#like i've seen people saying he was ignoring shadow calling out to him from the void

[shurisneakers]

unsolved (v)

Summary: Bucky doesn't even believe in the paranormal. So who the hell thought it was a good idea to stick him in a series about everything haunted for the internet's amusement? With his loose-canon of a teammate who has no concept of subtlety or shits left to give, to make things even worse. (Buzzfeed unsolved AU)

Warnings: swearing, frustrated bucky, obnoxious reader, witchcraft

A/N: it's like i never left amirite (im sorry it has been like 10 months pls forgive me ily guys let's pretend this series never went on hiatus) (i had cancer and college but now I've graduated from both and i live babyyy. anyway. welcome back to my house of horrors)

Previous part || Series masterlist

When you tell Maya you want to do witchcraft, you'd done so with the full expectation of defending your idea with the force of a PhD student who was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

She surprisingly agrees. 

“Really?” It's hard to stop the astonishment from entering your voice. Honestly, it sort of pisses you off that the Canva presentation you spent five hours on wouldn't actually see the light of day.

“Yeah, sure. I think it'd do well with the older demographic. ” She shrugs.

"Really?" Now you weren't sure she was on the same plane of existence as you were.

“Make some animals talk. Conjure up some parking spots.”

Ah. 

“I was thinking more like... hexing people and shadow demons,” you test slowly.

That seems to tether her to reality.

Her head cranes towards you centimetre by centimetre, like she was buffering in real time.

“Are you insane?" she states, not very much sounding like she was expecting an answer. "Do you want to end up on the news? Do you know how vicious Facebook groups can be?” 

“No PR is bad PR,” you preach wisely, parroting advice you’d seen bots on Twitter tell other bots. 

“That doesn’t apply to you. I already have a tough time explaining Stephen Strange and why he’s not literally the devil to the public."

Now that was a little unfair. Perhaps it warranted another Canva presentation.

"Have you considered that I'm hotter and significantly cooler than Stephen Strange?" you suggest helpfully.

She squints at you, or more likely your audacity. "I will not have another scandal on my hands this week.” 

“But next week is okay?”

Her hardened stare tells you quickly what a thousand words cannot.

You cross your arms over your chest. “Thou limit me so, Maya. How is one to find you invigorating content in these trying circumstances?”

Maya taps your shoulder on her way out, crooning, “There’s a reason I asked you to do this series. You’ll figure it out.”

You hide a smile with an all too dramatic sigh. “Thou compliment me so. How am I to not fall in love with thee?”

Maya shakes her head playfully. “Nothing that will get me called into a press conference by mid-day. No hexing. No extreme curses. ”

“Mid-level curses it is, then” you call after her.

Her leaving figure does not give you a reply.

After a week of staring at the corner of his room through the night, delirious to the point where he seriously considered using Sam’s Amazon Prime account to buy his own stupid ghost apparatuses, Bucky throws in the towel.

Clearly, he was mistaken. Sleep deprived and probably missing his family a little more than he would have ever admitted to a living soul.

Bucky's sleep deprivation adds to his already charming and sociable personality.

No one would touch him with a ten-foot pole. Bucky’s usually grumpy and while everyone had sort of built a tolerance towards his regular nonsense, he was now the very sexy combination of grumpy and sensitive.

For his part, after last week's shenanigans, Bucky has stuck to avoiding anything and everything horror.

He watches only romcoms and finds that while everyone says he seems most like Harry from Harry Met Sally, he hates that Mike Wazowski motherfucker with a passion. 

While everyone else seems to get the memo, you have chosen to ignore it blissfully, and have instead been prancing about all week, shoving meme after meme into his face.

Bucky Barnes smiling compilations that were 7 seconds long. Bucky Barnes social media fanfictions that showed him replying far more than he had ever replied to anyone in real life ever.

Bucky’s learnt to ignore you with a long-suffering glare. You adapt quickly, skillfully dodge the daggers shooting out of his eyes and shove another TikTok in his face. It is an edit of him to Toxic by Britney Spears. He doesn't want to ask where they got some of the footage they used.

After the fifth Twitter screenshot, he takes to avoiding you like the plague.

Unfortunately for Maya, that involved avoiding the set too. He sees on the official The Graveyard Shift channels that there’s an announcement put out about an episode delay. 

It is undeniably his fault. No, he still won't answer the group chat or the several knocks at his door every day.

But because the universe is invested in his sorrow, you seem to find him wherever he goes.

In the garden, digging through the vegetable bed.

In the storeroom, looking through oversized cookware.

When he walked into the alley behind the Tower and found you there, he hissed at you like a feral cat and you asked very loudly what the fuck was wrong with him. 

He checks every part of him and all his clothes for a tracker but no-- you just seem to have a karmic connection level of being exactly where he is. 

When he runs into you for the fourth time at the library, he really thinks he’s lost it.

“Are you following me?” he asks, voice sharp.

You look at him in wonder. “Your ego is so big it could have its own gravitational pull. How do you carry around your massive head all day?"

“Everywhere I go, you’re there.” He continues, finger pointing in accusation. 

“Bitch, you're the one who walked in here," you exclaim. "I’ve been here all day.”

“Doing what?”

“Who’s following who now?” you dare.

“Because you’re in this section.” He does a quick check to see what section it actually is. Witchcraft and Wizardry. He may not have known that when he accused you but he definitely was not wrong.

“Why do you care what I do here?”

Because he's wondering if he’s managed to shut down production permanently and sent a bunch of people into unemployment.

“I don’t trust you here," he settles on instead. "What are you actually doing?"

“I’m learning things. Gaining knowledge. And such." You gesture vaguely before you narrow your eyes at him. "Not that you would know, you ape.”

He scoffs. He had the intelligence of a thousand suns, mind you.

“You don’t even have a book," he counters.

“So? I’m gaining knowledge through osmosis.” You look around. “I’m absorbing.”

His nose twitches, teeth clenched.

“Whatever,” he mumbles instead, turning his attention to the bookshelf.

As he thumbs through various titles he’s too annoyed to read, a small movement catches his attention. 

He watches you from the corner of his eyes. 

“What?” you demand, this whole exchange too damn loud for a library. 

“What?” he challenges right back. “Why are you watching me?”

“Why am I– you’re the one staring at me.” You throw your hands up. “First you follow me here, second you accuse me of things that would get me burnt at the stake a couple of years ago, third you accuse me of watching you just 'cause you know you're pretty. You–”

Bucky narrows his eyes, not missing the random compliment you slipped in.

“Hold on just one second. That’s why you’ve been avoiding everyone all week.” You stare at him, wide-eyed and unrelenting.

He thinks he must have missed some part of the conversation because he has no idea why you're looking at him like you've figured him all out.

“That’s why you’ve been so jumpy and sleep deprived ever since that episode you filmed.”

Bucky’s gaze doesn’t waver, but his mind races and his breath falters for a second. There’s no goddamn way you knew what had gone down, he’d deleted every footage that could possibly–

“You missed me.”

He stops his overthinking right in its tracks.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” You tilt your head, face full of pure sympathy. “You filmed one episode without me by your side and realised you couldn’t live without me.”

“Fucking ridiculous,” he mutters, eyes pressed closed tighty, partially in relief. 

“You want me, don’t you? You want me so bad it makes you throw u–”

“Fuck off.” Bucky turns on his heel at the speed of light.

“You have a fat, raging crush–”  

“I’m fuckin' moving out.” His voice is like rocks.

“You can move out, but you can never move on, baby,” you whisper-shout. “When’d you realise you liked me, Bucky? Night one? The first hou–”

He slams the library door behind him. 

From: Stevie Left some strawberries outside your door. They’re good. 

From: Stevie How are you doing today, by the way?

From: Bucky alive

From: Bucky and thanks 

From: Stevie Anything we have to talk about? Your wood chisels didn’t break again, did they?

From: Bucky nothing im fine

From: Stevie You sure? Time for a Cypress Hills visit?

From: Bucky no im fine 

From: Stevie You haven’t left the room in a week. Beat your old record and I'm going to start getting worried here.

Bucky stares at his phone wondering how he ended up with a mother a century after his own died, before sighing.

From: Bucky going to film a video this week. im fine

From: Bucky promise 

Because there really was no other way to convince Steve that he as leaving the cave he constructed from his comforter.

From: Steve Good to hear. I’m always across the hallway if you need anything. 

From: Bucky i know. your gramophone won’t let me forget it. 

From: Steve Dick.

From: Bucky it is too damn loud. old ass

From: Steve Got a new record. Haven’t listened to it yet.

From: Bucky ill be there in 10

That Friday, Bucky walks onto the set in his finest black hoodie and darkest sunglasses, looking less like a badass and entirely like a hungover teenager. 

Before he has a chance to even register what’s going on, he is ambushed by lights, a team touching up his face and his stupid dollar store sunglasses leave him before he has a chance to protest.  

“I told you he’d show up,” you pipe up proudly from your place at the table. “Lil' shit simply missed me too–”

“Stop,” he interrupts, finally getting around to look at the set when the foundation brushes stop assaulting his line of vision. 

For a hot second, he thinks you've taken over Steve's cooking show. 

There are candles floating around, which he assumes you're holding up. A large… cauldron, gigantic wooden mixing spoons and 50 little bowls worth of ingredients are neatly arranged on the table.

“What the hell is going on?” he questions immediately. “What is all this?”

“Mise en place, baby,” you reply, shutting a book you had on the table loudly before looking at him. “You’re on dish duty. Come on.” 

“What?” His eyebrows pull into a frown. 

You dust off your hands before reaching under the table and chucking an apron at him. “Back when I worked as a line cook, the number one rule was to clean up as you go. I like to think of it as--”

“What is going on here?” he specifies, already trying to piece together your timeline in his head with every new piece of lore.

“Welcome to my kitchen, motherfucker.” Your grin is nefarious. “We're gonna do some witchcraft.” 

After he spends fifteen minutes on the phone with Maya confirming that yes, that is indeed the episode and that the heads up he needed would have reached him if he opened the seventeen million messages on the group chat– he finally comes to stand behind the bench with you, a tick in his jaw but also with enough self-awareness to be sheepish. 

He thought his grand return to the channel would be a simple video with some ghost reading or whatever, not… this. 

He turns to you, ready to reach a compromise that ends with him not having to be there at all.

But in the fifteen minutes he had turned his attention to the call, you’ve somehow convinced them to start rolling before he gets the chance to leave, so he’s immediately hit with a--

“We’re on in three…two–”

“Where is your apron?” you demand, looking him up and down.

“I’m not wearing that shit.” It had some stupid slogan like ‘Life is about taking whisks!’ and he had already been through enough.

“Jeez, annyone would think that you're not in love with me--"

"I'm not."

"--by the way you're so ungrateful. I got that custom-made for you,” you tsk. “I could've gotten the other one. Mine could've said ‘he’s my sweet potato’ and yours could've said ‘I yam’.”

Bucky experiences a whole-body chill. 

“Whatever," you dismiss with a wave of hand before looking into the camera. "Before we get started, we recognize that for some, witchcraft is a deeply meaningful religion and spiritual practice that should be approached with respect and curiosity.”

“We’re not claiming this is the definitive guide to witchcraft, we’re simply trying out a book that’s been highly recommended for better or worse, and seeing where it leads us. Whaddya say, Bucko?

You look at him for input. Bucky stares at the dusty, hole-ridden monstrosity on the table.

“What’s it called?” Bucky asks finally after a long pause.

You tap the thick, old book. “Witchcraft for Weenies: A Totally Legit Guide to Authentic Witchcraft by A. Harkness.”

“Is that the actual name or are you just making it up?”  

“Rich coming from the only one between us who actually lied on camera--" you glare at him. "I would never fabricate my sources, I’m a champion for academic integrity.”

You pick up the book to show him, flipping it towards the camera too and sure enough, the book that was basically falling apart at the binding was called exactly that.

“Let’s-a go, baby.”

You stare at him, lips pressed together. Bucky gives no inclination towards changing his answer. 

“Fine. We’re going to do this the hard way, I see.” You exhale, reaching into the pocket of your apron. 

Bucky’s eyebrows knit together when you brandish a deck of cards, yank his arm towards you and drop it into his open palm. 

“Shuffle," you command.

Something very familiar faces him.

Bucky stares at the cards before looking back at you. “Why’s my face on it?”

“It’s a tarot deck I got from Comic Con,” you insist. “Avengers themed. Now shuffle it.”

He thinks you left that card on top on purpose, but regardless, he's already been too much of a menace to the crew to be the cause of any more disturbance.

So he slowly begins, careful and skilled, before you scoff in his face.

“Faster, grandpa," you chide. “I’ve seen the way those hands cut garlic when no one’s around, I know you move faster than that.”

Bucky rolls his eyes but complies anyway, shuffling the cards with the adeptness only a certain Jim Morita could have taught him in a dark tent to keep him awake on a night watch. 

“Faster,” you goad, face smug. “Faster. Come on now, Barnes, your age finally catching up to you?”

It’s stupid– he doesn’t even know why he’s actually complying and increasing his speed. He can’t believe that he was letting you pressure him.

“C’mon, faster, Barnes, you abso-”

His hands were moving so fast by then that they’d have to put the video in slow motion to catch all the movement.

“Faster–” and in the commotion, a few cards fly out.

“Brilliant, thanks.” You slam them down on the table, plucking the deck out of his hand before he has a chance to process why the fuck he actually went ahead with what you were trying. 

“Right, so the universe has decided that these will be your cards,” you tell him, and he finally looks down at what had fallen out of the deck. 

The cards show Sam’s Captain America shield, Carol Danvers, and Spider-Man, with words written below.

“The Star, Six of Cups, The Hanged Man,” you read out thoughtfully.  

Bucky rolls his eyes so hard he thinks they’ll fall out of his skull. 

“You know, I’m going to just make a general assumption and say you need help.” You hum to yourself. “I'm gonna make a potion to get you some.”

“Get me some?” He's too busy trying to figure out what the cards could possibly mean to see that he's walked straight into that one.  

“Get you some perspective. You need an advisor who’ll dish it to you straight. Give you the facts, no bullshit–”

"No." He had too many of those in his life and he has had enough of people being “honest” and "straightforward” and telling him his moustache was ugly every time he dared to try out a new look–

Until you reach under the table and again and suddenly, there’s a white creature buzzing around on the table in front of him.

“Behold– your new advisor,” you announce.

From the corner of his eye Bucky can see the production team scrambling to figure out where the hell this was going. He lip-reads producers’ orders to find adoption links or resources to insert during post-production, and teasers on social media, to make this look more planned. Great, so no one was prepared-- it wasn't just him.

“Whose fucking cat is this?” He looks down at it, all white except for a few brown spots all around, green eyes and evil in her aura.

“Relax, I'll give her back when we're done.”

“Give her ba–” he echoes. “Where did you get her?” 

“The alley outside,” you coo, rubbing under her chin. “I checked and she doesn’t have an owner. But look at her, she’s meant to be here.”

Bucky looks at the cat. The cat looks back at him, irises narrowing into slits. His nose twitches. 

“You can’t just bring a cat–”

“Remember to adopt, not shop,” you say to the camera before clapping your hand. “Anyway. If my potion goes according to plan, she will be giving you unsolicited life advice for eternity.” 

“You will be unemployed, then,” Bucky manages to add while watching the chaos unfold behind the camera.

“Nonsense, I’m irreplaceable.” You grin. “Besides, you can't manufacture chemistry like this even in a cauldron.” 

You send him a flying kiss. His glower was as sharp as laser beams.

“Let’s get started.” You grin at the camera. 

Bucky tries to pet the cat. She hisses at him.

Well all-fucking-right then.

One hour later, things have descended into madness of the most mundane kind.

It was precisely when you started telling him ten minutes in that a book had nothing on your instincts and raw intelligence that Bucky knew that this was going to shit. 

The cauldron was on an electric stove unlike the open fire demanded by the book because the team had enough foresight to know it would be a fire hazard.

You toss in something that looks like cardamom but he isn’t sure at this point. He just wanted to get away from the bright lights and the strange smiling liquid boiling awai.

The cat sits obediently by your side, watching curiously. He is convinced that she is evil.

Unfortunately, Bucky has had to hold her back twice when she tried to stick her paw in to attack a bubble, and at this point, he doesn’t think he has it in him to do it a third time. 

You read the recipe as if it makes any sort of fucking difference now.

“We’re almost done,” you sing. 

Bucky nurses his headache.  “Don't give me hope.” 

“Put some more reegelbeetle seeds in,” you dictate. “This is gonna work, I can feel it.”

Bucky uses his free hand to do as you say. He doesn’t even think it’s the right one, he just reaches for whatever is closer to you and you don't seem to care either.

You toss in some more seeds, stir twice and then turn off the stove. 

“Boom.” You lift the spoon up, watching the thick liquid drip back. “This is either a talking potion or a hex.” 

"Hex to do what?”

“I think it activates dormant allergies.” You squint at the book that literally had no significance besides being a prop. “You got any?”

“No.” But it makes him think of Steve’s pollen allergies. 

“Oh. Well, then there’s only one outcome here.”

“Alright, here we go.” Of the gigantic pot that you’d just stirred, you fish the tiniest amount out on the smallest spoon he’d ever seen, which you also apparently stored in the vast space that was your apron pocket.

The cat watches you hold the spoon near its face.

It takes a sniff. Then two. Finally, after deeming it non-poisonous, it sticks out its tongue the tiniest bit and takes a lick.

The whole crew is silent.

Bucky’s hand is still pressing against his temples.

“Tell us your name,” you urge, voice hopeful.

The cat looks at Bucky, and for a second, something akin to understanding flashes in its eyes. It’s uncanny and weird and something about it unsettles him deeply. 

You seem to catch it too because you look at him in surprise. He looks back at you, face pulled into a frown. 

And for a moment, he wonders. If you'd somehow done it. Because there’s no fucking way–

Then it meows.

He exhales.

Your shoulders drop as you let out an “Aw, man.”

"Great. Goodbye. Like and subcribce to the bell icon," he calls out, dusting his hands against his pants.

Someone from the production crew sneezes.

Both of you turn to him immediately. 

At the same instant, someone else all the way on the opposite end sneezes again, and the whole crew turns to look at them, before another sneezes in the front.

“We did it!” you cheer.

“We didn’t do jack,” Bucky interjects immediately as the crew errupts into a cacophony of chatter and sneezes.  

“It’s a hex that activates allergies and they’re sneezing,” you point towards them with the spoon, triumphant.

“You threw fifteen fuckin' pounds of pepper in there,”  he argues. “You've turned this room into a sandstorm of dry spices. This proves nothing.” 

“I’ve connected the dots.” Your eyes shine, ignoring him.  

“You didn’t connect shit.”

“I’ve connected them.” 

Someone in the corner sneezes. He wonders if Steve’s allergies would be activated by the trace amounts of... cursed soup that he carries with him back to the floor. 

“Well, we can’t leave them like this, Bucky.” You look around, tsking. “We gotta make a reverse hex or something.”

“You can,” he says. “It’s called opening the windows.”

“Nope,” you pop the last syllable. “We’re making another potion. C’mon.”

“First of all, this is not a potion–” he begins, but is interrupted by a buzz on his phone, the screen lit up by a text on the groupchat. 

From: Maya I don’t give a shit if it’s placebo or not. Make a damn potion before you get sued for hexing employees. 

“Fine,” he grumbles. 

“Beautiful. Grab the ash sphinx flakes,” you brandish another big cauldron from fuck knows where.

Bucky stares at you, unmoving.

“Just get the oregano,” you sigh. 

The cat tries sticking her paw in the pot again.

Bucky feels a sneeze incoming.

Whether the hex and subsequent anti-hex Maya forced you to make at gunpoint was real or not, is yet to be determined scientifically.

What actually does happen, is the damn apron you give him carries enough trace amount of your stupid experiment, that it somehow activates Steve’s very real pollen allergy. Bucky finds himself on edge for the rest of the day every time the man rattles the walls with his middle aged dad sneezing.

It carries on over to his show, which means Steve’s episode on baking a 1950s chocolate cake from tomato soup is edited extremely strangely to cut out every sneeze.

Which means Nat’s episode on spy inaccuracies in Argylle takes twice as long to film because they have to take a few seconds every time Steve’s sneezes interrupt her from the set next door.

Which means Bruce’s video on the science behind memory is delayed on shooting.

All in all, something does seemed to have been hexed, but it mostly seems to be everyone’s fucking productivity.

Finally, everyone manages to get through the day, and the videos are sent to post production.

The same night when everyone’s gathered at the dining table to commemorate the end of another shoot day, Bucky slips out, knowing that Steve would save him a slice of pizza if he never returned. 

He goes back to the library to return his copy of Understanding Wood Finishing, when his curiosity leads him back down a familiar path. 

It’s where he finds you again, in the same corner as the last time, on the floor, surrounded by shelves.

“You again.” You quirk an eyebrow when he appears from the shadows. "Aren't you supposed to be eating pizza?"

“What are you absorbing now?” he asks, voice low for once, respecting the sanctity of the library now that day had slipped into night and everything seemed a bit more solemn now.

“Nothing,” you answer.

“Then why are you here?” 

He figured you’d be out there, introducing everyone to the cat that was now set to be roaming the halls, before someone assumed it was a shapeshifting enemy and dealt with it accordingly.

“God forbid someone get some peace and quiet for once,” you mumble. “It’s too loud out there.”

Oh.

You don’t say anything else, leaning back against the bookshelf with your eyes closed.

There really isn't a need for more words. He gets it. 

The understadning leaves silence in its wake. Bucky doesn't really have anything to say.

“Did you come here just to stare at me?” you ask finally. “Did you finally admit your feelings?” 

“Jesus Christ,” he groans. “I’m not in love with you.”

“Only a matter of time.” You smile before changes to something more subdued, a bit more serious. “You wanna talk about what’s actually been bugging you for the last week?”

Bucky looks at you wearily. “The tarot cards tell you something?”

You eye him. “Not more than what’s obvious. Wanna talk about it?”

He swallows, throat suddenly feeling like it's closing in on itself. 

“No.”

“Alrighty.” 

You say nothing more than that, leaving the both of you in relative quiet, save for the buzz of the warm fluorescent light above. 

Bucky takes an awkward seat next to you on the floor.

You pry open an eye to look at him in suspicion.

“Y’mind?” he manges.

���Mind what?”

He gestures to himself uncomforably, readiy to jump up and leave at any second.

You observe him for a second, and for once he stares back with no irritation in his look, just permission.

“No, you can sit.” You close your eyes. “So long as you don’t tell anyone else 'bout this place.” 

If there’s anything Bucky’s good at, it’s keeping a secret. 

He settles back into the shelf with an exhale, letting the weight of day roll off his shoulders.

You wordlessly slide a thermos towards him. He doesn’t even have to open it to know it’s the damn soup from that afternoon.

And if he’s being honest, it doesn’t taste that bad at all. 

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Next part

[eggcats]

Radioapple fic, where after it's revealed that Pentious was redeemed, Heaven sends some angels (including some of Lucifer's own family) down to check out this Hazbin Hotel. (common fic theme)

And Lucifer is STRESSED. He hasn't seen any of his family in millennia, and they absolutely did not part on good terms. Especially because now he has to make as good of an impression as he can because he will NOT be the cause of Charlie's dreams failing.

Anyway, one of Lucifer’s estranged family arrives and they have absolutely NOTHING good to say about the hotel, it's people, or even hell itself. Insulting the decor, how it looks, being like "You got kicked out for free will and THIS is what they do with it? Ugh." and the like.

Lucifer is trying to keep himself together for Charlie's sake. (He's only had 3 breakdowns today, he's doing good!)

However, the last thing he expects is Alastor coming to his defense. Alastor looks at this shitty relative of Lucifer’s and is immediately like, "How DARE you? Antagonizing this angel is MY JOB, and I don't send him into hysterics, I send him into MUSICAL NUMBERS. Get out of my hotel immediately." But, obviously, he can't SAY that (for many reasons, the least of which is that Charlie needs them here for her redemption project).

So instead, he just picks at everything they say. "Hmmmmm, yes, but we at least chose to do this with this, free will you're insulting. What's your excuse for that eyesore youre wearing, hmmm?"

Alastor goes as far as to defend Lucifer’s choices in decor in the hotel, and Lucifer is completely confused because he and Alastor literally fought the day before about that SAME decor??

(The second the angel leaves Alastor turns to him and goes "They're right, you know, that is the ugliest interior design I've ever seen," and then DISAPPEARS before Lucifer can even respond. What the hell?!)

Alastor is not ignorant of toxic family dynamics, and while part of his initial issues with Lucifer stemmed from his belief in him being a deadbeat father, actually knowing him kind of changes his thoughts on this. It's a little telling that Charlie has been (apparently) attempting to contact her mother during her 7 year disappearance and has heard nothing, but the father who (she believed) thinks she's a failure shows up within an hour of her calling him ONCE. And then he does whatever he can to help her dreams, and the second she implies she wants him around more, he MOVES IN. It's kind of hard to continue thinking that LUCIFER is the toxic parent in the family dynamic, after all this.

(He still fights him, though, because it's fun to tell the most powerful being in hell his choice of interior design is ugly. If Alastor kind of doesn't go for the throat in all of Lucifer’s insecurities anymore, no one needs to acknowledge that.)

So, during the entire Heaven tour, Alastor is strongly in the "form a united front" boat. He can and WILL come out of the shadows for a sarcastic quip that simultaneously shuts them down AND makes Lucifer feel better.

(Alastor will NOT acknowledge the anger that goes through him at the idea of someone other than him picking at Lucifer, especially when they are CLEARLY trying to send him into a breakdown. How dare they. *cough* Anyway.)

So the whole ordeal winds up not as stressful as Lucifer was dreading, because somehow he has an antagonistic cannibal deer defending him the entire time. And Lucifer has no idea HOW that happened, but it does kind of make him feel better. (And Alastor's form of mocking him does, too, somehow.)

When they're alone, however, Alastor still picks at him so they can fight. (And Lucifer didn't notice until now how much FUN he has fighting with Alastor, and that Alastor insulting him makes him want to do better and prove him wrong, unlike his visiting family that makes him want to lock himself away for a decade.)

The tour ends, and Alastor and Lucifer go back to how they were before. (Sort of. Lucifer might be re-evaluating every interaction they've ever had and might send himself into a mild crisis.)

[forcemeanakin]

ᴠɪᴄᴛᴏʀɪᴀ'ꜱ ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛ ᴀɴɢᴇʟ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ x ʜᴀʏᴅᴇɴ ᴄʜʀɪꜱᴛᴇɴꜱᴇɴ

Okay so this is a alternate of @hanasnx starlet!reader but with my own little twist because I just love the scenery and the glamour of the shows <3 So I present to you: VSangel!reader x Hayden Christensen (let's ignore the fact that I've been working on some of these scenarios for YEARS now).

This is hella long and nsfw, so beware. 3K.

Previous inspo: Link

BACKGROUND:

Hayden has probably seen you in a big billboard before, maybe an ad on TV, but didn't remember your name. He thought you were hot though. A pretty little thing that was probably out of an old man's league anyway.

You are in your 20's, so you grew up with the Star Wars prequels and without a doubt Anakin Skywalker was your childhood crush. Posters on your walls, watching other movies Hayden was in just to see him. Most of your classmates probably made fun of your Star Wars obsession because you were only into it because of the hot guy in Revenge Of the Sith. How wrong they were!! It was also because of the hot guy in AOTC!

Also you're like a total SW geek, but we'll talk about it later.

THE BEGINING: How did you two meet?

Considering that both of you are from different areas of show business, you had to meet in a common ground. I don't see Hayden going to a fashion show before you (and then that's the only place paparazzi can catch him for sure <3). So after a lot of thought, you two met at an Award show (my mind goes automatically to the Tiff Tribute Awards). Or more specifically, the after party.

I picture Hayden saying hello to a couple of people he knows before heading to the bar and sticking around there, just sipping on his drink and greeting whoever comes along to shake his hand and pat his shoulder.

You already saw him back on the red carpet, making your best effort to not get your drooling face captured by a paparazzi. Your stunning dress and detailed makeup made you look like a million dollars !!!

And he noticed. Fuck, did he notice.

Walking by the bar, after pep talking yourself into talking to him for like half an hour, you pulled up right beside him to order yourself a drink. A cosmo or some shit like that. Very fancy and pretty, like you.

He was hypnotized by you the second he saw you up close. Actually, the second he saw your ass swinging his way.

That was it. You two were done for the moment your gazes crossed.

He made the first move, saying a polite "hey" and offering to call the bartender for you.

You were batting your eyelashes, grazing his biceps with your long nails and giving those "fuck me eyes" that worked every time. Someone so much more mature and wise, you didn't think he would want you for something besides fucking, so why did it matter if you were a bit sluttier than you were used to?

But you started talking and it was an actual good conversation. He seemed interested in getting to know you and his jokes actually made you laugh. He was all smooth with his compliments and subtle stares at your dress.

I feel like he would give you a nickname from the very first night. Something related to your attire or the sparkle of your eyes, accentuated by the glittery eye shadow.

It would be a downright shame to let that amazing chemistry go to waste for a meaningless hookup. Luckily he didn't let that happen.

Like a true gentleman, he walked you to your car, using the back door and called it a night. Not before asking for your number and teasing a goodnight kiss.

The next day, while you were getting ready to shoot a campaign, you receive a text from an unknown number, but you immediately knew who it was.

"Hey, starlight." There's a whole other version of this with them meeting over a smoke break, but I know that's not everyone's cup of tea.

BEFORE AND AFTER YOU:

Okay so let's set some things straight. Hayden's not a public guy. he hates having his private life printed on newspapers and he's not a fan of social media. At all. Heck. he doesn't even like to leave his house on weekends. But after you? He had to get used to it. You're this generation very own Gisele Bündchen. You're everywhere. You're everything. You are the fashion world. So paps are very much included in every moment of your life.

BEFORE GOING PUBLIC:

You tried to keep it hidden as much as you could. It was not very hard with you traveling almost every day and him living in LA, at his new house. And whenever he could, he escaped to his own little paradise in Canada.

So texting was basically everything you could do.

He even learned new lingo just to keep up with you :)

But you both craved more, so the next time you were in LA, you were going to grab dinner.

The damn paps got a few pictures of you and that's when the rumors started.

At first not many people recognized him, mainly because the pictures were taken from behind him, but the curls and the outfit ratted him out to a few observant fans.

But media didn't believe them, I mean, why? And the selected group that decided to run with that narrative used headliners like: "how the fuck did the awkward guy from SW pulled y/n's ass?"

After weeks of trying to be low-key for his sake: going on coffee runs using his caps and sunglasses so people wouldn't recognize you, having dinner dates at his house and/or choosing far away locations to stroll with a bit of privacy; you gave up. Your already public life was catching up with you two. So it was better to ride the wave than to escape it and fail in the process.

BUT BEFORE ABSOLUTELY GOING PUBLIC, I love the idea that interviewers were trying to drag the information out of you. Maybe at a red carpet or at an interview with a digital magazine, people would throw you some questions to see if you bite the bait:

"So, Y/n, who's your favorite SW character?"

And you would grin knowingly but never backing down. Your answer would vary from Obi-Wan Kenobi (to mess with Hayden) or R2 when you felt like sharing some of your SW passion.

But right before you two decide to go full-on public, you decide to mess with them, for your own entertainment: "You know, I do have a soft spot for Darth Vader."

PEOPLE GASPED AT THAT CRUMB OF CONFIRMATION.

GOING PUBLIC:

It was at a red carpet

You two went in separate cars

Hayden walked first, having his picture staken and signing autographs while you barely arrived at the event

The second you entered the carpet the cameras went off on you, total focus on getting pics of your designer dress

You were posing like an absolute goddess, answering some questions with wit, trying to spot your boyfriend with the corner of your eye

Finally you locked eyes and he raised a dubious eyebrow, like saying: "Are we seriously doing this?"

And you gave him a bright beam, stretching your arm to him as he walked to you, taking your hand and kissing the inner side of your forearm before placing it on his shoulder. Fingers dropping to your waist and pulling you to him while you laugh, his mouth lowering to your ear to whisper: "You always get your way, huh?"

You chuckled and kissed his cheek, you two turning to face the cameras, just for a few seconds before moving on.

DATING:

I'll not get into the heavy details of how you two managed to make your relationship work, with your traveling and photoshoots, because fuck that. I'll only say that there was a lot of sexting and he was a fucking natural at it. Mile high club as well.

You two would still try to remain unrecognizable by the paparazzis but more chill this time.

That meant having more pictures of you on your candle lit dinners or your fun Sunday mornings in the park out there.

I JUST KNOW THERE'S A PICTURE OF YOU KISSING IN THE PARK. YOU ON YOUR TIPPY TOES WHILE YOUR ARMS ARE AROUND HIS NECK. BIG GRIN ON YOUR FACES, LIKE IT WAS TAKEN SECONDS BEFORE YOUR LIPS MADE CONTACT.

The media would still release some mean headliners but thanks to the dilf culture cultivated in social media, some were actually rooting for you. Oh, and fans were torn between you; hating you because you were clearly fucking him and loving you because since your relationship started, you gave them more Hayden content.

The SW questions were constant in the interviews and talk shows, to the point that you were always brought some type of SW merch: a Grogu plush, a kids lightsaber, a little R2 replica. Whatever it was, it was always pulled whenever the question about you and Hayden was brought up.

You still kept answering "Obi-Wan" with a laugh and no additional information. "He has the high ground." You shrugged your shoulders, shaking your head with a cheeky smile.

Later in bed, when Hayden was giving you your daily dose of healthy cum :))) pounding into you with an admirable expertise, he whispers: "Who has the high ground now, baby?"

CLICHE BUT LET ME HAVE THIS

You never revealed to Hayden that he was your childhood crush, I mean, you could have mentioned it the first night but you didn't want to approach him like a fan. And then you didn't want to look psycho so you just let it be. And now it was too late.

But then

In the middle of an interview, a girl that actually gained your honest trust, asked you the anticipated question:

"How does it feel to date Anakin Skywalker?"

And... (the next bit was written by Indy during a brainstorm and I just wanted to share the exact words <3)

"in the interview you’re visibly nervous, rubbing on your knee, leaning forward, adopting a slackened posture. “yeah..” big grin, “he was actually my childhood crush.” “no!” the interviewer says in awe. “yeah! yeah,” you kinda laugh and cover your mouth. “i didn’t tell him. is that bad?” you put your nail in your teeth to fidget, putting on a little lovable twist to your face"

And then he sees the interview and he shots you an immediate text with the link like: "Oh???"

You know what you'll come home to

He's sitting on his usual chair, reading a book when he hears the door creak. You showed up with a shy smile, his arms opening up to let you crawl on his lap. Knowing that he'll bring it up, you hide on his neck, blush all over your cheeks. Hayden is caressing your thigh up and down, while he hugs you with his other arm and snorts: “did you keep that from me on purpose?” with a little swat on your ass (Indy, 2023).

THE REACTION OF PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER THE INTERVIEW. you cackle at the comments: "Not Y/n admitting she is dating her childhood crush!! She's one of us!!!" “HE WAS NOT” “bro no 😭 i thought she was single” “darth vader. you win again” (Indy, 2023).

Also dragging you to hockey games <333 you start to love the sport because of him but at first you didn't understand shit

He laughed at your reaction when you saw the first fight in the rink

"Do they just... start beating each other up and the ref let them?" You winced exaggeratedly.

"Yup." He laughs, drinking a sip of his beer.

KISS CAM KISS CAM KISS CAM

Also opening the car door for you after a date night, protecting you from the paps???? That's a head canon I'll take from starlet!reader and apply it here because YES YES YES

FASHION SHOWS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

ofc he goes to your fashion shows !!!!! front line baby !!!!!!!! And he is so fucking proud of his beautiful girlfriend.

So motherfucking supportive it hurts.

He comes home and peppers kisses all over your face, praising you for a job well done.

"I would buy all the clothes you sell, baby"

Or if you wore something he particularly liked, he would be desperate to get home and show you just how much he loved your teeny tiny dress on the runway.

He even learned how to dress appropriately to match with your outfits. NEVER LEAVING THE CAPS BEHIND OFC !! But his personal style improved so much, we are proud of him :)

ALSO whenever he is out and spots an ad of yours he takes a picture of it and sends it to you. Maybe with a little heart or smile, or a little text like: "so proud of you baby." Sometimes he takes a selfie with the campaign!!! such a dad selfie, his head tilted back and kind of blurry because he's trying to get the right angle !!!!

also social media with him !!!! again, he doesn't have any active accounts but you do. For his sake, you don't post a lot of things about him, however, some things are too adorable not to share. And fans love you for the little crumbs you give them

A list of photos I think would be posted on this reader's insta stories:

A photo of him in the garden, checking his tomatoes. I KNOW HE HAS TOMATOES

A photo of your shadows during a coffee run. Bonus points if it's Tim Horton's and it has the Canada location tag

A photo of his back while he's making breakfast

A photo of the view from his house. Bonus points if it is from the bathroom window. Extra points if it has any indicators that you two were previously fucking in there, like steamy doors.

A casual photo of you on his couch and you can see the famous chess game

a video of you two watching the prequels and you can hear yourself saying: "omg who's the handsome guy?" when he appears and he laughs.

A photo of you with one of his caps. Bonus points if it's the Toronto Maple Leafs one.

VS FASHION SHOW

OH YES. THE GOOD PART. THE FUN PART.

He never thought he would be in this position. Front line at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. But he is. And he's there to support his girlfriend. Heck, that still sounds funny to him-

You're out there, strutting your gorgeous figure for the world to see: with your six inch heels, your pretty wings and tiny lingerie- You're a fucking dream. His dream.

He's there at the front line with the Proud Boyfriend club, along with Adam Levine (I know but he got us fooled for half a decade) and Caleb from Kings of Leon.

His heart is pounding hard when your face appears in the initial video where they present all of the models walking

The first time you walk, he stands up, cheering loudly and smiling brightly at you. You were opening the show!!!!! how huge!!!

You focus on the cameras and getting the pose right but when you turn, walking on the side he's in, you point at him, even blow him a kiss.

The other two times you walk, because the initial pressure is off, you can focus more on him, and shoot him a playful wink and/or wave at him. He's grateful that you're giving him that attention, now he can brag around with hard evidence. :)

They dressed you up in a very flirty little piece, a pair of panties with a black bow on your rear side. When you get to the end of the runway, you turn around and show it off, maybe even playfully shake a little.

You know you'll pay for it back home

You will also pay for flirting with the music guest in the middle of the runway

I mean, you were not flirting, just doing the regular thing of pointing at them and dancing with them for mere seconds. But the music guest really focused on you and your strut. Maybe you did take advantage of the moment to get him all jealous and get some angry sex out of it

He could understand that part of your job. It didn't mean he liked it. He made sure to send some backhanded comments in the after party to make sure the musical guest got the picture. That you were taken.

It was so fucking hot.

He loved loved loved your police woman outfit, offering to pay for it himself so you could take it with you.

He was a fan of your angelic look with the enormous big, white wings. Almost drowning you in feathers but making you look like a real life angel. You were to him at least :)

You take such cute pictures on the pink carpet <3 he's looking like arm candy, an absolute accessory of yours. And he was happy to do it ! It was your night and he couldn't be any happier to be there with you !

Although the paps did catch him while he was staring at your spilling boobs. But could you blame him? That dress was TIGHT.

Hayden also has a photo of one of your VS campaigns in a giant frame in his office <3 you were so ashamed at first but you secretly loved that he paraded you around like that <33333333

you can catch glimpses of it during online interviews

LAST BIT

You are in a talk show, talking about the VSFS 2025, when the interviewer gets all serious and jumps:

"Last question, Y/n... is it true you and Hayden Christensen are engaged?"

You open your mouth in bewilderment, scoffing loudly.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Rumors are all over the place... but is it true?"

"No! Of course not." You squealed, acting offended before cracking a sly smirk. "We are married." And you show off the rock on your left hand.

PEOPLE GO WILD.

AHHHHHHHH- I could do this forever but I need to shut up :) also let me know if you want more nsfw content about this couple :)

Also some of these are stolen from my hockeyplayer!Anakin Skywalker / hockeyplayer!Hayden Christensen private headcanons. :)

Last pic because this is how I imagine this reader and Hayden backstage:

[nanabansama]

Meaning of ー...

In Chapter 108, when Nene and Tsukasa are plummeting to their doom, this happens:

Tsukasa goes... 「ー...」

This on its own could mean anything, but here I want to argue--without a shadow of a doubt--that he was uttering Amane's name. Not a crazy thing to argue, I'm sure, but when I've seen so many people argue otherwise I feel the urge to speak up!

First, I think some people remain unconvinced on the issue that Tsukasa is even saying anything at all, and while it is up in the air, I want to direct your attention to this screencap from AidaIro's old visual novel:

Ehem. So the character speaking here, Esterio, is muttering something almost unintelligible to the protagonist, Neige. These lines he's speaking represent each censored syllable of the word he is saying, which we later find out is the title of the game ending this scene comes from. I will now refrain on uttering any further spoilers from this point onward...

So, here we have a clear-cut example of AidaIro using lines, like the ones from Tsukasa's dialogue bubble, to censor a word being spoken. I personally find this pretty convincing.

Beyond that, we need to address the actual context of this scene.

Nene had been pestering Tsukasa to call Amane's name in the hope that he would come and rescue them! (Side note, I think it's cute that Nene is so insistent on this when she just learned how precious Tsukasa, as Hanako's yorishiro, is to him... she knows, just trust her!!! ♡)

I personally think this moment falls flat if Tsukasa stayed silent after already stubbornly staying silent the entire chapter. What's the big deal if he continued to not call his name? Why focus a whole panel on Tsukasa's persistent resignation?

But! It doesn't end there.

Near-instantaneously after this panel, Amane himself showed up!

Is that not incredibly strange? How do you explain Hanako finding them so fast if Tsukasa hadn't called for him?

Take note of Hanako's expression, too. He looks sour. He's looking at Tsukasa. He's asking... "What?" He's ANNOYED!! He would not be treating Nene this way. And he demonstrably is not--he isn't looking at her. He is responding... to Tsukasa. He's responding to what he said.

And I can think of nothing better for him to have said than "Amane"!

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

That's it! I hope that this post, while brief, was informative. Feel free to reference it if you ever need to.

And if I had to guess why AidaIro censored it like that, I want to direct your attention to the visual novel once more... I like the idea that Nene, our point of view character, couldn't hear him. That Tsukasa's whisper was so soft you could barely discern it from silence. A whisper that represented the tiniest sliver of hope that Tsukasa still allowed himself to have, after all the times Amane ignored him... thank you for reading!!!

[acourtofthought]

your last theory post is sooo true and the irony is that Azriel is like, the most angry and violent fae to ever walk the earth... they are so deeply mismatched it hurts that they have so much traction from people who don't understand their characterization.

You message is giving me a platform to bring up something I've been thinking about ever since I saw something in the Elain tag (posted by an E/riel) so thank you for that!

They were making fun of Elucien's and Gwynriels who claim that because Gwyn and Az both sing and are winners of the Rite, because Elain and Lucien are both good at talking to others and enjoy nature it means they're compatible in a way E/riel are not.

Their counter argument was that Rhys does not paint and Rowan does not play an instrument therefore an endgame pairing doesn't need to share in the same hobbies.

Which is valid.

But these are the exact same people who claim Vassa and Lucien are endgame because of the "Lord of Flame and Bird of Fire" line.

That's pretty much the entirety of what the Vassien ship is based on for them. Similar powers somehow equals endgame but not matching interests.

They'll claim it's also because Lucien blushed when Feyre called him an acolyte (though he looked right at his mate during that interaction) but they'll ignore how Az actually blushed at Mor and looked at her with yearning with Elain in the room. Or because Lucien looked relaxed talking to Vassa after the war but please show me what endgame pairing has looked like friends before beginning to fall for one another? I mean, in early days, not the enemies to friends to lovers trope she does during a characters arc. Please show me an SJM endgame pairing where the guy has been living with his supposed endgame love interest for an entire year as friends but still looks at another girl with longing? And not just any girl, his mate!

Similar interests are not the end all for a true match but neither are similar powers.

And when you look at the characters outside of their hobbies (as you pointed out in regards to their characterization), that's where their true compatibility shows.

Az is violent. Like seriously violent. Knows how to torture in a symphony of pain that made Feyre uncomfortable to witness just a bit of it violent.

Elain is bothered by cruelty and Az says she has no idea the things he's done.

Gwyn may not have witnessed Az torture a defenseless person but she has seen him slaughter men in front of her showing no mercy. She was also excited over the thought of the Valkyrie's crushing skulls.

I think it's pretty apparent which female is more compatible with Az.

Elain is very social, loves parties and balls, loves talking to people, loves sunshine.

Az is reserved, likes his space, is not very social, and prefers the shadows (and his are actually afraid of the sun). He says his shadows keep him company meaning they are independent of him, sentient.

Gwyn was training by herself in the cold of night and treated the shadows as if they were their own persons. She finds the most comfort in the library which is inside a mountain.

Elain has never acknowledged his shadows as individuals.

Lucien loves parties and is amazing at talking to others. He is also the heir to the Day Court throne and that means lots of Sun.

The author also said that Elain and Lucien are happiest in nature, something she's never said of Az.

Elain and Az don't need the same hobbies but it wouldn't be a terrible thing if they had some of them, correct?

That's still not the most important thing though, what is, is sharing in the same core values and they are not even close when it comes to those. Az and Elain might find one another attractive but they have nothing beyond looks that would keep them together.

[overleftdown]

saltburn and privilege; an investigative tangent

god, where to begin.

i've seen a lot of people discussing this moving and specifically using the word "privilege," along with power, dominance, desire, control, greed, etc. me included. these are all very essential aspects of this movie. what i want to focus on is emerald fennell's nuanced portrayal of how different types of privilege interact. which one trumps the other? which types of privilege are more visible, while others are more subtle? what differentiates different levels and layers of privilege?

when emerald fennell describes the core of this movie, her inspiration for this script, she talks about desire versus untouchability. she chose the most absurd type of wealth to represent untouchability: the british aristocracy. old wealth, generational wealth, so far removed from the majority of their ancestors' sins that they can arguably ignore that the money they're standing on is dirty. and they live in fucking castles. this is one of the most unbelievable, gaudy, visible types of privilege you can imagine. everyone is entirely aware and feels entirely justified to call attention to this type of privilege.

oliver, being the main character, might be considered the least privileged within this movie. i'd like to take a critical look at this. this movie is not a straightforward class commentary; there is no traditional "the poor eat the rich" dynamic. because although some people perceive oliver as the least privileged character in this movie, he is incredibly privileged. oliver comes from a comfortable upper-middle-class home in the suburbs. oliver has two loving parents and two sisters. oliver is white. oliver is a man. interestingly, from oliver's perspective, he's not privileged at all. he hates the cattons because they are more wealthy, more comfortable, more untouchable. this extends to venetia and farleigh, even though oliver has applicable layers of privilege stacked above even them. he knows he has a certain type of power over them... yet he still hates them because they have one type of power he doesn't have.

that brings me to my next point. the existence of one type of privilege does not negate the effects of another, entirely different, type of privilege (or marginalization) [quote]. this is what venetia and farleigh's characters draw attention to. venetia experiences some of the same struggles as many women; she is ignored in her own household, perpetually existing within her brother's shadow (rosamund pike once lovingly pointed out that venetia does not have a single conversation with elspeth in this movie). she's insecure about her body and her worth, so she takes what little opportunity she has to use felix's friends as a form of self-fulfillment. farleigh is not only half black, but he's also queer, non-immediate family, and unaccustomed to english culture (specifically this type of english culture). farleigh is, in some ways, more financially unstable than oliver's family because his mom was too sheltered to understand money and his dad is, apparently, "a lunatic." (that's not to say farleigh isn't economically privileged because oh boy, he absolutely is).

this movie doesn't intend to incite pity from the viewers for any of these characters, and it generally doesn't. oliver is pathetically greedy, ungrateful, and desperate for a chance to lick the boots (or bathtubs) of those above him. venetia is pathetically bored of the privilege she does have yet is still so entrenched in emotional turmoil due to other areas in which she is marginalized. farleigh is pathetically attached to uninterrupted comfort and arbitrary white-centric expectations, constantly running from or attacking any threat of struggle. none of these people understand, comparatively, what the less fortunate experience. they are so ignorant to the bubble they exist in and just how grateful they should be for what monumental privileges they do have. but... felix.

felix is the epitome of privilege. oliver is specifically obsessed with felix. just like oliver, felix is a white man. but felix is more wealthy, more comfortable, more untouchable than oliver. oliver isn't as infatuated with farleigh and venetia because he's fully aware of the privilege they lack. he's fully aware of the privilege he holds above them, and he enthusiastically uses this power he has against them. to be in the position of oliver is to be consumed by jealousy and greed so bottomless that you will assert your dominance over any group that you're able to. felix doesn't need to do this. he's been handed every privilege under the sun and therefor welcomes the less fortunate with childlike interest and an equally childlike attention span. there's an aspect of farleigh and venetia's marginalization that is so invisible, so quiet and unassuming, that felix doesn't even notice it. he can't possibly be confronted by it. to be in the position of oliver is to understand what power you hold over others, because there is always more power to have.

racism, sexism, wealth, power, control, desire. there are so many facets of this movie that come into play. it may seem overwhelming, but this is... how things work. commentary on wealth is, and should be, equally a commentary on other areas of privilege. to be black and wealthy means different things than to be white and wealthy. to be a wealthy woman means different things than to be a wealthy man. to be rich to some also means you're much less rich than others, unless you're the richest person in the world. and, as this movie so beautifully portrays, to be richer than most doesn't make you less messy. the catton family is an ugly one, but also a complexly human one. each catton (or start) is jealous of someone else for another reason. each catton is emotionally damaged or incompetent for another reason. each catton has a different layer of privilege over the other. and each catton loves everyone in saltburn, because this is still a family, albeit a terrible one.

[brokentranstar]

Next time someone's rude in the comments or wherever, I will call you out, watch out. Be normal and ignore or block. Here's something I wrote when I was falling asleep two days ago, I'm not fixing much, my tired-ass past self has to live with what it wrote now:

Tigerheart ramble I am so sorry it's 5 am

I just wanna say, I have no clue how people come to the realization that Tigerheart is an asshole in Tigerhearts Shadow.

For example, I've seen a number of people saying that in this one particular interaction Tiger and Ivy have, Ivy is in the right and Tiger is wrong

Except the fact that in this instance, Tigerheart specifically sought out Ivypool to tell her that Dovewing is in a bad mental state, and that she needs help from her sister (Dovewing LITERALLY told Tigerheart so), and then Ivy basically replies that it's their problem, and she won't talk to her until she stops seeing Tigerheart, like a child, a 20-something at least old woman. And next time they see eachother, Ivypool literally punches him and talks like Dovewing leaving is Tigerheart's fault.

And there's where I think the "Tigerheart is an ass" argument falls apart, right after he gets hit, Tigerheart thinks to himself "I deserved this." And I don't know how you can say he's uncaring after that

But if it's not enough, here's another situation: After Tigerheart finds Dovewing in the Guardian Cats place and they talk, unlike a lot of people think, at no point is he pressuring her to go back to the Clans, at no point is he being forceful. All he's doing is talking about how he feels in that moment, he says the truth, that he misses his friends, and that he's unfamiliar with how these cats live and he doesn't know how to fit in. And if that's a bad argument Idk what a good argument looks like, must be crazy...

Going even further: After he steps away from Dovewing when she's kitting, he starts talking about how bad of a boyfriend he already is, that he should shut up forever, simply because he dared to bring up that he misses his home.

How could you possibly think he's a horrible cat.

[darkcrowprincess]

Luke, dying: Did you love me?

Annabeth: Like a—

Percy: Yes.

*Percy and Luke look into each other’s eyes and Percy kisses him gently.*

*I'm just going to go crazy with this! And borrow some inspiration from a show my mom likes called Grey's Anatomy. Also hope you don't mind me changing canon a bit.*

Nico didn't know what happened. At a certain point the whole building shook as if a tiny earthquake was happening. Loud painful screams filled everywhere. It terrified Nico because they sounded like someone familiar to him. They sounded like Percy Jackson.

Of course, before he could investigate Nico had slipped and hit his head from falling debre. He didn't know how long he was asleep. But he felt someone trying to wake him up.

"Nico wake up! Wake up I need your help!"

Nico finally did wake up, and he woke up to the last person he wanted to ever see. Blonde curly hair and silver eyes of one Annabeth Chase angrily starring down at him.

"Get up! I need your help!", the daughter of Athena stated. Not asked, stated, as if it was an already done deal. Nico ignores her and looks around. The room leading to the gods thrones and hearth is in shambles. Pieces of ceiling everywhere. Furniture broken, glass windows shattered. A pillar broken and fallen over is blocking the door way to the throne room.

"NICO! Are you even listening to me?"

"No. Where is Percy? You and Grover were suppose to be with him. What happened?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! Percy kicked us both out of the room. Than he started making earthquakes happen!"

Nico's eyes widen at this, both in fear and worry.

"Grover went to get help, I've been stuck by the door trying to move debris. Percy won't listen. He's all alone in there with him."

"With who? What exactly happened?"

Annabeths eyes go sad.

~flashback~

"I'm not giving him a knife so he can kill himself Annabeth!"

"It's part of the Prophecy you have to!"

"Percy it will be alright. I'm your enemy anyway remember?"

"NO!"

When the deed was done it felt like Percy had stabbed himself too. What makes him break and shatter is that he hands the knife. It has to be him.

Percy holding Luke in his arms after stabbing himself, Annabeth kneeling next to them. Blood is staining Percy's arms. Luke's breathing is slowly down. His blue sky eyes look hazy and clouded.

Luke looks up to both of them. His voice asks desperately, "Did you love me?" A bubble of blood comes out of his mouth and stains his lips. It makes Percy start crying, desperate too for every second so Luke can stay longer.

Annabeth starts to say, "I've only seen you as a brother, but I dont-

Before she can finish the room starts shaking. Percy with a dark voice and the ocean in his eyes, "Annabeth stop it!" It scares Annabeth into dead silence.

Than Percy turns back to Luke, "She loves you ok Luke. Even Thalia and the other campers still love you ok. They were angry at what you did, but everyone still loves you. Your mom still loves you."

Luke stares at Percy, as if waiting.

"I love you too, ok Luke. So you can't die. You have so many people who still love you." Percy sobs in between words.

Luke finally smiles, and brings Percy's face close to his. " I love you Percy, I think I always have."

Luke gentle as a feather kisses a shocked Percy's lips. Blood staining his. "I'll try for reincarnation. Either way I'll see you in Elysium ok."

Percy's eyes go round with fear." No no no no, Luke you have to stay with me ok. Stay with me."

"We're soulmates Percy. We'll find each other again. I promise."

Luke's eyes flutter shut. And they don't open again. The light in Percy's eyes go with him. That's when the screaming, and the shaking of the whole building really starts.

~end flashback~

"You just left him in the room!"

"What did you expect me to do?! He almost killed us!"

Nico says nothing, just gives Annabeth a dark look. Than wordlessly grabs her arm and shadow travels into the room Percy is in. What they find is heartbreaking.

Percy leaning against one wall with a dead Luke in his arms. From how Percy has them positioned. It looks like Luke is just sleeping(if it wasn't for the blood and the paleness of death), with Percy leaning his head against Luke's neck.

Nico does not like the look in Percy's eyes. They look lifeless and numb. As if Percy is not all there.

Nico drops Annabeths arm and the both of them head towards Percy. Kneeling in front of him.

"Percy we need to go. The gods cannot find out you destroyed their throne room,"Annabeth says.

Percy doesn't answer. He just looks ahead at nothing. Holding Luke's dead body gently.

Annabeth goes to touch Percy. That's what finally gets a reaction.

"Don't. Touch. Me." Percy says this quietly, but cold. Sad. Darkness in his voice.

Nico drags Annabeth's hand away. Annabeth still doesn't take the hint. "Percy we need to move!"

"Leave me alone I want to stay with Luke."

Annabeth looks at Nico with wide troubled eyes. "Go stand over there. I'll deal with this," Nico tells Annabeth. She agrees. Which is a surprise, but Nico is grateful. Nico kneels closer to Percy but not touching him.

"Percy, I know you want to stay here with him. But you can't." Nico speaks softly and gently.

"Leave me alone." Percy voice replies dull and lifeless.

"Percy that's not Luke anymore."

Percy at that, holds Luke closer and closes his eyes tight. "Shut. Up."

"Percy the minute he died. Is when he stopped being Luke. His soul is probably in the underworld by now. I know you love him," Nico tears up at this, but pushes down his feelings and continues. He is a son of Hades.

"He probably loves you too. And someone who loves you like that would not want to see you do this to yourself. Because that's not Luke, not anymore"

At that Percy finally looks at Nico. There's a little life in his eyes. "You want to hear something crazy? I was never ment to be the hero in the prophecy. My whole job, was to hand Luke, the real hero. The knife to kill himself himself with." Percy starts laughing at this. With tears coming out of his eyes. One of his hands runs through Luke's hair. "My only job was to kill my soulmate at the right moment. Right before he died he was telling me he loved me. He loves me. And now he's dead from me helping him kill himself!" Percy starts sobbing and laughing. "Isn't that ridiculous? Isn't that the most ridiculous piece of crap you ever heard!" Percy than cries into Luke's neck. Nico starts crying too. He gently takes a hold of Percy's arm to hold him. Percy let's go of Luke(finally) and let's Nico hold him. Crying in his arms. Crying so loud it echos in the room. Nico rocks Percy in his arms saying nothing.

Luke's corpse stays leaning by the walls. Still looking like he's just sleeping.

@dark-emperor-ciska I took a lot from this scene in a show my mom loves called greys anatomy. I'm not a fan. But that scene this is based on hit me really hard. it gave me inspiration. If you want a link to said scene let me know. I hope you like this. I don't think it's any good.

[project-changeling-zero]

another issue i have with sonic prime - shadow the hedgehog. ( very long )

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just gonna say this upfront - do not interact if you are a prime shadow fan and just want to insult or start an argument // debate with me in the comments.

.

ever since his debut in the show, shadow in sonic prime has been frequently called 'the best he's been written in years', well loved by a large majority of the prime fandom.

because of this popularity, i was under the belief that shadow was going to be more like how he's written in sa2, satbk, or sonic 06. i've since learned that many shadow fans ( that i've seen ) just like shadow on screen

which isn't necessarily a problem, but i think it's safe to say the sonic fandom has always been a mixed bag when it comes to critiques of the games and their contents ( ever since sa1, or even before that, to sonic frontiers, but i can't comment on the comics, as i've never read them ).

so, in hindsight, i should've proceeded with caution and not take popular opinion into high account.

anyway, i'll get to the point. shadow in sonic prime is one of the worst characterizations of shadow i've seen. i think the only one worse is shadow from the sonic boom universe.

shadow is quite frustrating in this show for a few reasons:

he loses the chaos emerald within five minutes of obtaining it, like an absolute idiot.

he antagonizes sonic every chance he gets and seems to believe the only way to resolve an issue is through violence or aggression. like, yes, of course, shadow, i totally wanna listen to you after you punched me in the face so hard that i literally suffered amnesia.

does next to nothing in the entire show ( up until, like, s3? ), but acts like he's needed.

insults sonic's friends for no reason ( originals and alters alike ).

somehow thought the tech was the only reason sonic could pass through the gateways when he literally saw sonic pass into new yolk before he got the tech. it'd be one thing if he knew sonic could pass regardless and figured the tech would help himself pass through, but he just ignored or forgot what he saw, i guess??? and this is never brought up again.

real question, what does sonic need him for again? even if shadow was never there, sonic would eventually come up with the plan on his own. it's not rocket science.

keeps insisting the alters aren't real people ( this is a problem of the show in general, esp where they go back and forth with sonic in particular, but it's extremely aggravating with shadow as, even if he was right, he's basically saying that sonic shouldn't care about the people that look like his friends, even if they're copies ).

last but not least, HE KEEPS BRINGING UP THAT HE'S THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM, WHO FUCKING CARES, GET A LIFE-

( should i also mention how misleading it was for it to seem like shadow was concerned and trying to warn sonic about the shatteverse, only to immediately go on the assault when the two meet up? what the fuck? )

after i got my hopes up by the reviews and all the love for this show, this was just sad and annoying to watch. how many times is it gonna take for sega and any writers associated with them to get it?

shadow is not an overtly aggressive, hot-headed, domineering person. that was never what shadow was or was supposed to be.

shadow is a kind, loving person. yes, you might not see it from pretty much every canon media of him aside from a few select games, but that's who he was meant to be.

of course, in sa2, he did nearly destroy the world. the difference between that shadow and prime shadow is that, in sa2, he did it out of the love he had for maria and because his memories were affected, making him misremember what maria really wanted.

in his debut game, shadow is meant to be something akin to a guardian angel. the 'ultimate lifeform' meant wish fulfillment, immortality, healing. and to have shadow believe that sonic is the true ultimate lifeform instead speaks volumes of who he is and how he's changed in a considerably short amount of time.

in prime, shadow isn't any of these things. sure, he protects sonic every now and then, but for a while, i didn't even know if it was because he actually cared about sonic or if it was because it was necessary to get back home. the 'ultimate lifeform' doesn't mean anything to him or to this show. it's just to wave his big dick energy around. it shows he doesn't actually see anyone, let alone sonic, as his equal.

yes, shadow is standoffish, but it's not like he's ever been out of touch with emotions or relationships. i don't believe that it was because of maria's death that shadow had essentially 'shut down', but rather because he wanted to grant her wish as soon as possible. and even then, he saved rouge's life. while the game could've led us to believe it was because she had the chaos emeralds, they showed us that he just couldn't let her die if he could prevent it by showing that he couldn't save maria way back then.

this is what a lot of the games, and frankly, most of sonic media in general, seem to have entirely forgotten about shadow.

even as a child, it wasn't difficult for me to understand that shadow did care. that he does care. in fact, that's pretty much what drives him throughout his entire debut game, that he cares so much for maria, so much for her wish, and, eventually, so much for humanity.

i think the closest we've ever been to getting a characterization just like shadow in sa2 is in sonic 06. say what you will about the game, i personally like it ( i acknowledge it has a lot of flaws, but let me be ).

in sonic 06, shadow doesn't have any hostility with sonic. in fact, sonic gives a silent thanks to him for saving him from silver. and shadow proves that you don't have to tell your friends you love them in order for them to know, 'cause he loves rouge and omega in this game. he deeply cares about them and is noticeably disheartened when he discovers what becomes of omega in the future.

shadow doesn't become persuaded by mephiles' tactics to turn against humanity, even when he gives plausible ( but not 100% ) evidence that it is likely authorities would blame shadow for the downfall of humanity, due to his power. in fact, the only thing about any of that information that brings shadow pause is the fact omega would have been the one to arrest him in said future.

and to mephiles' face, he accepts the possibility humanity will turn on him head-on and tells him that he will choose his own fate, that he will fight like he always has, that he decides how his story ends.

i find it hilariously sad that the few games that gets shadow is a game largely hated by a majority of the sonic fandom ( this included me at some point, i'll admit ). i think i'm seeing a turnaround though, especially with P-06 in the works, so that's some good news.

but back to my main point, there's a reason why sa2 and s06 shadow work much better than prime shadow. because shadow honestly, truly, completely cares.

he saves rouge from prison island.

he works alongside sonic without a second thought.

he saves humanity from his own wrong-doings.

he acknowledges sonic's power.

he saves rouge from eggman.

he is upset about omega's possible future circumstances.

he protects sonic from silver.

he is aware of how much rouge cares for him.

he helps in bringing sonic back to life.

and he does all of these with little to no complaint, no sarcastic remarks, almost no attempt to hide his true feelings under a mask, none of that. shadow is completely true to himself. shadow doesn't only care about others, he cares enough about himself to know who and what he truly is and everything he's capable of.

like, goddamnit, shadow isn't my #1 favorite sonic character, but he's SO close in these specific games.

this is why prime shadow feels so hollow and dry in comparison. he's just devoid of almost everything that made shadow... well, shadow. and it's been like this for years!

i'm not sure why people are saying this is the 'best he's been written in years' when, for a long while, he was no different from a majority of his characterizations.

but, hey, he's better in s3, right?

well, yes, but we don't know why he's like that.

in s2, he had balls of steel for treating and talking to sonic the way he did, but now he's...

kinder? protective? actually listening? ( sort of, dude's still kinda stubborn )

what the hell happened???

did his sympathy finally kick in? did he get hit by a coconut and had amnesia for a while? was he one of infinite's copies ( honestly, i would've bought that )?

seriously, what happened?

yeah, obviously, s3 shadow still has flaws, but i think if they were established in s1 or s2 and slowly developed over the course of the show, he would've actually been a really good character.

not that the shadow i know would call the alters 'not real' anyway, but, y'know, for the prime universe and all that.

anyway, overall, i think shadow in sonic prime is one of the worst versions of shadow to date. in their efforts to make him cool ( i guess? ), they made him devoid of a lot of emotion and connection with the rest of the cast, but especially sonic.

completely pushing shipping aside, shadow and sonic do not have a healthy relationship in this show. i'm not going to ignore that sonic definitely has flaws in his writing, but the relationship is unhealthy from sonic's passiveness and shadow's aggressiveness.

due to this, i only like specific moments of prime sonadow, and all of them are in s3. which is saying something.

if it were me, i would've written shadow more true to the original, with my own minor creative liberties here and there, in terms of his personality.

with sonic, i would've made it so he's definitely more on the line of friendly allies with him, but not quite friends yet. throughout the show, their bond would've become stronger and stronger, with a lot of queer undertones ( c'mon, i'm gay and i like these little freaks, leave me be ) and mayhaps a romantically undertone ending, if i didn't wanna be bold about it? maybe? i'm as transparent as glass.

i absolutely would've included omega into the cast and make his relationships with omega and rouge very important to shadow and his character, 'cause HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT AWAY?!

generally speaking, there's just a lot i would've changed about shadow if i was in charge of writing sonic prime, but alas...

i can only write fanfiction.

and yes, i'm absolutely serious.

thank you for reading this long, ridiculous rant with me about a popular character that is guaranteed to get me some flack in one way or another.

lemme know if you'd have done anything different with shadow's character in the prime universe, or if you have any questions!

[theshadowsingersraven]

Azriel's "connection" to Koschei

I've seen this argument twice in the past day, and truly I need to stand on business with this and clear up this flimsy, willfully ignorant stance.

If you think Azriel is "connected" to Koschei's plot, then you have to think Cassian is, too.

Here's why:

“Where is Briallyn?” Azriel demanded, Siphons flaring like cobalt flame. “I spend so many months preparing for you,” Koschei crooned, “and you don’t even wish to speak to me?”

Here Koschei immediately responds to Azriel, but he is also using 'you' to refer to both of them.

"Cassian crossed his arms. “Let Eris go, and then we’ll talk.” He prayed Koschei didn’t know of the Made dagger that Eris had again sheathed at his side, that the Crown’s aura of power had blinded even Briallyn to its presence.

But if the death-lord got his hands on it…

Fuck.

Cassian didn’t let himself so much as glance toward the blade.

“You fell for it rather easily,” Koschei went on, “though you took your time making contact. I thought you’d rush in for the kill, brute that you are.”

Now there's an important part. Brute.

Azriel is a stealthy spymaster who literally moves through shadows. He spends days camping up in trees to spy, utilziing patience. Something Cassian even admits in hiw own POV that he doesn't have the patience for. Azriel doesn't 'rush in for the kill'.

And while the Illyrians are often derogatorily referred to as brutes, who openly gets upset about it with his mate during the same book Koschei says that? Who is called a brute the most often as an insult? Who is frequently shown to be inscure about being viewed as a brute?

Cassian.

"Not for fear of Feyre and Rhysand’s wrath. But the wrath of that insufferable Illyrian brute. Everyone somehow knew what had happened during the war; that final battle with Hybern. That Cassian had nearly bled out defending her against the King of Hybern, that she’d chosen to shield him with her body in those last moments." From ACOFAS, Nesta POV

"Cassian dragged his hands through his hair, fingers catching on the wind-tangled snarls.He knew why he’d come here, why he always came here. For all that Amren taunted him about being an Illyrian brute, he knew his own mind,his own heart." From ACOFAS, Cassian POV

And all of these are from ACOSF alone:

-"Nesta managed to step away. “You’re a brute.” He winked. “Born and raised.”"

-"They were all staring. Cassian rolled his tensed shoulders, stretching out his wings. He’d revealed too much. Like a stupid brute, he’d let them all see too much, learn too much."

-"Cassian clenched his jaw. “So you’re to be my ally whether I wish it or not?”

“The brute understands at last.” Cassian ignored the barb.

“Yes. What you know, I want to know. I will notify you of any movement on my father’s part regarding Briallyn. So send out your shadowsinger. And when he returns, find me.”"

-Nesta lifted a brow. He cut her a sharp smile that didn’t meet his eyes and said, “Not just a brute after all.”

-She’d called him a brute.

-“I had no idea punching was so fraught with peril.”

“Apparently, it takes brains to be a brute.” Nesta flattened her brows, but focused on aligning her forearm and the knuckles he’d indicated.

-“Eris and his twisted word games and politics are an enemy I don’t know how to handle. Every time I meet with him, I feel like he’s got the upper hand. Like I can only catch up to him, and he sees through my every fumbling attempt at being clever. Maybe that makes me a stupid brute after all.”

-“Let’s not lie to ourselves. You only bothered to contain two, by the time your brute bloodlust ebbed away.” Nesta saw red at the words, and Cassian sucked in a breath.

“We did what we could. There were two dozen of them.”

-""...I can tell you how I hear Eris and Devlon and the others talk and, deep down, I still believe that I am a worthless bastard brute. That it doesn’t matter how many Siphons I have or how many battles I’ve won, because I failed the two people dearest to me when it mattered the most.”"

-"She glanced toward Bellius’s corpse. “He’s a hateful brute—just like you, Cassian. Arrogant and brash. He wandered off from his scouting unit to look for fun in my lands. So I showed him my idea of fun.” Her thin lips twisted in a mockery of a smile."

I could quite literally post every single mention of Cassian being referred to as a brute, but I think you get the point.

So, clearly Koschei expected Cassian's involvement, too. By his own words: "I thought you'd rush in for the kill, brute that you are." Even Briallyn in the quote above calls Cassian a brute, too. It's not a coincidence that the two antagonists in league with one another used the same insult for Cassian.

Especially since Briallyn planned for Cassian to appear so she could use the Crown on him.

"Briallyn glowered at the interruption. “I was waiting for him.” She nodded toward Cassian, who was bristling with rage—something like loathing and fear now pushing through the cloudiness in his eyes. “Days and days, I waited for him to get close enough for me to use the Crown toensnare him. I had to use that brash princeling Eris to draw him in.” A soft laugh."

Do you really think Briallyn didn't communicate this plan to Koschei considering that they're allies? That Eris was in tow with the both of them, and this passage happens before Briallyn even reveals that Cassian was part of the trap:

Azriel grabbed Eris and shot into the skies, the Made dagger with them. They had to get it far from Koschei. Yet Cassian could not move. Cassian’s Siphons glowed like fresh blood, then sputtered out. Azriel shouted his name from high above.

Koschei drifted closer to the shore. “You can take him now, Briallyn. You have plenty of time before dawn.”

Koschei is not surprised. He's not questioning why Cassian is there. He speaks to Briallyn fully understanding that her part in the plan is next.

And even if this wasn't included in the text, do you really think SJM is going to write an antagonist who has lived for thousands of years and yet is not forward-thinking enough to plan to trap both Cassian and Azriel?

Please be so for real.

If you actually review the text, it's so abundantly clear that they planned to trap both of them. Maybe do that before posting "evidence" to support that your ship may still have a chance.

Because if you have to actively ignore paragraphs of explanation and logical conclusions to get the two characters in your ship on the same plotline in the hopes that they're canon...it sounds like you should really start preparing for disappointment.

I think we all know Cassian has no connection to Koschei at this point, and especially considering Azriel's lingering Illyria trauma, and everything revealed in CC3, neither does Azriel.

Move along, folks.

(That's not to say that anyone has to stop shipping something just because it isn't canon, and I don't know why people seem to believe this?

There are plenty of ships that are not canon but are incredibly popular and constantly have new fan content for people to consume. (Zutara? Dramione? Johnlock?)

If it's not looking good for your ship, for god's sake, just move on and stop twisting the canon to suit your narrative. SJM isn't going to personally hunt you down and make you stop commissioning pieces or writings fics. )

[mxnsterbabe]

Male Owl Fae/Female Reader SFW Wordcount: 3,332 Commissions | Ko-fi | Masterlist

You start a new job at the Reader's Garden, a twenty-four hour library with a secret resident. As you get to know Anjouan, you can't help but fall for him.

You stepped into the Reader's Garden twenty-four hour library, nervous and excited for your first night shift. The towering shelves and musty smell of old books filled the air, creating an atmosphere of mystery and wonder. Rumours of supernatural beings inhabiting the library had always surrounded the place, but you dismissed them as mere stories meant to keep people entertained.

The clock struck nine as a friendly colleague greeted you with a warm smile; she was a beautiful elven woman with thick black curls and a bright smile.

"I'm Nousha," she said kindly, "want a tour of the Reader's Garden?"

You beamed right back. "You bet."

Nousha led you through the labyrinth of bookshelves, pointing out the different sections and areas you'd be responsible for. Her voice echoed softly in the vast space as she explained the library's layout and rules.

As you walked, you couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching you. You glanced around the dimly lit crevices and caught glimpses of shadows shifting in the corners of your vision. Your heart raced, but you reminded yourself that it was just your imagination and focused on Nousha's words.

Finally, Nousha brought you to the back of the library, where a dusty old door creaked open to reveal a hidden, ancient section. "This area is rarely visited," she murmured, "but you'll need to check on it occasionally. We have a couple of regulars who could disappear in here for hours." She paused, brows furrowed. "Some say this part of the library is haunted, but I've never seen anything myself."

You chuckled nervously, trying to brush off the eerie feeling that settled in your chest. You knew it was just a job, and there was nothing to be afraid of. The two of you spent a few more minutes exploring the older section, with its rows of leather-bound books and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling.

After your tour, Nousha wished you luck and left you alone in the silent library. "That's pretty much it," she admitted with a smile. "If you need anything, I'm just a phone call away. Sorry to leave you on your own for the first shift, but we're so understaffed..." she trailed off with an apologetic wince.

Honestly, the peace and quiet was half the reason you chose this job to begin with. You offered a smile and replied, "it's no problem, honestly. Get home safe, Nousha, and thanks for the tour."

Nousha left with a wave and a kindly grin, leaving you alone in the cavernous library foyer. The shadows seemed to grow longer, and the air felt colder as the night deepened. You took a deep breath, steadying yourself, and turned to the stacks of books that needed put away.

It was well past midnight when you first heard it – a soft rustle, like the flutter of wings, followed by the faintest whisper. You froze, listening intently, but the sound didn't come again. You brushed it off as the wind or the creaking of old wood and continued your work.

But as the night wore on, the whispers grew more persistent, and you couldn't ignore them any longer. With your heart pounding, you followed the sounds, which led you to the dusty old door Nousha had shown you earlier. You hesitated, hand on the doorknob, wondering if you should venture into the ancient, secluded section. Curiosity got the better of you, and you pushed the door open with a long creak.

As you stepped into the ancient part of the library, the whispers grew louder, and you felt the tickle of a gaze watching you from... somewhere. You searched the dark corners, shining your flashlight into the shadows, until you finally spotted a figure perched on one of the shelves. Your heart skipped a beat as you realized it wasn't a human, or even an elf or orc – he was clearly fae, with large, luminous eyes and a cloak of feathers draped over his shoulders.

You offered a gentle smile, hoping to convey peaceful intentions. The fae's eyes seemed to search your face for any signs of deceit or danger. His features were a blend of human and owl, with a sharp, angular face and large, expressive eyes framed by an array of intricate feathers. His white wings, a magnificent sight to behold, spanned several feet, their tips touching the bookshelves on either side of him. He was like nothing you had ever seen before, leaving you breathless.

Fae were uncommon enough in Oceanhall town, but someone as magnificent as this was even rarer. Standing face-to-face with this strange owl fae, you couldn't help but feel a sense of awe wash over you.

His eyes narrowed as he continued to study you, head tilted to one side. You could tell he was skittish and unsure of how to react to your presence. You decided to break the silence, hoping to ease his concerns.

"Hi," you whispered softly, keeping your voice low and gentle. "I didn't mean to startle you."

His wings twitched again, and he tilted his head to one side, as if contemplating your words. You took another step back, giving him more space, and noticed that he seemed to relax, if only slightly.

You tried to come up with something else to say, something that might help bridge the gap between you. "I've always loved this library," you continued, your voice filled with sincerity. "There's something magical about it. It's why I wanted to work here. Well, that and the fact the night shift is always quiet. Who comes to a library at one o'clock anyway?"

He seemed to consider your words for a moment, his eyes flicking between you and the books that surrounded him. It was clear that he, too, felt a deep connection to this place. Just as you thought he might respond, a sudden noise from elsewhere in the library made him tense up.

He looked around nervously, and you could see the fear in his eyes. He was afraid of being discovered, of being forced to leave the sanctuary he had found within the library. Before you could say anything more, he spread his magnificent wings and took off across the cavernous library, disappearing into the shadows like a phantom.

You stood there for a moment, your heart pounding in your chest, trying to process what had just happened. The encounter had been so brief, so unexpected, and yet it still left you reeling.

As you turned to leave the ancient section of the library, your mind raced with questions. Who was he? Why had he chosen this library as his refuge? And, most importantly, would you ever see him again?

***

The next day, as the sun cast its golden rays through the library windows, you found yourself unable to shake the memory of your encounter with the owl fae. Your mind was consumed with thoughts of him, and you felt an inexplicable need to learn more about his presence in the library. With a mixture of curiosity and trepidation, you approached Nousha, who was busy sorting through a cart of books.

"Hey, Nousha," you began hesitantly, "I wanted to ask you something. Do you know anything about an owl fae living here in the library?"

Nousha looked at you, a puzzled expression on her face. "An owl fae? I've never heard of such a creature in our library. We have a few fae regulars, but they don't live here?"

You hesitated for a moment, wondering if you should share the details of your encounter. "Well, last night, during my shift, I saw something... unusual. Maybe I imagined it."

You knew you hadn't, of course, but if Nousha didn't know then maybe it wasn't sensible to tell her too much. You thought of the fear that flashed across the fae's face when you first saw him, and sympathy twisted your heart.

Nousha's eyes widened in surprise. "I've been working here for years, and I've never seen anything unusual. Maybe he's just a shy visitor who usually stays hidden."

You nodded, considering her words. "Yeah, maybe... if you see anything weird, can you let me know?"

"Sure, of course."

You thanked Nousha for her help and went back to your work, but the mystery of the fae continued to gnaw at you. If no one else had seen him, then perhaps he had a reason for remaining hidden. Was he in danger, or was he simply distrustful?

As the day wore on, you couldn't help but let your eyes wander to the dusty old door that led to the ancient section. You knew that the chances of seeing the owl fae again during the day were slim, but you couldn't help but hope that you might catch a glimpse of him.

When your shift ended, you lingered in the library, reading up on fae lore and legends in the hopes of finding some information about owl fae. The books offered a wealth of knowledge on various fae species, but there was no mention of any creature resembling the one you had encountered.

As the night unfolded, you discreetly searched for the elusive creature, hoping to catch a glimpse of him among the towering bookshelves. After what felt like hours of fruitless searching, you found yourself back at the entrance to the ancient section. Taking a deep breath, you pushed open the dusty old door and stepped inside, your heart pounding with anticipation.

You moved quietly through the dimly lit room, your eyes scanning the shadows for any sign of the owl fae. Then, you spotted him – perched on one of the highest shelves, his wings tucked neatly around him as he peered down at you with curiosity and caution.

Determined to coax him into conversation, you approached him slowly, speaking in a soft and gentle tone. "Hello again," you said. "I've been hoping to see you. Are you all right in here?"

The owl fae tilted his head, considering your words. After a moment, he hesitantly replied, his voice barely audible, "What do you want with me?"

You paused, searching for the right words. "I'm curious," you admitted, "and I want to understand why you're here, in the Reader's Garden. I promise, I won't harm you or expose your secret."

He seemed to ponder your promise before finally speaking again. "My name is Anjouan," he said softly, "and this library... it's my sanctuary. It's the one place where I feel safe."

As Anjouan spoke, you could hear the vulnerability in his voice, and you felt a sense of protectiveness towards him. "I think I understand," you said, "I promise, I won't tell anyone you're here."

Anjouan's eyes shimmered with gratitude, and for the first time, you saw a hint of warmth in his gaze. "Thank you," he whispered.

You offered a smile, inching towards where he perched high above you. Although a part of you didn't want to scare him off again, the larger part of you wanted to get closer. "Do you mind if I stay a while?" you asked.

He spread one enormous wing as if beckoning you closer. "Yes, please do."

The two of you sat together in the dimly lit ancient section of the library, surrounded by the comforting scent of old books and the hushed whispers of stories long forgotten.

As the night wore on, you and Anjouan spoke about everything and nothing – the books you loved, the worlds you dreamed of, the little things that made life worth living. The more you learned about Anjouan, the more enchanted you became by his gentle nature and the wisdom that seemed to flow from him like the ink on the pages he cherished.

You noticed a change in Anjouan as well, a few minutes at a time. After a while he shifted closer to you, bent low to meet your gaze despite his towering height.

"I want you to know how grateful I am to have found you," he murmured, making you shiver. "For so long, I've been hiding here, isolated from the rest of the town. I know that my kind are more accepted now, but when I first went into hiding... anyway, you've shown me that maybe I don't have to hide anymore."

You felt your heart swell with affection for the tender-hearted man before you. "Anjouan," you replied, reaching out to gently touch his feathered arm, "I'm grateful too.."

Anjouan's eyes softened as he leaned into your touch, clearly moved by your words. For a moment, time seemed to stand still as you waved gentle fingers through his soft feathers.

As the night drew to a close and the first rays of dawn began to filter through the library's windows, you knew that your time with Anjouan had to come to an end for now. But as you said your goodbyes and returned to the foyer, you already felt a pang of reluctance at having to leave him.

***

Over the following weeks, you saw Anjouan more and more. When you weren't dealing with the odd nightly regular, you spent countless hours together in the library exploring the hidden nooks and crannies of the Reader's Garden. As the days turned into nights, the library became a haven where you could leave the worries of the world behind and immerse yourself in the magic of each other's company.

One morning before your shift ended, you decided to surprise Anjouan with an early breakfast. You had noticed that he was often so absorbed in his reading that he would forget to eat, and you wanted to make sure he was taking care of himself. It didn't occur to you that he didn't actually need to. So, with a steaming thermos of tea and a basket filled with an assortment of pastries and fruit, you made your way to the ancient section, where you knew Anjouan would be waiting.

As you entered the room, Anjouan looked up from the book he was reading, his eyes lighting up with surprise and delight as he saw what you had brought. "Evelyn, what's all this?" he asked, a touch of wonder in his voice.

"I thought we could share breakfast together," you replied with a smile, setting the basket and thermos down on a nearby table. "I wanted to make sure you were taking care of yourself."

Anjouan's eyes shimmered with amusement as he looked at the spread you had prepared. "Thank you," he said softly, his voice gentle. "No one has ever done something like this for me before."

You reached out to squeeze his hand gently, your fingers brushing against the soft cream feathers that adorned his arms. "You're important to me, Anjouan," you said earnestly, "and I want you to know that you're not alone anymore. I'm here for you."

Anjouan looked into your eyes, and for a moment, it felt as though the rest of the world ceased to exist. All that mattered was the sparkle in his eyes, the gentle flush of his cheeks where the feathers were thinner.

Slowly, Anjouan leaned in towards you, his breath warm and sweet as it mingled with your own. Your heart raced in anticipation, and as his lips finally met yours, it felt as though time itself had stopped,.

The kiss was tender and sweet, leaving you breathless with giddiness. As you pulled apart, your eyes locked with Anjouan's, and you could see the warmth reflected in his gaze.

"Thank you," he whispered, his voice barely audible, "for showing me that there is still love and kindness in this world. You've shown me more in our short time together than decades of hiding here."

His voice was soft like the rustle of leaves, his large eyes glittering - but the moment was cut short when you heard footsteps approaching. Nousha entered the dimly lit room, her eyes widening in shock as they fell upon Anjouan.

Her gaze darted from Anjouan to you as if questioning her own sanity. Her face paled, her lips trembling in disbelief. You could see the panic rising within her, her breaths shallow and rapid.

In an instant, she turned heel and darted from the room. Her heart raced, her fear almost palpable. You knew that you had to act quickly to calm her down before she ran off and alerted the whole library.

You rushed to Nousha's side, gripping her arm gently, yet firmly enough to halt her escape. Her eyes were wide, searching yours for answers.

"Nousha, wait," you pleaded, your voice low and soothing. "It's okay. He's a friend."

You gestured to Anjouan, who tilted his head, observing the scene with quiet curiosity. Nousha's gaze returned to him, her body trembling as she struggled to comprehend the extraordinary creature before her.

Seeing her continued distress, you guided her to a nearby chair, urging her to sit down. She complied, her legs wobbling beneath her.

"Take deep breaths," you advised, demonstrating the action. "Anjouan is not here to harm anyone. He's been living in the library for a long time, and he hasn't caused you trouble yet."

As Nousha attempted to steady her breathing, you shot a reassuring smile towards Anjouan. He nodded, understanding the need for patience. Although his gaze shone with hesitancy, he didn't try to disappear.

Gradually, Nousha's breathing returned to normal, and her body began to relax. She continued to watch Anjouan, curiosity now replacing her initial fear.

"Really?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. "He's... friendly?"

You nodded, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I promise. Would you like to meet him?"

With a cautious nod, Nousha agreed, and you led her closer to Anjouan. As she took her first tentative steps towards him, you felt a sense of pride in her bravery.

Anjouan ducked his head, and Nousha hesitantly shook his outstretched hand. Bit by bit, they both began to relax.

"See?" you offered kindly, "he's no different to any other fae."

"Yeah," she murmured; and although she was still pale, she didn't look nearly as distraught. "Sorry I freaked out."

After Nousha's initial introduction to Anjouan, she decided it was time for her to leave. Maybe she was still processing everything that had happened. With a shaky smile and a whispered promise to keep the secret, she exited the ancient section of the library, leaving you alone with Anjouan again.

As the door closed behind her, you felt a sense of quiet intimacy return to the room. The soft amber light filtering through the dusty windows cast a warm glow over the countless tomes and scrolls surrounding you.

Anjouan's eyes met yours, and his angular features creased into a soft smile. You moved closer to him, your footsteps barely audible against the worn wooden floor. His feathers shimmered in the dim light, and his gaze held a gentle warmth that made your heart swell.

You reached out a tentative hand, and Anjouan leaned into your touch, allowing you to stroke his soft feathers. His eyes closed, and a contented sigh escaped his beak. In that moment, you felt as though you shared a bond that transcended the barriers between your worlds, a connection built on trust, respect, and mutual curiosity.

You sat down on the floor beside him, your back resting against a bookshelf; and Anjouan nestled close to you, his warmth and presence enveloping you like a comforting embrace. The silence between you was comfortable, punctuated only by the occasional rustle of a page turning or the distant footsteps of library patrons.

As you sat there with Anjouan, you felt a profound sense of belonging, as if you had found a hidden sanctuary within the walls of the library. It was a place where you could be yourself, free from the judgment and expectations of the outside world.

You shared a smile with Anjouan, his eyes filled with gratitude and affection. In the soft, hushed atmosphere of the ancient library, you leaned in for another kiss.

[abysswalkersknight]

Horrortober (twst) Day 1: Listen

Hi this is my first time doing something like this so most likely these will be very short. Please keep in mind that I have no one to beta these so I'm going in blind, but I've seen a lot of other works like these for a while and thought to try it out.

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

Day 1: 'listen'

‘Silver!’

Big auroral eyes groggily open sleepily at the familiar voice, yawning widely he at first ignored it, it was so faint he was unsure if he’d dreamt it or not. Instead he rubbed at his crusty eyes and buried further into the warm blankets ‘Silver!’ the voice hollered, worming itself into his ears making it so that he could no longer ignore it, he whined reaching out for the fae next to him to snuggle closer to the warmth but his hands only met more blankets. Retching open his tired eyes he was shocked to find that the wide bed was empty save for him, was Papa in the kitchen?

‘Silver! Where are you, Silver!' keen ears perked towards the bedroom window where a full moon shines brilliantly over the thick woodland surrounding their cabin, Silver quivered slightly at the shadows rising from the treeline, stretching out as if to reach the cabin, or the people his traitorous thoughts whisper to him. He was just about to head back to bed when the distant voice suddenly emerged from the silence 'come here Silver!' It was Papa's voice! But why was he outside? Turning back to the window he cupped around his eyes and squinted through the moonlight, and there at the edge of the woodline’s shadows stood a familiar red haired figure, waving from afar and gesturing for him to come. 

It was not the first time that Silver’s father had traversed into the night on a simple whim and it was certainly not the first time he’s brought Silver along with him. So it was not unlike him when he flings the shutter open and leaps out the window. Bare feet crunch upon brown leaves and flung dirt in the air with how fast he sprints, his sudden liveliness emboldened by a sweet invisible melody amidst the rustling of the great pines. Come on Silver! The very wind seemed to cry, come on! His father was just at the treeline, gleaming crimson eyes full of mirth and delight, his arms were outstretched in preparation for a leaping hug which Silver was wholeheartedly ready for, the music was stronger now, seeping into his heart. He wanted to leap with joy and frolic in the moonlight, and he might have done so…

Had a pair of strong arms not suddenly thrust him into the air. 

As swift as a wire snapping the trance had gone, the music fading off into silence, leaving his empty mind to be filled with paralysing fear. With a wild shriek Silver flailed around, doing his best to try to wring himself around to face his attacker, the arms wrap tighter around him, pressing his struggling head into something firm and warm ‘shh, it’s alright Silver dear, it’s me. It’s me.’ a voice murmurs, threading gentle claws through his hair. Silver paused in his struggle to glance up at the person holding him with such a tender embrace. 

Soft crimson eyes bore into his, holding in an emotion he didn’t recognise, only later would he realise that it had been the very same fear that had consumed him before ‘Papa?’ he whispers, confusion evident on his childish features. At the sound of the child’s name for him Lilia breathed a relieved sigh and tucked him even closer, as if to shield him from the very moon itself ‘oh, Silver, thank goodness you’re alright, whatever has possessed you to disappear like that, my love?’ he says, sweeping the boy off his feet and turning around back to their cabin ‘what? You were just calling out to me… out there?’ Silver gasps when he looks back to where he had previously been ready to leap into his father’s waiting arms. The man was no longer there, and he knew that his father who was currently carrying him could not have moved that swiftly, and as Silver fearfully clung to Lilia’s chest he could hear his father’s rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing… realisation hits Silver like a blast of harsh wind, tonight may have ended quite differently had Lilia not come. He whimpers, holding back tears. He had been so stupid! All of Papa’s warnings come flooding back to him, Lilia even had a special way of addressing Silver just for this very reason! The other Papa never used the loving nicknames Lilia only ever uses for his son. But instead of admonishing Silver like he expected him to, Lilia quickly soothes his terror and wipes away his falling tears. Once they were inside the cabin, Lilia locks every latch within their home with a flick of his fingers, he never lets go of Silver even when they’ve made it back into bed, instead he curls tightly around him covering his ears and dutifully remains awake until his son fell into a deep sleep. He turns back to their window and growls at the grinning figure lurking within the tree's shadows.     

[voiddemon]

SHADOW KIRBY IS SO COOL AND SWAG POST

hey guys gals and gamer pals. shadow kirby is so swag and cool. Originally a very minor character from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, with only a small handful of appearances after that, there isn't a lot of information about him out there. And a lot of information about him is very contradictory (especially involving his appearance). However we have a small handful of concrete information which shouldn't be ignored. And I have kindly compiled a lot of it here.

to preface i'm making this post entirely because i see plenty of headcanons that directly go against canon information (often by people who just use him as an extension of DMK and don't care to look into him) but i will avoid my bias and just state everything I can find in the Game Canon. I will not include information from the various Mangas/light novels, as that is it's own separate canon and every iteration of him is drastically different (From what I've seen. Also a lot of it tends to contradict game canon.)

KIRBY AND THE AMAZING MIRROR:

Despite being his debut game, Shadow Kirby isn't very present within KATAM. He only appears in one room in some of the mirror world's areas. Specifically in in Rainbow Route, Mustard Mountain, Carrot Castle, Peppermint Palace, and Candy Constellation. If you return to these areas later, he will appear there again.

While he does technically attack Kirby, he doesn't really try and goes away on his own if you don't kill him. (Interestingly, likely due to sprite limitations, Shadow Kirby doesn't have any hat to represent the copy ability he has.)

In KATAM he can be swallowed to gain the copy ability he has, and he drops either an invincibility candy or 1UP when defeated. However he shows up again regardless of any of that.

During the final fight against Dark Mind, if Kirby loses the master sword, Shadow Kirby will appear to throw it back to him. He can also toss him a 1UP during the fight. While nothing explicitly states that Shadow Kirby is a good guy at the end of the game, in the final cutscene it does say that Shadow Kirby will keep the mirror world safe.

"But they remain on guard… After all, who knows when another evil might arise? Don't worry, though… Mirror-world Kirby will be there to keep them all safe!"

interestingly while in the cutscene Shadow Kirby is referred to as 'Mirror-world Kirby', if you attack him the game says he is Shadow Kirby. I'm assuming this was done due to his lack of appearances in the game and to keep people who forgot about him from getting confused.

The most this game shows of Shadow Kirby interacting with Dark Meta Knight is him following after Dark Meta Knight through a door. There is no pause screen information directly characterizing him either, everything has to be assumed.

KIRBY TRIPLE DELUXE:

ok this is a short section.

Shadow Kirby is the final opponent in Kirby Fighters and is fought in another dimension. When he's defeated, unlike Dark Meta Knight and Shadow Dedede who shatter into glass shards, he floats into the air and 'disperses' instead of shattering. Notably, unlike in KATAM, he does wear a hat when using a copy ability. In a fucking miiverse post, Mr.Kumazaki stated: "In the version of the game in Kirby: Triple Deluxe, we wanted to emphasize that your worst enemy is yourself, so the final boss was a Shadow Kirby that had the same copy ability as you." Which is STRANGE WORDING but :shrugs:. Importantly, while he looks weird and different here, he is still called Shadow Kirby. We'll talk about how KF2 confirms this later. While none of the above is explicitly canon, it's still important to note. He also briefly appears in the front row of the Kirby Master video, which you get when you 100% the game.

While Shadow Dedede makes his first appearance in the game, the two characters interact, and have no interactions in the future.

KIRBY STAR ALLIES:

Shadow Kirby makes a brief appearance in Kirby Star Allies. In one graphic with DMK in Heroes in Another Dimension, and in the background of the Jambastion. He flies up close but distant from Kirby, and then flies off.

Originally, Shadow Kirby was planned to be a Star Ally. However a 'One character per main series title' rule was implemented, and Dark Meta Knight was chosen to be in the game over Shadow Kirby.

Also Zan swore at him on twitter.com canonically but it wasn't for any reason specific to him really.

KIRBY FIGHTERS 2:

Shadow Kirby appears again in this, and for once we have actual text about him. What a novelty!

In the Story Mode he appears three times, and has a stage exclusive to him which uses Taranza's theme. Importantly, every single boss before is always with a buddy. Kirby himself always also has a buddy (whether that be himself or someone else).

However Shadow Kirby, unlike everyone else, fights entirely alone. In the single-handed mode he also fights alone.

Due to Shadow Kirby not being able to mimic some characters exactly (Gooey, BWD, Magolor, etc) he copies the next best thing. (Whip, Staff, and Beam)

He has the same strange color palette seen in Kirby Triple Deluxe, however it is explicitly stated to be Shadow Kirby, and that he is from the mirror world, in the flavor text.

Here is all of the flavor text. Pre-battle tips:

Story mode, first fight: Shadow Kirby Appears "A naughty shadow has appeared. You suspect it was born from the mirror version of Kirby's innocent soul!"

Story mode, second fight: Another Shadow Encounter "Once again, you cross paths with the one who lurks in Kirby's shade! Send that naughty shadow packing!"

Story mode, third fight: Max Power Shadow Kirby"A third encounter with Kirby's shadow?! Its power is off the charts, but you can still win with your buddy's help!"

Single-Handed battle mode (regardless of difficulty): Kirby's Shadow "This naughty shadow can appear anywhere, anytime. After a long absence, it has shown up again to join the battle tournament!"

Pause Descriptions:

Story mode, first fight: "This naughty shadow was said to have been born from the mirror reflecting Kirby's innocently pure soul. He has all the power of the real Kirby and uses his mirror-copying technique to thwart you!"

Story mode, second fight: "Kirby's shadow is back for more! This stubby gray ball seems to think he's pulling a little prank, but he's way too powerful for that!"

Story mode, third fight: "The mightiest Shadow Kirby yet is back for another round! His devastating power suggests he is a guardian of the Mirror World, found far beyond the sky."

Single-Handed battle mode (regardless of difficulty): "Like Kirby's own shade, Shadow Kirby appears out of nowhere and vanishes again. This naughty shadow rejoins the battle after a long absence! Difficult though it may be, you must defeat this copycat!"

Vague random information:

In most of the artwork he appears in, Shadow Kirby takes on his Triple Deluxe/KF2 appearance, and is floating or flying on his warp star with a parasol. He is in the background of all of these pictures.

In his main plush, he is made out of tweed and has a basic Kirby face. (Blue eyes, red open mouth). This is the only time his eyes are shown as blue. In the smaller keychain plushes, he has light gray eyes and his mouth is closed. In the rest of the art for his merchandise, he is shaded with a light purple.

Between Kirby Triple Deluxe and KF2, the weird 'nebula' design was made to be less purple.

In a Dedede Directory showing off some of KF2, pictures of Shadow Kirby in every game he's appeared in are shown together. Further confirming these are all the same person. A translation of this directory is as follows: "Kirby! You again... hm? Oh, this is "Shadow Kirby"! This guy's a resident of the Mirror Land who appeared in Amazing Mirror - he loves to play pranks and is always running around when he shows up. He can use Copy Abilities, and in the new game Kirby Fighters 2, he'll challenge Kirby with the same ability as him! Well, too bad! The one to defeat him will be me!"

In KF2, Shadow Kirby will also copy the exact kind of hat Kirby is wearing. (Since some hats have customizable options). In multiple games (Squeak Squad, Kirby Fighters Deluxe, and Dream buffet) you can change Kirby's appearance to look like Shadow Kirby.

ok i said i wouldn't bring up the manga but I will bring up the one light novel I read. In the KF2 light novel Shadow Kirby gives Kirby a hat to fight him, and doesn't speak. This somewhat contradicts with some of his pause descriptions. Also, he is not invited to fight in the buddy tower, he just shows up and Meta Knight/King Dedede are surprised when he does.

ABSOLUTE CANON:

Here is the very controversial section on what is absolutely canon about Shadow Kirby. All of this is based on what I’ve said within this post, and you can confirm it all on Wikirby or the fandom Wiki.

He is not explicitly good or evil, but wants to protect the Mirror World from threats. Making him the guardian of the mirror world.

He is a prankster, and is described as naughty.

He is inactive in KATAM and KSA for unknown reasons.

He willingly enters the battle tournament in KF2, and (according to the narrator) seems to view his fight with Kirby and his buddy as a prank.

He has "All the power of the real Kirby."

The Shadow Kirby in KF2, KATAM, Star Allies, and Triple Deluxe are all the same person.

so in conclusion: shadow kirby peace and love. Also don’t trust Wikirby or the fandom wiki entirely for him since whoever wrote the original stuff was biased and injected some of their own interpretations into stuff while stating it as canon.

[cherryrainn]

Of all the possible character options, my friends chose the old villain - the shredder.

After a while, I will send this request again because my friends are not very patient people

Husband! Shredder x fem wife! reader

(recommended to listen)

In the song, of course, a completely different story, but together with death there will be a different outcome, that is, a declaration of love

Sorry for the very very very strange request

Tmnt 2014

━━ ✧ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐩

─ ✩ 𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 ; shredder (oroku saki) + reader

─ ✩ 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 ; most of this is just a flashback to highschool hehe (had to ask questions about it in dms)

─ ✩ 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 ; mentions of suicidal thoughts and emotional turmoil

─ ✩ 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆 ; here

as you stand on the rooftop of your apartment building, the cool night breeze ruffling your hair, memories from the past come rushing back. the sound of distant traffic and the flickering city lights transport you to a different time, a time when the weight of your emotions threatened to consume you.

you think back, a recollection of a pivotal moment in your life—a moment that began on the rooftop of your school.

it was a quiet evening, the sun slowly dipping below the horizon, casting long shadows across the empty rooftop of your school. you stood there, your heart heavy with an unbearable weight. this rooftop had become your sanctuary, the place where you had sought solitude when your emotions overwhelmed you. and tonight, it was the place you had chosen for what felt like an impossible decision.

your gaze was fixed on the schoolyard below, where students laughed and chatted, oblivious to your presence above. you had climbed up here with a purpose, a gnawing ache in your heart that you could no longer ignore. it was a feeling you had carried for far too long, a love that you believed was unrequited.

oroku saki, the enigmatic and popular student, was the object of your affection. you had seen countless girls approach him, their hearts in their eyes, only to be dismissed with an elegant wave of his hand and a charming smile. you believed that he was out of your league, that he would never notice someone like you. why would you be any different?

but tonight was different. tonight, you couldn't suppress your emotions any longer. you had convinced yourself that your feelings for saki were a hopeless cause, but deep down, you longed for him to know. you wanted to confess your love, even if it meant revealing your vulnerability.

unbeknownst to you, your feelings were not as one-sided as you believed. saki had been silently observing you from the shadows, captivated by your unique beauty and gentle demeanor. he, too, had been nursing a secret affection, but the fear of rejection had kept him from confessing.

tonight, something had changed within him. saki had gathered the courage to seek you out, to find you and lay his heart bare. he had combed the entire school, inquiring about your whereabouts, until he finally received a lead that you had been seen heading to the rooftop.

with each step he took towards the rooftop, his heart pounded in his chest, and his mind raced. he thought about all the words he would say, the feelings he would reveal, and the risk he was taking. but he couldn't suppress his love any longer.

as he reached the rooftop and saw you standing at the edge, his heart ached with concern. he couldn't let you jump, not when he had to tell you how he felt.

"y/n!" he called out, his voice filled with genuine worry.

startled, you turned to see oroku saki running toward you. his dark eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and determination, and his handsome face was flushed with emotion.

"y/n, please don't do this," he implored, his voice softer now. "i can't bear to see you hurt. and there's something i need to tell you."

he reached out to gently hold your trembling hands. "i've watched you from afar, admired your kindness, your beauty, your strength. i was a fool to let my own fears hold me back from telling you this sooner, but i can't hide it any longer. y/n, i love you."

tears welled up in your eyes, but they were not tears of sadness; they were tears of overwhelming emotion. you had never expected to hear these words from him, especially not here, on this rooftop.

"you... you love me?" you stammered.

he nodded, his own eyes glistening with unshed tears. "yes, with all my heart. i can't imagine a world without you in it. please, don't ever think of hurting yourself again. i'm here."

you stood on that rooftop, two hearts laid bare, as the sun set behind you. you realized that you had nearly lost your life just moments before, but now you had gained something far more precious—a love that had been there all along, waiting for the right moment to be revealed.

years later, as you stood together, husband and wife, you thought back to that fateful evening on the school rooftop. it had been the turning point in your lives, the moment when you had confessed your love and found solace in each other's arms. you both knew that it was a love that would last a lifetime, one that had conquered the darkest moments and emerged stronger on the other side.

[marshmallowprotection]

i need Lila, Minji, Judas, and Lucy bonding 😤😤😤

See, I've already told you a little bit about Lila bonding with Lucy! She calls V's daughter Lucy, "Little Lucy!" You know, because Lila's sister is also named Lucy. I still can't believe I named her sister that back in the day and then Cheritz smacked me in the face by also using that name in canon. But, Lila did, in fact, make sure it was okay to call her that, though.

Just like calling somebody "[name] Jr", she doesn't want Lucy to feel like she's second banana to her sister Lucy. Lila knows what it feels like to be in somebody's shadow, after all, her mom tried to make her live in her big sister's shadow her entire life. Fortunately, her sister never let that break their relationship, but it's something that bothers her sometimes even after these years.

Lila video calls her sister to show Lucy the dog sanctuary she runs back home in America. Lucy loves to see all the different dogs, and it's kind of sweet to know there's a Big Lucy out there who helps all kinds of animals in need, just like how her Uncle Jumin takes care of different kitty cats.

Fun fact, this is the first time I'm telling anybody this, but my take on Jihyun’s new career post-VAE is as a painter, but he has a hobby on the side. He offers art classes to all ages, but he focuses mainly on teaching young children. Do you know who his assistant is? That’s right! Lila is his assistant. She’s also a painter, you know, she and V have that in common, and the one good thing about the VAE is that they actually get to build a friendship. 

But, working with V is a lot of fun for Lila, believe it or not. Lucy goes to those art classes all the time because her Dad runs them, but she loves whenever Lila's in the class, because she always has stickers to give out the kids and Lucy is sticker fiend. She has a collection that's growing by the day.

Minji, on the other hand, loves to dote on Lucy whenever she comes over with Saeyoung and Judas. Lucy gets to learn how bake things hands-on, and it doesn't matter what she wants, Minji helps her find a way to make it. That's the fun thing, Saeyoung sits down with Lucy and helps her draw something silly, and Minji helps them turn it into a feasible project.

That means even if it's a nine-layer longcat ice cream cake, Minji will find a way.

She's just that kind of person. I don't know what to tell you, you just shouldn't doubt her ability in the kitchen. Lucy also gets free treats whenever she visits the cafe Minji and Jaehee operate. Of course, it helps that those samples are to help them figure out the next item of to go on the seasonal menu, but hey, Lucy isn’t complaining about being a guinea pig. She gets to have as many treats as she wants and nobody tells her to stop!

Okay, granted, Jihyun makes them limit it to two treats per visit, but that's because his partner scolded him a little bit for letting her sneak treats.

Judas is a sweetheart, at least, when he wants to be. Contrary to popular belief, he's great with kids. He may not always know what to say to them in certain situations, but he’s a good listener and that’s what benefits him. A lot of kids want to be heard, especially kids who haven't had the opportunity to be heard by other people, and he sees that Lucy needs that. 

He doesn't know what her life was like before she was adopted, but he knows that when he ended up on the streets, all he wanted was for somebody to hear him. It's not even that he wanted to be seen, he wanted to be heard. He knows people might always overlook him no matter how old he gets and how much visible he seems to the world, but if his voice is loud enough, they can't ignore him. 

Lucy gets to talk about anything that's on her mind whenever he comes over to visit. The funny thing is, he learns how to hold the conversations with her about whatever she's deeply invested in at the moment. Being that she's a kid, that can change day from day, but it also means he may now know the lore of the My Little Pony universe far more now than he did yesterday. 

When he was with his parents, the only thing he was allowed to do was what his mother deemed acceptable. He wasn't allowed to be interested in anything that didn't benefit the family, and he never wants a kid to go unheard. Even if that means he needs to learn why friendship is magic. By God, he'll listen to her, and his favorite pony is Rarity, by the way.

[braveclementine]

Chaos on a Quinjet

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

You were nervous, following after Fury as he went to talk to Loki. You knew you weren't really supposed to, but you also wanted to see Elizabeth. She refused to leave Loki's side, and had even let herself go into the sealed container that they had put Loki into, despite everyone telling her not to.

Fury pretty much ignored you as he stepped up onto the platform. You stayed close to the shadows, eyeing the two inside the chamber. Loki was standing, looking almost unperturbed. You had a very bad feeling about everything that was going on. The fight had been to easy. You had seen the mans illusions.

He could fight well. He could've at least escaped you all by using his illusions on his own. So why had he surrendered?

"In case it's unclear." Fury started in that normal, almost angry voice of his. "if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass," Fury allowed the bottom of the floor to fall out, showing the air vacuum below. You fretted nervously, wondering if Loki would risk anything with his soulmate in with him. "it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap." Fury shouted over the air roar. "YOU GET HOW THAT WORKS?"

"Ant," Fury gestured to the container that Loki was in, and then back to the console, "Boot."

You supposed it was something that the two of them had talked about before.

Loki started to laugh, and you started to chew on the nail of your thumb. It was a very bad habit of yours and you needed to break it. "It's an impressive cage." he gestured with his hands. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you." Fury said.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki sneered, and turned to look at one of the blinking lights. You wondered if the others were watching on the other side. You started to move along the side, closer to Fury.

"A mindless beast." Loki continued in a softer voice and you frowned. "Makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?"

"How desperate am I?" Fury asked in a patronizing tone. "You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace, and you kill because it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh." Loki winced. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded of what real power is."

You glanced over at Elizabeth, who had laid out, with her paws tucked under her. You wondered why she was sticking by his side. Was she really so desperate for his affection and love? Was it worth risking her life for? And what did this mean for her? Usually people were soulmated because they were alike in souls. So if Loki was bad, that had to mean that to some degree, Elizabeth felt the same way as him.

But you had known Elizabeth your entire life. You knew she was kind and sweet, though she could have a brutal streak if she was riled up. But then. . . how could she possibly be soulmated to a dictator like Loki? It didn't make any sense.

"Well, let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." Fury sneered, walking off and you quickly followed after him, after shooting one last look at the two in the cage.

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"I want to know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here." You heard Steve Rogers say as you quickly joined them in the main part of the quinjet. Banner, Natasha, Thor, Maria, and Steve were the only ones there, and you wondered where Tony had gone.

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki." Banner said uncertainly, his glasses in his hands. He and Thor were standing very close together and you thought their relationship was kind've cute. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak." Thor said, though his voice was lighter and kinder than perhaps any of the rest of you had said it. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is still of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha spoke from where she was sitting. You took a chair next to the Captain, pulling out your pistol and knives to clean and repair them.

"He's adopted." Thor admitted uncertainly and a faint smile came over your lips.

"I think it's about the mechanics." Bruce said and you looked up when you saw that Tony was coming. "Iridium. . . what do they need Iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony said and you slipped your pistol and knives back into their respective places, getting out of your chair to walk over to him and Agent Coulson. He muttered something to Coulson and then back to us. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D."

He wrapped his arm around your waist, kissing your cheek, before letting you go with a small squeeze. "No hard feelings, Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He patted Thor on his thick arm with the back of his hand and kept talking with his back to the rest of you lot, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long, as Loki wants. Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails." He said as he pirouetted in front of the crew. "That man is playing Galaga!" He pointed across the room and even Steve followed the line of sight.

"He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Tony sighed and you put a hand over your face. He put a hand over one eye and then looked at us, "How does Fury even see these?"

You snickered.

"He turns." Maria deadpanned.

You giggled now.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials," He walked up to one of the screens and just started tapping at it, "Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Maria asked.

"Last night." Tony snarked. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory paper. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

You raised a small hand and he winked at you. "I know you did bunny. We did it together last night in bed, under the covers-"

"Okay." Steve interrupted quickly and for some reason, he was blushing. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He would have to heat the Cube to 120-million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier."

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion-fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"Finally, someone who speaks English." Tony sighed.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked, looking lost while the two science bros shook hands.

"He's taken." Thor growled lowly, but not enough for Tony to hear.

You winked at Steve. "Don't worry about him. He's like this twenty-four seven."

"Dr Banner is only here to track the Cube." Fury said, finally joining in on your conversation, and interrupting whatever Bruce and Tony were talking about. "I was hoping you might join him."

"I would start with that stick of his." Steve inputted. "It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube." Fury said. "And I would like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys? I do not understand." Thor said.

"I do." Steve said, pointing with a red gloved finger. Bruce looked awkward and Tony actually rolled his eyes. You on the other hand felt pity, and smile encouragingly as he looked around and said in a softer tone, "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony asked, looking at Banner.

"This way sir." Bruce said.

Tony quickly planted a kiss on your lips and then followed the other doctor out of the room.

You pulled out a notepad and paper. Steve wasn't leaving the room. You quickly jotted down Harry Potter (movies), Bones (TV show), Designated Survivor (TV show), TVD/TO (TV show), The Incredibles (movie), Jurassic Park (movies), Star Wars (movies) and Pink Panther (movie). The Starless Sea (book), City of Bones (Series), Matched (series), Harry Potter (series), IT (book), Lord of the Rings (books), and And Then There Were None (book).

You handed him the piece of paper. "The first set of lists are just some things you can watch. My personal favorite is Harry Potter and I think you'll realize that there are a lot of people who enjoy the Harry Potter series. Though I recommend reading it first. There are a lot more details in the books and I personally think they are better. But if you would prefer watching something right off the back, you should watch Bones first I think. It's my favorite show, it's murder mystery. But if you don't like that, maybe you should start with Designated Survivor."

"Also, I really enjoyed the Starless Sea. It was written so differently from other books-"

"Don't talk his ear off Agent Stark." Fury said in amusement.

"Sorry Director Fury." You blushed, quieting down.

"Thank you." Steve said sincerely, taking the list from me and showing me a black book he had. "I've been using this to write down new things that I should read, watch, and listen to."

"Ooh music." You sighed, trying to hold yourself back. "Hmm, I don't listen to, too much. Mostly a few rather political rappers that no one else seems to like, like Tom MacDonald, Bryson Gray, and Tyson James. But Imagine Dragons is pretty good. I don't think you'd like BTS or BLACKPINK though. Maybe OneRepublic or Maroon 5. Not sure. Umm. . . The Beatles and the Beach boys are pretty good."

Steve nodded and kept up pretty well with jotting down everything You rattled off.

"What is BTS and BLACKPINK?" He asked.

"K-pop." You answered.

He stared at you blankly.

"Korean pop. Asian music, etc."

He nodded now.

"What's it like? Having Stark as your soulmate?"

"Oh." You thought about it. "Different I guess. My life growing up was. . . rough. I felt very fortunate that he wanted me. And I love him a lot. I guess I'd kind've have to, to put up with his narcissistic butt." You laughed and then quieted down and replied sincerely. "He's good to me."

"Good." Steve said, looking far off through the windows.

You hopped off the table, squeezing his shoulder as you decided to go and take a power nap.

You wondered for a moment, if he was thinking about his soulmate.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

You found Tony, Bruce, and Steve in the lab when he came out. Steve seemed rather angry, Bruce was quiet as always, and Steve seemed angry about something.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Rogers was retorting to something that Tony or Bruce had said. Since he was angry with Tony, it had probably been Tony.

"Do you think I'm not?" Tony retorted back. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

You frowned a little. As an Agent, Fury was kind've your boss. You really didn't want to think badly of him. But you could admit that he could be very secretive.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's 'the' spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bugging him too, isn't it?" He asked, gesturing to Bruce.

"Uh. . . I just want to finish my work here, and. . ."

"Doctor?" Steve asked sharply.

He sighed and then took off his glasses after a moment, "'A warm light for all mankind.' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it." Steve assented.

"I think that was meant for you." Bruce said, pointing at Tony. Tony held out a package of blueberries to Bruce, who took one, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big, ugly building in New York?" Steve asked.

"Hey." You piped up with fake scorn at Steve. "That's six percent my baby."

Tony snickered.

"It's powered by an arc-reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype." You and Tony said together.

Tony, of course, continued, "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now. That's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D. bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce finished. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.S secure files."

"I'm sorry. Did you say-" Steve started.

"Tony!" You cried out, exasperated. "Do you want me to lose my job?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide." Tony smirked. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they don't want you around." Steve snarked.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't' stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them." Steve said.

He was sounding more like a soldier than anything else. But you couldn't blame him for that.

"Following's not really my style." Tony responded, popping blueberries into his mouth.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asked.

"Of the people in this room," Tony said in mock consideration, "which one is, A, wearing a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?"

"Steve, Y/N, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you." Bruce implored us. Tony and Steve both looked at you and you hesitated slightly.

"Well," You said slowly. "Fury is my boss, alright? The last thing I want to do is go against him. . . but at the same time you're right Bruce. Tony had the arc reactor and the energy source. Why not seek him out for the project? Why an Agent like Barton?"

"Just find the Cube." Steve muttered, and he left the room.

You shrugged. "I'll leave you boys to it. Have fun."

"So," You said as you caught up to Steve, making him jump a little. "Where are we headed off to?"

"Tony will kill me if I get you in trouble." Steve said, stopping where he was walking. "And Fury will kill you if you're found with me."

"Ah, no biggy." You responded, "Let's go. Lead the way."

Steve sighed, but decided not to argue against you and continued on the path he had been going.

You went down into the lower parts of the ship, finding a almost empty corridor. Steve found a door that read 'secured storage' and he pushed the door open with all of his strength. You quickly looked around, and then the two of you stepped inside of the room.

There were rows upon rows of silver cases, kind've looking like something that might be on a director set, something that would carry microphone set ups and whatnot for a TV crew. You wondered what was inside them.

Steve managed to use the Super Soldier serum to leap up to the catwalk above the two of you, but you had to painstakingly climb up one of the metal shelves that were holding cases. You leapt to the railing, and Steve helped you over.

"Sorry," He responded quickly. "I should've carried you on my back."

You lifted a finger to your lips, hearing Agents talking on what seemed like the other side of the wall and the two of you headed down the walk.

Steve opened up one of the cases, and the first thing that you saw was a mask. It didn't mean much to you, so you looked at him. You looked closer and saw the symbol of HYDRA on the weapons.

"Steve!" You gasped.

"Let's go." Steve said in a harsh voice, yanking one of the guns out of the chest. He wrapped an arm around your waist and jump back over the railing. The two of you made your way back up to the lab. People gave the two of you stares, but no one stopped you, perhaps to afraid at the look on Steve's face.

Fury had joined Tony and Bruce in the lab and Tony was asking, "What is phase 2?"

Steve slammed the gun down on the table and you hovered by his side, looking anxiously between everyone, and especially Fury. "Phase 2 is S.H.I.E.L.D. using the Cube to make weapons." Steve said. "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Tony said. "What were you lying?" He asked, turning around a screen to show some sort of weapon on the screen. Over the coms, you could hear Natasha informing you that Loki's plan was to unleash the Hulk. You glanced over at Bruce.

"I was wrong director, the world hasn't change a bit." Steve spat as Thor and Natasha joined the rest of you.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Nat and me.

"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked.

Bruce gave a laugh. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Lok is manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." He grabbed the monitor and you started to slip around the edge towards the scepter. "I'd like to know, why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury pointed, but did not look at Thor.

"Me?" Thor questioned.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you." Fury responded. "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asked.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies." Thor grumbled, "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"And we're not." You responded softly.

Tony moved across the room to pull you away from Steve's side and put his arm around you.

"A higher form?" Steve questioned.

"You forced our hand." Fury responded, ignoring Steve. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent." Tony responded. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury said.

You were pretty impressed that Fury wasn't caving to anyone. He was definitely strong and it would apparently take a lot for him to break.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Steve said.

Tony interrupted, "Hold on. How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry. Isn't everything?" Steve snapped.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this." Thor snapped.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury responded.

"You treat your champions with mistrust." Thor responded right back.

You drew away from Tony's side. The scepter was making a weird noise, the blue stone inside of it was glowing. You frowned, drawing closer to it now. It seemed almost as though. . . was it feeding off the abrasive energy in the room? Was that why Loki wanted the Hulk to transform? Would that be abrasive or negative enough energy. . . but for what? What would the stone do?

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos." Thor said.

"That's his M.O. isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no no, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb." Bruce said. He was still very close to the scepter.

"You need to step away." Fury ordered.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony asked, putting his hand awkwardly on Steve's shoulder, which was immediately thrown off.

"You know damn well why! Back off!"

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me." Tony snarled.

"Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve asked.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, husband, father." Tony responded off the top of his head.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you." Steve snapped. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for, is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony snipped.

"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

You were anxious now. This was not going how things should've been going. You felt as though you had realized something, but you weren't sure what it was. You were afraid to hold the scepter, but also afraid not to touch it.

"A hero? Like you?" Tony responded angrily. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Tony!" You protested, unable to keep quiet any longer.

"Put on the suit. Let's go for a few rounds."

Thor started to laugh. "You people are so petty and tiny."

"Yeah, this is a team." Bruce scoffed.

"Agent Romanoff would you escort Dr Banner back to his-"

"Where? You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me. But you can't. I know. I tried. I got low. I didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back to this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?"

You saw that his hand was reaching for the scepter and you saw that both Nat and Fury were reaching for their guns. You could either grab the scepter. . . you made a split second decision, grabbing his wrist.

You smiled kindly at him, "Sorry, but it's making a very weird humming noise. I don't think any of us should touch it right now."

Suddenly, a beeping noise started and you knew it meant that they could find the Tesseract.

But no one was paying attention.