#long story short I wanted to take some camping as a bit of a multi-use item but DRINKING is NOT. ONE OF THOSE USES

[blujayonthewing]

humiliating to ask the guy at the liquor store if they have everclear 190 and even more humiliating when the answer is 'no, and also, it's not legal to sell in michigan at all'

[ghost-at-the-masquerade]

The Little Things

Rating: PG, for talk of preparing an animal carcass

Count: 1856

Summary: Link has dinner with a stranger out on the road

A/N: Yes, I’m going to make Link use they/them pronouns, no I don’t take criticism on this, don’t @ me

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

The smell of blood still wafted toward the camp, from where they had let the deer drain. They started at the collarbone, slicing all the way down to the groin, then up the inside of each of the legs. Someone could always use more leather, so they wanted to keep the hide well intact.

Sitting across from Link on a tree downed long ago, Stemm - a traveling chef, by his own description - started to peel carrots and potatoes. The skins he let fall among the grass, the clean vegetables he dropped into a large stockpot to wait. It was much too soon, but he needed something to do.

When Link went to wipe the sweat from their forehead with the back of their arm, they left a little smear of blood that caught a lock of hair and matted it to their eyebrow. The sight of it had Stemm’s face twisting into the most polite agony he could manage.

The time came to split open its belly and he excused himself to stoke and adjust the fires - meat and organs did better in different temperatures at different times, he said.

Link twisted around to grab another, larger pot to drop the more palatable organs in, and the rest were given back to the earth, that Farore may put them to better use.

Their boots were soiled as they worked to separate the carcass into manageable cuts, the better part of an hour drifting by them as they were engrossed in the work. Every now and again their gaze flicked over to Stemm, tutting around the camp proper. Always seeming to produce more cookware and utensils and little bottles of spices from his pack. He had a rather fine set of glass bottles he kept water in, too - as well as some spirit that stank all to hell. Highly impractical for travel compared to a waterskin, but lovely nonetheless. A pair of the ones filled with water were sitting in a half-rotted bucket with a pilfered ice rod.

They piled the meat onto a spare sheet of leather they had so they could haul it all the few feet to the fire, hefting it over the log with a grunt.

Stemm spared them a smile for all of their work. “Thank you, yes, it’ll be fine there.”

He took the opportunity to go on while they paused to take a breath, “It makes me feel like such a fraud, not doing all my own prep, but butchering is just… such ugly work.”

Link couldn’t help but cock the bloody eyebrow at him. The lock of hair came loose with the movement.

“Don’t look at me like that - it’s not that I had some… pampered upbringing, my parents did their own hunting when I was young. We just moved to a bigger town before it was my time to learn. And if someone has already prepared the meat for you, well…”

They wondered, at times, if people in their previous life had spilled their guts to them like this. Their silence left a lot of room for it.

“I suppose I was so excited to travel and to do it all myself that I didn’t think about what ‘doing it all myself’ would entail.”

Link’s expression softened some. They could sympathize with being in over one’s head.

“… What are you waiting around for? I can handle this part, you wash up.” He shooed them with one hand, pulling the meat toward himself with the other.

They huffed through their nose at his tone, but they didn’t need to be told twice.

-

Twilight’s somber blanket settled over the grass, made the soft sands twinkle as Link stepped into the shallow waters. Going in almost up to their knees, they found a rock to settle on, dipping their arms into the cool river flow and scrubbing the deer’s blood free from their arms and boots. Blood dried on skin is rather like the first layer of paint on raw wood, thin and clinging seamlessly.

Pulling back, droplets on their skin became flecks of gold in the dying light. They reached into a pouch at their hip for a bar of soap and comb. The bar was only about the length of their palm and a third of the width, off-white in color - not unlike honey diluted in milk. They rubbed a conservative lather into their palm; it would be some time before they returned to Hateno for more, but they wanted the copper smell off their hands. They only just remembered the smear on their face before rinsing off.

The comb was simple, a chunk of birch wood carved and left unfinished, but with much thicker teeth than their last one. Hair tie held between their lips, they dipped the comb into the river, closed their eyes and began to run it through their hair. Their ears twitched with every rustle of the trees behind them.

Clean and calmed, they took a deep breath and rose to return to camp.

-

Stemm greeted them heartily, in much higher spirits now that he was in his element. He already had several pounds of meat salted and packed into leather satchels, while another had been cubed for their supper.

Link took their seat at an angle to him, not quite next to him. Stemm was proving to be quite the multi-tasker around the cook pot, moving seamlessly between preserving the meat and prodding the chunk of fat he had rendering out in the bottom of the pot. It had been strung up by a chain, held aloft by three metal rods - an incredibly handy contraption, Link would have to see about finding one.

At each step, Stemm explained how staggering each ingredient’s addition would change their texture and flavor. Link sipped their chilled water and decided to keep their disagreements about what the texture should be to themself; they could deal with mushy onions in their stew for one night.

With everything coming together, he whipped out a smaller wooden spoon, took a taste and pursed his lips, looking up to the sky. “I wish I had a little sweetness to take that edge off, but I’ve just run out…”

Link’s ear twitched with a thought, and they dipped their fingers into another one of their hip pouches. From it they drew a flower, not unlike the Silent Princess, but half the size and without its luminescent qualities. They held it up as a suggestion, “Maybe this?”

“That?” Stemm leaned close to scrutinize the flower, “No, I’m afraid those are quite bitter.”

They shook their head and insisted, “Cousin of the star flower. Breeding out the glow takes out the bitterness.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Usually, yes, but they’ve been moving back that way for a while. Have you been under a rock?”

Rather than argue the point further, they popped the flower in their mouth - only to immediately stick out their tongue and let the mushed petals fall off.

Stemm laughed victoriously. “I told you!”

With their eyes unfocused on the grass, something deep within them wavered, but only momentarily. It was too silly a thing to unsettle them. Even if it was one of the few things they thought they remembered.

“The one thing I was prepared for was finding tasty plants!” He glanced again toward the dying light while digging something out of his bag.

“Don’t know how much you can do by firelight, but here-” He held out a small, leather-bound notebook, “You can copy this.”

It was soft in their hands, telling of its relative youth. The cover crackled quietly as they opened it. The pages detailed a number of edible wild plants native to central Hyrule and Necluda, including flavor profiles and notable lookalikes.

Link set it on their knee so they could sign, “Thank you, but, I don’t have anything to copy to.”

For a moment he seemed surprised. Then he shrugged, a relaxed smile crossing his face. “Keep that one, then. I can make another.”

Their mouth worked and they struggled to make the sign feel sincere enough, “Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it. It won’t do me much good when I head out to Akkala, anyway.”

With that reassurance they relaxed some, settling in to skim the notes while he finished.

The sun ducked away behind the far trees and its last light vanished, turning the camp into a bright bubble in a dark ocean.

Turned out Stemm was right about it needing a bit of sweet, but it was far from inedible. Link was more than glad to take a second helping. Simple, but warm and filling. He was definitely still wrong about onions, but the potato was good.

Stemm had no stories to tell and his sign wasn’t strong enough to keep up with Link’s, so the night air was left to the crickets, crackling of fire and the tittering of breeze through the grass and leaves. In time, they agreed to part in sleep.

Link settled down into the embrace of a nearby elm. Stemm stayed closer to the fire, with his sizable pack to prop him up. Firelight faded, gave way to the silver grace of the moon, orange glowing embers not unlike the shrines waiting for them in the distance.

——

Link woke at first light. Hummed deep in their throat and stretched, scratched their shoulder against the bark before even bothering to open their eyes. They could already feel the knot that had formed in their hair.

Sitting up, they saw Stemm still asleep, his mouth dangerously open to the sky. They shook their head, starting to fix their hair when they noticed a small line of leaves laid parallel on their thigh - korok mischief. A little smile tugged at the corner of their mouth. They carefully stacked the leaves and tucked them away in a pocket.

It was time to go - their deal was done and a number of important tasks awaited them. Link stood and took a final stretch. But still, they looked over to their companion. He had done them an extra kindness.

Stemm’s rig was still set up - perhaps they could make use of it. Link knelt with a bit of bounce, considering the remnants of the fire.

They reached into the depths of a pouch and grasped the handle of a short sword - though not short enough to keep them from having to bend over at a funny angle to get it out, falling onto their hip. Exposed to the open air, the blade flared to life with eerily silent fire. A bit of tinder, another log and the tip of the blade was all that was needed. A little extra kindness, then they would go.

Three eggs scrambled into fine curds, peppered with fresh herbs and salt flakes, gently folded over on itself with a wooden spoon. A hopefully respectable omelet they set nearby under a korok leaf.

Link put their hands on their hips and regarded a man they would likely not see again, one more time. The Dueling Peaks loomed. The sun crept higher. And strangers parted.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Revolution Theme, Part 4 - The Governor’s Episodes

What led me to wanting to rewatch the Gov’s episode was a discussion with @galadrieljones. She talked about Lenny from 4b being an anti-Daryl, and that sparked something for me. I totally agree about Len, but it made me remember that, a long time ago, I remembered that Mitch (guy who operated the tank for the Gov and helped bulldoze the prison) was also an anti-parallel to Daryl.

Now, back when I first realized that, I didn’t have anywhere to really go with it. I mean, we had the leader (Governor) pitted against Rick and his right-hand guy (Mitch) pitted against Daryl. Mitch operated the tank, which Daryl blew up. And then of course Daryl ends up shooting Mitch in the heart. The thing that first made me realize Mitch was a Daryl parallel was the fact that he had no sleeves, lol. I know that’s goofy, but I think it’s intentional.

Anyway, I hadn’t thought about it in a long time. And while we’ve talked about Gov parallels to Beth in these two episodes lots of times before (like the stigmata walker in the yellow wheelchair) it suddenly occurred to me that there’s probably a LOT more to it than that.

Recently, especially since the bonus episodes, I’ve been big on looking at entire sequences and multi-episode arcs from a broad, bird’s eye view because I think they’re templates for future story lines. (It’s totally Find Me’s fault. Lol.) Anyway, I just realized I hadn’t done THAT with the Gov’s episodes, and I probably should.

Long story short, I was right.

Long story long, here we go:

So we start by seeing the end of 3x16 again, right after the Gov kills all his own people and takes off with Martinez and that other guy whose name I don’t remember. He doesn’t show up again and Martinez says he pretty much gave up and got eaten by walkers.

(We’ll skip the discussion about how Karen was a Beth proxy at this part in 3x16, because she was left for dead and even pretended like she was. In other words, she played possum. Then she returned to Tyreese and eventually became romantically involved with him. But that’s beside the point, right? ;D)

Okay, so we see the Gov and the two guys at a camp site and a very Beth-ish walker stomps through his fire, trips, and starts burning before Martinez kills it. I’ve always thought that was a Beth hint, and I still do. I think it’s just the writers’ way of signaling that this is a Beth template for the future.

When the Gov wakes up, his guys have abandoned him and he’s alone in this bright yellow tent that stands out against the bleak landscape. (Yellow.)

Then he goes and burns Woodbury. I’ve always tried to connect that to Beth, particularly because of the Moonshine shack. But looking at it now, there’s just something else entirely going on here. Emotionally, I mean.

We know Bethyl burning the moonshine shack symbolized something positive. Letting go of their pasts and moving forward. When the Gov does this, you don’t get that vibe at all. It’s more bitter and resentful. He’s angry and grieving over losing his leadership, the town he built up, and his people. It almost feels like a “if I can’t have it no one can” sort of thing.

So, this is total conjecture on my part, but I feel like there will be a Beth parallel to this. Probably not quite as destructive, but I’ve always had a head canon that somehow, after waking up, she’ll end up at Terminus, find the riot gear and Daryl’s poncho, and assume they all died there. That may be where the bitterness and sadness will come from. Just my head canon, though.

After that, the Gov starts on his long, lone journey (another thing we’ve always theorized Beth would do). Oh, and the song that plays over this part, which I’ve always thought was very pretty, is called The Last Pale LIGHT in the WEST (emphasis mine). I think the Gov goes west when he leaves.

Then we get voice overs, and this part is SUPER interesting and makes me very happy. We heard two women talking to the Gov about where he comes from and where he used to be. We now know those voices to be Tara and Lilly, but at this point in the episode, he hasn’t met them, yet. So, what’s interesting is that neither of them are named in the subtitles. They are just “woman.”

And where have we seen that lately? In 9x05, every voice (like Lori and Abraham, for example) was named, but Beth wasn’t. We immediately recognized her voice, but she wasn’t named in the subtitles as “Beth.” It just said “woman.” So, what does this mean? We wouldn’t have recognized Alanna’s voice yet at this point, unlike Emily’s, but we had yet to meet Tara yet. So, on a basic level, I think it shows that the unnamed “woman” will soon be a character on the show.

And why would they do that with Beth when, like Lori and Abe and the others, we’ve already met her? I think it’s probably in line with the theme about her being a different person when we see her again. In a good way. “Meet the new Beth Greene.”

The next important thing about this part is what is actually said. I’m paraphrasing here, but Tara and Lily ask where the Gov was before and he says something about having been in a town. Tara asks if the monsters were there. He says no. It was a good place, with walls. But “he” lost it. She asks, “who?” And he says, “the man in charge.” So clearly, he’s talking about himself in the third person, and Woodbury.

But.

If this is a Beth template, then Gov = Beth, right? We always wondered why they would use him, being evil and stuff, as a Beth proxy. But keep in mind that Gimple took over as official head honcho and completely reworked a reportedly terrible 3x16. They were basically done with the Woodbury/Gov storyline, and they needed a good sendoff for him. In a way, this was Gimple’s first Sirius arc. Someone who leaves, is presumed dead, but then comes back. We know Daryl (and Michonne) searched for him, but lost the trail (kinda like losing Beth’s body) and the Gov is even down one eye. Siriusly.

So, my point about the voice over is that everything said there could be applied to Rick, especially during the S4/S5. He lost it. He screwed up. Beth was left behind/separated from them.

Okay, now I’ll jump forward a little faster. For the rest of 4x06, there are really only two big things of note. 1) Tara and Lilly = two sisters who eventually lose their father. A foreshadow of the Greene family dynamic. And even though Tara’s father dies of natural causes (lung cancer), the Gov does end up bashing his face in to keep him from biting Tara. I think that was supposed to be kind of like him “killing” the dad, and therefore a foreshadow of him killing Hershel by taking his head.

The second thing, in terms of future Beth arcs, is that he lost everything, was left behind/abandoned by his people, went on a long journey, and eventually found people that he came to care about and protect. And I think the same will happen with Beth. In fact, it actually works in line with the Charleston template I laid out. Just a community of people she cares about and protects/takes care of.

And I’m sure some people will wonder about the fact that the Gov finds a love interest in Lilly, and if that will translate to Beth. Well, it’s possible. She might have had boyfriends over the years. We’ve discussed this. But it’s also important that her *true* love interest, Daryl, is already back with TF. And that wasn’t true of the Gov. He was never going to return to the prison and have some beautiful relationship with…anyone. The closest thing would have been Andrea, and she’d already died by this point.

There are, of course, small clues in 4x06 that I haven’t gone over, and of course I’ve skipped the rest home with the stigmata walker, because we know about that. But a few highlights: At one point, Tara says, “Ray Charles could have seen it” about their truck out front. Blindness mention. Lilly used to be a nurse, which ties to Grady. And she even talks about being bored, which is a direct link to Edwards being bored. 

Pirate theme, of course. I do think Megan represents Beth, though perhaps not directly in the template. She wears a lot of pink and yellow, blond hair, etc. And I think she’s just another way to say that this template is about the blond girl who, apparently, dies.

We should also probably appreciate that the way the Gov’s arc ends (the situation in 4x08) is a prisoner exchange situation where a Greene dies, and both directly ties to and foreshadows Grady.

But let’s move on. The end of 4x06/beginning of 4x07 is where they fall into a pit and meet Martinez. Let’s be real. In the show they call it “the pit” and it’s just used to keep walkers from overrunning their camp, but it’s clearly a grave. So, we have the Gov and Beth—I mean Megan—falling into a grave with a bunch of walkers (death) but surviving and eventually getting out (resurrection). Side note: we also saw the Gov kill one of the walkers that went after Megan by ripping it’s jaw off. (Speak no evil.)

So, here’s where we get to talk about Mitch and Pete a little bit. And it’ll be fun. I promise. :D

Watching this with an eye toward them representing Daryl and Merle, a lot of the symbolism became a lot more obvious. Keep in mind that they’re anti-parallels, not parallels.

See, between the two, Pete, who actually represents Merle, is the more sweet, compassionate one. While Mitch is the more brutal one. But again, they’re anti-parallels, so in this case, Mitch, the brutal one, is Daryl’s antithesis and Pete, the kind one, is Merle’s.

In fact, the first time we meet them, Mitch doesn’t want to let the Gov’s group in because they already had too many mouths to feed, and Pete says, “come on, man. They have a kid.” Just reminded me a lot of Daryl’s “they had a baby” in 3x10 after saving the family on the bridge.

So, they come back to the camp and start living in a trailer. The Hole in the Roof theory is huge here. The roof of the trailer keeps leaking water and, I shit you not, it looks like it’s dripping from a bullet wound. So, clearly….

And while I stand by it being a symbol of Beth being shot in the head, I also think it represents toxicity of a sort. Things that are wrong and it’s just a matter of time before the crap hits the fan. That sort of thing.

Okay, obviously the most important part of this episode is when they go to the cabin, but let me mention a few things that happen along the way.

Mitch, Pete, Martinez, and the Gov go out looking for supplies for the camp. And they had a really interesting conversation that may give some insight into the spearfishing in Find Me.

They walk by the lake and the Gov asks if there are fish in the lake. They reply, no. The lake is totally dead. Mitch then adds that there are rabbits, skunks, and possums. Obviously, some symbolism in those animals. But it occurs to me that fish = life. Something they can eat, subsist and even thrive on. The lake is dead because there are no fish.

Now, clearly this is a foreshadow of the Gov killing Pete and putting him in the lake. And of the Gov already being kind of dead in his soul. And “dead water” might also foreshadow the poisoned water theme. Water that can cause death if you drink it.

But in thinking about Daryl’s reaction to both Leah and Carol finding fish in FM, it’s kind of interesting. Both times, he says, “no way,” and is pleasantly surprised that they caught the fish (life). So, I’m wondering if this is meant to be him being surprised that someone he thought was dead was really alive. And what if all the fish symbols we’ve seen represent life in some way?

Of course, it could also be that a mounted fish, like we saw near Dwight in S8 is technically a dead fish. So, it might have symbolized the death of his and Sherry’s relationship. Or that it would live again. I’m not sure how granular to make this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Okay, so then they come upon a camp that seems to be doing well. Mitch wants to take all their supplies, but Pete refuses and they leave. Later, they come back to find the camp overrun, most of its people dead, and the supplies gone. Here, Mitch is just pissed that they didn’t take the supplies before someone else got them. (Very anti-Daryl.)

But I do think this points to some future arc. I don’t know for sure what it will be, but again, I think it works with the Charleston template. Like, Beth is in a community. She goes out looking for supplies, and when she comes back, the community has been knocked on its butt by the CRM. And this is one of those things that was never really acknowledged or explained in the show. Who killed off the camp? And why wasn’t anyone in the Gov’s group at all concerned that their camp might be next? Gotta be symbolism for sure. :D

Oh, and the Gov says it must have “just happened.” Just like Daryl said about the wolves and the girl on the tree in 5x15. And again, the wolves are very tangled up in the Native American symbolism.

Then there’s the cabin bit. Again, I’m not at all sure how this will fit into Beth’s arc, but I’m sure it foreshadows SOMEthing. So, we have two headless corpses, one of which says LIAR and the other that says RAPIST. And then a third that still has his head, but killed himself with a shotgun. He is, presumably, the guy who lived in the cabin and killed the first two, and he’s labeled himself MURDERER.

Now, on the one hand, all of these words describe the Governor. He says “Liar” just before taking Hershel’s head, which is what that first one points to. And it’s not too hard to figure out that he’s a murderer. We didn’t actually see him rape anyone in the show, but there were suggestions of it, especially as he attacked Michonne and manipulated Andrea. And I’m pretty sure in the comic books, he does actually rape Michonne. They just didn’t want that to be the case in the show. So, these do all work for his story line.

But I also think these may be things Beth encounters at some point in her arc. Maybe someone will lie to her (or even betray her, Lone Ranger-style) and she’ll have to take them out. We already saw her dealing with rape at Grady, and have long thought that it foreshadows a bigger, potential rape situation that she’ll have to deal with. You get the idea. So, it’s very vague and I don’t have any great inspirations about what these point to, but in general, I’m sure they’ll apply to her.

It's also important to note that all these guys are dressed in military clothing. So, we might be able to tie them to CRM, symbolically if not literally.

I didn’t find anything massive inside the cabin that we haven’t already discussed. You asked me to look for revolution/George Washington pictures, @wdway, and I didn’t notice any. I didn’t try overly hard to see every single picture in the background, but most of them looked too blurry to tell much detail anyway. The major one is of Abraham Lincoln, and I think that’s important. But I’ll come back to it.

Of course, we have all the Native American symbols in this cabin. So, here’s the thing. Because of Tonto in TLR, I feel like whoever the Native American symbolism points to, whatever group that is, good or bad, it represents the group that Beth found after she woke up/lived, who nursed her back to health. And the reason I say good or bad is because the Claimers do theoretically fall under this same symbol theme for Daryl. The first group of people he ran into after he lost Beth. After the big disaster.

And here, I think Martinez’s group works in that regard for the Governor. He wasn’t hurt badly but he was in need of help after falling into the pit. You could say the same of Daryl after losing Beth. He just needed people to pull him out of his slump.

Now, here’s the other thing I’m not entirely sure how to interpret, but it does lend credence to the idea of the guy who lived in the cabin, who took out the two headless corpses, being representative of Beth. Once they’ve cleaned the walkers out of the cabin and are all sitting down talking, the Gov finds a picture of the guy who lived their and his family. The guy’s left eye has been colored over with read. Like red pen or marker. But it’s clearly a Sirius symbol and the red looks like blood.

So, I thought about what must have happened in this cabin. I kind of thing it might have been sort of like what happened with Abraham’s family. We were told after 5x05 that he killed the people who were actually part of his group. People he trusted. That’s because while he was out on a supply run, they raped his family. They just couldn’t show that in the show.

So, for the cabin guy, taking out a rapist and liar who might have harmed his family is straight forward enough. But why would he kill himself if his family still lived? And the Gov’s group found them as walkers in the house. Why would they continue to live there if the husband/father had shot himself on the porch? So, I’m thinking that these two headless corpses not only raped but perhaps murdered his family. So, he beheaded them and, in his grief, took himself out.

Or, because he labeled himself a murderer, maybe something happened where his family went crazy, or just got bitten, and he had to put them down. And that made him feel like a murderer. Because I don’t think justly taking out bad guys would have made him feel that way.

This may feel largely irrelevant, but it’s in the episode for a reason. Once again, I think this probably points to some part of Beth’s future arc. I mean, this sort of thing, the kind of thing Abraham went through, since it happened at the hands of people that were part of his community and that he trusted, is the ultimate betrayal, right? So maybe it will be a matter of someone in her community that she trusts betraying them to the CRM or something. IDK.

I keep saying it’s the west/lone ranger stuff that = betrayal, but the Native American theme always seems to be tangled up with it, doesn’t it?

Some minor details.

They find *beer* in the cabin.

We find out that Mitch and Pete were in the army before the turn happened. And in this case, I don’t necessarily want to link that to the CRM. We could, but given that both of them are now dead, it doesn’t really matter.

But it occurred to me that this is more evidence of them being anti-Daryl and Merle. Daryl and Merle were nobodys and drifters before. So, their opposites were in one of the most disciplined professions one can enter. Daryl started in an unproductive place and evolved. Mitch started in a disciplined place and devolved.

Of course, they’re playing GOLF when he kills Martinez. After doing so, he sits like Daryl at the crossroads. Then when Lilly finds him in the RV, he says he had a bad dream. He doesn’t remember. (Memory loss mention.)

They tell the camp he was hitting golf balls, got drunk, and fell into the grave/pit. *coughs Bethyl*

There were some interesting mushroom mentions. I noticed that before they met up with Martinez’s group, they were talking about Tara’s ex girlfriend (who was named SAM, btw) who lied to her about her feelings for Tara. Lilly says, “Yeah, then you went camping, ate mushrooms, and the rest was history.” Or something like that. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but then later, we see the same mushrooms on the trees around the Gov that we saw in Still. Hmm.

I’m also a little unsure of what to make of the walker pit they reach when they try to leave the camp. Remember they all take off in a car, including Tara’s girlfriend, but they have to stop because the road is impassible. It’s turned to mud and is full of walkers. I’m sure that’s symbolic of something, but I don’t know what.

Of course, the Gov kills Pete and recruits Mitch. You could say he has a very Negan approach, ruling through fear. He kills Pete specifically BECAUSE he’s the compassionate one and Mitch is the brutal one. Very different to how Rick ever approached things.

Okay, that’s most of what I have for the Gov. Except that at the beginning of 4x08, after he takes Michonne and Hershel prisoner, he says, “they’re the key.” (Key Theory).

[hrfiction]

Author Interview Tag

Tagged by @ariaadagio. Thanks! <3

Name: HaleyRoss

Fandoms: Lucifer

Where you post: Ao3 exclusively

Most popular multi-chapter fic: How are we measuring popularity? By reader engagement, kudos? Hits ? That’s a very subjective question. That being said, What are Partners For? Is consistently in my top two fics with organized by hits and kudos, and it also has the most comments. So, I would say it would be the most popular at the moment.

Favorite story you’ve written so far: My favorite story I’ve written so far has to be my longfic, the View from the Observatory series. It is the first fic I have ever written for public consumption and I learned SO MUCH from it. Does it have its problems? Absolutely, but it was so fun to write and I think most people had fun reading it. It is EXCEPTIONALLY long and even if you don’t like it, anyone who finishes it deserves a gold medal and a star on the hollywood walk of fame. I learned my lesson about long fics, but it has a special place in my heart.

Fic you were nervous to post: Every single last one of them. Honestly, I will never get over the posting anxiety. Having another pair of eyes to look over my writing and give feedback helps, but most times I just post it without a beta. That is why I post most of my fics at night, so that I go directly to bed afterwards and aren’t tempted to hit refresh or constantly check ao3, biting my nails and hoping people like it.

How you choose your titles: It depends. Usually by the time I am posting I have a finished or mostly finished story and my title reflects the general theme of the story.  My Like a Prayer  uses a line out of the fic, but I had the title before I had the line so it works.

Do you outline: Always. It’s not so much an outline as a synopsis. I know where the story is going, I know the visuals I am going for (i.e how graphic I want something to be because I do write a lot of smut), elements of foreshadowing, separations of scenes ... everything. The longer the story, the longer the synopsis. Everything is color coded, so I know where characters sit in a story and a general timeline. It is detailed because I have a backlog of stories right now all the way to the end of next year (because I can’t stop coming up with ideas) so I need to make sure when I revisit my notes as I begin to write these fics that I know EXACTLY what I had planned and am able to tweak that as necessary. Will the notes change as I write? Absolutely, but it helps not feel as though I’m writing in the dark.

Complete:  9 in total. 4 are from my longfic, 3 are one-off’s, and 2 are short multi-chapter fic.

In progress:  I am currently working on a wingfic titled “The Things God Gave Us.” The first chapter is already in my drafts on ao3 and I am just waiting until chapter 3 is proofread and ready to go before I start posting. I am also working on a short Christmas themed smut fic called ‘Tis the Season, which should be posted within a week or so.

Coming soon/not yet started:  Uhhhhhhhhhhhh. Do you want the real number or one that doesn’t make me look crazy? I have 20 fics, not including the two mentioned above, that are in various states of writing. Some are almost done while others only have summaries. I’ll be doing quite a few one-offs for the upcoming Fuckruary challenge, then I will be working on my Office AU fic which will most likely take up most of my year next year. I also have a short and fluffy camping fic and a whumpy/angsty fic starring Michael and Lucifer that I am really excited about.

Do you accept prompts: Not actively, no. If someone says something that sparks an idea I will definitely credit them. A lot of my WIP’s come from prompts made by just talking to people and having fun with silly ideas. Prompts are meant to spark an idea but its easy to mistake a prompt for a summary or synopses if you yourself aren’t someone who writes. “Lucifer drives Trixie to summer camp where he discovers a strange affinity for pottery,” is a prompt. Adding on what he does at the summer camp, who he meets, funny lines he might say, a specific thing that might be cool to see …all of that takes away the creative freedom of the person you are prompting and makes it less fun or interesting. If you want to read a specific scene, write it! I love reading stuff from new writers and seeing how their mind works.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: I’m actually really excited to start working on the Office AU. There are some really interesting ideas I plan to explore in it that are canon-adjacent. It will also be exceptionally inappropriate and smutty and I’m excited to put these two idiots into crazy scenarios.

Tagging:  Unfortunately all the authors I follow on tumblr have already been tagged :C So if you write and see this, I officially am tagging you! Tell us a bit about yourself and your stories! and added bonus, i’ll recc some great Lucifer fandom authors and their fics so you can check them out if you haven’t already:

Fluffy/ Funny

Wing (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) by startingatmidnight

The Royal Treatment by elleflies

Premature Unfurling by legendarytobes

Smutty

come,babe, let love have this evening by incalyscent 

lay me down by unusuallysunny

[nullanythorm-ao3]

Just Some Random Fanfic Concepts

So I was going to wait and see if anyone else was interested in me posting up some of my general fanfic ideas. However, I’m bored and struggling to work with the CiM update I’m working on right now. So I’m just going to do it? Also, a heads up to look out for another post coming later, because I want to share some of my Variro YouTube playlist, too.  BUT FIRST, story ideas. You’ll get some working titles for the ones I HAVE working titles for, but otherwise I’m just winging it cuz there are a lot of them. These are in no particular order. Things being higher or lower on the list doesn’t mean they’re more or less likely to be worked on. 

#1 - A continuation for Land or Sea (title pending)

So a little background on this one. I got the idea for this one at the same time as I got the idea for Trust is Something Earned. I put which one I worked on first up to a vote on the Tangled Amino. 

It’s a mermaid(merman/boy??)!Varian AU that centers on the idea: What if, in Queen for a Day, instead of coming up with a solution that created the amber when interacting with the rocks, Varian creates a different one and winds up getting himself turned into a mermaid instead?

It’ll feature 4 OCs: two created by me, and two created by a friend. The perspective will shift between Varian and an OC that belongs to a friend of mine named Charlotte, Varian’s childhood friend and love interest. 

Without spoiling too much, it takes place primarily during the events of season 2 (and maybe stretches into season 3). It switches perspective between Varian, who’s sent to live in the ocean after the accident and becomes friends with an adventurous merboy named Caspian who helps him rediscover his passion for science and alchemy, and Charlotte, who’s left behind in Corona and is trying to rediscover her sense of self and direction after losing her best and only friend. Charlotte’s perspective will help show how the premise changes events in Corona, while Varian’s is wholly original. 

The other OCs that will be involved in the story will be my OC Adrian Claire, who followers of TiSE will know, and my friend’s OC Henry. 

#2 - Stitched Together (originated from Ragdoll)

Okay so the original premise for this was for it to be a Variro story. The focus was Hiro living a double life: a college student in San Fransokyo who realized the existence of the several magical realms that ran parallel to his home after discovering he had magical blood passed down from his mother (maybe even throwing in superhero and making it a triple life - poor Hiro). He finds what’s known in the multi-realm as a living doll - a doll that gained a soul either through devotion and affection of a previous owner and desire to become more human, or having a human soul literally shoved into it. 

Varian, his doll, is the latter. Due to crimes against his home realm of Corona and his own uncontrollable magical talent, they forced him into having his soul magically “stitched” into a rag doll, until Hiro’s magical talent allowed him to awaken.  However, because of his nature as a living doll, Varian now depends on and is subservient to Hiro, but the two soon grow a bond much closer than expected. 

Now, after working on the lore and world of the story, I’ve grown its scope a little. Rather than simply being a crossover with Tangled and Big Hero 6, I want Stitched Together to be a bigger-scale crossover, including How To Train Your Dragon and the Tales of Arcadia series as well. 

It’s going to be Hiccup/Hiro/Varian, along with Jim/Claire from ToA being close friends with the trio. They’re all going to be young wizards from different realms, with different magic specialties studying in Arcanum, the central realm that connects all magically advanced realms. Other characters from each series will show up as well! You’ll see a bit of all of them, it’s a pretty enormous project.

#3 - Maybe some Hogwarts Shenanigans?

I’d really like to do a short, maybe 7-chapter story on the Hogwarts Headcanons for the OT3 I did a while back. The big issue is I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on posting Harry Potter/Hogwarts content after the whole J.K. Rowling thing. 

It’d be a chapter focusing on each year the three spend at Hogwarts together, some key moments through the years, and things like that. Just a small, random story about some kids at Hogwarts having fun. 

Might do it, might not, we’ll see. 

#4 - Time Travel Variro Fic (title pending)

This is another one sort of meant to run alongside season 2 of TTS, and maybe s3. It also replaces the S3 of BH6 the series. Just cuz. 

Basically Varian escapes after being put in prison, and decides the best way to save his dad is prevent the amber from capturing him all together. Vindictive, feral little villain raccoon decides that if he can’t have his happy ending, he won’t let Raps have hers and plans to make a time machine so he can go back and prevent Eugene from rescuing Raps. 

Unfortunately, a slight user error and hiccup in his plans (namely the fact that Ruddiger doesn’t appreciate being left alone and hops in the machine with him and all the noise and flashing lights of a steampunk-medieval time machine spook him) causes him to catapult into the future instead. 

Meanwhile, Hiro’s dealing with his friends moving on to find work, his own internship at KreiTech while attending school, and being fifteen and struggling with hormones and his sexuality finally starting to rear its ugly head after being dormant for 15 years of being in an ongoing relationship with SCIENCE (aka he’s seeing guys, thinking ‘he’s cute/handsome’, and he’s PANICKING). Then, as he’s on his way home from internship one day, a random af raccoon tugs at his pants leg until he finds a boy in weird clothes unconscious in an alley somewhere

Varian, after being woken up, and unsure if he should bring up that he’s from the past or not, makes up a fake story about running away from a small town. Hiro, feeling there’s something more but empathetic to Varian’s story, invites him to stay with him at the Lucky Cat and introduces him to Cass. 

Varian is stand-offish at first, absorbed in his “pet project”, as he calls it around Hiro. Basically, the machine didn’t time travel with him, he’s stuck, and is determined to get home and continue his plan. Hiro, however, is drawn in by the mysterious boy and tries to reach out to him and open him up.

Varian catches on to modern technology and science pretty darn quickly. He’s a smart boy. He also stays holed up in Hiro’s lab or the room they allowed him to borrow reading all day. Until finally Hiro cracks him out of his shell, he starts attending SFIT, and meets the rest of the BH6 crew.

There’s more to the story than this but that’s all I’m saying for now. Lots of drama, tension, etc, and just a fun time as boys discover their sexualities, learn where they can call home, and all that good stuff. 

#5 - In Someone Else’s Shoes (Time Travel Team Awesome Fic!)

So this one is kind of meant to work in tandem with the Variro fic. While the Variro fic explores Varian failing in his plan and getting catapulted into the future, this fic shows the results of what would happen if the time travel worked.  

It centers around Team Awesome! Varian travels back to the past, and tells Eugene that he dies if he hides in the tower. He convinces him that he’s his partner in his future, by knowing his name and stroking his ego a bit. But inform him that the crown will lead to nothing but trouble and his death (conveniently leaving out the part where he meets the love of his life and gets brought back from the dead because of a magical healing flower). 

The alteration to the timeline erases the former Varian’s existence and overwrites the Varian of the new timeline with his memories - giving him the memories of both the former and current timeline. He wakes up in bed at the palace, being woken up by his personal attendant Flynn (Eugene, who only allows Varian to call him by his proper name when they’re alone) and told to get ready for his coronation as crown prince. It turns out, in this timeline, because Eugene and Rapunzel weren’t there to stop him from his running water experiments, the devastation on Old Corona caused the death of his dad and several others. Since he was the son of an old friend, and they longed for their missing princess, Frederic and Arianna take him in as their son, and monitor his scientific hobby to prevent him from causing more trouble. 

Of course, this won’t do. He confides the truth to Eugene, that he was trying to save his dad by returning to the past (but again, keeping out key elements), and the two decide to work together to rebuild the time machine and alter the past without the catastrophic results. 

Won’t spoil too much, there are some wild twists and turns here. But it’s one I’m really looking forward to, again!

#6 - Maybe some Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood shenanigans

I’d just really like to make some Camp Half-Blood AU stuff. It’d be more a series of one-shots, or just a story that jumps around in time in the course of it. 

Crossover with Tangled, Big Hero 6, Tales of Arcadia, and How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on (as usual) Hiccup/Hiro/Varian. 

Not going to say too much about it though, because I want to do an AU Headcanons post with some details on this one! I have lots of ideas.Some you might expect, some you might not. 

#7 - Hercules Inspired Variro Fic (Title pending!)

So this one is wild. Basically, after the events of BH6 s1, Obake escapes. He stays on the run, escaping to Germany, and finds a young boy of genius on par with Hiro, but in the field of Chemistry, and takes him under his wing.

Varian is distraught after his father, who’d contracted an incurable disease, falls comatose. The government does nothing to help him, even though he has friends that hold political power, and Obake uses that to lure him into becoming his protege. 

The pair lie low for a while, wreaking a little havoc in Germany while Varian looks for a cure for his father. The boy dabbles in all manner of fields while trying to help his dad, and before long finds out that the last component he needs is in America, in San Fransokyo. 

Varian, now in his early 20s (which means Hiro is too!), Varian travels to America. He’s currently working as a villain under Obake while daylighting as the head of a German medical research company. 

He meets Hiro by chance. He flirts a little, but tries his best to keep his distance while trying to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, Obake notices how flustered Hiro gets around Varian, and has Varian continue flirting with and pursuing him as a form of distraction, and confides in him about Big Hero 6 and their identities. Varian is against it at first, but goes along with his mentor. 

Varian continues flirting with Hiro, gets in with the group as a friend, and begins distracting Hiro and sabotaging Big Hero 6 while working on a plan to steal the last component he needs for his cure - a solution being stored under high security at KreiTech - where Hiro works, partnered with Krei.

It’s Hercules inspired so there’s a bit more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now!

#8 - Phantom Thief Varian! (Title Pending)

Similar to the time travel one, this one KIND of links with the Hercules-inspired one. It’s not necessarily meant to link narratively or thematically, like the two time travel fics, but it has some similarities. 

Namely the fact that Varian came to America after forming a company to research a cure for his terminally ill father. Whether or not Quirin is comatose in this one, I don’t know. 

But it’s hard for a small company to get the influence or money Varian would need for his research. So, he steals valuables and rare compounds and materials to fund his research and keep him going, under the name “der Waschbär”, which Google Translate tells me means “the Raccoon” so I’m rolling with it.

He meets Varian in a business meeting with KreiTech, or one of those fancy business parties or something along those lines. They become infatuated with each other pretty quickly (as adults that are more sexually aware, I always picture these two precocious kids being pretty flirtatious when attracted to someone so they just kind of click pretty quickly). 

It’s basically the story of Varian, the charming phantom thief who worms his way into Hiro’s life, and Hiro, the superhero aiding the cops in his capture. All while being completely oblivious to each other’s identities and flirting/pursuing each other constantly on the side xD I just like phantom thief stories okay?

#9 - POKEMON!!!!!

Yeah, I still want to do something with these pokemon headcanons

I’m still not entirely sure what kind of pokemon thing I’d want to do. Similarly to the other ones centered around my headcanon posts, it would probably be something I write in short bursts or one-shots and such. 

I’m not sure if I want to do something focusing solely on Corona as a region and the Tangled Characters, or continuing the Hiccup/Hiro/Varian that the headcanons focus on. 

#10 - The VTuber AU

Yes, I’m doing this! I’ve fallen neck-deep into the VTuber pit, and I love the idea of a VTuber Varian. I feel like his avatar is probably a combined effort between him and Rapunzel, who would probably be the artist behind his character. He’s probably an independent VTuber, streaming on his own with his own model - either because he was genuinely curious about the boom and wanted to try it, or due to the influence of his friends (whether a bet or something along those lines).

As stated in a previous post, I feel like his vtuber character is super steampunk, and probably raccoon-temed. There are a lot of VTubers that use the animal-ear look after all. His VTubing character is super chaotic, and tends to fly solo when streaming. 

Hiro is a pretty big gamer himself, but never got big into VTubers. He felt it was just a fad attached to regular streamers, and never really got into watching other people play games, so vtubers make it even weirder really. 

He was looking for help getting past a certain point in a hard game, though, and in his search came across Varian(in the fic, his VTuber identity will have a separate name! I just haven’t htought of one yet) streaming the game, and stuck around to see what he did in that part, and wound up staying because he was chaotic and fun to watch. Before long, he realized he was watching clips from previous streams and catching his streams regularly. The others start teasing him about it. 

Meanwhile, Varian, who’s recently joined in with the group after having started SFIT the year or semester after Varian (maybe Year, since Hiro can be watching it while the others graduate and start looking for work, since he doesn’t really have any other friends in SFIT so he just kind of falls into it to pass time)

Still dunno how he figures out Varian is a VTuber, and whether it’s before or after they start planning though. I just rcreated this one it has work to do.

Anyway that’s about it. There’s probably a few smaller ones I put off to the side of my brain for the time being that didn’t get added here. I forget which ones I start planning a lot and I almost never write them down, I just plan them in my brain as I go and the ones that stick are just keepers. Hope you like these though! Curious to see what everyone things and which of the ideas the, like, 20 of you that follow me like. 

[iristhepladsen]

Another Day, Another Bounty

A/N: was not planning on posting this anywhere, as I usually write just for me XD But, when I was watching episode one, I kept thinking: He will find a lady! (Of course, I think the baby not-Yoda is much cuter). But, I couldn't help but keep wondering about the alternative. And thus, here it is! Enjoy

This will be a multi-part story. :)

Warnings: Mention of blood, violence

Another day, another bounty. This was the smallest amount of information he had before. Only a tracking fob and a vague guess on where "the asset" was. The only thing he was told was for certain was...it was one of the most dangerous creatures he'd ever encounter.

Looking inside the compound, his sensors surveyed the empty space. Looking at the many lifeforms, he heard the beeping of his tracker. It was here. Walking slowly through the empty corridors, he watched the heat forms move and flicker like dying candles. "Lifeforms detected. Begin the process of intrusion." The droid stated, arm whirring. Drilling through the control panel, the door slid open, causing several of the inhabitants to shriek. The overcrowded storage shaft was filled with creatures, some with weapons, but most with limited fighting resources. When one of the women fired a shot, he immediately shot back, striking her arm. Looking through the area, he saw it must be one of the many in-between stations out in the small planets. Creatures of all walks were here, desperately seeking asylum, from war, bounty, an illicit activity went wrong. Foreign species, human-like species, and the like. It was doubtless that more than one in here would catch a good bounty price. But, that wasn't what he was here for...today. Walking forward, each step he took was intentional and listened to, many hiding their faces, children hiding behind their mothers and fathers. At that sight, a pang hit his chest. Walking past each person, he watched a breath catch in their throats. All except one. Sitting on the floor, a creature was staring at the wall in front of them, a hood obscuring his view. And the first thing he could think of was: flowers. Flowers of every kind and design covered the short cloak, flowers doused in orange and red, purple violets, red cypree-ca flowers, and so forth. If they weren't so finely detailed, he would've found the cloak a repulsive sight. Going down on a knee, he moved closer, the sensor went faster and faster. "You." Throat clenching, she turned and looked over at him, her eyesight grazing the edge of his shoulder. Fingers lightly touching the rainbow frills of her cloak, a small breath escaped her. Getting a proper look at her, he reasoned that she must be a human species, of some kind. "...it's me. Isn't it?" Eyebrow raising, he tilted his head as he looked at her. Looks could be misleading. But the only impression he received from her was: Complacent, resigned, yet... Of all the creatures present, she would have been the least likely of them that he would suspect for danger and captivity. And that was why he was chosen. In a crowd of thousands, he would still find the bounty. "Asset located. Commencing extermination." The droid monotonously stated it's gun activating, creating a high pitched whine. Gripping the wooden staff in her hand, she huffed out an alarmed breath through her nose. Standing up, the Mandalorian blocked her from view. "Wait." Holding his hand up, the Mandalorian attempted to stop it. "The asset is required to be brought in...alive." "We had specific instructions for immediate termination. Commencing." Arms loading, the familiar sound of power gathering filled the room, the inhabitants unable to do anything except stare in horror. Without a second thought, the Mandalorian fired at the center under its arm, deactivating the droid. So. More than one person was after her. Some wanted her alive, and some wanted her dead. More screams filled the room, all fleeing and rushing away. No one wanted to be near a Mandalorian with blood lust. "Everyone out." Eyeing her, he added: "Except for you." When she reached for her staff, he kicked it out of her hands. "I don't think so. " As she rose, he immediately set a pace bracelet on her, and one on himself setting it to five. Walking away, she felt her arm move toward him, forcing her to walk. "I...won't run away." She began. When there was no reply, she followed resignedly after him. Climbing down into the red and rocky cavern, he heard her sliding over pebbles, hurrying to catch up with his pace. Hearing her trip and fall, he saw she had fallen into a rock. "I..." Breathing hard, she struggled to rise back up, a small wheeze in her chest. Sitting down, he took out a canteen of water. "Here." Thrusting it at her, her eyes frowned in suspicion. "It's water, not poison." Reaching out, her fingers curled unsurely around the leather canteen. "Thank you." Sipping the water, she felt the hot wind rustle her hair, her cape fluttering slightly along with it. Rising, he set the pace to seven and continued the walk, this time a half pace slower. As the sunset to a burning afternoon, he listened to the scuttles of lizards collect around their feet. That...and silence. Too much of it. Stopping, his hand instinctively went to his blaster. Looking all around them, her dry lips parted. "I hear something. It's coming close." She whispered. Slamming the pace to fifty, he clenched his fist and made a punching motion, sending her flying back. Charging, two fellow hunters came, spears raised. Using his rifle as a barrier, he braced for the impact, using his right leg to kick the weak link in their armor. Slashing through the Mandolarian's arm, he hissed in pain as the spear made an impact with flesh. Turning, he saw one of the creatures charging the woman. Setting to "disintegrate", he removed him in seconds, as she stood there numbly. Burying his dagger into the other's chest, he gave it a twist for good measure before sliding it off. Feeling irritation bubble, he walked over to her. "The next time you see someone charge you, you run, or ask for help!" Silent, she walked on. "This way." He said, nodding his head South. Turning slowly, she followed behind him. Not long after, the camp was prepared. A simple lantern, water mixed with nutrition powder was provided to her, as he peered at his arm, doing his best to cauterize the wound. Grunting in pain, the scent of burnt flesh and electricity wafted into his nose. "Do you need...help? Here, it isn't much, but maybe..." Tearing at her long linen pants, she began creating a bandage. "No thank you. Just get sleep." He ordered. Stopping midtear, she finished it with one quiet skriip. Folding it, she lay it neatly down on the rock. Laying on her side, her eyes were fixed in his direction as they slowly slid shut. Eyes drifting to the fabric, he picked it up hesitantly. Wrapping it on his arm, he made a firm knot of it. It would stave the infection off, at least. *** After a shake on her shoulder and a few bites of dried meat and rehydrated beans, they continued the journey. As the sun rose to its peak height, the Mandalorian looked down below. Jawas were taking his ship apart, bit by bit. Getting down, he pulled out his gun, setting it to distance. Watching them closely, he silently willed the blaster to hit the target. How to hit without destroying or damaging his parts. Blasting, he successfully disintegrated one...two...three... As they began retreating, he scaled down the cliff, the bounty not far behind him. "What-is wrong?" She asked, crying out when a rock scratched her arm. Setting the pace to one hundred, he watched her grow further into the distance. "Jawas." Running after the fortress, he made a leap for it, catching onto the ladder. Turning the pacemaker to the maximum distance, he hoped she was smart enough to keep up. Getting the parts, and then back to her would be a lot of extra work he didn't need. Painstakingly, he made his way up. Feeling a fizz shoot through his armor, he felt his body jerk involuntarily, the breast place fizzing angrily at him from the previous day's damage. Falling backward, he gave a panicked shriek, barely processing the jeering Jawas that grew smaller and smaller. Making a hard impact on the rock, his eyes rolled into his head, a buzz in his head. Feeling a soft hand rub his, his eyes drifted open blearily, staring into the tinted sun. His spine felt as if snapped in half, and for a moment, he worried that it might be so. The hand was on his wrist, checking for a pulse. "Please. Please don't die." She was whispering, her voice thick with worry. Eyes focusing on her face, he noticed a sunburn that was forming on her cheeks and nose. Sitting up, he tried not to shake his head to rid himself of the static-like sounds. Breathing in and out heavily, he forced himself to try and stand. Arm going through his, she tried her best to pull his body up. Standing, he realized he was leaning into her. Spinning the pacemaker back to ten, he began his limp, his prisoner not far behind. Entering the ship, he found himself shaking his head in horror over the damage. Wires loose, even cut, sparks flying. Opening one of the wiring panels, he saw even the most minuscule of them were ripped. Slamming it shut, he grunted in frustration. Looking at the opening of the ship, he somehow felt relieved yet frustrated at the woman, her hand against the metal of the ship, her thin shoes finding solace on the cool metal. "Come on. We need to go somewhere else." "Who?" She found herself asking. "The only one who can solve this issue."

[experimentaldragonfire-fics]

experimentaldragonfire’s SU Fic Rec List

Stuck at home? Running out of stuff to read? I figured I’d put together a semi-comprehensive series of fanfic recommendations so that all the hours I’ve spent on AO3 over the years can be considered at least vaguely useful. A lot of these are quite old, so if you’ve only read more recent fics, you might find something that you haven’t seen here!

Please feel free to add your own links and recommendations--I personally would love more reading material! This list will focus on SU fics, but I’ll probably make more for other fandoms going forward if anyone’s interested. Bear in mind that, as I’ve mentioned, since many (most) of these were written a while ago, they might not represent exactly how the plot of the show progressed (though they now provide a pretty interesting look at the older fanfic tropes/theories!)

Also, upfront: most of these, when ships do appear, are Lapidot or PearlRose--clearly, I’m very narrowly-focused on what I read. And if one of your fics is on here and you want to be tagged, let me know and I will do so!

Steven Universe Fic Recs

General (None or canonical/background/multiple ships):

histories by avulle (T, F/F, Gen)

“Pearl (pearl) is born in what would have been the year 100,492 BCE. (She is not older than the entire human race—but only just.)”

An introspective look at the Crystal Gems through the years, written in a style that’s practically poetic and absolutely gorgeous.

Inferior Blue by hTeDruknenPotaT (M, Gen)

"Your name is Lapis Lazuli. Lapis is a fun thing to name your child when your last name is Lazuli, and when your name is Lapis Lazuli, blue seem like a nice color to dye your hair. It's fortunate that blue is your favorite color, that you manage not to despise it after all the blue you've been surrounded by all your life."

Lapis Lazuli meets a strange young boy who helps to heal the scars of her past.

The first time I read this fic, I stayed up until 5AM and cried into my pillow through the final chapters. And it continued to make me cry every time I reread it. Massive angst warning, but if you can handle fics that are beautiful but tragic, this is for you.

capacity by broken_halleluiah (G, F/F)

After a routine council meeting, Pink Diamond insists on repairing a broken piece of equipment. The result is far more than she bargained for.

A fic speculating on the nature of Pearls in Homeworld society, written well before we got to see any of that in canon. As such, it isn’t entirely in-line with later canon, but is still entirely worth reading.

Breaking Down by PTlikesTea (M, multi)

Rose's world view is shattered by a black market pearl and the realization that everything she knows about them is wrong.

An extensively long series of shorter mostly-self-contained stories exploring a version of Homeworld society where Pearls are considered as little more than disposable property. Major warnings for Pretty Much Everything--definitely keep an eye on the tags--but this is an iconic series of works, started in 2015 and predating many of the later revelations about canon Homeworld. 

A Gem and Her Pearl (Rose) by Potential Violet (G, gen)

Blue Diamond forces Rose Quartz to get a pearl, changing Rose's life, the pearl's life and the course of Gem history. All relationships begin somewhere, this is the beginning of Rose and Pearl's.

Another take on Rose and Pearl’s meeting, and the status of Pearls in Homeworld society (there’s a bit of a theme here with these recommendations). Again, predates most canon revelations regarding the topics, and predates all of the canon information about the Diamonds.

Pearl, Interrupted by AceyEnn (E, multi)

In August, Steven Quartz Universe was born.

In August, Rose Quartz died in childbirth.

In December, Pearl decides she can't handle any of it.

Or: Pearl Tries To Kill Herself And Ends Up In A Therapy Group Run By Her Best Friend's Mom (Well, One Of Her Moms).

Human AU focusing on Pearl dealing with Rose's death--or rather, not dealing with Rose’s death. Major content warnings for suicide attempts, self-harm, etc (please read the tags), but overall a very well-written story. Still updating, despite being first posted in 2016! 

Lapidot:

in which Peridot is Not At All Surprised by the sudden appearance of a new waiter by gaySpaceRock_exe (G, F/F)

Peridot meets the new waiter at her regular restaurant and immediately falls head-first in love. 

Cute and fluffy, what more do you need in a fic? 

Homesick by DrPaine (G, F/F)

An encounter at the Galaxy Warp.

Short oneshot predating the Peridemption/Barn Arc, can be read as friendship rather than romantic. 

Observation by DrPaine (G, F/F)

Peridot is a technician, meant to catch every detail. Not something she’s very fond of, but making yourself aware of your surroundings can be helpful, when you’re slipping into troublesome thoughts.

Incomplete but very much an introspective look at Peri’s character as perceived back in 2015-ish. Not as much focused on romance as on concepts of identity and anxiety. 

Of Stage Lights and Stage Fright by AcrylicPaint (M, F/F)

All Lapis wanted was to participate in the local production, but there was a minor element she hadn't taken into consideration when she agreed to take the leading role, and that was; dealing with the cute techie's constant staring.

That, and the fact she was beginning to stare too.

Human theatre AU, and an excellent completed multichapter fic. I remember that when I first read this, I was in high school and part of the musical, so it was a very topical read--and now it’s the height of nostalgia. 

No Regrets by Raptor_Red (E, F/F)

No Regrets, or, the story of how Peridot tried to romance the blue-haired tattoo artist from the parlor across the street

A personal favorite! The writing in this fic is just so nice to read, and though I’m not usually a fan of tattoo artist AUs, this one really managed to make the whole concept make sense within the story. I can’t count how many times I’ve read this fic. Please read this.

12 O’Clock at Your Local King Soopers by InsomniacArrest (T, F/F)

Lapis works late night shifts, Peridot is somebody's overworked assistant, they both need more sleep and better people skills: the grocery store story.

Is it a Lapidot fic rec list if I don’t include 12KS? Probably the most iconic fic for this pairing, with good reason. Also, consider this a recommendation for literally everything IA has ever written--there are too many good fics to name them all individually, otherwise they’d comprise half of this entire list.

Of Meteors and Minimal Speech by Waypaststrange (moonbeatblues)(F/F)

In which things at the barn settle down, nobody speaks much, and strange lights appear in the sky.

Vaguely fluffy oneshot, very cute!!

Awkward Office Encounters by SilverEyedRukia (T, F/F) 

Due to a broken down air conditioner on a scorching hot day the computers' overheated systems need fixing. Luckily for everyone a blonde technician is up for the job, but unbeknowst to them the IT nerd turns out to be someone they didn't expect her to be, especially not Lapis who kind of asked her out on a date already.

Human workplace AU, starts off relatively comedic but gets into Emotional Territory towards the end.

Camp Pining Hearts by kamanzi (M, F/F)

Peridot and Jasper return to summer camp after their freshmen year of college--this time, as counselors. Peridot is disappointed to learn that nothing is quite the same, especially her relationship with her best friend. Whose fault is this? She blames Jasper's girlfriend.

“‘Let’s go back next year and be counselors,’ she said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ she said.”

Human summer camp counselors AU that’s definitely long enough to use up some stuck-at-home-self-isolating time.

A Week by teamchaosprez  (E, F/F)

Who knew that a single night of drunken sex could push Peridot and Lapis from being roommates with a mutual crush to regularly fucking and maybe - just maybe - eventually becoming girlfriends and standing up to the homophobia surrounding both of their family lives.

A human college AU focusing a lot on working through interpersonal relationships and coming to terms with emotions

Set Me Free by cym70 (T, F/F) 

Being roommates gives Lapis and Peridot a lot of time to get to know each other and, despite their rocky history, they might just be able to make something entirely new.

A friends-to-lovers fic, post-Barn Mates. Very sweet!

Waltz of the Nian by QuickYoke (T, F/F)

Lapis doesn't understand fusion at heart, but she does know she's an unideal partner for it.

 Lapis' relationship with fusion, and also Peridot. A fic that basically encapsulates the ideal of profound prose that makes you feel things, even if you don’t precisely know how or why.

Pushing by Like Hearts by mautadite (T, F/F)

“Sounds like you’re really counting on that road trip magic.”

(Peridot and Lapis do Midway City, and Empire City, and Plateau Ville, and all the places in between.)

Canonverse road trip, because every rec list needs a “the characters go on a long journey together and find themselves, and each other” fic. And because this fic made me feel so many emotions.

A thousand years (F/F)

I have died a thousand years, waiting for you.

 Childhood friends-to-adult-lovers human AU, one of the fic tropes that always just punches me in the face with feelings.

[thebluemartini]

Far From the Shallow - EPILOGUE [Nessian Fic]

TITLE: Far From the Shallow SYNOPSIS: Post-ACOFAS. As part of a deal with Feyre, Nesta has agreed to live with Cassian in the Illyrian Mountains. However, shortly after her arrival, she receives the startling news that she’s pregnant from one of her one-night stands. While she tries to quickly get a grip on her life, Cassian’s determined to make her see that she’s not facing this alone.

FIC LENGTH: Multi-chapter (14 chapters total)

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13

TAGGING: @bohemiandreams27 @queenofillea1 @trash-for-nessian @nestaarcheronwillkillme @my-fan-side @strangeenemy @maastrash @cageddovepoetry @bybooksanddreams @lilbat90 @ritamordio19 @mastercommandercaptain @feysand-dot-acotar @archeron-queen @welcometothespeaknowworldtour @empress-ofbloodshed @there-is-warmth-in-winter @mybbyfeyre @saltydreamcollector @justlikethecheshirecat @mis-lil-red @supebowlere @monstrousloves-explodinggalaxies @everything-that-i-love @sezkins79 @hashtolanashoba @lord-douglas-the-third @rhysandsdarlingfeyre @hikari274 @acotar-and-tog-for-life @ellenoftroy @ink-nibs @highlordofthenightcourttrash @sesquipedalian-aficionado @tintinnabulary

*This chapter is also posted on AO3 and FF.

_______________________________________________________________

EPILOGUE

Dahlia could already walk and talk by the time Cassian deemed it safe for her and Nesta to live in the Illyrian Mountains.

They’d only moved to Illyria one week ago, yet Nesta couldn’t help but feel at peace already. Over the past few years, she’d been experiencing a feeling of restlessness that left her anxious.

But now her and Dahlia were finally living with Cassian, and it finally felt like they were a true family.

Of course, they’d always been a family, but now...now the life her and Cassian had dreamed about had truly come to fruition.

Now Cassian could sleep beside Nesta each night, and when Dahlia thought there were monsters in her room, she could now have the comfort and safety of coming to their bedroom to sleep in between both of her parents. When it was time to sit down for dinner each night, it wasn’t just Nesta who encouraged Dahlia to eat all her food, but Cassian could too. When Dahlia would get sleepy but insist she still wanted to stay up, now Cassian and her could take her to bed together and read her a nighttime story.

It was little moments like these they’d be able to share together by living under one roof, and Nesta was so grateful.

Things weren’t exactly perfect in Illyria. There was still a long way to go in the treatment of females and children, but the Illyrians had shown improvement in listening to Cassian after he dedicated much of his time to visiting and training with the various camps to know and understand them more.

In his conversations with camp leaders, it finally didn’t seem like they wanted to murder him. They even started showing him some respect.

Plus, Nesta had learned how to better control and use her powers with the help of Amren and her siphon. She had learned how to winnow short distances from Feyre too. With these abilities, she was more confident she could protect those she loved.

With all these pieces coming together, it seemed like it would finally be safe enough to live with Cassian in Illyria.

Thankfully, her official role in assisting the Inner Circle with correspondence with other fae and other courts didn’t require her to be living in any specific place.

As another precaution, her and Cassian had decided to live in a new cabin that was a little farther away from Windhaven. It was also a new cabin in honor of their new life as a family living together - one that hadn’t been tainted with memories of being threatened by other camps or being attacked.

As Nesta stirred a pot of stew on the stove, she smiled to herself as she thought about the possibly joyous moments they could fill their home with and the memories that had already been made there, such as the way Cassian embraced them when he came home from his day of training for the first time since they’d moved in. 

“Mommy, when is Daddy coming home?” Dahlia said as she wandered up to Nesta’s side with her stuffed horse tucked underneath her arm.

“Any minute now, my angel,” Nesta replied as she scooped a small portion of the stew into a bowl.

Then Nesta crouched down so she was nearly eye level with Dahlia, holding the bowl of stew and a spoon in her hands. “Lia,” Nesta began gently, calling her by her nickname. “Do you remember what you need to tell Daddy?”

Dahlia nodded eagerly. “That Mommy’s making lunch for him.”

“That’s right. Now this bowl is for you,” Nesta smiled as she handed her the bowl and spoon, which Dahlia accepted while still keeping her horse under her arm. “You can wait for him by the front door, but only go outside once you see Daddy through the window,” Nesta instructed. She was always overprotective when it came to Dahlia.

“Okay, Mommy,” Dahlia said as she ran over to the door while carrying her stew and horse.

_______________________________________________________________

When Cassian landed a short distance from his cabin, a wave of joy and peacefulness came over him.

Coming home to his family was a luxury he almost thought would never occur based on his troubles with the Illyrians. But here he was - nearly four years since Dahlia was born - about to step into his home and see both his love and his daughter for the seventh day in a row. He couldn’t help but feel ecstatic to embrace them.

As he took his first step toward the cabin, the front door creaked open, and he saw Dahlia walk outside. She stopped to put the bowl she was holding down on the porch before rushing up to him. A smile spread across Cassian’s face as he paused his stride. He bent his knees and outstretched his hands as he waited for her to come to him.

“Daddy! Daddy!” she exclaimed as she ran. Cassian could see the legs of the stuffed horse he had given her poking out from underneath her arm.

When she reached him, Cassian instantly closed his arms around her and lifted her off the ground. “How’s my baby girl?”

“Daddy, can I start learning how to fly today?” she asked, completely disregarding what he said. 

His heart broke a little as she asked her question. She asked him this everyday the past week. Her wings had finally been growing, but at a much slower rate than most Illyrians. An effect from the fall Nesta took, unfortunately. Him and Nesta were assured, however, that her wings would be full-grown one day.

“Hmm,” he said as he looked over her wings. Right now, they just weren’t large enough to support her body. “I think we need to wait a little bit longer, sweetheart,” he noted. “They aren’t big enough yet, but the longer they take to grow, the stronger they will be!” he emphasized.

Dahlia pouted. “But I want to fly.”

“You will, sweetheart,” Cassian reassured her. “One day.”

“Can you just fly me around right now instead?”

“Let’s go ask your mother first,” Cassian advised. Nesta was always nervous when he took Dahlia flying since she was still so young.

He started walking toward the porch, but Dahlia started getting fussy in his arms, wanting to be put down. He did as she requested, then she ran up ahead of him to the porch and grabbed her bowl.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed there was stew inside the bowl, which perplexed him. Only he cooked for the family, never Nesta. He’d always insisted he cook while in Illyria to prove a point to the Illyrians. Plus, Nesta could never offer him food unless she wanted to...

“Lia, where did that food come from?”

“Mommy made it,” she said before placing a spoonful in her mouth. “Mommy told me to tell you she made some for you too.”

Cassian’s eyes widened in shock and excitement as his heart started racing.

Nesta’s finally ready.

Thrilled by this revelation, he’d nearly been about to burst through the front door to reach Nesta, but he abruptly paused to crouch down and speak to Dahlia.

“Lia, do you remember that secret I told you to keep from Mommy because Mommy wasn’t ready to hear it yet?”

Dahlia nodded her head eagerly.

“Well, today you can finally tell Mommy.”

Dahlia gasped. “Can I tell her right now?”

“Yes, sweetheart,” he said as he held open the door for her. Cassian wasn’t far behind her as they hurried into the kitchen.

“Mommy! Mommy!” Dahlia cried out as she ran up to Nesta, who was standing by the stove.

Cassian paused in the entryway to the kitchen and watched as Nesta gathered Dahlia in her arms. “Is Daddy home, sweetheart?” she gently asked before turning to find him standing there.

From across the kitchen, he gave her an intense look of admiration. With a satisfied grin upon his face, he crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

He then gave the pot on the stove a pointed look before returning her gaze to her.

Nesta’s lips formed a subtle smile as she stared back at him and gave him the slightest nod.

They might not have been able to speak through each other’s minds yet, but he knew she could read his mind at that moment and confirmed that she indeed was offering him food. That she was ready. That she wanted to be his mate for life.

“I have a secret to tell you!” Dahlia exclaimed as she put her small hands against her mother’s face to force her to look at her.

Cassian leisurely walked up to them as he opened the very small pouch attached to his belt.

“What is it, Lia?” Nesta asked.

“Daddy wants to be an Archeron, just like us!” she shouted.

Cassian got down on both of his knees in front of them as Nesta turned her head to look at him again. Her eyes widened as he pulled out a small wooden box from the pouch at his waist and offered it to her.

He’d never had a last name before. And he’d never had anywhere where he felt like he truly belonged before, until the two girls before him entered his life.

Stunned at the sight in front of her, Nesta couldn’t take her eyes off of the box, even as she bent down to put Dahlia back on the floor. “Is that...the box you tried to give me at Winter Solstice years ago?”

Cassian nodded as Nesta took the box from his hands. Her hands trembled as she opened it to discover the necklace with the ruby that had belonged to his mother. The one that was in the hilt of his old Illyrian blade that Nesta had used to distract the king of Hybern.

Nesta just stared at it in bewilderment.

“But...you had thrown this in the Sidra. How did you…?”

“I had help from a fae from the Summer Court who had some water manipulation powers,” he explained.

“But the Summer Court hates you…” she said as her face contorted in confusion.

“A story for another time,” he stated with a cheeky grin, thinking of all he had to go through to convince the fae to help him. “But Nesta, my love, I love you more than words can say, and I -”

“I know,” Nesta breathed as tears formed in her eyes. “You don’t need to say anything, Cassian. I know how much you love me. Just as you know how much I love you.”

He took a shaky breath. “My love, I know it’s not a ring, but I hope you’ll still accept this as - ”

“Mommy! Can you pleaseee marry Daddy so he can become an Archeron?” Dahlia interjected as she impatientiently tugged on Nesta’s dress.

“Yes, of course I will,” Nesta whispered as her blue-gray eyes focused on Cassian. “And of course, I accept this necklace.”

Dahlia let out a scream of giddy delight as Cassian hurriedly got up off the ground to grab the necklace out of the box. Wrapping it around Nesta’s neck, he stood behind her as he linked it together, then placed a kiss at the nape of her neck.

As soon as he pulled back, Nesta immediately turned around to kiss him passionately.

“Now about my stew…” she said as she put her arms around his neck.

Cassian placed his arms at her waist. “Well, you do know what’s going to happen as soon as you give me that food and I eat it, right?”

The desire for her would be hard to control at that point...

Nesta nodded. “Which is why I asked Feyre to come over to pickup Lia in a little while so she can go play with her cousin,” she revealed.

“But I want to see Daddy become an Archeron, Mommy!” Dahlia piped in, tugging at Nesta’s dress.

“That will happen another day, my angel. We need time to plan it,” Nesta explained.

“Hmm,” Cassian remarked as he picked up Dahlia. “But maybe the three of us could spend time together first to celebrate? Then you can feed me later, my love.”

“Of course you had to go and upstage my food offering,” she teased with a smile, and Cassian’s free hand caressed her face. “But I’m glad you did. I’ll let Feyre know to come later.”

She gave him a quick kiss before she stepped away. 

Then Cassian looked over at Dahlia, who was beaming in his arms. “Daddy gets to marry Mommy,” he whispered excitedly to her. “Thank you for telling Mommy, sweetheart. I love you,” he said before kissing the top of her head.

“Love you too, Daddy,” she said before kissing his cheek.

_______________________________________________________________

Cassian ended up flying Dahlia and Nesta to a wooded area that he’d made into Dahlia’s play area, which included swings he’d crafted that hung from the trees, a mini cabin to serve as her own fort, a seesaw, and a variety of rocks she could paint (she recently received a set of paints as a gift from Feyre). It was an afternoon filled with fun and laughter, one that made Nesta incandescently happy.

The fact that Cassian would soon be both her mate and husband probably made the day feel even more special. She didn’t know he would ask her to marry him that day, but she suspected he’d been wanting to ask for a long time.

After Feyre had picked up Dahlia to spend the night in Velaris, Nesta went about reheating the stew she had made earlier that afternoon.

“Do you know why I chose to make you stew?” she questioned Cassian as she stood with her back to him and stirred the pot on the stove.

“Hmm,” Cassian began as he thought about the possible reason. “Wasn’t it the first dish I taught you how to make?”

“You remember,” Nesta noted with a smile.

“Of course I do,” he remarked as he came up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist.

Nesta grabbed a spoon and scooped some stew out of the pot. Holding up the spoonful of food, she twirled in Cassian’s arms to face him and present him with it.

Cassian looked curiously at the spoon for a minute before bringing his gaze back to Nesta. “Why now?” he wondered softly. “After all this time, why now?”

“Because I was tired of you trying to read my mind and always misunderstanding what I was thinking. Life would be easier if you really could read it,” she teased.

Cassian chuckled, but waiting for her to go on.

She took a deep breath. “Because the other day, I just...I was watching you read to Lia, and I didn’t know why I was waiting anymore,” she continued. “I think I finally realized that my love for you is greater than any desire to keep fighting off all these fae customs. I shouldn’t be spiting the bond. I should be thankful for it. That I’ll be able to live a long life with you. That I’ll have a lot of time with you.”

Cassian grinned and leaned down to kiss her.  “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she replied as she reached her hand up to touch her necklace. “And now I ask you the same question. Why now?”

Cassian brought his hands up to her face and pushed away the stray strands of hair behind her ears. “Because I knew you were ready. I’ve been wanting to marry you probably since about two weeks after Dahlia was born. But I knew asking you then would’ve been too much and too fast for you after everything you’ve gone through. And I didn’t want to ask you until I knew you were ready. I didn’t want you to feel pressured to marry me if you knew it was what I’d been wanting. I wanted it to be your choice. So when Dahlia said you were making me food, I knew you were ready.”

“I’m sorry for taking so long,” she said quietly.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, my love,” he told her tenderly.

Nesta leaned forward to kiss him. “I’m shocked you haven’t started calling me ‘my mate.’”

“Well, I’m not too fond of that term. I prefer ‘my love’ because I love you by choice, not because of the bond.”

His words never failed to warm her heart.

“Well, my love, the future Cassian Archeron...” she began and she brought the spoon closer to his mouth.

“I love the sound of that,” he interjected, causing Nesta to smile even brighter.

“Do you accept the bond and accept this stew I have to offer you?”

“Yes,” Cassian emphasized, and Nesta placed the spoonful of stew in his mouth.

Cassian swallowed. “Delicious,” he commented before leaning in to plant his lips against her throat.

Nesta let the spoon clatter to the floor as she clutched at his tunic.

“Wait, Cassian,” she said, and Cassian instantly pulled away. “There’s something else that I’ve realized I want.”

“Anything.”

“I want…” she took a deep breath as her heart raced. She wasn’t terribly nervous about asking to be his mate earlier because she was confident he would accept. But this...she wasn’t sure how he’d react to this news at all. “I want another child.”

Cassian brought his hands to her upper arms and froze. “Do you really want another one, or are you just saying this because you think I want a child related to me by blood? Because I consider Dahlia to be mine, through and through. If you don’t want anymore kids, she is enough for me,” he insisted.

Nesta couldn’t help but fret over his response. Did he not want another child? Is that why he was reacting this way?

But she had to be honest with him. “I really do want another one,” she revealed. “You’ve been such a great father, and I’ve loved raising Dahlia with you. I want to raise another child with you. But only if you want one too…” she finished hesitantly.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Cassian stated as put his hands on her cheeks and his mouth spread into a wide grin. “Yes, despite your wild moods and cravings during pregnancy, of course I want to have another child with you,” he added before kissing her fiercely.

Pretty soon, his kisses were everywhere and she responded in kind. Stepping away from the stove, he lifted her off the ground and she encircled her legs around his waist as he supported her.

“Maybe this time we’ll have a boy,” Nesta expressed in between her deep breaths.

“And we can name him Cassian,” he added breathlessly as he tugged the ribbon out of her hair.

Nesta rolled her eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair. “I already have enough Cassians in my life.”

As Cassian walked her to the bedroom, he laughed against her lips.

And when he laid her down on the bed and their bodies eventually joined together, she could feel that power that had been pleading to be released for years explode with intense fervor between them.

I love you, my future wife, she heard in her mind.

I love you, my future husband, she replied through the bridge between their minds.

Even though the mating bond had been officially established between them, Nesta felt fully in control. With a soon-to-be husband who loved her unconditionally, a daughter whom she adored more than anything in this world, and her ability to love them fiercely and fearlessly, she finally felt...complete.

 _______________________________________________________________

A/N: Oh boy, this will be long. I can't believe this is the end!

So when I first started this story, I KNEWWW that writing multi-chapter fics would take over my life, so I decided "hey, okay we're going to try to keep this fic short by only doing about a chapter per month of the pregnancy." WELP, this fic went onto becoming the longest fic I've ever written.

And I couldn't have kept up with up with it, written as much as I did, and completed it if it weren't for you lovely readers! Every comment, every like, every request to be tagged has meant SO MUCH to me! Heck, even if you didn't do any of that and still read all this, it means a lot! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

If you did get through this whole enchilada, I've love to hear from you just so I can thank you personally! Even if it's the simplest of comments just saying you read this thing, I want to thank you! You can tell me what you liked and even what you didn't like. (You know what I don't like? I don't like that I didn't give Emerie more of a role as a friend to Nesta...it was my original intent to do that, but then my poor brain and poor typing fingers could only handle building up one relationship at a time and it had to be Nessian lol.)

Anyway, I don't think I've ever said that the title of this fic comes from the song "Shallow" from the movie, "A Star is Born." That movie's soundtrack really influenced me when I wrote my original outline for this fic. So thank you "A Star is Born"!

I am probably going to take a loooong break from writing Nessian. This fic was such a beast that I'm a bit exhausted! Plus, I only really like writing post-ACOFAS fics about them, and since I've been stuck in the headspace for this fic for so long, it's become my current headcannon, lol. It would be hard to write about anything where Nesta and Cassian do not have Dahlia!

Anyway, I hope you found this ending to be satisfying and that it made all the angst worth it! (oh man, I kinda really missed writing the angst though!)

TL;DR: LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you so much for reading and supporting me through this!!! ;)

[justjasmine]

Reality in Motion

Leave it to me to find a Tame Impala song title that perfectly matches the situation of my life. Folks, I try not to be predictable but sometimes...well, sometimes I have a brand and I stick to it. Anyway, I digress — onto more important discussions!

It’s strange. I think my whole life I had come to understand that people grow up and they become one thing. “When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut...a veterinarian...a lawyer!”. You’ve heard it all before. Children with their aspirational fantasies of living out a dream job; “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is among the oldest questions in the book. When asked that lofty question I’ve always been in the camp that wants to immediately give my response of “Well, happy”. But in all honesty, my career aspirations have fluctuated back and forth for as long as I can remember. Some of the highlights have been fashion designer, president of Japan (don’t, actually do ask), and obviously the more recent and immediate career goal: actor. For someone who hates labels and the idea of being identified by their surroundings, I sure have found a lot of solace in reducing people to their simplest terms by mentally categorizing them by the jobs they do. Sure, it’s made it easy to group people, but at the end of the day what am I getting out of that? I’m losing the thing that I take so much pride in for myself personally — that overwhelming sense that people are more than their labels; they are multi-dimensional, multi-faceted human beings that each bring a plethora of unique skills to the table. People are living, breathing majestic creatures that can’t be contained by one singular descriptor, and I should do my part to go beyond the label and get to know the person rather than what I essentially deem to be their “function”.

All that to say, this pandemic has really forced me to look inwardly and reflect upon the things I value and the mark I want to make on this world. Hours upon hours left to my own thoughts have made me “get real” with what I view as important and I’ll have to admit, it can be a bit unsettling. When left fronted with only the essentials, what do I really want to do with my life? Who am I when no one’s watching? And how do I turn this person into an asset, someone that will benefit myself and others? These are all questions that have come to mind while I continue to play the “long game” of life and try to find the purpose that I so desperately cling to. At times I find myself wishing that I could be content with sinking into a label. If I could find inner peace from calling myself a dentist and living out my dental goals and aspirations for the rest of my life, boy would that make things a heck of a lot easier. Nothing against dentists, they’re awesome and without my regular appointments I’m not confident I would have any teeth left, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here; the point I’m trying to make is that I’ve never been okay with being just that thing. I think if I were called to being a dentist, I would first and foremost need to identify myself as a healer, someone who helps others and benefits them by giving them tips about their hygiene and is improving upon others’ lives in some way. And then I would need to share with others that I’m not just a dentist, I’m a dentist who loves the Beach Boys and makes a killer apple pie! Or something along those lines. This is just an example I’m making, but my point is still there: People are more than their careers and reducing them to the lowest common denominator might make for short-term understanding, but in the long-term some of their personas get lost in translation if we oversimplify.

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably like, “Okay Jasmine, I get it! Brush your teeth and don’t judge people! I got it, but what does that have to do with you?”. Well, let me tell you!

I think first and foremost on this planet, if I have to leave a legacy I want to be known as someone who cares about people. Empathy has always been one of my strong suits, almost to a fault, and I’ve found that the best way I know how to do that and use this tool to my advantage is in the form of storytelling. Especially being someone who cares so deeply about telling my own story, of course that has a natural progression to my career and life goals in that I want to help other people tell their own stories. All that to say, I’m realizing that the tools before me and the way I wanted to get these essential messages across has over the course of this quarantine received a kind of paradigm shift. It might not be as big or as grandiose as I’m making it to be, but it sure does feel like it.

When I think again about storytelling, I keep going back to the idea of self-expression, both in myself and in others and the machinations of how to go about doing that. I’m trying my best as an adult to lean into everything I’m feeling, even the scary and uncomfortable feelings because I know from those the most growth occurs. To get specific, in short, I had a moment of keen awareness where I realized that in the linear structure of my life, fashion has played a large part in that and in my own definition of myself, and to the best of my ability I want to share this gift with others. If you know me at all, you probably know that I have a love of vintage, whether that be fashion or music, and I’ve realized now more than ever that this love goes beyond just an aesthetic. I appreciate the history that comes with vintage — both the stories that come with its origins and the new stories that will be shaped by its repurposing the second time around. How that plays a part in my own life I thought remained to be seen, but now almost two months into the vintage store that I had created with my dear friend Olivia, I am realizing that this is something tangible that I can do something with.

And in my moment of breaking things down just to build it all together again (the age old pandemic tale!) I found myself panicking a bit; how could I be into both acting and fashion? Don’t I have to pick one? I was going to do some bit where I divided my thoughts here into the short answer and the long answer but I realized as I was typing this out that there was only ever one answer to that question to begin with: “Don’t I have to pick one?” NO.

The art of creation has never been as simple as this or that. I’m realizing so much that life is not made up of as many black and white, either-or scenarios as my brain sometimes perceives. In this case, the only person that was making me choose was...well, myself. And once I realized how silly I was being in that regard, I felt so much more free. I gave myself the permission I needed to again dream big and lean into my own feelings and the pathway became that much clearer.

One existential crisis (or existential rebirth, you decide) later, I have officially committed to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in LA for further schooling and I couldn’t be happier or feel more whole after making this choice. I feel simultaneously as if I am turning a new corner and going back to my roots all in one and I love it.

Whether you’re just getting to know me now or you’ve known me from the very beginning, I want to say thank you for those reading this and for all of my supporters along the way. I tell this story not to get a pat on the back for making a decision in life, but hopefully to inspire others that might be confused or questioning in their own lives. I’m realizing now more than ever that alignment comes from leaning into what we’re thinking and feeling. As complex people we are never as simple as our surroundings. I think we often get caught up in the minutia of day to day life and forget that we have so much control over the way our story plays out. If you don’t like something or something feels off, you can change it! I know for a fact that in my own life story I was feeling tired of being in the stage of letting things happen to me and wanted so desperately to enter the phase of making things happen, and I’ve finally found the best way to do that for me.

Whether it’s a career change, going back to school, or simply some time spent in self-reflection, I encourage you to take a look inwardly and not be afraid to lean into those people and things that make your heart beat a little faster. Think about what gets you going and don’t be afraid to nurture those parts of yourself that might need a little more attention. At the end of the day, our life stories are ours to tell, and hey, that’s pretty neat.

[gemsofgreece]

Hellinikon: thoughts

Hellinikon is a vast area in the southern suburbs of Athens where the old airport used to be. After the international airport was relocated, the area was used for sports venues during the Olympic Games in 2004 and then as a refugee camp. The area  was eventually abandoned which essentially turned Hellinikon into an expanded dead land. There have been a lot of discussions for investments in the area throughout the years, which were delated because privatization has traditionally not been well received in Greece (I both agree and disagree with this negative sentiment) but recently the land‘s been bought by LAMDA Development which belongs to Greek multi-billionaire Latsis family. LAMDA Development has publishized all the plans for the urban regeneration and the environmental upgrade of the area for quite a while. Despite not being familiar with the region, I was always interested in the developments of the Hellinikon issue and I thought it would be fun to just lightly rate the benefits and flaws of the huge project. And it is huge indeed, I recently found out the whole region is three times as big as Monaco and twice as big as Central Park in New York. Or, maybe, Monaco is that small. Well. Nevermind.

The Marina

Features: 

A marina that accomodates 337 moorings up to 80 meters.

A 6-star hotel in front of the marina.

Retail shops and entertainment venues. 

Thoughts:  Okay, a marina is not a big deal, especially amongst the (how-many?) marinas that Attica has. To my understanding, this one is going to be a large and particularly upscale one. Entertainment venues are to be expected but I am a bit sceptical about the retail shops. However,  YES to the 6-star hotel. I don’t mean Greece should be flooded with 6-star hotels - not at all - but the country relies on tourism so much that having at least one self-acclaimed 6-star hotel is probably good for the... prestiggggge XD  

Rate: 4 / 5

The Integrated Resort

Features: 

high-rise hotel 

state-of-the-art Gaming and MICE facilities

Thoughts: A luxe hotel just behind the 6-star hotel? Is there a crying need for it? I’m not that against it being high-rise and a Casino though. The Casino in Loutraki is somewhat far and the Casino in Mt Parnetha doesn’t cater to sea lovers. And this one will surely be a brand new posh thing so if you want to lose your money by the sea, this will be your new dream place I guess lol

Rate: 4 / 5 

The Marina Residential Tower

Features: a high-rise tall building with 200 apartments

Thoughts: It sounds stupid and unimportant but I actually like this one. If non-Europeans read that, well long story short Greece (and most of Europe) does not have skyscrapers for reasons that are associated with the region’s historical monuments. But if this building is not visible in the horizon from the Acropolis (most likely, it’s quite far), then I like it and I am all for it. 

Rate: 4,5 / 5

The Beach

Features: free-access 1km long beach with 50 m average width

Thoughts: A beach in Greece, a drop of water in the ocean. However, it will be free-access (who would save them from the wrath of the nation if it wasn’t? XD) and it’s surely a long beach (I still prefer our trademark coved bays though.) I can’t think of negatives, it’s what you’d expect. 

Rate: 5 / 5 

The Aquarium

Features: the new “world class” Aquarium, some sources say it will be the largest in Europe and part of it will be underwater

Thoughts: The only decent aquarium Greece has is in Crete island and still it cannot compete with the good aquariums around the world. Should Greece, a country so deeply associated and dependent on the sea, lack a proper eligible aquarium? Okay, it depends on what someone thinks of aquariums. If it’s more like what you’d call a wildlife sanctuary, I support it. Let’s take for granted that it will fit all criteria for health care, endangered species preservation (when needed) and ideal conditions for the hosted sealife as well as have primarily an educational purpose. The site says that the Aquarium will complement the existing Ocean Centre of Research & Technology. It sounds hopeful and sensitive.  If these are the actual designs, I freaking love them.

Rate: 5 / 5 just don’t disappoint me make it good and eligible 

The Seafront Area

Features: 

Beach villas

Luxury hotel

Marina for small boats

Thoughts: ...What...more luxury hotels?!  I assume the large marina will be suitable only for big boats (for super rich dudes) but somewhat rich dudes have rights too. This corner is kept for somewhat rich dudes. 

Rate: 2 / 5 it would be 1 for pointlessness but we stan somewhat rich dudes

The Exhibition Precinct

Features: 

transformation of the old airport into an Aviation Museum

renovating the Eero Saarinen building of the old airport to an Exhibition Center

Thoughts: The renovation is definitely needed but I don’t know what good a vague exhibition center will do for Athens with its already existing exhibition centers. Maybe I am wrong though, this whole area aims to be upscale so they ‘ll probably have plenty exclusive exhibitions. The Aviation Museum is a HUGE thumbs up, I love that they respect the history of the place and they incorporate it to the new project.  BTW this sculpture in the design is from another country and I hope they WON’T bring something like this here too, no offense

Rate: 4 / 5  

The Metropolitan Park

Features: supposedly the biggest park in Europe and one of the biggest coastal parks in the world and will include lakes, arable land (?!), thematic regions and interconnection with all other areas. 

Thoughts: This is of course necessary at the least. Athens needs some greenery badly. Urban areas lack large parks. I hope it will indeed be as expanded as they claim. I also hope Latsis will have a guard in every corner though. Urban green places sadly don’t have a lot of luck in Greece and I am already pessimistic. 

Rate: 4,5 / 5 because of my pessimism

The Sports Facilities Complex

Features: what the title says

Thoughts:  I don’t know, I technically can’t be against sports facilities but what Athenian will get out of their way to reach Hellinikon to play sports... IDK I may be thinking with my provincial mind. Obviously, they target wealthy tourists more than Greeks anyway which is what irritates me.  It says they will host professional teams and international events though. They will also restore the Olympic facilities that are located there which was absolutely necessary. Hmmm I don’t know, I am as indifferent for this as I am for sports in general, so maybe don’t listen to me.

Rate: 3,5 / 5

The New Urban Innovation and Business Centre

Features: 

educational facilities and research institutions

student campus and housing

model business park

residential developments

hypermarkets, biggest shopping center in Athens

hotels

Thoughts: Yes, yes, ok, meh, no, no. The thing with the hotels starts becoming a joke. Does Athens need a bigger shopping center? I would replace the shops and hotels with simply more park. The campus and research institutions save this. 

Rate: 3 / 5

The Mall at Vouliagmenis Avenue

Features: Another Mall

Thoughts: The site calls it “Shopping Center” so I just hope it is the aforementioned one, simply in a detailed description because I don’t dare imagine two massive shopping centers next to each other. Again, it’s a no, even if things work a little differently in Athens, overall I would say that Greek people and “hypermarkets” and malls don’t get along very well. Greeks always prefer their local shops downtown or even the posh shopping streets but hardly ever the Malls. (Or, at least, a curse seems to have fallen on nearly all these shopping complexes in Thessaly.) Thus, this shopping center that is quite far from Athens downtown and also has Glyfada’s upscale shops right next to it (and the future retail shops in the new Marina) will have a lot of competition to face from the locals. Too much ado about nothing.

Rate: 1 / 5 one point if they make it pretty 

Let’s see if they pull that off...

[artificialqueens]

learning to be silent (multi) — chapter one - Roza

[ summary ] : figure skating is a tough sport and the reality of the situation is beginning to hit the fan for all the skaters: old and new as grand prix qualifications begin and winter olympic prep is upon them, some crack under the pressure while some are simply happy to be living their passion in full throttle. ( figure skating au )

[ author's note ] : this is a figure skating au and not a yoi au btw!!! I think the show is great, this is just its own original thing and has nothing to do with the show, hope y'all enjoy and the world and tags will definitely grow as chapters progress, have to give a shout-out to @freykitten on tumblr who really helped me develop some good concepts !! enjoy xx — lily.

AO3 / My Tumblr / (*˘︶˘*).｡*♡

— ✧*。

"Again!"

Shea shook her head, feeling a deep sense of disbelief run through her veins as she adjusted the sleeves of her jacket as she pulled down her black leggings to her Edea skates, making sure to hit her leg and have it tightly fit, her and Trinity consistently argued on the ice, even in competition season, if pulling your leggings down to your skates really have you the look and attraction of longer legs.

Her skate's lifted off the ice as she circled around the center of the rink, unable to focus with Grand Prix qualifications starting soon, she had qualified her way through which with American skating being so overcrowded and packed with talent, wasn't easy.

"Don't get in your head girl, you have to be in France next week." Trinity spoke up from the sides of the rink, leaning against Detox who stood with her arms crossed, rubbing her partner's shoulders even though she wore Detox's own lavendar jacket with her initials engraved that Alaska had bought her when they made it to the senior team. "Shea, don't be so tense just wait until the Olympic qualifications in a few months for that, stop stressing!"

The Chicago native gave a thumbs up to indicate she was listening but truthfully, how could she? Internationaux de France this year was a complete madhouse and was considered the blood bath qualifying round of the season. That damn paper had so many suprisingly good rookies and seasoned professionals it physically made Shea sink into their break room couch when she found out on the livestream her and Trixie watched from their training rink.

Internationaux de France Entries (Ladies) :

—

Australia: Courtney Act

Canada: Brook Lynn Hytes

China: Yuhua Hamasaki

Norway: Thorgy Galligan

Russia: Jinkx Monsoon, Sasha Velour

Spain: Shuga Cain

USA: Shea Couleé, Aquaria Coady, Adore Delano

—

"Shea, get into position, please." Bob spoke up, her coach spoke up as she got back to her spot near the rink, watching closely though the frustration building on her skater's face was visible as can be and she bitterly groaned, "Yes, I know, got it!"

Bob frowned seeing Shea so abrasive, it wasn't like her to lash out even in small doses unless someone really was pissing her off and deserved it or she was stressed: Bob knew it was the latter and didn't take it too personal considering what an athletic ball of energy she was when she was still a competitive skater.

"Play!" She instructed to Detox who nodded and pressed play on the phone, already hooked up to the rink's speakers and ready to use.

Shea had begged, had pleaded, had absolutely driven Bob to madness since her junior years to finally use Moulin Rouge as her long program music, her short program was strong as is but they always stuck a bit more traditional in that route but the long program was completely and utterly her own choice of style and music, as long as her coach approved which she luckily, finally did.

"Bitch, I always wanted to do Sparkling Diamonds, this ain't fair!" Trinity moaned about as Detox snickered, holding her hand as they stood watching intently. Trinity trained with Bob since her junior years but Detox was simply here for support and a visit, the American skaters usually mixed and mingled with eachother's rinks, not too serious when competition was overwhelming.

Shea breathed in deeply, a cross across her chest before she felt the music in her, she knew the song for years and years, as if she didn't completely obsess over the musical when she was a teenager, it seemed to come truly full circle once her competition dress had been designed and sent to her: it was stunning, completely stoned with crystals as most dresses were and had impeccable craftsmanship, short sleeved and looked just like a reimagining of Madonna's iconic "Material Girl" outfit which is what Shea was going for.

Pink, White and Iridescent shimmers, it definitely helped her gain some momentum with the song.

Being a senior for over five years had taught her a lot, she had won two international competitions, won over ten national ones and somehow managed to beat Katya Zamolodchikova, Russia's IT girl for a silver medal in Worlds though it was now retiree and coach, Morgan McMichaels who took gold, her biggest achievement since she hadn't qualified for the Olympics yet.

Her main goal of the season was to finally get that damn quad down, all the Russian juniors could do it yet eighty percent of all Senior skaters couldn't, it was both incredible and terrifying.

Some of the girls she knew personally in good and in bad ways, she loved Adore and knew Bianca was always a coach to take in advice from, Aquaria was just entering her first season as a senior but everyone had known her for years, she was Sharon's daughter after all and Sharon Coady was the absolute beacon of hope when it came to coaches, she was the coach international girl's wanted.

Courtney and Brooke were all business and bustling with talent though Courtney had a reputation in the sport as someone who couldn't keep a secret or go one competition without complaining about bias judging, Brooke was simply serious and didn't like to speak too much in interviews and kept to herself which Shea could respect.

Sasha she knew of extremely well. She was stunning, Shea was jealous of how one girl could possibly be so damn beautiful and intelligent. She had been watching her in senior competition's since she became a part of the Russian senior team at 16, she could do just about every trick in the book but everyone watched her for her style and how beautifully she portrayed a story on ice. She was the one to beat along with Katya (who was always fiercely competition) and almost all the Russian girls.

Focusing on her triple axel she skated forward waiting for the cue of the music, attempting to stay completely engulfed in character before slamming her toe pick and jumping, rotating and landing backwards as she glided, arms open. Judging by Trinity's loud scream she either did incredible or underrotated it yet again.

She finished on a high note with claps from Detox and Trinity, Bob gesturing her over as she skated towards the wall of the ice rink, "So was it great or just good again?" She managed to ask before Bob snickered, nodding, "You were great in technique, which is good, but now I'm worried you aren't giving enough of yourself in the story, the character, I'm just surprised because that's usually what you do best."

It was very true and blunt, Shea wasn't known for the cleanest and prettiest lutz or axel jumps (hey, she still did them!) but she racked up presentation points like absolutely nobody's business.

"Well shit." The reply came before she apologized for cursing, it still felt weird even though she was an adult to curse in front of her coach, she truthfully felt like a junior again. "Take ten minutes and then I want to run both back to back, I need you to realize how different your music is and how to get into character." Bob walking off to go and get some hot tea, offering Detox who politely declined to jump onto the ice over the wall, yelling.

Trinity shook her head as she took of a sip of her iced tea bottle, walking over to Shea once she put her skate guards on, touching her friend's hands with their gloves still on, Shea only did it for costume purposes but Florida born and raised Trinity wasn't too keen yet on the cold, any costume she could wear gloves with she completely gushed over just because it was more warm.

"You're gonna do absolutely amazing, you know I'm coming to France already, I finished my competition and now I need you to beat my score and continue the journey to the Grand Prix."

Trinity had skated a week prior in Skate Canada, she placed fifth which wasn't what ideally she hoped for, the minimum score for qualification was 142.5 in Ladies Single skating and she had managed a 179.9 but she had taken a nasty fall in her short and did not recover too well after that but she still had a chance, a tiny, itty bitty chance though she simply moved on from it the day after once she cried into Alaska's shoulder for a straight hour knowing her chances were completely diminished.

"Focus on the Olympics, that's where it matters."

Detox skated around, aimlessly, doing a scratch spin in the center of the ice before letting herself sit completely wide open on the floor, the ice was nice and clean and private, the price you paid for that was worth it to have time without other skaters. "So, have you heard about Katya?"

"Heard what?"

"She quit on her coach, she's moving to Trixie's training camp over in Michigan, she got so aggravated finally that she literally up and left."

Shea gasped, impressed it took that long, she knew it was bound to happen she had heard multiple stories of how awful Russian skaters were treated by the large and in charge coaches, subjected to extremely harsh diets, training constantly, the media ate it up even if it was unfortunately true in some circumstances.

"So that means she's with Chad now?"

Detox nodded, Chad was a coach legend, he coached some of the best including Bob, Bianca and Morgan though their relationship got extremely tense and messy once the Scottish skater, now coach, blamed her career ending injury on Chad, who now would only beat herself up over the damn thing.

"That's good, I think he needs someone just as ambitious and witty as Morgan on her grounds again."

"We'll see, I think she'll crack under the new expectations and routine."

*.✧

Katya slammed the door of her St. Petersburg condo and cursed, wanting to burst into tears, unable to take any of it anymore. She had been living here for almost four years after Lobnya and opened her eyes and extra room to Sasha, a sweet and endearing girl who had since become her younger sister figure, she didn't have a wonderful support system so the older skater took it upon herself to make sure she was taken care of though she was soon to relocate alone and closer to the rink.

Sasha was never an issue, she was perfect, an angel, she was never ever yelled at in camp or at training, she was known as "Саша, дорогая" ( Sasha, darling ) for a damn reason, she did everything with no complaints yet was selfless and always stuck up for her fellow skaters who were ill, younger, struggling.

"What's wrong?" She asked with her nose in her textbooks, Sasha was still determined to finish her schooling one day though it probably wouldn't come soon with her fame and success.

"I quit."

Instantly her book was shut and the blonde looked up, her thick hair parting in front of her face as she nervously questioned what exactly that response exactly meant, "What— what, do you mean by that?" .

"I called him a fucking pig in front of the seniors, I threw my gold medal at him and then took my skates off and left, I called someone who had been interested in me for years to coach me and she immediately offered me a yes and it includes housing, I'm moving to America to train."

Sasha's entire face bleached white, she had no one else she was close to besides Jinkx who was always with another coach than she was and it was unsettling to think about the scene and commotion she must have caused and how it reflected on Sasha who they all called her darling "sister". Katya's hands anxiously ran down her arms, "I can't do this anymore Sasha, I'm turning to drugs again and I can't do that during competition season, I promised I'd be sober to and fuck!" She yelled, throwing her skates across the room as she stared at her own reflection in the large glass panel windows that adorned her comfortable living room, a view of the city perfectly placed.

The other blonde reached out to touch her shoulders and give her a soothing hug, knowing the extent of her history with issues like drugs and alcohol and knowing she was better than this, than to train in America. "Katya, Let's talk, please..." yet she was stopped with a firm slap on her wrist.

"Я не хочу с тобой разговаривать!" She screamed at Sasha, eyes completely ablaze with frustration, the younger skater quickly froze and closed her eyes, breathing slowly and took it in, she wasn't sensitive to someone screaming, she was just surprised Katya had finally reached such a breaking point she managed to yell at her own sister. Katya quickly snapped from her complete alternative reality and groaned at herself, "Sashi, I'm so sorry." She whispered before taking the younger girl in her arms who's eyes were puffing and red, sniffles once her face hit the Russian's national team jacket.

"I didn't mean to scream at you, I'm so sorry." Her apology soft as her fingers ran through the blonde's hair who cried on her chest, mumbling how awful it would be in Russia without her everyday which Katya responded with a firm, "But Sashi, we will always have camps and competitions and off seasons."

"Are you coming to France?"

What a stupid question.

"Of course I am, Sashi, nothing is going to change between us, I'm simply taking my training somewhere else and changing my coach. I still represent and compete for Russia!" She laughed while hugging her closest friend and roomie.

Sasha nodded and let go of her grasp before clearing her throat, "Good, I want to win extremely bad." Katya scoffed, "You act as if any of those other girls even have a chance against you." The younger girl felt her face light up as she clutched her phone close to her chest, "Well actually, there is one American skater who is really, really great and she's so beautiful to..." Katya nervously snapping at her face, "Don't let me lose you to a crush on an American skater, who even is it?"

"It's Shea, the same one who got second at World's three years ago."

The memory definitely stung hard, Katya had never wanted so badly to be top of the podium especially since it was Morgan's last skate before unexpected retirement. Shea was extremely hard working and talented but she was still competition and shouldn't pose Sasha a threat judging by their pure program components.

"Jesus Christ, out of every girl you're going to crush on it has to be her?"

Sasha moaned In disbelief at her response, "Crush?! She is simply competition and I admit her style, she's extremely beautiful and I will respect her from a distance." That sounded like a promise but something in the Russian's heart raced at the programs she had already done and that were uploaded to various social media's, she never took time to really know most other skaters but followed her on Instagram, not expecting much of a response back but instead she indeed returned the follow, there was at the very least a small respect for eachother hidden under all the competition.

"You keep on telling yourself that, now help me pack, I'm flying out in two days."

*.✧

Stress wasn't exactly the first word that Aquaria had hoped would come to mind when thinking about her first senior competition but how could it possibly not, now it was a completely ballgame and she had nothing but experienced and fierce competition, Adore being there with her made a bit less worried with press and interviews even if her own mother was coming since she was her coach, of course.

Her "mom" of over seven years had vied for her to finally become a senior and represent America after she permanently moved from Milan, passion blazing and talent endless. Sharon was beyond happy to have her newfound "daughter" with her at every corner though she still had other skater's to focus on but it was definitely difficult to not put blantant favoritism towards your own daughter, let's be completely honest.

"You ready for France?" Alaska asked the younger girl as she tightly pulled on her skate's laces, Aquaria shook her head, pulling her platinum hair into a high ponytail so the strands of hair would be away from her face while she trained, pulling her leggings over her skates as she responded with a nervously riddled, "Not really, I have some really huge competition and I don't know if I'm exactly up to the level yet, no matter what she has to say." Referring to Sharon who always placed her cards down for Aquaria to succeed and she dominated the junior level for a long time but now it was serious and where it counted, her entire career started here.

Alaska wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nodded, remembering the days of her first starting qualifications at the senior level, she had still an extremely controversial skating style and range of music, she never liked the classical music done over and over again. She'd rather skate to Stevie Nicks than to fucking Carmen for the fifth time straight like some of her competitors. Adore Delano was the same way and it made for them to become great friends, even if it felt as if they were intentionally underscored for their taste in genres.

"Well, your style is beautiful and the judges will appreciate it, make it to the damn Grand Prix girl!" Slapping her shoulders she helped the shorter and younger girl from the bench as she walked by Sharon, her black skate guards over the blade as she leaned into the crook of her neck, "Does it feel weird to see how far she's come?" The whisper making the coach jump a bit but she chuckled in response.

"It is, this is how life works though, I'm just hoping it's a good first impression for her, she deserves it."

Alaska took her hand and smiled, "You worry too fucking much." She mumbled, Sharon kissing her hand and tightly keeping the hold of her fingertips, interlocking them as she continued on with Aquaria who had been staring at them and smiling to herself, she always understood the extent of their "friendship" as Sharon put it though she wasn't an idiot: kissing her hand constantly, holding her waist, being extra touchy during training and ice time, showing up to practices and competitions with well covered bruises and hickey's.

"Alright, play!" She yelled to Latrice who gave a smile and nodded, letting the phone begin it's track as Aquaria molded into starting position, center of the ice as always.

Her program was a difficult one, in terms of components she had the most though Sasha Velour, her biggest competition, still had more quad's and bigger points to rack up though Aquaria was attempting a quad lutz finally out of the harness, if she was going to win she needed to atleast begin measuring up to her Russian competitors who always seemed an entire staircase above the rest of the skaters when it came to jumps and tricks though Aquaria wasn't sure she would ever sacrifice her sanity for a medal.

Sharon had brainstormed with her at home, on the counter nonetheless what the theme of her program should be, she said it was always the most important thing to consider because it helped with performance. Alaska had unsuprisingly chosen Rebellion and Aquaria went with Dreams, an odd choice but she liked the concepts and her songs.

Short program to Oh So Quiet by Björk, Long program was a medley they put together for Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, trying to make it cohesive and Aquaria certainly liked the mix. Her original plan was to do some songs from Chicago but Alaska begged her not to so they could do it for the exhibition gala's together claiming they'd look basic but amazing.

The key to a good performance truthfully was just embodying the song, the skating and skill would follow that but if you couldn't even get the message or portrayal of the song what was the point, certain skaters would utterly destroy the others in technical score and fall flat on performance, on the look and energy.

Sharon breathed deeply seeing Aquaria stumble just a bit on the opening jump, "Arms straight out!" She yelled as the blonde adjusted, performing a layback spin and turning on her skate with the back outside edge and slamming her toe pick into the ice before performing her quad lutz with success, smiling in pure delusional happiness hearing Alaska utterly scream in support before she tuned her out and continued the program, trying not to let it get to her head when she still had other elements to perform.

The end was always the hardest, to maintain momentum and wrap the program up in a gift wrapped present with the bow on top, this song luckily was a fun one and had a lot of indication in the beats placed on the music where to hit certain poses, positions and when to jump.

Finishing with a clean salchow and camel spin, ending in the center where she started though she finished on her knees, it wasn't the most pleasant but it got the feeling of the song she wanted so it was her artistic direction for this one and not Sharon's.

"Yes!" Sharon yelled laughing clapping, Alaska cheered on her teammate with pride and joy, "So fucking good." She groaned before attempting to run with skates on to choke Aquaria in a tight hug, Sharon joining in on the hug, feeling pride though she had her stumbles and her edges could definitely be improved but she had the charisma, the jumps, even got the quad she wanted.

"The edges are a bit rough but we can work on that, I'm so proud." Sharon breathed on her neck as they embraced as a mother and daughter pair did, Alaska rolled her eyes, she knew it was Sharon's damn job to nitpick every small thing in her programs however, especially since this was Aquaria and someone she took care of personally: she wanted to do the best she possibly could with the competition that laid ahead.

"Now get off, Alaska and I have to work since she's been a lazy bitch."

Aquaria didn't complain at the chance to take a break, get water and unlace her skates, quickly getting off the ice as Alaska hopped on, circling the ice rink as she hummed, running movements in her head. Alaska had drawn the Rostelecom Cup and was beyond glad that Detox had as well so she couldn't feel as alone propped in her hotel room.

"Latrice please!" Sharon yelled at the girl who gave a nod before pressing play again, this time Sharon was on the ice so she could help Alaska out more with tracking the number, she looked to be marking it constantly and that was worrysome enough.

"Are you following me because you're so in love with me you simply can't stay away?" A kiss pressed to her lips, hands on her cheeks while Aquaria was turned away, Sharon licked her lips and laughed, "Wish it was, you just aren't skating very great right now."

Alaska was taken back just a bit but shook it off, knowing how much belief Sharon had in her to succeed even with her odd music choices, she was a performer and she averaged a bronze medal almost every competition, it was still atleast some kind of money, achievement and medal. They had known eachother since their childhood in Pennsylvania. Sharon might have been about four years older and a coach now but that didn't mean Alaska still didn't mind on reminiscing the days they both skated together on Chad's team of established skaters.

"Wait until my costume, I'll be completely galvanized and in perfect character." She promised with a sly wink before stretching out her arms and going in the center, Aquaria watching with curiousity. She always enjoyed Alaska's blantant disregard for what the judges wanted in her music and skating, claiming she was too athletic which Alaska called out as bullshit, they just didn't like she wasn't a pretty ice princess doing Don Quixote or Schindler's List and actually had variety in genre.

The ISU still approved all her music programs for competitions which was all she cared about. Sharon fought diplomatically as she could when it came to Coaches and Media bashing Alaska's skating.

I'll win a medal and then you'll finally be proud of me.

[crossbows-and-moonshine]

Lunacy Fringe (Chapter 1)

Edited Author note; I wrote the bit below when I started this. This fic was actually the first Daryl multi chap fic I started to write, but by chapter 10 I got new ideas and bounced around. I figured I’d come back to it now and try to finish it off. So this one was started way before Flames. 

Also, I didn't have a face claim when I wrote it. I picked one after since I wanted to make a header. I didn't even make a connection with the names until after I made it loool

---

So this started as a one shot Daryl x reader I wrote years ago. I posted it on my tumblr where I took Daryl requests and on Ao3.

If you’re new around here, hi! :’) This will be canon divergent, those of you who have read my other things before know that I haaaaate to just rewrite series or films, it bores me to read and to write. So yes, as usual this will be canon divergent. It’s set before the whole Negan thing. It’s edited so if any of you have me on tumblr or Ao3, this first chapter which is the one shot is a little different, please don't skip it, even if you’ve read the original. I altered quite a bit to fit the story and my new OC.

This is a dark story, mainly at the start, and it will have various triggers; Rape, abuse, self harm, suicidal thoughts.

Disclaimer; I own nothing but my OC’s and original ideas. This isn’t a Walking dead fanfic, it’s a Daryl fanfic, and as I said, canon divergent. So some things might happen from the show in different orders etc just to fit whatever I’m doing, but the story is mainly about Daryl and my OC.

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

Communicating and trading with other groups was vital now for survival. The different groups didn’t always see eye to eye, but it was business and it was just the way the world was now. Rick had been introduced to a new group via Hilltop and the leader Frank had asked them to come for an ‘introductory dinner’ to get to know them. They couldn’t all leave Alexandria for safety reasons so Rick decided he was taking Daryl. His brother in arms, his right hand and the one he knew without a shadow of a doubt he could trust. Daryl was just as perceptive as he was, he could read people well and Rick wanted to get a feel of this new group. To see if they would be trouble or not.

When they arrived, it shocked them to find the camp seemed to be all men. They were loud and obnoxious and the Alexandrians instantly didn’t like them, but business was business so they’d suck it up to help their group. The two men studied each person they met carefully. Despite the fact this was for trading, they never knew what would happen and they always wanted to be prepared. Daryl was pretty astute at reading people, and these people seemed off to him. There was something he didn’t like, like his sixth sense was tingling and telling him something wasn't quite right. It put him on edge, something Rick picked up on.

They were gathered at a large table in the dining hall when they first saw her. She stuck out like a sore thumb. Not just because she was the only woman in the entire group, but she was covered in bruises. Clearly visible in the tattered short dress she was wearing. The marks stood out in stark contrast to her pale skin, the skin mottled and bruised in blooms of purple and yellow. Some were old but some were very very new. She was bringing the food in and one of the other men smacked her ass so hard she dropped the tray of food. The clattering as it hit the floor seemed to bring a silence over the group as it echoed. Rick and Daryl didn’t like it one bit. Tensing and sitting up a little straighter. They watched the scene unfold, but they had no idea it was about to get worse. Frank jumped up from his seat and stomped towards her terrified small frame. It was clear she rarely got to eat.

“Are you fucking stupid bitch?! Clean that shit up now!” he yelled as he grabbed her roughly and pushed her to the floor to clean up the food.

“I-I’m sorry,” she choked out as her knees painfully hit the hard floor. She knew what was coming.

She hated life, recently she contemplated just ending it, maybe even in a way that would make her turn and eat these fuckers alive. Things weren’t always like this. Her brother used to be in the group but last year he died, and Frank decided to make her the camp’s personal slave as she was the only woman and now had no one to protect her.

She scooped the food up back on the tray and stood up, the plate was chattering against the tray as she was trembling terribly. Frank had been drinking which always made him worse and he was trying to show off to the new guys. He grabbed her by her long dark hair which made her yelp in pain. Her cheeks flaming out of sheer embarrassment and shame as he pushed her towards Rick and Daryl with a smirk. Rick looked stoic, trying to look neutral, but Daryl couldn't help the glare he was giving as his nostrils flared, not being able to hide the fact he wanted to gut this motherfucker and hang him with his own entrails for treating her that way. The girl was small next to the large man, it was hardly a fair fight, she had tears trailing down her face as her chest heaved, trying to contain herself. She hated crying in front of Frank and his men.

“What should we do with this bitch?” he slurred slightly, thinking that Rick and Daryl were just like him and his men. Like this was a normal thing to do with someone. Her eyes stayed on the floor, not daring to look at anyone. Daryl was staring at her, willing her to look up and meet his eyes, but she never did.

“Let ‘er go,” Daryl growled and he bristled in his seat as his glare turned back to Frank. Rick and Daryl had watched in horror at how she was treated. In Daryl's mind, there was nothing worse than a woman and child beater. Frank just laughed at him, mocking him.

“Look fellas, we have a couple of pussies here. Thinks we ain’t treating the lady right,” he smirked as he looked around the room at the other men who seemed to enjoy the humiliation of the girl. He let go of her hair and smacked her in the face with a sickening force, knocking her off her feet. Daryl went to pounce on him but Rick grabbed his arm and looked at him. They could often communicate through looks rather than words and Daryl knew exactly what Rick was trying to say; Not yet brother.

Daryl was fighting with every fiber of his being, he wanted to knock Frank on his ass and get her out of there but he knew it would cause more trouble jumping in head first, he needed a plan, he needed to talk to Rick. There was a storm brewing inside of the fierce man, a deep need to protect the poor girl from more harm. He’d failed a lot of people in his life, but he wasn't about to just leave this place, leave the girl, just to get abused this way. He almost felt like it was his shot at redemption, to help her and make up for at least some of the shit he had done.

“I think we’ve all just had a little too much to drink, why don’t you show us our room for the night?” Rick asked politely, plastering on a fake grin for Frank’s expense. He knew he had to be diplomatic about this, his years of being a sheriff coming into play.

“Alright then! Zoey, show them the room, get them settled in!” he barked at her. She scrambled up off the floor and walked passed the new men with red cheeks.

“She’s in the next room if you need anything, if you catch my drift,” Frank grinned wickedly at the men before he wandered off back to sit down. Daryl's chest was heaving as he tried to keep his composure, Rick's hand on his shoulder tight as if it was grounding him from just losing it on the man. They gladly stood up and followed after the poor girl.

She was avoiding looking at them at all costs. Something inside Daryl was pulling him to her. It wasn’t just the fact it wasn’t right how she was treated, it was more. He had an animal instinct to protect her. Get her away from these assholes, but even keep her by his side at Alexandria. He wanted her all to himself, and he didn’t quite understand why. He’d never felt anything like this before. It was a primal need inside of him that wouldn't settle.

He hated how skittish she was, flinching at the slightest noise, never looking at them in the eye. She led them to a room and showed them inside. She still wouldn’t look at them despite Daryl's eyes burning holes into her skin. He really wanted her to look at him, to see he wanted to help her. She didn’t need to be scared of him. She started to make her way to the door and gasped as Rick grabbed her wrist on the way out. He let go as if he burnt her and looked at her apologetically for scaring her.

“I just wanted to thank you. I’m Rick and this is Daryl,” he explained softly, in a soothing manner like he was talking to a frightened child. She just nodded at him, not meeting his eyes as her gaze stayed on the floor below her.

“How d’ya end up with these pricks?” Daryl asked with a frown, not able to contain himself any longer. She shifted her weight anxiously. She just wanted to retreat into the safety of her own small room, hide and hope she never had to emerge.

“I…um…m-my brother... d-died last year. So Frank… u-utilised me,” she stammered nervously, still not looking them in the eye and anxiously wringing her hands. For all she knew they were just like all the other men that came from other places. The men that Frank would send into her room and let them do as they pleased with her.

“That assholes been usin’ ya and treatin’ ya like shit for a whole fuckin’ year?” Daryl seethed, he was struggling to keep a lid on his temper. This whole thing was wrong and when he couldn't deal with his emotions or understand them, it only fuelled the anger in his veins. Rick put a reassuring hand on his shoulder to try to reign him back in.

“Why the fuck ain’t ya try to escape girl?” he asked harshly. He didn’t mean to direct his anger at her but it was too much to deal with. The thought of what she’d been through for that long made his blood boil. The two men could only imagine what they had done to her. Rick wanted her out of here as much as Daryl, he was just much better at reigning himself in and dealing with things. Rick looked at Daryl, he reminded him of the angry redneck he had met all those years ago, when Merle was left on the roof.

She clenched her jaw as she felt the shame and anger sweep through her entire body at his accusing words. She snapped, feeling like he was blaming her for what she was going through. In the heat of the moment she lifted her dress up revealing the brand she was left with, her eyes burning with tears.

“Next time they’ll kill me,” she spat through her tears. Rick and Daryl looked on horrified. There on her stomach was the name ‘Frank’ carved into her skin in large letters. The scars jagged and deep, the skin flamed red on her usually alabaster skin. Forever branded by that monster as a reminder of who owned her. She let go of the fabric, letting it fall down and cover her once more. A vacant look clouded her eyes, something that Rick didn’t fail to notice. He knew that look from people with trauma he had dealt with before. A way of coping.

“Ya should come back with us,” Daryl said after a tense moment of silence, his voice a lot softer than before. He felt the guilt inside of him swell from directing his anger at her. The image of the savage brand didn’t seem to want to dislodge itself from his brain. He had his own brutal scars, but he felt they paled in comparison to what he’d just witnessed.

She scoffed darkly, knowing Frank had his hooks into her and he had no intention of letting her go. She would die in here, and she hoped it was sooner rather than later. She shook her head and left the room quickly. She had no hope of getting out of here alive, she’d resigned herself to that fact and she was just working up the courage to take her own life to be free of these monsters.

Back in the room Daryl was pacing and biting his thumb while Rick sat on his bed.

“We gotta do somethin’ Rick, I ain’t leavin’ ‘er with these pricks, ain’t right,” he scowled anxiously.

“I know, we need to get her out of here. I was thinking, we leave tonight. Take her and go, it's dark so we can try to get her in the car without being seen. They’re outnumbered where our groups concerned, so if they try to bring a fight to us, they’ll lose,” Rick explained. Daryl nodded his head and they started to hash out the details of the plan.

Later that night she was startled awake by someone coming into her room, it was dark but she could make out the dark figure coming across the room. She scrambled up to the wall on the pile of blankets on the floor where she slept and pushed herself into the corner of the room, fear pulsing through her veins. If it was Frank or one of his men it would only end one way.

“Hey, s’alright, s’just me,” a familiar southern drawl cut through the air. Her eyes finally adjusted as Daryl crouched on the floor holding his hand out to her hesitantly, like he was afraid she would just bolt like a skittish animal. Her reaction of him coming into her room only made his heart ache, confirming the thoughts that he and Rick had shared about what these men had been doing to her.

“We’re gon’ get ya outta here,” he explained softly. She sat still for a moment before her eyes actually met his for the first time. She looked confused and scared. Daryl fought the urge to look away from her piercing gaze, the intensity was making him feel weird. But he didn’t, he kept his eyes on her, determined to make her see he was serious and she had no reason to be scared of him.

She grabbed his hand carefully and allowed him to help her off the floor. She took a deep inhale as she squeezed his hand tightly. A simple gesture but it made Daryl's heart flutter a little. She refused to let it go as she just stood there in front of him with her eyes closed, like she was taking comfort and strength from him by holding his hand. He watched her carefully and gently squeezed it back. It felt natural to him, being the one to comfort her. He wanted to be the only one to comfort her. He wasn’t one for touching, even holding someone's hand. But this girl he had just met, this broken girl needed him. And it awoke something inside of him he didn't even realise was there.

“Thank you,” she whispered through tears as she clutched hold of his hand. She felt a strange comfort in being so close to him despite all she had been through. His scent was soothing to her and she didn't want to let him go.

“Ain’t nothin’. Ya gon’ be safe with us,” with me, he added on the end in his head as he soaked in their close proximity. He was enjoying it a lot, much to his surprise. He found himself wanting to hold her hand more. It was as though he was getting as much comfort from her as she was from him. A need for physical contact he didn't know he had and had always denied from others.

After she got herself together and let go of his hand, much to his dismay. Daryl helped her pack the few clothes she had while briefing her on the plan, then she followed him outside. Daryl and Rick were fast and vigilant, making sure no one saw her as they got her in the car. She couldn’t believe it as they left and started on their way to Alexandria. She sat staring out the window in mild shock. Was she really free? Was she really safe? Before she knew it, she was crying, she was happy, she hadn’t felt like this in years. Daryl spun around from the passenger seat with a worried look on his face as he looked at her.

“S’wrong?” he asked concerned. She gave him a watery smile and wiped her tears.

“I’m free,” was all she managed to choke out. Daryl smiled at her and shared a look with Rick. They felt good about saving her. Daryl had a deep sense of pride, and he knew he was going to have her stick by his side once they got home. He wanted to keep her safe. When she reached Alexandria she was impressed, it was much nicer than with those assholes. It was still dark when she got there but from what she could see, it was perfect.

Taglist; @risingphoenix761 @daryldixonandfrogs @arlaina28 @divadinag @keeperofwonderlandus @jodiereedus22 @easnuppa @fand0m-fiend @txladyj-blog @walkingdead-dixon

[fyrapartnersearch]

Looking for someone to play Peggy for a slow-burn Steggy romance RP

Hello folks! My name is Joe. I'm a Brit in his late 20s who started roleplaying about 15 years ago, when play-by-email and play-by-post were the norm, but I've been massively out of the game for the last few years. I briefly got back into roleplaying in 2018 but the site I joined imploded after a few months and I became a bit disheartened. I miss my favourite hobby very much, and I would love to get back into it with someone's help. I have a particular story I'd be interested in roleplaying with a dedicated partner for an extended period of time - months or even years, if we both think there's more room to take it. The Plot I am looking for someone who would like to play Peggy Carter against my Steve Rogers from the MCU for a slow-burn, long-term romance roleplay. Steggy is my absolute, all-time OTP, and this is a story I'd love to play out for so many reasons - from a deep love of the characters themselves, to a life-long obsession with all things Marvel forged reading the miss-matched comics I could get my hands on as a kid and watching the X-Men/Spiderman TV shows, to a nostalgic love for the aesthetic of the 1940s (I am 99% sure that I am the world's leading listener of obscure Gracie Fields and Pearl Bailey songs on Spotify). It's such a perfect mix of story elements for me. In the MCU timeline Steve meets Peggy in June 1943 and rescues Bucky in November 1943, but doesn't go into the ice until February 1944. I'd love to play out a story that lets us imagine together what some of those pre-1944 moments might have looked like when they were working together during WWII, sticking to the canon that they weren't at any point a proper romantic pairing and didn't have their first kiss until the very end, but ultimately focusing primarily on their reunion after Steve's return to the past in Endgame. In my mind there are two ways that we could go about doing this, but I am absolutely open to suggestions or alternative ideas:

Jump right into the post-Endgame story with Steve and Peggy's reunion, and cut back to vignettes of their time together during the war that we play out as and when we feel appropriate.

Play the entire tape through from start to finish, from the moment they meet in the training camp right through to Steve going into the ice, and then pick up with the post-Endgame reunion.

We start with the post-Endgame reunion to the set the scene and context for the story we want to tell, and then play the whole thing through vignettes and independent scenes that aren't played out in any particular order.

There are so many things that I think it could be enormously fun to explore in this story. I don't mind if we play it as Steve going back in time properly so that his identity has to stay hidden and he has to keep a low profile just cheering on Peggy as she builds the incredible career she goes on to have, or if we play it as an AU so Steve and Peggy are also able to become world-saving, ass-kicking partners in not-actually-crime-but-justice. My main interest is in exploring the contours of the characters, their love story, and the highs and lows that would come with being re-united. I am happy for us to bend or twist canon about the wider MCU if you would like, as long as we keep the essentials of the story correct and keep these two characters true to their canon depiction. I am absolutely, honestly not remotely bothered by the sex or gender of the person playing Peggy. My main hope is to find someone who has enough of an appreciation for these characters that we can have an enormously fun time imagining their journey together and thinking what scenes it would be fun to play out and what elements of their story we'd like to explore. I am not interested in exploring anything where Steve is implied to have had anything other than a platonic relationship with Bucky, Tony Stark etc. I am bisexual IRL and have absolutely no problem if you also ship Steve with other characters, but it's not a story I am personally interested in. Writing Style / Partner Preferences I write exclusively in the third person, with multi-paragraph responses. Whilst sometimes it might be clear that a short answer is better to progress a scene, even in a dialogue intensive moment it's rare you'll get less than two paragraphs out of me. My posts tend to be 3 - 5 paragraphs in length; 2 paragraphs if the scene is dialogue intensive, and more like 7 - 9 if I need to move along a lot of action independently of my partner (e.g., if my character needs to be somewhere else doing something, I would rather write more in one post to try and get the action back to playing against my partner in as few posts as possible). I write quickly and words flow easily, and I am not very good at being succinct (for better or for worse!), in no small part because I try to make sure I'm clearly conveying my character's feelings and thoughts to the other player as well as their character. I tend to be quite detail heavy on thoughts and feelings, and try to blend that into action so there's always something for my partner to work with. I have roleplayed happily against other players with very different styles and post lengths in group settings, but for 1x1 play like this I am looking for a partner who also writes in third person with multi-paragraph responses. I'm a working adult with a life that varies in how busy it gets. There will be times when I can reply once a day or even multiple times per day; there will be others when I can only post a couple of times per week, and cannot commit firmly to being able to post more than a couple of times per week. I'll always communicate with you what my availability looks like and keep in touch OOC so you know I'm around. Please especially be aware that weekends are often busier for me than weekdays and don't assume no reply at a weekend means I've lost interest; it's time to spend with my fiance, my friends, my family and work on other hobbies as well. I will often be in a better position to reply during workday evenings. Intereted? If you'd be interested in taking this up, then let's chat about what the story could look like! I'd be thrilled to hear your thoughts on which of the three approaches you'd be most interested in, or if you have any ideas of your own, and if there are any specific scenes or plot points you'd like to include in the story. Rather than just jump right in, I would like to map out how we want to do this given the different approaches we could take.

I would prefer to play by Google Docs, e-mail, I don't mind making a Tumblr account either, but for now you can contact me on Discord at ampason#8923.

[anonthenullifier]

So I was cleaning out my writing documents and re-discovered all of my notes for a SV roller derby AU. I had planned to write it last year for the Scarlet Vision Valentine’s AU event, but didn’t because I realized it was going to end up being a multi-chaptered ordeal and I just didn’t have the time or energy to do so. Sadly I will likely never write it  but did have fun brainstorming it, so I thought I’d share the world building and plot that I did come up with in case anyone might enjoy it. 

Rough Story Summary: Victor Shade recently relocated to upstate New York after accepting a cybersecurity position at Stark Industries. His boss, THE Tony Stark, refuses to accept Vision’s preference for living in peace and insists he attend a bout for the local roller derby team, the Thunder Dolls, for which Stark is both a patron and a ref.  What started as a begrudging placation to his over-enthusiastic boss, turns into genuine wonder as he takes in the brutal yet complex game on the track and finds himself drawn to the ethereal movements of one particular jammer, Scarlet Witch.

Below the cut are character summaries and a fairly rough plot. Hope you enjoy!

Brief note on terminology for roller derby:

Bout = a match between two teams

Jammer = this is the person who wears a helmet cover with a star on it. This is the person that scores points. They first have to make it out of the pack (see below) and then on each lap around the track after that during the 2 minute period they get a point for each player of the opposing side they pass. 

Blocker = the other members of the team on the track. Their job is to block the other team’s jammer while also helping their own jammer through the pack to help her score points. 

Pivot = a blocker that wears a helmet cover with a solid line down the middle. This gives them the ability to have the jammer helmet cover transferred to them and they then become the jammer. 

Pack =  the largest conglomeration of blockers from both teams currently on the track.

List of Characters

Note: each person may have multiple pieces of information: Their name, their derby name, a description of their non-derby life, and, when applicable, what the announcers would say for their character at the derby bout. Also...some characters have more info than others based on how important they were going to be to the story and how far I got in actually planning them out. 

The Thunder Dolls

Thor Odinson aka Thor: A professor of literature with a specialization in mythology and a hobby in astrophysics by day, and at night, he is the bench coach for the Thunder Dolls. He wears leather pants, a fur-lined vest with no shirt underneath, and a horned viking hat for bouts.

Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow: Former special ops (her partner was Clint) and currently runs a bootcamp style gym, though everyone suspects she is still a spy but are too afraid to ask her. She is one of the co-captains, the main strategist, and a blocker.

“Be careful ladies and gentleman, she’s quick, she’s silent, and she’ll eat you once she’s done, the co-captain of the Thunder Dolls, Black Widow!”

Okoye aka Wakondyass: Was a visiting Fulbright scholar in chemical engineering and was offered a position upon finishing her Fulbright. She is a blocker and co-captain of the Thunder Dolls. 

“You better never try to get between our co-captain and her team or else she’ll Wakondyass!”

Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch: She is a social worker who works primarily with refugee and immigrant families. On the team she is a jammer who many suspect can read minds and manipulate the people around her because of how seamlessly she weaves between all the skaters on the track. 

“I hope you brought your salt, because you’re going to want to throw it over your shoulders if you cross her path, next up we have the Scarlet Witch!”

Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel: Active in the Air Force and plays derby whenever she’s back home. She is a pivot.  

“Our next skater is a marvel to behold and has nothing at all to prove to you, put your hands together for Captain Marvel!”

Pepper Potts aka Rescue: CEO of Stark Industries and fiancee of Tony Stark. In her spare time she runs a rescue shelter for dogs. She is a pivot.

Other members of the team (forgive the rough names, never finished these):

Hope van Dyne aka Winsome Wasp: A jammer. 

Brie Hilde aka Valkyrie: A blocker

Maria Hill aka The Shield: A blocker

Gamora aka Xenomorph : A blocker. 

aka Nebula: A blocker.

aka Preying Mantis (called Mantis for short): A jammer. 

Peggy Carter aka MI #6: A blocker

Jessica Jones aka This Is My Alias: A blocker

Trish Walker aka Hellcat: A jammer.

Non-Skating Characters 

Victor Shade aka The Vision: a computer engineer specializing in cybersecurity. He finally attends a bout when Tony chips away at all of his excuses and he gets a free ticket in order to be a line-up tracker. Eventually he moves up to become a penalty box official.  Scott Lang aka Ant-Man: an electrical engineer by day and a derby announcer on the weekends. His entomology hobby got him his name.  Clint Barton aka Hawkeye: former special ops who now has a quiet life on a farm with his family. He is the other announcer for the derby bouts. Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier: Friend and former member of Steve’s original military unit. He now tries to live a normal life and has been trying to get Black Widow to notice him. He is a penalty box official. Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver: A professional speed skater who is often out of town for training and competitions. Wanda used to do pairs competitions with him but decided that speed skating was too linear and boring for her. 

Zebra Team (aka Skating Refs)

Tony Stark aka Iron Man: founder of Stark Industries and a jam ref for the Thunder Dolls.   

Clint: “We all love to hate him, it’s the genius, billionaire, playboy...”

Scott: “Former playboy, Hawkeye.”

Clint: “...former playboy, philanthropist, jam ref, Iron Man.”

Steve Rogers aka Captain America: current military member who is a jam ref when he is not on active duty. 

Clint:“ (Caw-Caw sound effect) Is that a bald eagle? You bet your stars and stripes it is, so please stand and pledge your allegiance to our head ref tonight, Captain America!”

Sam Wilson aka Falcon: former military, currently working towards his Ph.D. in clinical psychology while externing at the VA (Veteran’s Administration). Is an outside ref. 

James Rhodes (Rhodey) aka War Machine: current military, best friend of Tony Stark. An outside ref. 

“Our outside refs tonight are the dynamic, swooping duo of War Machine and Falcon!”

The Rough Plot

Event 1: Vision is invited to a bout by Tony because he “needs to get a life and meet people”. Tries to dodge it as best he can, eventually settling on the fact he doesn’t have the money with his recent move. Tony, who first points out how much he pays Victor, finally settles on the strategy of informing him they just happen to need a line-up tracker so he can get in for free if he’s willing to write down some numbers. Vision gives in because he can tell Tony will never drop it until he agrees. At the bout Vision finds himself engrossed in figuring out the strategy of the game and might also be a bit entranced by watching Scarlet Witch move on the track. He even messes up his lineups a few times because he can’t stop watching in awe. Tony invites him to the after party but Vision turns him down.  

Event 2: After Vision attends a couple more bouts and seems to enjoy it, Tony suggests he should go through the ref boot camp coming up because they can always use more skating officials. Vision admits he, quite unfortunately, doesn’t know how to skate and believes that will be the end of it. Except Tony swings by his cubicle later that day to invite him to the adult skate night at the local roller rink and informs Vision that no is not an acceptable answer. So Vision goes to the skate night and discovers that most of the derby team is there, as it is a weekly hang out for them. Vision tries to leave but Tony spots him and pays for his skate rentals (you know, since Vision claims to be so poor), even lets Vision borrow his wrist guards and knee pads since he’s a skating virgin. 

Vision is...not good at skating, at all, his limbs all want to go in opposite directions and he thinks he might be too tall, plus gravity is a cold hearted asshole. Additionally, Tony ditched him as soon as he saw Pepper. This leaves Vision clinging to the wall for support while he works his way to the exit until a woman appears in front of him skating backwards. It is Scarlet Witch and she offers to help him figure out how to skate. A bit flummoxed, Vision takes a few seconds too long to respond and not be socially awkward, but she doesn’t seem to notice or at least doesn’t care. Scarlet Witch (her derby friends call her Scarlet so he does as well) sticks with him almost the whole night, gently providing pointers and (after asking permission) touching his hips and knees to help him get into the best stance. The only time she isn’t with him is for the backward skate, which he sits out and watches as she glides effortlessly around the track. At the end of the night, Scarlet Witch comes over to him and hands him a flier. For the first time she’s a bit nervous as she says, “I don’t know if this applies to you, but if it does then...you should check it out. I’ll be there with some of the team.” After she leaves he sees it is a flier for a Valentine’s Day Singles Skate night. 

Event(ish) 3: Vision goes to the singles night and spends it with Scarlet Witch and three of the other skaters. He has a good time and gets dinner with all of them afterwards. From then on he goes to the weekly skate night, each time getting a tiny bit better, which is nice (mainly for his ass because he falls less) but it also means Scarlet Witch isn’t as close to him the whole time, though she checks up on him often and will slow down to skate with him throughout the night. Usually he goes out for food afterwards, one time it ends up just being him and Scarlet Witch. 

Event 4: Vision bumps into Scarlet Witch at a little diner near work and she asks if he wants to sit with her. When he calls her Scarlet, she for the first time smiles a bit embarrassed and informs him her name is Wanda when she doesn’t have skates on. They have a nice lunch and make plans to meet again in a couple weeks when she’s back in the neighborhood for work. 

Event 5: Throughout the months since his first bout, Vision has moved up to being a penalty box official alongside the Winter Soldier. In general, Wanda doesn’t talk to him during bouts, because she’s so focused, but she does share some banter with him when she tries to stand too soon during her penalty time and he has to politely tell her to sit down. It’s not long after she leaves the box that one of the blockers on the opposing team just blindsides  her and sends Wanda flying into a wall. When Wanda doesn’t immediately get up, Tony calls for a time out due to a downed skater, and Vision, without thinking, rushes across the track to check on Wanda. She’s fine, a bit discombobulated, but skates it off with a big smile and double handed wave to the cheering crowd. The thing is, no one is supposed to rush the track and Vision is (in a mainly friendly manner) made fun of the rest of the night by skaters being sent to the penalty box (quite a few Lover Boys and insinuations of him being under the witch’s spell...which isn’t exactly wrong). After the bout, Vision waits awkwardly near the concession stands in sight of the locker room exit so he can catch Wanda on her way out and apologize for his breaking protocol. When she sees him, she confidently walks over, ignores his stuttering apology, and kisses him. 

[sol1056]

EPs: "we chose Netflix to explore things like sexuality" (nothing was explored or was explicit for even 2 seconds) "when they told us u cant kill Shiro, we knew we could push the reveal 4 later" (so nice of them to admit they stopped our rep just to be able to kill him) "when we found out about byg we knew we coulnt kill Shiro & we thought we'll find rep w another character. Then we learned we could go on w/ Shiro as the rep" (theres ANOTHER REP WE DIDNT GET?? Was it vague then erased? Whatt??)

I think these are two separate issues. One is related to who made VLD, and the other is related to the EPs’ ignorance of characterization. The second overlaps with a bunch of asks I’ve recently gotten about race and representation, so here I’m just keeping it to a general discussion of characterization, with Lance as example. And then about Shiro in particular, how the EPs’ statements reveal their lack of thought.

Behind the cut. 

remember where these people came from

The team behind VLD is almost entirely formerly Nickelodeon. DreamWorks wanted to break into television on a much larger scale, and since they almost always promote from outside the company, they lured over Margie Cohn from her position as a Nick VP. As VP/exec levels tend to do, Cohn brought a bunch of people with her.

One of those was Mark Taylor, who’d been involved in both AtLA and LoK. Taylor, in turn, brought JDS, LM, and I think one or two of the other producers. Taylor also probably brought over Hamilton, Chan, and Hedrick, as known entities with proven track records. 

These are people who — for for the last ten or more years — have swum in Nickelodeon’s considerably more conservative fishbowl. It’s entirely possible (given what people tell me about storylines in HTTYD, and DW’s open support of She-Ra) the former Nickelodeon team automatically downgraded DW’s “go ahead and explore these heavier/darker topics” to mean “maybe kinda mention in passing but don’t be too obvious about it.”  

Now, to be fair, the EPs may have pushed for more LGBT+ rep, and their obstacle might not have been DW, but Taylor. It’d explain how the EPs could praise everyone (read: DreamWorks staff) as supportive, yet allso complain about pushback (read: Taylor’s Nickelodeon-influenced sensibilities). Two different parties were calling the shots. 

It’s also possible what the EPs saw as ‘rep’ was still considerably toned-down from what DW execs (and the VAs) may’ve expected. After all, that one-minute scene in VLD might’ve required an act of god at Nickelodeon. VLD’s staff may have genuinely considered this scene landmark because even that tiny bit was far more than their previous employer would’ve allowed. 

Cue the victory lap and excited chatter, and seeming blindness to Korra being long since surpassed by Steven Universe, Young Justice, Bob’s Burgers, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, RWBY, Rick and Morty, Clarence, BoJack Horseman, Danger & Eggs, Big Mouth, and Summer Camp Island. Remember, it wasn’t until 2016 that Nickelodeon would have a married gay couple (in The Loud House), and they’re not even central characters. The VLD staff may’ve thought itself bold, and unprepared for the reality of modern (non-Nickelodeon) audience expectations. 

No, I don’t think that absolves them. It just seems the most reasonable explanation. That is, short of seeing the EPs as so utterly cynical they’d pump up the audience for what amounted to a nothingburger in light of what else popular media now delivers. 

and then there’s representation

VLD’s troubles can all be traced to one crucial detail: the EPs don’t understand that characters are the bedrock of stories. And as such, there are no shortcuts.

Ever had the misfortune to catch a home decorating show? Here we have a windowless basement: mock up a mantle from polystyrene, paint the walls gray, put up sconces with flickering lightbulbs… it’s still a basement. It’s just now desperately pretending to be something it isn’t. The bones of the structure are undeniably American Suburbia, not generic castle keep, and those bones are integral to how we experience the space.

The average person isn’t trained to be aware of those bones — the underlying architecture — and its subtle impact on our experience, just as most non-storytellers aren’t trained to see how and where and why characters create plot. I guarantee you, though, you will never mistake a late-century Kmart for the Centre Pompidou or the Forbidden City or Mount Vernon. Just as you would never mistake a beginner’s first novel for Lord of the Rings or Left Hand of Darkness. 

That is, the dressed stone isn’t paint and plaster; it’s a core element informing (even dictating) height, width, and depth of a space. Characterization is the same: it must be structural. In turn, characters inform the breadth and depth of the story. If your characterization is shallow, wild swerves and dramatic reveals can make the story fun, but they will never make it deep. 

I empathize with the (hopefully genuine) intent to avoid making Shiro’s sexuality a ‘reveal.’ The unfortunate truth is: waiting 60+ episodes to even mention in passing makes it a reveal. It wasn’t structural, or viewers would’ve been sensing it from the very beginning. 

This isn’t a haircut or a pair of jeans. It’s a person’s identity, and that has crucial impact on hopes, fears, desires, and needs. It doesn’t start only once the audience is let in on the secret; it was always there. It should’ve informed the character’s actions and reactions all along. 

If Lance is Cuban, and the story takes place in a quasi-future America, then to understand Lance’s perspective, we need to ask questions like: is Cuba still under embargo? Is it a free democracy now, or did Lance’s family flee at some point? Is he part of an exchange program, or is there a lottery that let him come to the US for his education? Did he leave his family behind? How young was he, when he left? What was his childhood like, and how does that differ from what he found in America? What was his parents’ relationship like, and how does that influence his expectations for friends and lovers? 

Was he fluent in English when he arrived, or did he only become fluent later? Does his Spanish have a noticeable accent, and if so, has he felt isolated from other Latinx at school? Or is he the only Latino at the Garrison? Is he proud of his heritage, or ashamed of it? Did he get bullied for being foreign, and how did that change what he says/does? Even if America is joyfully multi-cultural, he’d still be an immigrant or foreigner, and that’s a different experience from a non-white community that’s multi-generation American. What was his impression of his new life? What compared favorably (or not) to his childhood? 

It’s not just, “He’s a boy from Cuba.” You have to think about what it means to be ‘from Cuba’ and how this is different from, say, growing up next door to the Garrison (like Pidge probably did). If you put that much thought into it, if you talk to people who’ve lived that experience, if you push yourself to imagine as deeply as you can how Lance’s life would have shaped him? 

By the time you’re done, Lance would never need to say a word. 

His reactions, his assumptions, maybe a few mannerisms, his humor, a few throwaway comments about his family or things he did as a kid — and there would be Cubans in the audience going, “hey, wait a minute, he’s just like my cousin.” Or brother or uncle or friend. By the time someone asks at a panel? Half the audience would be saying, yeah, we were right, Lance is totally Cuban. 

Or you don’t think about it, and you use stereotypes in hopes that’ll do the work for you. As @sjwwerewolf commented:

Man, I’m ready to rant about Voltron. I’m Cuban. Lance, oh boy, Lance. From season 1 on, he has been written as a huge stereotype. The flirtatious, passionate comic relief character who’s dumb. Like. He’s literally Antman’s sidekick. That character. All you need to make him a full caricature is like, “I have a gangster brother.“ 

The stereotype is a shortcut. It’s slapping on behaviors without thought for a real person’s experiences or perspectives. VLD is, sadly, full of them: the Latino (wannabe) lover, the big guy who likes food (with only the slightest twist to have him actually good at cooking), the boyish-girl who’s a brain and likes computers more than people, etc. 

just pull shiro out of a hat

At some point early on, the EPs said (once again in an interview, not in the story) that VLD is a world without homophobia. The story itself contradicts that ideal, or at least, it emphasizes a certain level of heternormativity over an open embrace of diverse relationships. What’s in our face for six seasons is Lance’s lover-boy stereotype, Allura’s attraction to Lotor, Lotor’s attraction to Allura, Matt’s attraction to Allura, and so on… and the closest we get to anything resembling an alternate attraction is one blush from a servant in a flashback, and Kuron’s startled reaction to Keith’s return. 

All VLD had to do was have Hunk mention his moms. Or Coran mention his late husband. Or Lance mention his sister’s wife. Something explicit to offset the heterosexual attractions going on. Frankly, for six seasons it was an open question whether homosexuality even existed in VLD: the absence of a negative is not proof of the presence of a positive. 

That absence means we really have no idea how being queer in VLD’s world would affect a character — and it would, have no doubt. Our sexuality affects every single one of us; it’s just that straight people have the benefit of seeing the roadmap of their sexuality played out in a million books, movies, and television shows. If you haven’t given thought to whether this is also true in your world, then you don’t really know how a character could discover, define, and map their sexuality, or how they’d quantify or qualify relationships that overlap their sexual preferences. You don’t understand the structure. 

That lack of thought means, nine times out of ten, the creator has said to themselves, “it’s easier to just say this character’s experience of their sexuality is exactly like the one I, as a straight person, vaguely recall having (that I never actually had to question because it was already mapped out for me, everywhere I looked).” That’s not a queer character. That’s a character with a label slapped on their forehead that says here be a queer character. It’s paint, because the structure underneath is straight person. 

Which means that of course the EPs could consider making someone else “the rep,” because they really seem to believe this is as easy as removing the label from Shiro’s forehead and sticking it on someone else. And it’s not. People don’t work like that. Sexuality is no more a simple paint-job than race, gender, culture, or dis/ability. Each of these things is etched on our bones, literally or metaphorically, and that changes us all the way through. 

The short version, then, is: no, we wouldn’t have gotten any other rep, just as we haven’t truly gotten any rep as VLD was delivered. Shiro has a label on his forehead, but unless and until the canonical story demonstrates this goes all the way down to his bones… he’s just a straight suburban basement with a mediocre paint job and some fake queer columns.

[rainythefox]

Oh, Brother (RDR2 Fanfic Ch.1)

Summary: 1885, Illinois. A young Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur wander into a country town following a lead to swindle a wealthy homestead and break their control over the town. But while scoping it out, Arthur encounters a young John Marston, setting fate in motion that will eventually become a rocky, yet loyal brotherhood. A short multi-chapter fic revolving around how Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur met John, further developing what would eventually become the Van der Linde gang. Rated T for language, some violence, drinking/drugs and mischief. It will mostly be Frienship/Family and Humor, but there will be Action/Adventure with some violence!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Red Dead Redemption franchise, Rockstar, or its characters, etc. This is just for fun.

Chapter 1

"I did no such thing."

Hosea's tone was playful as he rubbed a hand through his light-blond hair before placing a hat upon his head. Dutch made a sound nearby, a mix between a chuckle and a snort as he spurred his horse to canter alongside them.

"Oh, dear brother, don't play sly with me. Even Arthur can see straight through your façade. That much is painfully clear."

"His what?" Arthur drawled, shaking his head, already impatient. "Are we lost or not?"

"I may have slightly got us off course."

"Hosea, you said it was due southeast of the camp."

"Southeast?" Arthur grunted, glaring at Dutch. "Bessie said southwest."

"Did she?" Hosea asked, glancing over his shoulder at the path behind them. "Huh, that explains a lot."

They halted their horses on the road, Arthur voicing his displeasure with a groan. Dutch wheezed a laugh beside him. A gust of wind brushed by, plains surrounding them. The same, dull prairie had been their only scenery for the couple hour ride they've done.

"My friend the master con artist, horrible with directions."

Hosea waved them off. "I haven't been down this way in ten goddamn years. What do you expect? And every blade of grass looks the same."

"Next time maybe you should stay behind, old man, an' we can bring Bessie instead," Arthur said.

"Very funny, my boy."

"Jus' sayin'."

"Now come on, son, where is the fun in that? We couldn't get into quite as much trouble with 'ol Bessie and Susan around."

"That's the point!" Arthur looked around. "Can we move? I feel exposed here."

"We're exposed everywhere," Dutch replied. "What, you missing Chicago?"

"Hell no!"

"Okay then."

"We got company," Hosea announced.

A wagon pulled by two draft horses met them on the road, coming from behind them. The wagon was full of produce, skins, and other materials. Two men rode in the front while two sat in the back, and all four were armed. Arthur was quick to notice the men's suspicious glares as they rode up on them.

Dutch cleared his throat. "Let me handle this." And directed his horse over to the wagon. The men got their repeaters ready, but Arthur knew Dutch's charm would pacify them easily.

"Hello, gentlemen! My dear friend, his nephew, and I are sight seeing 'round these parts. Decided to get away from Chicago for a bit, and got a little lost. They're as stubborn as mules asking for directions. We're trying to find the town of Andell, could you so kindly point us in the right direction?"

"Andell?" the older man echoed, eyebrows furrowing. He scratched at his full beard. "That's across the river. You a ways off, pal. Ya'll have to head back yonder to Canker Point and take the trail to the river and find the 'ol run down station before headin' west into Andell."

Dutch smiled, a hand to his chest as he dipped his head. "Thank you, friend. You may have saved our necks."

"Not sure why ya boys would wanna go to Andell though," the older man continued. "Fire took out most of it 'bout a year ago or so. It's not near as populated as it was."

Arthur sighed. Well, there went their chance at poking around for jobs. The young man slouched atop his horse, but Hosea didn't break his "hello, I'm a polite gentleman and harmless" expression. Dutch didn't show any falter to the news.

"Is that right? That's quite a shame. I was hoping to surprise an 'ol friend down this way. He's from Chicago too. Had ambitions to start up a livery stable in these parts, if I remember correctly."

One of the younger men in the back of the wagon perked up. He looked to be in his early twenties just like Arthur, only wasn't near as large and sturdy as he was. "Oh, we know that feller. You talkin' 'bout a Mister Galligan right?"

A sly smirk eased on Dutch's face. "Why yes, that's him. I hope he is well?"

"He moved over to the town of Hickory, which is where we're headin'."

Dutch glanced back at his older partner-in-crime, their subtle exchange something only the two of them understood. Dutch turned back to the travelers.

"Why, you fellas are our saving grace today. May we join you on your ride to Hickory?"

The older wagon driver glanced at his passengers then back to Dutch. "Sure. We don't want no trouble though."

Dutch eased their new traveling companions with a gentle laugh, a hand to his chest. "You'll get no such thing from us. Well, except for my brooding friend right there, he's a little grumpy at times."

Arthur gave Dutch a look. He and Hosea trotted alongside the wagon with Dutch as it followed the road to Hickory. Arthur stayed quiet, letting Dutch and Hosea sweet-talk the wagon riders and only talking when spoken to. It wasn't long before Hosea was drawing them in with some humorous story about a faulty fishing trip while portraying one of his many personas.

The wagon riders laughed and after that they were a lot more open and talkative, which is exactly what Dutch and Hosea wanted. Arthur heard the exchange of names, the aliases that his mentors chose this time around. The wagon driver, Hester, and his son, and the other two men were ranch hands for a wealthy homesteader family within the area. They explained how the Warrens were strict and hard to work for, how they used their prosperity to take over the town of Hickory.

Their complaints and frankness drove Dutch and Hosea to exchange knowing smirks with each other. Arthur knew them well enough to know that an idea was hatching. He swore it was like the two men could read each other's thoughts at times. He didn't quite understand it.

After traveling together on the road for an hour, the town of Hickory came into view. It was a bit smaller than what they were used to in scouting for jobs, but it would do. It was average, nothing quite unique stood out to Arthur, and he noticed the typical stores, homes, and dirt roads. The small town seemed to be quite populated, however. Men, women, and children walked the streets, some hollered out to others. Horseback riders and those on wagons kept the roads busy with traffic.

"Now this is quite a town you have here, Mister Foll," Hosea said. "Ya know, I think I've been here years before, and well, seems to have grown considerably."

"I'm sure it ain't nothin' like what you boys are used to in Chicago, but it's an alright town. The Warrens are to thank for its growth, but since they've taken over most stores and businesses, prices have gone up and, well, there're far more poor folk than there should be."

"Such a shame," Dutch said, dark eyes already scanning for opportunities.

"Anyways, this is where we go our separate ways, we gotta get these supplies to Mister Warren. You fellas be careful. Hickory has a thievin’ problem. Ya'll find your friend Mister Galligan on the far side of town at the stables."

Hosea and Dutch waved them off as the wagon turned down a different road. Dutch turned his horse to face Hosea and Arthur as they looked over the town before them. The town was surrounded by more plains, a forest not far to the west. Besides the stores and houses, there were also livestock barns and pens. It looked to be mostly sheep and pigs here.

"Smell that gentlemen?"

"Yeah, smells like shit," Arthur grumbled.

"No, opportunities, Arthur. Did you not pay attention?" Dutch said, shaking his head.

"Aw c'mon, Dutch. There ain't nothin' here. I betchu that Mister Galligan lost all that money. Why else would he leave the city? He gon' have worse men than us after him."

Hosea chuckled. "He left because he has the money, you sulky buffoon. You still upset about what happened?"

"It weren't my fault."

"We never said it was, son."

"Eh, it wasn't that big of a loss anyway. We've been doing this for eight years, Arthur. Some jobs just don't pan out. Best to get over it," Hosea explained.

"Sure."

"Let's hit the saloon. I'm parched. We can discuss some ideas there, get a feel of the town," Dutch ordered, spurring his horse into a trot.

"Okay, Dutch," Hosea answered.

Arthur rode behind his mentors. They hitched their horses outside the small saloon. Inside, several folks drank and laughed away. The voices bounced through the walls, and Arthur scanned the room, the faces, the behaviors. It looked like there would be no trouble.

Dutch got them some drinks and they talked to the side, watching the townsfolk drink and chatter away.

Dutch and Hosea stood out amongst most of the people. They always wore nicer clothes, Dutch especially. Dutch had grown a mustache in the past couple years and kept it trimmed and neat, but Hosea remained clean-shaven as always. Despite Hosea being nearly twelve years older than Dutch, his eyes shown with the same youth, the same passion and ambition.

Arthur himself had grown considerably since they found him eight years ago. No longer a lanky, dirty teenager, he bulked up some and now had some scruff on his face. He wasn't as rowdy or impolite as he was when they first found him, the typical orphan delinquent. Although, he kept Dutch and Hosea on their toes with his sarcastic, often cynical nature.

His clothes weren't near as kept and clean as his mentors', but he often had the dirtier jobs. He finally could wear his father's hat without it swallowing his head. He may have not have liked his blood father too much, but he sure as hell liked his hat.

"Seems like good people here," Dutch said finally. "I'm quite interested about these Warrens our talkative friends spoke of."

"They didn't shut up once you charmed them," Hosea joked. "I'm curious though."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Hosea grinned and Arthur rolled his eyes. "I thought we was here for Mister Galligan, not these Warren folks?"

Dutch patted him on the back. "If you'd paid attention on our humble ride into town, you would've heard the plight of our friends. The Warrens sound like your typical wealthy overlords of the region. Can you imagine what we could take from them?"

Hosea took a shot, letting the bartender give him another. "I'll look into the Warrens, see what I can find. Dutch, you've been wanting a crack at Mister Galligan for three weeks. Maybe you should go check that out?"

Dutch took his own shot, puffing from its bitterness. "Sure. I mean, if you’re confident you can handle some hillbilly homesteaders who think they run this place?"

"You offend me, sir," Hosea mocked.

Dutch laughed. "Well, Arthur. How about you survey the town? See what else there is that we can take advantage of?"

"Sure, Dutch." Arthur raised his glass and gulped it down, hissing at the burn. "Jus' don't leave me here. I'd love to see Miss Grimshaw and Misses Matthews tan both yer hides once this is over."

Dutch lit a cigar as they headed out of the saloon. "Knowing them, they're getting into their own trouble."

Arthur laughed. "No doubt!"

Dutch bowed once they were outside. "I bid you adieu, my dear brothers. See you soon."

"Hey, make sure you drag 'em behind a horse when you're through with 'em!" Arthur hollered.

"Shh," Hosea hissed, a hand going to the younger man's shoulder. "Don't give him any ideas."

"He's the one with the ideas, I'm jus' sayin'! That fool ruined our last job outside Chicago. Nearly broke my goddamn neck."

"We aren't here for revenge. We don't do that. We're here for his money, that's all. The job just didn't go as planned, Arthur. We're outta here once it's done, alright?"

Hosea was always able to settle him with his calm words and caring, wise eyes. "Yeah, sure."

Hosea smiled, patting Arthur's arm. "Alright. Well, get out there, boy, and see what you can find. We'll meet back here later."

Hosea went his own way in town. Arthur heaved a sigh, looking about. Time to get to work, he guessed. Straightening his hat, he stepped away from the saloon over to his horse.

"You be good, fella," Arthur said, patting the bay gelding's neck.

The next few hours, Arthur spent his time going into businesses and stores, getting the feel of the people and the town of Hickory. He eavesdropped on any interesting conversations his ears picked up. Apparently, the Warrens had a livestock auction every Thursday. It was something they could look into.

Later, he overheard the Warrens had some kind of cellar behind one of their barns that they always kept locked up and guarded. This piqued Arthur's interest, and he was excited to tell Dutch and Hosea about it.

While he waited for his father figures to return to him, he leaned on a hitch near their horses smoking a cigarette. He nodded and waved at passersby, just to keep up a friendly appearance. The town of Hickory must've had strangers coming and going a lot, because the townsfolk barely paid him any mind. Arthur liked that.

"Hey, Mister!"

Arthur turned around, only to see the body of a young boy flying through the air. The boy crashed into him, throwing Arthur onto his back, the wind knocked out of him from the kid's legs slamming his gut.

"Oof! What the hell?!" He coughed.

The boy had dark hair, and laughed as he cut his satchel strap, taking it and the hat atop Arthur's head before dashing off. Arthur scrambled to his feet, anger coming over him as he realized he had just been robbed by a damn kid.

"Get back here, you little shit!"

He chased after the boy as he took an alleyway between two stores. He looked to be around eleven or twelve, although Arthur could tell he was scrawny for his age. His hair fell past his chin in greasy dark locks, and his clothes were tattered and dirty.

For being small and thin, the kid could run fast and was nimble, ducking and swerving out of Arthur's grasp each time he went to snatch him. He knew the town well, weaving through people and farm equipment. Arthur barreled his way through folks, keeping the boy in his sights.

The boy climbed up and ran along a fence top before jumping into a pig pen and cutting away. Arthur heaved himself over, kicking and yelling at pigs to get through.

"I'm gonna wring yer neck! Com'ere, boy!"

"Catch me if ya can, ya big oaf!" He had a distinct, raspy voice.

The kid ducked under another wood fence. Arthur vaulted over it seconds later. He kept at the boy's heels, but the slippery little heathen would only veer away, using obstacles and people to stop Arthur. He jumped and grabbed onto a moving wagon as Arthur came back out into the street. Arthur ran after him on foot, the boy laughing.

"Nah nah, ya can't catch me. Why don'tchu give up?"

"Stop that wagon, mister! Ya got a little monster on the back of it!"

The wagon driver turned around at the holler, pulling on the reins to stop the horses. The boy ditched the wagon and darted for another building, Arthur cut him off. He blocked the boy's path, keeping his body as a barrier as he tried to get around him. The boy dove through his legs and got up and scampered off once more.

"Stop, ya little thief!"

As he came around the corner, huffing, the boy was finally caught. Like a little wild animal, he fought Hosea's hold. Hosea tried to calm the boy down. Arthur, jaw clenched, came over and snatched his satchel back. But just as he was about to grab his hat, the boy kicked Hosea in the groin. Hosea yelped, letting the boy go and he escaped.

"Ugh, so much for a polite introduction," Hosea groaned, holding himself.

Arthur, still annoyed, couldn't help but to laugh at the sight. "He got ya too, huh? Little shit was as slippery as the devil." Then Arthur realized the small thief still had his hat. "He got my goddam hat!"

Hosea grabbed him as he started after the boy once more. "Forget it, Arthur. We'll find him. Don't worry."

The boy was probably long gone anyway.

Dutch arrived shortly after. He took in their disheveled appearance, the pained scowl on Hosea's face as he gripped his crotch and Arthur's huffing breaths as he dusted himself off, mumbling a whole range of curses. Arthur reached into his satchel to make sure his journal was still intact. He was relieved to see it was.

Dutch raised his eyebrows. "What the hell did I miss?"

"You don't want to know," Hosea said, finally standing up straight.

"Got robbed by a goddam kid."

Dutch chuckled, earning him a glare from Arthur. "You mean a little bumpkin got the best of you, Arthur? My boy, come now!"

"Not funny, Dutch. He still has my damn hat. And well, damaged Hosea's tallywags."

Hosea wheezed. "I'm fine."

"Come on, we should head back to camp. Got some planning to do," Dutch said.

"But my hat!"

"We'll get it back, Arthur. We're gonna stick around a few days. We will see that brat again, no doubt," Hosea assured.

Arthur groaned. "Fine."

"I leave you both for a few hours and a child wreaks havoc on both your prides. What ever am I going to do with you two?"

"Easy for you to say. You didn't get kicked where it counts," Hosea huffed.

"Low blow, huh Hosea?"

"Hah, you're funny, dear friend."

Dutch feigned innocence, motioning to himself. "It's not my fault you two provide me opportunities for such jokes."

"If I don't get my hat back, I'm siccing Miss Grimshaw on that little heathen."

Hosea chortled. "Dear god, Arthur. The boy doesn't deserve that much torture."

The three of them laughed.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16932513/chapters/39785013

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13143281/1/Oh-Brother