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vickyvicarious · 5 months

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(In order to not derail op's thread, and jic they've not finished reading the books, hope this is ok) The madness/mental illness discussion between Laura and Jonathan made me think about the in-between of Jonathan leaving the hospital and then being validated!

One thing is, pre-Hawkins death, Mina states to Lucy that Jonathan has been working hard, but that he is weak still and placid, and also that he has nightmares. It tells on them both, because Mina cannot get a full night's sleep due to him waking up screaming and she needs to soothe him. Journal aside, Mina says she is so worried about his nerves that she doesn't communicate with him about how tired she is herself. It reminds me of Walter wanting to protect Laura from distress.

Post-Hawkins death, Jonathan gets worse. "He says the amount of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He begins to doubt himself. I try to cheer him up, and my belief in him helps him to have a belief in himself. But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his—a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend’s aid to rise from clerk to master in a few years—should be so injured that the very essence of its strength is gone."

Not a very traditionally ''manful'' picture, but Mina never goes there. Still, he throws himself into work. Mina says her belief in him helps Jonathan believe in himself. Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in.

What prompts Walter to do something drastic is when Laura weeps in her sleep. What prompts Mina to break the seal later is when Jonathan faints in public and loses the memory of it.

The way Mina treats Lucy and Jonathan in illness seems equal. She keeps their secrets upon their request too. Walter and Mina take similar active roles for their spouses, though Mina isn't necessarily masculine for it.

An interesting imho comparison could also be when Mina chooses to consult Van Helsing while Jonathan is away for his first work trip and how they communicate throughout it, and Walter with the sisters.

Aside, when she asks Van Helsing to help Jonathan, he says, "I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can—all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one." Van Helsing promises to make his life manly, though Mina had asked to make him "well again". So he kind of made it about gender, though it wasn't for Mina.

(I also wonder if we can call Jonathan ''cured'' really, as he doesn't actually return to his former self, but it'd get too long!)

(Tagging @animate-mush because the WIW substack has ended now, hopefully you're all caught up... but regardless no spoilers past where we were last week.)

Anon, you sum up my thoughts incredibly well: "Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in."

I think that is perhaps the most major difference between the recovery period for the two of them. Because while they both have remarkably similar symptoms, and both their spouses hide stuff from them for a while... when things come to a head Mina chooses to believe in Jonathan. Not just in supporting him as he goes back to work (which you're right, he has little choice about doing - an external gendered element there, where societal pressures/norms mean Jonathan kind of has to get to work and Laura is never expected to at all); Mina trusts Jonathan with information, with an important role in what follows.

There's obvious contextual differences. Jonathan knew he could access his lost memories and explicitly didn't want to unless it was necessary. He put the power to decide that in Mina's hands (and it was his request but still her choice to share in his ignorance until she needed more information). When she reads his journal, she's trying to better help him within parameters they have both agreed to. When she eventually tells him everything is true, she's trusting that this will be validating for him and help him heal, help him be more "well again" (though you're right both that he never returns to his former self, and that Van Helsing is the only one who brings gender into it with his assumption that Mina's looking to make Jonathan more manly).

Laura never had an equivalent - both in terms of a discussion with the ones leaving her out for the sake of her mental health, and in the sense of some record she knows she can fall back on. She didn't have a hidden journal when she was being drugged or in the asylum. Most of the information Walter and Marian gather is from other people.

I think there is a period where both Jonathan and Laura have information hidden from them for their own sake. And I don't think that was inherently wrong or anything; in fact I think it was somewhat needed. Jonathan got the chance to explicitly ask for that period of ignorance. We don't quite have any such dialogue from Laura, but the narration still tells us that there were certain topics that were very confusing to her or which she didn't like to linger on (and her experience with Mr. Fairlie even after getting out of the asylum can't have helped), and there's that scene where she says she will "try to get better", showing recognition of how unwell she currently is. I think they both need this time to focus on recovering, and their spouses/loved ones want to support them so they can do so. Again, the societal gender role divides them here: Jonathan has to work and in fact has to take on new/more challenging work, while Laura doesn't and can devote more time to rest and recovery. There's benefits and drawbacks to both of those, in my mind. Jonathan got support from Mina and reassurance that she (and Mr. Hawkins) believed in him, which was helpful. On the other hand, it stressed him out more and he was still suffering from his nightmares, etc. Laura got more time to take it easy without having other stress added on, which was helpful. But on the other hand, she didn't get the same level of trust and belief in her ability to, if not 'return to normal,' at least to be productive and helpful in some way.

Yeah, I'm talking about her drawings. I think that is where the big divide comes. Because when she wants to contribute and help with the household, Walter decides to lie to her and play-act that she is bringing in money. I get that he's trying to avoid letting her stress over money, but it feels so condescending. He's treating her like a child rather than being honest with her - right after she asks him not to treat her like a child. Maybe being honest would just be telling her that she's not well enough to work/that it wouldn't be safe, and that he has the money handled. Maybe they'd come up with some other way she could chip in. At least she'd be involved in the discussion as she clearly wanted to be. And while I don't think she would be involved in the hunting down different accounts or confrontations that follow at the end of the book any more than Marian was, I think they should have told her what was going on. That doesn't necessarily mean giving her all the nitty gritties especially if they're triggering to her; but giving her the chance to speak for herself, to add her thoughts, even to ask to be left out if she thinks she can't handle it. She never gets that. There's no reevaluation later on.

Both Jonathan and Laura were denied validation in a way that made them doubt their sanity. Jonathan's experiences were supernatural and he fears he lost his mind. Laura was lied to and gaslit about her own identity, outright told she was suffering from delusions. Revealing that the supernatural things he remember are real was validating for Jonathan in itself, even as he still had all the accompanying trauma. Laura's (official/public) validation isn't possible until after the villains are defeated and everything is over, which in a sense stretches out that middle period. Similarly, Jonathan getting the information leads right into him getting a change to assuage his feelings of guilt and seek revenge, which could be cathartic for him. Laura probably wouldn't have the same opportunities or even desire to do so, and so maybe looping her in wouldn't have been as helpful. But it feels cruel to me never to give her the option. After a certain point, it's no longer just trying to spare her from distress, but it feels like believing she isn't capable of handling any at all.

I guess that's what feels most gendered to me. Walter, and to an extent Marian too, don't treat Laura like an adult or an equal after her experience. This does happen throughout the book, but it gets so much more egregious after she's rescued from the asylum. Marian talks about women/is kind of treated like an exception to women in general, and Walter is leaving both women out in key moments. So given how women were typically seen as less capable, to me it feels somewhat bound up in that rather than just being about her specifically (I think she handles/is capable of a lot more than she's given credit for). Mina doesn't do really that, she doesn't really bring gender into her treatment of either Jonathan or Lucy in the same way. And while others in Dracula do, it's shown to be more of a mistake.

#dracula daily #dracula daily spoilers #woman in white weekly #anonymous #replies #dracula meta #wiw meta #i'm so mad about the drawings lie okay

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teecupangel · 2 years

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After reading a couple of fanfics(i have lost track of what ive read XD) where Desmond uses the Eye to connect to Ezio in the library and send him back to his 17 year old self to save his family: I got the idea/prompt that when Ezio awakens back in the past he rushes to his family, ignoring a golden thread of Importance. It cant be more importsnt than his family, surely? Either way, Ezio ends up discovering he has like 1-2 day to save his family(im unsure of the timeline, but i imagine he lands before he gains his scar). So, he rushes to save them. Here i kinda get a bit lost, im not very good at planning, but i imagine he ends up killing Alberto and exposes him as a traitor to his father etc. Eventually, after a few days things finally calm down enough that Ezio can finally check out that object his Sight has tagged as Important without feeling guilty for leaving his family alone. He follows the thread to a orphanage and there he sees a 1-2 year old with a scar on his lips and brown eyes that flash a very familiar gold when the child sees Ezio. "Desmond?"

So basically, the Eye damaged Desmond too much, so when he went back in time with Ezio, he had to be recreated. You could give him the charcoal black arm with golden lines or even his tattoo(could be interesting seeing peoples reaction to a child having what is percieved as a criminal brand?). Heck, maybe even give golden fluffy wings that he can hide? Idk, i mostly just want/need fatherly!Ezio bonding with baby!Desmond and this idea has rapidly gone out of control in my head. XD

but yeah, basically Ezio decides that Desmond has given him such a gift with allowing him to save his family, that now Ezio will take care him(he also feels pretty guilty ignoring the Important glow for so long). He just needs to figure how to get his family accept what is looking like to be his motherless bastard, hopefully withoit too many questions. I also imagine Ezio gets the iconic scar this time from a fight with Vieri when he throws insults at Desmond for being "lesser": being a bastard and an Auditore in one package.

So, whats your thoughts on this? Anything you think is missing or want to add to?

Transferring him right as he gained his scar (like the rock hitting him was the trigger) would also serve as some kind of symbolism of his connection with Desmond, not just due to the similar scars but also because that is the first memory Desmond relived as Ezio (as long as we don’t count his birth). That would also give him 3 days max since the scar incident was on December 26, the guards tried to arrest the Auditores on December 28 and the execution would be on December 29.

Also, if you want to really hammer in Ezio feeling guilty about leaving Desmond for so long, a plot point could be that Ezio assassinates Uberto Alberti and he was able to prove to Giovanni that Uberto was a Templar BUT not that he was planning anything against the Medici or the Auditore. Perhaps, a simple Templar ring was all Ezio could give to Giovanni and telling him he was planning it with another man that Ezio hints to be Rodrigo Borgia without flatout saying it’s Rodrigo Borgia since he, as his teenage self, shouldn’t even know who the Borgias are at this point in time. This becomes a scandal all by itself and not even Lorenzo could protect the Auditores, telling them to leave Firenze as quickly as they could. Stand down and keep a low profile for now.

This leads to the Auditores leaving Firenze quickly and asking for sanctuary in Monteriggioni. Ezio would stay there to make sure everyone is safe and also to be ‘trained’ as an Assassin because Giovanni believes he could no longer wait until Ezio is as old as Federico to tell him the truth because of what Ezio has done.

Ezio also has to stay to show Giovanni that he wasn’t some rabid dog that would bite anyone.

This can range from months to even 2 years (technically 1-ish year since Ezio returns to the past in December) which is the same time frame Ezio had to train with Mario and his mercenaries in the previous timeline.

Either way, Ezio finally gets a chance to check on the important gold once he’s been deemed ‘good enough’ to go to Firenze while Federico goes to Roma with Giovanni as part of his training and maybe even ‘final test’.

And then he finds Desmond as a 2-year-old child who isn’t liked by the other kids because he was ‘creepy’ and they say he’s the devil’s child. Maybe Ezio didn’t recognize him immediately but their eyes met and Desmond’s eyes flashed gold and Ezio’s first instinct is that he does know him. He doesn’t remember when but he does know this child.

The one in charge of the orphanage finds him looking at Desmond and he tells him about how Desmond was heard crying somewhere Ezio knows all too well.

It was the same place Ezio had died on, the very same bench…

Someone gave him to the orphanage and they have nothing of him, he had been left naked in the cold that they feared he would have died had he stayed there any longer.

Then to hammer in the guilt, the reason why the children believe Desmond is the devil’s child is because of the charcoal black arm he had that no doctors could explain other than ‘he had been burned’ and Desmond had cried each time they tried to ‘examine’ it with their tools.

So Ezio takes him in, not knowing what else to do.

Then, it’s only the next day after he dreams of the only time he saw Desmond in Altaïr’s library that he puts two and two together and realized that the child was most definitely Desmond. He had to be.

And now, Ezio believes that Desmond is the reason why he had a redo and that he had failed Desmond for letting him be alone for so long.

He wouldn’t even think that people would think Desmond is his son until he hears it from one of the courtesans and he’d be like “Oh! That’s a good idea! I’ll just say he’s my son so people would stop asking questioning about who he is!”

And that was a mistake because now everyone believes he has a child out of wedlock. Perhaps Cristina would even think he had cheated on her considering Desmond’s age and now he has to suffer through his family’s questioning and lectures about having a child out of wedlock.

Then Desmond’s back starts getting itchy and later on it starts growing a pair of lumps…

That breaks his skin painfully, revealing puffs of feathers red with his blood but, after cleaning him (and trying to get him to stop crying because “Owie, papa! Owie!”)…

Ezio sees the feathers were white…

With lines of gold that he has become familiar with in his previous life.

#aunt claudia gonna whoop papa ezio’s ass that’s for sure #federico and petruccio vying for best uncle #unfortunately #they both lose to leonardo who makes the best toys #leonardo also gets roped into staying in monteriggioni because ezio asks and promises to be his patron #leonardo is just a bit confused why this man he had met 2 years ago is suddenly asking for his help #but he will give it anyway #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ezio auditore #ask and answer #teecup writes/has a plot

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wangxianficfinder · 2 years

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Fic Finder

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1. Hi there was a fic where wy gets his old body back.

Juniors (sizhui and jingyi i think) finds lwj and wy(in his old body, not mxy body) being lovey dovey, and thinks lwj is cheating on wy.

Then jiang cheng comes and shouts "wei wuxian" and the juniors look n see a stranger (old body wy)

In the end the misunderstandings clear up.

Help me find this please?

#1 on the latest fic finder, thanks but 'saw my life in a stranger's face' is not the fic i was looking for. The fic I'm looking for is lighthearted and funny. It also has the juniors' POV

(I feel like I've read this, did JC show up after the misunderstanding is cleared up because JL wrote him a letter as a back up plan and didn't have time to send another? - Mod C)

NOT FOUND! Saw My Life in a Stranger's Face by timetoboldlygo (T, 27k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Married Life, Domestic Fluff, Light Angst, wwx's face changes post-canon to look like his original face, Slight Panic Attack, because lwj doesn't recognize his husband, the mortifying ordeal of not knowing your own body, the terrifying inevitability of change, taller!wwx theory)

FOUND! voyeurs make the worst spies by BeStillMySlashyHeart (T, 1k, WangXian, POV Outsider, Reunions, Body Swap, does not contain cheating just the perception of it) (this wasn't the fic I was originally thinking of but I think it might fit better? - Mod C)

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2. Hi I'm looking for a fic where it's modern au setting. I think it's lan zhan's birthday and wei ying tries to bake him a cake but it's a disaster. So lan zhan helps him and it's like some hot hands on baking lesson with extra whipped cream?!

I saw a post about it on Tumblr and now I've lost it! It was sweet and sexy and damn I wish I had it saved.

FOUND! A Piece Of Cake by NinjaKK (M, 4k, WangXian, Modern AU, Married Couple, Married Life, Traditions, LWJ's BirthdayBad Cooking, Baking, Birthday Cake, Cooking Lessons, Soft WangXian, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Bliss, Birthday Party, Suffering LQR, LQR Is So Done, Whipped Cream, Fluff, Established Relationship, Attempt at Humor)

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3. Hello I'm looking for a fic: I think it was a thread fic for Dark LZ Weekend. It had postcanon WY waking up to a dark LZ who'd travelled from a parallel universe (I think). He traps the real LZ in his original timeline, and tries to take over his life. WY ofc realises immediately but doesn't want to hurt him because it is revealed that the dark Lan Zhan has time travelled from the 13 year period of WY's death. He had just been punished with the whip strikes and the grief of losing WY had turned him desperate.

Your blog is simply amazing btw. Thank You for all the effort 🥺 @shenmiao98

FOUND? This Twitter thread by sweetlolixo

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4. hi! this is for the next fic finder! wwx lives in a cottage by himself and lwj moves next door! at first lwj is upset because he moved there to be alone! they plant and go get water together. sometimes lwj drives into the city but wwx always stays on the cottage. theres this cat that was abandoned and wwx adopted them. lwj moved to the cottage because lxc was kidnapped once and lwj never recovered from that. wwx was in a car acident with jyl and things happened and he moved to live by himself

FOUND? tessellate by mellowflicker (T, 18k, wangxian, modern, cottagecorem hurt/comfort, domesticity, touch-starved, happy ending)

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5. Hey, I’m not sure if this is correct but I’ve been googling and trying to find this fic I once read with all kinds of tag combinations on AO3 so hopefully you’ll be willing to help me. I’m looking for this fic where something with Wei Wuxian’s summoning goes wrong (and maybe it happens a bit earlier?) and he goes to his brother like “help I’m (re)dying” and they decide that while figuring it out disguising him as a woman (and accidentally making everyone think they’re betrothed) is the best plan of action.

FOUND? ❤️ By Any Other Name by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 31k, Wangxian, Canon Divergence, Crossdressing, Misunderstandings, Identity Porn, Identity reveal, [PODFIC] By Any Other Name by sakizar)

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6. Looking for a fic here! I honestly can't remember much but there was one scene where wwx was outside a banquet hall with the juniors and he was teaching them how to dance and then lwj swoops in and they dance together, I remember it having art too! Sorry if it's not much to go on but that particular scene really cemented itself in my mind and I can't find it anymore T.T Thank you so much!

FOUND! plant a little happiness (let the roots run deep) by fleurdeliser (E, 47k, WangXian, Modern AU, Car Accidents, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Non-Explicit References to Injuries and Death, References to Addiction, Doctors & Physicians, these tags imply a much more serious story, than this actually is, Falling In Love, soft romance, background 3zun)

not FOUND Unstrictly Ballroom by Ariaste (T, 47k, WangXian, SongXiao, Modern AU, Everyone's alive, the gang defeats systemic heteronormativity, Stripper AU, competitive ballroom dance AU, really stupid misunderstandings, Yearning, Mutual Pining, the wrist grab, lwj makes a friend (who isn't wwx!), modern au but it's still set in Fantasy China (Gusu/Yiling/Lanling) rather than Real China, LWJ's pov, Erotic Handholding)

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7. Hello!! I've been trying to find a fanfic I want to read again for quite some time now, but still couldn't find it. It's a time travel fanfic in which Lwj time travels to the past. I don't remember many details, but I remember that Lwj tells him everything about the future, and at the end Wwx goes to Bssr' mountain (he was supposed to go with Lwj, but sneaked out and went alone) to destroy the stygian tiger amulet. He comes back years latter, and at the time there was a banquet being hosted by the Jiang, and Mxy was there. He sees Lwj interact with Mxy and thinks that, by going away, he lost his chance with Lwj and that Lwj rather stay with Mxy, since Mxy's body was the one Wwx was with when they married on the erased time-line. I fainty remember something about Wwx falling inside a pond after that and Lwj fishing him out.

FOUND? You, me, us. It's not a dream by vermilliondust (M, 37k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Incense Burner, Anxious LWJ, Protective LXC, Protective JYL, Hurt/Comfort, Top/Bottom Versatile | Switch WangXian, Bottom LWJ, mostly, Crying During Sex, bed sharing, Cuddling & Snuggling)

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8. hi, so im looking for a post canon fic where out in the middle of no where wwx hears a baby animal crying (i think from an abandoned building) and goes to help it, and only after cleaning it up realizes it's an itty bitty puppy (like almost new born?) and he FREAKS. but it's also helpless and he doesn't want to leave it to die. thus ensues him trying to raise puppy without touching puppy. it later becomes only good dog. and he has angst over parallels to his childhood & no wanting to b like yzy

FOUND? Imprints by Lisa_Telramor (G, 47k, wangxian, post-canon, humor, panic attacks, phobia recovery, poor life choices, JC & WWX reconciliation, dogs)

FOUND? Rabbit Heart by Suaine (M, 56k, WangXian, Family Issues, Sexual Content)

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9. Hello I’m looking for a fic I read and can’t find, it started something like, wei ying is drink wine looking out the second story window of the shop/inn and watching the people when he see a Lan walking by and when he get closer he realizes it’s Lan zhan. I don’t remember how but LWJ ends up in the room with him and WXX drunkenly accidentally tells about his core/burial mounds(I think it’s both ) Lan zhan tells him he will help him, that he loves him, and holds him while WXX breaks down crying

FOUND? Talking is Better than Silence by KuroiWrites (blackcatkuroi) (T, 264k, WangXian, Communication, Fluff and Angst, What-If, Canon Divergence, Resentful Energy is a Thing, Musical Cultivation gets Center Stage, Honesty, Myth Making in Action, Soulmates, Cultivation Healing is Expanded)

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10. Hello, i'm trying to find a fic where mdzs characters is famous people in modern era. Lwj, who is drunk, tweet something that implies he likes someone for years. His fans then trying to find who is the person that Lwj love. The candidate is Nhs, Wwx, and Wn. Nhs, who is a shit stirrer, drop some hint. Wwx believe the person that Lwj loves is Nhs. Yhere is a talk between Nhs and Wwx a day before Lwj and Wwx date. I think there was a wedding at the end of the story? I'm not sure about that part. Thank you!!! (Can't remember the name but I remember the tweet started with something like "some of you haven't -something something- and it shows" right? - Mod C)

FOUND! Some of You by tangerinechar (M, 60k, wangxian, modern, social media, actor au, pining, fluff, love confessions, matchmaking, light angst)

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11. Hii!! I'm looking for a fic where lan Wangji time travels to future or some modern universe where wei Ying has been...?! There is a dialogue lwj used like...."where am I " Yeah I don't know the full summary of the fic please find the fic for me !!!!! @certainsoulcoffee

FOUND? take me back to a time by DizziDreams (T, 143k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Modern with Magic, Time Travel, Sharing a Bed, Fish out of Water, Man Out of Time, Angst with a Happy Ending, Student!WWX, Time-Traveling Wizard!LWJ, Slow Burn, reference to abuse, Canonical Character Death, Canonical Abuse, Canon!LWJ, Mutual Pining, Chronic Illness, Not A Fix-It, Transmigration, America)

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12. Hi, I was looking for a Wangxian fic to reread on AO3, but I can´t find it anymore. It´s about Wei Wuxian trying to attend a celebration at Koi Tower (probably Jin Ling´s One Month celebration) and dressing up as a Lady to do it. He uses the name Ying, Yingying or Ning. On the way in he meets Lan Wangji who agrees to help and pretends Wei Wuxian is his wheelchair-bound wife. The Jiang siblings are there too (obviously). It´s not in your great pretenders list (although it would fit)... If you could help me find it again I would be very gratefull.

FOUND! My Leaves Reach Ever for the Sun by nonplussed (T, 26k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fix-It, Crossdressing, Idiots in Love, Sharing a Bed, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining)

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13. Hi! ❤️ I’m looking for a fic where Lan Zhan is in seclusion in the CR. Wei Ying visits periodically but always leaves. Lan Zhan slowly turns all the bodies of his clan into puppets. Wei Ying comes back and runs into Lan Zhan’s puppet mother and wants to leave again. Lan Zhans mom tells him about it and he turns Wei Ying into a puppet. The fic ends with JC coming looking for Wei Ying but Lan Zhan doesn’t let him in. Thank you so much!! It’s a great fic but I just can’t find it again.

FOUND? this twisted blood red thread of fate by HeavenlySkyfarer (E, 11k, wangxian, graphic depictions of violence, obsession, unhealthy relationships, body horror, dark LWJ, dollification, marionettes, musical cultivation, DL:DR)

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14. Hey can you find a fic were wei wuxian finds himself in a modern cultivation world and meets lan zhan grandson. Said grandson goes on to rant about his grandpa being with a twink on the internt. Thanks!

FOUND? YEYE NONCONNED A TWINK?!?!?! (How Lan Wangji's Vent Account Became Twitter Famous) by Pancho (M, 7k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, post-first siege of burial mounds, violence, blood, dub con, implied/referenced character death, crack treated seriously, PTSD, happy ending)

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15. Hello! I am looking for the wangxian fic where Jin Ling wants to formally court Lan Sizhui. He asks wei wuxian and then asks for his help to talk to lan zhan. I know I’m the fic wei wuxian wears gusu robes during a conference and acts like the best version of a lan wife. Thank you in advance!!

Hi! I am number 15 on today’s list. The Fic listed wasn’t the fic I was looking for, but I really enjoyed reading it.

NOT FOUND! A Civil Combpaign by Ariaste (T, 19k, JL/LSZ, wangxian, arranged marriage, courting, teenage drama, humor)

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16. hello! i can't stop thinking about these (a bit vague) scenes from wangxian fics. could you help me find a fic where A) wei ying falls asleep as he waits for lan zhan outside the jingshi. i think it specified that he fell asleep on the porch? B) a fic where wei ying stays in the jingshi to recover his wounds, lan zhan braids his hair. lan xichen visits and cautions lan zhan or wei ying to be careful of his brother's heart. i am not sure if these scenes are found in the same fic. thank you!

16A)

FOUND? Far Away You Are by cqlorphan (E, 17k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Getting Together, Misunderstandings, cleared up by juniors ensemble, Explicit Consent, Bottom LWJ, Top WWX, but i'm sure they switch about it, Multiple Orgasms, Fluff and Smut, with a little angst. as a treat) happens at the end of chapter 2

16B)

FOUND! This Tornado Loves You by etymologyplayground (T, 8k, WangXian, Fluff and Angst, Mutual Pining, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Intimacy, Love Confessions, Marriage Proposal, Canon Divergence, Family, Humor) sounds like, although it's hair brushing, not braiding. i think 16(1) is a different fic that i've read but i can't find it. if it helps, i think in that one sizhui is the one to wake wwx up bc wwx notices someone standing over him?

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17. Hi! I’m hoping someone can help me find a fic I read on AO3. At some point in it, Wei Wuxian is ambushed on the way to Jin Ling’s first month celebration but he has A-Yuan with him. He tosses A-Yuan in the air and he’s engulfed in a cloud of resentful energy which transports him to safety. He ends up in Koi Tower falling into Lan Xichen’s arms and tells everyone what’s going on… @animeobbsessed

FOUND? Even If It Breaks Time by WhiteSoul (T, 178k, wangxian, LXC/JC, angst w/ happy ending, time travel fix-it, reconciliation, hurt WWX, OP WWX, fighting against time, blood & injury)

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18. Hiii i need help in finding a fanfic

So i remeber that the fic starts with the author telling us that wei ying and lan zhan are happy after everything that happened and wei ying is trying to cultivate his golden core but wei yings core is not strong enough so that he can cultivate to imortality. Lan zhan decides that he does not want to live eternaly and he ages with wei ying. Lan zhan is sharing his spiritual energy with wei ying and this way he ie sustaining the both of them until he finally runs out of it and one day they lay in bed and they die together in the jingshi. Next thing you know they wake up in the past and i think this fic is a time travel fix it or just a time travel one i cant remeber anything else. I know i read it on AO3. Please help. @dacika98

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19. I'm looking for a modern au where Xichen finds Wei Wuxian sleeping on top of Wangji because Madame Yu kicked him out. I think that Wei Ying moves in with them. Yanli was called at one point. Thank you so much. @jezabelisnotawhore

FOUND? Found Family by fyredancer (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fluff, Getting Together, POV Outsider, Dysfunctional Family, Coming Out, Bad Parenting, Protective Older Brothers, Protective Siblings)

~*~

20. hello! can this be in the next fic finder? lwj is a college professor know to be cold and very sexy. I think we and wwx are T.A.s from another department. wwx and lwj met online and have a lot of sex online too, but they don't know each others identity! but lwj finds out when wwx goes to lwjs department to print some documents @yourefinallysafefromshialabeouf

FOUND? Take All of Me by Anna-domini (Memoryboard) (E, 22k, WangXian, Modern AU, Modern: No Powers, Porn With Plot, Identity Reveal, Sexting, Phone Sex, Nude Photos, Dirty Talking LWJ, mentioned and vaguely implied WWX/others and LWJ/others, Praise Kink, Dom/sub Undertones, Butt Plugs, Getting Together, Fluff and Smut, Exhibitionism, Professors, Anal Sex, Online Relationship, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Multiple Orgasms)

~*~

#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

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goddesstrolls · 9 months

Text

Hunt The Hunter

Marzic flew low through the empty streets, sunlight glinting off his fluttering wings.

Having retained some traits of a rainbow drinker following the breaking of his curse, sunlight didn’t affect him- One of the very few boons of the many sweeps he’d suffered, sleepless, deathless, and slave to unnatural hunger.

He could hunt in the daylight anyway just by asking his lusus for that protection, but he supposed it was nice to maintain the effect himself.

Marzic was after one such mark today- Some mysterious killer, an undead more than likely. Trolls were disappearing during the day, and their bodies were never found.

Tracking was nearly impossible in the city, with its endless stretches of pavement. Marzic instead followed his instinct- Threads of an unusual sense that most trolls had very little of. Seeking those feelings of fear and hunger, and the shedding of blood.

He spied something in an alley. Blood and viscera, and something hunched over it.

Marzic landed near and approached. The alley was a dead end, likely used by the undead to corner its prey. Marzic would use it now for the same purpose.

The undead had noticed him before he even appeared at the alley entrance, but hadn’t moved. It stared at him as he stepped into view, still hunched over its kill.

Bright red eyes gleamed from dark, sunken sockets. The mouth split along the cheeks into a drooling, bloody maw, and hands twisted into black claws. A ghoul.

Marzic drew his sword, expecting the creature to attack at any moment. Mindless, lost to the overwhelming sensation of endless hunger.

The moment he moved the creature sprung- But not towards him. It bounded against the wall and jumped upwards, out of the alley.

Fleeing.

Marzic sheathed his sword. He couldn’t hope to keep up with the undead. Instead he stepped over to inspect the corpse.

There was nearly nothing left, just a few gore-covered bones and blood soaked tatters of clothing. Everything else had been eaten.

Marzic wrapped up the remnants in his cloak to bury. He’d carried worse with it.

—----------

Darric adjusted the lamp above his work desk, and shuffled through the blueprints again. He’d have to triple-check his math again, as he usually did, but the first draft was more or less done.

He missed sometimes, having others around to check his work. Though he hadn’t had that since he was an engineering student, sweeps ago now.

It was time to take a break, anyway.

He pushed out his chair and shuffled out of his work room (which doubled as his bedroom, but it was a small apartment, what could he do).

And yelped as he saw a troll pushing open the sliding glass door of his balcony.

Tall, with straight horns and shimmering blue wings. The same troll he’d seen in the alley a few days ago.

Before he could move, the troll had their sword drawn and the tip of it pressed to Darric’s throat. Darric slowly lifted his hands, swallowing hard.

He was about to die again, huh. And he didn’t think this troll would let him come back this time.

He tried to think of something to say as his final words. No one but this troll and Nayru would hear them.

“I’m sorry.” It was barely a whisper, his throat tight with fear. The troll’s cold expression betrayed nothing.

And then they lowered their weapon, and sheathed it.

Darric’s gaze flickered around, wondering if there was something else that made the troll decide not to kill him. His half-assed apology for nothing couldn’t have been it. He slowly lowered his hands, hoping he wouldn't get skewered if he moved.

“How often do you kill?” The troll asked. Their voice was as beautiful as they were, calm and low. It somehow surprised him more than the question.

“Uh,” Darric said. “Every day.” He swallowed again. Hopefully that was not a murder-worthy answer.

“And how many?” The troll continued.

“...One. Maybe two.”

The troll hummed faintly. There was no sign of bloodlust in their eyes, not that Darric could see.

“You kill only to subsist, I take it.” Said the troll.

“Yeah..? Kinda. Nothing really helps…I guess it gets worse if I don’t eat, but…” Darric trailed off.

“You’re a ghoul. Nothing will sate you. But you take to it better than most.” That almost sounded like a compliment.

“So…You’re not going to kill me?” Darric asked.

“You are not a monster.” The troll replied, and Darric felt a sense of doubt before they continued. “There are living trolls who relish in bloodshed, and kill more than you. The fact that you have to kill to survive does not inherently make you a monster.”

But what if I enjoy it, too? A little voice in Darric’s head asked. Like hell he was going to pit that against this troll's logic, though.

Flames suddenly flared along Darric’s shoulders, and Nayru appeared half-curled around his neck.

“Don’t listen to a word he says,” Nayru hissed, burning eyes fixed on the troll. “He’s fae.”

The troll seemed unbothered both by Nayru’s sudden appearance and his words. “I am a monster hunter.” He crossed a hand over his chest, and bowed to Darric. “I apologize for intruding, and for following you. If you can possibly hunt less often, I would advise it. You are drawing attention to yourself, and an undead hunter will find you eventually.”

As they straightened, the troll added. “Your companion doesn’t seem too able to protect you.”

Nayru gave a bad-tempered huff.

“No, I should be able to protect myself, that’s why.” Darric rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease his own nerves. “You, uh… Know a lot about undead, though?”

“More than the layman.” The troll said, sounding somewhat dismissive.

“Can I ask you a few questions?”

#bastdrabbles #marzic ic #marzic monair #marzic writing #the bloodfey #darric ic #darric forrex #darric writing

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maidenmelanie · 4 months

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I’m a Reddit lurker, and one of the places I like to lurk in is the Lost Media subreddit. I find the idea of lost media fascinating, but this one mixed with my love of metal so I had to give it a little search. I had a long weekend so, why not? Sadly I wasn’t able to find the video, but I will compile all the findings here in case someone is more search savvy or has possible connections. Feel free to share this wherever.

Anyway, this weekend a post was made to the Lost Media sub asking about Chuck Schuldiner’s last interview. A quick breakdown, Chuck was the singer and guitar player for the metal band Death. He sadly passed away in 2001 due complications from a brain tumor. This last interview with him took place in 2000, and there are multiple threads and comments discussing when it was shown, where it was uploaded, and how long the interview may be. I found several comments stating that Chuck’s nephew said the interview was an hour long. I guess it was possibly cut down to fill time constraints.

youtube

There is this very low quality clip from the interview, lasting 17 seconds. In the clip Chuck is talking about money. A user in the comments (obi-wannabekennotbi2418) transcribed what he’s saying.

"Everyone's... A lot of people been really good about it so far... uhm... ran into few problems here and there... and uh... you know when people especially when they hear you are in a band they assume you have a lot of money, that's unfortunately not true you know..." (There was a bit more at the end, but it’s hard to make out and the user didn’t have any luck)

https://youtu.be/18LWHP9m7JI?t=537 (8:57 - 9:24)

This tribute video has a longer version of the clip slowed down without any sound. It shows that it was possibly shown on an MTV News commercial cut-in. You can see Brian McFayden speaking followed by a clip from the interview. The date posted on the clip is 1.18.00 and says it was filmed in New York. After viewing plenty of MTV commercial spots and watching plenty of the channel in my youth, it was common for MTV News to do quick cut-ins like that followed by interview clips.

On MTV’s website, there was clearly a link to a video in this article and on the sidebar, which you can see in the screenshot above. This was probably the clip we see above which seems to feature more of the interview. I tried everything to get the page to load, even finding the old page that the Real media player was hosted on. Sadly the video has been fully removed from their servers. This would have been the direct link to it: http://www.mtv.com/sitewide/utils/playmedia.jhtml?id=1442580

I’m also adding a Wayback Machine link to it as well.

The two images I used in the banner were also taken directly from MTV’s website as they were used in multiple articles.

If the interview was an hour long, it’s possible MTV News was planning on showing it during one of their “Special Report” which was longer segments of their program. And this is where I hit a wall. Sadly I think unless someone has a recording of the interview saved somewhere, we will never see it.

I don’t know why I felt compelled to search for this. Maybe it’s just that I love metal so much and Chuck was a brilliant musician and seemed like such a nice guy. Combing through the news updates on EmptyWords.org left me feeling angry about the entire situation and sad that he was taken from us way too soon. Anyway, if you read this far, thank you and if you go searching, hopefully you have better luck than I did.

RIP Chuck.

#Chuck Schuldiner #Death #Death band #Chuck Death #music #metal #lost media #partial lost media #Chuck Schuldiner's final interview #mtv #mtv news

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fateinthestars · 11 months

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Probably about time for another one of my rambles with the forbidden/blessed scales I got for each God...

... Or Seven of them in this case.

Yes I want to cover Musings on Love briefly before I move onto the Promise of Infinty Stuff.

I'm gonna blank out whose is whose in the collage versions below and then reveal them from most blessed to most forbidden under the cut, with maybe some thoughts about the path. Spoiler warning, obviously.

There'll be comparisons to their Main Story result (My post on those is here) and their Sequel Story result (My post on those is here) but as it's only just over half of them I can't see how to include these in the rank calculation I started last time.

Right that's way too much rambling, let's get on with it.

Okay one more thing I want to get out the way quickly: Why seven of the Gods? I could get six, that's half of them. By doing seven they've gone one over half and also made it so there's one more Musings On Love story for Punishments.

Anyway!

1. Dui

Postion in Main Story: 11th

Position in Sequel Story: 1st

Dui's actually only two notches up from what he was in the Main Story, and four down from his sequel, but it's still juuuust enough for him to stay in front of the two in equal second. Also Musings on Love is only 4 episodes plus the ending, so three episodes less than the Sequels (which in turn are 5 episodes less than the main path), though to be fair I haven't counted how many actual interactions there are so it could still be the same.

Regardless, I'm supposed to be talking about Dui.

I think ouch is the word here. Whilst his sequel helped conclude what actually happened to his friend, and hopefully finally get the heavens to stop being so judgy, seems some of his friend's family needed a bit more of a push to accept what had happened.

This rounds his story off nicely though, and off the top of my head I can't think of any loose threads, meaning Promise of Infinity could concentrate more on Dui himself (themself? Hmm...)

2. Teorus

Position in Main Story: Equal 5th with Partheno and Krioff

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 7th with Ichthys, Leon, and Scorpio

His meter here is actually exactly the same as it was in the Sequel route, which was actually down on his Main by three notches.

Still though, I stick by what I said before that I like Teo more in his later stories, even if his possesiveness is still way too much.

Considering how easily Teo can get lost, and let's face it he's definitely not the brightest of them, the fact that his power is over time is pretty dangerous, especially when in this one it turns out when he was younger he accidentally tavelled through time into the future.

Actually if anything in this one (other than his aforementioned possiveness) it's MC I want to throttle. I think I worked out pretty early on what was going to happen, and when the special clothing requirements for the Planetarium's stall at the event were revealled it was very clear from what I recall.

They were both jealous of their own selves in this. MC is a moron but she at least didn't know it was her.

I guess it's also a bit strange if you think on it for too long. (Teo's 'Constellations of Love' DLC is arguably a better Time Travel story)

=. Scorpio

Position in Main Story: 12th (Forbidden)

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 7th with Ichthys, Leon, and Teorus

Well well well, it seems the Scorpion is keeping up with the Fairytale Prince.

No but seriously, I say I'm happier with Teo in his later stories? I'm faaaaar happier with Scorpio in his later ones.

This... this is just... 🥰 Scorpio finally finds out what family dynamics actually are, MC sympathises with how he is acting and even has a chance to snap back at Zyglavis, and yet it somehow all works out and Scorpio is saved from making a terrible mistake, but also with the knowledge that MC also gets upset at such acts.

4. Zygalvis

Position in Main Story: Equal 3rd with Tauxolouve

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 5th with Hue

Oh, and talking of Zyglavis, here he is! Right in the middle of where he was before. He's consistet if nothing else. His meter has dropped another couple of notches though.

Zig really doesn't make things easy for himself. At least there's no trials or threat of anihalation in this one... just the potential destruction of the world.

Oh wait. That's worse.

The detail I like the most in this is actually in the ending. I don't want to spoil it just in case but I will at least say it has something to do with his unique power.

For a Zig story where their relationship causes the issue, this arguably has some of the sweetest moments from him in it. Again especially the ending (I will admit it may have been a bit too long since I read some of these ones all the way through. I've been jogging my memory a little ^^;; )

=. Leon

Poisition in Main Story: Equal 8th with Aigo and Karno

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 7th with Ichthys, Teorus, and Scorpio

O-ho, what's this? Sheesh no one tell them they're sharing the same rank on this one it'll cause an argument for days!

That aside, I think I misjudged Leon. He acts with the jerkyness I think you probably would expect from someone with a unique power like his but... it seems his non believing in love wasn't just him not understanding but others treating him differently because of his immense power.

If you told me that there was a storyline in the game where one of the Gods was lonely... I think Leon might have been one of the last, if not the last, to even enter into my thoughts.

Also Zig? That was a bit of a jerk move on your part. You knew what you were doing when you framed your own past vision that way.

6. Huedhaut

Position in Main Story: Equal 1st With Ichthys

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 5th With Zyglavis

Note: The meter does end in Blessed here.

Oh... Oh Hue. Let's just bind the ties of fate even more together shall we? Ouch.

I'm not sure actually being Clotho for a bit (albeit in the past) will have helped how Hue's Promise of Infinity path goes, but it is a way to give more of the backstory on that without more dreams and also as MC is still there post what happened we get to see how Hue was really truly feeling.

As I say, OUCH.

But this does lead onto the Promise of Infinity and I warn you now... when we get to that I'm going to launch my full anger at the King.

=. Ichthys

Position in Main Story: Equal 1st with Hue

Position in Sequel Story: Equal 7th with Leon, Teorus, and Scorpio

Note: Also finishes in blessed meter like Hue's

Is Ikky messing with me? I swear I don't recall/didn't feel I was doing this badly with his sequels. Then again... I might have gone back through this one a bit? I've no idea.

Anyway geez talk about a massive mistake. At least it all got fixed. It was sweet watching him and MC having all these Deja Vu moments but not quite knowing why.

But sheesh, if the Heavens has a department for changing histories like this, maybe that's why certain things in certain routes aren't the same!

#star crossed myth #Star-crossed myth spoilers #star crossed myth review/character rambling #scm #scm ramble #scm leon #scm teorus #scm huedhaut #scm zyglavis #scm scorpio #scm dui #scm ichthys

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danpuff-ao3 · 2 years

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More Adventures in Bookbinding

My Aries Mercury + Mars really does a gal no favors

Being both a perfectionist but also stubborn + impulsive?? A nightmare.

Following instructions is wise but why be wise when you just know you can figure it out?

Many faux leather sheets and much glue was lost to the cause

I stabbed my finger with my utility knife because of course I did

Eddie was like "yeah I was worried about getting that for you."

(Sir, I am GRACEFUL, DELICATE, WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KNEW --)

Measuring stuff is the worst, but that's because my brain really hates numbers. The actual math portion is Big Suck. Thank god for Google home who can answer all of my questions when I'm sitting in the middle of chaos, covered in glue, and have lost my phone.

Oh yeah my house is chaos. RIP my super nice and pretty office space, hello madness.

I did however find the white fold up table I knew we had but couldn't find for days. My next project I'm doing on that instead of my desk + cube organizers. And my lap desk. And a stool.

My paper cutter/guillotine has been living in my kitchen because while it technically fits beside my printer, it's best used standing, and I have the best height at the kitchen counter. Hopefully the fold out table will work for this but we shall see.

My "first" technically bound book is done, but it hurts me to call it the first, so I'm calling it the test run. But for the sake of transparency I'm saying "hey I did all steps but I don't want to count this one, please and thank you."

Now it is being used as a way for me to test putting a title on the cover via stencils made with my Cricut + dye markers. So far not so good, but I'm getting closer!

Oh yeah and faux leather? Not the best place to start. It's like I decided to learn a new hobby on hard mode. But on the plus side maybe this means I'll get the hard part out of the way and have an easier time with other fabrics? If I choose to use them because really, I probably spoiled myself with the idea of leather bound books.

That is the reason my tester copy turned out as bad as it did. By the end I was so desperate to get the leather to stick AND have the case fit the text block, that I went overboard and cut my chipboard too wide. Oops.

First rounds with the case (following a tutorial), the cover was a teensy bit too short.

Then by the end I was fighting too hard with the leather to care about much else.

I'd probably be happier with the test run if my measurements hadn't been so off.

Also...wax paper??? I wish someone had told me about wax paper sooner. Now I'm not getting everything stuck with glue.

I'm going to have to buy TWO boxes of wax paper today. One for baking and one for crafting.

I am really bad at gauging how even things are. I think that's ruled by the same bit of my brain as Math Hatred. Further hindered by overthinking and perfectionism. (Nothing is ever straight/even enough 😭)

Oh remember how the first copy is the "test run"? I decided the smart thing to do was to after one failure do two at a time. (Not actually smart, but ah well.)

Current stage: waiting for the leather to dry along the top/bottom edges of the chipboard. Then I get to do it all over again with the side edges.

With luck I'll have measured everything properly this time but we shall see.

Oh yeah: the multiple sources recommending waxed thread?? Bad idea. Or at least buying pre-waxed thread was a bad idea. That stuff is THICK. Easy to work with, but THICK and not pretty at all.

Round 2 I used regular thread and double threaded my needle. Less easy but a better result all around.

On that note: stitching the signatures is my FAVORITE part??

Also poking the holes. Poking holes in paper is very satisfying.

Stitching the text block is very therapeutic. Just me on my couch watching true crime videos and stitching signatures together. A great time was had.

Also, minor complaint, I got leather sheets in a variety pack. Bad idea. One won't fit everything the right way. I ended up having to glue my chipboard to two sheets but the "matching shades" are slightly off from each pack. Most noticeable and horrifying with the white leather. 😭 Will be getting proper rolls next time.

Also new hobby has confirmed that my partner is 100% into my obsessive nature.

100% Eddie is very affectionate when I'm hyper focused on writing, and also when hyper focused on binding. Causes mild annoyance at the disruption, but I choose to be happy about it.

Like hell yes my partner fully appreciates me in my element and is super into me being super into what I love. Like...isn't that precious?? I can put up with disruptions to be loved for doing what I love.

Also: when I stabbed myself with my utility knife? Eddie didn't get home until after I went to bed. So when I woke up due to my finger throbbing, he was in his office unwinding after work. And I was high on sleeping meds and exhausted from a long day of working hard. So I just sorta shuffled all zombie-like into his office and held up my bandaged finger. He very quickly deduced what happened, jumped to attention, examined my wound, re-bandaged it, fed me pain meds, and tucked me back into bed. This probably matters not a wit to you but I adore this man with my whole heart and as I was already gushing about him...why not gush more?

Hopefully my next update will have a success story, but y'know...one thing at a time!

#danpuff stuff #bookbinding #fanbinding #busy bee bindery #should have called it CHAOS BINDERY #or “aries fucks my life up” bindery

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inaffablejam · 2 years

Text

The last month of Captain Hook

A James Hook x reader story

(gender not specified, used they as pronoun, once in the beginning)

Summary : being new on board, you had it rough. Running away from Pan and your never ending nightmares, lost in your thoughts. But will you finally find piece, together with a special captain, who can show much more emotions than you think.

TW: heavy Angst, graphic description of violence, short mention of suicide, some fluff in the middle

Words: about 7400 more or less

_________________

You were sitting on the railing, looking out at the sea. No wind, no waves today, everything was quiet. You knew something was coming, but for once, it was nice enjoying the upcoming sun in your face. Just you, the salty smell of the sea, and the birds above you, singing their song.

You know why you were here, you were on that bloody ship because you wanted to. Pan has been treating the Lost boys like shit. You weren't up for it. The others might look up to him. But only because he made them do. They weren't real, nothing was. Maybe you are, but can you be sure of that?

Hook, took you in, he accepted your request. You still don't know why, but he wasn't bad, he was genuine.

Maybe he just favored you, but was that bad. You liked your life in here. It was a real adventure, and other than Pan, no danger. Well besides the kraken, alligators, and most other sea creatures. But you would focus on the good things for once. It just felt right.

You heard the heavy footsteps, coming up. You didn't have to look. You just knew, and with him standing near you, you didn't feel scared, more like safe.

It was still early, your shift was up, and you are in need for some sleep. The night-shifts are getting to you. But it was your turn, and you're not going to complain. You're the Newby, the crew still didn't trust you. You would need to earn your respect.

Were they even real?

"You should go to sleep, I'm up now" Hook said while staring at the waters beneath you.

It was wierd nothing moved no waves, nothing.

"There's something going on" you turned around to get a good look at the sky " nothing is moving, something is just off. You know? "

" yes" he took a small break, and a step away from the railing

"I know, something is wrong... I don't think we'll be moving any time soon. But you" he pointed his hook on you standing near, so the metal would touch your chest. " You, will go to sleep, NoW, heaven knows you need it. If there's nothing going on, we'll have to row by ourselves. So restore your energy" it sounded rough, a bit like a thread, but you know he means well.

There was no room for complaints, it was an order.

"Yes sir, thank you" you said, walking away slowly. Smiling to yourself, sleep that sounds nice, and without the waves, you could hopefully catch a couple of hours.

You heard the ship go busy, everyone going on with their tasks. Hook was giving orders to the other sailors. He has a rough voice, but he just wanted everyone to survive.

You still hadn't figured out, if they were real or not. Is Hook real, or just another creation of Pan. Your mind began to drift off, trying to sort your thoughts.

You woke up, from someone shaking your body, screaming at you to wake up. How long have you been asleep?

Your eyes needed a bit to focus, your body begins to figure out where you are.

"Samuel, what" you began rubbing your eyes, yawning, stretching your body. But there was no time. Samuel started taking again, and you only understood parts of it.

"Pan, ship, Hook, invasion, rescue" there wasn't much more, but you had enough already.

As fast as you can, still wobbly, you got in your clothes. Trying to go without tumbling over the stairs. Which worked out well enough. Now your senses finally all woken up, you can be your best again, somehow.

The sun blended your eyes, the moment you stepped outside.

There were people running around everywhere, not just the crew, but Lost boys. All the familiar faces screaming at another, swords in the hands, and angry faces.

"there you are" Hook and Pan said almost at the same time. They looked at you, then looked at each other furiously.

"hello to you two" you said, still rubbing your eyes tiredly.

How didn't you hear the mess on board?

You didn't dare to look at them, they were still very intensely looking at each other. You could feel the tension coming from them, both.

Pan was the first to speak, much to Hooks disliking

"are you OK? We searched for you everywhere" you couldn't handle that, first they treat you like that, now he cares, there was no way.

"no you didn't. You never cared so why would you do now. Because I'm with him" you pointed at Hook, it was a gambling, speaking that way. You never know how he would react. Pan was always easily motivated by his moods. " I like being here, you know. I finally feel free, not captured by you." you went too far, you knew, but you can't let him get away with it. Not today.

"you think you're better than me? You wouldn't be here without me, you'd still be back there, if you would be alive." Pan growled at you, his face showed no signs of mercy. The other lost boys looked at him in shock. You knew it was true, you most likely would have killed yourself, if you were still back home." Go fuck yourself Pan, I'm staying... this feels as close to home as it gets" you mumbled the last part, but it was still loud enough. Hook looked at you, maby his face was showing surprise, you hoped you could figure it out someday. At least he smiled a bit.

" you heard that Pan, if they want to stay, they can. What will you do now. You and your little boys" Hook said teasingly, his grin showed his teeth. That was it. Pan lost it, he was always like that. You were fast to draw your sword, from your waist. Now standing in the middle, between them. You would try anything to prevent a bloodbath. The sound of swords clinging together echoed through the ship. He was fast, you tried your best to prevent his sword from hitting you. Hook was on the other side of the ship now, fighting with who knows who. You were busy staying alive. There was screaming, but you could still hear Hooks voice in between. Screaming for you. The sword went through, not yours, but you gave Pan a hard fight. With one more thrust you were laying on the hard floor. You could hear Hook screaming again, what was he saying, it was only in the background.

Pan lower himself over you" you could have chosen life, this is all your fault, I tried to save you" he smiled at you, but at least the fighting stopped. Pan was gone and so were the other lost boys.

Your body felt hot, everything is burning up. But your mind, felt free. Like for once, you felt calm, not scared of anything, no bad thoughts hunting you. Nothing.

Muffeld voices, you couldn't make up. You didn't want to, what was the point, anyway.

Someone was hitting your face, screaming at you. But honestly, you hadn't had any energy left, to open your eyes. The darkness was comforting.

You had to open your eyes somehow. How long were you out? Are you alive? You do remember Pan and why did you feel guilty about it?

Your throat hurts, it's sore. Just couching came out when raising your voice.

Then pain, everything hurts, you rather close your eyes again, and let yourself go into the sweet darkness.

" No, no, keep your eyes open, ok, can you do that."

There was a figure sitting in the dark shadows of the cabin. You knew that voice, but your mind couldn't focus on that.

At least you weren't dead yet.

"here drink up" the shadow revealed itself. Hook was standing there, with an apologizing look in his eyes. You tried sitting up, but almost blacked out again from the pain. You growled, biting your lip. "go easy, on yourself, you terrified the shit out of us, you know that" Hook, tried to joke, but you knew he meant every word. He helped you drink, the water felt good going down your throat. It was refreshing.

"Captain..." again just coughing, you let yourself fall down on the hard mattress.

"didn't I say go easy. Just relax for now, everything else will be taken care of."

He put down the glass beside you. You felt sick, ready to throw up, you hoped you could restrain yourself.

"Captain, sir.." you tried to speak up, and Hook let you

" thank you" you smiled, looking up at his figure.

You took a good look at him, his shoulder bloody, his red coat ripped up. He looked tired. Your eyes began to focus on the room, you could see much better now, once they got used to the dark.

It was his room, that means you were in his bed. Laying there, probably ruining the sheets. You tried lifting your body up, growing in pain. As you finally sat down.

"what do you think you are doing?" Hook looked at you with worry. "I... I am trying to" you stuttered.

"I see that. Now lay down again, you are exactly where you are supposed to be. Rest yourself" he helped guide you back again slowly. Felling the metal of his hook, on your torso. It was a good feeling, cooling, for you and your burning body.

You didn't need long after Hook left the room.

There was it again, the darkness. But it wasn't comforting. Why did you want to fight, what changed?

Was it Hook, and the fact that he cared about you. If he did care... maybe he wanted to get rid of you, abandon you on the next island.

You did probably disappoint him.

Pan was there because of you, and now he is hurt, you wouldn't blame him.

But the hope, was nice. So, you didn't give in into the darkness, you focused on the little light.

Your eyes opened much easier this time, no one was in the room. Maybe you hoped for it, that he would be there waiting for you to wake up.

Your body still in pain, your muscles sore. Still so little energy in your body.

You tried to stretch, straightening your body, telling it to move. As your legs, hit the ground, pain shot through your nerves. It was telling you to give up, lay back again. You wouldn't have that. Slowly moving forward, your hand holding your stinging abdomen. Step for step, taking as long and slowly as you need. You were already sweating, when you reached the door of the cabin.

It opened easily. At least something worked. Slowly closing the door behind you, now it was just the stairs up the deck. Just, yeah, like that was something easy to do. You growled in pain, biting your lip, until you could taste the iron on your tongue. The sun hit you, so it was day again.

Your eyes were too long in the darkness. You had to stand there for a second. Still no one seems to notice you, the final steps were the worst.

But you did manage it, somehow.

You smiled to yourself, you were happy. You accomplished something.

Samuel was the first to notice, he didn't say anything, just looked at you in worry. Samuel, waved his head in your sight. Hook noticed, and now drew his attention to you, away from the open ocean in front.

He looked disappointed.

You took a few more steps to the side of the ship. So, you could finally lay your body against the railing for support. Heavy breathing, your mind empty with no thoughts.

Hook came near, now standing in front of you, so you couldn't avert your gaze. You just looked down on the floor.

"what did I tell you" his voice was rough, but not with anger.

"I just..." you didn't know how to explain yourself, why did you even go out of bed anyway? "I know" your gaze found his "sorry" now you looked down again, trying to avoid the worried look in his eyes.

"OK.. OK, just sit down and move as little as possible. Now you're up, and I'm not letting you out of my sight again. You have to be careful with those stitches, not that they open up. An infection is the last thing we need" there was no room for complaints, you were slowly sliding down. The pain got less already, and you breathed out, not realizing you held it.

"thank you, I would rather not be alone right now" whispering the last part, but Hook looked at you in pity like he understood.

You spent the rest of the day, just looking at the crew, listening to the noises of the sea. It was peaceful, not like the last time. There was no sign of the fight, everything was clean. They even got the blood out of the wooden floor, like it was polished.

Good as new.

Samuel was looking after you, you two always got along together. You knew Hook ordered him, but that mostly made it better.

That's what family is supposed to do, look after each other.

You tried not to think too much about Pan, don't want to get your mood killed. You were struggling enough, with your own thoughts, already. No need for his words.

You should talk about it, maby that would make it easier. But there wasn't anyone, not that you wanted someone to find out. Or burden them with your thoughts.

You enjoyed the last sun ray, of the day. Looking up at the sky, the changing of colors until the stars will come up. It's like watching the colors fight for dominance. With the dark blue always winning the war. The red, yellowish colors always loosing with the last piece of the sunset. Giving in to the darkness.

It got colder, you already had the blanket around you. Samuel brought it to you a couple of hours ago. Still your body tensed up again, your muscles began shaking. You knew it was time to go inside. Although you would rather not move, out of the comfortable position.

You began to move slowly, biting your teeth together as the pain went through your body.

"I'll help you" you didn't even realize he came near you. But you gladly accept a helping hand. It wasn't less hurtful, but much easier to move. You could rest yourself on Hook's side, his arm around you. With his hand stabilizing your waist, trying not to touch your aching wound.

You felt his look on you, as he lead the way.

You realized soon enough where you two were heading.

" you don't have to, I can sleep with the rest"

" you need to rest, and I need to prevent you from doing anything stupid again. And it's better for you, the hammock isn't any good, with that thing always moving around." he spoke much more soft now, the day got to him.

"but where will you..."he interrupted your sentence, " dont worry, about me. "he laughed" focus on yourself for now, aye?"

" Aye, sir, thank you"

Your body hit the mattress, you let yourself down slowly. Looking around the cabin.

Hook lit a lantern, fiddling around with the matches. A dim light, brightening the room. His coat now hanging over a whittled chair. He looked exhausted, like there was a mask he has been keeping up the deck. You should ask him about his shoulder, he changed his fancy shirt, but there was still a trail of fresh blood.

Your eyes grew heavy, just like your body that was sinking deeper into the mattress.

Darkness again, the light got brighter. Little points of grell light coming from everywhere, just like the stars. A new day will come, you will hope for it.

And it did come. You were doing better every day. The stitches and the wound looked good, at least that's what Hook told you. You believed him, he was honest with you. You liked to think that he grew fond of you. The nights you spent together in the captain's cabin. He still let you sleep in his bed. He said he prefers the padded armchair in the corner of the room.

His shoulder still looked rough, he couldn't move around so easily anymore. He tried to train with Samuel, but he had to give up the sword fighting for now. Hook never showed his weakness to anyone, but you could see his mask slowly cracking, with every new day.

The crew hadn't had it easy, either. The ship wasn't moving, there was still no wind in sight. Portions are getting smaller, water was running low.

You would have to be rowing your way back to the island soon.

That was the worst place to be. You'd rather be staying here, in the middle of the never-ending ocean.

You were once again trapped in your own thoughts.

You had skipped breakfast, there wasn't much to eat anyway. So, you went up on deck, trying to make yourself useful.

You weren't the only one, but you tried to avoid the crew. The rationing has everyone, getting moody. You as well, you did notice getting in a bad temper. Like everyone has been going on your nerves, without a reason.

You looked up, it was a nice, warm day. No clouds are showing in the sky. Not a single bird in sight.

You got yourself a broom, that has been laying down next to the anchor. While slowly beginning to sweep up the dust, your mind falls into that sweet nothingness. No thoughts trouble your mind, and the monotonous work seems to calm everything down.

From time to time, you could feel the pain from the wound, but you could just work a bit slower and catch a delightful long breath to make it fade away.

Heavy footsteps signal you to take a break.

Hook cleared his throat behind you

" still working, I see" he looked at you in worry. You knew he wanted you to go easy on yourself. He doesn't want another one of his crew buried beneath the waters of the sea.

"don't worry, I'm doing it slowly. It actually calms me down, and I have time to sort out my mind." you told him, deciding to take a break. You leaned on the mast. Hook still stared at you, his glance not leaving your face.

"I know we have to leave soon, portions are getting smaller, the crew has been going weaker. But I'd like to stay here forever" you told him, it was easy to talk to him. It's like he understood what you meant. But still, you tried to avoid to look him in the eyes.

"we have to, we won't survive another week. We had luck getting this far." his hook went under your chin, forcing your eyes to find his. Maybe you should be scared, but the cold metal, felt just right on your skin. It was like the world was standing still, the crew was freezing at the moment, just for the two of you.

"I know what you mean, I'd like to stay here forever, if we would have enough food and water, maybe a bit rum, I'd command that we stay like that. I know Pan will be a pain in the ass back at Neverland. Especially with you here." His eyes soften up, like it was becoming a habit.

"I'm sorry" you said, your voice breaking, you knew he was right. He wanted you, and he wouldn't give up. He always got what he wanted, in the end.

"don't be, I want you here. And we will just stock up and, go back to the sea. I hope we will have luck with a bit of a wind, or even a storm. I don't care, just something that will get us as far away from there as fast as possible." he caught his breath, " we will be OK, the crew will be OK, we just have to be careful. " he smiled, but a sad glimpse was in his eyes. Like he tried to persuade himself.

"....OK.... " you gave him a weak smile, you both knew, it would be far more difficult. You tried to pick up the broom from the floor. But his hand stopped you, taking the broom himself.

"your work is done here, restore your energy. Will row ourselves out of here, in the covers of the nightfall."

His voice was rough again, like everything, every thought you shared before was long forgotten. You could still feel the spot, where his hook was, burning up. Your whole body felt hot. You should better obey his orders, you knew better than that.

You would need your energy, you just hoped you wouldn't meet Pan or any other of his companions. But that was a wish too high out of reach, of course he would be there. It's his island, everything would be perfect for Pan. No one was safe, from his little games.

Hook was real, the thought was flashing your mind. He must be, let him be real.

The afternoon was rather uneventful, Samuel was trying to have a little chat with you. But you couldn't be bothered. Your thoughts came flowing in, overwhelming your feelings and your mind.

The night begins to dawn, the sky fighting once again for dominance.

The dark blue sky slowly won, against the bright beautiful colors of the sunset.

The mood around the crew got worse, with the sighting of the moon.

With Hooks, rough voice commanding everyone on deck. It's going to be a long night.

The rudder laying hard in your hands, sweat already forming on your forehead, slowly dripping down.

The muscles were already tense, no-one dared to say a word. Just everyone moaning in effort.

You could feel your abdomen trying to rip open again. It wasn't fully heald, there was a risk, but you would have to take it.

Samuel looked at you from time to time, his face grew with worry, with each hour.

Maybe a chat would lighten the mood, but no one even dared to say something.

You didn't know how long you've been working constantly, it felt like day's.

No land in sight, no birds in the sky above.

Just the stars showing the way, back to Neverland. The land you tried to forget with every cell in your body.

A pool of sweat was forming beneath you, on the old planks of the deck.

Your wound... You tried not to think about it. The stitches were slowly ripping you could feel blood, dripping down your body soaking in the shirt.

"take a break, I'll take it" Samuel's voice grew with worry. His gaze looking at the sky, but he could feel your body tense up with every new row.

"it's OK, I can take it" you tried to laugh it off, with a small chuckle.

" that wasn't a suggestion, you go take a break, I'm sure the captain would like some company as well" his lips formed a smirk, your cheeks grew hot, you rolled your eyes at him.

Trying to stand up, letting Samuel on his own, you could feel the pain coming in. You bit down on your tongue, while walking upstairs. Tasting the iron in your mouth with disgust.

Looking down at you, you did see a small trail of blood spreading on your shirt. It didn't look too bad, nothing that couldn't be stitched again.

Hook saw you coming up the wooden staircase. Looking at you in anticipation and worry forming in his eyes. You liked to think that his eyes show his real emotion, not the mask he's trying to keep up.

"hi captain, Samuel, send me up. Ordered me for a break, but I would rather not disturb you, just.." you couldn't focus on your words, they were just stumbling out of your mouth.

Hook waved his hand and interrupted your sentences. " I know, I asked him to keep an eye on you. At least he did his job." he checked you up, his gaze stopping at your stomach

" you're bleeding? " It wasn't really a question, still you shacked your head, not trusting your words.

" I'll stitch you up, sit down" his voice was rough, with anger, but not directly at you.

You gladly obeyed his order, feeling your body going down against the railing. Hook came back, but you haven't realized he left in the first place.

" lift your shirt up" you did, and it looked better than it felt. " that's going to hurt, try not to move so much" his voice softened up again, while he fiddled with the needle.

His hook holding you tight against the wood, trying to stop you from moving.

" deep breath now darling"

Your mind went blank, not just with the ongoing pain.

What did he just call you?

Deep breaths, at least you tried, but the stinging from the needle, shook your body through with pain. It wasn't long, Hook was trying to work fast and steady. It was done, your body still trembling. Hook was gone once again, probably downstairs washing his hands, with the cold salty water from the sea.

You let your head fell back, staring up to the stars, like it has been becoming a habit.

You could hear his footsteps coming back up, your eyes found his.

"you did good" you laughed, and you could see a smirk forming his lips. Your body slowly ending the shivering.

" I think it was easier, last time while I was unconscious" you said.

He nodded, "indeed, but I'm not the best man for first aid either." He shook his hook in the air, waving around. You laughed again, holding your abdomen. His smile grew wider.

" thank you, honestly, for everything" you whispered loud enough for him to understand, but avoiding his look once more.

He sat down next to you, his hurt shoulder colliding with the hard railing. " it's OK to be scared, we don't know what we'll be facing" why did he always know what you've been thinking about " and I can't say for sure that we'll be OK. But I'll do my best that everyone survives, and I know you'll do the same." he nudged you with his shoulder, he hurt himself, but made you smile in return.

You didn't even realize you let your head rest on his shoulder. There was just this comfortable silence between the two of you.

You should go back to work, but you just wanted to stay like that forever. That was selfish, you knew that. But wasn't that OK, being selfish once in a while. Hook didn't seem to mind, his mind was drifting away, you would give everything to look behind his mask.

His head was resting on top of yours now, and he began to humm a soft melody.

You felt free, your mind wasn't wandering around. Everything was perfectly calm.

You looked back in the sky, counting the stars, and birds. Birds, you shook up, disrupting Hook's thoughts.

"Birds" you said loudly.

"birds" he replied, while looking up, following their movements in the sky. You both knew that moment you shared was over. You looked down, of course you would be disappointed. And scared for what might come.

Hook, gave you his hand, and you took it, to stand up. You both growled in pain, but shared a small laugh once you were standing up. You looked around, there it was, it wasn't near, but you could see Neverland, on the horizon in front of you.

"I'll better head back" you waved your hand, earning a nod from him. Hook was back, whatever you shared was over. But you would relive that memorie over and over in your head.

Sitting back next to Samuel, giving him a sorry look. Rowing again, the last miles in front of you. You couldn't tell how long the crew has been going, but the sky was already forming colors again. The light would be winning against the darkness, of the night.

And a new day will come.

The sun was rising above the ship, as you came nearer and nearer to Neverland. You could taste the salty breeze of the ocean, while you rowed.

You were beneath the Jolly Ranger now, on one of the few rowing boats. The whole crew was leaving the ship, you wanted nothing more than to stay on board. But you weren't safer there anyway. So, you shared a boat with Hook and Samuel and a few other crew members.

You just wanted to be away, be non-existent in this bloody world of Pans. The fear took over you, your body began to tens up once more.

Hook laid his hand, comforting, down your thigh. You looked up at him, but his dejected look was leaning his way, to the island in front of you. You tried to focus on your breathing, calming your body and mind down.

There you were, standing on the ground again. After months out on the sea. Your legs wanted to shake with the rhythm of the water. You wanted to lay down. What would you give for a day at the beach, with no worries? Just you and Hook. You smiled at the thought, that would be nice. But too good to be true.

Now you were on that bloody island, you reached your destination. Just get the job done, and get back to the ship as fast as possible.

You had to wait for the rest, Hook wanted everyone together before splitting up the tasks, under the crew.

It would be faster that way, maybe a bit more dangerous. But on that island everything is, it wouldn't be a huge difference.

You were in a group of five, including Hook and you. You would feel even better with Samuel on your side, but he had a lot of practical experience, so he went with another group hunting.

You were in for fruit and vegetables if you were lucky. Something fresh to eat, would definitely be a good change.

You would have to go deeper into the forest, near the crocodile creek. You knew the island, you lived here for years. Not only that, but you buried all the long forgotten Lost Boys, in the woods. All the little boys Pan created to play, only ending up injured or worse. So much lives got lost, the pain and the screams you would never forget.

Slowly you went through the undiscovered paths. Away from the beach, leading you to the heart of the island. You crossed every one of your fingers, not to cross the road of a Lost Boy.

No one dared to say a thing, trying to walk as quietly as possible without blowing your cover. You went first, much to your disliking, but you knew it best. You signaled to stop, listening to the sounds of the forest.

Nothing

There was nothing, not even a bird that was daring to make a sound.

You were walking straight into the trap, the Lost Boys are hunting, and you are the prey. You closed your eyes, focusing on your thoughts. Everyone has weapons, but the two of you were already injured. It wasn't looking good. But you had to get going.

So, you proceed to went on, without much hesitation. You would not go without a fight, neither would the others. Especially Hook and his big ego. We would show them a fair fight if they wanted to. But then Pan could bury even more of his playthings beneath the grounds of the forests.

That wouldn't stop him of course, he would just get more, create them under the favor of the island. As bad as it might be, it was worse under Pans dictatorship. You knew that now, you were smarter than years ago. You lost track of the time, pan stole you away from your life. "saved" you from yourself, as he'd like to say.

It was mercy in his eyes, you should be honored.

That pathetic little boy.

Hook tapped your shoulder with his blade. Getting you out of your thoughts. You were thankful of that.

You looked back at him.

His head coming near you, so he could whisper you in your ear.

" they are near, I can feel it." you nodded your head in agreement. "whatever will happen, don't wander off, you will stay by my side" another nod from you. Your cheeks growing hot, you looked down in embarrassment, avoiding his gaze, that was still staring at you. He went in front of you, leading the way.

You were thankfull for that, but your thoughts keep over flooding your mind.

The first fruits were in sight, you felt relieved. The crew trying to get as many as possible, from the tall trees above. You could already taste the fresh sweetness of fruits in your mouth. You were waiting beneath them, not trusting your abdomen to climb that high up. But you've been catching the fruits, trying to load as many as possible. Before heading to the next tree and the next.

You were getting watched, you could practically feel all the eyes staring at your back. Just because you couldn't see anyone, doesn't mean there aren't any. Maybe you were lucky and just the fairies would spy on you.

You had enough, a breath escaped your nose, that you didn't know you held. It was done, you would just have to head back to the boats. Not like that was easy, but you got what you needed.

You looked at Hook, showing him a genuine smile. He smirked back at you, once again leading the way back, to your destination. You were standing by the trees a second longer than anticipated, looking around for any signs of Pan. You could feel him looking at you in disgust and laughing with that ugly voice.

You caught up on Hook, with fast steps forward. You felt safer by his side, and much more calm.

So, there you were, the two of you leading the way through the maze of the jungle.

You leand onto his side

" something should happen, everything went too smoothly" you whispered in his ear. His long thick curls tickling your nose. He shortly peeked his eyes to you, before focusing on the patch once again. Nodding in agreement, not wanting to make much more sounds than necessary.

You could feel the sun on your skin, the trees are getting thinner. The end is near. You could feel the mood lightening, the stress falling from the minds and body's of the crew.

Samuel was waiting for you at the beach. Hook went to him for his report. You just tried to relax your body, sitting down at the beach, while the others got the fruits in the boats. You let your hands explore the sand, letting it go between your fingers. How long were you away? Time was something here that you would never understand, it was a whole mystery on its own. But then again, the entire island was.

Hook was looking at you, waiting for your consent. You nodded, smiling at him, while he was trying to make himself comfortable beside you.

" we will just wait for the others, a group is still missing" he waited for your reply, but you were lost in your thoughts, just nodding at him again.

" what are you thinking about, you haven't been yourself, until we left the ship" he taped at your arm, expecting an answer. His eyes felt heavy on you.

" are you real?" nothing more no explanation, that were the words that left your body

" you know?" he stopped, and you nodded again, not trusting your voice. " I think I am, but I can't be certain. I have memories from before, not many but a few. And I think that is something to hold on to" you let your back fell down in the sand, now laying there, looking up at the sky.

" are they?" you waved your hand along the crew

" I don't think so, most likely Pan created them, to have something to fight against, in his bloody game" he stopped, looking down in sadness

" I wish they were, I wish we could get out of that mess, but every time my path will lead me to that island, again and again. There is no escape... heaven knows I tried." He was exhausted, his mask fell, he was himself, and he showed his real emotions. He was hugging his legs, trying not to be overwhelmed by everything, that has happened.

"what can we do?" you were pushing your luck with all the questions, but you wanted answers. Hook grabbed your hand in his, bringing it near his head. And kissing them. Grabbing onto it, like his life depends on it.

“Die eventually” that was his answer, he didn't try to lighten your mood, he was honest with you, as depressing as it might be. You grabbed his hand even tighter, trying not to cry. You wouldn't lose your hope, even though Hook has long given up. He was just trying to survive for his non-existent crew.

The last group arrived, and gave Hook their report. You would just have to get back to the ship now.

The ride back was quiet, everyone was exhausted from the last days. Like they just wanted to stock up the storeroom, and finally lay down to have their earned rest.

The energy was running low, but there was still a lot to come.

Much to your disliking, Hook took it up to himself, to row the boat. That wasn't helping his shoulder, and from the looks of it, he felt the stinging coming from his wound.

At least, it wasn't far. You could see the ship from the beach, and the wooden ladder came into reach which every new row. You weren't the first to arrive, but not the last either, somewhere in the middle.

Others already got their supplies in the storage when you finally reached your destination.

You helped, getting fruits and the corpses of the dead animals, on board of the Jolly Ranger, before heading up on deck.

You reached for the end of the ladder, but your foot, slipped away from the wet wood.

Hook reached your arm, so you could be standing firm again, on the last rung of the ladder. You were breathing heavily, your chest felt like it would explode, while no air seemed to reach your lung.

Hook wrapped his hooked arm around your shoulder, while you were standing save on deck. His hook touching your chest, going up and down with the rhythm of your breathing.

"you OK ? " you shook your head in approval. " than don't do that again" his eyes felt heavy on you, but his smile showed a grin, like he thought it was funny.

There was still no wind in sight, the whole trip, not even one tree moved his foliage. Something is happening within the island.

The crew wouldn't have the energy left to, row yourselves out of here, not today. You would have to wait, until everyone could catch at least a few hours of sleep.

"the two of us, will be covering the night-shift, we had the most rest." you nod, of course. That would be the most logical thing, but you wouldn't say no to a nap either.

On the other side, some alone time with Hook was something to look forward to.

" sure thing, captain" you said mockingly, while freeing yourself out of his arm. Hook laughing from your comment, while you were walking to the others and spreading the news.

Samuel looked exhausted just like the others, and you could be sure you didn't look exactly pleasant as well.

Samuel raised his eyebrows knowingly"so it will be just the two of you? " he smirked, you hit his arm. He smiled at you " don't do something I wouldn't do" you rolled your eyes, throwing your hands in the air, and turning around.

It got dark again, and the crew got less and less on board. Slowly heading under deck, to enjoy a nice deserved sleep.

The nightfall began, the last colors fading away into the darkness. You sat yourself down, on an old empty water barrel. Looking up to the sky, counting the constellation of the stars.

" what are you looking at" you didn't hear him approaching this time, lost in your thoughts. He changed his clothes, in much less fancy ones, but still in his bright beautiful red. It's his color, you must admit. You took a few seconds staring at him, while he was looking at you, impatient.

" just the stars, nothing special" you said, excepting a mocking comment.

" they are special though, everyone is a sun full of planets around them" he looked up " they guide us, show us the way, in the shadows of the night." he sat himself down on the opposite of you. His head still looking up, like you did seconds before.

" not here, they will not lead us back where we belong" you ruined the moment, killed the mood with your comment. That you already regret while it was leaving your mouth.

" there you are right. But you don't want to go home, do you? It wasn't better, I heard what Pan said. Don't think I can forget that so easily." you looked down in shame, he was right. But you still wanted to get away, away from this nightmare. " and don't think I can't relate" you looked up again, curiosity shown in your face.

" I was his first, you know. I know what it feels like. I admired him, at some point, looked up to his work.

Pan made me the villain in his stories, the moment I had enough. Enough of burying all the little boys, that he grew tired of." Hook looked down in shame, just like you had seconds before him. So, he really knew what it feels like, he got you. The pain you went through, you threw your arms around his torso, holding him tight. You could feel his body tense up, before relaxing again. You laid your head comforting on top of his, trying to breathe in his rhythm.

He took your head between his hook and his hand. Slowly standing up, you looked him in the eyes, leaning your head in his hand. He bent down until he reached your high. And kissed you soft and slowly. You could feel the tears running down his cheeks.

It felt like the universe was exploding around you.

He broke it, catching his breath. You guided your hands to his eyes, whipping his tears away with your thumb. You smiled, taking his body in your arms, hugging him tight. Like you were scared, he would just fade away any second.

" I hope I didn't misinterpret anything" he laughed nervously, his voice cracking in the middle.

" no it was perfect thank you, Hook" you muffled in his shirt.

"call me James" his arms reached behind him. Like he was fiddling to get something.

" James... James." you tried it out, and you quite liked the sound of it. The name suits him perfectly. It sounds elegant just like him.

"I like you James, you are one mystery on your own," you admitted looking him in the eyes, smiling wide.

" I like you too, much more than I could ever admit" he got his hand free, showing a pistol.

Two shots, that's all it took. You couldn't reach out, react fast enough. You were lying on your back, your chest felt warm. You were bleeding out on deck of the Jolly Ranger. You could hear another shot, a body hitting the floor, before everything went quiet. Your body didn't hurt, it was his mercy you knew that, the thought shot in your mind the moment you saw the gun in his hand.

Your thoughts went blank and everything grew quiet.

You were finally free.

#Evil Peter pan #Neverland #Captain hook #Reader #x gender neutral reader #Be ready for the pain #i'm actually proud of this #Trust me im sorry for writing this #My mind was just ready for some angst #Angst #Inspired by all the queer pan and Hook stories I've been reading lately #Finally a story were the villain gets what he really needs #love in the air #Hehe

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finishwhatyoustarted-event · 1 year

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Finished It Friday - October 6

Happy #FinishedItFriday! Here we can celebrate everyone who has finished a project in the latest week of the event.

A little late thanks to a forgetful mind and hectic Friday, but these works can be enjoyed whenever!

Link to the twitter thread for those with tweet promos

in this electric galaxy (we defy the darkness) by moon__goddess

EXO (band) - Kim Jongdae | Chen/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay - Adventures in Space, Canon Typical Violence, Mass Effect AU, No Reapers AU - Rated T "Cartagena Station, the Nemean Abyss, Milky Way 2190 CE Mission: Retrieve information from contact at Fringe. Covert operation. Return information in exchange for target location. (Un)Fortunately, everything does not go as planned."

Turnabout Reprise by HopeStoryteller

逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney - Ayasato Chihiro | Mia Fey & Godot, Ayasato Chihiro | Mia Fey/Houzuki Tomoe | Lana Skye, Kidzuki Kokone | Athena Cykes/Morizumi Shinobu | Juniper Woods - Case Fic, Post-Gyakuten Saiban 6 | Spirit of Justice, Fix-It of Sorts, Murder, Mistaken for Being in a Relationship - Rated T "It's time for the retrial of one Mr. Diego Armando, though these days he prefers the name Godot. Athena Cykes is, maybe, a little nervous about how this is going to go—not to mention a little lost as to why Mr. Wright wanted her specifically here. Still, there's definitely something here that didn't get uncovered the first time around, something that will hopefully change everything. (And if there isn't... well, she can at least say that she tried.)"

Longing to Linger With You by blabbyshark

NSFW - Band of Brothers (TV 2001) - Lewis Nixon/Richard Winters - Getting Together, Swing Dancing, Oral Sex, 5+1 Things, Period Typical Attitudes - Rated E "Five times Dick and Nix dance during the war and one time they dance afterwards."

Haemorrhage (Tell me, if I run away, how long will I bleed?) by Edai

NSFW - Naruto - Gaara & Kankurou & Temari (Naruto) - Alternate Universe – Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Dysfunctional Family, Making Up, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Depression, Consent Issues, Coming Out - Rated E "Kankurou and Temari’s relationship has been damaged for a while already, but, this time, they’ve reached a breaking point that is going to require much more work than usual to fix, and he’s not sure he’s got it in him anymore. //Content Warnings: There are descriptions and discussions of alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, addiction and withdrawal/craving in about every chapter. I will add other chapter-specific content warnings as needed, but those are pretty much constant for the whole fic so I won’t be repeating them. Rated E for some sexually explicit moments, though no full smut scene. Some of them are dubiously consensual/partially non-consensual. The chapters will have warnings ahead."

This Genshin meme

Little Reason by heyholmesletsgo

Tumblr promo - 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) - Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén - Fights, Chases, Innuendo, Farce - Rated T "Defending Song Lan's honor, Xiao Xingchen trades insults with a woman of the night, and has his guan of white jade stolen."

#finish what you started 2023 #finishwhatyoustarted2023 #finished it friday

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novelmonger · 1 year

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I've been watching American Born Chinese, which is mostly just a fun, delightfully awkward story based on the graphic novel that's one of only three books I've kept from my Asian Lit class back in the day. I really enjoyed it (though, in the end, it wasn't very much like the book), but there's a whole list of things I kept expecting to be at least a semi-important plot point that would come up later, but never did.

Thanks, Disney, now I'll be disappointed about these things forever:

Jin shoplifts a jacket and gets away with it, even though there's a scene where it looks like he feels guilty about it. This is never brought up again. He only wears it one time (because he thinks it will make him confident, which it doesn't), and there's nothing about him returning it or his parents finding out what he did or anything. There was this one scene where his mom is cleaning his room where I was sure she would find it, but nope.

Jin's family (or maybe just his mom?) is Christian, and yet there's never even a whisper of discussion about how you're supposed to reconcile that with this whole dimension of Chinese gods who live in Heaven. I know better than to expect any sort of realistic portrayal of Christians from Disney, of all places, but still.

The whole show, I kept on waiting for the soccer dudes to turn out to be fake friends. There was all this buildup and tension about Jin wanting to be cool and on the soccer team, and Wei Chen being weird and dorky and pulling him in a different direction. Episode after episode, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. The guy who was clearly just using Jin to get the heat taken off him for making a racist meme. Travis getting back at Jin for punching him in the face. I was expecting at least the hazing situation to reveal that these popular guys don't actually care about Jin at all, and his real friends are actually the dorky, cringey ones because they actually care about him as a person. But nope. Everybody's just cool with him. Jin is super popular. End of story.

WHAT ABOUT THE SOCCER GAME?!?!? I know that's not the point of the story by a long shot and what we really care about is the showdown with the Bull Demon...and I'm the last person who would normally want to see more sportsball being played...but COME ON. At the very least, they could have dropped a line of dialogue afterwards about "Too bad you lost, but at least you stopped the uprising" or something.

And of course they had to end on a cliffhanger. I'll certainly watch a second season, but it feels like they used up all the inspiration from the source material in the first season, so I'm not really sure where they're going to go from here. Hopefully, the second season will tie up its threads more neatly.

#american born chinese

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gorogues · 2 years

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Spoilers for this week's episode of Stargirl!

I'm going to put it behind a cut again so nobody gets spoiled scrolling past the post.

So that person who'd predicted Sylvester was actually the Ultra-Humanite last season must be feeling pretty good right now. Because that's who he's been the entire time, and the guy currently in the giant ape body is the Dragon King. Icicle still seems to be Jordan Mahkent, but who knows at this point…and either way, he's definitely evil. Jordan lies to his own son that he thinks the missing art teacher was murdered by the Ultra-Humanite, rather than just having had another psychotic break as Cameron is hoping. And of course the teacher was actually murdered by Lily Mahkent, who still has the gall to attend a vigil for him. Jordan suggests he can capture the Ultra-Humanite to convince the JSA -- and his son, who seems to have some private doubts -- that he's truly changed.

As I'd suspected, Sylvester's horrible manipulative advice was in fact meant to manipulate the kids for his own ends. We don't get an explanation for his occasional bouts of good advice, but the U-H does seem to be having trouble distinguishing between his own identity and Sylvester's at times, so maybe the wise words came through when he thought he was Sylvester. Or maybe it was simply to ingratiate himself with the JSA, because nobody would listen to him if he was always giving terrible advice. But Rick's plight is his fault, as is Mike's recklessness, and he encouraged the wedge between Yolanda and Cindy and the distance between Beth and her parents. And he's gotten the Staff to obey him over Courtney, probably because he's been allowed to use it. He's also convinced Artemis not to kill Jordan because he claims he'll do it for her (and he likely won't, not unless he gets confused about being Sylvester again. Which is possible.)

The end result of all these shenanigans is that Rick's going through painful withdrawal when he takes off the hourglass, and Pat is buried alive by his 'friend'. Courtney's lost the Staff to the Ultra-Humanite, while Mike, Jakeem, and Cindy are in danger from the Dragon King in a super strong body. Whether the three villains are truly committed to working with each other or will turn on the others as soon as it's convenient remains to be seen; I'm curious if Jordan claiming he'll bring in the U-H is an actual declaration of plans, or just a way to keep his son on his side. Cameron will probably be a wildcard in the upcoming confrontation, because he does seem to have doubts about his father, but for understandable reasons he'd rather believe his dad is a good man. It'll likely come down to who he trusts more, Courtney or Jordan, and if he finds out who really killed his teacher then that'll probably make him fully side with the JSA. His choice will be sad for him either way.

There's only one episode left, so it's a bummer that some plot points and questions in this series will never be answered. But apparently the show filmed two finales, one to wrap up the series and one if the show was renewed, so at least it shouldn't end on a true unresolved cliffhanger. I'm glad they put that kind of forethought into it, even if not all questions will be answered. It'd sure be nice if DC/WB/CW made a later standalone episode to tie up more threads and develop arcs somewhat (like the Shade's adventures with Jennie, Todd, and Sandy, and maybe Rick's addiction story) so they don't get ended as they've just begun, but that's probably never going to happen. But you never know, and hopefully next week's series finale will be enjoyable and satisfying for longtime viewers.

#Icicle #Stargirl #Starman #Pat Dugan #Hour Man #Dr Mid Nite #Wildcat #Shiv #Jakeem Thunder #spoilers: Stargirl #Stargirl TV series #reviews

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alynnl · 1 year

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I’ve cleared the Forgotten Turnabout this morning. I have quite a few thoughts as always.

It was another one of those bittersweet and actually, very open endings.

Franziska is salty. Very salty that Edgeworth willingly turned in his prosecutor’s badge so he wouldn’t have to follow orders to turn over Kay immediately for arrest. This sort of rubbed me the wrong way because she does realize he didn’t have much of a choice, right? Edgeworth was backed into a corner.

Sebastian got totally broken down and he honestly didn’t deserve that. Yes, he was a brat, and very annoying. But for Blaise to constantly cut him down, to say “all the awards you got were the result of me bribing your teachers” and to call him an idiot without joking. To berate Sebastian for “not trying hard enough” when he was honestly giving his best effort. For him to know that Justine was just getting close to him to get to his dad. He ran off, and we never did find him. I wonder if he’ll ever recover from this!

Justine has apparently been a double agent this whole time, in some effort to finally get Blaise arrested because she suspected him of handing von Karma forged evidence 18 years ago in the IS-7 Incident. She not only used Sebastian but she also used Edgeworth in her schemes and even if she was sort of helpful towards the end of the case I’m not sure her actions leave a good taste in my mouth. She seems to care more about passing judgement in the name of the Goddess of Law than for the lives of people around her.

Then there’s Gumshoe. He is in utter shock that Edgeworth forfeited his prosecutor’s badge and hasn’t seen him face-to-face since then. It’s hard to know what this means. Was Gumshoe only loyal to Edgeworth as a prosecutor and not as a person? Or does he somehow blame himself for the way the situation spiraled out of control, leading to Edgeworth having to give up his badge and Kay possibly being arrested? (Maybe he didn’t want to be there to make the arrest himself or testify in a possible trial.)

I will honestly be sad if Gumshoe and Edgeworth don’t see each other again in the fifth and final case of Investigations 2 because they have been side-by-side in a lot of their cases. It’d be like separating Holmes and Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series, or Sam and Frodo from Lord of the Rings! To keep them apart permanently would be unthinkable!

But on the plus side...

Kay regained her memories! And it was because she got a hold of her promise book again, which was something she lost in a different case. In that book was the beginnings of who she is now as the Yatagarasu. It’s nice to see her usual fire back too. There’s also some clarity on what happened before she lost her memory.

Edgeworth is free! He still doesn’t have his badge because Blaise, the chairman of the PIC got arrested and so there can’t be another hearing about whether to bring him back as an official prosecutor any time soon. But at least he’s not in jail anymore. He gets to go home, and he’s determined to find the truth behind what really happened in the Grand Tower case, since arresting Blaise apparently wasn’t the end of it. He got a call from De Killer of all people informing him of this much.

I have to hand it to him, he is rather resilient. I’m just hoping the truth doesn’t put him in anymore danger but at least he’s aware of the power of friendship/teamwork and he will have support if he is in some sort of distress. He’s opening himself up to others, I’m happy for him.

There is only one more case left to wrap up the loose plot threads from the fourth case, along with any new twists that might come up along the way. I have looked at the “how long does it take to play all the cases” document and this finale will be a long runner at 8 hours, so I imagine there will be a lot of content packed in, interesting twists, and hopefully, if all goes well, an ending credits montage and a candid final photo.

I will take my time with this last case since I know it will be the last time I will see Edgeworth in a major role, and I will miss him when it comes time to play Ace Attorney 4-6.

#Lynn speaks #Lynn plays video games #long ramble under the cut #Lynn has too many feelings about video games #Ace Attorney: Investigations 2 ~ Prosecutor's Path #Miles Edgeworth #The Forgotten Turnabout #Blaise Debeste can get thrown from a window #He is the WORST #Justine is on thin ice but she released my dear Edgey from jail #Detective Gumshoe please come home #Sebastian let's get you to a therapist #Franziska maybe chill?

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hotaugust · 2 years

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Getting more into my parts in therapy. It’s making me feel insane. The more I allow them, the more conflicting thoughts I have and I feel like I get lost in the discourse, not knowing where I stand on anything, what I think of anything. Ofc I’m supposed to allow this whilst the core, current me, is feeling… solid?? But I feel like that’s what’s been pushing them down all my life or has been constructed via their repression so it seems kind of mutually exclusive atm.

Was also talking about things I did to protect myself during abuse or certain situations or being around certain people and my therapist identified that as a type of splitting. Which I agree with. She also said that if I hadn’t of done that, had the small but constant strive to hold on to myself as myself for myself via the splitting then I would have ended up just like them. ( no authentic self? no ability to recognize other people as entireties in their own right) ! > some appreciation for those parts I guess!

Just hard looking at things in this light, in any light, having not shined even a dim torch on this kind of thing before. Really feels like we are stretching out a big ol’ tangled ball of yarn with several different types of interlocking thread out across a big table and taking a step back and looking at it. Identifying what’s linked to what and where. A lot of the yarn is really ugly to look at and I don’t want to accept it as part of my yarn ball (lol this metaphor…) and I think it’s especially hard to accept when looking at it clearly like this (maybe I can accept it sort of vaguely?) but uhh ye that’s the process I guess.

Meanwhile in the times where I am able to a live a little I’ve been trying to do things that help me feel like an Effective Human Being. It can feel good to notice that you are a person and you have impact on the world!! I’ve been doing this with cycling and I’m going to try bouldering next week. Today i volunteered at a community garden in the countryside and it was great!! Hopefully I can write something a bit more thought out on that but for now I’m just stream of consciousness therapy logging ??

#therapy log #for me

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ali-annals · 1 year

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3: gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies

Invisible String Masterlist PREVIOUS NEXT AO3

One single thread of gold tied me to you

Marinette picked an embroidery style for Damian’s suit.

From now on, everything I make him will have a gold thread in it , she decided.

She made him a matching Phantom-of-the-Opera style mask for when he went out as MDC’s date, or Fairy’s…once she told him she was Fairy, or he figured it out.

She admitted to being curious about a professional vigilante detective’s scrutiny of her alter-ego(s).

Her fans, ‘Wings' as they called themselves, could be a little crazy…just like the press. She didn’t want to throw him out there.

She couldn’t sleep that night and wrote two new songs. Maybe they’d debut at Christmas? Fairy was giving a concert for charity in partnership with the Thomas and Martha Wayne Foundation then…. which could work, get more sales and increase the appeal.

At two a.m., she called Penny and Chloe to discuss the topic and listen to her demos.

After Penny ended the call, Marinette portalled Chloe to her home.

“I met my soulmate again, Chlo! His name is Damian Wayne, and he’s…perfect, so far.”

“Um, do you have a picture of him, Maribug?”

“I got one of him for reference, in the suit I’m making him, so I know where to put the embroidery. Does this work?” Mari handed over her phone to her bestie/manager.

“His brother is Tim Drake?”

“Yeah, he ordered Damian a jacket last Christmas.”

“Mhm. Of course, your soulmate is a Wayne.”

Marinette flopped against the back of the sofa. “I knowww. I was hoping there were two people named Damian Wayne in Gotham, but then he told me his brother was Tim Drake as he was leaving and then he just left me with the fact that my soulmate is American Royalty!”

~~~

“Hey, Demon Spawn, we’re going to a concert on the 21st,” Jason informed Damian.

“Can't come; I’m busy.”

"But it’s Fairy performing! You know you like her music, and she’s singing two new songs for the first time, too,” Dick wheedled.

“Sorry. I have plans.”

Plans to be with Fairy .

~~~

Marinette had told Damian she was Fairy when she presented him with the suit and mask and asked him to be her date/bodyguard to the concert.

He accepted, of course, and reported that the Waynes still had no idea Damian was dating anyone, or had a soulmate. Everything was going perfectly according to plan…

~~~

Time/Wondrous time/Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies

December 21 came.

Damian left Wayne Manor at 3:30 so it wouldn’t be suspicious. He headed to a cafe, made sure he’d lost any tails, then headed to Mari’s house.

Chloe was there, dressed in a white MDC with gold detailing and embroidery, fitting for the season.

Damian changed into his suit, which was a crisp black, done in the style of Jagged and Luka’s rocker suits, but with the eccentricity toned down. His shirt was black and his tie was black, but gold embroidery sparkled and wound throughout the tie and suit edging.

It was a stepping stone to more creative suits that Mari had in mind for him.

(Chloe handed him a comm, which he put in his pocket.)

It was comfy, and hopefully, as something he wouldn’t normally wear, it would throw his family even further off his track of acting unusually.

Marinette descended the stairs, wearing an ethereal white cloud of tulle. Silver and gold embroidery graced the form-fitting bodice and layered lacy tulle sleeves hung to her elbows. The skirt could rip away to show the white jumpsuit pants underneath.

She wore a gold chain with a small diamond pendant and her Ladybug studs, disguised as gold-clasped garnet drop earrings.

Her mask was a matte white domino with intricate gold swirls extending from the forehead and cheek lines.

A bold red lipstick finished off Fairy’s look. Her waist-length curls swung freely.

Damian picked his jaw up off the floor and took her hand, pressing a kiss to the back. “You look breathtaking, ya nafasy."

At the concert venue, Mari ran through the sound check and vocal warm-ups while Chloe made sure her dressing room was off-limits. Damian and Chloe put their earpieces in after Marinette tuned them to her channel.

During the concert, Damian waited in the wings with Chloe. He noticed his family in the reserved seats with backstage passes to meet Fairy after the concert.

He warned Chloe and Marinette as they waited in the dressing room once it was over.

After five lucky people had met Fairy and gotten a (charmed) autograph, the entire Wayne family minus Bruce and Damian filed in. (Cass was back from Hong Kong for the holidays.)

“Hi, guys, I’m Fairy! How are you doing?”

“We’re great! The concert was amazing!! Dick Grayson, huge fan of your work.”

The family nodded in agreement.

“Aww, you guys are the best. I’m always blown away by how much you Wings love my work. So you liked it, good.”

"Tim Drake,” He shook her hand. “Your new songs are amazing! What inspired the second one?”

“I met my soulmate last October, and then I wrote that song the night we formally met.”

After a short conversation with each member of the Waynes, Fairy introduced them to Icarus, her soulmate and bodyguard (aka their little brother, Damian).

They never suspected a thing.

Once the next ten people passed through, Damian, Marinette, and Chloe drove back to Mari’s house to relax. After a cup of tea Wayzz had freshly brewed, Damian headed back to Wayne Manor.

He snuck into the Batcave, changed back into his civilian clothes from his suit, and waited for his siblings’ exuberance to spill down.

~~~~~~

February fifth, Damian collapsed on Marinette’s sofa in the back of Lucky Charms.

“Father suspects something; I know it.”

“How?” she looked up from pinning a suit together.

“He gave me the Spring Gala to plan. He knows I would never allow it to be a failure, but it takes weeks of planning to accomplish, which means I cannot sneak away for hours to see you.”

Marinette immediately switched to planner mode. “I can help, and I’m sure Chloe would be thrilled to be her bossy self in charge of things. She and Penny have lots of contacts and know the best places to get good deals. Entertainment….Fairy can sing, maybe? When is the Gala?”

“Whenever I choose. Sometime between April and June.”

“Perfect! My second album is coming out in July, so I could perform a couple new songs again, get the Wings hyped, and I bet you’d get great numbers of attendees if I announced I was revealing my music video at the Gala. Oh, speaking of, will you play my lead?”

“Anything for you, ya nafasy . Which song are you turning into a music video?”

“You know the one I played for you last week? Still haven’t named it– maybe you can help– but I’ve got all the scenes filmed in my head.”

“Oh, the one that sounds like this?” He hummed a few bars.

“Yeah, that one.”

“Can I have a copy of the lyrics?”

“Tikki?”

The ladybug kwami produced a sheet of paper with the lyrics Mari had finalized.

Damian read it over while Marinette completed her sewing.

“Mmm…Searching for You?” he suggested at last.

“I like it! What do you guys think?” She turned to the kwami.

“It fits very well, Marinette. We approve,” Tikki winked at her chosen. They’d had several long discussions about Damian.

“Thank you, ma lune. Did anything else interesting happen today?”

“Grayson crashed into Brown mid-grapple while they were on patrol. I’ll send you the video.”

“Ha! That’s like, the fourth time this year!” Marinette cackled as she watched the footage from the mask cams play out on her phone.

Damian had approved her security before he shared videos of the Bats with her, but she had high-security software on all her tech, thanks to Max helping her.

~~~~~

And it's cool/Baby with me/And isn't it just so pretty to think/All along there was some/Invisible string/Tying you to me?

May 16th was the Waynes' annual Spring Gala.

None of the Waynes & co. could find Damian.

“He’s probably checking that everything’s going smoothly at the hall,” said Bruce to Jason as they tied their bowties.

“He’s taken planning it quite seriously. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”

Jason gasped in shock. “B! You almost sound sentimental or proud. Are…are you… showing emotion ?”

The assembled Batclan hooted in laughter as Bruce glared unheatedly at Jason.

At the Gala hall, there were still no signs of Damian. The Gala started at 7:30, and now it was 7:20, and still no sign of the host and organizer.

On the plus side, none of his danger signals had gone off. Where was he? He had to officially start it.

Of course, Bruce or one of the others could step in, but it would be strange that the one who had put it together didn’t show up.

Five minutes later, a white limousine pulled regally up to the red carpet stretching from the street to the door of the entrance hall.

The Waynes stood in a cluster by the foyer, waiting for their missing member.

The chauffeur hopped out and opened the door of the limo.

A tall, black-haired young man stepped out, then leaned back in to offer his hand to his date.

She had dark hair piled into a chignon, emerald earrings and necklace, and dainty silver strappy heels. Her dress was a pale lavender silk ballgown, with deep embroidered pleats and a plunging V-neckline to the bedazzled waistband. A layer of fine white silk filled the decolletage and trailed into airy sleeves. Her lips were red and she wore a purple mask with pearls trimming the edges.

“It’s Fairy!” Dick patted Babs’s arm excitedly.

The couple turned and glided up the carpet, where they lightly bowed to Bruce.

“Father.”

“Mr. Wayne.”

Damian wore Icarus’s suit, but in silver, this time, and his tie was lavender.

After a quick speech and answering a few questions from the media about the Gala, he declared the party to have begun.

Fairy leaned around his arm as they entered the Gala hall to smile and wave at his family.

“Damian is my date since my soulmate is busy.”

“How do you know Fairy,” hissed Jason at his youngest brother. “Is that an MDC suit?”

“She introduced me to Fairy.”

After the dinner and some speeches (which thankfully didn’t go on too long), Fairy stepped up to the stage.

“Hello, everyone, it’s nice to see you! I’m Fairy, your entertainment for the night. I apologize in advance if I’m not entertaining.” She paused for the chuckles. "You’re in for a special treat tonight. My newest single, from my upcoming album, has been made into a music video. And you all get to watch its premiere! Without further ado, Searching for You.”

On the large screen behind her popped up a black background with white lettering. “Searching for You" by Fairy (ft. Damian Wayne).”

It quickly blanked out and the MV began.

Fairy was dancing alone in different places around the world, as she sang the first verse and chorus.

The tempo picked up for the second verse and became a livelier melody as she met her soulmate, played by Damian. (They activated their soulbond but just let the audience assume it was CGI/special effects.)

The second verse and chorus were spent together in one spot as days and nights passed by. Damian’s harmonizing and the third verse sounded beautiful as it showed his conflicted feelings about the bond.

Then Fairy picked up the bridge and fourth verse, which they sang together as they wandered the world.

Half the time the Waynes spent watching the video, and half they spent staring incredulously at a nonchalant Damian, then back to Fairy.

Once it was over, Fairy returned to the stage in a performance outfit, ready to sing some of her other songs.

The Waynes huddled around their youngest member. “What did Fairy’s soulmate think of you doing that, and then being her date?”

“Icarus? There’s no need to worry. He and Fairy are quite secure in their relationship. I checked–he is 100% okay with it.”

The family turned back to their favourite performer, not wanting to miss her performance. They could always grill him more at home.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: "Ya nafasy" is an Arabic term of endearment that translates to 'my breath' or 'my lungs', as best as I could make out. A friend told me it's not commonly used, but is probable.

#daminette #DCxMLB #fic #ali writes #IbTS

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