#it has come to my attention that season 2 shall be coming out

[tired-demonspawn]

decided to practice drawing wings! :) featuring the ineffable husbands in such situations as: "shielding your hereditary enemy from average london weather", circa 2019, colourised and the ever so popular "sauntering-vaguely-downwards" (tripping like an idiot), some-odd-amount-of-time-before-years-were-invented, colourised

[mcu-coworkers]

A Weeks Time

Summary: The king brings you and Aegon together in hopes to mend his broken family.

Pairings: Aegon Targaryen X Targ. Reader

Notes: Hello everyone! In honor of the House of dragon season 2 I became inspired to write this little series. I hope you all enjoy the journey my mind takes me on.:)

Pt.2 Exploring The Prince

(I do not own this gif all characters are from the series)

As a child my mother spoke to me of all the things she did in order to proceed as heiress to the crown. Her duty to perform did not come to her so easily but she became used to the attention, the obligations that came with attachment to the crown.

She told me the story of her first marriage to my father and the night of their wedding. In some ways I felt as if she was preparing me for something.

And in this thought I was right.

”When a girl comes of age, she is to be wed to a suitor my darling.” She said, smiling softly, “you have come of age.” She finished barely above a whisper.

With a confused smile I answered, “Yes I believe so mother but, with no suitor in sight.”

Briefly looking at me I notice her smile fade.

”Mother?” I push.

”The King has betrothed you already, you shall marry him at once.” She said rather quickly.

But not quick enough to save your ears.

Your breath hitched in your throat, who could he have chosen for me so quickly?

”At once? To whom?” I was finally able to form words again.

I ’d have felt more at ease if my mother hadn’t struggled so much to come out with the name.

Could he really be that bad? Surely my grandfather wouldn’t marry me off to just anyone.

”Aegon, y/n, You will marry Aegon.” she said, waiting for your reaction.

You thought hearing the news of a betrothed left you speechless but hearing who it’d be left you with your mind running wild yet thoughtless at the same time.

”Aegon? But mother we left for Dragonstone because he and his brother were trying to kill my brothers, now I am expected to marry him?” You all but yelled.

”We must put that past us Y/n” she sighed.

Aegon would not have been her first choice for you, but he was the Kings.

”Past us? Is it past them? Past Aemond?” You already know the answer. They hadn’t. And they never would.

Especially Aemond. He had it out for all of us.

”That I cannot be certain of but this can be a chance to mend that wound, we can be close once again, a family.” My mother said hopeful.

I couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince me or her.

”But why me?” I asked. Helaena was there, her and so many other suitors.

” You are my oldest, your grandfather sees you for your beauty, and it will do Aegon good to have a woman like you by his side, to help him mature.” She said as she took your hand in hers.

Aegon and his brother made countless rumors about your brothers because they did not display the traditional Targaryen look you all did.

Your silver hair is a contrast to the rich chocolate color of theirs.

You had heard things about Aegon, most you overheard and chose not to believe for the sake of your own peace.

The things people described are things you’d never seen personally.

To you Aegon was kind, gentle, and humorous. You’d never seen the man that gets credited for all of the crazy things you hear.

And you’ve heard them all.

”Alright, when shall I be wed?” You asked, ‘at once’ didn’t exactly specify.

”We leave for Kings landing tomorrow, you will wed him in a week's time by the end of the traditions.” She said standing from my bed and leaving the room.

I laid there taking in the news, I was betrothed to Aegon Targaryen.

Closing your eyes nervously for what’s to come, you wondered how he’d reacted to the news.

———

“Wed? Me? And to what whore did you happen to choose for me?” Aegon screamed in disbelief.

”Watch your tongue boy.” Viserys warned. “You are to be wed to Y/n, she will make a good wife.” He said catching breathe.

Aegon froze in place catching Aemonds eye.

”Father be rational we cannot mix our blood with theirs.” Aemond said, smirking.

”And why not? She is of pure Targaryen blood.” Viserys insisted.

”Is she?” Aemond asked. Pushing his father.

”Watch how you speak of my betrothed brother, she is to be my wife and you will respect her title.” Aegon said not once breaking eye contact.

Viserys smiled, satisfied with his son.

”She will be good for you, Aegon, be good to her, and put an end to this silly quarrel with her brothers.” He said as he began to walk away from his sons.

Once the king was out of sight Aemond was the first to break the silence.

”You can’t seriously be on board with marrying that bastard child?” He asked Aegon once again, this time hoping to get an answer he’d like.

” I warned you once brother, do not make me do it again, she is to be my wife I will not allow you to speak of her this way again.” He said as he walked out of the room and to his own chambers.

Truth be told the time you two spent together was his favorite, he saw your beauty from miles away, but your brothers kept him from ever pursuing you.

But now, nothing stood in his path.

Your brothers wouldn’t dare to challenge the king's decision nor would they want to upset you.

You were to be his and he to be yours.

And with that news Aegon found sleep peacefully eager for the next day to come.

[dumbbitchenergy17]

Accident on Set

Plot: During a Buzzfeed interview stories of accidents on set happen to come up.

Word Count: 1.7K

Pairing: Paul Mescal x Reader, Pedro Pascal x Platonic!Reader

Warnings: blood/injury, sweet "father-daughter" moments, laughter giggles, just general fluff

—————

Doing a cute little BuzzFeed interview with Paul and some puppies was fun. The baby pitbulls play around between you, a gray one rests on your lap as you scratch its head, Paul using toys to keep their attention focused.

“Have you ever gotten an injury on set?” the interviewer asks, and Paul hums, letting one of the puppies gnaw at his hand as he plays with it.

“On Gladiator 2 during one of the fight sequences I pulled a muscle in my leg badly and was constantly on icy hots for a week straight, I strained something but it was not fun,” he says rubbing his muscle over his pantleg, “They had to work around shooting other scenes earlier while I was put on bed rest. I felt so bad.”

“I remember that call,” You pull another puppy onto your lap and it joins the sleeping one, “Luckily you had nurse Pedro to help with the healing process.”

Paul laughs, “He was just as banged up with his arm. What do they say misery loves company. And you?”

You give a sheepish look stroking the puppies’ fur, “I got my shit rocked by Giancarlo Esposito.”

The people behind the camera react with gasps and laugh at the normalcy of your words, while Paul looks shocked. “I don’t think I ever told you this, " you say honestly to him.

“I feel like I wouldn’t know if my girlfriend told me about getting assaulted,” he says.

“I wasn’t assaulted it was a complete accident,” you defend yourself and Giancarlo, “So it was during Season Three of Mandalorian in the finale there’s a portion where I’m taunting Moff Gideon and he punches me to shut me up.” you grimace already seeing the gears turn in Paul’s head.

You hear the doors open behind you as Gideon stands before a large hologram map, “Sir, the fighters and bombers have launched,” A commando says, “Their capital ship will soon be destroyed.”

Gideon is silent before speaking up, “But the Mandalorian has escaped.” Your heavy head perks up slightly upon hearing the news. Din had escaped. He was moving through this base. The whirring of Gideon’s armor as the Commando looks at him waiting for orders,

“Shall we engage?” The helmet is put on Gideon and you hear his modulated “No, I'll take care of him myself.” A hoarse chuckle comes fills the room and the commando stiffens Gideon is silent as it starts soft until it’s the only thing he can hear seeing your head shake. You look up at him the blood mouth and chin dried the hollow look in your eyes having a spark of malice.

“You’re dead…he’s gonna kill you.” You rasp a huff of laughter in your tone and you hear the whirring of his armor as it curls into a fist, “You won’t even last a minut-”

What was meant to be a faux punch you hadn’t realized you were too leaned forward until his fist, which was dressed in a decently heavy material that created the ‘beskar’ armor collides against your temple. If the scene was done correctly you would’ve ‘hit’ the ground before they paused to add the effect of a split eyebrow and a quickly growing bruise. What the crew hadn’t expected was the loud cry to come for you and with Tiya chained with her arms behind her back you hit the ground hard.

“Holy Shit!” Giancarlo shouts and it’s utter chaos. You can say you blacked out for just a second when he hit you, immediately feeling the pounding headache. You heard someone shout for a medic someone on the crew undoing the restraints so you could properly lay on your back.

“You’re alright Y/n,” Rick, your director calls out from beside you blinking back tears and seeing this crowd around you, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Giancarlo who has his helmet off a shellshock look on his face.

“Y/n I’m so sorry.” he pleads and you wave him off.

“It’s fine.” You reassure him though wince as your headache grows worse. The medic finally pulls up and the crew makes space for them to work. It didn’t help that you were already covered in fake blood.

“Y/n I need you to focus and follow this light,” one of them says before a tiny flashlight is shined and you follow his directions as he moves it from side to side.

“Pupil reaction looks good,” he says and you hiss as something is pressed against your brow, “You have a laceration across your brow we’re gonna get you to the hospital.”

It seemed almost unreal hearing laceration and hospital in the same sentence directed at you. It was hard to stop the waterworks, you’ve never been to the hospital before. You were going to be in one all by yourself, your family was across the fucking country and here you were crying getting put on a stretcher. Your assistant has to practically talk you down a panic attack during the ambulance ride to the hospital.

“I think I felt worse ‘cause I forgot I still had Pedro as my emergency contact for when he was on set for filming,” you pick at a hangnail, “I probably gave him a heart attack when he got that phone call.”

And a heart attack you gave him. Your assistant was on the phone with your parents informing them of your injury. Give them constant updates of being admitted, the concussion tests issued, and needing stitches. Then having to speak with your team while getting stitches put in to assure them, no you didn’t want to sue or press charges.

“Like I said for the fifth time Jeanine I don’t want to do anything. It was an accident. I just want to get back to set and finish today,” you say holding your phone on speaker.

“Are you sure you’re alright returning to set?” you hear her ask a bit frustrated but mainly concerned. No manager wants to receive a call that their client had an accident at work and was in the hospital.

“I passed all their tests and they are stitching me up as we speak. I just need to take antibiotics and I’ll be good. I wouldn’t be adamant if I didn’t believe I was truly alright.” you hear her sigh on the other end.

“Alright, I’ll have Cathy come to check on you after you finish filming today,” Jeanine says, “I hope you feel better.” The phone call ends as the doctor finishes with the last stitches. You were grateful for all the work they did, but you felt bad when they quickly rushed you seeing you covered in fake blood believing it was real.

Signing and giving any information needed to the hospital you had your team call head to the set that you would be returning to finish filming the sequence. Giancarlo gave you the biggest hug and apology on the planet with you constantly reassuring him it was an accident.

“If it makes you feel better we don’t need your coverage for that shot,” Rick says, “It’s a good take.” That makes you laugh loudly begging to watch playback to the crew’s horror to watch your accident. The scene was pretty sick and you took that punch like a champ. You all kept up with the rest of the filming schedule with a few scenes needing to get pushed to the next day given your hospital visit. Cleaned up and pampered by the makeup team when cleaning you up being extra wary of the stitches across your browbone. Like your manager said your agent Cathy arrived with a shocking guest.

“Pedro, what the fuck are you doing here?” your question is muffled in his chest as he draws you into a fierce hug before he pulls back. You can see the immediate concern on his face grimacing at the stitches.

“I got a call from a hospital saying you got hurt as your emergency contact, christ kid are you trying to kill me.” he pulls you back into another hug.

“Fuck I’m so sorry I completely forgot to remove you when you left,” you say before immediately pulling back it looked like he threw on the first thing and rushed here, “Did you fly from Calgary!” The wave of guilt crashes over you and he soothes you.

“Kid I’d drop anything to make sure you’re alright. I checked in with your parents before I boarded to tell them I’d make sure you’re alright,” he says resting his hands on your shoulders and rubbing circles to calm you. Your assistant never mentioned Pedro coming over but you were on such an adrenaline high and crash that the hospital seemed like such a blur.

“Now let’s get you home and get you all cozy,” he wraps an arm around your shoulder guiding you to your car, “I’m pulling out all the stops, Tex-Mex, true crime documentaries, and wine.” You and Cathy give him a look at suggesting you drink following your injury.

“The wine’s for me since you’re stressing me the hell out.” he says and you give a slight ‘oh’ as he keeps guiding you.

“Maybe it’s a sign for us to work on this project,” you say out of the blue as you climb into the passenger seat and he starts up the car, “I mean we both have given a blood sacrifice to Star Wars now.”

Pedro lets out a loud laugh at the realization you both have. Yours was a more serious scenario regarding getting injured while back in Season one broke his nose when he walked into a piece of plywood not paying attention.

“So this little scar I got,” you point right above your left browbone and Paul leans in close and hidden beneath the makeup you wear now he can see the shift in slightly raised skin from the scar. “Pedro and I are forever bonded to this show. Funny enough if you watch the finale they ended up using that take.” This makes the crew laugh at the comment. You see Paul’s slightly pouty face poking him until he scrunches it pulling away from your attack.

“I’m fine Paul. I handled it like a champ,” you say brushing fake dirt off your shoulder and he smirks.

“Didn’t you just say you cried the entire way to the hospital?” That only makes the crew laugh louder and you smack his shoulder drawing a chuckle from him.

“Shut up!” The laughter only gets louder before dying down allowing the interview to continue.

[swiftholic-13]

The Season's Scandal

pairing → Eloise Bridgerton x Female Reader

summary → Eloise is trying to escape suitors at a ball and finds unexpected company in a like-minded girl who came to join the marriage mart this season

warnings → none

words → about 1.6k

masterpost chapter 2

When I entered the ball room my eyes landed on the gracious decorations distributed in the huge room. Many people were gathered around some tables with lemonades and small deserts. The first ball of the season surely had something to offer. This Lady Danbury really outdid herself. Some men and women gathered on the dancefloor were dancing to a fast tune. I removed my hand from my brothers arm and smoothed out my dress. “behave, the queen might attend, so I´ve heard”. I rolled my eyes at his comment. I might not be in awe with his plan for me this season, but I would never dare to put shame on him or my family in public. “Yes, I know why I am here” “good, then enjoy yourself sister, I shall see you later”. He bows his head slightly and takes one last look at me before then leaves towards a bunch of gentlemen gathered and sharing stories about their recent travels.

I took another look across the room searching for any lost souls I might join. Everyone here knows each other since years and possibly grew up in the ton. All these families come here every season, wishing for their kids to marry. My brother has informed me a bit about the most influential families and provided me with a list of possible husbands. Of course, I do not wish to marry but I had to come here this season with my brother to satisfy my mother, I truly hope if I stay unmarried till the end of the season they shall finally let me live my life as a spinster in peace.

My eyes landed on a beautiful girl in a light blue dress. Her chestnut hair was put together and draped over her shoulder. She was wearing a light blue gown with delicate sleeves drawing attention towards her long sparkling gloves. She was wearing as loose silver necklace with matching diamond earrings. She looked breathtaking. She was talking to a blonde-haired girl until she was asked to the dancefloor. After she left the chestnut-haired girl looked around and started scribbling something into her dance card. I knew she was going to make this season a lot more worthwhile. I started making my way over to her. She was very focused on filling all the spots on her dance card. I cleared my throat as I was standing right beside her. She looked up at me with the blank fear of being caught. “do you mind?” I asked holding my arm with my dance card on it out to her. She looked me up and down and a smile formed on her lips: “not at all”. She softly took my hand and started writing some names into my dance card. “I truly hope none of these gentlemen exist” “Don´t be concerned, I have been doing this for some time now” she said in a proud tone. I already loved her voice and the way it made me feel. She smelled of oranges and looked far more beautiful up closely. Her presence was calming and already let me forget about my true reason for being here. When she was done she let go of my gloved hand and I already missed her touch. “your first season here?” she asked with curiosity. “yes, my mother wants me to find a husband” “You´re already making a good first impression” she said and a smile escaped my lips. Her eyes were in beautiful blue color and did not fail to have a lasting impression on me. “It is rather refreshing having another woman around who is trying to escape suitors rather than charming them” she turned her gaze towards the dance floor. “I´m Eloise, Eloise Bridgerton” she turned her gaze back towards me and our eyes met immediately. “Y/N, Y/N Y/L/N” I said. She held her arm out for me to take “care for a turn? I might tell you some interesting facts about everyone here” “I do love some good gossip” I said smiling while taking her arm and letting her lead me across the room.

After a few hours of light conversation we were interrupted by a certain gentleman. “Eloise, Mama is searching everywhere for you” She let out a groan and rolled her eyes “Tell her I am busy with all of my suitors”. Her brother raised an eyebrow. She leaned closer to me “Excuse me for a moment”. I nodded understanding and offered a smile as she was leaving. “And you are?” he asked me. “Lady Y/N Y/L/N” “Ah the Dukes sister” I nodded. He turned around and as a debutante and her mother approached him he held his hand out for me “A dance Lady Y/N Y/L/N?” “Actually my dance card is-” Before you could finish your sentence he pulled you towards the dancefloor and placed his hand on your waist. “I apologize but I must escape their attention, also my name is Benedict” You chuckled as you went on with the dance. "nice to meet you" “You have already met the delightful company I call my sister” “Eloise seems to be the only likeminded spirit amongst the ton that I have met so far, she is indeed great company” “I see” He said as he noticed my gaze searching for her silhouette among the crowd. As soon as the dance ended I could not get off the dancefloor soon enough. I bowed my head “Thank you for the Dance Mr. Bridgerton” Behind me Eloise appeared and had an annoyed expression plastered over her face. “Has she not informed you that her dance card is full” She asked. I leaned closer to her “Your dear brother would not listen to me”. Eloise took my arm and pulled me along with her while giving Benedict an evil look. “Do not worry dearest I have no Intentions with your brother” I said nudging her slightly as we walked away. She released a breath she was holding and relaxed “Good, It would be a shame to lose you to him”.

The Evening ended sooner than expected and I said my goodbye to Eloise. She invited me for a visit at her house the next day. I was a bit nervous but my brother encouraged me, saying “It is a great opportunity to meet her brothers, I heard one of them is still unmarried”. At least that way I would get to spend some time with Eloise while satisfying my brother and giving him the wrong impression of my true intentions.

————————

The next morning my carriage arrived pretty soon at the residency of the Bridgerton family. A servant greeted me and showed me to the hall. I took a look around and took in the huge house. A servant motioned me to follow him and introduced me to the family. Eloise stormed towards me as soon as I was introduced. “Y/N! It is so good to see you!” She said and took my arm. I smiled at here as she led me inside the room and started introducing me to her siblings “So that is Francesca” She pointed at girl her age sitting at the pianoforte. She offered me a shy smile. “These are Benedict, which you know already and Colin” She said pointing at the sofa located at the other end of the room. She leaned closer to my ear she continued in a whisper “Do not ever ask him about his travels or he will never stop talking to you, it is pure torture”. I looked at her and chuckled. “And this is my little sister Hyacinth and my brother Gregory” She pointed at the kids standing close to us, seeming eager to talk. “Is she the Duke´s sister?” Hyacinth whispered to Gregory. “Yes Hyacinth, she is the Duke´s sister” Eloise clarified with an eye roll. “And we shall go” she said and pulled me out of the room “It was lovely to meet you all” I said while Eloise dragged me across the hall. “Eloise that was quite impolite” I said nudging her side. “They shall survive” She said and smiled at me. Her smile was beautiful and my eyes lingered probably a bit too long on her face. “A great weather for a promenade don´t you think?” she interrupted the silence. “I have not seen what the ton has to offer so far”.

In the Park Eloise told me everything about her siblings and why she was growing tired of living with all of them under one roof. “You need to come to Aubrey Hall with us it is gorgeous” “I can imagine” “I truly envy you” She said while looking down “Why is that?” “One brother, I cannot imagine how quite it must be” “Oh dearest Eloise, I can promise you it is everything but easy and quite” She locked eyes with me “Tell me about your brother” “Well since our papa died and he became Duke, he is insufferable. He used to grant me Freedom and protected me from our parents. He knows I do not desire to marry or to come with child like ever, but my mama has other plans. I am the sister of a Duke after all, I cannot die a spinster. She does not care about what I desire to do with my life” “I am sorry for that” she replied after a relatively long pause. She pulled me closer to her “I do not see the problem with dying a spinster, I find it rather appealing. Nothing is worse than being courted” “exactly” I laughed along with her. “I am glad I met you Eloise, you make my time here worthwhile” “I feel the same way” she looked at me with a smile on her face and I got lost in her beautiful mesmerizing blue eyes.

As you can probably guess this is not the end. I am planning on making this a longer story so many more parts to come. Also English is not my first language and I am sorry for any mistakes. Anyways, let me know what you think so far

[rosehipsister]

(low voice) secret samol....

decided to go for a little found materials thing with my sangfielle prompts this year, so it's barely readable haha actual transcripts under the cut because that's a lot to put into alt text

For @aphrddt hope you enjoy it! Thank you @secret-samol

Page 1, marked "5.2" and "Jna -> RvneP -> Ctbk -> Prse" 5:30 train to Perseverance

Mighty excited and grateful (blessing sign) to make my third observation so soon sense the year began. Here's to a great journey and if those gods (blessing sign) willing a striking UMR (Unschola Monthly Review) entry!

(under a sketch of the train emblem) not half bad!! can clean it up back at Mona's

5:29 Left Jahna with a minute to spare. Tough to take the mood in so early, wonder if the Tern has the flighty nature its name suggests. Promised travel time declared 21 hours only, which puts me in Perseverance by nightfall.

Page 2 (next to a scheme of a train car) "Bright Tern Postal, coach car 3" a1, a2 - doors b - windows c - luggage racks Full cherry wood interior with simple glass inlays, light and airy. Four seats per isle, hard seating with roll-up Bright Tern livery cushions affixed every bench.

No sign of a dining car - justified by our size and destination, but still a shame. Yet man can't be picky (blessing sign)

Card included: Train sighting log Day seen: 5th of 2nd month 8xx Place seen: departing from Jahna, Fifth Canton Mandate, Sangfielle Name: Bright Tern Postal Livery: faded cobalt and white Number of carriages: 6 (six) total, with 4 passenger and 2 mail and baggage Boarded: y/n Ticket number if applicable: C3/I2/S3

Page 3 5:55 - drafting for now? After filling out my observation card and taking in the detail, i took a window seat in isle 2 to absorb both the gorgeous scenery of Ojan plains and the bright c (crossed out) airy confines (?) of my train. Bright Tern pamphlet, kindly provided to me at the station, tells the traveler that their person shall be delivered swiftly and safely to Unschola held inns by nightfall. Seasoned ferroequinology fan such as myself in turn knows this ain't always true and schedules are more suggestions than rule.

6:50 Fell asleep promptly despite excitement. Car filled with low relaxed conversation and i can only hope i wasn't snoring like a complete fool.

(next to a sketch of a tea glass holder) akin to burl wood? lightweight and porous to touch

Page 4 Interior unchanged save for three glass holders, such as added to every isle table. I truly am in luck (blessing sign) since I've never seen these in situ before! Why three? Would i have neighbors? Reread my early notes - in need of editing, desperately. SHAPES ON THE TRAIN! 1 masked 1 avian (with arrow pointing from 7:04 timestamp)

7:20, i gather since i had a moment of awe and frankly dared not bring attention to myself at the moment. Yet clearly they do not mind me.

Page 5 Immediately past 7 car visited by a slight ojant. woman of quiet but nasty demeanor wearing Tern colors, heavy tea cart in front, steaming. Was tempted to strike a conversation, but reconsidered. Neither of the Shapes said a word yet. They don't touch the tea either, which is plain silly to me - never have i heard about train foods being nefarious to one's person.

(underlined) No snacks offered yet!

8:40 Insufferable people. Still silent, not even (page break)

Page 6 (page break) a glance in the window. Spent all my patience on detailing one sketch. M. seems to be asleep or sitting terrifyingly still.

8:43 IMPOSSIBLE PEOPLE! Wish they let me be. A. caught me sketching and very rudely grabbed my book. Nearly made me tear a page. If every Shape starts attacking inno- (crossed out) Both are still silent. A. ignored and possibly disrespected my Society badge. Book returned to me moderately crumpled. 9:17 Tern entered a tunnel as we were coming up to the mountain foothills. Terribly intrigued but can't see the devil's arse in there. A. got tired of harassing me and is now fast asleep. M. in turn finally aware of life.

(with arrow pointing at the tea maid sketch) back to our car. for what, just to glower at the shapes?

Page 7 9:20 - still in the dark All curtains rolled down as one! How i wish i knew the mechanism behind this. This further startled an impressionable young man in isle 5, and i admit i was secretly taken with the feeling too, but all were reassured by a returning passenger.

Managed to strike a conversation! Emidio seemed happy to discuss the Tern with me, and i've put a great amount of his observation down in shorthand. Told we're due to arrive at Ravine just some 10 minutes after leaving the tunnel, yet when - varies greatly. Despite being as persistent as i dared, didn't get too much about the dark route we're taking. Hiw can it be that we spend a different time under the peaks QAD and yet make stops with enviable punctuality? My greatest desire is to find any personnel besides the gloomy tea woman, yet not so likely with the Shapes around.

If i am to trust Emidio's words, some of the paper trash rolling under the seats he swears is a rudimentary emdemic life form akin to rootless plants of the west. Still unsure if that's a joke of his.

Page 8 (next to the sketch of a scene) Ravine-Postal 9:50 10:10 Finally back to open sky. Shapes out for a smoke and look almost careless. Sent a postcard back to Society in Jahna. Bought steamed buns of decent taste. Really need to find Emidio and get a good expo for Ravine, but he's nowhere to be found. Way too many insects ouside.

Page 9 10:40 - RvneP -> Cantbank Well, they do talk! Shapes have congratulated me on being through "the worst of it", whatever they meant. Both of them are now quite loud and inconsiderate. A. only laughed when i mentioned his rudeness. I miss the morning quiet.

11:00 Passed a mountain lake which amused us all greatly. At first i thought we're being blinded by the suns, yet the bright shimmer came from dozens of fish, moving through with their sides to the light. A. is particularly taken with the picture.

(next to the sketch) Emidio and the tea maid

Page 10 Spotted Emidio who i started to worry about, since none has seen him since our stop in Ravine. Almost glad to see the tea maid and her cart back in time for the afternoon round.

11:10 - switching tracks? Apparently taking a detour, which everyone is understandable annoyed about. Can't hear even half of the announcement over Shapes as usual. How can M. make so much noise by just walking! Curtains closed back again, so gather i should also walk over and finally as- (text interrupted)

[ourshadowsmeanomens]

THE MEANING OF THE END OF GOOD OMENS SEASON 2 (SPOILERS UNDER CUT)

I binge-watched this entire new season and immediately unleashed every thought I had about the ending of the show alongside MANY others who were experiencing a lot of feelings. After we all calmed down, we started talking and analyzing- and I think we found something way bigger than we saw on screen at the end of this season. And what this might mean for Aziraphale and Crowley going forward into (FINGERS CROSSED) a wonderful 3rd season.

The biggest complaint many of us in our chat had about the choice Aziraphale made at the very end- to ascend to Heaven, leave behind Crowley and the bookshop, to take Gabriel's place. Everyone is saying that it's out of character, there was so much build up all for Aziraphale to throw it away, etc. But the theory- a miracled brainwash. By Metatron, on Aziraphale. Metatron has proven to be a very dismissive and rude character, especially in regards to Aziraphale, since we met him in season 1. During the literal end of the world he still only spoke as God's voice and never appeared in person. Suddenly, Metatron comes down- IN PERSON- to talk with Aziraphale about a promotion. Before we know who he is exactly, we see him buying a coffee and giving it to Aziraphale- KEEP NOTE OF THIS. When Metatron first talks to Aziraphale, Azi says something to the effect that he has "made his position quite clear." The Metatron insists, pointing out the coffee and insists they talk.

HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART: Metatron says "are you going to take it?" and RIGHT BEFORE Aziraphale says "shall I?" you hear the FAINTEST GLIMMER of the sound effect for miracles. I'll be honest I had to turn my sound up and lean in once someone pointed it out, but it's there and you HAVE to listen for it. They both go for a walk.

Crowley clearly believes Metatron is up to something, and watches them leave and walk but doesn't follow- this isn't addressed again. Then Crowley, Nina, and Maggie have their talk, and this is the part where Crowley is meant to confront his feelings. We switch back to Aziraphale with Metatron. Clearly Metatron and Aziraphale have talked about a deal and Metatron asks him to "think it over." Aziraphale has presumed to finish his coffee at this point, because he heads directly back to the bookshop to talk to Crowley. They fight, they kiss, they give each other up because Aziraphale decides to go to Heaven and leave everything behind. Like I said earlier, this is the part that enraged a lot of people- why would Aziraphale do this? This is so out of character. Why would he leave Crowley behind? Why would he leave his BOOKSHOP behind?

The current persistent theory is this:

Metatron has proven to be dismissive and untrustworthy since we met him. It is odd that he suddenly shows a change of heart for Aziraphale and wants to promote him. We, as the audience and fans, know Aziraphale's desire to live a simple, humanlike life with the person he cares about the most (Crowley) with his most prized possession (the bookshop).

The subtle miracle sound effect when Aziraphale took the coffee was the moment the miracle took place, affecting the coffee to brainwash (or at least to make more easily persuaded) Aziraphale so he'd say yes to the offer Metatron was giving him.

Aside from this, they editors/director/writers purposely wrote in and left the entire part about Metatron getting coffee for Aziraphale (as what? Some sort of peace offering?). The entire ending could have done without bringing so much attention to the coffee that Metatron gave to Aziraphale. It was unnecessary.

Unless it wasn't, and we are meant to find that out in season 3. The coffee is Chekhov's gun. In filmmaking, nothing is ever just a coincidence or an accident. They made a point to give us the miracle sound effect without showing any visible changes, made Aziraphale act wildly out of character, and framed it as though it is not, let's say, an institutional issue that is being covered up 👀👀

And let's not ignore that the episode 6 description specifically says "The Metatron brings an oatmilk latte, along with a final offer." Which would be an odd thing point out if the coffee was a mere prop.

All to say- I personally loved the season. I loved every minute, and I want to see what happens next. I think that people are going to be very angry with the ending, but that there's so much more we have yet to uncover and we shouldn't underestimate the wit of Neil Gaiman.

[marymary-diva17]

Hi, i was hoping you could write a story about the Bridgeton family having a sister, who is about a year older than Daphne and is absolutely gorgeous, who is brought home by their father, and believing her to be an affair child only Eloise and Benedict treat her nicely. Not like Cinderella bad, but where she is essentially family-adjacent and often excluded and snubbed by the family. Only for it to come out that she is Queen Charlotte and King George's only recognized grandchild. She is presented to the queen by Benedict without the knowledge of the other family members. And it happens to occur right after Daphne, and she immediately steals all of the attention especially if/when it comes to light by the Queen questioning why you haven't seen her since you were younger and and how your life and education has been while you were hidden with, what comes to light as "your late father's dearest friend" meaning that she was sent to the Bridgeton house to be protected, as a child, after her father died and the late Vicount was only aloud to tell 2 people in his family. And the Bridgeton's all try to save face, even trying to force her, in some way, into keeping things quiet and fixing the damages done to their family name.

Sorry for the length... Also, could her name be "Luciana"? Or "Irene"? I've always loved those names.

Life among the ton can be difficult on anyone standing among London high society. Since a new member had joined from birth or marriage their moves were watched closely, and judge by the rest of the society as well. That is not far from the truth for one young lady, in ton society as since she was very young she had been judged, by those outside of the home and majorly inside the home as well.

y/n " ......." you had woken up and made your way through the Bridgeton house, ready to join the your family for breakfast. There are those in the house that don't call you family, and see you as outsider.

Eloise " y/n good morning"

y/n " Eloise good morning"

Eloise " are you planning to join us for breakfast it will be good to have you there, even due Benedict is there morning meal is still so boring"

y/n " I will love to join but if need I will have my meal elsewhere" Eloise had given you a sad look as she knew that you were, never treated fairly in the home.

Eloise " then if you go then I shall come it better then here, about this upcoming season"

y/n " oh yes the season has finally come for me to find a husband"

Eloise " you will do well I know it now come we shall not be late" The pair had soon made their way downstairs, and soon to the room where breakfast had been setup for the family.

Anthony " sister good morning it good you are here"

Eloise " good morning Anthony I have brought y/n as well, do you wish to greet her as well"

Antony " good morning Y/n"

Y/n " good morning Anthony"

Daphne " good morning sister and brother"

Antony " good morning sweet sister"

Eloise " good morning sister come on y/n let take a sit"

Y/n " good morning Daphne"

Daphne " morning" the four members of the home soon sat down at the table. As soon enough there had been footsteps coming down the stairs.

Voilet " Good morning my children it good to see some of my older kids down here, for a family breakfast"

Antony/Daphne/Eloise " Good morning mother"

Y/n " good morning lady Bridgeton"

Voilet " good morning"

Francesca " good morning Daphne are you happy that the season will be starting soon"

Daphne " yes sister I'm happy about this season to marry for love like mama and papa"

Gregory " well I'm looking forward to all the sweet treats that will come"

Hyacinth " always thinking about food Gregory"

Violet " sit down you three please as we wait for your two older brothers" The three younger Bridgeton's had sat by their two older siblings and mother, staying away from you at the moment.

Colin " good morning family sorry we are late"

Benedict " yes good morning we have come to join for breakfast"

Violet " well it good we are all here now we can eat a meal as family"

Colin " kinda of family see that one of us past" Colin had looked at you making you feel worst.

Benedict " brother please be kind and don't ruin this morning for us, so y/n are you ready for this season"

y/n " oh yes I'm Benedict"

Benedict " In days time we will be presenting Daphne and y/n to the queen and rest of society, as they have finally joined the ton"

Daphne " it will be splendid mother and I made sure my dress is perfect and ready"

Anthony " good as this year will be seeking a husband and me a wife as well"

Benedict " don't forget I and Colin might be looking for love as well, let not forget y/n she is a member of the household as well"

Eloise " yes y/n tell me about your dress"

y/n " well I was able to get the dress ready I hope it will be good, when I'm presented"

Benedict " you will be wonderful and so shall Daphne"

Colin " we shall see if any man will have her knowing what, type of women she will be just like her mother"

Benedict " brother I shall not have you speak to her like that she is one of us"

Colin " she is one of father greatest mistake mother had forgiven father, but never her mother no family shall have her"

Eloise " Colin you are being rude"

y/n " it okay I think I will take my breakfast in the garden as I wish, not to ruin your family meal"

Elosie " then I shall come with you Benedict"

Benedict " I will come as well"

Voilet " Elosie and Benedict you both should stay here and have a meal with your family"

Benedict " she is our family as well mother father brought her into the family and she family" The tiro soon left as they went to have breakfast somewhere else. It clear to see your are not well like by the household and some of the staff as well, they along with everyone else saw you as love child of the former viscount. As he had brought to the family home one day, telling his wife they shall be taking you in as one of their own. Everyone had thought you are Edmond love child and that your birth mother was either dead or left you in his care.

Later on that day

Penelope " so y/n are you ready for the present to the queen"

y/n " my nerves and scared of what shall happen that day"

Eloise " well thanks to our cruel family they have made matter worst"

y/n " tell me Eloise and Penelope why do young ladies like you wish, to be in my present"

Eloise " because we care for you and you are dearest to us as well"

Penelope " you always care for anyone even due they don't care for you back, having you as friend has made life grande here"

y/n " thank you"

Eloise " I know you shall do well this season as married women or unmarried"

y/n " thank you and I know you two will do well in society as well, both of you have grown and will do amazing things in the future" the three girls had smiled as they went back to walking, hearing some whispers and glares among the ton. Right now that didn't bother you anymore, as you will let them talk all they want.

Pretension of ladies to society

Benedict " sister may I come inside"

y/n " yes you can come inside Benedict and Eloise as well, I know she is there"

Eloise " good morning sister .... you look beautiful"

y/n " thank you the dress is not to much on me it seem like the dress, had been picked ahead for me"

Eloise " Benedict shall be presenting you to the queen and the ton, as mother and Anthony wish not to"

y/n " I understand"

Benedict " well then now that you are official ready let get going my sister" you had nodded your head the rest of the family are gone, as the trio left for the palace soon arriving there. Eloise went to go wait with the rest of the family.

Announcer " Miss Daphne brigerton present by her mother the right honorable viscountess violet brigerton" the door opened as Violet and Daphne walked into the hall gasping can be heard as Daphne, had entered the hall.

Benedict " you will do well y/n there nothing to hear"

y/n " yes thank you Benedict"

Announcer " Miss Y/n present my lord Benedict bridgerton" you and Benedict had started walking down the towards the queen, as she soon stopped what she was doing. This had gained everyone attention as they looked at you and back at their queen.

queen Charolette " my dear come closer so I may get a better look at you, such a beautiful young lady who might become my second diamond or different gem"

Benedict " your majesty I will like to present to you Y/n my sister"

Queen Charolette " yes I know of her my dear you look so much like your mother"

y/n " thank you your majesty"

brimsley " my majesty I think this best to have this conversation elsewhere at the moment, with a few selected member allowed to come"

Queen Charolette " Edmond had been a friend of your father and took you after his death, your mother had dead years ago and it was not safe for you so he took you in making a promise to care for you and keep you safe as he had done I can see he was a good lord"

y/n " Eloise Benedict did you know of this"

Eloise " yes father had told us many years ago as he could trust us"

lady danbury " I knew as well when your father passed I was going to, have you come live with me but you were close to the other children at the moment"

y/n " I never though this will happen ever I think I might need to sit" you and elosie had sat down as you collected your thoughts about the whole situation.

Benedict " you have rights to be upset with us for keeping this, but we had been doing this for you safety sister my father and yours wanted you to be happy and live a good life"

y/n " I understand where they have come from and I wish they were still here"

Queen Charolette " well all do my granddaughter so do you wish to go back out there and become a diamond of the season, not because of blood but because of who you are your mother daughter a wonderful women I see you and many others have seen as well"

y/n " yes I'm ready to face them" the grouo soon left the room and went back to where everyone is ready.

Anthony " your majesty I'm sorry for what my household has caused you ..."

Queen Charolette "silence I'm have something to say right"

Queen Charolette " many years ago I had a granddaughter born into my family, but she had to go into hiding for her safety after the death of my son it broken my heart along with the rest of our family ... but today she had come home Y/n bridgerton as you all know her is the future duchess and my granddaughter as well" the queen had knew of what had been spoken about her granddaughter, she wasn't a big fan of many of those standing in the room.

brismley " Duchness Y/n of the royal household of queen Charolette and king Gregor and the new gem of the season as well"

Queen Charolette " my decision have been made this season and will not be changed, so let enjoy this season and see what lady whistle down has to say as well" In one day you had become a duchess and didn't even have to marry it your birthright indeed. The once queen who was looked down my many was know, a duchess they all wish to become close with in life but they all will see it shall not be the easy as they think when royals and other important households are involved.

[fantasyescapes17]

Patience (Part 2, Final)

An elaborate charade- that is what your life has been for these past few years, and it has taken the help of more than one person to balance your delicate lies and secrets. Now entering your final season as an eligible young lady seeking wedded bliss, will you be able to keep up the act in order to achieve your dreams?

Genre: Choi Seungcheol x female!reader. Regency!AU (It's sort of Bridgerton-esque in the sense that I give zero attention to historical accuracy and prioritize aesthetics lmao) You are Jeonghan's sister so your last name is Yoon, but the reader has no other specific characteristics, physical or otherwise.

Word Count: 5.2k+

Part 1

Series Masterlist

The assembly rooms were crowded this evening. During the early days of London's season, much of the upper class was eager to gossip and speculate on which eligible young bachelors would finish the season with a ring on their finger.

Viscountess Hong's grip on your arm gave you some comfort. "I believe Seungcheol should be here already," she told you reassuringly. "The Viscount told me that he arrived in London earlier this afternoon… ah! There they are!"

A small group of men were gathered around a card table. You recognised many of them- including Mr. Kwon and Mr. Lee from the Grisham's ball a few days ago. 

But it was difficult to pay attention to other people at the card table when the man you were passionately in love with sat there and looked up at you with wide eyes. 

"Miss Yoon," Seungcheol said as he stood and came over to you without hesitation. There was a heavy pause. Multiple pairs of knowing eyes from the card table turned to watch you with interest. 

You swallowed your nerves and smiled. 

"Mr. Choi."

You shakily offered Seungcheol your hand and he did not hesitate to take it. He lifted it to his soft lips briefly- you longed more than anything to feel his lips against your skin, but your gloves and the watching eyes prevented you from pushing for anything more than this fleeting contact.  

"I am delighted- it has been a long time since I have had the pleasure of seeing you in person," he said breathily. Seungcheol stepped closer and lowered his voice so that only you (and perhaps the Viscountess beside you) could hear him. His dark eyes sparkled mischievously. "You look even more beautiful than I remember."

Your heart leapt. 

Seungcheol had always known how to make you speechless. 

“I- erm-” 

He stepped back again quickly. He was as conscious as you of the watching eyes. While those at the card table had been entrusted with the secret of your clandestine affair, it would not do to have any gossip-mongers catching wind of this. You were in love, but you were not young or foolish. There was too much at stake to be careless now. An uncontrolled display of affection would lead to a scandal- and was certainly not worth destroying the hard work of so many years. 

Viscountess Hong tightened her grip on your arm and turned to her husband. 

“Joshua- the dancing has not yet begun. Shall we take a turn about the gardens? I would like for my dear friend Miss Yoon to accompany us. And Mr. Choi, you look rather flushed. Perhaps you had best join us for a breath of fresh air as well.” 

You bit back a smile. Viscountess Hong was not only very clever, but was proving to be an invaluable friend. You wondered how you would repay her. 

Viscount Hong nodded at his wife. “Of course, my dear.” 

You tried to stay calm as the Viscountess led you along with the two gentlemen out to the gardens. It was late evening- hopefully the approaching dusk would make it harder for your group to be spotted. In any case, the presence of the Viscount and Viscountess as chaperones gave your little venture an innocent appearance. 

The Viscountess was speaking to you pleasantly about the upcoming ball that she and Viscount Hong would be hosting the coming week while your group turned about the walking path in the gardens. She led you to a small but thick copse of trees and glanced around furtively before stopping in her tracks and dropping her sweet smile. 

“Well. We finally appear to be alone. If you walk a little farther you will reach a dead end hidden by bushes. Joshua and I will sit on this bench- nobody will be able to reach you unless they cross us and we shall divert them.” 

You stared at her. 

“I… are you sure it is safe?” you asked hesitantly. “If someone were to see us without you...” 

Viscount Hong exchanged an uncharacteristically mischievous glance with his wife. “It is safe. You can trust us. Go,” he reassured his friends. 

Seungcheol thanked him with a quick nod before disappearing further into the trees and you followed your lover eagerly until the Hongs were just out of sight. The trees brought the path to an end and Seungcheol turned to face you with a soft smile. 

“My love…” 

It appeared your thoughts were aligned. Seungcheol reached for your hands and expertly slid your gloves off in one fluid motion before bringing your bare hands up to his warm, familiar lips. He kissed the back of your hand, your knuckles, your palm, the tips of your fingers- over and over again until you finally twisted your hand and used it to cup his cheek.

“I’ve missed you,” you whispered. 

Seungcheol’s eyes closed as your hands gently caressed the side of his face, and he leaned into your touch eagerly. 

“I have missed you too. More than you can imagine,” he replied with a chuckle. “I am afraid Jeonghan has grown tired of me asking about you. But I cannot help it- hearing the sound of your name has been my only solace for the past many months. How have you been, my love?”

Your heart fluttered. My love. You loved hearing the passionate endearment from his lips. Seungcheol’s dark eyes opened and met yours with an expression of soft adoration that he reserved only for you. 

“As well as I can be, considering the circumstances,” you told him pleasantly. 

Seungcheol smiled and raised an eyebrow. “And what circumstances would those be?”

“The circumstances which keep me apart from you. My mother has promised that Mina will make her debut in society next season. I am confident that she will immediately become the centre of attention and Mother may finally admit that I have no other prospects- then she may be delighted at the thought of me marrying you, despite…” you trailed off hesitantly, realising that you had begun the sentence in a manner which made it difficult to complete. 

“Despite my being a father and widower,” Seungcheol finished for you plainly. 

You avoided his gaze. “Seungcheol, you must not-” 

“My love, please. I am certainly not ignorant of the reasons we keep our affections secret. Your mother is not the only one who knows that you could do far, far better than me in matrimony. You are young and beautiful. You deserve to marry a man who can devote himself to you. You will not hurt my feelings by saying so. Indeed, you insult me by pretending that is not the case. Do not forget that I have received from Jeonghan a list of the numerous men that have sought your hand over the past three years.” 

You looked up at him softly. “None of them could compare to you.” 

Seungcheol covered your hand on his cheek with his own. “Sometimes I wonder if you deceive yourself.” 

You bit back a playful smile. “I have often wondered the same- that perhaps you have cast some terrible spell on me to make me love you so. But then I remember that Jeonghan would never have encouraged our courtship if he did not think you were the perfect match for me. And I trust my brother’s judgement almost as much as my own.” 

“Perhaps you should not trust him. What is this I hear about your dowry?” 

“Oh- it is another lie. I thought it would ward off the fortune hunters, but I am afraid it has made Jeonghan look like quite the villain. He is not pleased. Hopefully he will be able to redeem himself in society soon,” you explained. “I owe him so much.”

“As do I.”

You took a deep breath and then removed your hand from Seungcheol’s face, choosing instead to clasp both his warm hands in yours. “How is Jiwoo? I have not seen him in many months. He must have grown so much.” 

Seungcheol smiled again, as he always did at the mention of his young son. “He has grown. He remembers you well and asks about you frequently. The only reason he allowed me to depart for London this morning is because I promised to bring back a letter from you.” 

“I will write one immediately,” you promised. 

“I have often wondered whether I should ask him how he would feel if you became a part of our family,” Seungcheol admitted gently. “Perhaps…. it is because I am sure that he would be delighted at the idea that I have not asked. I do not want to disappoint him if things do not turn out as we expect.” 

“Why wouldn’t things turn out as we expect?” 

“Because, my love, we are not formally engaged and if you should finally come to your senses and decide that you want a better life for yourself than marrying a widower with a son… I would not want you to deny yourself for fear of hurting Jiwoo or me.” 

You sighed. “That will not happen. We have had this conversation before, Seungcheol, so many times, and I have always told you-” 

“I know, my love. I know. But the only reason you don’t receive five or six offers a year is because your brother goes to great lengths to prevent them, and-” 

“It is because I go to great lengths to prevent them!” you insisted hotly. “Do you think I take this lightly, Seungcheol? Do you think I have thrown away my most eligible and crucial years in society on a whim? This-this entire charade, this act, all the lies- these are all because I love you and I want nothing more in this world than to be your wife one day. I want nothing more than to be able to stand up in society and call you my husband with pride. Do you not believe me when I say these things?” 

Seungcheol lifted his hand to your face gently. “My love…” 

“Well?” 

“Of course I believe you. And I love you. Forgive me.” 

Your brief burst of anger melted away. “We are closer than ever to having what we’ve dreamed of. Please don’t-” 

You were interrupted by a sudden rustling in the bushes. You and Seungcheol jumped apart only to be relieved when only Viscountess Hong appeared. She looked apologetic. 

“I’m afraid some other people have decided to take a turn about the gardens. We may be joined by company in a few moments. I hate to interrupt, but…” 

“Of course,” Seungcheol replied as he dropped your hand and quickly ran a hand over his face. You composed yourself as well and took the arm that the Viscountess offered you. “We should return to the assembly rooms. I am sure the dancing has begun.” 

You walked back with Viscountess Hong, allowing Seungcheol and Viscount Hong to walk ahead. The Viscountess gave you a teasing smile. 

“Had a pleasant conversation?” she asked lightly. 

You smiled at her gratefully. “I don’t know how I shall ever thank you.” 

 “I thought perhaps you may like to name your first child after me….”

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

You indulged in only one dance with Seungcheol that evening. Any more would certainly warrant suspicion, and you took care to dance with Mr. Kwon Soonyoung and Mr. Lee Seokmin immediately afterwards to ensure that it did not appear as though you were paying any special attention to Seungcheol. Then you retreated to the card tables where you could converse with your lover in a low voice, easily drowned out by the noisy laughter of his friends. 

“I wish this evening would never end,” you whispered to Seungcheol as you pretended to concentrate on your cards. You were not even sure what the card game being played was. Presumably, you were losing money.  “How much longer shall you be in London?” 

Seungcheol’s eyes darted towards you, not allowing them to linger on your face for too long. “Only a few days. I shall probably stay until the Hongs’ ball on Monday- then I will need to return home. You know that Jiwoo cannot be apart from me for long.” 

You smiled. “A feeling he and I share.” 

Seungcheol returned your smile. “Yes, but you do not have the privilege of throwing tantrums and taking out your anger on your governesses. I fear his teenage years dreadfully.”

“Let the poor boy enjoy his childhood. Jeonghan has told me stories of your youth. I know that you were no angel when you were his age,” you said with a small giggle. “Yet you have grown into a gentleman. Jiwoo certainly will too.” 

“Unless you come around and spoil him.” 

You bit back a smile behind your cards. “I might.” 

Seungcheol smiled and turned his attention back to the game as his turn came around. You looked around the room. You had not seen your brother all evening. You expected Jeonghan to be here. He was close friends with Seungcheol, after all, and surely had nothing else to do in London this evening. Perhaps he was tired of company. 

You had just set down your cards, deciding that you were losing too much money to justify continuing this game when the Viscountess approached your chair and bent down near you. 

“Miss Yoon. I am extremely sorry to have to interrupt your evening, but I am afraid I am quite exhausted and must leave for home,” she told you gently.  

You looked up at her in surprise. “Oh- of course. Are you unwell?” 

“Not at all. But my feet have been hurting for some time and I unfortunately as your chaperone, I cannot leave you behind here. The carriage is waiting outside” 

“Of course. I understand. We shall leave at once,” you promised her. You turned to look at Seungcheol who had been listening to your conversation and gave him a longing smile. “You will be at the Hongs’ ball on Monday, you promise?” 

Seungcheol smiled. “I have already accepted the invitation. I shall see you there, my love.” 

—-----------------------------------------

“You smile too much in his presence,” your mother scolded you in a hushed voice. “Try not to expose yourself. We may not be in London but there are still enough people around to misunderstand your intentions and spread rumours.” 

You bit back your smile. It was already the third week of your stay at the Choi estate. Little Jiwoo had announced that he wanted to have a picnic by the river and it being a warm spring afternoon, the rest of the household was in agreement. The Yoons and the Chois had set off, with neatly packed picnic baskets and blankets to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. 

“Would it be so very bad, mother?” you wondered innocently. 

Your mother looked horrified. “What? Good heavens, child, what can you be thinking?” 

Seungcheol was playing a lively game of catch with Mina and little Jiwoo on the grass a short distance away. He was incredibly patient with both of them. He made sure to throw the ball gently to Jiwoo, and offered Mina praise whenever she did well. Seungcheol’s bright smile and tousled hair shone in the soft sunlight, making it difficult to keep your eyes off him. 

Choi Seungcheol was the most perfect man you had ever met. 

You tried not to blush. “I only mean… we know Mr. Choi well, He is the same age as Jeonghan, and has been friends with him for many years. He is rich. He has a large estate, he is a gentleman and he has been so kind to us during our stay here…” 

Your mother stared at you. “Are you a fool? He is a widower. He has a son.” 

“Why should that matter? I don’t understand, mother.” 

“You are too young, child. You do not comprehend the dangers of being a second wife. Mr. Choi already has an heir; an heir to whom you are not the mother. Even if you have further children with him, they will not be the ones to inherit his estate. If Mr Choi should die- as men often do- you will be at the mercy of that boy who may cast you out of the house and onto the street. Do you think he will have much love for his stepmother? You are a woman. Your future happiness and security relies on securing a position that nobody can question, a position that is not so precarious.” 

You looked at your mother quietly. “Do you consider your own position so precarious, mother?” 

“It was different for me,” she said dismissively.  

“How was it different?” 

“I was not as young as you. I was not as pretty as you. I was not as rich as you. I took the best position I could find and I am lucky your father was kind to me while he was alive. But you deserve better. You are one of the most desirable young women in society and you have no need to… to settle for someone like Mr. Choi.” 

You looked down at your hands. “I see.” 

“Trust me, my dear. Once we arrive in London next season and all the handsome young men begin vying for your hand, you will understand that you could do much, much better than Mr. Choi. I promise you.” 

You turned away. Seungcheol had just caught a ball that Mina threw at him clumsily and as he turned his head in your direction, your eyes met. He gave you a warm, lopsided smile and brushed his dark hair out of his eyes before gesturing for you to join them. 

“Miss Yoon! You should join our game- your sister Mina says you are a terrible catch and you must prove her wrong,” he called out to you cheerfully. 

You laughed. “I am afraid Mina is quite right!” 

“Then perhaps Jiwoo can teach you how to catch!” 

You glanced at your mother for permission. She looked displeased but made no move to prevent you from joining their lively game. You quickly brushed off your skirts and walked over to little Jiwoo, who looked up at you with a big gummy smile that resembled his father’s. 

“I’m afraid that I do not know how to play. Will you teach me, Jiwoo?” you requested. 

Jiwoo nodded shyly. “Of course, Miss Yoon!” 

You looked up and your eyes met Seungcheol’s once again. He was watching you with a quiet, admiring look in his eyes that made it difficult not to blush. Your mother was right about some things. Perhaps you did smile too much in Mr Choi’s presence, and perhaps you were too enamoured with the handsome widower. Maybe, just maybe, he was a little too taken by you as well. 

But she was wrong about one thing. 

You would not be settling if you married Mr. Choi Seungcheol for love. 

—-------------------------------------------------

The Hongs’ carriage stopped outside your London abode and you bid farewell to your friends before rushing up the front stairs. A manservant opened the door for you. When you entered the lobby, you realised immediately that something was quite wrong. 

One of your mother’s ladies maids looked distressed and cried out when she saw you. 

“Miss Yoon! Oh, you must come quickly, your mother is in such an uproar!” she cried. 

Your heart sank. “What…” 

There was a loud crashing noise from the adjoining dining room and you could hear the muffled sounds of your mother yelling. You ran as fast as your heavy gown would allow and threw the door open just in time to see your mother throw a porcelain plate straight at Jeonghan’s head. He managed to dodge it and the plate hit the wall behind him before shattering to pieces. 

“Madam, please!” Jeonghan yelled desperately. 

You ran to your mother and grabbed her hand before she could reach for another plate. “Mother!” you cried. “Stop it, what are you doing? You’ll hurt him!”

Your mother turned to you, her face red and eyes wild. “What else shall I do? Do you know what that boy has done? He has proposed to Mr. Jeon’s daughter! After blatantly stealing your dowry and ruining your prospects and driving away your suitors, he has the nerve- the audacity- to marry and next he will throw us out of our home! How dare he? After all I’ve done for him since he was a child-” 

You seized your mother’s arms. “Mother, please, there must be some explanation-” 

“Ask him! Ask him- he is responsible for our current state!” she screamed. 

You looked at Jeonghan. Your brother had turned to face the wall and was pressing his fingers to his temple. He looked stressed, and your heart sank in your stomach. This was your fault. Jeonghan was taking this abuse from your mother solely for your sake and it struck you how selfish you had been. 

“Mother, sit down,” you told her gently. “Let us talk about this-” 

She huffed. “I will not sit down! I am going to take our carriage straight to the Jeons’ manor and inform Mr. Jeon the precise nature of the villain that he is about to promise his daughter to! After destroying so many of your prospects I don’t see why he should be allowed to happily marry whomever he pleases!” 

Jeonghan turned and looked at your mother, alarmed. This was the first you had heard of Jeonghan courting anyone, much less proposing to Miss Jeon,  but that was a discussion for a later time. It was clear from your brother’s expression that the idea of your mother going anywhere near the Jeons’ home absolutely horrified him. 

“Mother, you will do no such thing,” you told her firmly. “Jeonghan has not taken my dowry.” 

“What?” 

“I asked him to lie. The dowry money is safe and Jeonghan has promised he will give the full amount to me when I am married- only… only I have already decided who I wish to marry, mother.” 

Your mother looked bewildered. 

“I don’t understand. You have not received any proposals this season.” 

Your lower lip trembled. It was difficult to reveal the secret that you had kept hidden from her for so long- almost as much for her sake as your own because you knew how she felt about Seungcheol. You knew that her disapproval of him stemmed not from any ill will towards him, but from her own insecurities and her love for you. 

But it was not right to allow Jeonghan to bear the brunt of your problems any longer. 

Somebody would be hurt tonight. Perhaps it was best for it to be you. 

“Mother, I have been courting Mr. Choi Seungcheol for the past three years.” 

Your mother stared at you in horror- she looked disbelieving for a moment but then a sudden understanding dawned behind her eyes. Her knees trembled and you kept a grip on her arm as she pulled out one of the dining room chairs and sat down shakily. She looked up at you with disdain. 

“I warned you about Mr. Choi. He is a widower! He has a son!” she cried. 

“I know,” you whispered. 

“You know nothing! You are a fool! Is this the reason you have turned down multiple proposals over the last three years? I wondered why all those eligible men never-but- for heaven’s sake,” her fingers gripped the tablecloth in rage as she stared at you. “To go so far as to destroy your own prospects?” 

“I thought… if my prospects were not quite so attractive….” 

Your mother whirled around to face Jeonghan. “And you! Did it not occur to you to talk your sister out of this damnable courtship instead of encouraging her foolishness and enabling it?” she demanded. 

“Mother, you cannot blame Jeonghan for everything-” 

“Why not? He is the man of this household, he is responsible for safeguarding the virtue of his sisters-” 

Jeonghan sighed and let his shoulders slump forward with exhaustion. “Madam. My sister's virtue is perfectly safe. But believe me when I say that she could hardly find a man more trustworthy or devoted to her than Mr. Choi."

Your mother looked more and more distressed as she realised that this was serious, that you and Jeonghan and Mr. Choi had been keeping up this charade for years now. She slumped against the chair and looked up at you with a defeated expression. 

"You are making a mistake," she whispered. 

You blinked back your tears. "Mother, I love him. And I love you as well. I know you have my best interests at heart, but please. Please allow me to make this decision for myself."

"He has a son-"

"A son whom I will love as my own."

She shook her head. "You are a fool. You are a blubbering fool, you will destroy your younger sister's prospects if you insist on making this unseemly match-"

"Then I will wait. I will wait until Mina comes out in society and is married, and only then will Seungcheol and I marry."

"That could be years."

"I have already waited three years. A few more will not kill me."

Your mother looked at you with an unreadable expression and then clenched her fists before standing up. She seemed to have reached some form of silent resignation. “Well. If you have arranged everything for yourself then I hardly see why my presence is required here. I shall retire for the evening. Do not follow me.” 

Your mother stood and left. You were left alone with Jeonghan in the large dining room. Your knees felt weak- it was incredibly painful to be forced to reveal years of deception to your mother, but at the same time you felt as though an enormous burden had been lifted off your shoulders. You looked up at your brother shakily. 

“Jeonghan…” 

“Well, it is what it is,” he told you gently. “She had to find out someday.” 

“Not like this.” 

“Go to bed, sister. You must be tired. We will speak in the morning.” 

You swallowed and nodded. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------

The sunlight streaming through the sheer curtains woke you the next morning- you had slept fitfully all night and had a headache. One of the maids came into the room and hurried to your bedside. 

“Miss Yoon- you must awaken! Mr. Choi Seungcheol has come to call unannounced this morning, and he is sitting in the breakfast parlour with your mother and brother!” she insisted. 

You sat up. 

“What?” 

“Hurry- you must dress!” 

You felt light-headed and allowed the maid to quickly help you dress and make you presentable. Once you had composed yourself you hurried down to the breakfast parlour, where you found your mother and brother just finishing their breakfast- and Mr. Choi Seungcheol sitting at the table with a cup of tea in front of him. 

You swallowed nervously. “Mr. Choi-Seungcheol- what… what are you doing here?” 

Seungcheol gave you a gentle smile but it was your mother who spoke up. 

“He came to seek my blessing to make you an offer,” she told you tightly, while tearing some of the crust off her toast. “I will not pretend I am happy about this. I have put far too much effort to let you throw yourself away and marry beneath you. But considering how long you lot have kept up this charade and how many men you have already refused, I am no longer confident in my ability to persuade you to marry another man.” 

Your heart leapt. “Mother…” 

“You will not marry now,” she ordered firmly. “You will be quiet and announce your engagement only after Mina is wed. I won’t have your foolish decisions destroying your younger sister’s prospects. She deserves the best she can have.” 

You nodded. “Of-of course.” 

“And Jeonghan, you will immediately correct any misconceptions the ton may have about the dowry your sisters are to receive.”

Jeonghan smiled. “Of course, madam.” 

“Then,” your mother replied as she dropped her toast back onto her plate and rose from the table. “It is settled. I will count on your continued discretion, Mr. Choi. I will not have my daughter’s honour questioned and I trust you will not take unnecessary risks or liberties until I have secured a husband for my younger daughter.” 

Seungcheol stood calmly and bowed his head. “You have my word, madam.” 

Your mother left the room before you could stop her. Jeonghan stood as well, and gave you a gentle smile and a reassuring pat on the arm before leaving the room so that you could be alone with Seungcheol. Your lover came towards you and took your hand. His dark eyes met yours hesitantly.  

“Perhaps that could have gone better- but I imagine it also could have gone much, much worse,” he admitted.  

You bit your lip as you looked up at him. “How did you know?” 

“Jeonghan sent word of what occured last night. I thought it was about time I stopped hiding behind this clandestine affair like a child and brought myself to face your mother. She is not wrong to have her fears, my love. I thought it was my responsibility to try and convince her that her daughter would be safe and loved with me.” 

“I… I….” 

“It’s all right, darling. Come here.” 

Seungcheol took you into his embrace. His strong arms encircled you firmly and you pressed your cheek to the soft fabric of his coat. This sort of intimate touch was rare, and as you wrapped your arms around him you realised that you were one step closer to becoming his wife, to being able to embrace him and feel him close to you like this every single day. 

Seungcheol leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to your hair. 

“I am sorry that we must wait longer,” he said to you gently. “I know it has already been so long. But your mother is right, we should not do anything that would jeopardise Mina’s debut in society next year. Your sister deserves the very best.” 

You nodded into his shoulder. “I know.” 

“Can you wait for me a little longer, my love?” 

“You are lucky,” you told him with a smile as you looked up into your handsome lover’s dark, smouldering eyes, “that patience is not a virtue I lack.” 

“I love you, my darling.” 

“And I you.” 

Seungcheol brought his hand to your chin and tilted your head up before pressing a soft, chaste kiss to your lips. It was more than you had ever dared to do before- but in the safety of your home with no fear of being seen, it was a liberty that Seungcheol could not resist taking. You closed your eyes and let out a soft sigh against his lips. 

“Do you mean to steal my virtue before we are even formally engaged, Mr. Choi?” you teased him lightly as he pulled back, his dark eyes still focused on your soft lips. 

Seungcheol smiled. “I suppose I shall try to make do with the heart I have stolen for now.” 

You smiled and embraced him once more. 

It would not be easy, you thought to yourself as you melted into his arms. But you would wait as long as you had to, for a chance at a lifetime with Choi Seungcheol.

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

A/N: Thanks to anyone who made it this far reading! I know this wasn't totally complete (in the sense it didn't go all the way up to their getting married) but I'm thinking of maybe showing that in a spin-off story through the eyes of another character? Does anyone want to see what Jeonghan's been hiding behind the scenes here, or maybe experience this world through the eyes of either Mina or Mrs. Hong? (or just a totally different member that didn't show up here?) Feel free to hit me with thoughts.

[instantfoxdonut]

Helluva Boss S1-S2: Octavia Rant

okay, it has CLEARLY come to attention that ever since the episodes Mastermind and Sinsmas came out, MANY people having been hating on Octavia's character with little to no evidence for it.

Allow me to explain

As someone who watches both helluva boss and hazbin hotel, alot of drama has been spreaded around throughout both shows, most recently, with helluva boss's season 2 finale. Alot of people have started to make pointless rants of why octavia being angry and most likely wanting NOTHING to do with her father, Stolas, in the future makes her a terrible daughter and character, and may I remind you, with LITTLE TO NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER.

And now, I shall bring out the evidence of why octavia's feelings towards her father, blitzø, and her mother are justified.

First of all, the first time we actually get to see Octavia is in S1- episode 2: Looloo Land. The episode opens with a flashback to Octavia as a young child having difficulty going to sleep. Due to Stolas hearing Octavia while trying to sleep himself, he goes to her room with his grimoire and sings to her while taking her to watch an entire solar system implode on itself. Then it cuts to Octavia in the present waking up to the sound of Stella, Octavia's mother, screaming at Stolas and throwing objects across the kitchen at him. Now before she woke up, she seemed genuinely content, but once she was brought back to harsh reality, she looks absolutely miserable.

if you can't tell HOW miserable this girl is- then here is a mini compilation of her misery:

In all of these images you can clearly tell, her life SUCKS. Not to mention, the fact that she puts her headphones in to most likely drown out her mom's shouting kind of gives the impression that this has happened before, and she is USED to it- which is not a good thing. Now, I may not be a parent or an expert on taking care of other living beings, but I know enough that if a child is so used to hearing their parents screeching at eachother EVERY MORNING, to the point that they have had to learn to drown it out with other sounds or distractions, then it is CLEARLY A BAD THING. It's normal for parents to argue every once in a while, but this girl has to hear this EVERY MORNING, AND HAS HAD TO FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG. And that does not help with that the song she listens to in the beginning of the episode, is "My World Is Burning Down Around Me" by a band called "Fuk u Dad". Do you see where I am going with this? No? It's okay, I'm not done proving my point yet.

Now as for this rant, I have done some delectable research and have found that during the teenage period of life, most teenagers tend to try to find something to relate to. Specifically music, art, books, poetry, writing, ect. They also tend to pick these depending on how they feel about certain subjects, what they have gone through/ what they are going through at the moment, and a way to express themselves, and as a way to vent about their feelings. By the specific song choice, it's not only referring to how her life is LITERALLY FALLING APART AROUND HER, but also how she feels about the whole Stolas and Blitzø situation. She FEELS like her life is burning down around her while it also, non-metaphorically, is. Seems like a pretty fitting music choice for everything she's going through right now, am I right?

Moving on.

Second of all, during the same episode, she was dragged to LooLoo Land by her dad along with, you guessed it, blitz, which she is OBVIOUSLY not happy about. Her day started terrible, and now it's only going to get worse. Also, she has to see her dad FLIRT with the imp that is partaking in ruining her life INFRONT OF HER. And she looks so uncomfortable during the experience to the point that during the LooLoo Land show with the robotic Fizzarolli, she gets up and leaves, and runs off to sit on a ride by herself, and looks like she wants to cry. When Stolas goes after her, she wants him to go away, but still tolerates him. When he asks her what's wrong, she asks him "Are you going to run away with him and leave me behind...? Where i can't find you and I don't know where you are... and leave me alone...?". This moment, you can see how she is so close to crying at this point that her voice is breaking and that she has a teary expression. Then Stolas responds by hugging her and saying "No. No, I would NEVER do that. Ever". And as everyone finds out later, he BREAKS that promise to his daughter. As the series progresses, we also get to see how their father and daughter relationship slowly, but surely, begins to fall apart right before our eyes.

Third of all, in S2, episode-2: Seeing Stars, Octavia, for the first time we have seen, wakes up HAPPY. We then see her go uo to her calendar which shows she has a date circled and written with something along the lines of her going to see Asaphalts Tears with her father. She seems genuinely excited about it. But as she goes out to talk to Stolas about it, we can see a moving van and Stella's stuff being moved out into the van while Stolas is arguing with Stella on the phone. When Octavia tried to talk to him, he pushes her away and tells her that he is busy, not only refusing to listen to his OWN DAUGHTER, but also FORGETTING the OTHER promise he made to her. Now, alot of people may think "Oh, well Stolas is obviously busy and stressed, and it's just some Asaphalts Tears, it's totally okay for him to forget about taking his daughter to see them." No, it's actually NOT OKAY. He clearly promised to her that he would take her to see them, and may I remind you, Asaphalts Tears only show up every 1000 YEARS. That is a LONG TIME before she will get to see them. Not to mention, due to her being 17 at this point in the series, this would be her VERY FIRST TIME SEEING THEM. Due to her reaction, she is clearly upset about him brushing her off and forgetting, to the point she storms back to her room, and tears up and throws away her calendar. Then, she decides to take her father's grimoire and uses it to go see them, which ends up with her in the middle of Los Angeles by herself utterly lost. When Stolas realizes his book is gone and that Octavia is missing, he and Blitz along with the rest of I.M.P., go to look for her. In the process, Blitz gets mistaken for a celebrity and Stolas gets taken with him, leaving Loona to go look for her instead. By the way, the entire time that Blitz and Stolas are stuck on a recording set, Stolas COMPLETELY FORGETS ABOUT HIS OWN DAUGHTER. AGAIN. He then spends that time swooning over Blitz while Loona is busy running herself ragged, looking for HIS DAUGHTER FOR HIM. Once Loona finds Octavia, SHE has to tell her that her father loves her, since he isn't able to do it HIMSELF. Octavia even states, "If he cares so much, then why did you come looking for me instead of him...?" She is SO RIGHT with that line. If Stolas ACTUALLY cares as much as he says he does about his daughter, then why couldn't he be bothered to LOOK AND TALK TO HER HIMSELF? People also seem to like forgetting that as a parent, Stolas should be concerned enough about his daughter to be able to actually talk to her and look for her and not be flirting with Blitz for 5 MINUTES. That is just common sense.

Fourth of all, throughout both Sinsmas and Mastermind, Octavia is starting to suffer more than ever from her father's actions. Jesus, it's like Rose/Pink Diamond with Steven all over again-. In Mastermind, during the trial, we can see that the entire thing is being recorded and broadcasted LIVE. Once Stolas decides to (somewhat) own up to his actions, he places his head on the block, thinking he will be executed. Remember, this is being broadcasted LIVE. Octavia is WATCHING. SHE IS THINKING THAT SHE IS GOING TO WATCH HER FATHER BE KILLED. Alot of people are most likely saying at this point, "Well, Vivziepop wouldn't just kill off Stolas before the show ends." True, but that's not the point. We, as the viewers, DO know that he won't actually be killed. However, Octavia, as a character, DOESN'T know. I also feel like most of people that watch the show don't understand how TRAUMATIZING THIS WOULD BE FOR HER. She thought she was about to watch her father DIE. Even though he didn't actually die, she can still be traumatized by just the thought or even alluding to him being killed. It's already terrifying enough for a child to think about one of their parents dying, let alone WATCHING THEM DIE. ON TELEVISION. That would mess her up terribly. She was so distressed about thinking that her dad was about to die, that she goes to run up to her room. But before she can even leave the room, Stella stands in her way and embraces her. Once this happens, Octavia begins to sob in her arms, while Stella smiles. SMILES. Her daughter is seeking any form of comfort from her, is shaking like a leaf, AND crying, and she SMILES. Everybody already knows, Stella is a terrible person and mother, and is also an abuser and manipulator. To a certain degree, Octavia most likely knows this, but she is also so desperate and in need for comfort right now, that she is willing to hug her anyway.

In Sinsmas, we see that Octavia is still dealing with the aftermath and ending of Mastermind. It's not long until she finds a box of Stolas's pills, and her guitar. She then sings her song, "I Will Be Okay". Some people on tumblr have said that she is actively grieving her father even though he is still alive and her also planning on cutting ties with him. Those ideas make alot of sense and I like and support those ideas. Throughout the song however, we see these silhouette versions of Stolas and Blitz. These are representations of how she seems them. She sees her father leaving her behind for some porno fanfiction written by a virgin, and Blitz as one of the people destroying her life. She clearly hates him, and that is once again, understandable. She may not obviously have the full story due to being stuck with Stella and Andrealphys and hearing their versions of what happened, but she knows enough to the point that she hates Blitz and actively blames him for ruing her life more than it already hazbin. Get it? Hazbin? As in, hazbin hotel? The other show- AHEM- anyways- Her feelings are absolutely understandable and has every reason in the book of feeling the way she does. She already had a shitty life, and then it got shittier. Moving on, when Octavia's phone rings, Stella snatches it away and forbids her from talking to Stolas. Her and Andrealphys then make fun of the idea of him trying to even TALK to his daughter FOR ONCE. When Stolas returns to the castle, demanding to see Octavia, Andrealphys mocks him instead and gets his tail feathers pounded into the ground, which leads to a whole entire fight. At the end of fight when Andrealphys is about to attack Stolas and Blitz, Octavia steps in and deflects back at him and says "Don't. hurt. my. dad.". Once Andrelaphys storms off, Stolas goes to tell how proud of her he is and how he is sorry, and Octavia wants NONE OF IT. She is done with the apologies, the lies, the broken promises, the pain, and with his affair with Blitzø. She lashes out at him with the lines "I DO understand!", "Is that why you had these..!? Because of me..? Am I just some obligation to you...!?", and then "No! You don't love mother and you don't love me, you love him! We were never good enough for you!". Afterwards, she goes back inside, refusing to listen, and even look at him now.

In conclusion, Octavia has every right to be angry and to even go as far to HATE Stolas and Blitz. Before people say "But Stolas was miserable! He didn't mean to hurt Octavia and to make her life worse!". That doesn't matter. Just because he didn't mean to hurt her, doesn't mean it justifies his horrible decision making and him ultimately abandoning her for some utterly unrealistic fantasy. Octavia deserves an apology, a REAL apology and an explanation, not the shitty ones written by people that have never apologized in their lives and don't even know what the word means. As i have said before, her life was already bad enough, and in the process, Stolas made it worse. I am genuinely sick of people babying his character and defending him when his character is an ADULT who MADE the decision to sleep with BLITZØ in the first place. It's his decision, and these are the consequences, and the only way that his character can develop is by facing those consequences and moving past them, which many people seem to have a hard time understanding when writing characters. Not all issues with characters can just be sweeped under the rug, some actually need to be solved. Not to mention, Octavia gets even LESS SCREENTIME THAN MILLIE. And she is one of the main protagonist's daughters. She only has about 17 mintues of screen time in the ENTIRE SERIES, while Milie has over 20. Octavia's character is actively being WASTED and only being used for drama to keep the series going. Don't even get me started on the SHIPPING. There are people actively SHIPPING her with LOONA. If you couldn't tell, Loona is Blitz's adopted DAUGHTER. If Stolas and Blitzø ACTUALLY WORK OUT, that would make Octavia and Loona SISTERS. We also hardly know anything about her character other than her parents taking over the rest of it. Being associated with other characters isn't a personality trait. I also feel like alot of people would also feel angry if one of their parents put them through anything remotely like this. People have been bashing and hating on Octavia's character without justifying it or even explaining why. Everyoje knows that Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel have some of the worst fandoms to be seen with the human eye, which is where all of this hate came from, the FANDOM.

This is just an essay about my opinion on Octavia's character as a whole along with her connections to other characters and her writing. These are my opinions along with some others that I happen to agree with.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[photogirl894]

"Sun and Rain Part 2: Age of the Empire"

Chapter 44

"Deadlock"

A "Bad Batch" fanfic!

Pairing: Hunter x fem OC, Echo (more best friend pairing)

A/N: Back again, quicker than I anticipated! 😊

One quick announcement: after this chapter, there will be one more and then Part 2: Age of the Empire will officially be concluded! After that, we will be moving on to Part 3 of Sun and Rain, which will oversee the events of Bad Batch season 2 😁 I'm looking forward to getting to that part of the show, I've got some fun and interesting things planned for y'all! Just wanted to give you all a heads up that that's coming soon and I hope a lot of you will continue down this journey with me 😊

A huge thanks to my bestie, @l-lend , for helping me out a lot with some things throughout this chapter! You really saved me!

With that said, I know left y'all on a pretty jaw-dropping cliffhanger last time, so let's get on with it, shall we? 😁

Taglist: @the-sad-batch , @nimata-beroya , @intrepidmare , @legolkenxbi , @tech-aficionado ,

@ladykatakuri , @sammi9498 , @darthzero22 , @scarlettrose9901 , @thebadbatchscyare ,

@chxpsi , @ilikemymendarkandfictional , @4pplecider , @locitapurplepink , @l-lend ,

@nekotaetae , @eternalwaffle , @merkitty49 , @avathebestx , @idoubleswearimawriter ,

@techs-stitches , @fantasyproductions , @totallyunidentified , @theknightofivanhoe , @dreamsandrosies ,

@seaofsunberries , @flowerfellfrans

《 Chapter 43

》 Chapter 45

All parts (Part 2) (Part 1)

Explanation: Kimber's world has been shaken by a new revelation from the mercenary, Deadlock, but she still has a mission to finish with her friends.

The silence and astonished tension in the air of the fortress was so palpable, anyone could’ve reached out and felt it with their bare fingertips. For a moment, no one knew what to say or do in reaction to what had just been revealed.

Kimber’s father, Terren Sallaros, was actually alive…and he was the mercenary known as Deadlock.                                                      

Finally, Hondo broke the silence, “Well, this is quite an unexpected turn of events, isn’t it? You never told me you had a daughter, Deadlock.”

In response, Deadlock said nothing. He could only continue to stare in shock at Kimber.

“I most certainly did not expect it to be this young lady, of all people, either,” added Hondo. 

“Enough, Ohnaka,” stated Jovad. Then he walked towards the group, completely ignoring Kimber and her father, and approached Kida. “My business is with you, not anyone else. You must come with me,” he said to her, taking her arm.

She roughly wrenched her arm out of his grasp and replied, “Not until I see Kori and Sami.”

“Your niece will come later. Your son is right here,” said Jovad, pressing a button on a device on his wrist, which made the floating container levitate over towards them. He tapped another button and it opened up, revealing Kori inside holding a blanket. He immediately smiled upon seeing his mother.

“Kori!” Kida gasped, instinctively reaching down to grab him, but Jovad moved himself between her and the container, closing it as he did so, which made Kori start to cry. Hearing her son’s cries and being unable to do anything about it caused her rage to build even more. Glaring at Jovad, she threatened him, “Give him to me this instant, you monster, or I swear, I will--”

“It's like I told you before, my dear: anger is so unbecoming of you. Besides, you’re in no position to make demands. I hold all the cards here,” he cut her off.

Then Lex cried out, “You won’t for long!”

Giving no attention to her, Jovad said to Kida, “Now, you will come with me. We must get you ready.”

“Ready for what?” Kida asked, unamused.

Jovad smirked. “Our wedding, of course.” Her eyes flashed with fury, but he spoke before she could, “Come quietly or I will have to resort to desperate measures to get you to comply.” Then he reached over and gave a pat on the container, where her baby’s muffled cries could still be heard, silently indicating those desperate measures would involve her son.

Kida looked like she wanted to be sick, realizing the situation at hand. There was no way she was going to marry Jovad, but he was now threatening Kori and she couldn’t risk anything happening to her son either. She despised everything about this with a burning passion.

Then she heard Rina tell her, “Just go, Kida. Everything’s gonna be fine.” 

When their gazes met, Rina gave Kida a reassuring bow of the head and, at the same time, she subtly held up two fingers perpendicular to the corner of her eye. Kida recognized it as one of their hand signals for a particular Koriena Force battle strategy, as did Kimber who happened to look at Rina in that same moment. Seeing that Rina already had a plan brought Kida a light sense of comfort; enough to give her the courage to go along with what Jovad wanted for the time being. Trusting Rina as well as her other friends to have her back when the time came, Kida relented with a heavy sigh and just nodded to Jovad.

With that, he signalled with his head to a couple of the other pirates to take her away. As she was led out of the room, Jovad turned back to the rest and ordered, “Hondo, you and your men go finish preparing. Everything must be perfect.” Then he looked to Kimber’s father. “I will leave you to your…family business, Deadlock, but be sure you have it all settled by the time my bride is ready.” Then he turned on his heel and walked after Kida, bringing the floating pram along with him.

Hondo sighed loudly and grumbled, running a hand over his face, “I’m the Captain of a notorious band of pirates and here I am, being reduced to a wedding decorator.” Then he clapped his hands and announced, “You heard him, men! Get to work!” As all the other pirates scattered and left the room, Hondo also exited with them, leaving the rest of the Koriena Force, the Bad Batch, Kimber and her father alone.

At last, Terren finally spoke to his daughter, asking, “Kimber, what are you doing here?”

Her eyes nearly burst from their sockets at that question. “What am I doing here?” she repeated, flabbergasted. “You’re supposed to be dead!”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What are you talking about? I was never dead,” he replied, “but you had been taken by the Tuskens. I thought you were dead.”

“No!” she cried back, exasperated.

“What made you think I was dead?” he then asked. 

Gesturing to the Clones behind her, she explained, “My friends here rescued me from the Tuskens. Once I recovered, I went back home…our house was burned down and you and Mom were inside.”

Just then, Echo spoke up behind her, “Kimber…this was not the man we found inside the house.”

She looked back at him for a moment and saw looks on the other Clones’ faces, confirming that what he said was true. It was then, she remembered…she had never gone inside her house. After going back, she couldn’t bring herself to go in and see what terrible things awaited. Instead, the Clones had gone in for her and had buried who they found behind the house.

She never saw the bodies.

Then she turned back to Terren. “If that wasn’t your body they found…then who was in the house with Mom?” she questioned, trepidation in her voice. “And where were you? If you weren’t there, how did you know about my abduction?”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” he responded. Then a sad smile crept up on his lips and his eyes welled up with tears. “What matters is you’re alive and we’ve been brought together again.” Then he reached out and pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly. “I thought I had lost you forever.”

Kimber didn’t know how she should react. Any other time, she would’ve broken down in happy tears and embraced her father back immediately, but something about how he avoided her questions didn’t feel right. That and the fact he still had been the one to kidnap her friends’ child. As much as she didn’t want to, she had to deal with that first.

She uncomfortably pulled away from him and said, “Hold on, you still kidnapped a child; the son of my friends, no less. I can’t just overlook that right now. Why would you do such an awful thing?”

His gaze averted to the ground. “I only did it because Jovad paid me handsomely to do it,” he shamefully admitted. 

Stunned at that response, Kimber said back, “You cannot be serious, Dad. How could you?”

“I’m sorry, pateesa,” he said, calling her “sweetie” in Huttese. “I didn’t have much choice.”

“You always have a choice,” she told him back, not even hiding her disappointment in her face and her voice. “I thought you were better than this. My father raised me to do what’s right and fight for the people I care about. That’s not who I see in front of me.”

“You don’t know the full story,” he tried to justify. 

Hunter stepped up, a displeased look on his face, and stated, “I guess you’d better start talking, then.”

Terren, however, didn’t seem thrilled at Hunter butting in. He gave Hunter a disgruntled look, but then said to Kimber, “Could we move this somewhere private?”

“No,” Kimber immediately replied. “I’m not going anywhere here without my squad, not even with you.”

“You don’t trust your own father?” Terren questioned her.

She blinked and then her eyes widened in disbelief. “You stole my friend’s baby,” she emphasized. “Not to mention you’re working for a scandalous pirate who cannot be trusted. What in any of that would give me cause to trust you?”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “I am sorry for what I have done to your friend, but--”

“Are you?” Hunter inquired, cutting him off. “If your daughter wasn’t here, I don’t think you’d actually be sorry for what you’ve done.”

Now irritated a little more, Terren looked at him and rebuttaled, “Listen, son, I don’t know who you are, but you have no right to judge me here.”

“I have every right,” Hunter snapped back, “especially when I’ve been the one who has cared for her and been by her side for over a year; when it was my squad who freed her from the Tuskens and took her in when she had nothing left and we’re the ones who have been looking after her all this time.” 

Then Echo interjected, “You don’t know what she endured; the torture she suffered from the Tuskens and the pain from losing her home and family, but we do. She was a captive for so long, she lost count of the days. If you’ve been alive all this time, why did you never try to find her?” 

“Of course, I tried,” Terren responded, “but the Tuskens are difficult to find and even if you do find them, they’re dangerous to go up against.”

“They weren’t a problem for us,” said Hunter, “and we rescued Kimber easily.”

“Guys, I don’t think this is helping matters,” Irys tried to intervene.

“Nah, let ‘em be. I wanna see how this goes,” Rina opposed, an amused and slightly eager look in her eyes.

Terren once again released a heavy breath, collecting himself, before asking Hunter in a calmer tone, “What is your name, son?”

“Hunter, sir,” the Sergeant answered.

“Hunter,” Terren repeated, “I am Terren Sallaros. I appreciate what you have done for my daughter when I was unable to be there for her. It means more to me than you can possibly know. After today, though, you won’t have anything more to worry about.”

That made Kimber concerned as well as everyone else. “What does that mean?” she asked him. 

He turned to her and told her, “Once everything is concluded here, you won’t have to stay with this group anymore. You and I can leave this place together, return to Tatooine and rebuild our old life. We'll be a proper family again.”

That statement made Kimber’s blood run cold and the others were stunned to hear such a proposition. The thought of Kimber leaving them was unimaginable, but now that choice could potentially be a reality now that circumstances had changed. This was her father, but even still…a bit selfishly, no one wanted her to accept his offer.

After a brief silence, Kimber said to her father, “Dad, I…at one point in time, that would’ve been everything I ever wanted…but…I can’t do that now.”

Terren reared back slightly, astonished at her response. The others all perked up gladly, surprised at hearing her actually refuse.

“I have my own life now,” she went on. “I’ve found a new family with these Clones and these ladies behind me. I even found love.” She reached over and took Hunter’s hand to further prove her point to her father, who glanced down skeptically at their joined hands. She kept going, her confidence and conviction building even more, “I’ve been trained as a soldier who once served the Republic and fought in the Clone Wars and now, I’m fighting against the Empire with my friends. These Clones and these women who have trained me and taken care of me have shaped me into the woman I am now…and all of that is what brought me here to Florrum. I came here to help Kida, my friend, rescue her baby that you kidnapped. You claim you want you and I to be a proper family again, but I can’t forget what you’ve done here. That betrays any trust I might have had in you...and I still don’t know what other crimes you’ve committed in our time apart.” She took a step back from Terren so she was shoulder to shoulder with Hunter. “I'm sorry, Dad…but I'm not going anywhere with you and we're going to bring you to justice for what you've done.”

“You tell him, boss lady,” said Rina. 

His eye twitched slightly at Rina’s remark, but he ignored it and persisted, saying, “Please, pateesa, consider what you’re saying. You can't really think of staying with these people forever, not when you still have me.”

“I haven't had you for over a year and I've been just fine,” Kimber stated back. “I've gone through things you couldn't imagine and survived it all without you. Your boss, Hondo, even captured me and sold me in a black market auction.”

Terren's eyes grew larger hearing that. “He did what?” 

She nodded. “It's true. Luckily, I had the nous to put out a distress signal without his knowledge, which resulted in me being rescued from him.”

“How did he capture you?” he then inquired. 

Rolling her eyes, but choosing to still entertain the question anyway, she told him, “We were on Alderaan and I stumbled across his crew making a spice deal, so they took me.”

“You were alone?” 

“I was.”

Terren shook his head. “You were put in danger and your so-called friends didn't even protect you from being captured.”

Kimber blinked in surprise, realizing what her father was thinking. “Wait, no, that's not--”

“Not only that, but making you a soldier when you were an untrained civilian was highly irresponsible and they have continually endangered you by doing so, throwing you into battles and awful situations like that,” he went on. “As your father, I cannot stand for this.”

“That's not your decision to make,” Lex said firmly. “Kimber chose all of that on her own and she's done a lot of good in becoming a soldier.”

“She's right,” added Irys. “Kimber is the reason we're all together and she helped save a bunch of Clones who had been captured by anti-Clone extremists, including the ones present here. She's aided in successfully thwarting several Separatist and Imperial operations.”

Then Omega spoke up, “Most of us wouldn't be here if it weren't for her. She's amazing and part of our squad. You can't just take her away from us.”

Terren looked down at her, perplexed at seeing her, and then questioned, “Your squad even brings young children on missions?”

“I'll tell you the same thing I told Kida's father: she's one of the best shots in this room,” Kimber retaliated. “At least I actually look after the kids in my care instead of kidnapping them.”

Her father groaned loudly. “Kimber, I already apologized for that.”

Immediately, Kimber shot back, “First of all, your apology was not genuine and I didn't believe it for a second. Second, even if it was, that doesn't suddenly absolve you of the crime. Thirdly, I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. That would be Kida, the baby's mother, who deserves it, but even still, I don't think you meant it anyway.”

Then Tech voiced his thoughts, “If you truly are remorseful over your actions, then you can prove it by helping us reclaim the child.”

“He's right,” Kimber agreed. She looked at her father pleadingly and implored him, “If you help us get Kori back, then I'll consider giving you another chance. I'm sure the father I know and love is still inside you deep down. Surely, he must be. Please, Dad…help us.”

Terren, however, sadly just shook his head. “I can't do that.”

His response disappointed her, but at the same time, given everything she'd just learned about her father, she unfortunately wasn't all that surprised. “Just as I thought,” she said, crossing her arms. “You can't claim you're sorry and then do nothing to rectify what you've done…especially when you're being given the chance to.”

That didn't seem to sit well with him as his expression went hard and he sternly reprimanded her, “It's not your place to lecture me, Kimber.”

Rina impulsively released a loud laugh in response. “If that's not the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy,” she remarked. “As if you have the right to lecture her either.”

“Enough,” said Hunter, hoping to de-escalate the situation somewhat. Then he turned to Terren and calmly said, “You still haven't answered Kimber's questions from earlier. Who was in the house with Sonya and what happened to you when Kimber was captured? You owe her an explanation.”

Kimber cracked a small smile at the fact that Hunter remembered her mother's name.

Terren’s jaw clenched briefly in response to Hunter's persistence, but then he relented, his face and shoulders relaxing. Though, his expression looked shameful. “I'm not proud of what happened that day,” he said, his voice low. 

Kimber could feel her spirit sinking right then. She didn't like that. “What happened, Dad?” she asked trepidly. 

For a moment, he said nothing, clearly fighting inwardly with himself on what to say. 

“I was outside when the Tuskens came, but I know I heard two sets of screams in the house, a man and a woman,” she went on. “Who was with Mom if it wasn't you?”

Her father inhaled sharply before answering, “It was Sonya’s brother.”

“Uncle Daksen?!” Kimber nearly shouted. “How?!”

“He had come by while you were outside and he was getting ready to go out and see you when the Tuskens arrived,” said Terren. “He fought hard to protect your mother, but in the end…it wasn’t enough.”

Something about that statement didn’t sit well with Echo, so he raised his voice and pointed out, “You said ‘he fought hard’ to protect her. What about you?”

“I too noticed that particular detail,” Tech put in. “What transpired that prevented you from protecting your own wife?”

Kimber found her breath getting caught in her throat in anxious anticipation of whatever explanation her father was about to give. She had also noticed what he’d said about her uncle protecting her mother. What was that supposed to mean? Why had he not been the one to protect her when it mattered most? 

What had truly happened that day?

Terren said nothing for a short moment and turned his gaze away, which only heightened Kimber’s anxiety. “Don’t you dare stay quiet on me now, Dad. Answer them and tell me the truth,” she demanded, her voice trembling. 

He then exclaimed in frustration, “I ran!”

Everyone gasped immediately.

Kimber’s whole body lost all warmth and feeling. She didn’t want to believe it. It couldn’t be true…it just couldn’t be…but she had heard it all from his own mouth. 

Her father, the man who had vowed to protect their family from all harm; the man who had raised her, taught her to be a righteous young woman and to fight for what she thought to be right and for everyone she loved…when her family needed him the most…had run away?

“You abandoned your own family?” Rina questioned, a growl in her voice. 

“How could you?!” Wrecker demanded, his teeth gritting together and glaring at Terren like he was about to bash his head in. 

Kimber wanted to voice her own thoughts and feelings; to cry and scream in anger, tackle her father to the ground and punch him over and over and over again until he could no longer move…but she found she lacked all ability to speak or do anything. She was too much in shock to will herself to move or form a coherent thought.

Then Terren opened his mouth again and explained to Kimber, “The Tusken Raiders invaded our home and were swift in their attacks. Daksen was closest and they went for him first. He fought bravely, but was taken down quickly. I had never witnessed death before and seeing my wife’s brother be slain before my eyes…I was frightened and all I could think to do was get out of the house. I grabbed your mother and tried to get her away, but she was pulled from my grasp. Instead of fighting to free her…I only thought of myself and just…ran away.” Once again, he turned away and closed his eyes, clenching his jaw tightly. “Sonya’s screams have haunted me even to this day. Every waking moment of every day. I knew she didn’t survive the attack…and when I later returned home, you, my sweet daughter, were gone and the house was destroyed. I couldn’t bring myself to even look upon the bodies of Sonya and Daksen, not after what I had done, which is why you had found them there. I tried to find you, pateesa, but was met with nothing. Eventually, I supposed that you also had been killed by the Tuskens, so I left Tatooine. My shame and sorrow drove me to madness. I lost all feeling and sense of righteousness. I didn’t care what I did in order to survive…which is why I am the man you see now.”

“You’re no man,” spat Lex.

“Real men don’t desert those in their charge,” Tech added. 

Once again, Terren didn’t seem to give any thought to what the others were saying to him and kept his eyes on Kimber, who still had yet to react at all. She was gaping silently at him, her eyes emanating shock and pain. Her chest and shoulders were heaving up and down with every heavy breath she released. 

Before anyone else got a chance to say anything, a door opened nearby and some of the other pirates, including Hondo, came into the room. Seeing this, Hunter moved closer to Kimber, put his arms around her shoulders, pulled her close and said in her ear, “I know you’re hurting right now, sweetheart, but we need you to pull yourself together. We need to help Kida and complete the mission.”

Kimber blinked a couple times, bringing herself back to reality and out of her shocked stupor. He was right. They were there for Kida and to rescue Kori and Sami. Even though her mind and body were being flooded with sorrow and anger, she couldn’t let that cloud her judgement right now. She was a leader here as much as Hunter; she needed to be clear-headed and present for what was to come. 

She would deal with Deadlock later.

“Deadlock!” Hondo cried out as he walked over. “Jovad is almost ready for the ceremony to begin.”

“What does he need me there for?” Terren inquired, irritated at Hondo’s interruption.

Hondo replied with a shrug, “He supposed that you would want to be with your daughter, so he has assigned you and the rest of my men to guard her and her friends during the ceremony. Make sure they don’t cause any trouble.” 

That made Wrecker chuckle aloud. “If you think you’re not going to get trouble from any of us, then you’ve got another thing coming,” he said in response.

The other pirates with Hondo all then surrounded the two squads and pointed their weapons at them. Then Hondo, coming up beside Terren, stated, his voice now low and ominous, “If you value the lives of the Firestar woman and her child, then you will all remain silent and let this wedding go off without a hitch. Is that clear?”

Keeping an intense lock on Hondo’s gaze, Kimber said back, “Clear as kyber.”

“Good. Glad to see you are being sensible, little tooka,” he replied with a pleased grin before turning around and leading the way.

Giving one last glance at Kimber, Terren proceeded to put his ornate helmet back over his head and walked after Hondo. 

As the rest of them followed, Kimber made eye contact with Rina and gave her an affirming nod, having caught sight of her hand gesture to Kida earlier and on board with the plan. Then she gave the same subtle gesture--two fingers held up perpendicular to the corner of her eye--to Lex and Irys behind her, who also bowed their heads in understanding, before following her boys’ lead and putting her helmet back over her head. Then she gently nudged Hunter in the arm and gave him one of their own Clone Force 99 hand signals, suggesting a plan that she thought would correspond well with the plan the Koriena Force had in place. 

Noticing her hand gesture, he replied in a quiet voice so the pirates wouldn’t hear, “Plan 46? Are you sure?”

“Trust me,” she whispered back.

After that, they kept quiet as they were led into the next room, which was just as spacious as the previous one, but this one also had an upper level with balconies looking over the room. A large, translucent window high up on the back wall let in a fair amount of light into the room, as well. The rest of the area was littered with tons of steel crates and stacked metal storage containers, but was oddly decorated with strange, multicolored exotic flowers around the room and a shabby makeshift altar. It was definitely clear to everyone that the pirates that inhabited this base were not properly equipped to manage a wedding, of all things. Either that or Jovad had gone incredibly cheap on the decorations, despite wanting everything to be “perfect”. Jovad was standing at the altar, his hands clasped behind his back, and Kori’s closed pram levitated beside him. 

“Glad you all could join us. Please gather…the bride is about to enter,” he said, a sly grin on his face. 

The doors slid shut behind them and they heard the locks activate, which meant they weren’t going anywhere. The pirates and Deadlock surrounded the Clones and the ladies in a circle just as from around a corner, Kida came strolling into the room. She was no longer in her leather combat armor and instead was now in an elaborate wedding dress. Judging by the style of the dress, it was clear to everyone where Jovad’s attention had been in planning this wedding. It was floor-length with long, ruffled sleeves and a low neckline that landed just above her chest and exposed her shoulders, but had sheer fabric that covered her shoulders and came up into a ruffled collar around her neck. Her magenta hair was done up in a fancy updo with a short veil pinned underneath it just barely hit her shoulders. On both of her wrists were large, silver bangle bracelets that almost resembled handcuffs. She was obviously uncomfortable as she came in, looking like she didn’t want to be there at all. Even when she locked eyes with her friends, her demeanor didn’t change much. Then seeing Jovad along with the container with Kori inside, she went from annoyed to full of rage as she approached the altar.

“You look dazzling, my sweet,” Jovad complimented her, looking her over. 

“Are you serious?” Kida asked in return, not pleased in the slightest. “This is probably the worst dress you could’ve picked out. This isn’t even remotely my style…and ruffles? For someone who seems to pride himself on fashion, you clearly missed that no one likes ruffles.”

Casually, he just responded, “I’m sure you’ll grow to love it by the end of this. Now, shall we continue?”

Kida growled through clenched teeth. 

Then Hondo took his place by them at the altar and began the ceremony. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are all gathered here--albeit not really by choice--to witness the joining of Jovad Cho and Kida Firestar in matrimony. As Captain of the Ohnaka Gang, I, Hondo Ohnaka, have the power to officiate this ceremony. I could go on about love and happiness and blah, blah, blah, but I have no intention of doing so. Especially since I’m fairly sure that there isn’t a single ounce of love between these two to begin with.”

“On with it, Hondo,” Jovad chided him, irritated, while Kida snickered with amusement. 

*All right, all right,” Hondo relented. “Do you, Jovad Cho, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded bride?”

Smugly, Jovad replied, “I do.”

“And do you, Kida Firestar, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?” asked Hondo. 

“Not even if he were the last man alive,” Kida said back with sass, which displeased Jovad quite a bit as he glared at her. “You’ve wasted your time, Jovad, and I’ve won anyway. I only went along with this to stall for time. My father recorded your transmission and by now, he’s given it over to the Pantoran Assembly. They’ll see you for who you truly are and all your power and status will be ripped away from you.”

Jovad's eyes went fiery and his whole body shook with anger. “Curse you…curse you, Firestar!” he bellowed.

Pouting her lips, she mocked him, “Oh, anger is so unbecoming of you.” Then she smirked at him. “It's over, Jovad, and I'm taking my son and niece back.”

“Niece? You mean the other Pantoran kid?” Hondo asked. “Someone else already took her.”

Immediately, a wave of tension seemed to sweep over the room.

“What…?” Kida questioned, her voice low yet full of building rage.

While Jovad had a panicked look, Hondo went on to divulge, “Yes, Deadlock got her, but then another bounty hunter swooped in and snatched her from under our noses. We have no idea who and where they took her.”

“Shut up, Ohnaka!” Jovad blurted out.

“Blast it,” Kimber hissed under her breath. Sami was still missing and now, they were back to square one with no leads or ways of finding her. 

Rina took notice of the absolute fury in Kida’s expression and she could also sense it strongly through the Force. “Mom's about to blow,” she warned her companions.

“We need to act now, Hunter,” Kimber whispered urgently to the Sergeant.

“Copy that,” he replied. Then he called out, “Bad Batch, Plan 46!” 

“Get down!” Kimber cried to the ladies behind her before dropping to the ground along with Tech, Echo and Omega. 

As Rina, Lex and Irys followed suit and hit the deck, Wrecker let out a battle yell and grabbed the nearest pirate, making them cry out in terror. Then he proceeded to spin around in a circle, swinging the pirate by the legs out in front of him and taking out all of the other pirates that had surrounded them all with a loud thud each as their bodies collided before hitting the floor. Deadlock, however, was quicker and leapt out of the way before he got hit, taking cover behind a nearby stack of containers. 

With the pirates temporarily out of their way, Kimber then cried, “Koriena Force, Stone Skip!”

Taking that as her cue to act, Kida moved ever so swiftly, socking a caught off guard Jovad in the throat, which made him collapse, and then kicking Hondo in the chest away from her. Then she grabbed the floating pram and pushed it as hard as she could towards the others. Jovad attempted to yell, but his vocal cords failed him after being throat punched. 

“Cover the girls!” ordered Hunter to the Clones as they all got back up and drew their weapons. 

Seeing the action, the disoriented pirates quickly collected themselves, picked up their weapons and prepared for a fight as they positioned themselves either in the open or behind the crates. 

Rina used the Force to pull the container to her while Lex and Irys got to their feet and ran for the door. Then Rina pushed the pram back in their direction. Lex stopped after a few feet, intercepted the container and, still keeping with its momentum, sent it floating over to Irys, dodging a blaster shot as she did so. Irys positioned herself in front of the pram, drawing a blaster in a defensive position.

As the pirates began to fire on them, the Clones and the Koriena Force all ducked behind the various crates throughout the room for cover from the incoming blaster fire. 

“Where is Rex? He should be here by now,” said Lex.

“He has our coordinates. He'll find us,” Kimber reassured her before looking back from around her cover and firing a couple more shots. 

Withdrawing her rope dart, Rina commented, “He'd better ‘cause we're sitting Mynocks in here.” Then she jumped out into the open and started thrusting her rope dart back and forth, hitting the pirates and knocking them off their feet as she spun the rope around her dexterously.

As Kimber kept firing at the pirates, she was suddenly yanked back by her arm behind the stacked crates she was next to. For a second, she expected to see Hunter trying to protect her, but instead found herself looking at Deadlock.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“This is our chance,” he stated. “If we go now, we can escape together. We can start everything over.”

Kimber could not believe that he had the nerve to make such a proposal to her. “No!” she cried, pulling her arm free from his grip. “Never in a million years would I go anywhere with you.”

He shook his head. “Kimber, we’re family. Families must stick together.”

Disdainfully, she shoved him away from her with great force. “Don’t you dare say that to me when you were the one who literally abandoned his wife and daughter when we needed you most!” she nearly shouted. “Mom and Daksen are dead because of you. I was captured by the Tuskens, put through unimaginable tortures and scarred for life because of you. Don’t speak to me of family.” She inhaled sharply through her teeth and tried to calm herself. She had to keep her head and keep focused on the task at hand. In a quieter tone yet not lacking in contempt, she said to him conclusively, “You are a pathetic, low-life coward…and you are not my father. As far as I’m concerned, my father died the same day as my mother. I want nothing to do with you anymore, Deadlock. My real family needs me.” 

Not giving him another thought, Kimber jumped out from behind her cover and ran for another set of crates on the other side of the room, taking more shots as she ran.

Back at the altar, Kida had pulled a blaster out from a hidden thigh-holster underneath her skirts and aimed it at Jovad, who was still on the ground catching his breath. “Call off these pirates now or I won’t hesitate to blast you right here, right now.”

“You would shoot a defenseless man?” he challenged her.

“If that man is you, then yes,” she shot back.

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “You think you’ve won, but I am the one who still holds the winning card.” 

He then pressed another button on his wrist and the bracelets Kida wore suddenly lit up with electricity, shocking her and causing her to drop her blaster with a pained cry. Then he hit another switch on his wrist and her legs buckled as her bracelets pulled her down to the floor by the wrists, magnetizing themselves to the ground.

Then he picked up Kida’s blaster, pointed it at Kida who was now on her knees before him, and yelled loudly, looking towards her friends, “Drop your weapons! All of you!”

Hunter heard him and, realizing the threat, held up an arm to signal everyone to stop firing. They all obliged immediately once they saw the blaster aimed at Kida. 

“Get Kori out of here!” she called over her shoulder.

Irys was just about to shoot the control panel by the doors to unlock them and run out with the pram, but Jovad suddenly spoke up, “You really thought I would make it that easy for you?” He then pressed a button on his wrist again and the pram opened up next to Irys. Her heart fell as she looked down inside.

The pram was empty. 

“He’s not here!” she cried out.

Everyone else was stunned, but Kida was quick to yell at Jovad, “Where is my baby?!”

He merely laughed and pointed a finger, saying, “Look up.”

She turned her gaze to where his finger was pointing, as did everyone else, and they all watched with trepidation as Deadlock suddenly appeared on the upper balcony, holding Kori in his arms, who so innocently was looking around wide-eyed at his surroundings. 

“You see, I knew you would try something like this,” Jovad stated to Kida, “so I had an auxiliary plan already in mind.”

While he kept talking about his brilliant sleight of hand with the baby, Kimber had the thought to take a shot at Deadlock to get him to drop Kori, but there would be no one to catch him. Even so, the thought of shooting at her own father made her sick to her stomach, despite everything she’d learned about him. Then the thought came to her that maybe she could shoot at Jovad’s wrist and hit the remote that kept Kida magnetized to the ground. However, that was going to be a very close shot to make, especially with him moving his arms so much. She was caught between a rock and a hard place: should she help Kori or should she help Kida? She didn’t know what to do and she hated feeling like she needed to do something, but every choice was too risky. She couldn’t rely on anyone else to help either in the moment since they all once again had weapons pointed at them and they didn’t want to risk Jovad doing anything to Kida either since he too still held a blaster to her head. 

The situation was truly at a standstill.

“You’re a monster and a coward, Jovad!” Kida then cried out.

“Seems like this room is full of cowards,” said Rina, stealing a harsh glare up at Deadlock. 

“Be quiet, small woman,” Jovad ordered her, which only made Rina grit her teeth angrily. “If any of you wish to see Kida or her child unharmed, then you will all put away your weapons, get yourselves back in a nice, orderly fashion and--”

Crash!

Everyone jumped in surprise as all of a sudden, the large window up behind Deadlock burst open and shattered, shards of broken glass, dust and debris flying everywhere. They all turned their faces away and shielded their heads with their arms, except for Kida, who just had to bend down as low as she could to avoid the glass pieces. Just as everyone looked up to see what was happening, a cable with a grappling hook shot out from inside the dust cloud, missing Deadlock by a few inches as the hook latched onto a bar on the ceiling. Then a second later, someone came flying out of the dust cloud, holding onto a blaster at the end of the cable that was starting to reel up. They dropped a kick directly into Deadlock’s chest and swept Kori up into their other arm simultaneously as they soared over the balcony, released the cable and then landed smoothly back on the ground. 

It was Captain Rex. 

Kida let out a happy gasp, nearly crying tears of joy at seeing him finally arrive.

“More Clones?” exclaimed Hondo, who had been hiding behind a support beam under the balcony.

“You guys are in for it now!” Wrecker remarked through a hearty chuckle as some of the others cheered.

The pirates who they were fighting all froze in place, wondering what was going on, and watched everything unfold in front of them. 

In that moment, they heard a thud and a cry from Deadlock as he suddenly went tumbling backwards over the railing. However, he still managed to land on his feet. Up on the balcony, an unexpected second figure leapt over the railing down to the ground to join the others: 

Captain Gregor.

“Looks like we made it just in time,” he said with a squeaky snicker as he aimed his weapon at Deadlock. 

Relieved at seeing them there and that Rex now had Kori, Kimber had the answer to her earlier conundrum. However, it would take a bit more finesse to hit Jovad’s wrist remote since the way he was facing partially obscured it from her view. Though, in a split second, she knew what she could do. Reaching back on her belt, she took out one of Crosshair’s old reflector discs and, as Jovad started to yell out about what was going on, she threw it at a spot on the wall she calculated would get her a precise hit. Once it stuck to the wall, she swiftly raised up her sniper rifle, lined up the shot almost instantly and fired. The bolt hit the disc at an angle, which sent it ricocheting in another direction and it hit Jovad square in the wrist, eliciting sparks from the remote and a yelp of both surprise and pain from him as he clutched at it.

The second the remote got hit, the magnetization of Kida’s bracelets went away and she was freed. Immediately, Kida jumped to her feet, grabbed Jovad by the arm, ripped her blaster out of his hand and then proceeded to impressively body slam him to the ground with a loud yell. He groaned in pain from the impact and didn’t move for a moment as she aimed the blaster down at him. 

“Nice shot, Kimber,” she commented over her shoulder, giving Kimber a wink.

Kimber simply gave her a two-fingered salute in return.

As Rex came up beside Kida and holstered his blaster, Kori babbling in his arm, Jovad looked up at him and cried out, a growl in his voice, “How dare you interfere here! Who even are you?”

Rex reached up and removed his helmet, a death glare meeting Jovad’s gaze as he looked back at him. In an instant, Jovad took notice of the same blonde hair and brown eyes as the little boy and realization struck him like a blaster shot through the gut.

With a steadfast voice, Rex gave his simple answer: “I’m Kori’s father.”

To say Jovad was afraid in that moment would’ve been an understatement. The fear in his eyes right then looked as if he was gazing up into the face of death itself. Alternatively, the Clones and the Koriena Force ladies all felt insanely proud of their friend.

“You’ve lost, Jovad,” stated Kida. She took a step closer to him, her hand holding the blaster trembling, and threatened, “I should kill you right now…I’ll put an end to all this madness to protect my family!”

Some of her friends were about to say something, but then Rex softly said her name. She looked at him and was met with his kind yet pleading gaze along with the face of her son.

“This is not who you are,” he told her calmly. “Our son is safe and that’s what matters now. Jovad will be brought to justice for what he’s done, but not like this. Put down the blaster.”

Even though there was a part of her that still wanted to pull the trigger and put an end to the coward’s miserable existence; to let her anger and grief consume her, her Captain’s loving gaze pierced her to the core, bringing her back to herself. She might have done some questionable things in the past, but she had never murdered anyone in cold blood. This was not the time to do so, even if she felt it would be deserved. Killing Jovad would only darken her soul and change her, which she couldn’t afford. Not when her son needed her. Not when her friends needed her. Not when Rex needed her.

Steeling her resolve, she lowered the blaster, pulled back a slit in her dress and put her weapon back in her thigh holster. “You’re right, Rex,” she said softly. Then she looked back at Jovad on the ground and flashed him her signature devious smirk. “I have a better look in mind for you than a dead man.” Then she pulled the veil from her hair, dropping it unceremoniously to the floor, and then pulled something out of her hair, letting it cascade out of the updo and down her back. Auspiciously, she lifted her hand and showed off a pair of stun cuffs.

“Why am I not surprised?” said Hunter aloud, though there was still a hint of pride in his voice.

While Kida placed the stun cuffs on Jovad’s wrist, she told Rex, “Take Kori out of here now.”

“And unless any of you want to get yourselves pummeled into the ground, I’d suggest you stand aside,” Rina warned the pirates with Wrecker cracking his knuckles behind her to help convince them. 

Not waiting for the pirates to respond, Rex put his helmet back over his head and took off out of the room, calling for Gregor to follow. Irys, who was still close to the door, took a shot at the console by the door, destroying it, and the door slid open, allowing Rex to leave.

Seeing that Gregor was unsure about going because of the mercenary in front of him, Kimber stepped up and told him, “Go with Rex. This one is mine.”

Gregor gave her a nod and ran after Rex. Kimber then raised her rifle and pointed it at Deadlock to ensure he didn’t try anything either. Never in all her life did she believe she would ever have to point a weapon at her own father…and yet, here she was.

Then Hondo stepped out into the open, declaring, “It would seem, Jovad, that our business is concluded. A shame your nuptials amounted to nothing.”

“Don’t think you’re getting off so easily either, Hondo,” Kimber commented.

“I will remind you that you are all in my territory right now,” he responded. “Trying to take me down in my own base will not end well for you. However, since I am a fair and generous Captain, I will give you all one chance to leave.” 

“What? I don’t trust you,” she said back. 

He placed a hand over his heart. “Your words wound me, little tooka. Nevertheless, I give you my word as a Captain. We have no quarrel with you or your squad. Our contract with Jovad was solely to take the Firestar child, but that deal no longer stands. My men will stand aside and let you all leave without violence...but only this once.”

It was silent for a brief moment until Lex spoke up, “Well, guess we’d better not look a gift Fathier in the mouth. Let’s get out of here while we still can.”

“I concur,” agreed Tech.

They all were in silent agreement that it was time to leave, so the Bad Batch and the Koriena Force along with Jovad as their prisoner turned on their heels and ran towards the door. 

However, before Kimber could run, Deadlock grabbed the front of her rifle and said, “Kimber, I implore you…just one last thing before you go.” There was a tremor in his voice that somehow got through to her. Even though she swore she wanted nothing to do with him, something in her natural kindhearted nature convinced her to stay and hear him out.

She heard Hunter call her name and she called back, “Go on ahead! I’ll catch up in a moment.”

As the footsteps of her friends running from the room grew faint and distant, she turned back to Deadlock. “All right, make it quick,” she said sternly. 

“Before I say what I wish to…may I see your face one last time?” he requested.

She sighed lightly. It seemed like he wanted to drag this out, but if she wanted to get back to her friends, she just had to do it to get it all over with. She reached up and pulled her helmet from her head, facing the man she once called “Father” as herself. 

Now that he could see the face of his daughter; the spitting image of her mother before him, the guilt he bore grew exponentially. He knew what he had to do.

“I am truly sorry, pateesa,” he said. 

Kimber opened her mouth to respond, but she was cut off when he held up a hand and her nostrils were abruptly flooded with thick gas as he sprayed her in the face with an unknown substance, her vision clouding with green. She coughed loudly and was about to question what he was doing, but then a falling sensation overtook her and everything went dark.

[iouinotes]

Drunken Love | Five Hargreeves (Part 1)

SPOILER FOR THE THIRD SEASON

summary: Five gets drunk at Luther and Sloane's wedding. He seems to need someone to take care of him (even if he doesn't want to admit it).

pairing: Five Hargreeves x female!reader

word count: 673 words

warnings: just fluff

author’s note: I'm sorry if there are any spelling mistakes...enjoyyy

part 2 is uploaded here!

Secretly, I've been watching him all night. Always hidden in the shadows, from his attentive gaze, which becomes more and more glassy the more alcohol flows through his veins. It is strange to see him in this state. Him, this stubborn man, always walking upright, trapped in the body of a 16 year old.

Whose mind is so sharp, body and soul so out of balance, and whose abilities never cease to amaze me. Like his appearance, that certain stern manner, he always has a goal in mind, always a mission to complete. And I am always by his side. Together we are all the time, but I still feel alone. Because he's so focused on saving humanity to not notice what's right in front of him. Me. I'm so in love with him that it's hard for me to look at him.

And yet I can't take my eyes off him. Because I'm worried, his figure swaying around the room, the glass full of champagne in his hand, the liquid spilling over the rim until it's brought to his lips. And then the entire glass is empty in one gulp, each time it is refilled. It has been for several hours.

I have tried to talk to him, but no chance. He is too absorbed in his hopelessness to notice my concern. Everyone in this room is painfully aware that the end of the world is near. But everyone deals with this realization differently, the only ones who appear to be carefree are Luther and Sloane. The married couple who smiles so happily at each other.

Looking at each other with the kind of infatuation Five looks at me in my fondest dreams. I shake my head, banishing the images that plague me when I realize that this will never come true.

And then in the next moment I see him drop his glass, still half full, and lean on the table. His eyes are narrowed, his figure sunken. And no one but me seems to notice this sadness that emanates from him. Diego and Lila are busy with their son, Ben as always with himself, Allison is talking to Viktor and I am hidden in the farthest dark corner. A sad sight.

But even though my common sense tells me that Five doesn't want me near him, my feet automatically move in his direction. I can no longer leave him to his own devices. He doesn't seem to notice me as I kneel in front of him, his gaze looking right through me, almost as always. It makes my heart ache, ironically, I am just as familiar with it. "Let's go to your hotel room, shall we? I'll help you up."

His mouth moves, his brow furrows, but not a word he says is clearly understood. "N-no, no help. Alone." His head hangs, his eyes blink, his mouth twitches in disdain. "Unfair, your face. Hate it." My eyebrows raise, my chest goes numb, my heart becomes empty. ,,Come on, you've had enough for today." My arms reach around him, trying to help him up.

"Let go, I can do it." Despite his dislike, he doesn't push me away. "I know you can do anything you set your mind to. That's a quality of yours that I admire so much." I answer him in a whisper, his face contorts slightly.

"Don't talk, your voice is- I don't want to hear it." His words are harsh and I back away from him a little. He has always been unkind to me, but now that he's throwing his hatred at me so barefaced, it's even worse to be in love with him. So I just nod. With a heavy breath, I help him get up. I put my arm around his shoulder, make it clear to Allison, who is looking in my direction, that I will take care of him.

And she understands without words, knows even without my confirmation that I will always take care of him.

No matter how much he loathes me.

[ravens-two]

PICK A CARD reading

Messages from your Higher Self

Pile 1 -> Pile 2

Pile 3 -> Pile 4

Deck used: Seasons of the Witch Beltane Oracle

TIPS | BOOK A READING WITH ME | PATREON | LINKTREE | SUGGEST A PAC TOPIC

Pile 1

Oracle

"Spirits of other worlds: tell me tales of the unknown, tell me tales of the forbidden."

Hi pile 1! Your Higher Self really wants you to tune in to your intuition. Listen to what your guides are trying to tell you and don't doubt yourself so much. Yes, it's important to exercise discernment when it comes to the magical, but you shouldn't doubt yourself all the time. Sometimes the messages that you receive are simpler than what you make them out to be.

Most of all, pile 1, your Higher Self wants you to focus on honing in your intuition (be it through learning tarot, using a pendulum or paying attention to your dreams). This is because your Higher Self really wants to talk to you directly, your guides have a lot to teach you, but that information needs to flow directly between you and your guides.

What you also need to know, pile 1, is that your guides and ancestors are on your side and they want to help you. Simply ask for their help with the problems that are troubling you and you shall receive.

Pile 2

The Lovers

"Love lulls all sorrow and bewitches flesh, mind and breath, reminding me that I am unafraid of the unfurling winds of my eternity."

Hi there, pile 2! Your Higher Self really wants to put you at ease here. They want to tell you that you are safe and you can relax now. Trust that everything is okay for now - and if for some of you it isn't, trust that it will be okay for a while. There's a feeling here of deep relaxation, it's like your image, swimming calmly in a pond.

This is also the card of vulnerability, so you are being told that in order to forge deep connections you need to be vulnerable. You don't need to be invincible all of the time. In fact, you just can't. Learn to lean on others for support and don't be ashamed to ask for help when you need it. I know that it hasn't always been easy, but the people who love you really do want to help you and support you. They want to feel that you need them too.

When you manage to be vulnerable is when you can really show who you are to other people without fear. This vulnerability doesn't need to be just about your personal relationships, but it could also be about your work. Let's say that you are an artist, but you don't want to share your art because you are afraid of being judged. Your Higher Self wants to encourage you to do either way, in spite of that, because you will learn something from it.

Pile 3

Wildcat

"Be still and tune in, for there is something afoot lurking alongside you."

Hi, pile 3! The Wildcat is the card of danger, but don't sound the alarms right away. Your Higher Self isn't saying that you are in danger, but that you should be aware of what is happening around you. Not just your surroundings, but also your relationships, work or school life.

With this card it's possible that someone's hiding something from you. This could be something as simple as a surprise birthday party or the fact that someone has been talking behind your back.

Most of all though, your Higher Self wants you to be more present. If it's something that you enjoy or are interested in, why don't you try to do a bit of meditation? If that isn't really for you, I'd recommend you research and try some grounding techniques.

Another message from your Higher Self is that you need to spend more time in nature. Go for a walk or sit on a bench in the park and just listen and observe. Listen to the birds or other nature sounds around you. Observe what's happening around you, do you recognize the plants you see? If it's safe touch them, what do they feel like? It's really important that you tune in with nature right now.

Pile 4

Sacred Waters

"Drunken by the swell of the sea, I can feel the blanket of her embrace. Unafraid of the presence releasing the cords, I call her in, I call her deeply within."

Hi, pile 4! This is the card of healing. Your Higher Self wants you to let go of the things that have hurt you in the past and allow yourself to heal. Your guides want to tell you that they care so much about you, they see you and they want to help you as much as they can. Just like with pile 2, don't be afraid of asking them for help.

This is a period of healing and change for you pile 4. As you accept your past you begin to feel more at ease with your present. The song "Never let me go" by Florence and the Machine just came to my mind. This might represent a bit of how you have been feeling. And now, I just heard "What the water gave me" also by Florence. This pile has a very strong Star energy. There's this sense of deep hurt here, but finally feeling hopeful that it might turn out fine. I also think that you guys also really love music - it might be a way for you to process things - because I keep getting songs in my head. I think I'm going to leave you guys a little playlist at the end of your reading.

A very important message that I'm getting is that your Higher Self is asking you to please be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with the things you say and think about yourself and please, please don't be hard on yourself when you don't manage to live up to your own standards. This is a time for healing.

Never Let Me Go - Florence and the Machine

What The Water Gave Me - Florence and the Machine

Quarter Past Four - Avriel and the Sequoias

Youth - Daughter

Standing By - Pentatonix

Ophelia - The Lumineers

[casmick-consequences]

Black Pete, my beloved

This is just gonna be a post where I talk about Black Pete from 'Our Flag Means Death' and his arc on the show (so far!!!!), as well as what he means to me. (And by post, I mean essay, lol. I'm passionate.)

So right from the get-go, you immediately see the kind of character Pete is set up to be. Stereotypical rugged pirate, very much "I live to loot and plunder and I eat danger and bloodshed for breakfast". He's immediately set up to be someone who is very unlikeable, and someone who you would get annoyed with fast. An overly confident macho character that thinks he's better than everyone else, yet has nothing to prove it. Think characters like Nelson Muntz from 'The Simpsons' or Eric Cartman from 'South Park'.

In episode 1, you see him being the character to effectively try to start a mutiny because he thinks the captain, Stede Bonnet, is incompetent and unfit to be a captain, even confidently stating that he'd take over in his stead because 'he's the most experienced'.

If there was one character trait to shadow all of this, though, it is undoubtedly his idolization and admiration for the dreaded and feared pirate; Captain Blackbeard. He makes up stories of him having been on his crew, and this being the reason as to why he is so skilled and great. Whether these stories are true is never mentioned, but nonetheless not a single person (except the quite gullible captain Stede) believes a word he says.

What is SO interesting about his character, however, is that all of this is just a first look into his character. It's a first impression. Yes, throughout the show he shall always have his little moments of "being a dick", but the further you get into the show, the more you see the layers of him.

We've established he's kind of a dick, he's self-centered, delusional... but under all this there's actually the sweetest core you could imagine. Whenever he does something wrong, or he offends someone, he's the first to apologize as soon as he can.

Accidentally stab Frenchie's flag during an ambitious attempt to start a mutiny? Show remorse and say I'm sorry immediately. Your captain makes someone cry? Tell him that that wasn't okay and console the crying person as soon as possible. Your captain wants to put a cursed suit onto other innocent people, just to lift the curse from themselves? Question it because it makes you feel like a horrible person.

And even to Stede himself. In Season 1, it was pretty clear that Pete did not think anything of Stede. He thought he was dumb, incompetent etc etc and loved NOTHING more than the idea to get rid of him. But then in Season 2, where a very offensive comment is made towards Stede by the newly-back-from-the-sorta-dead scribe, Lucius Spriggs, who now holds a vendetta against Stede because he's indirectly the reason Lucius had to come sorta back from the dead in the first place, you see him like this:

He is visibly uncomfortable here, while in season 1, he would've jumped on the Anti-Stede train in a SECOND. But here, he just sits and tries to kind of get rid of the thick tension of that moment, and get the negative attention away from Stede. GROWTH.

Not only that, but (and this is gonna be an insanely weird opinion of mine but hear me out): out of all the crewmembers on Stede's ship, I might say that none of them are as much like Stede than Pete is. Stede is quite dumb, quite gullible, obsessed with Blackbeard, very much wants to be a "big, strong pirate" and despite all of this still manages to be kind to the people around him and makes sure to take care of others just like he takes care of himself. To me, that sounds just like Pete.

And, maybe one of his most redeeming qualities:

He is the sweetest, most loving and most caring partner on the ship.

Lucius is pretty much what you think of when you hear the words "sassy gay sidekick". He's sassy, he's queer, he's confident, he's very flirtatious and basically the LAST person you'd think to pair with Pete. He's also immediately portrayed as likeable, and is understandably one of the absolute favorites in the entire fandom.

They sound like the crackiest pair of them all. And yet somehow, they work perfectly together. They balance eachother out like two sides of the same coin. What Pete lacks in self-awareness, Lucius got enough for the both of them. What Lucius lacks in pirate skills, Pete has heaps to keep them both safe. And so on and so forth.

Throughout the show, Pete has learned to put someone else before him for once. It used to always be him as number one, but it becomes very clear that he now has a new number one. His number one.

There are lots of reasons why this relationship in particular means a lot to me. The main one being the way that they are perceived in the show.

Pete has a cleft lip, a bit of a lisp, a bald head, and overall just isn't what you'd normally expect from a TV show that depicts gay characters. He's average-looking. He's just some guy. And despite all of this, he gets to be in a sweet and loving relationship with his cute boyfriend who loves him, adores him, and looks at Pete like he's the most beautiful thing in the world.

Lucius himself isn't really that conventionally attractive either, but this fandom definitely perceives him better than they do Pete. Which is apparent in the way they pair him up with other, more conventionally attractive people, which is upsetting but hey. That's how the world works, I guess.

But it's the way these two are not perfect in any way, they're just two dudes on a ship who happen to be in the most beautiful relationship imaginable. Their relationship isn't perfect either, but it's perfect enough. They're just like a regular couple you'd see anywhere in real life. Nothing too fabricated, and it all just feels so real. Which is also why they remind me so much of my personal relationship with my beautiful, amazing partner whom I love more than anything in the world. The Lucius to my Pete.

Pete means a lot to me because, aside from having the best oneliners in the show and making me want to study him in a lab, in a way I see a lot of myself in him. I like to think I'm not nearly as delusional or self-centered as him, but the way he engages with the world around him feels just so familiar to me.

He's a bit dumb most of the time, and he's prone to make mistakes, but he always means well. He keeps up a hard, rough exterior to be able to protect his loved ones and look tough to others, yet in his core he is so incredibly sensitive and caring He found love in a place and time where it pretty much could've been impossible, and he spreads that love as far as his bare, sleeveless arms can reach.

He's a dick, but he's my dick. He whittled his boyfriend a damn finger, he deserves to be a little obnoxious every now and again as a treat.

So yeah. Black Pete does not NEARLY get the appreciation and recognition he deserves. And neither does his relationship with Lucius. And I wanna thank Matthew Maher for his incredible performance of this incredible character. Thank you!

(Also he's trans because I'm trans and I said so <3 ok bye)

[morri-draws]

Gwaine x Reader - 'The Threads That Bind Us' - Chapter 14

Story Summary:

You, a humble dressmaker from Camelot’s lower town, are commissioned to make a new gown for Queen Guinevere. Impressed by your skills, she offers you the position of Royal Clothier. During your time in the castle, you catch the eye of one of the knights of King Arthur’s inner circle, Sir Gwaine. What starts as a sweet courtship is turned upside down when misfortune strikes and you must deal with the aftermath, as well as an unwelcome visit from Gwaine’s unpleasant sister.

Rating: Mature

Tags: Female Reader/Gwaine, set between seasons 4 and 5, fluff, angst, hurt/comfort

Words: 5,847

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Read on Ao3

The day before the feast, you add the finishing touches to your gown and remove any stray threads you missed, until at last you can call it finished. You pack away your sewing things, regularly glancing at the gown to admire your hard work. Once all your tools are neatly tucked inside, you snap shut the lid of your sewing box when there’s a knock at your door.

“Just a moment!” You call out, bundling up the dress and taking it to your room, throwing it onto the bed before rushing to open the door to Gwaine.

“Harvest feast tomorrow,” He grins, clapping his hands together.

“And I have finished my gown,” You reply excitedly.

“I suppose I’m still not allowed to see it?” Gwaine quirks a brow.

“You need only wait one more day,”

“Then I await eagerly. But I have news of something before the feast. It has come to my attention that there will be food stalls and games in the tournament grounds during the day. I wondered if you might like to go together and see what it’s all about?”

“That does sound interesting… and I have no other plans,”

“Shall I come get you after breakfast then?”

“Sounds perfect,” You smile.

“Oh, and wear something you don’t mind getting dirty. The tournament grounds are muddy this time of year,”

“I’ll wear something that’s already brown,”

Gwaine chuckles. “I’m afraid I can’t stay, I’m meeting Percival at the tavern. See you tomorrow,”

~

Having requested water be brought up to your chambers that evening for bathing, and having paid the servants handsomely for their trouble in this busy time of year, you submerge yourself in the bathtub. You wash your entire body thoroughly as well as your hair, determined for everything to be perfect for tomorrow.

Once the water becomes tepid, you step out of the bath, dry yourself and get dressed, before tidying up for the night. Once your hair has dried some, but is still slightly damp, you apply the rags to your hair as Gwen showed you, and head to bed.

~

You rise the next morning, washing your face before getting dressed and covering your rag-wrapped hair with your regular cap, not wishing to reveal the new hairstyle until the feast tonight. You have breakfast and wash up, putting the last of the dishes away as there’s a knock at your door.

“Good morning,” Gwaine greets you, wearing his casual clothes. “Shall we?” He offers his arm to you with a grin.

You take your cloak from the hook beside the door, put it on, slip your arm through his and head out.

The tournament grounds have been transformed, the muddy ground hardly visible between the food stalls, tents, and other attendees. The grounds are already bustling with adults and children alike, with various mouth-watering aromas wafting through the air.

“Ah, here’s a good game,” Gwaine steers you toward a small tent with a bearded man, of about middle-age, standing by it. Under the shelter of the tent, you spot variously sized pails, each marked with a number, and by the tent’s opening, another pail is filled with apples.

“Welcome gentleman and gentlelady,” The man says cheerfully. “One silver for a turn, what do you say?”

Gwaine looks to you, brows raised in question.

“I’ll try it, if you support me from the sidelines,” You say.

Gwaine unfastens a pouch on his belt and removes the required coin, handing it to the gamemaster, who pockets it and nods his thanks.

“Has the lady ever played before?” He asks.

“I’m afraid I haven’t,” You reply.

“That is all well and good, for I shall explain the rules. To play this game, you shall take an apple,” He picks one from the nearby pail. “And toss it to the buckets yonder. As you can see, the smaller buckets toward the back are worth higher points, and the closer, larger buckets are worth less. Throw the apples until there are none left, trying to score the highest number of points you can. The more points you earn, the better the prize. Is the lady ready to begin?”

You look to Gwaine, who gives you an encouraging smile.

“I’m ready,” You reply to the gamemaster, fishing an apple from the pail.

It’s bruised and marked, clearly having been used for the game several times already. You toss the fruit with an underarm throw, and it bounces off the rim of the nearest bucket, into the mud. You grimace and grab another apple, using a little more force this time. It lands in the nearest bucket, worth ten points. On your third throw, you earn another ten points.

“You should try for the ones at the back,” Gwaine encourages.

You attempt it, your fourth toss overly forceful, the apple flying over all the pails and landing somewhere behind them, out of sight. You try again, but the apple bounces off the rim of one of the pails.

You look to Gwaine with a grimace. “Perhaps I should settle for a smaller prize,”

You throw the sixth and final apple, which lands in the pail worth twenty points.

“Forty points in total,” The gamemaster announces. “A good effort for the lady’s first time. Wait here a moment, I’ll get your prize,”

He turns and steps toward a wooden crate a few feet to the right of the pail of apples. Reaching into the crate, he removes a small item which he passes to you.

“Made by my wife,” He says. “To keep ladies’ clothes smelling nice while they are stored,”

You inspect the small prize in your hands. It’s a drawstring bag, made from a sheer fabric, with flower petals within it. Raising the bag to your nose, you inhale the floral aroma of roses.

“Please pass my compliments on to your wife,” You say. “This is a lovely prize,”

The gamemaster smiles widely. “She will be very pleased to hear it,”

After wandering through the grounds a while, taking in what the fair has to offer, Gwaine stops by another game tent.

“How about this?” He asks.

“I believe it’s your turn for a game,” You grin. “I shall cheer you on,”

Gwaine agrees and approaches the gamemaster, handing him a coin. Peering into the tent, you see a table at the far end, with ten cups stacked upon it in a triangular formation.

“What’s the aim of this game?” You ask.

“You take these,” Gwaine leans down to a hay bale beside the tent’s entrance, on which is a small pile of little sacks. He picks one up and bounces it in his hand. Judging by the sound of it, it’s filled with grain. “And toss them at the cups, trying to knock as many over as you can,”

He pulls his arm back and throws the sack. It hits the cup on the bottom right, but the cup only shifts slightly.

“I did wonder,” He murmurs.

“About what?” You ask.

“The cups are filled with water to make them harder to shift,”

“Ah, sneaky,” You smirk.

“Luckily, I’m the strongest knight,” He grins and grabs the next sack, throwing it with much more force this time.

Three cups tumble off the table. He throws the remaining sacks, knocking over eight cups in total. The gamemaster congratulates him and leads him to a small handcart nearby to choose a prize. Gwaine returns to you a few moments later, placing something into your hand.

“For you, my dear,”

Your heart flutters at the term of endearment and you look into your open palm to see a small whittled horse.

“Oh, that’s so sweet! I love it,” You smile.

You continue through the grounds and find another game to play, which consists of a tub filled with water, containing small wooden fish, each with a metal ring attached to it. With a miniature fishing rod (a hook attached to the end of a string, tied onto a stick), you’re given three chances to hook a fish, each marked with a number on the bottom which cannot be seen until it is caught. From this game, you win a handkerchief, embroidered with a simplified version of the golden dragon from Camelot’s crest.

After Gwaine purchases lunch for the both of you from one of the food stalls, you head back to the castle.

“Thank you, Gwaine,” You say once you reach your chamber door. “That was fun,”

“There’s more to be had tonight,” He smiles.

Slamming footsteps echo through the corridor, the sound causing you and Gwaine to turn your heads in unison to see Merlin rushing toward you. He skids to a halt a few feet away and pants.

“I saw you both coming this way,” He says breathily. “Just wanted to let you know that Erika won’t be coming tonight,”

Gwaine quirks an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“She’s come up with a terrible rash, all over her face and everything,”

Gwaine presses his lips together into a line, but his eyes hold a twinkle of mirth.

“I see,” You say steadily, attempting to hide your relief and triumph from your face.

“Have a great time tonight!” Merlin beams, before turning on his heel and rushing back the way he came.

You and Gwaine catch each other’s gaze and chuckle.

“Well, I hope that eases any worries you might have had,” He says.

“As uncharitable as it may sound to admit, it really has,”

“It’s not uncharitable at all, considering who we’re speaking of,” Gwaine says. “Besides, her affliction won’t be anything that Gaius can’t clear up in a few days,”

“I suppose you’re right,” You nod thoughtfully. “Have you much to do before tonight?”

“Just polish my armour until it gleams,” He grimaces. “I already had my cloak laundered earlier this week, and you’ll be pleased to hear it’s still in top condition,”

“I am pleased to hear that,” You agree. “Well, I will let you attend to your armour and I shall see you tonight,”

“I’ll come and get you at six?”

“I will be ready,”

Gwaine reaches out a hand, cupping your face. Your heart quickens as you think he might kiss you, but he strokes his thumb gently across your cheek before pulling away, giving you a warm look and departing.

Once checking over your gown again, you idle away the next few hours, the sensation of Gwaine’s hand on your cheek still present. You have been yearning for his touch since his sensual hand kiss outside your chamber a few days before, finding yourself hoping for more every time you see him.

~

At last, the evening approaches. You go to your room, remove your clothes and swap your stockings, since the current pair is flecked with mud. In just your shift and clean stockings, you pull up a chair to the basin mirror and take off your cap to begin removing the rags from your hair. Once they are all removed, you begin the lengthy process of brushing through the fresh curls to tame them. Once you are happy with it, you slip into your new gown, using the mirror to aid you with fastening the side lacings.

The basin mirror too small to offer a full view, you move to the tall mirror in your main chamber by the work tables. As you gaze at your reflection, your chest swells with pride for your creation. The silver gown hugs your form to your waist, where it flares into a full skirt. The narrow sleeves on your forearms peek out from the wide scarlet sleeves of the over-robe, which forms into a cape at the back, and is secured at your throat with a gold clasp.

You finger the ends of your hair, anxiety about your appearance returning as the hour draws closer. You start to wish you had made some kind of head covering after all as a backup, but it’s too late now, you have no choice but to be seen like this.

You return to your bedchamber to brush through your hair again, manipulating it with your hands to form it how you want. Once that’s done, you apply some perfume to your neck and wrists before sitting on the edge of your bed, your stomach squirming with anticipation.

There’s a knock at your door and your mouth turns bone dry. Is it six o’clock already? You stand and lift your skirts to walk swiftly to the door. You open the door a crack, Gwaine looking back at you through the small gap.

“Are you ready to go?” He asks with a smile.

“I… suppose so,”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid I’ve been stupid,”

“Stupid? How do you mean?” His brow creases with concern.

Seeing nothing else to do but show him, you swing the door wide open. He looks you up and down, lips parted, and you have the overwhelming urge to shrink away and hide, but before you can make any move, Gwaine rushes toward you, his hand cupping your cheek as his lips crash into yours. Your body goes rigid with shock and he pulls away, wide eyes searching yours.

“I’m sorry, I –”

Flinging your arms around his neck, you pull his face toward you, your lips enveloping his, tasting him as he wraps his arms around your waist, pulling your body firmly against his. His hair brushes against your face as he deepens the kiss and your body goes slack in his embrace. You realise how much you’ve wanted this, needed this, to be so close to him, his arms around you, his actions, not just his words, showing how much he desires you.

You slowly pull away, eyes searching his to gauge his own feelings.

“(Y/N),” Gwaine says breathily. “I –”

“Took your time?” You suggest with a sly smile.

He laughs. “I suppose I did. I just,” He takes your hands into his. “Didn’t want to rush into anything. “Especially with everything that’s happened,”

“Let’s not dwell on falsehoods that were spoken about us. We know the truth,”

“You’re right,” He smiles, and takes a step back, looking you up and down. “You look magnificent. Your gown – knight’s colours?”

You nod.

“Give me a twirl, then,”

You chuckle, recalling your command to him to do the same when you made his new cloak, and spin around on the spot, your skirts flaring around you with the movement. Gwaine applauds and steps toward you, extending a hand to stroke your hair.

“I love it,” He says in a low tone.

“Really?” You look up at him. “You don’t think the other ladies will laugh at me?”

“I don’t think so. But if there’s anyone who does, they will suffer my wrath,”

“Your wrath? Goodness, will you strike them down where they stand?”

“I might, if pressed,”

“Well then, let’s hope you remain thoroughly un-pressed throughout the evening,”

Gwaine grins, before exclaiming. “Oh, I almost forgot,” He fishes in his pocket and procures a small item which he places in your hand. “I got you a little something,”

You look at the item in your open palm. It’s a small and ornate metal box. It’s oval shaped and engraved with a pattern of swirling leaves and flowers, a deep blue gemstone set in its centre.

“I thought maybe you could store your sewing needles in it,” Gwaine says. “Or whatever you prefer,”

You look up at him with a smile. “Thank you, Gwaine. It’s beautiful, and is the perfect size for my sewing needles. But I didn’t get you anything,”

“Don’t worry about that. You’ve done more than enough for me,”

You step forward and embrace him, the box still clasped in one hand.

“Shall we head to the feast?” He asks, his thumb rubbing small strokes on your back. “Or is the plan to be fashionably late?”

You pull away to see his smile, before you take the trinket box up to your room and place it on the bedside table. You return to Gwaine, who offers you his arm. You slip your arm through his and you both leave your chambers for the great hall.

The heavy double doors of the hall are propped open, allowing the golden candlelight to spill out to the corridor. Gwaine leads you within, where long tables line either side of the hall, the benches behind them already mostly filled with guests. At the far end of the room is another table, shorter than the rest, facing out, where the king and queen are seated, overlooking their guests.

Elyan spots you and Gwaine as you enter and approaches.

“Gwaine,” He says, giving his friend a playful smack on the arm. “Late, as always,” He turns to you and bows. “Good to see you, (Y/N),”

“Good evening, Sir Elyan,” You reply with a smile. “I’m afraid the blame for our lateness lies with me tonight,”

“Well, any extra time spent in preparation has paid off, (Y/N). You look stunning,”

“Thank you,” You smile. “You’re very kind,”

“Just stating facts,” Elyan winks.

“Go and woo someone else’s lady,” Gwaine shakes his head with a smile.

“Perhaps I will,” Elyan says with a grin, and returns the way he came.

“I didn’t realise Elyan was a flirt,” You remark.

“He’s not really, he just likes to rile me,”

“And are you riled?”

He chuckles. “No, it just makes me feel even luckier to have you on my arm,”

“Sweet-talker,” You nudge him playfully. Glancing to the front of the hall, you see that Gwen has spotted you. “You can greet your friends if you wish,” You say to Gwaine. “I would like to speak with the Queen,”

“Alright, I’ll save you a seat,” He unthreads your arm from his and kisses your hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before letting go.

You approach the royal table and Gwen stands, walking around to meet you, pulling you into an embrace as you approach.

“You look gorgeous, (Y/N),” She says. “Your gown is breathtaking; you are a true artist. And your hair looks beautiful,”

“Thanks to you,” You reply. “I wouldn’t have known what to do without your help,”

Gwen smiles and hooks her arm around yours, leading you around the hall.

“Sir Gwaine looks very dashing tonight,” She says, giving you a sly look.

“He looks just as dashing as he always does, only his armour is shinier than usual,”

Gwen chuckles. “It is a bit monotonous having the knights just wear their uniforms for special events. Perhaps I could submit a petition to change it? But then I foresee I’d receive some resistance from those who prefer not to have to think how to dress themselves,”

“Perhaps we should leave it then,” You reply. “So we need not witness any crimes of fashion. Monotony is more bearable than that,”

Gwen laughs as you turn at the front corner of the hall, approaching the knights’ table.

“I shall leave you with your dashing knight,” She stops behind an empty space between Gwaine and Sir Leon.

“Dashing knight?” Percival turns his head from beside Gwaine. “You must mean me,”

Gwaine elbows him before scooting over slightly, allowing you room to step over the bench and sit down, smoothing your skirts.

“Have fun,” Gwen smiles, before heading back to her place.

Shortly after, the hall goes quiet as the king stands, goblet raised in one hand. He expresses his gratitude and thanks to the kingdom’s farmers for a bountiful harvest, and urges everyone to enjoy the feast. Once he’s seated again, the chatter resumes and servants flood into the hall, bearing platters of food. The royal table is served first, then both the guest tables simultaneously.

“Can I get you something?” Gwaine asks, once another round of servants place down plates and cutlery in front of every guest.

You glance over the abundance of food laid out before you. “A bit of everything within reach,”

Gwaine grins and begins to load up your plate. A minute or so later, he places your plate, now covered with a mountain of food, back down in front of you, before attending to his own.

“Would you like something to drink, (Y/N)?” Leon asks from your other side. “There’s ale, wine and mead,”

“Oh,” You purse your lips thoughtfully, as you remember the delicious and warming drink you shared with Gwen during the intermission at the jousting tournament. “I’ll have some mead, thank you Sir Leon,”

“Just Leon will do, we’re all friends here,” He smiles and reaches for a flagon, bringing it forth to pour some of the golden liquid into your goblet.

You thank him and take a sip of the rich drink, before starting on the pile of food in front of you, sighing at the wondrous flavours that bless your tongue.

“Good, isn’t it?” Gwaine leans in to your ear to be heard, his warm breath tickling your skin.

“You must invite me to every feast from now on,” You reply.

“I was planning to,” His eyes twinkle in the candlelight.

You finish your plate, declining Gwaine’s offer of seconds only for fear that your stomach might burst. When the feasting is finished, conversation flows more steadily throughout the hall, guests’ mouths no longer occupied with chewing.

While you have some conversation with Gwaine and Sir Leon since they are beside you, you can’t manage much more above the noise. Your mind wanders to what occurred only hours ago. You glance beside you, watching his mouth as he brings his goblet to his lips, and you wish you could retire early and head back to your chambers, just the two of you. Gwaine catches your eye and you give him a quick smile, attempting to disguise the nature of your thoughts, before reaching for your own drink and draining the rest. You ask Sir Leon to pass you the mead flagon and refill your goblet before the king stands, the hall going quiet again.

“I have called in the minstrels, so the dancing may begin!” He offers his hand to Gwen, and she takes it and stands, the king and queen making their way around their table and to the middle of the hall.

Noticing movement in the corner of your eye, behind the royal table, you spot a small group of minstrels seated together. The king and queen get into position, the king turns his head to the minstrels and nods, and they begin to play. The king and queen dance as the guests, including yourself, look on, however your focus is not so much on their dancing, but their faces. Their love and adoration for each other is clear to see, and it brings a smile to your face.

A few minutes later, the music ends and the king and queen return to their seats, as members of the nobility gather in the centre, and the minstrels play another tune. The music is pleasing and you find yourself lightly swaying with the rhythm.

“Would you care for a dance?” Gwaine asks from beside you.

You chuckle. “Oh no, you’d better not ask me; I don’t know how,”

“There’s no one else I’d want to ask,” He replies and glances to the dancers ahead. “I haven’t danced like this for a long time, not since before my father passed. But I’m sure it’s all still in here somewhere,” He taps against his temple with the tip of his index finger. “I can teach you,”

He offers his hand to you. You glance between his open palm and eager eyes with a grimace.

“Not in front of everyone,” He clarifies. “There’s a quiet looking spot over there,” He inclines his head to the front left corner of the hall. “We can dance our own little jig with our own rules. What do you say?”

You look to the aforementioned corner, seeing that it is unoccupied, and out of the way. Surely no one would look there, when all the goings-on are happening in the centre of the hall.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… I accept your proposal,” You slip your hand into Gwaine’s.

He grins, and you take two large gulps from your goblet before you allow Gwaine to guide you from the table. When you reach the chosen dancing spot, Gwaine lets go of your hand.

“Right, let’s see… first, we must stand apart,” He takes you by the shoulders and gently guides you a few steps back.

You stay in position as he retreats a few steps away and turns to face you.

“I bow, and you curtsy,” He continues, and you both do so. “Now we close the gap and take each other’s hand,”

You follow his lead as he approaches and extends his right arm, and you take his hand in your left. He turns his body and encourages you to do the same, so you are both facing the same way now, standing side-by-side and hand-in-hand.

“We take some steps forward,” Gwaine says, and you follow his lead as he talks through the steps. “And some steps back. Then, hang on, I’ll show you,”

He lets go of your hand and hops forward, then alternates between hopping on one foot while the other is extended slightly in front, leg bent, then does a larger hop with a flourish, before doing the same movements again, but moving backwards this time.

“I don’t know how I’m going to remember that,” You frown.

“It’s not so bad,” Gwaine replies. “Let’s go through it together slowly,”

You stand beside him and watch as he goes through the movements slowed down, before attempting to copy him. The two of you go through the slowed down version a total of three times, before Gwaine suggests to try it at full speed. You feel slightly foolish but laugh your way through the steps.

“You’ve got it!” Gwaine exclaims with delight. “Now do it while holding hands,”

You go through the steps again, your fingers enclosed in his.

“And now,” Gwaine says. “We do the same steps while moving in a circle,”

Gwaine guides you, doing the same leg movements as before but gradually turning as you do, until making a full rotation.

“And now, the really fun part,” Gwaine says. “We face each other,” He turns to you and you do the same. He puts his hands on your waist, your heart fluttering at the contact. “Now put your right hand on my shoulder,” He instructs, and you do as he says. “We do the same movements while turning, but on the fourth count, I lift you into the air,”

“You what?”

“Lift you,” Gwaine grins as his hands grip your waist tightly and the next moment, you’re about a foot off the ground.

You squeal with a mix of terror and delight, blushing on your return to solid ground when you notice some of the other guests are looking your way.

“And we do that four times,” Gwaine says. “The part after that is a bit complicated, so we can leave it out. Shall we do it all together now?”

“In a moment, I need some refreshment after all that!”

You return to your place at the table and drain your goblet, finding the flagon and refilling, taking a few sips from that, before returning to Gwaine.

“Nothing like a bit of liquid courage,” You remark.

Eying the dancefloor, you see the noble couples dancing, their movements fluid and graceful.

“Don’t worry about them,” Gwaine says, following your gaze. “They’ve had years of instruction from dancing masters.”

“Did you have a dancing master?” You ask.

“I did back in the day, if you can believe it,” He chuckles. “It’s all part of being from a noble family. You’re lucky you didn’t have to waste so much time attending lessons,”

“Lucky until today, where I have no idea what I’m doing,”

“But tonight, I am your dancing master,” Gwaine gives an exaggerated bow.

“I don’t think you’d be a good dancing master for me,”

Gwaine clutches his chest in mock offence. “Why would you say such a thing, dear lady?”

“Because… I wouldn’t be able to focus on the dancing,”

He smirks. “You’ve managed well enough tonight. Shall we put my instruction to the test?”

The minstrel’s tune finishes with his sentence, and you nod before taking position. The minstrels begin a new tune and you watch for Gwaine’s signal and begin the dance. You move in time with the music, though you stumble through the hopping steps, laughing as you do so. After the section where the steps are performed in a rotation, you face Gwaine and he grips your waist, lifting you into the air. In the next moment, you’re on solid ground again, doing the leg movements, then you’re in the air again, down, up, down and up, you feel giddy and light as air, looking into the face of the man who has become so dear to you as he smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling in the way you love.

After the fourth and final turn, you and Gwaine laugh, breath laboured from the exercise. Though you’ve reached the end of the steps you’ve been taught, the minstrel’s tune continues. Not wanting the dance to end, you move your hand from Gwaine’s shoulder around to his back, pulling yourself closer to him, so your body is against his. His hands shift from the sides of your waist to the small of your back and you both sway with the music, slowly turning on the spot with small steps. You relish the feeling of his body against yours, wishing you could stay like this forever, when the tune comes to an end. You pull apart slowly, as if waking from a dream.

“You danced well,” Gwaine says softly.

“My gown hid my terrible footwork,”

He smiles. “My favourite part was the bit you improvised at the end,”

His gaze is so tender, his words so sincere, you feel a blush creep onto your cheeks. You take his hand and return to your seats, Sir Leon giving a knowing smile as you sit down. You take another sip of mead as the minstrels begin their next tune. You watch the dancers, chin resting on your palm. If you could dance like them, you think you should want to do it every day. You conjure an image of minstrels set up in the corner of your chambers, playing a tune while you and Gwaine dance.

“You alright there?” Gwaine’s amused voice pulls you back to reality.

“Just daydreaming,”

“What about?”

“Silly things,”

The music stops and the minstrels stand and bow, marking the end of their performance. You join the other guests in applause as the minstrels gather their instruments and quit the hall.

“They were wonderful,” You comment. “There should be music every night,”

“I’ll bring it up to Arthur at the next council meeting,” Gwaine smirks.

“Then we shall have daily music and crimes of fashion,”

“What?” Gwaine chuckles.

“Oh, nothing. Just something Gwen and I spoke of,”

Laughter erupts from the opposite table, in response to some unheard jest. Glancing down your own table, you see Sirs Percival and Elyan arm wrestling. The murmur of chatter fills the hall again now that the dancing and music has come to an end, and your head buzzes from the hours of noise and recent physical activity. You sigh as fatigue hits you.

“It’ll probably be mostly drunken antics from now on, if you wish to retire,” Gwaine murmurs in your ear.

“Perhaps I should, if you don’t mind,” You drain the remaining contents of your goblet. “We wouldn’t want to add my own drunken antics to the display,”

Gwaine stands and offers his hand, aiding you up from your seat. You express your desire to say goodbye to Gwen before you leave, so Gwaine escorts you to the royal table.

“We’re leaving now,” You lean down to speak in Gwen’s ear. “I had a lovely time,”

“It looked like it. I enjoyed your dance,” She smiles between you and Gwaine.

The king leans out to speak from beside the queen. “I hope you enjoyed your first feast in the palace?”

“Very much, sire. I’d never tasted such delights before tonight,”

“I’m glad to hear it,” He smiles.

“We shall bid you goodnight now, sire,” Gwaine says to the king. “My lady,” He bows to the queen.

You and Gwaine walk arm-in-arm down the length of the hall and through the double doors into the corridor. The sound of the festivities fade as you turn into a passage and climb the first flight of stairs.

Once reaching your chambers, you head inside, leaving the door ajar behind you. Feeling no presence at your side, you look back and find Gwaine still standing just outside the entrance.

“Come inside,” You beckon him, extending a hand, which he takes and closes the gap between you.

You cup your hand on his cheek, brushing against his short beard, lightly pulling him closer to plant a soft kiss on his lips.

“My dancing master,” You sigh with a serene smile.

“As a general rule, I don’t think you’re supposed to kiss your dancing master,”

“I suppose not. But I am supposed to kiss my…”

Love. You shift your gaze from his as you think the unsaid word. You feel it with all your heart. You love him. But if he is not there yet, not ready to return the words… you do not want to force him into an awkward situation, or worse, have him say the words when he might not mean them.

“My sweetheart,” You settle for the lesser word, returning your gaze to his.

He smiles. “That, of course, is allowed,” He leans in and kisses you.

The sensation of his lips on yours sends a warmth through you, and once he pulls away, you wrap your arms around him. He does the same, cradling the back of your head in one hand.

“It feels so good being in your arms,” You sigh. “Though your armour is a bit hard and cold,”

“I don’t think they had embracing in mind when they designed it,”

You simply hum in response, feeling as if you might drift off in his arms.

“You need to get some rest,” Gwaine rubs your back.

“I’m not tired yet,” You lie.

“Yes, you are,” He laughs “You should get yourself off to bed,”

“But I want to stay with you,”

“You’ll see me again soon enough. We do live in the same castle,” He grins. “I’m going to go, then you can change in to your night things and go to bed,”

You sigh. “Alright,”

Gwaine pulls back to look at you. “Thank you for a wonderful time this evening,” You smile up at him as he plants a tender kiss on your forehead. “Goodnight,”

He lets go of you and heads for the door, stopping to look back from the doorway.

“Goodnight, Sir Gwaine,” You blink sleepily as he closes the door behind him.

[sirkusdyretbooks]

The last week these two books have hardly been out of my hands, I've been reading on the bus, in a park, on the bus stop, on a flight of stairs, co-reading with a friend, and whenever the opportunity arose. You see I watched the Netflix show right after handing in my Bachelor and thus got quite curious about the books written by Julia Quinn, and yes I couldn't wait to see the conclusion of Season 3. However, I was fairly surprised, as the books are extremely different from the Netflix show. So, here's my rambling about the two books, because I do love to ramble.

I do think most of the Bridgerton books can be read in any order as you deem fit, but continuing over to book 5 from book 4 naturally seems the best choice as they happen so close to one another. In fact book 5 overlapping with book 4's timeline in it's end, which however also does not do book 5 justice due to inconsistencies between the stories. I am just going to come out with it, as it actually bothered me quite a bit, as book 4 ends on the sentence "And no one saw them for several days" (before the epilogue). Yet, in book 5 Colin leaves Penelope to the country with his three brothers only 2-3 days after the end of the 4th book. 2-3 days is not "several days", at least not to me, and you would think at least Colin might have brought Penelope with him up to the country due to how book 4 ended. It just bothers me greatly.

Adding: Eloise NEVER finds out about her best friend Penelope being Lady Whistledown in any of these books.

Bridgerton Book 4: Romancing Mr Bridgerton

First of all, the three Featherington sisters have a younger sister, Felicity Featherington who has started her season upon the start of "Romancing Mr Bridgerton". Second, it's been over ten years since Daphne's and Simon's story, (which is the book I am currently reading), and Hyacinth is also out for her first season.

I really enjoy that time has passed. Penelope being almost 28, and she's basically a spinster at this point, together with Eloise whom has contracted her own little hobby to Colins dismay. Colin even think his sister is Lady Whistledown, and of course, we do not even get to know who Lady Whistledown actually is until Colin is the one to figure it out on accident.- Colin being too pre-occupied paying attention to Penelope, who is used to no one paying attention to her.

The carriage ride in season 3 actually is the carriage ride after Penelope was caught and they had a huge fight where Colin is upset about her putting herself in danger, going to such "shady parts of London" by herself, in which turns into quite the scandalous make-out session of course. In which at the end of the carriage ride Colin ask Penelope to be his wife. (Adding as I just watched episode six: They DID adapt it, but not of course the same way, here I enjoy the books version more).

I do have to comment, I absolutely love seeing more of Colins point of view, he is much more of a person in the book, as inner monologues do sadly not transfer well into tv. One parts of his human sides that I love and hate at the same time, is his love for food, he's always eating.

Here I will stop comparing it to the netflix show (and I shall enjoy the rest of the show when I do watch it).

The drama unfolding after is of course quite a thing, because it is of course not just Lady Whistledowns possible exposure by Cressida Twombley, who wishes to extort Penelope from all her Whistledown money, but also Colins jealousy towards his brothers and also fiancé for "having purpose", finding trust and support in his author-wife for his journals, which is absolutely lovely.

I really loved this book quite much.

Bridgerton Book 5: To Sir Phillip with Love

From the shock of Eloise's spinster friend Penelope marrying her brother Colin, thus no longer being a fellow-spinster she finds herself in a desperate need to maybe find something for herself as well.

Thus taking the recently widowed Sir Phillip Crane's invitation to heart, months even after it arrived, but just having to get away from her family, disappearing from the ball hosted by the Duke and Dunchess of Hastings, the very night Lady Whistledown was exposed, in which Eloise never found out of course. Showing up at Sir Phillip's door the morning after.

Sir Phillip wishes to find a new wife due to his dear Marina sadly passing away the year prior, due to being "melancholy". Especially, due to his twin children needing a mother. In which he hopes to find in Eloise. Eloise however, never was told of these two eight-year olds in the letters between them, but growing up with seven siblings, where three of them have had more than two children each, she is quite used to children at this point, which makes it not the worst match. However, the children are quite unruly, and are known for being absolute demons.

Having basically ran away from home, of course four Bridgerton men soon show up at Sir Phillips's door, demanding an explanation (Why Colin wouldn't bring Penelope is beyond me). Having been "alone" with a man for two days, Eloise is now of course un-marriageable, even if the only thing that happened was an eccentric kiss, and Anthony Bridgerton demands a marriage between them. In which Eloise wouldn't mind...had it not been for her brother's meddling hands. Sir Phillip is quite happy, Eloise will of course be a splendid mother to his twins. While Eloise wonders if this could at some point, maybe eventually be a marriage with love.

Another thing that bothered me in this book, was how Eloise wishes to speak to her sisters, especially Daphne for advice, but does not even mention Penelope. It almost seems like she has forgotten about her best friend, until the end of the book, where she gives birth to her first child, in which she names Penelope, after her best friend. Being the stubborn Bridgerton-woman she is and not naming her children in alphabetical order.

I was less of a fan of book 5 than book 4, but it was for sure enjoyable, and I do plan on reading the entire series, because why not? Everyone needs some British housewife porn in their lives.

[sarahs-secrets2]

In Your Wildest Dreams Chapter 2 ˋ♡ˊ

introduction & masterlist ❁ ❁ chapter 1❁ ❁ taglist

duke!leon x fem!reader

easier than it looks, is that jealousy i see mr. kennedy?

word count: 2.1k

₊°✧︡ ˗ ˏ ˋ ♡ ˎˊ ˗

Aunt Agatha's house was bustling with staff running around while suitors began to line up to formally start their courtship. Your mind was elsewhere though as you sat in your room, getting ready for the promenade. It had been decided you and the Duke would meet to show everyone that the two of you were “officially” courting. Little did they know of the ruse established just the night prior. 

“Dear,” your Aunt cracked open the door, letting herself in. The staff who helped you get ready quickly scurried out to give you both privacy. “Might you be gracing us with your presence in the tea room? A group of suitors eagerly awaits your arrival." Your gaze was fixed on the mirror, spritzing a perfume onto your neck. Your eyes meet hers in the reflection, her expression was one of confusion. Aunt Agatha was the last person you could sneak something passed, she was observant to a fault, always taking notice of the smallest details. Hence why she asked, “Where do you presume you are venturing off to?”

Your eyes avoided hers, finding ways to busy your attention by flattening out a ruffle in your dress. “Promenade,” you waited for a reaction, to which you received none. “With Duke Leon of Clyvedon.” Turning around in the chair to face her now you could see evidently she looked pleased. 

"I am most delighted to see you’ve taken such a liking to the Duke. Her Majesty shall be positively elated once she witnesses her matchmaking skills working so well, and so early,”

“Is it possible to dismiss the suitors to tomorrow perhaps?”

“Why of course I’ll attend to them at once. Now go,” she laughed as she helped stand you up from the chair, “I will not have my niece miss out on becoming a Duchess because she is behind schedule.” And with that, you were sent off quickly in a carriage to meet the still ever-mysterious Duke Leon. 

On the other side of town, the infamous Duke rolled out of bed, hastening to get ready quickly. For you see, the Duke was not in his bed hence the late arising. The night prior, after the ball, Leon had found his way and ended up with a “lady of the night”. Plush red bedding surrounded him as he was reminded of the sinful activities that had occurred just hours ago. The girl stirred awake at the sound of the Duke getting dressed, her head peeking up from the covers as she hid her body under the sheets. 

“Where are you going so early?” she beckoned him to come join her back in bed.

“Promenade,” Leon was curt, he knew after today all eyes would be on him until you found your official husband so this was his last opportunity to have a night of fun. The girl seemed confused at the Duke’s answer as he was not known to partake in social events of the season, so whatever reason he was going it must have been of the utmost importance to him. Leon was out of the door and quickly hopped in his carriage, heading straight to the park to see you. 

Now it may seem distasteful of the Duke to partake in such sinful activities, but as an established man who has no intention of marrying, this was all routine for him and many other men of the sort. Just because he had a ruse established with you did not mean he was going to stop on your behalf but just halt his discreet activities until it was all said and done. 

The park was vibrant, with a large portion of society in attendance at the day’s promenade. While waiting for the Duke you found yourself engrossed in a conversation with Lord Redfield. It was innocent, being a gentleman Lord Redfield saw you waiting under the willow tree and approached you. 

“Are you waiting for someone?” the voice caused you to jump a little as you turned around to see who it was. 

“Ah, Lord Redfield,” you smiled as you curtsied. Lord Redfield was cute, well-established, and overall quite perfect. An easy catch though, and he was missing that one thing. He wasn't the Duke, he did not carry the same mystery as the Duke, and he definitely did not excite you like the Duke. Lord Redfield was a safe option. “I am just waiting for the Duke of Clyvedon, have you made his acquaintance?”

“Oh?” he seemed surprised, “Leon, yes I’m aware of his business in London. We’ve crossed paths a few times of course.” You waited for him to elaborate but he did not, information a lady was not privy to of course. The two of you began to walk along the gravel paths, your eyes occasionally scanning the park looking for the tall blonde-headed Duke. Alas, he still had not arrived, you began to worry if he had called off the plan entirely already. 

Leon hopped out of the carriage, straightening his jacket as he made his way to the willow tree to meet you. Pulling out his pocket watch, he huffed out noticing the time and how late he ended up being. All eyes were on him as he quickened his pace to get to the willow tree quicker. If he did not know any better he would say he was excited to see you. Almost as quick as the thoughts penetrated his mind, he pushed them down, drowning them with the reminder that he would not marry. This was all a plan to benefit you both in the end, marriage was not on the table for him.

As he approached the willow tree, he realized you were not there. Had he been that late? Did he miss you entirely? Leon’s eyes surveyed the park trying to spot you, and there you were. Walking alongside another man, not Leon. His heart almost stopped, and a tinge of jealousy began to sink into his veins. Perhaps the Duke was still coming down from his wild activities from the night prior when something overcame him as he stomped his way to you.

“Ah, there you are,” his hand quickly snuck around your waist pulling you closer to him, and further away from Lord Redfield. There was that feeling again, a spark flushing your skin when you felt his touch on your waist. Your stomach churned, your face felt hot, what was this feeling?

“Your Grace, I’m so glad you made it,” you beamed up at him, trying to hide the rush of emotions you still had yet to identify. 

“Please accept my apology for being so late, I had some business affairs on my father’s account I had to finish,” his eyes pleading. As genuine as he sounded it was impossible to read him, and it did not help that he was so entirely intoxicating. You thought he looked handsome at the ball, but today was something else. Unlike the prior night, today his silver-toned blonde hair was pushed back with a stray strand resting on his forehead. He sported a dark jacket, with hints of gold and pale blue throughout. The Duke sure knew how to dress. 

“Of course your Grace, I understand. Thank you for making time to see me today,”

“Affairs,” Lord Redfield scoffed, glazing over you as he stared down Leon.

“Lord Redfield,” the Duke looked unfazed, smiling back at Lord Redfield who was scowling at him. Leon’s hand still was firm on your waist, keeping you close to him. “Thank you for keeping her company in my absence. He is a true gentleman is he not? Always stepping up when you least expect it.” Although Leon’s words were kind, sarcasm was dripping as he eyed down Lord Redfield. Almost as a warning to stay away from you. 

This was where the Duke’s mystery came in, if he did not wish to marry you then why was he being so territorial right now? Why was he scaring away a potential match?

“Well,” Lord Redfield offered you a sympathetic glance, although you weren't sure why. “I’ll take my leave, miss,” he placed a chaste kiss on the back of your gloved hand. “Enjoy your day, I hope I have the chance to make your acquaintance again, sooner rather than later preferably,” he paused before taking a step towards Leon, “Enjoy your affairs, Leon.” And with that Lord Redfield walked away, leaving you and the Duke alone.

“Am I allowed to ask what that was about?” you turned to face Leon, his hand dropping from your waist. Immediately you missed his grasp on you. 

“Which part?” the Duke chuckled slightly, extending his arm for you. Obviously, it was fun for him to ruin your chances with a suitor. You linked your arm around his as the two of you began to promenade around the park. 

“All of it,” glancing up at him, but his eyes were glued straight ahead.

“Let us enjoy this day, not get fussed with the little things,” he looked down at you smiling. You decide not to probe him deeper, he was already assisting you this season better to just keep him happy. 

“Fine, if you insist,” you wrapped your arm around his tighter, “This plan of ours, we will need to come up with some of the guidelines,”

“Such as?”

“Balls, gifts, the customary plans of courtship,” the idea of these things excited you, but your heart really began racing when you pictured the Duke being the one you did it with. 

“I cannot be expected to do all that, can I?” his tone shifted, obviously unaware of the entire extent of the plan he created. 

“You must, it is the only way this arrangement works,”

“If you insist, but I cannot attend every single ball. I have my own business to attend to if you recall.”

“I am well aware your Grace,”

“Just Leon, please I cannot remind you every time,” he teased, stealing a glance down at you as the two of you continued on the paths of the park.

“Of course, Leon,” you let his name glide off your tongue making sure to pronounce every syllable for him.

“Mhm just like that, go on,”

“Please make the effort to attend the balls until I have found a proper suitor.” Leon nodded, unable to find the words or a witty joke. He was a perfect eligible suitor for you, he knew it, and there was that voice in his reminding him again that he was to not marry. This arrangement was simply to help you both out. Keep the swarm of mamas and their daughters at bay for him, while attracting only the best suitors for you. The Duke now faced a new task though, he could not afford to allow these budding feelings for you to flourish. “And I will need you to send flowers, preferably today,”

“Flowers?” 

“Customary to signify you are courting me,”

“I see,” he looked lost in thought as he paused for a moment. He stopped walking and turned to face you, “If I was truly courting you I would not need to follow customs, 10 minutes alone would suffice,” his voice low, and husky as he spoke. The sudden change in his demeanor shocked you as you were unsure how to respond in a ladylike way. 

“Expensive flowers, Leon. Today,” you attempted to brush off his comment but the way your body and mind reacted was an entirely different story. 

“Of course,” his bold tone had left him, perhaps it was still the jealousy from Lord Redfield causing him to act in such a way. “Anything else?”

“Do not tell anyone of this arrangement, I need this to remain a secret between the two of us please Leon, I cannot afford a scandal,” you were pleading at this point, but it was necessary to ensure he understood how important this was. 

“I shall not tell a soul dear,” he nodded, sticking his arm back out for you to take again, continuing the promenade. 

What you two did not notice throughout the time at the park, was the mass amount of eyes on you both throughout the entirety of the promenade. The ton would be swirling with rumors, and stories of who the Duke was courting. Are there promises of a new Duchess on the horizon? 

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briefly proofread pls lmk if there's a jarring typo

tags: @ir3nic-sluvv @mylifedoesntexist @secretsthathauntus @sageslittlelibrary