#maven keeps his bangs to the side but NEVER to the VERY SIDE

[imjulia-andilikecats]

Headcanon That Is DEFINITELY Canon

Side Note: Cal was born with a naturally big forehead. Maven's forehead got bigger everytime he disappoints a woman.

Image: braindumptweets

[themadauthorshatter]

(Approaches stand and microphone in shackles, but smiling because I'm an asshole😅)

I stand before you all as a traitor to my fandom, as a criminal charged with forbidden shipping on the first degree. I plead not guilty, but insanity instead, AND ON THE TERMS THAT I HAVE NO REGRETS BECAUSE I'M BORED AND HAVE SOME WRITER'S BLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A while back, I made a post wondering what would happen if Cal had to marry Iris instead of Evangeline, and my poor, love sick heart couldn't help but make these two get along. This is going to get REALLY fanfic-y, so if you're not fond of this idea, I'll understand if you don't read this.

Regardless,

Here are my personal headcanons of what I think(or hope) would happen if Cal and Iris were betrothed Part 1: The news. Aka: I need to stop pickimg on Cal😅

Tibe only got the idea when Maven made a side comment about it. Elara yelled at him for it, but stopped when she realized his plan and sort of fanned the flame in Tibe's mind.

IT BACKFIRED.

At the breakfast table, a week later, Tibe delivered the news: CAL was going to marry Iris Cygnet of the Lakelands while Maven married Evangeline.

Elara's face dropped into an, "ARE YOU SHITTING ME!?" look.

Maven choked on his food.

Cal was torn between wanting to scream and being in shock at the news. He was silent as Elara demanded answers and Tibe explained why he was making such a risky move. Maven tried getting his attention, but got no response. When the king and queen where done arguing, Cal finally responded:

"No."

You know that one look a parent gives you? The wild, murder eyes when you do something wrong and you have at least 10 seconds left to live? Tibe gives Cal that exact look.

Elara and Maven exchange wide eyed looks and brace themselves when Cal repeats himself. He also explains why it could possibly be a terrible idea because of how the Lakelanders could only agree because all they want are Nortan resources.

Tibe is not having any of this.

It quickly turns into a yelling match with Elara and Maven only watching out of astonishment, because they've heard of Cal and Tibe arguing, but never had a front row seat to see it actually happening.

The argument continues until Tibe pulls the emotional manipulation card and asks Cal if he wants to be the one responsible for Norta's fall.

Of course it gets Cal to stop arguing, but he does utter that he won't be the king that SET UP that fall before storming out of the room.

Tibe sits back down and does that stressed, head holding thing as he leans his elbows against the table.

There's a long stretch of silence. No one talks. Elara only talks to Maven through her whispers, and even then, all he can do is give the most minute of gestures as they "converse."

I know I'm playing this up like this never happened before, but think of it like this. Cal is the golden child. He barely steps out of line and usually does what he's told, save for building in the garage or training harder than he should. Neither Elara or Maven have seen Cal actively refuse something that his father told him to do. The only example of this that they had before was the slightest hint of reluctance on Cal's face when he learned he was arranged to marry Evangeline.

With his plate already empty, and no one stopping him, Maven excuses himself from the table to see if he can calm his brother down.

Tibe simply waves him off as he just wants to exist in the silence for a little while.

Maven doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth and quickly leaves the room to look for his brother.

Where do you go to sulk if you get bad news? Your room. And that's the first place Maven checks.

When he gets there, knocks on the door, and doesn't get an answer, a servant tells him that Cal isn't there. She saw him walking away, but towards either to the training room or the garage.

Maven hopes it's the former because he's not very fond of the garage. It smells and echoes too much, ESPECIALLY WHEN A TRANSPORT IS STARTED.

He checks the changong room and training, slipping into his uniform to do so, but no luck. At all. Which can only mean one thing. With a grumble, Maven leaves the training room, changes back into his clothes, and walks to the garage, angrily laughing at the fact that Cal has him going on a wild goose chase.

He is right to hate the garage because he hears loud music playing right as he enters inside. Cal is currently on one of those back boards and is fixing a broken transport(its engine, at least).

This is the conversation as Maven finds his brother. Remember, they have to yell over a loud as hell speaker playing some rock music(I'm headcanoning that Rock You Like A Hurricane by Scorpions and other rock songs are playing):

"You're really that upset over marrying someone besides Evangeline Samos!?"

No response.

"You LITERALLY said ypu didn't want to marry Evangeline!"

Cal still doesn't respond, mostly because he can't hear him.

"CAL!" Maven, a little fed up, picks up a wrench or small hammer or anything else that's metal amd that Cal threw because he didn't need it, and bangs it against the tool box lid. "CAAAAAAAL!"

This finally gets Cal's attention and he rolls out from under the transport with a scowl on his face. "What do you want!?" He shouts.

Maven only gives a confused look. "What?"

"WHAT. DO YOU. WANT!?"

"I didn't know where you were! And you left breakfast with no explanation!"

"I know!"

"You're really THAT mad!?"

Cal's turn to be confused. "What!?"

"You're THAT mad!?"

"WHAT!?"

Maven's sick of all the yelling and points to the speaker. "TURN THAT DAMN THING OFF!!"

Cal nods and gets up to turn off the music.

Okay, fun's over. Back to bullet points.

Maven repeats himself, not yelling his head off, and Cal leans against the table.

He admits he's more upset than he should be, but feels that their father is taking too big of a risk. It would be smarter to keep the engagement between Cal and Evangeline because at least they would have a more men to fight and more metal, if shit hits the fan(my words, not Cal's). That, and it is a terrible idea to piss of Volo Samos, regardless of the rank you have.

While Maven agrees that it's shaky, he should know because it was HIS idea first to call a truce, but can't deny that it would be a solid deal to marry Iris. Not only will they have a steadier supply of food, but they'll have more reinforcements to deal with the Scarlet Guard. Besides, it's also a good idea to stop one war before another one can start.

Cal is silent as he nods, avoiding Maven's gaze.

He was already anticipating a life married to Evangeline Samos, who is at least on the same side as him and he at least KNOWS her. He has no idea who Iris is and is not excited to marry someone who is on his opposing side.

The two are silent, Maven partially inspecting the transport before asking if Cal was planning the sabotage the drive to the runway. Cal smirks and warns Maven not to give him ideas.

The two leave the garage, after Cal picks up the tools, and decide to talk more over a game of chess.

Despite his mother's request and what he learned in trying to block her out, he does not tell her everything he and Cal talked about.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

The Mistakes We Made - Chapter Thirteen

Summary:  When her high school girlfriend comes back to town after two years with a baby and a terrible story she won’t tell, the Librarian has to deal with the feelings she had worked so hard to keep at bay.

Notes: Trigger warning for depiction of an emotionally abusive relationship

Hey, after you read this chapter, please read this. THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS GO IN REAL LIFE. If someone is stuck in an abusive relationship, where the other person has emotional and economic power over them, they most likely won’t just get upset, remember an old friend and snap. People usually need support from loved ones and even therapy to get out of these situations. Johanna’s escape only happened like this because this is fic.I just really don’t want anyone thinking that I agree with the whole “well if they’re suffering why don’t they just leave 🤪” narrative, okay?

Read it on ao3: (chpt1) (chpt2) (chpt3) (chpt4) (chpt5) (chpt6) (chpt7) (chpt8) (chpt9) (chpt10) (chpt11) (chpt12) (chpt13)

There was absolutely no way, Johanna told herself in order to calm her frazzled nerves and thumping heart, that her parents wouldn’t fall in love with Hilda. True, they had all but disowned her, but they didn’t even get the chance to talk about it! It had been more than a year before, and now her baby was already smiling and mumbling adorable sounds, and goodness, Johanna missed them! They hadn’t been the best parents in the world, not by far, but that didn’t mean she was okay with being estranged from them.

She knew Torrin wouldn’t approve of her trying to call her parents, so she’d waited for when he’d gone away to college, having Hilda as her only company, to make the contact. The phone rang one, two, three times, until it fell on voicemail.

She took her cell phone away from her ear, looking at her dad’s number on the screen. She could try to call her mother, but she didn’t think she had the energy for that. It was something that should be done face to face, anyway. Still, she felt a pang of disappointed that she hadn’t been able to talk to them, but also a relief of some sort. Every day she felt her disposition to argue and defend herself wane more and more.

Her phone left in the bedside table, Johanna got up from the bed and picked Hilda up from the playpen they had put in their room. Maybe she should take her outside for a while. She had a feeling they could both use the fresh air.

_#_#_#_

Torrin was in a good mood that day. He had kissed her when he arrived from Ericsonberg, and now, after eating his dinner, he was even playing with Hilda. Not to say he was a cruel father, or anything of the sort. He just seemed to feel more comfortable letting Johanna take the lead in their child’s life.

It was a perfect opportunity. And yet, she still felt her legs tremble and her voice failed as she walked closer to him. He was sitting on the sofa with Hilda in his arms, waving a stuffed animal around in front of her face. As soon as she saw Johanna coming, however, she began to make distressful sounds and wiggle in Torrin’s hold.

He looked at her, giving her a lopsided smile. “I think she wants you, Jo.”

Johanna was all too happy to hold her baby. It gave her something to focus on something other than the anxiety of having to ask her husband for something she knew he wouldn’t want. But when she looked into Hilda’s eyes, she could almost pretend everything was okay.

“Torrin, I need your help with something.”

“Sure, what is it?”

She took a deep breath, focusing on how calm Hilda looked now. “I want to talk to my parents. To try to… fix things between us. It’s been long enough that they might have changed their minds, and I wanted to visit them. If you could just watch over Hilda while-“

“No.” He cut her, and she looked up to find him looking at her with anger, and, dare she say it, fear as well. “I don’t want you running off to talk to them.”

Long seconds went by, during which she could do nothing but stare into his eyes. “Why?”

Her soft question had him in a nervous state. He got up, running his hands through his hair, and began pacing in front of the fire. “Because they’ll hurt you! They’ve made it perfectly clear that they don’t want anything to do with you anymore, and I don’t want you to have to hear this from them!”

Her experience with him told her it was better to allow herself to be subdued before he got more agitated. It was what she would have done, but she felt something inside her burn, like an ash that had been cooled down smothering back to life. A ghost voice in her brain, a memory of a laughter that carried on the wind and eyes that looked like stars.

”You may think I overreact, Anna, but I’m not letting him talk like this to me. You wouldn’t either, if you were in this situation.

Johanna couldn’t remember what exactly had happened that day, but she remembered she had agreed with Maven in the end. She’d never let anyone talk like that to her. So why was she allowing this now?

“Don’t…” she began wondering if it was really worth it to pick this fight. “Don’t tell me to do with my relationships. You’re my husband, and I know you love me, but you can’t try to protect me from heartbreak like this. I am free to care for whoever I want, even if it may hurt in the end.”

“What?!” He turned to her, his pacing stopped abruptly. Johanna got up on instinct, hugging Hilda closer.

“We’re married but you do not own me! I’m tired of people telling me who I have to be and who I have to love! I want to give my parents another chance, Torrin! Why can’t you support me on this?”

“Because they can’t know!”

Johanna twisted her body so as to not have Hilda in front of herself as Torrin picked up the fireplace poker and, in a fit of anger, brought it down on the couch. She had already seen him breaking things when he was drunk, but she must have made him truly furious for him to do something like this while sober.

This had not been what had surprised her, though. The sound of fabric being ripped apart merged with his grunts, Hilda’s cries as she was disturbed by their raised voices, and Johanna’s own heart beating on her head, making her wonder if she’d heard him right.

Her parents couldn’t know?

When he stopped hitting the couch, most of his anger gone, he dropped the poker to the ground with a muttered “sorry”, and then looked at his wife’s horrified gaze.

“I reckon I shouldn’t have exploded like-“

“What do you mean?!” She was the one to cut him off this time. “What do you mean they can’t know? You- you said you had told them!”

His eyes widened, his body perfectly still as he realized what he’d let slip during his anger. And, most of all, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to convince his wife that it had been a mere confusion of his anger addled mind.

“Babe… it was the best at that time. Please, I beg you to understand, everything I do, I do-“

“For yourself!” She all but screamed, slowly walking backwards. She couldn’t believe this. This was not supposed to happen. She had already come to the painful realization that he was not the good man she had believed he was, but she had believed, he had convinced her that she was the light in his life, the one person he would never, ever hurt.

And yet, it seemed he had turned on her.

Realizing he had to change tactics, he forced his eyes to tear up, his face merging into a pitiful expression. “Please, Jo. I- I love you!”

Johanna’s breathing was coming quicker now, and everything that had happened during their marriage began to fall into place.

She had been manipulated again.

She broke into a run, extremely mindful of Hilda, and climbed up the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her. Torrin’s steps could be heard behind her, but she hurriedly opened the door to their room and locked him out, the sound of the lock closing the wooden door feeling like a sweet melody to her.

Her chest was heaving as Torrin banged on the door from the outside. He was shouting about how he loved them, and how there was a reason for everything he did, although very curiously he never said what this reason was. He groveled and begged for forgiveness, but it was not going to come as easily this time.

Doing her best to ignore everything that was coming from his mouth, Johanna calmed Hilda down, entering the bathroom and closing the door, so that it would be completely silent. As soon as the baby had stopped crying and whimpering, she walked back into the room. Though Torrin hadn’t gone away, Hilda didn’t seem to mind his voice anymore.

Johanna pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, the only person in this world she had never doubted, and set her on the playpen by the window. With that done, she got moving. Her old suitcases were taken out of the closet, and quickly filled with all her most important belongings.

Maybe she would forgive him. Maybe she would find a good explanation for his actions after all, and maybe she’d come back and continue to live here. But she needed to be ready for the worst outcome.

As she filled her suitcases with clothes, her hope began to flare. If he had lied, than that meant her parents still loved her! She’d be welcomed in their home, and they’d help her overcome this.

But then, if they hadn’t disowned her, why hadn’t they called her? Had something happened to them? Maybe, she thought as Torrin finally stopped his spewing of nonsense, he had lied to them too.

Given what she now knew about him, it sounded awfully likely. Thank goodness now she’d be able to explain everything to them, and surely they’d stick with her. But would they listen to her for long enough that she’d be able to clear the waters? They hadn’t really trusted her in a long time. No, she’d have to talk to them, but she wouldn’t be able to rely on them, at least not at first.

That made things significantly more difficult.

From the other side of the door, Torrin apologized once again, but she heard him getting up from where he had been sitting on the floor. He said he had to go back to Trolberg in order to help his father with something, but they would talk more about this when he came back tomorrow.

Not likely, Johanna though as she closed her first suitcase. When she heard his car start running, she went to the window to watch it going away, waiting until it disappeared on the road to unlock the door and make a run for Hilda’s nursery. She filled her smaller suitcases with her daughter’s things, as well as a bag that they had bought with Hilda’s name on it. The crib would have to stay: she had no idea how to disassemble the thing, but at least the stroller was foldable.

In few hours, she had put a good chunk of their belongings on suitcases. When she tried to leave with the first one, however, she found that the front door was locked. She gasped at it, astounded by Torrin’s disrespect for her.

A few deep breaths later, she told herself that maybe he had locked it on impulse, he hadn’t meant to trap her. But then she looked at the little table they kept beside the door and felt like screaming in frustration. He had taken away her key.

Johanna tested the two other doors on the house, finding them both locked as well. No matter. She still remembered a few tricks the Girl Scouts had taught her.

It had been years since she’d picked a lock, so it did take her a while to get it right, every second she took making her feel more anxious. He could come at any time now, and his outburst earlier made her realize that, if he did get violent with her, there was nothing she could do. No other houses nearby, no one would hear her if she shouted.

She had once thought it was ridiculous to even imagine him being anything than a complete gentleman to her, but with the truth out in the open, she wasn’t so sure anymore. She eventually got the job done, and began filling her car with their things. Fortunately, he hadn’t remembered to take her car keys.

She buckled Hilda to the baby seat when she was through, and then went back into the cabin for one last thing: the playpen that remained on their room, where Hilda had happily waited while her mother got everything ready for them to go away, blissfully unaware of anything that was going on around her. It was far easier to disassemble than the more sturdy one that they had put on her nursery, so it would have to do.

Johanna started the engine, and the little blue car came awake. She took breath after breath making herself ready for what came next, even though she she didn’t really know what that was. There was only one thing that felt wrong, and she had to get rid of it.

The golden ring on her finger seemed to mock her with its shine and extravagance. She had once thought the big ruby at the center of it gorgeous, but now it’s colour looked dark and suffocating to her. She slid the ring off of her finger and put it in the glove compartment.

Going to Trolberg right away would be a mistake. He would be there, and that wouldn’t help her at all. She’d spend the night, and maybe some of the next day in a hotel in a city nearby, take the chance to rest and regroup her thoughts. Then she’d focus on getting her life together.

She didn’t know exactly what came next, but it had to be better than what she was leaving behind.

_#_#_#_

“And then… well, then the next day I found you. And now we’re here.”

Johanna finished her story on that note, and now that it was all out, it felt like the weight of a whole galaxy had been lifted off of her shoulders. She had been willing to tell this story ever since her second day in Trolberg, when she had gone to her parents, hoping to be reunited with them at last only to have that blow up on her face as they sided with her husband. But what she hadn’t realized was that, up until tonight, she hadn’t been ready to tell it.

She had been thinking that this story had began with their marriage, and that it had mimicked Johanna’s relationship with Maven. She had thought that those were two separate episodes of her life, both ending up with her bruised and manipulated, but tonight her mother had shown her the missing piece of the puzzle.

”She’s telling the truth”, her mother had said, clearly hating every syllable. ”She’s telling the truth”, she had said, but her eyes told even more.

”She’s telling the truth”. The sentence had rung over her head repeatedly as she helped Maven clear her cuts. Her mother had looked way too stricken for someone who was only admitting that another person was honest.

No. Not only had her mother told her that Maven had been telling the truth, but that she’d been lying. Maven was right, her mother had stepped outside the party that night to defend Torrin, because that’s what she’d been doing all along.

The story of her high school heartbreak and her current one were not separate. They were one and the same, beginning when she was eighteen and escalating until the present moment. It was one long, tragic tale, and now she could finally, finally see that Maven was not the villain in it. Not on purpose, not on accident: she was one of the victims as well.

Johanna didn’t even have to look up to know that Maven looked horrified, but she did anyway. Her mouth was hanging open, and her brow was creased. Tears had left wet trails on her face.

“Oh, Anna.” Maven whispered, and Johanna took her hand, which was lying on top of the table, lacing their fingers together. “That’s horrible.”

“I know.” She sighed, running her thumb over the back of Maven’s hand. Gods, she’d missed Maven so much! She hadn’t allowed herself to truly be in her presence ever since that fateful night when her father dragged her to the mayor’s party. Now that she was sure she could do it again, simply let herself go and enjoy the happiness of being with this woman, she remembered just how addictive it was.

“Are you going to tell the police? About the things you found out?”

Johanna shrugged. “I probably should, shouldn’t I? But I don’t think I will, at least not yet. I need to sort out my own life first, and well… I have no proof.”

Instinctively tightening her grip on Johanna’s hand, Maven nodded, understanding the situation. A wave of silence fell over them. Maven had no idea of what she could say to that confession. She could say ‘I’m sorry’, but that felt hollow and meaningless. Sorry wouldn’t fix what had been done to her. Besides, she was not the one who had to apologize to Johanna.

“Hey!” She said suddenly, and Maven looked up at her face. She hadn’t even realized that her gaze had fallen to their joined hands. “We still have to take a look at your scratches, don’t we?”

Maven nodded, taken aback by the sudden change of subject. She let Johanna lead her to the couch, where she sat beside her. She had washed the scratches in the shower, but she supposed Johanna would want to check on them. Maybe use more of that medicine to help them heal faster.

The first aid kit was still on the coffee table, and Johanna sprayed a substance on a piece of cotton again. She gasped softly when she lifted the sleeve of Maven’s pajama top: more worrying than the scratches, she had began to bruise, and they were already looking ghastly.

As there was little she could do about it, Johanna resigned herself to simply pressing the cotton against the scratches as softly as she could. The cold sensation made Maven’s skin tingle, but it didn’t bother her this time. Itself amazing to have Johanna fuss over her, and even though it was quite a selfish sentiment, she couldn’t seem to help it.

When she had done all she could with her arm, Johanna lowered her sleeve down, and gently asked if she could lift the hem of the shirt in order to see Maven’s side. Permission granted, Johanna continued to gingerly tap the cotton to the scratches.

“Why did you do it?” Maven asked, the words flying out of her mouth before she could think about them, or even allow them to be spoken. Johanna’s closeness was intoxicating, and she blamed her carelessness on it. “Why did you tell me all these things?”

Johanna took her hand away and sat back, searching Maven’s face for something. Maven immediately missed the contact, little as it had been, but continued speaking anyway. There was no coming back now that the words were out.

“That day we fought.” She said, a wave of drowsiness overtaking her despite the tense situation. It had been a long day, and despite everything, being near Johanna was a powerful tranquilizer. “You said some things… it didn’t sound like you trusted me very much.”

“I know what I said that night.” She sighed and raised her hand to Maven’s face, running her fingers through the strands of silky hair that had fallen over her face with the way she leaned her head against the couch. “I even believed what I said that night. But not anymore.”

Unable to resist, Maven leaned her head against Johanna’s hand, looking much like a cat after affection. “What changed?”

When Johanna didn’t answer, Maven opened her eyes, which she hadn’t realized she had closed, and met her troubled gaze.

“My mother.” She said. “For weeks I had been coming to this conclusion, but it all clicked into place tonight. All this time, my parents have been doing their best to assure my happiness. But they wouldn’t let me choose what that meant. They decided that it was Torrin and stuck to that. They’ve been doing all they could to get me to be with him and to protect him, and… this night she realized what a mistake it has been. And that made me realize that none of what they told me about you is honest or reliable. They had been doing it to help their agenda all along”

Maven blinked. If not for the stinging sensation of her wounds, she’d suspect she was dreaming. Or that she’d died and gone to heaven, a very peculiar heaven where she was told exactly what she wanted to hear.

“Then whose opinion about me is reliable, would you say?” She said it half jokingly and half seriously, smiling as she felt Johanna’s hand on her scalp.

The woman returned her smile, though Maven would say Johanna’s was ten times brighter. Her happiness had always left her with the feeling that it could light up a whole world, and she was thrilled to be the cause of it. “I will be trusting my own judgement from now on, thank you very much.”

It could be just Maven’s tired mind, but it did seem like Johanna was leaning closer. “And what does your judgment say?”

Her whispered words were taken right out of her mouth as their lips met. They both exhaled deeply, almost a sigh of relief. Johanna’s hand tangled itself more tightly into Maven’s hair, and Maven put her left hand on Johanna’s shoulder, fingers caressing her collarbone. After so long apart, not only physically but emotionally, the kiss felt like coming home after a long, painful journey.

Unfortunately, they soon needed to draw back to breathe, and when they did, they looked into each other’s eyes with equal measures of wonderment and surprise. Though Johanna had been the one to begin the kiss, she couldn’t say she’d done it out of anything other than pure instinct and need. It was not at all the best time for her to get involved with someone again. Still, she definitely couldn’t say she regretted it. Especially not when Maven was looking at her like she was the most wonderful thing in the world.

“We should go to sleep.” She said, even when she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Maven and her voice was husky with emotion. Maven nodded.

“We still have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

“We do.” Johanna leaned in again, pressing a kiss to Maven’s forehead this time. “But it’s going to be okay.”

It was all going to be okay. The truth was out now, and there would be no secrets between them. There was no way to go but up.

[elliemarchetti]

A Red Lover

Old fic revised for AO3 

Words:1575

As he fell, he saw nothing but flames; they were everywhere, meeting him, crackling and sizzling as they destroyed all the memories they had managed to build before reaching the front. He was sure that not even a charred mush would remain of him, that his bones would turn to ashes, and there wouldn’t be a grave where people could cry for his loss. He bang his head against something, and in his field of vision appeared a thousand shiny stars. In fact, they weren’t stars but sparks. His uniform caught fire, carbonized, began to smoke, but it didn’t happen to his skin, and he felt no pain but the sparks’ heat, as if they were going through his body, as if they were tickling his nerves. It wasn’t a bad feeling to try before he died: he felt alive like never before, like a blind man who finally came back to see after a long time. He sensed something moving inside him, but it was no longer just the sparks: it was the whole flame, which slid over him, blackened his clothes leaving the skin intact. The flames were trying to kill him without succeeding. It was all wrong, obviously; he shouldn’t have been alive, he wouldn’t have to get a big cloud of black smoke around him, the floor wouldn’t have to start crunching and the walls wouldn’t have to crack. The fire became clearer and more aggressive, but after a while, it weakened, making Thomas feel stronger. It didn’t matter that he was falling again, that three floors of that area of ​​the building had been destroyed, or that he was almost naked. It didn’t matter because he landed on a pile of dust, or perhaps ashes, definitely battered, with sore muscles, but undoubtedly alive. He stood up with difficulty, the clothes that continued to fall apart. Above him, inside the building, in the areas that hadn’t been touched by the explosion, someone was looking at that havoc. How many had died because of Maven? Then he turned, sensing other looks, this time pointed at him, a red boy who had escaped that ruckus. Watching him, there were two guys: one was taller and thinner, and the other more sturdy and stocky, but the differences between the two seemed to end there. They definitely had to be brothers. Both had wide eyes. One seemed angry, the other confused. Then their expressions changed: the biggest seemed scared, and Thomas wondered how it was possible. He was thin and pale, nobody feared him.

"He's one of us." instead said the taller, the look drawn by a small scratch on the back of his right hand. Then he didn’t fully understand what else happened, he only knew that the boy approached and in a moment he found himself very far from there, in a place that with time he would’ve learned to define a house, among people who for those like Maven had envisaged only one destiny: death.

 Farley left him in a corridor, to ruminate on her words: he had always thought that there was only the distinction between reds and silvers, kings and slaves, and instead he discovered that there was much more, a range of nuances that he didn’t understand, in which he had precipitated unwillingly. He grew up wondering if he could have dinner every night, like any other red, and now he found himself in a place full of red with full bellies and enough energy to be able to fight against the silver. He had to choose and he had to do it quickly. Would he join the Scarlet Guard, ready to sacrifice himself and everything he wanted to reach the infamous common goal, or would he continue a life that he no longer had? Thomas knew that, after all, there was no choice: he couldn’t go back to the front, he couldn’t go home, and he wouldn’t even be able to live far from there, because when the silvers are on you, there's no far enough place. So he accepted that same evening, certain that he had just launched himself into a business that would’ve eaten him alive.

 He realized he wasn’t wrong only three years later, when Farley dragged him around midnight into a greenhouse in the Royal Palace. She didn’t explain anything to him, only that they had found new, important members for the Guard. They hid in the greenhouse in four: Thomas, Farley, Kilorn, a new recruit who seemed ready to sell his soul to please someone important in the Guard, and another girl, who carried a big assault rifle with her. She had to have little aim.

"Excuse me if I don’t do the reverence." Farley said, emerging from a grove of magnolias where she was hidden with Thomas, upon the arrival of two figures. One was Walsh, he had heard of her and had even seen her, sometimes, and the other was a girl younger than him, not so tall, thin and definitely not silver. It didn’t take a genius to understand it, yet he noted that someone had given her special care. She had to be Mareena, the one everyone talked about. Her real name was Mare, and she was like him.

"Farley." she said, greeting the Scarlet Guard’s captain. Therefore, they must have already met. He suspected it. Farley didn’t return the greeting, asking Walsh where the other was. Thomas had originally believed it was some red, someone who worked in the palace, but no one had ever been so excited for a simple recruit. Was him a newblood that had managed to stay hidden all that time?

"What does that mean? Who else joined?" Mare asked, too loudly, for Thomas's tastes, but not wrongly. He didn’t like all that secrecy and certainly wasn’t excited at the idea that someone else would arrive there at any moment, with the possibility of a betrayal.

“Maven.” Thomas heard his own voice whisper. He had grown up, but it was undeniably him. He didn’t know whether to scream with joy, to see him alive, or run away, because the last time he was next to him, he almost risked dying. He was a prince, a silver, the enemy, and yet here he was, along with Farley. Thomas felt his heart burst with joy. He had stifled his love for Maven long ago, had abandoned those stupid fantasies of a kid when he had taken the oath of the Guard. Holland, his companion, a red servant of a certain age, with many years of service behind him, seemed to burst with pride.

"Mare, I told you you're not alone." Maven said, and his voice was so different, that Thomas almost felt a stab in his stomach. He kept his hands on his hips and contracted them: he seemed nervous, probably because of Farley. Not that it was difficult to understand why: the girl had approached with a gun in her hand, almost as nervous as he was, but her voice was firm and decisive. Thomas remained hidden, even though he was sick of being just a spectator. He wanted to tell him that he was proud of him, he wanted to tell him that he remembered everything they had said six years ago, yet he stayed still, to keep his place in the Guard, because he was too used to taking orders. Farley, however, didn’t move an inch, causing Thomas's blood to freeze in his veins. Weren’t his words enough? What did she want more? Then, as if he had always known, Maven started talking again. He spoke of when he was twelve and his father sent him to the front, to temper him, to make him look more like Cal. Thomas felt a lump in his throat as he pulled out secrets that had only revealed to him, feelings that a prince should never have felt. Farley, however, snorted. Thomas never shared this abrupt and mean way; he believed there were better ways to inspire trust and loyalty, he believed that reigning through fear was something silver do, but he would never say it.  He knew that she had lost so much, but Thomas hadn’t really been a privileged in life, yet his heart hadn’t dried up like that.

"I don’t need a jealous kid."

"It’s not jealousy that pushed me here." Maven corrected her, and Thomas smiled. He hadn’t changed so much, after all. "I spent three years in a camp to follow Cal, the officers and generals, watching the soldiers die and fight a war in which no one believed."

Thomas closed his eyes, trying to shake off the nightmares. There was no honor or loyalty, whence he came, only madness and destruction, rivers of blood poured from both sides of the border.

"And our people have given so much more," Maven continued, implacable. He spoke like a river in flood that can no longer be dammed, and he spoke of a boy who was only seventeen, red and came from the cold north. He was speaking of him.

 "You should have told me!" thundered Thomas, on the way back. Farley didn’t even deign to look back at him.

"You knew everything, I told you everything!"

His anger was unstoppable, but fortunately, no one tried to use any kind of power in the vicinity, or he wasn’t sure he would be able to stop, once he started his revenge against the captain.

[lilyharvord]

I don’t love you, but I always will

FIIIIIC TIME!!! BASED OFF OF THIS CONCEPT BY @scored-on-my-heart

It’s a tad bit long, but I honestly loved this prompt, and loved the idea of Mare getting out, and I had to write in two POVs to get everything, enjoy!!! ((((: 

 (/Mare/)

           The sun is just setting as I sit perched on my bed. I can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t so much as move at this point. I feel like a cat sitting on a railing, preparing to pounce, preparing to lash out at any unfortunate passerby. My muscles are coiled and locked, and ready to spring as soon as I give them the permission to do so. The only thing that moves is my fingers, which twitch at my side eerily, as if my lightning dances between them, when in reality, I haven’t felt such a thing in months.

           Inhale. Exhale.

           The sun’s rays branch out across the sky, like bleeding fingers stretching to just barely touch the darkness beyond. Archeon glitters below my window, the sea less than a mile away. Craggily cliffs, and sharp rocks, and smashing waters that threaten to overwhelm me even though I’m not being sucked beneath them. I can feel the waves dragging me out, deeper and deeper into the mental zone I have created to escape everything around me though.

           Inhale. Exhale.

           Slow measured breaths, do not move, do not blink, or you will let them know that you can feel their eyes on you.

           Inhale. Exhale.

          Do not move, do not let Samson know what he has managed to do to you.

           Inhale.

           Do not move.

           Inhale.

           I can’t take it, I snap, like a stick under a boot. I leap up and off the bed, inhaling sharply over and over again as if I’m hyperventilating. I collapse to the floor. I had seen numerous moments like this in the Stilts before. An older person collapsing in the mud and seizing because of the cold or other medically related reasons. Convulsing like a fish out of water, I flop around, making sure that it’s in view of the camera. Every muscle in my back strains and I let out a scream as I twitch and kick.

           The sun sends blinding rays of light across the room, shifting everything into a dark red hue that has been burned into the back of my mind since Corros, since Shade, since the Blackrun went down.

           The door bangs open and Egg is the first and only one in. My eyes flicker to him, before I arch my back away from him, to sell the performance, or to escape his silencing hands. I’m not sure which anymore. He bends over me and clicks his tongue before calling for a healer over his shoulder. They probably think I’ve snapped officially. Good, I think with a wicked grin that I barely hide. Something glints in my eye as the sun’s final rays of light touch it. I throw a quick glance at the key that has fallen out of Egg’s shirt, and now dangles precariously in my reach.

           Inhale.

           He’s still looking over his shoulder, still waiting for someone to come. His eyes only flicker to me once, and when they glance away again, I leap. My convulsing muscles respond and I close the key in my fist before yanking Egg’s head down on to my knee. He doesn’t even have a chance to yelp. I toss him off of me, and rip the key off of his neck, jerking it dangerously as I do so.

           Inhale. Exhale.

           I unlock and pull the silver chains off my wrists, and almost cry in joy when I’m free. This time, this time I will get away. I sprint for the door, and slam it shut before dragging the heavy chest of drawers over. I huff as my arms strain and for once I wish Kilorn were here with me to help. I would never truly wish for him to be inside this gilded cage though. He would perish before I did.

           The drawers slide into place and breathing heavily, I glance back at Egg who still hasn’t moved. Hopefully he doesn’t move for a while either.

           I cross the room, knowing the cameras are watching, knowing that Maven is watching. I glance in their direction, knowing they are there, and grin at them. With a little salute, I open my wardrobe and climb inside before closing the door. With practiced hands, I trace the back of it, all the seams of the back board until my fingers find the nick in the wood. It had been by total chance that I had found the little door. Which also wasn’t entirely true, since I had eventually figured out that the wardrobe had been almost bolted to the wall. A slight investigation into that had brought to light the secret passage hidden behind it. I smile to myself as I yank the board away and reveal the empty tunnel. A damp, cool breeze brushes my cheeks and without looking forward I step inside and into the calm darkness. Freedom lies just beyond this tunnel that connects to another channel that runs down into the draining system. I had found the layout to all of them in a tiny book in Cal’s old room.

           After finding this tunnel once, I had wandered around during a blackout, and had found an entrance into Cal’s old room completely by mistake. It had been sealed upon Maven’s orders, and everything had had a thin film of dust over it. I’d wandered around inside, picking up and poking at everything until I had found a private book he had kept near his bed. It had numerous sketches of the tunnel system in the palace, and I had spent the remainder of my time during the blackout memorize it.

           Now, the image was burned in the back of my mind. Left, up a small set of stairs, right at the pile of old stones, left again at the first fork, right at the second, straight at the third, and keep going until you come to what appears to be a dead end, from there only a few steps to the right is a lever hidden amongst the stones in the wall. Pull that, and a door will drop down into the drain system. It will close quickly so you have to go immediately.

           Cal’s notes had been perfect, clean cut and neat, a soldier’s mind at work. I had almost cried upon reading them. He was here with me, without even knowing it. I reached the first fork, and panting from running, I glanced back at the tunnel behind me, at the darkness that seemed to swallow everything, even the sound of my footsteps. Laughing with joy, I sprint to the left, already able to smell the outside air around the dampness as I go.

(////)

           It was a long trek through the drains, the massive things were meant to transport massive amounts of water in a short amount of time, but they had been my escape route. I paused when I heard the soft sound of people over heard, and then looked up through the grating of a street plate. I could see people moving in the same direction as me, all of them wearing massive dresses and intricate masks. I watched, fascinatred as girls who appeared to be my age, flittered past, giggling and shoving each other. I followed a group of them to the next plate and then paused underneath to watch them go past. The voices carried away and with a tight lipped grimace, I made my way over to the wall where there was bound to be a ladder out of here. My plan was rudimentary at best, but it might just work. Steal a dress, steal a mask, hide in the party until the guards assumed I had left, and then get the hell out of the Archeon. Find a way to anywhere. I couldn’t go back to the Guard, not after the things I had said months ago. Those words still haunted my dreams, and for a moment, my breath is taken away by the ache in my chest. I was truly alone. Maven had successfully cut me off from the only people who might have cared about me. I had betrayed them, and in a way betrayed myself too.

           Shaking myself out of my stupor, I climbed up the slimy ladder, and then reached for the grating before shoving it aside. With a huff, I shoved it out of the way and then climbed out. I could hear voices coming from around the bend, a group of girls all giggling again. I scrambled out of the drain and then slipped into the shadows of the nearby alley. The whole group passed by, with one of them at the back, busy digging in her little bag. I watched her approach, eyeing the dress and mask. It was threequarter one that was tied up into her bright auburn curls. I need that one, I decided in that moment. She paused for a second in front of my hiding place, and muttered to herself as she shoved things aside in her bag.

           Inhale.

           I lunged forward, wrapping my hand around her mouth and dragging her into the shadows of the alley. She tried to scream around my hand and bite at my fingers. I had been raised on those tactics though, had had Bree and Tramy counter it when I was younger. So I simply smacked her against the wall. She went limp in an instant. Before she could drop to the ground though, I caught her and whispered, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

           I stripped her in the alleyway, before tossing my clothes on her. She would be freezing when they found her, but her friends would find her eventually, and I would be far gone by the time they did.

           The dress was much too long, and her feet were much bigger than mine, so in the end, I kept my muddy boots on and squeezed the corset shut in the darkness of an alley. I tucked my hair up and tied the mask on. Checking to make sure she was at least slightly visible so someone could eventually find her, I stepped out of the alley. The hem of the dress whispered against the stone as I did so, and with a twist of my lips, I hefted the skirts up and then began a brisk walk to catch up to her friends. I would have to sneak into this whole event probably, but if I pushed myself in with the rest, I would get in without being noticed. From there, I would only have to stay for an hour or two, hide myself amongst the crowd, and then leave out a window. I’d steal some more clothes, and maybe some food from the kitchens, and then I would disappear for good.

           It seemed like a good plan, a very good one at that. I passed near an inn, trying to stay out of the streetlights so that no one could see me. Out of the corner of my eye, the rising moon cast the shadow of the roof on the wall beside me. I saw a part of the shadow not the roof shift though, and there was what sounded like a gasp of surprise. I froze in panic, eyeing the spot on the wall where the shadow had moved, wondering if a Haven child had managed to follow me this far. My heart hammered in my chest. No, no, no, I wasn’t going back. They’d have to drag my corpse back to Maven if they wanted me to go back into that palace.

           There was no more movement though, even though I waited for a few seconds. Hiking up my skirt again, I took off at a quick walk, keeping my eyes peeled for anymore moving shadows.

(/Cal/)

           It felt like I hadn’t set foot in Archeon in centuries. Nothing had changed, it was still the same bustling hub of energy and commerce. Built to withstand any attack, Lakelander, or civilian, Archeon was a fortress in and of itself. I sank back onto my haunches, watching the streets below me as I hid on one of the rooftops above the market district. Behind me, Kilorn and Cameron spoke in hushed whispers. It hadn’t taken much to convince Kilorn to come along, Cameron though, she had been against the whole plan from the start, citing a thousand and one ways that everything could go wrong. In the end though, she came along, “to watch my lordy plan go absolutely bleeding wrong” as she had kindly put it. I had smiled secretively, knowing that she was only saying that because she didn’t want me to know that she wanted to come along, or that she so much as gave one lick about Mare. She tried to appear indifferent to everything Mare went through, but like all of us, eventually she had worn down. Hence her presence in this whole endeavor.

           “And I’m telling you that there is no way in hell that you would be able to spit from here and land it on that roof over there.” Kilron argued, waving his hands for emphasis. Cameron snorted and then said, “Why? Cause I’m a bleeding girl? I’d like to see you do it with your pretty little lips!”

           “Honestly, you’re insufferable!” Kilorn growled, which got a smile from Cameron as she replied, “Well, I’m real wounded by that comment.”

           Shifting form my position, I glare at them and say, “When you two ladies are done arguing over who is more pretty, would you like to get going?”

           Kilorn glares openly at me, not in the mood to have his masculinity questioned at the moment. Cameron of course smirks at that, and then crossing her arms and sinking back onto her haunches as well, she says, “Well lordy leader, you tell us when you’re done staring at the streetlights.”

           I shake my head, deciding that it wasn’t worth it with Cameron, it never was, because she always found a way to be victorious, no matter how right you were. She could make Mare look like a cuddly kitten on her worst days, and no one had missed that fact after it was subtly pointed out by Kilorn.

           I tucked my coat tighter around me when a particularly cold wind shifted it. The spring snow had been cleared for the most part by well-trained Shivers, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t cold still. Cameron creeped up behind me, and we watched as multiple groups of girls ran by, their voices carrying up to us. With a huff, Cameron leaned against the window that I was next to and whispered, “You’d think they’d have better things to do than go to this bleeding party.”

           I grinned at her and replied, “They just might.”

           She threw me a careful glance and then whispered, “In and out, right? That’s what your lordy plan called for. You’ll go in and get out with whatever you can get about Mare?”

           “Of course, I’ll be gone at most two hours,” she huffed at that again, and I smirked at her as I inquired, “What? You want to get rid of me or something?”

           Her eyes winked with mischief as she replied, “Well, the barrack would be bleeding freezing if you die, and I don’t plan on becoming an ice sculpture in my sleep anytime soon.”      

           I chuckled at that, and she did as well. Both of our eyes drifting to a loner that was making her way quickly through the shadows. Cameron frowned when she saw her and then whispered so that only I could hear, “Now that’s a girl who might have some interesting motives.”        

           She moved like a cat through the darkness, her head tilted as if listening for the sounds of the night. Cameron leaned forward a little more, her boot resting on a patch of ice I had noticed earlier and had avoided for a reason.

           “Cam,” I hissed softly, but she had already put all her weight on her foot. Her boot slipped and I launched forward to grab her arm and pull her back before she went flying off the roof. We both fell back into the shadows. My hand  over Cameron’s mouth to try and stifle the screech that had no doubt come out, and Kilorn with his hand around Cameron’s arm as if he could calm her with that touch.

           Breathing sharply, I glanced around the window to see if the girl had noticed anything. She had paused, and was staring at the shadow of the roof on the building next to her. Go, keep walking! I hissed internally, as she glanced around again, no doubt looking around for the disturbance. Eventually, she picked up her skirts though and sprinted to probably catch up with the others.

           I exhaled in relief, and Cameron pushed my hand away as she said, “Bleeding hell Cal! We’re you trying to suffocate me or something?”

           “This whole thing could have been over cause of your clumsy step.” Kilorn growled, angrier at the fact that we had almost lost our opportunity, than at the fact that it was Cameron’s fault. I glared at him and then whispered, “Stay here, I’m going now.”

           “But-“ Kilorn began, only to watch me slide down to the edge of the roof and grab onto the drain there. I swung deftly down onto the small ledge below it and then grabbed the sign hanging there before swinging down and landing on my toes in the street below. Cameron and him both scrambled to the edge and I glanced up at them with a smile before taking my mask out of my pocket. I tied it on, and nodded to them before disappearing into the shadows myself. I still heard Cameron over my shoulder though.

           “That lordy idiot is gonna get himself bleeding killed.”

(///)

           The party was in full swing when I arrived. Lords and Ladies of lower house all spoke and laughed under the lights of chandeliers. It felt like stepping back into a memory as I slipped into the ballroom of the estate. No one paid me much mind, and I decided that that was much better than if they had noticed me. Everything was the same, nothing had changed from this world of silver and gold, but I felt so out of place now. It had barely been a year since my ultimate fall from grace, but so much had changed. I didn’t belong in this world of glittering jewels and swishing bright dresses anymore. 

I maneuvered myself to the side of the ballroom, observing the crowd, trying to determine how drunk everyone was. It would be a mistake to just go around throwing Mare’s name into conversations. It would set people off, make them suspicious. So I became set to hang around the outside of the party, try to gauge my targets.

           One of the groups of giggling girls I had seen earlier were whispering worriedly as I passed, one of them gasping, “I swear she was right behind us! We should go back and look for her!”

           “Don’t be stupid, Olive,” hissed the obvious leader of the party, “she’s probably here somewhere.”

           I passed them like a ghost, relying on the rudimentary spy skills I had learned under Farley’s tutelage. Although she hadn’t exactly agreed with my plan, she had agreed to help me prepare for it. I wasn’t much of a pupil though, and it had taken me a while to pick up anything from her. 

        In the middle of the ballroom, people were dancing, the music lighthearted and playful as they waltzed around each other. Around the edge, young Lords hurried after pretty girls whispering in their ears and pulling them into the shadows behind pillars. I winced, remembering the times I had watched people who I thought were my friends do the same thing in court. The sting of losing all of that would probably never fade. 

            A slight commotion by one of the side doors gets my attention and I spot a group of palace guards, one of which had a dark bruise forming above his eye. He sneers as he gestures around, and I take a hesitant step toward them to evesdrop.

           “Imma kill that damn girl! She kneed me in the damn eye!”

           “That’s your own fault then for letting her trick you twice, you imbecile”

           “We need to find her and get her back before the King-“

           “The King doesn’t have to know that she got out. She can’t have gotten far anyway.”

           “This is Barrow were talking about, by now, she’s half way across the damn country.”

           I froze, my mind racing to catch up with this new information. Mare was out. She was out of the palace, wandering around the streets of Archeon. Swallowing tightly, I began to back up, keeping in eye on both the guards, and the party goers. I had to leave, had to get out, had to get Mare, had to find her before someone else did.

           In my distraction, I ran into someone from behind. They let out a soft gasp of surprise at my sudden impact, and I flipped around, my hands going out to catch the young woman I had run into.

           “I’m deeply sorry, I wasn’t paying-“ The stranger straightened up, pushing dark brown hair out of her face. She glanced around, refusing to met my eyes as she tried to yank away from me and whispered hurriedly, “It’s no issue, I swear, I’m fine. Let go-“

           She finally met my eyes and for a moment the entire world stilled, and came down to nothing but us.

           Inhale. Exhale. 

           I remained myself, as I saw those eyes, those dark coffee brown eyes that I had watched blink awake and drift closed with sleep for months. Those eyes that I had seen rage, sorrow, betrayal, and what I had always hoped was love, stared back at me. She tensed in my arms, her eyes widening as she took me in at the same time that I was taking her in. I haven’t seen her in months, and her arms feel so thin in my grip, but I’d know her anywhere, mask or not. And I doubted I would ever not know her.

           She starts sharking then, softly, like she’s terrified, or maybe because she’s cold, because the room had suddenly gotten much colder with what feels like only the two of us in it. In response, I push a little bit of warmth out of my hands, about to tell her everything, about to blurt out in front of hundreds of people that it’s her, that she’s here, with me, and that I’m never going to let her go again.

           She sways forward slightly, about to take a step, her hand coming up to touch me, and all I can do is inhale softly as she does this. Yes, I want to whisper, it’s me, it’s really me, I’m here, I’m here, Mare. The words die on my lips though, when the doors into the ballroom explode open and a horde of palace guards file into the room.

           The music that had been on the edge of my hearing for the past minute halts, and all conversation and dance stop. The guards look around, and the one from earlier, who was sporting the black eye that Mare must have given him, steps forward. His keen eyes scan the crowd and without pausing he says, “Deepest apologies ladies and gentlemen, but Mare Barrow has escaped the palace, and by the King’s orders, we are to return her. By the King’s Law, we must search this event.”

           Next to me, Mare’s breathing speeds up and she goes to take a step back into the shadows, her eyes looking around wildly like an animal cornered. A Lord in the front of the crowd bows and then announces, “We accept you into our abode, search all you wish.”            The guard nods and then waves his men forward, they began to file through the crowd, glancing at each and every person.

           “No, no, no,” Mare breaths, next to me, as she continues to look around wildly, tears in her eyes, “I won’t go back, I won’t go back, I don’t want to go-“

           My arm are around her before she can say anything else, hugging her close as I move us through the crowd toward the center of the room. She melts into my touch, her hand coming to grab the front of my coat and ball it into her fist. It’s like she’s been desperate for it, for the feeling of my warmth and whatever safety it might bring her.

           I get us into the very center of the floor, with the other couples all around us. I bring her around to face me, so that her face is hidden by my chest. She shakes in my arms like a leaf, and I response, like I always did, I set my hand softly on the back of her neck. The scars are there still, raised and angry like the machine that put them there. I stroke them softly, knowing the pattern they make across her skin like the back of my hand. She stops shaking for a moment, and in that moment, the music starts again, and everyone goes back to dancing. I pull her along, swaying softly to the beat of a song that I’ve known for years since I was little. It’s a familiar waltz tune, but it’s one Mare doesn’t know.

           Slowly, I rest my head on her hair and hum softly, a song that she will know, a song that I know will soothe her. It was the anthem of a midnight dance, of a stolen kiss in the moonlight, and forbidden feelings that had become something more before we knew what to do with them.

           I watch the guards slowly move around the room, getting closer and closer with each step. They are not being careful, their eyes barely scanning people before moving on. They must think she’s not here, and why would she be? It’s suicide for her to be here. Mare must be able to feel them coming closer too, because she buries her face in my chest and drops her arms, as if she’s given up, as if she can’t bear to watch what comes next.

           Without skipping a beat, I wrap her in my embrace, holding her fragile body against my own. She’s so much thinner, and I can feel her shoulder blades through the back of the dress as I pull her as close as I can without merging my own body with hers to make one being.

           The guards come without a hairsbreadth of us, and I can feel their eyes for a second before they pass by. As far as they are concerned, we a just two young people stealing a minute in the middle of the dancefloor. They continue through the room, like a wave passing by, and my heartrate slows as they move farther away. The ringing in my ear quiets, and belatedly I realize, I had been humming the whole time, humming the song that calms Mare.

           They thank the Lord for his time on the dais and then leave only minutes later. The doors close with a bang, and Mare exhales against my chest, and it’s the softest sound I’ve ever heard from her. The sound breaks at the end though, and she buries her face a little deeper in my coat. A heartbeat later, I can feel the warmth of her tears bleeding though. She shakes with soft, silent sobs of relief. I hug her tighter and in response, she wraps her arms around me as well.

           I lower my head and press a light kiss against her head, whispering, “I’m here, I’m here Mare.”

           She sobs softly, and then replies with a choked whisper, “I know.”

[udemytutorialfreedownload]

Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru

Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru

Spring Framework 5: Learn Spring Framework 5, Spring Boot 2, Spring MVC, Spring Data JPA, Spring Data MongoDB, Hibernate

What you'll learn

Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru

Learn the Spring Framework from an instructor who has worked for Pivotal customers as a Spring Source consultant, and has spoken at Spring One

Learn step by step how to build Spring applications using Spring Framework 5 and Spring Boot 2

You will develop Spring applications using best practices such as SOLID OOP, GitHub, Test Driven Development, and Continuous Integration Testing

You will understand how to access data using Spring Data JPA and Hibernate

Use Spring Framework 5 to build an end to end Reactive application with MongoDB

Learn About Reactive Programming with Spring Framework 5

Build web applications using Spring MVC

See how to run a Spring Boot application inside a Docker container

Get access to a Spring Boot Application Cookbook

Requirements

Basic Java knowledge is required

HTML Knowledge is very helpful

Knowledge of SQL and databases is helpful

Description

Learn Spring with the most modern and comprehensive course available for Spring Framework 5 and Spring Boot 2. You will see how to build multiple real-world applications using Spring Framework 5.

This is the only major Spring Framework course on Udemy developed completely on version 5 of the Spring Framework.

Be careful of Spring Framework 4 courses, which have just added some content for Spring Framework 5.

This course shows you the latest Spring programming technologies and real-world industry best practices.

You will learn to be a Spring Framework Guru!

★★★★★ What real students are saying about this course ★★★★★

★★★★★ Really great course :) Tons of information about not only spring but also testing, docker, databases. I really recommend this one! Thank you, John :)

★★★★★ John Thompson is one of the best instructors on Udemy and is the best Spring instructor. Awesome voice and clear explanations and slides.

★★★★★ I am an experienced Client-side programmer with over 7 years of experience, currently in the process of migrating to the back-end. Before this course, I have tried many other courses, so I really mean this when I say it, this course is outstanding! The instructor is so expired and passionate about programming, It's addictive.

★★★★★ This course covers the Spring Framework from A - Z, including newer concepts like Reactive and Webflux. The apps built along the way mimic real-world apps and the assignments help reinforce the learning along the way. It assumes some Java experience, although not much. Overall I feel competent in Spring after having taken this course.

★★★★★ This has to be the best bang-for-buck course I've taken - ANYWHERE! This course covers a LOT of ground, getting your hands dirty with lots of other technologies and frameworks along the way (Mockito, Lombok, Docker, MySQL, H2, MongoDB, JUnit, CicleCI). If you're sitting on the fence about taking this course, take the plunge!

★★★★★ Unparalleled quality. The sheer volume of content in this course is absurd. There are so many unique resources that you can take advantage of to help you learn Spring. I have never seen an instructor work this hard to provide his student's value from a course.

Inside This Course

The in-demand technologies you will use to build Spring Framework applications include:

Spring Framework 5

Spring Boot 2

Spring Data JPA

Spring MVC

Spring MockMVC

Spring WebFlux

Spring Web Client

Spring Data MongoDB

Spring RestDocs

Hibernate

Project Lombok

MapStruct

Maven

Gradle

JUnit 4 and JUnit 5

Mockito

All source code examples used in this course have been developed using the latest version of the Spring Framework - Spring Framework 5 and Spring Boot 2.

You will see how modern Spring Framework development is done by leveraging the features of Spring Boot 2. 

ALSO READ: Learn How To Code: Google's Go (golang) Programming Language 

Jump In and Build a Spring MVC App with Spring Boot!

We'll jump right into web development with the Spring Framework. I'll show you how to kick off a Spring Boot project by using the Spring Initializr. We will then go step by step to build a simple Book / Author web application. 

You will see how easy it is to use Spring Boot, Spring MVC, and Spring Data JPA to create a functional web application running under Tomcat with an H2 in-memory database.

Use Test-Driven Development!

In addition to teaching you Spring Framework 5, you will learn about modern best practices used in enterprise application development. 

As we build the applications, you'll see me using Test Driven Development (TDD) with JUnit and Mockito.

You will learn how to test Spring applications using JUnit 4 and JUnit 5. While JUnit 5 has been released for some time, many companies are still using JUnit 4.

See how using Mockito mocks will keep your Spring Framework unit tests light and fast!

You'll also see how the Spring context can be used for more complex integration tests.

These techniques are best practices used by companies all over the world to build and manage large scale Spring Framework applications.

GitHub Source Code

You will have complete access to all source code examples used in the course.

In each lesson where we write code, you will have a link to GitHub with two branches in the Github repository. 

The first branch is the starting state of the code. 

The second branch is the ending state of the code. 

You can see exactly what changed in each lesson. Each step of the way, you have a working example you can use for troubleshooting.

In fact, you will get access to 24 (and growing!) different GitHub repositories - each packed with Spring Framework programming examples. 

And, you're encouraged to fork my GitHub repositories so you can share the Spring Framework applications, which you built, to future employers! 

Continuous Integration Builds

Since we are using GitHub and have great test coverage, I also show you how easy it is to set up Continuous Integration builds with CircleCI. 

Continuous Integration builds are another best practice used by enterprise developers. 

Using CircleCI makes your CI build a snap!

Project Lombok

We all know Java development can require a lot of boilerplate code. It's just the nature of Java.

Would you like to see how to slash your boilerplate code using Project Lombok?

Spring Data JPA and Hibernate

Spring MVC and Hibernate have long been cornerstones of the Spring Framework. You will learn how to use Spring MVC, Spring Data JPA and Hibernate to build a real-world web application. You'll learn about Hibernate configuration, and about the mapping of JPA entities. 

The Thymeleaf template engine is hugely popular with the Spring community. You will see how easy Spring Boot makes using Thymeleaf with Spring MVC.

While Bootstrap CSS is not a focus of the course, we will leverage Bootstrap CSS to make our web pages look awesome!

Spring MVC

Spring MVC has a lot of robust capabilities.

I start you off showing you how to build recipe application (using TDD, of course). 

Initially, it's all happy path development. We go back and add custom exception handling, form validation, and internationalization.

In the course, you will also learn how to use Spring MVC to create RESTful APIs.

Reactive Programming

A big theme of Spring Framework 5 is Reactive Programming. 

Inside the course, we build a web application using Thymeleaf, Spring MVC, Spring Data MongoDB, and MongoDB.

We then take the MongoDB application we built and convert it into a Reactive application. You'll see how you can leverage the new Reactive types inside the Spring Framework from the data tier to the web tier.

You will get to see step by step how to convert a traditional Spring MVC application to an end to end reactive application using the WebFlux framework - which is brand new to Spring Framework 5.

Spring Pet Clinic

Spring Pet Clinic is a classic reference application used to demonstrate best practices. The Pet Clinic application actually has its origin within the J2EE/JEE community.

The Spring Framework team took the original Pet Clinic application and rebuilt it using Spring, to demonstrate best practices.

In this course, we will re-create the Spring Pet Clinic application.

You will get to see how to create a Spring Framework application from the ground up. Step by Step.

The approach used to develop the Spring Pet Clinic application is slightly different than the other applications developed in the course.

In addition to showing you how to build a Spring Framework application, you will see best practices in software development.

We start off the Pet Clinic project by creating a GitHub repository. Then using Spring Initializer to generate the basic shell of Spring Boot project.

Next, you see how to use GitHub to mimic Agile development practices, such as using issues and a backlog.

We plan the development of the Spring Pet Clinic using GitHub Issues. Planning work into issues creates a work backlog, which is an important Agile concept.

In fact, many organizations have a formal rule that no code is changed without having an issue or some type of ticket (in Github, Jira, or some other issue tracker)

From there, we use GitHub issues to complete programming assignments. Lessons start with a GitHub ticket, then we complete the programming assignment.

You will see how to build a Spring Framework application, step by step, using best practices in software development.

Course Extra - IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate

Students enrolling in the course can receive a free 4-month trial license to IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate! Get hands-on experience using the Java IDE preferred by Spring Framework professionals! 

Course Extra - Access to a Private Slack Community

You're not just enrolling in a course --> You are joining a community learning Spring.

With your enrollment to the course, you can access an exclusive Slack community. Get help from the instructor and other Spring Framework Gurus from around the world - in real-time! This community is only available to students enrolled in this course. 

This is a very active Slack community with over 9,300 Spring Framework Gurus!

This is the largest online community of people learning Spring in the world.

With your enrollment, you can join this community of awesome gurus!

Course Extra - Spring Boot Cookbook!

Inside this course, I'm including a Spring Boot Cookbook. You will have complete examples of using the Spring Framework with popular open-source technologies. When you get hired as a Spring Framework developer, you'll have ready-made Spring Framework examples!

My Spring Boot Cookbook includes example Spring Boot projects for:

MongoDB

MySQL

Postgres

Maria DB

DB2 Express

Neo4J

Redis

Cassandra

ActiveMQ

RabbitMQ

Course Extra - Learn Docker!

Docker is an exciting technology that is on fire right now! 

As a course extra, I'm including the first 3 sections from my top rated Docker for Java Developers course. You will learn more about what Docker is and how you can deploy and run a Spring Boot application inside a Docker container.

For Java developers, Docker really is a game-changer!

Closed Captioning / Subtitles

Closed captioning in English is available for all course videos!

PDF Downloads

All keynote presentations are available for you to download as PDFs.

Lifetime Access

When you purchase this course, you will receive lifetime access! You can log in anytime from anywhere to access the course content.

No-Risk - Money-Back Guarantee 

You can buy this course with no risk. If you are unhappy with the course, for any reason, you can get a complete refund. The course has a 30 day Money Back Guarantee.

Future Proof Your Programming Career

There is a huge demand for Spring Framework developers. Downloads of Spring Boot are up 425% year over year, while Gartner Research is calling Java EE "Obsolete". 

The market trends are clear. 

Popularity for JEE is rapidly declining.

The popularity of the Spring Framework is growing. 

Spring Framework 5 is packed with exciting and innovative new features making it a natural choice for enterprise application development.

Excellent Course! It has a lot of useful material. An instructor is a passionate person and he is really helpful. You can always count on him. This course includes Slack Room. So, you can be part of the Java Community and there is always someone who helps you. I recommend this course, it's really very good.

★★★★★ The course is amazing and I am learning so much from this course. I am getting vibes that I'll become spring framework Guru!

★★★★★ Right now it seems like he is cool and funny and seems to know what he does. He also seems to update the course regularly and to interact with his students. If I could give him more than 5 stars I definitely would!

★★★★★ The lecture so amazing I learn this for about one month with great results I got a new job as a backend developer. Thank you, GURU! Keep working for another great lecture!

Future proof your programming career. Start learning how to build modern applications using the Spring Framework and enroll in this course today!

ALSO READ: iOS 13 & Swift 5 - The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp

Who this course is for:

This course is ideal for Java developers who wish to use the Spring Framework for enterprise application development

Spring Framework 5: Beginner to Guru

Created by John Thompson

Last updated 11/2019

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Size: 18.21 GB

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