#life goal: join tumblr and get fired as soon as possible

[staffs-secret-blog]

Why hasn't tumblr give you a job? You have to be their best worker

I would love to get a job at tumblr, piss off matt and be fired immediately

[azucanela]

OMG I AM OBSESSED WITH YOUR WRITING YOU ARE DEFINITELY ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS ON TUMBLR NO CAP!!! i love ur zuko fics, and i wanted to request some sokka x reader!!! i want u to have complete creative freedom but i love how you write slowburn omg so some enemies to friends to lovers sokka content would be insaneeee! maybe reader is fire nation (zuko’s cousin/iroh’s daughter??) but joins the gaang after crossroads or something?

AFTER | SOKKA X READER

SUMMARY: Sokka didn’t expect the girl who held a knife to his neck to be the same girl he’d fall for. Y/N didn’t really expect to fall either. 

WORD COUNT: 10k

WARNINGS: injuries, implications of death, kisses, bloodbending, threats of bodily harm, death threats

A/N: time to give sokka the attention and hype he is OWED, also im SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONGGG but this is quite possibly my favorite Y/N. writing for sokka is hard tho. im not sure how much i like this tbh but its really long omg. also thank you!!!! i feel honored to be considered the best :D you are too kind

When she was younger, Y/N joined Azula’s little troupe of girls. Though she wasn’t some loyal little soldier for her to order around, no, Y/N never feared Azula. Nor did she follow her blindly. No, it had always been a struggle for power between the two. Even when her father was booted from the throne as the rightful heir. 

Losing her brother made her wonder if giving up like her father had in Ba Sing Se was the easy way out. Perhaps thats why she promised herself she would never give up. Maybe thats why she challenged Azula to... an unofficial duel when she’d heard her comment. Challenged her and won. 

The new Fire Lord’s pride and joy had lost against his niece, a shame. 

Y/N hadn’t thought much of it, but it probably would’ve explained why Fire Lord Ozai was rather pleased when Y/N had came to him and explained her intents to go alongside her father and cousin in banishment. She was, no matter how unlikely, another potential heir to the throne. And unlike Zuko, an actual threat. Sending her on a journey to find someone who’d been missing for a century was the best way to get rid of her. 

If Y/N was honest, she viewed the banishment as more of a vacation. All her life, she had to deal with banquets, politics, war tactics, all at such a young age. It was tiring, and dull, spending day and night in the palace doing such things. Now, she had the opportunity to travel the world, though her grumpy cousin was rushing them throughout each spot, it was still nice. Zuko certainly didn’t think so, given that they hadn’t found the Avatar yet, not that Y/N believed they ever would but, it is what it is.

A sigh escaped her as she sat, on leg propped up against the other on the deck of the ship, they had arrived in the Southern Water Tribe after seeing an odd light in the distance. Maybe it was cruel, but Y/N sincerely hoped they didn’t find the Avatar. She didn’t want her vacation to end, she didn’t want to return to the politics, and she didn’t want to deal with one of the most powerful people on the planet. Aside from her own desires, Y/N couldn’t help but disapprove of Zuko’s need to please his father, the man who’d hurt him beyond forgiveness.

She sincerely doubted her father approved either. Though their relationship had been strained for some time now. Y/N didn’t hate her father, she doubted that was possible, he was a kind man and a good father. Things between them simply felt... off. She liked to think she’d gotten over it, the initial jealously she felt when she discovered her father intended to join Zuko on his hunt for the Avatar.

When she’d found out from Fire Lord Ozai. 

Sometimes she wondered if her father even intended to say goodbye. But she wasn’t a fool, Y/N knew he had recently lost a son, they were both hurting and Zuko needed someone who wasn’t going to hurt him if he did something wrong. Though, Y/N saw him try to save the lives of the soldiers of the so-called great Fire Nation, not do something wrong. Regardless, Zuko needed a father figure, yes. But Y/N needed a father as she grappled with the death of her brother. 

Maybe she was just a little bitter about it. 

“Are you coming?” Zuko asked, his words coming out harshly.

Raising a brow, Y/N shook her head, “no. Don’t get too violent, though.” She warned, looking at him pointedly, “they’re a small tribe that’s going extinct.” 

Zuko rolled his eyes as he exclaimed, “that’s not my fault!”

Sitting up to face him, Y/N smacked him upside the head as she walked past him, “considering the royal family, which you are a part of need I remind you, ordered the genocide of every single Waterbender they had...” She paused, cracking her knuckles before turning to look back at Zuko, “I would say you that everyone here probably blames you for it by assosiation.” Y/N reasoned. She had never liked the history that her ancestors had, much less approved.

Taken aback, Zuko exclaimed, “you’re a part of the royal family too!”  Y/N was well aware of the circumstances surrounding his banishment, he’d tried to save lives, but war was the only thing that mattered to the Fire Nation it appeared. 

His attempt at defense simply earned him a shrug, “perhaps.” Y/N didn’t consider herself a member of the royal family, and she doubted her father did either. And no matter what Zuko thought, though he was royal by blood, his banishment severed his ties to the throne permanently.

Unless they happened to find the Avatar, though that wasn’t very likely, Y/N decided she would rethinking her life choices should the Avatar be here of all places, as she rested her forearms on the side of the ship and watched Zuko march down his soldiers.

She wasn’t going to tell him that the Southern Water Tribe didn’t have a military, much less benders. As previously mentioned, the genocide destroyed the benders, and the most of the soldiers in the village had headed off to fight in the war against the Fire Nation. Though her brow did raise as she watched him yank an old lady from the small crowd of people, Y/N straightened her back, preparing to get involved. 

Of course, a young warrior ended up running at her cousin, war paint and all as he attempted to attack. Key word being attempted. Watching him fall face first into the snow, Y/N realized he wasn’t a warrior, but a boy. The Avatar also happened to be a boy. A very, very young boy. Not a century year old Airbender. 

Y/N supposed it was time to start rethinking her life. 

Sokka didn’t know what he was supposed to do as he helped Princess Yue onto the Sky Bison. They needed to find Aang’s physical body, quickly, otherwise he wouldn’t be returning to the real world, and they happened to be fresh out of Avatars up until recently so that wasn’t really an option. Not when they needed the balance of the world to be restored immediately. 

Sighing, Sokka moved to get onto the Sky Bison, only to be yanked backwards, stumbling before having a knife pressed to his neck. “What the hell!” He exclaimed in shock, garnering the attention of the others that were already on Appa. Katara’s mouth gaping open at the sight of him as Princess Yue cried out in shock.

The knife against his neck is certainly uncomfortable, and he realizes that he probably should’ve stuck around Kyoshi Island long enough to learn how to get out a situation like this. “I’m coming with you. Someone has to make sure Zuko doesn’t do anything else dumb.” Comes a voice from behind him, and Sokka’s brows furrowed in confusion, who was this? And why were they trying to kill him? More importantly, how did they know Prince Zuko, the guy who had been chasing them since Aang had come out of that iceberg. Questions ran rampant through his mind, and he nearly forgot that his life was being threatened.

That was a luxury he couldn’t afford at the moment. 

Though he couldn’t see the person behind him, he could see Katara grimace at her demand, anyone associated with Prince Zuko likely had a similar end goal, to capture the Avatar. This wasn’t something they could allow, and Sokka recognized this as Katara asked, “why should we trust you?” Katara’s eyes soon met Sokka’s and he knew that no matter what he said, she would give into the girl’s demands for his safety. Sokka mentally scolded himself for failing to prevent this situation. 

The girl behind him scoffed, “unlike my dear cousin,” Sokka couldn’t help the shock that flooded him, cousin? As in Zuko is this girl’s cousin? Or did she mean someone else? He was kidding himself, there was no one else it could be. “I like banishment, it’s like a fun little vacation. I could care less about the Avatar.” The knife draws in closer to Sokka’s neck, nearly drawing blood, likely expressing the fact that she could care less if Katara believed her. Though Sokka doubted she didn’t care about the Avatar, he was one of the most important people in the world. 

But Sokka would likely die if she didn’t agree, or at least end up fatally injured. No matter how far Katara had come with her Waterbending, she hadn’t perfected it yet, and healing was only so effective. Sokka sincerely doubted she could beat the speed of this girl and her weapon considering the fact that she’d gotten the jump on them the first time around. Death wasn’t something he wanted, but anyone who knew Zuko couldn’t be trusted, much less someone who shared his blood. If he turned out... like that, Sokka didn’t want to imagine how this stranger ended up.

“Don’t try anything.” Katara warned, eyeing the girl wearily. Though it was an empty threat for the most part, in the air, there was little Katara could do against a foe. Though three, well two if you exclude the princess, against one seemed like favorable odds, this girl seemed talented in combat, even without bending.

She released Sokka, and he turned to see her beaming up at Katara, “happy to be doing business with ya.” Turning to Sokka, she looked him up and down, sizing him up before speaking, “be a gentleman and help me up?” Yeah, she was crazy. The pretty ones are always crazy. That, and she was Zuko’s cousin, it made sense. Though Sokka was fairly sure that she was joking, you could never be too sure.

“Who even are you?!” He exclaimed, exasperated and preparing to whip out his boomerang as he glared at her. He didn’t recognize her, but she’d likely been traveling with Zuko for quite some time now if they were related.

She just shrugged, “you can call me Y/N.” She got onto Appa with ease, Katara on guard a she eyed her, eyes piercing into her soul, Y/N raised a brow upon noticing this, “calm down. I wouldn’t have killed him.”

Katara inhaled deeply, trying to maintain patience as Sokka got into the saddle, “yip, yip.”

Y/N wasn’t really shocked when it turned out Azula was after them. Of course good old Uncle Ozai sent his most valuable asset to bring them back. Though some good at come of it, Zuko cut his ponytail, something Y/N had taken pleasure in bullying him over. Now they were on the run, in the very city that her father had tried to run to the ground all those years ago. 

Irony at its finest.

Tugging at the sleeves of her Earth Kingdom garments, Y/N sighed, walking through the streets of the city. She didn’t know where she was if she was honest, and standing in the beautiful plaza, Y/N wondered if maybe, it would be better if she never returned back to that horrid apartment. Her father was starting over, getting them all jobs at a tea shop, even Zuko had tried to move on, going out on a date with a girl. 

The Earth Kingdom was an odd place, but here, no one knew who she was. It wouldn’t be difficult to restart, alone. Without the expectations she’d been raised with. Fists balling up, Y/N exhaled slowly, turning a corner. There wasn’t graffiti in this part of the city, she realized, staring at the walls. Though there was an odd poster, squinting at it, she moved closer. It was a poorly drawn image of-

A Sky Bison. The same one she’d ridden on back during the Siege of the North, not that any others existed, the Sky Bison were a dying breed. Which could only mean one thing, the Avatar was in Ba Sing Se. 

"Have you seen him?” She heard from behind her. Y/N recognized the voice, it belonged to the boy she’d held at knife point, “the drawing isn’t my best but-”

Turning around she spoke rapidly, “don’t freak out.” This was a problem.

Y/N liked to think she was the least threatening of the Royal Family, aside from her father that is. Though they could both be lethal in their own ways, neither demonstrated the true extents of their power unless it was truly necessary. Maybe that’s why Y/N hoped that the boy, Sokka, she believed his name was, wouldn’t freak out.

Of course, he did. Dropping the posters in his hand, he opened his mouth, likely to scream, only for Y/N to practically tackle him. She slammed his body against the wall, covering his mouth with her hand as she glared at him. Sokka let out a grunt of surprise, immediately beginning to struggle in her hold, “calm down! I don’t have a knife this time around.” Y/N cried out, her voice a hushed whisper. Of course, what she said was a lie, she always had at least three weapons on her. Upon entering the city, she’d knocked that number down to only two weapons, much to her dismay and Iroh’s relief.

She felt him lick her hand, and she quickly removed her hand in disgust, while keeping the other planted on his shoulder, they both exclaimed, “what the hell!”

Sokka’s eyes narrowed at her, “look. I don’t wanna cause a scene, so I’m just gonna go-” He sighed when her hand remained on his shoulder, firmly holding him against the wall as he tried to move away only to be pushed back into the wall. “Or not.” 

“Look, you cannot go back to your little group and tell them that I’m here.” Y/N tried to choose her words carefully, if she didn’t need to, she didn’t want to suggest that her father and Zuko were also in the city. “I’m trying to have a permanent vacation, away from the Fire Nation and my crazy family, in Ba Sing Se.” She explained, slowly removing her hand from his shoulder, “think you can respect that?”

He looked at her wearily, during their last interaction, she’d made no attempts to actually injure them. And when she had the Avatar right in front of her, unlike Zuko, she hadn’t tried to kidnap him. Y/N had been honest last time, and chances were, she was being honest now. That didn’t make him feel any better about trusting her though. 

“How do I know you won’t follow me and kill me in my sleep?”

Y/N looked at him incredulously, “is that a joke?” She’d considered that too though, the possibility that he’d follow her back to her shared apartment and alert his friends of their location. Y/N refused to be the reason that they lost their new lives in Ba Sing Se, and had already decided to check into an inn for the night. 

Raising a brow at her, Sokka gestured for her to give him an answer, and Y/N stared at him momentarily, “well. How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?” Y/N retorted.

Sokka rolled his eyes at her, “I’m a good person.” Came his response.

“Debatable.” 

Sokka stared at her in disbelief, “I’m trying to save the world here!” He exclaimed, and Y/N wasn’t shocked by his response, her goal had been to fluster him and she had.

Tilting her head at him, Y/N replied, “sure.” Stretching her arms upwards, she waves to him, “don’t tell your friends I was here, and we’re good.” She began to walk further into the alley, towards the other side, “see you around.” If he was here, his friends were probably around the area as well, meaning she had to leave.

His mouth gaped open and he stared at her figure as she stalked off, pausing momentarily before groaning and running after her, ending up at her side. “What do you mean, sure?” Sokka asked, confusion laced in his tone. 

Y/N raised a brow at him. “What are you doing?”  She wanted to laugh at his reaction, though he was now following her liked a lovesick puppy, which could prove problematic. 

Crossing his arms he responded, “making sure you don’t do anything bad.” Sokka eyed her suspiciously, “because I am a good person.” He asserted.

“And I’m a bad person?”

She already knew he was going to say, ‘yes, yes you are.’ After all, she was from the Fire Nation, and Y/N had no doubt she’d done terrible things in her life, especially when she’d fallen into a dark place and taken on... less than favorable coping mechanisms. 

And he’s silent for a moment, leaving Y/N to wonder if he suddenly cares about the feelings of the enemy. Only for him to say, “in my experience... good people can do bad things.” 

That wasn’t what she expected. Y/N found herself stunned, speechless as she looked to Sokka, though he simply continued to walk alongside her nonchalantly. Quickly collecting herself, she looks away from him and to the nearby food stand, “that didn’t answer my question.” And as Sokka opened his mouth to likely continue his statement, Y/N realized she didn’t want to know the answer as she spoke, “you want food? I want food. Let’s get food.”

Sighing, Sokka followed her, “as long as you don’t poison me.”

Y/N’s brows furrowed at his comment, looking back at him, “do you-” A small laugh escaped her, “do you think I just carry around poison?” 

Sokka didn’t know why he swelled with pride when he made her laugh, “in case you run into your enemies, absolutely.” It was probably because she was the enemy, and it took real talent to make someone who hated you laugh. 

“How often do you think I run into my enemies and invite them to get food with me?” She asked, picking up a few things from the stand, before heading over to pay.

Frowning, Sokka watches her pay, “I thought we were bonding over,” he paused to take a meat bun from her and shove it into her face dramatically, “meat! Yet, I’m still your enemy.”

Y/N simply shrugged, “this is a one time thing.”

It was not a one time thing. 

Sokka found himself ‘coincidentally’ running into Y/N, more and more often. She’d be walking through the streets of the upper ring about once a week, though she had started walking through the streets of the inner ring of Ba Sing Se far more frequently than normal in recent weeks. He’d been meaning to ask her why, maybe she’d also grown accustomed to their meetings and started to come around more. During their meetups they’d talk, about things other than the war, which was a conversation difficult to come by with the others. Though he cared for his friends, talking to Y/N felt different, a good different. She wasn’t overbearing like Katara, or mean like Toph, but she also wasn’t as passive as Aang. 

It was odd. Knowing someone who had once held a knife to your neck in a more friendly way. Though, if Sokka was honest, he didn’t trust her, and she likely didn’t trust him either. They’d both taken precautions due to the mistrust between them, not that be blamed her. At the end of the day, they were still on opposing sides, kind of. Y/N had never seemed to care about finding the Avatar, but she was certainly loyal to her family above all else.

She’d demonstrated that in the Northern Water Tribe. 

Sokka was the same, if he had saw an inkling of betrayal as a possibility, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell the others. Their safety was his priority at the end of the day, and Y/N didn’t owe him anything, just like he didn’t owe her anything. Maybe that was the beauty of it all. But for now, everything remained peaceful, calming, and simple.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. 

Katara had oddly disappeared after Aang arrived with news of his vision. And then, as though things couldn’t get any weirder, Iroh arrived, Y/N’s apparent Father Iroh. Toph seemed to know him well, which certainly came as a shock to Sokka and Aang. “I need your help, Prince Zuko has been captured.” He explained, opening his mouth to continue only for Sokka to interrupt. He couldn’t help it when his brows furrowed in both confusion and frustration, Y/N had never suggested that the rest of her family was here.

“Are you crazy? You guys were trying to capture Aang not to long ago!” Sokka pointed out, throwing his arms outwards, “why not get Y/N to help?” She was certainly capable of raiding the palace and retrieving her cousin.

At this comment, Iroh’s face darkened, “we were separated in the palace. I’m unsure if they managed to capture her or if she escaped.” Oh. So that’s what he was going to say. 

Sokka couldn’t help it when his face dropped, looking to Iroh he exclaimed, “well- why didn’t you lead with that!” Pushing past Aang who had been prepared to start giving a speech on why they should assist Iroh, only for his mouth to gape open as Sokka headed for the door.

“Why are you so eager?” Toph asked as they began to follow him out the door.

He faltered, quickly trying to think up a good excuse as he replied, “no reason.” 

Toph’s frowned, “I can tell when you’re lying Sokka.” She reminded him. 

“We can discuss this later!” He exclaimed, flustered. “Let’s go.”

Y/N had contemplated killing Zuko before. 

It had never really been serious, as far as she would’ve gone was maybe injuring him badly enough that she got her point across. But at the end of the day, she protected Zuko to the best of her ability, and tried to keep his mind from being poisoned by the Fire Nation ideals that she’d once lived by unquestionably. 

Now she actually wanted him dead. He stood alongside Azula, who had offered Y/N her spot in her little gang hours ago, though she’d rejected the offer much to Azula’s chagrin. But she seemed sure that Y/N would accept some time soon. Perhaps it was because Zuko had betrayed her father and left him to the Dai Li. 

He had betrayed her father, the man who had practically raised both of them. 

Y/N had a violent past, she wouldn’t deny, and she liked to think that she was past all that. But looking at the situation ahead of them, watching the Waterbender, Sokka’s sister, Katara, cry over the body of the Avatar, she realized that maybe violence was the answer. Just this once. 

So, when she hopped in front of them, she had a plan. A violent one. 

“Pull yourself together.” She snapped at Katara, who looked up at her, bloodshot eyes and tears streaming down her confused face, “he’s getting out of here alive. But first, I need you to soak them.” Y/N gestured towards the troops coming towards them, Zuko and Azula accompanying them. Katara opened her mouth, and Y/N didn’t care what she was going to say as she ordered, “now!” 

Katara’s brows drew together as she released the Avatar’s head onto her lap, raising her hands to use the waterfall behind them to successfully drench the soldiers, who groaned at the discomfort but pausing temporarily before they continued towards them. “What did you think that would accomplish? What a pitiful-” Azula’s taunts were paused when she watched as Y/N drew her hands together, inhaling deeply, and Azula stopped her movement. “That’s not possible.” 

Suddenly, lightning was between Y/N’s fingertips, and she extended her hand into the large puddle of water that Katara had created. Y/N had learnt to bend lightning soon after she’d mastered Firebending, from her father, he’d insisted that she only use it when necessary, so she kept her ability to herself. This was necessary, she decided, hand touching the water and sending a shock throughout everyone with it, successfully putting all of the soldiers out of commission. 

Unfortunately, Azula recognized the signs of lightning bending, and withdrew alongside Zuko, and the two were now coming to attack from above at a rapid rate. Y/N whipped her head around to see Katara, mouth gaped open at all the fallen soldiers. “You two need to leave, I’ll hold them off.” She began to move to create another strike of lightning

“No.” Called out another voice, and Y/N whipped her head over to see it was her father, Dai Li agents likely nearby as he moved in front of Y/N. “You all need to leave. Take Y/N with you, she will help the Avatar reach his destiny.” Y/N wanted to laugh at that, how could he be so sure? If the boy did die, then this would all be for nothing

Y/N scoffed, “are you crazy?” She moved closer to her father, “unlike Zuko, I’m not leaving you.” She exclaimed, exasperated. 

Iroh simply smiled at her as he said, “I’m proud of you, Y/N.” 

Sokka knew he seemed dumb. He knew how others perceived him, as the ‘extra’ member of Team Avatar, the useless one, because he lacked bending. At the end of the day, Sokka was the brains of their operations, he was observant, and this helped him develop plans that most people would never even consider.

Not that anyone else knew, but Sokka was the only one that had actually interacted with Y/N prior to what happened in Ba Sing Se. Sure, they’d all met once or twice in the past, but Sokka had a knife to his throat then, so Y/N probably didn’t seem that appealing to the others. And he doubted they understood how odd it was that she was so... apathetic. Normally she’d tease, and joke alongside him but now? 

It was odd, and nobody else could notice the shift in her personality but him, and he was concerned. Y/N had lost her father, and been betrayed by her cousin, and she had yet to talk about it, at all. Sokka liked to think that they were close enough to discuss such things, and he’d tried to get some sort of emotion out of her, the key word being tried. 

Despite her apathetic personality, the others had warmed up to her for the most part. Apparently Toph had met Y/N in the past, during the time she’d run off and encountered Iroh. So, the two got acquainted fairly fast, Aang was happy to have a Firebender, and insisted that once he was back to full strength, and they’d found a better place for practice, he’d learn Firebending from her. Y/N had agreed but it was clear Aang wasn’t as excited as he was acting, Sokka figured he still associated the time he hurt Katara with Firebending.

Katara had been far less weary of Y/N than Sokka had expected, but given what Katara had told him when she’d first joined, that made sense. Y/N was a powerful Firebender who had betrayed her entire nation to help save Aang’s life, and though Katara didn’t approve of everything she’d done in the past, she tolerated her. Which was better than nothing in Sokka’s book.

They were currently camped out in the woods beside a Fire Nation town, everyone had scattered to prepare for the few nights they’d likely stay in the area. Katara had gone to the town with Toph and Aang, in search of supplies and food, while Sokka and Y/N set up the camp and collected wood to help start a fire. Y/N had insisted that she could maintain the fire without any wood, but Sokka viewed this as an excuse to get her alone and force her to discuss her feelings.

“So...” Sokka mumbled, looking to her as she leaned down to pick up another piece of wood, “lovely weather we’re having.”

Y/N turned to him, raising a brow before nodding, “yeah.” It was clear she wasn’t entirely paying attention the nonsense that was coming out of his mouth as he tried to get her to listen to him. 

Sokka grabbed another piece of wood, “how have you been?”

Tilting her head at him in confusion, Y/N brought another piece of wood into her arms, “fine.” Looking up at the dimming sky she frowned, “we should start heading back to that spot we’d found earlier.” Y/N turned to begin walking, and Sokka struggled to match her pace.

His brows furrowed in frustration as he stared at her, the light of the falling sun filtering in between the trees and onto them. Y/N seemed to glow as she maneuvered between the trees, “how have you been sleeping?” Even Sokka sounded confused at the question he asked, but he didn’t know how to broach the topic with Y/N.

She simply paused her movement, turning to him, he stumbled slightly due to the abrupt stop, and met her eyes. “Just ask what you wanna ask, Sokka. Stop dancing around whatever it is.” Y/N sounded tired, looking to him expectantly as she awaited his question. Sokka scolded himself for being so obvious that she’d noticed something was up. 

He sighed, “are you okay?” And she opened her mouth to respond but he continued, “actually? You can say that you are okay, and not mean it. Y/N you lost your dad and were betrayed by your cousin, and you-” Sokka grimaced as he met her eyes, “you haven’t been the same since you joined us.”

Y/N is silent for a moment, then her eyes were piercing into his, “how would you know that I haven’t been the same?” She asked, turning away to continue walking back to the chosen campsite, “it’s not like you know me.” His statement had set her off it appeared, but her response had easily done the same for him. 

“Are you serious? Not like I know you?” He scoffed, jogging to catch up with her, “I know that you do whatever it takes to protect the people you care about. I know that you really like Earth Kingdom food because most of the food within the Fire Nation is on the spicier side.” Y/N didn’t seem to be listening, and the camp was in sight, but Sokka continued, “I know that you get really cold easily unless you regulate your body temperature with your Firebending. And I know that you can’t pick a favorite color because you are very indecisive.” 

Aggressively, Y/N dropped the sticks into the center of the campsite as they arrived, turning to him, “you can stop now.” Her voice was almost taunting as she spoke, sarcastic in a way. 

Sokka simply followed suit, placing the firewood in the center and facing her head on, “and most importantly, I know what it’s like to lose someone.” He takes her hand, and Y/N practically growls at the contact, attempting to yank her hand out of his grasp, she ends up pulling him closer towards her. Sokka clumsily topples onto her, knocking the both of them down into the dirt with a grunt. His forearms preventing him from crushing Y/N under his body weight as he held himself up, his eyes meet hers.

Y/N finds herself glaring daggers at him, while Sokka finishes his little speech with, “you don’t have to deal with this alone.”

And in that moment, he looks at her, really looks at her. And she’s really pretty.

Y/N opens her mouth to say something to him, only for someone else to begin speaking, “are we interrupting something?” Toph. Looking up, Sokka sees the others as well, Aang looks rather smug as he wiggles his eyebrows at Sokka, and Katara gives him a pointed look, likely disappointed that he’d fraternizing with the former enemy. He can’t help it when he feels his cheeks warm, and before he can move to get off Y/N, she’s launched him off of her, and he’s flat on his back on the ground. Toph laughs at the actions, bending a seat of earth for herself and the others before falling backwards into it, the girl seems to wish she had popcorn as she watched the moment unfold.

“No.” Y/N mumbles, bringing herself to her feet and dusting herself off. “I’ll be in my tent if you need me.” She retreats into one of the tents they’d set up earlier, and Sokka groans as he lets his head fall backwards into the ground and runs his hands over his face.

When he removes them, Aang is standing over him, along with Toph, while Katara organizes the firewood. “So... did we interrupt something?” Toph asked.

Sokka just sighs, his plan failed. This time at least. Next time, his goal would be to make her laugh, to make her smile. At least she had expressed some emotion, anger was better than nothing.

Anger seemed to turn to annoyance, since Y/N doesn’t leave her tent until nightfall and Sokka can’t help but wonder what was entertaining enough to keep her in there for all that time. When she does exit, she uses her Firebending to light a fire, and uses the firewood they’d collected earlier to ensure it stays alight. The rest of the group was seated around the center of the campsite, and Sokka wonders if she’s going to go back to her tent when she realizes the only open seat is next to him. 

She doesn’t return to her tent though and he’s grateful. Though she sits as far as possible from him on the bench that Toph had created, half-heartedly listening to the things that the others are saying. Y/N can feel herself getting cold and can’t help the resent that bubbles up in her chest as she recalls what Sokka send earlier. Exhaling deeply, a puff of blue fire escapes her mouth and Y/N feels nauseous at the small reminder of Azula. 

This catches Sokka’s attention, though the others are too enraptured in the story Aang was telling, Sokka turned to her, “cold?” He asked, leaning to the side to grab a blanket from his small pack, he offers it to her.

Y/N knew she wouldn’t be able to regulate her temperature when she fell asleep, but accepting the blanket from Sokka felt like... it felt like accepting him and everything he had said about her. So, when she doesn’t take the blanket from his hands, Sokka sighs, moving to put it back, only for Y/N to snatch the blanket from his hand and wrap it around herself begrudgingly.

This was her way of apologizing, moving closer to Sokka on the small bench she huffed as she pulled the blanket tighter around herself and turned her attention to Aang. She’d been mean, she wouldn’t deny, but what was she supposed to say? Exhaling deeply, Y/N closes her eyes temporarily, allowing drowsiness to consume her for a moment, before looking back to Aang.

It isn’t until Sokka feels a weight fall onto his shoulder midway through his own story that he realizes Y/N has fallen asleep, his mouth gaping open in shock as he pauses his words. He quickly shakes off the shock, cheeks warming as he turns back to the rest of the group, who all regard him curiously. Aang once again wiggles his eyebrows and Sokka ignores the action, continuing his story. Though he’s more weary of his vivid hand movements in fear of awakening Y/N, and noticeably quiets his voice. Sokka finds himself wishing he was Y/N as he listens to Katara’s Water Tribe horror story intently, after all, this is the most peaceful he’s ever seen her. 

It doesn’t last long, because she’s soon startled awake, hand going to her side where she keeps her dagger as she and Toph speak simultaneously, “someone’s coming.”

As an old woman emerges from the shadows, Sokka practically holds Y/N down to keep her from lunging at her and attacking as the woman speaks. And of course, Y/N’s distaste for the woman doesn’t stop there, even when she invites them into her home, though Sokka doesn’t blame her. She’s a suspicious woman. 

It’s not until he and Aang are attacking each other that Sokka regrets preventing Y/N from attacking the old woman when she had the chance. Katara is struggling to move, and Sokka can only hope that Toph and Y/N return from the cave soon as he yelps upon nearly making contact with Aang, the old woman laughing cynically. Sokka watches as she shifts, hand outstretching behind her, “don’t think I forgot you little Firebender.” 

His eyes widen in both shock and fear as Y/N’s body is suddenly thrown onto the ground in front of him. Her body rising almost mechanically, back to a stand, Sokka realizes there’s lightning at her fingertips, the woman manipulating her body to aim for Sokka. “A shame you’ll be the woman to end your friend’s life isn’t it,” She’s making eye contact with Katara who is crying out and begging for her to stop.

Sokka can see the panic in Y/N’s eyes as the her hands aim towards him, “Y/N. It’s okay.” He calls out her, in an attempt at assurance that he doubts does much to soothe her. “It’s okay.” He repeats, squeezing his eyes shut as he prepares for the lightning to hit him. Except it never does, instead, it goes upwards into the sky as Y/N cries out in pain, having moved her body despite the woman blending her blood. 

She had overpowered Hama’s bloodbending, something that clearly came as a shock to the old woman as Y/N turned around sluggishly, staring at the shocked old woman as blue fire left her mouth once more, chest heaving. Sokka could feel the weight on his bones slowly disappear, leaving behind an ache, the woman likely intended to focus her abilities onto Y/N, who was struggling to walk towards her. 

“Scared?” Y/N asked, looking up at the woman, “you should be.”

The next time that Team Avatar feared Y/N. She was face to face with Zuko.

He’d approached them as they sat in the Air Temple. And Y/N had practically jumped out of her seat, preparing for a fight as lightning seemed to dance at her fingertips. Though Sokka knew better than to allow her to attack her cousin, and grabbed her arm. “Can you guys handle this?” He asks the others, maintaining eye contact with Y/N. The others looked to them understanding what would likely occur if Y/N was allowed to be involved.

Zuko wouldn’t walk away from that fight. 

“We got this Sokka.” Katara assured, pure hate in her eyes as she stared Zuko down, and Sokka couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he should remove both of them from the situation. 

Sokka’s hand found Y/N’s, and it was almost burning hot, a sparks seeming to fly between them, he pulls at her hand. Y/N hesitantly allows him to drag her away, though she turns back momentarily to meet Zuko’s eyes. “I’ll kill you later, cousin.” She promises, and her voice is scarily calm. “For my father.” The condescending tone in her voice and the wince Zuko has in response is enough for Sokka to know that her intent was to hurt him emotionally if she couldn’t do it physically, and it was clear she had been successful.

Inhaling deeply, Y/N closes her eyes temporarily as Sokka brings her into one of many abandoned rooms in the temple, sitting her down onto a bed before kneeling down in front of her. “Are you good?” He asks. 

“That’s a stupid question.” Comes her response.

Sokka tilts his head at her, giving her a smile, “well I’m a stupid guy.” 

He’s rubbing gentle circles in her hand as she shakes her head, a small laugh escaping her, “no you’re not.” Her voice cracks and she cringes at the sound so she clears her throat, staring at the wall beside her. Sokka can’t help the way his heart swells at this comment, because for once he doesn’t feel like the comic relief, he doesn’t feel like the side character. Though he appreciates the rest of Team Avatar and loves them all dearly, at times, they didn’t take him seriously. 

Y/N makes him feel important. Though he doesn’t say this as he looks at her, clearly shaken by Zuko’s sudden appearance, she speaks once more, “are you sure I can’t kill him?”

This time Sokka laughs, shaking his head, “I’m sure Katara would love to help you with that, but I doubt Aang would approve.” 

Y/N nods slowly, letting out a shaky breath as a tear escaped her, though she quickly wiped it away and looks to the ground. “You wanna sit with me?” She asks, patting the spot on the bed beside her. 

“Sure.” He replies softly, moving to sit on the bed with her. One he’s situated, Y/N leans her head onto his shoulder, and Sokka finds his hand wrapping around her waist. And they sit like this for several moments. 

Taking a deep breath, Y/N removes her head from his shoulder and looks to him, “thank you.”

Sokka raises a brow, “for what?”

“Being here.” She replies, bringing her hand to move a hair from his face, Sokka watches her actions intently and in awe. “With me.” Her hand remains on his face for longer than necessary, and when she moves to let it fall back into her lap, Sokka’s hand cups hers. 

They’re both silent when Sokka’s hand releases hers, and his other hand leaves her waist, both coming to her face. The look in his eyes tells her enough, and she nods to him. 

The kiss felt like the first breath of fresh air in a while. Maybe it’s because it had been long overdue, but as Y/N brought her hands to his arms to pull him closer, she felt her head empty of all thoughts. 

He pulls away momentarily, their foreheads resting against each others, he can see her eyes are shut, lashes pressed against her cheeks. “I hope,” Sokka pauses, and her eyes flutter open to look at him, he can feel his cheek warm as he continues, “I hope I can always be here, with you.” It’s a confession in its own way, and Sokka understands the weight of his words as he watches her reaction. 

She opens her mouth, likely to reply, be closes it quickly, and Sokka can’t help the panic that floods him. Though this is quickly replaced by the feeling of her lips on his as her hand collides with his chest and pushes him down on the bed, earning a grunt from him. 

“Guys, Zuko is gone-” Y/N throws herself onto the floor as she rolls off Sokka, and he sits up immediately. “Am I interrupting something now?” Aang asked, giving Sokka a look.

Y/N clears her throat, “no.” Sokka couldn’t help it when his brows drew together at this comment, bringing a hand to his temple as he sighed, and Y/N stood, dusting off her thighs as she mumbled, “see you guys later.”

She started avoiding him after that. 

When Zuko joined the group, she’s also made a point to avoid him no matter how hard he tried to apologize to her. And of course, when Sokka first showed him to his room they had a... chat. To put it simply, Sokka had threatened him. 

Just a little. 

“So yeah, here it is, your room.” Gesturing to the room, Sokka gave Zuko a tight lipped smile, watching him wearily. 

Zuko’s back was to him as he placed his stuff down, “thank you.” He said, expecting that to be the end of it, upon hearing the door close he assumed Sokka had left.

When he turned around, Sokka was still very much there. “Let’s have a chat, Prince Zuko.” It didn’t go unnoticed by Sokka how the boy grimaced at the use of his title, though that didn’t stop him from moving forward and placing a hand on Zuko’s shoulder a little too tightly. “Y/N does not want to speak with you.”

“I know,” Came his reply. “Thank you for keeping her from... killing me. The other day. I intend to apologize-”

A small laugh escaped Sokka, “next time. I won’t stop her.” This was for multiple reasons, one of which being that Y/N was avoiding him, and the other being that he wished to respect her and her feeling about Zuko. “And you need to respect her wishes. One of those wishes being, avoiding you. Until she approaches you, leave her be.”

Zuko’s brows furrowed at this comment, “she’s my cousin. You can’t expect-”

“Leave. Her. Be.” 

Zuko became silent, nodding slowly as he looked to Sokka curiously. 

And now, to avoid some of his problems and solve some of them, Sokka ended up running away in a hot air balloon with the person he related to the most at the moment, and the person he threatened rather recently. Zuko. Both of them were being avoided by someone important in their lives, and they both had slightly crazy younger sisters. Though their conversations were certainly... odd.

“My first girlfriend turned into the moon.”

Zuko looked at him for a moment before saying, “that’s rough, buddy.” There was silence after this, a temporary lapse in conversation that Zuko seemed determined to fill. “So...” Zuko mumbled. “You and my cousin huh.” 

It wasn’t a question, Sokka realized this, but he disregarded it as he responded, “what about us?” Playing dumb would hopefully get him to drop the subject. 

Zuko raised his brows at Sokka, “us?” 

Scolding himself, Sokka realized he’d unintentionally dug a deeper hole for himself when he said this as he tried to avoid Zuko’s gaze. “Not really.” Sokka replied, “she’s avoiding me too.” 

Nodding, Zuko gave him a tight lipped smile, “what did you do?”

“I wish I knew.” Sokka could only make assumptions about why Y/N had begun to avoid him, but at the end of the day was confused over it.

He really needed to talk to her. 

As the day of Sozin’s Comet drew closer, Sokka had started trying to talk to Y/N more and more, she’d keep basic conversation but whenever he tried to address... the kiss, Y/N would shut down the conversation. And now, it was the day of Sozin’s Comet, and they established that Zuko and Katara would take on Azula, Aang would take on Ozai, and the rest of them would go after the army that was heading for the Earth Kingdom. 

It seemed that Sokka intended to try to speak with her once more as he approached her while she strapped a dagger to her thigh. “We need to talk.” He said, plopping down onto a rock beside her.

“About battle strategy?” She asked, looking to him, “I had some ideas.”

Play dumb, play dumb, play dumb.

Sokka’s brows furrowed as he shook his head, “about the kiss, Y/N.” Y/N tried to hide her shock at his forwardness, he’d never been this blunt before, during his previous attempts to discuss this with her. Turning to him, she prepared to speak but he silenced her, “you’re going to listen this time.” Grimacing, he looked away, towards the horizon. “I don’t know what’s going to happen today. And if something goes wrong, I need you to know-”

“Nothing is going wrong.” Y/N stated firmly. “Nothing. So, we can have this conversation after.” 

Sokka sat up from his place on the rock, moving in front of her, “there’s no way to guarantee that Y/N.” 

Squeezing her eyes shot, Y/N took a deep breath, “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you guys.” She promised, “and I swear we can talk about this after.” She grabs onto his hands, holding them in hers as she looks away. Y/N knew why she was avoiding it. He was right, it was totally possible for one of them to die, and a relationship in the midst of a war was the worst possible idea. After would be better, or at least that’s what she’d told herself.

The pleading look in his eyes almost burns through her resolve as he asks, “will we?” It almost hurts that he doesn’t believe her, but Y/N can’t blame him.

“We need to go.” Her voice was almost a whisper as she releases his hands. Even if she wanted to continue discussing the subject, they needed to begin the battle soon. 

Sokka frowned though, “if you don’t want this, just tell me and I’ll-” He sighed, bringing a hand to his temple. “I’ll stop bothering you.”

Y/n began to shake her head, “you are never a bother to me I just-” Sighing, she looked into his eyes, “I want this. I do, I’m just scared, and we’re in the middle of a war Sokka!” She exclaimed, the words spilling out of her mouth before she can stop them.

“You think I don’t know that?” Sokka cried out, exasperated. “Y/N I’m so scared that something is going to go wrong, and I’ll never get to tell you that I-”

“Don’t say it.” She interrupts, fear in her veins as she watches him.

So, he didn’t. 

If she didn’t feel like she had something to come back to, maybe that would make it easier. Sacrifices would have to be made to reach victory, and Y/N wouldn’t hesitate to be the one to make them if it meant the others survived. They deserved to see the new world, the world of peace, prosperity, and freedom, the one that came after all this.

Y/N could feel the power flooding her as the comet drew closer, pure and raw power. Though this accompanied by her skill would likely help her in the upcoming battle, dozens of Firebenders with half her skill and the power of the comet was something she was definitely worried about. Overpowering them all was unlikely, and in the best case scenario, Y/N could slow them down. But she wasn’t a fool. In war, there were always casualties, and she was prepared to become one of many. 

Then there were the thoughts in the back of her mind. Though nobody had discussed it, the throne could potentially go to her after all this, and that wasn’t really something Y/n was looking forward to debating. Perhaps it was selfish, but Y/N didn’t really care. Was it wrong of her to dream of escaping the shackles that bound her to the Fire Nation since birth, to leave behind the politics and the lies and the pain of it all?

Maybe. 

Sokka knew Y/N had a lot going on in her mind right now. And he knew she was scared of what was to come, and no matter how much it hurt him, he respected her wishes to wait until this battle was over to discuss whatever it was between them. He knew where he stood. But now that Suki had left them, he found himself beginning to regret it. On the top of the Air Balloon, Toph was practically blind, and Sokka could do little in terms of long distance, aside from his boomerang. Which left Y/N to do her best to defend them from the Firebenders that had begun to swarm them. 

“Go!” She cried out, knocking one of the Firebenders off the balloon. “Take out the rest of the fleet.” Y/N dodged the oncoming flames, intercepting them with her own to prevent the others from getting burned.

But Sokka wasn’t going to let anyone die today. “You still owe me a conversation,” came his response, looking down at the bridges on the Air Balloon. “Jump!” Sokka cried out as another ball of fire rushed towards them, he took Toph by the hand and hoped that Y/N followed. 

Thankfully, she did, he took notice of her as he fell towards the bridges extending from the giant hot air balloon. They were all screaming as they fell, and Y/N grunted in pain as she hit Sokka, tumbling over him and off the edge, yelping as her hands grasped the bridge, with little leverage. Toph similarly went over the side, her screams filling Sokka ears as Y/N released one of her hands from the bridge and caught Toph’s wrist. 

Panic flooded Sokka as he scrambled to the edge of the bridge, Y/N’s hand slipping, “Sokka! Hurry up-” Another scream rips out of her as she loses her grip on the edge.

Nearly falling as he grabbed her hand, his chest heaved. “It’s gonna be okay.” He promised, looking into Y/N’s panicked eyes. “It’s gonna be fine Toph!” He cried out to her.

“Yeah, right!” She called out into the wind, the fear evident in her voice despite the sarcastic nature of the comment. “Y/N I don’t wanna die.” 

Y/N almost can’t hear her, too focused on maintaining her grip on both Sokka and Toph’s hands. She exhales slowly, eyes falling on the soldiers that are beginning to make their way down to them as she replied, “you’re gonna be fine, I promise. I’m gonna get you to Sokka, okay?” 

Sokka was internally panicking, he wouldn’t be able to fight back against the incoming soldiers if both his hands were occupied, but his grip was faltering and he couldn’t pull them both up. Grimacing as he looked down at the two, he nodded in agreement to Y/N signaling that he was ready. It made sense in his mind, she would be able to use her free hand to Firebend, which was far more useful than anything he could provide at the moment. 

Inhaling deeply, Y/N looks to Toph, “Toph, I need you to climb up my body, and grab Sokka’s free hand, okay?”

Toph’s death grip on her hand seems to grow stronger, tears brimming her eyes, “I- I don’t think I can.” 

Y/N shakes her head at these words, “yes, yes you can. Bring your legs up to grab my lower body, and then make your way up, okay? Like a tree.”

Toph shook her head rapidly, “I’ve never climbed a tree!”

Sokka couldn’t help but grow impatient as he exclaimed, “there are soldiers coming, Toph please!” His hand was growing sweaty as he used his free hand to throw his sword at one of the oncoming soldiers, effectively knocking him down. 

Y/N felt her arm swing slightly, and watched as Toph blindly extended her legs, finally managing to wrap them around her legs. She released Y/N’s hand and wrapped both arms around her lower body, slowly inching upwards until her legs were around Y/N’s waist and her arms were on her shoulders. “Good job, now reach up, as far as you can, and Sokka’s gonna grab your hand.” Y/n instructed using her free hand to pat the hand that Toph had wrapped around her.

Y/N could feel the young girl’s tears fall onto her shirt as she extended her hand upwards, Sokka’s freehand moving as far down as possible. The strain on Y/N’s body slowly becoming too much as tears leaked out of her eyes.

Maybe it would be better to just... let go.

She quickly shook off those thoughts, Toph, Toph, Toph, she couldn’t do anything brash until Toph was safe. Y/N watched as Sokka’s hand narrowly missed Toph’s. “Sokka, please.” Y/N whispered, looking to him with pleading eyes.

Maybe it was the desperation he heard in her voice that moment, or maybe it was pure luck, put his fingers grazed Toph’s and he latched on, extending his arm as far as possible and gripping her hand. “Now let go of me, and Sokka’s gonna pull you up, okay?” Y/N explained, looking to Sokka, his eyes meeting hers. Y/N quickly realized he couldn’t lift either of them up. Just like her, this was straining his muscles, and Sokka was struggling to keep both of them up. 

“Sokka.” She said, demanding his attention, his eyes met hers, filled with fear as Toph relieved Y/N’s body of her weight and evened out the distribution on Sokka’s body. “You can’t fight back with both your hands taken.” More tears were streaming down her face as she spoke, “a-and... you can’t pull us both up.” Sokka was crying too now, shaking his head rapidly as Y/N simply pointed out the facts.

Toph’s grip on his hand tightened, “we’re all going to die.” There was resignation in her voice, and it hurt Y/N to hear it.

“We’ll figure it out. We are all going to be okay.” He stated firmly, a shaky breath leaving him as he made an attempt to pull them both upwards, a failed attempt.

Squeezing her eyes shut momentarily, Y/N allowed herself to imagine it, a life with Sokka and the rest of her friends. A life where they were all happy. Where everyone made it out of this war alive, and they helped bring balance to the world.

To give them that world, they had to end this war. And what was war without death?

Opening her eyes, she looked to Sokka, and he was panicked, noticing that far more soldiers had surrounded them and were preparing to mercilessly throw them off the balloon. “Sokka.” She repeated, and he looked to her with a tear streaked face. 

“I love you.” 

Everything seemed to slow as she spoke this words, and Y/N didn’t see the horror on his face for long as the grip of his hand faltered when she released it, he was screaming, crying, begging for her to stop. Toph clearly didn’t understand what was going on as she began to call out Y/N’s name in a panic. 

And then she was falling. 

It appeared there would be no after.

It felt peaceful, she decided. Falling. The stress on her body had dissipated and she caught one final glimpse of Sokka’s mortified face before going through the clouds. The comet was visible from where she was, the horizon, it was a beautiful way to die. But staring at the comet she realized she wanted to know what would come after, she realized that Toph was practically helpless and all Sokka had was a boomerang against dozens of Firebenders.

They would die. So, what was the point of her sacrifice? What was the point of her dying?

No, she wouldn’t be dying today.

Inhaling deeply, Y/N felt the power course through her veins, and she reminded herself that she was Y/N L/N, a force to be reckoned with. Nobody would forget that as fire tore through the soles of her shoes, and extended from her hands, propelling her upwards. 

She was the daughter of the famed Dragon of the West. And she would take on his mantle, she decided, as she flew upwards and through the clouds. 

She could see Sokka had managed to bring Toph upwards and onto the platform alongside him, and they were surrounded by Firebenders. It was clear that they’d seen her when their mouthes gaped open, and a few of the soldiers began to retreat, much to the chagrin of their commanding officer. Y/N found herself ceasing her Firebending and falling towards the platform, she landed in a roll and rose on one knee before opening her mouth and allowing fire to pour outwards.

The Firebenders fell off the bridges beside them one by one, and those who didn’t retreated back inside along with the others at the sight of the Air Balloon that Suki had evidently comandeered.

Closing her mouth, Y/N’s chest heaved, and she felt Toph tackle her from behind, “you’re alive!” She exclaimed, punching Y/N’s arm roughly, “idiot.” She dug her head into Y/N’s shirt.

“Yeah, I am an idiot.” Y/N replied breathlessly, holding the girl tightly.

When Toph finally released her, she gave her a smug look, “I’ll give you and him a minute.” Though this was partially an excuse to head back inside and into the safety of the balloon, maybe even attack some of the remaining Firebenders, it was also because Toph could read the room.

And there stood Sokka, mouth gaping open, tears streaming down his smiling face as he looked at her, before lunging towards her similar to how Toph had. Except his hands came to her cheeks as he brought their lips together, effectively knocking the two onto the ground of the platform, be pulled apart from her with a smile on his face, “I love you too.”

Yeah, after was looking pretty good right about now. 

A/N: i hope you guys liked this SUPER LONG THING WOW, that was an accident. i was super close to like breaking everyones hearts and killing Y/N but then i felt bad so be grateful i was nice ksaljdlahfkj

anyways take care of yourselves!

taglists:

atla:  @bubblebars @jada-cleo @art-flirt @the-deli-meat

[iturbide]

AU Masterlist

For ease of reference, all AUs will be linked to their respective tag on the blog; for fics marked as ‘In Progress’ or ‘Complete,’ status will link to AO3 if the work has an entry there; for fics marked as ‘One-Shot,’ status will link to either AO3 or Tumblr; for fics marked as ‘In Development,’ status will link to a Tumblr summary or outline of the complete work; all ‘In Planning’ works will be left unlinked. 

Fire Emblem: Awakening

The Future Built Upon the Past (In Progress) - My Awakening magnum opus; a look at the events of the doomed timeline and how it led to the course of events that eventually sent Lucina back in time to alter the course of fate.

Affectionately Yours (Complete) - Accepting Plegia’s invitation to visit in his sister’s stead, Chrom rapidly comes to realize that everything he thought he knew about the halidom’s neighbor is at best a wild exaggeration thanks to the guidance of Plegia’s sovereign, Robin.

Cursed Fate (Complete) - A Shadow of the Colossus AU; following Robin’s death, Chrom takes his body back to Plegia for burial; when a disembodied whisper confirms that there may be a chance to restore Robin’s life, Chrom goes on a quest through the Grimleal nation to bring together Grima’s remains.

Crown of Shadows (Complete) / The Shrouded Throne (Complete) - A split-path narrative where, to stop the civil war raging in Plegia, Robin comes to Ylisse to beg aid from Exalt Emmeryn.    After getting drafted by accident into the Shepherds, the Plegian and the Ylissean prince become fast friends – and very soon, something more. 

Accursed Divine (In Progress) - Robin is trapped in a curse that transforms her by day into a fell beast.  Once the curse is broken, the ensuing political drama follows Robin and Chrom uniting their countries after Robin’s ascension to the Plegian throne.

Sigh No More (In Progress) - An arranged marriage AU where following a crushing defeat at Plegian hands, Chrom’s father is forced to wed his son to Robin, who due to Validar’s ritual in her early life now bears more than just Grima’s mark as a sign of her fellblood; despite a rocky beginning, the two become friends and even find love in the union that had only ever been part of politics and power.

Beyond Twilight’s Veil (In Planning) - When Risen begin appearing in Ylisse, Chrom ventures into Plegia on Emmeryn’s behalf to try to find a joint solution, meeting and readily befriending Robin along the way.  When things go wrong, leaving Robin half-transformed and Validar dead, the Shepherds are forced to flee Gangrel’s pursuit; two years later, Robin claims the Plegian throne and reaches out to Ylisse in an attempt to rebuild lost friendships.

War Crimes (In Planning) - A collab with anankos; the Exalt of Ylisse becomes a willing host to Naga’s power in a bid to wipe Plegia off the map, but the Fell Dragon’s return puts the war in a deadlock.  Chrom is kidnapped and brought to Plegia in a desperate bid to open diplomatic channels, but when that fails he ends up as as a guest and becomes unlikely friends with Robin, the son of a Plegian tactician (who has more than a few secrets).

Manwearer (In Planning) - After becoming separated from his mother, Robin is raised by the taguel of Panne’s warren.  On hearing about a threat to the Exalt’s life, the warren mobilizes to her aid, and Robin and Panne ally with the Shepherds to uncover the deeper mystery behind the attack. 

Assassin’s Creed: Awakening (In Planning) - An Assassin’s Creed AU; when Emmeryn is kidnapped and slated to become a Grimleal sacrifice, Chrom and the Shepherds rush to save her – only her rescue comes at Plegian hands, instead.  Defying his crusading father, Chrom chooses to stand by Robin and ends up embroiled in a millennia-old conflict between secret forces.

Smoke and Mirrors (In Planning) - A Pokemon crossover AU; Robin and her Zoroark Reflet (who prefers a human guise that passes for her brother) join with Chrom, a Pokemon Ranger branching out into competitive training; and his sister Lissa, an aspiring pokemon medic.   This brings them into conflict with the Grimleal who are hunting for the Legendary Pokemon Giratina – a pokemon that Robin and Reflet have a very curious connection to.

Sibling AU (In Planning) - Grima is Robin’s older brother and unwilling puppet ruler of Plegia; when Emmeryn invites the recently-crowned king to Ylisse for diplomatic discussions, Grima sneaks his younger brother along to show him the world he’s never had a chance to see, and both unexpectedly find new friends in what they long believed were enemy lands.

Cardcaptor Lissa (In Planning) - A Cardcaptor Sakura crossover AU where Lissa accidentally unseals the Book of Naga and releases magical cards into the world; with the help of a tiny dragon named Tiki, she has to recapture them all before Grima reawakens to usher in the end of days. 

Promare AU (In Planning) - A Promare AU; after Chrom thwarts a group of Grimleal dark mages from kidnapping an Ylissean family, his world is turned upside down by a series of shocking revelations, and he chooses to side with Robin to save the Ylissean Grimleal imprisoned by his father’s orders.

As You Are (In Planning) - Robin comes to Ylisse on a diplomatic mission, hoping to warn the Exalt of a potential threat; when an attack leaves the Plegian blind, Chrom confesses his feelings – only to be rebuffed as Robin believes that the feelings are born of guilt, leaving Chrom to grapple with what he fears are unrequited feelings.

Pride and Joy (In Planning) - Raised in Plegia under Mustafa’s care, Robin is drafted into Validar’s assassination attempt on Emmeryn – but decides that the orders should not be fulfilled and defects, saving the Exalt’s life.  In the trials to follow, Robin tries to keep the Ylisseans safe from Gangrel’s forces without exposing her own wavering loyalties.

Prisoner of War (In Planning) - The Exalt’s war has left Plegia in ruins, its citizens scattered and the remnants of the army using guerrilla tactics to oppose the crusade.   When his father calls him to the front, Chrom is captured by the Plegian resistance, and rapidly discovers that everything he thought he knew about Plegia (and the Heart of Grima who took him captive) is wrong.

Speaker for the Dead (In Planning) - Raised under Validar’s cruel abuse, Robin exists as little more than a hollow shell, surviving each day on the battlefield.  When Chrom reaches out to him and offers a glimpse of something better than the threat of death, Robin cautiously accepts and gradually begins to recover from the traumas of Validar’s upbringing.

Design Defect (One-Shot) - A modern AU where Robin is the son of the head of the Grimleal mafia who enters Ylisstol University and meets Chrom, son of Exalt Corp’s CEO and the heir to the family company.  While Robin might have some ulterior motives for getting close to Chrom at first, he quickly gets in over his head.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Kintsugi (In Planning) - A Golden Deer-based golden route, where Claude decides from the moment he reunites with Byleth that they’re going to save as many lives as possible.

Pre-Timeskip Fix-It (In Planning) - A Black Eagles-based fix-it AU where Byleth gets to shut down Edelgard’s alarming rhetoric every time she opens her mouth, and the Imperial princess stumbles her way through the process of becoming a better person.

Spite Project (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where the question of “what would have happened if Edelgard had hired Miklan to kill Claude and Dimitri at the start of the year?” leads to Claude and Dimitri saving each other in more ways than one. 

Bad End AU (In Development) - A Crimson Flower AU exploring the logical consequences and fall-out associated with Edelgard’s conquest of Fodlan, her deceptions regarding the Agarthan menace, and her choice to kill Claude at Derdriu.

Proof of Life (One-Shot) - After establishing an uneasy alliance at Gronder, the joint Kingdom and Alliance forces proceed north to free Faerghus from Imperial control.  On the way, Dimitri and Claude are ambushed by an Imperial assassin, leaving Claude seriously injured; on the way to safety, though, Dimitri is shaken by the Alliance leader’s words, and begins to question his purpose and his ultimate goals.

Fire Emblem: Heroes

Hard Reset (In Planning) - A bad-end Heroes AU where Muspell invades Askr and wipes out the Order of Heroes – but before Surtr can kill Kiran, they fire Breidablik, which somehow transports them to another Zenith.  Taken in by the Emblians, Kiran sets about trying to prevent the ruin that befell the world they were first summoned to.

Controlled Chaos (One-Shot) - In the midst of battle against Muspell, Kiran is taken prisoner by Laegjarn and whisked away from the field; when the leaders of the Order elect to wait, the Heroes take matters into their own hands -- led by the last Hero anyone would have expected.

To The Last (One-Shot) - Though peace has finally established between Askr and Embla, Kiran is unexpectedly struck down by an old illness from their life before they were summoned; the Heroes band together in hopes of finding a cure...but in the end, it all comes down to a prayer.

Promare

Life Goes On (In Planning) - My Promare magnum opus and a direct sequel to Send the Scourge, Send the Swarm exploring the Parnassus aftermath, the Promeopolis Burnish and their recovery and reintroduction to society, and the gradual evolution of the city through the combined influence of the wider Federation and the growing Burnish activism movement. 

The Enemy of My Enemy (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where Lio and the Mad Burnish managed to save those captured by Freeze Force before they were taken to the Lake Friege detention center; after awkwardly helping the Mad Burnish slip through Kray’s trap, Galo inadvertently becomes entangled with the affairs of the terrorist organization.

Pokemon

Project: Elements (In Planning) - My Pokemon magnum opus following a scientist in Team Rocket who discovers that her genetic theory has been put into practice without her knowledge or consent; taking charge of the project herself, she finds herself warring with the ethics and morality of her work when young lives hang in the balance.

Pokekids (In Planning) - Based on an FYCD prompt meshed with an original story in development; the story revolves around an original region and original characters setting out on their journey, the challenges they meet along the way, and the friends they make in the process.

InuYasha

The Rising Wind (Complete) - An AU fic based on loveyou-x3000′s Wind Prompt, exploring the aftermath of Kagura’s death, her revival in a borrowed human form, her developing bond with Sesshomaru, and their eventual family.

Maelstrom (In Planning) - A canon-divergent AU where Sesshomaru diverts Kagura after she betrays Naraku, preventing her death at his hands; as she becomes ingrained within the group, though, Naraku sees an opportunity to make use of her even when she is not within his direct control.

Ace Attorney

Crime of Passion (In Development) - My Ace Attorney magum opus; Miles Edgeworth is once again accused of murder and taken in by police, but this time Phoenix Wright won’t be able to take his case -- because the victim of the crime is none other than the defense attorney.  It’s up to Maya to defend the prosecutor this time, while Miles is forced to confront the hard truths about his relationship with the missing lawyer.

[mdelpin]

The Red Dragon (Chapter 31)

AO3 | FF.Net | Tumblr: Ch1 | Ch30

Chapter 31

Soulmates have existed for as long as any dragon can remember, it’s one of the first things they teach us as whelps, and many dragons seem to have one. However, there is little recorded information on how they came to be or what the effects of soul bonds are on mated pairs.

“Tell me about it,” Atlas grumbled. For all the scrolls he’d pored over, there was little useful information. He continued reading, hoping that this journal he’d found, written by a dragon named Alienòr, whose scrolls he vaguely remembered reading, would end up being useful.

Not having a soulmate of my own, I became increasingly interested in this topic, curious to understand if there was something I was missing. After spending several centuries observing as many mated pairs as I could find, I have come to the following conclusions on this topic.

Although I came no closer to determining how this bond comes about, I determined that there are several stages involved in reaching a successful mating:

I call the first stage awareness - Many mated dragons described sudden knowledge that their soul mate had come into existence. They did not know who it was or where they might be, but they were full of certainty that they had entered the world.

The second stage is pull - Years after they achieve awareness, the dragons will inevitably meet; they will experience a sort of pulling sensation that will guide them to their mate. One fire dragon I talked to described a pull so strong it drove him to fly one thousand miles to a place he was unfamiliar with, only to find his mate living in a cave there.

The next stage is recognition - Mates will immediately recognize each other once they are in each other’s presence, regardless of age or gender. It is more common for this to happen after the onset of puberty, but I also witnessed it in younger dragons. The relationship remains platonic until both dragons have reached sexual maturity.

Atlas stopped his reading to think about how that applied to what he knew of Natsu and Igneel’s situations. Why had they ended up near this tiny village? Had it been arbitrary, or was Igneel drawn here? He couldn’t be sure. Igneel had been acting strangely at the time, but they’d both been under a lot of stress.

Natsu, however, had described a scent that guided him to fly to where Gray was. Atlas remembered Igneel’s insistence that Natsu did not need to go off searching for Gray as he would make his way to Natsu on his own. That sounded like the pull Alienòr had described.

He also knew that both Natsu and Igneel had immediately recognized Gray and Porlyusica as their soulmates. So far, their experiences matched up to what the journal described.

Once mates have recognized each other, a sort of courting process begins, which seems to vary both in time and method from race to race, although the overall goal to impress the other remains the same.

Fire dragons, for example, use involved flying acrobatics to impress their mate. I have added an extensive list of some feats I witnessed in my notes.

The dragons offer tokens to each other when they are ready to mate. The mating act itself seems to be what causes the souls to rejoin.

Although soul bonds are not sentient, they behave in a way that suggests specific aims.

The bonds seek to have mates coexist in each incarnation for as long as possible. This phenomenon is most noticeable when the mates are from different races. As an example, I observed a mated pair comprising an Earth dragon and a Sky dragon. The Sky dragon was the elder of the two by about two hundred years.

I have known Earth dragons to live upwards of fifteen hundred years, whereas a Sky dragon’s lifespan is around six hundred years. However, this Sky dragon lived to the unlikely age of close to a thousand years, while the Earth dragon died at eight hundred.

I have listed additional examples in my investigation notes, but this pattern was consistent across mixed-race soulmates.

“Where the hell are these notes he keeps talking about?” Atlas muttered to himself. He couldn’t recall having ever come across them, and it sounded like they had information he might find useful. Looking down at the mess of scrolls and books that took up almost every inch of his room, he sighed, knowing finding them was unlikely.

With natural death, mated dragons with longer life expectancies died earlier than was usual, while dragons with shorter life expectancies saw their lives extended.

When a mate’s death is precipitated by anything other than natural causes, there is a powerful urge for the surviving mate to take their own life. This urge can be surpassed, but it is rare to see the dragon reach full maturity. It is my opinion that there is some outside force working away at their life force so the cycle can begin anew.

Side effects/ Abilities of the soul bond

Although there doesn’t seem to be one unified experience, there are certain phenomena that are oft-repeated:

Mates have limited telepathy with each other; however, they cannot intrude on each other’s thoughts. This ability can improve with practice.

Heightened senses let them detect each other’s location.

Lying or acting in any way that will upset their mate will cause acute anxiety and inner conflict.

Mates cannot consciously hurt each other.

Have an open mental connection often described as a continuous background hum, allowing them to recognize any significant shift in emotions or pain levels

Based on these observations, I have devised spells that will grant me the ability to examine souls. I hope that reviewing what differences might exist between the souls of dragons with soulmates and those without will give me new insight. I’m also quite curious to learn if there is any way to study the soul bonds directly.

Atlas turned to the next page excitedly, wanting to read any results or conclusions Alienòr might have reached, but to his dismay, there was nothing but empty pages.

“Damn it!”

He slammed the journal on his worktable in frustration. Atlas knew he recognized the dragon’s name, but he couldn’t remember which of his scrolls he might have read. With no other alternative left, he began sorting through the mess, trying to locate Alienòr’s work.

0-0

Gray had informed Atlas and Igneel of his decision as soon as he’d returned from his trip with Lyon. Igneel had acted pleased while Atlas had disappeared to his room in a foul temper, claiming he needed to work on the spell. He only came out to eat and to spend time with Igneel.

Gray had left them to their preparations while he focused on training, applying himself with the same dedication he’d had when learning Ice Make magic from Ur all those years ago. He practiced his astral projection for hours at a time until he felt comfortable leaving his room and exploring the cave. Sometimes Igneel joined him, and they’d chat about Natsu, which only bolstered his determination to work hard. During those moments, Gray could tell that Igneel seemed sad about something, but he followed Lyon’s advice and didn’t let it worry him.

“I think you’ve got the hang of this now, how about we try something new?” Igneel asked, appearing in Gray’s room just as he was getting ready to move around.

“Sure, what did you have in mind?”

“I thought you could try to use your magic.”

“I can use my magic like this?”

“Of course. Your magic is a part of you, you might as well get used to wielding it.”

“Does that mean I’ve always had ice magic?” Gray puzzled. Until he’d met Ur, he’d had no sign that he had any magical power.

“Yes, it might just have taken a while to manifest while your dragon soul learned to adapt to being in a human body.”

Gray supposed that made as much sense as anything else.

“Will it be different from what I already know?”

“Why don’t you try it and see?” Igneel encouraged, watching him with great interest.

Gray thought it best to cast a spell he used often, since he was nervous about invoking his magic while in astral form.

Ice-Make: Cold Excalibur

An ice sword materialized in front of him, just as it always did, but this time it clattered uselessly to the floor when he attempted to close his fingers around it. It was only then he remembered he no longer had fingers to speak of. He’d also forgotten to account for his now larger size, so the sword looked more like a toy than a weapon.

Igneel chuckled at his horrified expression. “You might have to change how you think about it, though. Creation magic is powerful. You’ll just have to devise ways to use it that will suit your dragon body. Until then, your talons, fangs, wings, tail, and even the horns on your head are all powerful weapons you can use to great effect. As a dragon you’ll also gain a breath weapon and improved control over your element.”

Gray hadn’t even considered he might have to use his magic differently once he switched bodies, but he’d figure something out. That was the thing he’d always loved about his magic. It would never fail him as long as he could think his way through a problem.

He couldn’t contain his excitement at the thought that in a few short weeks he’d be with Natsu again. And this time he’d be the one to surprise him with a grand gesture, just like he’d always wanted. They’d be able to have the life they’d always dreamed of.

He was still nervous about how that was going to play out, though. He knew next to nothing about being a dragon.

“What’s the matter? You look worried. Are you afraid you won’t be able to do it?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just, I don’t know the first thing about being a dragon and-”

“You’ll be fine,” Igneel assured him, “Believe it or not, a lot of it will just come to you by instinct. I have to say, I’m a little curious though. It’s obvious you’re some sort of ice dragon, but you don’t look like any I’ve ever seen.”

“I don’t?” Gray frowned, not understanding what Igneel meant until he remembered the last dragon that had attacked Talos. It had been an ice dragon, and it’d been white and smaller than Natsu.

“No. All the ice dragons I’ve encountered have had white, light blue or silver scales, and they were on the smaller side. They looked nothing like you.” Igneel said, pointing at Gray’s navy blue fur and larger size.

Gray was a little disappointed, Natsu had found ice dragons pretty, and he’d been looking forward to his reaction when he realized his mate had turned into one. Then again, he had a feeling that would be the last thing on Natsu’s mind when he saw him

.

“So how do I use my breath weapon?”

“Can you feel your magic inside you?”

Gray nodded, it didn’t feel any different than usual.

“If you’re used to creating things with your ice, you probably let out your magic in even spurts. Am I right?”

“Yeah, I don’t really need to use a lot at once unless I’m molding something large,” Gray agreed.

“Breath weapons are very effective, but they take a bit of time to charge up. That’s why you need to learn how to use other parts of your body to fight while that happens. Now, I want you to collect as much magic as you feel comfortable with, and then I want you to let it out all at once through your mouth. You can’t hurt anything here, so aim wherever you want.”

“Okay.” Gray closed his eyes to settle his nerves and began calling on his magic, letting it collect until he didn’t feel like he could hold it in anymore. It felt like a tremendous amount, even though it was only a fraction of what was available to him. He released it all at once, feeling as it traveled through his lungs, up his long neck and out through his mouth.

Considering what he’d seen of Natsu’s breath attack, even in his human form, he’d expected to see a large cone of ice spewing out from his mouth. However, no ice had come out at all, even though he’d felt something. It took him a moment to notice a sort of fog surrounding him.

“Well, that was pretty pitiful,” Atlas snorted from behind him, “What’s the matter, forget how to make ice?”

Gray startled at Atlas’ voice and instantly felt something shift in his magic. He didn’t quite understand it, but he noticed the mist had gotten thicker.

“What the hell?” Atlas sounded puzzled, and he stared at Gray, eyes narrowing as his brow furrowed.

“Is there a reason you're gracing us with your presence?”

“Look at his side,” Atlas urged Igneel, who only shrugged.

“I don’t see anything.”

“It’s not doing it on that side too?”

“Doing what? What are you talking ab-,” Igneel moved to stand beside Atlas, peering through the mist to get a look at Gray’s side.

“What is that?”

“No idea, I’ve seen nothing like that before. Did that mist get thicker when it started?”

“Could be. Are those markings?” Igneel muttered, “Do you think they mean anything?”

“Maybe? Maybe some kind of mutation,” Atlas suggested, “or he could be some special type of ice dragon? Might explain why he looks different.”

“I don’t understand, why didn’t any ice come out? My ice make worked just fine,” Gray interrupted the two brothers before they got involved in one of their discussions.

He didn’t get why they were so worked up about the inky tendrils that had appeared on his forearm and shoulder. Frankly, he was more concerned with his magic not working the way he’d expected.

He didn’t really get why they were so worked up about the inky tendrils that had appeared on his forearm and shoulder. Frankly, he was more concerned with his magic not working the way he’d expected.

“I don’t know,” Igneel admi, d, “but it’s the first time you tried to use your breath weapon, it could be you just need practice.”

“I guess,” Gray said, feeling disappointed. It had felt like he’d done everything right.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Atlas said, “the astral realm doesn’t work the same way as what you’re used to. Things here work off two things: intent and instinct. You followed your instinct, but since you don’t know what to expect, it would make it difficult to visualize the outcome well enough to materialize it here. I’m sure that will change after-”

“So what did you come here to tell us?” Igneel changed the subject abruptly.

“I’m taking off for a while. I found something I think might be helpful, but it’s incomplete. Maybe the rest of it is still in Desierto.”

“It’s a waste of time, we have everything we need here,” Igneel argued.

“No. We don’t,” Atlas growled, “I’ll be back in a week. You should do some research on those markings while I’m gone, it could be something. Odds are if we haven’t come across something like that, he hasn’t either.”

The hellfire dragon disappeared from their view before Igneel could protest further, and although he still looked upset, he also seemed pensive.

“Why don’t you try one more time before we call it a day?”

Gray nodded and began collecting his magic once more.

0-0

Atlas hadn’t returned to Desierto since they’d moved to the mountains near Talos some twenty-five years earlier, but he’d lived there for almost four hundred years. He still knew just about every nook and cranny of the vast cave system they’d called home. He’d first explored it as a whelp along with Igneel, Deliora and several of the other dragons they’d grown up with.

It was also the place where he’d first discovered his love of magic, something his parents had quickly recognized and done their best to encourage, despite him being a hellfire dragon and unlikely to progress very far. It had taken him decades to see any development, but once he had he’d never looked back, learning more and more until it seemed like there was no problem he couldn’t solve with magic.

Atlas had told Igneel he’d only be gone a week, and it had taken him two days of swift flying to get here. That left him with about two days to search and one day to rest before embarking on the flight home.

Atlas knew Igneel had probably been right in saying this was a fool’s errand, but if he could somehow keep his brother from having to give up his life to do this for Natsu, it would be worth it.

Familiar scents greeted him as he stood inside the main entrance, filling him with a profound sadness. A lot of those dragons had passed away during the war, and would hopefully be reborn soon. But some hadn’t been as lucky. For those, the only remaining trace of their existence lived inside Acnologia.

It grieved Atlas to think of how many soulmate pairs the renegade had destroyed with that soul reaping spell of his. He wished they’d realized how dangerous Acnologia was earlier. They might have had a chance then, before he’d collected so many types of magic and become so unpredictable. It would have saved them a lot of heartache. Sadly, there was no magic that could turn back time, and it was something he had very little of at the moment.

Where should he look first? The old library seemed the most likely place to start, but he’d supervised its relocation himself, so it was unlikely anything of import would still be there. Alienòr was a name he’d vaguely recognized, so he’d likely died before Atlas had been born, as he’d apprenticed under all the red dragons that had studied magic.

Atlas found his way to the old library, which as expected was empty. While debating which areas of the lair had the highest chance of gaining him results, he felt a pull and groaned, recognizing it as Natsu wanting to communicate.

What now?

He headed to his old quarters, casting a barrier spell at the entrance on the off chance there was someone else inhabiting the cave. Natsu waited for him at their usual meeting place.

The souls that visited the astral plane could shape it into whatever guise they wanted. For Igneel, that often meant a volcanic region, but for Natsu it was their mountain. He sat atop it now, staring up at the stars as he often did when he was home.

“Everything okay?”

Natsu sighed, “Yeah. We’re almost done sending the dragon slayers home. Most of them had their magic removed.”

“I see. Does that include Wendy and the others?”

“No, they all kept theirs. I had to remove Irene’s magic, though.”

Atlas couldn’t help but notice the sad expression on his nephew’s face. “Something’s bothering you. Out with it.”

“I didn’t have time to tell you last time, she began to dragonify.”

Atlas grunted his displeasure at the news. Irene was a friend. She’d fought hard for them from the very beginning, having come from Dragnof where dragons and humans had once lived in harmony.

“How bad?”

“Her face, I’m not sure where else. I removed her magic to keep it from progressing, but she-”

“Let me guess, she doesn’t want Anna or Erza to see her like that?”

“Yeah.”

“Stubborn as always, but don’t worry about it. Tell her I can help her, but only if she comes home.”

“Thanks, I was hoping you could do something.” Natsu looked relieved, but Atlas couldn’t help but notice that the underlying sadness remained.

“It’s the least we can do for her,” Atlas smiled, remembering some of Irene’s feats. “Erza’s the one that used to beat you up when you were a kid, right?”

Natsu nodded, his eyes soon returning to the night sky. “How’s Gray doing?”

“About how you’d expect, he mopes around without you and complains about the heat.”

Natsu chuckled, but soon turned quiet again. His tail twitched behind him, giving away his agitation.

“Seriously, kid, what’s eating you?”

“Sting and Rogue are coming home.”

“And you don’t want them to?” Atlas wondered out loud.

“I don’t know. Talos is their home, even more than it’s mine. It’s just—I’m worried,” Natsu said, “You know what? Nevermind, it’s stupid.”

“I don’t follow. Is it because you’re still angry?” Atlas pressed.

“No, I mean I am, but that’s not really it.”

“Then, why don’t you tell me what it is you’re worried about?”

“It’s just—things between me and Gray are hard enough now. He goes off to work every day, and I do my King thing. Neither one of us fits into the other’s world. Not as things are. And I know he says he’s happy, but he’s my mate. I can feel his sadness.”

Natsu teared up. “How’s he going to feel when he’s confronted with Sting and Rogue? When he sees them having what we once had, but never can again. Is it going to destroy what we do have? Is he going to resent me?”

“Why not go somewhere else then?”

“I can’t take Gray away from his brother and his friends, that wouldn’t be fair. And where would we go, anyway? I can’t take him to Drak Aast, not after I agreed to remove all humans from the island.”

“Ugh, this whole thing sucks!” Natsu roared out his frustration. “This is exactly why I wanted to set him free.”

“You know that wouldn't have changed anything. From what Igneel tells me, Gray would be a lot more miserable without you, and I think he’s right. Think of how far that boy came to be with you. I think you should have more faith in him.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I’m just scared. Now that he’s been living with us—I don’t want to go back to the way it was before.”

“Things will work out somehow, I’m sure of it.” Atlas nuzzled his nephew’s cheek, wanting to offer him some comfort from his gloomy thoughts.

“Thanks. I should go, there are still a lot of things I need to do before I go.”

“Sure. When will you be home?” Atlas asked, trying to appear uninterested in the response.

“One week’s time. At least it was a brief trip, huh?”

“Yeah, we can talk more when you get home.”

Natsu grunted his agreement, “Bye, Atlas.”

And just like that he was gone, and the mountain along with him. Atlas’ soul returned to his body, and he was once again in his old bedroom. He paced the large room, cursing this newest problem.

Atlas wanted to tell Natsu the truth. He thought Igneel’s plan was unnecessarily cruel, but he supposed it would be even crueller to make Natsu choose between his father and his fondest wish.

Natsu was coming home in one week. If Atlas didn’t return right away, they might not have enough time to perform the spell before Natsu arrived with the dragon slayers.

But he hadn’t even searched yet.

Natsu doesn’t need me anymore, but he needs Gray. This current arrangement they have, you know it’s hurting them both.

Igneel’s words haunted him. Damn it, why did he always have to be right? It pissed him off.

And how the hell could his brother expect him to let go of him so easily? The only time they’d been apart since they’d hatched was when Igneel had lived in Talos with Porlyusica, and even then they’d seen each other regularly.

Igneel was more than his brother, he was his best friend. Atlas had never needed anyone else. He’d come to Desierto in search of a miracle, desperate to find anything that would keep him from having to let go, but…

Igneel had long ago made his peace with his sacrifice. Atlas was being selfish, and no matter how much Igneel’s decision hurt him, it wasn't his choice to make. And Natsu had unwittingly confirmed why it was so important.

After everything Natsu had done for them, didn’t he deserve to live the life they’d always promised him? Especially when Gray was willing to trade everything he was on the off chance they could manage it.

Atlas could spend days here, but he knew he was unlikely to find anything that would help. They had moved everything of importance twenty-five years ago. Even if he found those notes, they might not help him at all. And then he’d have missed his last days with Igneel for nothing.

He’d always bet on magic to solve all his problems, and maybe with enough time it could. But he knew he had to follow his heart this time, or he’d regret it for the rest of his life.

He would head home in the morning, but first he needed to rest.

0-0

Gray raced down the mountain path, making his way towards the lake where he knew he’d find Lyon and Erza. They went there every day to watch the sunset before heading home to get dinner started.

Natsu and Happy would be home in four days, but for once that wasn’t the reason he was so excited. Atlas had told them the dragon slayers would come with them. All of them.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about Sting and Rogue’s return, but he also knew it wouldn’t be an issue. By the time they arrived, he’d more than likely be a dragon. If that were the case, it would be a lot easier to forgive them for what had happened.

Gray ran past the field and through town, waving at the people that greeted him along the way. He didn’t stop until he saw Lyon and Erza standing by the shore. It took him several minutes to catch his breath and by that point his friends had already noticed him and were watching him with concern.

“Is something wrong?” Erza asked, and he wanted to laugh because it was just the opposite but held it in to avoid choking and really worrying her. Instead, he raised his hand at her and gestured for her to wait.

“They dragon slayers are coming home,” Gray finally managed to get out in between pants. He peered at Erza with a big smile and added, “All of them. Natsu got in touch with Atlas and told him, they’ll be here in four days.”

“My mother?” Erza breathed, tears welling in her eyes. “She’s coming home?”

Gray could only grin at her as she tackled him so hard they both fell on the ground.

Lyon helped them up, laughing at Erza’s embarrassed expression as he wrapped her up in a hug. “That’s amazing! She’s finally coming home, I’m so happy for you.”

Gray couldn’t resist teasing his brother, “You’re going to get to meet your mother-in-law, I sure hope she likes you.”

Lyon glared at him, but Erza was quick to shut Gray down, “Nonsense! Of course she’ll love him. How could she not?”

Gray could think of a few reasons, but he kept them all to himself because Erza turned to smile at him then and she looked so radiant it took his breath away, the setting sun no match for her beauty.

“Why am I standing here? I have to tell Anna!” Erza glanced over at Lyon, “Do you want to come?”

“I’ll stay with Gray, there’s something I want to talk to him about, and I imagine Anna would rather hear the news in private. Take your time, I know the two of you will have a lot to talk about.”

Erza waved at them and then ran in the orphanages’ direction.

“It’s nice to see her so happy,” Lyon commented, as he watched her retreating figure. “She’s waited for that for so long.”

“Yeah, she certainly has.”

“So, what does this mean for you? You’d said you needed to do your thing before Natsu returned.”

“I’m handing in my resignation tomorrow morning, so I guess I’ll say my goodbyes then. We’re planning on doing the spell the day before Natsu arrives to give me some time to get used to—uh, everything I guess. Not sure what will happen after he gets back.”

“Have you thought about what you’re going to tell people?”

Gray hadn’t given it any thought. “Why would anyone care?”

“Because you’ve been a guard for a very long time?”

Gray shrugged, “I dunno, I guess I’ll say my husband and I are moving away somewhere.”

“As crazy as it sounds, I’m so proud of you. I’m sorry I gave you a hard time on that trip. I just—”

“I know. You were trying to look out for me, I’m glad I stuck it out though.”

Lyon squeezed his shoulder, “I am too. I know it wasn't easy, but now that you’re about to get what you’ve always wanted, I couldn’t be happier.”

He suddenly laughed, “You know, I never thanked you for nagging me to move here. And I’m glad everyone is coming home, it hasn’t been the same without them.”

Gray smirked, “Maybe you can take down Wendy someday... but I doubt it.”

“You promised you’d never bring that up again,” Lyon whined, much to Gray’s delight.

“They’re going to be different,” Gray warned, thinking of the things Natsu had told him.

“I know, but we can still be here for them.”

“You’ve grown up a lot.”

“I had an outstanding teacher,” Lyon remarked, playfully punching Gray’s shoulder.

“Have you told Erza about the spell?”

“No, I didn’t

know what to say, and I kind of thought you’d like to tell her.” Lyon snapped his fingers, “Don’t forget you promised me a ride!”

“Sure, sure. You’ll probably crap your pants,” Gray snorted, but Lyon’s words served as a pleasant reminder that his brother loved him no matter what.

“Hey, do you remember that time we iced Sting’s locker?” Lyon giggled.

“His face!” Gray roared, laughing at the memory. “And then Natsu refused to help him melt it, so Rogue had to phase into it and get everything out for him so he wouldn’t be late for his shift.”

They sat down to watch the sunset together, laughing as they looked back on the good memories they had made during their earlier years in Talos.

0-0

“Do you have a minute?”

Gray looked up from the sketch he was working on before going to bed to find Igneel standing at the room’s entrance.

“Yes, of course,” Gray put his pencil down and gestured for Igneel to come inside, curious what his father-in-law wanted to talk to him about.

Igneel ambled in, “I just wanted to let you know Natsu got in touch with us a few minutes ago. They’ve just left.”

Gray tensed up at the news. It thrilled him that Natsu was coming home sooner than expected, but it also reminded him how little time they had left.

Igneel glanced around the room, his eyes coming to rest on the piece of paper Gray had been working on, “I didn’t know you drew. Is that Natsu?”

“Yeah, it is.” Gray scratched the back of his neck, feeling self-conscious. He’d only ever let Natsu and Lyon see his drawings. “It’s not something I do often, just when I’m anxious, I guess. Keeps me from getting inside my head too much.”

Igneel nodded in understanding, “I suppose that would be magic for me. Speaking of which, I’m sorry to say we’ve yet to find any information on those markings of yours, but we’ll keep looking.”

“I still don’t get why you guys are so excited about that.”

“Well, it’s because it has the potential to be a weapon against Acnologia. We don’t understand much about how his magic works, but he has one spell that allows him to reap a portion of a dragon’s soul. When successful, he links the soul to his magic and gains a certain resistance or immunity to that magic.”

“That happened to you, didn’t it?”

“Yes, along with many other dragons. It’s why he’s so hard to kill, he’s made it so our magic is useless against him. But if we could find something he’s never encountered before,” Igneel shrugged, “who knows?”

“I doubt that mist would do much of anything against him,” Gray muttered.

Igneel chuckled at him. “Don’t sell yourself short, we don’t know what it can do yet. I’m sure Atlas will figure it out once you can wield it. It will be an excellent distraction for him.”

Gray stopped to wonder what it would be a distraction from, but the sheer panic at having to fight Acnologia someday soon replaced it.

“I’m going to fight that thing?”

“It’s possible. Does that scare you?”

“Well yeah, he held his own against all of you, and you knew what you were doing.”

“There’s something I told Natsu a long time ago. It’s likely the most important thing I ever taught him, and I’m going to share it with you as well.” Igneel disclosed.

“Regardless of who you’re fighting, the critical thing in any battle is to keep a level head. You have plenty of weapons at your disposal, but your mind is the most important one. If you let yourself panic, then you’ve already lost. I think as a creation mage, this is especially relevant to you.”

Gray nodded, understanding the truth in those words. He only hoped he’d remember them when the time came. He was aware of how terrifying Acnologia was. Then again, the next time they met things would be different. He’d no longer be a human, and Natsu would be right by his side. Not to mention, Gray had a score to settle with him, for hurting Natsu the way he had, and for taking away the life they’d just begun.

He did, however, want to change the subject to something more pleasant, especially with Natsu on the way home and the possibility of danger never far from his mind.

“Do you think you could teach me how to fly once I’ve changed? I’d like to surprise Natsu and I’m not sure I could survive Atlas teaching me anything else,” Gray implored, recalling how miserable he’d been when the hellfire dragon had taught him how to astral project.

“You don’t think you being a dragon will be enough of a surprise?” Igneel joked, but his laughter sounded hollow, and Gray couldn’t help but notice Igneel had averted his eyes.

“Igneel?”

The fire dragon stared at the ground, remaining silent long enough to make Gray feel uneasy.

“I haven’t been entirely truthful with you,” Igneel admitted, looking up at Gray at last.

“What do you mean?” It amazed Gray how calm he sounded, because inside he was anything but. He’d known from the beginning that Igneel was keeping something from him, and as much as he wanted to know what it was, he’d also been dreading it.

“I’m afraid I won’t be here after you’ve changed.”

“Won't be here?” Gray repeated, “I don’t understand.”

“What we’re trying to do, frankly, it’s never been attempted before. I’m not sure anyone but Atlas could manage it, and it would never work if you didn’t possess a dragon soul.”

“How to explain it?” Igneel’s talons tapped the cave floor as he thought.

“Energy can’t be created, it can only transform from one form to another. And it will take a lot of energy to create the body that matches your soul. To accomplish this, Atlas will have to deconstruct both our bodies and transform the released energy into your new body.” Igneel explained, gauging Gray’s reaction before continuing.

“However, despite having a dragon soul, your current lifespan is still that of a human. So the second part of the puzzle was, how can we prolong that to closer match Natsu’s? There’s only one solution. I will merge my remaining life force with yours. From what Atlas discovered in his research, your soul bond should take care of the rest.”

“Are you saying in order for me to become a dragon, you have to... die?” Gray balked at the thought.

“Gray—”

“No!” Gray stood up from his chair, moving to bridge the distance between them. “How can you talk about this like it’s nothing? Do you have any idea what your death would do to Natsu? Because I do. I’ve lived it.”

It scared him to think of how Natsu had acted after that nightmare, and back then he hadn't even known for a fact if Igneel was dead.

“Gray—”

“How can you ask this of me? I’ve already put him through so much, I can’t be the one responsible for taking you away. Can’t you see that? And how the hell is Atlas—”

“GRAY!” Igneel roared, cutting off the rest of his protests.

“I understand how you feel, but I assure you I didn’t decide this lightly. And I do know what it will do to him. But I also know that Natsu is strong. Losing me will make him sad, but it won’t destroy him. Losing you, however, is a different matter.”

“But your soul,” Gray objected, trying to think of anything that might change the dragon’s mind. “Natsu told me if you died before Acnologia you wouldn’t be able to—”

“I appreciate your concern,” Igneel frowned, “but any doubts I may have had were gone the moment I realized your magic might be what we need to defeat that abomination.”

“But we know nothing about it!”

“It’s still the only lead we have. I’ve had a wonderful life, Gray. Full of love and magic. It’s all I ever wished for. So please, don’t change your mind now. I know it’s asking a lot, but let me do this for the two of you. I want to.”

This was insanity. There was no way he could be a part of this. Natsu would never forgive him. Not in a million years. Gray felt the room closing in around him as everything fell apart.

“I can’t—,” He didn’t know what it was he couldn’t do, breathe, go through with the spell, understand what was happening? It felt like all of them at once.

“Just think about it, okay?” Igneel pleaded.

“I have to go.”

Gray turned around and ran out of the cave, not at all sure what he was running away from but needing to breathe some fresh air, heat wave be damned. He headed down to the lake again, knowing it would be cooler near the water. Maybe he’d go for a swim. He needed to think, and it was late enough he didn’t expect to see anyone.

He stripped before wading into the water, letting himself float while looking up at the night sky. The stars shone brilliantly, reminding him of all the nights he’d spent at the top of the mountain with Fukou.

What was he supposed to do?

According to Lyon, he wasn’t responsible for the choices of others, but surely there had to be a limit to that. Going through with their plan meant Igneel would die.

But Igneel said it was something he wanted, and Atlas wasn’t trying to stop him anymore.

If he went through with it, would Natsu hate him for taking his father away?

If he didn’t would he regret it when he died and Natsu had to continue living alone because of the promise he made?

Back and forth Gray went, getting no closer to an answer he could live with. If only he could talk to Natsu to get a feel for what he’d want him to do. That was what he hated the most out of all this. This decision affected both their lives, yet he needed to make it on his own.

Why couldn’t they just wait until Natsu returned?

“Gray?”

He forced himself back to the present, glancing at the shore and finding Juvia peering at him with a concerned expression. How long had she been calling for him?

He didn’t feel like talking to anyone at the moment, but he also didn’t want to be rude.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said, standing up in the water and walking towards the shore. “No need to make that face, I just felt like cooling down.”

“Oh,” She didn’t look very convinced, but she didn’t call him on it and she perked up when she saw he was walking over.

“Juvia is glad to run into Gray. Juvia was afraid she wouldn’t get to say goodbye when she missed the meeting.” She sat down on the sand, delicately arranging her skirt around her.

“Well, Natsu won’t be back for another two days. I’m not sure when we’re leaving,” Gray said, grabbing his clothes and putting them on before sitting next to her.

If at all.

“Juvia also heard congratulations are in order.”

“Congratulations?”

“Gray married Natsu,” She blushed prettily.

“Oh that,” Gray had forgotten he’d announced it at the meeting, “uhm thanks.”

“Lyon said Gray had been in love with Natsu since he was very young. And when Natsu went off to fight in the war, Gray wore his scarf and waited for him to return for so very long, never giving his heart to anyone else.”

“Gray is so very romantic!” Juvia cooed.

“He didn’t say this in front of anyone else, did he?” Gray groaned at the thought.

“No,” Juvia giggled, “Only Juvia. Lyon is proud of Gray. Juvia thinks he’s a bit of a romantic too.”

“He’s something, alright,” Gray laughed along with her. “How about you? How’s the mysterious boyfriend?”

“Juvia is on her way to see Logan. He lives on the other side of the lake,” Juvia smiled, her eyes shining as she looked across the water.

“I’m glad you found someone who makes you happy.”

“Juvia is too, it’s much nicer when the other person likes you too.”

“Juvia... I’m sorry—”

“No, no!” Juvia raised her hands in protest. “Juvia didn’t mean it like that!”

“Juvia had no one to teach her how to use her magic. So Juvia made it rain all the time, and it drove people away. Juvia was always lonely. Then Gray defended Juvia, and Juvia wanted to believe it was because Gray loved her.”

“So Juvia forced her feelings on Gray and drove him away too. Anna helped Juvia understand that was not what love was. Then Juvia met Logan, and he was very interested in Juvia and Juvia’s friends.”

“Oh, have the others met him?”

Gray couldn’t recall hearing anything about it, but that wasn’t all that unusual. He didn’t precisely socialize with anyone outside of Lyon and Erza, and his problems had distracted him from everything else.

“No, Logan doesn’t enjoy crossing the lake, but he cares about Juvia. Logan asks about Juvia’s day and about her friends. And now, Juvia is happy. She would do anything to be with Logan.”

Gray blinked at her, knowing those words sounded familiar. It didn’t take him long to remember why. He didn’t need to guess Natsu’s answer, because he’d already given it to him when they had been trying to find their way back to each other.

If there were any way to change what I am, I’d do it in a second. I’d do anything to be with you…

There might not be a way to change what Natsu was, but Atlas and Igneel had given Gray the opportunity to do just that, and he’d come so close to throwing it away. While he still didn’t feel right about Igneel’s sacrifice, he would accept it. After all, hadn’t his own parents given up their lives for him?

“Thank you!” Gray wrapped Juvia up in a quick hug, flustering her even as she looked confused by his outburst. “I have to go!”

He scrambled to his feet and ran back home to tell Igneel what he’d decided.

Juvia watched him leave in stunned silence. Gray had been the first man Juvia had ever loved, even if he’d never returned her feelings. And he’d also been the first person to show her any kindness. She would always remember him fondly.

She waited until she couldn’t see him anymore and then turned to the water and waded in. Once the water reached her neck, she switched to her water body and swam across the lake, her mind filled with her upcoming rendezvous.

It didn't take her long to reach their meeting spot. Juvia dispelled her water body, her clothes already dry by the time she reached her lover.

“You’re late,” Logan snapped.

“Logan waited for Juvia!” Juvia ignored his rebuke. She walked up to her boyfriend and grabbed his one hand in both of hers and smiled up at him. “Juvia is sorry for being late. Juvia ran into one of her friends on the way.”

“It’s alright,” Logan drew in a long breath before returning her smile. “I was just worried about you.”

“What should we do tonight? Shall we go to Logan’s house? Juvia can make some food if Logan is hungry.”

“It’s such a pretty night, why don’t we go for a walk?” Logan offered, leading Juvia towards the forest once she agreed.

The blue tattoos that ran down Logan’s arm gleamed in the moonlight, contrasting with the dark skin that Juvia had always considered exotic. She stared at them briefly, once again wondering what they meant. She’d asked him one time, but he’d changed the subject.

Gray had referred to Logan as mysterious, and Juvia had to admit he wasn’t wrong. She knew little about him, even after months of seeing each other. Whenever she asked him questions about his past, Logan somehow turned the conversation back to her.

“So which of your friends did you run into?”

“Oh, it was Gray,” Juvia replied, her attention on a flower that only bloomed at night.

“Wasn’t he the ice mage that was injured during the dragon attack?” Logan’s tone was casual, but his hand squeezed Juvia’s tighter than usual.

Juvia frowned. She’d been about to complain when he relaxed his grip, flashing her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry darling, you know how just the thought of dragons gets me all worked up.”

“It’s alright,” Juvia assured him, “It’s not something Juvia likes to talk about either, but yes, that was Gray.”

“And how is dear Gray doing these days?” Logan let go of her hand, picking the flower Juvia had been admiring and placing it in her hair.

“Wonderful!” Juvia blushed at his attention, her hand moving up to her hair to touch the flower. “Gray’s husband is coming home at last, and they’ll be moving away soon.”

“Who is his husband again?”

“Juvia has never met Natsu, he’s one of the dragon slayers that left to fight in the war.”

“Natsu,” Logan’s voice dripped with a venom Juvia had never heard him use before, “I sure hope he gets the welcome he deserves.”

“Logan?”

A/N: One chapter to go! I'm so excited and I do plan on continuing through to the end. Next chapter will feature some guest writing from my husband so expect a nice fight scene as well as a beautiful art from @khaoticvex​! As the song that makes me think of the next chapter goes... It's been a long time comin'

[angrycupcakellama]

Hi! I’m pretty new on tumblr so I’m sorry if formatting looks weird. I’m also not native speaker so don’t slander me ples.

I created this challenge for myself because I reinstalled TS4 and I have been overwhelmed with amount of content I have in my game. I also got to the point that I just bored if I “wing it” with my families. Therefore I wrote down all careers I’m somewhat interested in and built this challenge. If you find it interesting feel free to use my notes.

Unfortunately you most likely would need most if not all expansion packs to properly play this challenge. This challenge is inspired by most popular ones in community.

Your family value dynasty a lot, so to treasure and value it, you and your descendants sworn to keep photograph of each heir of your main lineage. No matter what your family will get into, you must protect your heritage.

Basic rules and generations description are under read more.

General Rules:

Cheats are allowed, but do be aware that they take fun out of the challenge;

You have to complete career, aspiration, goals and skills, unless it specified not to;

You may move lots;

Life span may vary as well, but do try to do it on normal;

You may change goals for yourself if you wish;

You must take photograph of your heir (your sim can use any device);

You can also collect family pictures if you want;

This challenge wasn’t tested so be aware that some goals might be unachievable and you are free to ignore them.

For more fun you can follow one color/gender/name throughout generations.  I also included only one supernatural generation, since I personally don’t like playing with them, but, of course, you are free to make witch/alien/vampire/mermaid/etc legacy.

Suggestions are unnecessary to follow and only serve as additional ideas.

1. The Selfish One

Story: You moved in new town and hungry for money. It doesn’t matter how you will get it, you will use all your ways.

Career: Lawyer (Attorney branch)

Aspiration: Fabulously Wealthy

Traits:

Kleptomaniac

Materialistic

Self-Absorbed

Goals:

Steal 50 objects in lifetime;

Earn money only via career/dates/robbing people;

Be a lover of rich person/people and cheat yourself 500$ every time you visit them/go on date with them;

Break up with them as soon as you get pregnant/they get pregnant (you get a child in any case);

Be neglectful of your heir;

Never marry, but you can see other sims (preferably rich);

You can have other children, but I wouldn’t recommend, as later generations are rich with kids;

Skills:

Charisma

Fitness

Debate

Logic

Suggestions for more fun:

Have your sim have awful reputation and get spouses, of people you are seeing, be your enemies;

Get your child taken away, so you got to have another baby.

2. The Kind One

Story: Your parent was an awful person and you feel responsible for their actions. You are not as smart as them but you want to try to make this place better.

Career: Conservationist (Environmentalist branch)

Aspiration: Super Parent/Bestselling Author (you choose one or complete both)

Traits:

Kind

Clumsy

Vegetarian

Goals:

Complete cleaning up Sulani;

Do weekly charity parties starting in adulthood (party type doesn’t matter, cheat whatever sum of money you want out afterwards);

Visit spas/do a lot of self-care actions;

Write book with every emotional boost (there are 4);

Write biography;

Marry your best friend (bonus points if they are your childhood sweetheart);

Have twins;

Have at least 3 children if you are aiming for Super Parent aspiration’s completion;

Follow eco-friendly lifestyle;

Collect all postcards;

Skills:

Parenting

Wellness

Writing

Logic

Charisma

Suggestions for more fun:

Make your sim make videos about self-care all the time;

Have 3 sets of twins;

Have your parent live with you and have tense atmosphere in house;

3. The Complicated One

Story: Your parent had good intentions but they were pretty naive. You have more realistic outlook on life as you first hand saw that no amount of love can fix person who doesn’t want to change. Your twin is criminal.

Career*: Detective

Aspiration: Computer Whiz (Do not complete)

Traits:

Loner

Gloomy

Non-flirty

Goals:

Move out from family house as soon as possible;

Try to not have friends outside work;

Play videogames as your sole entertainment;

Make your sim win videogame tourney;

Don’t cook, live on delivery or on food from stands (your spouse may cook);

Be enemies with your twin or at least have relationship in red;

Marry your colleague in adulthood;

Have one child (if you want more you can only adopt);

Have your twin move in the moment you have heir;

Die unnaturally before reaching elderly stage and have your twin raise your child (ideally child should be in toddler stage);*

Skills*:

Fitness

Logic

Videogames

Suggestions for more fun:

Last goal implies that your twin killed you. so you can get creative with scenario, get you sim killed in Strangerville or use mods;

Try to make your sim as socially awkward as you can, fail dates and wedding, birthdays and parties;

*A/n: From my other legacy challenge it’s not impossible to complete most of the goals by this stage but if your sim is getting close to aging you might ignore rules. Still try to complete most of it, start developing skills from teenage years.

4. The Sheltered One

Story: You never knew your parent and felt distanced from them. You turn to friendly society of women who claim to practice magic as they give you what you are seeking for - a family. But are things as simple?*

Career: Freelancer

Aspiration: Freelance Botanist

Traits:

Family oriented

Loves outdoors

Crazy

Goals:

Run away as teen

Create a witch cult and join it (it’s quite challenging, I recommend making Forgotten Hollow the cult town, it’s small and already has gloomy atmosphere);

Limit interactions with people outside cult;

Become a witch and be potion oriented;*

Fall in love with outsider and run away, do not practice magic afterwards (ideally outsider should be person who you absolutely have to interact, such as schoolmate or stands salesman);

Earn your money by any creative skill;

Have 3 children and encourage free spirit in them (ignore responsible trait, make them skip school to spend time with you);

Have garden (may have money from it as well);

Get full frog collection;

Skills:

Herbalism

Gardening

Cooking

Baking

One creative skill of choice (painting, music, writing)

Suggestions for more fun:

Explore Selvadorada ;

Make your sim as weird as you can, mismatch clothes (crazy trait will help you)

*A/n: If you don’t want to deal with witch side you may ignore the whole thing and just create cult.

5. The Lazy One

Story: Your parent always viewed life as something you have fun with. Sure you are not responsible whatsoever but life is too short to waste it on career building.

Career: Florist (don’t have to complete it)

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief (don’t have to complete it)

Traits:

Creative

Slob

Non-committal

Goals:

Don’t make any efforts to move up career ladder, skip days and don’t do daily tasks;

Live on off grid lot until adulthood;

Make money from your career and creative skill your parent had (they can teach you it);

Do pranks at least once a week (do not do them in your house, if you live alone);

If you get fired change careers to part-time, you can even not get job at all if you don’t need money;

Have on and off relationship with your romantic interest;

Eventually propose to your love interest but leave them at the altar;

Do have child with them;

Have other 4 children with 4 different sim;

Have small house so everyone have to be in each other space 24/7, have your eldest take care of smaller children (you might want to download double bunk bed for children);

Skills (ideally do not master any):

Flower arranging

Mischief

Creative skill of choice

Suggestions for more fun:

This is pretty chill generation, so I suggest just mess around with love interest and children;

6. The Perfect One

Story: Your parent was messy in everything so of course you won’t become the same and find better usage of your talents.

Career: Stylist

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Traits:

Perfectionist

Ambitious

Art Lover

Goals:

Start with 100$ and build yourself up;

Open boutique and get it to 5 stars;

Visit art galleries once a week;

Marry sim who also has Perfectionist trait;

Have butler;

Try to make your house luxurious;

Have two children;

Be extremely strict with them (have a curfew and forbid romantic relationship until young adult stage, their grades have to be A+, all their traits in positive);

Skills:

Charisma

Painting

Writing

Violin

Piano

Fitness

Suggestions for more fun:

Master Photography Skill;

Have your children actually date others sims but in secret;

Live off your paintings in elderly age;

Dress everyone prudishly;

7. The Baby

Story: Your parent was so strict with you, so of course you got to prove that stable career and being perfect is not how life should be.

Career*: Actor

Aspiration*: Master Actor/Master Actress

Traits:

Childish

Squeamish

Jealous

Goals:

Have multiple lovers;

Be mean to people without any reason;

Live in mansion with butler and nannies;

Make videos in free time;

Win award;

Get involved with fan and get your career ruined (you choose how);

Get into red reputation, stop earning money and move out from your mansion to cheap apartment;

Meet with future spouse with kind trait;

Marry and have one child;

Have rocky relationship, divorce eventually;

Earn money from videos only;

Skills:

Acting

Charisma

Comedy

Mischief

Video making

Suggestions for more fun:

It’s dramatic generation, so go full drama;

Earn 1.000.000$;

Have thing with butler;

If you want even more ruined life, you may have child with this fan and hate your child;

*A/n: I don’t know whether it’s possible to complete career and aspiration by the time you have to ruin your career because I believe it has to happen in adulthood so you still have time to finish other goals. You may ignore them.

8. The Right One

Story: Your parent had difficult life but you can’t help but be enamored with idea of how easy is to ruin lives.

Career: Critic (Art Critic branch)

Aspiration: Leader of the Pack

Traits:

Evil

Genius

Hates Children

Goals:

Never have a good friend unless they are from criminal background;

Marry into rich family and divorce immediately;

Have accident child and basically forget about them;

Have nannies and butler to deal with child;

Try to eat in restaurants (I know it’s pain so try to do it on off days);

Kidnap a child/teen and make them your slave;

Have big social media following, at least a million;

Have a club of either high class people or criminals and do shady stuff as well;

Skills:

Writing

Charisma

Piano

Painting

Suggestions for more fun:

Sorry I’m kind of out ideas but I imagine this sim as very uptight and manipulative, so play accordingly. It would be funny if your sim somehow got in jail by the end of their life, maybe there is mod for that.

9. The Broken One

Story: Your parent never loved you, why should you be kind to others? The only friend you can trust is your bottle.

Career: Education

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Traits:

Cat Lover

Mean

Paranoid

Goals:

Have 5 cats through your lifetime (but only when you moved out from your family house, also the limit of household is 8 sims so keep it in mind);

Name cats with pun names;

Marry a vet and have poor relationship with them, but never divorce;

Have as many children as you want, but have poor relationship with all of them;

Go to alien bar night and fight with them;

Overall visit bars often, be a juicegolic;

Cheat on your spouse with alien in disguise, then discover they are alien and fight them as well;

Have a lot of photos of your cats all over place (for next gen, you may consider making your heir do them);

Skills:

Logic

Wellness

Mixology

Debate

Charisma

Suggestions for more fun:

If you didn’t already, go solve Strangerville mystery (bonus points if your sim will drink all the time and it would seem as if they did whilst drunk);

I based this sim on Wine Mom stereotype so gossip a lot and get in petty fights as much as your soul wishes;

10. The Last One

Career: Engineer (either branch)

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Traits:

Bookworm

Cheerful

Dance Machine

Goals:

Go to University;

Be popular, have 20 good friends during your lifetime;

Have romance with rival University;

Never get into fights;

Make photography your hobby;

Date your servobot (may ignore this rule if you want to continue lineage);

Only adopt children (may ignore this rule if you want to continue lineage);

Collect Microscope Prints;

Go to parties all the time;

Have wall of all your ancestors;

Skills:

Photography

Robotics

Logic

This is last generation so you can pretty much do everything you want at this point.

Please reply or send ask to me if you have questions or find unachievable goal, also you can tag me if you will play this challenge.

Thank you for reading!

[sheinthatfandom]

Ashli’s gift

A gift to my lovely Tumblr wife @icecream-and-gadreel I don’t even remember how this started... oh yeah she wanted to be a hoe at work and I had to remind her covid still exists and somehow it wound up with me writing her Gadreel p*rn lol friendship lol

Tumblr is fucking with the spacing so I don’t wanna hear if some lines are pressed together and others far apart. I might put it on ao3 later just so it’s readible. Once I post I’ll see how badly Tumblr fucked it up.

Warnings: I’m half asleep with a pounding headache so I have no idea wtf I wrote. Soft dom!gadreel feels though and it’s p*rn

Pairing: Gadreel/Ashli (original female character)

It had been a long day at work. Tedious, grueling, thankless work but the pay was decent and it actually had benefits which was the only reason Ashli hasn’t quit yet. Not that she wasn't already biding her time. She had dreams and goals that she wanted to at least attempt while she was still young enough to bounce back in case of failure.

Her lip quirked into a smile thinking of her boyfriend’s long suffering argument as to why she should never consider something a failure so long as she gained knowledge or experience from the endeavour.

Speaking of her boyfriend now that the stress of work was behind her she finally noticed the rich smell coming from the kitchen. She entered and found her boyfriend Gadreel bopping along to the radio. His shirt was tight against his wide shoulders, following the curve of his body town to his tapered back before being replaced with gray basketball shorts that were stretched across the swell of his tight ass. Unable to resist the temptation she reached out and pinched his plump ass making him jump in shock.

“Ashli, I didn’t realize you were home already.”

“It’s been a hell of a day. What’chu making?”

“Food.” He shot back cheekily. “Go take a shower the food will be done soon.”

“Only if you join me.”

He pulled her into a hug, his arms wrapped low around her waist. His lips plucked against hers, an unhurried kiss that spoke of familiarity and comfort. “Yes ma’am.”

A thrill of excitement shot through her but she kept her expression neutral. Gadreel always worked harder to get a reaction out of her and the result always left her boneless wherever she was laid. She didn’t bother to watch him knowing he would follow after her shortly, so instead she turned on the shower so the water could warm up and proceeded to take off her work uniform. Stepping under the hot spray she could feel the tension in her muscles relaxing. Losing track of time she focused on cleaning her skin from the stress and agitation the day caused.

The sound of the shower curtain being pulled open snapped her out of the mindless space she was floating. Large hands wrapped around her belly pulling her against a solid build. Gadreel’s hard cock rubbed between her cheeks as he skimmed over her flesh with his finger tips, causing goose pimples to follow in his wake.

“Sweetheart, are you done washing?”

She dropped her head back so it fell between his shoulder and neck, her nose seeking out the smell of him and the spices he used in the food. “Yeah, did you finish cooking already?”

“It needs to simmer for a while yet. it’s in the crockpot. Would you like to play.”

Her pussy clenched at the innocent sounding question but she knew it was anything but. Gadreel, being as in tuned with her as he was, chuckled lowly against her ear as his hand glided down her body until it found her mound. His fingertips lightly scraping at the light dusting of her between her legs. Those clever fingers found her clit quickly, rubbing in slow sensuous circles until she could feel her legs quaking and she spared a moment's worry that she’d fall in the tub. The arm still wrapped around her reminded her that the man behind her would never let her fall to danger, only pleasure. She cried out in her release, her body already feeling weak and soft in the wake of her orgasm.

In the time she closed her eyes to catch her breath and opened them again she was lying faceup on their bed. Warm kisses and soft whispers were placed on her naked, dry skin.

“Please Gad, just fuck me.” She tried to beg through a raspy spent voice.

He lifted his head, his mouth glistening from the attention he had been paying to her now pebbled nipple. “You are the most precious thing in the world and i will treat you as such.” His voice brokered no argument.

She relaxed against the bed, allowing her boyfriend his fill of kisses and mouthfuls of her body. His lips murmuring praises on her skin. Telling her how wonderful she was, how kind, how intelligent, how funny and loving she was. How his life was nothing but darkness until she came and shined her light into the abyss and found him, bringing him absolution.

He kneeled near her head, his muscular tan thighs tensed as he guided the head of his cock to her lax lips. “Come on kitten, want the cream?”

She raised an unimpressed brow but flicked the tip of her tongue against his slit. Her eyes gleeful as he hissed at the sensation. The thick vein on his shaft was next as she followed it down towards the wiry hairs before flattening her tongue and licking along the base. His hand cradled the back of her head, not guiding or commanding simply needing the contact to touch her as much as possible.

Her mouth was red and spit soaked by the time Gadreel was breathing harshly and had to pull her away. “Ashli, I want you to take it all.”

His eyes searched hers, the steel blue orbs commanding her to obey as honey dripped from his lips. “Don’t you want to be good for me?”

She nodded readily, “yes sir please, let me show you.”

The weight of his cock sat heavy on her tongue, the mixture of salt and sweetness was easy to swallow. The constriction against the thick long dick in her mouth made him shutter above her. The tension in his thighs were evidence to his mercy. He could have easily fucked himself down her throat, forced her to take his entire length into her wet and waiting mouth but his restraint was unwavering. She sucked and swallowed him, her eyes wide and inspiring as she looked up past the muscled plains of his body to his blissed out face.

“My good girl, oh my sweet girl I’m going to come.”

She relaxed her throat allowing him to come without gagging, simply taking him all. Her head was floating at the happiness of knowing she did what was asked of her.

“Such a good girl,” He cooed. “Close those pretty eyes, I want you to feel me. Let yourself float on the pleasure of my touch.”

Her lids drifted shut, as the world turned dark. Everything fell away until the only thing left was the feel of stubble rubbing against her inner thighs. The feel of a narrow tongue licking into her core. A mouth fastening over her and drinking her down. Her thighs squeezing against the head between them as her body wracked with pleasure. Fire shot through her every time her clit was touched. Pulses of need coursing inside her as she writhed and whimpered. Flicks to the over sensitive nub had her barreling ever closer to ecstasy but each time she reached near the threshold she was pulled back. A torturous push and pull of pleasure.

Her world narrowed and coldness deeper into where it had once burned when she felt him sit up. A keen whimper escaped her throat, but she kept her eyes closed. He shushed her soothingly, promising without a word. His knees pushed her legs further apart, the strength of them keeping her in place. A hand pinched her pussy lips closed pulling it outward, before she could complain his other hand came down and rubbed against her clit and pinched lips. She screamed as the orgasm barreled out of her. The sensation too much and yet not enough.

As she found her way back to earth, her throat sore from the piercing scream her eyes found his. His kind, ever-patient eyes look down into hers. As though he had all the time in the world, as though his cock was standing rigid and hard at attention. Pre-come dribbling down from the bulbous head until it dripped onto her.

“May I be inside you now Ashli?”

“You don’t have to ask. It’s always yes.” She rasped.

“To be inside you is a privilege and I do not take that honor lightly. I will not continue without your consent.”

She quickly gave her consent and he slid into her. Her body opened up for him as she felt the blunt head of his cock stretch it’s way inside her. She whimpered at the fullness after being empty for so long.

“It’s alright little one. I’ve already come once, I won’t be done with you for a long while yet.”

With that he snapped his hips fucking into her with a punishing pace, that left her fingers scrabbling against his sweat soaked back. Gadreel always knew how to take care of his sweet girl.

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Ilya!

You have been accepted for the role of CARADOC DEARBORN with the faceclaim of Jordan Calloway! We really enjoyed everything you crafted around his habit of compartmentalizing, and the juxtaposition you have set-up between his public attitude of neutrality and his private convictions; those layers should be a lot of fun to explore. We are so excited to have you as part of this roleplay!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Ilya

AGE: 32

TIMEZONE: GMT+1

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I don’t have a set schedule and I tend to keep odd hours, so one day I can be on in the morning, another be up all night. It really depends day-by-day. But I always have a four-five days when I can have dedicated time on my laptop. I know your activity is very generous, I fully intend to aim for more than a post a week.

ANYTHING ELSE: I don’t have any specific triggers or squicks. I have experience in tumblr RPing, but it’s been a year since my last one. I really look forward to get back to it. In my experience, I tend to be silent in discord chats but I promise it’s not lack of interest. It’s just that sometimes I don’t know what to say, or usually I’m about to write something but the conversation moves along.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Caradoc Ekwueme Dearborn

Caradoc is a Welsh name, meaning “love,” and was chosen by his father. Ekwueme is an Igbo name, meaning “he says, he does”, and it was chosen by his mother.

AGE: 28 (b. January 1st, 1953)

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cis male. He/Him pronouns. Demisexual/Demiromantic.

When it came to gender and sexuality, Caradoc had never questioned himself out of his own initiative. Not even when his peers were discussing their crushes and he had nothing to contribute aside from a friendly joke here and there. 

“Don’t you have someone you want to ask out?” was a question he answered easily with a “no.” But he would agree to be a friend’s wingman or the fourth in a double date if asked. It was on one such occasion that he found himself with someone that, while she did not inspire any of the feelings his friends liked to talk about, was nice to spend time with and kiss. The relationship only lasted one year, but they stayed friends throughout their remaining time in school.

Caradoc doesn’t use those exact labels. When asked he simply answers “not interested,” not that many do—they assume he’s too preoccupied with his duties with the Order, or with his job, anyway.

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Hufflepuff

ANY CHANGES: If it possible, I would like to change FC to Jordan Calloway. I imagine Caradoc having an athletic, sturdy kind of body, something that would give reason to people to think him more brawns than brains. He also has a decent amount of resources available in terms of gifs.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

Since being a child, Caradoc has been cultivating a strong sense of morality and personal responsibility over his own actions. The question of what is right and what is wrong is something that he ponders often, almost relentlessly, and it guides him in his desire to find ways to make the world better than it is today.

This desire colours each and every action he takes, and in return every action is examined so he can know where it falls. The pivotal question, the one he always asks himself: is this doing more good or more harm?

He constantly thinks it over, sometimes the answer changes as time goes by and there is more context to add itself to the situation. But he always, ceaselessly, acts according to his own set of morals. 

It is by this very personal moral view that Caradoc has no doubts about the Order. Stealing from those that have in abundance to give to those that have nothing is more right than wrong, even if illegal. Breaking the law is wrong, but breaking the law to save innocent lives is right, and there is no doubt in him about that. The same goes for his own personal safety. Dying in pursuit of this goal is something he is not afraid of, but he is not searching for a heroic death—as his mother’s death taught him: the dead can’t fight any longer.

While this does work as a strength, on the other side it’s also his weakness. It lends him to dislike and distrust those whose morals don’t align with his own. It’s the reason he has stopped joking along to problematic throw-away comments and he’s becoming less and less tolerant of other people’s jokes. Especially the ones at the expense of the marginalised—the Muggles and Muggleborns, Squibs and Werewolves, the Goblins and House Elves; every person or creature whose rights are few or non-existent in Wizarding society. He is ready to admonish people for it and for every slur or slip-of-the-tongue that might betray any kind of bigotry.

But at the same time, he has learned that there are times when he needs to bite his own tongue. If in political conversations Caradoc seldom listens to the nuance of people’ speeches, when talking of private affair there is no word or pause that is not being heard. He is a good listener, when he puts effort into it. He tries his best to not brush off people’s worries or concerns, even if they happen to be far removed from the war and their mission. But it’s not easy when he’s so focused—focused, not obsessed—on the war.

Smiles, however, are rare, and laughter is a sound that has been missing for almost a decade. It’s difficult to laugh, to even be in the mood for it, when all around them the world seems to get just a little bit worse each day. But Caradoc knows he needs to unwind, sometimes—when someone or something reminds him—otherwise they are calling him obsessed. And he isn’t. He is not. Could he still enjoy time with his friends if he was? Sure, he won’t drink or let too loose, but that’s just practical. They are at war after all.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

His father was born into a Welsh pureblood family that valued tradition, but because there had never been any open talk against Muggles and Muggleborns, Meurig Dearborn had grown up thinking his family to be fairly open-minded. But his own ignorance and his own prejudices were soon revealed to him by the young woman that would become his wife. Daughters of diplomats, Amara Dumont had grown up in Belgium but studied at Hogwarts, sorted—of course—into Gryffindor. Even at a young age, she had taken an interest in what happened in the world, her mind always imagining which steps could be taken to better it. At the same time as she received news from the continent about Grindelwald and the terrible ways he used his power, she witnessed Tom Riddle gather his Knight of Walpurgis around himself and saw it for what it was: danger brewing. 

The two found themselves unlikely allies, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, a foreigner witch and a Welsh wizard. Amara, someone bursting with passion with every breathing moment, and Meurig, always careful to present himself like the proper pureblood wizard he was raised to be. She would speak openly of her ideals, her morals, and fought to see the rights of minorities and the marginalised recognised, and was there marching during the Squib Rights Marches both to protect the other protesters and being one herself. He, ever the Slytherin, chose to follow the example of the Dearborns before him—wizards seemingly content with the current status quo, only acting when their hands could not be seen—only allowed to be truthful to himself when in the company of those he trusted.

As parents, they were present in the life of their only son, Caradoc, but never overbearing. Meurig passed down the pureblood traditions of his ancestors—to gather ivy on Halloween night and how to use it for divinations; to purify one’s house at the start of Spring to keep away unwanted guests as ghouls and gnomes; the importance and value of family and the proper way to propose to a witch—and Amara made sure that all and every notion was to be examined and challenged. They were honest with him, and that meant that even as a young child, Caradoc was aware of the world outside their warm little family and the injustices that happened there. It cultivated within him a strong morality and a sense of responsibility for his own actions and those of others.

They looked at him with pride and never forgot to show him their love, and in return Caradoc always looked up to them with admiration. Wizarding society had a more polarising view of their family. Purebloods still liked Meurig and invited him to their events, but they had no love for Amara’s fiery personality and opinions. By contrast, those that were as outspoken as Amara failed to understand how and why she had married Meurig, a wizard that never expressed his opinion at all. From this, Caradoc soon learned that the eyes of others are always watching, gawking and judging every choice, and one mustn’t act by what others think is right, but by what you think is right.

Taking after his mother, politically aware from a young age on, Caradoc’d beg her mother to let him go with her during marches, and as much as her refusal was accompanied by an honest explanation, it always hurt a little to be left behind.

But that was nothing compared to the hurt that her death brought onto the family. Without her, the fire in Meurig extinguished. She had been the force to push him outside of the confines of pureblood traditions and expectations, and without her he couldn’t fight as he had before. Caradoc’s fire, by contrast, was fed to a scorching degree by her death. If his mother couldn’t be here herself to burn bright and set all those who executed injustices ablaze, then he would make sure to do it for the both of them.

OCCUPATION: Obliviator.

Caradoc sought out a position inside the Ministry of Magic just as quickly as he sought one in the Order, feeling he could help the latter with the former and at the same time trying to do some good inside the government too. 

He aimed for a job that would not constrict him behind a desk, which he felt would have left him both restless and with less space to also work for the Order. His talents with spellwork, especially in Charms, and excellent marks in Muggle Studies, landed him at the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.

His first months working as an Obliviator were more forming than probably intended. His mentor was a callous wizard that would do the job quickly but not always in the best way. The Muggles would forget everything they saw, but often were left too confused, with big gaps in their memories and a headache for days. Caradoc did not like it. 

The job was already so intrusive, violating even, by its nature that doing it so wrongly felt unnecessarily cruel. It made Caradoc realise that as much as the Statue of Secrecy was much needed for both Wizarding and Muggle world, it was something that left the latter far too vulnerable. He felt a sense of responsibility towards the people who would need his spellwork, and that responsibility grew and it expanded to the Muggle population at large, giving him even more resolve in his fight against the Death Eaters and their agenda. And with that responsibility also came a feeling which he couldn’t clearly name but always left a bad taste in his mouth every time he robbed another Muggle of their memories, even if for their own good. Some days, it lingers well past office hours, and he feels like it won’t go away until this war is over.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Being in the Inner-Circle—a name Caradoc dislikes—he is part of decision-makers of the Order of the Phoenix. It’s not a role he actively sought for himself, leading had never been the goal, but as the years went on and people continued to die around him, others sought him out when in need. His calm attitude and his sharp focus lent themselves to make him a good listener and decisive when it came to tough choices to make.

These days, he understands people’s frustrations with the Order. The war is nowhere near to be over, and failures are always felt stronger than victories. Not that there are many of those to go around. But that shouldn’t be a reason to act without thought, and lately Caradoc has had many thoughts about what to do with those that feel the Order isn’t doing enough. For one, he would like to help Marlene and her Dissendium Task Force more. While he is frustrated that few people want to fight in this war, fight for what’s right against Voldemort and his followers, he also understands that not everyone can help in the same way and that any help, no matter how little or small, is better than nothing. People shouldn’t be forced to fight if they don’t want to—it wouldn’t make them good fighters, or trustworthy ones—and if one wanted to be cold about it, there was value in promising someone to deliver their family to safety if they give help in return. Not that he likes these sort of transactions. Caradoc feels that good should be done for good’ sake, and not for any return, but he’s not above trying to find a different angle to see things.

And it’s this way of thinking that makes him careful with Dorcas and her group. He won’t brush them aside because there could be still usefulness in their passion, it only needs to be directed in ways that will do more good than harm. Because that’s Caradoc ever present question: how far can we go until we are doing more harm than good? Is any of this truly going to help, or am I only making things worse?

When it comes to the Order of the Phoenix, the answer to that question is clear. Staying with the group, helping planning more and more operations, can only do good. He could never see himself abandoning the Order or the mission and is determined to motivate others to stay, too, reminding them of the importance of what they are doing. He doesn’t trust the Ministry enough. It was easy for the Death Eater to infiltrate it, and it was too easy for them as well, so he could never see the government truly succeeding into winning the war. And he imagines the Order wouldn’t want him to leave either, he has proven a good member. He can follow orders when necessary, he is not shy when it comes to duelling or to spying, and he can make smart and firm decision even when the pressure is high.

SURVIVAL:

Officially, Caradoc lives with his father in their home in Abertridwr, a village three miles from Caerphilly in Wales. But most nights he is out for Order’s business, and he ends up either sleeping at the Potter Estate or on someone else’s couch.

Wherever he goes, he is always careful. He never indulges in things like alcohol or drugs or anything, really, that could cloud his judgement in any way. It’s what gives him that stick-up-his-arse air, but also—in his opinion—what helped him staying alive. 

And learning from his mother’s death and his father’ survival, Caradoc dons an air of neutrality when he’s outside of the Order’s company and takes a moment to take his feelings and putting them aside.

He has always had a knack for compartmentalising his feelings. It’s what helps him hold his tongue at work as well as with the Order. To achieve this, he imagines his grandmother’s old apothecary drawer cabinet, and in his mind he opens one little cubic drawer to put away his feelings. His humor is in there somewhere, locked away since the death of his mother. It still hasn’t been opened again. 

This ability may have put to slumber the carefree Caradoc of Hogwarts’ days, but it assures there are no thoughts to distract him during fights, no fear to jeopardise his actions and no memories to leave him shaken and unfocused. It has also helped him shield his thoughts from prying minds. And while outsiders could maybe tell he has no love for the Death Eaters, they can’t say he approves of the Order either. 

Then there is the memory charm. He is extremely skilled at it, but he’s still sometimes morally conflicted about it—something that makes him nervous—and is not sure he would retort to it. Is violating a person’s mind right? Then, when in the heat of battle or when he lays eyes on the ash and remains of lost one, he tells himself he could do more good than harm with it.

Adding to that, he keeps himself in fighting shape, physically and when it comes to spellwork. He may not be the most elegant duelist, but at least he is still breathing.

RELATIONSHIPS:

As a teenager, Caradoc’s smiles were frequent and laughs were far from a myth. It might shock some to think of Caradoc as someone who not only knows about Quidditch but actually played it himself. Fast on his broom, quick with his mind, he was a formidable Chaser. He would enjoy the parties and even try some rule-breaking when it did no harm. His sense of morality and responsibility back then made him the one to look out for other students, making sure they could always find an ally in him, and admonishing bullies. But it was far from an ever-consuming thought or mission. 

Everything changed with his mother’s death in his last year of school. Nowadays, he’s different. To such a degree that sometimes he feels like a completely different person. To know Caradoc, to truly come to know him, is not easy. Much of him is hidden in those drawers and they are all locked or stuck closed. Caradoc himself has no desire to open them up, even around those he trusts, because in these dark times it doesn’t feel right to be fully seen. So one must be either extremely patient or fancy themselves a way to pick all those locks.

His need to know what is right and wrong pushes him to try to figure people out so he can put them into similar categories. The Good and the Bad. Those deserving of trust and those to keep a vigil eye on. Allies and Enemies. There isn’t much space for grey areas.

While he’s loyal by nature and would never refuse to help anyone—let alone a friend, even if a lot of time has passed since they last saw each other or spoke—he is too focused on the war and unless people remind him to unwind or ask for his help, he tends to neglect them on a personal level.

His strong defense of minorities like Muggles and Muggles, and even Werewolves, puts him in the position of distrusting Purebloods—the irony of being one not lost on him—or those Half-bloods that have stronger ties to the Wizarding society than the Muggle World. He’s always keeping an eye on them. People like Frank or Branwen. People like Peter or Ryland. Those are some he can’t fully trust. Not yet, at least. Which is why he would actually stay closer to them, trying to know and understand them better.

Then there is the potential trouble-makers like Dorcas. He is sympathetic to her complaints, and he is not ready to dismiss her as easily as other high up have done. If only to make sure she doesn’t do something that would turn to cause more harm than good. But he still feels like there is potential in Dorcas and her little group.  Trouble for the enemy is peace for oneself, isn’t it?}

When it comes to romance, there is none in Caradoc’s life. He doesn’t have the time. He had tried once. A year after his mother’s death there was someone who, much like his first girlfriend, he felt comfortable around. They had been the first to call him ‘obsessed’, and he had meant to prove that he wasn’t. Surely, someone obsessed wouldn’t find the time to date. The relationship didn’t last. Caradoc’s heart wasn’t really in it. And then his partner left the Order, and it truly seemed a sign that for him romance had no place in this war.

(As a sidenote, I’m open to make more specific connections with other characters. Especially if players may have headcanons or idea for their relationship with Caradoc that they want to discuss. I know that it usually goes without saying, but I thought to add it just in case.)

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: I don’t have any ships or anti-ships set in stone. I prefer to go with chemistry between characters, and I can only see that by playing. Though, I can say that I don’t see Caradoc as being very preoccupied with romance, or even flings. It won’t be something he’d be after. Then, of course, chemistry. Characters have always a way to surprise.

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

In the Wizarding world, Caradoc does have all the privileges accorded to purebloods. He has a more intimate knowledge of its culture and customs, and he has knowledge of pureblood traditions in particular as passed down from his father. Especially seeing how Wizarding society alienates Squibs and treat them as lesser people. How some pureblood families go as far as to pretend their children had died rather than admit they have no magic; or shunning them altogether, striking their names from the family tree and leaving them to fend for themselves in a world that doesn’t want them. How Muggleborns and Half-Breeds earn open hate and are never given the same chances in their everyday, magical life. Witnessing all of this, Caradoc is aware of exactly how privileged he is, and it is grateful for it.

However, if his parents had taught him one thing, was that with privilege comes responsibility. His late mother’s actions in open support of minorities in Wizarding Society, is what spurns him on to use his social protection for the greater good. 

During the last ten years, he has worked to shed as many prejudices as he can towards Muggles, Half-breeds and other magical creatures. Even werewolves, since as his mother used to say, “they are still human beings for the other twenty-eight nights of the month. I can’t say the same of Riddle and his ilk.” Today, he is a firm believer that Squibs, Werewolves and Goblins should have equal rights and if any wanted to join their fight against Voldemort and the Death Eaters he would welcome them.

Hid rigid, black-and-white, mentality makes him categorise people into either good or bad. Any harm done by werewolves is not comparable in gravity to that done by those who want all werewolves gone. And since the Death Eaters’ agenda doesn’t stop to eliminate one single group but many, he’d rather not talk nuances which would only feed their arguments and instead see these groups that are targeted as good.

Nevertheless, he knows that there are bigots in both worlds. Where one world focuses so much on blood and magic, the other focuses on the color of one’s skin and the gender assigned to them. While he certainly can see how prejudices brought from one world to the other is not a good thing, he doesn’t find it reason enough to bar Muggleborns from their world—not even Muggles if one so desired to marry one. 

He’d rather side with an ignorant Muggleborn in the face of an attack by a blood supremacist than with the latter by discussing the former’s ignorance.  

Perhaps this is why he gets fed up with other people who share his privilege but who choose to do nothing, or why he’s becoming more and more suspicious of them. Can they really be good people if they’re protected by their blood? And yes, the irony is not lost on him.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

I usually avoid Marauders Era RPs because I’m not a great fan of set ships and set “destinies”, even if it’s ships and ends that I like. So, from the start, the AU aspect of this RP drove me to check out the rest, especially since it’s not completely AU but building on canon and the fact that it focuses on the Order instead of the classic Order vs Death Eaters. I also love that there is so much world building, and not just from the admins but the players too.

PLOT DROP IDEAS:

When it comes to Caradoc’s journey, I’d love to see what happens to his “drawers”. If they’ll stay close, and maybe even grow in numbers, stashing away more of himself; or if someone will be able to help him open them up and make him less “cold.”.

Especially considering how in Canon, Caradoc disappears, never to be seen again, with no one knowing what happened to him. So, I find interesting that in a way, he is also slowly disappearing, albeit metaphorically.

I would also like to see how far he can push his morals. If he’ll fully side with Dorcas, if he’ll be able to find some middle-ground of sorts. Or even what actions he’ll arrive to excuse for the “greater good.”

While for characters in general, I think I would also like for them to find themselves in situations where their morals might be challenged, where they might be pushed or tempted to cross a line.

This could come in the form of, maybe the group find themselves with a prisoner Death Eater, and it could spark a discussion on how far would they go to get information out of him.

I would also like something related to the Dissendium Task Force. Seeing how in game there can be secondary characters, maybe having a Muggleborns as one. They would be someone that, with their Muggle family, is hosted at the McKinnon farm in wait to be smuggled out of the country. Interacting with the characters, it would be interesting if this character ends up to be convinced to stay and fight, but then during their first mission panicking and losing their lives.

It could have people reflect on the task force and its mission, especially for those that believe the Order shouldn’t send potential “soldiers” away.

ANYTHING ELSE?

I don’t remember how I stumbled upon these posts that match houses and zodiac, but it’s what I use to choose my characters’ birthdays. Here Caradoc’s: https://hp-aesthetic.tumblr.com/tagged/capricorn-hufflepuff

Also, thinking about Caradoc’s Enneagram, I think Type One fits him best. And this is a Sleeping At Last song about Type Ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sO2UMoOaFQ

[lycorogue]

Meet My OCs: Willow (Part 3 – Character Arc Events)

Hello yet again! Ready for the next part of Willow's introduction? I'm telling you, when I first started working on this, I did NOT intend on Willow's entry surpassing 30pgs single spaced within a Word document, nor did I expect it to take a week to write up and edit! Thankfully, the epic document was easy enough to break down into 6 parts for slightly easier consumption. I wonder if my other characters will be as detailed....

Anyway, how about a quick recap before I keep going? This is part of a multi-post series I started here on Tumblr about a month ago. A means to introduce you guys to my main OCs.

In Part 1 of this series, I talked about why I'm doing it in the first place, as well as explain the real-world influences that helped me create my two story worlds of Gyateara and Glitches.

Part 2 of the series talked about the inspiration that birthed each of my four main Gyateara characters.

Part 3a did the same, but for my four main teenage Glitches characters.

Part 3b then talked about the Glitches main supportive cast of six adult characters; each one originating as a canonical X-Men character.

Earlier today, I moved on to Part 4 of this series: the official introduction of my characters, one by one. I started off with my most present character: Willow Driver. In Meet Willow: Part 1, I shared Willow's background, gave an overview of her personally, and talked about her powers. There were also some lovely pictures to showcase what she looks like.

In Meet Willow: Part 2, I discussed her main relationships.

Part 4 will showcase the other artwork I created for Willow, as well as two cards @chibisunnie created for me that feature Willow. 

Then, in Part 5, Willow is showcased narratively with a series of scene samples and shorts.

Finally, Willow’s introduction is concluded in Part 6 with a couple videos of wrestling intros we created for Hubby's WWE13 video game. It will be a fun closing post for this mini-series about Willow.

Now, getting back to this post (Part 3), I'm going to discuss Willow's main story arc events, as seen thus far in the X-Future play-by-post game she originated in. In truth, I haven't played Willow since 2017, so I had forgotten just how eventful her X-Future life truly was! At the end of this recap of her life, I'll also talk about how any of these events will relate to my intended opening character arc for Willow in Glitches.

So, hopefully you have a snack and a drink, because this ended up being 10gs long in my word document. It may take a minute or two to read. Once you're ready, go ahead and check below the break to see what Willow has been up to in X-Future, and how it will transfer to Glitches.

X-Future: 

Most of the early events I had already talked briefly about in Part 2 of Willow's introduction, as I discussed her main relationships.

She was at Colossus Academy from the ages of 13 through 15, but when Colossus and Jubilee were killed on mission, and the Academy was shut down, Willow transferred to the Xavier Institute along with her close friend Marge, her surrogate younger brother Hedge, and her pseudo-girlfriend Penumbra. They were a tight clique, but she quickly grew attracted to Chayse, formed a rocky friendship with Lia, and found a playful flirt-buddy in Devon.

She was pushed hard by the faculty at the Xavier Institute, and held to a higher standard than she was used to. This forced her to shape up, mature a little, and stop pranking/bullying others as much. She became closer to Devon, and focused using her powers to mostly prank and tease him and William.

Devon couldn't really hide his attraction to Willow, despite her teasing, and she soaked up as much of the attention as possible. She also tried to ignore her feelings for Chayse, who was dating Lia at the time. Instead she leaned more towards her feelings for Devon, much to Penumbra's dismay.

Willow noticed William's straight-laced and overly conservative personally, and put it on herself to get him to loosen up and act like the 17yo he was. She falsely believed he had a crush on her, so she routinely teased him with sensual images. She thought he was riled up because he, a nearly-18-year-old, was trying to resist his attraction to her, a 15-year-old. She didn't realize he actually got so worked up because she was genuinely annoying him.

One day there was an accident. William was practicing unsupervised as he pushed his powers to their limit. He ended up passing out when he teleported too high into the atmosphere, and plummeted to his death. Willow and Lia joined forces to lead a vigil and build a statue dedicated to William's memory. Willow then realized she thought of William as a brother, as she remembered her own estranged brother. She regretted her treatment of William, and toned down her sensual illusions to tease people. She didn't give them up completely, but she certainly used them more as a means of flirting with those who positively responded to them, as opposed to using them to tease and prank as she had done with William.

Life evened out for a few months, getting back to some sort of normalcy within the school. Then came the day that Devon went to Willow to confide in her. He was on a mission to recruit a new kid for the school, and he had run into The Brotherhood. The leader of the organization, Pyro, told Devon, who was abandoned at a church orphanage while only 4months old, that The Brotherhood could help him figure out who his parents are. Devon had turned down the offer, knowing the Brotherhood to be a terrorist group trying to rule over humanity, as opposed to the X-Men's goal of cohabitation. Devon couldn't get the offer out of his head, though. Trying to help Devon clear his mind, Willow suggested he try out his first Danger Room session. Cyclops offered to run the session, and went to the control room; leaving Devon alone in the DR. Willow moved to an observation deck, assuming watching Devon's first DR run would be hilarious.

Instead, it became something that would haunt Willow for the next couple of years. Devon was put through a generic rescue mission training, in which he had to recover Penumbra. Upon freeing her, Devon was promptly knocked out in a surprise attack. Willow was horrified as she watched the Danger Room transform to look like the school’s infirmary, making Devon believe he was outside the simulator when he awoke. Devon was then told of a mission he needed to go on, and Willow desperately tried to signal to him that nothing he was seeing was real.

While on this “mission,” Devon was paired up with Willow's friend Marjory (Marge). They were separated from the team and confronted by Pyro, who again offered Devon information about his past. All he had to do was “get rid of” Marjory. Devon wrestled his teammate, put her into a sleeper hold, and knocked her out. He discretely checked that he didn't kill her, and then swiped her phone, hoping to use it to contact the X-Men with a location once Pyro brought him to Brotherhood HQ. The simulation didn't last long enough for Devon to execute his plan, however. Cyclops shut the simulation down, declaring Devon a failure of his loyalty test, and instantly put Devon on probation; resulting in him getting limited access to X-Men records and withholding information on who Devon's parents are.

Willow was beyond pissed at the deception, not fully grasping the irony of her anger. She viewed Cyclops a villain for his manipulation, and stormed off to cool down. She intended to check in on Devon later that night, but she never got the chance. Devon had decided he would prove Cyclops wrong by following through with is Danger Room plan, but in real life. He'd infiltrate the Brotherhood, find out about his parents, and then lead the X-Men to the Brotherhood stronghold to take the organization down. He wrote a letter of apology and gratitude to Headmistress Kitty Pryde-LeBeau for giving him the opportunity of joining the school. He wrote another letter of apology to Marjory, in case she truly was in the DR with him instead of a simulation. He wanted her to know that he never meant to hurt her. Finally, he wrote a farewell letter to Willow explaining why he had to leave, and his plan for coming back. As proof that he intended to return, he left Willow his prized possession: his customized lighter. His only means of creating fire that he could then manipulate with his powers.

Before anyone realized Devon had gone, and/or found his letters, the school was attacked by a large energy blast. The energy blast created a major explosion that collapsed the school. Chayse and Gambit were able to read the energy change around the school soon enough to give almost everyone enough warning to get to the safety bunkers below ground. There were still some casualties, though, and Willow feared that Devon was among them. The faculty wouldn't let the students leave the bunkers as they did headcounts and looked for the missing. Drifting to the Astral Plane, Willow watched the clean-up and rescue crew pulling bodies from the rubble. She was relieved that none of them were Devon, but devastated to discover young Hedge's body among the deceased. She swore vengeance on whomever attacked the school.

A few hours later, security film revealed that Devon had run from the school campus an hour before the attack, although the actual attack wasn't caught on cameras; they were all damaged by the energy surge.

Most at the school suspected that Devon was somehow involved; signaling to The Brotherhood for the attack. The fact that the faculty knew Devon was the son of two Brotherhood members, and that he had been in and out of juvenile detention centers for the past five years didn't help matters.

Willow decided that Devon was a traitor, and his was the face she'd picture whenever she thought of revenge for Hedge. She spent the next two years hating her former best friend and crush; picturing ways to torture and punish him for Hedge's death. She also hated Cyclops for his deception, although she understood why he did it. The whole experience showed her, from an outside perspective, what her own powers do to people, and her use of them to pull pranks dropped significantly.

Around the same time as the attack on the school, Chayse's best friend Nix was abducted from the school's infirmary. Chayse had a lead on where Nix could be, and desperately wanted to follow it. Cyclops was chosen as an escort, and Willow his teammate. Lia wanted to go as well, but her earth/magma manipulation powers were too valuable for the fortification of the school's foundation and bunkers, so she was ordered to stay behind to help with reconstruction. Nix's girlfriend Annika also stayed behind, working with her mother Rachel Grey to try to find any other hints on Nix's abduction.

Willow and Chayse spent most of that summer running around Europe, following faint traces of clues to Nix's location. On a mountain range in Bulgaria, their search came to an abrupt end when they came across an experimental facility. While searching through the building, Chayse believed he heard Nix call out to him, but there was an explosion shortly after. Chayse had to decide between Nix and Willow, and decided to phase Willow to safety. Having pushed his powers to an extreme he never tried before in order to save Willow, Chayse collapsed from the strain. The explosion had also separated them from Cyclops, so Willow was left alone to fend for both of them for three days before they were rescued. When the trio went back into the building to see if there were any possible survivors, the facility was in complete ruins, and charred remains rested where Chayse thought he heard Nix call to him. The DNA sample they took revealed that it was indeed Nix. Their search was complete, and Chayse had failed. Annika wouldn't believe them, though, claiming she still felt the psychic link she had with Nix. When everyone tried to tell her she was in denial and grieving, Annika left to prove that Nix was still alive.

Willow helped Chayse grieve over the next few weeks. Between that moment of vulnerability and the months of being each other's companions, the two became incredibly close. They both felt sparks, but both assumed it was simply a product of traumatic events – Willow's near-death and having to nurse Chayse, and Chayse's grief over Nix – and assumed the feelings would fade again. Chayse remained faithful to Lia, and Willow became even more flirtatious with just about every other student at the school.

The next year went fairly smoothly, mostly focused on rebuilding the school, grieving the students they lost, and continuing their trainings so they would be strong enough to take down The Brotherhood. During this time, Willow became Lia's new roommate to replace Annika. This allowed the two of them to get fairly close, and soon enough Willow, Lia, and Chayse became the big power-trio on campus: The Three Musketeers.

Then, while protecting a new recruit coming to the Xavier Institute, Chayse was attacked by a new Brotherhood member. He managed to defeat the Brotherhood, and get the recruit back to the safety of the school, however, he was badly injured: two spiral electrical burns to his chest. While Chayse was in the infirmary, Willow realized how much she truly cared for him. Not wanting to break up a happy couple, she decided to keep her distance while Lia stood watch over her boyfriend.

Chayse was hurt that Willow didn't visit while he was injured, and confronted her about it. Eventually, Willow admitted to her feelings, and how she had them nearly the whole time she had known him. Chayse confessed his feelings as well; they never truly waned after their mission to rescue Nix. Willow refused to be the reason he broke up with Lia, though, and told him they needed to stop hanging out. Chayse admitted that he and Lia were drifting lately (a fact Lia ended up not realizing), and that he couldn't ignore his feelings for Willow any longer. They agreed that Chayse had to break things off with Lia, and that they'd allow her time to grieve the relationship before Willow would start dating Chayse. She didn't want to rub her relationship in her roommate's face while Lia was still healing.

While on the subject of healing, Willow then checked on Chayse's chest, and was confronted with two healing spirals that would be scarred there. Chayse told Willow of the attack, and described the assailant: a man about 19 with the same silver-white hair and aquamarine eyes Willow had, and went by the code name Screwdriver. Willow was dumbfounded to discover that her brother had powers, had teamed up with The Brotherhood, and had attached Chayse. She didn't want to believe any of it. Picking up on how overwhelmed Willow was, Chayse left her to process everything.

The next day, Chayse went to break things off with Lia. She was so devastated by the news that she lost control of her powers, nearly burning Willow with a fire blast, and forcing Chayse to strain to use his powers to help her regain control. Chayse wasn't healed from his brush with Screwdriver, and fainted under the effort. Willow stayed by Chayse's side as Lia rushed to get help. The two of them had a fight in the infirmary waiting room as Chayse was taken care of. The fight ended with Lia running out of the building to hide by the river that ran along the border of the school's estate (more about this in Lia's intro in 2 weeks).

Chayse recovered fairly quickly, and he and Willow walked on eggshells for the next couple of weeks while Lia recovered from her heartbreak. As Prom neared, Chayse asked Willow to be his date. Trying to extend an olive branch, Willow asked Lia and a couple of other girls on their floor if they all wanted to go dress shopping and get ready together. Lia, now infatuated with two newer recruits Lincoln and Ripley, agreed to the group Prom-prep party. Willow and Lia still had a rocky relationship, and Lia still hated to see Willow and Chayse together, but they were at least civil and attempted to be friends.

At the prom after-party, hosted by one of the students - a former Irish pop idol - the Brotherhood attacked. They were again after the recruit Chayse had saved from Screwdriver. Shawn had already killed the mutant Dazzler, who was there to perform at the after-party, and then he set his sights on Chayse. He quickly picked up that Willow cared deeply for Chayse, and so Shawn focused on killing his sister's boyfriend in front of her. Willow, being protected and carried away by a fellow student, slipped into the Astral Plane in order to try to create illusions to distract the Brotherhood long enough for the students to escape, as well as have enough power to mentally attack Shawn to slow him down and protect Chayse.

In the end, Chayse was able to take down Shawn on his own, but Screwdriver was whisked away from the battle by his teammates before Chayse could properly capture him for transport to the X-Men. Meanwhile, Willow's illusions made it look like the Brotherhood's target was killed in the crossfire, rendering their mission complete. Just as the students were going to call themselves the victor, Chayse noticed the same energy signature he felt just before the school collapsed two years prior. He alerted Willow via telepathy, and she relayed the information to the other students. They ran for cover as she used her telekinesis to hold the building together long enough for everyone to escape. The strain of using her powers so much that night, and lingering on the Astral Plane for so long, left her unconscious the next day.

Shortly after recovering, Willow's world was rocked by a new arrival at the school. A man with silver hair in his early 20s. A man who had come from the future, and one who looked an awful lot like an aged up Chayse. Soon enough, it was revealed that this man – Sebastian – was Chayse and Willow's son. He was from an apocalyptic future where an organization called Challengers of Heaven took over the whole planet. Sebastian and is fiance Brianne - who was originally from the present, but was thrown into the future via a wormhole - came to the present to try to stop the Challengers, who had also sent warriors to the past.

Sebastian was excited to spend time with Chayse, who had died when Sebastian was about five. Meanwhile, Willow was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was going to have a kid with Chayse, and that she would be known as one of the Great Protectors; the last of a resistance against the Challengers.

As Willow continued to recover from the prom after-party, and tried to cope with finding out about Sebastian, Lia was in charge of an escort mission. During the prom after-party, Lia managed to capture the Brotherhood member Trish. Lia was the only one who couldn't be burnt by Trish's pyrokinesis, so she, and a few other students that had signed up as X-Men junior recruits, were assigned as prison escorts for Trish's transfer to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. The mission went horribly wrong. A relatively new student, who went by the code name Psyke, had betrayed everyone to The Brotherhood. The terrorist organization managed to kill most of the S.H.I.E.L.D agents, and Psyke killed a student who believed himself Psyke's best friend. The Brotherhood also managed to rescue Trish from the X-Men and S.H.I.E.L.D. The only victory the X-Men had on that mission was three Brotherhood members defecting. Lia had run into Devon while he was there to rescue Trish, and he instantly switched sides to help Lia and the X-Men. His pseudo-girlfriend Nyssa followed suit, as did Devon's best friend Zeke. The former Brotherhood trio even rescued Lia from a new villainess who called herself Agony; a mutant who has the ability to transfer the pain and physical damage she received to whichever target she picked. So any time Devon would punch Agony, Nyssa would feel the connection as if Devon had punched her instead. That sort of thing. She has far more powers than just that, but those will relate more to Lia's intro, so I’ll talk about them then....

Upon arriving back to the Xavier Institute, Lia vouched for Devon, Nyssa, and Zeke, and asked for them to be accepted into the school. The trio was vetted by the local telepaths, and were put on probationary student status. Willow was NOT a fan, however, and instantly attacked Devon the second she saw him. Chayse had to peel her off of Devon to stop her from knocking him out, especially since Devon was just accepting her hatred and punishment, and likely would have allowed her to beat him unconscious.

There were a lot of arguments between Willow and Devon as he tried to find his place within the Xavier Institute again. The main conflict between them became the premise of the collaborative story “Please, Let Me Explain” that Devon's creator Ronoxym and I started working on YEARS ago. (We need to get back to that story...).

Shortly after Devon's return, Chayse and Willow had their own encounter with Agony. They were off to recruit a mutant, but their mission went south the second they landed at their destination. They quickly realized they were sent to the same portion of Bulgaria where they lost Nix. The very mountain range the facility was on rose above the valley they landed in. Chayse, already suffering from PTSD, instantly dropped to the ground and became catatonic. Telepath and team leader Emma Frost almost instantly realized that the PTSD flashbacks must have left him vulnerable, and he was attacked by a powerful telepath. Chayse was stuck in some sort of mental trap, and Willow needed to enter his mind to rescue him while Emma looked for the attacking telepath. It was tricky, since Willow never astral projected herself into someone else's mind before, but after a couple of tries, she succeeded. While in Chayse's mind, she saw him tortured by Nix; screaming about how little Chayse must have cared for anyone if he let Nix die and abandoned Lia for Willow. Willow quickly stepped in to try to protect Chayse and reassure him he had done nothing wrong. When Nix retaliated against Willow, Chayse came to his senses and rescued her. That was when it was revealed that Nix was actually Agony, astral projected into Chayse's mind, just like Willow, but cloaked in the image of Nix. After a quick battle, wherein Agony failed her attempts to mentally attack Willow, the duo incapacitated Agony, and Emma created a means for the three of them to escape the mental trap Agony set for Chayse.

Once back to the real world, Agony physically attacked; attempting a sneak attack to stab Willow through the shoulder blades. Chayse stopped Agony, and knocked her away. Willow then attacked Agony, knocking her to the ground, only to watch Chayse fall to the ground as well. Any injury inflicted on Agony would also happen to Chayse. To further prove her point, Agony stabbed a barbed spike through her own palm, and Chayse's hand went limp and began to bleed. Willow and Agony tussled a bit more, before Willow accidentally stabbed one of the barbed spikes into Agony's side in a take-down tackle. Thankfully, Chayse phased at the last second, transferring the pain of the stab, but the injury couldn't be transferred since he didn't have a solid form at the time. With Willow distracted in making sure Chayse was alright, Agony slipped away, vowing to not underestimate Willow next time.

After patching Chayse up, he, Willow, and Emma made their way to a Bulgarian prison where their recruit was being held. After a tense prisoner exchange, they got the new recruit Nodya to safety and flew back to the Xavier Institute.

To try to help Willow relax after so many emotional and physical shocks, Chayse took her to Japan for her 18th birthday; spending two weeks on the other side of the world. The trip didn't go exactly as planned, though, since they experienced some fairly open mutant discrimination and hatred. Chayse was even attacked while trying to defend Willow against an anti-mutant threat. Chayse managed to win the fight, barely, and they spent the next three days holed away in his mother's summer home in Japan (where she was trained by Wolverine, once upon a time) while Chayse recovered. The majority of the trip was lovely, though, and Willow appreciated both the distraction and the time away with her boyfriend (and future baby-daddy).

Returning to the school refreshed, and seeing how much effort Devon truly put in trying to make amends with the school, Willow's hatred for him faded. He didn't really do anything terribly unforgivable, and he had suffered just as hard over the past two years: thinking he had abandoned his friends to die. The Brotherhood wasn't actually at fault for the attack, and so Devon had also spent two years looking for revenge for the death of his found family. Devon and Willow never got back to the same level of closeness they had before he had left, but they slowly became friends again.

Then, a few weeks before the summer break ended, Nyssa started receiving letters from her estranged family. She had been disowned simply for being a mutant, but her parents realized how much they missed and loved their daughter. They asked for forgiveness, and begged for a chance to make amends. Nyssa mostly ignored her parents' pleas, but then she received a letter from Trish stating that she was with Nyssa's parents, and vaguely threatened their lives. Nyssa couldn't leave her parents to that murderer, and so she decided to go stop Trish. Devon insisted he'd come as well, since Trish was clearly after him that whole time anyway. They asked the X-Men for help, but there was a delay (for some reason that I can't recall... lack of intel?). Nyssa and Devon couldn't wait for the X-Men to be ready to go in for the rescue, so they went on their own. After a long battle with Trish (another story I've written but still need to polish before publishing online), Nyssa and Devon were killed. Turned out Nyssa's parents were already long dead, and all the letters about making amends were written by Agony, who had partnered up with Trish for this bit of sport.

Willow grieved the loss of her friend, unbelieving that he was truly gone this time. (In truth, Devon was revived, has amnesia, his mutation gave him a new default face, and Devon now lives in a mutant safe-house as he tries to remember who he is; no one knows any of this though.)

As the summer came to a close, and everyone once again grieved the loss of student lives (real safe place, the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.... >_> ), Willow was rocked by another development. She had gone to Chayse's room one day, to discover him missing and the room ransacked. There was a note that Chayse had received, which told him to go back to the destroyed building the prom after-party was held in. The note's author, who turned out to be Agony, offered up information about what had happened to Nix all those years ago if Chayse agreed to meet.

Willow gathered up Lia and Zeke to try to help track Chayse down. They managed to get to the destroyed building shortly after Chayse. Agony originally mocked Chayse, but when he attacked her, she was rescued by a man made of ice and dressed in a monastery robe. The man called himself Boreas, and he could control winter weather – creating a frozen tundra on the building's lawn despite it being early September in New York state. Chayse instantly recognized Boreas as Nix; his DNA somehow altered to remove his telekinetic powers, but his ice manipulation powers enhanced to Omega level. Another body had its DNA manipulated to match Nix's, and that was the body Chayse had recovered from the facility two years prior. Willow raced to Chayse's side to help him as Boreas cried out for vengeance for being abandoned, and attempted to kill Chayse. Pissed that Chayse had backup, Boreas used a massive arctic wind to knock everyone away from them. He then created a maze of magical ice; the same thing he had used to help Trish escape S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

Chayse was alone with Boreas, and knew his only option was to fight his former best friend. He hoped that once he incapacitated Boreas he could bring the man to the Institute, and have Nix be restored. Willow, Lia, and Zeke were all separated from Chayse in the maze – and Zeke separated from the girls. They rushed to try to get back to him, but Agony managed to corner Willow and Lia, cutting off their advancement to Chayse. Avoiding a two-on-one fight, Agony welcomed into battle Boreas' main ally, his partner Judgment. She was a woman in her early 20s, dressed in battle armor, and resembling a warrior angel as flame wings erupted from her back. Judgment declared Lia her opponent, and Agony happily detained Willow. Before anyone could react, Agony used yet another power no one know about, and encased Willow in an orb that forced her onto the Astral Plane.

Willow and Agony battled, and Willow managed to get the upper hand at one point, threatening to stab Agony. Unfazed, Agony simply stepped into the knife, spraying blue blood all over Willow. The blood then paralyzed her, trapping her stiff on the “ground” of their battle field. Once fully incapacitated, the blue blood spilled off of Willow, and formed into a blade within Agony's hand, leaving Willow vulnerable to Agony's killing blow. At the last second, the three copies Willow made of herself earlier in the battle lunged towards Agony, stopping the attack. Agony was startled that the copies moved of their own accord and independent of each other, the doppelgangers Agony created earlier in the fight could only mirror her movements. It was then that Willow discovered that the illusions she made on the Astral Plane were actually psy-weapons, which meant Agony disbelieving the illusions didn't dispel them. As the three Willow copies wrestled Agony, the dagger fell from her hand and shattered. Terrified by the sight of the blade breaking, Agony quickly retreated, and wished Willow luck in escaping the Plane Agony had put them in.

As Agony vanished within a blue orb, the landscape changed to a faded image of their battleground; gray and barren. The only thing Willow could see was a large blue crystal in the distance. The paralysis gone, she ran towards the crystal, and spotted the silhouette of a woman sleeping inside it. Finally, Willow got close enough to discern who the woman was: Willow herself. Upon that realization, Willow was brought back to the physical plane, the ice walls of Boreas' maze still up, the growls of battle around her, and her physical body locked comatose within a blue crystal right where she was when Agony forced her onto the Astral Plane.

Willow was still astral projected, as if she were a ghost on the physical plane. However, she was locked; not on the Astral Plane, and not truly on the physical one. She couldn't interact with anything, and couldn't communicate with anyone, despite how hard she tried. As if she were watching a TV show she couldn't control, Willow was forced to watch Lia finish her battle with Judgment, who had turned out to be Lia's friend and former roommate Annika; Nix's girlfriend who had volunteered to join the same villainous group as him, simply to stay by Nix's side.

In a cruel play, Judgment pretended to be Annika again; confused as to what had happened. As Lia ran to comfort her friend, Judgment held her close, and then used telekinetic powers to throw six adamantium spikes at Lia. Even in Lia's obsidian form, adamantium was the toughest substance on the planet, and they could rip right through her. Lia, in survival mode, dodged out of Judgment's death grip. She still was struck in the face, legs, and arms. Two spikes even ripped straight through Lia's shoulders like bullets. Already bleeding out pretty badly and in pain, Lia then noticed that in dodging the spikes, she condemned Judgment to be struck by them instead; all six impaled in the woman's torso. Willow was helpless to stop any of it.

Judgment collapsed into Lia's arms. She teased that Lia was capable of killing someone after all, and then passed out. Lia screamed for help, and the ice walls fell. It wasn't clear if Judgment had died in Lia's arms, but shortly after, her body vanished within a blue orb, just like Agony had done to escape the Astral Plane. Boreas escaped the same way as well. Chayse then rushed to Lia's side, with some assistance from Zeke. Once Chayse was certain that Zeke could care for Lia, he ran to the crystal that had encased Willow. He tried to phase her out of it, but the crystal reacted with violent electrical shocks, badly burning Chayse's hand. Zeke got to one of the motorcycles they had used to get to the ruined building, and sent a distress signal while Chayse tended to Lia's wounds.

Willow tried to call out to them, but her telepathy didn't seem to work. She tried to run for some help, but she was tethered to her physical form, incapable of going more than 20ft (6m) from her body. She screamed again for help, and Zeke responded to her; surprising her since she didn't realize he was a telepath. Chayse causing the electrical reaction from the crystal managed to create a microscopic crack that allowed Willow's telepathy to leak out slightly; catching the attention of other telepaths within that same 20ft radius she was locked within.

At the Institute, Chayse and Lia's wounds were taken care of. Chayse was released later that day, and Lia a few days later. Willow, on the other hand, was stuck with her body; trapped inside the private room in the infirmary for a week. Finally, when no one else could figure out how to get Willow out of her crystal, they called in the Sorcerer Supreme: Pixie. She was shocked at the massively advanced spell – one that she had only heard rumors of previously – and tried a few spells of her own. She was able to dispel the crystal, and trap it for further examination to see what kind of sorcery they were fighting against. Finally free of the crystal and the infirmary room, Willow went off to freshen up, have a few arguments with Chayse and Lia over how they overburden themselves as if they were the world's lone protectors, and then Willow blew off some steam at a new parkour training park Deadpool had built. She ran into a couple of new recruits, worked out on the parkour course for a little bit, and then headed back to the school in hopes of getting back to whatever her normal was.

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

Like I said at the beginning, Willow has gone through way more than I remembered. And it's the points that I remembered that will make it to Glitches. Mostly because they were the most impactful on both Willow as a character and me, as a “reader.”

First and foremost, I don't want to get into the complexity of time travel in Glitches with everything else I'm trying to balance. So Sebastian and Brianne won't be making their way to Glitches. However, they MAY make their way into their own side-story at some point, but that's probably a couple decades into the future, especially at the rate I'm going....

Things with Nix and Annika are a bit too complicated as well, plus Nix/Boreas and Annika were created by other players (although, Husband came up with the Judgment persona for Annika after Nix's player came up with Boreas). Nix and another character – Lucas Kinney – will most likely become an amalgamation; one of the glitch children Matteo rescues when he tries to break his sister out of the experimentation facility. I can go more into this when I introduce Matteo.

Similarly, I don't know if I'll have the William plot exactly. Again, mostly because I don't own William, so I'd have to create a replacement character, and I'll most likely have to discover a new reason for Willow's grief over him, her realization of that brotherly connection she destroyed, and her adjusting how she uses her powers; assuming I have her still be a callous prankster at first.

While the Japan trip is sweet, we never actually role played it, so I don't see the over-all impact on Willow's arc, so that's also gone.

So, what bits are staying? For me, these are the key parts of Willow's development:

Willow's dual attraction to Chayse and Devon.

Willow becoming best friends with Devon, only to feel betrayed when he runs away to find out more info about his past.

I'm still trying to decide if the school will again be attacked by a third party so that Willow ends up hating Devon, blaming him for the attack, and vowing vengeance for Hedge's death.

Since Devon's DR run, his running away, the school being attacked, Willow's self-hatred for “pushing Devon” to betray them, as well as her hatred towards Devon, and then their subsequent reunion makes up soooooo much of Willow's arc in-game, I feel it NEEDS to be in Glitches in some shape or form.

The real trick is either convincing Ronoxym to allow me to write Devon/co-author Glitches with me, or I’ll have to create my own Devon from scratch...

Willow discovering her brother Shawn not only has powers, but has also joined The Brotherhood (Called The Virus in Glitches) and wants to kill her and their parents.

Seeing the interaction between Shawn and Devon would be interesting

Shawn will just be “turned evil” by his childhood; no additive of being a psychopath needed (I'll leave that to Trish).

Shawn will still be discovered via his attack on a new recruit for the school. I'm debating if I want it to still be Chayse, and Willow finds out after-the-fact, or if she is there for the first interaction...

While not necessarily a prom after-party, I do want an off-campus gathering to be attached by The Virus in order to capture one of the students. That way Lia can show off her badassery with her one-on-one with Trish, and Willow can still prove her usefulness by using illusions to throw off the attackers into thinking their target is dead. Also, that was her greatest showcase of her telekenetic powers, and it also showcased the downsides to Willow having to be on the Astral Plane in order to fully utilize her powers.

Willow's interactions with Agony; a means for her to push her mental powers, and a foil as Agony has similar powers of manipulation/illusion.

Hubby originally headcannoned that Agony was actually Jacob's first child before meeting Meryl and having Shawn and Willow. Which is why Agony and Willow have similar power sets. It seems a bit weird, however, that Shawn's powers wouldn't match those of his sisters, nor did it seem logical that both of Willow's siblings were murderous psychopaths that loved to torture and torment, but Willow wasn't like that after seeing how much her powers truly hurt others. So, I'm still debating if I want to make Hubby's headcannon official.

Willow being trapped within the crystal after a battle with Agony. It would be interesting to have the time to fully explore that experience, and the grief her friends suffered while trying to break her out of it.

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

You good? Everyone caught up? You can take your pee-break now.

Makes sense that this kept me so long to write up and edit down, no? Anyway, thank you guys SOOOOO MUCH for again indulging me and sitting through all of that! You all amaze me!

Next up: Part 4 - Images. Who’s ready to see all the different versions of Willow I’ve collected throughout the years?

[nikkalia]

Gotta Get It Right, Chapter 12

TITLE: Gotta Get It Right

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 12

SUMMARY: Aleksa lived as an Inhuman at SHIELD's beck and call, but dreams of another life have her questioning everything she’d ever known. Just when she settled into a life of peace and quiet, she's called back to duty. Enter Loki.

PAIRING: Loki/OFC RATING: Mature NOTES/WARNINGS: A bit of implied violence  

Tumblr masterlist  Also on Ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409323/chapters/42587357

Feedback is always appreciated (just being an attention whore screaming for comments/reblogs)

Tags: @christy-winchester @whovianwookie86-captainxev  @wolfsmom1 @fadingcoast @fandom-and-feminism @igotloki @MischievousBellerina @odinsonobsessed @mrshiddleston-uk

Raised voices echoed down the halls from the council room. Lord D’Varst was naturally the loudest among them, once again attempting to assert his dominance over the others by volume alone. Loki paused just outside the open doors, listening to the old ambassador bluster about how he’d handle things if he were in control. The blatant disrespect never ceased to amaze Loki and made him wonder why Odin trusted the old man so much. He waited another few moments before entering the room with a flourish.

“I see you’ve begun the meeting without me,” he monotoned. “Again.”

“If your Majesty would care to pay closer attention to the time,” D’Varst sneered, plopping down in his usual spot. The others bowed as Loki passed, taking their seats after him.

“Yours is not the only council I have to attend to, my lord. What, precisely, has you enraged now?”

“You know, precisely, what has me enraged...”

“As does half of Asgard.”

Others around the table chuckled while D’Varst fumed. “If you had any respect for the mantle you wear, you would not...”

“And just how do you demonstrate your respect for your king, hmm?” Loki snapped. “You have done nothing but contradict and condemn every word that’s come out of my mouth since I accepted the throne. Odin would have you executed for the level of disrespect you’ve shown me, had it been him! So, my lord, perhaps you should better respect the mantle I wear.” A slow exhale followed as the council members blanched. “Now, on to other matters.”

A softer voice spoke from the end of the table. “Your Majesty, we are understandably concerned about the human that remains your prisoner. Surely, you are aware that she poses a threat to the security of this realm? And, to your Majesty’s person.”

“I am, Gefn. But, like all those who are just coming into their Seider, the threat can be mitigated with the proper training.”

“With respect, Majesty, she is not a child that is simply unaware of her gifts. She is a human woman that has demonstrated a willingness to do whatever she must to achieve her goals. Goals that may or may not involve your death.”

“She is not human.” Loki corrected. “How she came to be a resident of Midgard is still a mystery, but she is of Asgard. That much is certain. And, she is of the utmost importance to the security of all the Nine Realms. I will not see her destroyed when she could become our greatest asset.”

“You mean your greatest conquest,” D’Varst mumbled.

Before Loki could respond, Enji spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would remind you all that Asgard has flourished under his Majesty’s rule, and that our relations with other realms, while tenuous, are greatly improved. So I am confident that our King has considered all pertinent factors in the matter of this...woman.” Loki nodded in Enji’s direction. “However, I share your concerns. And, with your Majesty’s indulgence, I would pose another question.”

“Being?”

“What is to become of her if she refuses to receive training in the use of her seider? Surely she can’t be released unless she agrees to remain on Asgard. And if that happens, what is to keep her loyal to us? I’m told the military group she once worked for is notorious for demanding an unwavering allegiance to their country. She may see this as an opportunity to bring Asgard down in retaliation for,” Enji’s voice caught in his throat. The stare coming from the end of the table bore into him. “For New York, your Majesty.”

Loki’s gaze focused elsewhere, memories of Thanos’ torture rising to the surface. It wasn’t my fault... Aware that the entire table was staring at him, he cleared his throat, steepling his fingers as he pondered Aleksa’s fate should she refuse. His response came in slow, measured words.

“My lords. My ladies. I believe the incident in the vault to be strongly impacted by the effects of the Tesseract on the mind. Prior to that, the woman’s goals had been merely to escape, with the Tesseract, if possible. If her intentions toward us, or Asgard, had been malicious, I believe she would have caused catastrophic damage to this palace and the surrounding city. As that was not the case, I don’t see her as an active threat against us. However,” he paused as D’Varst wound up for a protest, “if she should refuse our offer of guidance in the use of her abilities, I will sign the order for her execution.”

“I believe this to be an acceptable plan. Is there dissent among this council for His Majesty’s proposal?” Gefn proposed. All eyes moved to the silently chafing D’Varst, waiting for the outburst that never came. “Thank you, my King, for your wisdom and understanding.”

Loki nodded, wondering how he’d convince the woman not to refuse.

Far below the council chambers, Aleksa sat against the wall of her cell, fingers brushing against the golden field that kept her inside. The tiny surges slowed her racing heart and eased her pounding head, helping her to focus on the calming techniques she’d learned ages ago. She didn’t dare sleep for fear of the terrors it would bring. Instead, she meditated on relaxing individual parts of her body, starting with her toes and working upward to the top of her head. Her eyes fluttered closed only to fly open again at the slightest noise, ruining the meditation and forcing her to begin again.

The other prisoners had long since given up their taunting. She’d been brought to this new cell screaming hysterically and barely aware of where she really was. Far from her fellow captives and ventilation systems, she’d begged for death a thousand times, throwing herself against the force field only to be knocked unconscious. Enemies of Asgard laughed and jeered at her weakness until they grew bored of her cries. A few even encouraged the guards to kill her so they could sleep. None dared approach her, however, They feared her more than the nobles arguing her fate above.

Aleksa began the cycle again, taking a bit of energy from the force field while she willed the tension in her feet to release. The smell of burnt flesh caught her nose as her eyes finally drifted closed.

The Crusaders had been thorough. Every statue, every mural, every indication of devotion to the old gods had been destroyed. These followers of the “prince of peace” weren’t willing to listen to the storykeepers, the librarians who knew that icons were just as much based in history as they were faith. Nothing was left of their culture now, except memories that would fade into legend.

Aleksa walked through the smoldering ruins of the village, stopping at every body on the ground to see if they survived the massacre. Those few that had had already been hauled off by soldiers, tossed into carts so they could be taken to priests to “heal” them. She prayed that they would be welcomed into Valhalla regardless of any oaths made to end the misery.

When she finally arrived at her home on the cliff, Aleksa collapsed. Only timbers remained of the cottage she’d shared with Modir for a century. The rest had been reduced to ash, blown into the sea raging against the rocks far below. Her mourning turned to thoughts of her mother and mentor.

Modir had been taken as she attempted to heal the wounded. Aleksa heard her screams but couldn’t reach the old woman in time. She could only watch as the woman who’d raised her was loaded into a carriage and taken away. Aleksa finished off the soldiers that dared to remain in a frenzy of fury and sorrow, tapping into power she’d long forgotten she possessed.

The rains began as Aleksa made her way to the caverns at the base of the cliff. Deep within the maze of rock, she lit a tiny fire to warm herself and dry her clothes while she healed. Modir would demand she sleep if she were there, but Aleksa couldn’t bring herself to close her eyes. Instead, she meditated on the memories she’d plucked from the minds of soldiers as they died at her hands. Camp locations, plans for the survivors, even their regret at ending innocent lives. A plan to rescue them began to form as she stared at the small chest across the cave.

“No, child.” Modir’s voice whispered. “Do not sacrifice yourself to save lives that have already ended. I will soon join them, condemned as a witch.”

“Then I shall meet you in Valhalla.”

“Stubborn to the last. Have you forgotten your oath to me, to the child I bore?” Aleksa sighed in protest. “No? Good.”

“I can’t let you burn,” Aleksa whispered. The warmth of Modir’s arms wrapped around her.

“Only my body will burn, little one, and the smoke will carry me to the ancestors. There will be no pain. You will be the last of the Exiled of Asgard.” Aleksa closed her eyes, allowing tears to fall again as Modir’s presence faded. “Never forget who and what you are.”

“What if I’m made to forget?” came the whisper to no one.

Loki watched Aleksa in rapt fascination as she sat in meditation, faint images glowing above her hands while tears rolled down her face. He desperately wanted to tap into her mind, to see what she saw. He stiffened when the images dissolved and her eyes opened. She stared through him for a moment before speaking.

“What?”

“I must admit, it is good to see you...calmer, Colonel.”

“Do me a favor,” she blew out an exasperated sigh. “Don’t call me that.”

Loki was taken aback. He feared that the Tesseract had caused more harm than he’d previously thought. The woman watched him closely as he considered his next words.

“As you wish... Aleksa.”

[sterek-smooch]

Thank you everyone for your participation in this year's fest! 

Whether you were a reader, creator, commenter or all of the above, you helped make our first fest amazing. The author/artist names are listed below and will be added to the individual posts soon.

♥ 2018 sterek_smooch Masterlist and Reveal ♥

ART: ♥ Bliz created A Meeting in the Woods [ART; G] Derek is a wealthy young man with a title, Stiles is a humble apothecary in training. ♥ idkmybffspock created Five Times with Feeling [ART; G] Five times Derek was breathtakingly wonderful with kids and one time he was with (finally) his own. ♥ Kenshymidzu created SterekSmooch 2k18 [ART; NR] Merman Stiles saving Derek as always ♥ Nevermoree created Sharing Dreams [ART; G] Bed sharing! ♥ stereks created Lost [ART; PG] The aftermath of the Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 leaves two sole survivors, Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski, stranded alone on what seems to be an inhabited tropical island. Their survival depends on sticking together, as they are forced into each other's proximity in terms of cuddling for warmth and hunting for food and shelter. ♥ Nyxelestia created Dashing Knight in Shining FBI Gear (on tumblr) [ART; PG] The only person who can’t see Stiles’ giant crush on Derek, is Stiles. The rising star of the FBI’s new Supernatural Unit has nothing but professional respect for Derek. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. At least until some old enemies take Derek. ♥ nosetothewind94 created Notice Me! [ART; G] I'm not going to stop poking you until you give me some attention... FIC: ♥ LadySlytherin wrote Love You Most [3k; PG-13] There are things Derek never expected to have. Things he’d resigned himself to the loss of. A proper pack, a mate, and children topped that list. He couldn't be happier that he’d been wrong. ♥ Green wrote An Offer You Can't Refuse [1k; PG-13] When Stiles agreed to be the focus of an article in Neckz 'n' Throats, he never dreamed it'd be so popular. But Stiles only wants Derek's attention. ♥ Arsenic wrote Mouth of Cerberus [R; 5k] When Derek needs someone to help him recover from severe wolfsbane poisoning, Stiles is there, like he always has been, really. ♥ ereshai wrote Thus With a Kiss [3k; PG-13] Why does a witch keep cursing Stiles' friends? And why is he always the one who has to kiss them awake again? ♥ tabbytabbytabby wrote Embarrassing Dinners, Family Secrets, and Gnome Wars [10k; PG-13] When Stiles is abruptly left after a one night stand only to find out they’ll be attending the frat party with the hottest girl on campus, he quickly devised a plan to bring a fake date. Throw in family secrets and garden gnomes, then they’re in for one Hale of a time. ♥ Goddess47 wrote Proof [1k; PG] Names -- personal and family -- have meaning... ones even the Fae may be wary of ♥ Firebull wrote Where the Waters won't find Us [1k; PG-13] In a world flooded beyond what he ever thought possible, Stiles is searching for a friendly face. ♥ ajeepandleather wrote Kiss Me Softly [1.6k; G] Unapologetic fluff for reasons ♥ TheyDraggedMeInNowIAintLeaving wrote Going to the Chapel [4.6k; R] Derek will never know which decision was worse: Going to Beacon Hills or bring Stiles back to his family as his fake boyfriend ♥ kiberstark wrote Инвестиции [841; NR] Америка в начале ХХ века, когда профессию модели не признавали, как таковую. Нет, никаких осуждений. Просто странствующий фотограф, фермер и немного инвестиций. Небольшая зарисовка, которая, возможно, станет чем-то большим. ♥ adara wrote To Find Your Home [14k; PG-13] The wind shifts just as he is is about to lay into the trespassers for disturbing this place, this private property, the place where Laura took her last breaths. Alone. The place he had come to look for his own clues in the daylight, to say goodbye to the only family he really had left. His breath catches for an altogether different reason when the shifted breeze reaches him. He stops thinking about Laura for a moment as his brain simply shuts down, taking in the sight of his mate before him. ♥ PrincessaBitchessa wrote It Don't Matter Where We Go, We Always [Are Forced] Back Home [745; G] Derek is a famous male model. He returns home. Only, what if he returned with news and a special someone? ♥ Areiton wrote sweet sacrifice [1.5k; PG-13] They were pack, and allies, and sometimes, Derek thought they might even be friends. They stood side by side against Deaton and Argent’s advice often enough, had saved each other enough--but Stiles didn’t treat him like he did Isaac or Allison. Even Liam and his little triad of pups and humans got more from Stiles than Derek did. And he knew a spell like this--he could use it for so many people, fix so much. So why the hell is he offering it to Derek? ♥ LadySlytherin wrote You’re an Understatement (you’re getting worse) [13.5k; NC-17] Erica’s goal in life was to be hired by Neckz’n’Throats. Not as a model, though she knew she was hot enough for that. No, she wanted to be behind the camera. And to do that, she needed two things. A glowing recommendation, and a portfolio that would grab their attention; that would make them take her seriously. For that, she needed the right models. Thankfully, she knew just who to ask. ♥ StaciNadia wrote Quadruple Espresso [1.3k; G] Stiles' coffee orders keep getting progressively stronger, and Derek wants to cut him off. ♥ thegirlnamedcove wrote Wrong Analogy [8k; G] “So what’s up with you two?” she asked, three wolfsbane beers later, “You smell...I don’t know how you smell. Confusing.” Derek kept his gaze carefully down, and Stiles just hummed and offered a soft smile. “It’s new. He hasn’t had much of a chance to scent mark me in the last month, not with everything going on in both of our lives. But we’ve known each other for years so I think the potential was always there.” “Potential for…” she prompted. “We’re dating,” Derek managed, and then darted a look at her face to gauge her reaction. OR Derek is Alpha Bait (tm) and Stiles helps him fend them off. ♥ katxwithwings wrote The Things We Do [18k; PG-13] Shout out to theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming for beta-ing Summary: Despite all that he's done, Peter is Derek's uncle and the alpha, and surely that has to count for something. Stiles is a newly bitten werewolf and not about to face some murderous hunters by himself. So against his better judgment, he joins Peter pack. But the fire didn't just leave Peter with physical scars, and a person can only bend so far before they break. ♥ annagarny wrote Her Name is Princess [2.9k; PG] Derek has a big, empty house that he shares with his cat, so of course, Stiles moves in ♥ jadore_hale wrote not quite an item (they’re totally fucking right?) [8k; NC-17] “I never liked him,” Derek said plainly. “Dude!” Stiles punched him in the shoulder, shocked. It was his first time hearing this. “He was keeping you from me! Must’ve been really insecure to stop you from collabing with me. Which is stupid. What’s there to be jealous of? All we are is online boyfriends.” “Who sometimes make out and swallow each other’s chewed food,” Stiles shot back, not sure how Derek could have forgotten those key facts. “It’s just for views!” ♥ FiccinDylan wrote Shots Fired [26k; NC-17] Stiles takes his annual vacation for one week every year and this year is no exception. Except for the fact that all types of weird supernatural shit has started popping off so close to the start date. Which wouldn't be so strange except for the fact that supernatural shit and magic have been banned in Beacon County for decades. Oh shit! ♥ grimmypuff wrote Secant to None [1.4k; G] Stiles is busy; he certainly doesn't need another obligation on his time. But there's a cute boy in the math club, and Stiles is a sucker for cute boys... ♥ calrissian18 wrote Sinking and Surfacing [9.5k; NC-17] Derek's repairing broken things, Stiles is determined not to be one of them. ♥ beyourtemporaryfix wrote let me make a thing of cream and stars (that becomes, you know the story, simply heaven) [3k; PG]Derek is irritated.To be fair, he's irritated the majority of the time. This time, though, he has good reason. He'd just been overruled by his Council--a calculated subversion of authority orchestrated by his scheming uncle, Peter--and that motion had ensured his inevitable marriage to a human in order to "soothe the growing tension between the pack and Beacon Hills, a rival royal kingdom whose land borders theirs on three sides.Derek needs something to soothe the growing tension in his head.

[rainy-rose]

10 Questions

I was tagged by @burningemberjade. Thank you very much ^^

I had to think a bit for some of the answers :))

1. Last book you read and your opinion on it.

I just finished the first installment of Artemis Fowl  by Eoin Colfer. Since I took a break from it for almost a year, I can only state my opinion about the last 70 pages or so. It was okay, an easy read, I remember reading quite a lot of it on a 2 hour train ride. Although some of the characters and the way they handled things was a bit iffy, I quite like it and I think I will continue with the series. I am actually looking it up now to download it :)).

2. Next book on your reading list.

*goes to the shelf and grabs book* As a physical read it’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, as for ebooks... I think I will give Atlas Shrugged a chance. I should probably get through A song of Ice and fire as well, but ughhhh, don’t really want to 

3. Favorite novel of all time.

Since last spring Watership Down has that status. That and Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban

4. Current favorite song.

The Eagle Flies Alone by Arch Enemy. I had this on repeat for days :))

5. Favorite song of all time.

It’s a tie between Filrth in the Beauty and Taion, both by The Gazette. I don’t have a particular reason for Filth, Taion on the other hand has such a sad backstory T_T 

6. What inspired you to become a writer? If you’re not a writer, what are your career goals and aspirations?

I used to write in high school, but not at the level of calling myself a writer. However, being one is kind of my dream career. Maybe someday I will start writing again because I miss it and I still get moments when I want to write of random and unrelated plot ideas.

7. Favorite color?

Purpleeee. One of my classmates has started calling me “purple” because most of my winter clothes, coat included, are purple :))

8. What helps you de-stress?

Depends on where I am when the stress kicks in, but I usually listen to music, or rant to my best friend. Sometimes even scrolling through tumblr helps.

9. Tell me a story about you that you feel sums up your personality pretty well.

I had to think a bit about this one, but something I have noticed recently about my personality is that I get extremely annoyed when people waste time and can’t make a decision and also, that I want to avoid spending time with acquaintances. Unfortunately, some times the 2 kind of clash which leads to the following moment of “why the fuck did I not keep my mouth shut!”

So, my best friend (Delia )and I were at the Botanical Garden for an event and we meet some of my former B.A classmates and her current M.A classmates. Both me and Delia are not particularly fond of these people so, we went our own way and meet with them here and there, but did not spend that much time with them, while at the event. That is until one of them called her to tell her that they were about to leave, so we got to the gate and met with them. The discussion of “let’s find a place to eat” arose, Delia and I had already spoken about that, so we were not offering much input, since we did not want to go with them. Buuuuut, cue them arguing and insisting upon different places, but at the same not making a decision and constantly pushing forward the idea that we had to find a place that could accommodate everybody’s eating habits [ both me and Delia are vegans, and there are not that many places for us in Bucharest, places that are acceptable price wise]. While they were talking, we were trying to figure out how to tell them that we had no intention of coming, without it being obvious that we did not want to spend anymore time with them. That did not work well... I got annoyed at the whole situation and opposed to my usually quiet and calm demeanor got quite bossy and told them to just choose already cause we can eat some grilled veggies and fries and we will be fine. Discussion ceased pretty soon and the place was decided, buut now we could not get away from them so we had to join them cause I opened my mouth and made a firm point. Needless to say, it was not enjoyable and I ended up spending more money than I wanted to, kept conversations to a minimum, usually with Delia or answering here and there when I was asked something... not fun! The food was good, but I finished fast cause 1. I was hungry and 2. I had no interest for the discussions that were going on.

Oh, and the worst part... the table we sat at was next to a table at which 3 children and their families were... I do not like kids... at all, especially when they are small. I perfected my glare on them!

Phew... that was longer than intended :)) but I am not good at talking about myself, but yeah, those are some of my not so pleasant traits :)). I am not as horrible/weird as I made it sound, I promise :)) 

10. If an elf randomly showed up on your doorstep and asked you to go adventuring, would you? Why or why not?

Ohhh, yesss. I might have like a list of questions about what the adventures will consist of, but yes is definitely an answer. As for why... well, my life is pretty boring, and a chance to adventure is always welcome, especially if it consists of a fantastical creature and possibly magic. Sing me up! Top o the list! right here~

All right, so I am better at answering questions than asking them, but here goes nothing!

1. What is your favorite book genre and why?

2. Books/manga/graphic novels adapted into a movie or a tv series?

3. If you could choose 3 characters to go on an adventure with, who would they be?

4. What is your favorite animal and why?

5. What were your career goals when you were little? Did you reach them?

6. What was the first concert you went to and how old where you?

7. How long have you known your closest friend?

8. Watching movies at the cinema or at home?

9. Are you an organized person?

10. What is your drink of choice? Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic

I’ll taaaaaggg *goes to her dash cause she has no clue* @boop-your-snoot, @bibliophilicwitch, @bookcub, @wot-tidbits, @anassarhenisch. Only if you want to/feel comfortable ^_^ 

[twotoned2marta22-blog]

EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED: 2/3

[[ part two! big bad team effort ft. @geminidoomed @caepaecaesurae and @trolljacksparrow!! ]]

BE THE WITCH ==>

The witch has a name, and her name is Vincid. Nobody seems to ever remember this. Vincid prefers it that way.

She is currently running an awful fever, her blood morphed somehow from her own holy hue to that of a rust. It burns with its wrongness, and Vincid has refused to eat or sleep until it is fixed. She's reached out to the Sisterhood of Auspicei for help, and if the threefold goddess wills it, Vincid will be reverted back. Until then, she waits.

Until then, she watches for this cursed goldblood's soul to try returning life to its corpse. If nothing else, she can get just pleasure from forcing it back out again.

Vincid designed this particular dungeon herself. It was built for witches, and it infuriates her now that it is being used to contain a yellow psion. Everything about its existence is an abberation, from the weapon he conjured to the essence of her that he dared change. Defiling power from the goddesses is unforgiveable in every aspect, and she intends to make him suffer for his arrogance. The goddesses are not to be invoked by men, by lower castes. Repeated death is exactly what this creature has earned.

The dungeon is a large, octagonal block. A single hallway leads into it, and when Vincid feels inclined, she turns that opening into a wall. At this time, it is open. Each edge of the block has three windows, except that is not what they are. While she can see through, on the other side it is just another black wall. Each window looks in a tiny block, smaller than a lowblooded troll's closet. The dungeon and the cells are all black, lightless except for the cold glow of fuchsia sigils. They are carved into every surface, perfectly aligned, granting the witch access to more power and variety in abundance. She is the master of this dungeon. She cannot be challenged.

Only one cell is occupied. One cell, with the goldblooded abomination she knows will not stay dead. Fuchsia light paints his features even more hideous, tinting his unworthy hue. Vincid rages for what he dared snatch away from her, but she does not move. Hours have ticked by and she stays here, watching, kept awake and alert by the dungeon's power. Her power. This will be hers truly once again. Once this thing is dead eternal.

The psion's eyes open a moment, looking about in groggy confusion, and she does not hesitate. A gesture and the sigils above his chains shift black, and the cuffs holding him and his wrists into the air glow with heat, smoke rising as it sears through his skin. Other sigils turn dark, making the temperature of the cell rise by tens. Killing him with heat seems right, after what he did to her.

He writhes, and then stills. Vincid grins, satisfied for the moment, and the sigils light up in waiting once more.

Wirrit [ caepaeCaesurae ]

In time, the cycle finally broke.  Something happened.  The smell of smoke and scorched meat dimly radiating from the hell-closet was eventually and abruptly joined by another kind of smoke -- rich, flavored with tobacco, vanilla and anise-seed, it smelled like warmth and comfortable vice.  The air in front of the closet warped as if a nonexistant transportaliser had activated, and suddenly two trolls were standing there, faint traces of white smoke whisping up off their skins.

The larger of the two, a scarred, cloaked seadweller with only and barely the skin of his face showing, turned his head, taking in the room for a moment.  His eyes narrowed when he spotted Vincid, his fins shifting backwards for a moment.  He couldn't have been more than a dozen sweeps old.  A beat passed, and he turned his attention to the cell containing the prisoner, as if she was not his concern.  The door was transparent enough to see through from this direction, and that's all he needed.  The white smoke massed for a moment on the inside of the cell, and then tried to violently haul the door off and open with a seadweller's strength.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

The shorter of the two - at 6.6 feet - looked like a Punk Rock AU of the first one, with the same scars and horns, an untameable mane of violet-black hair, and glorious black leather longcoat full of pins and patches whose tattered edges whipped around his calves. He looked very Ageless Youth, like seadwellers and especially young seadwellers tended to, anywhere between one dozen sweeps old and a few dozen sweeps old.

His fins pinned back in anger at the sight of the room and the psion, mouth turning in a sharp fanged snarl. Gleaming gauntlets manifested on his clawed hands as he rushed the witch with a hiss - he planned to tear her apart. Blind fury?? Blind fury.

juggaylo [ npc ] Only the twist of Vincid's mouth is visible from under the hood of her cloak, fangs flashing as she rolls not toward but away from the fight. Diminished like this, she can't just toss the seadwellers aside like chaff. But this block is still hers, and will damn these outsiders.

The floor opens beneath Nadaya and Cae both, meaning to displace them both at the furthest points possible away from their goal. The central sigil in the dungeon turns black, robbing the block of nearly half its light. It will take time before that spell can come to fruition.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ] He had been stealing moments. Here and there, anywhere he could, he played dead and worked to heal his body, bringing back his breath, only for the movement to be noticed and pain to sear through him again. - Moment were stolen. He wasn't the most coherent when he reached out to tumblr, and there were long pauses between his posts. There was a message waiting for him when he connected

trolljacksparrow babe baby angelface darling you ok?

geminidoomed miight've been a liittle better

trolljacksparrow wwhat happened? wwant me to pick you up?

geminidoomed n see you soon

trolljacksparrow wwhere are you? you hurt? howw do i help?

geminidoomed i'm here [coordinates] there2 a magiic u2er, ii need her dii2tracted long enough two get loo2e

trolljacksparrow !!!!!!!!!!!! ON IT

He groggily observed another message and opened it, barely skimming.

decreasinglycreativwe For the record, Nadaya is wvorried, and if you don't givwe him or me a mildly better explanation of howv you're doing, a rescue might be mounted.

geminidoomed k

He waited for her to notice he was awake again, while he worked to repair himself again, his body  was in bad shape and he raced to get the most important aspects of the meat puppet running again.

... Did he smell tobacco and vanilla? The relief he felt was not inconsiderable, and he might have cried if he'd allowed himself.

He couldnt teleport or disappearate, but he could change his body, so he made himself smaller, to fall out of the chains holding him up, falling with a thump, heavier than he'd meant to. and righting himself again.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

The tall seadweller fell waist deep into the hole beneath his feet -- and abruptly stopped falling, his fins flaring outward in his hood.  If the witch had been fast enough that Nadaya was still in his arm's reach, he'd grab for him -- but if Nadaya had made good time and crossed the room, he was just going to have to fall.  Caesurae bared his teeth, lifting up in thin air back to loosely his normal height, possibly setting Nadaya aside, and refocusing his effort.  The cell door came free, slamming into his grip, and he Frowned in the witch's direction.

...Time to wing the entire cell door at her like a waist-height steel frisbee.  Depending on its tensile strength, and that of the wall, it might embed a decent distance into the wall.  Or crumple memorably.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

Well, Caesurae did have long arms. Nadaya clung with no small amount of confusion, and - oh, his face when Sparks fell out of the chains was /horrified/. He refocused and came after the witch again, uncaptchaloguing a grappling gun of all things. If she tried to remove the floor underneath him, he would fire it at her in some barely-thought-through plan to bring her along because this cannot continue.

A flamethrower materialized in his other hand - he is going to try and sear off all the sigils he runs by.

His vengenace will not be denied - in this moment, he acted like the dread pirate Dualscar and not like the dorky Nadaya his lovers knew. Fury on his face, flared fins, gleaming knife-tipped fingers, a snarling war cry escaping the fangs that craved her blood: *"WE HUNT!"*

juggaylo [ npc ] Violets are brutes. Always so excessive. Not quite excessive enough, however-- a thrown panel isn't going to be enough to deter Vincid, and a mere flamethrower? He'd need a much greater weapon than that to destroy her and her work.

Look down, back up, the panel flung at Vincid is now a trio of spears, and the witch drops into the floor before reappearing a ways behind Nadaya and immediately sending one for him in a strike.

Something is beginning to form out of the block's central sigil, inky black and so far indiscernable.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ] Artifex stumbled out of his cell. There was barely any room to do anything but stumble out, it had barely contained him. The injured psionic was wheezing, and Sparks began to crackle- before he fully internalized that Nadaya was there and swallowed them down, settling for trying to steady himself against Caesurae.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

Caesurae reached a hand down to catch Artifex's shoulder, steadying him, eyes searching the psionic and trying to force reality to bend to his whims.  Those injuries weren't that bad, were they?  No, obviously not.  They looked worse than they really were.  Smoke gathered around Sparks, fixing or re-applying his clothes, before the taller, calmer brute softly asked, "WVhat do you need, and should I carry you?"

Sure, there was an enemy combatant in the room -- but he was going to have to trust Nadaya to handle his own business for just a moment longer.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

The shorter one was /very/ excessive, that was true. He twisted to dodge the spear, and while he avoided being a fish-kebab he did not avoid a graze on his shoulder. He turned on his heel to face her, manic smile plastered across his face. Congrats Vincid, your opponent thinks getting stabbed is /hilarious/.

The flamethrower disappeared as Nadaya realized it was useless, but he wasn't deterred. The inky black shit did not go unnoticed however, as evidenced by the small hand-grenade now in the brute's hands: He /winked/ at Vincid as he removed the safety pin and (seemingly) carelessly threw it over his shoulder to land on the inky thing. It was a small grenade, the blast radius might effect Nadaya but not Sparks and Cae.

Nadaya seemed to conclude that chasing a teleporting enemy is futile, and uncaptcha'd a pair of pistols instead, firing them at Vincid's legs. He wanted her alive for some reason.

juggaylo [ npc ] What kind of pan-addled seadweller is she even dealing with here. Vincid reacts quick when she sees the grenade, dropping through the floor to lean halfway out of a windowed wall and strike a newer sigil. The floor around the center shifts up sharply, knocking away the grenade to a corner of the room. Unfortunately not a corner of the room that any of her enemies are in, and she intended to change that, but avoiding bullets has taken priority. One clips her leg.

Useless rust body. She's meant for a frame that doesn't need such protection.

The grenade detonates before she can make any use of it.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ]

He steadied under the heavy hand  and flinched away from the explosion of the grenade as it went off. He opened his mouth and grimaced, then started coughing and spat gold onto the floor, before drawing a few slow breaths, wincing. "..II can walk." He could limp, anyhow.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

Caesurae's fin flicked noticeably several times at the explosion, but he tried not to get distracted.  One of the nice things about being adapted for the water was being used to firm pressure on your hearing parts, but striding into adventure with Nadaya certainly was ...well... adventure.  He watched Sparks, expression shifting towards the dubious at the cough, eyebrow lifting noticeably.  "...Oh, sure, obvwiously," he replied with glib sarcasm, carefully running fingertips down the goldblood's shoulderblade for a few inches, trying to force lungs and ribs to be more whole.  ... He didn't know how well it was going to take, he didn't really do changes he couldn't see with his own two eyes that often, or well.

He let out a soft breath, and let the disbelief go -- offering that hand to Sparks to take, if he wanted. "..Ready to blowv this popsicle stand?"

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

The dumbass seadweller didnt skip a beat as he bolted in her direction the moment she teleported, using his apparently weaponized sylladex to eject like two dozen kitchen knives (how many fucking weapons does he HAVE?) directly at Vincid at high speed. Of course, even if she stood still, a lot of them would miss - which was the point, to get her distracted enough to buy Nadaya the half second he'd need to cross the distance between them.

juggaylo [ npc ] Where is it getting these weapons, what the fuck. Vincid snarls and dodges to the side, quickly dropping through the floor right as Nadaya reaches her. She gains a few meters of distance again, only this time it's with some obvious tears in her robes, and blood so rusted it makes her want to scream.

No, she does scream. She's livid. Forced into a form that isn't hers, her charge pursued by some yellow abomination against the goddesses, and now she's RUNNING FROM A VIOLET. Unacceptable.

Vincid shifts through the floor one last time, slipping up on top of the inky black formation in the center of the block. She knows that she isn't supposed to touch it, the material is crawling up her robes and burning into her skin. The weapon isn't ready either, but Vincid is angry, Vincid doesn't want to waste anymore time on this, Vincid has no fucks left to give.

The troll tears the royal symbol into her palm with her claws, and slams it down into the sigil at the center of the black. The block shudders.

The black has crawled up past Vincid's knees now, and rust blood is starting to drip out through it, quickly absorbed. There's tears running off her chin, face twisted in rage and pain. The block shudders again. The black crawls up her arm, eating at the cut palm she has over the sigil. Her goddess doesn't want this color, and Vincid knows it. She'll plea forgiveness later.

A final shudder, Vincid screams, and the entire block spikes. Metal sharpens to a point and stabs up, out, down, the inside of this block looks like the outside of a mace. It's a reckless move. An angry one. Nobody is exempt.

Not even her.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

The block shuddering wasn't a good thing, in general.  Caesurae glanced towards the center of the block in concern, and then to his unarmored and badly injured friend.  Gently, he reached around Sparks and tried to sweep him up into a gentle hug that would allow him to carry him on a moment's notice.  It was possibly for the best, when the spikes exploded out of everywhere  -- Caesurae flinched visibly, and was spun slightly, pushed forwards several feet by the various spikes that impacted his body -- and utterly failed to pierce the gigantic, hideous cape he was so proud of.   The grunt came out a little anguished though, and one eye squinted shut.  That was a punch to the side he was going to remember.

...his teeth gritting, he uncaptchalogued a pistol of his own.  If Vincid wasn't dead momentarily, now that she couldn't dodge, he was going to have to help her along her way.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ]

Sparks was. In no condition. He wanted to stand on his own- a glance toward the magic that was consuming the witch  and he was happy to be in Caesurae's arms, Even though he was in a place where he wanted to show no weakness in front of his enemy.  He held on tight with shaking arms and weak hands, barely escaping the spikes that tried to kill them both.

He'd have died again tonight if Caesurae wasn't there, and he'd already died so many times already.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

Nadaya had no body armor, because that would have been a sensible thing. What he did have though, was a blessing from a different god, aquamarine glow pulsing from inside his shirt. He evaded most of the spikes, earning only minor cuts and stabs, in a move that was proooobably infuriating to Vincid. If asked, he wouldn't have known to tell just how he picked his path through the maze, but...

He spotted a spike jutting out under a convenient angle from the floor, and the world's  worst plan formed - he  ran up it and leapt off, trailing violet, This way, he wouldn't have to run across the ink, which was something even he realized was not to be touched. 

He landed on top of Vincid, gripping her shoulders with his claws. "You lose!" he chirped cheerfully, making sure she heard it. He toppled them both into the black, her first, but his hands gripped her head and neck juuuuuuuuust right, and with a sickening kkkrAKKH he separated them. Goodbye, Vincid, you won't be missed.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

"--gggoooAAAAL, and he MAKES it!  --Nowv get the fuck out of the black shit before she goes under!"  ..the normally businesslike giant captchalogued his pistol again after the outburst, Hugged Sparks, and opened his cape just enough for him to see Nadaya with his prize.  There you go Sparks, look at the Bae and all that vengeance over there.  ...and after a moment he'd close the cape again so the arterial spray wouldn't get all over the germaphobe.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ]

God G o d He loved Nadaya. He just loved him so much, look at that troll, he loved him, he was going to kiss him. Or cry, probably both, not here though, it was not time for crying, he needed to not cry there was still business to attend to. Falling apart was for later.

juggaylo [ npc ]

In the moment Nadaya tears Vincid's head from shoulders, each sigil in the block burns fuchsia, a last blink of light before they all fade. The block shudders as the spikes slowly revert, leaving surfaces still lumpy, but not dangerous.

The black lingers, bubbling on the floor. It seems to move, draining into a nonexistent hole, until finally it is gone. Vincid's decapitated body lays on the floor, fuchsia robes in tatters. The body is pretty well in tatters too. Whatever the black touched is just... gone, and rusty blood is draining quick.

(Ding dong, the witch is dead.)

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

Nad laughs at Cae's Caeisms, grinning at him happily, biolum beaming ... covered in arterial spray... he captchalogued the head and in the moment it took him to jump out, the black ate his soles. 

He lands...barefoot. Well. There's no soles on his boots - thank god it stopped before it ate his feet. He wiped his face with his sleeves, and showed the gang no soles, laughing about it because thats hilarious. He then hugged Sparks and Cae - Sparks through the cape, because blood. Is now the time for purring, Nadaya. Is It.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ]

He started to pull out a baby wipe to clean Nadaya's face- and ran into the problem that his sylladex was no longer on him, most things were no longer on him, and he was shakey and in pain. .. He could deal with blood he needs to kiss that troll.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

Cae hugged Nadaya back, scolded him, but couldn't help laughing and smiling just a bit at how ridiculous the boot thing was going to be once he stopped being vaguely worried on behalf of Nadaya's feet.  He made a pedicure joke.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

Kisskiss, Nadaya's fins fluttered at Sparks' affection, but he broke the kiss to howl laughing at the pedicure joke, god he loved his kismesis and told him as much, kissing him too. 

Yeah this is good, this random cuddling after a battle is good, he nuzzled at Sparks again.

"So guys, how bout I set a bomb as a surprise to help us get away?" He did not know they were underwater.

TheDragonGirl [ geminidoomed ]

"- No, no bomb2" Sparks didn't know they were under water either, this was principle, he made a face at him.

Wirrit [ caepaecaesurae ]

"Howv about wve just leavwe right nowv . . ."  Cae tried patiently.

magnificemmt [ trolljacksparrow ]

".........oh fuck that's an option." Nadaya straight up forgot the possibility of teleporting. "Oh damn, yeah." Sparks and Cae won this time.

juggaylo [ npc ]

The door into the block opens, without a sound, and standing there is a burly-looking troll with nastily spiked gloves on each hand. She stares down at the witchy remains, then at the chattering trio, then at the remains. Then at the trio again.

She clears her throat, warily calling attention to herself. Her eyes are wide.

"So are you guys magic or something?"

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/angelic-guidance-navigating-the-gemini-new-moon-energies/

Angelic Guidance ~ Navigating The Gemini New Moon Energies

Angelic Guidance ~ Navigating The Gemini New Moon Energies

By Edith Boyer-Telmer

Dear Friends, three days ago I shared with you a couple of insides about the spiritual influence that today’s New Moon in Gemini is collectively bringing. A Gemini energy field is always providing us with a wonderful chance to socialize, meet new people and possibly make new friends. So go out and enjoy the connections. Already since the beginning of this year the information transmitted in angelic number sequences has been buzzing and so it is as well today.

Here are the angelic number sequences transmitted: Angel Number 0909: This number combination talks to us of energetic, emotional and mental renewal, and the blessings of new beginnings!!! It is a number that enforces the development of our divine motherly heart. The burning force of unconditional love, within the gazing heart of Mother Mary. Our chance to turn our own heart into the sacred home of the divine Threefold Flame!! A completion is achieved, a circle has closed, and our consciousness is from now on altered in awareness.

Threefold Flame Prayer: Divine Light into your hands I commend my spirit. Mighty I AM Presence my Holy Christ Self, power of the blue-lightening angels, lead me to the temple of illumination of God and Goddess Meru.

Escort me, instruct me, guide and protect me. I pray to the inner fire of illumination, to inflame my devotion for service to the divine plan, and for all life on earth.

Angel Number 4488: This number is bringing the wonderful invitation to make a conscious step out of the wheel of Karma, and into the creators responsibility of the wheel of life. When we are ready to take responsibility for all our energies and have proved to master them gracefully, this number is the confirmation that we succeeded in our quest for self-mastery. This number speaks of balance and stability, that is getting stronger and extends from the inside to the outside world we have build for ourselves. Stay brave and courageously walk your path, and the new creations you desire will come soon now! Self Mastery is the ability to maneuver through life without the mind or emotional attachment. It is being a present observer instead of the mind identified perceiver. Renee Cefalu

Life is fundamentally a mental state. We live in a dream world that we create. Whose life is truer, the rational man of action pursuing practical goals of personal happiness and wealth or the philosophic man who lives in a world of theoretical and metaphysical ideas? We ascribe the value quotient to our lives by making decisions that we score as either valid or invalid based upon our personal ethics and how we think and behave. Kilroy J. Oldster

Angel Number 7788: This number combination brings us positive news about forthcoming collective changes into higher vibration. It brings power for our ability to transform or end unhealthy situations and completed cycles. It is also a promise that things will begin to flow more easily in our lives, on material level just as much as on the spiritual plane. When we are seeing this numbers on a regular base, we can take it as a warning, to prepare ourselves for profound changes to come.

Life is fundamentally a mental state. We live in a dream world that we create. Whose life is truer, the rational man of action pursuing practical goals of personal happiness and wealth or the philosophic man who lives in a world of theoretical and metaphysical ideas? We ascribe the value quotient to our lives by making decisions that we score as either valid or invalid based upon our personal ethics and how we think and behave. Kilroy J. Oldster

When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny. Paulo Coelho

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear. Oprah Winfrey Dear Ones, I hope you are all feeling well these days under the influence of the energy field that the Gemini New Moon is providing for us. I wish you all the best for a wonderful start of relationships growing in balance with the new paradigm for the Golden Age of Aquarius. Love and Angelic Blessings! Edith

If you enjoy my posts, please sign up for my newsletter, JUST CLICK HERE & enter your e-mail. Please also like New Beginnings Guatemala on Facebook, and keep up the good work spreading the word ;-)! Feel INVITED to share this post also on your website or social media, just keep the links and credit active PLEASE! THANKS!

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Welcome Kara! We’re pleased to announce your audition for Nova Sinclair / Pyrokinesis has been accepted! Please send an ask to the main from your account within the next 24 hours so we can set you up with the OOC blog. We can’t wait to have you join us!

{{ PLAYER INFORMATION }}

NAME: Kara

AGE: 26

TIMEZONE: EST (Eastern Standard Zone)

PRONOUNS: She / Her

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m normally pretty active during the day/night, but my schedule can be a bit unpredictable because I’m a nanny and the kids aren’t organized enough to tell me when they need rides ahead of time lol. So sometimes I have to randomly disappear to take them places. During the summer, I’m pretty much free after 1pm but for driving kids around (and I have most weekends off). During the school year, freedom comes roughly after 3:30 or so.

PREVIOUS ROLEPLAY EXPERIENCE: I’ve been RPing since I was eleven and on neopets so… god, like, fifteen years? Roughly six on tumblr.

PERSONAL TUMBLR CONTACT: Link Removed

TRIGGERS: Incest

{{ CHARACTER INFORMATION }}

CHARACTER: Nova Sinclair

PRONOUNS: She / Her

AGE: 31

FACE CLAIM: Natalie Dormer

POWER: Pyrokinesis

QUOTE: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

PERSONALITY:

Witty - Nova’s got a quick sense of humor and a snappy retort for pretty much any situation. She is a clever woman with a sharp mind and tends to use jokes as both defense and offense. It’s a talent that gets her far with her writing and it’s good in sales, as it tends to make people relax around her.

Affable - Nova is the agreeable sort with a talent for making people feel comfortable around her; it’s that old school southern charm. However, though it takes a hell of a lot to rile her up, she is not what anyone would call a pushover. Mostly she’s agreeable because she just doesn’t have the patience for conflict and avoids it if she can help it. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, after all (though she’s never really understood why anyone would want to catch flies).

Curious - Some call it nosy, Nova prefers curious. She likes to know things, likes to be involved. She likes to know about people and she likes to learn about a variety of topics. Of course, sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong has gotten her into trouble a time or two, no matter how hard she tries to avoid it. Some people don’t appreciate others poking into their business. Especially a writer who will (and has) used stories she hears in fiction.

Imaginative - Nova creates situations in her head and sometimes can conflate them into something worse than they are because she tends to imagine the worst possible outcome. It serves her well in her writing. Not so much in real life, however.

Ambitious - Nova has worked her way up from the bottom to the top, a true rags to riches story that she tends to keep to herself. She has always had big dreams and is good at getting what she wants. She isn’t above doing whatever has to be done to meet her goals.

Reserved - A lot of people let Nova’s friendly, cheerful front deceive them into thinking she’s easy to get to know. She isn’t. She’s secretive and not at all forthcoming about herself or her life. She doesn’t let people in easy and trust has to be fought for. She likes to keep herself to herself and it’s hard to get past the high walls of privacy she’s built to the person beyond it. Though Nova has plenty of acquaintances, there aren’t many she’d call friend and she prefers it that way.

Judgmental - Nova’s far from easy to impress and if you make one wrong move, she’ll judge you for it instantly. She’s got a strong sense of what she’ll tolerate and what she won’t and she tends to be quick to write people off when they cross it. Second chances aren’t her forte. Friendly, sure. Forgiving? Not so much.

BIOGRAPHY:

Nova was born in New Orleans and lived there with her single father until the age of ten, when he was killed in an accident on the construction site he was working on. Nova was left with very little and she didn’t much like foster care either. At around thirteen, she ditched her foster home and became a bit of a street urchin. Easy to get lost in a city the size of New Orleans, and that’s exactly what she did for a very long time. She mostly conned people out of their cash with a sweet smile and her big, bright eyes, asking for bus fare from strangers or a couple of bucks for lunch because “my daddy gave me some cash this morning, ma’am, but it must’ve fallen out of my pocket on the way to school.”

Ever since she was small, however, Nova had a quick and creative mind and she used it to her advantage. It meant that even on the streets, she had big dreams and a strong will, one that would get her on her way to the top. When she was sixteen, she lit out of New Orleans. She worked on a river boat for a time, sailed her way up to Memphis, then took a bus over to New York City. In Nova’s mind, that was the place to be when you had big ambitions and wanted any chance of making them come true.

With nothing but a backpack full of clothes, a battered notebook of scribbled stories, and forty-seven dollars in her pocket, Nova set up at a local shelter and breathed in the air of the big city. She liked it immediately, the brisk pace, the clipped northeastern accents, the way everyone minded their own business. It was exactly what she’d been looking for and Nova was gonna make it work for her.

It was in this shelter that she met Dotty Fisher, a middle-aged shelter worker who took a particular shine to Nova in her early days in New York. Nova liked her too, this woman with a kind smile who made her think of how a mother should be. Bit by bit, she began to trust Dotty, even let her read some of her stories. When Dotty came to her about the idea of getting her GED and trying to go to college, Nova enthusiastically set about doing it all and ended up graduating with honors a handful of years later. She got a job and a crappy little studio apartment and got to work soon after. She had much bigger fish to fry.

Nova’s first novel was published when she was twenty-five, a thrilling mystery that became a best selling novel. Following that success, Nova purchased a small bookstore, which she now runs while writing on the side. Since the first novel, she’s written two more, both hugely popular, though her preference for anonymity meant that she’d written all of them under a pen name.

Nova was quietly celebrating a movie deal in the works for her first novel when she drank the tonic water that would chance her life as she knew it. It was definitely a bit of a shock for someone whose life is spent surrounded by paper to discover she could manipulate fire – all she’d been thinking was how she wanted the fire in the fireplace to burn a little hotter, a little brighter, and suddenly the flames shot so high that they blackened the stone mantle – and she has been quietly and curiously testing her powers out since.

Alone, of course. With someone like Nova whose ear was always to the ground, it was impossible to miss the murmurs of disappearances plaguing the city…

HEADCANONS:

Sometimes when Nova is stuck on a particularly hard section of her writing, she’ll sketch out a scene to try and form a picture in her head. She has no real talent for drawing, however, so her desk is often littered with nonsensical stick figure drawings, most of which are only half finished.

Nova is a notorious pen chewer. It’s a habit she hates, but can’t seem to break. At least twice a pen has exploded in her mouth and her face has been stained with ink for days, but no matter what she tries, she can never get herself to stop.

Nova bought her own store instead of keeping her job at someone else’s because it means she can mostly set her own hours and doesn’t get in trouble if she’s a few minutes late getting back from lunch or if she shuts the doors a few minutes early. For this reason, there are no store hours posted on the store front and those who want to shop there kind of just have to get lucky about when they decide to go. Surprisingly, her most frequent shoppers tend to find this charming. She has one regular who acts unfailingly surprised any time he shows up and she’s actually open.

She’s a deep sleeper, the kind of person who likes sleeping in a freezing cold room with tons of blankets piled on top of her. She tends to keep late hours and wake up late, so the book store is never actually open before noon on any given day.

Nova is queer as a two dollar bill. It’s not something she flaunts, but it’s not something she hides either. She’s just always been more interested in and more comfortable with women. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Nothing currently (: