#it’s been happening ever since we got the wifi back on

[cheriladycl01]

My love, is mine all mine - Max Verstappen x Norris! Reader x Charles Leclerc Part 6

Plot: Norris' Twin sister is also a driver in the 2021 line up and is in her rookie era. Not only do the commentators struggle to now talk about the pair in the race, but they also struggle to talk about talent. What happens when two drivers find her eye-catching.

A/N: I've brought Luisia into things because of the timeline and it being 2021. Don't hate on her, or the fact that i've brought her into my writing please!

After the shit show of a party, you woke up earlier than everyone else and left the docked boat. You caught the earliest flight back to the UK. You were so pissed with your friends and brother that they’d just up and left you in the club.

The whole flight home, you pondered whether you just really needed to grow up about ever situation in your life.

Lando and the clubbing group leaving you? They were drunk and probably saw you with loads of other people and assumed you were safe and good.

Charles admitting his feelings for you? You arguably needed to focus more on your career that you’d worked so hard for, you didn’t have time for boys and if Charlie really did care for you like he said, he would understand.

Max sleeping or dating your best friend? Good for him, he should be happy.

You needed to not be bitter about all of these minor blips in your life and just get on with it.

Little did you know that this would create a version of you so far from her normal bubbly self that even people who hadn’t spoken to you in years would be able to tell something wasn’t right with you.

Max and Charles had both tried to contact you through texts and phone calls all which had been ignored, you knew it was for the best to just let it all go and leave it at a what could have been. You had responsibilities far greater that you needed to focus on.

When it came to after the summer having left your brother and gone travelling on your own, updating your Instagram and family group chat whenever you managed to get wifi, you were back and raring to go for your home race.

Lando had sent a text to the family group chat asking who would be coming. He wanted to invite Luisa and only had two passes to give out. So that would mean one for Luisa and one for his dad.

Lando - Can you give your paddock passes to mum and Flo, Cisca can’t make it because of Uni

Y/N - Kinda awkward i had someone in mind i wanted to bring :(

Lando - come on its mum and your little sister Y/N don’t be rude and give up your pass to some random dude you met in Bali …

You ignored it, before going to McLaren and begging Zac for a spare paddock pass. You gave your original 2 to your mum and Flo, but your next one went to Nathan Bishop, he was a goalkeeper for Manchester United and you’d met him on a trip you’d been doing in Bali and he immediately knew who you were and you guys got talking and one thing led to another and you were inviting each other to your sports.

In the time you’d travelled he’d became a really good friend and you didn’t feel as lonely as you had since starting in F1. It was really refreshing.

You met him before, driving him to the paddock in your McLaren and pulling up into the Silverstone car park together.

“Thanks for the pass, I’ve never been to a race before so this is actually really exciting for me” he smiles waiting as you grab your bag from the back seat.

“Always welcome!” You grinned back.

“Mmmm and I’m excited to see if you are really as good as you say you are!” He teases elbowing you as you swipe your pass through the paddock scanners.

“Hey! I am a good driver! I got you here safely didn’t I?” You smile and he just nods, you point out various bits of the paddock talking about all the hustle and bustle and all the different teams and the workers running around fitting last minute bits to the motorhomes.

“Oh come on! We need to get you some McLaren team merch!” You grin pulling him to the quiet fan zone thanks to the early time it was and going to the merch stool.

“Hiya! Oh Y/N! How are you?” The worker smiles noticing it’s you.

“Hey! I’m really good! How are you? It’s hot today, make sure you drink lots of water! Radio through and ask for top ups yeah? And don’t forget sun cream!” You chide knowing sometimes the workers forget that they are humans and will push themselves till breaking point!

“Thank you! Really and I’m all good” she says flashing you the large icy bottle of water she had behind the stand with her. “What can I get for you?”

“Any chance we can get the Y/N number hat?” You grin turning to look at Nathan who just rolls his eyes but can’t help the smile that comes into his face.

“Sure! We have lots on stock today, as you know it’s home race! Good luck by the way! I know you’ll do great!” She smiles and hands you the number 42 on the baseball cap. You place it on Nathan’s head who just laughs at your antics but keeps that hat on before paying the lady for it in cash.

“Hey! I was gonna pay for it! I’m the one that got you to buy merch!” You exclaim in horror.

“Mmmm but it’s my hat … so I should pay for it!” He explains with a cat like grin.

“Argh fine come on! I want to show you round the garage and do track walk with you!” You say gently taking his hand and pulling him through the growing numbers of people in the paddock.

You showed him all around the garage and even let him sit in your car which he was really impressed with how low to the ground it felt, and how much the halo restricted vision. After showing him the pit wall and all of the engineers working and running around before free practice you took him out onto the track to do a walk.

The sun wasn’t as harsh anymore and it had started to cloud over a little bit meaning that the track walk wasn’t as strenuous as you anticipated it would be.

You guys walked around talking about the season so far and how it felt being a rookie along with Yuki Tsunoda.

Afterwards it was time for you to have a team meeting and you didn’t want to leave Nathan on his own so you walked him to the hospitality suite to find your parents.

“Mum Dad! Hey this is Nathan! Can you just watch out for him while I’m in the car please!” You ask kindly showing Nathan to a seat with your family.

“Of course sweetheart! Hi Nathan, I’m Adam, this is my wife Cisca” he introduces standing up slightly and leaning forward to shake the younger gentleman’s hand.

“You gonna be okay?” You ask, unsure if you should just bring him to the garage and find him a seat and headphones and leave him there.

“Yeah - I’ll be” he starts only for commotion behind to stop his words.

“Sorry, I’m running late. Oh … whose this?” Lando asks looking over to Nathan, someone he didn’t think would be around his family.

“This is your sisters guest, hence the hat” your mum explained pointing to the hat still on Nathans head.

“Right … yeah I just came here to drop Luisa off. Please look after her and … you know don’t be weird” he begs as Luisa starts to talk to both Flo and Nathan.

“We’re never weird! Now you both have to go get ready!” your dad grins forcing you both away.

You start to walk together to the garage in an awkward silence until Lando breaks it.

“So you brought a boyfriend with you?” Lando scoffs looking towards you.

“And what if I did?” What’s it to you, you brought Luisa!” You say looking to him confused why it was such an issue you’d brought a guy (who wasn’t anything to do with you romantically).

“Because your playing with a lot of hearts here Y/N and it’s not exactly fair. First Charles, then Max, then Charles again and then Max and now this guy? Max and Charles are my friends Y/N and I can’t help but feel like your going to go one step too far and ruin all of this …” he complains and for a second your stunned into silence not knowing what to even say.

“How am I toying with Max and Charles when Max is off with my best friend and Charles … is so hot headed that I don’t know if I can take the heat of him yelling at me for an overtake every race weekend! So how am I the one playing with hearts when it’s feels like mines the only one being toyed with, even by my own fucking brother!” You cried out frustrated with him, but that was Lando. He always spoke before he thought about what he was saying. Both a blessing and a curse.

You started to hurry off no longer wanting to entertain this conversation.

“Y/N wait … I didn’t mean it like that” Lando admits speeding up after you and walking in step with you trying to slow you down.

“We have a meeting to get to. Let’s not waste anymore time” you say coldly, so coldly it actually caused Lando to shiver as he never had heard that tone of voice or anything remotely close come from you.

Briefing for what it was, was pretty boring only talking about the upgrades they’d brought to this weeks Grand Prix. Lando had the full package and you had half, the others to come next week in Hungary.

You were in the garage after changing into your fireproofs, your race suit hanging down off your hips talking to your engineer about strategy for Silverstone, but it was always changeable depending on the track temp and the weather.

FP1 clearly showed Landos new flashy upgrades and how much quicker it made the car placing him in P2 in between Max and Lewis, the two battling it out for the championship this year.

As for you down in 9th you’d just been testing the track and were on different tyres to the top few people, wanting to test out the hards.

As the weekend progressed and the less you concentrated on all of yours issues and just had fun while concentrating on the race weekend you got better. Ending up starting in a decent P6 for the race and getting points in the Sprint that was held earlier on in the day.

“Okay Y/N, it’s looking like Plan B. Reports of rain on the radar for the last half of the race” your engineer says as you pull up into your P6 stop, next to Lando both your Orange McLarens locking out your row.

“Okay, do we have a pit plan?” You ask knowing you were on mediums in hopes they’d last long enough to get you onto Intermediates or Wet if it’s due to rain that badly.

“We’re checking now, looking into stuff with Lando too and seeing what the other teams and looking at doing, but looking like Pit Plan E”

“Yep, copied” he grit out unhappy that they are already prioritising your brother.

“Well Y/N let’s get racing for you first F1 home race! Lecelrc and Bottas in front of you and Lando, Alonso and Vettel behind you and both. And then Max and Hamilton front row” he explains, you knew you had to get a good start to overtake your brother and possibly Charles if there was an opening so as you were driving round the formation lap, you cleared your mind of everything but racing.

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @daemyratwst @lauralarsen @the-untamed-soul l @thewulf @itsjustkhaos @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @summissss @gulphulp @starfusionsworld @jspitwall l @sierruhhhh @georgeparisole @youcannotcancelquidditch @tallbrownhairsarcastic @ourteenagetragedy @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @dark-night-sky-99 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle @laneyspaulding19 @malynn @viennakarma @landosgirlxoxo @marie0v @yourbane @teamnovalak @nikfigueiredo @fionaschicken @0picels0 @tinydeskwriter @ironmaiden1313 @splaterparty0-0 @formula1mount

[moreespressoformydepresso]

So I've been thinking about my criticism of Mal and the way her character was handled, and what really sticks out to me is how easy it is to fix. Just a few simple changes and she'd have been okay. At the very least meh! So I'm gonna share some ideas I have on how her hacked up character could have been made not terrible.

I could start with Descendants 3, as that's the one I have the biggest gripes with, but honestly the issues start in the second movie. In an unnecessarily avoidable way. See, the whole conflict of the movie happens because Mal decides to go back to the isle in a complete overreaction. I could just say that Mal should have just... talked to her friends and boyfriend rather than leaving on a whim over being stressed, but that ignores the actual problem. Mal being so overwhelmed isn't written as a genuine conflict, it only exists because the writers needed her to go back to the isle so Uma can kidnap Ben once he follows after her. And the only reason she does this is because Ben didn't follow through on his declaration beyond the first four kids. It's a plot contrivance. So rather than erasing the whole second movie...

Have characters remark on Mal not being princessly enough. Like- at all. The only person who actually seems to think Mal isn't handling this well is Mal herself. And that's seemingly only because she's using magic. So have big important Auradonians behave the way Audrey and Chad did in the first movie. Have them be like queen Leah, assuming the worst just because of who her parents are. Even an implication would be better than what we have right now. Give her actual reasons to feel like she'll never belong in Auradon, because everyone feels like they don't belong at one point in their lives. That's no reason to abandon literally all of her loved ones forever.

Now that we're done fixing Mal's character in the second movie with one small change, let's get to the final boss of her character assassination: Descendants 3. A true speedrun, I know. There is... so much wrong with this movie. Just so much. I won't go into the nitty gritty and keep it to the bigger strokes of stupidity, starting with the easiest thing that would make Mal so much less insufferable in this stupid movie. Mal should not have suggested closing the barrier. In my post about her I think I did a good job at outlining just how many other solutions there were to this non-problem, but honestly it's not even an issue. Hades didn't even get out, and I would like to point out that they get on and off the isle with no problem within this very movie. They start the movie on the isle, and they got on no issue. In the first movie the villains get the message about the kids going to Auradon, and since there's no wifi it must've been delivered. Then the kids get taken off the isle. No trouble at all, and that's with only that chauffeur. No guards, no guns trained at people's faces, nothing. Things don't go perfectly once and Mal's first thought is close the whole thing down? Yeah, no, that's so fucking dumb I don't even wanna argue with this. Mal is being a massive bitch to solve a problem that doesn't even exist, and it's stupid. Just a contrived way to get Mal alone for the dRaMa. The way to fix it is to just erase this entire conflict because it's stupid.

If you insist on keeping it in... Mal should not lie to literally everyone in her life except Ben. And they should not forgive her that easily. Even after the big battle is done her friends should, at the very least, continue giving her the cold shoulder. One apology is not gonna fix the fact that she lied continuously for purely selfish reasons. There is no big noble goal that made her do this, she very explicitly wanted to keep her own happily ever after with no regard as to the many lives she was ruining in the process. And she only lied about it because she knew her friends would be mad about it. If she thought it was a defendable decision, she'd be defending it, but no. This implies that her reasoning is bullshit, but she's doing it anyways because it's the most effective way of ensuring her own happiness. Not the only way, just the one with the most certain outcome.

Lastly, Mal should not just bring down the entire barrier. As much as I bitch about her stupid solution to a non-issue, the isle is still filled with vengeful evil villains. The message of the movie is, supposedly, that anyone can be evil, but this utterly fails due to multiple reasons that I may detail in a separate post. The most the movie should've led to is Auradon bringing a few lesser villains back over, but the big bads? They're there for a reason, and they should not be given the opportunity to hurt even more people. People aren't born evil, but once you choose to be there's gotta be some consequences. Pendulum swinging because of exactly one instance is wrong and stupid and stupid and wrong, because you should base your decisions on the rule, not the exception.

So yeah those are some quick fixes to the most glaring issues with this series that would've made Mal less of a frustrating mess. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[ae-azile]

Progression, Chapter 22 Sneak Peek:

Between the two of them, Kim tends to sleep later than Chay. His body is hard-wired to stay up late, and on top of that, he tends to sleep lightly. The latter is something that has changed a little in the last two months. Sleeping with Chay is just better. Even when they had slept on the couch in Chay’s house - prior to everything falling apart - he slept better than he usually had. Now that they're together and Kim isn't waiting for Chay to find out everything and leave, he almost always sleeps through the night. 

So that's the only explanation for not hearing his phone ping the next morning. He sleeps right through it until Chay is gently shaking him awake. 

“We missed a few texts. I have been talking with Macau for a bit, but you should catch up and read them.”

Kim lets his eyes open as he sits up and grabs his phone from the nightstand. Even as he opens the texts from Macau and Porsche to read them, he can't quite comprehend what it means. 

Macau: Hey, why is my brother talking to Kinn on the phone?

Macau: I'm not hiding in some safe house to wait out another attack. The cell service was so shitty and the WiFi was non-existent. I was kept out of the loop until Porsche and Khun came to get me. Pissed me the fuck off at the time, but I went with them because I needed out of there, even if it meant death. 

Macau: That sounds like I didn't care about my brother. I did. They downplayed his condition until we got to the hospital. I didn't care about the shitty service after that, but it was horrible while it was a main priority and I didn’t know any better. 

Macau: He's now off the phone, barely talking, and cuddling with Paris, Valencia, and Pittsburgh.

Chay: Who are Valencia and Pittsburgh?

Macau: Hia’s and P’Pete’s cats, duh. 🙄 Took you long enough to answer. 

Chay: Who names a cat Pittsburgh? Who names anything Pittsburgh? 

Macau: When Hia and P’Pete got them, they agreed to each name one. Hia named the girl Valencia because it is a city that has the same starting English letter as his name. So P’Pete picked Pittsburgh for the boy because it matched the starting letter of his own name. They also got stuck there during a layover last year due to a huge snowstorm and it was the first time P’Pete ever experienced snow. I guess they even extended their time there a couple of days to enjoy it. Pittsburgh now has a special place in P'Pete's and Hia's heart. Anyway, the cat is white. Pittsburgh. 

Chay: I guess that makes sense? Also, why did you never say anything about being an uncle now? Kim and I would have sent you a present or something. Hia showed me a picture of Paris. She's really cute. 

Macau: I’ve been an uncle. Valencia and Pittsburgh have been here for a while now and are a lot quieter. Paris doesn't scratch at the furniture though, so that's nice. I think that's why she's Hia’s new favorite. 

Chay: That's definitely it. Let me know if anything else happens. 

Macau: wtf he and Kinn are on the phone again. What is going on???

Kim: 🤷🏻

As soon as Kim sends that emoji to Macau since he doesn't actually know, he moves over to the text group Porsche started with the two of them. 

Porsche: Kinn and Vegas talked on the phone for over an hour last night. I guess it went well. Kinn was emotional when I got back to the suite, but he said it went better than he expected it to go. 

Porsche: And they're on the phone again. Idk who called who.

Porsche: They're fighting over some game they played when they were kids and are choosing to be pissed off about that over literally anything else?

Porsche: Vegas hung up on him 😕

Porsche: Nevermind, he answered when Kinn called him back. 

Porsche: I don't know what is going on. Kinn is laughing about something. It's exhausting to keep up with. I am about to go hang out with Arm and Khun because they cause me less stress.

Chay: You can't. This is more important and interesting.

Porsche: Important, maybe. It isn't interesting when I can only hear one side of the conversation. You know two people who are interesting? Arm and Khun. 

Porsche: Also? Took you long enough to answer. 

Kim: 🤷🏻

“Is that all you have to contribute to both conversations?” Chay asks as Kim cuddles back into him, “You just found out your brother is on his second phone call with Vegas and that's the only thing you can say?” 

“It's their third conversation,” Kim mumbles, wrapping himself around Chay, “Vegas hung up on him the second time. See? I care. I paid attention to what I read.” 

“Kim,” Chay says, “This could be huge for your family. You may have some sort of reconciliation and be friends with your cousins again after years of animosity.”

“I’m not going to get my hopes up, but that sounds nice.” Kim says, but it is apparently not enough. 

“Kim. Call your brother. See how he's doing.” 

Kim glances up at Chay, “It sounds like he is probably on the phone.” 

Chay points at Kim's phone and keeps staring at him, “Try. If he doesn't pick up, ask him to get a hold of you later.” 

“Or I can just call him later,” Kim counters, “Or talk to him when I get home.” 

Chay lets out a huff, “I'm nosy, P’Kim! I want to know what's going on now! I'm invested, just like Hia is invested in us, as well as Arm and Khun-” 

“Pretty sure ArmKhun is his top ship now,” Kim says with a shrug, “And there is no romance between Kinn and Vegas, so it isn't really comparable-” 

“Maybe I get more invested in toxic family dynamics than I am in romantic couples!” Chay says, then literally rolls over Kim to grab the phone before handing it to him, “Call him. Now.” 

[fortpeat]

Hi! I hope you are doing ok. I know this might be coming out of the blue, but I feel the need to spread the word so other fans can see this and not go through the same that I have been. I recently joined a FortPeat server on Discord. I saw the invite on a tumblr tag and I thought it could be a good idea since most fandom spaces I've been in were usually wholesome and nice to meet new people and talk about the things we all have in common and love. I will be honest with you that I had actually thought the server had something to do with your account since I always see you in the fortpeat tags (I don't really use my tumblr account, I'm more of a lurker, I just recently got into the fortpeat fandom) and you always seemed to be like a lovely person. I was actually told by this server owner that you were also one of the server owners at some point, and I remember seeing one of your posts talking about "the discord incident"… I have no idea if both of these things are related to each other, but I understood immediately after talking to this server owner why you'd leave that place. This server is extremely toxic. I and another member were kicked out simply because we harboured a different opinion than the one from the server owner. She is a grown-ass woman and treats people in a really childish manner. She's condescending and passive-aggressive. She deleted our messages for no good reason and then said we were free to leave if we were not happy with her rules. The other member called her out on it and this is what got us kicked out. That was it. Nothing else. I thought for a second that I could've been somewhat rude, but another member of the server reached out to me in private to tell me this had happened many times before and that neither I nor the person who was kicked out were rude. So, my point with this ask is I hope whoever's still stuck in that graveyard filled with toxicity, please leave as soon as possible. I had other people reaching out to me since then to tell me that they also experienced really bad things there. I'm really sorry if you went through some shit because of it, but yeah. I hope the owner reflects on her attitude if she intends on keeping up with a server she clearly has, currently, zero capabilities of running if this is how she treats her members. Thank you so much, and I am sorry for the huge ask. I think it's important to let people know when fandom spaces are nasty. Love your blog! 🤍

Hi Nonnie ✨🥰

First of all sorry for the late response I needed some time to think through a proper response since it's a sensitive topic and I am typing this out while in the middle of a program and my Wifi is wacky so I don't know when you might get this 🫣

Now I am not gonna lie, when I first received this ask I was sceptical about even posting this. I tend to avoid all kinds of drama as I quite don't have the time for that but then I realized won't that mean I too am ignoring you the same way the server owner did and essentially cutting you off and I am not that kind of person. I believe that everyone deserves to have their opinion heard and from what you told me I think you deserve it especially when you are definitely not in the wrong.

But first things first. I am so sorry you went through something like that. Nobody deserves it least of someone who joined a server believing that it might be something good. I will tell you it used to be good but then everything kind of fell apart. I left that server back in Nov due to personal reasons and a disagreement with the server owner.

Now the discord incident.. it was more or less connected to this but it was also me and my best friend joking around coz the both of us have had bad experiences with it. I never thought anyone would pay attention to it 🫣🫣😂. Now I don't want to dish out my personal experiences publicly like this so if you ever want to talk privately my DMS are always open 🥰 I promise it to be safe space for you and anyone who wants to talk.

I would also like to thank you for opening up like this I am sure it must not have been easy to trust me especially after your experience. I hope in the future this doesn't cloud your judgement towards future servers you might want to join. There are lots of lovely people in the fandom and there are some in that very server as well.

Also thank you for raising this awareness. I never would have thought things would get this bad there. That too in a server that represents our beautiful Fortpeat and Paisky who has taught us nothing but the importance of proper communication 🥺🥺

I hope you have a good day nonnie 🥰✨

Here's some Fortpeat hugs to feel better 🥹🥰

[descendantofthesparrow]

POYW Rewrite V2 - Harry Hook x reader - P1

=

Music plays as the camera pans on a purple book with a bright red apple pictured on the cover, swirling gold vines and a gold capital D are placed on and around the apple.

The book opens to reveal a tablet, and a purple painted finger swipes up on the tablet to ‘flip the page’-revealing the title of the ‘book’; Descendants.

‘once upon a time-long long ago~’

Naaaah well get to that in a moment, right now! We have some backstory to get into! Meet (y/n)! 16 years old, a Disney fan since she was a baby(sleeping beauty was the shit when she was old enough to remember movies), and now-a huge descendants fan. It’s July 31st, 2017, it’s been 10 days since Descendants 2 had released-and now (y/n) is hunkering down on her couch to watch the first movie again, and then watch D2 again-just for funsies~.

Harry Hook had quickly and easily stolen her heart as soon as he appeared on screen, and she couldn’t wait to start up D2 again. But as the opening credits began to play on her screen-it started to…glitch out, Mal’s voice overpowered by a ‘new’ one, deeper, male-and Scottish.

Before (y/n) could react to it properly-her TV turned to blinding white, the light overwhelming her eyes and living room; something grabbing at her body and tugging her into the screen, the teen was just barely able to grab her phone and bag before she was dragged in screaming to the Descendants world.

What adventures await her there? Only time will tell, for now~ let’s get back to those opening credits-shall we?

Mal; “once upon a time, long long ago-well, more like twenty-” Mal gets shoved over, a crashing noise indicating she hit something hard as someone scrambles to sit on the chair Mal was sitting on, a soft snicker coming from the intruder. Mal; ”Harry?! I was in the middle-“

Harry Hook; “oh shut it pixie-it’s my turn ta narrate! Now go be a bitch somewhere else-anyways~!” Mal storms off in a huff-most likely to complain about Harry to Evie or anyone that would listen. “Twenty years ago, king beasty and his Belle married front’ of all six-thousand of their mates-that’s a big cake hells bells. Anyway! Beasty united all tha’ kingdoms and declared hi’mself king of tha’ united states of boreadon~

He rounded up all tha’ villains, sidekicks, petty thieves, drug dealers, anyone he could think of that was even slightly bad-and booted em’ off ta’ the isle of the lost; with a magic barrier ta’ keep ‘em there.

This is where I live. No magic, no WIFI, no fresh food, and no.way.out….or so we thought~ hol’ up hol’ up, yer about ta’ see me pretty face~ but first-this happened, and ain’t she pretty~ no not belle-the one sitting in the chair behind prince beasty.

Prince Ben stares out to the isle of the lost from his room at Beast castle, so much to do in so little time, and his coronation was in just a month-hardly any time to do all he wanted before he was crowned king. Ben let out a small sigh, catching the eye of his newest and now closest friend, who sat on a comfy chair behind him-doodling away as Ben’s tailor got to work fitting his coronation suit.

“Are you sure this’ll work (y/n)?” Ben asked the girl, who nodded absentmindedly, getting the last details of a certain pirate down before closing her book, and sitting up to give Ben her proper attention. “I’m sure of it, it’s your first royal proclamation, it’s Auradon law for it to pass with no barriers, be it from your parents or the council-we’ve been over this beasty boy, just stand your ground and those kids will be here sooner than you can say codfish.”

Ben let out a small mutter of ‘codfish’ with a teasing smile, laughing as (y/n) took a balled-up sheet of paper and chucked it at him, grinning as it bounced off his head and hit the tailor on the shoulder. He just shook his head at the two teens, standing up to bow as King Beast/Adam and Belle walked into the room-both looking ever so proud of their son.

“How is it you’re going to be crowned king next month!” King Adam exclaimed, looking almost star-struck as Belle, who was walking by her husband's side with her hand tucked into his arm. “You’re just a baby!” Adam insisted, chuckling as Belle stepped away and grabbed some of Ben’s discarded clothes, tossing the shorts in Ben’s hamper and folding the tourney jersey. “He’s turning sixteen dear!” Belle reminded, rolling her eyes fondly as Adam went on.

“That’s far too young to be crowned king!” (y/n) looked up from her sketchpad, looking as if she wanted to say something but shook her head, going back to her doodles. “I didn’t make a good decision till I was at least-forty-two.” Belle looked a bit offended at Adam’s words, narrowing her eyes up at him as Ben smiled in amusement-knowing his mom had a few choice words about his father’s choice of words.

“uh, You decided to marry me, at twenty-eight.” Belle reminded, shaking her head as she made eye contact with Ben as Adam sent a teasing grin down to his wife of 20 years. “it was either you or a teapot.” Belle just glared at him, two seconds away from smacking his shoulder. “kidding.” Adam looked back at Ben with wide eyes and Ben just laughed-knowing his mom still had his dad wrapped around her finger, even after all these years.

Ben glanced back at (y/n), who gave Ben an encouraging smile and he took a deep breath, stepping towards his parents-“mom, dad?” his tailor stopped him, making Ben step back and face his parents on the pedestal. “I’ve chosen my first official proclamation.”

Adam and Belle looked very interested, Adam nodding for Ben to go on. “I’ve decided that the children of the isle of the lost, be given a chance-to live here in Auradon.” Belle’s jaw dropped along with Ben’s shirt-and Adam’s jaw clicked. (y/n) sat up slightly, while she knew Adam wouldn’t hurt Ben, he still had some anger issues and would not let anything happen to her friend who had so graciously let her into his life two months ago.

Ben kept rolling forward, now that he finally got those words out-he wouldn’t stop until he had his first set of VK’s in Auradon. “every time I look out to the island, I feel like they’ve been abandoned.” (y/n) snorted slightly from her spot, thinking that was the understatement of the year. Ben just glanced back at her, making her go silent, knowing it was not the time for jokes.

“The children of our sworn enemies, living among us?” Adam asked, almost like he was trying to convince his son that his proclamation was a stupid idea-a dangerous one. But Ben stood strong, he would not let those kids be punished any longer, not for their parent's crimes. “we start with a few at first, the ones that need our help the most.”

Belle nodded, truly listening to Ben’s idea-he caught that nod and pushed forward-knowing he had his mom’s support-and (y/n)’s. he just needed his dad's. “I’ve already chosen them, I have Auradon guardians signed up to claim them in case anything happens and I’ve already spoken to FG about them being enrolled at Auradon prep.” Adam nodded, it seemed his son already had everything planned out.

“You’ve done all that eh?” Adam muttered, looking down at his son. “And why should we give these-villain kids-a chance?” Belle took Adam ‘s arm, turning him towards her. “I gave you a second chance” Belle reminded Adam that he, was once seen as a villain, a monster-only to be redeemed by the woman before him. she turned to Ben when Adam calmed down. “Who are their parents, and how many?”

“Six,” Ben answered immediately, wringing his hands together slightly. “Two girls and four boys. Cruella De’vil, Jafar, Evil Queen, Captain Hook-“ Ben paused, knowing the last two villains were two his dad would not react well too-especially the latter. “-and Maleficent and Gaston.” Ben rushed out, taking a step back as Adam stepped forward-his voice rising and scaring the tailor who quickly bowed out.

(y/n) planted her feet on the floor.

“Maleficent?! Gaston!? They are the worst villains known to us!” Ben held his hands up, trying to get his father to calm down “Dad-just hear me out here-“ Ben pleaded, closing his eyes for a moment as Adam lifted his hand to point at the isle through the window. “I won't hear of it! They are guilty of unspeakable crimes-Gaston tried to murder me and take your mother! You really want to invite his-spawn-to our kingdom?!”

“They have done nothing wrong!” Ben insisted, finding his voice and overpowering his fathers “They have done nothing to us to condemn them to the isle! Gaston yes-he deserves to be there-but his kids? The other kids? They’ve done nothing wrong! Nothing except being born to those who have wronged us-they’re innocent in the eyes of the law and to me.” Ben straightened out, lifting his chin as he stared his father down. “This is my proclamation dad. And as future king, it is my duty to do what I think is right for my people-that includes the people of the isle. And it’s right to give those kids a chance.”

Adam and Ben held each other's stares for a moment, then Adam stepped away-nodding. “I suppose the children are innocent,” he admitted-he simply didn’t want to admit he had condemned children to a life of imprisonment-but his son would right his wrongs even if Adam never did. Adam turned and walked away, straightening his suit as Belle took Ben’s collar and fixed it-giving him a proud grin. “well done.” She whispered, turning to her husband and leading him out of the room “shall we?”

Ben let out the biggest sigh of relief as he stumbled back, holding his chest as (y/n) clapped from her chair, setting her sketchbook aside as she joined Ben at the window; clapping her hand on his shoulder. “Well done beasty boy, well done. You sure we can't get one more kid? From Yensid’s notes-Hook, Gaston, and Ursula’s kids are all quite close-It’d be a shame to pull them apart?”  (y/n) asked, not wanting to separate the three pirates, but Ben shook his head sadly. “you heard the council, even numbers, No more-no less. besides-I only got six guardians to sign up, one for each kid.” (y/n) let out a raspberry, crossing her ankles as Ben gazed out towards the isle, playing with his class ring as he remembered the purple haired girl with emerald green eyes from his dreams.

“Well, what are we waitin’ for?” (y/n) asked, pushing Ben towards his closet. “get changed! We gotta get those letters to the isle!” Ben grinned with a nod, taking his fitting jacket off and tossing the stack of letters to (y/n), who slipped out of his room to wait for him to get changed.

It was time to invite the villain kids to Auradon.

-

Two days later: the isle of the lost-the wharf.  A rough punk-like dubstep beat echoes as the camera flies through the isle of the lost-through the wharf marketplace place-through tattered sails and broken lamps-to find Ursula’s chip shop.

It zooms in to show a petite black girl with long teal and aqua braids, a nasty grin on her lips as she tosses a tray onto the table-which was the wrong order for the customer she delivered it to-as they complained, the girl ignored them, instead throwing the tray up in their face and pointing at the sign that said ‘you take it how we make it’ with a rough cackle.

Uma; They say I’m trouble-they say I’m bad-they say I’m evil~ and that makes me glad!”

Uma, the daughter of Ursula, grabs an empty tray and throws it into the kitchen, disrupting the work and making a crashing noise as Uma laughs and throws her apron away-leaving the chip shop after retrieving her sword. Her mother yelled after her-a set of tentacles snapping after Uma-curling away as Uma disappeared down the wharf.

Gil; A dirty no good-down the bone.

 Gil, the son of Gaston, leaped between building gaps, a small group of teens chasing after him-yelling for him to give back their loot. Gil just grinned, making sure his bag of new loot was secure before disappearing behind the wharf fence-leaving the group behind-who had thought Gil was helping them steal from the market place.

Gil; Your worst nightmare-can’t take me home!”

Harry Hook, son of Captain Hook, strut through the wharf marketplace-pirates and others alike backing away in fear of the young pirate-fear for the glint in his eye and the sharpness in his grin. He snatched jewelry and whatever he could see as he walked through-a giggle escaping him as he pocketed several rings.

Harry; So I’ve got some mischief~ in me blood-can ya blame me? I never got no love~”

Harry blew a kiss to a younger girl with dark red hair-who giggled and hid her flushing face behind her bangs. It was no secret that many girls, and boys-of the isle had a crush on Harry-but he had yet to find a spark with anyone-other than with his friend Uma-who he would defy the gods for. Harry laughed to himself, dipping beneath a rail and grinning as he saw Uma; greeting her with his hook as they always did.

Gonzo-a member of the wharf rats-Harry’s crew of misfits-bolted through the wharf-a bedazzled jacked in hand as Bonnie-another crew member-laughed as she ran behind him, holding several handfuls of good loot.

Gonzo; They say im callous.” Bonnie; a lowlife hood~ I feel so useless”

Bonnie stole a half-eaten week stale donut from a younger pirate as she bolted by them, cackling as she and Gonzo disappeared into the wharf, meeting up with Gil, Uma, and Harry as they ran about causing chaos.  

Gonzo/Bonnie; Misunderstood!”

Uma and Harry grinned at each other as they walked on the highest set of the wharf, laughing as they watched their wharf rats cause chaos and steal all they wanted.

Uma/Harry; Mirror mirror, on the wall-who’s the baddest-of them all? Welcome to my wicked world-wicked world!

The pirates burst into a pillow factory and ripped it apart, feathers, fluff, and fur flying everywhere as the pirates cackled and jumped about-enraging the workers as they had fun. They made all the noise they could as they ran out of the factory-Harry scraping his hook along the metal pipes as they ran.

Pirates; I’m rotten to the core, Rotten to the core-I’m rotten to the core! Who could ask for more-I’m nothing like the kid next-like the kid next door! I’m rotten to the core-rotten to the-I’m rotten to the core!

The camera pans away from the laughing pirates, focusing on Harry and Gil before zooming towards the main isle market-revealing a girl with shoulder-length purple hair and a snarky grin-holding a spray paint can. The daughter of Maleficent.

Mal; Call me a schemer-call me a freak-how can you say that?! Im just-unique!”

Mal spray painted a large purple M on a shower sheet-pushing it aside and giving a falsely sweet grin to a passing isle inhabitant who ran away in fear. Mal laughed, spotting her ‘friend’ Evie and running over to meet her-who was pushing through the clothing section of the marketplace-pocketing things she liked.

Jay; What, me a traitor? Ain’t got your back? Are we not friends?! What's up with that!?”

Jay, son of Jafar, dropped into the marketplace from the panels above, hanging from the support beams as he flipped over to the floor and landed in front of two people enjoying some tea. He took the bronze teapot and politely poured them their tea, they smiled and thanked him-yelping as he leaped over the table with the pot and ran off, cackling as he did.

Evie; So I’m a misfit~ so I’m a flirt~ I broke your heart? I made you hurt?

Evie, daughter of the evil queen, strut through the fabric of the clothing section of the marketplace-Mal close behind as Evie grinned and stole a scarf from one of the shoppers, winking as he stared after her-in awe of the young princess as she disappeared within the fabrics, Mal laughing as she followed the blue-haired princess away from the market.

Carlos; The past is past~ forgive forget! The truth is, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Carlos, son of Cruella De’vil, casually strolled on top of the tables on the outskirts of the marketplace, knocking over baskets of apples and other goods as shop keeps and customers alike yelled at him to get down. He just laughed, knocking over another basket of apples and dropping a smaller basket on a woman's head-tossing some hay at her as he hitched a ride on a cart.

Mal/Evie; mirror mirror, on the wall-who’s the baddest-of them all? Welcome to my wicked world-wicked world!

Mal and Evie smiled down at Carlos and Jay as the boys caused some havoc in the market's bakery, laughing as Jay knocked over a near-empty bucket of flour and Carlos began to pull at a crane-like mechanic-Jay leaping on for the ride and laughing as Carlos pulled him along.

The vks flooded the streets and wharf, bouncing and weaving between pirates and villagers-laughing as they disrupted the peace. The pirates danced with their swords as Mal and her gang banged their heads and stomped their feet.

VK’s ; I’m rotten to the core-core, Rotten to the core-I’m rotten to the core-core, Who could ask for more? I’m nothing like the kid next-like the kid next door! I’m rotten to the-I’m rotten to the-I’m rotten to the core~”

Harry fixed his hat as he and the wharf rats showed off their stolen loot, Harry eyeing the cracked ruby necklace he had snatched from the market-it looked expensive and still in good condition, he could resell it for a high price-or get that Tremaine brat to repurpose it for him-maybe make himself a new ring.

Harry’s grin widened as he noticed a passing kid with a candy apple-he snatched it up and pushed the kid away as they cried, holding up the apple in victory as his crew laughed with him. Uma rolled her eyes, mostly out of fondness as she took a seat on a nearby barrel, playing with her teal and red beaded bracelet as Harry tried to eat his new prize. But isle candy apples were more like actual rocks instead of candy. “a candy apple, stolen from a kid, truly you are the embodiment of evil Harry.” Uma teased, grinning sharply as he pointed his hook at her, a glint in her eye that always made her giddy.

“Ah~ Uma~ ye know this is only tha’ beginning of me evil plans, first-a candy apple-then!” Gil interrupted Harry, a habit Gil had that he had never been able to kick-he interrupted a lot of people actually, and got in himself in trouble quite a bit for saying before thinking. “the candy store?” Gil asked, looking giddy at the thought of stealing from a whole candy store.

Harry just stared at Gil blankly as the crew snickered softly, Uma rolling her eyes again. “I was goin’ ta say the world, Gil.” Harry said, his shoulders slumping in disappointment in Gil’s lack of want for world domination-he’d rather eat all the eggs in the world than take it over.

As Harry talked to his friends, the crew all froze and stared down the wharf-two men walking towards them. Harry noticed his crew’s frozen expressions and went to ask them what the fuck they were doing-when he realized why they froze. Harry swallowed, dropping his shoulders and head as his father, captain Hook-came strutting towards him-his scarlet red coat flowing behind him and his icy blue eyes shaded by his large captain's hat.

Harry glanced at Uma-who held his stare-worry deep in her eyes. Visits from his father were never good news, and never ended well for Harry.

“Stealing apple’s boy? How-juvenile.” James sneered, hooking the apple and taking it from Harry’s hand. Harry winced, shuffling on his feet. “It was from a lost boy?” Harry said meekly, his loud personality always seemed to disappear around his father. James just rose his brow, tossing away the candy apple, landing in the dirt; ants quickly covering the hard caramel.

“not a real lost boy, they’re all on neverland” James sneered again, reaching out with his right hand and taking Harry’s shoulder-the teen flinching at the action-his father’s eyes were glinting oddly again-flashes of red circling within the ocean blue. Harry stayed quiet-knowing if he talked it wouldn’t end well. “ah! Speaking of-“ Harry was turned in his father’s hold, James’ hook pointed out towards Auradon that lay across the sea.

Harry blinked-wondering what the hell was going on-seeing Gaston talking to Gil-Gil looking…very confused as always. His father continued speaking-demanding Harry’s attention. “-Neverland, will soon be ours!” Harry furrowed his brows, looking at his father. “what do ye mean?” Harry asked, leaning back as his father got into his face.

“A chance to freedom boy, a chance to reclaim what is ours-you-along with-“ James gestured to Gil, who still seemed to struggle with what Gaston was explain. “what's his face-have been invited to attend a new school-in Auradon!”

Harry ripped away from his father's grasp-hearing Uma and his crew’s gasps of surprise as Harry shook his head wildly. “What?! hell no!” Harry snapped, crossing his arms stubbornly, anger overpowering his fear for a moment. “I ain't going ta’ no boarding school with-pathetic spoiled princes and snooty pink princesses!? What would tha’ point be? Learn how ta sip tea?” Harry huffed, tensing as his father used his hook to grab his collar-bringing him closer to James’ face.

“The wand. Boy.” James hissed, his eyes flashing red. “the wand. With it you-will free me, us. And then-we retake neverland-then-we claim the world and all its riches-That. Is the point. Understand?”

Harry just nodded, then he frowned-turning back towards Uma-was it just going to be him and Gil? what about Uma?  “what about Um-“ Harry nearly asked if his oldest friend was coming along, but was quickly silenced with his chin being grabbed. Harry swallowed harshly-losing his voice as he stared into his father's eyes.

“You get the wand, you not only free me and your sisters-but your little sea witch friend as well. Is that not good enough?” Harry nodded, squeaking a little as he spoke. “Yes sir,” Harry rubbed his jaw as it was realized-his father walking back towards his ship as Gil finally arrived at the station.

“Pack your things, boys, you leave for Auradon in two hours.” Gil and Harry’s jaw dropped, staring wide-eyed at their fathers as they walked away as if they hadn’t just dropped the biggest life-changing news in their lives. “what?!” Harry yelped, feeling Uma’s hands on his arm as his father gave no further information, instead just turning and glaring at him.

“Boy!” Harry pressed his lips together, sharing a look with Uma before slowly following after his father, his head dropping between his shoulders as Gil went to follow Gaston to their house.

At least his father hadn’t come to tell Harry to get to ‘work’, he’d take randomly going to Auradon over ‘working’ any day.

-

“So you’re both leaving without me, eh?” Uma asked quietly as she sat on Harry’s bed-watching as he packed his things-he was going to only pack maybe a week's worth of clothes-but James told him to practically move out-as they wouldn’t be coming back to the isle after Harry got the wand.

“Not forever, we’ll be back fer ye.” Harry said with a smile, one only reserved for his best friend. “I promise Uma, I would never leave ye behind-as soon as I get tha’ wand, I’ll get ye and me sisters off-with our own ship-and we’ll rule the seas-like we planned.” Harry reached out, taking Uma’s clenched hand, smiling down at her as she looked up at him from behind her lashes.

She smiled, standing and hugging him, a moment just between them-friends since they could remember. They stayed like that for a moment, before they heard James stomping around on the deck-yelling at his crew. They pulled apart, holding each other's stare before Uma took out a gold bracelet made of hardened seashells she had collected from the isle shores. “here, something for you two, for good luck.” Uma mumbled; Harry held out his left hand to let her slip it on.

“I have one for Gil as well,” She handed him the 2nd bracelet for him to give to Gil, showing off her matching set that sat on her right wrist. Harry had to hide his smile, knowing Uma would get flustered if she knew how much he loved them, she always did when he complimented her crafts. Such as her pirate hat-or any of her outfits.

“Boy! Hurry it up!” Harry and Uma jumped at the sound of James' voice, and Harry hurried to pack up the rest of his things-throwing on his red leather jacket and grabbing his hook-zipping up his bags and making his way out of his room-Harriet, his older sister, taking his duffle bag from him. “I can carry it myself,” Harry muttered, but let her carry it. Then he, Uma, Harriet-and their little sister-Cj, all followed his dad off the jolly roger and towards the center of the isle.

“uuuh da?” Harry asked, his brows furrowing as Bargain castle, the home of Maleficent herself, came closer as they walked. “Why are we goin’ ta Bargain castle?” his father didn’t bother to glance at him-only clicking his tongue. “I suppose I forgot to mention it-it’s not just you and Gaston’s boy going to Auradon-Maleficent’s spawn and her crew will be going as well.”

Harry stopped in his tracks, a look and feeling of disgust and anger bubbling up. “oh fuck no,” Harry cursed, shaking his head and pointing at the castle, Uma sharing his same look of disgust at the thought of Mal. “I’m not going anywhere-or working with tha’ dragon bitch or her goons-not in a million years!”

His father sighed, one that meant danger, and turned-curling his lip as he spoke “I didn’t say you had to work with her-nor get along. The six of you are simply all going to the same place-I wouldn’t expect you to work with anyone but Gaston’s boy anyway-why let that brat get all the credit? This is a job for pirates after all.” With that-his father continued into the castle, passing up the lower floor clothing shop and ascending the stairs-Harriet, CJ, and Uma were forced to stay below as Maleficent’s knuckleheads stopped them.

“Guess we’ll see ye before ya go off,” Harriet muttered, handing him his back and patting his shoulder. “Don’t blow this, got it?” Harry nodded, pushing CJ away as she faked a sob and tried to hug him, cackling as he pushed her away. “Stop tryin’ ta steal me shit.” Harry grumbled as CJ continued to try to grab his wallet.

“But I must have something to remember you by!” CJ cried dramatically, reaching for his new gold shell bracelet now. “how else will I get by while you’re gone?!” Harry just rolled his eyes, pushing her off him for the last time.

“you’ll live ye lil shit-n stop talkin’ like da’, ye sound like a nut.” With that, Harry made his way into the castle-Gil and Gaston right behind him. Harry slipped Gil his bracelet-showing off his own when Gil looked a bit confused at it. “From Uma, just wait ta’ put it on after we leave-so yer dad doesn’t blow his shit.” Harry muttered, knowing how Gaston felt about jewelry-even if it was painted with gold. Gil nodded, pocketing his new bracelet in his thigh bag and setting his two large bags at the door as the two teens and Gaston entered the main room.

Mal looked absolutely thrilled to see them, turning to her mother with seething eyes. “what are they-” she pointed at them, almost baring her teeth at them as Harry glared back, his hooked hand twitching with the want to pin her to the Jolly Rodger. “-doing here!? you said-“

“I said you for and two others Malsy, now put your listening ears on my nasty girl.” Maleficent tapped Mal’s nose-causing Mal to screech and continue to complain about Harry and Gil. Harry snatched a vile of black nail polish while the two dark fairies bitched at each other.

Harry and Gil were forced to stand with Mal and her ‘friends’ as Maleficent finally silenced Mal’s screeching and sat down on her ‘throne’, filing her nails as she went through the details of her evil plot for the six teens. “You will go, you will find the fairy godmother, and you will bring me back her magic wand!” she blew her nails, winking at her daughter with a nasty smirk. “easy peasy!”

“what's in it for us?” Mal asked, and Harry was actually surprised to hear that-us? As in more than just Mal? That was surprising. Mal never cared about anybody other than herself. “Matching thrones? Hers-and-hers crowns?” Maleficent cooed-assuming Mal meant her in Mal’s ‘us’ talk. “I think she means us?” Carlos said, gesturing between him and Mal, and Mal nodded-gesturing between the four of them, completely ignoring Harry and Gil.

Maleficent just tossed her nail fire and beckoned Mal closer-who obeyed like always. Harry rolled his eyes, inviting Gil to sit at the back of the room near the balcony, plopping down on the ratty old black couch stained with purple and green.

As Maleficent chattered off to her daughter, Harry and Gil practically zoned out, not caring for what was going around them at the moment-well, Harry zoned out, Gil was bouncing his legs and looking everywhere he could-remembering everything to the last detail.

“And with that wand and my scepter-I will be able to bend both good and evil to my will!” Maleficent exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air in a dramatic gesture. EQ quickly shot down Maleficent’s solo act with a sneer and quick words. “Our will.” Cruella pointed at EQ, nodding as Jafar looked up at those words-giving Maleficent a look of disappointment for the fae already forgetting their deal.

“Our will, our will,” Maleficent waved the notion off-snapping to regain Mal’s attention. Harry went back to ignoring them, letting his head fall back and his eyes close-knowing Gil would nudge him if anything happened.

The villains all started to chatter away, EQ giving Evie a small lesson on princes and mirrors(no smiling, wrinkles!), Cruella forbidding Carlos from leaving, giving the pup hope that his mom would actually miss him for loving reasons(she just needed someone to scrape her feet-gross), and Jafar needing Jay to stay to stock his shop’s shelves(half of which Harry stole from only to sell back, but that was Jafar’s whole business).

Harry peeked as Jay started to take the loot he had scored that day, ending with a bronze lap that Jafar dropped everything for and started to rub-only for Jay to mutter that he already tried. The lamp now boring, Jafar scoffed and threw the object back at Jay, which nearly hit him in the face if he hadn't leaned back to catch it.

“Well, Evie’s not going anywhere till we get rid of this unibrow,” EQ muttered, taking a pair of tweezers and plucking the offending hair from Evie’s forehead-to which Harry wasn’t even sure there was a hair there-Evie’s brows were practically perfect.

“what is wrong with you all?! people used to cower at the mention of our names!!!” Maleficent screeched, taking Mal and throwing her from the stairs to the table, Mal slammed her hands on the surface to regain her balance as she stared wide-eyed at Carlos, who shared her expression as the grown villains all stared at Maleficent.

Hook and Gaston looked offended, as they hadn’t been against Maleficent’s plan nor had they plans to keep their boys here. “For twenty years, I have searched for a way off this island-for twenty years, they have robbed us from our revenge!” she turned to EQ, and began to list off the revenge the villains’ felt they deserved. “Revenge on snow white and her horrible little men.” EQ just grimaced as Evie plucked a hair, looking a bit offended for her mother as Maleficent continued on.

“Revenge on Aladdin and his bloated Genie!” Jafar puffed up, going to attack Maleficent with his spoon in anger as she spoke of his worst enemies-only for Jay to stop him. “Revenge on those sneaky dalmatians-who escaped your clutches!” Cruella cackled, shaking her head as she pet the stuffed dalmatian puppy that sat on her shoulder-Carlos hiding behind her to protect himself from Maleficent.

“Oh but they didn’t get the baby~ but-but they didn’t get the baby!“ she laughed manically-causing Maleficent to back away in concern as Cruella continued to cackle about her stuffed toy. Maleficent turned to Gaston- “Revenge on Beast and his belle.” Gil shivered at the look of darkness on his father's face-knowing what he intended to do if he got revenge-and it wasn’t pretty for Belle. “Revenge on Pan and his lost boys!”

Hook’s eyes turned red and Harry shuffled towards Gil, glancing away as he crossed his arms. He hated when that happened-it always hurt when his father's eyes went red-he had the scars to prove it. “and I! Maleficent! The evilest of them all~” Maleficent purred, sitting on EQ’s lap and stealing her mirror, admiring herself in it. “will finally get revenge, on sleeping beauty…and her relentless little prince.” Maleficent hissed, turning back to the villains.

“Villains!” they all snapped to attention, Jafar swallowing the food he had been making in the small kitchen of Maleficent’s flat. “yes?” Maleficent smiled, one that made all the teens shiver-they hated that smile-even Mal. “Our day has come~ EQ?” the old queen hummed, taking the small mirror as Maleficent handed it back to her, looking towards Evie as she got off EQ’s lap “give her the magic mirror.”

Evie was handed a handheld mirror-cracked at the edges and missing some pieces. Evie looked disappointed. “This is your magic mirror?” Evie asked, admiring herself in the broken glass. EQ just hummed, nodding. “Well, it ain't what it used to be, then again- neither are we?” EQ joked, laughing with Maleficent. “But it will help you find things,” Evie’s eyes lit up and she interrupted her mother in her excitement. “Like a prince~!” EQ chuckled, glancing up at Maleficent “Like my waist line-“ she joked, laughing still as Maleficent groaned and rolled her eyes-wanting to get to the point already. “like the magic wand-hello?”

EQ pursed her lips and nodded, agreeing they had gotten off track. “My spell book, my book-I need my-that book” Maleficent turned as EQ snapped her fingers and pointed back at the fridge-which Maleficent deemed her ‘safe’. Harry blinked, watching as the mistress of all evil struggled with a damn refrigerator. Mal just looked embarrassed, her ears turning pink as her friends and shrimpy’s boys saw her mother make a fool of herself.

“Queen help me! I can never figure this thing out!” as EQ helped Maleficent, Hook grabbed Harry’s shoulder and dragged him towards the balcony, giving the two some privacy. “da?” Harry asked quietly, unsure of what he wanted, his brow’s furrowing as his father handed him a large blank piece of paper that folded over itself multiple times. “A piece of paper?” Harry flipped it over, opening it and then turning it over twice more. “A blank piece of paper?”

James rolled his eyes, tapping his hook on the paper that looked and felt very old. “Not just any piece of paper, this map-like the mirror-is magical, I’ve only used it a handful of times myself-but as I say-any good pirate knows how to read and use a map.” Harry just stared at his dad, closing the blank paper and licking his lips. Was his dad having another episode?

“This?” Harry held up the re-folded map. “is a map?” James nodded, tapping the map again with his hook. “yes, magic. It doesn’t work here, but it will in Auradon. It’ll give you a detailed map of wherever you are, nicked it from some magic school in Scotland about forty years ago.” Harry slowly nodded, pocketing the map and grabbing his backpack as a horn sounded from outside. James grabbed his neck and Harry froze, his breath stopping with him as James muttered in his ear the password and lock to the map. Along with a threat.

“if you fail me, you will never see your sisters or sea witch again. Understand?” Harry nodded, swallowing down his fear. “Good. Go.” Harry bolted off, grabbing his bags as he and Gil raced down the stairs and back out into the main square-where a long black car was waiting for them.

Harry let out a whistle, handing his bag to the driver and bumping his sisters goodbye, squeezing Uma’s hand with a hidden smile before he and Gil slid into the car. “Tell me smee’s I’ll be back before they know it.” Harry called out to Harriet-who nodded, backing up as Evie and Carlos ran out-the pup jumping into the limo to avoid his mother who was screeching at him.

Carlos tumbled to the floor, hitting Harry’s legs and grunting as Gil lifted him into the seat next to him-Evie and Jay climbing in after Carlos. Jay and Harry glared at each other, making Evie and Gil sigh as the two thieves had a small stare-off. “Oh quit it,” Mal snapped as she slid into the limo, taking her spot at the end of the seats next to Evie. “Go flirt somewhere else-I do not have the stomach to watch you two make eyes.” Harry and Jay sputtered, Jay’s cheeks going red as Harry rolled his eyes, catching Uma’s gaze as she stared at him and Gil. Harry offered what he hoped was a comforting grin-jolting as the car began to move-leaving the isle-and Uma, behind.

Uma watched as her only friends drove off without her, her fingers playing with her golden bracelet as Harriet and CJ stood with her-the three staring as the limo disappeared from view.

“Please don’t forget about me,” Uma whispered, feeling a small pit of dread in her gut as the barrier flashed gold.

-end of p1-

Here it is~! P1 of the Rewrite revise! Again-just doing D1 since im happy with D2 and 3~!

Taglist!

@sephiralorange @queer-cosette @lunanight2012

@musicarose @daughter-of-the-stars11 @random-thoughts-004

@anythingbutmar @dai-tsukki-desu @imtryingthisout

@rintheemolion @remembered-license @thecaptainsgingersnap

@thetrueghostqueen @littlewierdalien

[novelcain]

Novel I have the funniest story

So I have Discord, right? And recently, my mobile Discord notifications haven't been sending. I don't know why, I have all the permissions turned on, but it won't work—whatever, right? As long as I check my phone regularly, right?

And it's been a really good day! I got the highest grade on my essay, I totally nailed a presentation, I made my favorite soup for dinner—a great day. It's around 6:50 PM and I'm cradling my soup in one hand on the couch, just relaxing from the day. It's my first break from homework for a while, and I'm enjoying it. I decide to share the positivity in one of my group chats on Discord with my close friends. So I send "@everyone love you" and I close Discord, thinking nothing else. I finish my soup, I do the dishes, and I go upstairs to play some video games on my computer.

All the while, I haven't checked my phone. I don't have Discord open on my PC, and I've been trying to cut my hours on my phone to focus on the real world (aka touching grass). I play a game, and while I'm waiting for another player to take their turn, I check my phone because I'm bored.

Strangely, I have one notification. I don't recognize what app it's from, but it looks like a text or call. I unlock my phone to check and find out it's my friend Catherine calling me on Whatsapp. Strange, right? We only use Whatsapp for sending videos that are too big for other applications and for when my internet kills Discord. (For context, Catherine is my best friend and basically the Novel to my Ritz. Also, my wifi is awful—probably why I've been struggling to receive notifications)

I think the call is weird, especially since there were no Whatsapp texts accompanying it. I try to call Catherine back, but she doesn't pick up. I reason as to why she did it—most likely I didn't respond to Discord fast enough so she tried to get my attention elsewhere. That makes sense, we do it all the time to each other. So I go and check Discord.

It opens to the channel I left it on, where I pinged my friends and told them love you. I notice I had 6 DMS, but I noticed my friends had replied and I was curious to see how they were. had already forgotten I did that, to be honest, so I go and read the responses. Let me just:

(Cami)

@everyone love you

(Raven)

LOVE YOU TOO

(Jasper)

love you too

(Slyvie)

You're the best! :)

(Raven)

Why the random love you tho?

(Sylvie)

Yeah, that confused me a bit too

(Raven)

Cam whats goin on?? Why the random love you?

And suddenly, it hits me why Catherine called.

And my first thought is: oh my god, they do not think I killed myself.

I open my DMs to Catherine, and sure enough I see: "are things mostly okay Cami? You haven't marked off anything from your accountability list, and there was the message you sent in the groupchat. I'm a little worried."

And I just go: OH MY FUCKING GOD THEY THINK I KILLED MYSELF.

Which is literally the worst way you could ever respond to "love you" with, by the way

Anyway, I explained what happened and now it's going to be an inside joke with the group. I literally despise my friends, theyre the best😭😭😭

LMAO GIRL NO! You be out here givin people heart attacks professionally istg 😭

But honestly as someone who's done this on accident too this is so funny 😂😂😂

Also my discord mobile notifs have been fuckin up too! What's up with dat? 🤔

Also!

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SCORE!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊🎊🥳🥳🥳🥳🥂🥂🥂🥂 SO PROUD OF YOUUUUUU!!!!!

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

today has been such a good day 😭 it took forever to return my router to the wifi store, and i’ve got the worst headache + cramps combination i’ve had in a year, BUT:

tl;dr: so many good things have happened recently, and i’m trying to trust that sometimes good things happen and don’t have to be balanced out by horrible things. i’m so grateful for the good things that have happened, and i’m trying to acknowledge that i had a part in bringing them into reality

i got the keys to my new apartment, and it’s the nicest place i’ve ever lived. like i’m waiting for them to take my keys back and tell me it was a prank, obviously they’re not gonna let some WIC beans-and-rice, food stamps-raised, homeless in high school fuckhead live in such a beautiful building. but they are. they approved my cat, they’ve got my move-in fees, i’ve got the loading dock reserved for move-in day.

my new apartment isn’t infested with roaches. i cried just being in the space for the first time and feeling like. a real person. not like a shameful creature who can’t let their friends come over because of the infestation.

i got to see my best friend, the (platonic) love of my life. it’s not a rare occurrence for me to see her, since we live like 5 (soon 3!!!!) metro stops apart. and she came with me to see the apartment. she asked the questions i didn’t know to ask, and i was able to give her remote access to the building, which is as close as i can come to giving her a spare key

i got an incredible deal on a new bed. the mattress i have now has sunk in the middle and there are a few springs poking through, and it hurts so much to sleep on it. i was resigned to sleeping on my couch for a month or so while i saved to get a nice bed, because ive never had like a Nice Bed. and just idly checking wayfair, i saw a bed frame i loved that was at a $900 discount. nine hundred us dollars off. i never would’ve been able to get something like that if it was full price. and then i found a mattress that was well-reviewed and firm and also discounted. so now i’ll only be sleeping on my couch for like a week.

i was notified that they’re processing my upcoming promotion at work. it’s a $14.3k raise. that’s not a number that would ever have existed to me before, and now they’re processing it, and like. it’s real. that’s happening to me. they’re trusting me with a big like, mission-critical project and they’re increasing my pay and it’s because i earned the trust and the raise, not just because they felt bad for me???

i’m so overwhelmed. when i was a kid i thought all i could ever be was somebody’s wife and somebody’s mother. and now im neither of those things, and im loved and im safe and im finally moving out of this apartment full of shame into a place i can feel proud of.

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

@allvalley100

Prompt: Superstition

Pairing: Hawkmetri

The rest of this AV100 prompt that I didn't have time to finish before the prompt closed XD This one is a 7-parter--700 words total! Only fitting they should get a happy ending for the last AV100 post I write for them <3

***

Day 38

Talked to Eli about his…interesting new lady friends. They’re making me miss when he was hung up on Moon, honestly.

Anyways, turns out they’re just some exiled lesbians he took pity on. Families disowned them for kissing women, growing fangs, etc etc. Last I heard, Yas is single—maybe she’d want their numbers?

Woke up with a couple (bite?) sores on my neck, so I asked Eli about his pest control situation. He says everything’s fine, but I have my doubts.

Side note: Are metal allergies possible? Had to toss that silver crucifix—damn thing gave me hives.

*

Day 40

Confession: I’m worried about Eli.

There was an…incident a few days ago, and I hoped if I mulled it over enough times, it’d start making sense. Wishful thinking.

Was shaving the other morning when Eli barged in. Funny, I didn’t see him coming in my shaving mirror—can those things glitch? Thought that was only Smart Mirrors™️.

He started ranting about how “mirrors are for pussies,” and threw mine out the window??? Incredibly inconsiderate.

He insisted I didn’t need to shave because I’d look hot with a beard. How do you tell if someone’s joke-flirting or actual flirting?

*

Day 45

Have I mentioned Eli’s weird about blood now? Unsure I like it.

Cut myself on some loose board (this castle needs renovation), and he freaked out. Wouldn’t even look at it! Wailed about “blood being too precious to waste” and ran away. Huh.

Townsperson banged on the door today, telling Eli to stop eating people. I opened to tell him that was nonsense, but I noticed he smelled...appetizing? Like a gyro wrap.

He made himself scarce before I could say anything, but…kind of hurtful, honestly. I know I’m a bit gangly, but I’m not that ugly, am I?

*

Day 47

Finally got a wifi signal in here! Only took 4 hours of fiddling to make Eli’s TV work.

We binged Castlevania today. Eli’s favorite character is Dracula, supposedly because he’s “such a badass and is gonna kick the asses of every one of those lame humans.” I think it has more to do with Dracula having a soft spot for a smart, good-hearted human who he goes absolutely batshit avenging, but Eli’d never admit to this.

Side note: Is it hypothetically possible for one’s reflection to gradually grow more and more translucent and dead-looking? Asking for a friend.

*

Day 50

Bad news: Eli ate the mailman today, and I…may have helped.

Walked in on him draining the guy’s blood, and naturally demanded an explanation. Eli said to settle down because “there’s plenty to share!” What an insane suggestion.

But since the mailman was already dead...

In my defense…best AB positive I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had much. I’ve dabbled a couple times, but who hasn’t?

In better news: Wearing the “amnesia” down! We’ve been reading through the library together, and Eli’s instinctively remembering what kinds of fantasy and sci-fi I like. He remembers me—I FEEL it.

*

Day 60

Okay! Know what’s going on now.

We were reading Buffy comics when Eli clutched his head and started shrieking. Everything came back at once.

After I calmed him down, he spilled everything. Getting involved with a Kung-Fu-practicing vampiric “organization” promising nigh-unlimited badassery. Being taken to Europe, undeadified, and given a blood-only diet…none of which sharpened his memory.

Admitted I’m not inheriting a Greek estate, and I only came to find him. He tearfully told me that’s a shame. He imagined us building a life there. Maybe raising some goats?

Fuck it—if he wants, I’ll make that happen.

*

Day 140

Been a while! Busy, busy!

Surprisingly easy talking “distant family members” into giving us a land plot. Maybe it’s superstition. Maybe it’s healthy fear. Regardless, people don’t like saying no to weird, sharp-toothed out-of-towners.

Made Eli promise he’ll discuss with me before joining any new martial arts-related cults (especially ones that strand him in isolated castles as soon as he “isn’t evil enough”). Now he only feeds every so often! We’ve gone through some neighbors, but it’s an improvement over Transylvania.

Also, our eldest nannygoat gave birth! Eli named the kids Hellraiser, Slayer, and Wrathchild. I love them.

[nomsfaultau]

Daily ask №18!

DSMP edition!

This is gonna be another one where you can basically write a fic off of that one prompt. Actually please do write that, I'd totally read it. (/not forcing obviously) So 3 questions.

The Fault crew gets dropped into DSMP. Specifically right before the Pogtopia revolution dsmp. Like 5 days before. They get dropped somewhere on the prime path where they get discovered by Tommy. What happens next is up to ya but it would be cool if they got to meet the Pogtopia crew. Also potentially fix the mess that happened during the revolution since this would be the same Fault crew that got shown the songs and got to chat with the dsmp characters, so they do have whatever knowledge of the future they managed to gain. Do they try to fix it? Do they just hang out? Do they idk, ruin even more shit? How do DSMP characters react? Who knows! You do probably. The Fault crew gets teleported back a day after the revolution. They get a countdown during the last day so they know exactly when they're going back and get to say their goodbyes.

I wonder how they would react to the differences in the worlds. Like Minecraft mechanics existing, inventory, communicators (no phones don't typically say when someone has died), 3 lives system, mobs like withers, enchantments. Also the fact that this word is essentially stuck in the middle ages (?)(whatever time would dsmp be. Not modern that's for sure.). Also the differences between the characters that they met previously, so the future for this reality, and the characters which universe they are in currently. Especially Tubbo cause C! Tubbo's character arc was WILD man.

Which Minecraft soundtrack/discs would be which fault crew characters?

1.Ah man let's see if I even remember that far back lmao! FTubbo and FTommy feel obligated to help the revolution for moral reasons, The Blade is helping because he's nice, and Fhil is still trying to figure out if alternate universe versions of his Collected are also under his jurisdiction. Ultimately he's going to go for no I think, give the dsmp crew their own choice in the matter (and I don't think on average he tends to prefer having too many Collected, since conflicting morals and goals get tricky). FWilbur is like what the hell guys we need to dip yesterday, and the walls make him itchy as hell since it hates being unable to run. Dsmp guys are excited for more soldiers, and aren't suspicious because none of the betrayals have happened yet. It flips the tide of the war by a lot. Aside from Fhil they're not great at weapon combat, and might need specialized armor, but honestly the power scales are very different.

If pursuaded Fhil might just go dragon mode, create an impassible flaming wall around L'Manburg. With some piecing together they figure out green boi is responsible for a lot that went down (not to limit main cast's flaws and mistakes etc but still). He reminds FTommy a lot of Dr. Blake. He's definitely getting hunted down and murdered how ever many times it takes. Can't remember why the election happens, but JSchlatt tries to kick them out and the anomalies just laugh and refuse. I imagine new problems arise from butting heads, Wilburs arguing about control, Tommys being hella chaotic, but for the most part things actually are kinda chill? Like probably not for long because everything goes wrong on that server if left alone for long enough, but major antagonists don't have a lot on the anomalies. Not sure ctechno and cphil even show up since they're not requested for battle.

The anomalies are just chillin without the Foundation to worry about, are absolutely outraged when they realize they're going back. Since the plot is derailed so early a lot of their patchy knowledge is kinda useless aside from knowing the potential fracture lines for the dsmp crew. Or. Fault lines, if we want to be silly.

ah hell I just reread and realized that said Pogtopia and not L'Manburg ooops. It's been an extremely long day.

2. NO WIFI?! they're in HELL! what but we're homeless we don't have wifi THIS IS WORSE THAN THE FOUNDATION- In all honesty Philza is perfectly fine, but misses all those human inventions he gets so hyped about. Tommy and Tubbo have the worst go of it. Wilbur is losing its mind over how few food items exist. Tubbo is confused with how fast the crops work, which probably go into steroids around Tubbo. They're like walking bonemeal. The trees scare them. Not the inventory tho, Tubbo already shoves random tupperware in their mouth all the time. Phil tries to put his kids in his inventory once for the joke. It works. Wilbur adores enderchests because amazing food store no one else can get to. NOT happy about creepers tho. The voices won't shut up until they kill the wither.

As for character differences, fTommy and fTubbo really consider them to be like Pre-Foundation, fresh untraumatized kid versions of themselves. Probably over protective to be honest, in a similar vein to how fwil is about ftommy. Again Fhil is absolutely unable to get that CPhil is an independent adult doing his own thing and leaving his kids to their own devices. Though the letter situation dulls his anger. Techno's change isn't as dramatic since he's trauma repellent (/j). Filbur can tolerate this version of Cwilbur.

3.The Blade likes Pigstep for normal reasons.

Tubbo likes Cat, it's energetic and bouyant.

Phil likes Mall, very relaxed and meditative.

Tommy likes otherside for the space/star association.

Wilbur likes Stal, it's suave. Or one of the broken ones bc edgy.

[fluffypotatey]

hi hello! you asked for asks, so this is me asking you about something i like to think about way too much, feel free to answer :)

(and also, I'm dumping my 2am thoughts on this in your inbox, which i sincerely apologise for) (you have been warned)

soo, do you have any fav hc on how immortal merlin would go through life?

i personally like to think that he would truly live. by that i mean he'd surely have dark and reclusive episodes, maybe going temporarily insane or spending a century trapped in a tree but there'd also be the light and hopeful moments. he would travel the world and learn about other cultures and other types of magic, find and lose new friends, adopt some children and both magical and non magical creatures along the way. he would grow more powerful and feel more responsibility for everything happening around him. after trying to alter history, perhaps successfully even but still failing to save so many, he would eventually come to the conclusion that he has no authority to decide the course of history for people that are born into entirely different centuries than he was.

at some point he would come back to his home island and marvel at the world changing so rapidly around him. he'd still have his soft spot and empathy for the humans surrounding him, but he'd start wondering if he ever was or ever would be one of them. the rise of science and technology would give him an excellent chance to keep himself busy and learn new things, even aged about one and a half millenia.

in the year 2023 he would live as his younger self in a small house overflowing with books and plants in rural wales. if you look close enough you might be able to spot a few cats that may or may not be dragons roaming around. a network of robotic davices spans through the whole house, that magically connected truly make it a smart home. nobody is quite sure how merlin does it but he has by far the most reliably working wifi in the whole village which is open for anyone to use, so teenagers gather in his garden like flocks of birds around food in the winter. merlin himself usually can be found there enjoying a cup of tea in the evening after days of meeting old friends, working on five projects in four different continents at the same time and trying to keep the sudden influx of dragon populations under wraps. it is a good life and he is enjoying himself as much as he can without the government noticing that there is definitely something off about him.

on bad days, when the years weigh down on him and he feels like a stone chained to his ankle is dragging him down to the bottom of his memories, he turns into an old man and visits the not-very-lakey-anymore lake of avalon to allow himself to dwell in the past for jusy a moment.

on his way back a truck drives past him way to fast but merlin doesn't even bat his eye as keeps on walking....

aaand we've come full circle, yay.

so yeah, these are some of my thoughts and man, there are so many more, i hope you enjoyed i guess?

BABE I LOVE THIS HEADCANON!!!! consider it accept by me and being used by me as well <3

tbh this is a new headcanon of mine, but I really like the idea of Merlin being pen pals with other immortals. basically forming an immortals’ support group (the other co-founder is Sun Wukong bc I said so).

idk I think it would be fun just have a sitcom-like story of Merlin writing letters to his immortal friends about his life and his past lives and stuff that they all relate to

Dear Keanu, I really enjoyed your film “The Matrix” brought back some old memories!

or

Dear Wukong, You will not believe the week I had! Some girl found Excalibur in the lake and Freya won’t allow me to steal it back from her despite the girl NOT being the Once and Future King 😤 I did find a compromise where Leon and I would give her lessons but we had to keep Excalibur since it was such a deadly weapons (she was a rough cookie, but we got her parents to crack first!)

those kind of letters :3

idk I just think it would be fun

[franklyshipping]

Tickling His Guard Down ~ A Markiplier Ego Fanfic

WOOOO HERE WE HAVE A FIC BASED OFF A GLORIOUS ANON PROMPT WITH OUR FAVOURITE BUBBLEGUM BOI AND OUR GRUMPY FNAF GUARD, SO LET’S DO THIS!

Wilford Warfstache was in a traipsing mood. This kind of mood involved the flamboyant man letting his whims carry him through the manor, until such a time as something caught his interest. Currently he was humming an absent tune, not at all thinking about where he was going – such was the man’s haphazard nature. Eventually though he found a glimmer of focus, and realised he’d made it to the very top floor of the manor. Here resided a few bedrooms, some of the largest in fact, since they’d all been converted from attic spaces. And as it so happened, one of those bedroom doors was ajar.

Wilford peeked inside, and beamed when he spotted none other than Guard, the paranoid FNAF security fellow turned ultimate-sarcastic-grump-meister. The man was lying on his bed, flinging playing cards with great accuracy into his trashcan, which was lying on its side a few feet away. Wilford realised that he’d never actually seen inside the man’s room before, and of course his curiosity was insatiable. So Wilford, actually remembering his manners for once, knocked on the door.

‘What?’

Guard called, and Wilford stuck his head in the doorway with a bright grin.

‘Eeeevening.’

Guard raised an eyebrow, not moving from his bed.

‘Can I help you?’

Wilford’s head inched into the room slightly, his grin widening as he put on his sweetest butter-wouldn’t-melt voice.

‘Actually you can! You see I was just having a little wander, just letting the wibbly-wobbly time continuum guide me on my way, when I realised that I’ve never actually been up here before! Or if I have then I can’t remember… anyhoo! I was just wondering if I could have a little looksie around, if that’s alright with you. I swear you won’t even know I’m here!’

Guard blinked at his impromptu guest. He was hesitant, for a number of reasons. After everything Guard had been though he was incredibly protective of his private space – it was his sanctuary of solitude away from the rest of the world, a place where he knew for certain he was safe. Also he was keenly aware of how easily Wilford could bring chaos into every situation. Despite these points however… Guard actually quite liked Wilford. He was an interesting breed of innocent weirdness and maybe, just maybe, Guard had left his door ajar on purpose… in the hope of someone noticing.

‘Sure, why not.’

‘Why thank you very kindly!’

Guard held back a smile at Wilford’s enthusiasm and watched as he sauntered into the room, and set about taking eager interest in… well, everything. To be fair though, Guard had more of a mini apartment at his disposal than simply a bedroom. He had a kitchenette with worn wooden surfaces, a huge en-suite bathroom, access to a fire escape so he could come and go unseen, and his own wifi router – though Wilford got especially excited when he looked through Guard’s weapons closet, where his flamethrower was displayed in pride of place. Wilford got excited by every little thing, babbling like a hyper kid as Guard tried not to laugh at how endearing he was being. Wilford sat himself on Guard’s bed with a dramatic sigh after his inspection, giving Guard a delighted grin.

‘I mean you basically have a mini house in here! With all this stuff you barely ever have to leave!’

‘Yeah, that’s kinda the point…’

Guard paused, realising what he’d said. He cleared his throat and fiddled with his playing cards as Wilford’s expression softened. Wilford knew the desire for isolation and self-preservation when he saw it, for he had seen it so many times before with his loved ones; though everyone always had their own reasons. He tilted his head at Guard softly.

‘Why?’

Guard shrugged, avoiding Wilford’s eye and continuing to fidget.

‘I guess… I’ve always felt better with my own company.’

Wilford nodded gently. He could tell Guard wasn’t quite ready to open up all the way, which was understandable given everything he’d gone through. Even after having such a victory over evil, when all was said an done he was ultimately alone, hardly able to share his experiences with anyone lest he be labelled as crazy. Wilford could relate to that. He was eager to help make Guard feel more at ease around him, and so brightened his smile to him.

‘Well I bet your company is a fine one to have! I know I’d love to have it from time to time, and I’ve heard on the grapevine that my company is pretty spectacular!’

Wilford waggled his eyebrows, and for a few moments Guard was speechless… because that was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him before. He even almost let out a genuine smile, especially with Wilford bigging himself up like the endearing goof that he was. However Guard, as per his habits, let his sarcastic self get the better of him.

‘You think your company’s really that great do you?’

Wilford blinked, then gaped when he picked up on the sass. Guard snorted at Wilford’s suddenly dramatic expression, which made Wilford narrow his eyes at him as he exclaimed.

‘You dare sass at Wilford Warfstache?! In all my incomprehensible decades of living I have NEVER been so insulted!’

Guard snorted again, he couldn’t help it! He had a love for winding people up that he sometimes just couldn’t ignore… but little did he know that today, there would be consequences. Wilford wasn’t going to take Guard’s attitude lightly, and as he flicked his gaze over the smug man he contemplated. A punishment was certainly in order, something torturous enough to teach him a lesson, but also playful enough to perhaps help him loosen up… aha. Wilford’s eyes gleamed with the perfect idea. Before Guard knew it, Wilford’s hands had latched onto his ankles. Guard spluttered as he was tugged into a lying position on his bed, his playing cards spilling from his hands as Wilford sat on his legs.

‘Hey–what the hell?! Get your damn candy ass off me!’

Wilford chuckled and tutted, wrestling with Guard’s flailing hands as he replied.

‘Now now settle down you! Fighting will only make this worse!’

‘Make what worse?! Get off you–no!’

Guard yelped when Wilford successfully pinned his wrists down under his knees, the moustached man letting out a satisfied sigh as Guard wriggled and grunted under him.

‘That’s better!’

‘No it isn’t! Let me go right the hell now!’

‘No can do I’m afraid! Not until you’ve taken your punishment for being a sassy little shit.’

Wilford grinned as Guard glared up art him, a mix of confused and annoyed as he tried to figure out what in the hell Wilford was talking about.

‘What the hell you mean punishme–?’

Then, Guard’s voice got stuck in his throat. Wilford has chosen that moment to splay his fingers across Guard’s taut, vulnerable stomach. He was only wearing a thin, grey t-shirt, meaning that Wilford’s light touch sent some rather intense, ticklish sparks through his midriff. His reaction made Wilford’s grin widen.

‘Well now, what have we here?’

‘N-Nothing.’

Guard swallowed thickly, trying to keep his composure… but deep down, he knew he was fucked.

‘Nothing?’

‘Wilford c-c’mon!’

‘C’mon what?’

Wilford was curling and uncurling his fingers incessantly, making Guard bite his lip and start smiling as he shook his head up at him – with every passing second, his will was slowly unravelling.

‘Not this okay anything but this! God–fucking waterboard me, throw me in a vortex, beat me up, anything you want just not thihis!’

A little giggle escaped him as Wilford’s blunt nails trailed over his stomach and sides, making him tremble as his face got gradually redder and redder. Wilford’s grin was impossibly huge with delight and awe – discovering someone’s ticklishness for the first time was honestly one of his favourite things in the entire world.

‘Aww, but I could never hurt you Guard! That’s why this is so perfect! I can torture you all I want and there won’t be a mark on you… unless I get hungry of course.’

Wilford winked down at him playfully, making Guard gape as even more heat rushed to his face. But before he could come up with a reply he burst into laughter, for Wilford had decided he was done with the anticipation. His fingers now scratched and scribbled Guard’s toned stomach with wild abandon, and there was nothing Guard could do.

‘NAHAHAHA FUHUHUCK NONOHOHO WIHIHILFORD C’MAHAHAN!’

Wilford found himself amazed by Guard’s laughter, for it wasn’t at all what he’d been expecting! The way he laughed was so bright, so perfectly musical, and Wilford thought it was one of the most beautiful laughs he’d heard in his entire life!

‘Oh my God your laugh is so pretty!’

‘SHUHUHUHUT UHUHUP!’

‘No really I mean it! It sounds like music!’

Wilford exclaimed in earnest, which had Guard shocked. At first he’d thought Wilford was merely teasing him, but now he saw the sincerity on his face and just felt flustered beyond measure! He was so unused to compliments that he had no idea how to react, and so ended up turning his face away and squeezing his eyes shut adorably.

‘YOHOHOU SHUHUT YOHOUR MOHOUTH!’

Wilford giggled, loving how flustered he was.

‘Why don’t you make me?’

Guard spluttered and yelped as Wilford now starting kneading his toned stomach, making him arch his back and flop about desperately as he shook his head.

‘IHIHIHI CAHAHAN’T!’

‘Oh dear, that must be pretty sucky for you.’

Guard let out a desperate whine as the kneading sent ticklish waves all the way through him, his laughter making his entire body shake underneath Wilford. After a few moments though Wilford gave his stomach mercy, leaving Guard panting as he got his breath back. But then Guard gulped when Wilford hummed musingly at him.

‘Now I wonder where else you’re ticklish, howsabout down here?’

Wilford give his hipbones some soft, experimental pinches, making Guard elicit a few rather noticeable squeaks. Wilford, of course, loved this.

‘Is that a yes? That sounded like a yes to me!’

Wilford softly spidered Guard’s hips, making him splutter and squeak even more as he jerked from side to side – unfortunately for him though, nothing he did could dislodge Wilford’s tickling fingers. The hip tickling also meant Guard was now caught up by the most adorable, high-pitched fits of giggles Wilford had ever heard!

‘Gohoho ahahawahahay!’

‘Aww, now why would I do that when I’m enjoying your company so much?’

Wilford teased, chuckling when Guard’s face scrunched up out of embarrassment.

‘Shuhuhut uhuhup smahahartass!’

‘Or what gigglehips?’

Wilford’s retort made Guard let out an indignant voice crack, the nickname catching him completely off guard – it also had the side effect of sending his blush up to his ears. Wilford laughed fondly, scratching away at Guard’s sensitive hips happily as he crooned.

‘Ooh, does someone like their new nickname?’

‘Wha–nohoho! Dohon’t cahahall mehehe thahat!’

‘Oh I’m so telling everyone to call you gigglehips now!’

‘Dohohon’t yohohou fuhucking dahahare!’

Wilford kept laughing along with Guard. He was so damn happy that he was able to see this brighter side of him, and ironically the tickling seemed to have the wondrous effect of making Guard less tense than he was before! Wilford decided he wanted to up the ante though, and spontaneously pinched the giggly man’s thighs as he raised an eyebrow.

‘Was that a threat?’

Wilford’s eyes widened with surprised glee when Guard shrieked at the pinches, and at how his eyes went oh so wide as he looked up at Wilford and babbled.

‘NOHO–nonono Ihi wohould never threaten you n-nehever! I was juhust s-sayihing random shihit I swear!’

Guard gulped as he watched Wilford, hoping beyond hope that maybe he’d have mercy, that maybe he wouldn’t tickle the most insanely ticklish spot he had on his body. The moustached man regarded him for a few moments… before his lips slowly spread in an evil smile which, I daresay, would have rivalled that of Darkiplier himself.

‘Are you ticklish right here?’

‘Wilford!’

‘It seems like you might be ticklish right here.’

‘Wilford please!’

Wilford paused for a moment, for dramatic effect, before smirking like the Devil.

‘I think I’m gonna tickle right here.’

As soon as Wilford’s tickly, pinching fingers touched down on Guard’s thighs, he was done for. The poor man was a mess of mirthful shrieks and screams as Wilford tickled the absolute hell out of him. This was the most that Guard had been tickled in his entire life and honestly? He thought he was going insane.

‘OHOHOHO MY GAHAHAHAAAA!’

Guard’s hysteria only made Wilford more eager to tickle him, and he cooed down at him eagerly.

‘Daawww poor thing, do my pinchies really tickle that bad?’

Guard nodded frantically, tears quick to gather in his eyes. The sensations were like nothing he’d ever felt before. Each pinch to the flesh of his thighs was like a fiery shock that made his cheeks ache with grinning, and his stomach shake with the heft of his laughter.

‘YEHEHEHEHEEEE!’

Wilford chuckled fondly, because to him there was truly nothing more beautiful than a little madness.

‘Are you sorry for being a sassy little shit?’

Guard nodded again, his desperate babbles immediate.

‘YESYEHEHEHEHES IHIHIHI SAHAHAHARRY!’

Now, Wilford discerned that Guard could likely have handled a little more, but he decided to have mercy. He could tell with ease that it had been a very long time since Guard had gotten tickled, and certainly nothing close to this level of meanness, and the last thing Wilford wanted to do was over-do it. So he happily relented and moved off Guard’s legs, his smile broad and sweetly satisfied.

‘Good, and let that be a lesson to you! No-one sasses ol’ Warfy and gets away with it!’

Guard snorted in-between his gasps for air and residual giggles, blinking his tears away as his body immediately curled up into a protective ball. The two men were quiet for a few minutes, Wilford exercising his rare patience as Guard panted and regained his senses. Soon Guard just had his residual giggles to deal with as he smiled bashfully.

‘Mehessage received… hoholy shihihit…’

Wilford giggled fondly as Guard calmed down fully, and another sect of silence reigned the room. Wilford looked around a little, his thoughts starting to drift once again into that familiar haze of absence; then, Guard nudged him.

‘Hey Wilford?’

Wilford blinked and smiled at him.

‘Uh huh?’

Guard was hesitant then, tentative as he thought about what he wanted to say. Then he took a breath and cleared his throat.

‘Do uh… do you really want my company?’

Wilford smile softened, and he nodded to him as he replied.

‘I do. I know some other people who’d like it too… you wanna meet a few of them?’

Guard nibbled his lip at the question, thinking to himself. However now, a few of his feelings had altered. Instead of an anxious tightness encompassing his chest he felt lighter, more relaxed, at the thought of spending time with people. He knew his anxiety would return in the future, for there was rarely a one-time fix for the recurrent feeling… but here and now he was okay, and he wasn’t going to take it for granted.

‘Yeah, yeah I’d like that.’

Wilford beamed with a gasp and jumped up excitedly, and Guard laughed when the bombastic man grabbed him by the hand and started rattling off about all the people he wanted to introduce him to. Before Guard knew it he’d been yanked out of his room, but he was okay with that. Of course, it is always incredibly important to have time for yourself, and to have a space for your own that’s all for you so you can feel safe with your own company… but never forget, there will always be other people out there who will love your company too.

WOOOO HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS FIC LEMME KNOW IF YA DOO! WOOO LUV YOUS!!

[houkagokappa]

Comfort shows

I was tagged by @theurbanfuturesoftherecentpast to share 10 of my comfort shows and then tag 10 people to do the same. Thank you so much for the tag, I always love these!!!!

Comfort shows are hard though!! I don't really have them. I don't own a tv and I don't keep up with subscriptions to watch things online whenever I get in the mood for something specific. I've also not been watching much outside of a few seasonals lately. Instead I have a lot of comfort manga, mostly based on what or who I'm into at the time.

I'll try to honor the tag and come up with my top 10 comfort shows regardless!

Doukyuusei. This was an actual comfort show for me, although it's a movie, but a very short movie. I watched it as soon as it came out because it shared a lot of staff with Penguindrum and the gifs I saw from it were cute. I fell in love instantly and rewatched it right away. A few months later I went to Japan for an exchange, and during a trip to Tokyo my Airbnb warned me that they had limited wifi, so I downloaded Doukyuusei in advance and watched it literally every single night for 10 days straight as my main entertainment. I also kept watching it once I got back home whenever I was feeling down and needed something to cheer me up, or I simply needed something to play in the background as a distraction. I love how simple the story is, you really don't need anything more complex than this, as long as you do it right (considering what made it to the movie, the manga series goes further and it's amazing as well). Truly a comfort show for me, although it's been years since I've watched it now.

Kyosougiga (2013) episode 1. This is also not an entire show, but a single episode. Don't get me wrong, I love the entire series, it's just that the first episode is so insanely good I can never get past it, instead I get stuck replaying it until I'm a puddle of tears and no longer capable of watching anything. This is also a show that ties in with my exchange, because I went to Kyoto where Kyosougiga *doesn't* take place, and I watched it once I came back to Finland, and everything started falling apart for me. Kyousougiga gave me something to latch onto when I didn't have anything else. It's a touching story, beautifully directed with gorgeous animation. I love the mix of history and fantasy, the buildup in the first episode is amazing, and the music is to die for. It's the family themes that really get me, but overall I love it as anime at its best.

Mawaru Penguindrum. Now this is an entire series, although whenever I watch something for comfort I tend to rewatch my favourite episodes. For Penguindrum that's episode 1, which rivals Kyousougiga's first episode as the best ever made, episode 9, where we meet Sanetoshi and find out about Himari's past with Triple H, and episode 15, about Yuri's past. Yeah... Penguindrum is simply an amazing show, and watching something amazing brings me comfort.

Monogatari series. I love Monogatari because I can jump in wherever and have a good time. I think that's key for a comfort show, you don't have to strain yourself, you can simply put it on and enjoy yourself, or process your emotions through whatever happens on screen. I've loved Monogatari for years, but what makes it earn a spot on this list is how it helped me process something awful I went through a couple of years ago. I was simply supposed to rewatch it for fun, and to refresh my memory on it, but instead it had me work through the difficult situation I was in, and all the feelings I had related to it through the characters and their stories. I also gained some hope for the future, which I hadn't gotten from anything else at that time. Wow, my life's been pretty shitty this past half-decade.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I MADE IT TO NUMBER 5 BEFORE I REMEMBERED SARAZANMAI. Speaking of a shitty life, I don't think you understand to what degree I ran away from my responsibilities and the general expectations I felt I was under, and found safety and meaning for my life from Sarazanmai back in 2018-2019. I was NOT doing well, but following Sarazanmai from its initial announcement to when it aired gave me a reason to keep going, and a purpose for my existence as I kept track of and shared news with other fans. I love the little community that got built around it, even if it could be frustrating at times (Enta discourse etc.), but most of all I saw people come together and connect with each other thanks to this silly little series. The series itself is amazing, and could be a comfort in itself, but for the most part it was a needed distraction for me, and something that showed me that there's some good in this world :)

The tag thingy said 10, but I can't top Sarazanmai so this will do. I'm tagging @akroglam @cookiecthulhu @ihearasound @natsunes @nezoomi @qkawo @dreamyghostie @softsorrows @itskyatto and @exdeath-chan

[winderlylandchime]

Hello!! I love how we are all hoping that Jordan brings back the podcast, i need those two besties back so badly. I feel like they have so much stuff they could talk about especially now with the strikes, it’d be fun to hear their take on it. I am honestly not ready for him to find out how the filming and the aftermath of the show was on Gale and Randy. I know he’s gonna lose his shit to find out how some people were towards them (especially since his idea of Gale in his head is obviously different and in his mind Gale and Randy are bffs like how he is with his friends.) but also i think he will be shocked to find out they both kind of stepped back from the show and had certain issues with it. He did storm in my room randomly today and went ‘IS THAT WHY THERE WAS LESS SEX STUFF?!’ Which btw it was 10 am when he did that, I barely knew i was awake. Basically he was up almost all night thinking about the finale and the podcast (he is once again that conspiracy meme) and he realized in later seasons there’s less sex scenes and now he is distraught that maybe it’s because Randy was uncomfortable. He was having an entire crisis over it. While I don’t know what all i will show him/what he’ll see on his own (i wanna show him bts content and like obviously anything else i can find) but i will be keeping con videos/posts FAR away from him because some of those are the worst things ive ever seen in my life, no offense to anyone. I will say, If you or anyone has any ideas what else I should show him, let me know because he has been losing his mind begging me to let him listen to more of the podcast.

As for our mom, i swear that woman is actually pretty chaotic herself but unlike my brother she hides it better. Both of our parents are insane but for some reason only he doesn’t even make an effort to hide it. She did get a long email sent to her by my brother because she was ignoring his calls and he wanted to talk about s4 finale. It was titled ‘IMPORTANT! NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SHOW’ and then it was almost a short novel about the show.. He wanted to hear her thoughts since he is still undecided about Justin not saying yes to moving in. And he wrote a little bit about the podcast and he also asked her if she thinks Randy would like him if they met (clearly he is feeling a certain way about this) which caused a different crisis, a much bigger one: would Gale like him if they met. That crisis lasted almost 2 hours btw. Anyway as a reply to the email she just forwarded it to our dad who forwarded it back to me to tell me to ‘change the wifi password.’ And then I immediately got a call from my mom about the podcast asking me if it’s about the show and how he already has enough weird hobbies and why can’t I get him into something normal like a pottery group or painting group or something with normal people around. And then I heard in the background our uncle who went ‘after all the stories about him talking to DOCTORS, you want to unleash him on a person who is not medically trained?’ So he is now being encouraged to stay home and watch tv. Also: he is currently talking to his best friend about the finale, while writing down mind maps and lists of what he thinks season 5 will be. He’s having a bit of issues with it because the LA offer apparently fucked quite a lot of things up for him so his original list no longer makes sense. He is also talking to him at the same time (he’s jumping from topic to topic) about Gale and how shocked he was that Randy didn’t enjoy the qaf fame. I don’t know how this became my life. More importantly I would just like to say: i cannot wait for your new fic! I mean your last fic got us here so I can’t wait to see what happens next. But also bearded Brian>>

The podcast talking about the strikes would be amazing! I was hoping we would get a Barbie movie episode but alas. I really want to hear the besties talk about Greta Gerwig.

I have never seen the con clips and I’m grateful. I have too much secondhand embarrassment to sit through that boundary-crossing behavior and invasive questions.

I LOVE that your parents were like “change the wifi password” and uncle was like “unleash him into the world?” and they responded “jk never mind.”

I personally think Gale and Randy are still friends but we would never know with the one proof of life per year Gale gives us and Randy being tightlipped about his time on the show.

Wait until your brother realizes that one of Randy’s partner’s is named Justin (or is that the kid? either way there’s a Justin!)

I am dreading his reaction to S5 but we all watched it so he must as well…

And, yes, bearded Brian >>>

BUT I saw your request at the top - folks let’s start to pull together a post-S5 education for all necessary BTS for Brother Anon to fully understand QAF! In box me or comment on this post.

[puzzled-zebra]

I don’t normally post things on here, but since I know some folks get worried about a lack of activity from me, I just wanted to let y’all know I’m going to be…busy for the next week or two thanks to the ransomware attack on Hillcrest systems across the nation, whom I work for as a scribe.

Everything is on lockdown electronically which makes everything actually hell. Patient’s safety is at risk in more ways than one and that asshole hacker is making already overworked and underpaid medical staff EVEN MORE overwhelmed. I’m so fucking mad. Why can’t this shit happen to some big mega billionaire corporation? Why healthcare? This country’s system is rough enough on both patients and healthcare workers as is, why make it worse for everyone?!

Can’t order medications without manually writing out each and every one of them and faxing them, can’t order labwork or imaging or make referrals without manually writing each and every one them out and faxing them, we can’t even chart (not like I have time to with my doctor’s style) so I’m just scribbling down changes so I can make proper charts later once this whole mess has been taken care of. Essentially triple the work with no additional pay for it.

On top of it EVERYONE is scared about how the system was breached. Even I am, and I don’t go freaking anywhere with my laptop. Delilah stays at home where she’s hooked up to a password protected wifi and has an absolute tank of an antivirus software that makes her lag for 3 hours. I don’t hardly ever check my email let alone open any new mail. I rarely ever use Delilah to even browse here! I use my phone! But you never know until the source has been traced! It could be anyone, which means could be you, and my anxious butt REALLY doesn’t like that.

And these are just my gripes as a paranoid, overwhelmed, crybaby $10-12/hr scribe (idk if I ever got that $2 raise) with just the added work, but it makes me incredibly upset and stressed about how this will effect our patients. Most of my clinic’s patients are elderly and have problem lists and medication sheets a mile long. Our ERs and hospitals have to divert patients to other hospitals. People are going to die from this ransomware attack on our system. These kinds of delays will kill someone and it’s just heart dropping.

Like, healthcare having shitty overwhelming work hours is essentially part of the territory of working in healthcare. You go home tired and feeling like shit but are happy to know that your 99 year old patient is still kicking and lively and has all their marbles to have enjoyed their golden years and probably a few more to go. But having someone outside of our system disrupt our ability to deliver proper care to patients is just…it’s rough.

I know I’m only a scribe, but I’m my old doctor’s eyes and hands, I make the prescriptions and labs and referrals on his behalf; I’m working with his nurse on what diagnoses codes we need to work with to help insurance be more willing to cover for procedures; they feel like my patients too… It’s… distressing… Knowing all we can do is just hang on and try our best… I just hope it’s enough. I hope it’s only a week. Just a week. God I hope it’ll only last a week.

Anyway, if I suddenly cease any activity over the next 2 week, I’m not dead. I just will be wishing I was while attempting to keep this computer-less system somewhat working or at least organized until the computer system is back.

[feltpool]

Incoming Call

When they’re leaving Ryloth Hunter turns back towards the planet for a non-specified reason and it’s been much debated as to why.

But his key skill is his inbuilt electromagnetic detection ability, aka internal wifi. We were told this right at the start. So while the Batch may have shared skills in differing proportions that’s the thing he’s best at.

So if you wanted to contact him directly you’d ideally want to know his personal pick up frequency, because a call on a general frequency could be picked up by anybody in the area monitoring comms at that time, and Ryloth is currently under Empire occupation.

But there can’t be many people who know what his pick up frequency is, and most of those are in that ship alongside him. So that probably only leaves Crosshair, Nala Se, and possibly Cody.

But Crosshair is the only one that we know is on Ryloth at that time.

So it’s probable that what he was reacting to is an incoming message from Crosshair.

Which he then totally ignores, and doesn’t mention to anybody else.

Wrecker has no filter on his mouth, they make sure to point this out on a few occasions, so when he says ‘you didn’t even try to come back’ instead of ‘we haven’t heard from you since Ryloth’ or something similar, it’s likely that no one else ever knew about the call. Certainly no one corrects Wrecker’s statement, and they’re all standing right there in the tunnel when he says it, and we only get to see the back of Crosshair’s head in that scene so we can’t judge how he reacts to him saying that.

But the team can. And we can see Omega. Who’s pointing her torch right at Crosshair. And while Tech and Echo don’t react that much. Hunter stiffens and Omega gives him A LOOK. But she lowers her torch as she’s doing it, so the emphasis isn’t on her expression as much as it could be.

But she had a good clear, well lit, view of Crosshair’s face in that moment, and she’s known to be very observant.

So, am I saying that this is just a case of careless abandonment, that it’s a callous act on Hunter’s part with no good reason?

No. Not necessarily. At that time, and in that place, he has no reason to trust Crosshair. Nothing aside from him being a former team mate, and a brother.

However, we also don’t know what message could have been sent in the span of time before the ship got out of range, they’ve only just taken off when he picks up the signal but ships move fast so contact was probably kept short. We know that Hunter has a good range, because Tech made that clear, but it can’t be infinite, and one phone call wouldn’t have the same power output of a place like the cyber centre.

Making an attempt to turn the ship around and go pick him up in their current circumstance would be ridiculous and would only get them all killed. No one would ever expect them to do that, least of all Crosshair

But he could have sent an explanation of his actions, told him what had been done to him after he was taken from the brig, sent him rendezvous details, helpful information, a recipe for meiloorun bread, literally anything.

And Hunter could have told the team about it later. When they had more time to think things through, to work out if he was setting them up for a trap or not. To plan their best course of action. But it really doesn��t look like that happened.

.

But it’d certainly have given him a reason to reject their offer to go with them at the end of S1. I mean, why go where you’re not wanted. And failing to meet him, pick him up later on, or make any other sort of contact with him following that call gives a clear signal that he isn’t wanted, no matter what Hunter says to his face in front of everybody else.

[baejax-the-great]

I have genuinely spent countless hours with nothing but All That Glitters on the brain since like mid December. As it comes to a close I just wanted to thank you for your writing. I’ve gotten so much happiness from it. (And also sadness but in a good, escapism-y way). I don’t think i’ve ever been so attached to a fic before. So sad to see this story end but grateful to have been blessed with ever encountering it in the first place. ❤️❤️

🎽👟🥇🐕

Thank you for this lovely message, Nonnie. I'm going to use it as an excuse to ramble way too long instead of writing the epilogue.

When I wrote even if it's a lie, I played around with a lot of tragic backstories for Achilles, though mostly non-seriously. I didn't really plan on including it--his relationship with Pat was basically comic relief. I wasn't even going to have it in eiial other than allusions to his fame and his clear fall from whatever fame that was, but a couple people asked, so I decided to have him give the abridged version to Zag.

Someone said they would read it if I ever elaborated on that story, and I remember thinking, lol I'm never writing that. Partly because at the time I assumed that painting Achilles in such a negative light just wouldn't go over well. But I also didn't really have an angle for how I wanted to tell that story, so it didn't interest me.

I don't totally remember how/when I came up with the plot for Gold, but I know @johaerys-writes was the one who really encouraged me to write it and I think @juliafied helped me with it a lot. I believe I posted the first chapter the day before I went out of town on what would be the first of many trips this autumn/winter. It's one of very few fics I wrote on google docs, mostly on my ipad because I don't own a laptop.

I think I was only a chapter or two into Gold when I started writing what is still titled in my docs as "Post-Gold." This fic ended up being such an interesting challenge because I had written what happens before and what happens after, and now I had over 20 years to cover to explain it all.

Here's what I knew at the start.

1. Patroclus got thrown out of his house the minute he got home from Seoul.

2. Achilles sets his own life on fire and Patroclus takes the blame for it, resulting in Achilles moving to Tartarus in shame and not returning until 2022 with Zagreus.

3. Because I'd already written it in eiial, the first time Patroclus sees Achilles in years, the first thing he does is make out with him. (I regretted this one a lot, but hopefully I made it work 🤣)

4. A 39yo got a silver medal in the javelin at the 2020 Olympics. As a result, one of the first lines I wrote was "Take me to Paris, Achilles." That entire scene changed, but I kept the line.

So then it was a game of filling in what actually happened (so much math to figure out the years and their ages lmao), and figuring out how to show the journey of two men growing up, growing apart, and then putting their lives back together. All the years were written out of order, which is why the different sections start the way they do-- originally it was just a system to help me keep track of what year it was and make sure I covered each one.

And with all of that, I thought this fic was going to be shorter than Gold. I figured each year would just be a snapshot--maybe 500-800 words to get a sense of it. Short and sweet.

I'm an idiot, of course. Just the reconciliation that took all of three sentences in eiial required over 15k words for this fic, and it could have been longer.

It was so fun to imagine all these eras of their life. I went from writing about guys who were much younger than me to men who were older than me. The way the world has changed between the year 2000 and the year 2022 is kind of astounding. Someone asked me why the boys couldn't just text each other in Gold and it's because it hadn't really been invented yet. We barely had wifi. They would have had an answering machine at their first apartment they shared with a goofy message recorded together.

To make a long, unnecessary essay short, this fic went from something I had no enthusiasm for and was certain I wouldn't write, to something I'm really proud of. I'm going to miss it.

I was talking recently with someone about this fic from Achilles' perspective-- over the 22 years, which moments would he pick as important in their lives for better or worse, and how many of them would match up with Pat's. I have no intention of writing that story, but it certainly would be a way to sit in this universe a little longer.