#kind of wish i had insisted on pursuing it sometimes

[arcane-vagabond]

Did I ever tell y'all that I used to act in high school?

Not like, PROFESSIONALLY or anything, but I did speech and debate. Speech was essentially the acting side of things, and so I did that all four years. I was actually really good. Went to state every year and (finally) made it to nationals my senior year. I was constantly placing top three at tournaments.

[youraverageaemondsimp]

so, after seeing ewan mitchell at the conference, i have a delulu headcanon of actor aemond x bipoc actress/classical pianist/voice/stem girlie reader. of course, she's south-east asian chinese because i am extremely delulu.

like ewan mitchell, aemond is also the most mysterious targaryen in all of his family members in the world of acting.

aegon is an actor but is known more as a social media star/personality whilst halaena is the cottagecore girl who does tiktoks.

luke and jace are nothing more than nepo babies. both got that arrogant attitude from their mother, 'nyra.

aemond, despite the loss of his eye, became quite famous because of his strong acting abilities, mentored by criston cole.

he then became the most sought after leading man in the westerosi entertainment industry and racked up several acting accolades, second to his uncle, daemon.

wanting to beat his uncle's records, he decided to create a show of his ancestor's history.

reader came along by accident. she did not intend to pursue a career in acting because she saw herself as a in the world of stem and classical pianist and singer, not as an actor. the only acting accomplishment she had was acting as a tree in high school just to make her report card look good.

but she ended up getting that job because, in her previous role, she was selected in playing the leading lady of a video game character after the casting director liked what she did with their latest mocap technology. she initially resisted because she did not believe that she had what it takes, as well as her lack of training, but the director insisted. this led her to win an acting award due to her gritty and raw performance as a character who desperately needed help.

criston cole recommended reader and aemond, who already had several years of experience under his belt, was quite impressed by her performance as a newbie and decided to give her the job.

reader decided to take the job after her grandma said that she has never once seen a face like hers in south-east asian television channels due to racism.

aemond could remember the first time he laid his eye on her. there she was, despite being a young newbie, walked in the room with the confidence of a performer. his eye then landed on her resume and, if he had to admit, he was quite impressed by her.

her extensive resume, as it turned out, was quite diverse. she had experience in animation, mathematics, IT, computer science, classical piano, voice, speaks multiple languages and knows self-defence.

the self-defence reader knows is bokator, which means, "pounding a lion" in one of the south-east asian languages she speaks. think black widow swinging on top of her enemies in order to bring them down. if aemond had to admit, he was quite impressed by her, as no one was able to match his acting intensity and throw him off his feet.

she was someone who was not hard to miss, as she loved to wear brightly-coloured dresses and bold red lipsticks. sometimes, she would modernised traditional clothing, making her even more beautiful.

despite her impressive accomplishments, she was actually quite kind and humble and was willing to mentor aspiring classical musicians and stem girlies.

he loved his deep conversations with her, as she talked to him about the parallels between the history of his ancestors and ancient china.

she was also quite kind and considerate with a bright smile on her face. despite her bright and cheerful character, she was initially quite guarded towards aemond and maintained their distance, as she respected his wishes for privacy.

aemond, despite feeling glad of her kindness, sometimes wished that she'd let her guard down around him.

despite this, the cast could tell that there was something brewing between them. they noted how aemond would smile and laugh a bit more around reader. how relaxed he was around her. how trusting he was of her.

things went normally between them for quite some time.........until he discovered her secretly dancing to BTS' Run.

aemond was just walking down the corridor when she heard the music blasting from the gym room.

there she was, lip syncing and dancing to BTS' Run, completely oblivious.

so, the prim and proper reader actually had a fun side. it was quite a sight to watch.

reader, who completely oblivious of him, finally felt as if that she wasn't alone.

the video of her screaming and seeing him lean against the door with his arms crossed and smirking became viral, leading to fans asking when is the kdrama coming out.

the PR and writing team began to take notice. the writing team then began to write a romance story line whilst the PR team made them sit together in interviews.

the romance was unmistakably sizzling, despite the fact that the two of them barely had any kiss/sex scenes, per reader's suggestions.

the world then began to notice this and started asking whether or not they are dating, which reader vehemently denied, stating that they are colleagues and that she does not do office romances, much to aemond's disappointment.

the two of them were then sent to the south-east asian country that reader used to live in. the studio's intention was to attract more fans from that country, as reader can speak their language/s. aemond's uncle, corlys velaryon, and brother, aegon, joined as well.

aemond stepped out in the outfit like the one ewan mitchell wore at the airport in brazil.

as for reader, she stepped out in her pilot uniform, sunnies and bold red lipstick, much to the crowd's amazement. there she was, standing there with a powerful and commanding aura. someone who should be messed with.

as it turns, the studio pulled some strings so that reader would fly the aircraft, as she had been accumulating flight hours in order to step foot into NASA.

aemond was then photographed trying out local cuisines recommended by reader. he admired the fact the way reader's eyes lit up when discussing the local cuisines, leading to many lusting further after him.

aemond's outfit was the same as ewan mitchell to tease the female audience.

as for reader, she went on stage with a modernised ma mian qun (horse skirt from the ming dynasty) with water dragon patterns on it and off-shoulder modernised traditional sparkly top. aemond could not take his eye off from her. bright colours definitely suited her.

on stage, it was quite clear that aemond speaks of her highly. he praised the fact that she was a wonderful actor who is filled with multiple talents. he bragged about the fact that she also flew the aircraft they were in, as well as switching to multiple languages on the aircraft in order to communicate to the different nationalities of passengers. he also speaks highly of the fact that she was able to sing several of the soundtracks with her extremely beautiful voice and strong pianistic capabilities, as well as having several theorems next to her name and pursuing a phd.

the crowd awed out loud because it was quite clear that he was completely in love with her.

aemond also admired the fact that she was speaking to the interviewer in her native tongue and other languages she had up her sleeve, something that he had never heard her do before. he made a mental note to give her roles where she could speak all of those languages.

aemond also admired the fact that she was able to speak about her role in depth, her strong and impressive musical abilities, passion for the ancient chinese history and parallels to his own ancestors' and discussing how she used her STEM skills and knowledge to create a good show.

she was then asked on whether or not she sees aemond as a potential real-life love interest, in which she laughed off.

interviewer: "when's the kdrama coming out?"

"it's never coming out," she said laughing, "he doesn't like me that way".

aegon: uhhhhhh.....yes he does.

corlys: yes he does!

interviewer: yes he does!

the entired goddamned world 🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍🌍: "yes he does!"

aemond: 😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯😯

HAHSHAS EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT AEMOND LIKES HER EXCEPT HER 😭😭😭

Love these hcs!

[brynn-lear]

Dear Brynlee,

Salutations! Hopefully this letter finds you in good health. Forgive me if it's formal, I was debating to go down either this or something else entirely.

I've noticed that you're dealing with a watery invitation of sorts, which is very concerning, because you thought I was involved when I was busy malding dealing with deadlines. I just wanted to send one to remind you to get something to eat, or even to get a glass of water. Having to hydrate yourself isn't a bad idea, I just fear you might forget.

Oh, and if you have any personal projects, I wish you good luck to be able to pursue them. Hopefully things more or less settle down and you get a breather when this mystery is over.

Please tell Dimitri my regards as well. I haven't talked to him, so I'm concerned if he hasn't had anything to eat or drink.

That's all. I'll keep touch in case some bastard decides to give me a harder time.

— Navina

(ps: hydrate or diedrate 🔫 trick question, you need to hydrate yourself. No I will not stop with these reminders and you KNOW it. Anyways, I'm at uni so I can't do much lol, hope you have a good day! /pos)

Dear Navina,

I know I am not the intended receiver but Brynlee is quite preoccupied as of late. She had kindly asked me to reply on her behalf. You and I both know she has the tendency to forget her own well-being, but I did my best to resolve those issues while I was still in Garreg Mach. As always, she did manage to flawlessly skip breakfast and instead of hydrating, she insists on drinking sugary concoctions. Which is by no means a compliment. I'm sure you can imagine my worry as I inked my quill to write these words down. She took the last invitation as a declaration of war and you and I know how our Brynlee operates. That competitiveness is both a strength and weakness, isn't it?

Oh, and no need to be concerned about my health, I no longer helplessly neglect my own health as well. Dedue and the others are kind enough to remind me when necessary.

Unlike our other batchmates, I haven't heard much news coming from you. Deadlines, you say? Sounds dreadful. I believe it's now my turn to tell you to have ample rest. If you need some respite, you ought to visit our old campus sometime. They're renovating the gardens and training hall. As a fellow Blue Lions, perhaps you'd find the sight nostalgic. Kindly invite Esther along if you plan to do so.

. Sincerely,

[your-uncle-sheogorath]

Hello Lord Sheogorath, and happy Sunday!

Writing from a plane this time as I have some moments to kill at work in between flights.

I'm sorry to hear this week way a bit hectic for you, and I hope it wasn't too bad?

The "Uncle Kima" is a khajiit I suppose? Is he Lord Tharn's actual uncle?

I really don't mind explaining any earth concept (and there is nothing unbecoming to asking twice about anything).

So Haskill is indeed into Supernatural ships, and you're more or less saying he should "go outside and touch grass". -amused-

About some of the origins or the packages; I find Fargrave to be such a lovely place in Oblivion, very shiny. I admit to being very biased, I love a good glowy bioluminescence.

Have you ever done business with Madame Whim? She is a Mazken, has she ever lived in the Shivering Isles?

Sounds like the University had a few corrupt officials willing to get their plans greased in exchange of a few diplomas? Also, your General sure had an... Erh... Unfortunate series of events... A slave? A goat??

This ask is getting a tad long, sorry I'll wrap up here.

As every Sunday, I wish you the very best for the week to come. May it bring you, all you care for, and all you love loads of fun, heeps of happiness, and lots of laughter.

Have a great Sunday, and take good care of yourself!

Hello, Sundas Anon!

I couldn't help but notice the word flights. What do you mean by that? Is it flight as in you are being pursued or... A literal flight?

Fargrave is indeed a beautiful place. The food is terrific! I have visited, once or twice. Disguised as a lower daedra, of course. The presence of a Prince would be deemed highly problematic, given the Stricture.

Madame Whim is one of mine. Was. Was one of mine. She has become quite a big shot in Fargrave, or so I heard. Ah, makes this old Daedra proud... Haskill visits her sometimes, and acts as our intermediary.

About the mess at the University, that's exactly what it is allegedly happening. Abnur insists that I keep on saying allegedly. And yes, the General had a very, very bad couple of weeks. He's still suffering from the side-effects of living as a goat. He gets these urges to climb. Climb what? Well, the stairs of the Tower until he gets to the very top, from where he looks into the distance, longingly, those little sad eyes lost in the green meadows outside the city walls... He has also began to climb mountains. It could have been worse, though. At least he doesn't regurgitate his meals anymore.

Thank you for your kind wishes. I hope that your and your loved ones' week has been a good one!

Take good care, Sundas Anon!

[anathemacore]

lately i've been thinking about him more since my mom and i talked and largely we talked about the trauma we both share from him and the fucked up shit in his family. and i just keeping thinking there's no way. there's no way he didn't know. i've never formally come out to him or spoken to him at all about being queer because the last real "heart to heart" i had with him was when he made the intervention about the pinterest board i had where i saved mostly blm and a little bit of trans acceptance stuff, where he called black lives matter an "evil group" and at the point i had not really realized anything about myself. for a little bit in 2022 and 2023 when i saw him sometimes we only talked about superficial stuff other than the time at christmas when he said "i don't regret anything that's happened because it shaped us as people". he knew when i had a girlfriend because it wasn't something i wanted or tried to keep him from knowing my mom knew and she told him no big deal. when i had my car accident he was the first one one the scene and i said i promised my girlfriend i'd go to the hospital, and that's the extent of the interaction i have had with him about being a lesbian. i have no desire to and i never will because aside from the fact i never want to see him again anyways there's nothing to say on the matter. i don't have anything to say and what's he gonna say? but like. be so for real! there's no way he didn't see it coming. there where 101 signs and there's no way he didn't see a one. i was such a stereotypical tomboy half the time and feminine in my own way but still solidly a tomboy the other half. did he not find it odd that despite writing in my journals (which he read all of) all the time about my desire for romance and marriage that i never actually pursued it? like, i never got anywhere near a romantic relationship with anyone except for one with someone who was too shy to even speak to me and a years long off and on flirtation with someone who i absolutely hated when i wasn't hormonal and opportunistic. what i considered my first crush was on someone i only saw a few times a year and was incredibly unaccessible to me as a whole. i never told him. the next was on someone who i told and who shot me down straight down into the ground immediately, and i liked him for over a year after that. the next was the one who every claimed liked me back except that he was so fucking shy he could hardly look me in the eye or have any kind of conversation with me. and on and on. i had an uncanny knack for emotionally latching on to the most unavailable boys i could find, and at some point one has to wonder. it's so bizarre because i have to think that somewhere in that rotting little brain of his he had to know. we watched a lot of movies together as a family, it was like our thing. one of the weirdest unexplained out of character things he ever did was insist that we watch fried green tomatoes. his exact words were "it's a little lesbo but i think you should see it". this is the same man who proceeded to see a few seconds of a season one episode of greys anatomy and forbid me from watching it because it's "too gay". what the actual fuck was that all about. seriously. he had to have known and that's the only thing i wish i could ask him. when did he first think of it and what the fuck was that about.

whenever i talk about my dad i just keep having the same thing come up in my head: that isn't love. you don't do that shit to someone you love. my grandma always says but it's love to him and i accept that that's his idea of love because he's fucked up but i can't accept that that's real love. i think love is definable. you don't abuse people you love if you abuse them you don't love them, period. i refuse to accept that abuse is love. it makes me so angry because of how much the fucking shittiest people will claim how much they love someone while doing the most heinous fucking shit to them. that's not fucking love you motherfucking bastard. i don't care how much you think you love someone if you're doing that to them you don't, that's it. no "loving in your own way", that's fucking bullshit. if you deem your child homeless because you don't like that they're not how you want them to be you do not fucking love them i don't fucking care. you don't repeatedly and continuously purposely act callously and selfishly towards someone you love. people hurt people they love all the time and people think that that blurs the lines but it actually fucking does not. i'm not saying you can't love someone and hurt them. there's a difference between hurting someone you love and ruining their fucking lives because of your so-called "love". i'm so fucking sick of people being so fucking obtuse because they can't handle that abuse is a thing that happens and that bad people exist in a very real context and it's never the people you want to accept are bad. well i have to deal with it. i don't get an option to just decide to ignore it and pretend it doesn't exist and wave it all away with lame excuses and strawman defenses. i have to fucking live with it bitch. i don't want to hear anymore about people doing the best they can. abuse is never the best someone can do. people make choices and just because their head is so far up their own ass that they're inside out several times over doesn't mean that they can just be excused from being a complete waste of oxygen because oh but they didn't know better. and who the fuck's fault is that. not fucking mine but i'm the one who has to pay for it while he's living his best fucking life. i almost want hell to be real just so he can burn in it because if anyone deserves it it's him and his whole fucking family. i wasn't exposed to anything leftist growing up, i was forced to listen to conservative radio 24/7. it's not physically possible for me to have been indoctrinated any more than i was for the first 16 years of my life but somehow that's only as long as it took me to fully understand that other human beings are living breathing entities with autonomy and brains that deserve rights, a 20, 25, 37 year old has no fucking excuse. to stay that anchored in your pure hatred and disdain of anyone who isn't you is a choice you make every single day. i do believe that he and people like him are incapable of love in that state, as long as they refuse to change at all.

[pjsk-writin]

OKAY SO I THOUGHT ABT THIS,IK YOU HAVE A LOT OF REQ BUT YOU CAN JUST READ THIS FOR UR ENJOYMENT HSHS

what if the reader is a really talented Guitarist who doesn't have much confidence in theur skills, but they have a channel where they go by the alias of guitar girl (u can change it if u like!) where they have far more confidence, maybe that's how they semi know 25 Nightcord? Or at least Kanade, maybe Kanade reached out to reader but they declined Kanade offer due to them not wanting to step out of their comfort zone especially since they don't really like working with others.

AND LIKE HERE'S THE AKITO PART

Akito and reader were childhood friends, maybe how they met was when Reader was practicing her guitar skills and like Akito soccer ball almost hit reader LMAO then they became friends after that.

Akito knows that reader has potential to hit big if they try and perform on the streets, but the reader refuses and like they sort of had an argument after that. Akito lashes out (smth like how Tsukasa yelled at nene during the wxs story) , and reader kind of felt discouraged playing the guitar ykyk. Reader then would ignore Akito in the hall ways perhaps distancing themselves from him forever!?!?

YOU CAN DEF CHANGE SOMETIMES AND COME UP W A ENDING THIS WAS JUST A LITTLE BRAINROT OF MINE!!

OKOK SO I LOVE THIS SM OMGS !!! im gonna try to write some personal thoughts that I have, this is gonna be kanade and akito based except I wanna. explore the difference in dynamic yk?? this might lean more towards my preferences, I left a little bonus at the end weheh <3 i hope you like this!! <3

♡ UNCONFIDENT GUITARIST - Kanade Yoisaki and Akito Shinonome x Reader

Kanade:

You had always loved playing guitar, it was one of the many hobbies over the years that you stuck with

However, you did not have that much confidence with it. You always felt like you needed to be better

The one place where you felt free to express yourself is your YouTube channel. You published your guitar covers/songs under your alias, and allowed yourself to simply melt in the music

When you did a cover of a song by Niigo, that was when Kanade found you

She was incredibly impressed by you, after all, it takes a lot of talent to play a guitar and pick everything up by ear

She reaches out to you, asking if you would like to join Niigo. You decline due to your lack of confidence and general dislike of working with others anyway

Still, the two of you keep in touch, and you're one of the first people who gets to hear the tracks she's composing before they're published

She hopes to inspire confidence in you by showing you how she just lets herself go with her music. She doesn't push, and finds you're a wonderful person to be around anyway!

Akito:

You had always loved playing guitar, it was something you picked up when you were a kid and stuck with as you grew older

Playing guitar led to you meeting Akito, a slightly aggressive boy but someone who was kind enough to you after hitting you with his soccer ball-

Besides RAD WEEKEND, you're one of the first people who's inspired him to pursue music! Your love for guitar made him look into things he could pursue in music, and he chooses singing

The two of you grew older, and as you did, your passions for music grew. However, Akito took his passion to performing and the streets, while you kept your passion in private

This frustrates him to no end. You were so talented, yet you constantly insisted against performing. He's tried to convince you multiple times, yet you refuse

Eventually, he snaps at you. It comes off a lot more aggressive than he intends, but his passion has always driven him

Unfortunately for him, his anger discourages you, and you start dodging him in the halls. The two of you are left with thoughts of, "I'm sorry." and "I wish things were different."

Bonus <3

Let's say you're taking Kanade out to town. She usually doesn't leave her house for much, but you wanted her opinion on something for your guitar

While the two of you are in the music shop, Akito walks in, looking for a new microphone to use in shows

He spots you and Kanade, and he's slightly surprised that you're in the guitar section. So, you were still pursuing guitar after all, huh?

His smile quickly drops when you spot him and immediately turn away, taking Kanade to another part of the store

He sighs, grabbing what he needs before checking out as quickly as he can. He's always wanted to fix things between you both, but he always thought you made it clear that could never be.

Kanade senses your tension, and asks you about it. You simply shrug it off, waiting for Akito to leave the store before buying what you needed.

She didn't know what was wrong, or what you were dealing with, but she hoped that things would go well. You deserved all the happiness, after all.

[rahleeyah]

Yesterday was the anniversary of the accident that ultimately killed my mom. It's been four years, and it's not that the grief has lessened so much as it is that it has become familiar. It is so familiar it is no longer remarkable. It no longer has the same destructive power; I know it, now, and I am gentle with it, and it is gentle with me. I miss her, always. There are so many things I want to tell her, and every time I do the dishes I think of her, and wish for a moment that she was beside me again, that I could hear her laugh. But it is a tender wishing, not an angry one. I still get angry, sometimes - most often when I see people out driving, on their phones, distracted and making dangerous choices, and I want to scream at them, I want to tell them that someone just like them, someone arrogant and selfish enough to think they were above consequences, took my mother from me. Stole my father's wife. Took her life, her future, her dreams, bc he wanted to look at his phone. I do still get angry. I think I always will.

But I remember her always with love. I have never met anyone who loved as big as she did. She laughed hard and lived with joy, pursued the things she cared about and filled her life with love. She was my friend. That means so much to me to be able to say that, to know what a gift that is.

Yesterday I was searching my email for something, and I never delete anything, and I stumbled across a chain of emails we sent to each other a few days before the accident. We often emailed during the work day bc we both had office jobs, and we'd shoot messages back and forth instead of calling. She was filling me in on the gossip back home, and complaining about the lackluster Superbowl commercials, and asking about my nose ring, since I'd just gotten it pierced. There were a couple of emails back and forth between us that day, just talking. It didn't hurt, reading them. It was nice to see them, to read her words, to have a tangible piece of her and our relationship years later. To read it and hear her voice in my head, to remember her sense of humor. There are so many messages like that, and I'm grateful to have that still, to have her words, her encouragement, to carry her with me in my pocket everywhere I go. What a gift.

I miss her, always. I wish she could have met 🐝, I think she'd like her. I know she'd be happy I have someone; she always worried about me, a little bit, didn't want me to be on my own. She was proud of me and the life I'd built and she wasn't one of those mothers who insists that all their children have to get married and have babies, she just wanted me to be loved. She'd be excited about the house. I'd call her and we'd talk about all my plans. She'd want to come out and help with the move. She'd have all kinds of opinions about where to put the furniture and she'd be right about all of it. She was always right about everything.

It's a wistful sort of feeling, this year. Regret, maybe, for all the things she missed, all the things she didn't get to do, all the things I didn't get to share with her. But there is joy still, and love, and gratitude for all the things we did get to have.

Our Jewish friends say "may their memory be a blessing." I think that is such a beautiful perspective on loss, and so true in this case. Having known her, that was a blessing. These memories of her I carry, they are a blessing. She was a blessing, to everyone she met.

[momo-ceros]

old love || shuji hanma/reader

summary; you and hanma have been together for a long time and a long time more.

tags; nsfw at the end, fluff, dilf! hanma, milf! reader, both of them are in their 50s, they have an unnamed son in university, domestic, married fluff, a mix between tender and goofy, also lots of emotions, a teeny tiny bit of angst but i swear its barely anything

author’s note ; its been so long since I have written smut as well lmao. i hope ya’all enjoy!

If his younger self would have been able to see him now, it would have undoubtedly thought that he had grown up to be the most dull adult humanly possible.

But then again, his younger self didn’t exactly have the best kind of judgement, a fact you would certainly be keen on reminding him of.

The consequences were something Hanma struggled with even today. He had smoked far too much from a far too young age, his back was messed up beyond believe and his poor nutrition decisions were certainly catching up to him as well.

But he was alive.

Against all odds, Hanma was alive. He was 53 now, with you as his wife and a son who was just finishing up university and pursuing education he could only ever have dreamed of.

It was such a stark contrast to what he would have thought his live would have been like. Hell, the two of you had been married for longer than he ever thought he would be alive for.

But now he led a mundane life in a dull world. The person he was now was definitely who he would’ve loathed when he was younger. Boring people.

He couldn’t deny that sometimes, he wished for parts of his life back. The thrill, the excitement it brought him greater than anything else. But then he remembered Kisaki. He would have been 50 this year. A grand achievement he never got to enjoy.

He didn’t really think about anyone else from his past. He didn’t even live Japan anymore as he went with you after you decided to leave. There would only be occasional visits, but even then, there was nothing but a nostalgic void filling his chest.

Bonten has become the country’s largest criminal organisation, filled with many familiar faces whose name he had long forgotten.

But he couldn’t help but play with the thought of what could have been. That life would have certainly not been dull. But he would have probably been dead in a ditch somewhere already.

If it hadn’t been for you, maybe he would’ve been. Very likely actually, considering that you had always been the one to keep him in line and 99% of his impulse control.

Complicated feelings had always evaded him. They were intricate and gave him more of a headache than anything else. Part of the thrill of fighting had always been its simplicity.

But if there was one feeling Hanma was certain about without a doubt, it was the love he carried for you and his son.

The two of you were the reason why he had been able to carry on for so long.

You allowed him to leave any kind of impact on this rotten world and looking at his son, something he had been partially responsible of creating, him creating something this amazing, made him believe that maybe the world was capable of more good, even if just a little.

He was after all, very familiar with all the pain it could cause as well.

But as long as you were with him, he would be fine. Always had been, through thick and thin and always would be.

It was what you promised each other long before you got married after all.

And now he was carrying your last name like his pride and joy passed down to your son as well, the dull man felt nothing but content.

When he looked at you, he saw the world; everything that mattered in it.

It didn’t matter that you had grown old; so had he. The two of you were not dumb 16 year olds messing around anymore (although you insisted the stupid only extended to him and he couldn’t find himself disagreeing), the two of you had truly matured together in the past decades.

You were still the most beautiful being he had ever dared to lay his eyes upon. He knew you said the same about him, something he had slowly grown to accept despite all the self loathing his freakish looks had induced to himself.

It didn’t matter that your hair was greying, that your hands were starting to get wrinkly, that you needed to go to the chiropractor every now and then or your mood swings stemming from your recent entrance into menopause.

Just like it didn’t matter to you that his hair was even more grey than yours, that his hands particularly were noticeably wrinkly, giving his tattoos an odd look, how he had gained weight under your care and love, no longer resembling a thin stick in the wind and how you managed to only sometimes poke fun at his reading glasses being used more frequently in more situations.

A silver fox was what you called him. The hottest MILF on this planet was what he called you, much to the dismay of your son.

He was more than happy that his parents were still so very much in love with one another like they had been almost 40 years ago, but god did he wish his dad had learnt how to shut his mouth and not make inappropriate comments about his mother in front of him. He would still take constant comments like that than have the two of you be any different.

Both of you deserved to be happy with one another.

“Don’t be stupid love, keep that position up and you will complain about your joints hurting tomorrow again”, you teased as you pulled his head down to give him a kiss.

“Even if, is that not the most heroic way for my joints to hurt”, he shot back, a lazy smile on his lips as he gazed upon your naked form with nothing but fondness in his eyes.

You snorted. “Ah yes. How could I forget you telling me you wanted to go out being crushed by my thighs was your ideal way to leave this mortal realm. You truly have a way with your words flirt.”

Hanma let out a laugh as he began to pepper your collarbone with kisses while massaging your breasts.

“Was enough to pull you in the end was it not?”, he replied before busying his mouth with sucking on your breasts, his fingers gracing over the stretch marks littering the area around them and your stomach. He could never get enough of feeling you up, mapping every little detail of your body.

You hummed in response, your hands burying themselves in his pepper coloured hair as he melted into your embrace.

His dick rubbed against your wet entrance as you willingly opened your legs further as he finally relented focused on something other than your breasts. A pervert, thats what your husband was.

“You ready?”, he panted, as if he hadn’t spent the past hour between your thighs eating you out, a boyish grin gracing his features that always served as a reminder that he was still your Hanma.

“What do you think loverboy”, you replied with an eye roll, beckoning him to continue.

“I think its loverman by now”, he responded breathlessly as he finally eased himself into your pussy.

His hand gripped your waist as he tried to angle himself properly for his thrusts to be as efficiently as possible. His knee joints ached but that would be a problem for future Hanma.

You wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down as he began moving in and out of your cunt.

“But I thought you were my precious baby boy”, you teased, trying your hardest to keep your voice steady.

“Course I am”, he boasted, hand intertwining with your own, your wedding ring still cool against his skin, “Am your pretty baby boy just like you always say.”

Feelings his own orgasm approaching, he doubled his effort, his free hand rubbing over your clit trying to make you come once again.

It didn’t take too long either; your younger selves would have been disappointed as Hanma came first, releasing inside the condom with you following shortly after.

Exhausted after one round. Your younger selbes truly would be ashamed.

Hanma pulled off the condom, tied a knot and threw it im the trash before collapsing back onto the bed, lazily throwing an arm around you.

“Man we really are lame now”, Hanma mused as he stretched his long limbs, clearly too exhausted for proper conversation but still wanting to hear your voice.

“Not lame just old”, you replied, taking his his hand against your lips before kissing his wedding ring, “not to shabby for two people in their 50s.”

Hanma grunted in return, clearly keening under the open affection you were always willing to shower him in.

“We definitely lost spice though man”, he said, refusing to move even an inch from his current situation.

You snorted.

“Like the time the kiddo got a cashier job at the supermarket and you just had to embarrass him by buying condoms?”

“His expression was so funny”, Hanma cackled.

“You brought extra large.”

“So?”

“So? They didn’t even fit you”, you pointed out, making Hanma pout, the playful glint never leaving his eyes.

“You sure know how to beat down a guy’s ego babe.”

“Do you really need me for that my dear?”, you teased, leaning up and pressing a kiss against his lips. He immediately quietened and shook his had. The control you had over this man and had maintained for so long was truly astonishing.

“Nah probably not”, he admitted, a small hint of vulnerability in his voice, “You’re just always there to put it back together.”

The two of you kissed again before he threw a blanket over both of you.

“DILF and MILF beauty sleep is calling”, he joked, trying to stop the emotional tense air from spreading and you allowed it to work just today and you settled in with your beloved husband for the night, just one of many more left behind you and many more to come as long as the two of you were together.

As long as Hanma had you, everything would be fine. And he just hoped you felt the same way about him as well.

(Hanma’s joints were acting up the next day and he was once again proven that his beloved wife was always right.)

[lucky-clover-gazette]

it's dangerous to go alone

two years after shadow and vio's evil takeover, the gang reunites for dinner. this is a multi-chapter continuation of the oneshot "thank darkness for that," which introduces a corruption-type au that's actually super chill. definitely read the one-shot before following this one!

chapter 5 of 7: the cellar (4971 words)

She had tried to hate Shadow and Vio, that first year of their reign. She’d even planned a few assassination attempts, but ended up deactivating her own traps at the last second. Maybe she’s too sentimental, but something about Shadow and Vio’s wedding had caused her to reevaluate her perception of them both. Seeing Hyrule Castle in such a flourishing state, witnessing them so obviously happy and in love… it had given her pause.

And thank Hylia it did, because Zelda infinitely prefers a living Shadow to a dead one.

Vio’s fine too, even if he’s kind of a little bitch sometimes.

read the full chapter on ao3 or under the cut:

“Well, this sucks.”

Zelda nods in agreement as Shadow shuts the door behind them, trapping the pair in yet another dark hallway. She can’t see a damn thing, but…

“Door at the end of the hall,” Shadow confirms, and Zelda feels him take her hand. “You good?”

“I’m fine,” Zelda says, allowing herself to be led. “It was nice of Tingle to leave you with night vision.”

“I’m sure it was accidental,” Shadow says grimly.

“Sorry about that, by the way. I did not see that coming.”

Shadow sighs. “We should have been more careful. For a pair of evil manipulative usurpers, we really let ourselves get evil manipulated usurped.”

Zelda can’t help but chuckle at Shadow’s strange manner of speech. She’s noticed, over the past year they’ve worked together, that he seems to naturally combine his own chaotic, almost theatrical voice with Vio’s pretentious turns of phrase. King Shadow is casually informal, earnestly ironic—a far cry from the unstable megalomaniac who had imprisoned Zelda in the Tower of Spirits.

“Hate to break it to you, Shadow, but you haven’t been evil for a while. I’ve personally thanked you for taking the throne on multiple occasions, and we both know Vio’s the manipulative one between the two of you.”

Shadow huffs indignantly. “I tricked you into giving up your Triforce!”

“But were you lying? I seem to recall discussion of defying Hylia’s wishes and pursuing happiness on our own terms. Sure, you left out some vital details, but… to a degree, I knew what I was getting into.”

“I am evil,” Shadow insists. “I kidnapped you, kept you hostage for months! I asked Vio to straight-up murder Green! I burned—”

Zelda puts up a hand she knows he can see, cutting him off. “Don’t get me wrong, I slapped you because you deserved it. But that was then, and this is now. Whether you like it or not, Shadow, your evil days are far behind you.”

He must know she won’t budge on this, and so he wordlessly waves a white flag. They’re exceptionally good at this, together—conversation, debate, negotiation. Zelda does far more good for Hyrule as the Kings’ royal advisor than she’d ever done as its Princess, having shrugged royal tradition and the sole responsibility of decision-making. The others may have magic and swords, but Zelda’s brain is her superpower. Ironically, the Triforce of Wisdom had limited her ability to use it. She much prefers this life she’s forged for herself, with Green and the ranch and a job she actually loves.

She had tried to hate Shadow and Vio, that first year of their reign. She’d even planned a few assassination attempts, but ended up deactivating her own traps at the last second. Maybe she’s too sentimental, but something about Shadow and Vio’s wedding had caused her to reevaluate her perception of them both. Seeing Hyrule Castle in such a flourishing state, witnessing them so obviously happy and in love… it had given her pause.

And thank Hylia it did, because Zelda infinitely prefers a living Shadow to a dead one.

Vio’s fine too, even if he’s kind of a little bitch sometimes.

Shadow gently grips Zelda’s shoulder, presumably to stop her from walking into a wall. “Tell me when you’re ready,” he says, failing to hide the nervousness in his voice. “I’ve got your back.”

Zelda nods and pulls the fountain pen from her bra, wielding it like a knife. “What’s that saying,” she asks with a small smile, “the pen is mightier than the sword?”

“In terms of mightiness, I think it goes fountain pen, wooden stake, and then sword.”

“Well, here’s hoping there isn’t a sword in there—oh, wait.”

Shadow chuckles at that. “You ready? For real, this time.”

Zelda nods, and knows Shadow can see it. She hears him reaching for the knob, turning it, and opening the door a crack.

“What do you see?” Zelda asks, her voice barely a whisper.

“I know exactly where we are,” Shadow says, and Zelda can hear the smile in his voice. He strolls confidently into the warm light, motioning for her to follow.

They stand in a damp subterranean space packed with long rows of barrels. Zelda cocks her head, trying to remember if Hyrule Castle had a craft brewery during her time living there, but comes up short.

“It’s our evil root beer cellar!” Shadow announces, as if that automatically means they’re home safe. Zelda shushes him, trying to get a look past the closest rows of barrels, where Hylia knows what could be waiting to attack. Even without enemies, Zelda can easily determine the room’s challenge—it’s a giant maze, presumably with a Four Sword in the center.

“Why did you arrange the barrels like this?” Zelda asks quietly, already looking for an entry point. The barrels are stacked too tightly for either of them to squeeze between them, and would be dangerous to scale as anything other than a last resort.

Shadow shrugs. “I didn’t. Do you think Tingle turned it into some kind of maze?”

“Way ahead of you,” Zelda says, grabbing Shadow by the arm and leading him to a small gap. “Are you any good at this? I did a corn maze with Green, Red, and Blue once, but it ended up a total disaster. Green almost had an aneurysm trying to understand the map, and Blue started getting all claustrophobic, which of course freaked Red out because those two are like a bonded pair. Eventually I just told them all to use their Four Swords to cut us out and then we got apple cider donuts. Pretty good day, actually. Definitely fucking better than this one.”

A shadow (improper noun) falls over Shadow’s (proper noun) face. “I wish we could all be friends.”

Zelda watches Shadow’s hat wilt. “We can’t force anyone to get along,” she tells him softly, “but for what it’s worth, I’m glad we still tried.”

Shadow nods, meeting Zelda’s eyes. “Thanks. Me too.”

Zelda cracks her knuckles and stares ahead at the narrow passageway. “Now let’s find this sword and get out of here.”

“Sounds good to me,” Shadow replies, following closely behind.

They wander through the maze of barrels for about twenty minutes, only occasionally speaking up when a specific barrel looks too familiar. Eventually they notice warm tones of firelight against a nearby wall of evil root beer, hopefully signifying a rest area ahead.

“Do you think there are monsters?” Shadow whispers, lining up beside Zelda against the wall. “Fire can’t light itself.”

“Not sure,” Zelda says, craning her neck. “Trying to get a better look.”

“I’d say it could be Skirrsa, but she’s on vacation right now.”

Zelda turns back to him. “Skirrsa, your dragon?”

“No, Skirrsa, my fake girlfriend— yes , Skirrsa, my dragon. Not that she’s actually mine, she’s like her own independent—”

“Who goes there?” calls a booming voice, the firelight shifting as something seems to move in their direction.

“ Shit shit shit shit shit ,” Shadow says under his breath, eyes darting for a place they can hide. They could go back the way they came, but they’d still be easily spotted, and—

“Demon Shadow Link!” exclaims a taller-than-average Hinox, who greets them both like this is some kind of coincidental meeting at the grocery store.

“Demon?” Shadow and Zelda ask in unison, to the Hinox’s apparent confusion. Shadow turns to Zelda and mutters, “No one’s called me that since…”

“Taking the prisoner on a stroll, I see!” the Hinox continues, looking Zelda up and down. “Lord Vaati must have given you permission to release her from the tower.”

There’s an obvious edge in his voice, a vague threat of what, blackmail? Vaati’s dead, and so is Ganon. Shadow is a king and nobody’s master, and Zelda hasn’t been a prisoner in years. Did this Hinox get knocked on the head and wake up thinking it’s two years ago, or…?

“She’s not a pri—” Shadow begins to say, but Zelda elbows him in the gut. “Hey! What was that for?”

“You’re my captor,” Zelda says between gritted teeth. “I just elbowed you, aren’t you going to do something about that?”

Shadow gawks at her, searching her eyes for an explanation. They don’t have time for this, and Zelda doubts she could subtly explain—so instead, she decides to slap Shadow across the face. Again.

“Ow, Zelda, what the fuck?!”

Zelda rolls her eyes as she’s apprehended by the Hinox, who holds her arms behind her back. Shadow rubs his reddened cheek, seems to realize that he looks kind of pathetic, and straightens his posture with a scowl.

“Release her,” Shadow instructs the Hinox in an unmistakably unpleasant tone. “Vaati has requested the prisoner’s temporary removal from the tower so it can be searched for contraband weapons.”

“Like what?” the Hinox asks, cocking his head.

“You’re not getting paid to ask questions,” Shadow condescends. “Now, lead me to the others. I’m thirsty.”

The Hinox nods and turns towards the firelight, leaving Shadow and Zelda to exchange uncertain eye contact. Zelda hides her fountain pen back in her bra, then looks up to Shadow frantically pointing to the item strapped to the Hinox’s back.

“ Blue’s sword ,” she mouths to Shadow, who nods vigorously with a thumbs-up. He squeezes her hand and yanks her into the center of the maze, where three other Hinoxes sit around a campfire roasting marshmallows. Zelda cocks her head.

“Uh, is that safe? We’re in a basement.”

“This is no basement!” one of the seated Hinoxes exclaims. “We are in the Fire Temple!”

“They’re right,” Shadow says coolly. “Now somebody, beer me.”

“Do you want to wait for your companion?” asks another Hinox, the connotation of the word ‘companion’ causing Zelda to raise an eyebrow.

Shadow looks flustered, just for a second, but quickly regains his composure. “Vio is… napping.”

“Napping?”

“Big evil day for him. All tuckered out. No more questions.”

“Here,” says one of the Hinoxes, handing Shadow a chilled stein of evil root beer. Zelda watches him take a deep swig (for courage?) and crosses her arms over her chest.

“You aren’t going to offer me some?” she asks with a challenging smirk.

“Oh, sor—” Shadow begins to say, then cringes. “I mean, shut up, prisoner.”

“Should we apprehend her?” a Hinox asks, eyeing Zelda suspiciously. She wonders what he thinks of her business-casual attire, the pink shift dress so different from an elaborate royal gown. She wonders a lot of things about this absurd situation, none of which she can currently ask.

“You can’t see it,” Shadow tells the Hinox, “but I’m totally using invisible dark magic right now, and she’s not going anywhere.”

“Oh, no!” Zelda exclaims, pressing her wrists together. “Not the dark magic!”

“The contraband search won’t take long, anyway,” Shadow says as he takes another sip of his evil root beer. “Just ignore her.”

The Hinoxes nod slowly, seemingly buying Shadow’s charade. This sardonic demeanor still fits him like a hand-knitted glove, and Zelda almost wishes he’d bring it out more often during tough negotiations.

“Anyway,” Shadow drawls, turning to the first Hinox they’d encountered. “I can’t help but notice a non-standard issue weapon strapped on your back.”

The Hinox cocks his head. “What are you talking about? You specifically requested that I hold onto it, so the purple hero doesn’t have to see it and feel sad.”

Shadow’s expression softens. “Aw, I did?”

Zelda loudly clears her throat.

“I mean,” Shadow amends, “I know I did. But like I said, Vio’s napping, and I want another look at it. So give it here.”

The Hinox’s frown deepens. “Can’t do that. Vaati ordered me to keep it out of your hands.”

“And why, in the name of darkness, is that?”

“I don’t know, I just follow orders.”

Shadow puts his hands on his hips, scowling. “Well, forget Vaati! I’m the one in charge here, you take orders from me!”

The Hinox glances back at the others, engaging in some kind of wordless communication. Zelda watches Shadow and manages to meet his eyes, but there isn’t much she can offer by means of encouragement.

She tries to sort through what exactly about this scenario is based in reality—obviously Tingle manipulated the Hinoxes’ minds to place them back in the past, but what other details had he changed? She assumes Blue’s sword is an addition—that’s why the Hinox can’t explain its presence—but this little campfire setup, their listlessness due to an apparent lack of purpose? Zelda is almost positive that’s real.

Hopefully, Shadow is thinking along those same lines. Both Kings of Hyrule are very smart, but Shadow has always outshone his husband in terms of empathy. Not that Vio is apathetic—from what Shadow tells Zelda, he’s privately very sensitive—but it’s always been clear that Shadow is the more emotionally intelligent of the pair. Even at his worst, which Zelda has more or less witnessed for herself, Shadow had obviously struggled with his own feelings of insecurity and fear. And yes, he’d been in denial about those feelings, and lashed out as a result, but it’d always felt like he was one step away from figuring out the problem and doing something about it.

And maybe that’s why Zelda had gone along with his and Vio’s plan to spite the Goddess—Shadow had actually figured out the problem. False pretenses aside, his reasoning made sense, and through their interactions Zelda had even discovered her own discontentment reflected in Shadow. Perhaps sometimes, people need a dark mirror to understand their own true desires.

And truthfully, Zelda has had her own bone to pick with Hylia since childhood, when she’d have to spend hours praying and attending royal ceremonies instead of playing with Link. The original Hero, who she had genuinely loved. Not romantically—not yet, at least—but they had understood each other so thoroughly, and that had fuck-all to do with Hylia’s divine plan.

Zelda loves Green, too, of course, but he’s just not the same. Neither are Red and Blue, and certainly not Vio, who must have been the part of Link that he’d been most hesitant to reveal.

It’s strange. Now that she thinks about it, the closest person in Zelda’s life to the original Link… is Shadow.

“Listen,” the sword-bearing Hinox tells Shadow, “we’re Vaati’s employees. All of us, including you. So I’m not sure why you think you have the authority to go over his head.”

Shadow stomps his foot, and Zelda has to stifle a laugh. That’s definitely not part of the act.

“If you won’t give me the sword, I’ll—”

The other Hinoxes stand immediately, brandishing their marshmallow-roasting sticks with clear hostile intent. Shadow shrinks back, for good reason. This is a physical fight he simply can’t win.

But Zelda can see the gears in his head turn. Shadow sighs, raising his hands in surrender, and drops down onto the floor. It’s a humbling move, and seems to put the Hinoxes at ease. They sit back around the fire and resume their listless activities.

After a moment’s pause, Shadow inches towards the campfire and taps on a Hinox’s shoulder. “What are you making?” he asks, to the Hinox’s obvious surprise.

“S’mores,” she says, offering Shadow a marshmallow and stick. The sword-bearing Hinox gives his coworker a slight glance of disapproval, but says nothing.

Shadow skewers the marshmallow and reaches forward to roast it over the fire. He is so comedically small compared to the Hinoxes, and his twitching hat betrays his nerves.

Zelda feels a little left out, to be honest, as the Hinoxes and Shadow makes s’mores in relatively companionable silence. She could try to guess what Shadow’s trying to do, but honestly? She believes in him.

“So,” Shadow says, drawing the attention of his former-but-also-kind-of-present coworkers. “I’ve been an asshole to you guys, huh?”

The Hinox closest to Shadow shrugs. “Yeah, pretty much.” The Hinox beside her elbows her in the gut. “I mean, uh, noooo…?”

“You don’t have to lie,” Shadow says, pausing to sip his evil root beer. “I’ve been very focused on Vio, I suppose I haven’t spent much time getting to know you all.”

“We don’t really want to know you,” says the sword-bearing Hinox. Zelda expects Shadow’s expression to sour, but he simply sighs.

“That’s fair. Thank you for the s’mores, anyway.”

“You’re welcome,” says the nicest Hinox. Shadow gives her what can only be described as a genuine smile.

“What’s your name?” he asks her.

“Patricia. And this is Aubrey next to me, but don’t expect them to say much.”

Aubrey gives Shadow a lazy wave.

“And you all?” Shadow asks the two remaining Hinoxes, who sit on the opposite side of the fire.

“Robin,” offers the non-sword-wielding Hinox. “Tim’s the grumpy one,” she adds teasingly. “Vaati gave him a sword and now he’s suddenly trying for Employee of the Month.”

“Ah,” Shadow says. “That’s a pretty big responsibility.”

Tim shakes off his concern. “I can handle it.”

“Well, yeah, that’s pretty obvious. I am wondering, though, if Vaati ever told you the truth about that sword?”

Shadow asks the question with such theatrical concern that it seems to genuinely alarm the others. Tim, however, remains unmoved.

“He told me everything I needed to know,” he says stiffly.

“What’s wrong with the sword?” Patricia blurts out, waving her stick wildly in Aubrey’s face. They gently take it from her and scarf down the charred remains of a marshmallow.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Shadow says, although his face suggests otherwise. “You’ll probably be fine.”

“Probably?” asks Tim, his hand going to the strap around his chest.

“The thing is just… a little unstable,” explains Shadow. “It’s connected to the others’ swords—you know, the other three heroes—and I’ve seen Vio’s move like it has a mind of its own. You have it strapped so close to your body, it would just be a shame if it started moving in a… y’know, stabby way.”

Shadow loses some steam by the end of the appeal, but Zelda still thinks it’s a solid attempt.

Tim looks from Shadow to Robin, then over his shoulder. “I have my orders.”

Shadow is not deterred. “I understand. But… well, I’m sure Vaati knows how dangerous the sword is. I’m surprised he didn’t warn you, is all.”

Patricia frowns. “That is kind of worrisome.” Aubrey makes a so-so gesture.

Shadow sighs. “It’s a shame that our employer seems not to care about our well-being.”

“Your well-being?” challenges Tim. “You get to fly around on a dragon with your nepotism hire all day!”

Well, damn, thinks Zelda.

“Well, damn,” says Shadow. “I didn’t know you all had so much resentment towards Vaati.”

Tim begins to argue with the notion, but Robin cuts him off. “Honestly, we’ve been feeling this way for a while.” Patricia nods intently.

“Guys,” Tim says between gritted teeth, “he’s spying on us, he’s just going to tell—”

Shadow bursts out laughing. “Me, a spy for Vaati? I don’t care about that windbag. Tell you what, give me that sword and I’ll make sure to bury it in his big stupid eyeball.”

Tim reaches behind his back. “Better his than mine,” he says, offering Shadow the blue Four Sword. Zelda’s jaw drops. Holy shit, that worked.

Shadow accepts the sword but keeps a straight face. He looks to Zelda, only for a second, and then returns his attention to the Hinoxes.

Is he going to run? Should she be ready to follow? Shadow wouldn’t kill these very likable Hinoxes, but she supposes he’s not above trickery and theft. With so much at stake, she wouldn’t blame him for making a hasty exit.

But she knows that look in Shadow’s eyes. She knows how he thinks. They’ve debated justice and ethics for hours in the throne room, much to Vio’s interest and amusement.

Shadow may be acting like his selfish, insecure former self—but deep down, Zelda knows what he stands for.

“So here’s the thing,” Shadow says, his voice promptly losing its theatrical edge. He steps backwards and holds the sword close to his chest, giving Zelda a small nod to intervene if necessary. “We’re not in the Fire Temple.”

“What?” asks Robin, grabbing Tim’s arm to stop him from charging.

“It’s been two years since Vaati’s defeat,” Shadow continues, “and we are currently inside the dungeons of Hyrule Castle.”

“That can’t be true,” Patricia says, looking to Aubrey for reassurance. “We all woke up here at the fire, just like usual, and…”

Shadow shakes his head. “I don’t know who you are, or where Tingle found you, but you’re not evil anymore. The Dark World actually overlaps with the light, now. Not much need for Hinox henchpeople in modern Hyrule.”

“Why should we believe you?” asks Robin, and Zelda’s pretty sure she’s the only thing between Shadow and the wrath of Tim.

“Because I assume you want to live,” Shadow says matter-of-factly. “The person who set up this entire thing wants us dead, and put you four here as potential threats to our lives. But I’m sure he was also aware of the possibility that we’d kill you first.”

Patricia wrinkles her nose. “You mean Vaati?”

“Hylia, I wish it was Vaati.”

Tim turns to Zelda and points. “What’s the Princess doing here, then?”

“Zelda’s my royal advisor,” Shadow explains. “She was with us when we got knocked out, just like all of you.”

“She’s your royal advisor?”

“Oh, yeah.” Shadow rubs the back of his neck. “I’m the King of Hyrule—but really, it’s whatever.”

“I voluntarily abdicated the throne,” Zelda half-lies with a bright smile. She stands up, lowers her wrists from their invisible restraints, and takes Shadow’s side. “Nice to meet you all, by the way.”

“Let me guess,” Tim says tiredly, returning his attention to Shadow. “The other king is…”

“Yes, but I won’t tell him about the nepotism thing.”

“I stand by it. Sounds like that’s how he got the throne, too.”

Zelda shrugs. He’s not right, but he’s also not wrong… if you count, like, being Hylia’s Chosen Hero as some kind of divine nepotism.

“I’m not going to force you all to come with us,” Shadow says to the group, “but if you’re looking to get some revenge on the real enemy… we’re pretty pissed at him, too.”

It doesn’t take long for the Hinoxes to reach a group decision.

“Fine,” says Tim, as the others abandon their campfire. “I want to see this new Hyrule.”

Shadow reaches out his hand for a shake. “You won’t be disappointed. Probably. Maybe.”

And then two things happen in rapid succession, because nothing about tonight can possibly be easy. One: the lights shut off, leaving them in near-total darkness.

Two: Shadow screams.

Zelda calls his name, reaching for him in the dark. She can barely see a thing—just large Hinox silhouettes, illuminated by the firelight. And there, on the ground, Shadow appears to writhe in pain.

Zelda falls to her knees beside him. “What’s going on?”

He tries and fails to answer, but at least she knows he’s conscious. How much pain is he experiencing? What could possibly be causing it? This doesn’t seem like Tingle’s style, not straight-up torture —

“Torch,” Shadow manages to say, and Zelda remembers the wooden stake. She grabs it from him and runs to the campfire to light it.

“Is he okay?” asks Patricia, and Zelda shakes her head. Surprisingly, Tim beats her to an answer.

“Of course he isn’t, can someone pick him up? I’ll hold onto the sword.”

“On it,” says Robin, and Zelda turns with the torch to watch her hoist Shadow’s body onto her shoulder.

“Still with us, Shadow?” Zelda asks, taking her place at the front of the group. She can lead them back through the maze—she’s smart, and she’s done it before. Of course, there wasn’t the problem of Shadow being in horrible pain before, and the lights had been on…

“Still with you,” Shadow manages to say, and despite everything Zelda smiles.

“Good. Follow me, everyone, please!”

It takes her far too long (any amount of time is too long when Shadow’s in this state), but she gets them back to the door. The door that leads back to the long hallway, to the others, to—

“Vio,” Shadow says, his voice a whimper at this point. Zelda doesn’t know if the pain has eased in the past fifteen minutes, or if it’s just gotten so bad that he can barely manage a sound at all.

“Almost there,” Zelda tells him, dropping her torch and reaching for the doorknob. The… locked doorknob. Hylia, what the fuck can she do? They hadn’t outsmarted Tingle by befriending the Hinoxes, of course they hadn’t! This room is meant to kill them, one way or another! There must have been something more in Shadow’s soup, something dormant, a failsafe in case he managed to get these brainwashed creatures on his side… and now they’re going to die here, and there is absolutely nothing Zelda can—

Tim punches the door from its frame.

Shadow somehow chuckles, and then weakly sings the bizarre jingle only he can hear.

They make it through the dark corridor, bust down yet another door, and—finally—burst back into the main dungeon hall. Now drenched in light, Shadow looks like he’s on death’s door.

Zelda falls to his side and grabs his hand. It’s ice-cold, which is normal, but the way he shakes most certainly is not.

“Where’s Vio?” he asks, eyes unfocused.

“He’ll be here in a second,” Zelda says, trying to keep her voice level. Clinical. Maybe she could help him, if only she knew what was going on…

“Shadow,” she asks, squeezing his hand. “What are you feeling?”

Shadow winces. “Bad.”

“Okay, stupid question, how are you feeling bad? Have you ever felt like this before?”

“Can we do anything?” asks Patricia the Hinox, who is promptly shushed by Aubrey.

“Never felt like this,” Shadow tells Zelda. “Never.”

“What hurts?”

“…Yes.”

“ Fuck me,” Zelda says, and Shadow uses his precious remaining energy to grin.

“Sorry, but I’m married.”

“Someone’s coming,” Robin says, and Zelda turns her head to see the Hinox pressing her ear to the first door. Vio and Green’s door.

“Open it,” Zelda commands sharply. “Get them here, now.”

Robin does as asked and Shadow cries out again.

“Describe it,” Zelda tries again, as she hears footsteps approach from behind. “Tell me something.”

“It’s like something’s… pressing… down on me. And if it presses much harder, I’ll—”

“Move.”

Vio’s voice is sharp and cold and Zelda doesn’t blame him one bit. She pulls herself to her feet, allowing Vio to take her place beside his husband. Green stands among the Hinoxes, holding Vio’s purple Four Sword along with his own.

“Here,” Tim says as he hands Green the blue Four Sword. “Keep that thing away from me.”

Green locks eyes with Zelda. “I am so confused.”

“I have no idea what happened,” Zelda tells both Green and Vio, her voice dripping with guilt and fear. “I don’t know how we can help, I tried—”

“It’s okay,” Green said, dropping the swords and enveloping Zelda in a hug. “You’ve done nothing wrong. This is all beyond messed up, but it’s staged. It’s some kind of game.”

“No,” Vio says, to himself more than Green. “No, this is different.”

“I thought the same,” Zelda agrees, allowing herself to be held. “He—”

Vio shushes her and shifts Shadow onto his lap. How much longer can he suffer like this? How much longer is he supposed to suffer like this?

Vio mutters something to Shadow, and Shadow mutters back.

“What are they saying?” Green asks Zelda, and she shakes her head. If this really is what she fears it may be, that is none of their business.

“Hey,” says a new voice, quiet but urgent nonetheless. Aubrey the Hinox points at the third door down the hall, still completely hinged. “What’s in there?”

“We don’t know,” Zelda tells them, and then turns to Green. “What was in your room? Ours was the evil root beer cellar, but different.”

“Fire Temple, but different.”

“That’s—what? The whole temple? Why do they have that in their basement?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Zelda doesn’t think too hard on that, her mind busy elsewhere. “Those are both very… poetic locations,” she says, and Green nods. “What else would they keep down here, what else is important enough to—”

“I don’t know if this is helpful,” interrupts Patricia, “but part of our job was to protect the Dark Mirror. Two years ago, I guess? I’m still not perfectly clear on what’s going on. Do you think they could have brought it here, to the castle, along with everything else from the Fire Temple?”

Zelda’s heart stops.

That’s it.

Something pressing on Shadow’s life force, touching his very core, and threatening to shatter it completely?

“Blue’s in there,” Green says under his breath. “I mean, so is Red, but—”

“He doesn’t have his sword.”

“Do you still think… even with Red there… he’d...?”

“I don’t know.”

And she doesn’t. Zelda knows many things, always has, but right now she is clueless. She should have taken Blue’s rage more seriously, she shouldn’t have allowed him so close to Shadow and Vio, she shouldn’t have come up with this stupid dinner party idea in the first place.

Vio speaks in hushed tones, and Zelda aches for him.

Shadow doesn’t speak at all.

“I can’t break the door,” Tim tells Zelda, and she hadn’t even noticed him trying.

“It’s okay,” she tells him, and herself, even though it really isn’t.

Vio slams a fist on the ground.

Behind Blue and Red’s door, there is only silence.

[wheredafandomat]

Friends with Benefits

Reader x Thor x Loki

⚠️18+, college au, shmuttt

Part 17

Previous Part

Next Part

It had been two weeks, two weeks of you trying to seduce Loki and getting absolutely no where. You took Buckys useless advice which mostly consisted of biting your lip more and twirling your hair in Lokis presence which left him either asking if you were in pain or if you needed a hair tie. On the plus side, you and Loki had been spending a lot more time together recently but it was all purely platonic. You wondered if it was in fact better this way, to remain just friends with him to not have a repeat of the whole Thor situation.

On most days, you were left feeling confused. Loki didn’t make any moves to suggest that he liked you romantically which was absolutely fine but then sometimes he’d randomly stop and look at you as you spoke and it felt as if the world around you stopped. He’d lean slightly forwards which left your heart racing. Sometimes he’d even dare to tuck some of your hair behind your ear which left you having to turn away feeling flustered. You were supposed to just be friends, why was this so difficult?

Often you wished that things would go back to how they were before, minus sleeping with Thor who you now no longer saw through rose tinted lenses. You wanted to go back to a time where you’d hang out at Thors flat not caring about your appearance and exchange no more a few words with Loki. At least then you didn’t have to be so close to him and yet so far away. Now you found yourself always trying to make an effort if you knew you were going to see Loki which was ridiculous considering he was used to seeing you underdressed with messy hair as opposed to exchanging joggers for skirts and simple hair ties for clips and colourful scrunchies. Despite all of your efforts, it was clear that Loki didn’t like you in that way or so you thought.

It had been three weeks now and so you decided you wouldn’t pursue Loki any longer. He didn’t like you and you’d learn not to like him. You assumed that it was simply a crush considering how kind to you he always was. A crush that you’d soon forget about. Tonight was the long anticipated fancy dress party hosted by the drama students that happened once a term on campus. You’d usually go with Thor but this term he insisted you go with Loki because he had apparently planned an outfit with a different girl. Shrugging off the offence, you decided that you would go with Loki. Together you planned a last minute outfit where you’d dress as some sort of folklore princess whilst he dressed as a prince.

“Guys goo I’ll meet you there.” You told Nat who was dressed as an assassin and Bucky who was dressed as a soldier. You had just gotten out of the shower and they were already ready and you didn’t want to keep them.

“You sure? We can wait.” Bucky offered.

“No, go I’ll see you guys soon.” You insisted.

They both left whilst you laid out your outfit on your bed. You were still in your bathrobe with a towel wrapped around your hair when the door knocked. Sighing to yourself, you assumed Natasha had forgotten something including her key so you made your way towards the front door.

“Natasha you forgetful—Loki!” You gasped, eyes meeting Lokis when you opened the door revealing him standing in his costume with his hair tied back with two trendells out shaping his face. You quickly grabbed the towel off of your head and threw it on the floor.

“Oh sorry I thought you were ready.” He spoke, smiling nervously as he tried to ignore the fact that you were practically standing naked in front of him. “For you.” He added, handing you the bouquet of flowers he had in his hand.

“You um—you brought me flowers.” You answered, swallowing thickly as you took them. Do friends buy friends flowers? Yes! This was a friendly gesture.

“Yeah I-I saw them in a florist window on my way here actually.” He smiled, running a hand over the back of his neck “they looked really pretty and reminded me of you.”

You smiled as you brought the flowers to your nose before realising that there isn’t a florist anywhere near campus. Did he go out of his way to buy these?

“Thank you Loki.” You grinned “they smell lovely.”

“I’m glad.” He answered before a silence settled over you both. You kept your eyes trained onto the flowers not wanting to look at him as he fought the urge to look at you. That’s what this stupid crush had done to you, turned you shy. You internally scolded yourself and reminded yourself that this was Loki, the same Loki, the Loki you’d have to spend the night with so there was no point getting nervy over.

“Silly me, come in.” You spoke, breaking the silence as you gestured him inside. “Sit anywhere I’ll be ready in a minute.”

“Thank you.” He nodded curtly, closing the door behind him before he sat on the couch. Meanwhile you made your way to the kitchen, putting the flowers in some water.

“These flowers really are beautiful.” You smiled widely, speaking loud enough for Loki to hear. “Thank you Loki.”

“Someone as prepossessing as yourself deserves something equally so.” He replied as you walked out of the kitchen and through the living room he was sat in.

“Prepossessing, haven’t got that one before.” You chuckled.

“Oh y/n, words cannot describe your beauty.” He mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” He answered, clearing his throat. “Take your time I don’t mind waiting.” He assured as you walked into your bedroom.

You quickly put your dress on before struggling to reach the back and zip it up as you stood in front of your full length mirror. Luckily Loki was present you thought before you called him into your room. His breath hitched at the sight of you. Running his eyes over your form, Loki knew what you wanted him to do as soon as his gaze settled on your bare back. Making his way towards you, he moved your hair to the side of your neck before slowly zipping up the dress, eyes focused on his movements as opposed to your face in the reflection. Like every time it was just you and Loki, time itself seized to exist. You could feel the back of his hand making contact with your skin causing goosebumps in its wake. The feeling of his breath lightly fanning the nape of your neck was sensual. Looking at him from the mirror, you could see his chest rising and falling with every breath as his gaze remained on his actions until he finished and looked up, eyes meeting yours in the mirror.

“You really do look gorgeous.” He uttered.

“Thank you.” You answered just above a whisper as you continued to look at one another. Was this still purely platonic? Is this how friends looked at one another? “On my dressing table there is a necklace.” You spoke before Loki turned around and retrieved it, knowing what you were asking of him. Standing behind you again, necklace in hand, he reached forwards, placing it over your chest before clasping it at the back of your neck.

Loki tried to fight off the urge to ravage you then and there. You didn’t like him like that, he knew that, he knew it but he couldn’t help himself from leaning down and placing a single kiss on the back of your neck. He knew he’d have to apologise after and potentially never speak to you again after ruining your friendship but he had to do it.

You felt his lips against your neck and you lost all composure, practically falling back against him as you closed your eyes. Surprised by your reaction, Loki done it again only this time his lips lingered for longer before kissing another spot causing you to hum in content. It felt so right. Lokis hands found your sides, running them over you as he continued to kiss your neck, incorporating his tongue causing a small moan to escape you. You found yourself lost, drowning in the sensation of Loki touching you. You could feel his growing erection nudging your back and that’s when you truly lost yourself. Reaching backwards, you ran your hand over it causing Loki to jolt as he began sucking on your neck. You continued your movements as Loki started to rut against you. His hands found your breasts before he started kneading them eliciting more moans from you. One of his hands found the zip of your dress again before he tugged it down. Spinning around, you stepped out of it as Loki undone his belt buckle as you helped him remove his trousers. Your lips crashed onto his as you kissed one another feverishly, you pushing Loki backwards against the bed before he pulled you on top of him. Straddling him, you undone his shirt buttons, ridding him of it before you ran your hands over his exposed chest. Leaning down, you placed kisses against it as you worked your way down.

“Y/n!” Loki gasped, sitting up as he felt your lips on his v line. The look on his face told you he was ticklish.

“Shh, I’ll be gentle” you grinned, pushing him back down before you pulled down his briefs, exposing his cock. Instantly you wrapped your hand around it before you began stroking him. Bringing it to your lips, you kissed the tip causing Loki to breathlessly call your name. Your tongue circled the head before you took him in your mouth, gagging as you took him all. You hollowed your cheeks as you began sucking, moving your head up and down.

“Oh fuck.” He cursed incoherently as one of his hands helped guide your movements. Feeling him beginning to buck his hips, you stopped.

“You’re not cumming yet.” You warned, lifting your head as you began straddling him again. You could feel yourself growing wetter and wetter as you glided over his cock, still in your underwear. Lokis hands found your hips as he helped your movements, chasing a release feeling your clothed core against him. Lifting your hips, you moved your underwear to the side before feeling his shaft against your clit as you continued to move above him.

“I don’t have any protection.” Loki reluctantly admitted, not wanting whatever was happening to stop but also not wanting any accidents.

“I spend way too much on birth control to not feel you inside me.” You giggled, lifting your hips again as Loki guided himself towards your entrance before you slowly sank down onto him. You both moaned as he entered you. Giving even yourself no time to adjust to his size, you began bouncing on top of him as he gripped your breasts.

“You feel heavenly.” Loki praised, holding you against him as he bucked his hips up into yours. You moaned his name as you felt him deeper inside of you. You could feel yourself reaching the desired precipice with every movement.

“I’m gonna cum.” You practically shrieked.

“Jussst a little longer.” Loki groaned, speeding his movements. “Open your eyes, I want you to look at me as you cum.” He instructed. You opened your eyes, cumming as you felt him still inside you, coating your walls as you clenched around him. Both of you were swimming in bliss as you rode out your highs before you came back to reality.

Loki explaining to y/n what just happened 🤣

Tags:

@eyesbluelikethetitanic

@chaotics17

@mischief2sarawr

@muade-mua-de

@wheres-the-lamb-sauce

@ddeadlystbbxx

@howdidurhammergrowchris

@accio-peach

[robininthelabyrinth]

A-Yuan wasn’t the only child among the Wen Remnants, just the youngest.

Children's Day - ao3

Lan Wangji carefully scooped up the boy out of his hiding place, tucked beneath a pile of stones, sick with fever and fast asleep.

It was a good hiding place. If Lan Wangji hadn’t played Inquiry and demanded to know if there were any living beings around in this cursed place of death, he would never have found the small child.

He remembered him – this was little A-Yuan, who Wei Wuxian had taken down into town to play, the one Lan Wangji had bought all those toys for in his confusion, the one who called him rich-gege. Barely more than two years old, having never known anything but war.

He was all that was left, now. There was nothing else left in the battlefield.

No one else left.

Lan Wangji closed his eyes in pain.

I’ll care for him for you, he promised Wei Wuxian’s ghost, wherever it might be now. Now that you cannot.

I’ll take him back to Gusu to raise as my own – wishing you were by my side.

-

-Earlier-

“Sect Leader!” one of his aides cried out when he staggered back into camp. “What – who’s that?”

Jiang Cheng looked down at the girl in his arms. She was – four, maybe? Five? He had no idea.

She looked a bit like Wen Qing.

“I found her hiding in the corner of the battlefield when she made a noise,” he said hoarsely. “The Wen sect remnants…by the time I got there, they were almost all dead already, all her family. She’s – she’s young. It didn’t seem right.”

Wei Wuxian always liked children, he thought vaguely to himself as he looked down at her. It wasn’t so much of a surprise that he would keep one there…in fact, if he thought back to that horrible meeting they’d had that one time he’d come to the Burial Mounds to try to talk to Wei Wuxian, he thought he remembered there being a small child there. This must be her.

She was bigger than he remembered, but that was what happened with small children, wasn’t it?

“Her surname is Wen?”

“No,” Jiang Cheng snapped automatically, and his aide took a step back from his vehemence. “The Wen sect is dead, you understand? All of them. The cultivation world refused to allow them to live, that much is obvious enough. Her surname…”

He looked down at her.

I failed Wei Wuxian, he thought grimly. I won’t fail his legacy.

“Her surname will be Jiang.”

-

-Earlier-

“We found this child hiding in the Demon Subduing Cave,” one of the guards reported, looking nervous. “Lianfeng-zun – what do we do with them?”

Jin Guangyao frowned down at the child, judging the child’s age to be about five or six – maybe seven, considering the likelihood of malnutrition at the Burial Mounds. If they were any younger, he would’ve said that the child ought to just execute them as useless; any older, and he would’ve had no choice but to declare them an enemy combatant, and thereby order them executed.

At this age, though…they were still young enough to be taught to forget their current surname, and to learn new loyalties, and yet old enough to perhaps remember a little of what they had learned, living as they had for a few years with the inventor of demonic cultivation.

Jin Guangyao glanced at the papers in his hands, full of barely legible scribbles, laying out powerful new spells and interesting ideas. They would help Xue Yang with his work – but not as much as a helper would, and naturally they’d just brutally executed all the other ‘helpers’ that might have been available.

Not exactly Jin Guangyao’s personal preference, but he wasn’t the one leading the Jin sect army.

Still, his father, who had been the one leading, had retired to his tent, and now Jin Guangyao was the one with the power, left to be in charge of mopping up. That, in turn, gave him a little more leeway, which meant he could implement his own thoughts, rather than badly thought out instructions.

“Put the child in my tent,” he said, and smiled. “The poor thing must have gotten lost and entered the battlefield – after we arrived. You understand?”

The guard saluted deeply. “Lianfeng-zun is kind and beneficent,” he said, and his expression was worshipful. “I will tell the others that the child is from some distant Jin branch.”

Jin Guangyao hadn’t intended for him to do that, but – well, he couldn’t exactly refute it now, could he, and anyway there were worse things to happen. Everyone would know that he had kindly taken in some orphaned child of war, which would be good for his reputation.

He smiled and nodded, and thought of the future.

-

-Earlier-

“Well, shit,” Nie Mingjue said, staring at the trio of children: nine or ten years old, he thought, maybe a little older, two girls and a boy. They stared back at him, wide-eyed and terrified – they were very clearly trying to sneak off the Burial Mounds down the back way.

Nie Mingjue rubbed his face, glad that he’d insisted on doing the forward scout work before the attack tomorrow morning himself rather than let it go to someone else. He hadn’t wanted to come to this blasted place in the first place, being that he still wasn’t sure exactly what had gone down with Wei Wuxian, who’d been a good man once. But good Nie cultivators had died at Lanling City at Wen Ning’s hands, the Jin sect claiming that that brutal attack was at Wei Wuxian’s instigation, and at the Nightless City at Wei Wuxian’s hands directly, and he didn’t have any evidence to exculpate the man, either; he had no grounds to look the families of those Nie cultivators in the eye and tell them not to pursue vengeance against the man who had slaughtered their brothers and fathers and sons, sisters and mothers and daughters, like they meant nothing.

They deserved vengeance.

Just as he had, for his father.

But at the same time…

“You’re all surnamed Wen, I take it?” he asked, and they slowly nodded. “Dafan Wen?”

Another nod.

“Wrong answer,” he said, making a snap decision. This wasn’t like his father at all, not really; he had wanted to kill Wen Ruohan, who had done the deed himself, while these children clearly hadn’t done anything. “Swear to me here and now that you won’t seek revenge for your sect or family, and you can be surnamed Nie instead.”

They looked at each other.

“Your family didn’t send you to run away because they wanted you to take revenge,” he said. It was a guess, but he could tell from the way their shoulders sagged that he was right. “They wanted you to live. Well?”

They swore.

He took them home.

-

-Earlier-

She tripped and fell flat on her face.

“Hey, girl!”

She looked up, eyes wide with terror – she hadn’t expected to be caught so soon – but the cultivator in front of her didn’t strike her down. He was a young man, just a few years older than her, and he looked nice, kneeling to help her up.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “Did you get lost?”

Lost? From where would she get lost, exactly?

Despite that, she nodded.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Here isn’t a good place, though – we’re going to have a battle tomorrow…can you tell me where you’re from?” He frowned. “Or – can’t you speak?”

An idea suddenly came to mind, and she shook her head, lifting up her hands to mime signs like the ones she’d seen Lady Wen and her brother use sometimes when they needed to talk without disturbing others.

“Doesn’t talk,” he murmured to himself. “Clothing of white, ripped all to ribbons –”

She’d torn out any trace of the red sun. White was a common color, but she was old enough to know that she couldn’t let anyone know she was surnamed Wen.

“Oh, I’ve read about this before! Are you a bird yao that’s cultivated to humanity?”

What?

She’d been thinking of trying to pass as a traumatized war veteran, but she was only fourteen, after all; it wasn’t very believable. Of course, it was a lot more believable that bird yao – who would leap to that conclusion?

“My surname is Ouyang,” the man said, smiling brightly at her. “You should come back with me – I can teach you to speak, and we can give you a name…how about ‘Luo’ as a surname? That has to do with birds. Or we could surname you Bai, instead, since your clothing is white! Or maybe -”

She smiled helplessly at his nonsense. What a silly, cheerful man! Maybe she’d overestimated his age, he couldn’t be more than two or three years older, at most, and his brain was clearly not in the right place, filled up to the brim with romantic stories and adventure tales instead of facts.

It was a nice change, actually.

She accepted his hand as she stood.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

-

-Earlier-

Lan Wangji had returned home and submitted to a dreadful punishment. The elders he had injured on Wei Wuxian’s behalf were either in treatment or recovering.

As for the rest that had been at the Nightless City…

Many were dead.

Lan Qiren landed in the Burial Mounds, lips pressed tightly together.

He knew he was taking a risk in coming here to Wei Wuxian’s lair – no matter what Lan Wangji thought, whatever good points he’d had in the past, the man was now little better than a mad dog. He’d caused the death of three thousand people just the day before, three thousand innocents that hadn’t had anything to do with anything; why would he hesitate to attack his old teacher?

There was already talk of a siege – Jiang Cheng himself had promised to lead it, to wipe off the stain on the Jiang sect’s record, and the Jin sect had been right behind him. Even Nie Mingjue had been dragged in against his will, suborned by his sect members’ need for vengeance. As for the Lan Sect…Lan Xichen had looked so stricken by the thought that Lan Qiren had volunteered for the grim duty, despite Lan Qiren having never been much of a fighter and even less of a general. He intended to take only the smallest possible contingent, and to limit their work as much as possible to cleansing the dead rather than killing those who remained there – that much, at least, he could do for his nephew.

Either way, though, no matter his powers, Wei Wuxian would not live out the week.

If Lan Qiren desired vengeance, he need only wait.

And yet, here he was.

Alone, practically unarmed – and here nonetheless.

An old woman came out from the cave and squinted at him.

“It’s over,” she said sadly. “Isn’t it?”

Lan Qiren looked at her. One of the Wen remnants that Wei Wuxian had surrounded himself with, he assumed; the ones he’d given up his comfortable life for, claiming he was only acting as a righteous man ought. Perhaps he even had thought he was, back then.

Perhaps he really had been, back then.

“Yes,” Lan Qiren said, and cleared his throat. “After what he did at the Nightless City – the verdict is unquestionably death. But the rest of you…there are armies coming, and armies are not known for their leniency, especially not on passerby with the wrong surname. But they’re not here yet. There’s still time to flee – if you go now, you could take on a new surname and find some quiet place to live on.”

Lan Wangji had said they were civilians. Civilian life was to be prioritized above all else.

Lan Qiren was only doing what he must.

Despite his well-meant warnings, however, the old lady shook her head.

“There’s nowhere to go, and we won’t give up our surname,” she said, polite but stubborn to the last. “But thank you for taking the time to come here to tell us.”

“Wangji said that there were children here,” Lan Qiren insisted, ignoring her refusal. “If you won’t flee with them, at least send those that are old enough out on their own, and hide the younger ones. Tell them to forget their surnames – most people won’t rampantly murder children, so there’s a chance they’ll make it through, and live. Can you deny them that, just for pride?”

That gave the old woman pause.

“We’ll do what we can,” she said, and then eyed him. “How good are you at medicine?”

Lan Qiren frowned. “I can’t provide care –”

“She’s already dead. Come help anyway.”

The woman in question was not already dead, but dying – she was in her late teens, seventeen or eighteen at most, and she was in labor. From the glassiness of her eyes, the redness of her cheeks, and the threadiness of her pulse, it was clear that infection had long ago set in. It was not an exaggeration to say she was dead, little better than a corpse.

She was little more than a child.

“I don’t want her to die alone,” the old woman said. “But if you stay with her, I can use the time to try to take care of the rest. You’re not wrong, I suppose – the children, at least, deserve a chance to live on, even if it means leaving our surname behind.”

Lan Qiren looked down at the woman, unconscious already and unlikely to ever wake, and yet still whimpering. “And her child?”

The old woman looked surprised. “Can a child born like this still live?”

Lan Qiren had almost no medical training beyond the most superficial basics that were the necessity for any battlefield or night-hunt, with one sole exception: he had supervised the births of both his nephews by himself with little aid – his brother’s wife hadn’t wanted anyone else to be present, possibly in an attempt to prematurely enter her grave, possibly just out of spite. He had studied very hard in the days leading up to those births, and knew far more on the subject than most men did.

“It’s possible,” he said. “Unlikely, but – possible.”

He hesitated for a long moment.

“I can take the baby,” he finally said. “Pass him off as some war-orphan child of distant Lan cousins, sent to me on account of their deaths. I could raise him, or else give him to my cousin to raise; he’s got a large enough family that no one would question it.”

“Why would you do that?”

Lan Qiren looked at the woman who was dying, little more than a child herself. “Because of the children I can’t help.”

The old woman was quiet for a little while.

“Very well,” she said, and leaned forward to whisper the name the young woman had thought about for her child into his ear. “That works with Lan as a surname, wouldn’t it? That’s not bad.”

“Not bad at all,” Lan Qiren agreed, and rolled up his sleeves, settling down beside the girl. “Not bad at all.”

[herinsectreflection]

i love your essays but it's so wild to see these analyses carefully crafted and based on a deep reading of the text next to the things you write about faith, where half of it is entirely fabricated or based on wishful thinking. like i get it, shipping goggles are a hell of a drug but do you not remember the time she had sex with xander? or the time after that where she tried to rape and kill him? but sure lesbian icon doesn't understand straight people or whatever.

Hoo. Okay. Let's get into this.

So I reblogged this post on my main yesterday:

I was definitely thinking about this blog because I do just like to drop semi-serious observations and shitposts sometimes. My shitposts have a different energy from my essays because sometimes I'm in a mood to engage with the show one way and sometimes I'm in the mood for another way. I don't want to take myself hyper-seriously, and just because I make silly posts sometimes, don't think that means I don't understand themes and narratives.

That said, everything I say about Faith is 100% based on the show and a deep reading of it. I see the Faith of the show and I read her as both gay and in love with Buffy. I believe that this is the most logical, coherent, and interesting interpretation of her character. If you have a particular point that you think is fabricated then please, point it out, I am happy to either get a reality check if I have allowed outside sources to affect my reading (which happens to Everyone, because that's how media consumption works), or defend my point if I believe that what I've said is supported by the show.

The thing about Faith (and any character, but it's particularly noticeable with Faith) is that the character we see on screen does not necessarily line up with the one the writers intended to create. I have posted before about how adding certain ingredients to Faith's character can create something entirely unexpected that's also entirely based on those ingredients. Faith may not have been intentionally written as a gay character but she reads very clearly to me as gay. That is not based on wishful thinking, it's based on the text of the show, and I will ardently defend that.

Like, to take your example, yes I do remember her sleeping with Xander. I also remember her expressing dissatisfaction with the sex and a need to shower immediately afterwards. She is similarly dismissive towards the other men she sleeps with. I think it's likely that it was written this way to present Faith as this Cool Girl who gets around, but what is literally presented on screen is a woman who canonically Does Not Enjoy sex with any of the men she sleeps with. It therefore becomes very easy to read her as a lesbian experiencing Compulsory Heterosexuality.

I also remember her, in the very next episode, being weirdly invested in her belief that Buffy slept with Xander, and repeatedly insisting that she must have. This is... strange behaviour, to say the least. Why is so invested in this? Why does Faith comprehensively and exclusively pursue men that Buffy dated, to the point that she has to double-check after the fact that Buffy actually did have sex with this one. The thematic answers are that she represents Buffy's repressed sexual desires, and that she is a figure of Envy who threatens Buffy's position in the narrative. But created within the fiction of the show is a character whose love live is solely crafted around Buffy Summers, and I have to ask, within the fiction of the show, why?

(I also do not see why her assault of Xander should have any relevance, and that is very clearly an instance of her spiraling and re-enacting her own trauma, and not based in actual desire of any kind.)

So yeah, I do remember her sleeping with Xander. I'm not ignoring that with my reading. I believe that her actions and behaviour around that event actively support my reading. Other readings are valid, but I believe in mine. I think that the way Faith's character as a whole makes more significantly sense as a gay character than as a straight one (reading her as bi also makes sense, but I prefer the lesbian interpretation).

Here's the thing - behaviour does not dictate sexuality. Lesbians can date and have sex with men. In fact, most will, because we live in a patriarchal, heteronormative society, and heterosexual behaviour is both expected and enforced by society. The only somewhat coherent way to assign sexuality is by self-identification. People are what they say they are at that time (even if those labels can and do change. As someone who has at various points identified as every letter in the LGBTQ acronym (yes, all of them) I am aware of this).

And as I said in my post on reading Buffy as bi - none of these characters can self-identify because none of them are real. They do not have sexualities. None of them, including the "straight" characters. All they are is a construct of dialogue, framing, costume, acting choices, and a hundred other things that can make up a fictional character. They're the shadows on Plato's cave. We as viewers then interpret these shadows, construct an image, and assign sexualities to those characters based on what we see. These images can be interpreted in different ways. That doesn't mean all interpretations are equal - I think an interpretation of Tara as bisexual or Gunn as gay would be hard-pressed for evidence. But the point is, sexuality only exists in the interpretation, and different interpretations can be valid.

And even within the fiction of the show, let's be very clear about this - Faith never self-identifies. She never says that she's straight, or that she's gay, or that she's bisexual. Actually, the only characters that do explicitly self-identify are gay. Willow, Tara, Larry, Kennedy. Why do the gay characters have to self-identify and the straight ones don't? Because we live in a heteronormative society, where heterosexuality is an assumed default. Every character is presumed to be straight unless otherwise stated. This is, to use an academic term, hot bullshit.

This is about Faith's attraction towards Buffy rather than her hypothetical lesbianism specifically, but one question I always find it useful to ask when looking at an ambiguously-romantic same-gender relationship is "would this be ambiguous if it was straight?". If Faith was a male character, and we saw him gazing softly in at Buffy, and then looking shocked and saddened when he sees her with another man - would there be any debate over whether or not he had romantic feelings for Buffy? Would interpreting that moment as romantic be "wishful thinking", or just a fair interpretation given the visual language being used? If three years later, this character was told by an omniscient force that they "always wanted Buffy to love [him]", and he responded with silence and a guilty, knowing look - would there be an insistence that this was meant entirely platonically, or would it just be blithely accepted as romantic?

I keep thinking of that phrase: "wishful thinking". I notice that an awful lot of the time, reading a character as queer, or interpreting a relationship between two same-gender people as romantic is referred to as "wishful thinking", or "reading into things", or "shipping goggles". These terms are never thrown at people who read heterosexuality into things. I've seen people say after seeing S2 that they read Xander's "I love you" to Willow as romantic. Or after S4 that they think Spike might have feelings for Buffy. Or after S3 they think that Willow is straight. Some of these are supported by the later development of the text, some are contradicted, and some remain ambiguous. But in all cases, I note that these readings are never, not once met with accusations of "wishful thinking". Even if people disagree, the interpretation is allowed to stand, it's just disagreed with, while queer interpretations are delegitimised. A higher burden of proof is demanded of queer interpretations for no other reason than the double standard that heteronormative thinking has created.

I don't know what your sexuality is, anon. You might be queer, you might be straight. I don't know and I don't care. What I am absolutely tired of is the constant stream of dismissiveness that comes overwhelmingly from straight fans towards queer fans who have queer readings. It is always steeped in this mindless assumption that anything not explicitly labelled as gay is by default straight. That queerness is inherently frivolous and oppositional to Real Deep Analysis, and not actually an important part of that analysis.

I'm tired of it from the fans, and I'm tired of it from the show. The writers and actors have both spoken multiple times about the "lesbian subtext" that was imbued into Faith's character and the Faith/Buffy relationship. This is an active ingredient that they were aware they were using. They "played with" coding Faith as queer and using romantic tropes between Buffy and Faith. And then they are shocked, shocked, that some fans then interpret Faith as queer and Buffy/Faith as romantic. The heteronormativity runs so deep that queer readings are regarded as fanciful even when queerness has been intentionally injected.

No. Fuck that. I'm done. If you want to interpret Faith as straight, go ahead. Write essays that support that reading and explain away all the moments that indicate her romantic feelings for a woman and her lack of actual genuine desire towards men. No, I mean it, please do that. I support it. I like reading alternative viewpoints. But I am done with blanket assertions of heterosexuality as a default and feeling like I need to link pages of sourced evidence every time I say a character is gay.

[damselofblueroses]

Bambi, Chapter 1

You are my Bambi, girl, I am your candy, tell me what are you waiting for?

Summary: As an archaeologist who works on the Ancient Greece, you were on the verge of excavations’ session. While you have been preparing your team, you learned that your institute decided on your team has to work with another team as they wanted the outcome as a collaboration. The head of other team was your biggest rival, a scumbag in your eyes: Byun Baekhyun.

You two were supposed to work together for three months, in a Greek Island, Chios.

Could you manage to not kill Byun Baekhyun for three months?

Content: AU, heavily Greek mythology, enemies to friends.

Warnings: Well, the story contains NSFW/Smut, please minors do not continue.

Note: This story will be four or five chapters if I will not change my mind in the meantime. It is inspired by my major; however, I do not have a complete knowledge on archaeology, I am a historian. If I will make a technical mistake, please let me know. I am willing to receive any kind of feedback; you are more than welcomed to drop a message.

Chapter One: UN Village

June, Incheon Airport

Along the curves of the hill

Rolling, rolling, rolling hills

As we climb there’s a broken streetlight

When I see one, I turn off the lights under it

Baekhyun was nothing but ready for the excavation.

You were more than ready for the session.

Both of you, were nothing but two leaders who hated each other equally.

You were eyeing each other with saying no words since your teams came together in the airport. Before this particular moment of departure, you refused to meet with Byun Baekhyun, putting aside meeting with him, you refused even dropping an e-mail in order to let Sunkyungwan Team about Sejong Team. You were clear and strict as fuck, even though two teams had to work together for three months, you had zero intention to get accustomed with the other team leader.

The weather was sunny, nice and warm, however because of you and Baekhyun, your team members were feeling like they were trapped in a fucking blizzard during the coldest winter.

You were aware of your team members had positive opinions of that scoundrel, especially the girls, as you had your first-handed experiences because of your stupid classmates, Byun Baekhyun was very famous of his abilities to cast a spell on women. The problem was he was also famous as a serial dater, serial killer type of men.

A bastard, nothing more nothing less.

“Indy,” one of your team members, Minseok, called you. Although, calling you as Indy was also a habit of Minseok, it was also an obligation for the others, you insisted on calling you by your nickname or your name, instead of calling you as sunbae. You did not like the hierarchical titles. “Should we move into the control point?”

“Yeah, if you are ready.” you replied, grabbing your luggage and the rest.

“I guess we have to alert Sunkyungwan people since we will fly together.” Hyesun pointed out, your eyebrows knitted.

“I guess,” you recall her words. “They also have this information, so we do not have to alert anyone, we are not their babysitters.”

Hyesun’s cheeks were blushing after you kindly scolded her, but she was clever enough to hold her tongue. Your dislike towards Sunkyungwan was not a secret as you used every opportunity to show it. You led your team to the kiosks, counting the heads automatically. You had six here, you were going to have ten more when you arrive to Chios whose coming from all around European universities. With thirteen Sunkyungwan students, the excavation was going to shelter almost forty members. It was going to be massive, you had to admit. You never had more than twenty students in the field till now, but you were going to lead an extraordinary team as Junmyeon craved into your brain’s folds with his hammer of words.

You wished to be with Junmyeon right now, you were more tense than usual. Junmyeon could put you in more stable mood, however you even did not think to name him while the executives were asking your possible candidates. He would kill you merciless, you knew it very well.

Eh, at least you got Sehun, Junmyeon’s brother in your team, he had a lot of similarities with Junmyeon even though he could be noisier than anyone you know, however you accepted him as your dongsaeng, as his precious noona and role model, you also knew how to put him in an order. Then you had Minseok, the eternal field-partner of yours. He was older than you, although he was engaged in a Ph.D. programme in abroad, he willingly accepted your invitation. You had four seniors, Shinhye, Yixing, Jongdae and Hyesun.

To your dismay, two of the seniors who you really could want in your team, Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were in that bastard’s team. You were of the fact that they were immensely close to each other, but you wished to have them in your team as their abilities were precious.

Especially Doh Kyungsoo.

You missed that fucking bastard who preferred to be with Baekhyun.

Life, you inhaled. It was not going exactly in the way you could ask.

“On your foot, soldiers.” you called your team around you. “Do you collect all the materials you will be in need of?”

“Yeah.” Jongdae cutely pointed to his tiniest bag. “I am ready to excavate.”

“Exactly you will need every tool you have.” Shinhye smacked her husband’s shoulder. Yeah, you had a married couple in your team, although you were a year younger them, you always regarded yourself as their big sister, if not a mother. “You are going to work too much, Dae. I have sleepless nights because of the burden on your shoulders.”

You could not help but burst into laughs after the look Jongdae gave to his wife. Those idiots, they were so lovely and instead of their endless scolding sessions, they were incredibly fond of each other.

Sometimes you wonder, how having your significant other by your side would be?

You slightly shook your head, quickly climbing out of this deep cliff.

“Let’s go!” you exclaimed, jumping to the air. “Sejong is ready for the session!”

Baekhyun was watching you with a disgusted expression.

“Move on, Baekhyun.” Chanyeol pushed his body to forward. “We will miss the flight, Goddamnit.”

“Give him couple of minutes.” Kyungsoo chuckled. “He is fucking the girl with his eyes, frankly, he is doing it unapologetically.”

“Which girl?” Chanyeol’s eyes widened. “Do you mean, that girl? You c-

“Of course, I am not.” Baekhyun interrupted Chanyeol, staring at Kyungsoo. “She can go and fuck herself.”

“Well,” Kyungsoo stood up, placing his book into the bag. “I guess, you are going to be one to fuck her, but maybe I am wrong.”

“In her dreams.” Baekhyun laughed. “If she can manage to dream something like this, but I do not think so. That little freak can put even the nuns into a shame.”

“She is beautiful to be honest.” Chanyeol said with no different intention but observing your features carefully. “Okey maybe not the hottest girl in the town, but she is pretty, and I heard she is very clever.”

“She is.” Kyungsoo approved. “But she kicked Baekhyun’s ass twice, so he cannot endure her presence.”

“She never,” Baekhyun grunted lowly. “Kick me or my proverbial parts!”

“Did someone talk about kicking some asses?” Jongin appeared out of nowhere. “I am in.”

“Shut up, Jongin.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Let’s pick the team.”

The smile on Kyungsoo’s face irritated Baekhyun, he wanted to erase that fucking grin so bad, punching his face but Baekhyun had to hold his manners as the team leader. If they would be in their flat, he could already beat the shit out of Kyungsoo, at least he would try.

Baekhyun hated the fact that Kyungsoo had the exact past with you and him. Three of you entered the department together, instead Kyungsoo went to another university to pursue his master, in the end he testified every moment between you and Baekhyun.

That’s why he was smiling since he learned you were going to be the other team leader.

Baekhyun was aware of the close relationship between you and Kyungsoo, one of his best friends.

Quickly Baekhyun led his team to the control point, close to your team. He was avoiding from this step, however as the leader, presenting his fucking team to your team was his responsibility. When they arrived, he took a deep breath.

“Good morning to all.” his blood started to boil when you turned to him with a displeased face expression. Your eyebrows were knitted, your fucking lips formed as a thick line, your dislike was palpable and Baekhyun knew his own face was mirroring your feelings. “I hope you are fine, could you let me present my team to you?”

Baekhyun wanted nothing but cut the shit off.

“Good morning.” you answered between your teeth. Your voice sounded extremely creepy. “Yeah, go for it.”

You do not make a favour to me, bloody woman, Baekhyun thought but he put all his efforts to control his words.

“My name is Byun Baekhyun, I am going to lead Sunkyungwan Team this year.” he looked at your team members, quickly memorized their faces. “I really look forward to work with you, I wish a good session for us. They are my members, Park Chanyeol, Doh Kyungsoo, Kim Jongin, Kim Danbi, Lee Taemin, Lee Donghae, Kim Jonghyun, Kim Kibum, Lee Seungjo, Kang Seulgi, Im Yoona, Kim Taeyeon and Kwon Yuri.”

“You are like a troop, huh?” one of your girls smiled after Baekhyun finished his presentation.

“More or less.” Baekhyun smiled back to her. What a surprise to him was the transformation of your face. You warmly smiled to the members and bowed to each of them.

Baekhyun raised his left eyebrow, but he could not avert his eyes from your smiling face.

It was pleasant like a spring day and when you smile your eyes were shining.

“Thank you.” he heard your voice. “My team is not big as yours, Park Shinhye, Kim Jongdae, Zhang Yixing, Oh Sehun, Kim Minseok and Song Hyesun.”

“You forget yourself.” Minseok slapped his forehead and rolled his eyes. “Indy is going to lead Sejong Team as she has been leading us for the last two years, you can put your faith on her, she is the greatest.”

“Indy?” Jongin repeated your nickname with a surprised face. “Are you foreigner?”

“Do I look like?” you laughed and prevented yourself from flinching his forehead. He was such a cute kid. “That’s how my team call me.”

“Ah.” Jongin blushed and you could not control yourself anymore.

“But if you want, you can also call me as Indy.” you grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Everything must be equal for the teams since we are going to live together during a whole summer.”

“I would like to.” Jongin bowed to you.

“So do we need to add sunbae when we call you?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Have you ever called me as a sunbae, Doh Kyungsoo?” you coldly replied. “Did Sunkyungwan change your behaviours?”

“Gardens of roses turn to garths of thorns in a second.” Kyungsoo murmured but he was smiling to you, then he opened his arms, catching you off guard because you knew that Kyungsoo was not a huge fan of hugs. “Will you salute me as a good friend, or will I start calling you as sunbae?”

“Shut the fuck up, Doh.” you inhaled, but actually you were happy to see your still-working-on friendship. You moved to hug him, he held you tightly and lifted you to the air, then turned around himself, made you laugh like a 5-year-old girl.

Baekhyun did not like what was happening before his eyes. Kyungsoo had to be with Baekhyun, not hugging you for his fucking dear life, or lifting and turning you around like you were very dear to him. He hated sharing his friends with you, he already lost Junmyeon, he wanted to keep Kyungsoo and Chanyeol to himself. You should be fucking away from them, they were Baekhyun’s and only Baekhyun’s friends.

And there was another fragile issue that Baekhyun had been keeping in the deepest point of his heart and mind, like the palace of Nyx in the darkest part of Tartarus. Extremely delicate, horrendous, and even atrocious.

Baekhyun was aware of a strange presence was lying down beneath his hatred, dislike and continuous loathe towards you, there was a layer of curiosity, something could feed different layers and causing an earthquake in his life. Baekhyun knew that you were his biggest rival, but you became his rival by your talents and intelligence. He knew this and this piece of realization doubled his hate towards you.

The funny part was the things he did not realize. Baekhyun was full of confidence, he was capable of performing even miracles, however he never perceive the fact that you were also a miracle.

“So, what we are going to do?” Chanyeol asked to everyone with a huge, happy smile. Baekhyun fended himself off moaning, happy virus Chanyeol already sensed the chance of levitating the mood between the teams and playing along with it. “Are we boarding?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” one of your boys, Sehun, came close to Chanyeol. Baekhyun and you immediately glared them, noticing the chemistry between these two. Both of you wished to keep the teams apart from each other in order to reduce the obliged interactions between the leaders, but it seemed not possible even from the beginning. Baekhyun was cursing between his lips, you were swearing at the executive board in your mind.

“Indy,” Shinhye whispered to you. “Are you okey? You look like wanting to kill one of us.”

“Not you.” you answered without thinking, then registered to your words. “Ignore me, Shinhye, I am a little bit tense right now.”

“We got your back.” she blinked at you and held Jongdae’s hand. “Let’s start the adventure!”

What an adventure, you thought but silently joined them. Kyungsoo also was walking next to you.

“Why the heck you went to Sunkyungwan?” you spilled the bean. “I always believed you would stay in Sejong.”

“Yeah, that was my intention.” Kyungsoo was plain as always. “However, Sunkyungwan gives me more opportunities to secure my career, Indy.”

“I know.” you had to admit. Sejong was not generous as Sunkyungwan. “Sorry for my selfish words.”

“No worries.” he beamed. “It happens all the time, but I am really happy to work with you again.”

“Old but gold days, huh?”

“Well, it was not purely gold,” Kyungsoo followed the flows and ebbs. “Do you remember when we were almost expelled from the university?”

“Is there a way to forget those days?” you immediately took a look on Baekhyun. It was his fault, obviously. “We were shitting in our pants instead of the one who put us in that situation.”

“Come on,” Kyungsoo chuckled. “It was not only his fault, Indy, our hands were also crimson red.”

“Let me recall the memory, Doh,” you pinched his hand, he playfully pushed your fingers. “Excuse me if I am wrong, however that scumbag was the one who challenged you to confiscate the coin, because of your involvement into the incident, I had no choice but dragging your ass out of shit.”

“They caught two of us in the crime field.” Kyungsoo burst into laughs. “Professor Lee went ballistic and scolded us like we just killed a person cold heartedly.”

“And you could not see the reason behind it?” You were cutting Kyungsoo’s body with your eyes. “If someone tries to steal a coin from the excavation house during the session, I will kill them for sure. We were so lucky, the one who caught us was Professor Lee.”

“I heard you are strictest when it comes to excavation.” Kyungsoo assured you. “But try to not kill us.”

“The only one I am going to take down,” you shivered with the memory, Kyungsoo was already regretful to remind it to you. Well, maybe not so much because he wanted you and Baekhyun to realize the potential relationship you could have, and the easiest way in order to put you two in touch was making you angry. “That bastard if he will behave like the old days. We are not children anymore.”

“Have you ever been a kid?”

“Fuck off, Kyungsoo.”

“You did not change even a bit, Indy.” Kyungsoo made his statement. Obviously, you were going to keep this to yourself, taking his silent approval made you were more than happy. “You are still a pain in the ass.”

“And you are still a good boy.” you grinned, watching his lips formed around silent laughs. “Such a cute puppy for me, let me see your wagging tail.”

“I am sorry to interrupt your flirting session,” Kyungsoo turned to Baekhyun’s deadpanned face. “However, we have to move.”

“When you come across to a pretty girl,” Kyungsoo did not miss the chance of returning the favour. “You have to flirt with her. Wasn’t it your advice?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun looked at you, then turned to Kyungsoo.

You knew what was going to happen.

“He said pretty girls,” you tucked the words in Baekhyun’s mouth before he could open his fucking damn mouth. “To my dismay, I have never been pretty to correspond the standards of Byun Baekhyun the Magnificent. I am crying for the lack of beauty almost every night, I mean living without Byun Baekhyun’s interests… Such a misery.”

Kyungsoo bit his lower lip in order to hold his laugh, Baekhyun’s fists were clenching but you did not stop there.

"Ah I almost forget to ask for the name of that little village, Baekhyun.” you directly looked at his eyes since ages. “Where the girl you desperately wanted to bless with your attention left you? UN Village?”

You immediately spin on your tiptoes, then slipped towards to Sehun, leaving two of them behind of you, refusing to look at back. In the meantime, Baekhyun was throwing daggers to your back, grinding his teeth, his jaw was extremely tensed. Before Kyungsoo could stop him, he swiftly came to your side, you felt his breath on your neck.

You shivered.

You fucking shivered and Baekhyun noticed that.

“You are playing with the fire, as always.” he whispered to your ear before someone could notice what he was doing. “Did you forget who was burning with fire, baby girl?”

He quickly disappeared and started to make such a fuss in order to gather his team members around himself. You were frozen, after years, you were frozen, you missed the little smile on the corner of Baekhyun’s mouth.

You were on the verge of screaming because of the frustration you had felt. You forced yourself to proceed, walked into the plane, helped your team in order to set their belongings and place into their seats, then you retreated your own seat. It was comfortable and you could easily snatch a blanket. Your wish became true, even quicker than you expected because Sehun, your wonderful Sehun, already brought a soft blanket for you. You smiled at him, actually forgiving him for building bonds with Chanyeol since they changed their seats in order to sit next to each other and weaved your legs around the fabric.

Your brain was in autopilot, you were lost in the horrible memories. You did not want to recall them, you buried them into the cemetery of your memory. You wished nothing but never remember that day.

The day in that village.

Baekhyun was mad at himself.

His face was clouded, for the first time he was silent and sitting on the farthest seat in the plane. He really wanted to be alone, and since being vocal about his feeling was so natural for him, he told his need to the team. They willingly let him to do what he wanted, as a result, he was looking out of window, hell if a person could see something out of a plane’s window, and he was cursing himself.

He knew it was going to be a chess play. Between you and him.

It has been always like the chess.

There was a bond between you and Baekhyun, even thought you two always refused it, you also were aware of that bond. You equally hated each other and if there was a thing which could make you happier than seeing each other’s downfalls, that was the opportunity of being the one who digs the other’s grave by their hands.

He was sure on he was going to be the one who sets your body on fire, then finishes you. He was sure on he was going to be the victor, the one and only champion.

When he kills you, erases your name for all eternity, when he condemns you with demnatio memoriae, he will calmly breathe again.

You were a pain in the ass, even when you were not around of Baekhyun, you had a place in his mind since that fucking day he met you. Your presence was like a tree, how much he could try, he could neither find your roots in his mind nor cut them all.

You were his enemy; he was going to treat you as you deserved.

There would be no turning back.

But…

He was mad at himself.

He made a wrong move while he was trying to disturb you, shake your cage in order to give you a lesson.

He also remembered.

The day in that fucking village.

[raisinghellonstarbug]

Stumbled Into Laughter, Stumbled Into You - A James Acaster x Reader Story

Basic plot: The year is 2019, and life has been quite dull for you since working in a job that you hate for the past two years after graduating from university. You used to do stand up comedy at uni, but you’ve been putting off pursuing it due to lack of confidence and motivation. Your best mates decide to encourage you to try a comedy mic night for the first time ever and while there you incidentally run into an old mate of yours, comedian Rhys James. That’s when your life gets turned around as you end up diving into the world of the comedy circuit and becoming close with other famous British comedians. In the midst of it all, you end up meeting a particularly distinctive red headed fellow who might end up being the very thing that brings meaning to your life again.

*

A/N: Hello Acaster fans!

So this was an idea I have had in mind for the last few months and I finally finished the first chapter of my story!

Just so you know, the first chapter does not include James, but be patient as he will appear soon (but maybe not quite as soon as you hope). I do reckon it will be worth the wait for his appearance, or at least I hope the story is still enjoyable! It is a slow burn so if you are an inpatient person, then this story might not be for you ;)

You can read this chapter below or if you prefer, there is also the link to the chapter posted on Ao3 right here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33748507

-

Rating: M

Chapter 1 word length: 2326

Characters: James Acaster (duh), Original Female Characters(s), Original Male Character(s), Rhys James, Ed Gamble, Nish Kumar, Josh Widdicombe

Relationships: James Acaster x Reader/you, Original female character/Original Male character

Story tags: Romantic comedy, domestic fluff, slow burn, fluff and smut, British comedy, eventual relationships

Tagging: @laurabeech @rilannon @jasclearwaters @marklily @queensantiagoofthe99

Chapter 1 - Summer 2019

You were sitting at your desk at your mundane job, practically ready to blow your brains out on the usual, dull Thursday afternoon. It was really warm and stuffy inside the fifteen story office block building situated in Canary Wharf. This was a place you found yourself five days a week, doing the typical 9 to 5 hours. A usual day for a usual person.

Your job wasn’t a particularly riveting one. As an underwriter for an insurance company, some days could get especially boring. You knew how to do the job well, but it was not something you really loved. It involved all kinds of clients and claims in paperwork and it sometimes felt tedious and unfulfilling. But hey, it still paid your share of rent and bills. At least you could say you could manage in the hustle and bustle of the London lifestyle.

It was nearly hometime and you were itching to get home and relax. But before that could happen, there were those last set of insurance cover forms you had to copy to get sent to the HR department. And so you typed away on your laptop, clickety clack, clickety clack… the minutes went by like a chalk on a blackboard, scraping away at a snail’s pace.

You put your full force of concentration on the documents on the screen until it was finally done. A sense of achievement was necessary in these moments despite your lack of enthusiasm. It was in the little victories you reminded yourself. You rubbed the sweat from the July heat off your forehead.

* * *

The last 2 hours eventually passed by and it was soon the rush to get out of the door before you got held up by your colleagues. They were nice enough, but sometimes they could hold you back for half an hour chatting when you just wanted to get home, or your manager might try and get you to stay an hour overtime.

Thankfully you did get out promptly, and as you ran and dashed out of the office building saying brisk goodbyes to coworkers, you managed to make it to the tube with the train just arriving on time. But not without being moderately sweaty and hot though. Bloody stuffy platforms.

As expected it was still a busy train with plenty of 5pm finishers getting themselves situated on the half crowded carriages, but as it was only 10 past, it wasn't the worst time of day for commuting yet.

You perched yourself on one of the tube’s seats and let your shoulders drop, having held the tension in your body from sitting at a desk all day. You placed your head slightly back, balancing it on the window of the train. You looked up momentarily above you and then lifted your head back up to look at your phone and choose a song to listen to on Spotify through your wireless earphones.

The streams of sound from one of your favourite songs began to play softly in your ears and you smiled, knowing that the song gave you a little bit of wistful joy. You started mouthing the words.

Call it all for nothing, but I'd rather be nothing to you. Than be a part of something, something that I didn’t do (Best to You - Blood Orange).

The words half mean something but not necessarily anything. You began to wonder about being part of something that you’re not.

I just wish I could float away from my unexciting existence… you thought to yourself.

It sometimes occurred to you that you might have wanted something more out of life, but weren’t entirely sure what. It doesn’t make you dreadfully sad, but you know that life for you hasn’t exactly been the best it could be, and that perhaps something was missing. You wish you knew what it was.

You sighed, ignoring the feeling of sorrow wash over you momentarily and propped yourself back up in the uncomfortable seat of the train. You tried to keep yourself awake so that you wouldn’t miss your stop. The music continued through your ears.

* * *

You opened the door of the three bedroom flat that you had been residing in for the last two years with your flatmates and sighed with relief that you had finally reached home. You hurried to get your handbag off your shoulder and your shoes off, placing them on the rack next to the front door and walked through the hallway.

The minute you poked your head through to the lounge, bellowing a faint hello to whoever was around, you were suddenly greeted by one of your best friends and flatmates, Grace.

“Ahh Y/n! You’re home. Thank christ!”

She grabbed you and reached her arms around to embrace you tightly. You were perplexed by this gesture as it was so random and unusual given that Grace lived with you and saw you everyday of the week. You frowned and reluctantly placed your arms around her to return the hug.

As she then let go, she looked at you with urgency in her eyes and shrieked with excitement, “Oh Y/n guess what? It looks like I’m up for a promotion! Can you believe it?”

Now processing the reason for such an embrace, you raised your eyebrows in glee and smiled proudly, gushing back to your best mate who was obviously chuffed by the matter.

“Oh wow Grace, that's fantastic! I mean, finally. It is about bloody time!”

She smiled, “Yes I guess it is. But I mustn't get too excited. I haven’t officially got the promotion yet.”

“Ah but no. I’m not having any of that. You will get that promotion. It is a guarantee. They would be idiots to not give it to you.” Grace rolled her eyes and bit her lip. She reluctantly nodded and agreed.

The smell of food distracted you momentarily from the conversation. It was a particularly appetising smell.

Grace uttered, “Yes that smell is good isn’t it? Theo insisted on cooking us a nice meal for me as a celebration.”

You smiled knowingly, having known about how Grace and Theo had been in relationship limbo ever since you three became close friends at university. You knew they both had feelings for each other but often danced around the subject, completely oblivious to one another’s obvious attraction to the other. You reckoned they had to do something about it one day.

“Thank fuck. I wasn’t prepared to make dinner tonight. I am too tired for that.”

Grace then had her worried face on. She instantly knew, as she knew you too well, but funnily enough never picked up on Theo’s emotions despite constantly wondering about them, that something was wrong.

“Are you ok babe?” she asked with a look of pity that you scornfully resented.

You sighed, half lying, “Yes. I’m fine. Just tired is all.”

You made a beeline for the couch knowing full well that you were going to talk about it whether you liked it or not. You knew that Grace would see right through your dishonesty and insist that you told her the problem.

So you waited until Grace inevitably sat next to you and gave you that sympathy look she always gave you before coming out with the concerns that were floating around your brain.

“OK fine. I know you won’t leave me alone unless I tell you.”

“Ahh, you know me so well…”

“Yes, just as you know me. I’m just- I’m fed up. Work was slow. I don’t really feel like I’m associated with my life. I feel... disconnected, I guess.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

You shrugged and looked down at the floor and then back at Grace smiling sheepishly, “I don’t know. Maybe I’m not- not fulfilled? I just don’t thoroughly enjoy my life right now.”

Grace nodded and put a hand on your leg. You twitched your face in slight discomfort. You hated it when you were given sympathy for something that seemed so miniscule. It wasn’t like you were dying.

It was times like this when you just wanted to curl up in your bed, eat a tub of ice cream and watch your favourite comedy programmes. 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown sprang to mind.

As you sat in momentary silence for a bit, Theo came waltzing through from the kitchen with his silly apron on that had a naked man’s body printed on it, and a spatula in his hand. He smiled at you.

“I thought I heard your voice. I hope meatballs for dinner are good tonight. Not mine of course,” gesturing to the apron as he said it.

You shook your head at Theo’s poor dad joke and stood up to hug him. You realised that you must be really down in the dumps to be hugging Theo. It was his turn to be confused. He looked towards Grace wide eyed.

“She’s had a particularly tough day. But mind you babe, you’ve kinda been like this for weeks now.”

You let go of Theo and turned to Grace, frowning and feeling slightly defensive. You placed a hand on your hip.

“Been like what? I’ve just been a bit fed up, that's all.”

“Yes but it’s not just a bit fed up. You said so yourself you feel disconnected. We’ve been waiting for you to say it.”

You looked to Theo and he nodded gently in agreement.

“Ok… but, nothing is really wrong exactly. My life is fine.”

“Fine, yes. But not amazing. We know it’s getting you down. And the job is the problem.”

“But I’m good at it. And it pays the bills. What else am I supposed to do?”

Grace then looked away from your eyes then, twitching her lip and looking as though she was holding something back. She then sighed and began to admit something you had not been expecting.

“OK look. We know what you can do. Theo and I have figured it out. We can manage money wise. It will be tight, but if you quit your job we should be able to help you out for a little bit.”

Your eyes grew wider than large saucepans. You were totally bewildered and your mouth slightly agape.

“What? Quit my job? Why? What work would I get instead?”

“Well, maybe you won't quit your job yet. Maybe you’re right, that's too hasty. Perhaps what I’m trying to say is-”

Theo then chimed in, “-what Grace is trying to say is…”

You smirked to yourself. How do they not realise that they’re already a couple but without the sex? They’re practically married for christ sake.

“...we reckon that you need to pursue your passion. Perhaps stop wasting your talents in an office job that you hate.”

Grace continued, “yes exactly. We have had an idea in mind. See, we want you to go to this thing… it’s no biggie but well, we’ve already booked it for you.”

Your mind was racing. You couldn’t understand anything that they were saying to you. It was all too much for you to manage.

“Booked what for me? What the hell are you both going on about?”

They both looked at each other with reluctance, pondering the moment and whether to tell you the whole truth. They both shrugged and Grace was then pulling her phone out, this whole conversation beginning to appear as though they had been trying to practice it.

Suddenly Grace’s phone screen was wavering in your face. You moved your head closer to see a photo on the screen. It was a comedy club night poster. Incidentally, it was an open mic night event happening on Saturday night. You began to then put the puzzle pieces together. You folded your arms and frowned heavily.

“What the fuck have you two done now?”

Theo softly spoke, “We… booked you a slot to do that comedy open mic event thing, on Saturday night.”

“Wait. As in to perform? You can’t be serious-”

Grace tried to reassure you and grabbed your arm.

“Look, we know it might seem daunting, but we just wanted to see you happy again. It’s been two years since we graduated and you haven’t performed since then. We thought it might be good to encourage you to perform again. You were always funny to us. And people at uni thought so too. You have the stand up talent, Y/n.”

You could not process anymore. You shook your head in disbelief and placed your head in your hands, rubbing your eyes from sudden exhaustion. You then threw your hands up in exasperation. It was not possible. You could not do that again.

Fucking no way. I can’t be on stage again! It’s too scary. University pub nights are one thing but a comedy club?

You shook your head again and placed your hands on your hips. Grace tried to speak up again seeing the frustration painted across your face. In fact it was anger that your friends chose to do this without your say so.

“Y/n…”

“No. Nope. I’m not doing it. No.”

“But Y/n, we were also going to tell you that Theo is also thinking of doing the same thing! He wants to do his music again. What harm would it be for you to rejuvenate your comedy skills? Surely you can write a quick couple of gags. Nothing strenuous. You have your old material from university, right?”

You had to get out of the room. Nothing that they were saying to you could be fully accepted at that moment.

You then gave them no choice but to let you go with your head in a flurry. They both watched you leave the room, mumbling something along the lines of I’m not really hungry anymore, I’m going to bed. Soon after, you darted across the other end of the hallway, ill-tempered and almost seething, and slammed your bedroom door shut.

[driftward]

I posted 3,138 times in 2022

That's 3,045 more posts than 2021!

373 posts created (12%)

2,765 posts reblogged (88%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@autumnslance

@yloiseconeillants

@voidsentprinces

@scrollsfromarebornrealm

@phaedra-mero

I tagged 3,074 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#final fantasy xiv - 2,895 posts

#others art - 874 posts

#others edits - 474 posts

#friends writing - 346 posts

#oc wol - 282 posts

#ffxivwrite2022 - 241 posts

#endwalker - 195 posts

#thancred waters - 183 posts

#y'shtola rhul - 181 posts

#zoissette vauban - 170 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#yeah mch falls so short for how awesome it could be like you could be gadget master but instead its just dps and faster dps okay alright i g

My Top Posts in 2022:

#4

Thirty six years of age. She was only twenty years overdue in fulfilling her dream, that of leaving Ishgard to travel to other corners of the realm. She had always had this moment in her mind’s eye, when she’d finally be free to pursue her studies abroad. In this case, at the Arcanist’s Guild in Limsa Lominsa. She just never imagined that the price of that goal would be her exile from her homelands. She looked up at the tall spires of Limsa Lominsa, breathed deep the scent of ocean shore, feeling a nervous grin creep across her face, and could not help but feel that this was all a very big mistake. One she’d be paying for for the rest of her life.

31 notes - Posted June 3, 2022

#3

Character concept: Viera male named one of the following-

Pilot Lightingway Viera Maleway Male Pilotway Pilot Adventureway Anyway you get the gist. It’s a Loporrit piloting a very convincing Viera mechsuit. They don’t fool -anybody-, mind, as they don’t bother to filter their voice and the Viera, well, behaves like a piloted mech and not at all natural. Other loporrits who are interacting with the population of Etheirys in a perfectly normal manner find our little mech pilot to be bizarre by even their pretty broad standards, but our friend here -insists- that this is, in fact, the best way to interact with the peoples of the world. When they eat, they make all the normal motions of eating that you would expect from a Viera, but at the last moment instead of biting the pilot just hops up a bit and grabs whatever it is through the mouth and pulls it down to their little piloting chamber. They try not to stick their head up so far that they can be seen, so people just see a little Loporrit hand reach up from the back of the throat, though sometimes, they’ll come up for really big food to wrestle it down. The Viera unhinges their jaw for this. It looks... probably pretty unsettling, but not necessarily in a horror show kind of way. Just in a ‘that is really weird do you know that?’ kind of way. For drinking, they just stick a straw up and out of the mouth. To non-Loporrits they insist they are a perfectly normal adventurer who is just here to help in any way possible! Please be patient while they ask a lot of questions, they need to make sure they have all of the information they need in order to help out. Oh, by the way, do you have enough carrots? They brought enough for everyone, it’s in their backpack.

36 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

#2

I didn’t know.

I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t know.

I didn’t know that you couldn’t tell me everything

Because you were drowning deep in our star

Buried under duty, burdened by history

I didn’t understand that your blessing was meant as protection, not burden

I didn’t understand these visions were not prophecy, but history

That we might learn

I didn’t know that your tests were not just for the sake of our star, Not just for our future, But for all possible futures

I did not know the magnitude of the sacrifice that you made For us

I don’t know that I can condone all that you did, But I understand it I don’t know that I can forgive everything you’ve done, But I accept it I don’t know what to say to you now.

I wish … we’d had more time.

But we’ve only this moment

”Thank you for believing in me... even when I did not always believe in myself.”

“How could I not, my brave little spark? Your light shone so bright, long before we ever knew one another.”

“…I will remember you, Venat.”

“I know, little Sette. I know, and… thank you.

“But now it’s time for both of us to move on.”

42 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So, Estinien and Rhalgr share a voice actor (in English, anyway; don’t know about other locales).

In unrelated news, I am learning how to use my photo editing program.

109 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[shihalyfie]

The difference between the friend dynamics in the Adventure and 02 groups

This is a point I’ve reiterated in a lot of my 02-based metas, but there is a fairly distinct difference between the Adventure Chosen Children having a tight, deep bond and yet not quite being friends in “social life”, whereas the 02 group was a much tighter group on a social level. I always feel that I need to be really careful about saying this, because if I don’t word it carefully, it sounds like I’m trivializing the Adventure group’s bonds (plus, a lot of Adventure diehards will get very upset at you for suggesting this no matter how you put it), so I thought I should write something a bit more in-depth about it.

I think a lot of of this ultimately ties into what each series was about. The fact that Adventure was meant to be a series about “self-recognition of the individual” whereas 02 was about “relationships with others” has been pointed out by many a fan (and official staff too, while we’re at it), and it naturally lends to how the characters and the relationships between them will have a fundamental difference.

The idea that the Adventure group wouldn’t be the type to get together all that easily never really took that long after Adventure to set in. Of course, Our War Game! having this as a plot point also had a meta purpose (basically, limiting the number of people who could participate in the Diablomon battle), but it also has a very important point behind it: the Adventure kids’ social lives were never all that intertwined.

Again, this is something that sounds really awful to say without further qualification. What do you mean, the Adventure kids weren’t friends? Does that mean their entire adventure was for nothing? Did they go through all that only to forget about each other right after it?!

Well, no, that’s kind of exaggeration. I think to properly flesh out the nature of the issue, it’s important to define the differing ways you can be friends with someone. Imagine that you go on the best vacation in your life. You meet a handful of people there. You swap stories and get life-changing advice. You take commemorative photos after some really spectacular experiences. You swap numbers and social media contacts and then you go home. Are you going to keep in touch every so often with the people who gave you some very important advice, and maybe check on their important life events or organize a reunion sometime in the future? Very possibly! Does that mean everyone you met at that trip will now be regularly going out for lunch with you every week now?...Probably not, especially if you already have friends from school. That doesn’t mean you aren’t friends with the important people you met during that best life-changing vacation; it just means that they fill a very different niche in your life from the friends who don’t necessarily understand the life-changing vacation but have the free time to chat with you over lunch.

When the Adventure group found themselves pulled into the Digital World during summer camp, they had already come from very different social spheres. In short:

Taichi, Sora, and Koushirou were the only ones with a background of knowing each other beforehand, thanks to being in the soccer club;

Yamato went to the same school as the others but was a stranger to them, to the point people didn’t even realize Takeru was his brother at first;

Mimi had her own friend circle (see Adventure episode 29);

Jou was assigned as Mimi’s camp group leader but had no other prior relation to her, and Yamato didn’t even initially know his age;

Takeru wasn’t even supposed to be there since he didn’t go to their school and was only tagging along with Yamato;

Hikari was brought halfway into the adventure by virtue of being the eighth Chosen and Taichi’s sister.

Although six of the eight come from the same school, you can see that they’re basically “kids brought together by a certain circumstance” -- they’re not kids who would have normally come into each other’s purview had it not been for this. Which also means that as soon as their adventure ended and some years passed, the aspects of their real lives and social circles started kicking back in:

Taichi continued soccer;

Yamato formed a band (and presumably had a good relationship with his own bandmates);

Sora quit soccer for tennis;

Koushirou quit soccer for the computer club;

Mimi moved to the US;

Jou started attending a private school outside Odaiba;

Takeru and Hikari were never in their age group to begin with.

In the case of Taichi, Yamato, Sora, and Koushirou, it’s representative of how, although they originally had a shared interest in soccer, ultimately, they started to drift into their own specialties. Again, remember that Adventure was a series fundamentally about finding yourself and finding your own path, and all of these choices actually tie into their character arcs: Taichi is a straightforward person and a natural, charismatic leader, meaning soccer was good for him to begin with; Yamato learned to become more sociable and make friends at school; Sora started playing tennis as part of properly reconciling with her mother, and Koushirou decided to pursue a club relevant to his actual interests instead of one purely so that he could have minimal presence in it.

Mimi’s moving to the US is an interesting case because it’s likely because she’s often described (by both fans and official staff) as someone who is easily likeable and can get along with practically anyone. Considering that she’s constantly considerate of others and lacking in condescension or malice, it’s easy to see why; her infamous bouts of complaining were largely because she was under a lot of stress at the time of Adventure’s events (it’s even said that her cracking under pressure was meant to be representative of how an ordinary child her age would react to the situation), and otherwise she has no problems making friends -- hence why she was shown in Adventure episode 29 as already having friends in Taako and Mii-chan that she presumably hung out with prior to the events of the series. So in moving to the US, the point is made that Mimi could move to an entire other country and still hit it up with people there (and she does, given how she makes friends in Michael and the other American Chosen without issue). So thus, Mimi’s moving is also part of her own path -- becoming an effective “ambassador” between international Chosen as they start to pop up all over the globe.

As for Jou, his character arc has heavily to do with the fact that he’s always been on the “elite” academic track -- Japanese school entrance exams stretch back as far as high school, so the fight to get into medical school comes back as early as here, and since the events of Adventure helped Jou come to terms with why he wanted to be a doctor rather than just following his father’s wishes, it’s understandable that he would now be putting everything into that goal -- even if it means going to a different school outside Odaiba and committing himself to the prep school life. And, generally speaking, the other kids respect that too, given that the only time they tried to pull him from it was a time they were literally suffocating on the spot and needed Ikkakumon’s specific backup badly (02 episode 16).

And finally, Takeru and Hikari? The fact that they’re that much younger than the others in this group really is a big deal. When they’re on something “purpose-based” like an adventure, of course the others will have no problem keeping them around, and of course they’ll be happy to participate with these older kids. But if we’re talking about mundane, ordinary life -- there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest they really would prefer the company of kids so much older than them for conversations over lunch. This is especially because it’s hard to imagine they didn’t have other friends at school, too.

Not that they mind being around all these older kids when the time calls for it, but as far as socialization goes, they have their own lives to live. And that’s fine; again, Adventure was a narrative about kids coming to terms with themselves and what they wanted, and it’s not their fault for prioritizing those paths and forming their own social circles rather than insisting on being a specific eight-person group (no matter how much the fanbase wants to have the romantic image of them sticking together all the time no matter what).

Plus, it’s not like they all completely drifted apart and cut each other off!

Just because they’re not “daily life friends” doesn’t mean they’re not still important to each other. 02 episode 38 has Taichi, Sora, Jou, and Koushirou show up for Yamato’s concert -- it’s unlikely they were attending every single one of his concerts, but this was a very important one that was going to be broadcast on TV, so it’s only natural that even Jou (who, again, doesn’t go to school in Odaiba anymore) would still come to support him.

In fact, the fact they can come together when a situation like this happens even without necessarily meeting up every single day of their lives is probably a testament to how strong that bond is in itself. They don’t need to hang out once a day or week to maintain their friendship, and having other friends they’d rather hang out with throughout the day or invite to events doesn’t necessarily mean the other Adventure kids are less worthy friends to them. That experience in August 1999 was so impactful on all of them that they will never forget it, so even if they spent quite a long amount of time not interacting with each other, when a circumstance that necessitates them coming together does bring them together, they can hit it off like nothing happened. Think about how you might have an important friend that you may not chat with on a daily basis, but you talk to them once in a while and hit it off like you never had a break in the conversation. But because that strong bond is based on that one very specific experience that happened in one specific summer, it’s only natural that the majority of meetups over this are going to be based on something to do with that experience, like Digimon incidents; for ordinary things like “band concerts” or “club activities”, it’ll naturally be easier to stick around friends who have more similar social interests, like fellow band or club members.

On the other hand, this is very much not the case for the 02 group.

To understand why the 02 group has a fundamentally different dynamic, we need to dial back to a little before the actual “adventure” part of 02 started.

Right off the bat, we see:

Takeru moves to Odaiba from Sangenjaya, and specifically to the same building Miyako and Iori live in, meaning he’ll be walking to school with them every day;

02 episode 7 indicates that the Motomiya and Yagami families live in the same apartment complex, meaning Daisuke and Hikari are also likely to walk to school together;

Miyako and Iori are established as having already long hit it off with each other as neighbors;

Daisuke, Hikari, and Takeru end up in the same class (with Daisuke and Hikari having known each other already).

In other words: Even before anything to do with Digimon had been introduced (or re-introduced, technically) into their lives, the kids were already being thrown into each other’s social circles. You could technically argue that Daisuke wouldn’t have necessarily met Miyako and Iori if not for the Digimon incident coming into his life later in the episode, but Takeru being neighbors with them basically fills in all of the gaps here -- unlike with the Adventure kids where the adventure in August 1999 threw them together when they likely wouldn’t have been in the same social circle otherwise, the 02 kids are the social circle even independently of the Digimon incidents. In fact, due to being functionally neighbors, there are a lot of ways these kids’ social lives intersect, with Daisuke and Miyako being Taichi and Koushirou’s juniors, Miyako working for Yamato’s band, Yamato being classmates with Miyako’s sister Chizuru, and Jun and Miyako’s other sister Momoe being classmates.

Since, again, 02 was a series fundamentally structured on examining relationships, you can basically view Adventure being a series about “bringing some people together as they find self-assertion even when they’re from different social circles” while 02 follows that up with “so if they were in the same social circle, how would they deal with that?” -- especially since 02 makes it clear that certain kinds of emotional baggage associated with that can actually make it much more complicated.

A lot of 02′s first half is dedicated to the 02 kids doing completely mundane things that have very little relevance to the Digital World conflict -- watching TV in the computer room (remember: this was before they realized the “genius boy” being covered on the news was actually relevant to this), or having a picnic in the Digital World. Mimi even explicitly points out that this kind of thing wouldn’t have happened with the Adventure kids, but it’s not just because of the fact that Adventure involved a lot of running for their lives! It’s easy to dismiss a lot of what happens in these early episodes as “filler”, but a lot of this is dedicated to depicting how the 02 kids were constantly spending time with each other for reasons completely separated from Digimon incidents. This even includes completely ordinary things like soccer games -- Takeru, Hikari, Miyako, and Iori come to support Daisuke with an obvious motive of seeing him do well, so it’s apparent that they’ve come to enjoy hanging out with him beyond just obligation.

Part of this is because of the different nature of the Digimon conflict that they experienced. The Adventure kids had an experience that really was, functionally, “one” experience -- an extremely formative and important one, but one condensed one that they all experienced together. The nature of what the 02 territory war and conflict was, on the other hand, meant that what the conflict “was” to the 02 kids was of a completely different nature. This wasn’t summer vacation; this involved going back and forth between the fight and real life, to the point where Digimon fighting became integrated into “daily life” -- so of course you’d probably hope that the people you’re fighting with are also people you like to bond with on a social level. “Digimon life” and “social life” became synonymous to them.

And when it all comes down to it, it’s hard to pinpoint a “single experience” that the events of 02 embodied, or at least in the same way August 1999′s adventure was. As much as they were running for their lives, the Adventure kids have the luxury of looking at the events of their series as a formative singular time for them, one that they could even look at nostalgically, but for the 02 kids, it’s hard to condense everything into one singular experience (it’s easy for the audience to see it as one series, but for the kids themselves, it’s a very long chain of vaguely connected events). Actually, most of the year involved fighting with someone who ended up becoming their important friend and the other involved helping him deal with his trauma, so it’s not like everyone would be likely to have the most romantic image of this experience itself to “bond” over as much as they care more about the take-home they got out of it: each other.

One thing that 02 doesn’t really spotlight front and center with its starter cast of characters is that, unlike the Adventure kids, who either came with their own social circles prior to Adventure or eventually developed their own in the course of their lives, it’s heavily implied that the 02 kids actually had difficulty making other friends even on a social level, or at least were likely to be in a situation where the other 02 kids really were better company than their other options even for mundane situations. This is especially in the case of the newly introduced characters, who are, effectively, a bit socially “displaced” from others and likely to have struggles fitting in.

There are quite a few signs that Daisuke had serious difficulty making friends prior to the events of the series (with Hikari being the closest thing he had to one), and the fact that the 12-year-old Miyako is portrayed as constantly hanging out with the 9-year-old Iori, brought together by being neighbors, rather than people closer to their own ages stands out. Iori is particularly interesting in that, unlike with Takeru and Hikari, who were portrayed as kids likely to socialize better with those their own age, Iori’s unusual maturity for his age heavily implies that he would actually be out of place with his classroom peers (a very common phenomenon for some people in real life, too!). 02 episode 3 depicting him left alone in the classroom with only a teacher to watch him while his stubborn fixation on principles leaves him slow to finish his lunch says a lot -- his own behavior is liable to isolate him from others, and it’s thus not all that surprising he ended up bonding with some kids who are older than him and more accepting (and even treat him with proper respect, too).

Takeru and Hikari, too. There’s been a lot of arguments over whether the two of them would theoretically be closer to the Adventure kids or the 02 kids, but I would honestly say it’s technically both at once -- they have the same “not socially close, but intuitively understanding” relationship that the Adventure kids all have with each other, but hold the other 02 kids as part of their social circle and hang out with them in “daily life”. So in other words, they have the Adventure kids’ relationship with the other Adventure kids, and the 02 kids’ relationship with the 02 kids. This is presumably why Takeru and Hikari end up hitting it off so well at the start of 02 even though they didn’t interact all that intimately in Adventure; not only do they have that shared experience they intuitively understand, they also were able to start hanging out in day-to-day life and actually, well, socialize.

This applies to them in relation to the rest of the group as well. While neither of them were necessarily portrayed as having social problems, one common thread between the two is that they’re both very emotionally closed-in. Takeru’s response to negativity is to cover it up with smiles, until he can’t hide it anymore and bursts (which scares the hell out of Iori in 02 episode 19 and ultimately forms the basis of their Jogress arc), whereas Hikari has issues vocalizing whenever she’s hurt or in pain (said by herself in 02 episode 31, but with precedent from Adventure episode 48). That means that, even with potential social circles at school, it’s unlikely they necessarily would have had someone they could emotionally bond with deeply off the bat (especially since Takeru had just moved from Sangenjaya), and it’s likely why they kept gravitating towards each other (despite never truly talking about anything in-depth for most of the series) up until the Jogress arc.

In other words, while the Adventure kids’ adventure of self-actualization meant that their relationships to each other were mainly formed on simply understanding that they had a similar experience and empathizing, the 02 kids -- full of a group of somewhat socially maladjusted and out of place kids, plus two who had been on the prior adventure but were young enough to now still be carrying some deep-seated, unresolved emotional baggage -- were in a position where they arguably needed each others’ help to grow.

Jogress isn’t just an obligatory evolution gimmick; it’s something very important to 02 as a series and understanding what it wants to say about relationships. I think one thing that makes me very sad is how often its constant pigeonholing as a gimmick makes me hear people saying that Daisuke and Ken was the only plot-relevant one and the rest were forced “spares”, saying that something like Takeru-Hikari and Miyako-Iori would make more sense. But when the point of the series is about building your relationships from scratch and learning to grow together, I really don’t feel that a story about relationships that naturally existed already would have helped it nearly as much. It’s not like Daisuke and Ken was that likely of a friendship, either!

This is especially in the case of Takeru and Hikari, who certainly were vibing pretty well with each other, but were still very emotionally closed-in with a lot of emotional baggage until the more to-the-point Miyako and Iori were able to break through their shells. (02 episode 13 is so often considered a “Takeru and Hikari bonding” episode, but while it does do a lot to show off the depth of their relationship that hadn’t been depicted much besides them just hanging out all the time, it also does not solve Hikari’s core problem in nearly the same way Miyako gets to the bottom of it in episode 31.) This is also why Takeru and Hikari have such a different relationship with the 02 kids compared to theirs with the Adventure kids; while they were largely tagging along with the older kids and learning a bit about inner strength back during their summer adventure, the 02 group is the one who not only provided them with friendship on a more equal peer level, but also poked deeply into their emotional issues that they very much needed others to help them out of. These are friends who finally get them.

That Ken ultimately becomes yet another addition to this group of kids in need of friends finding support in each other should go without saying -- after all, it’s made abundantly clear he was very lonely and friendless until Daisuke and the others reached out to him -- but it ultimately culminates in them choosing to integrate this lonely boy from Tamachi into their social life. (Remember: Ken is the only of the six 02 kids to live in Tamachi and not Odaiba, but the last quarter of the series has them going out of their way to meet up.) The episode that establishes that everyone has truly made their peace with Ken and wants to unequivocally support him (with the most originally stubborn against it, Iori, graciously accepting him) is sealed off with a Christmas party. A completely ordinary Christmas party that has nothing to do with the Digimon incidents at hand, where they can play meaningless card games and celebrate the little things like Ken laughing, because it’s not just forgiving him or learning to work with him, but actively enjoying his presence and supporting him.

The Digimon Animation Chronicle profile for Ken in Diablomon Strikes Back refers to him as Daisuke’s “best friend” (親友). Usually, the word for “friends” within Adventure and 02 would be nakama (仲間); you may have heard this word from One Piece fans, but this is a word that roughly means “one of us” and has a stronger emphasis on being in a certain group, or being like-minded. Thus, “you’re a Chosen Child like us,” or, more pertinently, “you have the same goal as us and we’re in this together” (after all, it’s not like being a Chosen Child was ever an exclusive club or anything).

But in the case of Daisuke and Ken’s relationship, it’s not just about having happened to gain a deep bond over the course of 02, it’s that Daisuke now really does have a sense of emotional closeness to Ken that the two are considered best friends by default -- in any situation, despite him living all the way in Tamachi. Even though the franchise loves to put them in the category that “protagonists and rivals” usually get, where most others are ones who tend to have friction but understand each other in the end, Daisuke and Ken are unique in that they’re not like that at all. They have a very straightforward sense of emotionally confiding in each other, at worst maybe lightly bantering a bit, but they are friends before anything else, and that extends to the rest of the 02 group as well.

The aftermath

On its face, it sounds like the 02 kids are getting a pretty luxurious deal -- they got a fun adventure of emotional growth out of it, and they’re tight friends with each other at that! Well, that probably sounds great, but there’s a flip side to all of this.

Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, the Adventure kids’ adventure in 1999 was a lot more “romantic” than the 02 kids’ eight-month-long ordeal. Sure, a lot of it definitely was stressful, what with the running for their lives and the scary villains and the emotional conflict, but there was also the part about getting to meet Gennai and the other friendly Digimon around and getting to explore villages. They were on summer break, so they didn’t even really have to worry about school (especially once they realized time dilation was a thing); it’s basically the epitome of the romantic coming-of-age story. (Fun fact: Stand By Me is really culturally influential in Japan.)

02, on the other hand, was an eight-month-long ordeal of having to fight a territory war crammed into the after-hours of school, juggling fighting this war with keeping it from parents, in a fight that would retroactively turn out to be against what would later become a heavily traumatized and beloved friend, plus eventually watching him get subject to even worse trauma. Oh, and the series also ended on witnessing a bunch of deaths (or in other words, the worst New Year’s Eve ever). While it seemed like the kids had the luxury of enjoying the Digital World in ways the Adventure kids couldn’t at first, actually, they didn’t get to enjoy as much of it at all, since they never got to form any lasting relationships with anyone like Gennai or Elecmon. These kids were basically too busy trying to keep each others’ heads on straight to really be able to focus on that.

The comparative mess that the 02 kids went through, and the messes that they kind of are, means that they’re rather dependent on each other for emotional support. This is not inherently a bad thing, mind you; the fact that some people are more independent than others is a simple fact of life, and the 02 kids (whether it’s from naturally being a bit misfit or from the degree of their experiences) being the type who grow together with mutual support isn’t inherently anything bad. It does, however, mean that they’re likely to have some difficulties ahead coming out of 02 as “growing up” conspires to make it more and more difficult for them to stick together -- after all, how many people have actually been able to stick with their elementary school friends all the way into adulthood? This is especially because Japanese high schools admit students by examination, and rank by academic ability; it’s not particularly common for those from the same elementary/middle school to attend the same high school, even if they live close to each other, and it’s very unlikely that all of them will be sticking together in school by that point.

So, how did they fare?

Well, before we get into anything else, we should probably bring up one thing that seems like such a tiny little detail but is actually very important for this: Technology didn’t stagnate at 02′s D-Terminals, and by the time of Kizuna in 2010, smartphones and group chats existed! (Earlier than they did in real life, at that.) This is actually really important because of how much it does for that question of “how to keep in contact when circumstances like school keep you apart” -- especially when the Adventure group would certainly appreciate the method to keep in touch despite their lives largely getting increasingly separate. That, and even more so if other similar technological things like social media existed; there’s a lot of ways to keep in touch despite physical and circumstantial distance.

Of course, they’d been keeping in touch via email since 02, but a group chat is much lower pressure and actively encourages everyone to keep in touch; think about how useful group chats have been for connecting with your own longtime friends. It’s ambiguous whether the 02 group was privy to this particular chat from To Sora given that they were clearly on call for incidents like the Parrotmon one, but it’s also entirely possible that this is a room for The Ones Who Went on That One Adventure in August 1999, especially since they use the Crests as their icons, and the 02 group has their own (let’s be real, they totally would; think about how many Discord servers with overlapping people you might be in right now). This, combined with the fact that the Adventure and 02 groups seem to have formed a sort of recon squad for the increasing number of Digimon incidents in Tokyo, means that there are actually a lot more opportunities to stay involved with each other than ever before!

As it seems, the Adventure group does seem to be rather emotionally close to the point that Taichi is willing to reach out to Yamato simply to dump his emotional troubles about his future career prospects on him (despite them going to very different universities at this point). Yet, at the same time, there’s still a palpable sense of distance going on here, and a depiction of Taichi and Yamato having developed separate social lives and their own friend circles -- Taichi with Morikawa and Nemoto, and Yamato with Abe (their names come from the novel), who are also acquainted with each other enough to talk about career and worry about each other.

When Taichi and Yamato talk over beer, they don’t even have updates on the same people (Yamato has to update Taichi on Sora and Takeru’s status), and ultimately, Yamato comments on their drifting -- saying that it’s a potentially inevitable part of choosing one’s path. It’s not hard to see why he says this; it’s been a recurring theme for them since after the events of Adventure. Sora and Mimi haven’t been around for Digimon incidents lately because of their careers, and it’s highly likely Jou hasn’t either; Koushirou keeps in touch, but our only depictions have been in the range of business and Digimon incidents.

But for the 02 group? Absolutely not.

The Kizuna drama CD has a lot about what the 02 group was doing (and planning to do) during their little “vacation” in New York. In fact, there’s a lot to go on about here:

Daisuke and Takeru show up together even though Iori was allegedly said to be “first” approached, meaning the two of them were basically hanging out anyway.

Daisuke insists on going on a trip that’s about his own personal career with friends -- and not just any friends, but specifically the group of himself, Ken, Miyako, Iori, Takeru, and Hikari. He also wanted his seniors along, but they were too busy -- but it’s pointed out that the other 02 group members aren’t exactly full of free time either, meaning that these five have a special place of importance to Daisuke in his ramen career trip.

Even the Digimon are aware of what the other humans (the ones that aren’t even their partners!) have been up to lately.

Miyako and Hawkmon say that it’s only natural for them to show up when the group is getting together -- i.e. being with this specific company is a fact of life to her, to the point she invents D-3 gate exploitation to be with them.

The group keeps saying “it’s been a while” for periods of time in which it is made pretty obvious it’s actually not a lot of time at all. (Miyako had just left for Spain to the point her coming back elicits an “already?!” kind of reaction, yet that constitutes “a while”, and the most likely very short time between the trip planning and the movie is also apparently “a while”, and it’s very likely that Takeru’s “a while” in greeting Iori may well have not been that long, either.) It really makes you think about how often the people in this group must be meeting up to think that this constitutes “a while”...

Hikari is ready to fight people for denying her the chance to play with Miyako.

Beyond that, they’ve all apparently been regular enough presences in Daisuke’s life for completely offhand comments and actions to have major impacts on his career thoughts.

In the movie itself, Miyako refuses to take on the exact same request that she ultimately gladly participates in with the rest of the 02 group in New York -- presumably, because the fact her friends are there makes it all better.

As it turns out, despite everything -- despite everyone going in completely different directions with their careers, attending different schools (Iori’s still in high school while everyone else is in university!), the 02 group has been maintaining this attitude of going out of their way to hang out with each other, in a sort of “we do it together, or we don’t do it at all” sense. Of course, that’s not to say they’ve all stayed so socially maladjusted that they’ve become completely incapable of making any other friends at all, but there is a very clear, strong preference of them wanting to be in each other’s specific company to the point that they would do ridiculous things to make it work.

So, you might be asking: what’s the trade-off?

Yamato attributes the alienation between the Adventure group to “choosing one’s own path”. Inherently, this is not quite right (nor is the sentiment that “choices are bad” in general), especially considering that Daisuke, Iori, and Hikari already made their choices in path a long time ago, yet are still behaving like this. The question is actually more of priorities; notice that while the older Adventure characters are mainly portrayed in Kizuna as aggressively pursuing career prospects, the 02 characters, despite having their current educational statuses listed in their profiles, simply seem to have this as not an object.

Iori’s still in school uniform; he’s arguably cramming this all between school club obligations. Ken, Miyako, Takeru, and Hikari don’t have their current educational status involved at all, and even though Daisuke’s ramen trip is technically for his future career, he’s also happy to just “play around” about sightseeing (and, again, there’s also no reason he needed to bring his friends for this). Takeru’s working on his novel, but he hasn’t actually decided it’ll be his career yet. It’s not about whether they’ve made choices or not; it’s about the fact they’re going about this remarkably casually to the point where maintaining their relationship with their friends is more important than career. And this extends to the 02 epilogue as well; compared to their seniors’ more prominent history-making careers, the 02 group’s is more low-scale and community-oriented (the only exception being Sora, but even that ties into individual ambition more than anything else, considering that not succeeding her mother is already a pretty big deal in itself).

The take-home

Adventure and 02 are both very well-known for showcasing people with different personalities and goals in life, and celebrating their differences. I think, personally, the difference between the Adventure and 02 groups’ dynamics is also something that reflects on the different ways to live one’s life as well. This is especially something that most of us can probably understand well now that we’re adults looking back at this, especially in light of Kizuna.

There are some of us who really want to do large-scale things in this world, and will need that understanding of the self to get there but may struggle with maintaining consistent friendships on that turbulent path, and have to adapt by managing the different levels of their relationships and learning to get along with different people in different ways. There are some of us who gain happiness more from mutual support with the people around us even if it means not ostensibly achieving as “great” things, and feel most comfortable with a single consistent set of friends. Some of us are in between, or feel elements of both as we try to experiment with things in life (actually, I’m pretty sure that’s probably most of us to some degree).

Think about your own life and future prospects right now, and then think about the friends you may be in touch with, or haven’t been in touch with for a while, or the ones you talk to for different purposes or fulfill different niches in your life. We’re all trying to straddle this balance; there’s no one right way to live.