Running his fingers over the packs of cards that lined the cabinet until he found the Uno cards. 

“I will only play that if Primo will agree to answer my questions…since he cheats.” Secondo replied. Primo nodded to Saltarian to grab them, his friend handing them over to Secondo who began to shuffle. Secondo reluctantly began tossing them out across the round table, the rest of the men collecting their hands before Secondo placed the first card down in the center.

“Sono offeso.” Primo scoffed, “I do not cheat…you are just a sore loser.”

“Ok then…go ahead and pretend that you do not, in fact, enchant the cards stronzo and that it is pure coincidence that you always win when we play this damn game.” he sniped. Both Mr. Saltarian and Terzo rolling their eyes at them when Primo finally took his seat.

“What is it you want to know so badly then?” Primo asked him. Terzo adjusted himself in the chair, popping the cork out from his wine bottle and taking a swig—not even bothering to gather himself a glass. Preferring to drink straight from the bottle on game nights such as this. 

“Yeah Sec..what's got your panties all in a bunch?” he smirked. The table got quiet for a moment, all of them looking up from their cards at Secondo who was staring daggers at Primo. 

“Sister Guinevere…”

“Ah si, il mio fiore delicato. What about her?” Primo responded.

“You two seem to be getting very close as of late…well that is, if some of the rumors floating amongst the siblings and ghouls are to be believed. What they’ve told me...” Secondo hummed, taking the first turn and setting down his red number 2 card to start. 

“Just what have they reported back fratellino? Are you having them spy on me now?” Primo chuckled. Smirking as he forced Secondo to draw 4. Delighting in the grimace on Secondo's face as he added the cards to his hand. 

“No…it’s just I worry. You’ve already bound yourself to her and she's a bit of a wild card.”

“Speaking of.” Terzo laughed as he placed his wild card down on top. “I mean Primo, she did only just a few weeks ago try to…” Terzo chose to continue before Saltarian tapped his arm. “We don’t want to see you hurt either.”

“I can make her happy and I will.” Primo smiled, Saltarian smiling back at him. The two of them, having an unspoken understanding. He too had been watching them. Seeing Gwen open up to Primo as days passed. Primo’s plan to win her heart was simple to him as the planting of seeds and Saltarian could see that things were already beginning to blossom between them.

“Oh, and just how are you planning on doing that?” Secondo asked his tone snide and smug, as always as he laid down his next card. 

“I’m going to give her what she wants.” he explained, shuffling his deck for his next card. Both Secondo and Terzo, waiting for him to continue.

“...and that is what exactly?” Secondo groaned, frustrated with Primo’s drawn out exposition. 

“Vita eterna.” he smiled, placing down his card on the stack.

“What? You can't be serious…” Secondo inquired; certain he knew what Primo was getting at. 

“I’m going to give her a child. My child.” Primo responded, Terzo immediately began choking on his wine as Secondo sat back stunned in his chair. Both brothers, dead silent and completely taken back by his intentions. 

"You have got to be fucking kidding me? Knocking her up is not the ans—" Secondo hissed before Primo rushed at him. The two of them, ready to brawl. Thankfully Saltarian was surprisingly quicker. Holding both men back from doing anything stupid in the heat of the moment.

"Am…I…ah interrupting something?" Copia said, dropping down his bags as he entered the break room.

"Copia! Fratellino!" Terzo called out as he went to stand beside him. "Glad you came when you did. Otherwise, you might have 2 less fratelli." He explained, covering his mouth so Secondo and Primo might not hear him. 

"Seems there's a disagreement about a relationship between Papa and his new Sister of sin." Saltarian explained. Copia went to give Saltarian a fist bump, for which he was not amused. Copia immediately withdrew his hand, a bit embarrassed but continued on. Looking straight at Secondo before he continued, clearly assuming he was the offending Papa. 

"So…ah…Secondo…who is the lucky girl?" Copia asked with a smile, taking the empty seat at the table. 

"It's me Copia…not Secondo." Primo explained as the rest of the men all sat back down. Secondo grumbling under his breath. 

"You? Now that's a surprise." Copia laughed nervously, scratching the back of his salt and peppered head.

"Oh just you wait." Terzo chuckled, giving him a slap to the back. Copia's face turned paler than usual. 

"Che cosa significa in tutte le cose empie?" He asked. Primo let out a sigh, surely Copia would be more supportive.

"I'm going to have a child with her." He said plainly. His voice, soft but firm. Copia swallowed back, already life back at the Abbey was becoming more interesting.

"Lei è incinta?" Copia asked him.

"No…no…but hopefully soon." Primo responded. 

"I think it's a wonderful idea. Good for you wanting to be a Papa…well…heh...a father. I can't wait to be a zio."  Copia laughed nervously. Secondo huffing before resigning himself to silence at the table.

"Me too." Terzo chimed in, "I want you to be happy Primo. Obviously, you better get on it soon Lucifer knows you aren't getting any younger." 

"Thank you." Primo smiled, clearly however annoyed at Terzo jab. Saltarian lifted up his wine glass to toast Primo.

"Possiate entrambi essere fecondi e moltiplicarvi." Saltarian said.

"Cin cin" said Terzo, lifting up his wine bottle. Secondo waving them on. 

"Si…well since Copia is home, I say we make a new start." Secondo explained, the faintest of thinly pressed smiles on his lips. Primo placed his hand on Copia's shoulder and looked Secondo in the eye.

"Sounds good to me."

Notes:

Oh, calmati, vecchio sciocco. -Oh quiet yourself, you old fool. 

Sono offeso- I am offended

il mio fiore delicato- my delicate blossom

vita eterna- Life eternal

Che cosa significa in tutte le cose empie- What in all things unholy does that mean?

Lei è incinta?- she's pregnant?

Zio- uncle

Cin cin- cheers

[acourtofthought]

How do you think Elain and Lucien will get together? I see some theories about them healing and taking care of Spring, but I can’t imagine Elain will jump at the opportunity to be around him right now. It’s so difficult to theorize since we don’t have her POV :/ For all we know she wants to jump his bones every time she sees him 😌🤞

And I don’t see Gwyn and Azriel as friends to lovers (I know it’s a popular theory about them). Seems too easy and sorta bland and I can’t see SJM writing it. I don’t think she likes her endgame couples to be on good terms right off the bat. I wonder what kind of conflict she’ll introduce between them.

I agree with you on both accounts!

The line in ACOSF, where Elain declared she was part of this court and would do what it needed stands out to me a lot. I know E/riels believe that means Elain feels she belongs in the NC but I actually think it's hinting at Elain doing whatever she needs for her family and what is in the best interests of them and their court, regardless of where she ends up.

And I think her book is going to end up with Rhys finding a reason for her to leave the NC to do something that would in fact help the NC and would then put her in the path of Lucien. Or....Elain herself could decide that what would best benefit the Night Court is a marriage alliance with Lucien. One of the major plot points of SF was the NC plotting for Eris to believe he might have a shot at a marriage between he and Nesta which would be important in securing a lasting alliance between the NC and Autumn. We know that was never going to actually happen but the idea of it was put into our heads, that a marriage alliance between courts would have it's benefits. So it's possible Elain will have come to the same conclusion and realize that marrying Lucien would help secure alliances for the Night Court, what with his ties to Spring, Autumn, Day and the friendships he's made across other Courts.

Considering SJM herself admitted to loving marriage of convenience tropes and we've yet to see that actually happen in any of her books, this would be the perfect setup for it. Not to mention any arranged marriage trope always ends in a HEA for the characters who do fall in love.

And it finds a way around Elain refusing to interact with Lucien. I feel like she'd keep that charade going for a long time out of stubbornness alone but if she found a reason to put that stubbornness aside to help out her sisters, I think she'd do it.

And I do agree about Gwynriel. Their current friends to lovers setup seems too much like E/riels current situation and honestly, Gwyn seems too sassy and Az too aggressive to have them be a soft and gentle get to know you from start to finish.

(next paragraph contains TOG spoilers) -

I realize Gwyn has a bit to overcome before she's to the point where she can be intimate with Az and I don't doubt that they'd go slow in that area however she's still got a bold personality despite what happened. And I don't see them just being oh so sweet and gentle until that happens. Rhys was SA too yet he still maintained his snarky, somewhat pushy ways with Feyre. So I imagine SJM will come up with a scenario where Gwyn has a reason to be at odds with Az. Maybe he'll respond poorly when her heritage is revealed since he's got a history of having issues with certain groups of people (those in Autumn, the Illyrians). Maybe she'll call him out on his past with Mor (SJM doesn't do female MC fighting female MC over a male drama but she has shown instances where the female calls out the male for his past with another (i.e., Yrene when she called Chaol out over Nesryn and Celaena).

But yeah, I feel like friends to lovers would not only be out of character for SJM in general but wouldn't make sense for Gwynriel as they've been written.

I do think their interactions in SF were important to establish a foundation for Gwynriel. It was a setup where he wasn't instantly smitten by her and where he was to witness her ability at protecting herself so he didn't develop savior / protector complex with her and where she was able to develop a level of comfort around him. But eventually I do think we're going to need to see a little fire between them and a reason for Gwyn to call Az out on his bad behaviors.

[paigemathews]

idk why but in the prandy P3 daughters au i feel like piper would have a girl first and then her boys (maybe twin boys? i'm just bullshitting here tbh)

Okay, so, I can genuinely guarantee that this over three thousand word outline is not what you intended when you sent this, but I got this and another ask about the prandy girls AU and decided that I needed to sketch this out to at least have an idea of what happens and who else are around the prandy girls and it... spiraled. I did put this under a read more because, like I said, over three thousand words. But to actually answer your question, and I guess spoilers for the outline ahead, Piper actually ends up with two girls: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell and Petra Penelope Halliwell. (Abi, you may say with dismay, there's no way that Piper would name her daughter Proserpina and you're not wrong! Special circumstances apply for why she did, and I actually did initially begin to dive into the next gen girls' powers and personalities here as well before realizing it was way too long already, but that information is available if anyone cares lmao.)

I also had to break this up more because Tumblr yelled at me, so we have different headings.

The Beginning

I think that the first two seasons would still primarily shake out the same, besides Andy's death, since season two is still pretty episodic

instead of that unnamed Cupid in "Heartbreak City," however, it's Coop, who kind of just gently bullies Phoebe into admitting that she's afraid of love and of losing people. (we're gonna set the stage early here.)

Additionally, Prue and Andy are still not fully together yet (bc they had been, y'know, broken up when he died) so Coop reveals to Phoebe that he's there to help them but doesn't tell anyone else yet.

Anyways, Prue and Andy end up hooking up at one point and accidentally ends up pregnant around three quarters of the way through season two but we end season two with them finally committing to one another and Perri is born about halfway through season three

During season three, however, we first see the sisters go head-to-head with the Source. They try to vanquish him, and Prue goes down hard. The Power of Three doesn't work and they're about to die when they're suddenly beamed out, revealed to be Phoebe wishing she could've confessed her love to Coop before they died. (Look, we're doing very broad strokes here rn.)

The sisters are confused because that was the strongest spell and potion that they got, and Leo goes to talk to the Elders and says that there's something blocking the sisters from their full potential and Phoebe is like "okay, what does that mean" and Leo has no idea so that takes up the back half of season three as they try to discover what's blocking them.

Meanwhile, Prue, a new mother, is having this breakdown about how she nearly orphaned her daughter and lashes out and has her plot about dealing with all of this with Andy.

Anyways, at the end of season three, we finally figure out what's limiting their powers and spoiler alert:

it's because there's supposed to be a fourth sister with them: Paige

but the Source discovers this before the sisters do and attacks once again, and this time, they're slightly more prepared but something happens and Piper is (seemingly) killed while the Source is seriously weakened so he retreats.

The Power of Four

In reality, Piper has actually ended up between planes, alive in the place you're meant to go before you die. Also, as we later find out when Leo is tearfully confiding to probably Coop, she's pregnant as well. (This will be relevant to our Pleo kid.) The rest quickly figure out, however, that wherever Piper is, she's not in the Beyond like their mother or grandmother.

But anyways, Prue is furious and going after every demon like a madwoman and casting any and every spell to locate a sister. Phoebe, meanwhile, graduated at some point during season three and is adrift and unsure what to do. She starts working with social services to help people down on their luck, where she begins running into a chaotic young Berkley grad named Paige.

Meanwhile, Piper is trying to figure out a way home and starts casting her own spells to contact her sisters. She ends up in Paige's dreams, who at first dismisses it as just being lonely and wanting family as the anniversary of her parent's death approaches and being alone for it for the first time (as Glen is unable to get back to the States in time).

Paige is a bit creeped out when she first sees a picture of Piper and sees that she's identical to the woman in her dreams but continues to dismiss it as her wishing she had a sister like Phoebe.

Anyways, something happens and Prue and Phoebe realize that Paige is their sister and Paige realizes that she's a witch. (For this, they initially believe that she's a telepath since she's able to mentally connect with Piper through planes and displays this mental connection with all of the sisters, but it's later revealed to be a product of their collective power. Her actual primary power is photokinesis, the ability to create and manipulate light.)

There's some growing pains at first, but Prue, Phoebe, and Paige manage to connect with one another and discover a way to save Piper, which is something like at the height of All Hallow's Eve or whatever.

Anyway, they save Piper and the Power of Four is established.

Either during or soon after, Piper gives birth to her and Leo's daughter: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell, named after the mysterious woman on the plane who helped Piper and likely gave her something to help her keep the pregnancy (a life growing where one is not meant to exist)(look, I wasn't intentionally trying to sketch out stuff here, we're just going with vibes now.

Prue is also pregnant again about halfway through the "getting Piper back" arc and, if Piper gives birth end of season four, Prue gives birth to Presley about half a season afterwards.

Now, back to the sisters. Let's say that Phoebe finally confesses to Coop and they deal with their feelings and are going strong. But the Source has been working to regain his strength, and so, we get some kind of enemy sent the sister's way. With the reveal of Paige's existence and Piper giving birth, the Source decides to try to divide the sisters to weaken them by targeting the most obvious weak link: Paige.

We Still Have a Demon Romance

With Piper's return, Paige feels unnecessary, like she was a placeholder only meant to hold the second sister's place until she came back. And it isn't helped by the fact that Piper came back and had a baby, Prue is now pregnant/close to having another baby, and Phoebe is dancing around Coop who may or may not have tried to set her up with someone else.

And Paige isn't impressive to the magical community, not like the original Charmed Ones and she doesn't know what she's doing yet, not really, so it doesn't go well. But there's someone who seems to like her and look up to her and they're a fellow witch (except they're actually a demon) and he gets her and understands her.

So instead of Phoebe, Paige gets a demon romance, except she doesn't know of course. And she learns more about magic and how to use it differently than anything her sisters had taught her and a lot of it is on the up-and-up for the most part but some of it just tilts Paige a bit of a different direction.

The saving grace is that Paige is also given a charge during this time, so her Whitelighter side is tugging at her consistently so her demon lover can't pull her too far, even if Paige doesn't know yet why some things he shows her she is instinctually repelled from. And through her Whitelighter side, she gets a charge, who also happens to have an infuriating parole officer named Henry.

They butt heads a lot but both care a lot about their charge, so slowly and reluctantly become friends against their will. But Paige's demon boyfriend is getting impatient at the lack of progress, especially because the Source is starting to get vexed and regaining his strength, so he kicks it up a notch by starting to steadily bewitch Paige, a la Phoebe in s4.

In the interest of having a backup, the Source also sends a demon to befriend the sisters, especially in an attempt to target the kids and Prue's pregnancy. (After all, what better way to destroy the sisters than from the inside?)

And it takes a minute, because everything has been so hectic with everything going on for the sisters (Piper going missing and then giving birth, Prue getting pregnant again, finding Paige, etc.) that they've kinda just been lingering with this chill atmosphere for once, but start to realize something is wrong with Paige.

Andy is the one to investigate and find out that something is off about the demon boyfriend, like how he did with Rex and Hannah in s1. An oracle or seer (depending on who we wanna add in here) warns the demon that his cover is blown before Andy can get to Prue, and he knows he's no match for the Charmed Ones, so he decides to try to forcibly turn Paige, and potentially the sisters, in one fell swoop through a Dark Wedding (like Zile marrying Prue in the canon s3.) To distract the sisters, he infects the sisters, Andy, Leo, and Coop with sin balls.

This has a two-fold purpose: one, I love Sin Francisco, so shoutout! Two, Phoebe gets infected with lust and Coop with envy. Coop is envious of the men that he's tried setting Phoebe up with, and Phoebe is. lusting after Coop, so. Under the influence of the sins, they have sex! (I'm sure you can see why this will be very important later on.)

Anyways, Henry, who the demon boyfriend (who I probably should've given a name tbh) had deemed unimportant, figures out that something is wrong with Paige and tries to go to the sisters to ask about her, only to be like what the fuck.

He ends up somehow helping them realize something is wrong blah blah and they all break their individual sin/remove their sin in the case of Prue.

Meanwhile, Paige and the demon boyfriend are seemingly about to get married but Paige just looks around dazed and asks softly where are my sisters? and he gives her some bullshit about how he's the only one that cares about her or whatever and then is blasted halfway across the room by a very furious Piper going get away from my sister!

(Imagine this as being the turning point between Piper and Paige's relationship since they'd been so iffy around each other because they had no idea who the other was and thought that the other was intended to be their replacement or whatever.)

Her sisters rush to her side and Phoebe hands her a potion and gently asks her to take it, sweetie, and Paige trusts her so she does and all of the demon's tricks fail when his enchanting is abruptly wiped from her sister. Paige hesitates only for a minute before joining her sisters in the vanquishing spell.

Also Henry finds out about magic from this and has to sit down.

And this has probably been going on for the about three quarters of the season and uhhh, Prue goes into labor at the end of all this and hi ya, Presley!

And they hustle her off to the hospital and- Oh my God, Prue is cradling Presley in her arms with Andy beaming next to her and they need a middle name and everyone's making suggestions and Prue kind of just looks up at Paige, who we'll say have bonded over Paige's love of art and Prue's experience with antiquities and art knowledge, and says Artemisia after Artemisia Gentileschi and Paige points out that's a big name for a girl to handle and if Prue's sure if she handle it and they're not really talking about the name at all but Prue says that she knows she'll be able to handle anything because she's so strong and brave and will always have her sisters.

And Paige beams and Piper and Leo are standing together and Phoebe goes and leans her head on Paige's shoulder in one of those cute sisterly moments and gets a premonition of, oh, about nineish months?

Congratulations, Paige, it's a demon-witch-Whitelighter hybrid!

(Phoebe does not tell them in that moment but definitely brings it up later.)

I Feel Like Everyone is Just Having a Kid RN Here

Anyways, we get a break from all the heavy plot stuff for a minute because Phoebe and Coop are. Not talking about what happened between them and Paige and Henry are being a little weird with each other and Prue is having a crisis with Andy about what if she goes and dies on her kids like her mom and Piper isn't sure if she and Leo will be able to have another kid after her experiences on the plane between life and death, and that's all just the romance and family side of things.

On the professional side of things, Prue is struggling with the desire to stay at 415 Magazine or move to the Bay Mirror to be able to be there on the streets seeing what's going on versus the glossy photoshoots that she's been doing. Piper, after quitting Quake, had basically been working as a caterer without the money to actually buy a physical location for her building but is taking the plunge on the restaurant. Phoebe has been working at social services with Paige but isn't sure what she actually wants to do. After an episode where something forced Phoebe into helping Prue at the Bay Mirror, she begins doing some editing work there, eventually taking on a column role. Paige meanwhile finally becomes a social worker.

But anyways, Paige is struggling with what happened, her deteriorating friendship with Henry, and her impending motherhood. She finally explodes on Henry calling him out for slowly drifting away and revealing how terrified she is of becoming a mother. The two reconcile when Henry tells her that, regardless of magic, he knows that she'll be a great mother because of the way that she cares for her charges and her work and promises to be there for her. There's also plenty of bonding with Prue during this time because Paige (and Henry) definitely have a plot about babysitting little Perri and Presley for "practice."

Meanwhile, Phoebe realizes about halfway through the season that she's pregnant and she and Coop finally have to sit down and talk about it. They confess their feelings but are concerned about the forbidden romance aspect of it. Despite that, with Phoebe being spectacularly less burned this time, they decide to try and pursue it anyways.

About halfway through season six, Paige goes into labor about the same time that a demon is attempting to devour ghosts' powers or something so we get an episode featuring Melinda Warren because Paige deserves to meet her too and Henry gets some magical shenanigans. Also some nice moments with Melinda commiserating with Paige about being tricked and how she, and her baby, are still Warrens. But anyways, Paige delivers not one little demon-witch-Whitelighter baby but two! (No one expected this. Phoebe's premonition helpfully left out Henry cradling the other baby.) Either way, we now have Lillith Prudence Matthews and Morgan Melinda Matthews!

Remember how I mentioned that the Source had a backup plan to befriend the sisters? Yeah, she's still here, slowly worming her way into their lives. Due to the twins' half-demon natures, she begins often volunteering to be a babysitter with the goal eventually being to turn them completely. None of the sisters expect anything as demonic activity begins ticking upward again and she becomes closer to their kids. It's her that lets it slip that Phoebe and Coop are in a forbidden romance soon before Phoebe's meant to give birth, and the Elders recall him to the Heavens in punishment.

Phoebe gives birth soon afterwards to Philomena "Mena" Cordelia Halliwell, naming her daughter after love and heart.

She challenges the Elders for him back, and with her sisters behind her, they falter enough that she's able to press them enough that they give her an option. She came to them on the claim of true love, and so it's that claim they'll make her prove herself on. If Phoebe is truly in love with Coop, she just has to find him. They'll send him back, no memories and in-disguise, but will guarantee that they'll be in a position to meet once more and interact. If she kisses him, it'll return his memories and they'll be free to be together. However, to prevent her from just kissing every guy she finds to try to find Coop, she has only once chance, and her next kiss will be the only chance she gets. (I did decide to add in a fairytale ass plot bc I can, thanks.) Phoebe accepts, and her romantic plot for the rest of the season and the beginning of the next is on finding Coop.

Meanwhile, the demon friend decides that if she's going to poison the Warren line of witches, why stop at only a set of twins when there could be a death-touched witch and the first ever Cupid-witch hybrid at her command? (She looks at Perri and Presley, fully witches born with no complications, and dismisses them. She is the first demon that will do this but will not be the last. Like her, others will learn that this is a mistake.) Knowing vaguely of the potion Piper took to be able to keep the pregnancy, the demon creates a fertility potion to give her to see if she'll be able to utilize another child's powers to even greater strengths. She gives it to Piper in the season six finale.

The Final Battle

During this time, the sisters begin to prepare for the final battle against the Source. Their last major battle at this was at the end of season three, and we're now at the beginning of season seven. The Source has fully recovered from their battle, and the sisters themselves are at full power with Piper recovered and Paige at their side.

Piper finds out she's pregnant again a few episodes into the season.

Phoebe finds Coop at the midseason finale, which is also when the demon friend is revealed to be a demon when she makes a move for the kids. Someone gets stabbed (idk who. Andy? Henry?) stopping her but is narrowly saved and the sisters vanquish her.

Phoebe and Coop get married around midseason as well, while Paige and Henry discuss if they want to take that step soon.

The sisters take on and vanquish the Source in the season finale once and for all, which is where I think the big storylines stop.

Shortly after the finale, Piper gives birth to Petra Penelope Halliwell. Phoebe and Coop may or may not have a second kid? Still undecided on that one. Paige and Henry move in together in the flashforward in the series finale and marry a year or two later. Andy and Prue have Pamela as the last next gen kid.

[krikeymate]

What do you want to happen for scream 7, mainly for Sam and Tara obv, and what do you think will happen for scream 7 Sam and Tara?

This is all from taking exactly what is seen in the movies, no consideration of my additional analysis or headcanons.

What's most important for me to see in 7:

Another sister-focused story.

Sam & Tara in sync and working together.

They end the movie alive and together.

What I really want to see:

Their mother appears. I don't care if she's Ghostface or just a red herring. I want her to be a bitchy POS here to cause problems. You could even make her a Jennifer Jolie type character.

A continuation of Tara struggling with her trauma & her being angry at her mother. I actually think Sam is more likely to try and get along with her than Tara; Tara is emotional and reactive.

At least one scene of Sam doing something 'adult' that quickly falls apart - I'm imagining something along the lines of putting together flatpack furniture that looks finished and then collapses, or having a phone call and then hanging up and bitching about whoever was on the other end only for them to say I'm still here and she had missed the end call button.

Just more affection between the sisters. There wasn't enough physical contact in 6.

Tara going absolutely apeshit. She see's Sam is seriously hurt, or even thinks she's dead, and she just loses it. She goes all 'Sam' on the Ghostface.

The location staying in New York.

What I really don't want to happen:

Return of Sidney. The situation with Neve sucks, but 6 did not need Sidney, it allowed Sam to shine, and I do not want Sidney to come back to be honest. I think Kirby is going to exist as a legacy substitute for her, and I think that works well.

Sam & Tara being pushed apart or feel like they are growing apart. Or their deaths obviously.

A pregnancy plot. The number of people who I see talking about either of them being pregnant is wack, especially Tara.

No more Stu references. I'm tired of Stu is alive truthers.

Other thoughts:

I think if we get a return to Woodsboro then I could see a Martha Meeks opening kill over a Christina kill. Side note, Reddit seems to love her character and I do not get it.

I don't mind the Billy hallucinations, unlike a lot of people it seems, but I don't think we need them in 7. We know Sam's meds do work, it acknowledges that this prevents the hallucinations. A nice small way to show her development is that she doesn't see him any more. You could even have a moment where Sam kind of wishes she could see him so he could give her advice - even though that advice is actually from the darker parts of herself she doesn't want to acknowledge.

The general assumption is that 5-6-7 are going to be a trilogy, but no-one responsible has actually outright said that. I would love for at least one more movie after 7 with a focus on the sisters.

I don't think we'll get a 'mastermind' reveal.

I think Chad should die in 7. I've spoken about this before, but the emphasis on Chad being strong and a jock just means he isn't the type of character to run from a Ghostface. Given how they've injured him in the past 2 movies as well, they've got to find a balance between 'well he's already had worse' and 'you were already stretching the realms of disbelief but this is actually ridiculous'. Older fans are already sour that they didn't kill any returning characters in 6, but they were happy to kill Dewey in 5. So there's that to take into consideration. HOWEVER, I could genuinely see them not killing any of the C4 and I wouldn't hate that. The thing is, when Dewey died, it was 25 years later, he was 50. This guy lived a full life. Our Core 4 are so young.

Mindy should get to make it to Act 3 with Chad being taken out of the running earlier.

I would like some Danny & Tara shenanigans.

I would also really like for Tara to be the actual end target of the Ghostface for reasons related to her instead of Sam. That could be hard to pull off, but I would love for a sibling of Amber's to show up and try to kill Sam because Tara killed their sister, just for the line Amber loved you, and you killed her for it. Great opportunity for Tara to finally acknowledge Amber and her anger at her and just call her a crazy bitch. They wouldn't do that though, we just had a revenge plot. But if they did, the sibling could be hidden in plain sight never seen by our protagonists and only side characters just like Mrs Loomis in 2. ALSO, I'm actually writing something that references this, but we all assume that Christina hates Sam/loves Tara, but what if it's actually the other way around. I think it could be spun that she wants Sam to be Billy 2.0, and Tara gets in the way of that. It would be a reach, but I think it could happen.

Anyway, it's virtually impossible to speculate on 7 until it's actually well underway and we have details to scrutinize.