#like i stopped keeping up with the anime when i caught up to s3 which was in the hero license arc i’m pretty sure
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cringe culture is dead btw, i’ve been rewatching bnha because i need COMFORT, in these trying first semester of college times. and i am having the time of my life. like i haven’t binged watched an anime in so long, like i lost that part of myself growing up. it’s been like four days, i’m on s3, something has been resurrected in me.
#meg’s incoherent thoughts#bnha#mha#like is it a perfect show?? obviously not#is it fun as hell yes#i feel like im 13 again#like the sports festival hit as hard as it did the first time#i used to be caught up with the manga but i stopped keeping up around the time the shinso training arc ended#i think#like i stopped keeping up with the anime when i caught up to s3 which was in the hero license arc i’m pretty sure#so maybe i WILL make art this is a warning
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Hm. OK. Theories for s3 (some are purposefully batshit, some is fan service for me, some I genuinely believe in - you decide which):
- the opening is crowley and aziraphale walking on opposite ends, but meeting in the middle
- crowley is hanging around Maggie and Nina's shops
- he's trying to act "more demonic", but it's all the simplest pathetic things like stealing dog bones from dogs and gluing a shitload of coins on the ground
- Crowley however just keeps staring longingly at the bookshop. Muriel is fully aware of this and is like "it must be a demon thing"
- reunion at the end of ep1
- it's cause aziraphale found out what the Second Coming is, which
- I think a woman has become pregnant and they have to find her
- the Them come back, all grown up
- Warlock also is here, but she's now trans and calls herself Ash because of her favorite nanny
- Muriel gets roped into it, maybe feeling like they need to repair the husband's relationship
- new character!!!! Lilith, cause I really wanna see her and I think it would fit the world. In my oc, she's a human turned demon, so she has the senses and the animal characteristics but no miracles (that she knows of)
- either way, Muriel is gonna get a friend/maybe love interest
- Gabriel and Beelzebub also get roped into it, finding a place on Alpha Centauri and they are super annoyed
- But they end up both being apologetic to the angel and demon respectively and want to help
- Also Gabriel remembers his time as Jim and tells Crowley he remembers his threat. Crowley is a little like "yeah whattup" but Gabe's like "no I mean that's pretty protective, it shows you love him"
- Maggie and Nina come back, so now you got the team. They are just REALLY trying to get Crowley to leave them alone and to stop scaring off their customers
- the very first thing that happens when Crowley and Aziraphale meet each other is aziraphale does a hurried Apology Dance to try to get to explaining what the Second Coming is
- but Crowley refuses to work with him or refuses to open himself up or something like that
- some max angst where they finally Talk in a convo to each other but it's all painful
- canon Crowley doesn't remember much of Heaven and Aziraphale remembers him Before but Crowley doesn't, and
- Aziraphale admits he feels guilty for Crowley falling
- they gotta dance. Dunno how, but they're dancing now
- they're gonna be caught under the rain. Dunno how, but they're in an awing or however it's spelled now
- Aziraphale pulls down Crowley's glasses
- he says "please forgive me" to Crowley
- and Crowley's like "I forgive you" in a reeeeally sarcastic but playful tone
- Metatron and Shax (with Furfur as second in command) are the Big Bad. Michael, Uriel and Saraqael are antags, but maybe become sympathetic near the end. Same with demons like Hastur maybe
- the Book of Life is gonna try to be used, babyyyyy
- and I think that Miracle Blocker card will come back too. Either as a plot twist used by the antags as a All Is Lost Blake Snyder beat, or Crowley or Aziraphale use it in the dramatic climax
- but yeah, you got this team now working together to stop the Second Coming
- I have nothing for this, so maybe she has the baby and raises it normally or gets an abortion lmao
- and it's gonna be something like Crowley getting kidnapped by Heaven I reckon
- we see Aziraphale be ANGRY angry, barging into Heaven demanding for his Crowley
- just as Crowleys name is being crossed out in the Book, Aziraphale finds him and saves him (with a kiss or smth lmao), and their miracles work together to create one so powerful it fixes Crowley's name in the Book of Life
- it doesn't have to be the Book - I just really want true love bringing a person back from being destroyed or something, man
- and on that note, I think Aziraphale will do One Big Sacrifice to parallel all the little ones Crowley does for him. And it's going to be for Crowley, like saving his life or something
- I think it's gonna be a big thing though, like maybe Aziraphale keeping his powers but no longer being considered an angel. OR he gives up all his powers but is still immortal. OR he just becomes human, but something big
- (but I don't think Falling big, cause it's a nice way to show that despite him no longer being for Heaven and giving it up entirely, he still has the spirit and virtue of an angel)
- and whatever Aziraphale becomes, Crowley will follow, and then off to the South Downs cottage
- also God comes in, as a human body or something. But either way, She narrates the last part of the series cause now "the story is going exactly how it should"
- a whole fucking chorus of Nightingales sing in Berkeley Square
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GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS??
THATS RIGHT IT'S TIME FOR THE STICKY RICE CAPER!!!
Alright, I'ma be honest here- there are a few episodes in CS which I just NEVER rewatch, and this one is kind of one of them. I don't know why. The start of Season 1 just never really invites me to click on it...BUT I DON'T KNOW WHY!
Every time I DO watch them I really like them!! So weird little mental block. ANYWAYS you know the drill by know let's get crack-a-lacking (or crackle lacking...his memories lmaooo)
WOO HOO our first caper episode!!! I love the caper formats- such a staple of the series (at the same time I wish we'd have gotten some deviation sometimes for...character based episodes or something but oh well).
OKAY HEY HI HAVE I GUSHED ABOUT THE INTRO ENOUGH YET BECAUSE I WILL NEVER EVER SKIP IT. ITS SO GOOD. THE BLACK AND WHITE WITH ONLY THE RED THE COOL BADASS MOMENTS THE AMAZING ANIMATION THE SCENE DESIGN HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
see the intro sets up a sort of mystery and finesse about carmen's character i wish we actually got more!! like she seems so mysterious but they infodump everything about her onto us in the first two episodes immediately. i promise ill stop complaining about the infodumping thing now though
okay also but the moment in the episode when it match cuts to carmen walking from the tower to the crosswalk its sooo fucking gooood
Carmen Sandiego Fun Fact: That guy who's Agent Zari's partner in Season 1 and shows up sometimes is actually not one guy but three identical ones who keep switching out
OH also the shift into color as she looks up godddd its so good i will talk about the intro more than the fucking episode
also the!! she does the thing from s2 e1 in the intro!!! in rio!!
the tone of voice she uses when she says "looky-loos" i didnt know that word could be kind of hot
i like how offended she sounds "I DID" djfdhasfdg shes like player of course i fucking did what do you think i am an amateur
calling vile sleazy is so funny as a kid (13 yo) watching for the first time i thought sleazy was kind of a bad word (its not) and it caught me so off guard
zack's first line....its so zack
ALSO i love the intro cards so much i didnt mention it last week (two weeks ago?) but theyre so fun
carmen: hey we've got a tail
zack: im going to shake my ass all night oh yeah
i love how little carmen is doing about the acme agents shes just like zack can we not :/ we KNOW she can do shit on boats, seeing as she clotheslined devineaux in s3 or whatever she did. threw a tree at him. what the fuck did she do to devineaux i dont remember
zack: HOW TO DRIVE A BOAT SAFELY (continues talking whilst not looking where he's going)
the background couple that gets doused with water twice as the boats go by and then are never acknowledged again are so funny why didnt they have more funny background moments like that jadshfgahdsgah
imagine if acme had actual projectile weapons like idk tranq darts carmen would be so arrested immediately
ivy did it first (talking about the suez canal)
love how ivy didnt need to have that beard on at all. really didnt honestly. she should have dressed in drag more actually i think
can you imagine the thoughts going through zari and jawline's heads when the frenchman turned into a 20 year old bostonian
THE BEARD WAS ONLY FOR THE CLOSE SHAVE JOKE.
how the hell did they scale the side of that boat
i like ivy's dumb orange cat energy in jumping 30 feet off of a barge without looking
i do agree with whoever else said they wished she'd gotten a better intro though. i don't think they quite knew what they wanted to do with ivy, and by the time they were like "hey maybe her thing with red drone is because she like builds stuff or whatever" they kind of. only got to relay that by having baby ivy go "hey we should give that lady a gun" in the boston tea party caper
the combination of three languages <3 never change ivy
"while i picked up carmen at the train station" okay so the river they're driving on is the river seine, right? its right by the eiffel tower as we see. fun fact: the nearest train station? 4 minutes away or less! cool detail
ivy definitely had time to get him food just saying . also still confused about why carmen took a train to paris but ive already hounded that detail last week so whatever
carmen completely blank faced saying "yum baguettes" to tease zack is so funny you didnt have to do that
i relish the intrigue and enthusiasm in carmen's voice when she goes "SO off to indonesia" we don't even see her face but she sounds so excited to go there agh
infodumping sections beloved. ive actually learned so much from them. we were talking about coffee and how it can be called java and i was like "OIHOOHOGFOGIHOOGOOGOG JAVA IS AN ISLAND IN INDONESIA HOME TO "THE BIG DURIAN" OR THE CAPITAL WHICH IS JAKARTA"
player: i have cool facts!! this is so cool!
carmen: i stopped paying attention five minutes ago actually sorry about that my thing now
so interesting btw that all records of acme agents are taken off of anything?? why dont they have identities anymore??
how?? did the cleaners manage to get crackle out if he "only woke up moments ago" which implies that someone like. watched him do that. moments ago. the cleaners just sliced a hole in the wall again like they do in s4 jkhfkhsadf
i like how devineaux thinks carmen would go after the gigantic blue diamond but also steal some more aussie shmuck's wallet AND his train ticket for good measure
the mints were suck a weird little thing to have devineaux have and i love that he had them?? idk if it was for the sole purpose of julia following them to the ACME Closet TM but theyre a cool little character thing that i kinda forgot about (bc the writers did too after the very start of the next season lol)
is crackle implying that he has crawled through sewer tunnels? is he referencing the shawshank redemption? is he referencing black sheep crawling through the drain pipes?
bellum is so funny "I AM LASER FOCUSED" (swimpes through fifteen unrelated tabs that are actively open) adhd icon
hey by the way why did she have missile launch sights and bomb tests and gun blueprints open. because. why didnt that ever go anywhere. i know she's orchestrated some of the most strange but also deadly capers in the show but. i. okay
"the student formerly known as black sheep"
PLS BELLUM IS SO SHORT
part of me wonders if shadow-san intentionally breaks up the height slant to make him feel out of place. if they wanted everything to look cohesive he would be sitting...maybe after malestrom. but he isnt, hes on the end and his height, in the lineup, is jarring compared to the slope of everyone else's.
mael also has some pretty good nicknames for her
love that one of their finest operatives is a year-in-the-field catgirl
the little silent laugh carmen does when zack starts reminiscing about how they met awww
r&d they make it sound so sinister. it means research and development
hello trailer scene. i love how carmen runs off screen for the trailer shot and then slows down to walk with them immediately because she actually has to be in the scene
the animation when she said "plan a" was so snappy
#feminism red drone is a she
(a bunch of lights flashing and making pew pew noises)
zack: STATE OF THE ART???!?!?!!
just kidding zack love ya
that tracking shot of red drone going through the lasers?? mwah
red drone out here with a strontium nitrate fire damn
what was their plan if someone was at the lab
that light moving behind them as they walk forward into the labbbbb
SEE theres the transition sentence for next ep!
what braincell of zack's saw a pile of white rice in a petri dish, first thought "that must be someone else's food" and then thought " i should eat this stranger's petri dish food"
also i am in love with how he just was about the bite down on the whole dish at once
the teeny tiny twitch of carmens teeny tiny nose as she sniffs the petri dish dahdjhdsdsg
cleo's capers: im going to steal four dresses >:)
bellum's capers: i will cause a famine for the entire population of the fourth largest country in the world and force them to either starve or submit to me via creating a monopoly of overpriced rice which is shit quality but their only choice, and will do so by releasing an untested superspore which hypothetically could mutate and wipe out all life on these islands if all goes wrong. teehee cat videos
zack and ivy's dialogue sounds like. you know when a teacher presents a problem and then in a really dumb vice they suggest an obviously bad solution? that
"we're thieves" ivy tomorrow you're going to tell a goat that your boss's name is carmen san jose and then almost die five times in the next week
ivy's so supportive. no braincells on planning but such a cheerleader /hj
here we see the majestic long-necked ivysaur stretching her neck for a leaf
pls zack looks so hungry and sad
"so vile can make a quick buck hehaha she has a surprise coming 😌"
she looks so hot when she jumps on the roof of the jeep and then jumps off a cliff. well right before anyway lmaoo
loook
ok just thought the glider mechanic was cool. anyway
VILE HENCHMAN WATCH THE FUCKING ROAD
"HYASSSSSS" tigress never change
i love that they kept the consistency in the boston bean caper that tigress wasnt there- just the gays
tigress free plastic surgery!! good surgery? no. but free
i love when cs does high motion shots and the background just becomes one streaky color
zack driving down the cliff so true actually
ivy saw carmen climb on the hood and jump off a cliff and did the same thing. ivy dont do that
i also love the consistency of ivy being able to pick locks. she's been able to since the boston molasses disaster caper
carmen almost falls off of very quickly moving vehicles quite a lot
yes i would thats why im asking pls this show
carmen isnt really so much protecting the face as dodging very quickly and hoping
the animation of the car swerving as the durian hits it 👌
i like how immediately ivy goes flying and ZACK COULDNT SEE THE WHOLE TIME??? HOW DID HE NAVIGATE THAT TURN
that weird "eYAHOO" ivy makes is playing my my head 24/7
vile ops constantly have carmen in situations where they could do anything and they just let her do whatever. tigress. you had her hands bound and she was under your control why did you kick her in the back
also i love how carmen is getting batted around all day but tigress kicks her once and she can't get up
ivy and jumping 30 feet into vehicles
ivy's voice when she shrieks about the durian is so cute
ok its 4:30am im sorry im gay
why are there so many roads that go to the same place
"sky rockets" what other kind are there
carmen u literally have a glider you could have NOT shot the tire and caused zack and ivy to almost crash and die
love how zack hits her with the car
me too honestly zack and ivy
HELP?
i like how the car is at normal speed but carmen is in slow motion at the same time
PLS THE TIRE TRACKS ON THE GROUND WHERE ZACK SWERVED
this episode doesnt even get to what specifically vile is doing for the caper until 16 minutes in and its still good i love it
zack and ivy changing the tire just like their racing days </33
what time of year is it that player was contemplating both new years eve and 4th of july
chase is like a bad parent like julia says something and then chase calls it her fault ihgahsgajds
the glare julia shoots chase jshdgsh
i love when she's sarcastic
the way she stares right at the camera when she says "details are lurking just out of view somewhere in the shadows"
OHHH THE MUSIC FOR THIS EP IS REALLY GOOD
why do they keep putting ivy high up. poor ivy
"tigress, you know the rules. but i will say them again for the audience's benefit"
fedora the explora!!!
that kick had to hurt so bad
just imagining carmen on her new phone on like. facebook tapping "unfriend"
the way carmen just takes tigress out wheeze
cat lesbian <3
this fight is honestly so good
POOR IVY
THIS FIGHT IS. SO. GOOD. I LOVE HOW THEATRICAL IT IS
the confused looks as they keep playing music kills mee
the curtsey and the way carmen just keeps lying there for a little while for the dramatics is hilarious
tiny layering issue
and here (and once more too lazy to ss it tho)
love how she lit that match with her finger
also love hot the fuse just gets eaten. no burnt rope only FIRE
i wonder where?? like under lock and key...where?? po box?? lol
poor zack hasnt eaten in a day
oNe jUmPy RoO
the please from mael...ugh
mr. crackle
the poor sad puppy noises gray makes in the chair jdgsahdgds
that mindwiper really honestly sounds like shes gonna just kill him. yeah crackle it wont hurt. we're gonna send u to live on a farm
CHIEF ON THE OTHER END GOING "again" THATS SO FUNNY
PLAN B
Okay sweet!! Solid episode. See ya next Saturday wink wink its not 5am on sunday i promise i didnt stay up for 5 hours doing this
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LOVER (M.G) - Chapter 1
pairing: Michael Gray x original female character chapter: 1 pov: written in 3rd person genre: ‘rivals to lovers’, romance, mature content/smut, fluffy? warnings: S3 spoilers, non canon stuff. main character is BRAZILIAN therefore, there are references to 1920's brazil. keep in mind that the world at that time wasn't like the world we live nowadays, so there are offensive behaviours along the story. read at your own risk. english is not my first language, so any mistakes please tell me <3 disclaimer: this is the english translation of my portuguese fic 'Lover', based on Taylor Swift songs and Peaky Blinders S1-S3. This is PURE fanfiction.
Birmingham, England, 1921
The auction was unbearable. Marie still didn’t feel completely comfortable with her fiancé’s group of friends, neither with him. Robert Pearson was the only son and heir of one of the most competitive companies in Europe: Pearson & Co., responsible for almost 20% of fabric production across the continent. It’s not that she didn’t like Mr. Pearson... But she wasn’t in love with him, and at times, she thought him extremely childish – even though she was only 18 years old and wasn’t in a position to judge other people’s maturity. And so, a deal was a deal. Unfortunately, she had made one and had to stick to the terms.
She always kept her word, just as her father had taught her.
“This is an Arabian.” Robert spoke close to her ear. “He is highly rated for being the son of the last two consecutive winners of the Queen’s race.”
“Oh, he’s very handsome.” Marie nodded, enchanted by the animal’s fur shining.
“The next one is a Quarter Horse, which I particularly feel most interested in. He may not have the genetic advantage of the thoroughbred, but I believe that with proper training he will be the best competitor.” He smiled. “And I want to get into that business.”
“We can have both, what do you think? That way you’d have options to choose as the best racing one, and I could keep the other.” She looked at him.
Robert seemed to appreciate the idea, for he nodded and his blue eyes gleamed with curiosity. He was a handsome man, he truly was... And Marie would have a comfortable life by his side… She would eventually come to love him, right?
How many marriages started just as a mere contract and ended up being perfect, book-like love stories?! Thousands!
Perhaps, if she repeated it over and over again, she’d begin to believe it.
Besides, she couldn’t back out. Her father had given her a chance, they had a deal. She’d had the opportunity to avoid all that.
With a sigh, Maria Clara leaned against the windowsill, resting her chin on one hand. Her eyes left the Arabian horse Robert was bidding on and roamed the entire room. Almost like a magnetic force, her attention was drawn to the cabin ahead of her, at the far end of the room. That’s when she saw him.
His profile looked like the closest descendant of Apollo on Earth.
Or... Well, she wasn’t sure there was any deity described with such beauty.
Maria Clara wished she could use the binoculars to better analyse him. But from where she was, and just from his side profile, she had no doubt that he was attractive and charming. At first, the beret was what intrigued her the most, because she used to hate such accessory… However, on him… God, it looked like Apollo’s laurel wreath! The dark grey suit, so different from the beige one Robert wore, made him stand out even though the people around him wore similar colours. Marie’s eyes widened and her breath caught as the stranger brought a cigarette to his mouth – another thing she loathed, but coming from him it looked like a blessing. Apollo probably drank amber just as gracefully.
She should stop comparing him to the Greek god.
Applauses indicated that the American Quarter Horse had entered. It was truly splendid, a bright hazelnut brown and with a mane that looked like it was softer than a cotton flake. Apollo’s replica leaned against the ledge, also interested in the animal – which was walking around the pavilion. It gave Marie an opportunity to see him better. She noticed the round and deep eyes, full lips, high cheekbones and harmonious nose.
Even at distance, she knew he exuded masculinity.
Alright, in her head Apollo would be tanned and green-eyed... But if Apollo had a British version, he’d be exactly like that man... Assuming he was English, of course.
“The thoroughbred is yours.” Robert stood beside her again. “We can check it out at the stable once the auction is over.”
“Perfect. Thank you.” Marie nodded, longing for the end.
The bidding began, and Fake Apollo turned to someone, talking.
Unlike Marie, whose mind was wandering far away, Robert was in pure agony. He’d bought two horses — one for himself and one for Marie — so his budget was reduced, which meant less money to get the Quarter Horse. And his father had been adamant about what he would spend in his son’s ‘hobbies’. Mr. Pearson was completely against Robert getting involved in racing, so he limited himself to cutting back on investments. In fact, he had only agreed to let them go to Birmingham because Maria Clara had shown some interest in it.
The numbers were already high, making Robert desperate. Why the hell was he so impulsive?! He didn’t need the Arabian... And yet, he bought it. Now he was in danger of not having enough to afford the only horse he actually wanted. When the bid reached £145, he felt like hitting someone. He lost.
“My, my.” Stanford spoke a little too loudly. “I would give up now, Pearson.”
“Why’s that?” Robert looked at his friend, finding the latter looking at the cabin in front of them, but at the other side.
“The bay was bought by the Peaky Blinders. No one will be able to beat their £200 offer.” Stanford blinked in disbelief. He shouldn’t be surprised, after all, the gang was well-known by people who liked racing; and rumours indicated that they were getting richer and richer. “And I advise you not to mess with any of them.”
“With whom?” Robert tried not to sound so arrogant. Regardless of who those men were, he was a Pearson; and well, that said a lot in England.
Stanford gave him a brief resume of the gang, and while listening, Robert began scheming how he could use it to his favours. He needed that horse… And he’d have it.
Nearly forty minutes later, the action was finished. Starting on his new plan, Robert encouraged Marie to head to the stables alone and check on the Arabian they’ve bought. With the help of an employee to guide her, she followed his suggestion.
“Here it is, my lady.” The man indicated the horse’s stall.
“Thanks.” She smiled, handing him a tip. “I can take it from here.”
“Isn’t it better to call our ostler? These breeds tend to be a little nervous...”
“No, no. I have experience with irritable animals.” Marie opened the small fence. Back in Brazil, she used to help the farm workers with the cattle and to train her family’s dogs and stubborn toucan.
The man felt compelled to insist but decided on not creating havoc and respecting the girl’s decision. Luckily, as he was leaving, Tommy Shelby entered the stable looking for his Quarter Horse. Nothing safer for a woman than being in the company of a Blinder, huh...
“Hey there, big boy.” Maria Clara greeted the horse in Portuguese, approaching him very cautiously. She looked around, trying to spot something that could be used as a ‘reward’ if he let her touch him. “How are you?”
Tommy stopped next to the door, ears curious and unaccustomed to that language.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Maria Clara, your new owner.” She smiled pleasantly. “But since we’ll be friends soon, you can call me ‘Marie’.”
Marie.
Huh, that Tommy understood.
“Well, I need to find you some treats, right? And we should also give you a name, for I’ve already introduced myself.” Marie winked at the horse, not feeling the slightest shame for talking to something that couldn’t reply back. “Excuse me?” She asked in English, returning to the stable aisle. “Is anybody here that…”
The sentence died in her throat as she turned to face the entrance. The British Apollo was practically at the next stall door!
Seeing him up close, Maria Clara didn’t know how she kept standing. The man was abnormally handsome. Now she could take in that well-sculpted jaw, the thick mouth and those eyes… The brightest blue eyes she’d ever had the pleasure of staring at.
Like the sea in Arraial do Cabo, Greece, the Italian coast…
She could drown in any of them, especially in that British ocean.
“Need any help?” The deep voice made her stomach clench. Marie noticed that his accent was more pronounced than Robert’s. Apollo’s Copy wasn’t from London, then.
“I’d like it, yes.” Marie swallowed hard, praying she wouldn’t stutter or make a faux pas. “I say, need it. Do you perhaps know where I can find any horse treat?”
“They usually stay hidden in the corner of the stall.” Tommy started to walk, but stopped when he realized it might be perceived as a rude behaviour. The girl clearly was a foreigner, judging by her near-American accent. “I mean, can I come in?”
“Sure.” She nodded. “By all means.”
He entered the stall so sure of sharing the space with a thoroughbred that Maria Clara couldn’t even analyse the horse’s reaction. Her attention was all fixed in the way his shoulders adequately filled out the well-tailored suit. After picking up a bag from the end of the barn, Fake Apollo walked back to her. He removed his beret and she was met with the sight of dark hair shaved at the bottom, a style she remembered being called ‘undercut’.
“Lumps of sugar.” Tommy handed her the snack. “So, you got the Arab one.”
“I did.” Taking a cube of the candy, she struggled to face the horse.
“He’s a handsome Arabian, very tall, too.” That accent... Good God!
“Apollo.” She spoke quietly, without even realizing it.
“Apollo?” Ocean blue eyes turned to her.
“Oh.” Marie sucked on one cheek, as she always did when she was embarrassed, and prayed she wasn’t blushing. “It’s his name. Powerful and beautiful, like the Greek god.”
“It’s a pity the god’s not Moor.” Not even Tommy could believe at his lame pun.
“Nor the horse Greek.” Marie giggled. “A toast to us both, Apollo. May the union between Brazil and England be prosperous!” She joked, still speaking in English. It would be rude to change languages while the British Apollo (the human) was paying attention.
The horse ate the sugar, letting out a characteristic huff of satisfaction.
“He seems pretty easy to bribe for a hot-blood breed.” Tommy commented.
“I believe my ‘calming’ aura helps...” She looked over her shoulder at him as she picked up another cube. “Or it could be the sugar. I also feel more conniving after a sweet treat.” This time, Marie ventured to stroke the animal’s neck.
Tommy was about to reply when they were interrupted by the arrival of two ostlers, who were carrying the cell and other gears of Shelbys’ new horse.
“Mr. Shelby,” One of the men spoke. “We’ll meet you at the entrance gate as soon as we finish preparing your horse.”
“Thanks.” Tommy put on his beret. “It was a pleasure, Miss...”
Marie tensed, trying to choose which last name would be easier to use.
“Barbosa.” She decided to go with the surname her father used more. “Marie Barbosa. And the pleasure was all mine, sir.”
“Shelby.” He offered. “Tommy Shelby.”
“Delighted, Mr. Shelby.” Marie bowed slightly.
“Miss Barbosa. Apollo.” And with a tug on his hat, he was gone.
While Maria Clara and Tommy were chatting amicably, Robert Pearson was dealing with the Peaky Blinders. After trying to buy the bay twice, he gave up.
“I need that horse!” Robert grumbled. “My fiancée...”
“Does she like to ride?” John didn’t hide the double meaning, smirking.
“Of course!” Robert replied, annoyed. And only then he understood. “Ah, that’s not what I mean!” He waved a hand. “I happened to buy the Arabian for her.”
“Congratulations. We don’t want the Arab one and I can’t think why you’d need a quarter mile when you have it.” Arthur pointed out.
“I propose a trade.” Robert’s heart raced. He wasn’t even remotely used to bargaining for the things he wanted – not because he was rich, but because he was capable enough to get them if he set his mind to it.
“We don’t trade, mate. But if you’re really that desperate, we can make a bet.” John looked down the hall. “After all, we’re talking about racehorses, aren’t we?”
Stanford had warned him about what might happen if he got too close to the Peaky Blinders, but… He was in love with the bay... And furious that those pompous gangsters had taken the animal when he wanted it first!
“What are we going to bet?” Pearson swallowed his fear and Arthur grinned.
“The Quarter Horse, of course. This Saturday we have a race, you choose a horse and if it wins, then it’ll be yours. However, if it loses... In addition to the bay, we want your thoroughbred.” John feigned indifference. “And your fiancée, since she likes to ride.”
Arthur’s laugh sent a chill down Robert’s spine, but nothing compared to John’s cynical smile. He knew what had to be done... And he’d do it.
In another life, perhaps.
“Deal.” He offered his hand to John, who shook it. “I’m Robert Pearson and here’s my business card. I’ll be in Birmingham until Monday.”
The hallway was occupied by Tommy Shelby, who just touched the tip of his beret as he passed Robert and looked at the brothers, indicating the door.
“Tommy, Tommy,” Arthur mused. “looks like John finally got himself a wife!”
And they disappeared, leaving Robert Pearson with a ticking timebomb.
Opportunities didn’t fall from the sky, Tommy had learned about it during the war. So, after his brothers explained the situation to him with the bet and the horse… It was a huge opportunity! He could already imagine several contracts signed only through association to Pearson and his group (or maybe blackmail, if necessary), several doors being opened just because of their interaction…
However, the fiancée thing was a touchy subject.
“John, about the girl,” He cleared his throat. “the Lees and I reached an agreement. For definitive peace, we thought we’d join forces... And as you needed a wife and they needed a husband, we planned a wedding. It is beneficial for everyone involved.”
John stilled. At first, he wanted to yell at his brother and punch him in the face. But on the other hand, Tommy wasn’t completely senile: he did say he wanted a wife, he’d even chosen a potential one (which the family didn’t approve of), and he didn’t intend to stop looking for one now. But to marry someone he had never seen? That was a little too much, wasn’t it?! They were modern men, for fuck sakes!
“Am I to wed a girl I’ve never seen?”
“Did you happen to see Pearson’s fiancée?” Tommy raised an eyebrow.
“No.” John scratched the back of his head, a little disconcerted.
“Then it’s settled.” Tommy lightly slapped the table as if giving a verdict.
“But what will we do with Pearson’s girl?” Arthur asked.
“We’ll investigate her and if we find something worth of keeping, we’ll do it. I suppose she’s a peerage or at least from some upper household, so she’s well-mannered and quite naive… And probably has connections.” Tommy lit a cigarette. “The Pearsons wouldn’t let anyone have anything to do with them if they don’t have good things to offer back.”
“Nor will let anyone go away like this.” Polly raised an eyebrow.
“That, Aunt Pol, ain’t our problem. We made a bet, the deal was sealed and if we win, there’s no argument.” He sat down. “Now, off to work, brothers.”
“And when is my wedding?” John questioned.
“This saturday, after the race.”
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Apollo was a lovely, lovely horse. Marie had spent every day after the auction with him, trying to accustom him to her presence and earning his trust. But that Saturday she didn’t have time to visit. She had agreed to be Robert’s date of the race, and, as absurd as it sounded... She’d hoped to catch a glimpse of Fake Apollo... Or Tommy Shelby, as he went by.
Being Brazilian, she was having a bit of trouble adapting her style to the British fashion. Not that there were many differences, but things in Brazil followed the French fashion, which, historically, was not well-seen in England. The only rule she refused to follow (in any of them) was the stupid hat. She only wore it when extremely necessary – which was not as often as some ladies liked. Whenever she could, she prioritized a fascinator instead (those hair arrangements, resembling tiaras or feathers). After rummaging through her clothes, she ended up with a white dress with pleated skirt, the ‘built-in’ belt all embroidered in silver gemstones and a white velvet shawl for her shoulders. The fascinator, then, was a delicate version of the belt, which looked more like a brooch than a tiara, and Marie pinned it to the side of her hair.
When Robert arrived to pick her up, he looked ridiculously anxious. She turned a blind eye to it, for she knew it would do no good to ask him to stop bouncing his leg or sighing loudly like a worried old lady. She would never understand the appeal of gambling and races of any sort… Nor how it could turn a man into a mess.
As soon as they arrived at Epsom, she noticed how crowded it was near the betting stalls. Among various hats, Maria Clara caught a glimpse of a group of berets. She tried to hide her hopeful, curious smile. Would Tommy Shelby remember her?
Lady Tumblewood, Robert’s best friend’s wife and an extremely pleasant lady, was there, so Marie wouldn’t be alone most of the time. As the men huddled in a corner, yelling and drinking, the two sat at a secluded table to sip champagne and talk. It’s not that Maria Clara hated races, but she would rather ride horses than watch them race.
The hours dragged by, and Robert was getting more and more nervous. His anxiety seemed to have reached its peak, for he couldn’t keep himself still, staring worriedly at the place of bets and the paper he was holding.
“I’ll go get a drink." Marie announced. "Would you join me, Lady Tumblewood?”
“Of course, Lady Barbosa.” The girl smiled, and Maria Clara gave up explaining (for the billionth time) that she was no longer a ‘Lady’, since the aristocracy had been cut off from Brazil after the 1889’s Coup.
It now made no difference that her grandfather had been the last Marquis of Valença, and her great-grandfather had been a close friend of Emperor Dom Pedro II and other important names in Brazilian history, such as the Duke of Caxias.
“Now that we’re alone,” Theodora looked at her, excited after her second drink. “Have you heard of the Birmingham gang?! I suppose I should fear them, but I’m curious! You don’t hear much about gangs in London... Well, not in our circle, anyway.”
“Gang?” Marie frowned. “‘Gang’ as in...”
“Yes, thieves, cheaters and all the rest!” Theodora’s blue eyes sparkled.
“Lord Louis told you that?” She was shocked.
“Yes! And it seems Stanford warned Robert about the Blinders, too… I think that’s the name of the gang. Also, if you say their leader’s last name, the whole city changes.”
“Really?” Marie chuckled. Well, apparently England and Brazil weren’t that different: both used the ‘Do you know who you’re talking to?’ tactic.
“Really! It’s Thomas Sheldon... Shelley... Shelby, something like that.” Thea waved a hand, and at the sound of the last name, the bartender seemed to freeze. “They say he’s even done business with the police!” Her eyes widened, thrilled with the whole story.
“You shouldn’t…” The man started, startled. “Mr. Shelby!”
Oh.
Maria Clara turned, seeing Fake Apollo a few steps away from her. To her surprise, he wasn’t alone: Robert and two other men were with him.
“Robert?” Marie frowned, puzzled. He looked a bit sick.
“Marie!” Robert forced a smile. “I-I brought… I want to introduce you to…” He couldn’t finish the speech for he was mortified. “My dear fiancée…” He took her hand.
“Miss Barbosa.” Tommy bowed his head. “So ‘tis you Mr. Pearson’s fiancée?! What a surprise, eh.” He glared at the duo behind him. “Now you put me in a difficult position.”
“Oh, well.” The one that seemed younger mischievously smiled, analysing her up and down. “So, this the bride, Mr. Pearson?!”
“Will yours be prettier?” The tall and skinny one asked.
The other grimaced at the question, as if remembering something unpleasant.
“I hope so.” He grunted. “But I’ll only find out if we get there in time. Therefore, you need to come with us, dear fiancée. We’re running late!”
“What?” Maria Clara frowned, slightly offended by the suggestion and the nickname. She’d never seen the two of them (and she had met Tommy, but it wasn’t enough), so why...
“I met Miss Barbosa during the auction, and I’d like you two to be more considerate of the lady. She’s the owner of the Arabian thoroughbred.” Tommy spoke. “These are my brothers, Arthur and John.” He indicated the duo.
“Oh, your brothers?!” Maria Clara tried to sound amiable. “Do they know Apollo?”
“What’s going on here, Robert? Where do you know these gentlemen from?” Theodora asked what Marie was dying to say aloud.
At the sound of ‘gentlemen’, Arthur and John burst out laughing.
“I… Listen, Marie,” Robert held her hand. “the day we bought Apollo and I couldn’t get the American Quarter... I was furious. I made a mistake on impulse, something I shouldn’t have done and I’m not sure I’ll live to apologize enough.”
“Haven’t you told her yet?” The one with the moustache interrupted him.
“Told me what, exactly?”
“T-Thea, darling, please go get Stanford and Louis.” Robert pleaded.
“Robert, what the hell is going on here?” Marie grunted.
“He bet you and... Apollo, right?! Well, he bet you two in exchange for the bay. Unfortunately for Robert, and luckily for us, her fiancé lost.” The man spoke in a very thick accent, which made Marie wonder if she had understood him correctly.
Straightening her posture in the way she’d been taught, Maria Clara lifted her chin and hardened her gaze.
“Pardon?!” She looked at Robert. “I don’t know if I understood what he said.”
“Miss Dear Fiancée...” Started the other one, John.
“Barbosa!” She roared. “One of my surnames is Barbosa!”
“Oh, the bride bites.” He smirked.
Marie thought it was possible that she’d jump down the man’s throat.
“John, please, not now.” Tommy hissed. “Miss Barbosa, what my brothers are trying to say is that...”
“I’m sorry, Marie! So sorry! I was impulsive, insensitive and completely disrespectful to you!” Robert squeezed her hand, eyes wide-open in pure panic. “I’ll find a way to fix this mess and then we can get on with the wedding!”
The urge to laugh choked her for a measly second. Had he gone crazy?! Marie refused, even though it was a deal made with her father, to marry a man as stupid as Robert was. It was absurd that he even thought that they were still engaged after this!
“Are you insane?” She was definitely getting good at growling.
“I hate to interfere between marital discussions, but we need to go, Miss Barbosa.” Tommy looked at her. “Make haste, you two.”
So they were serious?! Really, really serious?!
Robert’s shoulders dropped, completely submissive and useless. Maria Clara’s gaze fixed at Mr. Shelby and the other two men, wondering the best way to escape, but when she turned her attention to the entrance, she finally saw him.
Apollo.
Another Apollo.
Standing behind Tommy and his brothers, one man – not as tall as they were, but still taller than her – stood out from the crowd. He wore a well-tailored suit, dark blue and subtly shiny, and instead of the beret, he wore nothing, displaying wavy and gelled brown hair. The stranger neither smoke nor wore gloves and he also looked younger than the trio, despite his serious expression and sharp jawline (Good God, she could cut a diamond in it!).
However, what hypnotized her the most were his eyes.
At first, they looked grey or somewhat dark. But now, with the sun shining on his face, she could see all the green in them. It wasn’t emerald, but whole lot paler, although it was strong enough to stand out from the conventional blues, with honey-coloured lines.
Apollo in flesh, bones and broad shoulders.
The real one. The authentic.
For a moment, she thought she was going to faint.
Then she felt a hand on her elbow, voices getting loud again around her. Marie stared at the leather glove, her focus moving up her arm to find Robert’s face. His mouth was moving, indicating that he was talking to her.
“Sorry, what?” She forced her own throat.
“I’m saying to go with them and... To trust me.” He hesitated at the end.
“As I tried to explain before,” Tommy stared at Robert impatiently, then at her, the blue orbs softening. “my younger brother is getting married in a few hours and we can’t waste another second. Tomorrow we’ll be prepared to discuss everything in the presence of your father, of course. Nonetheless, right now I need you to make haste and come with us!”
“But what about Apollo? I didn’t see him today!”
“Apollo will be in the care of our men and will be treated like the god he is.”
Even though she was outraged and confused, Maria Clara accepted his offered forearm. But before leaving, she took one last look at her pathetic ex-fiancé.
“Call Papa…” She started.
“Yes, I will send for him urgently.” Robert muttered. “I’m so sorry, Marie.”
She remained silent until she was inside their car, surrounded by the four imposing men. Her attention wandered from the streets to Fake Apollo and Authentic Apollo.
“Is he your brother too?” Marie looked at Tommy then at Apollo. “A Shelby?”
“Gray.” He murmured. The deep, husky voice was… Inexplicable. “Michael Gray.”
Michael, she mentally repeated, like the Angel. The name seemed right for him, somewhat strong and powerful… And Maria Clara loved it.
“It’s our cousin, Miss Marie.” Arthur clarified. “In a way, a Shelby.”
“And a Blinder too.” John completed, looking proud.
“And being a Blinder means...?” She stared at him.
“Your fiancé didn’t really tell you anything, eh?” Tommy sighed.
“Ex-fiancé.” She corrected him. “But yes, he didn’t tell me anything.”
Tommy gave her a brief explanation, excluding some obvious parts, about the Shelby Company and its ‘tiny’ connection to the Peaky Blinders. Afterwards, he told her about Robert and their bet, because thanks to it, Maria Clara would most likely receive protection from them... And become an important piece for the company to achieve legality.
Not that the man’s ambition ended there.
He wanted to talk to her father about business and use her as a bargaining chip if that came in handy. That wasn’t a surprise at all, for her own father was using her that way through a deal they made when Marie was younger… But that a stranger also saw her as ‘bargaining currency’ was a little depressing.
She listened carefully, trying to find similarities between what Lady Theodora had said. One doubt, however, remained.
“And Mr. Gray?” She stole a glance at Authentic Apollo. “You’ve said he only dealt with Shelby Company matters. How can he be a Blinder and not get involved?”
“Michael is different.” Tommy looked at his cousin. “He is like you. Just because he’s a Blinder doesn’t mean he has to deal directly with them.”
Maria Clara now had a certain notion of what the Peaky Blinders meant, so she decided not to seek further explanation. In fact, she was hoping her father would throw a fit and rescue her as soon as possible. She prayed she’d return to Brazil later that week and hide in her room for the rest of the year.
“I don’t think Papa will be happy with this.” She was sincere.
Tommy just nodded, then lit a cigarette and offered it to her.
“I don’t smoke, thank you.” Marie denied, starting to feel extremely uncomfortable.
“Why would you marry that Pearson lad?” John inquired, curious.
“Because Papa and Mr. Pearson thought it would be a good thing. We were single, at age to wed, and Robert didn’t seem to be seriously trying to find a wife.”
“But where does your father know them from?”
“My family is very traditional in Brazil, and since colonial times they had business with England. When we became an Empire, things took off.” She looked at her hands. It wasn’t right to tell gangsters about her private life, but she didn’t want the silence. She was nervous, unsure and a little scared. “Mama has been introduced to Queen Victoria.”
“Do you have connections with the royal family?!”
“With the Brazilian, yes. The English one, I wouldn’t call it ‘connections’, but we know each other and sometimes Papa exports some things under special conditions. Nonetheless, our proximity is with the Brazilian one, even if nowadays it means absolutely nothing.” Marie shrugged her shoulders. “My grandfather was the last Marquis of Valença and my great-grandfather was a close friend of Dom Pedro II.”
She could see the gears in Tommy’s head turning. She knew her connections would prove valuable, and for someone who’d like to elevate their company’s status, she’d be a good asset. Granddaughter of a marquis, with some influence in royal families...
“So you are Lady Dear Fiancée, not Miss Dear Fiancée.” John giggled.
“I’m ‘Marie’, to be honest. No one uses the title since the coup d’état in 89.”
“Maybe in Brazil, but here it’s common and valuable label.” He commented. “Well, not among us Gypsies, but for the English in general. Isn’t that right, Michael?”
“I’m a gypsy too, John.”
“Eh... Almost that. You were raised by a loving and completely English family, weren’t you?!”
“God, yes.” Michael laughed softly, and Marie held her breath as she heard him.
Good Heaven’s, the man was… Divine.
“Therefore, Lady Marie.” John smiled again, becoming momentarily less intimidating. Maria Clara almost managed to get comfortable.
“We’ve never had a relationship with a lady before.” Arthur commented from the steering wheel. “It’s unbelievable that we’ll have one at your wedding, John Boy.”
“A hot-blood and a pure-blood, Arthur. That was the century’s deal!” The youngest nodded, satisfied. “How long until we get there? I think I’m looking forward to it now.”
Everyone roared with laughter except Tommy and Marie. He kept a small smile, calmly smoking his cigarette. Things were going in a better direction than he had imagined; although the fact that Maria Clara was a lady could complicate his situation a tad bit. But just as he assumed, she was the key to many doors and windows. He wasn’t going to get rid of the girl and was already starting to think of something to convince her father that the Shelby Company was more trustworthy than Pearson & Co.
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Analyzing the 5 plays in this drama club poster .From the bts pics of stranger things 4.
So... some of ya’ll know I'm going through the st s4 films given to us by the official st twitter + the films reffed in the show itself or mentioned by the Duffers in interviews .
So I decided to look at the plays mentioned here. Because even if we don't see the monologues in the show directly - the Duffers wouldn't name drop anything unless it inspired them in some way. Similar to films name dropped in the show. Tw : for some dark themes .
This is just a quick little analysis I decided to do since we probably won't get any new st content today (3/22). Nothing too deep. Just mentioning things that caught my interest especially cause these plays have a lot of narrative connections to the st s4 movies I've been watching.
Invitation to a march (Authur laurents)
Reminds me of the stancy/jancy love triangle. "A young woman is having second thoughts about doing the right thing and marrying a respectable , rich, kind, young man with good prospects.By way of a prewedding diversion, this woman becomes interested in the passionate but poor and entirely unsuitable son of a local landlord.Basically, the plot concerns the efforts of Norma Brown to choose between a conventional fiance who "puts her to sleep" but is wealthy (like what her own mother did) or go for this new-poor guy. The play is principally interested in how this youthful love triangle affects the three mothers involved (whether the kids like it or not)
12th night (Shakespeare)
- viola (el) wrongly assumes a family member (hopper) is dead. She dresses up as a man named 'cesario'. A girl named Olivia falls for 'cesario' (violet dressed as a man). "Finally, when 'Cesario' and Sebastian (violet's twin brother: assumed to have drowned - Will) appear in the presence of Olivia there is more wonder and confusion at their physical similarity. Taking Sebastian for 'Cesario', Olivia asks him to marry her, and they are secretly married in a church. Cough if Olivia is 'straight' cause she fell for Viola (as a doppleganger dressed like her twin brother).Mike being into el who multiple characters in s1 said looked like a boy and specifically like Will is...suspish and a hint he's not straight lol. just like Olivia they're both into guys . plus, this play just has a butt load of love triangles (ugh i hated that aspect). There was also romantically coded letters (which was in the s4 films) . One character is also thrown into an insane asylum and framed as 'insane'.'Pretending that Malvolio is insane, they lock him up in a dark chamber. Feste visits him to mock his insanity'. We all know the psych hospital will be narratively important- talked about it more here.
The seagull (Anton Chekhov-russian)
similar to how I believed s4 will show m*#even already broken up since the months between s3-4 : act 3 (s3) ends with Nina begging for one last chance to be with Trigorin before he leaves/moves away. They kiss and make plans to meet again in Moscow.And in act 4 there's a timeskip where it shows they've been broken up for a long time between acts- and its established they never actually loved eachother. Do i even have to spell out why this parallels the m*#even ending in s3? There is also a play within the play (this is common in a lot of the st films- they have plays- or a story within a story- which illustrate certain themes or emotions of the characters within said film : blackswan, children of paradise, highschool musical, Rushmore, book of Henry, welcome to marwen, never ending story, romancing the stone, wet hot American summer, etc).The play is Konstantin's latest attempt at creating a dense symbolist work. There is also alot of love triangles in the seagull. TW!: for se#ual ab*se/su*cidal thoughts/ inc*st (here and in other play segments). The seagull motif reminds me a lot of Jonathan's rabbit story.Konstantin romantically into Nina shows up to give her a gull that he has shot. Nina is confused and horrified . Trigorin sees the gull that Konstantin has shot and muses to Nina on how he could use it as a subject for a short story: "The plot for the short story: a young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a gull, and she's happy and free, like a gull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this gull." This immediately reminded me of jon's rabbit story and some of the movies on the s4 list . Like in forrest gump- Jenny (who is poor) was se*ually ab*sed as a very young girl by her father. As a child she runs away into a field-away from her alcoholic father yelling at her -there she prays that she can "be a bird so I can fly far far away" .
Jenny as an adult struggles with this unresolved trauma- being with ab*sive partners, doing dr*gs, and having su*cidal thoughts . She as an adult when contemplating su*icide, jokes 'you think i can fly like a bird ?' while looking down at a bridge.God-i'm worried about jonathan (Jenny was also a musician sort of like jon). In another s4 movie example ' mystic river ' :(in the 80s) a preteen baseball playing boy is r*ped by men in the woods. He later says he wishes he could become an undead monster to not feel the pain of that experience - cause quote " if I'm not human anymore maybe the pain will stop" (Will) . slightly off topic but he also has another personality, imagines a alternate word that dissappears when he turns his head. And as a less direct animal parallel to the play - the boy from the film also imagined his perpetrators as monsters and wolves to cope.In 'getout' the photographer character sees a dead deer in the woods and it represents a parent/his own childhood tra*ma relating to his past. similarly in 'prince of tides' the 2 siblings as kids were ra*ed by men. The older brother remembered it and the younger sibling developed DID (so didn't remember but she would draw wolves- as the perpetrators/villains in her picture stories she created . In the film they also had an ab*sive dad and were very poor. She also tried k*ling herself multiple times-but started to get better after remembering the source of her pain and trauma. There is also the theme of multiple attempted su*cides in the play- and the play ends with yet another attempt- and the audience is left unaware of the artist's fate at the end of the play.
The tempest (Shakespeare)
Prospereo - (the perceived antagonist) is a wizard with monstrous looks, storm powers , and ability to create monster-dogs
He wants revenge on a man who tried ra*ing his family member & revenge on his other family member who wronged him years ago. I mean... pretty much my did theory.But in the end.Prospero decides to show his enemies the mercy that they did not show him twelve years earlier. He tells Ariel to bring the men to him, he will restore their sanity and then renounce magic forever.Prospero breaks the spell that the men are under .
Diary of a scoundrel (Alexander Ostrovsky-Russian)
- I suppose this could loosely relate to Jonathan? Glumov, is a young man from an impoverished family lacking status seeking entrance into society's pampered class. A 19th-century Russian scoundrel must scheme his way out of his meager life in a small apartment -whatever it takes.He has a quick mind and some talent for seeing through the hypocrisies of people around him ( Jonathan does make a lot of social critiques about society). That gives him some advantages. A tale of one man's mission to finagle his way into upper-class society and find a cushy job. Set in 1874, this social comedy follows Glumov, a Russian youth who begins his ambitious ascent to social esteem. He progresses by wit, guile and rhetoric. Pitting one stupid person against another, he soon gains his ends. To reach these goals, Glumov will lie, flatter, and cater to the vanities of the wealthy. Unable to contain his disgust with his victims, Glumov decides to relieve his unvoiced satirical comments by recording his schemes in a diary. But he is tripped up by his uncle's wife, to whom he has made passionate love on his way to success. At the end of the play, his diary is stolen and his duplicity exposed, but he can nevertheless suceeds. The author is much more critical about the high society itself than about the main character, so the play keeps attracting generations of directors by opening possibilities for political criticism while also avoiding naming names of the current rulers.The play's aim was to overthrow bourgeois tradition and establish a class-conscious art called eccentricism giving a deliberately comic portrayal of reality.
I suppose I notice some possible commonalities- besides s3 critiquing the wealthy/capitalism in comedic ways . jonathan since s1 has worried about his family's finances / had some resentment toward the rich . In some of the s4 movies ‘orphan’ & ‘ girl interrupted’ someone reads their diary out loud to get at them (in girl interrupted the winona character’s diary even had critiques of her new friends). Alot of movies also have someone (usually a teen/young adult) making a documentary about their life -which could narratively replace said diary? A few movies have a poor guy adjusting to snobby rich social circles (or being poor and then getting money)- titanic, kingsmen, karate kid, the craft , godfather, wardogs,into the spiderverse,flashdance, and many others . And movies like wardogs has a poor-young-character do shady things to finacially support his family . There’s also that whole uncle’s wife thing- which makes me uncomfortable for obvious reasons (but I’m just thinking of Lonnie’s creepy gf who was into him). A few movies had the guy’s step mom innappropriately hit on him- orange county & you got mail. And him trying to avoid her advances. Or...not to mention ... it may be a problematic coincidence /trope. But in enter the void -the guy who needs to finacially support his sibling/ does dr*gs -hooks up with his dr*g dealing friend’s married mom (who would give him money). Or in gilbert grape- the poor teen-who has to finacially support his siblings/single mom-has his endgame relationship be a girl his own age. But before that he h*oked up with a married woman -who would give him money. Don’s plum -young film guy-propositioned by older female film director (for dream job). Not even mentioning the other films that have the guy hooking up with toxic older women (like ‘the graduate’). Or analyze this-where the therapist accuses him of having an Oedipus complex (not touching that one... but the guy in ‘enter the void’ a 100% had one). It’s possible those movies were just- inspo for s3? A coincidence? Or s3 was foreshadowing for this in s4- but unlike s3 it will accurately be played as wrong and a sign of Jonathan recreating past tra*ma caused by Lonnie (cough like the photos) /being desperate for money. And not played ‘comedically’ like how it mostly was in s3. But shown as self destructive (for Jon) and immoral on the Woman’s end. Like... Billy and Jon are character foils. Both are older siblings into rock music, with ab*sive dads who shoved them into walls. Both lose it (and beat steve to a pulp when Steve accidentally triggers their daddy issues). In s3 it’s established womanizer Billy has mommy issues, than he tries ho*king up with someone his mom’s age, and the characters ref ‘back to the future ‘ and Steve incorrectly says it’s about “alex p keaton trying to bang his mom.” This could illustrate his subconscious issues with parental figures/adults cause of Lonnie’s possible past se*ual ab*se . One film the friend even says to the guy “you don’t have friends!” guy b: i have friends! him: no you have acquaintances! ADMIT IT! YOU’RE AFRAID OF MEN!I mean-Jonathan liked Nancy- but he initially hooked up with her cause he wanted to prove he didn’t have ‘trust issues’ from his dad. Also it’s prob a bit of a reach (and maybe a coincidence)- but the fact Murray in the same breath compares Steve (Nancy’s then bf) and Lonnie ... uh... if you think too long about it ... it’s very sinister . Especially because in s3: muray tells Joyce that despite her wanting to be with a nice guy, she’s curious about “the brute” Hopper despite him reminding her of a past “bad relationship”(aka Lonnie). Like- yeah connect some dots. Quite a few films (other than forrest gump) also have the character who (as a kid) was r*ped by their dad/parent- begin to do dr*gs/be pr*miscuous as adults since they never learned to properly cope with their trauma (’girl with the dragon tattoo’, ‘black swan’, and ‘magnolia’). Unfortunately the whole relative doing such things to kid-relatives is in at least 30+ movies.
Personally, i would be MUCH happier if Jon had a age appropriate romance- and had not a single creepy adult near him. A few movies actually imply Lonnie gets yet another ‘new model’ replacing his gf in her 20s with a new gf- who is ‘barely l*gal” and just turned 18. so there’s that possibility as well- that she’s jonathan’s age.I just want Jonathan-happy &safe. GOD. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?
#byler#byeler#will byers#mike wheeler#Jonathan byers#nancy wheeler#joyce byers#jim hopper#murray bauman#stranger things#el hopper#s4 theory#stranger things theory
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Some words on KumiRei since I’m in another Hibike renaissance and can give time to how I feel I don’t agree 100% with any major camps on how its perceived in the anime though I do consider it romantic
First off I believe KumiRei is not only romantic as a WLW, but both characters are aware of this romantic nature they don’t show anyone else, they are not in full denial nor are they just friends- instead its a complex weave of the two, and they act accordingly
Neither do I believe either is heterosexual but rather Bisexual (Reina) and questioning Lesbian (Kumiko)
I’m drawing from deeply personal experience on it which is part of why I think this way regarding them so in saying that I think the issue is people are too used to formulas when viewing media, if A is seen as true then it must lead to B then C and maybe D and so on, but while I’ve been guilty of the same I think that’s a limiting way to view/engage with art, love doesn’t have to follow the old They confess, Everything is fine in the end, They get married, They have babies etc. path
There’s nothing wrong with liking that concept but when you fixate on holding something to a rigid standard of expectations, then you’re missing other perspectives and bigger pictures, you’re kinda locking yourself away from accepting life is made of lives not just your own, experiences not just your own, and how you choose to deal with those lives and yours (See only the tree, miss the forest and so on)
Hibike! is a show dedicated to human interpretation and expression in all of its characters and their intricate relationships so applying formulas to it to me is inherently missing the point to paint it as something its not trying to be (and reading it as strictly heterosexual is ignorance of an lgbt perspective)
All of that out the way and being said, every Kumiko and Reina interaction is a progression of romance that has the complication of being between two girls in a contemporary setting; every word, every silence, every touch or look is framed as openness for two people who’s entire foundation is struggling to find a place among humanity and peers and even initially toward each other, they have a defined separation between how they see themselves as together, as one, with a completeness they show others only in shades, so that every gesture they make as people with others has consideration they practiced and established first between each other, they are the genesis for a measure of each other’s overall humanity
Kumiko shoots higher because she sees Reina live it; Reina humbles her pride for empathy because she saw Kumiko try it, the list goes on and has been said by many- Kumiko is Kumiko near Reina and Reina is Reina near Kumiko, no gimmicks no tricks no hung up reservations on trust like there is with others, they simply are together and that is so hard to achieve, to be understood
People get caught up on Reina’s unreciprocated (thank god jsdifsj Edit: i rewatched the scene where Kumiko tells Reina she's rooting for her after learning Taki's wife died and I love the sentiment but that's still fuckin gross and I'd really like the entire Taki crush situation squashed completely in S3 whatever form it takes- I get they're teenagers so they don't know better and that kinda thing does happen (I know from personal experience even) but it's still wrong) feelings for Taki-sensei as they do the Shūichi + Kumiko situation then think that means KyoAni has no concept of homosexuality for not depicting the expected formula cishet couples (and Yuri as an exploitative genre) depict rather than remember that for now and for most including myself lgbt relationships are not part of the accepted normal and so can't be compared nor should they be expected to integrate in the exact same way to be valid- and Kumiko and Reina themselves seem to operate on knowing this which lends them an air of sadness to a degree because they can't (for Kumiko and her CompHet/Side that dislikes upsetting people which I feel lead her to accept then leave Shūichi's romantic interest even more so because in the end being in love with him isn't who she is and walking away there is growth on her part) be their entire selves and act in more intimate ways on their homosexuality than they already are
They know their closeness is special to them, their attraction is special, they know it's not how they treat other friends, and they know by how they keep treating each other that it's a level of romance especially in the way they say This is a confession of love not just in having said such a thing, they're not in denial enough to stop being as they are together but they are struggling to reconcile and build on how they see their other relationships which includes the men in their life and social expectation given their lgbt sides in their identities, not just because the series treats them as people but because they're teenagers (I feel like people forget they're kids all the time), and no teenager ever has all of themselves sorted out at their age even more than most adults, teens should be allowed to safely explore what the hell the world and other people mean for them to discover themselves and that's what I think is happening
When I was their age I didn't consciously realize my best friend was the love of my life since we were 11 in my eyes because of denial and fear to act on it or take a chance on my intensity being reciprocated, instead I loved her more than I loved myself while still having crushes and being in love with other girls all the time- even as she and I had what I felt was the same level of intimacy, love, and openness, we even entertained the idea of growing up to live together and it was only as an adult that I finally looked back and saw what she told me she already knew about me being in love
Reina and Kumiko canonically mull over the idea that they'd be separated as time goes on, and I think the observation shouldn't be When will they be a couple but rather They're too scared of going all the way as a couple for life to pull the rug from under them, they are for now in love and guarding it, preserving it with the last bit of distance they possess in themselves, and the question is when will they be comfortable enough to not need that fear
Human relationships are complicated and multilayered and can never be fully defined by set order and if the show accepts that then it's how I want to see it
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do you have any ben/leslie headcanons! i love your posts abt them so much it's great to see someone get as emotional abt them as i am asjdkajhjd
i got this message and i was like "god, i dont really know if i have any headcanons" and then i opened my notes app and started typing and didn't stop for over an hour
i'm literally putting this under a break and organizing it into categories bc it's absurdly long
here it is
A COLLECTION OF BEN AND LESLIE HEADCANONS
PRE-RELATIONSHIP/S3
basically canon but leslie definitely had a crush on a young benji wyatt and followed the story religiously for the first couple months before she started college
ben is only slightly jealous leslie had ann go out with chris to try and get more money for the parks budget rather than leslie asking him out with the same goal. he knows it’s insane, unethical, and illogical but he’s still excited that he gets to spend the night with her on a date plus two other people even if it is to accuse her of bribery.
ann realizes early on that leslie was attracted to ben and teases her mercilessly about it. she thinks it’s absolutely hilarious that leslie wants to make out with "mean ben.” after april and andy’s wedding, she realizes it's more than just attraction and she lays off.
before ben can even think rationally about what he’s doing, he’s in line at bed, bath, and beyond with a crock pot in his arms, calling stephanie to ask her to send him their family’s chicken soup recipe
ann knew ben liked her from the beginning and was totally positive when she ran into him in the hospital asking for leslie’s room number while holding jj’s waffles and a tub of homemade soup.
ben realizes he’s falling in love with leslie when he is at city hall with her until 3am one night trying to budget for the amount of cotton candy machines she wants for the harvest festival. in his exhaustion, he naively believes her when she tells him she’ll go home in a bit so he leaves. he never gets a text from saying she made it home so he stops at jj’s the next morning and brings a takeout container of waffles and a coffee complete with an outlandish amount of whipped cream and sugar to the parks department. he finds her asleep in the conference room. he starts trying to convince sweetums to donate more cotton candy machines that afternoon.
chris had to have known ben liked leslie. he’s not an idiot. in the deleted scene from their wedding, they read out emails from their “tumultuous first week in pawnee” and chris writes to ben saying, “why are you so focused on leslie knope?” ben replies saying, “i’m not. whatever. shut up.” there’s no way chris is this oblivious. ben takes her out for a beer. ben pays out of pocket for a children’s performer to help her out. ben shows up on chris and ann’s date just because he thinks leslie might be there. chris can’t be this dumb. but when they take the city manager jobs in pawnee, he knows it can’t happen so he cuts ben off when he starts to ask about dating someone in city hall. he cracks down on the rule in front of leslie after the tom incident to hammer it in. he starts setting ben up on a bunch of dates to try and head it off. he sends them to indianapolis for the little league pitch because, realistically, he knows they’re the best bet for success but makes sure to interrupt their dinner and invites them to his apartment to continue to run interference the rest of the night. after their fights in 4.06-4.08, he hopes he won’t have to worry anymore. the next work day, they come into his office looking nervous and happy and he knows he’s about to lose the partner and best friend that’s been by his side for the past decade.
april and andy knew they were secretly dating. it went unspoken aside from a few implicit teasing remarks from april and a few suggestive attempted high fives from andy but leslie assured ben they wouldn’t tell anyone despite their ostensible behavior.
BREAK UP
ben had commissioned the li’l sebastian plush for leslie after he had died but the toy shop didn’t finish it until after they broke up. he felt bad not going to pick it up so he did despite not being able to give it to her. he kept it for all those months and sometimes thought about getting rid of it but could never bring himself to do it.
when leslie made personalized copies her books for her friends with individualized annotations and notes in the bylines, she had two copies for ben. there was one that she gave him during their breakup that was very simplified and watered down where the note basically just said “i’m really glad you decided to stay in pawnee.” then there was a second copy that she kept while they were split up that was totally covered in notes and random thoughts she couldn’t say during their time apart. she gives him that copy when they get back together and it may or may not be the best gift he’s ever received.
april was much less abrasive with them during the break up because she’s a sweetheart and wants her friends to be happy.
the first time leslie admitted she was in love with him was during a long night of drinking and crying at ann’s house
ben craved the taste of sugar during their breakup because he got used to tasting the sweetness when he kissed her
ben found himself unable to sleep at night without the sound of leslie talking in her sleep to comfort him
april texted leslie the night of the halloween party to let her know that ben and andy were at the hospital after a fight and everything was fine and she didn’t need to worry. leslie was mad at andy for a few days after and he couldn’t figure out why.
the only photo in ben’s bedroom was of himself, leslie, and li’l sebastian at the harvest festival. if he got caught staring at it and crying, he would just say he missed li’l sebastian so much.
april and andy started having star wars and star trek movie nights to try and cheer ben up
DOMESTIC
ben and leslie got in the habit of having weekly game nights with april and andy during the campaign since they were all basically living together. it became a tradition that kept going as often as they could make it happen, even after the kids were born. they try to have game night at least once a month. april pretends to hate it.
one of my absolute favorite ideas about them is that she sleeps much better when he’s around to keep her grounded. after they get together for good, she starts getting closer to 5 hours of sleep a night.
another favorite involving leslie’s sleeping: ben is typically accustomed to tuning out incoherent nonsense that she babbles in her sleep but she also has some of her best ideas when she’s not busy trying to focus on a million different things. when he hears her coming up with legitimately good ideas or making speeches or having solid debate arguments, he takes out the notebook he keeps in his nightstand to record her thoughts and quotes. he revisits and revises the notes to strengthen her statements and make them more professional and less rambling but makes sure to keep her distinct voice apparent in them.
ben prefers pancakes to waffles but he will go to the grave with that secret
this isn’t a headcanon because nbc posted it but one of ben’s holidays on leslie’s calendar is watch synchronization day which is the day they celebrate syncing their watches to, as leslie puts it, “always be in harmony, like our hearts” which is just one of the sweetest fucking things in the world
leslie makes ben read and watch all the harry potters because he didn’t get into them when he first tried. ben is much more of a success than ann. she buys him a ravenclaw scarf for christmas.
their first fight as a couple was a historical debate gone awry
since ben clearly has some affinity for custom stuffed animals, he has some made for the triplets.
they’re both dog people but they adopt a cat because sonia and stephen beg for one and it does fit their busy lifestyle much better. they love the cat. they get a dog when the kids are older and life is slightly less hectic.
they both love striped shirts and sweaters so much that they have to make a conscious effort to avoid wearing them on the same day and matching
leslie makes sweets and bakes desserts while ben typically handles cooking the actual meals
BASED ON EPISODES, QUOTES, AND THROWAWAY LINES
i always loved the ann/ben dynamic in bus tour because there’s been such an obvious shift in ann’s attitude towards him in this episode. maybe it’s because she and tom just broke up and she just turned chris down again and she’s frustrated with relationships but i think it’s her realizing ben isn’t going anywhere. since the campaign is winding down, she realizes that things aren’t gonna go back to the way they were because ben is now part of this and he’s clearly in it for the long haul. ann’s definitely jealous that ben is just as important to leslie as she is and she now knows she’s never gonna get that full attention back. ann sits ben down to have a real “don’t you dare hurt her” speech after this ep and before win, lose, or draw. this is when he tells ann he wants to marry her.
they discover they both adore the princess bride after ben says “as you wish” to her one night and after that it becomes their movie.
the wildflower mural becomes a thing between them when ben says he considered that to be their first date, prompting leslie to tell him what the mural means to her.
ben puts banjo boogie bonanza on one of the mix cds he gives leslie at the beginning of their relationship
harrison ford movie nights start after they both reveal they had a crush on him as a kid. ben was obsessed with han solo and leslie was into indiana jones’ whole history teacher vibe.
they basically hate each other’s taste in music and stop exchanging mix cds once that becomes apparent that they aren’t gonna find much common ground. they both love tom petty, al green, and etta james and music in that vein though.
ben makes leslie watch game of thrones just to try to explain why he’s called her khaleesi. she gets into it, not so much because of the show itself, but because of how passionate her boyfriend is about it.
they start learning basic french during the s4 campaign because they think it will be useful to have a basic multilingual vocabulary for their political careers and because leslie confesses she has always dreamed of seeing paris. they study spanish next.
ben makes leslie watch the star wars prequels just so he can complain to her during them. he doesn’t think she’s paying attention and then he reads about midichlorians in the paper.
ann is also in on ben’s plan to sneak vegetables into leslie’s waffles.
they will sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as the “dream team” or “dynamic duo” because, despite chris’s absurdity, it’s true
i’m open to literally any origin of this because no matter what it’s perfect but i like to think that “i love you and i like you” started at some point in season 4 when, at some point, leslie went “i like you” and ben replied “you like me?” “mhm” “hm just like me?” “yes i like you. i love you and i like you. both.” “mmm i love you and i like you too”
i barely even register some of these things as headcanons since they just live so solidly in my brain
this might be my favorite ask ever thank you for loving benslie enough to ask me this and be genuinely interested
if anyone read all of this, i love you
#most of me loves you for sending this ask but i just procrastinated so much work while writing this#ben x leslie#otp: deeply ridiculously#cherubsona#mail#this is truly absurdly long no one is gonna read this
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16 (FMA), 22 (Merlin), and 25 (Teen Wolf) for salty asks? Obviously, feel free to answer for whatever fandom you want- merely suggestions.
16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? (FMA)
I’ll have to wait until after my second watch to answer this more accurately, but from what I remember of my first time, I don’t think I would change much, haha. Watching this was an overall positive experience for me. I guess I remember being a little confused at the very beginning - as far as I recall, we’re kind of dropped into two “missions” that are kind of dark in tone and confusing, and I didn’t fully get hooked on the story until 6-10 episodes in, but I’ll have to watch it again to see how much of that was me just not being in anime mode yet vs me being confronted with actual confusing material. X)
22. Popular character you hate? (Merlin)
I actually don’t think there is a single character in Merlin I hate as a character - obviously there are characters we might hate as people, because they do terrible things, but I love them as characters and feel that they dramatically enrich the story (eg Uther).
In general, I often find myself on the opposite end of this spectrum, wherein I love characters that everybody else loves to hate (eg, Kilgharrah, Gaius, etc). This is particularly true in BBC Merlin, which is a show that I think asks the audience to interpret all of its characters from a place of compassion/generosity (because this is BBC Merlin, and that’s what Merlin’s essential nature is), whereas in the fandom sometimes it feels like a competition to see who can condemn/cancel which character most completely. I don’t feel like that’s the spirit in which the story is best enjoyed (for me; others may have fun in different ways), so I often wind up continuing to love characters that other people stop engaging with.
25. How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX? (Teen Wolf)
(putting the rest of this under a cut because my sister and I are currently getting her caught up and I don’t want to spoil her)
*SIGHS LOUDLY ABOUT THE END OF 3B*
Teen Wolf is, as far as I can tell, plagued by the “actor leaving before it’s time for their character to leave” issue, so it’s almost like...I can’t even criticize Teen Wolf when its story struggles. The story SHOULD struggle, when key characters keep being unexpectedly deleted. That being said, I still feel like killing Allison was a huge mistake. Whatever flimsy, transparent reason they would’ve needed to invent to write her off the show in a non-lethal way (ie the way Jackson was shipped off to London for no apparent reason)....they should have just gone for it. Yes, it would have been stupid, but it wouldn’t have had the effect of making me so angry that I stopped watching the show for two years.
I think Allison’s death was a great example of that George Lucas quote re: “by killing somebody, I think you alienate the audience.” They pushed too far and changed the tone to something shockingly grim and hopeless and as a result I checked out for multiple years, and even now that I’m back (right now we’re working our way through S3 so I can get padmerrie caught up and then finally finish the show for myself), my investment level is very different than what it was before 3B happened. I don’t trust the show anymore, and I don’t really...care what happens next, if that makes sense? I’m still going to watch it until the end, and I still love the characters, but I just...don’t have any expectations anymore, and I feel a certain distance between myself and whatever might be happening onscreen. The emotional investment just isn’t there, which was not the case before I was betrayed by that decision (and by the disaster season that followed).
#thanks for asking!#it's funny; we were just watching teen wolf last night...almost done with the 3A rewatch now#and then ONWARD#:)#replies#naruto#teen wolf#fma
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The Sterek List --Heads
I have a guilty pleasure in enjoying Sterek (Heads) and Steter (Tails) fanfiction, if you could not tell by the last post, it's crazy outta control like woah. I hope you enjoy this list of fics that make my day while keeping me up during all hours of the night and tossing my free daylight moments down a swirling time vortex.
...don't be like me. It's probably for the best.
--Sterek a.k.a Stiles Stilinski/ Derek Hale--
*a.k.a the inappropriate light of my life
Move A Mountain by ZainClaw (Complete: 9/9| 69,008) --Sterek/ --Biker!Derek
Stiles goes camping with his friends in New Mexico after graduation where they befriend a biker gang led by Derek: a guy whom Stiles can’t decide if he will be either relieved or devastated to never see again once their week is up.
Racing With The Wind by lowlifetheory (Complete: 3/3| 26,478) --Sterek/ --Biker!Derek
'Sure thing Scott, I'll give him a ride,' Derek practically leered. Stiles faltered, the sudden image of Derek pinning him down, his muscular torso rippling with movement. Derek's smile spread into a smirk as Stiles got closer.
'I'm not really comfortable with this particular mode of transport.' Stiles said clutching the helmet. He wondered what it was made of, how secure it was, would it save his life if he fell off?
'Don’t worry, I know how to handle her,' Derek said resting a warm palm on Stiles's shoulder, fingers squeezing slightly as he guided Stiles closer to the massive hulking black bike.
'I should hope so,' Stiles muttered glaring at the motorbike.
The Feeling That I’m Under by wearing_tearing (Complete: 20/20| 289,584) -- Sterek/ --Biker!Derek Bunnysuit/Paramedic!Stiles
Stiles is a paramedic and Derek gets into a bike accident. It’s kind of love at first sight.
Part of the Pack by JusteAmusant (Complete: 7/7| 13,035) --Sterek
Season one of Teen Wolf, seen through Sterek-colored glasses. Canon Divergence after season 1 idk there's slow burn Sterek and a puppy, and way more Derek sneaking in through Stiles' window
“He could have shifted in front of them,” Derek hisses. “That means they find out about him, and in turn find out about me.” He pauses. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s a washing machine, what the hell does it look like? It’s a puppy.”
In which Derek is a struggling Alpha, but still the Pack Dad, and oh god, does that mean Stiles is the pack mom?
(There's) Sulphur in Our Blood by WonderWolf (wip: 18/20| 178,650) --Sterek
"Harris put you on a recon mission with Derek. You. Alone with Derek. On a mission. Together,” Scott says, slowly. “Does Harris want you dead?”
“I believe so," Stiles says gravely.
(Secret Agent AU where Derek blames Stiles for his sister’s death and Stiles is pretty sure that Derek’s going to murder him. As if that weren’t enough to deal with, Stiles’ familiar keeps having public breakdowns. Oh, and there’s a mole in the agency, so there’s that too).
Prince Among Wolves by Rawren (Deshonanana) (Complete: 20/20| 101,000) --Sterek
Looking for full day/evening sitter. 2 twin boys age 4. Must have exp. w/werewolves. Must be human. No pedophiles. No teenage girls. Pay negotiable.
Pretty Human Virgin Boy Comes to the Pond- Feed Him All the Best Heads by Delta_Immortal (Complete: 8/8| 49,771) --Sterek/ --Dark!Derek
Stiles knew it was a bad idea to go into the woods, but little did he know his actions would cause the death of everyone around him. Running from the thing that killed Danny, Scott and Stiles stumble upon a pond, which happens to hold a strange man named Derek who floats around in the middle of it. Derek assures them they're safe now.
What appears to be salvation is nothing more than the start of the death of everyone Stiles cares about. The being known as Derek haunts him at every turn, unsatisfied until Stiles succumbs to Derek's whims. Stiles isn't sure if that involves sexing him or eating him, and he really doesn't want to find out.
*This had me like Holy Crap
It Was a Wednesday by isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella) (Complete: 2/2| 80,119) --Sterek
What happened? Where are you? What’s that sound?” Derek jumped, having momentarily forgotten Scott was on the phone with him because Stiles had started moving. He’d stalked over to the other side of the cave, still eying Derek warily and growling, then settled protectively over a mass of clothes, leaves and animal innards. It was probably where he was sleeping. Lovely. No wonder he smelled like death. “Stiles,” Derek said, answering Scott’s question. Or, one of them, at least. “Stiles? What do you—Stiles is making that noise?” “Yes.” “Why?” “How fast do you think you can make it to the south lot of the Preserve?”
*Looking for that Stiles whump?
I'll Be With You Through The Dark by the_misfortune_teller (Complete: 61/61| 138,101) --Sterek
"Me and Scott talk about everything, about all my poor decisions.” “So I’m a poor decision?” “Probably, yes. Considering how you rudely threw me out of your apartment the other day after convincing me to kiss you and admit that I like you." ~ Set post Season 2 finale. Stiles is having a rough time at home and finds himself going to Derek for help in Scott's absence. He doesn't expect for Derek to end up turning to him for support, leading to something more than just friendship between them. Slow, slow, fluffy slow build!
*Based on the spoilers that just keep on coming, this is very likely to be canon divergent for s3!*
I Think the Problem Here is There's Nothing Wrong by wait_for_it (Complete: 1/1| 5,156) --Sterek
"Stiles wasn’t really sure what was going on, but if he had to guess, he’d say Derek Hale was losing his touch. The amount of times he’d been called out with the guy, presumably to stake out some new supernatural baddie only to have it be a false alarm, was starting to inch into the double digits."
In which Stiles and Derek are dating and everyone knows it. Except Stiles.
The One You Choose by Livinginfictions (Complete: 7/7| 13,440) --Sterek
Stiles hadn’t seen Scott in over a week, except for glances he caught during school hours.
How I Long For Yesterday by sweetbutterbliss (Complete: 1/1| 6,017) --Sterek
Stiles blinks, his throat going dry, and he moves his thumb without thinking - liking the post. He feels a surge of petty satisfaction. At least the fucker will know he knows now. He stands up, his body feeling too heavy, and he blows out the already guttering candles. He lets out a sob of frustration when the last one won't fucking blow out. But he sucks it back in and bites down on his tongue, using his thumb and forefinger instead.
He throws himself into their empty bed without undressing. He lies there repeating the words 'Derek blew me off for Isaac' over and over. He tells himself to shut up while rearranging his pillow violently, but he goes to sleep with the refrain continuing its painful loop.
And You Say You're Alone by taelynhawker (Complete: 1/1| 30,314) --Sterek
Between the kanima, the Argents, and Peter's untimely return from the dead, everything has fallen apart. Stiles and Derek try to put their lives back together once the crisis has passed. Stiles deals with the aftermath of being tortured, and the distance growing between he and Scott. Derek attempts to become a stronger alpha and keep his pack safe, and that includes Stiles.
Can't Take the Heat? by Ilovesocks_24 (Complete: 15/15| 55,425) --Sterek/ --Chef!Stiles Chef!Derek
Hi, I’m Stiles, and what I have for you today is…”
“Stop, just stop.” Grumpy Eyebrows interrupted. “That is honestly the worst looking Pasta Primavera I have ever seen. I don’t even want to eat it, it looks so bad.”
Stiles narrowed his eyes. No one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara without even trying it. And no one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara after they tried it either. “It’s actually a Creamy Bacon Carbonara, asshole,” Stiles snapped. “And for the record, it’s supposed to look like that.”
Or the one where Stiles is a new sous chef at Full Moon Steakhouse and Derek is the Gordon Ramsay of all head chefs. So of course they fall in love.
*This is one of my favorites
Love Runs Wild by DevilDoll for neptunepirate (Complete: 1/1| 9,494) --Sterek/ Neckz 'n' Throats
"You've got a hickey on the back of your neck!" A Neckz 'n Throats story.
If I Could Trade Mistakes For Sheep, Count Me Away Before You Sleep by alisaj (Complete: 1/1| 33,383) --Sterek
"Thing is, Stiles," Derek says, his voice hard and unfaltering. "I didn't sign up for you. You just hung around until we got used to you being here."
That stings. He hadn't realised how Derek feels about him. They've been getting on quite well, teaming up on little missions and bantering back and forth without malice. Stiles sometimes lets Derek crash in his room after a big fight, trying not to let on how intriguing he finds the werewolf.
"Well now we can get used to you not being here. You're a liability, Stilinski. You can't protect yourself and we always end up having to help you when we've got more important things to do. You're out of the pack."
or
The one where Derek is a terrible Alpha and Stiles ends up walking into a big pile of shit.
Teach Me How Love Goes by RoseByAnyOtherName17 (Complete: 1/1| 9,482) --Sterek
Derek asks Stiles to have sex with him. Stiles says no, because he doesn't want to get his heart broken again. Somehow it happens anyways, but really, it's his own fault. He's the one who fell in love with Derek against despite knowing how bad an idea it was.
a taste for the forbidden by demonicweirdo (Complete: 1/1| 5,982) --Sterek
Stiles narrows his eyes. “I haven’t been doing anything to you.”
“Bullshit,” Derek snaps.
The air in the room grows colder. “I swear it. The only magic I’ve used around you is to make your crops grow!” Stiles takes a step away. “How could you think that I would… You know what? Screw you, buddy. I’m sick of walking in circles around you.” His words are sharp and annoyed, and his shoulders are tense, as though he’s preparing for a fight. “You feel something for me? Wow, it must be sorcery! Because - what? I’m not good enough for your feelings, Derek?” he snarls.
Hello, Heartbreaker by astoryaboutwar (Complete: 1/1| 18,472) --Sterek
It’s a popular joke among Alphas: fuck an Omega, get heartbreak on your hands. Omegas are fragile little emotional things, needy and whiny. Stiles refuses to become that, or to believe that he’s anything like that.
Stiles and Derek have been fuckbuddies for a while when Derek loses his memories of the past three years - and them - in an accident. (Also - everyone's a werewolf, and everyone's alive.)
Bruises and Bitemarks by orphan_account (Complete: 27/27| 121,566) --Sterek
Biologically, Stiles is weak. When he presented as an omega, he knew that to be the truth but that never stopped him from running his mouth as a defense mechanism. However, it could only save him so many times before he ended up pissing off the wrong person. After he's attacked in the parking lot outside of school, Stiles realizes he can no longer protect himself with just pure wit and sarcasm. When the attack lands him in the hospital, his dad forces him to pick between two options, report the alphas who attacked him or join a kickboxing gym run by omega rights activist and alpha, Derek Hale, a man Stiles has been in love with for many years. *Now includes an extended chapter featuring Nate/Jupiter*
I know that you love me, even when I lose my head by LunaCanisLupus_22 (Complete: 13/13| 135,577) --Sterek
“We’re not mates, Cora,” he insists. “I mean look at him-“
“Ouch,” the kid says, no longer pushing that shit eating grin.
“He’s- he’s,” Derek tries, at a loss of how to explain why this can’t be possible. Why it shouldn’t be possible. Or the one where Derek gets attacked by hunters, ends up with amnesia and forgets Stiles is his mate
#omega!stiles#alpha!derek#supernatural a/b/o#teenwolf#teen wolf#stiles stilinski#derek hale#sterek#amnesia#biker!derek#magic!stiles#stiles gets pushed out of the pack#tropes galore#neglected!stiles#chef!derek#chef!stiles#kid fic#stiles whump#single parent derek#fanfiction#10/10 would reccomend#fanfiction recommendation#mates#sad!stiles#dark!derek#assassins#angst#a/b/o
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SKAM NL S3 EP1 - Lucas Van Der Heijden
-
Lucas loves to party. It gets his mind off of his shitty life. Now it’s even easier, he’s living with Jayden and Ralph, the party animals.
He was trying to be better, to get out of a situation that was clearly not healthy with his mom. Lucas doesn’t care about his dad anymore, he didn’t have the right to leave like he did so fuck him.
“Here…” Kes gives him the joint back and he takes a long hit, letting it fill his lungs slowly, laughing when he sees Kes just staring at him, raising his eyebrows. “We’re sharing, you know…” He says and Jayden gets the joint of his fingers, smoking too.
“What? I can only smoke for half a second?” Kes nods his head, pinching his cheek.
“Yes, you’re too young and too skinny to smoke this much.” Lucas rolls his eyes, turning to look at the city while the other two continue to smoke. They have an amazing view from here. He can see all the lights still on, inside some apartments across the street you can see another party happening, but you can’t hear anything apart from muffled loud music coming from inside their own apartment. It feels like the city is sleeping at ease. Lucas wishes he could be at ease like that too.
“Shit…” Jayden is pulling him by his jacket to turn to them again, shoving his bag of weed inside one of Lucas’ pockets. “The cops are downstairs.” He taps the pocket and opens the door for them to get inside again.
“Wha-Why the fuck I’m the one that’s keeping it?” He opens his arms and follows the other two inside. The bag is not too big, you can’t see it, hiding inside his pocket, but he doesn’t want to get caught by the fucking police.
“Your baby face will help you, they won’t look for it in you.” Lucas looks at his best friend, waiting for any help, but Kes just shrugs and taps his shoulder, walking past the drunk dancing people, into the kitchen, just waiting for the police to ring their bell.
If it was up to him, they would have gone somewhere else, maybe Kes’ place. He kissed someone earlier, but he couldn’t care less about the girl, he did it because his friends were nagging him about it. Lucas is not even sure about her name anymore. He can see her staring at him while dancing with her friends, but he just ignores it, trying to act cool while he’s waiting for the cops to come and end the party and hopefully not inspect the left pocket of his jacket.
-
This room is way too fucking hot.
Lucas moves his legs until they managed to push the sheets away from his body, just keeping his feet underneath it. He blinks a few times, the sun is burning his improvised bed. It’s his luck that the only place they could fit a mattress in Jayden’s room was where the sun shines bright all day long. Most of the time is good, he likes the feeling of warmth, but today is just not the day.
Jayden forgot to close the curtains again and it’s too hot. He moves to his side, Jayden’s bed is empty, Lucas can’t remember what happened, but apparently Jayden didn’t sleep here today. He’ll have a taste of what’s privacy again. He looks at the door to check again: it’s closed, so he can close his eyes, trying to think of something...interesting while slowly pushing his hand down his body, pulling his briefs away from his skin.
“Good morning!” Lucas pulls his sheets back up to his shoulders while Ralph bursts into his bedroom, pushing Jayden in front of him. Jayden lies down on his bed and fully covers himself and Ralph comes to Lucas’ bed, looking at his phone, putting his head on Lucas’ chest, still looking at his phone.
“Ralph...knock on the fucking door, fuck!” He complains, suddenly feeling tired again, trying to move away from Ralph.
“Sorry, baby. But Liv is here! Say hi!” Lucas pulls his sheets to be fully covered as well, closing his eyes.
“Hi, Liv!” Jayden says in unison with him from under their respective sheets. The sun is not bothering him anymore, Ralph is, but the warmth starts relaxing him into his sleep again, Ralph and Liv are just background noise now, even the weight of Ralph’s head against his chest is soothing.
-
“Man, I knew I shouldn’t have left it with him, Kes!” Jayden is still whining and the day has barely even started.
“What the fuck are you talking about? It was your idea!” Kes laughs, shaking his head and he’s right. Lucas definitely didn’t ask to be the one to hide the weed. It’s not his fault that he lost it at some point when the police came in. If Jayden was so worried he should have kept it close to him.
“That costs money, bro!” Kes rolls his eyes, looking at Lucas, silently saying don’t worry. And he’s not really worried. He can’t remember half of what happened that night, he doesn’t even know how he got to his bed and how he slept only wearing his briefs. Ralph said he helped Lucas get to bed and Lucas took his own clothes off.
He has nothing to say so his eyes just wander around his surroundings. Deep down, Lucas is so sick of this. The same people every day, the same subjects, the same problems. Lucas has a heart and feelings and of course he loves his friends, it’s just that-
Finally, a new face. A good looking face.
Again, his friends are just background noise as his entire brain seem to focus on one person.
It’s hard to miss him, really. With a purple windbreaker with a neon-yellow line crossing his chest. His skin looks like honey when the sun hits at just the right angle. His hair is very short and bleached, apparently his mouth is constantly pouting just a little with soft, thick lips. He’s far away, but Lucas can tell he has piercing bright brown eyes that are staring back at Lucas now. Fuck.
“I’m still hungover and you’re talking about another party.” Kes’ voice slowly starts to come in the foreground just in time as Engel stops right in front of their table, blocking the way to the new guy.
“Hi!” She says happily and Lucas can’t relate to that mood this early in the morning.
-
Lucas shouldn’t be able to remember the guy’s features so perfectly. And he shouldn’t still be thinking about him either. Maybe he’s just a pretty face. Or maybe he just has style and long legs that go on for days. He’s probably just another guy that’s full of himself.
He’s interrupted again by Esra coming inside his bedroom without knocking on the door first. She comes with a soft smile that seems to be her thing, and sits on his bed, looking at him.
“I’ve got your weed.”
Maybe he’s in trouble. She’s always in a good mood and she’s the nicest person he’s ever met, but maybe he doesn’t know her that well. They don’t really talk.
“Ok…” With that smile on her face, he can’t read what she’s expecting him to do or say, so he waits.
“You want it?” She raises her thick eyebrows and her tone is still chill and soft. Lucas really looks at her and sits on his bed. Esra is holding something but he can’t see, she has one hand on top of the other.
“You’re going to give it to me without a lecture of why weed is bad for you?” It’s a push-and-pull kind of conversation that’s unexpected. She was the last person he could think that would have his weed. And if she did had it, he would never imagine her being so calm about it.
She finally moves just enough to turn her hand and offer him the little plastic bag filled with weed. Maybe he’s missing something here, but he slowly reaches and she lets him grab the bag.
“Thank you...?” Esra happily nods her head and like a ballerina with soft and perfect movements, she gets up, but she’s still looking at him.
“From now on, please clean your room, it stinks.” He’s still confused, but he nods his head. She’s not wrong and she just spared him of a lecture and having to deal with Jayden’s complaints, he can try to clean his part of the room.
-
This is the best part of summer. Having parties every day, you can even choose which one you wanna go because there are plenty of options. Still, Kes choose the worst one for them to go. Engel’s party are so fucking boring! It’s always just them and the girls. Everyone else doesn’t care enough about her to spend their Friday nights at her party. Kes and Isa keep stealing glances and Lucas can’t deal with that drama anymore. So the best thing he can do is get drunk.
“Does anyone want anything?” He taps on the table to get their attention. Kes just shakes his head, too busy looking at Isa to properly answer and Jayden just looks at him and shows his empty bottle. Two beers then.
The fridge is old, it doesn’t hold the temperature too well. As soon as he grabs the bottles inside, he knows they’re not cold enough. Lucas opens both at the edge of the counter and takes a big sip, not wanting to wait for the beer to get even warmer.
Looking from afar it’s even worse. The small apartment feels big. Jayden and Kes outside on the balcony and the girls sitting on the couch, watching Ralph and Esra trying to sing and dance to the music they choose in the karaoke. Jayden turns his body and puts his head inside the living room.
“Is anyone else coming?” Janna looks down and quietly looks at Engel and shrugs. Nobody is coming. Jayden seems to get that too, grabbing his phone again, probably looking for other parties to go to.
Lucas takes a deep breath, ready to go back to the sad party when someone opens the door, blocking the kitchen’s entry. The guy from the other day. He looks behind the door, straight into Lucas’ eyes.
“Sorry. Hi.” He can’t think of what to say, the guy just talked to him. He has a deep and calming voice that matches perfectly with his looks. And he’s just as tall and Lucas imagined.
The new guy finally closes the door behind him, still looking at Lucas while he does so and then he goes to say hi to the others. Lucas is still in shook and the others are singing too loud so he can’t hear when the guy introduces himself to the girls and then goes to shake Kes and Jayden’s hands.
There’s no way he can just go back to talk to his friends now. He is there, smiling and talking to Kes, of all people. Lucas leaves one of the bottles on the counter and quietly goes out of the apartment, closing the door behind him.
Janna’s building is a small one so he takes the stairs instead of the old elevator. The more time he has alone, the better. When he finally gets to the ground floor, his beer is also done and he leaves the empty bottle on the floor, walking out of the building. The streets are empty and Lucas has some time to himself.
He looks for his phone, but it’s not in his pockets, he forgot at Janna’s place. So he has nothing to distract himself from his feelings and his thoughts. Whoever he is, his name and where he comes from, he’s Lucas type. If Lucas could ever create someone made for him, that guy would be it.
The quiet night is interrupted by an old door opening and closing. Lucas looks inside the building just to see him again, the elevator door closing behind him, he’s looking around, stopping when he finds Lucas outside. He smiles and comes out too. Why does he smile so much?
“Hi.” He stops by Lucas’ side, grabbing a cigarette and lighting it in between his perfect pouty lips. He’s looking at Lucas, probably waiting for a response this time.
“Hey…” Lucas manages to say, looking around to see if someone is seeing this.
“What’s your name?” He turns his body a little so he’s actually looking at Lucas, he is being very obvious that he wants to continue the conversation, not just be polite to a stranger.
“Hm, Lucas. And yours?” Lucas puts his hands deep inside his pockets, pushing his thumbs against his palms, trying to ground himself. He takes one step back so he can see the guy without having to turn his body.
“Milan.” He offers his hand and they shake hands a second later. His hand is big and mostly soft, just not so soft where his fingers start. They definitely shake hands for too long. Lucas is the one to pull his hand away, shoving it inside his pocket again, trying to engrave in his memory how Milan’s touch feels.
The awkward silence turns even worse after the weird handshake. It’s heavy and filled with unknown feelings. And he can feel that Milan is still looking at him and smiling. Lucas bites the inside of his cheek, looking everywhere else but in Milan’s direction.
He hears some voices in the distance and it gets closer and closer. Lucas looks up to see a group of girls. He sort of recognizes some of them, but he can’t remember from where.
“Lucas!” One of them says way too loud and happily and he’s sure he should know her name, but he doesn’t.
Emma? Eva?
Whoever she is, she comes close enough and hugs him tightly. All he can think about is Milan’s eyes that are still on him and on the girl as well.
“Engel invited me and I thought you would be here so...I came! And brought some friends, hope it’s ok…” He didn’t ask, but she keeps talking like he did. Lucas is trying to think on what to say, maybe lie and say that he’s leaving, but then Milan would be left behind too. He opens and closes his mouth and the girl already moved on, saying hi to Milan too.
“I don’t think we’ve met...I’m Emma.” She shakes his hand and he fake smiles to her, shaking her hand too.
“Milan.”
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post of Chu2 rambles and predictions
i realized i actually needed to make this now that S3 is knocking me down with anticipation
blabla this thread is long as heck and incomprehensible so aha good luck if youre actually trying to read thru it. i just wanted a place to write my predictions down to see how right or how utterly wrong i am! whole thing’s under a read more cuz its a lot
spoilers for S2, the RAiSe! manga, and small spoiler for Film Live
Exhibit: Songs
I’m starting off with talking RAS’ songs because they give me a good basis to talk on several things regarding the band & Chu2.
There might be mentions of other songs, but I will focus on 2 in particular.
Takin’ My Heart
Imo, the most important piece in regards to Chu2 and her character.
That is due to Radio Riot #7 having revealed that the song is literally about Chu2’s beliefs/feelings.
It is also written by her in the Bandori canon (as all RAS songs are since she is the producer, but we know for sure with the Radio confirmation & also how the song came out past Season 2 that this is a song written with Chu2’s perspective in mind).
Raychell even said that she once cried singing the song during her own practice time.
Information source: Iviachupichu on Twitter, a faithful translator who often talks about the contents of Radio Riot episodes. Link https://twitter.com/iviachupichu/status/1106469855757164544!
TL of the song taken from http://www.rizuchan.com/bang-dream-cardfight-vanguard-takin-my-heart/ !!
Long falling down again I’m immature, building up lies and distancing myself from others I feel all torn up; I hold my heart Try to fake a smile… hey, my cheeks hurt
Cry… I hide my rusted eyes Cry… I want you to notice Oh, Come here, Please…
Takin’ my heart Does my voice Takin’ my heart Reach you now…? Takin’ my heart I don’t want to vanish pathetically Takin’ my heart Into a sea of loneliness I’ll just keep crying out to you Today, tomorrow, and for a long time after (Without giving up) I hope my feelings reach you…!
^ not the full TL, just a taste of the beginning
Clearly I don’t have to point out how heartfelt that song is, the lyrics speak for themself and aren’t very subtle (which is very much the point since she’s asking for her feelings to be reached after all).
I’m stupidly annoying when it comes to talking about Takin’ My Heart, I absolutely need to emphasize on the fact that these lyrics are Chu2’s honest feelings.
Expect parts of this song to be brought up throughout this a whole lot.
2. UNSTOPPABLE
Now this song has no confirmation on being composed with Chu2 in mind, considering it’s a very early RAS song and has been sung before we even got the reveal of the RAS characters.
However, I believe it DOES hold significance:
-I have no doubts that the introduction of RAS characters together with the band were in mind early on already, due to how early Bushiroad plans things months in advance.
-RIOT, the first RAS original, has very clear tones of it having been written by Chu2 in Bandori canon (a very arrogant sounding song, sure of its music and it almost seems like it’s directed at Yukina). Thus I wouldn’t put it past the production team having formed Chu2’s character around RIOT and UNSTOPPABLE, or they already had her type of character in mind when first composing these songs.
-It’s not far-fetched to say this song might have some ties to Chu2’s feelings since we’ve got the even more blatant song Takin’ My Heart.
I won’t copy paste all of the lyric translations, it’s simply too long, but here are several parts that stick out to me:
———————
The emptiness springs forth like I'm helplessly thirsty
My back droops... I put too much hope in each day
(Hurry up)
「Don't let me down」, I'm always told
(Hurry up)
Cornered, mouth covered, difficulty breathing
I'm caught in a trap
Please indulge in my annoying ramblings
I just won't stop seeking approval every day
Me, I'm my own accomplice,
with a fake me, dance! Dance! (Lullaby)
Doubt and worry stick their tongues out,
pointing at and ridiculing me
Are you enjoying? Are you excited?
Yes? Do you really get it?
Then that's fine
———————
Please ignore my annoying ramblings
I'll just abandon seeking approval every day
———————
My belief of UNSTOPPABLE still having an intended Chu2 connection also lies within the lyrics:
“Please indulge in my annoying ramblings, I just won't stop seeking approval every day”
From what we’ve seen in the anime, Chu2 definitely seems very attention and approval-seeking, specifically when it comes to Yukina.
I will talk about more specific parts of these songs (+ other one-liners from RAS lyrics) within the rest of this big time ramble.
————————————————
Exhibit: Chu2’s Past….?
A big emphasis on the question mark at the end, as we barely know anything about her past. One thing we know is that due to her excellent grades, she is in her first year of high school despite being only 14 & she studies/studied(?) in an international school, explaining her use of English.
However, based on RAS songs + some bits of the anime I can try to theorize on her past. It might be completely wrong, or I might just get it right, who knows, this is just for fun & speculation.
Family Situation
The anime made a point of how luxurious of a building the studio Chu2 works and has band rehearsals in, there’s even a ~50 seconds scene of Tae just staring at the building and the insides of it in awe.
Now whether or not that building entirely belongs to Chu2’s family, or only the studio, or it’s only being rented out, it still is clearly very expensive either way. The studio is often being used after all, too.
What that very glaringly hints at is that Chu2 is wealthy. Well, not Chu2, but moreso her family, who we know virtually nothing of.
Now that could mean that her family situation isn’t of significance at all like how it is with a lot of characters in Bandori. But that could also not be the case, considering that Bushiroad does dip into family stuff with a few characters (Saaya, Ran and Yukina come to mind).
Chu2 is 14 years old, so having her lyrics be based off of feelings regards her family/overall social situation isn’t that far fetched.
I’ll go ahead and say that personally I theorize that this might fall into the tropey category of “Kid of rich parents gets practically anything but barely gets attention from their parents”.
I can easily believe that Bushiroad would want to take a route different from this, but there’s a lot of freedom for theorization and I think going with the common route is a pretty safe bet for a theory.
Unlike Betadori they don’t dip into territory that is too angsty, it seems, but it’s not like they’d need to be blatant about something like that either.
「Don't let me down」, I'm always told
———
Please indulge in my annoying ramblings
I just won't stop seeking approval every day
———
Please ignore my annoying ramblings
I'll just abandon seeking approval every day
^UNSTOPPABLE lyrics
I think it’s important to point out the difference between the last two bits. The lyrics first start out as a plead for listening to her and approving of her achievings, later in the song that part changes to ‘just ignore me please’.
Those lyrics also explain Chu2’s personality pretty well, in my opinion.
Even after being rejected by Yukina she kept trying to get her to watch her band, basically asking for approval from someone whose talent she looks up to.
I also believe that Chu2 might be an unhealthy perfectionist, which seems like a thing that might rise the tension within the band, but more to that later.
————————————————
Exhibit: Chu2 in the Present
The childish child who won’t let herself be a child
Now if that ain’t a mouthful of a title, but hopefully I can explain my thoughts well enough so it’s somewhat understandable.
Chu2 clearly has a bratty personality and throws tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants, but to me it doesn’t seem as shallow as that.
The official website describes her as a professional who is arrogant at times, but not rude.
Need I remind you that this girl’s just 14?
Here’s what I think:
Chu2 is a child at heart. But she doesn’t want to let that part of hers show too much due to how she wants to be treated: like a professional.
But she’s clearly an excitable child, as it was shown with how excited she got over the studio when she came to talk to Popipa in Arisa’s basement. For that moment she lost herself and probably could’ve gone on for a while Maya-style if Pareo hadn’t reminded her of her “official greeting”.
What I think is that Chu2, due to wanting to be treated with high respect as a producer, doesn’t want to appear childish, so she holds herself back unless the heat of the moment gets her or she feels like she can express her excitement without it damaging her ‘professional’ manners. Like when she got pumped after a RAS live, for example.
A quote that could be overlooked but might actually have a little bit of relevance if the words were carefully chosen was the following:
“She thinks playing “band” like a bunch of kids is better than being in my group?!”
Tbh this literal child using the phrase ‘like a bunch of kids’ for something like…well, a band of friends being a band, just makes her seem like she wants to take herself incredibly seriously compared to other bands. To show that they’re not “kids” like the others.
In addition to that, she skipped a grade. In an international school. She seems to be really set on providing the best grades and world-changing music to appear worthy without letting herself indulge all that much in living a childhood. I could totally be exaggerating things, but I think it’s not too far-fetched of a thought.
Tantrums
Not a subject I’ll talk long about, but I think there’s things worth pointing out.
She’ll wait until whoever she’s angry at is out of her sight.
With Yukina she started yelling once Roselia was completely gone.
With Otae it’s a bit of a different case. This time she verbally even told her to get out of her sight before letting off steam, though Popipa weren’t completely out of hearing reach either.
2. She looks genuinely distressed.
The purpose of pointing out #2 is that she seems to have deeper reasonings as to why exactly she’s this desperate to have the perfect band/band members. Especially paired with the line of “I finally found what I’ve been looking for…”, she clearly isn’t doing this stuff just for fun and has got some sort of inner turmoil dealing with the fact that things aren’t going her way to which she responds, well, like that.
She’s not entitled to any bands or like anyone else obviously, and she needs to deal with that fact more maturely in the future.
But still, something HAS to be the root of exactly why she feels like this, to finally have found something.
It’s of importance to her, but why…?
I’d throw out the theory of seeking for approval again. She wants the perfect band that could make impact on the world. Maybe she wants the approval of someone (not Yukina, as she’s been searching for a while and clearly already felt this way before even seeing Roselia), probably someone older and personal to her. So I’d bet it on parents again, it IS the easiest answer after all, but who knows. There just seems to be someone (or more) she wants to impress.
Probably related to her bc it seems personal, if not maybe someone else she looks up to.
---------
Exhibit: I wrote all the above way before I’m writing this part
I genuinely haven’t revised the above at this point of time, the 7th of January. So some stuff might be outdated, but I kinda wanna leave it like that, to see what past me has come up with. I vaguely know and have skimmed, but I wanna write more beyond this point now without knowing the details.
Aka I might repeat a lot of things here now!
CHU2 is actually very much in tune with people’s feelings & desires...when they express them through music.
Now I’m pretty sure this is something I haven’t talked about (or at least not much). Chu2 doesn’t strike one as a very empathetic character, as one has seen with how she was still willing to get Otae back into her band, despite Popipa’s deep bond.
But hear me out. This girl actually can understand other’s feelings well, under specific circumstances. And the RAS manga “RAiSe!” proved that.
With each RAS member, it seems like she just knew their desires upon hearing them play. It’s not yet confirmed with Pareo due to Pareo’s 2nd chapter not having been published yet at this point of time, but chapter 1 already leads up to what I think is Chu2 confronting Pareo (online invitation first), and understanding that Pareo holds her true self back.
With Layer she knew she was unhappy- she knew she didn’t want to keep playing support. She knew she didn’t look very happy, especially for someone who played at Budokan. And through that knowledge she was able to persuade her to listen to her music and to imagine what it’d be like in a band together with other members who’d give it their all.
Very much the same with Masking. Masking’s drumming is intense, and she feels like she cannot express herself well outside of drumming. Her desire was to have fun in a band with others on her level, where every member gave it their all on their instruments. Once again, Chu2 was able to convince her to join her band, she let her listen to her track, and Masking did improv drumming on it, in turn also impressing the producer.
Pareo’s desire is to be accepted for who she is. Since she was small she hid her true self that loves cute things, and kept her distance from classmates, pretending to be the perfect student in the eyes of them, her teachers, her parents...and when she first saw Pasupare on TV, she cried due to seeing how much support they got, something she didn’t feel like she received. She found joy in uploading videos of her doing keyboard pasupare covers online without showing her face. The simple prediction here is that Chu2 finds her covers, meets with Pareo in one way or another, and is able to tell that she hides her true self. Somehow she convinces her to change that and embrace her true self, and that she’ll be supported by the band.
RAS songs often are about going against the norm- RIOT for example symbolizes a rebellion. Masking heard the demo song Chu2 gave her, and got the impression that it made one feel like you want to declare war against the world. That it seemed like “that girl” was trying to raise hell itself with her intense music. Even short bits like in DRIVE US CRAZY, one lyric line goes “Never Say Never Crazy”. RAS is a band about expressing your true self. And Chu2 very much could be putting those kinda desires and feelings into these songs.
A little thought here about Chu2 watching Popipa performances on two occasions with very different reactions. When Popipa played a supporting band at Roselia’s self-sponsored live, Chu2 was shown to be very disinterested in them. Whilst Popipa was great, Chu2 might’ve felt the anxiety that Popipa had in them at that point of time and thus had that disinterest. At the Popipa self-sponsored live at the end of S2 however she showed a completely different reaction, dancing happily along to Dreamers Go! and being embarrassed upon Pareo noticing. Maybe at this point she truly felt Popipa’s real confidence, and the bond that they share.
Not to mention she admitted to having felt moved by Popipa later on.
Chu2′s got something big coming. Hopefully in S3. Maybe later on. (Cough RAS in game COUGH)
There’s just a whole lot of signs pointing to that. Especially since Lock, the future RAS guitarist, really is an opposite to Chu2′s own ideals. All Lock wants to do is have fun in a band with anyone at any level of playing instruments, as long as she feels the dokidokis. Chu2 is very profession-oriented. It also has a great potential to be a little bit of a Roselia parallel, since that was the band Chu2 originally wanted to be the producer of. And Roselia had their struggles with the just-pro approach, learning that forming strong friendships within the band very much are beneficial.
A little step towards that I feel is already hinted with the Film Live, in which she appeared backstage with the rest of RAS, bringing flowers together with Pareo.
Even if she is huffy about it and it’s hard to admit for her that she does want to be nice and that she had been in the wrong regards past issues, it’s a step in the right direction.
Chu2 will have great development, and a lot of depth behind her character will be revealed.
#whew#chu2#not tagging more bc im actually p embarrassed ab this#esp since i didnt read through it all again#so lol just take this @ anyone who happens to come across this#AND reads it#theres prolly a bajillion mistakes nd junk but i cant b bothered#to read thru it all again
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Peace Is A Journey (Chapter 11/?)
In which Claudia and Soren contemplate weather, General Amaya becomes a folk hero, and Callum tries to wrap his head around the proceedings of a very eventful day.
(Chapter length: ~14k. Ao3 link)
Chapter warnings: Progression of permanent damage to a limb.
Spoilers for some s3 information pertaining to the Dragonguard and implications about Zym’s egg.
---
Something hit him on the cheek, not far from his eye; Soren flinched, and raised a hand to feel it. A droplet of water, trailing down his skin.
He looked up at the sky, stilling his horse, and received three more raindrops to the face. “Well, isn’t that just great.” He said, sourly, as Claudia stopped as well, her horse settling alongside his.
She followed his gaze, stared upwards, and took a raindrop directly to the eye. She made a surprised and vaguely alarmed snorting noise, rubbing at the eye in question, and grimaced a little. “….yyyeaaah,” She sighed, drawing the word out until it was heavy with resignation. “That’s a problem.”
“That’s rain.” Soren said, after stopping to whistle sharply to command the dogs ahead to stop.
Claudia sighed. “Yep.”
“That’s definitely rain.”
“I noticed, Soren.”
He glared at her. “We’re going to lose the trail.” He emphasised, as if holding her personally responsible for the unfortunate weather. He was kind of tempted to, honestly. Surely there was some sort of creepy dark magic thing she could do to mess with the weather?
She pursed her lips, and for whatever reason, looked up beyond the treeline to the looming silhouettes of the mountains. “Probably.” She admitted. “But for now, let’s follow it for as long as we can, until the dogs lose the trail.”
“And then what?” He demanded, restraining the urge to cross his arms if only because he needed at least one hand on the reins.
“And then, we go for plan B.” She said, eyes still fixed on the mountains. One of her hands fluttered over to rest on her satchel of magic-things, almost unthinkingly. “…There’s a town near here, I think. As long as the trail doesn’t go the completely wrong way, we can stop by and pick up some supplies. We’ll definitely need it.”
Soren frowned at her. “That really doesn’t sound like anything good.”
Claudia made a dismissive sort of pssh noise, and then spurred her horse back into a walk. “It’s nothing you’ll hate, don’t worry.”
“That’s really not-“
“Just move, Soren, until the rain completely wrecks the scent trail. Then we’ll talk about mountain-climbing.”
He blinked. Oh, right, she’d mentioned that before, hadn’t she? He shrugged, and whistled for the dogs again. Well trained and eager, they approached with tails wagging to weave between his and Claudia’s horses, eyes bright and intelligent. He smiled at them, and issued commands with a few more well-placed whistles, regretting that he was too high up on his horse to pat them. They responded quickly to the command and went on ahead to keep tracking, like the good dogs they were.
Following a trail for days on end was incredibly boring, but the dogs were definitely a bright spot. Being a Crownguard didn’t usually leave all that much time to spend with any animals other than horses, and it was usually someone else who took care of the horses at the end of the day. Not on this trip, though. He’d been brushing down and tending to both of their horses for the days of their pursuit so far, which he had found was just the thing to do to take his mind off…other things. Things Dad said he needed to do, which Soren really didn’t know if he could follow through on.
With a twinge of regret – for a second, Soren hoped they’d lose the trail. The rain was almost a relief, because…well, he couldn’t be blamed for what nature did, right? If they lost the trail because of rain, and couldn’t catch up to the princes…well, dad couldn’t really hold that against him, right? …Right?
…But Claudia had her dark magic things, so…the trail wouldn’t stay lost. He wasn’t sure whether to consider that a good thing or a bad thing. He didn’t want to disappoint Dad. But…
Soren thought of doing the right thing, and looked ahead, brow furrowed. The dogs were barking and sniffing, looking up to wait for the horses to catch up to them before running on again. Their mouths were open with tongues lolling around their doggy grins, utterly full of enthusiasm and cheer for the tasks ahead of them, and that did make him feel a little better.
The journey mostly sucked, and so did thinking, but at least the dogs were good.
---
The consecration was not well-attended. How could it be, when Amaya had announced her intentions to Opeli mere hours before? Gren was there, of course, though he wouldn’t be translating for her vows – they were for Amaya and Lady Justice alone, or so said the Priestess of Paragons. And what the Priestess of Paragons said, apparently, was how things would be.
Despite the short notice, there was still something of an audience, including a number of her unit. As soon as the word had spread, as it was wont to in a city full of gossiping guards with nothing better to do, she’d accumulated an entourage of soldiers who all of a sudden needed far more input and confirmation from her than usual, all full of a barely-restrained curiosity and eagerness that they probably thought they were successfully hiding. In the end she rolled her eyes, announced the time of the ceremony, and gave leave for anyone not on duty to attend.
Viren had come, too, though Paragons only knew how he’d heard. None of the other Councillors had heard, or they’d not have missed it for the world – even if they didn’t actually care about Lady Justice one way or another, something like the consecration of a new Justiciar was significant enough that they’d probably get a lot of mileage out of it at diplomatic meetings. It probably made good political conversation material…and Paragons wept, Amaya was glad that her job involved more battle and military tactics than political intrigue.
Or, well, it had. This consecration did, more or less, represent her taking something of a leave from her official duties as a general.
In any case, Viren had found his way to the Hall of Paragons for the event, which somehow didn’t surprise her in the least. He always did seem to find a way to know of everything significant that happened within the city limits. The man had seated himself in a row behind all of the soldiers who’d arrived first, calm and cool and collected as always, and she wondered, briefly, if it rankled him to sit behind people so much lower in status than himself.
“General Amaya.” Opeli murmured to her, turning to allow her to see the words. The two of them, plus the attendants, lingered in the archway that opened from the antechamber to the main hall. “Are you ready?”
Amaya shot her a look. If she thought the Priestess would understand it, she might have said, “If I wasn’t, after all this fussing over the ceremonial articles, I’d be very concerned.” Instead, she allowed the ascension of her eyebrow to do the talking, and watched the greatest religious authority in Katolis restraining a laugh.
The amusement reached Opeli’s lips, regardless, her smile slanting upwards at the edges. “Come.” She said, and beckoned her forwards. Amaya inclined her head, and moved into the light.
She wore her armour and her shield, of course, but the ceremonial adornments as well. The sword was her own, though it had been polished to a gleam, and was now carried at her side by an attendant robed fully in white, the metal shining from a cloak of navy velvet. Had she not needed her hands to make the vows, she might have carried the golden scales; instead, she was draped in a shimmering banner, royal-blue embroidered with gleaming gold, the symbol of those same scales shining in the candle-flames. Carefully, another attendant arranged the banner over her shoulder as she stopped at the podium and fell to one knee before Opeli.
The congregation was arrayed in the Hall, and rustled in a thousand metallic murmurs of armour-plating as she settled. One attendant righted the banner, the other offered her the sword; solemnly, Amaya settled it on the stone at her feet.
For a moment, she looked out at the hall – at the congregation – and felt the gravity of the moment settle on her shoulders with a hint of religious awe. She’d never been much for Paragon worship, herself, and thought that most of the commonfolk most besotted with it seemed to miss the point of the faith entirely. But, even so…the sight of the long hall lined with grand statues was undeniably impressive. Something about the whole picture of the place – morning light filtering through the mural-windows of coloured glass in the stone-hewn walls, ceremonial flames and candles lit along every foot of stone, the hushed and reverent quiet – it had a potent atmosphere. Potent enough to move even her.
The hall had been draped in Justice’s colours for the consecration. Blue and gold; almost the same shades that Amaya had been wearing already for years. If she were a more superstitious woman, she’d almost think it fateful. Instead, she turned the thought aside, and returned her attention to the Priestess of Paragons.
The attendants receded; Opeli turned to address the congregation.
Protocol dictated that Amaya ought to keep her eyes fixed on the sword at her feet. But at this angle, she had little hope of seeing anything that Opeli said, so she glanced up through her eyelashes, every so often, to see Gren signing subtly along. She caught snatches of the grandiosity, phrases like ‘pledges herself to the service of Justice’, and ‘as the sword is to represent the swiftness and the sharpness of a fitting verdict’, and Amaya assumed the symbology of the other two articles was discussed as well, but she didn’t manage to catch that.
In the end, Opeli turned back to her, and took a strip of white fabric in her hands. That was the signal she’d been waiting on: Amaya looked up, and watched her implacably as she spoke.
“You are Amaya, called the Shield, who come here today to be consecrated in the name of Lady Justice, that you might act with Her will, and speak Her truths, and mete out Her sacred justice where you find it is needed.”
Amaya’s part in this was, for the most part, marvellously redundant. It felt more sacrilegious than usual, to sit here at the podium and think the trappings of ceremony pointless, but her opinion remained: her vows seemed largely redundant when Opeli was saying it all anyway. All she did was repeat the Priestess’ words back at her, fingers careful, signing “I am Amaya, called the Shield, and I come here to be consecrated in the name of Lady Justice. I will act with her will, and speak her truths, and mete out her sacred justice where I find it needed.”
Opeli nodded, satisfied, as if she’d understood a word of it. Amaya could have been saying ‘I intend to prance around farmsteads waving this banner and clanging loudly on my shield to wake the goats’, for all she’d know.
Well. She thought Opeli did have a basic vocabulary of sign, but…even so. She could hardly be understanding enough to ensure the vows were valid. It was a matter of trust, she supposed. And, really, if Opeli couldn’t trust the person she was consecrating to take it seriously, she probably shouldn’t be consecrating them in the first place.
“I call on you to administer justice swiftly, when it must be done, and to neither flinch nor hesitate in your duty.” Opeli said, to evoke the Sword. “I call on you to weigh the crimes and the harm that a person may wreak against their character, their circumstance, and aught else that may drive them.” The Scales. “I call on you to blind yourself to that which drives you, and that which you think, and that which you have been raised to know, that you might judge as does Lady Justice: without bias, without discrimination, and without any sour influence that might cloud your sacred judgement.” The Blindfold, the representation of which was still held in Opeli’s hands.
Traditionally, Amaya knew, the blindfold would have already been tied around her eyes. But then she wouldn’t know when she was being spoken to, or when she was meant to speak herself. She had an inkling that she was probably the first deaf Justiciar yet. Certainly there had been amputee Justiciars – at least one, since every self-respecting child in the Pentarchy had been raised with the stories of Old Heartwood and his outlandish Xadian prosthetic – but if there’d been others who were deaf, she’d not heard of them.
Opeli had apologised to her, beforehand. Said she’d normally have devised a full alternative ceremony that accommodated her deafness, but that it was a little short notice. Apparently, given the symbolism writ in every detail of the consecration, there had to be careful and lengthy thought given to the crafting of a variant ceremony, and since Amaya had to leave more or less the instant this was done….well, there just wasn’t time. It wasn’t ideal, but it was enough for her. Tailored ceremony or not, she’d become a Justiciar today.
Amaya recalled, at once, just how many historical Justiciars were folk heroes, and had to restrain a grimace. If there was any Justice in the world, she’d never suffer such a fate.
Amaya snapped herself back to attention at the indicative tap of Opeli’s finger, her signal to speak, and spared a moment to be glad she’d practiced this a few times to memorise it. Carefully, she shaped her fingers and prepared to repeat the Priestess’ whole spiel back at her…and paused, just for a second, to run her mind over her reservations. As much as she’d never been much of a good religious woman, Justiciars were important. They were sacred. The respect was ingrained into her bones, part of a cultural and moral heritage that went deeper than religion alone could signify. Amaya could not, in good conscience, speak these final vows if she didn’t mean it.
So maybe, no matter how she liked to mock a lengthy and contrived ceremony, there was some point to it after all.
The swift administration of justice wouldn’t be a problem; Amaya had ever been talented with a broadsword. The weighing of harm…that was harder. That was the sort of thing the law officials were meant to train for – the sort of thing Justiciars were meant to train for. She had a better awareness of the Law than most every other soldier in the Pentarchy, due to her rank and familial connections, but even so…she still doubted, very much, that it was a good enough substitute for the decades of cross-discipline training a Justiciar-aspirant usually undertook before they were consecrated.
Still, she could mostly accept that Opeli knew better than she did. Opeli was devout. She believed in the Paragons, in the original teachings of Paragonism – that it was the duty of every living person to embody the best of themselves, and be truest to their greatest virtues, and act as if they themselves had a Paragon within them, waiting to be named. Opeli believed in the concept of Justiciars – believed that Amaya could and should open herself up to become a true vessel of virtue, and act in the world as an extension of Justice herself. And if Opeli believed so strongly, who was Amaya to question it?
Except she had to. Because how could she ever think herself capable of the Blindfold?
She was hunting an elf that might, or might not, have killed her nephews. Her boys. Sarai’s sons. How could she possibly approach objectivity in a matter so horrifically, viciously personal? She thought she’d be hard-pressed not to cleave the assassin in two the moment she saw her, no matter her guilt, no matter the weighing of the harm. How could she possibly stay her blade from a creature like that?
…Opeli trusted her as a Justiciar, which Amaya thought she had good reason to doubt. Opeli did not know her all that well, after all.
But Gren had faith in her, too, and that meant a great deal more.
She exhaled, and raised her hands to speak the vows.
She swore to wield the Sword. She swore to use the Scales as she ought. She swore, albeit falteringly, to wear the Blindfold.
Opeli reached out then and tied the ridiculous symbolic strip of fabric around her eyes. From then on, Amaya had only her expectations and her remaining senses to go on. Her heartbeat resounded steadily beneath her skin eight times before Opeli’s fingers touched her brow, cool with the wet ashes she painted there. The symbol of the Scales. She withdrew, and then for a while, there was little to go on.
She had an idea of what Opeli was saying, of course, and Gren would retell it for her later. The Priestess of Paragons accepted her vows, and declared her Justiciar until such a time as she abdicated or until she died. She was ostensibly informed that, should she ever break her sacred oaths, the title and the honour would be stripped from her, and she would never again be welcome in a house of Paragons, nor be permitted to speak in a court of law, nor have the right to sit in authority over any other soul than her own; she would be named across the kingdoms as a barren thing, honourless and forsworn, to wander in the empty and cursed and soulless way that all oathbreakers must do.
Which, she supposed, gave her some extra incentive to not lose her mind at the first glimpse of an elven murderess. There were stories about oathbreakers, too – and none of them good.
The blindfold was lifted from her eyes, all the candle-flame of the hall blurring back into view. Opeli smiled, and looped the thing twice around the hand that held the sword. “Rise, Justiciar, and go forth.” She said, and stepped back, clasping a hand to her chest: respect of the Priestess of Paragons to an agent of the divine. Behind her, the congregation rose, and did likewise, heads bowed. If Amaya were the type to be easily embarrassed, it might have been mortifying. Instead, she only bowed her head in turn, and took the holy articles with her as she left, striding down the Hall.
Behind her, Gren and a few of her Battalion peeled off from the congregation, and followed. Gren caught up with her not long before they reached the doors, but didn’t speak until they were outside, stepping out of the side of the Valley that the Hall of Paragons had been excavated from.
She eyed the other end of the Valley, briefly, where her sister’s grave presided. But there was no time for that, and she turned to stride the other way.
“Congratulations.” Gren said to her, with his hands, as they walked. “How do you feel?”
She considered it. “Tired and ready to get moving.” She decided, after a moment, and rolled her eyes at the way his face fell. “I also have an uncomfortable feeling that this is going to get a song written about me.”
“Another one, you mean?” Gren inquired, with a very specific sort of innocent expression that meant he was teasing her. “Didn’t the one near the border praise you as being an embodiment of Valor?”
She made a rude gesture at him. “Seems like I can’t go a year without tripping over a Paragon these days.” She said, though it felt a little sacrilegious to say it while still wearing the ceremonial pieces. “Someone will be trying to consign me to Mercy next, I’m sure.”
Gren’s lips pursed as he thought. His hands moved the next moment, saying “Fortitude, I’d think. I’ve already heard people muttering about that on the long marches.”
She sighed. “Of course.” She made sure to sign it with all the weary emphasis she could, because really. “Better than Mercy, at any rate.”
He offered a very pointed look at the Blindfold still looped around her arm, but said nothing. Still, the lack of comment felt cheeky, in that very characteristically Gren way, where he’d never so much as think of saying anything impolite, but the implication…
Amaya shook her head at him, just a little fondly, and gestured for them to hurry up. If they were going to get moving this afternoon, it had to be soon.
---
After what had happened – what Ezran had done – it felt utterly bizarre to set out walking again.
It was so…normal. Routine. They fell into the familiar rhythm of traversing unpleasantly steep slopes, and the increasingly-familiar menial vagaries of travel. Callum’s shoulder grew sore again from the strap digging into it, the items in his pack conspired to dig into his spine in the most uncomfortable ways possible, and his legs resumed their perpetual complaints of ill-treatment. It was unspeakably weird to keep climbing and keep walking as though everything was normal, as though nothing had changed, when – less than an hour ago – his little brother and an unhatched dragon had worked a miracle.
He kept looking at Rayla, and her hand, not quite able to make himself believe in what had actually happened. It was so…surreal. This morning he’d woken from nightmares, not long after that he’d been fighting off panic with what seemed like every breath, and now…
Now, they were…walking.
The bewilderment of it hadn’t quite worn off. Neither had the part of him that was coiled and anxious, waiting for disaster to strike, waiting for time to run out. He could still feel the tension of it in the pit of his gut, though so much lighter than it had been before. He kept waiting for something to go wrong. For something to change. But…
Despite everything, against all odds…it had happened. A miracle.
That thought, whenever it arose, made him stare back at his brother again, as if seeing him for the first time. It was just…Ezran. His little brother. A weird kid, true, but – who could have predicted he’d pull something like that out of nowhere? Except, he supposed, it wasn’t exactly out of nowhere, he’d seen the way he’d behaved with that egg, after all.
It seemed that no matter what he looked at, he was doomed to bewilderment. There was Rayla and her miraculously-probably-saved-hand, there was Ezran and his improbable dragon-channelling talent, there was the increasingly stark and mountainous terrain that he had ascended himself, so far away from home…
It was all so bizarre he pinched himself once or twice along the way, just to make sure it wasn’t all some crazy dream. And even that couldn’t dispel the surreality of everything.
Part of him kept wanting to stop and have another hysterical moment or ten to try to come to terms with everything that happened, but Rayla was still walking and Ezran was still walking so that meant he was walking as well, even though everything was crazy and he had no idea what was going on anymore-
“Stop that.” Rayla told him, abruptly, the words such a shock in the midst of his preoccupation that he stopped and nearly tripped over a rock. Ez stopped as well, and tilted his head in their direction, curious.
“…Er, what?” He managed, after a second.
She shrugged, reaching into her pocket to extract a piece of willow bark she’d stashed there. “Whatever you’re worrying about.” She elaborated, and popped it into her mouth. “I can practically see your thoughts getting all tangled up in there.” As she said the last word, she leaned in and tapped him on the forehead, a smile pulling at her lips as she drew away again. He intended to roll his eyes at her, but what actually happened was that he started staring and couldn’t quite stop until she made a face at him. “What?” She demanded, arms folding. His eyes, almost on reflex, followed the motion of her hand.
“Aren’t you worrying? About…anything?” He found himself asking, a little bemused. With all that had happened – how could she not be worrying about something?
“Like what?” Ezran asked, in her place, with a guileless frown. Rayla looked a little more understanding as she inspected him, but…yeah, neither of them seemed to be fretting like he was.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Callum started, a little sarcastic, waving his hand as though confused before gesturing it emphatically at Rayla’s, still dark, still bound. “That, maybe?”
Rayla seemed vaguely sympathetic at that, but…not worried. Ezran, on the other hand, just kept frowning. “But we loosened it.” He insisted, setting Bait down at his side as if he felt the need to have his hands free for the conversation. “Her hand’s gonna be fine now.”
“Is it, though?” Callum demanded, and then – then, perhaps unsurprisingly, all the worries that had been chasing themselves in his head came spilling out. “Are you sure about that? Because it looks to me like it’s still hurting her, and – don’t you remember what the Healer said? Taking the binding off might make some horrible….body-shock-thing happen!”
She grimaced at that, but hadn’t managed to open her mouth to say anything before Ez got his reply off. “But we didn’t take it off.” He pointed out, firmly, as though he thought Callum were perhaps missing something abundantly obvious that needed pointing out. “We just loosened it, like the Healer said. So she should be fine.”
“’She’ is standing right here.” Rayla said, dryly, hands going to her hips. She raised an eyebrow at them as they turned to look at her again.
“…Sorry.” He offered, after a moment. “But even if the binding just loosened – it was still by kind of a lot, right? What if it does…” He waved his hands sharply, frustrated at the lack of good terminology. Increasingly, he couldn’t stop remembering the Healer’s warnings about the dangers of reviving a near-dead limb; how the experience could shock the body, and poison it, and strike at the heart to still it. He hoped that, given the binding had only been loosened and not outright removed, it wouldn’t get that bad. The Healer had advised they impose their own looser binding if they managed to remove the first, and…well, that was essentially what had ended up happening, so…it should be fine, right?
But what if it wasn’t fine?
“…Poison my blood?” She suggested, after a moment, moving her bound hand to look at it herself. She flexed the fingers with a slight grimace.
“I guess?” He sighed, and followed her eyes to it. She’d put on a jacket about an hour ago, evidently starting to feel the chill of their surroundings, which obscured even the bandages over the binding. “I mean…does it feel any different? Better? Worse? I can tell it’s still hurting you.”
“Was it the willow bark that gave it away?” Rayla said, still dry, but eyes remaining on her hand. After a moment, she shrugged, and answered “It still hurts, I suppose, but in a different way. Feels more like pins-and-needles now. Before it was just kinda….numb, and aching.”
Ezran winced in sympathy. “I hate pins-and-needles.” He expressed, expression going pensive. “One time me and Bait were waiting in the grate behind the baker’s kitchen for hours, because we timed it wrong and there were a load of people there, and by the time we got out there were no jelly tarts left and my feet were completely numb. All the prickling was horrible.”
Her lips quirked upwards, clearly amused. “Think that, but maybe ten times worse.” Rayla advised, and his brother shuddered.
Callum didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the story, being more focused on her hand. “Does your pulse feel normal?” He asked, and in an unthinking gesture, reached out to check for himself. She looked momentarily startled as his fingers settled on her skin, but held the hand out for him anyway.
“How should I know?” She asked, sounding a little exasperated as he pushed her sleeve back to investigate the binding, hesitating at the bandage. In the end, he’d grown familiar enough with where to look for her pulse that he just felt for it through the bandaging, and…well, it felt normal enough? Not too fast, not too slow, not weak or jittery or anything…
“….I think it seems okay for now.” He decreed, almost reluctantly, and stepped back again. “But you should tell me if anything changes, alright?”
She rolled her eyes. “You worrywart. I’ll be fine.” She pronounced him, with an oddly fond smile, and then walked off up along the path again without so much as a by-your-leave.
Callum sighed, patted Ez on the shoulder, and followed after her.
---
The walking today was depressingly steep. It was almost entirely uphill, and the ongoing ascent was starting to wear strangely at the heels of his feet. They were growing sore, in a sort of abrasive way that he thought heralded blisters. His boots were broken-in enough by now that it had been a long time since he had any blisters, but apparently, enough mountain-hiking was perfectly capable of changing that. He wondered, uneasily, if he’d need to start padding his heels to stop them blistering too badly. It wasn’t as though he’d be able to stop climbing mountains any time soon, after all.
Rayla did not find a campsite she liked in the next hour, so he just…walked, and watched, and reflected on how much a single day could change everything.
Only a few hours ago, he’d been crying with relief. They’d all cried and laughed and shook like leaves from the awful, wonderful, horrible catharsis of what had happened. He still felt a little fragile – strange and tremulous, like his emotions weren’t quite up to any more hits or surprises, and he might have a breakdown at the first hint of trouble. It was unpleasantly exhausting, how wrung-out the experience had left him, as though all the mounting stress and dread he’d been cultivating had torn its way straight out of his gut, leaving the space behind empty and terribly raw.
He’d never imagined that something so fortunate – so miraculous – could leave him feeling so drained.
And, despite that, despite what had happened, despite everything…they were just…walking.
It wasn’t like they could stop, what with how far they had to go, and the lack of a suitable campsite, and the risk of ambush that Rayla insisted existed. According to her, those hunters they’d tied up ought to be able to get free and get to Verdorn within the day, and then they could mount some sort of pursuit force. So there was definite pressure to keep moving, but…still. It hadn’t stopped feeling strange.
Rayla chewed willow-bark more or less continually as they walked, and carefully pressed at her still-bound hand even though it made her grimace awfully. She avoided the raw bandaged area around the bind, but…even with the thing loosened, it obviously wasn’t going to be an instant fix. Her skin still looked dark, albeit not quite as much so, and she was obviously still in pain. Evidently though, it was better enough that the jacket she’d put on earlier wasn’t bothering her too much.
It was strange to see her in a jacket basically identical to his. Strange enough to distract him from worrying for a good few minutes, but certainly no longer.
He stewed over his concerns in silence, unable to stop and yet not wanting to bother her too often with queries about her health. In time, though, with something approaching mercy, the actual walking became tricky enough that it commanded a lot of his attention, and he couldn’t afford to dwell too much. The way ahead became more and more precipitously steep, and much more rocky; the incline seemed to be too much for most trees, and all at once the forest thinned noticeably. The trees that remained were pale shadows of the vast things in the forest below, with thin trunks and comparatively short statures…but, evidently, very stubborn roots. Some of them clung to the cliff-edges at frankly alarming angles, looking like they’d fall off at any moment.
They kicked up clouds of stone-chips as they walked, sending tiny dusty avalanches clattering down-slope. Without the thick carpet of years’ worth of pine needles, the ground was silt and gravel, and dangerously loose. He slipped a few times before he got the hang of looking for firmer, rockier foot-holds, and several times had to clamber up the steeper areas with his hands holding onto the rock for support. Ezran, with his smaller stature, needed help up the steeper sections frequently – and he’d had to hand Bait over to Callum entirely. The glow-toad was riding haphazardly stuffed into the top of Callum’s backpack, because there was no room for him in Ezran’s.
Rayla called for a break after one particularly unpleasant stretch that was basically rock-climbing rather than walking, and they collapsed gladly against some nearby boulders.
“Is it going to be this steep all the way up?” Ezran asked, a little plaintively, as he caught his breath. He seemed to be holding up better under the strain of the climb than Callum, because Callum couldn’t quite conceive of the idea of talking yet. He was too busy with things like breathing, and contemplating how unnaturally comfortable boulders became when one was exhausted enough.
Rayla, who had crouched near them but not deigned to sit down, peered up the slope and shrugged. “Hard to say. I’ve not gone through these mountains before.” She said, grimacing as she pressed her fingers into the palm of her hand, the skin going white in their wake. “But…probably, yep.”
Ezran groaned, and Callum would have done the same, had Rayla’s hand not distracted him. He blinked at her, decided it had probably been long enough since the last time he asked, and after a few seconds mustered the energy to ask “How’s your hand doing?”
She glanced over at him, then back down at her hand. She grimaced a little, then rolled the sleeve of her jacket up to show him her arm. He made a dismayed sound at the same time she exhaled, leaning forwards as she said “Well, my whole arm is sore now.” She made a face at the arm in question, and he could see why. “I didn’t expect to be able to see it though.”
There were raised pink lines along her skin, taking routes that looked like the pathways of veins. Pathways of inflammation, travelling with her blood. “Why didn’t you say something?” he asked, dismayed, and touched his fingertips to the skin to gauge the temperature. Was it warmer than it ought to be? He couldn’t tell.
“It’s not exactly agonising, Callum.” Rayla told him, dryly. “It’s just a little sore, like I worked the muscles too hard. Anyway, I’m assuming it’s normal.”
“Normal.” Callum repeated, deeply sceptical.
“As normal as something like this gets. Lots of nasty in this hand, right? And now it’s…circulating.” She shrugged, as though unbothered, but he thought he could see the hint of tension around her eyes.
“Isn’t that bad?” Ez asked, anxiously, as he shuffled over to look. “Didn’t the Healer say that that’s super risky?”
“From what I eavesdropped on, she thought it would help if it’s done slow and careful. And my hand’s still bound, so…probably counts.” She shrugged, trying for nonchalance, but he could see the tightness around her eyes. She was worried, too.
He inspected her, attempting not to be too outwardly anxious, and then reached out to take her healthy hand before he’d quite thought it through. He settled his fingers over her pulse to feel it, and asked “Does your pulse feel weird? Do you have any…I dunno, weird aches that aren’t in your arm?” Her pulse…well, he wasn’t exactly an experienced and knowledgeable pulse-taker, but he thought it felt a bit strange. Too fast, too light, and jittery. Oddly irregular.
She grimaced, and he saw a little of her fear slip through into her expression. “…Does feel a bit weird.” She admitted, quietly. “Hard to describe, though. Jumpy, maybe?” She shrugged, plainly uneasy. “So far it’s only my arm that hurts, though.”
Callum clamped down on his anxiety as best he could, holding silent for several seconds, and then released her wrist. “If your heartbeat feels off, I think you need to be careful to take it easy.” He said, eventually. “Don’t let yourself get too out of breath. Take lots of breaks.”
“…Sure.” She said, unconvincingly, and he glared at her. Crossed his arms, even.
“I know you don’t want to waste time.” He told her, with a little asperity. “But if you push yourself too hard while you’re sick and you have a heart attack – I don’t know about you, but I don’t know the heart-starting spell.”
She straightened a little at that, and while she did glare back at him a little, he thought something in his words had struck her. “…I did sort of guess that, Callum.” She said, dryly, and rotated her dark wrist a few times, careful.
He did not unfold his arms, and stared at her expectantly. “So….?”
She rolled her eyes, and pushed away from the rock she was leaning against. “Ugh. Fine. I’ll go easier on myself. Happy?”
“Ecstatic.” He answered, in tones just as dry as hers. She rolled her eyes again, standing with enough abruptness that it seemed a dismissal.
“Good.” She said, hefting her bags. “Because it’s time to keep going. Still a long way to go today.”
“You’re not exactly filling me with confidence, here.” He complained, hauling himself upwards with considerable effort. His every muscle protested the move – and so did Bait, who apparently wasn’t impressed with the sudden jostling.
“I’ll be fine, Callum.” Rayla insisted, and then stubbornly walked off back up the mountain again. Evidently, that was the end of that. He stared after her, unimpressed and worried at the same time, and huffed with the annoyance of trying to care for the health of someone so unnecessarily stubborn about it. You’d think an elf assassin who knew all the stuff she knew would be a little more practical about her own health, but, apparently…not so much.
He sighed, and held out a hand to his brother. “C’mon, Ez. Seems like we’re moving again.” He said this last part more loudly, and pointedly – a deliberate prod against the elf he knew could hear him perfectly well.
Ezran looked between him and Rayla with a vaguely wide-eyed expression somewhere between interest and concern. Then he shrugged, accepted Callum’s offered hand, and got to his feet. “I guess we just have to keep an eye on her.” He said, apparently unconcerned about being overheard. “So she doesn’t work herself too hard.”
A little playfully, Callum shook his brother’s hand on that before he released it, eliciting a giggle. “Sounds good to me.” He agreed. “Now, let’s get moving, before she leaves us behind.”
He wasn’t sure if the huff he heard was Rayla or the wind, but he was putting his money on the former.
Their resumed climb took them further and further into the thin cold air of the mountain, with trees becoming so sparse that there was little to no cover from the gusty mountainside conditions at all. In the morning, when they began walking and left the tied-up hunters behind them, Ezran had been delighted by the white puffs his breath made in the cold air, and had stomped around puffing in imitation of dragons, bringing a smile even to the then-despairing Rayla. He’d since obviously lost the novelty of it, but now…now it was windy enough that the gusts blew back the haze of their breath in their faces, trails of white vapour spilling out around their cheeks.
He wasn’t sure if windiness was just characteristic of mountains, or if this was worse than normal. Either way, it was getting unpleasant. In the end, he just tucked the tail of his scarf in so it wouldn’t flap around quite as insistently, and carried on.
If Rayla took things any easier, he couldn’t see any obvious signs of it. But, in unspoken alliance, he and Ezran conspired to be conspicuously and insistently exhausted after every particularly steep stretch of climbing, collapsing where they stood and calling for a breather and a drink from the waterskins. If the way Rayla eyed them was any indication, she was more than aware of the subterfuge, but she didn’t outright speak against them. She only sighed, very put-upon, and prevailed upon her own use of the waterskin before ushering them onwards.
Mid-afternoon, they started to see snow on the ground.
“Told you.” Rayla said, a little cynically, as Ezran bent to examine the scattered frosty patches of it. “Give it another day and we’ll be hip-deep in it.”
“Hip-deep?” Callum repeated, sceptically, while Ez picked up the evidently very icy bit of snow. It looked like it had melted from the gentle powder he was accustomed to, and then probably frozen again, forming larger icy clusters that crackled under his brother’s fingers in a weak echo of broken glass.
Her lips twitched. “Well. Shin-deep, maybe.” She admitted, and looked up at the sky. “’Course, all it would take is a decent snowstorm, and then we could be hip-deep in snow.”
“That must be a pain to walk in.” Ezran said, thoughtfully, as he looked up at her. “You could have some great snowball fights, though! And then maybe once we’re going back down a mountain, we could just sled instead. It would be way faster.”
“Sorry to say it, bud, but I’m pretty sure Rayla didn’t bring a sled from the Lodge.” He said, amused, and then followed Rayla’s gaze to the thickly-clouded sky. As if responding to his attention, a particularly stiff breeze puffed down his collar, and he shivered, tightening his scarf against the wind. “I guess it’s going to be colder from here on.”
“It won’t be so bad as long as we’re walking.” Rayla claimed, and hefted her backpack; the usual signal that they were about to start moving again. “And when we’re not moving, we’ll have a campfire, so…” She shrugged, and without further word, resumed her pace up the slope.
Callum and his legs took comfort in the knowledge that they’d almost certainly start looking for somewhere to camp soon, and followed her up.
They walked another good half-hour in the increasingly-moody winds before the ground evened out a bit, still sloping upwards, but much more gently. The trees apparently approved of this milder incline, and they found themselves travelling through a spindly pine-forest full of windswept branches; it was apparently windy enough frequently enough that the trees were all growing slanted westwards, apparently from the buffeting of the same powerful easterly wind currently blowing in his ears.
Eventually, they came to a loosely-forested cliffside where the rockiness of the terrain had denuded most of it of foliage. It sloped gently downwards towards the face of the cliff, at enough of an angle that he’d be worried about losing the egg over it if it fell out – it’d probably roll straight down and off the cliff. He winced at the intrusion of the thought, even as he looked to Rayla, perplexed at why they’d stopped. She was staring at the rocky expanse as if its modest dusting of frost and snow were particularly vexing, or particularly noteworthy.
“…We should probably camp here.” She said, with noticeable distaste.
He blinked, then stared back at the cliffside. “What, really? But it’s…” He searched for a word.
“Windy.” Ezran supplied, from beside him, his hair looking vaguely windblown in the same way as the trees. “And right next to a cliff.”
“Right next to a cliff is defensible.” Rayla informed them, though she did not look pleased. “Means if someone wants to ambush us they don’t have as many places to do it from. Anyway,” She gestured at the nearby trees. “This’ll be the easiest firewood around. If we keep climbing it’ll get steep again, and we won’t have much to pick from.” She frowned, ears drooping a little. “Just….don’t lose anything off the cliff-edge. Especially yourselves.”
Callum recalled the thought he’d had, and shuddered. “…Be careful with the egg.” He advised his brother, who practically recoiled at the words, flinching as if struck in the face.
“…I will.” He said, wide-eyed, with another glance towards the cliff.
Tentatively, Callum approached it, and peered over the edge. It was…a long way down. Not as far as he’d expected, maybe, and it wasn’t an entirely sheer drop – it was more like a near-vertical slope than an outright drop-off – but he didn’t expect the fall would be that much more gentle for it. There were trees at the bottom, and a little further along, a wide river. Beyond that there was another cliff face, rising up to join with the mountain behind it. He thought he could see a silver glimmer of water somewhere between the trees at the bottom. “…I think this is the gorge.” He said, after a moment. “You know, the river valley between Dorel and Farel. That the people of Verdorn use.”
“Makes sense.” Rayla said, setting down her bags against a snow-dusted rock. “Bit worrying, though. I hope no one spots the campfire.”
“If they do…” He frowned, paused, and thought through it. “Well, if they do, won’t they only be able to see it from Verdorn? Or the other mountain? So it probably won’t matter. It’d take them ages to get here from there.”
“Hopefully.” She sighed, and unzipped the tent pack. The wind billowed into it, puffing out the sides of the leather with a rhythmic sort of thwip sound. “Okay. This is going to be a pain.”
Ezran looked between her and the tent, quizzically. “…How come?” He asked, trotting over to put his bag (very carefully) down beside hers.
“Because of your hand?” Callum guessed, after a second.
“Me and Callum can put it up, like yesterday.” Ez added, expression bright, and she snorted.
“No, it’s not that.” She said, lips twitching. “Though my hand – and arm – being a pain…that’s not going to help. No, it’s the wind.” She waved her hand towards the spindly, wind-swept trees, as if to indicate the very pronounced gusts still buffeting them from that direction. “We’re all going to need to do this, or the tent will blow off the mountain.”
“…Oh.” Ezran considered this for a second. “I guess we’re using all the tent pegs today, right?”
“You bet.” Rayla agreed, and carefully extracted the outer-tent, promptly stamping her foot down on it to pin it to the ground. It was already ruffling and blustering along the ground, even rolled and folded and barely able to catch the wind at all. “Get the poles ready, will you? And maybe tie yourselves together with rope or something. Make it easier to catch each other if we go off the cliff.”
“Isn’t that a bit much?” Callum asked, sceptically, as he swung his bag around. Despite his words, he went rummaging for his rope coil, even as Ezran extracted one of the poles and began to assemble it.
Rayla raised an eyebrow at him. “Would you prefer to take a little tumble off the cliff, Callum?” She inquired, sardonic, and he huffed.
“…No, thank you.”
She nodded. “Then let’s just be careful.”
Ezran clicked the tent pole into place and reached for another. “Better safe than sorry.” He said, sagely, as Callum tied the rope uncertainly around his middle. Watching him, Rayla rolled her eyes, and shuffled over to take the rope from him.
“You need to learn to tie better knots.” She informed him, unceremoniously unravelling his apparently-inadequate attempt. She then proceeded to loop more rope around his middle, running it in and around in a looping knot that was considerably distinct from his own.
His eyes moved between her and her hands. He’d never really considered that there might be a lot of ways to tie a rope around someone, or that one would be better than another. He watched her setting both hands to the task, and wondered if it was hurting her. “…Well, I’ll practice that one later?” he offered, watching her progress with an eye for memorising it. She stepped back and pulled the length of rope with her, stamping down on the outer-tent that had begun to flutter rebelliously about in her absence.
“You do that.” She said, and approached Ezran. “Here, Ez. Don’t mind me, I’ll just tie you in.”
“Sure.” He said, agreeably, already at work on the third tent-pole.
In short order they were all tied together and had the tent-poles assembled and ready to apply to the tent. Callum still considered the rope to be flagrant overkill – sure, it was windy, but not that windy. It wasn’t like it was a struggle to stand upright or anything, so it wouldn’t be that bad, surely? So, when Rayla called for him to get a good grip on the tent with her while Ezran would have the duty of putting the poles in, he was perhaps not taking it all that seriously. He held on as directed, of course, and Rayla unfolded the tent fabric, and Ezran stood by with a tent-pole at the ready-
And then the wind billowed into the tent as if into a sail, and suddenly, he was struggling to stay on his feet.
“Holy-“ he yelped, as Rayla grimly dug her heels in and yanked back on the tent as it filled with air, puffing out as if fully-boned with the tent-poles and making a valiant attempt to wrest itself from their hands. The sound of the air rushing into it was a loud and enthusiastic whomp, and thereafter it billowed and flapped and rattled as it pulled at them, the force of the wind throughout it alarmingly strong. “This is crazy!”
“Told you!” Rayla called to him, wrestling the tent to the ground. It puffed around her, flapping rebelliously, and a sudden wind-gust nearly tore it from his hands. With a noise that was almost a snarl, Rayla hooked herself into the ground of the cliffside with her blade, wrapping a storm-line around her arm. “Ezran!” She reminded, a moment later, and his brother snapped from his stunned daze.
“Right!” Was all Ez had to say, as he attempted to flatten down a section of tent enough to get the pole into it.
He’d managed to get two poles in and had started on the third when the wind shrieked in from the east, blasting into the tent and yanking Callum along with it – with enough force that it sent him sprawling against the ground, the thick fabric ripped from his hands. His teeth clacked together around the shape of a yell as he hit the ground, with a pinch of pain at the edge of his tongue. He lay there, utterly dazed, for a timeless second filled with thoughts of sails catching the wind and the tent becoming a vast kite to carry them all away…
“Callum!” Rayla shouted, and when he looked over she was busy battling the tent to the ground with nothing but her hook and the storm-lines as leverage. Even so, she managed to spare enough attention to look over at him with urgent concern.
Ezran stood, craning his head to look past the flapping tent to see him. “Are you okay?” He called, anxiously, the third tent pole braced between his hands.
His mouth tasted like blood, and there were sharp scraping pains along the skin on various parts of his hands and arms, but…. “I’m fine.” He called back, a little hoarsely, and scrambled to his feet, head still wiped oddly blank by the shock of the impact. “I’ll just-“ He grabbed at a roiling corner of the tent-fabric and emulated Rayla, unspooling one of the tied storm-lines and looping it around his arm. It definitely made it easier to get a grip on the thing, but keeping himself upright was hard. And now that there were two poles in the tent, the damned things were nearly poking his eyes out every other second. “Just, get the poles in already!”
“I’m trying!” Ezran said, plainly agitated, as he tried to grasp at the relevant bit of tent for long enough to stick a pole in it. “Can you – hold this part down, or something? It’s really hard to get at it!”
Rayla responded to his request by practically throwing herself over the tent and tackling the piece in question to the ground. Amazingly, it was so full of the prevailing wind that it actually bucked and roiled underneath her. It was utterly ridiculous. Why did no one ever mention that tents could turn into stupidly deadly wind-socks under the right conditions?
The effort was enough, apparently; Ezran pushed the segmented metal pole into its tube and in that fashion the three of them worked, pinning the tent down in the right places for the last pole to be applied. Rayla then determinedly oriented the tent-door away from the wind, and then rooted herself and the storm-lines to the ground while Callum and Ezran made several desperate and largely unsuccessful attempts to pitch the stupid thing.
It took enough tries that his fingertips were sore with the effort of trying to pull the ends of the tent-poles into their proper places, but – they managed it eventually, and then Rayla was rotating the tent-door into a more favourable position while Ezran scrambled for the tent pegs, and they were basically done. They whacked in the pegs into the hooks on the tent proper – all twelve – and then laid out the storm-lines around the tent and secured those down too. Rayla enlisted the end of a blade as a hammer to knock the pegs solidly into the hard ground, while Callum and Ezran prevailed upon the use of large rocks for the same purpose.
“Ugh. Stupid wind.” Rayla muttered darkly, when they were done, and beholding the sight of their securely tied-down tent with exhausted eyes and aching bodies. “I hate putting up tents in bad wind.”
“….You’ve done it before?” Callum managed to ask, after several seconds of attempting to muster the energy. He looked at his hands and found the fingertips red and raw. He could feel scrapes along his arms and elbows from the fall, which his jacket hadn’t managed to protect him from. The fabric looked a little frayed from it, too.
The tent still flapped in the wind, but…ineffectually. Like a fish pinned on a knife. The sides fluttered noisily in the wind and the storm-lines quivered, but they’d done a solid job of it. That tent was not moving. Even so, Rayla seemed to find it a good idea to move around its perimeter, covering the heads of the tent-pegs with piled rocks. “A few times.” She answered, after a moment. “’Course, I had a whole team helping with holding the tents down then. Made it a lot easier.”
He nodded, a little numbly, and raised an aching hand to rub at his ears. The wind had been blowing in them for hours now, and combined with the fall, they were really aching, in a cold-feeling pain that was steadily spreading to the rest of his head. “…Inner-tent?” he questioned, flapping a hand a little ineffectually at the tent-pack, open and fluttering ominously in the ongoing gusts.
“Inner-tent,” Rayla agreed, and the three of them wrestled that part into the tent’s interior. This, at least, they could keep folded until they were inside, and out of the worst of the wind.
Setting up camp that afternoon continued to prove an exercise in problem-solving, when the wind promptly extinguished their first three attempts at a campfire and nearly set fire to the tent on the fourth. Eventually they moved it to a spot uncomfortably close to one of the trees, risking setting fire to that for the chance of some meagre shelter. It worked, finally, and Rayla set them to work melting snow to replenish their waterskins.
“Easier than looking for a water source.” She said, shrugging, pulling on some gloves to go scoop up more snow. “That’s one good thing about snow and ice, I suppose. If we’re unlucky, the nearest stream could be a good hour away, so….” She dumped the latest handful of icy snow into the pot and then waved towards it, demonstratively. The little-finger glove flapped around with the movement, plainly empty.
“Huh.” Callum said, committing the detail to his growing knowledge on journeying, and went to aid in the snow-gathering efforts.
The downside of having the campfire upwind of the camp meant that a large part of the campsite couldn’t really be traversed unless he wanted a lungful of smoke, which was yet another lesson he hadn’t really asked for and certainly hadn’t enjoyed, but it was probably helpful knowledge. Somehow. Once most of the camp-stuff was attended to, though, Callum started giving Rayla’s hand some pointed and meaningful looks until she rolled her eyes and came over to let him inspect it.
She rolled the jacket sleeve up again, and then he had a pretty good amount of arm to inspect for anomalous swelling. He eyed the places where, earlier, there’d been raised red lines along the veins and noted “I think your whole arm has just swollen up a bit, now.” Gently, he poked it. “Does that hurt?”
She grimaced, but shook her head. “Not when you put pressure on it? Not like a bruise.” She offered. “But it sort of…aches. Kinda. On its own. A bit like an overworked muscle.”
Callum’s own overworked muscles took that moment to remind him of how sore they were, and he shuffled his crossed legs uncomfortably. He shifted his hands more gently down the affected arm to where the binding still sat, albeit blessedly looser. “How’s the hand feel?” He asked, after a moment, reaching to the side to pull his medical supplies over, complete with the boiled bandages. “Any better?”
“Bit less painful.” She said, after a moment of consideration. “Still really bad around the binding…but not much helping that, what with the open sores and all.”
Ez side-eyed her then, glancing down at his bag and then back at her hand. “…Does the binding still feel loose?” He asked, after a moment. “I’m pretty sure me and Zym can do our thing again, but…I don’t really know how it’s gonna work. If your assassiny-ribbon is going to get tighter again or not.”
She was silent for several seconds, eyes straying back to the bandage obscuring the binding. “I can’t really tell.” She said, eventually. “Directly around the binding is mostly just…well, you know.” By ‘you know’, he assumed she meant ‘so sore and wrecked I can’t actually feel much from it except pain’. Like, he knew she wouldn’t actually say that, but the meaning seemed relatively clear.
“If it’s still doing the pins-and-needles, it’s probably still looser. Maybe?” Callum reasoned, fingers hovering over the knots on the bandages. Considering he’d only changed them a few hours ago, it seemed maybe too early to do it again, but… “And I think you’ve got a little bit of colour back in your hand. And definitely your wrist.” He touched his fingertips to the skin. It still felt cold; if there’d been much change there, he couldn’t really feel it yet. For a second, he near-reflexively went to look for her pulse – but on this hand, that was solidly obscured by bandage.
He set her hand down and went for the other one instead, pressing fingers over the radial artery. She looked down at it, then up at him, and asked “How is it?”
“Better than earlier.” He said, with some relief. “Your arm might be all swollen but at least your heartbeat feels less…weird.”
However unconcerned she tried to pretend to seem, he could see that that relieved her. “Well, thank the stars for that.” She sighed, then shifted back, retrieving her arm from his grasp. She stood and shuffled over to rummage in the bags, pulling out several containers still packed with goose meat. “Let’s get dinner out of the way now, and then we can actually rest a little.” She sounded almost wistful at that. He could sympathise entirely – even their downtime, lately, had been rather fraught.
“Sounds good.” Callum said, thinking briefly of his sketchbook, and the nascent sketch of Verdorn sprawling across a page. He thought, too, of the neglected sketch of Rayla’s hand, symbolic of the dread that had been gripping him so strongly the last few days. He wondered what it would be like, to look at it now.
“Are we going to heat it up?” Ez wondered, as Rayla unpacked their provisions. “Or just eat it cold again?”
Rayla shrugged. “Whatever you prefer, I suppose.” She said. “Though it is harder to heat up leftovers with the sort of equipment we have. If we boil it it’ll lose flavour, and it’s tricky to pike cooked meat sometimes.”
“I’ll just have mine cold.” Callum said, abruptly really feeling his exhaustion, and accepted a jar from Rayla with a sigh. “I don’t really want to wait.”
Ezran considered that. “I’ll do the same, then.” He decided, and took his own jar, making a slight face at it. Bait, sensing the entrance of food into the proceedings, immediately perked up from where he’d been sitting near the fire, and hopped up to Ezran with a demanding croak. Ez looked down at him, a smile chasing its way onto his face, and proffered a chunk of cooked meat at the toad. “I know it’s not exactly your usual,” He said, to the toad, as he knelt down to bring his hand closer. “But you’re okay with that, right?”
Callum, watching, noted that Ezran nodded as if in response to something before Bait shot out his tongue to accept the offering. It made him feel distinctly weird, in an on-the-edge-of-realising-something sort of way. He recalled the way Ezran had been talking to the egg, and uneasily considered that…well, Bait was a magical creature too. Did Ezran’s talent extend beyond talking to unhatched dragons?
…And, if it did, how far did it go?
…Could Ez really talk to animals, like he’d been saying for so long? …But then, if he could, why would he have got it wrong when Callum asked him to prove it?
He shifted uneasily for a while before he finally elected to just ask. “…So, Ez,” He said, slowly, in apparently a strange enough tone that his brother looked up warily. “This whole…talking to the dragon egg thing. Is that…” he hesitated. “Where did that come from? How long – I mean, was it something you realised you could do straight away, or…” He trailed off, not wanting to quite come out and say ‘have you been telling the truth this whole time?’
Ezran stilled, for a second, and then abruptly looked mulish. His shoulders hunched a little and he looked away. “It’s not exactly a new thing, you know.” He muttered, setting the jar down to fold his arms. “I’ve been talking to Bait for years. It’s not my fault you never believed me until it was a dragon I was talking to.”
His hands fluttered up in a sort of unhappy defensive motion, and his stomach twisted. It was a fairly bald confirmation of his uneasy suspicions, and…and he wasn’t really sure how to respond to it. Even with the evidence in front of him, and with what Ezran had managed with Rayla’s binding….somehow, it was still hard to wrap his head around the idea of this being true, too. He’d thought Ezran a liar on this for years, after all. For several seconds he struggled to find something to say, until Rayla took the matter out of his hands.
“Hold on,” She said, straightening, and looking between them with a raised eyebrow. “What are you on about, Ez? You can talk to Bait too?” Then, at Callum: “And you knew about this?”
“Not just Bait.” Ezran refuted, before Callum could speak. “It’s just animals. All animals. I’ve been able to understand them for most of my life, and been able to make them understand me for years – and I tried to tell Callum about it but he never believed me.” A hint of his temper leaked into those last words, the line between his furrowed brows deepening.
Rayla’s eyes slid to Callum then, expectantly, as if waiting for an explanation. His shoulders hunched and he hastened to say “But…Ez, if you really could understand animals, how come you got it wrong that time I asked you to prove it? Why would you have been wrong?”
“Because raccoons are huge liars, Callum.” Ezran said, impatiently, with a light scowl furrowing his brow. “I told you that, too. I didn’t know it back then, but raccoons are always playing tricks and they’ll never tell you the truth if they can get away with tricking you – and I wasn’t good enough to tell when they were lying back then, either, so…” He shrugged, and made a sort of there-you-go gesture with his hand.
“…So, they told you there was a treasure behind the waterfall when there wasn’t, and I ended up getting soaked for nothing?” Callum supplied, and his brother nodded. He looked away, frowning lightly, and….yeah, he thought he remembered that. Ezran trying to tell him about the alleged dishonesty of raccoons. After the waterfall incident, it had seemed a pretty blatant lie, and he hadn’t even considered the idea that it might be true. And then after that he’d got pretty used to dismissing Ezran’s subsequent claims to animal-talking as play-pretend kid stuff.
“Yeah, pretty much.” He agreed, expression a little less ornery now. Perhaps because Callum was listening to him without immediately denying everything? “So after that you just…wouldn’t believe me, because I’d been wrong, so I gave up on trying.” Carefully, his fingers drifted to his bag, and the egg within. “But…then me and Zym knew we were Rayla’s last hope. So we had to try.” A little solemn, he slipped the bag open enough to put his hands in, fingers settling over the egg. His eyes closed, just briefly, and Callum experienced a little rush of vertigo at knowing that his brother was communicating with a baby dragon right now.
“…I’m glad you did.” Rayla said, eventually, her fingers hovering over her left wrist, and the binding there. “I’d…well, I never really had much hope about it all even to begin with, but I was pretty ready to give up.” She reached out, and settled her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Ezran.”
He looked up at her over his shoulder with a small, shy smile. “…Well, it’s not like I did all the work.” He said, posture unfurling a little at her praise. “But, um, you’re welcome. I’m really glad we could help.”
Rayla blinked at him for a second, then slowly reached out with her bound hand to touch her fingertips to the eggshell. The motion was…careful, and tentative. Almost reverent. “Thank you, Azymondias.” She murmured to the egg, and Ezran smiled more widely beside her.
“He’s happy he could help, too.” He said, contentedly. “He’s still pretty tired now. But I think maybe we can try to work on your binding again tomorrow.”
Her lips twitched into a smile of her own. “I’ll look forward to it.” She said, and withdrew, leaning back from Ezran and the egg for a second, regarding them with a strange expression. “You’re a talented kid, Ezran.” She expressed after a second. “I’ve never even heard of someone being able to talk to animals before. Not even the greatest elven mages.”
Callum looked between his brother, who seemed very pleased at that statement, and Rayla, who had professed to his brother’s ability being something unheard of even in Xadia. He shook his head, disbelievingly, and said “It’s…it’s crazy, Ez, that you were walking around with this amazing weird power all this time and I didn’t even know.”
Ezran looked over at him, and his expression closed off again, just a little. “Only because you weren’t listening when I told you.” He reminded, mutinously.
Callum sighed, raising a hand to rub at the back of his neck, and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, Ez. I should have believed you…or at least tried to listen.” He set his face in the most earnest contrition he could, because, well…he did always try to own up to his mistakes, when he made them.
His brother inspected him, as if for signs of any duplicity, then relaxed again. “Well, you’re listening now.” He said, with a note of satisfaction. “And I accept your apology. I guess now you just need to make all the buttheadedness up to me.” There was a glint in his eyes, and Callum knew exactly what it heralded. He slumped, resigned, and considered how much his legs would protest to the Jerkface dance after so much uphill walking.
In the next second, though, he received some unexpected salvation. “Something I don’t understand, Ez,” Rayla said, diverting his brother’s attention back to her. “How does talking to animals mean you can talk to a dragon? Dragons aren’t animals, they’re people. So is it really talking, or…”
“It’s not really talking.” Ezran admitted, after a moment. “Animals don’t really have language like we do. I mean, some of them have noises they make to warn each other if there’s trouble, and sometimes they have enough of those that it’s kinda like they have words, but…animals don’t talk like people do, so…what I do, it’s kind of more like…” His words slowed, as if he were testing them one-by-one. “Like, understanding. And making them understand me.”
Callum made an interested noise. “So, kind of….more like some sort of magical empathy thing than talking?”
“I guess?” Ezran offered, shrugging. “I don’t really think about how it works. I just do it. And besides, it’s kind of more like talking with Zym, anyway.”
Callum looked over at Rayla and shared an interested glance with her. A moment later, she ventured, “Because he’s…smarter? Not an animal?”
“I don’t think so. Otherwise I’d find it easier to understand people, not harder.” Ezran said, a little automatically, and then abruptly looked over at them in alarm, as if he’d said something he hadn’t intended. “Uhh…”
“…Ezran, um.” Callum said, after a moment of looking at his brother’s decidedly shifty expression. That was a ‘caught stealing jelly-tarts’ face if he ever saw one. “I really need you to be honest with me here. Can you read minds?” The tone was joking, but…he was kind of serious too. ‘Harder’ to understand people? That definitely seemed like an implication that he could ‘understand’ them. What did that mean? Could he ‘hear’ thoughts? Pick up on feelings? And what would ‘making them understand’ constitute with a person, anyway?
“Of course I can’t read minds!” Ezran said, indignantly, which made him relax a little. At least until he followed it up with “Well, not really.”
Somewhat at a loss for words, Callum looked at Rayla again. Her eyebrows were very, very high as she stared at his brother. “…Care to elaborate, Ez?” She asked, dryly, and he squirmed.
“It’s not mind-reading.” Ezran insisted. “Really. What I have with Zym is – different. I can’t only understand how he’s feeling, we can talk with words – no one else is like that. You two, and other people – it’s so much harder to get anything from you than the animals.”
“…But, you can get something?” Callum prompted, when his brother went quiet.
Ezran looked away, furtive, and slid his fingers over azure eggshell. “Feelings, mostly.” He admitted, shrugging. “It’s easier when I’m touching someone. It was always like that. At first I could only understand animals if I was touching them, too. I’m better now, though.” He glanced up at Callum, and his shoulders hunched a little. He seemed bizarrely worried, and…Callum couldn’t really figure out why. What reaction was he anticipating, with the way he was watching like that?
Tentatively, Callum reached out, and laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Bemusedly, he noted that the contact – according to him – might be conveying some of his emotional state across. What was he projecting, then? Confusion? Concern? “So, if you’re a super-special magical empathy-mage now,” He started, intentionally teasing, intentionally warm. “Can you tell me what I’m feeling?”
Ezran eyed him warily. “…Kind of confused, and…worried about me?” His face screwed up. “What are you worried for?”
“I’m your big brother. It’s my job to worry about you.” Callum claimed, staunchly, and managed to prompt a smile. “Aunt Amaya said.” Mom, too, when she’d been alive. But bringing that up wouldn’t do anything except make everyone sad.
…Then he recalled that Ezran probably had access to that quick flash of grief, if he was sensitive enough to catch that sort of thing, and felt a little weird about it.
His brother dipped his head at him, subdued, in a sort of half-nod. “See, that’s…that there.” He said, abruptly. “People don’t like it when you know too much about them, or how they’re feeling. It makes them feel…I dunno. They don’t like it.” His eyes slid to Callum’s, with a kind of caution he hated to see. “…You don’t like it, either.”
“…That’s what you’re worried about?” Callum said, after a moment, and then very deliberately reached down to clasp his brother’s hand, just over the eggshell. “Ezran, you’ve always been weirdly insightful about people’s moods. Sure, that can be a bit of a pain sometimes, when I don’t want to talk about my feelings or whatever, but it’s not like – not like it’s actually a problem. I really don’t care if your….emotional insight is more of a magical thing than I thought it was. It doesn’t change anything.”
Ezran blinked at him, looking down at their hands, and frowned. “But you felt weird about it.” He insisted. “Just now. Kind of weird and uncomfortable?”
“I’d feel the same way if someone pointed out how I was feeling just by looking at my face, you know.” He pointed out, pragmatically. “People pointing out your feelings is uncomfortable, a lot of the time. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. And you’re my brother. If anyone gets to have super-special insight into my feelings, of course it’s going to be you.”
Ez studied him for several long moments, and Callum wondered if he was doing his empathy-thing even now, to feel whether he was being genuine or not. Then he sighed, shoulders slumping in what definitely seemed like relief. “…Thanks, Callum.” He said, quiet. “I guess I was kind of worried about what you’d think.” He paused, and looked up. “…Rayla?” He said, tentative. “What about you?”
It was then that Callum realised how quiet she’d been, watching them talk, watching them interact. She was still sitting a short distance away, just around the fire, and her expression was a little inscrutable. “…It’s really not mind-reading?” She asked, after a moment. “You can’t tell what we’re thinking?”
Ezran shook his head. “Aside from with Zym? No, I’ve never had anything like that before.”
Rayla considered that, then nodded. “Okay, that was my main worry. I’m not going to lie – it is a little bit uncomfortable, Ez, but…I don’t mind too much, as long as you’re careful with it.”
He tensed a little, perceptible to Callum through their joined hands. “…Like how?” He ventured, oddly timid.
“If you can tell what people are feeling – you can learn things that they…might want to keep hidden. Or don’t want to talk about.” She said, after a pause for thought. “So I think you need to be very careful about what you say about the things you learn, and…be respectful, I suppose. Feelings are…personal. And private. You need to make sure to know when it’s appropriate to talk about the things you pick up.”
Ez went a little more tense and a little more drawn-in as she spoke, but…not especially upset. Just…resigned. He nodded. “Yeah, I know. A lot of people just really don’t want other people knowing how they feel. Especially when it’s something that’s important, or secret.” He hesitated. “…I’m pretty used to knowing when to say something or not, by now. And I don’t spread around secret-feelings unless it’s really important.”
Rayla pursued her lips, thoughtful. The line of her brow made her look a little troubled. “You’re a good kid, Ez.” She settled on, eventually. “I suppose if I had to pick someone to have magical insight into my feelings, you’d be a good choice.” She hesitated, and then shuffled over to pat him on the shoulder, as much a reassuring gesture as it was a sign of trust.
He looked up at her, eyes wide and grateful and vulnerable all at once. “I know you don’t like other people to know what you’re feeling. You’re a really private person. I know.” He said, the words coming in a quick and sudden rush. “I’ll be careful, I promise. You can trust me.”
She looked at him, and her expression loosened a little. She moved her hand and laid it over Callum and Ezran’s, still joined over the egg. “I know.” Tentatively, her lips settled into a soft half-smile. She withdrew her hand, then, and sat back.
Callum looked between them, oddly touched by…by the open exchange of concerns? Reassurance? The obvious trust that Rayla had put in his brother? All of those, maybe. In any case, his chest practically ached with fondness for both of them. And wasn’t it crazy, that Ezran could probably feel that?
As if reading the thought – which he apparently couldn’t – Ezran looked up at Callum and smiled. Then he looked down at the egg again, as if distracted by…something it’d said? Something Azymondias had said?
“What makes him so different?” Callum wondered, aloud, as he allowed his hand to drop from the egg. “How come you can talk with him so much more clearly?”
“…I really don’t know?” Ez said, shrugging. “I…it’s weird. He just feels different. Like – the feeling of him, his mind and emotions? It just…fits. It’s easier to reach out to him. And he’s learning to kind of…almost reach back, sort of. Even though it’s hard for him.”
“I never thought dragons would be…awake and aware, even inside the egg.” Rayla offered, expression a little strange.
“Not awake. Not really.” Ezran shook his head. “It really is like he’s asleep and dreaming, and just…when we talk, it brings him closer up to the surface. But he knows me.” A smile flickered across his face. “And he knows you guys, too, from the sounds of your voices, and – Rayla, from the feeling of your magic. So yeah, I guess he’s pretty aware, for an unborn baby.”
Rayla seemed briefly nonplussed, perhaps at the implication that the Dragon Prince might recognise her, whenever he got around to hatching. And…wasn’t that a thought? “How long do dragons stay in eggs before they hatch, anyway?” Callum asked, leaning forwards to inspect the shimmering surface of the shell.
Ez made a complicated series of faces, then, like he’d just seen something profoundly baffling. “Uhh….” He frowned at the egg. “Good question, I think. Zym thinks he’s ready to hatch now. But there’s something he needs before he can, and he doesn’t know what it is, or how to get it, except that there needs to be a lot of magic.”
“I doubt it’ll come up.” Rayla said, with a quick glance at the shell. “That egg is years old by now – I’m not sure how old, but my parents left to be his Dragonguard a long time ago.” A shadow passed over her face, but she didn’t comment any further on that matter. Instead, she cleared her throat, and concluded “If it were that easy to hatch Storm dragons, he’d be a dragonling right now instead of an egg.”
“…Probably for the best.” Callum decided, tactfully refraining from asking exactly how young Rayla had been when her parents left. “If it’s this much work to keep us fed and travelling, we don’t really need to be feeding an entire baby dragon too.”
“Fair point.” Rayla agreed, and stood. “Well, you two watch the pot and the egg and do…whatever. I’m going to go get more wood.”
Callum suspected, looking at her, that her objective was less to get firewood and more to walk around a bit, and perhaps get some breathing room from all the somewhat-difficult conversations they’d been having. But still, he could appreciate that. He nodded. She promptly sped off into the windblown treeline, leaving him and Ezran and Bait sitting there with a dragon egg, a bubbling pot, and several jars of food.
He sat silently staring at the fire, oddly uncertain of what to do in the quiet, and exhaled a very long and tired breath. Beside him, Ezran nodded understandingly.
“Long day, huh?” he commented, sympathetic, with his hands still on the egg of the dragon he apparently had some sort of magical connection with.
Callum considered the early awakening, the mounting despair over Rayla’s hand, the unexpected arrival of those human hunters, the whole exhausting event of what Ezran and the Dragon Prince had done with the binding, the several hours of uphill walking, and the incredible effort it had been to get the tent up in the wind. And that wasn’t even considering the difficult talks on the subject of Ezran’s abilities and the associated privacy concerns…
“Really long day.” He agreed, with feeling, and looked up at the sky.
Despite everything, despite everything that had happened….it was barely past late-afternoon. The sun was low enough for it to be evening, but…only just.
Abruptly, he considered that he’d need to change Rayla’s bandages and get her to do her hand massage before they slept, so really, the day still had a way further to go. He sighed again, this time with heartfelt exhaustion, and slumped backwards to the loose rocky ground. It should have been hideously uncomfortable, but he was too tired to care.
“Callum?” Ezran asked, alarmed, head shooting up to look over at him. “Are you okay?”
“….I’m fine.” He said, weakly, from the ground. “I’m just gonna…lay here a while, okay? It’s been a crazy day.”
Ezran considered that for a moment. “I think I’ll join you.” He decided, and flopped back beside him, egg held securely in his arms.
Callum huffed, lips quirking in a smile, and let his head fall back. “We can just watch the clouds for a bit, I guess.” He said, and that was exactly what they did.
He was so very, very ready for this day to be over.
---
End chapter.
S3 notes: If you’re not a new reader, be aware that I’ve gone back and made edits to chapters 1-10 to accommodate new s3 context and information, but only on ao3. Tumblr editions remain unedited. Nothing really needed any major changes, but the stuff’s in there. There are edit notes at the beginning of every chapter on ao3.
Notes: In a fairly sudden decision made today, 30/11/19, I cut this chapter in half. The second half will be finished and posted as chapter 12 instead, and all my future chapters have been renumbered. This is because even I was getting sick of how long my chapters were getting, and my desire to avoid obscenely high chapter counts was not compelling enough to stop me from cutting it. Otherwise I think this chapter would have ended up being about 23-25k, and no one wants that.
From now on, I’ll be making an effort to keep chapters under 15k unless there’s compelling reasons not to, such as it being an important chapter with important emotional and narrative flow.
Next chapter is currently like 9k now, and I expect it to maybe conclude at around 10-12k. Lots of Corvus in that one.
Story notes:
Timeline: This chapter takes place on 19.05, day 9. Kids have camped at an altitude of 1500m, and have ascended maybe 250-300m in the day.
Quite early in the morning, Soren and Claudia contemplate weather. This occurs more-or-less concurrently with Callum and Rayla tying up the hunters last chapter. Early afternoon, the Zym-Ez Machina happens, and after that they’re travelling. It’s been an eventful day. Not much later in the afternoon, Amaya is consecrated as a Justiciar.
Camping note: The windy campsite experience is one of my own. Except in my case, it took ten people to hold the tent down while other people put the poles in and pitched it, not two. Same tent size as the kids have, pretty much, and it took ten people to stop the wind from flinging it and us off the mountain. So…I’m making gratuitous allowances for Rayla’s strength.
Camping on a slope? Also personal experience – though in my case it wasn’t the same campsite as the Windy Place. One of my group lost her bowl over the cliff, and someone else had to tackle her backpack when it started rolling downhill towards the edge. Considering we were all carrying group gear – losing that backpack would have been dire. See more slope-camping difficulties next chapter.
Medical note: Thanks to the Zym Ez Machina, Rayla’s binding has been loosened somewhat. Now it’s about as tight as it was a day or two past the ritual. This is allowing her to reperfuse to an extent – there’s enough leeway for blood to circulate into the hand and start oxygenating it properly again. This also carries the toxic waste products left by dead or deoxygenated cells into the rest of the body, causing inflammation and tissue death and mild systemic shock. As I have stated before, I’ve decided that elves are less susceptible to reperfusion injury than humans, so this will not approach life-threatening levels for Rayla. It will, however, be pretty unpleasant, and exacerbate the severity of her permanent damage. In this chapter, the first signs of systemic shock start to set in, and then the elfy biological mechanisms she had kicked in and stopped the worst effects.
On Zym’s egg: From s3, a lot of people seem to assume that Zym’s egg was laid on the day Avizandum died. I disagree. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be Zym’s hatchday, and Zubeia was off catching a storm or something that she could bring back and hatch him with. Some reasons: if it was the day he was laid, Zubeia would have been there, because she’d be laying the egg, and I doubt she’d have gone flying off immediately afterwards. Rayla’s parents left to join the Dragonguard when she was a kid, years ago – I can see the Dragonguard being formed in advance of the egg being laid, but not that far in advance. And lastly, Viren seems to know about the egg’s existence already – his realisation of why Avizandum was there was much more ‘oh this makes sense now’ than ‘what if….the dragon king has an egg…what a horrible thought’. He certainly knows that Avizandum has a mate. So I maintain that Zym’s egg is years old, and he’s been maturing inside it for a long time as his parents wait for the right conditions to hatch him.
That's all for now. Expect another update within the next few days!
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So, I recently recommended Castlevania to people based on the first 2 seasons, and having now seen the 3rd season I’m still keeping that recommendation but with some pretty strong warnings going in.
The TL;DR version is, I still recommend this series with the caveat that your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for sexual themes and more specifically your sensitivity toward sexual assault.
So uh, spoiler in the spoiler disclaimer, but content warning for discussion of the above themes. I apologize to mobile readers; this got long. I only feel the need to say all this because I have in the past recommended this show to people before these elements came into play in the first 2 seasons. So, I kind of owe it to those people who may have taken my recommendation to follow through now.
I’m sure it won’t come as a shock to anyone (or at least I hope it won’t) that Castlevania, the show which introduces its wandering drunk protagonist by having him overhear two inbred shit eating peasants in a bar talking about literal goat fucking, has a pretty cynical view on humanity and is a pretty hard R.
Most of that R rating and cynicism has been in regard to gore and Christianity and I’ve been extremely on board and pettily here for it. For all that it’s a gory mess with plenty of colorful language, however, it’s been extremely restrained when it comes to sexuality.
For my ace ass, that was kind of an appeal. I’m not opposed to sexuality in my media, but people do tend to make it... egregious and often unbalanced. It often feels that any media that gets that R rating just goes “Fuck it, may as well!” regarding shoehorning its nudity and sexuality. And frankly, censorship laws in the United States are FUCKING ANTIQUATED AS ALL HELL, so a rape scene where the camera ogles the woman’s breasts as she’s assaulted? Yeah, sure, that’s an R. Consensual sex scene that shows no genitalia but the woman in clear arousal? That’s an NC-17 for you. And that’s just women; don’t get me started on queer censorship, we’d be here all day. So, given the country I live in, the fact that I like horror and fantasy, and the fact that I’m an asexual woman, you can maybe see where my stance on sexual themes in any adult oriented media is just, an exasperated sigh as I boredly sit through another rape scene.
So, our first scene in Castlevania S3 is of Alucard, having been alone for the last month now, slowly losing his mind to crippling loneliness and overwhelming guilt after having murdered his father where Trevor and Sypha took him at his word when he said he would be the lone guardian standing vigil over Dracula’s castle and the Belmont library. Turns out he was wrong about being fine, which we knew from last season as it ended with him alone in his room sobbing his heart out, but he’s already losing his grip here as he makes little puppets of Sypha and Trevor to carry conversation with. An eccentricity he fully acknowledges is insane.
Our next scene confirms through dialogue that Trevor and Sypha are now in a sexual relationship, even though they’re only ever shown cuddling up in bed talking about The Plot and various happenings a few episodes later. Nothing explicit is ever depicted between them.
Alucard, on the other hand, picks up a couple of strays who were the thralls of one of the vampires killed last season, specifically the evidently Japanese one named “Cho” and our two new characters............ I had to google their names, Sumi and Taka, are also Japanese. They ask him to train them to kill vampires to protect their clan. Alucard, clearly remembering what he said about “Think of all the things Dracula could have done if he’d put all this knowledge toward helping people instead of giving into his rage and destroying them,” decides to agree and help them. He is clearly trying to be the person his mother would have wanted. Aww.
Except not aww, Taka and Sumi are two clearly traumatized and deeply flawed people from the masses which this series is, again, extremely cynical toward. They are unsubtley fixated on learning more and more powerful ways to kill vampires and Alucard is pretty chill about it because he can’t see through the 4th wall and hear the ominous music or the glances they exchange when he’s not looking. This is purely for the audience. They at one point have a discussion away from him where they try to psychoanalyze him and decide that his isolation is a self imposed punishment for killing Dracula and that this is as close as he can get to killing himself without actually doing it. THIS IS FOR THE AUDIENCE. Then they mentioned they should give him a reward for what he’s done for them.
What happens next is difficult to break down from their standpoint, as they’re not particularly well developed characters, not being Important Characters but just a duo from the masses which the show dismisses, but if you’ve caught a single frame of Alucard this season, is easy enough to explain from his perspective. They come to him at night when he can’t sleep, tell him he deserves a reward, and proceed to make sexual advances toward him, which he seems somewhat embarrassed and confused by at first before quickly becoming a participant in. Again, it is well established by this point that he desperately misses Trevor and Sypha, whom he was already jealous of the connection between last season, and is profoundly lonely. The sex, which he consents to, is clearly a proxy as it’s all he can get for now. The sex is also, unfortunately, initiated under false pretenses, and ends abruptly when the whole thing turns into a Christ allegory and they pin Alucard in the crucifix position after having betrayed him with a kiss (and then some) and demand he show them the secrets they’re certain he’s hiding from them. Alucard tries to reason with them, still insisting he knows they’re scared but that he’s been nothing but honest with them, but they’re too traumatized and broken to believe him, and so he kills them in self defense, all still right there on the bed where they were having sex. He then, reminiscent of Dracula from the series opening, stakes their bodies before the entrance to the castle as a warning to those who would come to harm him, telling the audience that he is Lisa’s son in many ways, but he is also Dracula’s, and is realizing with time and experience now that his father’s sentiment toward humanity may not have been so misplaced.
So you know. Lot to unpack there...
BUT THAT AIN’T IT, FOLKS!
There’s another, far less interesting (unbiased review here, folks) character named Hector. He’s a forgemaster which means he makes monsters which are loyal only to him. He’s no Isaac (whom I’d mentioned his backstory/characterization just kinda left a general bad taste in my mouth before but OH BABY, AM I CHANGING TUNE ON THAT ONE. Could write a whole review on Isaac but I’m gonna stay focused here) but he’s apparently here to stay, so fine.
There was an evil femme fatale vampire last season who kinda bored me who tricked Hector into betraying Dracula and then took him captive when she got what she wanted out of him. She did not trick him with sex at least but was still “evil manipulative femme fatale” which... *yawn* In S3 she drags him back to her home country and then proceeds to talk to her own sort of war council on how to get him to make a monster army for them to use that won’t just kill them all.
The lesbian vampire war council are fuckin interesting and I love 2 of them. The other one is an actually evil seductress femme fatale who DOES manipulate him with sex. Yay. How original. Well at least there are finally enough interesting, compelling women in the story that this isn’t our token evil female vampire so it’s easy for me to shrug off and forgive. All you need to know about Hector is he played with dead animals as a kid, it freaked his parents out when he kept reviving dead things, he killed them, now he’s a dead critter loving sensitive weirdo who was willing to participate in a “humane cull” that would leave the human race in essentially livestock pens for vampires.
So the entire time the red headed femme fatale is trying to get him to see that she’s not so bad, vampires can be civil, we don’t want what Dracula wanted, my sister didn’t trick you she appealed to your reason, blahblahblah, she’s calling him a “good boy” and leading him on, i fucking quote, “walkies” with a leash. There’s also a comment that she tended to an injured spider once. So,, y’know, she’s him, which means she’s best suited to manipulating him. And Hector even admits to being aware of what she’s doing and calls her out on it, but he’s trapped and doesn’t have much of a choice other than to go along with what she does and weirdly seems almost content at times. His weird naturalist... weirdness probably gives him some inferiority complex when it comes to vampires, I don’t know, his backstory and motive are not connected in the least and I’m frankly not interested enough in this character to give him much contemplation since it’s pretty clear there wasn’t much going into his creation. Anyway. Long story short, she eventually, with only technically lying to him about the purpose of a particular ring she wears, lures him into having sex with her and in the heat of passion has him swear loyalty to her before slipping a cursed ring on him which binds him exactly as he’d just sworn, essentially making him a slave. The sex, again, also stops here, but she makes some extremely unsettling comments later on about how he was surprisingly good at sex and she might “train him.” Which.... where to begin other than yikes, and why, and, where in the hell was a guy who played with dead animals supposed to learn to eat a bitch out like that anyway??
This is where we also, tying the themes together, learn that one of the allies Trevor and Sypha have been teaming up with was a child killer the whole time. They only learn this after he dies helping them fight the evil that had come to his town (and after the most iconic line of the season; “What the fuck is toilet paper?”) which they accomplish, but not before failing to save anyone in the village, which was consumed in an evil ritual. They’re alone again, with a distraught Sypha realizing what Trevor had tried to forget by getting caught up in her optimism, that, say it with me now;
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So there is your mostly unbiased spoilery context for the scenes in question. You can make up your own mind from there if that’s something you can handle, I’m gonna go on to add a few of my own thoughts which do not represent how I believe anyone else should interpret the show, this is purely my own train of thought here.
Sex consented to under false pretenses is still rape. I don’t know that I would personally classify these as “rape scenes,” but that’s just me. The reaction of the characters afterward makes me think Hector’s comes closer than Alucard’s, but the fact that both have appropriate reactions to being sexually betrayed makes me think that’s mostly what people are talking about when they say either one was raped. Hector later falls to his knees in a panic and hopelessness as he realizes “You made me a slave, my life is over,” and Alucard just lays there on the floor where he murdered his father as he weeps silently in contemplation of his own despair. That’s... some heavy shit, and I can, again, easily see where someone with a history of abuse or assault can be completely traumatized all over again watching this. As for the leeriness/attempting to be titilating/making rape “sexy” that a lot of adult fantasy/horror does... eh? I’m asexual, none of it’s sexy to me, and I was paying attention to the visual and audio cues the entire time that were making the audience aware with their ominous music, flashing between sex and battles against evil, and watching the instigators (Taka and Sumi, and Lenore the femme fatale vampire) as the camera focused on their scheming faces. The camera in Alucard’s scene especially just seemed to want to show us how sad and lonely he is, but that was pretty well established by that point and I know a sex scene devolving into a murder scene is jarring for people.
The themes of the season were manipulation, trust, and betrayal. Hector’s story reaches a pivotal turning point the moment the ring is slipped on him. Could it have been implemented differently than through the femme fatale seduction route? Absolutely, the show hadn’t really adopted sexual themes until this season and probably could have done so without it. She’d already lied to Hector an said that the rings were symbols she and her sisters wore to unite them, she could have been lying and welcomed him to join them and gotten him to swear loyalty to them in a ceremony after spending more time getting him to trust her. It was dumb and unnecessary and probably added in there just so maybe Alucard wasn’t the sole bearer of such an experience, or maybe because they shifted his plotline to fit in with the established themes, or maybe they could only sneak a bisexual threesome past the censors if they threw in more straight sex. What can I say? The cynicism of this show is relatable.
Alucard’s was less “Yikes” for me because he was never in a position where he didn’t have emotional or physical power over Taka and Sumi, he was a mentor to them who made no sexual advances whatsoever and seemed to only want to participate in their advances because it temporarily made him feel loved and worthy only to have the rug pulled out from under him and remind him that much more painfully of how alone he is, and how right his father may have been, and how wrong he was for killing him. Could this have been done without a sex scene? Yep, it always can. I know what the writers were trying to convey and I personally don’t have an issue with it and see its effectiveness, but I fully acknowledge another hour of spitballing in the writer’s room would have avoided that. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good or bad thing that they included this, it just... is, for me. I personally think if they’re going to confirm the sexual relationship between Trevor and Sypha, though, and then show us that Alucard is clearly missing them, there’s kinda one natural conclusion to make on how Alucard’s relationship with these two was going to go. I actually think it should have been better established and more time should have been spent on his relationship with them and depicted it as romantic/sexual from an earlier stage rather than just seemingly coming out of nowhere to people who hadn’t realized, “Oh, they’re his proxies,” earlier. I personally found it more tragic than traumatizing, but I don’t have a history of sexual abuse, so that is my own biased interpretation. If someone has that experience, I would not blame them in the least for finding this unpalatable.
Other arguments I’ve seen are, why is the only bi character shown to go through this kind of trauma? I mean, Alucard is our only confirmed bi character left for now, but Isaac is heavily implied to be queer, and again. Cynical universe. And he isn’t the only character period to go through it. They’re not singling him out because he’s bi, he’s just going through a character arc and is bi. I acknowledge again it could have been handled better but I don’t necessarily think this is biphobia so much as it is... unfortunate tone deafness. Tokenism is the problem, not Alucard’s bisexuality, so here’s hoping that we get another bi or queer character soon because as of right now, it’s just rife with unfortunate implications. I had this exact issue with Isaac’s backstory/characterization last season as our lone man of color with a major role and they immediately fixed his arc this season along with introducing several new characters of color and it was honestly the highlight of the season, so... the writers have proven to me that they can learn from their mistakes and spin my suspicion into HYPE, so I’m willing to give them through season 4 to see what they do with it.
I have also seen the argument for, why are the only Japanese characters tricky and sexually manipulative? Well, because they’re human and the show is extremely cynical in its depiction of humanity, we’ve just mostly seen that with white Europeans so far. As I mentioned before, tokenism is the problem. Is it annoying to see a sexually manipulative femme fatale vampire? Yes. Can I live with it and shrug it off a helluva lot easier when we get butch warrior vampire and tactical genius vampire talking back and forth about how they plan to conquer and drink an entire nation while espousing their affection for one another? Also yes! While we do finally get a lot more characters of color this season who are fleshed out and beautifully complex and sympathetic, I think Taka and Sumi could have been better explored, since their mistrust of Alucard makes sense but their decision to have sex with him in order to get his guard down is... really not apparent other than through speculation with 0 textual evidence to support it. I don’t think they’re sexually manipulative because they’re Japanese, I think they’re sexually manipulative because the plot calls for it and they happen to be the only Asian characters we have for now and the writers made another pretty tone deaf decision. Behind the scenes, I do wonder if they were chosen from specifically Cho’s court just so the animators had an excuse to draw her some more/get that Japanese audience invested. Orientalism is a helluva thing here in the west though, and the sexualization of east Asians is especially fucked up and I’m not gonna say this did not have catastrophically tone deaf implications. I hope we get more Asian characters with a nuanced depiction, and even though they are the only Asian characters, they are not the only sexual abusers and they are far from the only sympathetically broken but dangerous characters we see.
This is also, I’m fairly certain, a dual-studio production, and I do know Castlevania is a Japanese video game series based on European vampire stories, and in the endless love letter between Japanese and American media, some things gets botched in the exchange. That doesn’t excuse it, and that doesn’t mean it isn’t harmful, but I also don’t think it means “Cancelvania.” But I’m Mexican-American, and Not Asian-American, or more specifically Japanese-American, so, this is purely my perspective.
I won’t defend the choices, I certainly won’t argue with people who draw a line in the sand and say “This is unacceptable, I won’t watch this,” that’s a valid perspective to have. To me, the writers through Isaac have proven they know when and how to correct course when they need to, so I’m cautiously optimistic that this was all build up for a dynamite season 4 if/when we get it. The show is cynical, I’m cynical, but I can recognize careful writing when I see it, and to me the highlights of this unrepentantly stupid fucking show that I kinda love are gonna be worth sticking through the stuff that makes me wrinkle my nose with concern because I want to see where it goes. A time may come when that stops being the case, but for me it hasn’t reached that point yet. I completely understand if it has for anyone else though.
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manhwa recs of the daddy issues variety
its ya boi back again after many years of hiatus - almost forgot that this existed but hey i’m back - let’s get to it
in my attempt to escape reality, i’ve delved into the unescapable hole of isekai reincarnation mangas, and just thought i should at least do something with my time and get back to doing rec lists :’) in particular, the daddy issue manhwas, or mangas?
specifically, those stories where someone from our modern era reincarnated into the body of some tyrant’s daughter - i think this might be slightly too specific to make a dedicated list but... well, i think there’s some things to be said about them.
starting off with the GOD TIER:
Who Made Me A Princess // holy shit i love this so much // i’m at chp 61
in the original novel, princess Athanasia gets killed by her dad (Claude) who is an absolute tyrant who has never acknowledged her as his daughter, and instead fawns (as much as he does) over this other girl who claims to be his daughter
now that MC is reincarnated, she is determined to not get killed by this dickhead of a father and decides to run away w valuables asap, but is forced into a situation where she might be forced to suck up to him instead //
the art is super good & you actually feel for the characters, like they are somewhat relatable or at least you can sympathise with them. MC isn’t super dumb af & her tyrant father doesnt do anything OOC (aka become a useless fawning idiot dad once he warms up to her) plot is somewhat slow but at an acceptable pace, it doesn’t feel rushed or disjointed... i just rly like it damn it
& ALSO romance isn’t forced down your damn throat (even tho i do have ships alrdy) because they are still kids after all, and something that i super appreciate is that MC doesn’t go on about how handsome her dad is... like she does acknowledge that he’s handsome but it’s not like omg dude my dad is so handsome, i can’t sleep when his face is super near mine!!!!!! ///
(unfortunately this is where my good recs stop, but i’m just gna add the other manhwas of this variety, just to acknowledge that they exist, but just as a side note - i don’t really recommend these lol feel free to disagree, but also! there might be spoilers below)
daughter of the emperor // nope 2/10 // art is meh, story is also meh
lowkey same premise as who made me a princess except not as well developed...? I enjoyed it way more when she was a kid but after a while she kinda got on my nerves - she’s cute & all, mainly to gain favour from her dad but as she grows older, she starts to act like that around everyone
and she is totally ignorant as a princess & is not educated...? like i don’t really understand why. the plot keeps venturing off to weird ass tangents like an anime that caught up with the manga and has to resort to bad filler arcs. the time skips are hella odd too but ya know, i dropped it after awhile, i might just be biased and directly comparing it to WMMAP lol maybe i should give it another try
if i remember correctly too, i think she also goes on about how her dad is handsome????? idk it bothers me
they say i was born a king’s daughter // wtf/10 // nope nope
before being reincarnated, MC had a loving bf & died w regrets that she didn’t properly love him back or smth like that THEN she gets reincarnated into a world where women are treated like absolute SHIT, and she’s the daughter of a king (tbh i don’t know whether he can be called a tyrant because judging by the standards of her reincarnated world, he’s normal...?) oh and also males are superior because they can use magic
so she basically tries to not live a shit life by sucking up to the males in her life aka her 2 brothers
other than the fact that it’s super uncomfortable to read the super misogynistic world building, it’s ok-ish at first? even though it’s weird how her brothers & dad just basically falls in love with her rather quickly (her brothers in a...maybe not so platonic way, who tf knows), the series is somewhat OK right up till season 3
i think they switched the writer/artist (?) when it came to S3 and it really shows:
1. they like to use a certain way to tell the story, like start off with a foreshadowing and cuts to a flashback, and after awhile it gets predictable and idk it broke the storytelling for me personally
2. the story took a very very VERY weird ass turn - i guess the story before might have been building up to it but... ????????? i’m so fucking confused so i dropped it like 10 chapters into S3
i was born as the demon lord’s daughter // tbh too soon to really tell
currently i’m only 4 chapters in but time will tell... BUT SO FAR
(stealing the summary from manganelo because 4 chapters can’t tell me shit) Joara lived and died miserably, but as her life ended she realized that she was reborn as the demon lord’s daughter? Joara lived as the school’s loser and while running from her aunt’s physical abuse she got into a life-ending car accident. After nearly dying at the hands of her new father, the newly named “Irene” starts a new life with her father’s familial love and adventure!
it’s ok? maybe? slight complain that babies don’t look like actual babies but what do i know, i can’t draw for nuts //
it feels like there might be a plot going on but i can’t tell? it’s just here because ya know, daddy issues & he’s a demon lord, though he seems to dote on her quite a bit AND ALSO she will go on about how her dad is handsome, which i guess if a grown ass woman were to go back and see cute guys around you without really comprehending that he’s your dad...maybe???? idk???
ok i’m done peace out // feel free to argue w me or if you have other recs, pls lmk i need more
#manga#manhwa#mangarecs#reclist#aosxra#daughter of the emperor#who made me a princess#i was born as the demon lord's daughter#they say i was born a king's daughter
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Hello Steph 😊 Do you have any BAMF Molly or just some good fics that feature Molly? I need some Molly love at the moment because I just read a fic where she "turns to the drak side" so to speak, and my heart 😭😭😭
Hey Nonny!
Ah I did a few comm. recs lists recently with Molly, but here are what I can offer you from memory, LOL. PLEASE add your fave Molly fics, guys! PLEASE NOTE these are fics I’ve read, and please check the sub-headings for a TONNE of stuff I haven’t read!! Big title so I can find it later LOL.
MOLLY PLAYS A ROLE
See also:
COMM RECS: Coming Out To Molly
COMM RECS: Molly with Women
COMM RECS: Molly and Greg Push John and Sherlock Together
COMM RECS: Molly as a Villain
Santa Knows by Itsallfine (T, 1,719 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas Party, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Matchmaking, POV Sherlock, Pining Sherlock) – Sherlock and John both get exactly what they want from the Yard's secret Santa exchange. Pure holiday fluff.
What John Doesn't Know (Won't Hurt Him) by blueink3 (NR [T], 4,392 w., 1 Ch, || S3 Fix It, Pining Sherlock, Snippets of Life, Hurt/Comfort, Scars, Fluff and Angst, Five and One, Hopeful Ending, POV Sherlock) – Five people who see Sherlock's scars before John Watson. But Sherlock's secrets were never something he could keep from his blogger for long.
Thirty Three Hours Without John Watson by Bookaholic, mybrotherharry (M, 6,232 w. || First Kiss / Time, Pining Idiots, BG Mystrade, Crackish) – Sherlock can SO TOTALLY survive without John Watson. It should be a piece of cake. AKA the time when Sherlock braved grocery store lines for milk, purchased and gave away a box of tampons and figured out what the X-Factor is. Greg and Mycroft didn’t sign up for this shit. Next time, they are going to the Bahamas.
Wonderful, Etcetera. by VictoryCandescence (T, 16,955 w., 3 Ch. || Wonderful Life AU || Alternate Timelines, Brotherhood, Homophobia, Suicidal Ideations, Mentions of Drug Use, Friendship, Different TRF, Sherlock’s Past, Victor Trevor is Past Boyfriend, Depression, Hallucination, Love Confessions, Christmas, First Kiss) – Sherlock thinks everyone would be better off if he had never existed, including and especially himself. When he finds himself in a world in which his wish has been granted, he begins to think perhaps even he could be wrong – but it takes an unlikely chaperone to make him not only observe, but understand.
Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.
Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.
The Wrong Wagon by DancingGrimm (E, 35,663 w., 20 Ch. || Alternating POV, Molly/ John [Molly pines for John], Public Sex, Casual Sex, Obliviousness, BAMF!John, Awkwardness, Angst & Humour, First Time, Virgin Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock) – Molly sees John in a new light and realises that she may have hitched her horse to the wrong wagon...or something like that. John pines for Sherlock and worries what he will think if he ever finds out. And Sherlock doesn't know what Molly's up to...but he knows he doesn't like it.
The Pieces That Fall to Earth by Itsallfine (M, 49,513 w., 84 Ch. || S4 Fix-It, Epistolary, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Parentlock, Past Abuse, Coming Out, Internalized Homophobia, Questioning Sexuality, Mental Health Issues / Therapy, Angst, Happy Ending) – John and Sherlock have hit rock bottom, but with all their armor stripped away, they can finally speak honestly, seek healing, and find the truths that matter most. An epistolary post-s4 fix-it fic. Now complete. (This fic is rated T except for one very clearly marked and easily skippable chapter, which is rated M.) Part 1 of The Pieces that Fall to Earth
floating through a dark blue sky by Lediona (M, 58,966 w., 15 Ch. || Notting Hill AU || POV John, Celebrity Sherlock, First Date / Time / Kiss, Past Drug Addiction, Angst with a Happy Ending) – Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant -- but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day.
This Thing All Things Devours by cypress_tree (E, 63,844 w., 15 Ch. || In Time AU || Science Fiction, Dystopian Universe, First Meetings, Action / Adventure, Romance) – In 2169, time is money—literally. Humans are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, when the numbers on their arm start counting down from one year. When that time is up, they die. The only way to get more time is to earn it, borrow it, or steal it.John Watson lives day-to-day in the crowded slums of Zone 13. He never imagined living any differently—until he meets the practically-immortal Sherlock, and helps him on a case to track a local time-thief...
Northwest Passage by Kryptaria (E, 95,157 w., 27 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Canadian AU || BAMF!John, Canadian John, PTSD, Anal / Oral Sex, Rimming, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Drug Rehab, Falling in Love, Pining Sherlock, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Violin, Panic Attacks, Switching, Anxious / Protective Sherlock, Hugs for Comfort, Suicide Mentions, Healing Each Other) – Seven years ago, Captain John Watson of the Canadian Forces Medical Service withdrew from society, seeking a simple, isolated life in the distant northern wilderness of Canada. Though he survives from one day to the next, he doesn't truly live until someone from his dark past calls in a favor and turns his world upside-down with the introduction of Sherlock Holmes." Part 1 of Tales from the Northwest
The Stars Move Still by BeautifulFiction (E, 96,022 w., 5 Ch. || Magical Realism, Demons, Slash to Pre-Slash, AU, Happy Ending, Souls) – "What could I want so desperately that would make me sell my soul? What could possibly compel me to surrender the part of myself that makes me who I am: the source of my magic, my self-control, everything?”
Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w., 12 of ? Ch. || Dev. Rel., Pining, Fluff and Romance, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Fluff, Cuddles, Girl’s Night, Texting, Virgin Sherlock, Drunk Sherlock, Background Mollstrade, Hair Petting, Laying on Lap) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion. {{This feels complete; the chapter count is listed as ? but I feel like it is done}}
between each beat are words unsaid by darcylindbergh, hudders-and-hiddles (T, 107,998 w., 215 Ch. || Epistolary, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Angst, Happy Ending) – On their wedding night, John and Sherlock gift each other with the things they each said when the other could not hear, the things they each put down where the other could not see: a collection of writings that illustrate the way their love for one another has grown over the years. Part 1 of between each beat
The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w., 21 Ch. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.
A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w., 23 Ch. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Facial Shaving, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship's surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there's more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin' the eye, he has to choose... is it a pirate's life for him?
The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w., 13 Ch. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.
Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role
Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w., 28 Ch. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place
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Yugioh S3 Ep 31-32: Marik Takes a Shower
Ah, what time is it? It’s time for Yugi to finally duel Seto Kaiba, who has been waiting very impatiently to duel him for last 50 episodes. Basically since the beginning-middle of Season 2.
So, a side note, in my quest to try and make sure this blog remains legible and accessible for everyone (despite how often Tumblr tries to flag me for adult content), you’ll notice some changes--first off, certain characters have been given a texture to their text so it’s easier to tell apart if you are colorblind. From here on out, Kaiba is this chrome-y gradient color pattern, to match how cool he thinks he is.
Second off, I went and made all the photos a bit larger, which was completely pointless as tumblr hates text posts, and so although I told the blog to do high res photo’s only, that only applies to photo posts. Apparently all text post images are rounded down to a smooth 500 no matter what in this theme and I could change my theme but then I’d have to change a lot of things. I went in to the HTML/CSS editor and as far as I can tell there’s just nothing I can do.
Anyway, Kaiba immediately picks up on the fact that none of Yugi’s friends are here so he tries to play into Yugi’s insecurities. This is pointless, as Yugi is already insecure about basically everything anyway.
And so about the rest of this episode is just Kaiba and Yugi disagreeing with what the purpose of dueling cards is. Surprisingly, no one said “getting soooo much money from children” which is what the people who funded this show were thinking.
(read more under the cut)
Really, truly, honestly, Kaiba’s past self beat Pharaoh once, straight up killed the original King of Games who had complete control of his vague magic at the time. But Pharaoh isn’t even going to fathom Kaiba beating Marik. Like...Kaiba could do it.
One of the weird parts of this show is that everyone but Yugi is bad at cards but they keep showing us proof that, no really, they’re great at cards, just not when Yugi is looking (especially Duke, omg).
But the tension of this duel hinges on this assumption that if Yugi loses, then Kaiba has to duel Marik and he’ll just flat out lose. But...would he? Kaiba actually did proper research on these cards while Yugi is just kind of winging it and is also two people.
And then Tea had the audacity to say this, within hearing range of everyone else.
(and also, Duke has faint horizontal line patterns now. He speaks with a slight plaid.)
But Tea, for reals?
WHEN!?
When has it NOT?
It was only for a brief second but you bet your ass I stopped the footage there and smh.
And then Kaiba decided to use the holograms for actual hologram things. But in the most embarrassing socially awkward Kaiba way possible.
I kind of love how this show draws generic white people. With just the weirdest eyes ever. It’s like somewhere between Ghibli and the original Sealab2020.
Since Roland decided to go and help Kaiba destroy the world, Tristan took over being the useless person in the room to shout orders at this genius child who absolutely does not need Tristan’s help.
Tristan isn’t exactly a tech guy so I guess he was just there to give Mokuba anxiety.
And then, a very cool thing happened.
Yes, that’s right. It’s a Marik Shower Scene.
Turn on that slow anime lo-fi music and glory at this sexy...sink faucet???
Y’ALL.
Y’ALL.
WHAT!????
I feel like I just learned a lot about Marik. He’s surrounded by the forefront of technology, surrounded by So Many Purple Shampoo Bottles, but like...I don’t think he ever really caught on to the whole running water thing. This kind of infers that like...he’s been doing this sink routine in whatever bathroom is around for like all the years he’s been on the surface.
And like maybe.....maaaaybe he just needed to cool off. But there’s a big difference between spritzing your face and just shoving your entire head and all it’s anime hair into the sink. One is a spritz, and the other is a camp shower.
Wow.
Y’all, I’m still thinking about that Spinoff I wish existed. I’m still thinking about “Marik’s Boat Time”, just about the every day life of Marik stumbling through basic chores. I just want to see Bandit Keith going into the communal restroom they had on that boat, attempting to shave in the mirror while Marik comes in and just dunks his entire face into the nearest sink.
Oh, and PS, Marik’s font is embossed now. He’s an embossed Comic Sans Papyrus font. The most offensive font choice I could think of. Seems like something a villain could really get into.
I don’t really go over the card games here but this sequence was a whole lot of Kaiba forgetting how Yugi’s deck works.
And PS, in this flashback, Seto Kaiba was watching them do this duel from just offscreen. He watched Joey have to exchange cards with Yugi and then I guess Seto just...forgot that Yugi has this card? Although Seto Kaiba made sure to use the duel disk system so he could spy and know what everyone’s deck is?
Seto...
Anyway, from that flashback, Yugi remembers that Joey is a Big Boy and that he is Resilient and Not A Baby, and figures, he won’t die for reals. He’ll be good.
Whatever works for him.
should’ve could’ve...
But anyways, short on content today, so it was a short post. Ah, just like I always intended for these posts to be.
And if you just got here, congrats on reading this entire post despite coming in at the middle of S3. This is a link to these recaps in chrono order so you can start at Episode 1.
#yugioh#yu gi oh#S3 Ep31#S3 Ep32#I can't believe I we got our anime shower scene#marik ishtar#yugi muto#seto kaiba#joey wheeler#still in a coma#mokuba#tristan taylor#the return of kaiba's freakin terrible hat#tea gardner#duke devlin
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