#like I thought marauders was as gay and depressing as it got

[thatnerdyqueer]

was anyone else a victim of the marauders to dead poets/Shakespeare pipeline? Or is that just a me thing?

[calamity-bean]

Stede Bonnet: A F*cking Pirate Musical (a review, of sorts)

Recently, I — like many of y'all — kinda sorta lost my mind over a new TV comedy inspired by a certain 18th century pirate.

While Stede Bonnet was not the most obscure marauder in history, I gotta say, I don't think I'd ever heard of him before Our Flag Means Death came along, and I certainly don't recall encountering him in any media before that. So imagine my surprise when, shortly after I binged the gay pirate show, fully in the throes of fresh brainworms, I caught wind of a new stage musical based on that very same pirate that just happened to be making its premiere right after OFMD! What a coincidence, right? And naturally, having just become enthralled with one fictionalized take on the Gentleman Pirate, my curiosity could not help but be piqued!

All this is to say: there is a musical about Stede Bonnet, and I watched it, and I had a pretty good time. So I wanted to tell y'all about it and share some of my thoughts on its themes, its music, how it adapts Stede Bonnet's story, and its take on him as a character.

Stede Bonnet: A F*cking Pirate Musical runs through Sunday, May 1, with digital performances on April 30 and May 1 for those interested in watching online.

First, a bit of a disclaimer. Although I talk about OFMD in my introduction to this post in order to explain why I was interested in seeing this play in the first place, I did not go into the theatre with any intention of pitting the two against each other, nor do I intend to do so now. These shows may be based on the same historical figures and events, but each is its own independent creative work, and moreover, both are over-the-top comedies that are... not exactly preoccupied with historical accuracy. Like, at all. The Stede in SB:AFPM is not OFMD Stede, and both are quite far removed from the Stede of history. So although I'm posting this in large part because I think this musical might be of interest to people who, like me, first became aware of Stede Bonnet through OFMD... Don't expect this to be OFMD, and don't judge it on that basis.

The Story, Characters, and Themes

This is a fun, energetic, occasionally poignant show, and I'm glad I got to see it. The performances were delightful, with a lot of absurdity, physical comedy, and talented singing; the audience was laughing aloud throughout. I really liked the set design: it's simple but effective, performed in the round, centered around a main platform bearing a ship's mast (complete with a ladder and sail). The floor is dappled in blues and greens to look like ocean water, there are ropes for actors to swing on and more ropes dangling ship's lanterns, a cannon up in one corner and a lot of humorous little touches in the props. The overall effect is quite charming and pretty.

The story opens just before Stede impulsively sets to sea and covers through the end of his pirating career, focusing mainly on his "collaboration" with Blackbeard. Stede and Blackbeard are two of the principal roles, along with Israel Hands and Elsie, a barmaid on a quest for revenge. Three other actors play all the supporting roles — primarily the pirate crew and assorted birds (signified by wearing colored beanies with eyes and beaks), who act as a sort of Greek chorus.

(Israel and Stede. Photo credit: Jeffrey Schmidt / CultureMap)

Although Stede — bedecked in florid aristocratic fashion, his hair in buoyant ringlets, his face powdered and cheeks brightly rouged — provides a huge amount of the show's comedy through his eccentricity and incompetence, his character arc is fundamentally about... depression. And grief. He starts out the play not merely discontent with his life, but suicidal and numb. It's clear that he has never recovered from the death of his young son and feels, himself, dead inside. He loves his wife and children, he has everything he needs... but still he feels empty.

Grief is also one of the major themes of the storyline that runs parallel to Stede's: that of Elsie the barmaid. I'm still not sure how I feel about how she fits into the structure of the narrative. She is very much the hero of her own story: she's got her own agenda that just so happens to intersect with Stede's, and ultimately, her storyline ends up driving a fair amount of the action. She gets at least as many arias as Stede does and, honestly, felt more like the emotional heart of the story than Stede.

Israel Hands is heavily involved in both Stede's and Elsie's narrative arcs, and he's a nuanced, sympathetic character who likewise does a lot of the heavy lifting in the show's more emotional moments. Blackbeard (played by a woman) is the primary antagonist, a theatrical, ruthless, and cheerfully manipulative charmer who is using Stede for his own ends.

Props to all of the actors in the main roles for their performances, and a special shout-out to the supporting cast, who were versatile and memorable in all their various roles. I kinda want a beanie with a bird beak on it, they were pretty cute.

The Music

The musical styles in this show range from piratey shanties, to your classic musical theatre "I Want"/"I Am"–type song, to what I can only describe as "80s movie training montage power ballad." While the singing itself was lovely throughout, I definitely enjoyed some songs much more than others. Those who know my preferences won't be surprised to hear that I mostly favored the ones on the folksier, more shanty-esque end of the spectrum. Some particular standouts:

The Act II opener ("Brothers of the Brine") is a stirring, very nautical piece that features a stomping part and a fiddle solo that the whole audience went wild for.

Blackbeard's villain song ("Blackbeard") is in a sort of dark cabaret style, complete with Blackbeard doing sexy splay-legged poses upside down on his throne — while wearing a massive fake beard.

"The Ballad of Davy Jones" has Blackbeard striking fear in Stede's heart through the tale of Davy Jones's narwhal-related demise, with a lot of theatrical bombast and fun.

(Blackbeard! Photo credit: BroadwayWorld)

Admittedly, there were some songs that fell flat for me. So it goes in any show. I really liked Israel's first feature song ("Israel's Rambling Backstory") but less so his later ones, and Elsie's solos were well-sung but felt a little out of place for me, in much the same way that her arc feels a little out of place, maybe? I swear I'm not just, like, against the concept of inserting an original female character into the story on principle — I actually enjoyed her as a character, and I certainly enjoyed her actress's performance. I'm just not sure how I feel about her role in the overall narrative structure.

Maybe the issue is simply that I felt like her character arc, though it shares themes with Stede's, diverted time that could have been spent better developing the title character, who to me was driven by the more interesting motivation.

What Is This Show's Take on Stede Bonnet?

The historical Stede Bonnet did bad shit, before and after he became a pirate. That should really go without saying. This musical's Stede is not entirely beholden to the original — historical facts about his life are omitted or substantially altered, his characterization is exaggeration and invention, and he really is, as I have said, best viewed as an entity very separate from the real-life figure that inspired him. But the musical still grapples with core features of what I think make the concept of the Gentleman Pirate intriguing: the idea that someone who had so much privilege would abandon his life and family in favor of a short, violent, and ultimately doomed adventure in criminality for which he was very ill equipped. In dealing with these facts, the narrative ultimately kind of has to at least imply some kind of judgement on his actions.

To start with: Why?

It's not a mere longing for adventure. It's not "discomfort in a married state." In this version, Stede loves his wife, loves his children. He says as much at the end of the play, at the trial that will lead to his execution. So if he loves them, why would he leave them? He struggles to articulate the answer, just like I'm struggling to articulate my point now.

Though this show's Stede is largely a comic character, frequently over-the-top and ridiculous, there's a sorrowful undercurrent to him that comes out in the too-brief moments where his character is allowed to be more serious and subdued. His songs express a desire to "rewrite his story," but what it really comes down to, as I said before, is the numbness and emptiness that too many of us who have dealt with depression know all too well. He's grieving his son, who died years before the story opens, and moreover just does no longer feel anything about life: he finds no happiness in all the things that used to make him happy, he desperately wants to change but cannot seem to do so, he seems mired in the past and without hope for the future. He tries to hang himself in the first few minutes of the play — a foreshadowing of his eventual fate. He's stopped only by a chance meeting with Israel, which inspires the impulsive decision to become a pirate, which leads, at the end of the first act, to the moment where he joyously declares that he FINALLY feels ALIVE again...!

...Because he's just shot someone dead. Killing a person — some random sailor whose ship Stede's ship has attacked — is the big moment of triumph where the numbness breaks and Stede feels brilliantly, exhilaratingly, unrepentantly alive.

(Photo credit: Jeffrey Schmidt)

And personally, I find this a more interesting motivation and arc to explore than Elsie's, whose story is a pretty familiar quest for rescue and revenge. Her arc's themes are loss, grief, acceptance, and forgiveness. Those are rich themes, but her story follows a familiar arc and she gets pretty solid closure on all fronts. There is no moral ambiguity in her motivation or in her character. (Though there is in the role Israel plays in that story arc.) She is solidly justified, solidly Good.

Stede is much more morally ambiguous, and his story is not nearly so easy to tie up in a tidy little bow. In his final song, "Eulogy," as he reflects on his brief life of crime, he says that he cannot justify the ends OR the means... and yet he has no regrets about his choice. He rewrote his story. His decisions may have been bad, but they were his decisions, and they made him feel alive again and reclaim a sense of agency over his life.

And fuck, I mean — being in your late twenties and depressed and feeling desperately lost and dead inside and just wanting to make a sudden, drastic change? Wanting to stop going to work, leave town, throw your entire past away and wipe the slate clean and run off to do something fucking ridiculous with your life? In hopes that somehow that'll fix you, that somehow that'll make you feel the way you're supposed to feel?? Relatable!! It's fucking relatable!!!

And I think this is ultimately where the musical comes down on its version of Stede Bonnet. He made bad decisions. His decisions were harmful and ill-fated and arguably stupid, and we're not going to try to justify what he did or where it led him. But why he did it? That we can sure as hell sympathize with. There's something very compelling about watching someone, however flawed, have the audacity to make such bold choices about the course of their life.

In Closing

To those of you who read this far: Holy shit, you're still here? Thanks! This got a LOT longer than I meant for it to! I had originally planned just to kind of summarize the general vibe of the show and then list some of the details I particularly liked, but, well, I'm not known for my brevity. I might make that list a separate, much shorter post and link it here.

Overall, as I said: I had a real fun time at this show. I'm glad I heard about it and that my interest in Stede Bonnet's story had so recently been piqued. It's not a polished big-budget Broadway show by any means, but I could tell that there was a lot of love put into every aspect of it by the creators, cast, and crew, and I can safely say that the whole audience seemed to be having a great time. Plus, it's always interesting to look at how different storytellers adapt the same historical inspiration into such different stories with different focuses and themes.

At this post's time of writing, Stede Bonnet: A F*cking Pirate Musical is running for about another week, with digital performances available online on its final weekend, April 30 and May 1. I am extremely impressed that you read all the way to the end of this rambling pseudo-review; cheers. <3

[woundjob]

i wanted to know what are your opinions on the influence the prank ™️ had on their relationship and their trust in each other? i think it kinda showed remus sirius is privileged in a way he isn’t, and he can really hurt and harm him without even meaning to. also defo the reason he could believe sirius was the spy. kinda depressing lol

i think about the prank a lot lol. ive seen some really excellent posts with ranging ideas of it (it didn’t affect them at all since sirius and james are still reckless idiots after the fact vs it tore the marauders as a whole apart and was the first step to peters descent) and of course my fic cool girls, apart from being a fun little nonbinary mystery is about prank recovery

im really fond of the headcanon that post prank remus and sirius got together. like, sirius grew up in a home where his family didn’t care about him, and thus was taught that his actions had no consequences, because nobody cared no matter what, and this devil may care attitude was only encouraged by his friends, as they didn’t know where it came from. he also may have been acting out bc acting out is the only way he’s ever known to get attention, or doing something intentionally bad to punish himself for gay thoughts. all reasonable ideas from the “grew up in a bad home and so now i’m treating people bad” thoughtline

remus, who also grew up in a bad home, just in a different way, would understand this i think. not immediately, it would take a real heart to heart and a great deal of groveling, and also the realization on remus’ part that he’s worth more than that and deserves better, which also drives them together i think. the thing i love about wolfstar is that inherently they understand eachother, and i think the prank certainly tests their relationship, but ultimately they pull thru and get together in the end bc of that mutual understanding

[harrypotterbrainworms]

Twin Size Mattress

Summary: Sirius runs away after home troubles, a request for a Sirius x reader inspired by Twin Size Mattress by The Front Bottoms. Very angsty, has a comfort ending.

Pairing: Sirius x Male Reader

Key: (Y/N) - your name, (H/C) - hair colour, (L/N) - last name

Word Count: 2380

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse, depressive/ptsd symptoms, one gay slur.

They heard a soft knock at the door around 9pm that evening, the rain pouring outside. The thunder striking every other minute at this point. 

“I wonder who that is in this weather” James said, throwing himself up from the sofa and going to get the door. 

The other boy sitting across him set his book down and leaned forward to get a good look at the front door. The door opening to reveal a soaking wet Sirius, the rain hiding the tears streaming down his face. 

“Shit, Padfoot. Get in quickly” James said completely shocked, he ran upstairs to grab a towel and dry clothes. Sirius didn’t look (Y/N) in the eyes when he rushed to his side, only hiding his face and waiting for James to speed him to the bathroom. 

That was a week ago, the three boys were now waiting on the platform. The train pulled in as they waited for Remus and Peter. Sirius had refused to speak to anyone that week, only coming out of James’ room to eat and shower. 

(Y/N) only stared at him, the warm face he knew only a few months ago now cold and distant. The long hair that framed his face cut short. He had barely seen Sirius in this state in the 5 years they knew each other. James was the only person who knew what he went through, (Y/N) wished he trusted him as much as he trusted James. 

When the last two marauders joined they immediately knew the situation, the whole group now treating Sirius with the utmost care in the world. Soft smiles and hugs shared all round as they entered the train together. 

The train ride was mostly quiet, these were the few silent moments they shared in awkwardness. There was almost never a dull shared between them, the five always ready to drown their own traumas in many shots of fire whiskey or pulling pranks. 

“The train is going to stop soon, we better change” Sirius who finally broke the silence in the compartment pointing outside. Hogwarts was coming into view slowly, the tense group quickly changing as they went back into the silence. 

The day went as usual, the large hall filled with students as the new bunch of first years got sorted. The table of Gryffindors in shock as they watched the class clowns eat without much conversation or noise.

 They had never seen the marauders in such seemingly low spirits as they were all guided back to the common room. (Y/N) noticed that Sirius seemed a little happier to be back in his real home, becoming more chatty as they entered their dorm. 

“Weather’s cheering up” He said, as much as weather was a conversation they basically never had, the other four boys seemed happier to see Sirius’s silence was coming to a slow end. 

They all prepared to bed rather quickly, the group being a little drowsy from the long train and big meal. They had almost never had an unanimous bed time, someone was always awake doing something. Whether that was annoying one another or reading. 

“Goodnight, lads.” (Y/N) said, receiving a couple of groans and a few good nights in response. That’s when it started, no more than about an hour later there were four very confused and worried boys jolting awake as they heard Sirius crying and screaming in his sleep. 

James immediately jumped out his bed, going to his friend’s side. Gently stroking his head, trying to calm him down. 

“It’s okay, shh. Don’t worry, we’re all here” James said quietly, wrapping the discarded duvet back over Sirius. He seemed to calm down and stop thrashing about, the other three were a little bit in shock. Sirius had always suffered from nightmares, but they had never seen it this bad. 

With Sirius sleeping soundly again they went back to bed, but not even a few hours later Sirius was crying again, screaming and begging for someone to help him. To avoid no one getting sleep, each one of them took a turn to guide Sirius back to sleep. 

“It’s okay, Padfoot. I’m right here with you” (Y/N) cooed softly at his friend, running his hands through his hair. 

“I don’t wanna go back, I wanna be safe here” Sirius suddenly said like a scared child, (Y/N)’s stomach churned at the thought of what happened. 

“You’re safe” He hushed Sirius, he seemed to stop hyperventilating so (Y/N) got up to leave. Sirius had different plans in his sleepy mind grabbing his friend’s hands. 

“Please don’t go.” He said, his voice quivering with every word. (Y/N) looked at him as he held tightly onto his hands, looking scared to let go. 

“I’m right here” (Y/N) said, holding his breath as his heart stopped. Sirius pulled him closer, hugging his arm like it was the last piece of earth. 

(Y/N) gave in and moved onto his bed as Sirius held his waist tightly. (Y/N) just looked down at him, stroking his hair gently as he listened to Sirius fall back asleep. The warmth in the duvet and the calm boy next to him slowly put (Y/N) to sleep as well. The last thing he saw was the soft morning light across the horizon as he drifted off.

The next morning was quiet as the two boys woke up together, Sirius was looking a lot happier again. Sometimes cracking a few jokes here and there, even suggested a prank idea. A day back in his rightful home was bringing his confidence back, the rest of them followed suit. Feeling happy that their beloved friend was looking a little better. That was until potions. 

“Finally get rid of that mop, I see” A certain blonde asshole snickered behind them. Sirius sunk down in his seat slowly, trying to pretend he didn’t hear anything. He was usually packed full of comebacks and insults, but it hit too close. 

“Maybe finally you can be accepted into-“ Lucius started on his usual spiel, today however it pissed (Y/N) off a lot more than “usual”. He immediately swung around 180° to stare Malfoy right in the eyes. 

“Shut the fuck up, Lucius.” (Y/N) warned him, his voice was full of venom adding a glare that would’ve thrown daggers at the spoiled brat if it could. 

“And what are you going to do about it, mudblood?! I can’t help it if your little boyfriend looked like a fa-“ Lucius was cut off as his classmates gasped. Even his friends did, surprised that (Y/N) was capable of that. 

He had been cut off by an uppercut on the upside of his chin, a rather loud thump as he toppled backwards on his stool. 

“Serves you right.” (Y/N) mumbled under his breath as he moved back to his seat, huffing out in frustration as he put his hands gently on the desk. 

Of course he had gotten detention, but he didn’t regret it. Seeing Sirius, the funniest, bravest, most handsome boy he’s ever known be hurt by such an annoying prat really pissed him off. 

“You didn’t have to,'' Sirius said awkwardly as they left potions. He didn’t want (Y/N) going into detention for fighting his battles for him. 

“It’s alright, it’s boring stuff anyway. The bruise Malfoy is gonna have for the next week is more than worth it” He smiled softly at him as they all headed back to the common room. 

It had barely been 20 minutes before everyone at school heard that “Lucius was in a deadly battle in potions with (L/N) and almost lost an eye” as if he’d even had the chance to lose one. 

“Honestly that was amazing, wish I had the guts to punch that asshole in the face” James shrugged as they opened the porthole into the common room. (Y/N) quickly ran upstairs, shredding all his school supplies onto his bed and wishing the boys goodbye as he went to detention. 

“(L/N) you’re late” Professor Slughorn said looking at his watch as the (H/C) boy burst through the door in a sweat. 

“Sorry, Sir. The common room is a long walk from here” He huffed a little as he took off his robe, ready for whatever task was ahead. Slughorn nodded and looked around the classroom. 

“Not to worry, detention is simple today, just a spotless clean and you’re done” He said, looking at his watch again. Slughorn somewhat trusted the boy, as he was one of the top in his class. 

“Thanks, Professor. I’ll get right to it” (Y/N) nodded and went straight to work, trying his best to hurry. His professor bid a farewell as he left to get tea with some other teachers leaving (Y/N) to clean up. 

He walked diligently and fast as he scrubbed the floors, cauldrons and anything else that looked dirty. He worked top to bottom praying to Merlin he could finish before it got dark outside. 

He heard a small knock on the door as it opened, he immediately looked to see Remus standing there with a few books in hand and some notes. 

“Thought I’d make things a little more interesting for you, asked Slughorn if I could study here” He said, moving to one of the cleaned desks as he set up his study station. 

“Thanks, was getting a little too quiet in here” He said a little out of breath as he moved the clutter of bottles and jars that stood in the way of cleaning. It was nice to have the presence of someone else in the room with him, even if they just sat in silence. 

“You think Sirius is gonna be okay?” (Y/N) asked honestly, the subject leaving a small air of tension in the room, but someone had to ask.

“I don’t know.” He asked back honestly. (Y/N) suspected Remus hadn’t seen Sirius like this either.

The rest of the detention was spent quietly as before while the friends coexisted.

The group of lads sat together once again in the deafening silence of the common as other Gryfinndors made their way in and out for bed. With Remus and (Y/N) back inside again, they almost forgot how thick the air in the common room. 

Sirius looked as though he would crack his own neck, uncomfortably shifting in different positions not happy with a single one he chose. 

“I’m going for a smoke.” He quickly said, almost running out of through the porthole. The other boys were a little startled by the rush and looked at each other as to signal who would check on him. 

(Y/N) immediately got up and followed him outside, seeing him sitting crossed legged on the cold stone floor. He took a seat next to the tired boy who was struggling to light the cigarette in his fingers. 

“Here” (Y/N) said, taking the lighter from his hands, replacing it with a fresh one. 

“It’ll grow back.” He said suddenly, taking out a cigarette of his own. He reached to grab the lighter and to his shock Sirius flinched… hard. All he could think of was what happened during summer that cracked his friend. 

He sighs and looks over to him, being lit by the half moon in the sky. Sirius looked over to him for a second, thinking about how nice his friend looked in the moonlight. (Y/N) thought the same. He reaches a hand slowly to Sirius, resting it on his shoulder. Sirius stiffened up a bit, but relaxed after a few moments. Letting (Y/N) caught his thoughts for that time. 

“I don’t know if you trust me to know what’s happening, but… I don’t know what they did to you there. I just wanted you to know I’m glad you’re here.” He looks a little embarrassed by his words, no one in the group really tried to deal with their emotions. Hiding it behind layers and layers of pranks and even saying that made (Y/N) cringe a little. 

He expected Sirius to laugh at him or maybe even push him off Gryffindor tower for being so serious, but Sirius just looked at him and broke down uncontrollably sobbing into his hands. 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” He sobbed as (Y/N) scooped him into his arms, softly rubbing his back. 

“Woah, Woah. Calm down. Breath. Don’t be sorry, it’s okay.” (Y/N) said gently as Sirius abandoned his cigarette on the ground, clasping onto the boy in front of him as if he was the last thing keeping him tied to the Earth. 

They sat there together, hugging each other tightly as Sirius’s violent sobs became a shaky breath while he inhaled the scent of (Y/N). When he felt calm enough, he let go and sat with his hands in the other’s hands while their breathe became visible in the cold night air.

“Let’s get you back inside, come on” (Y/N) said, helping Sirius up with his hands. They left the darkness hand in hand into the common room once again.

“Hey-“ James said, but cut himself off as all the boys saw Sirius’s bloodshed puffy eyes and shaking frame. 

“Come on, Padfoot. To bed with you.” (Y/N) said softly, ignoring everyone as he led the now short haired boy into the dorm. 

He tucked Sirius into his bed and was about to leave when he felt his friend’s hand pull him back. 

“Will you sleep here again?” Sirius asked quietly, looking a little embarrassed. (Y/N) nodded and got under the covers, Sirius moving toward him and hugging his frame. 

For a while they just stayed like that in silence and awake just bathing in each other’s warmth and comfort. (Y/N) let out a yawn and stretched his arms over the boy who was cuddling him. 

“Sweet dreams, Padfoot.” He said while kissing the also very sleepy boy on the forehead receiving a soft kiss on his knuckles in return. 

Sirius drifted off to sleep feeling the warm embrace of his friend, having nice dreams of running far away together. Maybe to a small cottage Merlin knows where… 

[spiltscribbles]

Any chance you could give us some Arabic speaking Remus headcanons? Loved your latest fic ❤️ 📚

OMFG gorgeous sugarplum! I legit only just was reminded of this while scrolling through my inbox right now! But my heart is finna burst!!! Thank you SO SO much and yes I would love to give some Headcanons about this! Especially since the next long story I’m working on includes this dynamic, and I’m so excited about it!! However, common disclaimer that while I am Arab and culturally Muslim even if I don’t practice like the rest of my family lol, I am Palestinian and not Syrian. So with every identity there are different experiences and customs no matter how closely intertwined. So I apologize for any inconsistency   that a Syrian may read and disagree with, and please feel free to correct me<3 <3

.-

The FIC this HC is from 

.-

So first off some background on his mum in the story 

I chose the name Vivian based off a friend of a friend who’s uncle married a woman by that name back in Palestine,  so it’s definitely extremely uncommon, but a fully Arab lady was named it, so like it’s my defense bahaha. But it also means lively, and coupled with Hussein as her maiden name which means beautiful, it just fit her personality to a t!! 

She was born into a pretty secular family in Syria in the late 1920s, so there was a lot going on in that time period. But her dad was pretty influential, working in the government and such. Vivian was also the youngest of four girls and three boys so she was pretty spoiled tbh

She attended a boarding school in France through out her adolescence and decided to go to university there too, so she’s fluent in both Arabic and French, with pretty great English as well. Though she wasn’t exactly white passing, even though like a bunch of Syrians/Palestinians/Lebanese folk she was somewhat fair, she had distinctly Arabian features, like the large almond shaped eyes and thick lashes and thicker brows, and a long, largeish nose, accented by full lips. So she experienced a good amount of jeers and discrimination, especially when folks found out her surname. So I think she’s able to relate to Remus in that sense of being a wolf at least, and later on  when he comes out as gay.

It was 1950  when she and a few of her girlfriends went to Wales for holiday after completing university. The second Lyall first spotted her in the woods while she was trying to make it back to the cabin near the Irish Sea with her mates, it was something like love, because duh. She was a fucking knock out!! A babe and a baddy! Literally so far out of his league its ridiculous! But on Vivian’s side,  she was mostly just amused and a bit enamored by this cocksure Welshman who had the most endearing of crooked smiles that their son would inherit a decade later. So obviously she didn’t make it easy on him, but eventually she let him take her out on the last night of her trip, and was pleased to find out that they had the same sort of humor and the same passion for their careers and even the same love for the outdoors too.

 They had a long distance relationship for two years while she went to grad school so she could teach about classics while Lyall himself was rising the ranks in the Ministry for regulation and control of magical creatures— Unbeknownst to her, the Floo network  was very helpful with the distance. Just thank God Lyall himself is a Muggle born because he really had to fake the hell out of it lol.

So just to speed things up they got married on a lovely June evening in  1955,  subsequent to  Vivian excepting a professorial job in Cardiff after Lyall told her about the Wizarding world. At first Vivian thought e was tripping on some subpar edibles until he proved it by transfiguring her snuff box into a lovely broach that she kept for the rest of her life, So after Vivian was convinced, she became  absolutely enthralled by all of the magic so completely. 

They were trying for a few years when she finally became pregnant with Remus in 1959, and they were both so over the moon (pun unintended).

So like I said above, Vivian’s family are pretty secular, so I see her mostly practicing the cultural aspects of Islam. For example, every Friday— which is the equivalent to Sundays being the holy day  for Christians— she lights up the instance that she always keeps herself stocked up on after her annual trip to Syria, instead of the typical candles she ordinarily prefers.  And Remus swears that for the rest of his life whenever he smells it, he’s back to being a baby, puttering around the house and watching her dusting the shelves while humming quietly an Arabic song that’ played out the gramophone  by a man who’s music would soon become regarded as the song of the people. Or Remus would recall being snuggled into her lap while she read him a novel on the windowsill. Or he’d simply remember listening to his parents laughter fluttering in the air while he fell asleep by the fire, subconsciously making the flower buds closest to him bloom with his untapped magic.

Remus’s first clear memory— thanks to the endless pictures— is when he was around four years old, before the attack, and they were staying in Vivian’s home town in Damascus. While the men congregated out doors for cigars and cards and the women in the living room chatting while snacking on watermelon seeds, his older cousins— who were all girls— dragged him off to one of the bedrooms and doted on him because he was the baby of that side of the family. And he remembers walking out in a set of one of their heels and a headscarf wrapped around his head which made his Mama and Tata and Aumties laugh out loud and croon over him, and all his uncles and Sido call him Aumty Remus.

The attack by Greyback happened soon after they returned to Wales, and I’m not gonna touch on it becs I’ not finna depress myself. But it was a January morning after his first transformation and he remembers that when he woke up, he saw the cookies stuffed with dates resting on his bedside with a glass of milk that Lyall had put a cooling charm on. And they’re indulgent treats that Vivian makes for both Eids every year even though they don’t celebrate them in any other way lol. But the cookies always reminds him of family and of feeling safe in his mother’s arms, and they still work to make him feel better even after the worst thing he has ever experienced in his short life.

Remus’s love of poetry came from both sides of his parents, but it was listening to his mother recite the story of Majnun Layla in it’s original Arabic that really made him glow for the art form, and brought him to discovering his favorites like Auden and Neruda. 

There’s a ornate, wooden prayer box that has been past down on the Hussein side of the family for five generations, it was originally  meant to hold a Qran but for the past three it’s simply just been a beautiful piece of decoration. So when Vivian gave it to Remus when he was headed off to Hogwarts, little Remus asked McGonagall to help him with locking  charms so it could become a safe place for him to keep his most cherished of nicknacks ant momentos, so obviously,  she silently added a charm to keep the wood nearly unbreakable and the extension charm atop of that, like Hermione with her bag, so that he could keep as many happy memories as possible inside of it, and she prayed that there would be so many that it threatened to burst. 

The last time Remus opened the box was in 1996, when he was putting away the ring Sirius gifted him as a match to his own in some feeble promise of forever only weeks before James and Lily’s own engagement. 

Once during first year, he and the lads were staying up late, trading stories about how they got their most ridiculous scars— after seeing the one that scraped across Remus’s left shoulder blade— But it got to a point where they were all feeling a bit nippish, so they went down to the kitchens for some of the chocolate pudding that was served during dinner that night. And Remus idly asked the house elves if they could make him a batch of Kinafa because he was getting home sick and missed when he and his Mama would dash over to the city whenever they were feeling antsy, and she’d take him to their favorite hooka bar after buying a round of the dessert— which is basically sweetbread stuffed with cheese— from down the block. And they’d stay sitting beneath the starlight, and talking about her job and his lessons from school while she’d let him try a discrete puff or two and they’d laugh about everything and nothing at all.

The next time they stopped by the kitchens one of the younger house elves presented him with the snack gleefully, and it tasted fine, just not like how they do back home. So Remus smiled warmly at Tipsy, the house elf, and thanked her with real sincerity.

But his face must’ve betrayed him because after easter break, Sirius plops down a fresh batch of them on Remus’s bed before leaping into his own, casually mentioning that he saw how grossed out Remus looked when trying the one the house elves made, and it was from a restaurant close to Grimmauld so it’s not that big of a deal, and then he rushed to cursing at James for stealing his favorite pen and swearing that  if he broke it he’s gonna have hell to pay. Remus had only blushed and chuckled  with a small smile on his face when he cut himself a small piece and finished the half sheet off with the rest of their house later that night during an impromptu party that the Marauders would become infamous for in later years.

It was the summer after second year when all the marauders visited Remus back home in Wales and when they heard Vivian call him Qamar practically every other sentence, which of course lead to endless ribbing and eventually  to his nickname of Moony— even though it’s so fucking obvious and Remus loves and hates it in equal parts. God his friends are so fucking stress inducing!

Remus teaches the other marauders funny Arabic curse words and they use them in class so that they can talk shit about particularly disgusting Slytherins without them being any of the wiser. (Yes I did do this with my friends, and I’d do it again! POW! POW! POW!)

It’s from Vivian that Remus has an affinity for coffee as strong as shit, but also prefers his tea weak— specifically two sugars and a dash of milk. But seriously, if you’ve ever tried Arabian coffee you’d understand, that shit is so fucking strong it’s literally a hate crime LMFAO. But yeah, this habit is definitely a point of contention between him and Sirius— who’s actually so fucking posh no matter how much he wants to be punk, and he stands by only drinking black tea— like Merlin intended— and saying bugger off to any and all coffees. “Leave that shite to the French and Americans.” And Remus would try to keep himself from making eyes at him from across the table, because God Sirius is hot when he’s all fiery  and impassioned, even when it’s about the dumbest, most inconsequential shit.

Something that’s sort of funny is that Remus was the first among them to become a fucking pot head and could drink them all  under the table even though Sirius himself has got two stone and three inches on him. But Remus still refuses to eat ham, purely because he never grew up eating it and doesn’t care too now. Sirius had to specifically ask Euphemia and Monty to make turkey for Christmas dinner their sixth year just because he knew that Remus’s head would probably implode with the decision between being rude and not eating it or forcing himself to gag down the unfamiliar meat.

When Remus is really, really fucking drunk he definitely spends the night only speaking in Arabic! (Don’t look at me I’m trash just because I stole this from my own life lmfao) But yeah, it’s really fucking hilarious and Sirius swears to God he’s so fucking in love with him while listening to Remus ranting in the unfamiliar language. And he’s like positive that half the time he’s actually just cursing Sirius out but he doesn’t even care because it’s SO! DAMN! CUTE!  And sometimes Sirius decides to speak French at a drunk off his arse Moony, who occasionally replies back in a stiff staccato before returning back to the easy Arabic. And it’s just a mess.

Ok so sadness warning

In my head, Vivian loses her fight against breast cancer the July after the Marauders graduate from Hogwarts, and afterwords Remus gets a tattoo of her name in Arabic on his chest, and the word for soul on the nape of his neck. He locks away that battered copy of Magnun Layla in the wooden box she gave him years ago, along with a woolen  scarf that smelt like her perfume.

 It’s Sirius who buys a set of prayer beads to hang off her photo above the mantel in the flat he and Remus share, and when Remus sees it he literally feels like  he might crack open with tears, but opts to kiss Sirius thank you instead, and they stay tangled on the sofa for the rest of the day in quiet contemplation.

One night, in late 1979, while  the war was only getting worse and worse—  Sirius was hit by a cutting curse to the ribs. And it was really fucking bad, but thankfully James got him to his house in time for Lily to help and heal. He slept for the most part for nearly an entire day, but remembers snippets. Like when Remus had sprinted into the room with fear painted all over his soft features, and when James put a cooling cloth to his head. But most distinctly, Sirius recalls Remus gingerly lying besides him and Sirius talking gibberish at his boyfriend while Remus plunged his entire face against his back, eyes wet with tears and body shuttering as he squeezed him softly, saying something quietly in Arabic. Sirius obviously didn’t understand like 99.9% of it, but he did catch the word “Habibi,” which he instantly remembers as an old pet name Vivian use to call Remus with so much love it made her entire countenance sparkle. It’s an endearment  that means beloved, or darling, and it feels like Remus is begging Sirius to stay with him and Sirius’s throat is still raw from the screaming, so he can only  reply by dragging Remus’s hand up to his mouth and kissing his knuckles tenderly. And he knows that whatever he does for the rest of his days, he loves Remus Lupin with every cell in his body.

Oof this got mad depressing…. Chow anyways, I can add a picture of the container you’re suppose to use for the instance if anyone wants that?

Thank you again dear Nonny!!!

Ask Me For Headcanons About A Story I’ve Written Or For One You Want To See Written

[ao3feed-jily]

Karma Killed Her

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uzwmUp

by aroaceslytherin

I have been thinking about this fanfic for two years. I have written and rewritten, re-drafted, deleted, and re-published. I got confused and lost in one-shots. This story will have AU’s, HC’s, canon, and non canon. There will be time skips; things might be missing. I love fan-fiction and wanted to contribute. One-shots were getting too much for me to keep up with.

I hope you enjoy!

J. K. Rowling owns the characters (we just gave them a better life). This will most likely be my last commitment to this fandom as it takes a lot out on me. Nothing is being made off of this.

(If any time-line is messed up or seems out of place, I also am not great at math but I did my best from the information we have been given. It’s what makes fanfic and AU’s fun!)

Tumblr: aroaceslytherin

Before Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, there were a group of boys that went by ‘Marauders’. There names were Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black II, and James Potter, also known as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Way before any of them, were their parents; Walburga Black, Orion Black, Dorea Black, Charlus Potter, Hope Howell, and Lyall Lupin.

This is their story.

Words: 6769, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of AU Harry Potter; Life of Black's, Potter's and More

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Sirius Black, Narcissa Black, Euphemia Black, Bellatrix Black, Andromeda Black, Walburga Black, Cygnus Black III, Dorea Black, Regulus Black, Orion Black, Alphard Black, Charlus Potter, James Potter, Harry Potter, Lily Evans, Petunia Evans, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Weasley Family (Harry Potter), Remus Lupin, Lyall Lupin, hope howell, Peter Pettigrew, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Alice Fortescue, Frank Longbottom, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape

Relationships: Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Narcissa Black/Lily Evans, Alice Fortescue/Frank Longbottom, Bellatrix Black/Tom Riddle, Lucius Malfoy/Andromeda Black, Andromeda Black/Ted Tonks, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black, James Potter/Lily Evans, Lily Evans/Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang/Cedric Diggory/Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory/Harry Potter, Cygnus Black/Druella Rosier, Orion Black/Walburga Black, Euphemia Black/Fleamont Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black/Severus Snape

Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Marauders, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Underage Kissing, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied Sexual Content, Panic Attacks, References to Depression, References to Drugs, References to Canon, Depression, Alcohol, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Drinking, Eating Disorders, Regulus Black Lives, Gay Regulus Black, Polyamory, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Alternate Universe, Dark, Dark Andromeda

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uzwmUp

[theissuewithred]

On Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, and being Trans

TW: mention of  death, suicide, suicidal thoughts, self harm, transphobia, swearing (just cause i know some people don’t like it)

if anything is uncomfy for you to read, i’m really sorry, this is just my own opinion and the best way for me to explain it.

for my ADHD and autistic followers/anyone who has trouble reading long posts like this one, i’m gonna summarize everything in the last paragraph if you want to know what i said. I’ll also limit any potentially triggering stuff in that last paragraph.

Pretty much everybody in the potterhead community knows what has been going on with JK Rowling and her extremely transphobic comments that she has made over the years. I’m not exactly active in the online community, but i’m definitely a reaaaaally big fan of the books, and when I learned what Rowling had said, I had a lot of trouble processing it (which is why it’s taken me so long to post this.) 

My mental health has never been great. I’ve pretty much always had to deal with some form of depression and anxiety, and while for a good chunk of my childhood i was pretty okay, my mental health took a huge nosedive when i was about 10 or 11. my great grandparents both died around that time, and i was really lucky to know them and i had been really close with them. it’s been years and i still don’t know how to manage the grief from their deaths. them dying was basically pushed me over the edge and what threw The Big Sad in my face. 

I didn’t know that it was okay to talk about what was going on, so gradually I got worse and worse until I was starting to have thoughts of self harm and suicide. I did end up cutting a couple of times. It really sucked. 

And then I read the Harry Potter books. 

Lemme tell ya, I dove headfirst into the books. I couldn’t stop reading them, I think i read the full series in about two months? And then I just read them all over again, constantly disappearing into them. 

Harry Potter gave me a world I could disappear into, a place where I could cast spells and brew potions, and a place where everything felt completely okay! When I read the books I didn’t want to hurt myself, i didn’t think about how easy it would be to just end it all. It was fucking magical!! 

I made a ton of friends off these books, I met my first girlfriend because of these books! (she was wearing marauders map leggings in choir and i promptly started questioning my sexuality) Harry Potter brought me back to life, and without Harry Potter I would not be writing this post right now. I’d be six feet under, buried in Champlain, NY next to a bunch of dead people I’ve never met with a very christian headstone. (gotta love catholic grandparents *finger guns* *cries internally*)  

I started getting a bit better, I still deal with self harm a bit but luckily i’m not suicidal. i figured out that i’m nonbinary and pretty fuckin gay. I no longer am dating the girl in the marauders map leggings (which is a story i’ll share at some other time), and i’m doing mostly okay. I would say completely okay but Rowling just HAD to be transphobic. 

When i found out about what Rowling had said, I was really confused. This is the woman who wrote a series about love and acceptance, and she doesn’t love and accept people who are trans? I thought for a moment that I must be wrong, that it must be some big joke. But by that point to much was out proving me otherwise. I thought that I would have to distance myself from this fandom, stop loving the books. But to be honest? I can’t. I can’t cut these books out of my life. Harry Potter kept me going when nothing else could. When i’m having a really bad day (mental health wise) I still pick up the books and read them all again. They mean too much. 

JK Rowling should never had said what she did. She never should have told us that we don’t count, that we are predators or freaks. The Trans community is so beautiful and I’m so proud to be a part of it. Rowling's transphobia is such bullshit and I wish I could still see her as I used too, but I can’t and that hurts so much. I don’t really know how to put into words how much it hurts me. 

 ⚡ ADHD/autistic/can’t read long stuff fam, start here!! ⚡

I’m not going to leave the fandom. Rowling has been and will likely continue to be very transphobic. It hurts to know that the woman who wrote the books that saved my life will never accept me for who i am and will hate me for just wanting to be myself. But these books mean way too much to me for me to stop reading them. I’m not going to stop reblogging fanart and reading fics and obsessively analyzing the movies for new easter eggs. I’m still going to go see all the Fantastic Beasts movies as they come out. But I am not, in any way, going to continue to idolize and blindly support JK Rowling. She may have created something beautiful, but these books? They belong to us. 

I don’t think I can write anymore without getting irrationally angry/crying so i’m gonna stop now. if anyone actually reads this, feel free to add on to it. 

Happy pride month everyone! 

Mischief Managed. 

[bisexualterror]

(banner not mine, simply copied from @ao3commentoftheday)

so i have a lot of bookmarks saved on google chrome (hmu if you want me to do a writing resources list or a second fic rec), and i thought might as well do a fic rec! i seperated them by fandom’s and i did my very best to tell you why i love the fic, but i think i just rambled lmao

tagging my friends who i think might b interested: @ocfairygodmother​ @phoenixwench​ @leftzonkpsychicland​ @artish-calamity​ 

minor warning, this is a long list~

Vampire Diaries:

Bits of Sunshine is my favorite Vampire Diaries fic, it has a really funny and charming OC and gives you a different perspective of the main characters and it really inspired me with my own TVD fanfic, it’s still on hiatus but it’s nearly 500k makes up for it 

The Bystander offers a unique view to OCs, where the OC is separated from the main plot for the most part but interacts with main characters that eventually pull her in

Crimson Peak is really good if you love a powerful Bonnie Bennett, it explores the magic of Expression more and her family background and OC Bennetts and it offers a interesting plot and a rare pairing of Klaus/Bonnie

The Next Chapter is a Buffy crossover fanfic, it puts Buffy in the Vampire Diaries, and though I still haven’t finished it was pretty good at meshing the two shows and exploring more of an older Buffy ~

My Paper Heart is really good if you’ve been trying to look for f/f in this fandom and haven’t found it, it not only explores the oc’s sexuality but also their supernatural identity

beneath the steady waves of fearless hope and grace is also a really good queer bennett witch oc, the oc wakes up in TVD in the body of her parallel fictional universe self I guess you could say, and it has a lot of angst like whoo boi, prepare yourself, it’s so good! 

Human is pretty good, love their oc, it hasn’t been updates in a very long while but it has 100k+ and it’s 100% worth it if you’re looking for something different

Harry Potter:

Changes Everything is really good at addressing the potential problems in the Wizarding World through the lenses of an OC, and it has Harry getting the family he fucking deserves sooner rather than later, and it goes into amazing detail and depth over the magics of the universe. also, lots of lgbt+ characters~

@nonchalantxfish ‘s Rose Petal Red is so good, like, you want Slytherins being amazing and devious, this is the fic for you! you want ocs galore?? this is for you! you want changes to the plot but with serious consequences?? this one is for YOU! Although it’s on haitus rn, it has a shit ton of words, like 500k+ and it’s 100% worth it~

The Clockwork Locket is so good guys, it’s an Marauder era fic, and it has an amazing mix of humor and mystery and romance and friendship and by the end you’ll be shipping the oc with literally everyone lmao, but overall it’s just really good if you’re looking for a Sirius/OC but still want to read about the mysteries in Hogwarts and the OC has her own plot and storyline. The second installment is still in progress but the first installment is like 270k words

Daphne Greengrass, Side Character is what it says on the tin, it’s about daphne and takes a different approach to the character with humor and wit, it’s very enjoyable, still not finished but it’s at 100k+ words

To Be a Slytherin, pretty sure everyone’s seen this one at one point, it’s a really good oc potter twin fanfic, goes into detail with magic and it’s just really good and has one of the longest word count i���ve ever seen at 1,166,349 

The Observer Effect is a MCU crossover with adult fem!Harry, it hasn’t been updating in a while, but from what I remember it’s super good and funny!

Naruto:

A Holmes in Konoha is super good, an Holmes OC is reincarnated as a orphan in Konoha, it explores the Nara’s more and it’s just so good at meshing investigation, friendship and relationships, action and drama~ 

Deja vu no Justu is a time travel fic, it’s really good, have not caught up to it since it first started but it has 500k+ words written and from what I remember it was very well written, like holy shit that was good writing ~

How to Obtain a Reverse Harem in Naruto by @burntpetal16 is pretty freakin good at making me laugh, it’s a remake of their finished fanfic, Sakura, which is equally as good, it’s about an self-insert OC suddenly waking up as Sakura, and Sakura def does what it says on the tin but also there’s an air of mystery surrounding the OC and how they got in the universe who she was before

The Yondaime’s Assistant is finished at 165k+ words and it’s good, like so good, it’s an OC reincarnated into Naruto fanfic, and it’s different from a lot of other OCs in the fandom because the OC goes into the Genin Corps instead of going out into the field, the writer manages to enthrall you with paperwork basically as the OC saves people from the background, it’s also endgame poly relationship between her, Genma and Kakashi!

After the Rain is a fem!Naruto time-travel fanfic, another fic which i haven’t finished, but from what I remember it was it’s done really well and has a lot of angst and drama and action and it’s just, prepare YOSELF for HEART wrenching ANGST!! also it’s 500k+ words!

The Witcher:

The Sorceress, The Witcher, The Bard and a Girl is what it says on the tin, it’s AU and an established ot3 situation w Yen/Geralt/Jaskier and it’s just,,, family fluff, disgusting domestic with all the drama that comes with three emotionally... complicated people trying to raise a young girl who has powers, starts off in a small town

Lullaby of the Isles is more so the game/book fandom, but it’s so good that I just didn’t care about that small fact, it’s still only four chapters but all together those four chapters have 17k+, and it’s about an OC suddenly waking up as a siren, a boss monster siren to exact, right after the siren had killed someone, and it’s just really good and different

And Yet Here We Are  is a collection of more ot3 fanfic of Yen/Geralt/Jaskier, it’s basically a lot of sexy times, but also some funny situations

to grow in adversity is the only fanfic that on this list i haven’t actually read, but the premise seems interesting enough, it’s about Renfri surviving and it has Jaskier as her baby bro

Better Love is surprise! another ot3 fanfic, only this time, you get to feel the pain of an unestablished relationship, it’s basically just Yen & Jaskier bickering while Yen tries to get Jaskier to fuck Geralt. It’s v horny, with a big hunking side of angst and some fluff. Completed and waiting for me to finish the last two chapter!

Teen Wolf: 

Sonder is @musiciatee​ ‘s OC fanfic, and it’s so good??? like every update I get to read blesses my imaginary crops, cures my depression and makes my skin glow like an goddess. If you’re looking for a good POC OC in this fandom, this is it okay. 

Kerosene Hearts and Matchbox Bodies is an OC fanfic, by @thegalanerd​, it’s being reworked right now, but 100% worth the read, but like, I would recommend any of their fanfics, it’s all very good like HOLY SHET it’s good. 

Red Rover, Red Rover is a pretty damn good OC fic, it’s on hiatus but it has 73 chapters and like nearly 500k words, it’s very dramatic, angsty, slow burn, mysterious, and the OC has their own little drama to deal with outside of the main plot

The Unconventional Life of Abigail McCall is probably one everyone has read by now, but if you haven’t, give it a shot, it made me smile a lot

Doctor Who: 

Three of a Kind, The Stuff of Legends is an male OC Tyler fanfic, and by god it is so good, very angsty, lots of drama, very AU, lowkey domestic, this drama gay OC must be protecccted at all costs

London Born is another Tyler OC, but Rose and her have different dad’s and she’s a character of color and bisexual, it’s just such a good fucking story and a favorite of mine, it’s also very AU and has a lot of original stories that the OC goes on, sometimes by themselves. It’s the first in a series, but this first installment is finished so I’d suggest subscribing to the collection for the second installment~

The Blonde Girl is the first installment of an AU of Rose’s start in the Doctor’s life, starting with them meeting randomly during different parts of their life and it basically slowly weaves Rose into the Doctor’s life/past. It’s really good, haven’t finished it yet, but I liked how they changed/expanded Rose’s character. Once you finish that you’ll want to start Defender of the Earth and The Companion Connection, the other’s I haven’t read yet so I don’t know the order they go in, but they’re all like 100k+ words and the author is still regularly updating their newest installment so enjoy~

Alexander-The Seer and Changer of Time is probably the longest DW OC fic out here, and was only last updated early last, but at a word count of  1477k+, I’m sure we’ll survive. This is another fic I haven’t finished reading, but one I’d high recommend either way. If I’m remembering correctly, don’t like quote me on this, but I believe their OC was non gender conforming.

The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday  was sadly cut short before the author finished, but the OC is so amazing and just my hero, and a character of color, will fight everyone and probably win, and just I love this OC so much and even though it probably won’t ever be finished it’s worth the read and it’s at nearly 800k so, enjoy each word~

Sailor Moon:

Rabbit of the Moon, is literally the ONLY fic I’m rec in this fandom, mainly because it’s the only fanfic I’ve ever read in this fandom, but it’s so good, like I was just feeling nolgastic over what was my first anime, but the OC is so...scary and smart and cunning and intense af

Twilight:

Twilight'd is a really good OC, it made me laugh a lot, and it makes you love the characters more than the actual writer made you like them

A Hundred Winks of Sunshine by @tsume-yuki​ is so good, like, I don’t know how to articulate how much I love their SI!Bella, like, I don’t read these types of stories a lot, but, tbh any story made them is just worth taking the risk to read because you won’t be let down. It’s very funny and charming and so good!

GOT/ASOIAF:

How To Lose Your Dragon is not really what it says on the tin, trust me I would never read a fic that would have anyone steal Dany’s dragons, it’s just the dragons like Jon, hmm I wonder why?? kind of fic, and I really love the way the writer writes Dany 

Can beauty come out of ashes is another Dany-centric fanfic, and it’s really good so far, but I’m only on the second chapter so I can’t say much but I like the idea of the Starks and Dany becoming pack. It ignores s7-8, so we already love~

MCU:

The Scientist is a good Loki/OC fanfic, like it’s so good because the OC doesn’t put up with any shit, and is very smart and it’s just so freakin good and cute and such a fucking slow burn, like get ready for some slow burn

Just An Old Fashioned Love Song by @izhunny​ is such a good Frostiron fic, like, so fucking good, just THE FLUFF~ THE DOMESTICS??? SO GOOD!! ALSO!! ALMOST ALWAYS MAKES ME FREAKING HUNGRY!!! haven’t finished this, but I’d highly recommend it 

Code Blue by @jarvis-is-my-copilot​ likeee, I haven’t finished reading this either, haha sorry, but I really like the OCs and it’s just.....SO....GOOD!!!

The Wooden Puppet is a really good OC fanfic, very different from ur usual OC, love the way the OC interacts with the characters and I love the way it started, it’s hilarious

Archaic Kinds Of Fun is like, all of my dreams and hopes for the Avengers put into one fic with an amazing OC, like did you want the team as a family, or hell even friends??? do you want them to get fuckin therapy??? HERE YOU GO! It hasn’t been updated in a while because the author has been through a tough time, but it’s at 370k+ and it’s just really good. an inspiration to me. Bruce/OC too, which is rare, but like, it’s just so fuckin cute and the OC is super fucking close w Tony too and Loki joins in later in the fic and it adds some comic book characters but, WOO, it’s just...SO GOOD!

Lilies Say Sorry is another Loki/OC fanfic that I liked that didn’t make me concerned over the power dynamics of Loki being a, well god. It’s the first in it’s installment, still haven’t finished the second installment, shocking, I know, it’s almost like I have a habit of doing that. But I’d highly suggest reading this, it’s just so good and the DRAMA!

I Need You is a Tony/Reader, and like, I usually don’t read Reader fics, but holy shit this is so good and the Author doesn’t do Y/N to address the character, but like, it’s just really good at drawing you in and it’s good at putting the character into the movies in a fresh way. It cured my acne. Very regular updates. almost at 400k. 

Caught Hot-Rod Red Handed is a Stony fic, it’s really fucking good at making me laugh so I’d highly suggest reading this if you’re feeling low, but also don’t read this late at night, you’ll wake up ur family and make them think ur laughing in ur sleep

Life In The Fast Lane is a Fast and Furious crossover fanfic, it’s the first installment, but you don’t need to know anything about the movies to be able to read it, it’s Tony/OC, (hahha you can literally see who I favor from my recs), and it’s so good, and the OC is bisexual and I love her and more people need to read because the author writes romance and action so freaking good

ps: please leave a nice review on their fanfics if you do read and enjoy some of these, because just one nice comment can make a fanfic writers day if not week, it lets them know that real people really are reading their stuff, even if it’s just a ‘good chapter’

[alternislatronemhq]

Congrats, Steph, you have been accepted to AL for the role of Remus Lupin (FC: Ross Butler). Steph, wow, what a great application! I think it can be really easy for Remus to be portrayed only one way, and I’m so excited to see how you explored his differences in this storyline. He’s really hurting and bitter because of the betrayal of his friends, and that is going to be such an interesting thing to see played out. With the way you got into his head, I have full confidence that you’ll do that really well! Please send in your blog (no sideblogs for first characters, please) in the next 24 hours and be sure to take a look at our new player checklist.Welcome home, we’re so excited to have you join the family!

OOC

name — Steph age — 26 pronouns — she/her timezone — GMT+1 activity level — I work in a supermarket which is very busy at the moment, so won’t get on every day necessarily but will be around a few times a week easily, particularly afternoon UK time.

IC Overview

name — Remus Lupin age — 26 gender — Male (he/him) sexuality — Gay (closeted)

patronus — Wolf. Remus hates that the animal which best represents his soul is the one which has defined his life in such a negative way. Therefore, he never casts a corporeal patronus when he summons one.

boggart — The Full Moon. This is representative of Remus’ fear of what he becomes each month, his dread of each upcoming full moon and the way each that has passed leaves scars mental as well as physical.

IC In Depth

personality traits —

+ selfless: Remus would do anything for his friends no matter the cost to him.

+ compassionate: Possibly an odd trait for somebody known as a prankster, Remus sees the good in those around him and empathises with them. He would take the side of an underdog over the easier but less righteous choice. His compassionate nature has also helped him to forgive people when they have done wrong in the past, in particular Sirius after the incident of Severus Snape and the Whomping Willow. However, forgiving himself and forgiving Sirius again after the breakdown of the Marauders feels impossible.

+ astute: While Remus generally has to work at being book smart, his sharp perception of the world comes naturally. He can think quickly and intuitively to turn a situation to his advantage, whether that is in finding loopholes for the next marauder prank, in assessing a situation that might be about to turn sour or in identifying somebody who needs a word of encouragement.

- people pleaser: In school, this manifested in Remus’s tendency to look the other way when the other Marauders are breaking rules. He would not participate if he didn’t really agree with what they were doing but he certainly didn’t do anything to stop or stand up to his friends. The biggest threat to his self-esteem is the idea of being unwanted, unloved, or a disappointment.

- self-deprecating: Remus hates everything that reminds him of his lycanthropy, especially the parts of his personality which are shaped by his condition. Though the support of his friends has helped him come to terms with his fate in the past, Remus has always been prone to some doubt and shame over the werewolf part of him. Knowing that Sirius lost trust in him was hard for him but now he almost accepts it as inevitable because he doesn’t feel like he deserved the friendship of the Marauders in the first place.

- vengeful: While Remus will forgive somebody for one wrong if they show contrition, if somebody earns his anger then they should beware. On the wrong side of him, Remus is a force to be reckoned with.

character biography —

(Tws: illness, smoking-related illness, death, depression, poverty and homelessness)

From the night he was bitten, Remus grew up in isolation units and hospital wards and the confining four walls of his bedroom. His life would forever be shaped by that monthly pattern and a fear of others finding out. His home-schooling involved not just basic numeracy and literacy but also astronomy and muggle physics and an extensive education into what it meant to be a werewolf. Every last galleon that they owned went into searching for a cure or moving to another town after their latest neighbours started to suspect something was amiss with the family, a few spare coins each month for each of their vices: Lyall’s italian coffee and books, cigarettes and music records for Hope, and chocolate frogs and colouring pencils for remus. In between other lessons, Lyall Lupin did everything he could to ensure Remus would be prepared for a nomadic adulthood — a life on the streets, friendless and penniless — deaf to Hope’s pleas that they try and help him get back to some notion of a normal life.

Hope’s wish finally came true in the form of Professor Dumbledore, not long since appointed as headmaster of Hogwarts, showing up on their doorstep. Remus was so excited to go to school that he barely noticed his parents’ worried exchanges and fears. It was only later, when Remus started to compare the next year’s full moons to his new school calendar that it dawned on him just how complicated this would be. It was his mother who suggested that he could say she had a chronic illness and that he was visiting her whenever there was a Full Moon but he had not known James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew for long before he realised they would not buy that as a reason for skipping classes or being absent from the dorm every month like clockwork. Remus, glad to finally have friends and terrified he would lose them if they found out the truth, made up different and increasingly more elaborate stories but he wasn’t a good enough liar to hide from his best friends.

The four of them grew closer than Remus could have ever hoped for. They accepted him and supported him. They helped him keep his secret from their other classmates and they were constantly coming up with ways to make things easier for him, whether it was ensuring he didn’t fall behind in classes or sneaking him sweets and tea the morning after a transformation. They learnt to become animagi and Remus couldn’t be more grateful.

Everything seemed to go wrong at once. a betrayal from his best of friends — his only friends — revealing the secret his life had been devoted to keeping for the purpose of playing a cheap and fatal prank on Snape. Remus felt convinced all three of them were in on it because they always were. He avoided and argued and was the most miserable he had been since starting Hogwarts. It was during this period of low that he had a careers meeting that highlighted how dim his prospects after school would be and remus was reminded of what his father had tried to impress on him all these years — that werewolves weren’t supposed to have the sort of life he had been playing at, with education and friends and happiness. The next full moon was during the Easter holidays and unable to bear sitting in the Shrieking Shack alone, he went home. He asked his parents why him. Unable to fob him off with any more half-truths or excuses, his father finally opened up about Greyback. Remus had to hear how his father had once held the same prejudices about werewolves as the rest of the wizarding world and make his own conclusion that maybe he still did. After all, he had almost stopped Remus from living his life after the bite, no matter how much he claimed it was for Remus’ own good. The resulting argument was brutal but soon cut short by hacking coughs and Lyall turning on his wife and snapping at her to stop smoking those damn things. Her hand was shaking as she ignored him and tried to light the cigarette anyway. Remus noticed for the first time that she looked very ill, so ill that his using her as an excuse all those months appeared to be coming back to bite him.

They had been his first ever friends and when Remus returned to school he knew he could avoid them no longer. He needed them. Life would be much too lonely without them, especially if Hope’s days were numbered and, besides, he had grown too used to their being by his side during transformations. He refused to let them talk about it, insisting he didn’t want to relive it when in fact a part of him was worried that talking it through would remind him how betrayed he had felt. He reminded himself of what he had always believed: that he wasn’t good enough for them. That he was nothing more than a monster and at least he should be grateful that they still wanted his friendship. He was indebted to them. How could he keep pushing them away when they equalled the happiest moments of his life so far? Even with that awful incident, none of them were a part of the worst moments of his life. So, he let them fall back together and patch up the cracks in their friendship with jokes and pranks and throwing themselves towards war, knowing that it didn’t matter to him how they felt. They could pity him and fear him and be prepared to brush him away without a second thought again. He would die for them anyway.

Life after Hogwarts was predictably difficult. Employers wizarding and muggle alike did not look kindly on him taking sick leave less than a month after being hired and inevitably after the second Full Moon he was circling ads in the newspaper again. It wasn’t long before the Order of the Phoenix became his primary concern and though the very thought of seeing Greyback again made him felt akin to walking into hell, he found himself accepting the mission of the Order’s spy amongst the werewolves. Only Dumbledore knew the task he was undertaking, the majority of the Order having no idea of his condition and those who did he was forbidden to talk to them about it. Remus started to slip away from himself. He was incredibly lonely without being able to talk to his best friends and each minute with the werewolves brought more danger, more emotional strain, and more questions about whether he had ever really deserved his years pretending to be a normal wizard. The werewolves he had befriended didn’t understand why he would want to live amongst humans and there were others who would never be friendly with him as long as that was the case.

By 1981, Remus felt completely isolated. His mother died early in the year and his relationship with his father was worse than ever. Transformations with the Marauders were a distant memory and instead he spent his Full Moons forced into a life of violence he had always been determined to avoid. He barely saw any of the Order outside of meetings and his attendance at those was becoming increasingly difficult. When he did come back, it was hard to know his place in the meetings, unable to talk about what he had been doing and knowing so little about everybody else’s lives. Only Peter seemed to remember that he was missing so much and made a point of keeping Remus in the loop but so often that consisted of lost lives and disappearances and Remus came to dread the times he would sneak away from the packs. Talks of spies did not help. It was impossible for Remus to think of any of the Order as betraying them and he told the group as much, fiercely insisting that this was what the Death Eaters wanted ⁠— for them to be torn apart by their own paranoia.

So distant from it all, Remus did not realise how guilty he had made himself look until after it all was over. James was in hospital, basically gone, and Peter in Azkaban and it had only happened because Sirius suspected Remus. Fleeing from the werewolves the moment word reached him that the war was over turned out to be a bad idea because all of a sudden Remus found himself with nothing. The friendless and penniless life of the streets that his father had prepared him for was now a reality and he would rather sleep rough than face the guilt that if he had been there, if he had just disobeyed Dumbledore enough to tell the Marauders what he was involved in, if he had been a better friend to Peter, maybe none of this would have happened. It was better than facing Sirius, who was the one person he thought would understand that Remus could never betray them.

plot ideas —

I have always imagined James to be the one who is able to ground Remus and keep him together so without him there, Remus has spiralled. The memory of the Marauders is something bitter now, with Peter’s betrayal and the gaping hole that James leaves and this is a big part of Remus not making an effort to reconnect with Sirius. He definitely spends a lot of time next to James’ bed in St Mungo’s. Even now, if he needs to talk to someone, James is his first port of call. Remus’s certainty that James is never coming back means sometimes he will say things he wouldn’t voice otherwise. Maybe if James does wake up, he heard more than Remus wanted him to.

I would love some other werewolves and some plots involving those werewolves Remus did befriend during the war. He almost feels guilty for liking and empathising with some of them and hates that he relates to them but it had been nice to have people who really understood.

He’s trying to act like his life isn’t falling apart around him for Harry’s sake and so that he can still see Harry while trying to hold both Lily and Sirius at a distance. This will involve a lot of pretending that things aren’t as bad as they really are, that he can manage Full Moons alone and that he is finding legitimate ways to get a proper meal between offers of charity from old friends.

The love he once had for the Marauders is difficult to define. They were his found family and his brothers, the first friends he ever had, the only people he trusted with his whole self. The battle to come to terms with himself not only as a werewolf but a gay werewolf was something he never fully managed though had there been no war the Marauders would have got him there eventually. Now, he’s left wondering where the lines are between platonic and romantic love. The men in his life have been nothing but sex, his ability to trust having been broken too far for anything more. In terms of ships, Remus will be slow to get into anything and it would have to be based on chemistry and a gradual building of trust. He might wonder sometimes if he was in love with James though that is mostly because in his anger at Peter and Sirius he has transferred all the love he held for the Marauders as a unit onto James to make it easier to process the betrayal. It’s no longer the three of them he is grateful to for making Hogwarts the best seven years of his life, but James. No longer the three of them who made him feel worthy of love and friendship but James. In believing that, he can almost cope.

If he’s going to accept help from anybody these days it will be someone who was less a part of the war and who doesn’t have their own family to think about. Much as he values people like Mary and Frank for sticking by him through all the lowest points of his depression, they have their own lives away from him, their own children to consider and Remus feels guilty whenever they express any concern for him. I’d love for him to develop a friendship with someone who makes it easier for him to let others help him, and who might be able to offer him a place to stay more permanently.

extra —

in terms of the canon that Remus believed Sirius to be the spy, I’ve always headcanoned that as being after the war. He apologised to Sirius because he believed the world when they told him Sirius had betrayed the Potters but I can’t see Remus as having suspected that beforehand. I can’t see Remus being able to think badly of the three boys who became animagi for him, not until it’s all too late. Also, I have a general pinterest board for Remus here, though it includes things from various RPs

[rosesisupposes]

To Dust or To Gold

Part 8 of Another Goddamn Hero Story

read on ao3

Chapter Pairings: established Royality, Analogical, pre-romantic LAMP (emphasis on Moxiety and Logince)

Chapter Warnings: Hospitals, death threats, background character deaths, some gore, hallucinations, self-hatred, bipolar cycling (both depressive and manic), cliffhanger ending :D

Word Count:  9,395 [it’s a doozy]

Taglist: @residentanchor @royally-anxious @bewarethegrammarpolice   @jemthebookworm @arandompasserby  @sparkly-rainbow-salt @astral-eclipse @thelowlysatsuma @monsterinatophat @turtally-pawsome @um-yes-hi-hello @idkaurl @potestessemagishomosexualitatis @hawthornshadow

~~~~~~~~~~

“So,” Logan began.

“So,” Roman responded, reclining in an ornate ruby chair.

“Sew buttons!” Patton interrupted, draping himself across Roman’s lap.

Virgil growled in frustration. “Can you please focus for a single second?”

The heroes had relocated to the supers’ gym, still anxious to keep the untested villains away from the mayor.

“We don’t take orders, Reflex,” the Marauder replied evenly. “We’re only here because you two don’t seem as incompetent as the rest of the super assholes.”

“You don’t need to take orders,” Logan said, shooting Virgil a reassuring look even as he spoke. “We just need to know what exactly you can do, and plan how we’ll stay in contact.”

“Asking for my number already? I couldn’t possibly, not so soon,” Roman responded, fluttering his eyelashes.

“We’re not joining your ‘hatchet’ or whatever you call it,” Patton added. “We’re here to take down a murderer, not get sucked into the system.”

“We’re not asking you to join H.A.T.C.H.,” Logan said patiently. “But if we don’t know where you are or how to contact you, that just makes you a liability.”

“Actually it’s just an air ability,” Patton quipped back. His lips didn’t twitch. He didn’t grin. But the smugness was palpable from across the gym. Logan lost his train of thought at the overwhelmingly familiar feeling of a punster at work. He could practically see his dad’s irritatingly-pleased grin shining through Patton’s smooth mask.

Virgil, a true hero, came to Logan’s rescue. “So, air ability. Air manipulation, no matter where the air is, yeah? Inside or outside of a person?”

Gale Force paused, then nodded.

“And you, Shiny Red Boy, any limitations we need to know about?”

The Crimson Marauder gasped. “Shiny red boy? That’s the best you can do? I am appalled, I am disgusted, I spend my life dedicated to being chaotic neutral and this is the thanks I get??”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Okay, Drama Red Queen, shall I paint the roses for you or are you going to answer the question?”

“Joke’s on you, I like that nickname,” Roman said with a sniff. “I just need to keep focused. And my constructs can only be autonomous if they’re tiny. And I can’t do more overall mass at once than something about the size of this entire room.”

Logan looked around the echoing room, designed for whole teams of heroes to practice in at once. “That’s some power,” he said softly. “And limited only by strength of mind. Fascinating.”

“And what about you two?” Patton asked in a saccharine-sweet voice. “You wouldn’t get us to divulge details without returning the favor, would you?”

“I have, as you’ve seen, a super speed ability. I can also speed read or manipulate just a hand or limb to go at enhanced speeds. I can go from 0 to 60 in .0001 seconds, and my top recorded speed is 1,700 miles per hour, or approximately 2,700 kilometers per hour.” Logan responded matter-of-factly.

“And what about you, Tall, Dark, and Muscly?” Roman asked.

“I picked my super name as Reflex for a reason. I’ve got fight, flight, and freeze. Super strength, superflight that can rival the Doc here for speed, and the shockwave you both saw the other day. I send out a burst of energy that stuns or knocks out anyone in a given radius.”

“Can you control who it affects?” Patton asked curiously. “Or is it just anyone?”

Virgil’s mouth twisted. “I can sometimes control it, yes. If I’m focused, and I’m not too upset at the time. It’s not guaranteed.”

“How upset were you the other day then?”

“You’d just attacked my partner. I was pissed, but in control. If you’d more seriously injured L- the Doctor, you might have needed more than one day to wake up from the coma I put you both in.”

“Partners are important,” Patton said softly, running a hand through Roman’s dark, wavy hair. He turned and made eye contact with the heroes. “If you hurt him, I will end you.” It wasn’t a threat, but a statement of fact.

Virgil locked eyes with the villain, jerking his head at Logan. “And if you hurt him, you’ll wish I’d only killed you.”

Roman chuckled, flashing a smile at Logan over Patton’s curly head. “Aww, look at then, they’re bonding!”

Logan looked up at his partner and back to Gale Force. “They’re bonding over death threats. I don’t think this is how I expected a hero-villain team-up to go.”

“It’s okay, Doc, you and me are clearly the pretty faces of our respective teams next to the brawn of our boys here.”

“Excuse you, I did not get three degrees in the time it takes most people to get one to be called just a pretty face,“ Logan said with an frown.

“Doesn’t make it any less true, though,” the Marauder replied with a wink. “Your face is pretty, you gotta accept it.”

Logan stared at the villain. “Is this flirting?”

“Do you want it to be?”

“No, I’m legitimately asking, I’m apparently unable to identify it on my own.”

Virgil and Patton stopped staring one another down in time to hear the last comment. Virgil snorted. “Doc, you have understatement down to an art.”

“Shush, you,” Logan said, blushing faintly.

“Do you have, like, a crush on him?” Roman gushed.

“Please, no-”

“Oooohhhh, he totally has a crush on him!!” Patton chimed in, bouncing in Roman’s lap.

“Reflex, I take all of this back, this was a terrible idea, I’m leaving…”

Virgil gently nudged Logan with a shoulder. “No you won’t. This is too important. And you and I are good, no matter what.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Darling, I think they might be gay,” Roman stage-whispered to Patton.

“And I think you might be annoying,” Virgil shot back. “Enough fucking around. We know your powers, you know ours. What we don’t know is anything about the bastard out here killing our city.”

Logan adjusted the goggles on top of his head. “We can tell you what we know from the Mayor. It’s not much. They clearly can cause some sort of nightmare or hallucination in others. The survivor mentioned the outline of a smile in the dust clouds.”

“Like the Cheshire Cat,” Roman murmured. “How very Carollian.” Logan started, a curious expression on his face as he looked at the taller villain.

Winds gusted around Gale Force as he lifted himself up off of his partner’s lap. “A survivor? Who saw what happened?”

“Yes, a teenage girl. She’s in the hospital.”

“Could we ask her for more detail?” Virgil mused aloud. “Get a full description of events, see if there are any little details she may have missed?”

“It’s worth a shot.”

~~~~~~~~~~

To say that the hospital staff reacted oddly to seeing the until-recently most prominent villains strolling in the front door, accompanied but not restrained by some of the best-loved heroes would be putting it mildly. Reflex had to undergo a brief concussion test administered by a well-meaning emergency tech, and Doctor Vectorious had to calmly talk a doctor into putting the defibrillator back on the wall and stop brandishing it as a weapon.

Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, Virgil politely asked after their patient.

“Ah, yes. She’s conscious and stable, if still very shaken. Her family is in with her right now.”

“Can we see her?”

“Not all of you! Pick just one, and her mom stays no matter who it is.”

Virgil nodded. “We should ask who she wants in there. Who she’d be most comfortable with. She’s just a kid, after all.”

The doctor nodded. “I’ll ask. You may wait here.” She paused, looking around the waiting room with many sets of staring eyes. “On second thought, follow me.”

Patton seemed completely oblivious to their observers. Roman stared at his surroundings as they walked, sniffing the air frequently. Virgil walked closer than normal to Logan, accidentally bumping him several times as he fought the urge to shrink into the hoodie he wasn’t wearing.

The doctor showed them to a smaller, empty waiting room and left them there with a brisk nod.

“Why’s it smell so weird here?” Roman finally asked.

“Weird?”

“Like, sharp. Stinging in smell form. Kinda acrid, I guess. But also a bit like soap?”

“That’s the antiseptic,” Logan said. “Have you not been in a hospital before?”

Roman went quiet, then finally said, “I haven’t been to a doctor’s office before. Not that I remember, anyway.”

Logan pursed his lips and Virgil was about to speak when the doctor returned.

“The patient has made her request,” she began.

“Yes?”

“...she asked for him,” the woman replied, pointing at the Crimson Marauder.

The group looked to Roman, then back at the doctor as one.

“I confirmed it with her. She specifically requested ‘the red one.’”

Roman nervously adjusted his cape and mask. “Can she speak to me now?”

“Yes, follow me.”

He stepped into the indicated door to see a middle-aged woman with plenty of silver threads in her plump braid helping the young woman on the cot drink from a pink plastic cup. “Um, hi, Ms. and Miss Rodrigeuz. I’m the Crimson Marauder,” he began.

The young woman sat up without her mother’s help, leaning forward eagerly.

“Are you really, though?”

“...would anyone try to impersonate me?”

“I mean… I saw the group. You’re with the heroes again. Are you still the Marauder if you’re back?” she asked with a bruised smile. 

“Back…?”

“You don’t remember me, do you. I was probably one of many people who thanked you, back in your Prince days.”

Roman’s eyes went wide. “Sofia? That Sofia?” he asked, voice cracking. “The little princess?”

“You do remember,” her mom commented softly, brushing a gentle hand through Sofia’s hair. “She kept that crown for years. Even when she insisted that princesses were ‘only for los niños’, she would keep pulling it out when she thought we couldn’t see.”

Roman swallowed a lump in his throat. “I could never forget. You were the first person ever to thank me. The first civilian to treat me like a real hero.”

“Only the first civilian?”

“I- another hero did, too. Many years ago.”

Sofia tilted her head. Her bruises were shockingly colorful, and she spoke carefully around a tender jaw, but she seemed otherwise in one piece. “Why did you stop?”

“What?”

“You were ours. The Prince of Sycamore Heights. Why did you become a villain?”

Roman looked down. “It’s… complicated. But I thought I could do a better job for our home this way.”

“Things did get better,” her mom said. “For years, it was so much better. After you got rid of the Patrol.”

“It wasn’t just me,” Roman responded automatically.

“You and Copper Eye. I remember,” Sofia said. “I loved watching her work.”

“So did I,” Roman said quietly, swiping at the tear wriggling out of his eye. He swallowed and settled his shoulders, trying to compose himself. “Sofia, can I ask you about what you remember about this attack?”

“It’s not much,” she warned.

“Anything helps. We’re going to get whoever did this. I promise.”

Sofia looked up, meeting his eyes directly. “Don’t promise unless you mean it.”

Roman looked back steadily, and placed a hand over his heart. “I, the Crimson Marauder, formerly the Scarlet Prince, promise you, Sofia Rodriguez: we’ll get the one who hurt you and all those people, or die in the attempt.”

Sofia nodded fiercely. “Here’s what I remember.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The Crimson Marauder sat on a red swing floating from nothing as Gale Force reclined on air beside him. They faced the heroes, who were more sensibly sitting on the edge of the roof of an office building near the middle of the city. All four contemplated the details Roman had shared in their own ways. A tiny tornado ran up and down Patton’s fingers, Roman created and vanished mini constructs, Logan’s fingers tapped so quickly they left erosion trails on the concrete, and Virgil hummed tunelessly under his breath.

“You know what seems weird to me?” Reflex said at length. “I don’t know if this means anything, but your friend seems like an extremely level-headed teenager. And yet...”

“...you gonna finish that or do you just think teenagers are dumb.”

“Oh, I don’t think they’re dumb, they just scare the living shit out of me,” Virgil said with a quirk in his smile. “No, she seems really collected, really rational, and yet she didn’t think twice before leaving safety to get to her family.”

“It’s family,” Patton said curtly. “Of course she didn’t.”

“Believe me, I understand protecting family,” Virgil replied. “But not even trying to confirm? Not even when she saw others running? It seems like she was just operating off panic.”

“You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Mr. Brendon Urie Wannabe,” Roman snarked. But he had also reached out and grabbed Patton’s hand, squeezing reassurance to his partner to counteract the dark cloud spread across his face.

“Do you think that tells us something about how the villain operates?” Doctor Vectorious asked Reflex, pushing them back on track.

“Maybe it’s more than just visual hallucinations?”

“Hm, interesting theory, but-” Logan began, when their watches began to blare with a new H.A.T.C.H. alert.

“Fuck, the harbor!” Virgil said.

“Southeast,” Logan said at the same time. He looked up at both villains. “Meet us there.”

Reflex was already soaring away, a streak of black and purple stretching through the city. A second blur joined him, black and white and blue paralleling his trajectory from the ground.

Roman squeezed Patton’s hand once more, tightly. “We’re doing this, yeah?”

“We are. We have to.”

“Okay then. Time for some thrilling heroics.”

As one, they went from sitting to moving, both riding a red hang glider that sped as quickly as the ripping wind that sprang up to carry it.

They soared over the city towards the water, following the heroes. Roman nudged Patton as they approached.

“What is that?”

“Looks like a dust cloud. Someone’s being naughty.”

“Should we land?”

Patton nodded, letting go of the frame to point to roof where the heroes were braced, trying to see into the obscured area. He floated down to land softly, Roman a breath behind him. They stared at the enormous cloud of dust and debris, trying to make out what was happening underneath.

Reflex frowned. “It’s not moving.”

Doctor Vectorious nodded. “If it were a true debris cloud, it should be dissipating or growing, not just staying static. It’s obscuring something, and I can’t tell what.”

“Maybe I can help clear things up,” Gale Force offered, sending winds towards the very center of the obstruction. Dust and rocks and debris blew up and away, out of the three-block radius and into the harbor.

The Crimson Marauder gasped aloud as the cloud faded. “Whatever I was expecting, that wasn’t it.”

The dust cloud had been pushed away. But a dark mass remained. It oozed through the streets, a bulbous form that dragged on corners and sidewalks but left no residue. It was mesmerizing, in an off-putting way. Colors shifted and played over its dark surface like far-off nebulas brought to earth, now an orange veil, now pink, now a green or blue haze. It absorbed light rather than giving any off, but besides the flicker of changing colors, no movement was seen.

“...I know I’m gonna regret this, but I think we should go straight into it,” Reflex offered, stepping out into the open air. “We need to know if it’s solid, and this is where the alert said the disturbance was.”

“Are all heroes dumb enough to wander into Definitely-Murderous-Glow-Clouds or is it just you?” Gale Force asked mildly.

“All hail the Glow Cloud,” Logan and Roman said at the same time, then scowled at the other for having the same thought.

“What else do you suggest then?”

Patton huffed, and paced on the edge of the roof. “...I don’t know.”

“We’ll send the strongest two first, then,” Doctor Vectorious mused. “‘Flex, you fly in with Gale Force to blow off any more debris, and to see if you can wind-funnel your way in. We’ll back you up, ready to pull you out if needed, or Marauder here can add a construct tunnel if you’re able to open it up. Is that acceptable?”

Patton frowned at what felt like condescension, at this hero trying to tell them what to do. But, with resignation, he realized he didn’t have a better plan, and Valerie’s murderer could be getting away right now for all they knew. Stiffly, he nodded his assent.

Roman cupped his neck, fingers tangled in the curls at his nape. “Be careful, gingerpie,” he whispered. “If you die, I’ll never forgive you.”

“Don’t worry, honeygold, I’ll be your boo no matter what,” Patton murmured back with a grin. He kissed Roman firmly on the mouth, right under his mask.

“I’m too pretty to date a ghost,” Roman complained, but he was smiling all the same.

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Okay, Hurricane Gay-trina, let’s not waste any more time. Can you make a wind tunnel I can fly through without getting hurt?”

Without a word, air raced past them into a clear cone that hollowed out, a tube of rushing wind that stretched from their spot towards the mass. Virgil acknowledged his villain partner with a two-fingered salute and sped down it, rocketing towards the form that continued to shift colors. He extended a clenched fist, bracing himself to collide with the edge, ready to use all his strength to bust through if possible.

Instead of hitting a hard edge, though, he just passed into it as the sun disappeared. Darkness surrounded him, the pitch black of an overcast midnight. He could suddenly hear impacts, crunching rock and shouts and screams, and froze. He couldn’t move suddenly, not without seeing around him. He might hurt those near him worse with too fast a movement or a misplaced step.

Virgil had never expected to experience relief at seeing Gale Force, but the tunnel of wind opened up the mass and brought in Patton and the setting sunlight in a joint beam. “It worked!” Virgil said. “Quick, blow away as much of this as you can. I can try to stun everyone if I need to.”

The villain didn’t pause or argue, but multiplied the cyclone until copies branched out in all directions. They punched through the dark haze in dozens of places, bringing in the scant evening light and blessedly fresh air. Some of the screams faded, and Virgil could finally see the faces of surrounding civilians as their terror faded into confusion.

Both hero and villain could see what had caused the screams. A young villain, a H.E.A.R.T.S. dropout Virgil remembered, had paused in the center of the chaos. They blinked, slowly shrinking their hands back from huge, car-sized fists to normal limbs. The villain looked around them, and down at their torn costume. It was as bloody and ripped as their hands, the bold gold and red of a ringmaster’s coat turned into something out of a horror film. The Contortionist fell heavily to their knees, still shaken.

A burst of blue fire brought attention to the other active combatant. This was a current H.E.A.R.T.S. student, not yet a full hero, and even through her mask it was clear she was terrified. Another flash of light and she popped into being closer to the newcomers.

“V- I mean, Reflex?” she asked in a tiny voice.

“It’s really me, Blynk,” he reassured her, crouching slightly to shrink the almost-foot difference in their heights.

“I- where did they go? The ones attacking me? They were… everywhere.” She balled one hand in the loose blue dress that made up her costume as the other pulled up the attached hood nervously.

“It was an illusion,” Patton explained. “This new villain, Agent Whisper. They make you see things that aren’t there.”

“I couldn’t get away,” she whispered. “No matter how many times I teleported, they were still there to catch me.”

“They’re gone,” Virgil assured her. “You’re safe.” He offered his arms, and the young hero dove into his embrace. Speaking over her head, he looked up at his villain partner. “Can you fully break this up?”

“Here comes Mister Blue Sky,” Patton said with incongruous cheer, expanding the existing funnels. Light filled more and more of their view until the full sky returned and the last of the strange substance melted into air.

A zip and a thud heralded the arrival of the missing hero-villain pair.

“Good work,” Logan told them both. “A small bit seemed to split off, but you cleared the area and appear to have fully disrupted any illusions.”

“They got away?” Patton asked sharply. “Which direction?” He was already started to drift into the air.

Virgil grabbed the loose tunic and tugged him down. “We can’t just chase after them!”

“Why the fuck not?”

The angry question was spat into Virgil’s face, but it was Logan and Roman who answered simultaneously, “We need to help the people here.”

The fading sunlight showed just how right they were. Craters littered the landscape around them. So did bodies. Every visible face was bruised or bloody, but luckily, most were moving as civilians picked themselves up out of the wreckage.

Logan was already confirming that emergency care was on the way as he zipped around the battlefield, assisting where he could. Roman took one look at the injured and started to conjure glowing splints and crutches.

Patton was still staring angrily at the direction Logan had indicated was  that of Agent Whisper’s escape, straining at Virgil’s hold. “Let me the fuck go,” he snapped. “I’m not here to be your goddamn hero, I’m here for revenge.”

“You think I don’t get that?” Virgil snapped back. “I want the bastard dead as much as you do, so don’t think for a second that you have a monopoly on rage here.”

“Then what are we waiting for? We’re the strongest and those two both know it. Let’s follow this piece of shit, grind them into dust, and be fucking done with this ‘partnership.’”

Virgil’s grip slackened for a second as he looked around them, a cloud of anger on his face. But it passed, and he pulled Gale Force all the way back to earth. “We can’t just rush in. This isn’t just for revenge: it’s to stop more people getting hurt. And it’s because we’re the strongest that we can’t risk blazing through, because we’ll be the reason more are hurt.”

Patton crossed his arms, glaring at the taller man. “What makes you think I care about a couple of casualties if it means I get revenge?”

“Because you’re still human,” Reflex responded. His gaze was level, understanding. “If all you wanted was their death at any cost, you wouldn’t have come to us. I’m not asking you to admit anything, but I have a feeling you know more about collateral damage than you ever wanted to know.” A nerve in Patton’s cheek jumped at that and Virgil nodded. “Like I said. Not asking you to admit anything. But I get it. I never wanted to be a hero. But then my partner convinced me that it’s not about getting recognition, it’s not about the fights. It’s about doing the best you can for as many people as you can. It’s about using these powers I never asked for to do what others can’t.”

Patton grumbled, but assented. “Fine. What can I do here, then?”

“Help me with the rubble? Drop it in the harbor if you need to.”

Reflex and Gale Force joined their partners in cleaning up the disaster zone. ‘Flex lifted enormous chunks of rock and concrete gently to free trapped limbs or to uncover more bodies. He tossed them into the air, where the wind-manipulator caught them and floated them safely to the water.

The Crimson Marauder flew into the air to check for more injured civilians, held aloft by his glowing hands. He was aware of Doctor Vectorious moving quickly somewhere below him, running up buildings and around the square to find civilians who’d been outside as well as in the surrounding apartments and offices. Was anyone limping? Anyone who needed a temporary bandage? Where was the emergency services van, shouldn’t they be here?

A huge crack of of rubble and rock shifting distracted him, and he whirled to see where the noise was coming from. By the time he registered that it was just Reflex working with Patton (aww, his love was working with one of his crushes!), he’d lost focus and his glow went out. He fell, stomach dropping as he tried to conjure something, anything, even just a mattress or a trampoline to break his fall.

A warm impact hit him as a blur originating from a nearby roof crashed into him and carried them both to a fire escape on the other side of the narrow street. The blur resolved back into Doctor Vectorious, and he found himself being held in the shorter man’s arms.

The speedster stared for a moment, then looked away with a slight pink tinge to his pale cheeks. “You’re, um,” he said, jerking his head towards him without looking back. “Uncovered.”

Roman started, feeling his face. The impact had knocked off his mask, and the hero was pointedly looking away to preserve his identity.

Or, perhaps, Logan was looking away because his internal monologue had been hijacked by the phrase, “Oh fuck, he’s hot.”

Roman quickly conjured a replacement mask and slid out of Logan’s hold to stand on his own again. The hero remained with his gaze averted until a siren’s blare drew close, announcing the arrival of the emergency crew.

“Thank fuck,” Roman sighed, and flew himself down to greet them. He explained quickly that his constructs needed to be replaced now so that they wouldn’t fade if they got too far away. He was already grateful that they’d be detached from him long enough that they hadn’t faded when he momentarily lost focus, and was eager to be able to draw back his energies further.

Virgil, Logan, and Patton ferried the injured from ruins of the street to the vans, including both the young hero and villain to the separate supers truck. Finally, they were able to move out. The heroes had acquired a better-functioning scanner for the villains, one that could call them specifically when they were needed, and allowed the villains to call them securely if they should so choose. About to part, Reflex paused, and offered Gale Force a handshake. Warily, the villain accepted, and the Marauder did too, in turn. Doctor Vectorious was more hesitant, but copied his partner.

Back in Logan’s apartment, the shorter man washed his face thoroughly, still shivering slightly at the remembrance of so many hurt. “How many casualties was it, all told?”

“Ten. All civilians. Both The Contortionist and Blynk are on bed rest, but they’ll recover. Total injuries are at about 25 people, but the techs said at least ten additional civilians avoided worse injuries that could have lead to critical conditions thanks to our timing as a group.”

Logan sighed. “I know I should be grateful that we were able to help so many, proportionally, but…”

“I know.”

“This villain is no joke, Virge. 35 deaths and it hasn’t yet been two days.”

“We’ll get them, Lo. I promise.”

Logan looked up. Virgil was back in civilian clothes that he left here in his partner’s apartment, one of his trusty black hoodies unzipped over a plain tee and sweatpants. Logan had changed back into his version of casual: a button-up not fully buttoned, no tie, and jeans.

“Speaking of promises…” he began. He ran a hand through already-mussed hair. “I was cut off, yesterday. I know that there are bigger, more pressing issues now but I still want to finish the thought I was trying to express.”

“Lo, it’s okay if you don’t return the sentiment, you know that, right? I’ll still love you as a friend no matter what.”

Logan sat next to Virgil on the couch. “I appreciate that, Vee, but that’s not where I was going.”

“Oh?” Virgil asked, smiling hopefully.

“I apologize for my obliviousness, Virgil, and for how long it took me to put this together, but I believe I feel the same type of romantic sentiment towards you as you’ve expressed that you feel towards me.” Logan reached out a tentative hand to take Virgil’s in his.

“You’re sounding like a textbook again, Lo,” Virgil teased, squeezing Logan’s hand.

“Sorry, I just-”

“I’m not complaining, not in the slightest. It’s part of you, ya know? It’s part of the charm.” He shifted over on the couch until their thighs were touching, and, receiving a nod of approval, draped an arm around his partner’s shoulders. “I love you, Logan.”

Logan blushed deep. “I love you as well, Virgil.”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Please do.”

Lips met in tentative sweetness and softness, neither pushing or needing to. This was them, comfort and companionship that felt as natural as breathing. And at this particular moment, breathing was the more difficult option of the two.

At long last, Logan broke off and looked up into Virgil’s dark eyes. “Are we… dating? It seems like an odd term, or at the very least an odd distinction.”

“I mean. We’re already partners,” Virgil said with a shrug and a grin.

“Oh no, don’t you start on puns too, now. There’s already Dad and Gale Force, I refuse to take any more of this.”

“Okay, okay,” Virgil said, laughing. “I’ll have mercy. Because I love you.” He most definitely did not add in the phrase because it was a relief to say it out loud after so many years of thinking it. He would definitely not continue to sprinkle it in liberally after seeing Logan’s pink-cheeked reaction to hearing it.

“I must say, I was quite impressed by the Marauder today. I thought he’d entirely turned his back on heroing when he realigned, but it appears he really is a hero at heart. Or, at the very least, a super who cares about the well-being of civilians over his personal gain.”

“Almost like people can have a change of heart without a change of personality,” Virgil commented mildly.

“He’s still a villain, though,” Logan added sharply. “And don’t think I didn’t see Gale Force trying to run off before you talked him down.”

Virgil sighed, letting his arm fall off Logan’s shoulders. “He’s not all bad, Lo. He’s just an angry human with far too many scars that haven’t come close to healing yet.”

“So are you. And yet you’re still a hero.”

“But I’ve had you, for nine years. He only has whats-his-name. Roman. Princey. Who’s just as burned, if not quite so angry.” Virgil’s voice was soft.

Logan frowned. “Why make excuses for them?”

“Because it’s not hard for me to picture a different world where I went that direction instead, Lo. I… I could picture myself neutral, hiding from my powers. Or a villain, angry at the city for not finding me sooner. Gale Force understands that. The fury. And besides that… I like them. For all that they’re frustrating and have evil tendencies and all the public displays of affection.”

An eyebrow raised above glasses frames. “You like them?”

“I mean, you know I’ve been flirting with Princey during fights. It’s not just because I’m a walking stereotype of a snarky hero. And the other one, Patton, he’s not bad-looking either.”

“Ah, I see,” Logan said quietly.

"This doesn’t affect how I feel about you, Lo, not in any way,” Virgil rushed to clarify. “It could never. It’ll always be you, no matter if I pursue these other feelings or not.”

Logan relaxed slightly. “I don’t know that I feel similarly, or even could, not when I only realized how I felt about you through a strong platonic bond over literal years.”

“That’s more than okay. You mean the most to me. If you’d rather I keep quiet about these feelings, just let them fade…”

“No, that’s unnecessary. I am not opposed to you, ah, pursuing them, just keep me informed. I do understand the… attraction.” Logan blushed lightly, but coughed and continued. “And as long as you’re safe. They’re still villains, Vee. We can’t trust them, not past taking down Agent Whisper.”

“You may be right. You usually are. But, I don’t know, man. I feel like maybe we can, this time.”

Logan raised an eyebrow again. “Virgil the cynic, wanting to trust people?”

“Oh look, it’s the pot, calling the kettle black,” Virgil replied, shoving Logan lightly in the shoulder.

“Guilty as charged.”

“By the way, can I borrow your phone charger, I wanna call Mom and Mama today, and the sibs if they’re home.”

“Why do you think I bought an extra-long purple cord?”

~~~~~~~~~~

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337475 Classification: A.3.i [Tertiary Tier Hero, Legacy] Name: Blynk Status: INACTIVE /////////Reason: Injury Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] McKenzie Bleu Affiliation: Hero /////////H.A.T.C.H. Status: Temporarily Inactive Partners/Sidekicks: N/A Primary Foes: N/A Powers: Short-Range Teleportation; Enhanced Durability; /////////Range approximately 100 yds; does not need to see destination, but does need to focus on it Costume: Black leggings with lace up ballet slippers; blue dress with white stripe on the skirt with attached hood Age: 17 Height: 5’4 Pronouns: She/Her H.E.A.R.T.S. Class: Enrolled, anticipated ‘19 Note: Daughter of DI#265353; Not yet cleared for independent hero missions - involvement in IR 18-Z-0015 unintentional and due to proximity alone

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337432 Classification: Z.3.iv [Tertiary Tier Villain, Unknown] Name: The Contortionist Status: INACTIVE /////////Reason: Incarceration, Injury Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: CONFIDENTIAL] Tai Kim Affiliation: Villain Partners/Sidekicks: N/A Primary Foes: N/A Powers: Body Plasticity - Medium Spectrum; /////////Can alter density and length of body parts; cannot fully transform into other shapes Costume: Bodysuit in black, red, and gold; designed to look like a tailcoat with gold braiding; /////////Strongly reminiscent of a ringmaster outfit, but able to stretch with them Age: 19 Height: 5’10 Pronouns: They/Them H.E.A.R.T.S. Class: Dropout Note: Believed to have left the city until involvement in IR 18-Z-0015

~~~~~~~~~~

They were woken early the next morning by yet another H.A.T.C.H. alert. Virgil gave a single breath to regret his poor, poor sleep schedule before changing into his costume.

Mayor and S.E.A.M. Stokes weren’t sure of the exact nature of the disturbance, but they knew it involved supers. In this uncertain climate, that meant sending their best, just to be prepared. At Virgil’s urging, Logan had conceded to alert their villain partners as well.

“What’s the harm in being ready, L?”

“They’re collectively responsible for over fifteen felonies.”

“...yeah, but they’re on our side now.”

Logan fixed his partner with a look.

“I know, I know. We can’t trust them entirely. But you trust me, right?”

Logan softened. “Of course I do. I trust you with my life.”

Virgil paused, blushing slightly. “I… god, I love you, Lo.”

“I love you as well.”

Standing by the window, in full costume, seconds before rushing to whatever crime scene had alerted them today, Virgil stole a moment to pull his partner in close and kiss him softly.

They parted, both pink-faced. “I’ve just got a hunch, Lo. I think we’ll need them, or at least not regret bringing them along. And I swear, I’ll protect you if they try anything.”

And thus, as they surveyed the scene from the top of a nearby building, the villains arrived as well.

“I don’t see Agent Piss-per anywhere,” Gale Force said with a frown.

“We haven’t either,” Logan replied evenly. “But they’ve been targeting super fights so far. It’s only logical to conclude that any fight between persons with enhanced abilities will continue to be targets for them.”

“I’m not participating in your self-righteous state-sanctioned vigilantism,” the Marauder said, lounging against the wall. “Who’s even fighting?”

“They’re a recurring duo. They either partner up or are on opposite sides, it depends on which muse is controlling her,” Virgil explained, gesturing to the dark-clad figure visible from above. Many brilliant lights surrounded her, with more seeming to sprout from the galaxy print on her suit. Tiny constellations flew towards her opponent and swirled around the other’s massive, cascading skirts. With Gale Force’s help, they could all hear the conversation on the wind - a steady stream of chat and compliments, even as star constructs disrupted the princess-figure’s attempts to infiltrate the nearby museum.

“Who’s this?”

“Today? Nebula. You may also know her as Ghost. But she’s not nearly as active as some I could name,” Logan explained, glancing side-eyed at where Gale Force seemed to be taking notes.

“Yes, but what about the aesthetic one,” the Marauder asked with a tone bordering on reverence.

Virgil smirked. “She’s known as Lovely Darling. A mesmerizer with a strong affinity for princesses. So you know, pretty familiar, except more people are infatuated with her than just herself.”

Roman pouted at the tall hero and opened his mouth to object when the air suddenly shifted and four sets of eyes snapped to the scene below.

A dark dust cloud was rising, despite the complete lack of debris or destruction from the existing fight. Looking for the details, Virgil saw how the ‘dust’ cloud dragged and stuck on corners as it neared both supers.

“Heads up!” Gale Force shouted, and the air itself carried his voice, surprising them both as they noticed the impending danger. Logan was there a breath later, grabbing them both and pulling them away before rejoining the group in a blur.

“Go in all at once?” Virgil asked.

“On y va,” Roman said firmly, and they moved forward as one. The minute they passed into the cloudlike mass, Roman had the strangest sense of someone muttering, Oh, this should be fun.

And then the world went grey. His limbs went heavy and his heart turned to lead. A sluggishness settled over his entire body as he crumpled to his knees. He couldn’t muster the energy to do anything but struggle to stay upright, and he watched his constructs melt away in a blink of an eye. Of course he couldn’t create anything. He was useless. Everyone knew he was the weakest of their group. No raw power like Reflex, no elemental power like Patton, no brilliant strategy like the Doctor. He just had his little red toys. And now, he didn’t even have those.

It was fitting, wasn’t it? Let everyone see how worthless he was, whether a hero or a villain. He could die here, in this cloud, and the world would not note his passing nor feel his loss. A tear coursed down his cheek and fell onto his hands as he struggle to just barely brace himself. All he was good for was tears. How had anyone been fooled enough to believe anything else? Had they even been fooled? Or had they just been humoring him, pretending that he had something to offer. Seeing his obvious fragility and flattering him the way you compliment a child’s terrible scribbles. Who could ever truly believe in him? His arms trembled, and he collapsed fully, prone upon the ground, awash in despair and listlessness.

Logan was running as he passed into the cloud. He was surprised to see it was only a hair’s width as he passed through, coming into practically the same daylit scene on the other side. He kept running as he looked for the villain. Ro- the Marauder was flying on his right, with Virgil and Gale Force on his left. Was that Agent Whisper up there? The dark, humanoid shape was further back than he’d guessed. He pushed himself to speed up, to get there faster before the villain could escape again. He was reaching a rate of one hundred miles per hour - why weren’t they getting closer? His muscles felt odd, not the normal level of burn for this speed, but the wind was rushing through his hair and he could see the world flashing by through his goggles. Perhaps his workout routine was finally helping him reach new speeds. He pushed harder, blurring into five hundred miles per hour, fighting to reach the villain. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his villain partners had fallen behind him, but Virgil was still there on his left. But Agent Whisper was still so far away. He ran faster, nearing his top speed. He was a blur, a bullet streaking towards its target, but he could still see and feel his whole body. Finally, the dark antagonist was near, and he went to slow down to grab them, incapacitate them, bring them to justice.

But he couldn’t stop. His legs wouldn’t slow, his arms still pumping in rhythm to keep running. He was still moving, still in the nimbus of speed that almost no one could see. He looked frantically around only to see that he’d left Virgil far behind. He tried to turn, but couldn’t. He was just running, running, through the city, past the city, over hills and mountains and water and more mountains and he couldn’t stop. How would he get home? How would he live? How would he see Mom and Dad again, how would he be there for Jem and Bea? How would he be with Virgil, now that they finally were? He’d left him back there, surrounded by villains. He’d left him all alone, the one thing he’d promised would never happen back when they’d first met. How would time pass while he was stuck in this endless speed? Would he even feel it? Would he just run until his body gave out from the stress or exhaustion?

“Please!” he tried to yell. “Please, get me out!”

But his words were whipped away by the rush of air and movement all around him. He was trapped.

Virgil was prepared for his first step into the cloud, for the light to cut out and the fog to surround him. He felt slightly more of the texture this time, a weird film that clung to his skin. He strode in, scanning for the villain, trusting his hearing more than his sight, which extended only about three feet in any direction. He turned almost instinctively to look for Logan at his right, to check if the speedster had dashed in. He saw his partner but… Logan was frozen, eyes jumping and flitting around. His muscles twitched, but he seemed glued to the spot. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. Past him, a red-and-black form lay curled in a fetal position, unmoving.

Virgil reached his partner and love in a single step, reaching out for his shoulder. The impact caused Logan’s eyes to snap open as he cried out in pain. Virgil immediately pulled his hand back, only to see bones protruding from Logan’s arm from how strong his touch had been.

“Fuck, Lo, I didn’t mean to, I’m so sorry-”

“You always are,” Logan snapped back, blood seeping down his shoulder. “Sorry will mean nothing when you kill someone. They won’t care that you didn’t mean it!”

Tears sprang from Virgil’s eyes. He looked down to see the concrete was crumbling where his foot had touched the ground. “Please, Lo, let me help-”

“Don’t touch me!” his friend screamed, terror in his eyes. “Stay back!”

Virgil swallowed hard and obeyed, stepping back, but craters formed with each step. He backed into something and whirled to see a huge wall sway and fall, crushing those who’d been unlucky enough to be sitting behind it.

“Stop it!” Logan yelled, and his terror had shifted to hatred. “You ruin everything you touch!”

“I don’t-”

“Just hide away, Virgil. Just leave this city, leave your family, hide away where you won’t hurt anyone anymore. You’re a threat to everyone around you, so just go!”

Tears coursed down Virgil’s cheeks. “Lo, please-”

“You are and always have been nothing more than a ticking time bomb, Virgil. Didn’t Sandry teach you that?”

The tall hero froze. Logan no longer sounded like himself. Virgil knew his dearest friend would never mention that, no matter his anger. No one would - except Virgil himself. Logan’s words were Virgil’s own, the ones he directed against himself on all the dark days. The world crumbling at his touch, inadvertent pain against the one he loved? This was his own private nightmare made real. He took a deep breath, in for four counts. Hold for seven. Out for eight.

“I am not a monster,” he whispered to himself. “I have enhanced abilities. I use them to do the best I can to help others. I pull my punches, I take care to not use too much force. I don’t hurt my loved ones. I am a hero because I try to be one, and I succeed at an above-average rate.”

Slowly, the craters fixed themselves, and the wall re-erected itself. The blood and bones vanished off Logan’s arm, and he was now as he had been, frozen, looking with distress off into nothing as his eyes shifted rapidly. Virgil reached out slowly, gently, to brush his shoulder with a feather-light touch. His partner didn’t respond, but neither did he bruise.

Virgil turned, hearing footsteps. He kept breathing evenly, repeating his mantras to himself, and stepped towards the sound of movement. It was Gale Force, Patton, walking evenly through the mist without hesitation.

Patton stepped through the border of light to dark as easy as breathing. It took him almost ten steps before he realized he no longer heard the heroes and his partner on his right. He turned to see them all paralyzed. Roman’s beautiful, radiant red fire had faded. Patton had been around for enough dark days to recognize the despair etched into his love’s face. He almost ran to him when he saw that the Doctor was frozen too, not on his knees but standing. Doctor Vectorious, who was intriguing and infuriating and condescending and so very pretty seemed to shiver and jerk with some internal movement. Even Reflex had paused, looking confused and distressed. His love and his... partners. Not friends. They were coworkers, if that. Nothing more. What had put them in such a state?

He felt a slight weight on his chest. An impression of tears, of bricks and water and twisted metal. He turned, and walked towards the center of the cloud, seeking Agent Whisper. He was sure he was getting closer, he could feel it. And with every step he saw flashes of the past. A dusty courtyard, the Hundredth-of-an-Acre Wood. A lanky child carrying two giggling girls on his back. Phantom hands smacked his and ran away laughing in a game of tag. Two women smiled down at him, hands linked.

Now they shifted. Bruises and blood appeared, torsos were covered in brick. Limbs became maimed and mangled beyond recognition. And voices drifted out of mouths that couldn’t possibly be producing them.

“You should have saved us.”

“Why were you the only one to survive?”

“You let me die.”

Patton lifted a hand casually to push back the clouds and give himself more visibility. Finally, a form in the mist. It seemed to eat the light around it, a human-shaped hole cut out against reality, a black pit that had no eyes to stare at him.

“How?” a voice asked, shrieking in impossibly high and low octaves at once. It was an eagle’s cry and an earthquake’s rumble, unnatural and natural at once. Patton turned to it, and smiled brightly.

“Oh, kiddo, were you trying to make us feel bad? Here’s a fun little factoid for you!” He grunted with effort as he conjured a cone of air, tightly wound and pointed away from his team. His face fell into a dark mask as he sent the tornado hurtling towards the dark form opposing them. “I’ve felt worse.”

The form dodged easily, but backed up. Reflex appeared at Patton’s side, scowling and tensed to attack. The mist started to lift, helped along by Patton’s winds.

Both hero and villain heard a sound that might have been the crack of rock and might have been a swear. Clouds suddenly rushed past them, flowing from their backs towards Agent Whisper. They swirled around them and starting to soar into the air, a column of dark clouds even as the last traces faded from the square. Reflex shot off from the ground, ready to give chase, but in a breath the clouds were gone and out of sight.

“Fuck,” he said, coming back to land. “That was rough. How were you so unaffected?”

“It’s just ghosts,” Patton replied with a shrug. “I’m always surrounded by ghosts. I’m more worried about our partners.”

Reflex nodded, and they both flew over to where Roman and the Doctor were recovering. Patton was immediately kneeling at Roman’s side, rubbing a warm, grounding hand on his lower back.

“I’m here, love,” he whispered. “The dark is gone, you’re safe, and wonderful, and deserving of all the love I could possibly give you and at least twice as much on top of that.”

Roman stirred, slowly uncurling out of the fetal position. “Sunshine?” he asked raspily. “That’s really you?”

“It’s me, my ruby. I’m here. I love you. You deserve that love.”

Roman moved slowly to sitting up, shuddering. Patton continued to rub small, comforting circles on his lower back, the other hand coming up to run through Roman’s silky, dark hair.

“How did it come on so suddenly, Pat?”

“Agent Whisper, sweetness. I guess that’s what the illusions are - a blast of bad emotions, and our brains fill in the rest.”

Roman shivered and nodded. “Makes sense. And I’m already starting to feel better. Thank you, honeybunch. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Virgil half-listened to the villains’ conversation but his main focus was on Logan. He gently touched his arm, still flinching at the idea of accidentally hurting him. But the speedster’s eyes had finally gone back to normal, focusing on Virgil’s face instead of cycling rapidly.

“Vee?” he asked, voice barely audible. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Is this real?”

“Yes, L, it’s real,” Virgil murmured back.

“Can I-” words seemed to fail him, but he lifted his arms enough for Virgil to understand him.

“Of course,” he said, smiling as he wrapped his arms around his friend and partner. Logan hugged back tightly, burying his face in Virgil’s muscled shoulders to avoid knowing if there were tears on his face or not. Virgil hugged tighter, lifting Logan fully into the air and surprising a laugh out of the shorter man.

“Hey! I’m not a child!” he complained, grinning.

“But you are my babe,” Virgil responded, teasing. “My tiny boyfriend.”

Logan blushed a deep red at that. “Oh, yes, I suppose I am.”

“That’s gay,” Roman drawled, standing with Patton’s help. “Dear, look at the heroes, they’re gay.”

“Heroes? More like queeroes!”

Logan’s blush didn’t fade as he glared over. “That was terrible.”

“Is that why you’re laughing internally?” Virgil asked blandly, to Logan’s indignation.

“Hey, don’t out me in front of them!”

“Oh horror of horrors, the nerd might actually have a sense of humor,” Roman said, draping a hand dramatically over his forehead. Color had returned to his golden cheeks, and his eyes were practically crackling with rich hazel energy.

“I’m glad you’re both feeling better,” Virgil said, putting Logan back on his feet. “Even if this Whisper fuck got away again.”

“We know what they’re capable of, now,” Logan said. “We can prepare for next time. Or at least brace ourselves for it.”

Patton nodded. “‘Flex and I are proof it can be overcome. So there’s hope for you two as well.”

“Go home and get some rest, gather your emotional strength,” Virgil advised, slipping his hands into Logan’s grip. “I’ve got a feeling we’ll be called again much sooner than we’d like.”

The villains nodded and flew off together, Roman rocketing ahead of Patton.

“Ladybug, slow down,” Patton complained. “You’re going too fast for me!”

“You’re going too slow!” Roman cried happily, looping in circles high and low. “God, I can’t believe how much better I feel now that we’re away from that creep!” He laughed and created a glowing red surfboard. He stood on it and balanced with exaggerated outspread hands, conjuring a huge red wave that crashed over Patton as he flew through the air still. He giggled, and the wave crashed into an explosion of butterflies and ruby wings sprouted from his back.

“Ro, come on, let’s go home,” Patton pleaded. “We can bring the butterflies if you want.”

“Butterflies are old news,” Roman replied, snapping his fingers. The forms around him melted into a huge dragon that carried him on its back as it blew sparkling fire.

“Roro, please!”

“No, not a dragon. A witch!” Roman cried, unhearing. “No, both!” Crackles of energy sparked as the dragon shifted and twisted into a dragon-witch complete with crystalline hat.

Patton sighed. The emotional manipulation had triggered a manic phase, and there was no reasoning with Ro when he was in mania’s throes. He turned in mid-air and flew to their home alone, trusting that his love would come find him when he’d calmed.

Roman flew, creating and destroying and creating anew until the sun started to fade. When the light in the sky began to match the red light of his constructs, he looked up at the clouds and thought of Patton. His love, his salvation, his partner in crime. Literally. Not that they’d been caught more than the one time.

He flew lower, just above the rooftops, finally traveling at normal speeds once more. Just as the forced low had been brief, his uncontrollable high was resolving faster than normal, too. He sheepishly contemplated the apologies he would need to make to his partner for worrying him and leaving him behind when he’d soared into the sky.

He floated down to earth to walk the last few blocks home. He stepped off into a dark alley to change back into civilian clothes.

If only he’d looked a bit harder at the shadows.

~~~~~~~~~~

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337403 Classification: M.1.ii [Primary Tier Neutral, Acquired Powers] Name: Ghost/Nebula Status: ACTIVE Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: CONFIDENTIAL] Lulu Ador Affiliation: Neutral /////////H.A.T.C.H. Status: Blackout Only Partners/Sidekicks: #337471; #337402 Primary Foes: #337402 Powers: Shadow Teleportation; Psionic Construction [Star Sprites] /////////As Ghost, can travel through any shadow to any other; As Nebula, can summon star-sprites who are directed by her thoughts Costume: Tailored suit in a galaxy print and bow tie with a matching mask Age: 27 Height: 5’7 Pronouns: She/Her H.E.A.R.T.S. Class ‘10 Note: Valedictorian of her class, on similar caliber to DI#337255 - Doctor Vectorious. Ghost appears to be almost like possession, while Nebula is the 'true' form. When as Nebula, she is a hero, albeit one frustrated with the overly-physical nature of typical heroing due to her fibro. Classified as neutral because any given day she may be one or the other

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337402 Classification: Z.2.i [Secondary Tier Villain, Legacy] Name: Lovely Darling Status: ACTIVE Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: CONFIDENTIAL] Danielle Disney Affiliation: Villain Partners/Sidekicks: #337403 Primary Foes: #337403 Powers: Mesmerizing; Power of Suggestion; Forced Infatuation /////////Anyone within a radius of approximately 10 yards is susceptible; focus on a particular person makes it more compelling and longer-lasting Costume: Purple and pink ballgown with a hoop skirt; heart-shaped mask Age: 26 Height: 5’7 Pronouns: She/Her H.E.A.R.T.S. Class ‘11 Note: Teams up with DI#337403 - Ghost/Nebula and feuds with her in equal measure, depending on how much her current scheme might affect others

~~~~~~~~~~

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a/n: Spot the Steven Universe reference! There's also a Firefly quote in there. Partly an homage to one of the other possible names for this fic as a whole, ‘Big Damn Heroes’

(Fanfic writing, aka, finding ways to sneak in references to other fandoms and also inserting your friends in as background characters <3)

[ao3feed-snape]

Karma Killed Her

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uzwmUp

by aroaceslytherin

I have been thinking about this fanfic for two years. I have written and rewritten, re-drafted, deleted, and re-published. I got confused and lost in one-shots. This story will have AU’s, HC’s, canon, and non canon. There will be time skips; things might be missing. I love fan-fiction and wanted to contribute. One-shots were getting too much for me to keep up with.

I hope you enjoy!

J. K. Rowling owns the characters (we just gave them a better life). This will most likely be my last commitment to this fandom as it takes a lot out on me. Nothing is being made off of this.

(If any time-line is messed up or seems out of place, I also am not great at math but I did my best from the information we have been given. It’s what makes fanfic and AU’s fun!)

Tumblr: aroaceslytherin

Before Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, there were a group of boys that went by ‘Marauders’. There names were Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black II, and James Potter, also known as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Way before any of them, were their parents; Walburga Black, Orion Black, Dorea Black, Charlus Potter, Hope Howell, and Lyall Lupin.

This is their story.

Words: 6769, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of AU Harry Potter; Life of Black's, Potter's and More

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi

Characters: Sirius Black, Narcissa Black, Euphemia Black, Bellatrix Black, Andromeda Black, Walburga Black, Cygnus Black III, Dorea Black, Regulus Black, Orion Black, Alphard Black, Charlus Potter, James Potter, Harry Potter, Lily Evans, Petunia Evans, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Weasley Family (Harry Potter), Remus Lupin, Lyall Lupin, hope howell, Peter Pettigrew, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Alice Fortescue, Frank Longbottom, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape

Relationships: Regulus Black/James Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Narcissa Black/Lily Evans, Alice Fortescue/Frank Longbottom, Bellatrix Black/Tom Riddle, Lucius Malfoy/Andromeda Black, Andromeda Black/Ted Tonks, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black, James Potter/Lily Evans, Lily Evans/Severus Snape, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang/Cedric Diggory/Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory/Harry Potter, Cygnus Black/Druella Rosier, Orion Black/Walburga Black, Euphemia Black/Fleamont Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black/Severus Snape

Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Marauders, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Underage Kissing, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied Sexual Content, Panic Attacks, References to Depression, References to Drugs, References to Canon, Depression, Alcohol, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Drinking, Eating Disorders, Regulus Black Lives, Gay Regulus Black, Polyamory, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Alternate Universe, Dark, Dark Andromeda

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uzwmUp

[flailingintherain]

Kiss Him Again

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12041055/1/Kiss-Him-Again

AU, post war fic. 

Both Remus and Sirius are still alive.

 Harry had a problem. A BIG problem! No, it wasn't about a nose-less snake-obsessed freak wanting to kill him and it wasn't about blood prejudices or purity or house rivalry… no, maybe it was about house rivalry.

Harry Potter was gay! Harry Potter was in love with a boy! The boy was Draco Malfoy. Harry Potter was gay and in love with a boy named Draco Malfoy. 

He was in love with the boy who had teased, insulted and humiliated him. The boy who had insulted his best friends over and over in their first few years at Hogwarts, the boy who shrieked like a little girl in the forbidden forest, during detention, the boy who challenged him for a duel but never showed, the boy who got beat up by a hippogriff and later by a girl, the boy who broke his nose in the sixth year, the boy who cried in Moaning Myrtle's washroom, the boy who's hand wavered as he stood in front of the headmaster at the astronomy tower, the boy who never, ever had a choice. 

Harry was up shit creak. 

Sitting at the corner window of his room, with his knees up to his chest, he groaned loudly and dropped his head in his hands in frustration. In the background he heard a soft knock followed by, "Harry? Can I come in?" 

Remus Lupin was worried. 

Three months post the beginning of Harry's eighth year, he had his winter break. He had come home with a forced smile and frustrated eyes. Remus had tried very hard to understand what was going on but his godson left no hints and Sirius was absolutely useless in emotional matters. 

All that was left was trying to get Harry to tell him what was wrong. 

In response to his knock and question Remus received a loud groan and muffled words. 

Deciding to interpret the sound as a yes, he entered the room only to find Harry talking into a pillow. 

"Harry!" Remus exclaimed, "What are you doing?" 

Harry looked up shocked and wide eyed at the presence of someone other than himself in the room. "Remus? What are you doing in here?" 

"I knocked, and there was no response so... Harry what is wrong!?" Remus said, letting his pretence fall and worry show. "You have been low, sad and depressed ever since you got back and I don't understand why. Why aren't you happy, Cub?" 

Harry's expression morphed from shocked to confused to worried to frustrated in a matter of seconds. He frowned deeply and then looked down, almost sulking and asked, "Remus, how did you know Sirius was the one?" 

For a moment Remus was stumped, and when that moment passed his mouth formed an 'O', well it also released a sound that resembled, "Ohhhh…" 

"Um," Remus started, collecting himself, "Well, originally we were stupid and young and 'Just Friends'," He paused smiling subconsciously as the memories came back to him, "Sirius was always this ass who smelled like a dog and made fun of everything and everyone. He was rude and obnoxious and then he was everywhere. Originally, in our first years at Hogwarts I thought he was following me," Remus paused and laughed. "But, then we became the 'Marauders' and we were a gang, and he was still rude and obnoxious and downright irritating and then everything changed when I got turned." 

"One day I was feeling particularly low. My first full moon since I had been turned was approaching and I was afraid. I was sitting out by the black lake and out of nowhere Sirius showed up and held my hand. We didn't talk. We just sat there my hand in his, the water touching our feet and the wind caressing our skin. We just, sat there and held hands. We were there all night and somewhere along the night we fell asleep and in the morning I woke up alone. I honestly thought I had imagined it but when I saw him again during class he sat next to me and secretly under the table, there was his hand, holding mine and he had this smile, this secret smile that informed me that this was going to happen again and it did. And when the full moon arrived just as the night broke he hugged me and told me he was there. He said he would always be right there, by my side and that was when I knew. I knew he was it. He was all I would need to get through." A misty look glazed Remus's face as he broke out of his memory, "Does that help Pup?"

Harry who had been extremely quite through Remus's narration looked up at him with a wishful look on his face and said, "I kissed Draco Malfoy," post which he promptly buried his face in his pillow again. 

Remus stared at his godson. His 18-year-old godson who has seen too much and done too much, "Harry, why is that so terrible?"

Harry got up with a jerk, "He's Draco Malfoy! DRACO MALFOY! The death eater, the boy who tormented everyone the boy who,…" 

"Why did you kiss him if he's so terrible?" Harry was stumped. He opened and closed his mouth and did it again and finally said, "Because he offered me his hand again," he paused and continued, "and he pretended he didn't know who I was at the Malfoy Manor. He thanked me for his wand and when he laughs at something I say, not his scathing fake laugh but his genuine laugh and when his smile reaches his eyes my heart beats faster and all I want to do his hold him and touch him and tell him…" 

"Tell him what Harry?" 

"That I want him to be mine," Harry responded with a sulk, "I don't know what to do! Tell me what to! What should I do, Remus?" 

Remus smiled mischievously at him, a smile he had developed from Sirius over their years together, "Kiss him again."

AN: Hope You liked it! If you did please review and if you didn't please review ! :O :) -A PS: AN: So! This is an AU, post war fic. Both Remus and Sirius are still alive. Reserve For Ballycastle Bats - Beater 1 Written for QFLC's SS Moonstruck -A