#maybe she helps raise the sun and moon when twilight needs a day off once in awhile though

[cracklewink]

I know its not canon but I always liked the idea that Flurry Heart grew up to be a normal pony. Never went on any princess-title-earning quest, no grand magical destiny, no real royal responsibilities. Just a normal pony (who happens to be an alicorn) free to enjoy life with her friends and hobbies

[moonbeamwritings]

of salt water and curious gazes

Summary: Following your grandmother’s death, her seaside home fell into your care, deemed the only one she could picture inhabiting it. Things were simple enough, tending to the garden and making frequent trips to the beach as you adjusted to life in the small town. It all changed, however, when you spent a night under the full moon with a rather peculiar blue eyed companion. (Merperson AU)

Author’s Note: Hey everyone! This is definitely different from what I usually post, but I hope you guys are just as interested as I am! Let me know what you think! Also, buckle up! This is a long one and might end up being a part one 🤪

sequel: “of salt water and loving gazes”

Your grandmother’s home had always been your safe space, a place in which you were free to run around and spend your time as you saw fit. After her death though, it seemed as if all of the joy had been sucked out of the small, seaside cottage. Your heart broke just a little bit more as you turned down the all-too-familiar street and pulled into her, now your, driveway.

She’d left the house to you, explaining that she could see no one else living there but you. You had been itching for change, growing tired of the hustle and bustle of your daily life, so perhaps with fate’s guiding hand you would find solace along the shoreline, in your happy place. I know you’ll treat it well, the letter she had left assured you. P.S. The ocean works wonders for the soul. Don’t forget that. 

You gripped the steering wheel as you stared at the front of the house through the windshield. It was just as you remembered, bright blue hydrangeas dotted the garden, flowers fat and stems long, the doormat was perfectly centered, the mailbox the same faded green as it had always been.

With one final sigh, you willed yourself out of the car, keys jingling in your hands as you went. The house was much quieter now, lacking the bubbles of laughter and soft music that were staples of your childhood visits. The sweet smell of baked goods no longer wafted through the kitchen, her shoes no longer resting by the door. Most of her belongings had already been cleared out, handed off to friends and family, but what was left was yours. The house was yours. The thought that what once belonged to her was now left entirely in your care made your heart swell with both sadness and pride. You would make the best of this, if not for yourself, then for your dear grandmother.

Unloading your car was simple enough, taking only an afternoon to get everything completely organized. That night, you watched the sunset from the back porch, warm mug in hand as you looked out at the seemingly endless sea. Your eyes drooped as the vibrant colors of the sun were replaced by the pale yellow light of the moon.

Adjusting to life in the quaint little town was difficult. The townspeople who had known your grandma could only seem to muster pitying glances when they saw you out and about, treading lightly as they asked about you and your move. You stuck to the house most days to avoid them, cleaning things up and shifting things around.

Something about the beach had an uneasy feeling settling in your stomach though. As you traveled down the path, a bag slung over your shoulder and a towel in hand, you couldn’t help but feel eyes on you, carefully tracking your every move.

Your grandmother’s neighbors were kind and friendly, no doubt willing to approach you if they were to see you sitting out. The beach itself was private, reserved for residents like yourself, so it’s not like wandering strangers lingered about. This feeling was different. It was as if the waves themselves were peering back at you, just as mesmerized by you as you were with them.

One day as you munched on a sandwich, legs pulled close to your chest as you stared out at the ocean, you could’ve sworn you saw curious blue eyes staring back. You stopped going to the beach for a few days after that.

The morning you finally returned to the beach left much to be desired. The beautiful blue sky and relaxing ebb and flow of the waves were replaced by thick fog and dark gray skies, waves rocking against the shore with more force. You had no idea what had compelled you to make the trek down to the beach that morning, but you had felt as though you were being pulled there, tugged along by a thin red thread, like you were supposed to be there.

The wind bit at your face as it rustled the fabric of your coat. You were thankful that it had yet to kick sand up into your eyes. As the water sloshed against your bare ankles, you could barely see three feet in front of you, fog completely obscuring the horizon. Your grandmother’s voice sounded in the back of your head, “I know you don’t like the beach when it’s foggy, but I’ll have you know, I’ve seen some of the cutest seals on days just like this one.”

Deciding that the waves weren’t as bad as you had expected and wanting to know if her words would ring true, you ventured down the jetty, carefully calculating each step so as not to stumble. 

On your way down the jetty, you caught sight of a familiar pair of blue eyes, just barely visible over the surface of the water. Why would someone be out swimming in conditions like these? Eyes scanning what little area you could see, you halted all movements, eagerly waiting for the person to resurface. Were you imagining things? Soon enough, a head popped out of the water, showing off broad shoulders, black hair, and… Was that a star tattoo?

Raising your voice to be heard over the wind, you called out, “Hey, dude! It’s not safe to be out swimming with all this fog! I’ve heard there have been sharks in the area recently!”

The person wheeled around at the sound of your voice, eyes widening in surprise. You watched as his mouth opened and closed, but no response came. Before you could get another warning in, he was dipping back below the surface, disappearing into the murky water. Without thinking, your feet carried you to the very tip of the jetty, searching for any sign of the solitary swimmer.

“Hello!? Hello!? Is anyone out there?”

You felt crazy as your head swiveled back and forth, ears tuning in to the gentle way the waves struck the rocks. It was quiet, deathly so. Was that just another trick of the eye? A manifestation of the loneliness you’d felt in your little seaside dwelling? The result of feeling like you were being watched for the past few weeks? You couldn’t tell.

You’d seen those eyes before, you’d assured yourself as you walked back to the sand, right? Surely they were the same ones you’d encountered during early morning sunrises or all the lunchtime meals you’d eaten on the beach. They were too familiar to be nothing more than a host of different, swimming strangers.

After the whole incident, you kept a close watch on those around you when you went into the grocery store and the other local shops. Did anyone’s eyes match that deep, unrelenting turquoise? Did anyone have that star tattoo on the back of their shoulder? You searched high and low, but reached no feasible conclusions, no answers that allowed you to sleep better at night.

In one of your more desperate late-night deep dives, no pun intended, you toyed with the idea that perhaps you’d seen some sort of siren, a merperson exploring the waters near your home. The melodrama of Twilight’s Bella Swan frantically searching the internet for answers to her vampiric questions flashed through your mind. You laughed out loud at the thought. That would not be you.

Weeks went by and things returned to relative normalcy. You still occasionally felt curious eyes on you, but you hadn’t seen any flashes of blue since that foggy morning. You ate your lunch, you cleared your head, all without any distractions from the mysterious man.

Your mind raced as you watched the sunset from your kitchen window, suds covering your hands while you worked a sponge over the dirty dishes in your sink. Earlier in the day, you’d received a phone call from a friend, essentially admonishing you for your move to your grandmother’s old house. They had completely ignored your feelings, only working from their own experiences as they ranted and raved. The call left you feeling drained and desperate to get down to the beach. Maybe dipping your toes into the salty water while you watched the full moon rise would ease the ache in your heart.

Pulling an oversized hoodie over your head, you made the walk down to the beach, taking your time to look for shells and sea glass as you went. Having no luck, you moved down the jetty, a pep in your step as you hopped from one rock to the other. At the end, you carefully shuffled out of your shoes before sitting down to let your feet and calves slip into the cool, dark water.

The moonlight left the ocean in front of you sparkling, like the stars themselves had fallen into the sea, shining brightly as they bobbed with the waves. You were thankful you had the beach to yourself.

To release some of your energy, you began swishing your feet back and forth beneath the surface, relishing in the soft movement of the water against your skin. Losing yourself in your thoughts, you’d hardly realized you were being watched until you heard the gentle sloshing of water off to your right, ripples traveling up against your legs.

You snapped your head away from the moon, scanning the glassy surface all around you. Your eyes widened, breath hitching in your throat when you finally saw them. 

Blue eyes.

“You.”

The stranger’s eyes mirrored yours as you stared at one another. The droplets of water caught the light of the moon, bathing the man in the rolling starlight of the sea. Your heart fluttered.

“What the hell are you doing? Have you not heard about all of the shark sightings or do you just not care? Night swimming like that is so stupid.”

He waded closer, still beyond arm’s reach, but inching closer with the movement of the waves.

“I don’t need to worry about sharks.”

“What are you? Some kind of whisperer?”

He examined you carefully, mouth dipping below the surface only to reappear as he replied, “You could say that.”

The man’s body was entirely submerged save for his head and shoulders. You eyed each other as silence fell, punctuated by the crashing of waves in the distance. With his eyes on you like this, you felt as if you were being stalked, kept under a watchful glare for any signs of weakness.

“You know,” you spoke, attempting to diffuse the tension, “you can come sit up here with me, if you want.”

“No, thank you.” His reply was immediate, but your words had him closing some more distance. The closer he came to the jetty, the more you realized just how large he was, all broad shoulders and defined muscle. Imposing.

His eyes flickered down to watch your feet where they moved in the water, head tilting curiously as he followed the exposed skin up to the curves of your knees, eyeing them too. It’s like he’s never seen them before, you thought.

You floundered thinking about any way to continue the conversation with the handsome stranger, to attempt to distract him from the gentle sway of your legs. With a wide sweep of your leg, you unconsciously sent your foot towards the stranger, but instead of skin meeting skin, your toes brushed against the rigid surface of scales.

Scales!?

Your eyes shot open as you yelped, scrambling to pull your feet from the water and up onto the jetty, “What the fuck was that?”

Your knee jerk reaction sent the man in front of you reeling back as well, splashing back below the surface of the waves.

Your mind spiraled, forcing you to through your own Twilight movie moment. It was as if all the pieces were steadily falling into place: always swimming at odd hours and in adverse conditions, never seeing him in town, being unfazed by the presence of sharks. 

Your heart pounded against your ribcage. He couldn’t be… Could he?

Throwing caution to the wind out of sheer desperation for answers, you gently placed your feet back into the water, calling out for your potential new companion. You waited for any sort of response, resolving to sit for hours if you had to. Unexpectedly, you saw his eyes breach the surface once again, keeping his distance.

“Hey,” you spoke, keeping your voice as soft as possible, beckoning him closer with a wave of your hand, “Come here.”

He swam up to you, positioning himself in front of you. The man looked almost… cute like this, eyes wide and cautious as he stared up at you from the water.

“So, are you, like, a merperson or something? A merman?”

He nodded in lieu of response.

“Can I see?”

It took a long moment for him to move, eyes locked on yours as he thought over your tone of voice. Finally nodding, he leaned back, treading water with his arms as he exposed his tail to you.

It was breathtaking, the full expanse of it decorated with deep purple, almost black scales, like he had entire galaxies trapped within each and every one. The fluke glittered, iridescent under the beams of the moon. You gasped at the sight.

“It’s beautiful.”

Without thinking, you brushed your fingertips along the fluke, taking in the smooth, silky texture. In an instant, his hand shot out and took your wrist in its grip, removing it from his tail. Your eyes widened at the action, fear taking hold of your lungs at the feeling of his pointed nails against your skin.

“That tickles,” he quietly told you, loosening his hold on your wrist. You could’ve sworn you saw his face flush at the admission.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” came his grumbled response.

You fell silent for a moment, mind still racing with the thoughts that you were actually in the presence of a merman, that your stupid midnight thoughts had actually been correct.

“Can you tell me your name?” You finally settled on asking, deciding that if this whole thing was going to continue beyond tonight, you should at least learn his name.

“It’s Jotaro.”

You parroted the name, testing it on your own lips, memorizing the sound. Jotaro placed your hand back in your lap, moving to place his elbows up on the rock beside you instead. “What’s yours?”

You shared your own name, smiling at his proximity. He followed your lead, repeating your name as he looked up at you.

You sat with Jotaro until your toes pruned, goosebumps rising on your skin as the night brought lower temperatures along with it. You smiled to yourself as you watched his eyes roam over the flesh, fascinated by your body’s reaction to the cold.

After shivering for what felt like the hundredth time, you bid Jotaro a goodnight, promising to meet him again the following night at around the same time. He nodded in response, sending one last, long look in your direction before disappearing back below the waves.

Curling your hands into the sleeves of your sweatshirt, you began the walk back to your home. The phone call with your friend had completely slipped your mind, instead replaced by the warm feeling Jotaro’s presence settled in your heart. With the scent of sea spray still lingering on your clothes, you washed the sand from your feet and turned in for the night. As you laid your head back against your pillows, you wondered if your grandmother had been right all along. Maybe the ocean truly did work wonders for the soul.

[cuquitalocita]

kids and car rides- feysand

AN: hi yes hello there- again, it’s been a hot minute since i’ve written anything so here’s something i’ve been pushing myself through for these past couple of days. this is my first time writing feysand so i’m sorry if this sucks- i have to wake up for school in... five hours... so... yeah. if there’s any typos or the plot is kinda... ?? just... cut me some slack :) anyway, hope you enjoy!

part two

~~

Feyre was going to murder her boyfriend.

No- mutilate was more like it. How and where were truly her only thoughts as she glanced around her at the full bleachers of screaming students covered in black and blue face paint. 

Dating Tamlin Hybern had been nice at first- surreal if anything. When the star lacrosse player had taken an interest in the quiet girl at the back of the class who spent her free time in an art studio, Feyre had been flattered. He had asked her out in between classes a few months ago and Feyre had managed to stutter out a blushing, yes, still reeling that the handsome blonde had even noticed her. 

But her relationship was dull and boring, lacking in color, and gods, Feyre needed to end it. 

Tamlin had dragged her to the football game, practically begging on his knees for her to come with him. Feyre had relented, not even having enough time to shower after her art class before Tamlin was picking her up. But the second they had pulled up to the school and gotten out of his truck, Tamlin had disappeared with Lucien and left her in the bleachers with nothing more than a kiss on the cheek and a promise to find her later. 

It left Feyre seeing red. The crowd raged around her as the Bats scored a touchdown, and Feyre glanced at her phone. Shit. It was seven-thirty, meaning Nesta had already left on her date with Tomas, leaving Feyre without a ride home. Elain was out with her friends, actually enjoying her Friday night as a teenage girl should, and Feyre was left alone and ready to leave. 

She had been at the game for thirty minutes, in which the sun had gone down, blanketing the sky in a twilight full of stars. Feyre would stay if only to watch them a little longer- her favorite thing to paint. But as the crowd raged again, Feyre stood up from her spot on the bleachers and began pushing her way through the crowd and back to the parking lot, ready to walk home. It was only a few miles, really, and she had her sneakers on. She could manage. 

“Feyre!” A kind voice broke through her thoughts before she was halfway through the crowd, and she turned to see the familiar face of Morrigan from French class. 

Feyre’s lips turned up into a smile at the sight of the girl and her racing heart calmed a little as Mor came closer, stopping in front of her. 

“Hey, Mor.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you hated football.” Mor’s question was innocent, lacking the judgemental tone that most people would have added on. 

“I do,” she snorted. “But Tamlin wanted me to come, so here I am.” 

Mor’s smile turned down at the mention of her boyfriend. The girl had never tried to hide her dislike for Feyre’s boyfriend, even if the two of them weren’t very close and although she should have been offended, Feyre relished in her honesty. “Either way, I’m ready to go. See you Monday, Mor.”

“Wait, do you need a ride?” Feyre smiled, shaking her head at her easy kindness. She knew she liked Mor. 

“Thanks, but it’s really fine. I only live a few miles down the road- I’ll be fine to walk. Besides, we’re not even halfway through the game. Stay.” Mor bit her lip, clearly deciding whether or not to pick a fight, but Feyre fixed her with a look that eventually had her sighing. 

“Ugh, fine. But text me when you get home. Who knows what kind of creeps are wandering around here.” Feyre nodded, squeezing Mor’s hands in thanks, and left the bleachers, stopping only when she was back in the student parking lot.  

She pulled out her phone, remembering that she came here with her boyfriend. 

>> Hey wasn’t feeling well. Getting a ride home from Nes. 

It was five minutes before he responded. 

<< sure thing- see you later babe

Feyre scoffed, shoving her phone into her back pocket. Unlike Mor, he had not asked her if she was okay and to text him when she was home safe. She had told him that Nesta had a date too- which he obviously hadn’t been paying attention to. 

Ready to start walking, Feyre patted her pockets, looking for her ID, just in case anything happened, only to find them empty. 

“Godsdamn it,” Feyre muttered under her breath, realizing she must have forgotten her wallet back on the bleachers. Turning back to the field, Feyre almost tripped on her own feet when she heard a little voice behind her say,

“That’s a bad word. And my mommy says you shouldn’t say bad words.”

 Spinning back around, she was surprised to see a little girl- no older than six staring up at her and twisting her little fingers together. Her jet black hair was pulled back into two short ponytails and Feyre swore she was one of the cutest things she had ever seen. Bewildered, Feyre stared for a moment before shaking her head. 

“Uh- yes. You’re right- I… I shouldn’t have said that. And neither should you.” The little girl just continued to look at her in silence, causing Feyre to raise her brows. Who was this girl? And why was she by herself? What kind of parent left a little girl alone at a high school at almost eight o’clock?

“What’s your name? Are you lost?” 

“My mommy says I shouldn’t talk to strangers.” At that, Feyre smiled a little bit. She bent down, putting her weight on her knees so she was eye level with the girl, and mustered up her friendliest smile. 

“That’s very smart of her. Well, how about this?” Feyre stuck her hand out to the girl who eyed it warily but didn’t back away. “My name is Feyre. I go to school here. There, now we aren’t strangers anymore.” 

The girl’s eyes widened and it was then that Feyre noticed their unique color, unlike any she had ever seen before. Her eyes were a beautiful violet, and in the reflection of the moon, she swore she could see stars in her eyes. 

The little girl took her hand, practically dwarfed from the size of Feyre’s, and she gave Feyre a small smile that had her melting just a bit. 

“My name is Thebe,” she finally said, her voice small. 

“Well Thebe, are you lost?” She nodded, looking at the ground. Feyre gently took her small hand, forcing the girl to look at her, and smiled again. She could see small tears beginning to form in the little girl’s eyes. 

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. I’ll help you get back. Who are you here with?” 

“My brother,” she responded, and Feyre clenched her teeth. What kind of brother left his little sister alone? With all the fighting she did with Nesta, Feyre knew her sister would never have left her alone in a public place, let alone at night. Once again, Feyre was seeing red. 

“Okay then. Is he at the football game?” Thebe nodded, and Feyre deduced that she must have snuck off into the crowd, bored with the game. She couldn’t say she blamed her.

Taking the girl’s hand in her own and trying not to sigh when little fingers wrapped and her own, Feyre led the little girl back to the raging football game. 

“Do you think you can show me where you were?” Thebe nodded and gripped her fingers tighter, pulling Feyre through the bleachers, using her as a shield from the crazy teenagers. 

Feyre saw Tamlin through the crowd and quickly averted her gaze, focusing back on the girl in front of her until they came to a stop on one of the bottom bleachers. It was surprisingly empty, other than being filled up with athletic bags and water bottles. 

Feyre frowned, following Thebe as she sat down next to one of the bags and pulled out a small jacket that was clearly her own. 

“Thebe, where is your brother?” It was then that the little girl pointed out to the field. “Your brother is playing?” Thebe nodded, leaning her small head on Feyre’s shoulder, her hair tickling her neck, and Feyre admitted that maybe she could stay at the game a little longer, even if she would eventually have to deal with one of the loathsome jocks. But her blood still boiled at the fact that her brother had left her alone. Gods know what could have happened to her if someone else had found her.

“Why did you let me walk you back?” Feyre wondered aloud. Thebe shrugged. 

“You’re pretty. My brother says you can always trust a girl with pretty brown hair.” Feyre blushed, the compliment warming her to her toes. 

“I think you’re pretty too Thebe,” she whispered. 

It was only then that Feyre realized how cold it had gotten. She shivered, running the free hand that wasn’t around Thebe up her arm, which was barely covered with a paint-stained t-shirt. Thebe only reached into the bag in front of her and pulled out a much larger jacket, one with the familiar school colors. She handed it to Feyre, who quickly realized it was a varsity jacket. 

“This is your brother’s jacket Thebe. I can’t-”

“He would share.” Feyre fixed her with a look which Thebe returned with a more convincing one. “Trust me- he would.” Another shiver ran through her and Feyre, sighed, relenting, and shoved her arms into the jacket, immediately warmed. 

They stayed there for a while, watching the game in silence as Thebe began to doze off on her shoulder. Feyre hid her smile as the bleachers creaked, announcing that another person was coming to sit. She looked up to see Cassian Guerra lifting himself onto the bleachers, a carefree grin on his all-too handsome face. The football player’s hair was pulled up in a bun and Feyre vaguely remembered Nesta saying something about him. She doubted it had been positive. 

Feyre remembered Tamlin mentioning how Cassian had gotten injured and was out for the season. It was cool of him to come and support his team. 

His hazel eyes glanced over the little girl next to him and he grinned. 

“Hey, Thee, I thought you were with Az. New babysitter?” Feyre scowled and the little girl seemed to brighten as she looked at Cassian- then at Feyre. 

“New friend,” was all she said, bringing a smile to both her and Cassian’s faces. It was then that he truly looked at her, and a spark of recognition flashed through his eyes. 

“Hey, you’re-”

Cassian broke off as a buzzer sounded through the stadium and the crowd erupted into cheers. He was grinning at her, and Feyre managed back a small smile as Thebe shoved her head into her shoulder. The crowd began emptying out, and Feyre turned to Cassian, meaning to ask what she should do with the little girl. Not that Feyre was too eager to part from her. But he had vanished, finding somewhere else to be, and Feyre huffed, waking the little girl. 

“Alright, I think it’s time we found your brother.” Feyre got up from the bleachers, taking the little girl down to the field where most of the players were still talking to each other and clanking helmets. “Okay, tell me when you see-”

“Rhysie!” 

Feyre’s heart dropped into her stomach as she realized who the little girl was pointing at. Because not ten feet from her, looking impossibly attractive in a way that shouldn’t be possible after sweating for two hours straight, was the bane of her existence. With his jet black hair and twin eyes to Thebe’s, he looked like a god made man. 

“Your brother is Rhysand Knight?” Feyre practically screeched at the little girl holding her hand. 

Thebe nodded excitedly as Rhysand jogged over to his little sister who had quickly abandoned Feyre’s hand and met him halfway. He scooped her up into his arms easily, the grin on his face much too gorgeous for a high school boy, and Feyre grit her teeth. 

Maybe it was just her, Feyre realized, that had to have some sort of connection with the most popular boys in school while managing to remain in the background herself. Rhysand was the captain of the football team and unsurprisingly, loved by most of the people in the school. If he wasn’t so infuriating, Feyre may have even liked him.

But from debating her points in English class to attempting to speak to her afterward, Rhysand Knight was nothing more than a massive pain in Feyre’s ass. A handsome pain, coincidentally, but Feyre refused to acknowledge that at the moment.

“Hey Thee,” he smiled, placing the girl down. “Enjoy the game?” 

It was only then that he noticed Feyre standing behind his sister. It seemed that widening eyes ran in the family, as Rhysand did the same thing his sister had as he gazed at her. 

“H-hey,” he stuttered, the sound strange coming from his usually smooth lips. “Feyre, right?” 

She awaited the inevitable words that always came after the sentence. Tamlin’s girlfriend, right? 

“From English. With Suriel?” Feyre started in place. So he had remembered her. 

But as Thebe ran up to her and tugged at her hand, Feyre ignored the flipping of her heart in her chest at his nervous smile. Instead, she nodded, her movements jerky and final as she arched an angry brow at him. 

“Did you enjoy the game?” he asked, smiling casually again. Feyre huffed. 

“I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I didn’t have to worry about something happening to your sister. I found her wandering around alone in the parking lot,” she snapped. 

Rhysand frowned, glancing at Thebe quickly before looking back at her, pinning Feyre in place with his gaze. 

“What are you talking about? I left her with Cassian and Azriel. They’re like brothers to her and they were watching her the whole time.” Feyre fixed him with a look that said they clearly weren’t and Rhysand’s gaze turned frustrated as he seemed to realize what had happened. 

He sighed, kneeling down until he was eye level with his sister who seemed to be looking everywhere but at him. The sight brought a small smile to Feyre’s face. 

“What did I say about running off Thee? And what did Mom say about talking to strangers?”

“But she said her name is Feyre, like the one you and Cass and Az talk about all the-” Rhysand cut off his sister’s rambling with a playful hand over her mouth and Feyre could have sworn she saw bits of red dotting his cheeks. She pushed away from the thought of how cute she found it. 

“Alright, I think it’s past your bedtime you little menace.” Thebe narrowed her eyes and bit at her brother’s hand, causing him to leap back with a curse, earning an instinctual laugh from Feyre. 

His gaze snapped to hers, softening at her laughing face, and his own turned into a small grin that sent her heart fluttering. 

Shit Fey, you have a boyfriend. 

Her cheeks colored as she noticed Rhysand’s gaze conspicuously running up and down her body and she realized she still had his jacket on. Feyre cursed under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear as she fumbled for the zipper on his jacket. 

“Sorry, I was freezing. Here-” 

“No!” Rhysand cut her off and the blush returned to his cheeks. “I mean- it- you look- uh, you’re just gonna be cold again. Keep it- for now.” Feyre shook her head, unzipping the jacket and handing it to him.

“I should head home anyway. Good game.” She tried for a friendly smile. She had never given him one. Feyre leaned down until she was eye level with Thebe. 

“Thanks for being my game buddy,” she whispered. Thebe beamed, throwing her arms around Feyre’s neck. She hugged the little girl back and tried not to look at Rhysand, whose gaze she could feel on the two of them. 

“Feyre, do you need a ride? I saw Tamlin leave and didn’t know...” His voice rolled over the words like midnight and Feyre shook her head. 

“Thanks but I really don’t live far-”

“It’s going to start raining soon, and I’m not letting you walk home in the dark. Just take the gesture Feyre.” He sounded exasperated, running a hand through his hair. Her eyes narrowed.

“And what, Rhysand, makes you think I want anything from you?”

“Rhys.”

“What?”

“People call me Rhys. Especially people who let me drive them home from football games.” Feyre shook her head in disbelief. 

“Gods, you’re relentless, aren’t you?”

“It’s one of my best qualities darling,” he smirked. 

And there it was, that insufferable charm that had every girl at school drooling over him. Feyre couldn’t say she blamed them, even if it did slightly annoy her. She finally smiled, reaching over to cover Thebe’s ears with her hands. 

“Only second to being a prick?” 

“If I say yes will you let me take you home?” Feyre rolled her eyes and Rhys’ grin widened, both of them knowing she had long since relented. Rhys handed Feyre his jacket and she grumbled, shoving her arms through.  

“Give me a second to find my wallet, then I’ll meet you at your car.” Rhys practically beamed in triumph, scooping his sister back up in his arms and heading back to the parking lot. Feyre loathed admitting that she watched them until they were out of her line of sight. 

She sighed. It was those damn eyes. It had to be.

And it was because of those eyes that ten minutes later, Feyre sat in the passenger seat of Rhysand Knight’s jet black ford fusion. Thebe was in the back, kicking her feet to the beat of whatever song was playing on the radio- one that Feyre couldn’t hear over the pounding of her own heart, and Feyre eyed the little girl through her side mirror so not as to look at the boy beside her. She was keenly aware of the small amount of space between them.

Rhys drove safely, unsurprisingly through their small town, and Feyre gazed out the window until Rhys cleared his throat. She turned to him. 

“So… how are you liking Bronte so far?” Feyre frowned before realizing that he was talking about the book they were reading in English. The book he had argued with her about to no end. 

“I think you know the answer to that Rhys, considering you make it your business to disagree with me.” Surprisingly, the words held no bite to them, and Rhys smiled without taking his eyes away from the road. 

“Well, darling, if you didn’t make it so easy to disagree with you, maybe I wouldn’t have to.” Feyre gaped at him and it was purely instinctual as she reached over the center console and shoved his shoulder as if they were best friends that did it all the time. Gods, what was she doing? She hated him. Maybe.

But if Rhys was surprised by her actions, he didn’t show it as he let out a laugh. Damn, that sound would be staying with her. 

“Look, I’ll give it to Catherine-”

“If this ends with any Heathcliff support I will jump out of this car Rhysand,” she cut him off, tone deadly serious. 

“No!” Thebe called from the back, causing both of the teens to laugh, catching each other's gazes before Feyre quickly looked away. She couldn’t be more grateful for how dark it was in the car so Rhys couldn’t see the blush attacking her cheeks. 

“So, what brought you to the game tonight? Not that you don’t seem like that type of girl but you… don’t seem like that type of girl.” His chuckle sent goosebumps up her arm even though she was still wearing his jacket. Feyre fidgeted her fingers and gazed down at her lap as she shrugged. 

“Uh, Tamlin asked me to come so… here I am.”

“Here you are… in my car.” Feyre sucked in a breath, glaring at Rhys from the side of her eye. The rivalry between the two athletes was no secret, and Feyre had yet to figure out where it had originated.  

“It’s not like that, Rhys. He thought I left. I had… until I ran into a certain black-haired beauty.” Feyre smiled at the side mirror where she could still see Thebe singing along to the radio. Rhys finally smiled too. 

“That’s fair. I know I can be a lot to look at once.” Feyre shoved him again, both of them laughing, and Feyre questioned when her life had turned so off-kilter. 

“Shut up, prick.” She didn’t joke with Rhysand Knight. She didn’t even talk to Rhysand Knight outside of class. So what in the gods was happening?

“Turn here,” she directed, shoving herself out of her thoughts. Rhys obeyed, moments later pulling up in front of her dark house where clearly none of her sisters were home. They sat there in silence for what seemed like eons. Just… sitting there. 

“Well-”

“I-” 

The two laughed as they cut each other off and Feyre shrugged off Rhys’ jacket, shoving it into the open athletic bag next to Thebe, who grabbed her hand before she could pull back. 

“Are you leaving?” she pouted. Feyre gave her a kind, tired smile, and nodded. 

“Sorry Thebe, it’s past my bedtime. But I’m sure I’ll see you around, yeah?” The girl nodded excitedly and Feyre almost startled back when she turned to see Rhys looking at her with a strange expression on his face. 

“What?” Rhys shook his head as if erasing the thoughts.

“Nothing… you just… surprise me.” Feyre snorted, ignoring the blush that had risen to her cheeks. 

“Yes, well, my kid whispering does tend to floor men at times.” But Rhys didn’t smile, or say anything in return, leaving Feyre to raise her brows and clear her throat. “So, I guess it’s my turn to head out.” Feyre placed her hand on the door handle before turning back to the boy next to her. ��Thank you. For the ride.” 

Finally, Rhys smiled, his eyes betraying something that looked almost like… anxiety. 

“Hey, Feyre?” The car door had just shut behind her when she heard his voice again.

“Hmm?” 

“Would you want to…” Rhys scratched at the back of his neck and Feyre arched a brow. 

“Would I want to…?”

“Uh,” he cleared his throat. “Go over art notes sometime?” Feyre frowned, fully turning back around and crossing her arms in front of her body to shield herself from the night chill.

“I didn’t know you were in art.”

“Yeah uh- new class.” Feyre nodded, tapping her foot on the ground as she stared him down. Rhys stared right back, clearly unsure of what her answer could be. And she couldn’t help it as a small smile graced her face. 

“I’ll think about it,” was all she said. “Goodnight, Rhysie.” 

Feyre laughed at the sound of Rhys banging his head on the steering wheel and approached her house once more, using her phone flashlight to find the spare key Nesta had hidden somewhere. It was for that reason that she was still outside when Thebe’s little voice spoke to her brother. 

“I like her hair. With the colors. She looks like a princess.” A frown graced Feyre’s lips once more as she subtly inspected a strand of her hair, wondering what the child was talking about. Sure enough, the strands crunched under her fingertips and Feyre had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming in embarrassment.

Of course, Feyre had forgone taking a shower before going to the game. And of course, she had been using her last period of the day as a free period in the art studio. And of course, she had mistakenly dyed her hair with acrylic paint that she had now kept while being in a car relatively alone, with one of the most attractive boys in school. Not that she cared about that, of course. 

Cheeks burning, Feyre finally found the key and rushed into her empty home, wishing for nothing more than a black hole to swallow her whole in her embarrassment. 

But if only Feyre had waited; had paused for more than a moment or tried to hear over the raging sea of emotions inside of her head, she would have heard Rhys’ dazed voice speaking words she wouldn’t even conjure up in a dream. 

“Yeah. Yeah, she does.”

~~

hope you liked it :)

[jensungf]

𝐌𝐘 𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄 🌌 𝐡.𝐫𝐣

summary: he was your best friend. you should’ve been happy when he went to go ask that girl whether or not she was his soulmate. so why was the universe pulling at your heartstrings now?

pairing: reader x best friend!huang renjun genre: fluff + soulmate!au word count: 1.6k warnings: none

6:23pm. you rolled your eyes as you read the time. where the hell was he?

your focus drifts to the onyx swirls dotted on your wrist, and you subconsciously trace all the scribbles making up your tattoo. you had been impatiently tapping your foot for what felt like forever, but in actuality, was about ten minutes. maybe i should just leave, you thought ruefully as the digit on your lit-up phone screen changed once again.

you had been through this too many times for you to simply count with your fingers. it was almost like clockwork at this point. despite this only beginning months ago, you knew the cycle. renjun would encounter someone, and would feel compelled to chase them down and ask if they were possibly his soulmate. unfortunately, it always ended in rejection.

you were always the one to comfort him when he returned with the same answer like always— that they had found their soulmate or they didn’t feel any connection at all. despite your annoyance of having to be inconvenienced at random hours of the day and having your quality time with him interrupted, you knew deep down it hurt you just as much as it hurt him.

yet you never once considered the reality that perhaps he would actually find his soulmate one day, and how that mere possibility would change your entire life.

if renjun was seriously going to confront that girl with a simple question of whether or not she was his soulmate, what was taking them so long? surely he would’ve texted you by now if he was successful, knowing you were still waiting for him. or at least let you know he was on his way back.

you winced at the thought that he might be too busy engaging in other endeavors, ones that involved less talking and more touching. you shook your head in an attempt to rid yourself of those thoughts, burying the odd feelings that made your stomach twist and turn. no, that wasn’t the renjun you knew. he wouldn’t be as daring as that despite his growing impatience to find his soulmate. besides, you wanted him to find his soulmate. there was no reason for your heart to twinge at the chance that maybe this time was the right time. you were his best friend. you were supposed to be happy for him, and hope for the best.

you hastily unlocked your phone, typing out a very annoyed albeit passive aggressive text to your heck of a best friend who decided to abandon you in the middle of your weekly dinner date to chase down a girl. you should’ve just left him moments ago, yet your feet stay planted in your spot outside the moomin plushie store.

“stupid renjun,” you muttered under your breath as you realized that the sky was beginning to settle into a hazy cloud of purple and pink. dusk was always your favorite time of day, yet you couldn’t help but feel a bit embittered that renjun wasn’t here with you to enjoy the view with. just when you were about to click send, a shadow casts over your figure and you lift your head.

“hey,” renjun says simply. his hands are shoved deep into his cream-colored denim jacket and he gazes at the sky instead of at you, causing you to stare quizzically at him.

“so....” you cock your head at his silence and wait for him to answer the obvious question. however, he makes no move to look you in the eyes. you hesitate, unsure what to do at your best friend’s abnormal silence.

usually he would be telling you that it wasn’t the right person and he had made a fool out of himself again or something along those lines, but this time, he remained silent. his eyes still avoid yours and you feel panic bubbling up in your chest. why was he acting like this? had something gone wrong?

“can i... try something?” he breaks the silence, asking quietly, almost as if he would break glass if he spoke any louder. he leans in slowly, and you freeze, your breath hitching. your mind screams for you to move away, to question what he was doing and whether he was in his right mind. yet your heart palpitates erratically and you make no move to turn away. his dark brown eyes gaze into yours, and you feel your head spinning.

despite your daze, you somehow feel your head nod ever so slightly, almost out of pure instinct with no control of your own body.

albeit with great reluctance, renjun takes this opportunity daringly. he closes the gap separating you both and gently presses his lips against yours. you melt into his warmth, closing your eyes as your hands subconsciously reach up to pull him in closer by gripping his jacket. his hands raise up to gently cradle your head and his lips feel like velvet, pliant against your own. the kiss is delicate yet firm, all hesitance dissipating as the seconds pass. you both pull away for air, but it felt as if you had just taken a deep breath of air for the very first time in your life.

people had told you about how they felt when they found the one, and you had never understood what they meant about how one person could make them feel just right until that very moment. how complete you had felt. your heart tugs almost as if you had finally crossed the thin line separating you from friends and lovers, something you never knew your heart had been aching for until now. you had always had renjun in your life, but you never knew how much he made you feel whole until this very moment. like he was the last missing puzzle piece that had finally found its place in your life, and nothing more could rival the feeling of this very moment.

he rests his forehead against yours and smiles meekly. your head was still reeling, and renjun moved his hand to gently cup your cheek. your mouth opens ajar, as you wrack your mind for the right words to say. “i… what? injunnie—”

he cuts you off by pressing another soft kiss to your lips. your eyes widen at his impulsive action, taken aback by how uncharacteristic that was. “i know you have a lot of questions, but i couldn’t resist,” he admits as pink dusts his cheek.

he entwines his hand with yours, fitting like two puzzle pieces as he leads you to the park bench. he looks up at the hazy sky once again with admiration before explaining.

“i never understood why it was so difficult to find my soulmate, when my tattoo was one of the more common ones,” he confesses as he glanced down to his moon tattoo. although it was indeed not as uncommon as yours, you had always admired the beauty it held, how beautifully and different it was drawn compared to the generic crescent symbols you had seen before.

it was as if renjun had drawn it with his own hand, with every tiny detail matching precisely with his art, his masterpieces. you look at yours, your wrist adorned with tiny scribbles of planets, stars, and even the sun scattered around all in one area.

suddenly it dawns on you. the space separating the sun and planets and stars is no longer empty, instead replaced with a replica of a moon. 

renjun’s moon.

“ever since we reunited with each other, i’ve been feeling more and more desperate to find them because i couldn’t help but feel something towards you, and i couldn’t live knowing you weren’t mine. at least— not until now.”

renjun is absolutely glowing when you look up at him.

“i guess you’re my universe, y/n,” he scoffs with a smile. his eyes meet yours, but despite the firmness in his voice, his telltale signs of embarrassment say otherwise.

and you believe him, because when he smiles at you, it’s as if you were the one who put the sun and moon and stars in the sky, as if you were the center of his galaxy. as if you were his universe.

“i never realized how much i needed you, until i saw that girl. she told me that she was the sun to someone else’s galaxy, and that’s when i realized that i had been trying to push away the pull towards someone who was always beside me for too long. somehow who should’ve been with me all along.”

you both locked eyes before bursting into laughter at his cringeworthy yet heartwarming confession. “when did you become such a cheeseball?” you snort. he locks you in a loving chokehold and your heart nearly skips a beat.

“we both wasted our time, didn’t we?” you remark with a carefree smile. all the worries, the gut feeling that made your head spin, the questions of why you couldn’t feel happy when it came to not having him, disappears within a simple kiss. the puzzle was done. the masterpiece was completed, but what was funny was the mere fact that you had no idea anything was even missing in the first place. you looked down at his wrist, now full with doodles of your galaxy. it glowed just like yours.

“we can make up for lost time.”

you nod and bask in his presence, gazing up at the stars scattered across and the luminescent moon peeking out against the darkness of twilight sky.

soulmates were an odd thing— to simply leave it up to a mere tattoo to connect you both when you had been connected since the very beginning. but you couldn’t have asked for anything more, when fate had already decided that you were his universe, and he was your moon.

you completed each other.

author’s note: i wrote this for @yongiefilms to thank her for being such a good friend and also bc i needed an excuse to post smth while i work on my main wip! i seem to have a curse where i cant write blurbs cus they end up turning into drabbles. oops? also i spent wayy more time on the header than the actual story lol ANYWAYS yay to my first renjun fic <3

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

Post-Trailer Generation 5 Thoughts

So, a trailer for the beginning of G5 has now been released. And as promised, I am having a supplementary post to my preliminary thoughts and concerns heading into G5. Though I do first want to answer something I’m sure some might be curious about and that’s if G5 will have any bearing on I Dream of Twilight Sparkle. Given the thing about it being supposedly being the same Equestria at least according to mentions of the Mane 6 as the ancient times and by execs.

G5’S EFFECT ON I DREAM OF TWILIGHT SPARKLE

I will go ahead and say that no, other then if there’s maybe a part of the movie and/or upcoming series I want to make some sort of reference to for any reason that G5 will not happen in the IDOTS universe. The thing about the premise of G5 contradicts a huge thing that’s part of Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear in that Life itself is Magic. With presumably years and years of no magic, G5’s world wouldn’t exist. It’d be the lifeless wasteland that was seen in the Season 5 finale. I will stay firmly on G4 characters as I still have plenty I want to do with them. I’ve once thought about ending I Dream of Twilight Sparkle on the 10th anniversary of the blog next year. But that might not be enough time to fully explore everything I want to do post-Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear. So rest assured I have lots of plans still without having to dive into G5 material.

Another huge difference in IDOTS case that I will point out is that thousands of years by now as I imagine is implied by G4 being Ancient Equestria in G5. Is that Twilight (and Spike too, who will probably be full size at that point) will still be around. And even the others of the Mane 6 and other characters of the G4 generation will likely be able to guide the living as summonable spirits. I doubt under that context that the world of Equestria deteriorates to G5’s situation with this all in mind.

(More after the break)

REITERATING THE CONCERNS ABOUT THE G4-G5 CONNECTION

But now to actually get the trailer itself, it generally shows what we know already but this is the first time we see a little bit in how they���re executing it in motion and acting. They are going to continue mentioning that G4 is the ancient times of this world with the only reason Pony relations that seems to have deteriorated is the long passage of time. Which seems like a terrible interpretation of time. Division still happens in our world especially in the politics side of things but thousands of years ago (or even just a few hundred years ago) it was far worse then it is now with authoritarian empires, monarchies, and enslavement of people everywhere. There’s not a period of history from thousands of years ago that most of us look to have again like Sunny will for Twilight’s reign.

If we are to take it at face value that G5 happened after G4, the peaceful world we saw in The Last Problem where not just all 3 pony types but even non-pony species popullate many areas of Equestria and live in harmony. Even if perhaps you’re not a fan of one or both of the final two seasons of the show, The Last Problem showed that Twilight’s friendship school accomplished it’s goal in helping Equestria reach out to other places in the world. It’s hard to see from that point how things can deteriorate where things seem to be far worse then Celestia’s sole rule of 1,000 years. Or to go even further, it seems to have gotten just as bad if not worse then the Hearth’s Warming story of the founding of Equestria. It’s arguably worse then even the Hearth’s Warming story since even if it was obvious the three types of ponies hated each other, they tolerated each other enough to bargain the necessities at that point. The earth ponies would make the food if the Unicorns move the sun and moon and the Pegasi help with the weather. But as seen in the trailer even one sighting of a unicorn in an Earth pony town puts the whole place in a panic.

Speaking of the Hearth’s Warming story they’re going to have explain why the Windigoes aren’t currently ravaging the planet in Ice and Snow like in the story if we’re to truly believe this is the G4 world we know. Somehow I feel they’re not going to for that deep cut in terms of the lore of G4. I think any connection to G4 is going to be treated more as an afterthought. References to Twilight and her friends, the toys in Sunny’s house, and murals to the past the only huge indications that G4 was the ancient past and never explaining how things got where they are now. I believe this is an attempt of Hasbro to bake it’s cake and eat it too. They want to try to retain G4’s popularity heading into G5 so they try to say G5 is the same exact world even when so much of the evidence we’ve seen so far is too different to be world we knew. (I know there’s a map that shows the Pegasi have what might have once been Canterlot. But there still needs to be more) I feel like most fans going into this should go into this thinking this is a totally new world despite the references to G4. Or even perhaps the ancient G4 isn’t the same G4 we saw in the show. Maybe the Friendship school never happened in this timeline for example. An alternate universe G4 where they never developed the school might make this at least somewhat more palatable. Though even then there’d still be questions.

Another note in the story is as a sort of flipped from G4. Where Canterlot had Unicorns seem to make up most of the rich upper-class ponies. The pegasi seem to be the upper-class and/or royals this time while the Unicorns are actually the poorest of the three and Earth Ponies are middle-class. I slightly joked after hearing that maybe this is a universe where Cozy Glow actually got what she wanted given she was a Pegasus heh. Not that makes any sense either, as there’s probably no honoring of the Mane 6 if they got defeated by a Pegasus filly.

BOOK LEAK

On the same day of the trailer we also got something of a leak of book that comes out next week that recaps the movie in a children’s book style (Don’t worry I won’t spoil anything from it, but yes I did see the scans). Now naturally not all details of an entire movie is probably going to get in a picture book with small excerpts of text on a 32 page book. But it does generally give an outline of how the movie goes. The scans give enough of an outline of how the movie will go. I just have too much concern about G5 to resist knowing how the movie will go to wait until the movie releases. I still intend to see the movie itself but it’ll sort of give me an idea of what we’re in for. For a spoiler-free review of what I know, I think under it’s own merits if we ignore the G4 elephant in the room it’ll probably be a decent way to start things.

FANDOM REACTION

I think if the context was G5 was it’s own separate universe with no connection to G4 it could potentially have some standing on it’s own and will probably have young kids enjoy the movie that see G5 before they see Friendship is Magic. For older fans of G4 though, heading into this generation there’s going to be a lot of things preoccupying the mind before we even start watching the movie. Having G4 as the ancient past has something of a pro of at least getting some fans who liked FiM to at least give this a chance, but at the cost of leaving certain expectations and putting some of the creative freedom in a bind because to tell us this is the same world means you will have fans pointing out contradictions where as there would be no concern if this world was allowed to be it’s own thing The writers and staff of G5 are going to have fans that criticize them for any choice they make that doesn’t fit with G4 in some way. I’m not going to be one of them of course, as that’s annoying behavior even if I agree with the fan who’s criticizing them. And fans have plenty to already raise an eyebrow at, such as normal animals oddly having wings and/or horns when normal animals tended to be just normal animals in G4 (Albeit alot more sentient then real life animals).

LACK OF NON-PONIES?

There also doesn’t seem to be any sign of the other species that became more prominent in late G4. There’s not even a Spike from what we can see thus far. Unless maybe there’s a 6th main character that gets introduced in the beginning of the series that has a little dragon companion this would be the first time since maybe My Little Pony Tales that there was no Spike. I imagine we will get the return of some non-pony species.but it’s still going to be an elephant in the room because the end of G4 showed that basically all other species became allies to the ponies. Did relations to the non-ponies also deteriorate terribly? And there’s also the possibility that many of the Dragons have long enough lives that they remember Twilight’s reign. Maybe even a possibility of full-grown Spike making an appearance in the series. But then there’s still griffins, hippogriffs/seaponies, yaks, kirins, changelings, and more. You keep the world of G4 you have to keep in mind all the species that played a role at some point. If you ignore them for too long it’s another point to those who might feel that this isn’t truly G4’s world.

ALICORNS

I won’t say much on subject of Alicorns since I already mentioned that in the preliminary thoughts, though I will reiterate things like even if say we overestimated the immortality of Alicorns they may still need to point out that Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and probably Flurry Heart too are all gone. There doesn’t seem to be any signs of Alicorns at all. To be honest it might be that the only real Alicorn reference is the possibility during the scene where Izzy disguises everyone as unicorns. Someone manages to see either Zipp’s or Pipp’s wings and thus they get a lot of unwanted attention. (And in contrast probably one of the non-Izzy main characters horn disguise falling off)

CONFLICT AND HAPPY ENDING OVERRIDES

I get that the main response to concerns of G4 fans is there has to be some sort of conflict for this series to be interesting as otherwise you go back to the too saccharine days of G3 where the conflicts leave almost no danger to the world at large. But we can still point out that if this was presented as it’s own world separate from G4 this would be ok. But not the same world where Sunny’s goal had been more then already achieved. It doesn’t lay the blame at the Mane 6 for failing at the very least but it certainly looks down at all their descendants generations later of being unable to withhold the Mane 6’s lessons and keep the peace. They had the solutions for divisions mostly solved, yet it’s somehow squandered. It won’t be easy to swallow for anyone who loved the conclusive happy ending FiM got. And even for fans who weren’t as into the ending as others they’re only being vindictive if they say it makes their criticism of the ending valid.

The point is the series ended as happily as it could of gotten, and you will bug fans no matter what you do if you attempt a happy ending override. Just look at how for example the Last Jedi bothered some Star Wars fans with Luke’s characterization after the joyful end to the original trilogy.

HARD ACT TO FOLLOW & DIVISIVE FANDOM MOMENTS

Now, even if G5 had none of the pre-conditioned concerns it would have a lot to live up to. G4 is the absolute highest peak MLP has ever gotten to. Hasbro’s going to try to repeat the same success but it’s a lot more likely G4 remains a lightning in a bottle that can’t be repeated. And any attempt to recapture that lightning such as applying G4 as the ancient past is looking to backfire. It’s very likely that even if G5 is generally a success, Hasbro will not reap the same benefits that it got from G4. The cost of a big success is the pursuit of attempting to repeat that success but ultimately not working out quite the same way. I don’t wish any ill will of Generation 5, I want it to have an audience and the staff to enjoy themselves working on the show. I don’t think it will quite capture the same attention I gave to G4 but that’s ok. This is how Hasbro’s operated for decades, as I’m sure Transformers fans have gone through the same feeling.

There are shows that have maintained fandoms for years despite the show having ended more then 10 years ago. I don’t think Friendship is Magic is going to be forgotten anytime soon. There are sure to be clashes about G5 in the coming years as it’s impossible to control an entire fandom that will have it’s vocal parts at eachother’s throats. But I don’t plan on looking down on anyone who ends up enjoying G5, I hope in some way there are those who may enjoy G5 as much as we did G4. And also for said G5 fans to respect those who continue to do mainly G4 content. I plan to give G5 a chance to grow on me, I just know the G4 is the past concept is going to somewhat bother me in a similar way to how for a long while Starlight’s lack of a full-fledged backstory prevented me from looking at her character with nothing but lukewarm feelings (Until I expanded on her myself in a story after the show’s ending). But just like with Starlight I don’t plan to rain on the parade of those who did end up liking Starlight. Especially considering I’m probably among the fans that were on the other side of those arguments as someone who liked the idea of Alicorn Twilight despite how divisive it was. I’ve been somewhat on both sides of different controversies in G4’s time itself. As G4 itself had it’s own divisive parts in it’s own history. Arguably, G5 being the distant future makes it just another part of those fandom controversies.

Though even with everything that happened a positive side of all of those is there were many fans invested one way or another to get heated about the show. Not saying it’s a good thing to have fans at each other’s throats but it’s part of G4’s legacy that people cared when something disappointed them. I think while there were certainly a good number of fans that left the fandom over certain stuff especially in regards to Season 3 and the first Equestria Girls. Those who stayed generally still had good things to look forward to. I myself kind of feel like Starlight’s reformation was the closest to a jump the shark moment where Season 6 failed to capitalize on nearly all it’s opportunity of what Season 5 laid up for the show’s future. But there were still good episodes in Season 6, Season 7 had some pretty great episodes, Season 8 is a bit of a mixed bag but even that had it’s fun parts, and I’m on the side that I’m happy with how the final episodes of Season 9 finished off the show. I don’t think Starlight’s reformation was a point where the show never reached another high point and I’m happy it was successful enough to get a conclusive ending rather then either getting canceled after a finale that didn’t leave things off with a proper goodbye or ending too early. As if the show had not been as popular as it did, Magical Mystery Cure would of been the series finale. I’m actually one of those who loved MMC, but for the show not to get things like the CMC’s cutie marks and just leave things that Twilight is a princess and that’s it certainly would of been way too soon of an ending.

CONCLUSION

Obviously, the staff seemed to plan for more then 9 seasons as no doubt they probably had more plans for the Student 6 and/or Cozy Glow had they gotten the green light for Season 10 or more. But for what it’s worth, it still got an conclusion that not all cartoons like this get. For all it’s ups and downs, MLP retained my interest for the entire run that I started watching and I still intend to do fan content about it’s characters a few years after it ended, so G4 MLP continues to be retained in a special place in my heart. Perhaps that’s a big reason I have the concerns about G5 that I do that I’m attached to that universe and for it to say things go downhill even if it’s not really the fault of the Mane 6 or anything makes it hard to accept very easily. I do think my concerns about the G4-G5 connection have merit either way, but I will repeat that I don’t wish any ill will on G5. Whether fair or not, G5 has a lot to live up to after the success of G4 and the consequences will be there for fan expectations. I hope it finds a decent enough audience regardless, and I hope that if I try to ignore the baggage of the implications of an Ancient G4 Equestria being part of this that maybe there’s something there for me too. I never thought I’d be invested so much in a cartoon about magical talking horses to this point a long time ago, but gosh darn it G4 managed to do so. And the staff behind G5 will have a lot on their shoulders to try to maintain that interest. Even if that task is impossible, I hope they try their hardest. Even if I’m not as invested into this generation, I want to be able to respect a good try.

[ferallymine]

Twilight Princess: In Her Place

A/N: I forgot how much i love TP and I decided Iris deserved past incarnations. Here’s a thing I wrote and it’s 2:32am so goodnight.

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The hidden village above Kakariko was finally accessible, thanks greatly in part to the Gorons’ efforts. Link and Iris had ventured up, but the day was almost over, and they hadn’t come back down yet. The sun was setting, giving a crimson hue to bounce off the rocks in the gorge. Dust rose with the gentle wind, creating small whirlwinds around the town.

Talo began to get fidgety, “They’ll be back soon, right?”

Luda gave a small nod, “They’re strong. Should be back any minute.”

“That Iris girl seems awfully close to Link, doesn’t she?” Beth leaned against the railing on the roof, trying to get a better look of the path leading up the mountain, “What’s Ilia gonna think when she remembers him?”

“Who knows,” Malo shrugged and hopped off the wooden crate he’d been using to see over the railing, “But maybe the real question to ask is- are we too biased in our favor to Ilia to see if Iris is actually a good match for him or not?”

Beth stomped her foot, “She’s clearly not! She’s a witch! She makes monster plants and stuff! She’s a bad influence and doesn’t deserve our hero.”

Luda put a finger to her chin, “Father used to be close to botany witches in his younger years when there were more of them. I remember him telling me that they helped cure ailment-“

“Here they come!” Talo jumped and pointed at the two figures emerging from the shadows into the sunset light.

-----

Renaldo, Link, Iris, Ilia, and the children all gathered in the shaman’s house. The tension of anticipation was thick, as if one of them could cut it with their sword.

Would this work? Ilia had the key to the last piece of the Mirror of Twilight locked in the back of her memories. What if this didn’t work? What would they have to do?

Link pulled out the charm that Impaz had given him and placed it in Ilia’s open palm. A stillness pierced the tension- everyone holding their breath at once.

“I… made this…” Ilia’s voice whispered quietly. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, “The scent of hay…”

Link didn’t notice the look on his face, but Iris did. The yearning- the need beyond the missing key for her to remember. For her to remember him. It chipped Iris’ heart, just a little bit.

Ilia opened her eyes, a sudden excitement on her face, “Link! I…I remember!” She leapt into his open arms, a tight embrace. Link spun her around, pure joy in his eyes. He set her down and she grabbed his face, kissing his face all over. The kids cheered, jumping in ecstatic glee. Iris forced a smile, hating how much her heart twisted over something that should be a happy moment.

Renado began to gently usher them out, “Let’s give them a moment.”

-----

Iris rounded the corner, leaving the others to go to the spring. The chill of the water sent a shiver up her spine as her feet entered the water. The children’s echoes of laughter danced along the chilly air.

Midna appeared in her shadow form beside her, “Hey witch.”

“Hello, Princess.”

“…in my opinion, he’s making a huge mistake.”

“Thanks.”

Silence as the moon rose over the village.

“She spilled about the memory, but she’s keeping him there to catch her up on everything.” Midna rolled her eyes and cocked her hip, “Men and their egos. Sometimes he makes me wonder if I chose the right beast.”

“He’s the wolf, I’m just a panther.”

“Wolf or no- you’ve proven yourself more dependable and worthy of your triangle lately.” Midna reached behind her, using her power to pull out the Dominion Rod.

“What are you-“

“Take this to Impaz- that old woman you both just saved. You’ll get more information about getting to the sky for the Mirror shard.”

Iris took the rod, weighing it in her hand, “Midna.”

“Iris.”

“…Thank you.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Hey, Midna?”

“Hey, Iris?”

“I really love him.”

“…If it helps, I was rooting for you.”

“It doesn’t, but I appreciate the sympathy.”

Midna turned to leave, but paused. “Remember the temple in the lake?”

“We almost died.”

“You saved us from what would’ve been certain death by Zant.” A wind picked up, making Iris shiver as Midna spoke, “And the look in Link’s eyes watching you bleed out like that was true heartbreak. I think…I think he’s suppressing his emotions because he doesn’t want to feel that again if he loses you.”

“You sound like Zelda.”

Midna shrugged, “She did put her life into me. Anyway, I’m trying to say to not give up, even after what you just witnessed. We never said he was smart.”

Iris chuckled, “Sure.”

-----

“See! Link loves Ilia!” Beth jumped in a circle, hands held with Luda- which drug the poor girl along for the spin.

Talo and Collin pumped their fists in the air, chanting “Link! And! Ilia!”

Malo nodded, “Indeed, he loves her.”

“So he does.”

The kids stopped their celebrating, turning to see a somber Iris. The firelight from the window cast dancing shadows over her face. A slight glisten off her cheek where a single tear had fallen.

Beth stuck out her tongue, hands on her hips, “You’re a witch. Link deserves better than you.”

“Hey.” Luda stepped away, “They’re not all bad-“

“No…” Iris raised her hand, “I know my place in his life now. When he comes out, tell him it’s okay.” Iris toyed with a rod looped to her belt at her side. The kids didn’t know what it was, but Iris kept talking before they could ask, “If he asks…tell him I’m finishing what we started.”

And with that, she walked off into the darkness of the night.

-----

Impaz checked over Iris’ hand, silver triangle glowing subtly against her skin. “No doubts about it! Oh, I’m so happy that the Harmony piece of the Triforce has reemerged. The founder of this village often told stories of the Harmony Avatar bringing balance wherever they went. You’ll set all this right, I just know it. You even managed to get the rod of the heavens! Oh, happy night!”

Iris smiled, “Thank you. I’m honored that the Goddesses picked me to carry on this power.”

Impaz turned, walking into her abode. A chest lay in the back against a dusty old wall.

“Here we go, Miss!” She turned, handing the witch an ancient booklet.

Iris inspected it, being careful with the pages to not tear them, “Thank you for your service, Impaz. I’m forever grateful. Please, don’t seclude yourself here any longer. Go into Kakariko Village tomorrow morning and meet the lovely people there.”

“If you insist,” Impaz gave a little smile, “I have always wondered what lie beyond that pesky rockslide!”

Iris waved goodbye and began her journey back down the mountain.

-----

Ilia leaned against Link’s shoulder, arm snugly wrapped around his. She was fast asleep.

Link was sleeping peacefully, until a hand nudged him awake.

“What are you doing?!” Midna’s annoyance was very clear.

Link sat up, trying to not wake Ilia, “What are you talking about? I’m sleeping- do you know what sleeping is?” He returned the attitude in a harsh whisper.

“You had a touching reunion, but you’re not gonna continue our mission? She gave you what you needed- let’s get a move on!”

“It’s 1am. I need rest. Let me sleep in peace.”

“Least you could’ve done was tell Iris you intended on sleeping with your hometown side-hoe.” Midna leaned against the wall, arms behind her head.

His face flushed red. Then went white with realization, “Oh fu-“

“Language! You have innocent ears there.” Midna giggled.

Link freed himself from Ilia’s grasp and stood up, “Is she outside?”

“Am I Iris’ keeper?” Midna rolled her eyes, “Go out and find her yourself, coward.” She dived into his shadow.

Link opened the door, greeted suddenly by wind and the sounds of crickets. He looked to his left towards the spring, but didn’t see Iris there.

“You okay?” Link jumped at the sound, but calmed when he realized it was just Luda on the porch of the next-door house, “You look a little stressed.”

“What are you doing up so late?”

“I like the night. Plus Beth kicks in her sleep, ahah.”

Link sighed, “Hey… did you see Iris at all?”

“She was upset,” those words made his heart sink, “The kids were making fun of her. She said to tell you this though. She said that it’s okay, that she knows her place in your life now.”

Link held his breath, “Is Iris still in the village?”

Luda shook her head, “She had a weird stick thing on her belt. She said to tell you that she’s finishing what you both started and walked that way.” The girl pointed towards the path to Impaz’ village.

“Thank you, Luda. I think you should go inside and get some sleep now.”

She shrugged, “Okay… Oh, Shad came out while you and Ilia were talking. Iris was with him and they were pointing to some spots on her map. She then said she was headed back to Ordon. I don’t know why she’s doing that at night or even without a horse but I’m not gonna judge her capabilities.”

“Oh, really?” Link looked around, finding Epona tied to the fence across the street, “Thank you, again, Luda. I’m going to go track her down- she wasn’t supposed to leave without me.”

The girl stood up, “I’m in no place to judge your relationships, so I’ll just say good luck.” Luda opened the creaky, rust-filled door and went back inside.

Midna popped up after the girl was gone, “So we warping or are you seriously gonna ride your horse all the way back to catch her?”

Link shook his head, “We’re warping.”

-----

“Alright owl statue.” Iris waved the rod in a circle, “Move!”

The green hues lit up the surrounding hills thanks to it still being dead of night. Crickets and other bugs scurried away from their moss-covered home at the sight of this new and strange light. Several little hops later, the statue was out of its alcove. Desummoning the rod’s powers, Iris stepped to the symbols that it had covered.

“Ah…gotcha.” Iris scribbled down the ancient writing onto the extra paper Shad had provided before her departure.

A familiar buzzing sounded behind her. Iris rolled her eyes and sighed, foolishly thinking that she’d have at least until morning.

Midna popped up first, “In my defense I grew tired of waiting.”

Link looked angry. His footsteps were heavy as he marched towards Iris.

Iris rolled her eyes and summoned the owl statue again. It began hopping backwards.

“No you don’t!” Link raced to the alcove. He squeezed through the space before the owl fully closed off the opening.

Iris and Link stood face-to-face, cramped together in the small space. The light from the Dominion Rod gave them just enough to see each other’s faces.

“How did you get the rod?” Link searched his brain for questions and didn’t know where to start. He figured that was the best way to go.

“Take a guess.”

“Midna?”

“Congrats, you win.” Iris’ face wasn’t impressed.

Link took a breath, “Iris… I didn’t forget about you or anything I just-“

“No.”

“What?”

She closed her eyes, eyebrows furrowing, “No excuses. I don’t care about your love life. What I do care about is being led on.”

“I didn’t mean-“

“Furthermore,” Iris continued, “Now that I know my place in your life, I decided to utilize my skills to continue the mission while you enjoyed time with your lover.”

“She’s not my-“

“Link, stop.” She sighed, “I said no excuses.”

“I’m not making excuses!” Link caught himself nearly yelling at her. He took a breath before starting again, “Did I once love Ilia- yes. Yes I did. But before I loved her she was my best friend. I’m not going to save the world and leave my friends to the wayside to fend for themselves or not help them with impossibly hard tasks.”

Iris sighed, “You let all your friends kiss you? You spin them around and then sleep next to them all snuggled up and holding each other?”

“…I…” Link froze, trying to think, trying to find how to say exactly what he’s feeling.

She scoffed, “Yeah. That’s what I thought. You made this bed, now lie in it.” The rod’s light brightened as Iris used it to move the statue. It made two hops before Link grabbed her wrist.

“Stop…please…” His voice shook.

Iris stopped, sudden concern on her face. She’d never heard his voice waver like this.

A breath, “I need you to understand that I’m never good with emotions or saying the right things. But I’m going to try and convey them now.”

“Then spit it out.”

Iris felt Link’s hand tremble. “When we first met in the Twilight I didn’t trust you. But as we went along and had this journey I… I realized I couldn’t have done half the things we accomplished without you.”

“Link-“

“When I caught your hand before you went over the edge in Goron Mines. When I almost was squashed by the falling logs in Faron. All our battles as beasts in Twilight. Hell, even Yeto’s mansion was filled with traps that almost killed us.”

“I-“

“But it was Zant’s attack…” He looked up, tears welling in his eyes. Iris’ heart hurt. “You… you were bleeding so badly and I couldn’t stop it in my beast form. I had to drag you to safety after you passed out. And I couldn’t stay because I had to take Midna to Zelda.”

“I’m still here, Link.”

“I shut down after that.” He closed his eyes, tears flowing, “I didn’t know if you were dead or alive and I couldn’t take it. Midna can even attest I was so distraught that I became physically unwell. When the Master Sword changed me back I vomited, seized, and passed out. I couldn’t carry on like that and I decided that having no feelings was better than having that deep of a sense of despair.”

“So when Ilia got her memories back…” Iris placed a hand on his cheek.

“The suppressed feelings came out. I was so happy and starved from any emotion besides nothingness that everything came out at once. I had my best friend again. Talking to her for so long was therapeutic. I didn’t intend to abandon you or make you feel used I just…” he clutched his chest, “I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you again.”

“So you’re reasoning was to push me out.”

“I never said it was smart, but that’s what I rationalized at the time.”

Iris pulled Link’s face close, letting their foreheads touch and eyes close. “From this point on, don’t push me out.” A gentle whisper for only him. “Let me help you. Don’t be afraid of your emotions.”

“I won’t… I’m so sorry…”

[notes-from-sarah]

Reflections of the Sun and Moon

Link on Archive of Our Own

Link on Fanfiction.net

Rating: G/K

Summary: “In the firelord’s house approval was a zero sum game.”

When hunting for food with Sokka, Katara and their father, Zuko comes to realize that their families, while similar in many ways, are nothing alike. There’s only one person who has really ever treated Zuko like family, and the biggest regret of his life was driving that person away. Set after “The Boiling Rock” episodes. One-shot. Canon compliant.

“You mean you didn’t bring any food?” Toph said accusingly.

“Well-” Sokka began.

Toph’s stomach grumbled loudly. “This is still a problem,” she said, pointing at her gut. “You guys were supposed to fix it."

Zuko picked up his swords, “I’ll go get something, I think there’s a river not too far from here.”

“That’s more like it,” Toph said in an approving tone.

“It’ll go faster if we go as a group,” said Hokoda. “I’ll go with you. Katara, Sokka, do you want to come?”

“Of course!” said Katara as she jumped to her feet. “I’m the best fisher here anyway.”

“She really is,” Sokka chimed in, “she’s the big fish at fishing.”

Zuko glanced at him, Sokka had complimented his sister in front of their father for no reason. How weird, he thought.

*****

The little group set off towards the nearby river. Katara and Sokka were practically clinging to their father. Katara had looped her arm around his, and Sokka was talking a mile a minute, recounting all their adventures to this point, breathlessly jumping from one story to the next as Katara chipped in little comments. Zuko walked a few paces behind them, he could never remember hanging onto his father like that, even when he was very young. For that matter he couldn’t even imagine himself and Azula ever even sharing a second of their father’s attention. In the firelord’s house approval was a zero sum game.

They came to the river just as the sun was dipping below the skyline. “We have to work quickly,” said Katara.

“Let’s do the whirlpool,” said Sokka. “That’s always super fast.”

“We usually do it with Aang.” Katara looked Zuko up and down with a small frown, “I suppose you’ll have to do.”

“What’s this whirlpool?” Hakoda asked. “Can I help?”

“It’s a method of fishing I developed using beding,” Katara said as she waded into the stream. “Sokka and Zuko know how it goes, we’ll toss the fish to the shore and you can kill them.”

Sokka splashed into the water too. “Yeah, this will be over before you know it.”

The siblings looked expectantly at Zuko who was still standing on the shore. While he had seen Katara’s whirlpool before he’d never helped her with it. “Fine,” he sighed drawing one of his swords and sloshing into the riverbed. Standing opposite Sokka, about five feet apart, Zuko glanced at Hakoda who stood on the shore watching his daughter keenly.

“Ready boys?” Katara asked as she raised her hands. Zuko and Sokka nodded. Katara began to push the water, slowly at at first, then gaining speed the water began to swirl in a counterclockwise direction between the two boys. A moment or two passed as Katara span the water faster, her eyes closed in concentration. Zuko readied himself, this part took timing.

Fish began to collect in the whirlpool, at first just one or two would slip into the moving stream, but as Katara pushed and pulled the water to move faster more fish got caught in the current. Using his sword Sokka dipped the blade into the flowing water and expertly flicked it, catching a fish and sending it sailing through the air to land on the shore where Hakoda quickly grabbed it and finished it off.

Zuko tried to follow Sokka's lead, but he was not much better at fishing than he had been when he and Iroh had deserted the Fire nation after the battle of the North Pole. Zuko dipped his sword in the water and splashed wildly in an effort to dislodge a fish from the whirlpool.

"Get out of the water you, you, fish!" Zuko splashed more violently and actually managed to clip a fish with the flat of his blade tossing it out of the water and into the air. Gracefully the fish arced through the sky, it’s scales shimmering in the twilight as it flopped back and forth before landing with a loud SMACK on Sokka's head and then bouncing off and falling back into the river with a splash.

Sokka glared at Zuko as the sound of laughter from Katara and Hakoda filled the air. He jabbed a finger toward the shore. "The fish go that way."

"Sorry," Zuko said sheepishly. Glancing at how Sokka was holding his sword, Zuko copied him making sure to hold his blade more parallel to the shore. He began batting at the fish once more, and while not as fast as Sokka, he did manage to toss a fair number of fish out of the river.

“That’s more like it,” said Sokka as he swung his own sword rhythmically. “Nice and easy does it.”

“You three are doing a great job,” Hakoda said approvingly. “Katara, did you come up with this all by yourself?”

Katara beamed. “I did, we’ve done a lot of fishing since we left the South Pole so we needed a way to get a lot really quick.”

“I’m so proud of you.” Hakoda looked up from the fish he was cleaning. “This is such a great idea.”

Katara’s eyes didn’t leave the whirlpool, but Zuko could see her smile in the dim light. There was a time when he would have killed, maybe even literally, to hear praise like this from his father.

Katara began to slow the churning of the whirlpool. “Ready for the big finish?” She didn’t wait for an aswer. Jumping forward she pushed the whirlpool and the remaining fish in it into the air where she deposited them on the shore in a small wave. The water ran back into the stream leaving a dozen fish flopping on the wet bank.

The three teens slogged out of the river. "Now comes the stinky part." Sokka unsheathed his knife and began gutting the remaining fish. Katara joined him, her knife flashing as she worked quickly.

Hakoda glanced over at his son as he descaled his fish. “Hey, Sokka," he said, "how do fish always know how much they weigh?"

Katara rolled her eyes as Sokka pondered the question for a minute. "I don't know, Dad, how do they know?"

Hakoda held up a fish. "Because they have their own scales." Sokka and Hakoda burst out laughing.

Zuko stood to the side somewhat uselessly as the water tribe family finished cleaning the fish. He pondered the joke for a long moment. He honestly couldn’t remember his father ever telling him a joke

“Is that all of them?” asked Katara, looking around the shoreline. Sokka and Hakoda nodded, heaving the fish into bags. Shouldering a bag each, the small party set off back to the camp.

Zuko took the lead holding a small flame aloft in his palm to light the way. He strained to hear the conversation of the water tribe family, all the while having a realization of his own. It struck him that in a lot of ways Sokka and Katara’s family was similar to his. A leader father, older son and a prodigy younger sister. Missing mothers. A collision course with destiny because of the Avatar. A shiver ran down his spine. Of course, he thought, that’s where the similarities stop. Hakoda actually liked his children. Not something that could be said for the fire lord, probably for many generations.

“How do you plan on cooking these fish?” Hakoda asked, hefting his bag a little. “There’s a lot of them here.”

“Usually we roast them,” said Sokka. “Maybe stuff them with herbs if there are any available.”

“We have a lot,” Katara joined in. “I think we should dry as much as we can so we have plenty of food for the coming days.”

Hakoda patted his daughter’s shoulder approvingly. “That’s a really smart idea, I’m sure you’ll need it. You and your brother have become brilliant strategists. The both of you make me so proud.”

Zuko blinked hard for a moment, unexpectedly moved. Sokka and Katara, they were a team. They worked together. They didn't compete for their father's affection, they didn't have too. Hakoda loved them, both of them. He didn't demand greatness from them, yet they performed feats of greatness anyway. Zuko remembered his family being happy, once. A long time ago. Had it really been as happy as he remembered? Why had his parents abandoned that so quickly? He didn't think Hakoda could ever do to Sokka what Ozai had done to him. What had made his father that way?

His train of thought was derailed before he could begin to fathom an answer as they stumbled out of the forest an into view of the Western Air Temple. They made their way into the building where a small fire greeted them.

“There you are!” Toph jumped to her feet. “I was getting worried that you’d decided to go on another rescue mission an just skip getting dinner altogether.”

“We have plenty of fish, they’ll be ready soon.” Katara knelt before the fire and began unloading her bag. “Zuko, Sokka, can you two go to the woods and get me some skewers? Maybe seven or eight? It’ll make this go a lot faster.”

“No problem.” Sokka unsheathed his sword. “Come on fire boy, I need your light.”

Zuko followed Sokka out of the temple to the treeline holding up a small flame for him to see by. Sokka set about slicing small branches from the nearest saplings.

“So, you’ve been quiet this evening,” Sokka said. “Whatcha thinking about?”

Zuko looked from Sokka, then back to the temple where Katara and Hakoda were undoubtedly preparing fish, then back again to Sokka. “We caught a lot of fish today.”

Sokka paused his slicing to look over at Zuko. "Okay." After a moment's pause. "Is there anything else?"

Zuko glanced to the ground. "No. It's nothing." Sokka raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Well," Zuko finally said, "your family is so nice."

Sokka quirked his eyebrow higher. "And that's a problem?"

"No. I think it's nice. It's really nice that your family is so nice."

“I’m confused.” Sokka began chopping again.

Zuko felt a bit silly saying it out loud. "I, I just never really thought about what it would be like to have a nice family before. In some ways you and me are a lot alike." Sokka opened his mouth to object, but Zuko didn't stop there. "But I can't even imagine what would be like to have a family who loves each other and takes care of each other like yours does."

Sokka closed his mouth for a long moment, then after a moment’s thought opened it again. “I wish I could say that maybe your family really loves you, deep, deep, deep down.” It was Zuko’s turn to look skeptical. “But after fighting your sister at the boiling rock I think that maybe your family is just kind of terrible.” Sokka paused to gather the wands he had cut. “I also know that family is hard work, like really really hard work. And if every single person in a family doesn’t fight for it every day, you lose it.”

“I guess my family thought it was better to fight each other than fight for each other.” Zuko rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Sokka sheathed his sword and patted Zuko’s shoulder sympathetically. “Family are the people you fight for, not always the people you’re related to.”

Instantly, Zuko thought of his uncle. Uncle Iroh fought for him, he was the only one who ever had. At every step of the way his uncle had been there. At least, until he drove him away, refused his help and demanded to do it all alone. Zuko felt a deep sorrow settle into his stomach. Uncle Iroh had fought for him, but he’d never fought for Uncle Iroh. Zuko didn’t know if or when he would ever see his uncle again, but now he knew that he was sorry.

Sokka clapped Zuko on the back. “Why don’t we take these back to the others. I could sure use a good fish dinner.”

Zuko caught Sokka’s eye and gave a small smile. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

[ssunsxt]

Sciset week day 2 - Prom.

“Twilight, I don’t-... I don’t think he’s coming.”

The six other girls stood behind the scientist, alternating between playing with their hands, flattening out dresses, or toying with the clasps of purses. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes were trained, focused solely on the stretch of road that separated Canterlot High from the rows of houses across the street. She’d arrived early with the girls, escorted via limo at the request- nay, demand- of Rarity, who did her best to touch up their makeup as best she could on the drive over. As it stood now, the fashionista reserved herself to cling to Applejack’s arm, squeezing the other girl with anxious fingers. 

Even Pinkie Pie had left the rest of the Prom committee to take care of escorting their senior class to the busses that would take them to the hall Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna had reserved for the evening. No party in the world was more important than being there to support her friends, even if it was the biggest night of their lives. That just made it all the more important.

“No, no. He’s probably just late.” Twilight nodded to herself, playing with the fabric of her gown, “Camp Everfree is a long drive away. He’s probably just stuck in traffic or something.”

The other teens looked amongst themselves, chewing on lips and sharing sympathetic glances. And of course, when situations like these would arise, they looked to their leader for some sort of guidance. 

Sunset Shimmer curled a hand over her chest and let out a steadying breath, as if summoning the strength to take those few steps over to where Twilight had her planted herself for the last 20 minutes. Her frown quirked into a half-smile as she rubbed the smaller girl’s arm, brows twitching upward in sympathy. “Yeah. Maybe he knew he’d be late and he’s already waiting for you at the hall. Let’s just… let’s head to the busses, okay?”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled, wetted with desperate hope. She nodded and whispered out a small “Yeah,” before stepping back towards the school, hugging herself all the while. 

Sunset kept pace with her, wrapping an arm over her shoulder as she rubbed at Twilight’s forearm with her other hand. She shared a look with Applejack, who dipped her hat in understanding and motioned for the rest of the group to follow after them. They stayed silent, no one daring to say a word-- less they finally pushed Twilight over the edge, ruining the absolutely astonishing job that Rarity had done with her eye makeup. That would have been a tragedy all on it’s own. 

“I’m sure he just wanted to be fashionably late,” Sunset attempted at a joke, allowing herself to smile once she felt Twilight’s tense frame relax under her arm. She gave her a gentle shake, “Or maybe his hand finally got stuck to his hair, with all the hairspray he uses.”

Twilight allowed herself to let out a small giggle, and rested her hand atop the one Sunset had on her shoulder. She gave a squeeze and spared the taller girl a flash of a smile. It was a wordless way of saying thank you, when the scientist couldn’t find it within herself to speak; something Sunset had become accustomed to over the years. 

As they all filed onto the busses, splitting off into whatever groups had been designated via the school register, Twilight kept a tight grip on Sunset’s hand; even when the redhead had dropped her arm from Twilight’s shoulder. Sunset had never been so grateful to have a surname so close to the other girl’s. She could only imagine Twilight trying to hold herself together, alone, listening to the excited chatter of her peers, and trying so desperately not to focus on the blatant truth: that Timber had stood her up. 

Sunset’s stomach churned at the thought.

Once they’d arrived, Sunset helped Twilight down onto the gravel path and over to the grass to regroup with the girls. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous, and it was evident that Principal Celestia had saved no expense for this year’s venue. It was startling, to say the least, once Sunset had learned that this world had a Canterlot castle, too. However, rather than housing royal equine princesses of the sun and moon— or being populated by countless guards that roamed the halls, and residing upon a valiant cliff face, this world’s Canterlot castle operated as a venue for weddings and, in this evening’s case, their high school senior prom. Sunset had almost eaten her leather jacket when that had been announced.

Despite the floor lights that illuminated the path up to the castle, or the rows of well-tended hedges, shaped into grand displays of flowers and figures, or even the eloquent architecture of the castle itself, it still had nothing on the one back in Equestria. Sunset could only offer up an amused smile at the human world’s attempt at grandeur. Not that she was one to pass judgement on landscaping though! She just thought there was irony in the fact a world full of creatures without hands had managed to carve the land into such a dramatisation. She supposed there was a kind of theatrics that came with magic. What other explanation was there?

“It’s really pretty.” Twilight finally spoke in a quiet voice.

Sunset hummed, “Yeah.” Taking one last look at the building, she lowered her head to meet Twilight’s eyes. “It’s got nothing on the one in Equestria though.”

Twilight hid her chuckle behind her hand, her smile finally meeting her eyes as she arched a brow. “I was talking about your dress.”

“O-oh!” Sunset felt her cheeks pink and she rubbed the back of her head with her free hand, careful not to mess up her hair. Rarity would have killed her. “T-thanks.” She dropped her eyes to inspect Twilight’s dress: lavender, with a plethora of blues and purples shimmering over the fabric depending on whichever light the other girl stood in. It wasn’t that Sunset hadn’t seen her in it before, she just needed a refresher on how good the other girl looked in it. “You look really nice too.” 

Twilight raised her hand to toy with the strands of hair beside her face and averted her eyes a bit, her own sheepish smile warming her cheeks as she gave Sunset’s hand another squeeze. They stayed like that for a while; neither of them saying anything; just hand in hand, and content with the way their palms felt against each other. When the other girls finally found them, none of them seemed to notice. Or if they did, no one mentioned it, simply happy enough with the way Twilight’s smile finally reached her eyes.

They’d followed after their class as they were escorted towards the castle, through the foyer, and finally to stand on the back staircase that would lead up into the large hedge-maze that took up the majority of the castle’s rear grounds. On either side of the large, slabbed stairway, stood two grand fountains, and Rarity simply swooned— mumbling nonsensically about how absolutely wonderful their class photo was going to be in this year’s yearbook, and how Sunset absolutely must allow her to assist with this year’s layout.

Sunset stumbled as Rainbow Dash threw her arms around both hers and Applejack’s shoulders, the farm girl chuckling and joining in with the rough housing, as she ruffled Rainbow Dash’s hair. Not enough to send Rarity into another one of her prom-induced tirades, but to still make it obvious that her hair wasn’t sitting the way it should be. 

Sunset slipped out of Rainbow Dash’s grip with a chuckle as the other girl took her position on the stairs near the front— Photo Finish insisted on having the tallest members of their class towards the back. Sunset flashed Twilight a smile and led her up the stairs to take their own position beside Rarity. Once more that evening Sunset was humbled by the way the universe seemed to work in her favor. Maybe she should take Rarity aside and thank her personally for ensuring she was just ever-so-slightly taller than Twilight in her heels. Maybe.

Sunset smoothed out her dress as best she could with one hand. She spared a glance at Twilight for a moment who, she only now noticed, had been staring at her. The scientist snapped her eyes away once they’d met and Sunset felt a tightness in her chest at the way Twilight’s face darkened in hue. She smiled and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before she slipped her own from Twilight’s grip to tuck a stray lock of hair behind the other girl’s ear.

“There we go. Don’t want that ruining the picture.”

Twilight gave a shy smile and reached up to adjust the necklace around Sunset’s neck, so that the golden sun pendant sat dead centre across her chest. “You too.”

They both shared a small giggle, beaming warmly at each other before they slipped their fingers together once again.

“Everyone say: Wondercolts!”

With an absolutely deplorable drone from the crowd of teens and one final “Whoop!” from Rainbow Dash, Photo Finish snapped their picture. It was one instant, forever captured in a frame, that their senior class would share. One final show of comradery— to prove that despite everything, they were here, together. Despite the pain; the hard work; the tears— they’d made it. 

And however true that this moment would be shared with each other, for years to come, through misty eyes filled with nostalgia. There was a smaller moment— a secret in the holding of hidden hands that the camera couldn’t see— that Sunset wouldn’t ever forget.

[whereisten]

Gentle Monsters

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 Intro | Part 6 (End)

Summary: After a night of running from a wild animal, you meet Johnny, the owner of the conservatory greenhouse you accidentally broke into. Johnny is kind and sweet—a little too sweet.

Genre and Warnings: angst, fluff, a little horror, like two curse words.

Word count: 3.4K

[2:36 A.M]

You ran fast, brushing past the empty and dark stores beside you. You hoped you could find someone, anyone that would be out here on these lonely streets at this time. Anyone that could confirm what you saw was real. The cold night air sent sharp pains through your lungs as you breathed heavily. You tried to focus on what was in front of you, not what was chasing you.

The full moon shined brightly above you, nearly drowning out the street lamps that dimly lit the sidewalks.

Everything happened so fast. One moment you were walking home from the bar you worked at, the next second you felt the strange presence of something—otherworldly. You couldn’t explain it. It’s figure was huge, steps heavy, stench foul. It was by itself, but it growled multiple voices.

You were speed-walking as it followed every turn you took; trying not to freak yourself out because surely, there was a reasonable explanation. You wanted to turn and head back to the bar where your coworkers were still cleaning things up, but you couldn’t.

You swore you could feel it’s hot breath on the back of your neck before you bolted. You glanced back to see an extremely tall figure, maybe 8-feet tall, fully covered in dark hair with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth. It looked like a wolf, but stooped on its hind legs.

A werewolf? Impossible, this isn’t fucking Twilight, they don’t exist.

You thought to yourself, and yet, there it was, increasing its speed as it followed you.

You knew you were tired, but even your sleep deprived brain couldn’t have conjured up a visual so realistic.

You don’t know how long you ran for, but you were finally able to distance yourself from it. You still felt you had to keep going. You silently thanked your father for forcing you to join the track-and-field team in high school.

The city streets ended and soon you were running in a large field of grass. You didn’t hear it following you anymore. You turned around and saw nothing but the bleak streetlights that were so far away now. You slowed your pace and resumed walking speed. You started to cry. “What the fuck” you whispered to yourself, doubling over to catch your breath.

You didn’t know what to do, you couldn’t head back in the direction of your apartment. What if it would follow you home? Your mind ran wild with thoughts of what to do. There was no one to turn to, no one would be in these fields at this time, and there were no houses in sight.

You stopped walking. “Where’s my phone?” You fumbled around in your bag and patted all your pockets, no phone. It must have fell out of your back pocket when you were running. “Shit.”

You looked up and put your hands on the back of your head. You were so tired, you just wanted to go home and sleep, but tonight wasn’t like any other night and now you had no phone. There was no one to help you. You were alone.

That’s when you saw it. The shiny glasshouse in front you glistened in the moonlight, it was stunning, you had never seen anything like it before. You walked towards it, hoping that it would be open, maybe you could crash there for the night. The “thing” wouldn’t be able to see your body amongst all the plants and trees within the greenhouse.

Johnny’s Conservatory Greenhouse

A sign read out from above in large cursive writing.

“Johnny..I’m sorry but I’m gonna need this for tonight.” You whispered to yourself as you tried to pull the door open. The lock was flimsy and broke once you pulled with little force. Perhaps it was only there to deter people.

You closed the door behind you and quietly walked in. You looked around. It was beautiful, even in the dark. The plants and vines were green and lively, a great contrast to the dark and polluted streets you lived and worked in. You never made your way to the outskirts where some nature was still being preserved. The owner clearly took care of it.

It was quiet, only the sound of your own breathing and a small waterfall in the distance filled the air.

You continued to walk and eventually found a bench in the center, only a few feet away from the waterfall. You plopped yourself down and sighed. “Finally.”

You placed your bag down beside you and laid down.

I’ll just stay here for a few hours, it’ll be safer to go home during the day.

You thought to yourself, in hopes that you’d find your phone in the daytime.

Your mind still ran wild, you were trying to find an explanation for what happened, an explanation for what that thing could possibly be. It didn’t make sense and you were shaking, unable to calm yourself. You turned over on your side and felt a tear run down, you were so confused and scared.

You rested your head on your folded arms and slowly drifted off into sleep, comforted by the sounds of the waterfall.

You were too deep in sleep to feel a soft blanket cover you. It was 5:30 A.M now, the full moon was gone and the sun started to rise. He watched you as you slept quietly, your hair and skin looked so soft, your lips were in a cute, pouty shape, the long lashes that sprung out from your eyes grazed your round cheeks. But your face was drained. You were like a scared child, unable to find comfort in their surroundings. He wanted to hug you and make you feel like you were safe, that you would be okay now in his conservatory.

The glare from the sun and glass above you woke you up. It shined down on you, allowing heat to finally touch your skin. You could barely open your eyes, everything was so bright. You sat up and rubbed your eyes. You looked around you and felt all the memories come back once you felt the cold metal of the bench you were on.

Your heart started to race as you remembered being chased by that animal. You panted, looking around you to find a soft brown blanket that had covered your body. With a confused expression, you lifted the blanket off of your body.

“Where did you come from?” You quietly asked.

Then, a voice startled you.

“I thought you might be cold in here�� a male voice from behind you cut in.

You sprung up from the bench and turned to see a tall man in a brown sweater and black jeans. His brown hair covered his forehead and his face was soft. He gave you a small smile. He held two coffee mugs in his large hands.

“I-I’m so sorry—“ you started and turned to gather your things.

“No, no worries. This place..loves to see new people” he gave a light chuckle before walking over and handing you one of the mugs he held.

You looked up at him, he was so welcoming and warm. “Are you J-?” You started.

“Johnny? Yes, since 1995” he laughed. “Here, it looks like you’ve had a rough night.”

He stood right across from you now.

You looked up at him and smiled.

“I’m-I shouldn’t have crashed here..it’s just..there was something—actually, never mind. I’m sorry” you gave an awkward smile and took the mug, looking into it and hesitantly raising it to your nose.

The black liquid gave off the familiar smell of coffee.

“it’s just medium roast coffee” he laughed.

“Oh, thank you” you smiled and raised it to your lips. You shouldn’t have taken a drink from a stranger, but he was so warm and nice, it was just coffee and nothing more. And he wasn’t upset with you for crashing his amazing conservatory and staying there like it was a motel.

“What time is it?” You asked as you rubbed your temple.

“It’s 7 o’ clock” he answered quietly.

“Would you like to sit with me? I’d love to know how someone like you ended up here in the middle of the night” He asked, motioning towards the back of the conservatory where tables and chairs were set.

“I don’t open this place to the public until 8, so we have time to sit—and talk if you want to.” His voice was soft and sweet, it lured you in.

How could anyone say no to this soft giant. His brown eyes watched you carefully, glancing from your furrowed eyebrows to the same lips he watched earlier.

You wanted to leave and head back to your place. You wanted to find your phone, but you couldn’t be rude to this man. He wasn’t even upset with you.

The least you could do is explain why you were in his place.

You nodded and watched as he turned to head back to the cafe area.

“This place..your place, it’s beautiful” you said as you sat down on the cushioned chair. He sat down across from you at a small, round table with a colored mosaic of glass on top.

Everything in the conservatory was detailed exquisitely. You wondered how a young man like him could’ve thought of the intricacies of beauty in this place.

“Thank you” he smiled, his eyes squinted and his smiled widened. He was so bright, you were truly surprised by how gorgeous he was as well. His skin was fair and clear, no pores in sight. You hoped you would get the chance to ask about his skincare routine.

“It was my grandmother’s. She took care of it while she raised me. I would run around, knocking into vases and falling into the water as a child. I used to make her so mad” he laughed as he looked at the waterfall behind you.

“She passed away when I turned 20 and I decided to take care of it, and open it to the public.” His eyes drifted down to the table.

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss” you said. “She raised you well, it’s really amazing..we need more beauty like this in this city” you smiled as you looked up at the green vines that hung above you.

He turned to you, watching as your eyes glanced over the marvelous glass walls of his conservatory. The sunlight brought out the alluring color of your eyes, and the rainbow-colored reflection from the glass shined down on your delicate skin.

You looked at him and caught him staring. You quickly looked down to the coffee to avoid his eyes. A moment of silence rested between you two and you realized you couldn’t avoid the topic much longer.

“I work—at a bar in the city” you started, taking a large gulp.

Johnny leaned forward slightly and nodded when you glanced up at him with worried eyes.

“I was heading home—and someone—some thing started following me” You whispered, trying to hold back tears as the fear you felt just hours ago crept back in.

“It was..big..and fast, it growled and had large fangs..it was like..some kind of monst—” you managed to mutter out with watery eyes as you looked into your coffee cup.

You looked up at Johnny who watched you with concerned eyes.

“I-I’m sorry, forget it, I don’t know what I saw” you shook your head. “I sound ridiculous, I’m sure..I was just seeing things in the dark” you shrugged your shoulders and gave a quiet laugh to cover your panic.

“No need to apologize, I believe you..” Johnny reached out and placed his hand on your trembling one. You looked down at it, appreciating the warmth of his touch.

You gave a small smile and nodded. He believed you, this stranger believed you.

“Thank you.” You nodded.

He drew back and smiled. “Weird things happen here. I have no doubt that you saw something last night” Johnny took a sip and placed his cup down. You breathed a sigh of relief.

“But—there are many..irresponsible and—bored kids out there, maybe they were trying out a new Halloween costume?” He leaned back in his chair and said as he pursed his lips and tilted his head, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

You shuddered a bit, feeling the small hope you gained disappear.

“It wasn’t..like that at all. These kids aren’t 8, 9 feet tall” you motioned with your hands. “I—I can’t explain it.” You looked up at him.

He was silent, observing you. His eyes calmed you down, it was as if he was silently telling you to doubt what you saw. And it was working.

“But maybe you’re right. Just some annoying ass kids” you laughed and shook your head again. Johnny smiled again, and you felt your heart weaken. There was something so kind and tender about him. He was as luminescent and welcoming as his conservatory. He was built and strong, his arms flexed when he put them over his chest, but his touch was gentle.

You laughed. “I’m sure I sound crazy to you.” You panicked as you second guessed yourself, your chest started to rise and fall rapidly, you feared you may have a panic attack at any moment.

Johnny furrowed his brows and shook his head. “No, no it’s understandable. You were tired and it was dark out, who knows what kind of wild things people do in this city.” He stood up and reached out for your hand.

“Come on, lets take a walk, you need some air” he gave a small smile.

You looked up and reached out to take his hand.

You walked around the greenhouse and marveled at the unique kinds of flowers, herbs and mosses you had no idea existed.

“This is called Nepenthes attenboroughii.” Johnny said as he pointed to a deep red plant shaped like a pitcher with a smooth edge. You reached out to touch it while his hand still held your other hand softly.

He tapped your hand gently with his long index finger.

“Don’t.” He quietly commanded. You looked up at him.

“It’s one of the few carnivorous plants left on Earth” he said as he looked down at the beautiful plant. “It eats the rats that slip out from the city and into the fields so they don’t destroy the herbs.”

“Really?” Your eyes widened, shocked that such a dangerous but rare plant would be in these walls.

Johnny nodded.

“It’s gentle and soft on the outside, it appears to be harmless, but it’s really a monster” Johnny shifted his gaze from the plant to you as his tone lowered. Something about the way he looked at you after he said that statement sent shivers down your spine.

He flashed you a quick smile as if he sensed that you were frightened by the plant.

“Come on, there’s more.”

He led you through the rest of the large greenhouse, never letting go of your hand. You didn’t want him too. You felt safe and content around him. He was caring and paid attention to so much detail. He excitedly explained everything to you and even memorized the Latin names of his plants.

“You’re probably like ‘this guy is so weird, what the hell’ and you’re right” he laughed as he looked at the floor. “These flowers and shrubs..they’re my babies” he gave you a bright smile again, his eyes crinkling as he laughed out.

You smiled. “I don’t think you’re weird at all. I like this, you actually care about something.” You wouldn’t tell him but you secretly loved the way the Latin effortlessly flowed from his mouth in a seductive tone.

You looked to your right to find the plant that looked like big red lips. You’d never seen them in real life before, only through cartoons. “The lip flower!” You said excitedly.

“Ah yes, everyone loves this one, the psychotria elata. It looks like this.” Johnny turned to you and pursed his full lips to mimic the plant. You both bursted out in laughter.

An hour went by quickly as the two of you walked about the glasshouse and bonded over memories. Johnny told you that he rarely went into the city, he hated how gloomy it was. He felt humanity was becoming more superficial and mean, and that the nursery kept him kind and human.

You felt his eyes on you as you reached out to feel the bright, colorful flowers above you.

His eyes watched your mouth as is parted slightly. He knew you were infatuated with the beauty of his flowers.

His eyes drifted down to your exposed neck and collar bone. He had smelled countless flowers before, but none smelled as good as you did. He wanted to touch you, to touch your warm skin, to feel it against his.

Johnny looked at the watch on his wrist. “Oh..it’s almost time.” He said sadly. You guessed that it was almost time for him to open the conservatory to others.

“Does it get pretty busy here?” You asked him.

He nodded and looked down at you with a sad expression. “Busy enough for two workers to always be here. We have to keep the place clean and the plants hydrated. It’s a difficult job, but I love it.”

You nodded and exhaled.

“I just wish—I could show you the rest, there are many more species to see” he gave a small smile, his eyes softened as they looked into yours.

“I want to see the rest also, I’ll be back and I promise not to break in next time.” You both laughed.

“But I should go. My roommates are probably wondering what happened to me last night” you laughed. You finally let go of his hand to pull your bag onto your shoulder. He slowly put his hand to his side, obviously saddened that you let go.

“Well, I have to admit..I’m kinda happy you found—or well, broke into my place..it’s been a while since I’ve seen such a pretty face around here. It’s selfish of me to feel this way, but it’s true, I’m sorry” Johnny laughed, running a hand through his thick hair.

You blushed. “Thank you, I really didn’t think it through..I was so scared”

“I know..and I’m sorry you felt that way” Johnny took a step forward.

His skin glowed under the clear sunlight that poured in through the glass. You would love to have someone like him in your life. He was calming and nice, unlike the city people you dealt with. The way he spoke was attractive to you. He really knew what he was talking about and he touched you gently, unlike any other man.

“I’d love to visit again, maybe we can have lunch or s-something” you stumbled over your words, a bit flustered by his deep brown eyes again.

“I’d love that” he smiled wide coming closer to you and leaning down. He held your chin in his hand, and looked into your eyes carefully. He was intoxicating and his touch sent sparks through your skin.

He was a stranger, but you felt like you’d known him for years. You nodded as he stared at your lips and placed a hand on your waist to pull you you closer to his body. He moved his face downward to yours, but stopped once his soft, plump lips were within centimeters of your own.

He then placed a bright pink flower behind your ear. His thumb softly caressed your ear as he looked into your eyes, not letting them go for a second.

“It was nice to meet you, y/n.” He stopped and let your chin go. His bright smile returned as he pulled away. You exhaled, not realizing that you had been holding your breath.

You wanted to feel his smooth lips on yours so badly, but it was too soon. You smiled and nodded as you gathered your things. “I should get going, I have to find my phone too.”

“That reminds me.” Johnny walked to the back of the conservatory as you waited at the door.

You watched him as he quickly walked up to you, his long legs allowing him to reach you within seconds.

“You dropped this last night” Johnny smirked as he held out a black, rectangular object for you to take.

Your eyes widened when you realized what it was.

You looked up at him with a confused expression.

It was then that you realized that you never did tell him your name.

Your eyes fluttered back down to his outstretched hand as you took your phone from him.

“Wh-“ You started but he interrupted you.

“Stay safe, y/n, I’ll see you again soon” Johnny winked as he opened the door of the conservatory to let you out.

You quickly walked out, daring not to glance behind you as you walked away.

————————————————

a/n: the next full moon occurs on June 17th..be careful out there :)

[beeposstuff]

Marshall Lee || By The Golberry Trees

Marshall Lee x Reader

(Adventure Time)

...

Aaa was really something. Something special? Possibly. Something incredibly strange? Definitely. Something that made The Girl want to stay?

No. Not really.

But there she was, walking through a forest in Aaa in the late evening, trying to focus on the sounds of birds and not the rustling thing in the bushes. It was, actually, a rather enjoyable walk, apart from the occasional demon-shaped tree branch that scared the wits out of her.

The Girl came to a cluster of golberry trees, all laden with ruby red fruits of the early autumn. Walking up to them, she noted their winding branches and gnarled roots that oozed age, before reaching out to grasp a fruit.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Legend has it that it you take the fruit from a golberry tree the Prince of the Nightosphere will come and eat you." She whipped around at the deep voice, and was surprised to see a teenage boy in a red plaid shirt reclining in the air. Upon closer inspection, he appeared to have fangs. He also held a golberry in his hand, half drained of its colour.

"Well first off, there are a bunch more golberry trees covered in fruit so who will know the difference, second, you're a hypocrite-" The Girl pointed to his fruit, he chuckled and muttered "touche" under his breath before tossing the drained fruit away, "-and third, what's a nightosphere prince?"

His grin spread quicker than wildfire.

"Well, have you ever felt the feeling of eyes watching you?" Fang Boy crept closer, "In the dark, when each of your footsteps feel retraced, like there's someone behind you?" He suddenly disappeared, "like there's something breathing down your neck?" His breath was hot against her neck. A shiver ran up her spine.

Fang boy noticed her discomfort, and floated up to back in front of her with an evil cackle. It suddenly occurred to The Girl that the sun had set over twenty minutes prior. 'Drat, this is what I get for being ignorant to my watch' She thought.

"The nightosphere prince isn't someone to be messed with, babydoll. That's why I'm here,"

"And... why are you here? I don't really get it." He was really up in her face now. Like, his chest was almost touching her face since he was floating. Fang Boy put finger under her chin and tilted her head, staring holes into her eyes.

"To not be messed with." He flashed his fangs menacingly before disappearing into the trees. He left The Girl dumbstruck, slightly frightened, but overall intrigued by this spooky inhabitant of Aaa. As she began to walk back through the path in the forest, her peripheral vision saw his shadow flash over the moon.

"Babydoll, bad boys like me are pretty dangerous! I think it'd do you good to know that!" He called out to her, but she rolled her eyes. That sentence sounded contradictory and a tad desperate, 'I bet he's having some sort of teenage crisis, it happens.' she guessed. His spooky factor went from an eight to a zero very quickly after that thought.

Meanwhile, as she walked Marshall watched her through the branches, sipping the red from another golberry fruit.

'She's different. Cool and tough, yet fragile like glass,' Marshall thought,

'Maybe I won't shatter her.'

.

a couple of weeks later

Marshall was so done with everything by the time Fiona, Cake and him had finished their adventure. In complete honesty it was just Fiona and Cake's adventure and he was only there to make sure they didn't wake a demon or sent the planet into the sun or something else really bad. His fingers itched to play his guitar. O the comforts of home, how irreplaceable they are to the weary.

His path home happened to go through the same part of the forest as he met The Girl, and as he floated drowsily underneath one of the golberry trees he felt something hard bounce off of him.

"Ouch!" Marshall rubbed his head, then looked up with a frown on his face to search for the unsporting branch. There was no branch, however, but his frown dissolved when he saw The Girl giggling above him, with an armful of ruby red golberries.

"That wasn't very nice,"

"Actually, that was payback for the other night, 'Prince of the Nightosphere'" She retorted,

"Oh, just prince? Babe, call me the Vampire King."

"I'd rather not, titles are overrated. I'll just call you Fang Boy." She imitated fangs from her mouth with her fingers.

"If you're going to be like that, then it's Marshall. Marshall lee." He sighed, a smile in his voice, and floated up to be on level with her. He mimicked her reclining position in the tree, but in the air.

"Okay, Marshall Lee. Catch!" She threw a golberry at him. She giggled when Marshall flailed a bit to catch it, from surprise. Caught off guard, his cheeks flushed, and it was then The Girl saw the cracks in his 'Bad Boy' façade. He chuckled.

"You haven't told me your name yet," Marshall probed after some silence. He was staring at her, as if trying to read the answer from her eyes.

"You'll have try harder than that." She smirked slyly. Marshall mirrored her smirk, exposing his fangs.

"Is that a challenge?" He raised an eyebrow,

"Only if you want to know my name, it is."

.

timeskip

He tried. He really did, from flying her up to touch the clouds and letting her fall a few metres, to interrogating people he thought she would know, to making the biggest puppy dog eyes and etcetera. The thing is, she didn't know anyone. She was unknown to most of Aaa, just a wanderer new to the land and who had decided to linger longer. She wasnt afraid of heights, and knew if he was so interested in getting to know her he wouldn't let her fall. And the puppy eyes washed off her like a trickle of water against a mountain. These were also only a handful of the attempts, too (which mostly involved relentless pranks). So, after many months of trying to learn her name, Marshall Lee was afraid to say that he was defeated. Defeated by a beautiful girl he wished he knew the name of.

But, even though he didn't know her name, at least he felt he knew her. Her giggles, her likes and dislikes, how she laughed at his jokes and helped him with his pranks (unless they were against her). How she smelt like fresh golberries, how she would brighten up his entire day with a smile, and how her nose would crinkle when she laughed. Her dreams, her poetry, 'glob, she was poetry', and her glassy eyes that no matter how deep he looked he couldn't see through.

Marshall sat on the roots of a golberry tree on a Sunday evening, waiting for The Girl to arrive. He had a mini keyboard with him that he had found abandoned in the trash, and was pressing random keys as anticipation grew inside him like a cancer. In all honesty, his final scheme to learn her name wasn't really a scheme at all. 'But it would be super cool to know her name,' Marshall thought.

Footsteps startled him, pushing him back down into a puddle of nerves.

"Oh, hi Marsh!" The Girl was surprised, "You're sitting? On the ground?"

"Uh," Marshall swallowed, taking in a breath, "I just thought I would try something different." The Girl sat down in front of him on the ground. "I've got something for you, a song," Her eyebrows shot up, and she smiled.

"I'd love to hear it."

Clearing his throat, Marshall looked to his keyboard.

"Slow dance with you,

I just want to slow dance with you,

I know all the other boys are tough and smooth and I got the blues,

but I wanna slow dance with you,"

After his last line of the song, Marshall looked up meekly at The Girl, only to see a single tear track down her cheek.

'OH NO WHAT HAVE I DONE?' Marshall internally screeched at himself, instead saying: "Are you okay?" in a soft and broken voice. She looked in his eyes, and for the first time he actually felt like he knew her, truly.

"I'm great," The girl wiped her eyes and smiled. "In all honesty, I kind of want to slow dance with you too, Bad Boy Marshall Lee." He blushed, but stood up and grabbed The Girl's hand.

"Then why don't we?"

So he pulled her up, and placed his arms around her waist while she wrapped hers around his neck. The pair floated into the sky, twilight surrounding them. She laid her head on his chest, and could feel him humming the tune of his song. It felt so new yet so timeless as they swayed against the breeze.

"Hey, Marshall?" The Girl spoke after it seemed an eternity without words.

"Yes, babydoll?" They looked in each other's eyes as Marshall slowly began to let them down. Once she felt the Earth beneath her feet, she spoke again.

"I didn't plan to stay here long. But, every time I see you I never want to leave, even if you are pranking me or dropping me or scaring me," She sucked in a breath, "I think I-" The Girl was cut off by a kiss. A short, sweet kiss that said 'I know', and really, that was all that needed to be said.

"(Y/N)." The Girl said when they pulled away.

"Huh?"

.

"My name is (Y/N), Marshall."

[swisstheme]

Horror Short Story : Old Vengeance

1. Awakening

He slowly moves the blade up his forearm. The incision is small and shallow, but the blood gushes out immediately. He rolls his eyes in pain, but holds out the open wound to his counterpart.

Through the fog of pain, the other person's voice comes across only softly and weakly: "You know what it means."

"Don't waste any time," the man gasps and presses on the vein. The blood flow doesn't get stronger.

"Do not be sad."

“It is my will. My decision, ”stammered the man. The person opposite nods barely noticeably and pulls back the hood. Then he puts his lips on the cut and licks off the blood that has already flowed. The current begins to slowly dry up again when it rams its teeth into the flesh and begins to drink properly.

Later he carelessly slides the empty shell onto the floor and wipes his mouth. Freshly strengthened, he moves the still somewhat stiff muscles and shakes out the gray, long hair. Countless numbers fall out, underneath you can see the fresh, dark brown hair.

“Are you feeling better?” Asks the observer, who had been standing in the shadow of the corner the whole time.

The vampire is massaging his wrists. “The ropes have dug deep into my flesh. I'm going to need more to close these wounds, ”he explains.

“I'll bring it to you. However many you need, I'll bring them to you. Master?"

The vampire is silent and pushes the curtains to one side. It's not dark anymore, the sun will rise soon.

“Master?” The observer repeats his question.

"Where can I sleep? I am tired."

“You avoid my question. You probably know what I want. "

"It's still too early. I don't want to talk about it yet! ”Says the vampire in a rude tone and underscores it with an imperious gesture. The observer bows slightly and then points to the cellar.

“There is a place for your coffin there. I've already prepared everything. When you wake up, the next drink will be ready. "

"Well. Good day."

"Master?" The vampire turns around questioningly. "Time heals all wounds. You know that?" The vampire grimaces and growls. "Is that why you left me in that hole for almost 400 years?" “You had to be forgotten. Before that, someone could have remembered! ”Defends the observer. "Pah! Nobody lives 400 years. Not even the Inquisition survives that long. She's forgotten, just like me! ”Snorting, he comes closer and grabs the observer by the throat. He lifts it up and pulls it into the light. The observer is young, maybe twenty. The brown curls hang low over his face and there is an expression of naked fear. He gasps for air, but the vampire persists. “That was your intention, wasn't it? That I will be forgotten. That you continue my business. I will? Answer! " “No, master. You don't understand, ”the boy gasps. “Don't tell me lies!” Hisses the vampire and looks deep into the boy's eyes. He tries to avoid the piercing gaze of his master, but the grip only hardens, so that he immediately discards the plan. The vampire is digging somewhere in his soul. Suddenly the vampire lets go of the boy and collapses on an armchair. "I need silence. I'm sorry." The boy gasps too. Nevertheless, he raises his hand and waves it away. “I understand, master. But I never lied to you. " "Now I know," smiles the vampire and drags himself to the cellar. He silently closes the door behind him. The boy gets up shortly afterwards and draws all the curtains. Then he checks again that the door is locked before he goes to bed. It is wrapped in dark cloths, which he carefully closes. A woman lies wrapped in the sheets, gently puts her arm around him and blows a kiss on his cheek. "You let him sleep in the basement?" She smiles. "He does not know. You were a good teacher, ”replies the boy. At the same moment they fall into arms and kiss deeply.

2. Heretic Somewhere in Germany, around 1600: The square was full of people again. Although the morning was freezing cold, they stood close together in front of the gallows and loudly demanded the demonstration. The hangman was already standing next to the rope and nervously twisting the rope in his hand. Nobody could tell what was showing on his face, because he carried a black sack over his head that only had slits for eyes. This time it wasn't the town's executioner either, but an executioner brought along by the Inquisition. The city hangman himself stood in the front row with his son, clutching the ax in both hands. The priest had forbidden him to use them in this case. What a waste. Suddenly a murmur went through the crowd. Heavily armored riders made their way through the mob and often gave way with the stick. A team of two oxen trotted along behind them. On top of the wagon was a steel cage with what was hanging. The three priests of the Inquisition walked in front of the team. Their eyes were lowered and they nervously clutched their Bibles. Some of the mob threw rotten vegetables at the cage, but the prisoner hardly noticed them. He was crouched in the corner, wrapped in a dark blanket, with the blanket pulled over his head. Only his eyes gleamed evil in the twilight of the shadow. The riders dismounted in front of the gallows pedestal and stood to protect the inquisitors and the prisoner. Because some in the mob waved knives and other small weapons over their heads. The priests walked with dignity up the seven steps to the gallows, while the prisoner had to be driven up with strokes of a stick. The sun felt with its rays over the roofs as the prisoner was led under the gallows. The priests said a short prayer and blessed the rope. "Last words?"

"I still want to get rid of something," giggled the prisoner. He stepped forward as far as the guards would allow and spread his arms. “Look at me, you villagers. I am still here! You have led me to the gallows a hundred times and I am still alive. I can't die! Not even these worms with their words about God will be able to change anything. I can't die! Your God has left you and sent me to sow the seeds of the devil! " The crowd backed away in alarm, then the guards interrupted the prisoner's speech and beat him. But not a word of complaint escaped the prisoner's lips, not even when they pulled the black sack over his head. Then the executioner put the rope around his neck and stepped back. Once again an inquisitor blessed the rope and then gave the sign. The gate opened and the prisoner slumped down. It was suddenly dead silent. The crowd stared spellbound at the motionless body on the gallows. They waited, but nothing moved. Finally an inquisitor stepped forward and spread his arms. “God's will is done! This form of the devil has entered his kingdom and will never return. Bless God! " The crowd fell on their knees in prayer. Then they heard the soft laughter. The figure on the gallows began to move again. The laughter got louder and louder and the body moved more and more. The ropes tying the hands cracked under the strain. "Devil!" Shouted the inquisitor. "Devil!" The three priests immediately put a cross. Even the knights backed away and dared not go any closer to the gallows. The executioner even tore his hood down and fled into the crowd. The mob, when they were not frozen in fear, broke out into roaring laughter. Only the city hangman remained calm and nodded to his son. Then he picked up the ax and went up the steps to the gallows. "What are you doing, guy?" Yelled one of the priests. He tried to stand in the way of the hangman, but the hangman's son was faster and pushed him aside. “He's doing God's work. With this ax he will cut off the devil's head! " “He doesn't have the right! Only God…" “God had his opportunity. He did not come. Now we're taking it in hand! " "Blasphemy! You will burn."

The hangman had reached the gallows, pushed a courageous knight aside and swung back. The blade cut the rope and the prisoner fell heavily to the ground. The executioner wanted to jump after him to finish his work, but the knights held him back. They quickly overpowered him and his son and reassured the mob. “Get him out and tie his arms with chains. Then burn this monster! ”Ordered the priest. “And to you! Take them to the castle for interrogation! Perhaps their souls can still be saved. " Two knights tied their hands and led them away. The others dragged the hanged man out of the hole and dragged him back to the cage. In the crowd a young man threw his hood over his head and strolled leisurely away.

That same evening the body burned in front of the village. The prisoner laughed until the flames burned him completely. His body was not freed from the chains afterwards, but consecrated and buried. The Inquisition posted two guards in front of the grave, who were not allowed to leave their post until thirteen days after the burial. The two executioners, father and son, were burned the next day for heresy. Before that, they confessed to having been in league with the devil during the interrogation and attempting to help this creature of Satan escape before the eyes of the Inquisition.

After thirteen days, a figure in a long robe detached itself from the bushes at the edge of the cemetery and strolled between the graves in the moonlight. Flowers that grew on the burial mounds withered and the water in the puddles became bitter. In the last few days it had rained heavily and the ground was soft and heavy. When the figure reached the grave of the satanic creature, which had been buried far away from the other graves, it soon began to dig with its bare hands until it hit the roughly timbered wooden box. For a full hour the figure then just sat on the coffin and stared at the sky. The full moon was suddenly covered with clouds. Nevertheless, there was an evil glow from him. The figure buried the box again and disappeared.

3. Interrogation The sun is just about to set when the boy wakes up again. The woman has already got up and is making coffee. Yawning, he too shuffles into the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. Then he rummages around until he finds half a can and opens it with his mouth. He spits the cap on the floor. "Is he up yet?" The woman hisses something incomprehensible and opens the lock. "Without me it would be a pigsty," she protests. "Oink oink", answered the man and goes into the cellar. She only hears the floorboards of a box creak, then the rumbling footsteps. Your mate comes running upstairs. In the back of her head she sees the blood seeping into the ground. What a waste, she thinks. "He is gone!" “Then you should find him. With time he will probably not get along. " "We should have had him signed yesterday and then ended the thing!" The man swore and quickly changed. Then he put on a coat and hat. In the meantime the woman has pushed the curtain back a little and is peeking outside. “Bad weather, it's drizzling. He can be over the mountains in the weather. " “I don't want to hope so,” the man whispers and opens the door. With giant steps he runs to his Fiat and fiddles with the lock. The woman watches him as her friend drives off with screeching tires and disappears. Shaking her head, she pours herself coffee and turns around. Startled, she drops the cup and touches her chest. “So, I'm supposed to sign something. Will you tell me something too, old friend? ”Asks the vampire and grins angrily. There is still a residue of blood on his teeth. "What are you doing here?" “I should ask you that. What did you tell the boy that he would let his master run into the knife so easily. " "You probably know that very well." “I only know that someone told me about four hundred years ago. That I burned and then lay with the wounds in a coffin for two weeks until someone had the kindness to give me at least enough blood to heal these wounds, ”the vampire growls and grabs her hands. “So, Black Soul, tell me now what I want to hear. Then maybe I'll break your neck and leave it at that. "

„Lass mich zuerst los. Sonst sage ich gar nichts“, droht die Frau. Daraufhin lacht der Vampir und verstärkt den Druck. „Ich kann auch anders, Schwarzseele. Ich könnte dir auch die Kehle zerfetzen und dann ihn fragen.“ Er entblößt seine Reißzähne und verstärkt den Druck auf ihre Handgelenke noch weiter. Sie windet sich in seinen Armen und keucht vor Schmerz als er beginnt ihr Handgelenk zu verdrehen. „Ich werde reden!“ schreit sie schließlich.

4. Zwei Was der Junge zu der Zeit seiner Wache nicht wusste, war dass er nicht alleine war. Die andere Gestalt hatte jedoch eindeutig feminine Züge und zog es vor in einem Bretterverschlag zu warten. Dort gab es auch ein kleines, wärmendes Feuer und etwas zu essen. Abgesehen von einer Ratte hungerte der Mann die dreizehn Tage lang. Auch befleckte die Frau ihre Kleidung nicht beim Ausgraben sondern zeigte sich in der zweiten Nacht erst als der Mann den Sarg wieder freigelegt hatte. „Deine Loyalität gegenüber deinem Meister ist bewundernswert. Viele hätten ihre Existenz genutzt um selber zum Meister zu werden“, begrüßte die Frau den Gräber. Er warf die Schaufel weg und zog ein Messer von seinem Gürtel. „Wer bist du? Was willst du?“ „Meine Namen sind zahlreich wie die Sterne und tun im Moment nichts zur Sache. Doch vielleicht solltest du erfahren warum ich hier bin, Gräber und loyaler Diener.“ „Dann sprich, bevor ich dir das Herz herausschneide“, befahl der Junge. Sie lachte. „Das würdest du nicht schaffen. Denn wie du und dein Meister bin ich von einer besonderen Statur. Obwohl ich eine Leere bei dir fühle. Hat dein Meister dir bis jetzt etwa verwehrt was uns allen zusteht, von Geburt an und immerdar?“ „Niedere Tiere stehen mir erst zu“, bestätigte der Junge leise. „Er lässt dich Ratten und anderes Kleingetier aussaugen?“ fragte die Frau ungläubig. Der Junge nickte und ließ das Messer langsam sinken.

"That's why I ask myself what I'm doing here." The woman whistled through her teeth and then jumped into the pit with him. She put her hand on his shoulder and stroked his cheek. “He doesn't deserve to have a student like you, my young friend. That's why I ask you what you want. " "I think you know that. Maybe he'll give it to me if I free him." The woman laughed and wiped a tear away from him. “I promise to give you what you want. For that you only have to do one thing for me. " "What do you demand?" “Fill this ditch again and let it suffer for a few more years. For this I will take you to places that you have not even heard of and you will experience things that even your wildest dreams did not occur to you. At my side you will conquer the world for yourself as a being of the night, equal and masterful. Create servants and empires for you, and get rid of them again when you feel like it. " "Is that all?" Asked the boy in disbelief. "That's all," she confirmed, smiling so he could see her teeth. Her eyes shone like red diamonds as she arched his neck and kissed him gently. He barely felt the bite, and when she let go of him he didn't sag like he usually did when his Master drank from him. She smiled before pressing her bloody lips onto his and sliding her tongue into his mouth. A feeling of strength spread throughout his body from his mouth. He closed his eyes with relish and let it sink in until she broke away from him. When he opened his eyes again he was a different person. Because everything human in him was gone.

5th transition "So that's how it was," sighs the vampire. "In revenge you condemned me to a shadowy existence, Black Soul." “Just like you did with my master!” Replies the woman. “He deserved the stake. You know that as well as I do. I was only the executioner, neither judge nor jury! " “Still, I hate you! Nobody had the right. He never endangered our cause. " “It should have burned in my place. If I had known what was coming, I would not have inserted the stake and left it to the people. Then he would have sung the song under the gallows, not me! " Outside the door opens and the boy returns. "I haven't found him," he calls out as he undresses again. When he wants to enter the kitchen, he stops in the door. "Oh, so you met," he stammered. The master silently averts his face, but she nods. "Then does he know?" "He asked and gave me no chance." "And?" “You will have to choose. Either them or your master! Do not decide right away because the decision will be final. You are selling your soul with it. " "I sold them centuries ago when I came into contact with you and offered my neck as naive as I was", the boy hisses and waves his gaze between the two. “Either the woman who gave me the best years of my life. Or my master, who made me what I am, but denied me everything that makes up my existence. I don't think the decision will be difficult for me. " The master looks down and nods. “Then that's how it should be,” he whispers disappointed. “But allow me one more thing, my young student. One last sip. " The boy looks at Schwarzseele, but she avoids his gaze. "It depends on you. You are free. You were always free, at least by my side. " The master throws back his head and then walks towards his old disciple. The latter lays his head back and offers him his neck.

“Eternity once lay in my eyes, and I made you immortal. But your thanks leave a lot to be desired ”, he whispers before driving his teeth into the flesh. His victim's eyes widen when he feels the bite. It is by no means as gentle as usual. The bite is more like an animal had bitten its throat. An uneven dance begins in which the boy tries to push his master away. Schwarzseele wants to intervene, but a punch from the master throws her across the room. When he releases the bite from the throat, blood splatters from the wound. Panting, the boy staggers across the room and tries to close the wound. But his strength is too little, what the master has taken too great. He wipes his mouth in disgust and goes to Schwarzseele, who crouches dazed in a corner. “There can only be one, my old friend. Our enmity will end here. Do you have any last words? ”He asks grimly. Schwarzseele briefly closes his eyes and then looks at him again with a crystal clear look. “You took everything I ever loved from me. What more can I say? So let me die upright, as one of ours should. " The vampire sighs and then offers her his arm. She takes him and is then pulled to her feet. She slowly opens a drawer behind her while the master bends her head back roughly and stares at her neck. She grabs a knife and makes a deft cut across his face. The vampire screams and backs away. Although the wound closes immediately, he jerks his hand up to protect it. “You will pay for that!” He rages. But before he can attack, she stabs again. The sting is accurate and pierces the vampire's heart. His eyes widen in disbelief. He grabs his chest and wipes the blood off, then looks at his hand. "What did you do?" He gasps. "I will finish what started four hundred years ago!"

6. Graduation Behind Schwarzseele lies the burning house that has long served as a shelter. In his basement, the victims are laid out neatly and doused with gasoline. In their midst is an open coffin with their young companion. He is neatly bedded down, cleansed, and has a peaceful expression. There is a freshly dug grave in the garden. Inside is another coffin in which the master lies. The knife is still in his chest, a sealed letter on his face warning any finder to remove the knife. Schwarzseele waits in the shade until everything has burned down and the ruins are no longer glowing. Then she gets into a car with tinted windows and takes a deep breath. "Back home," she commands quietly. The driver turns around and looks at his mistress. "Everything OK?" “It's done,” she replies. The driver smiles and reaches into his jacket. “Not quite, my lady. One person is still missing. " He draws a pistol and shoots Black Soul in the chest at close range. He then fires three more shots in her head before getting out of the car and lighting a cigarette. Then he rummages for a cell phone and dials the first speed dial. “We got rid of all of them. It's complete. Definitely. "

More Short Story Visit : https://www.shortstorye.eu.org/

[chocobostrinket]

Hibiscus

LeviathanxReader

Notes: PFFT This is a pairing I never thought I’d be writing, but I saw this odd/hilarious/cool post about how to woo Leviathan. Like, this small idea took off in my head and the only way to get it out was to write it. (This is all @joioliviapolaroid‘s fault pfft, hope you don’t mind I wrote this.)

Summary: You’ve spent your life in love with the sea, and she just happened to like you enough not to kill you on sight the first time you met. 2969 words. 

It started when you were young.

At the time, you were a child playing in the ocean. The waves pushed at your shins as you danced in the tide. The water was a soundless song, the tempo dictated by the moon’s cycle. Part of you wondered why the water followed it so closely, but the rest of you didn’t want to think, enjoying the water in the way only a child could. You saw beauty and peace where adults would look at the waves with fear.

Maybe that’s why you saw her.

Playing in the water had caused you to lose track of time. The sun was almost all the way down, and moon just beginning to rise. A rare twilight, where both moonlight and sunlight met on the beach. What pulled you out of your revelry was the sight of a woman in the water as you were. Only she wasn’t dancing. She stood still and looked to the horizon.

She was gorgeous, in a way you couldn’t quite name. Her skin was dark, the color of sharp rocks near the cliff, darkened by the water that was constantly sharpening their points. A rich black that could only come from the combination of earth and sea. Across her body were bright blue tattoos. So reflective was the ink, it was as if the waves depicted on her were taken right from the sea in the middle of a bright sunny day. Her face was warm and strong, and her eyes were hard. But not cold. Rather, they were deep. Dark and soothing. There was no other way to describe them. And her dress blended seamlessly with the sea foam at her ankles, flowing around her legs as if there was a gentle breeze.

And while she was so gorgeous, you were a child. So the only thing you fixated on was the bright red flower tucked behind her ear, held in place by her many braids. It didn’t take long for you to walk up to her, and while normally, the sight of another person to play with would have brought you running, something inside you told you to walk. To be on your best behavior. And upon reaching her, she turned to look at you, a subtle look of surprise on her face. With her eyebrows slightly raised, she knelt in the water to be on your level.

“Hi.” You said softly, shyly, which was out of character for you. “Why do you have that flower in your hair?”

She tilted her head slightly, and seemed to regard you with rarely used curiosity. When she spoke, it was the same song of the tides that met your ears.

“It was made for me, and so it is my favorite.”

And with that, she rose back to her feet, seemingly having sated her curiosity.

“Child, run back the way you came.” Without touching your shoulders, she guided you to turn around. “Go, and do not look back.”

With words so grave, you felt compelled to listen, and did as she wished. It wasn’t until you were back on the grass further up from the beach, your family’s home in sight, that you felt safe enough to turn around. You watched as she stepped out of the water, and walked along the beach. But then, while you were watching, she slowly faded out of sight. Where her hand had hovered above your shoulder, a mark of two lines appeared. Like her own tattoos, they depicted waves. Only, it looked like a birthmark rather than the blue of her own, and for years to come would be unnoticed by you.

That night, your mother told you to story of Leviathan, a feared beast, the anger of the ocean. Mother of the tides and spirit of the deep. Your mother also told you of how people used to worship her, pray to her, and she never listened. Taking loved ones and drowning them. The vicious waves and currents that could steal someone from the beach if they dared turn their back on her. Cruelly ending lives before they’d begun. People vanishing on the water never to be seen again. She was to be feared, reviled, but respected.

But that day, the woman had given you a gift. Now, when you looked at the tides, the song that was once silence had turned into symphonies of creation and destruction in equal measure.

~

When you were a teenager, you’d gone back to the beach many times, nearly daily, hoping to get a glimpse of the woman again. The threat of daemons rising from the sands nearby, and the long trek home in the dark, did not daunt you. You’d learned from the hunters how to evade, and were aided by the sand refusing to give under your feet when you ran. Of course danger was ever present, but there was no where you felt safer than the beach.

Now that you were older, you were sure that the woman you had seen that day had been the goddess of the sea herself. Only, you’d never seen her again after that night. But you held faith in your heart, and had nothing but kind thoughts for the goddess. In the water, before the sunset and after the moon rose, you would leave flowers on the edge of the waves. Red ones. Always red. The next morning when you’d come back, some of them would be returned to you, sitting on the sand as if the water had rejected them.

But the red hibiscus flowers were always gone.

Eventually, you’d stopped bringing all others, and even made a ritual out of talking to the waves about your day when you’d sent them. As long as you knew that someone was there, listening silently, it helped you when you were hurt, and made you happy when you weren’t. Occasionally, on certain days, you’d whisper old prayers that you’d learned from an old woman in town. Ones that still remembered the goddess before her rage, and offered her the respect and reverence that had been stripped from her when all that man spoke of was her anger.

They spoke of protection, and of a long-forgotten title.

Sometimes, you’d read from your journal that you kept of writing and drawings. Poems you’d written for her, made from the memory of a child who didn’t know she was supposed to be feared. And as you aged, you spoke of her beauty, never mentioning the danger she was known for. You wrote of the sea as a person, capable of anger and love. Some of them were ever written to the melody of the waves, becoming instead songs of the sea. Drawings of the memory of her tattoos, colored to match their brilliance. But you’d never been able to capture their exact color. Portraits of her eyes. The hem of her dress as it had blended into the foam. There were also drawings of ships and sailors preparing to leave the shores. Or the hibiscus flowers you grew and would pick just for the ocean.

And for the first time that day, you’d finished a journal.

As you thumbed through its contents while sitting on the sand, you realized you didn’t know what to do with it. Poems no one else had read, drawings never seen by anyone but you.

It felt right, when you cast it into the waves with the flower.

“It’s for you.” Was all you said that day, and then you turned and left to go back home.

~

As an adult, people were beginning to whisper about you. You’d grown unparalleled in beauty, unrivaled in kindness, and known for having a strange connection to the sea. There were many suitors that you’d rejected in your small seaside town, and all would meet unlucky fates at the hands of the waves. As if the sea itself was warning them away from trying again. And for the few that insisted on trying to force you into a relationship you didn’t want, it was rare they came back from their next trip on the sea.

Some began calling you Leviathan’s kindness. Her priestess. The woman who was given gifts from the waves. Whereas people knew that the goddess was anything but kind and would only hurt those who dared to try crossing her waters, you could heal with what she would use to hurt.

Women would come to you for multiple reasons. Some for love spells, to give a man’s heart a nudge, or to grant him the courage needed take the next step. Those spells were easy, but would take time. Others to escape. For a way out of their situation. To heal their bruises and their souls. Those were longer, but took effect almost instantly.

“Take this seashell, and when you see him next, crush it over your heart. And then you shall be free from the love you feel for him.” You told one woman, who’s eye you had helped heal with sea water when it had been swollen shut. You ensured that she wouldn’t be blind in that eye, and the rest of her bruises, after being massaged with a paste of hibiscus petals and sea foam, were gone by the next day.

You placed the seashell in a sachet of linen, easily hidden in the front pocket of the woman’s shirt, and handed it to her. “Then you must take a boat away from here, but have no destination in mind. Cast away your oars and lay down in the boat and sleep. She will take care of you if you trust her. When you arrive at safety, throw a bottle with words you feel are right back into the water.”

“Thank you,” The woman said, “Thank you so much.”

Others began to call you a sea witch.

“Where is she?!” The man raged, days after the woman’s visit, throwing the things in your home into disarray. Papers strew about in rage, books thrown carelessly on the floor, bottles of water upended, and seashells, the gifts the sea left for you, smashed to pieces. Outside, you could feel a storm building in your bones.

With the sea behind you outside the window, with its song ever present, you were brave.

“Gone. You’ll never hurt her again.”

Your eyes were as cold as the sea in winter, and he continued raging. The man wanted to get his way. He threw a piece of broken bottle at you, it’s jagged end catching your cheek. You allowed the blood to drip down your face and fall to the floor, where it mixed with the sea water he’d spilled. The cut was deep, but you didn’t care.

But she did.

The sound of a bellowing scream came from the sea, and the man paled.

“Witch!” He spat, before fleeing your home to run back to the town.

You’d never heard that sound from the sea before, and went outside to see what could have made it. But also, to show that you were unharmed. And the only thing you saw was the crashing of the waves on the sand.

~

That night, the song changed. Creation had never sounded so soft, nor destruction so soothing. Barefooted, you left your home and walked down to the beach, and then into the water to stand where you were when you were a child. This time it was fully night, but the moon was already setting. Yet, even with the difference, you could feel her there. You took a few steps further out into the sea, and waited. And when you felt that it was time, you turned around.

There she stood, ankle deep in the ocean, looking exactly as she did all those years ago. It was as if she had never left that spot. But this time she beckoned to you. The movement was like a siren’s call, and you couldn’t do anything else but follow.

Slow measured steps, following her at a respectable distance. You never took your eyes off her, a feeling warning you away from doing so. Not that you wanted to. The woman, goddess, you’d been talking to and offering prayers for years was in front of you. The same deity that granted you gifts and your connection to the sea. Why would you look away?

Upon stepping on the sand, it felt different, but you didn’t dare look down. It was as soft as powder, yet you knew if she willed it, it could shred your feet in seconds. It was the feeling of the sand, cool yet warm under your feet, that let you know this wasn’t the beach you had just been on. No, this was a place between the water and the sea sand of your home. A place only she could come.

And she’d brought you.

You followed her on this endless beach, the water behaving strangely to the right of you. Your connection to the water, to her, allowed you the knowledge of knowing not to touch the water again now that you’d left it. The song was wrong.

When the sun started rising, you could see a small cottage. The wood was weathered, like it had seen many sea storms and was rubbed smooth by the sand around it. She entered first, and given that she hadn’t told you to stop following, you went inside too.

Your eyes, even though you just came in from outside, didn’t need to adjust to the change in lighting. A strange sort of ease settled over you the moment you came through the door. It was like coming home. And all around the cottage, you could see the flowers you’d sent her. Eternally kept alive, some gathered in bushels, some strung up on the walls. But the best ones had their stems held in the pages of the journals she had collected over the years.

When you went to walk further into the cottage, strong arms wrapped around you from behind. Her skin was cool and thrummed with energy unending. You wanted nothing more than to turn around to see her face. But you held still. One of her hands drifted up to your face, turning your injured side toward her. You closed your eyes the moment she pressed a kiss to the cut, and suppressed a hiss of pain as it healed. The healing she did always felt like rubbing salt in the wound until it was finished.

After she finished, it was then that she reached down and held your hands in hers, trapping you in her embraces and your own. You leaned back, pressing your head against her shoulder, and finally allowed yourself to look up at her. She met your stare with her own, and you found something like love there. You knew that gods could not love like mortals do, but what was in her eyes rant as deep as the deepest part of her domain.

It was then that she interrupted your thoughts. Her hand resting against your cheek again, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to the corner of your mouth, teasing. But then she pressed her lips to your and let you turn around in her arms. Her hand then slid back to fist in your hair, pulling your head back to kiss at your neck, lingering on your pulse. It felt like the tide had swept you away and soon you lost yourself to her.

~

It was after, when you lay in a tangle of blankets at her side, with her eyes watching your every move, that you spoke.

“Why me?” You asked, your voice as small as the day you met. You were human, insignificant compared to the eternity of her life. And while you loved her, you knew it was not returned. A god couldn’t feel love as a human does after all.

She was silent for a moment, appearing to gather her thoughts while tracing your collar bones with feather light touches. But then her hand trailed over to your shoulder and slowly, she began to hold you so tightly, her nails began to leave indents in your skin.

“I think you were made for me, and so you are my favorite.” Was her answer, and a part of you felt uneasy at the thought of being a belonging of the goddess. But another part of you recalled her fondness of the Hibiscus flower, and how it has spanned centuries. Since the first moment, according to the story, that Titan created it and gifted it to her, in memory of a woman she had failed to protect, coloring the petals with the woman’s blood.

And so you smiled, and leaned forward to press another, this time chaste, kiss to her mouth which she gladly returned.

~

All the town’s people found on the beach, the night after you went missing, was your footsteps going into the tide. Some side that Leviathan had finally killed the last of her compassion, and now only her anger was left. But the women whispered of Leviathan calling you home. Of you having gone to her side as your reward for being so faithful to the sea.

Sometimes, people would see the image of you walking on the beach, hand in hand with a woman who’s features no one could quite make out. And it is said, to this very day, that if you were in trouble and needed to find safety, that you could walk the beach and a woman might appear before you, offering advice and magic to aid you. People, every year on the day you vanished, would set red hibiscus flowers onto the sea. Both for Leviathan, and the woman who remembered that the goddess, though thought of as cruel, was kind.

[thevampirediariesdiary]

2.03, Bad Moon Rising

Welp I accidentally took a month-long hiatus but I’m back!  This semester has been kicking my ass, so I’ll do the best I can with getting one of these up each week, but go easy on me.

Damon, Stefan, and Elena convince Rick to help them go through Isobel’s research at Duke University – which is all still there, because apparently her only being missing and not dead means she gets to keep her office??  Tenure is one hell of a drug.  The plan is to find anything on the Lockwood family, because for some reason Damon feels threatened by their very existence, and also Katherine.  

“So are you sure you wanna do this?” Stefan asks. “Which part?” Elena retorts, pouting while she packs her road trip stuff. “Digging through my birth mother’s life work or –” she pauses, says with perfect derisive scorn, “going to Duke with Damon?”  Stefan snorts a little, answers, “Either? Both?”  “Well, I’m sure about the first part,” Elena answers, “but then again Rick is a good buffer, so we can bond in our anti-Damon solidarity.  I wish you were coming, though.”  “You know what?” says Stefan, “Why don’t we hold off a couple days?  Wait until Caroline’s less of a danger and then I can go with you.”  “It’s okay that I’m going right?” Elena asks. “And be honest because if it’s not then I can just stay here and we can take care of Caroline!”  She’s warming to the idea as she suggests it, but Stefan says, “No, listen, I want you to go, okay, I do.  You have questions about your lineage, about Katherine, and look, I’m not gonna let the fact that Damon is going keep you from an opportunity to get some answers.” Elena nods, looks at him, says: “You hate it though.”

“I hate it,” Stefan confirms.

“But I love you,” he says.  “I love you, too,” Elena answers.  They kiss.  And with that, this very ambiguous conversation is over; does Stefan hate it because he doesn’t trust Damon (as established in 1.22)? or because Damon killed Jeremy and he’s siding with Elena in her unforgiveness?  Why must they go to Duke now?  Why is Damon going?  Is Alaric really in anti-Damon solidarity with them, because last I checked they were on fine terms, and we never got a Jeremy-murder reaction from him so why assume otherwise?  Where IS Jeremy?  Is Damon giving him whittling lessons yet?  So many questions left unanswered.  Ah well.

Downstairs, Alaric and Jenna are being Super Mature about the fact that they’re interacting: Rick makes an excuse about how busy he’s been, Jenna tells him she’s grateful he’s giving Elena this connection to her birth mother.  I’m proud of them both, but I’m especially proud of Jenna; Rick offers her an apology for their relationship being start and stop and says “Maybe once I”, and Jenna cuts him off with an “Uhhh, no. Don’t do that,” she says, not unkindly.  “Not the half apology, maybe, hope-for-the-future thing.”  He smiles wryly.  “Do what you need to do, okay?” Jenna says.  YOU GO, JENNA!!  YOU ARE KIND AND PATIENT BUT YOU WILL NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF!!  Elena asks her if she’s okay as she heads out the door; “Yeah,” Jenna answers, “just, men and their baggage!”

Now, this next scene is absolute gold.  Damon leans against the car, says while pouting mightily, “Sorry you can’t come too, Stef.”  Stefan ignores him, but Elena throws her bag into the car extra violently and glares.  

Stefan tries to sidetrack her: “Call me if you need anything.”  “Oh,” Damon says, inserting himself again, “I’ll take really good care of her.”

And Elena!!  While maintaining eye contact with him!!!  Grabs Stefan around the neck and makes out with him.  Is this fucking Twilight??  I don’t know but it’s ridiculous and spiteful and I love it.  

And then: they both turn around and look at Damon again?  Stefan kind of…smacks his lips???

“Okay, time to go,” Damon says.  Having adequately antagonized the person who literally killed Jeremy because Elena chose Stefan over him, they pile into the car and boogie on out.

Stefan sits down with Bonnie to convince her to make Caroline a daylight ring; it’s important, he says, to keep Caroline in contact with the people that connect her to her humanity, and that requires being able to go out in the sun.  Bonnie’s not so sure she can trust new vampire-Car; Stefan says, “Then trust me.”

Sighhhhh.

In the car, Damon reaches back and appears to jiggle Elena’s knee??  “How you doin’ back there?” he asks. “You know, this whole pretending to hate me thing is getting a little silly.”  Alaric, stuck in the middle of a classic Damon/Elena mess-around yet again, scoffs. “I don’t think she’s pretending.  You did kill her brother.”  “There is a HUGE asterisk next to that statement,” Damon protests, “he came back to life.”  “Yeah,” says Elena flatly, “thanks to a ring you didn’t know he was wearing.”  “Why are you so sure I didn’t know?” Damon says. “Did you?” Elena says.  “Yes,” he says.  Her eyes narrow; “You’re lying,” she says, unsurprised.  “Elena!” Damon says, “I saw the ring!  It’s a big, tacky thing, it’s hard to miss.”

Bonnie makes Caroline a daylight ring.  “So I don’t get to choose the ring I wear the rest of my life?” Caroline complains.  No, Car, of course you don’t!!  Haven’t you ever heard of engagement rings?  But for serious, I think this line is on purpose.  This is the beginning of a love story between Caroline and vampirism. Also, this is her “skeptical about spell-casting face”:

Over at Duke, Alaric’s hair is doing something awful.

Vanessa, a research assistant, gets them the keys to Isobel’s office, and then attempts to shoot Elena with a crossbow.  Three guesses how that turns out.

Yep, Damon vamps over and takes the arrow for her. Last episode he spared Caroline for her and she stopped Bonnie from killing him; now he’s risked his life to save hers.  And what do you know?  While Alaric is subduing the unfortunate academic,

Elena’s fallen to her knees at Damon’s side to check on him.  This episode has a bunch of purposeful callbacks to Bloodlines – they’re on a road trip, looking for info on Elena’s ancestors, Damon steps in to save her from danger and then she acts worried for his well-being.  But this is where the similarity ends.  When we return from the commercial, Damon is nagging at Elena to pull the arrow out of his back and she’s making faces like she wants to pull it out and then immediately re-stake him with it.  She pulls it out, and then while he’s yelling in pain reaches over his shoulder to drop it, presumably just to be annoying.

Damon blows out a breath, raises his eyebrows (you thought I forgot the eyebrows didn’t you), and announces, “that bitch is deaaaaad.”  Elena’s eyes widen – how dare he talk about killing people when he’s trying to make amends for killing her brother – and she says, “Uh, you’re not gonna kill her.”  He adopts a weird sultry voice: “Watch me.”

“You touch her and I swear I will never speak to you again,” Elena says.

“What makes you think that has any power over me?” Damon challenges.  Elena blinks.

“Because I took an arrow in the back for you?” Damon says, mockingly. He slings an arm over her shoulder, which she immediately pushes off with disgust; “You are severely overestimating yourself,” he says, gleeful.  “Right,” says Elena, “I forgot I was speaking to a psychotic mind who snaps and kills people impulsively.  Fine. Go ahead.  Do whatever you want.”

“You’re trying to manipulate me!” Damon says indignantly.  “If by manipulate you mean tell the truth, okay,” Elena says, “guilty.” Damon, for whom manipulation is all tied up with love, kind of stares at her lips.

“Okay!” says Elena, and makes her exit.  

Archery-happy research-assistant tells Rick she freaked because she thought Elena was Katherine Pierce, and then everyone digs through Isobel’s giant office holy crap how has Duke not given this office to someone else??  Damon makes a crack about Vanessa wanting to see him naked, and Elena tells her that he can be a first-rate jackass.  Damon smiles; this is familiar, this is the way she talked to Jenna about him before everything happened.  A bit later, he comes up behind Elena and tells her it’s too bad they’re not friends anymore, because he knows something she doesn’t know that would help her find more about Katherine.  “Now who’s manipulating who?” she retorts.  Vanessa explains the Aztec legend of the Curse of the Sun and Moon, which will become more or less significant later, and that werewolves in this mythology are hardwired to hunt vampires, who can be killed by a single bite.

Stefan takes Caroline wabbit hunting.  He explains to her that vampirism amplifies natural behaviors and traits.  “So you’re saying that now I’m basically an insecure, neurotic control-freak…on crack?” she asks.

“Well, I wasn’t gonna say it like that,” Stefan says lightly, and then offers to go with her to Tyler’s swimming hole party to meet up with Matt.  Seriously, they both shine in this episode.  Stefan’s “that-guy” awkwardness is perfectly foiled by Caroline’s sincerity.

They literally….cribbed this shot……..from a Twilight movie

Anyway… 

“Why are you looking at him with your serious vampire look?” Caroline asks.

“My what – my serious vampire look?” Stefan repeats, aghast.  “Mmhmm,” says Caroline, “I mean, it’s different than your worried vampire look.”

“Neither of which stray too far from your ‘hey! It’s Tuesday’ look.”

“Oh, okay, I get it,” Stefan says, “you think I’m too serious.”  “Well,” says Caroline, “I wasn’t gonna say it like thaaaat.”

Did you notice how many emotions Stefan expressed in that conversation?  I’m so proud of him.  Real Eleanor from The Good Place flirts with Matt until Caroline compels her away; Matt gets angry at Caroline’s jealousy-drama and wanders off, and Stefan gets angry that Caroline used her compulsion for shallow reason.  “So now I have magnified jealousy issues?” she says. “I might as well have stayed dead, my whole personality is killing me.”  Stefan finds this freaking delightful:

“Shut up,” she tells him.

They hang out at the party together until it gets dark and everyone starts to pack up (on Mason’s orders), and Stefan tells Caroline to go talk to Matt. Caroline promises Matt no more drama, and they scamper off into the woods to kiss.  This coincides with Stefan getting a call from Elena to fill him in on all the new werewolf lore – he looks around for Caroline as soon as he hears a werewolf bite can kill a vampire, but she’s nowhere to be found. Mason Lockwood is in the middle of transforming into a werewolf.  Welcome, A plot.

Vanessa informs Elena that a doppelganger is a living, breathing double of oneself, who usually torments the person they look like, tries to undo their life.  “More things we already know,” Elena says flatly. “I just wanna know why we look alike.” “Headscratcher, isn’t it?” says Damon, from over by the bookcase.  “Do you know something or are you just being yourself?” Elena asks with more sass than you would think would fit in her tiny body.  “Well, if I knew anything, I’m not gonna tell you,” Damon says, “not with that attitude.”  Alaric looks like he needs a drink, but also a little bit like he’s trying not to laugh?

“That’s good, Damon,” Elena says, dropping the attitude down a notch, “and that’s coming from someone who wants to be my friend. Friends don’t manipulate friends, they help each other.”

This does not compute.

Back in the woods, Tyler gets the brush-off from Real Eleanor, Mason-wolf jumps out of his car at Stefan, Caroline bites Matt, and everyone runs around a lot.  Thank goodness it’s not more complicated than that, because this recap is getting really long. 

Elena refuses to admit that Alaric’s car is locked and stands fighting with the door handle like a petulant child; it’s been a long day.  Damon arrives as the shining knight and unlocks it, and then opens her door for good measure.  Then, good deed done, he gets all up in her personal space.

“You’re not going to be able to hate me forever,” he says.  She rolls her eyes, says, “Can we just go?”  He sighs and hands over a text labeled “Petrova”, for Katherine’s real name: Katerina Petrova.  “Let me know what you find, I’m very curious myself,” he tells her; he’s trusting her with the truth, trusting that she’ll share it.  She goes to move past him, he says, “You have every right to hate me. I understand.  But you hated me before and we became friends.”

“It would suck,” he admits, “if that was gone forever.”

“So,” he says, with forced lightness, “is it?” She meets his eyes, but her face is more closed than it’s ever been.  “Have I lost you forever?” Damon asks, like it’s a joke, like it doesn’t matter or like it’s impossible.

“Thank you for the book, Damon,” she says.  He gives the smallest of nods, and motions her into the car.

Caroline compels away Matt’s memories of her biting him, and then she and Stefan have a heart-to-heart about their human significant others.  “If I followed my own advice I would have walked out on Elena a long time ago,” Stefan says.  “You think you should’ve?” Caroline asks.  “I know I should have,” Stefan says, “I just can’t.”

Tyler confirms with his (very naked) uncle that he was in fact the wolf that almost killed all of them.  Another secret, out.  I’m resisting making a very stupid joke here, but I’ll probably succumb and post it separately later. 

Caroline walks into the Grille and purposely starts shit with Real Eleanor so that Matt walks out on her.  “So what, are you like, breaking up with me?” she calls after him. “Yeah,” he says, wearily, “yeah I guess that’s what I’m doing.”  He waits, expecting her to fight him, but she only stares back and lifts her chin defiantly. Caroline is strong enough to walk away, and kind enough to let Matt think that he knows why.  As, @itspileofgoodthings pointed out in these tags, she did what Stefan couldn’t do.

Having warned Vanessa against getting caught up in all the supernatural nonsense, Alaric realizes he doesn’t want to get totally caught up in it either, and is able to make good on his half apology maybe hope for the future.

Damon trails Elena up to her porch, exclaiming, “Road trips work well for us!”  “This doesn’t mean things are back to the way they used to be, Damon,” says Elena.  “Oh, come on,” Damon says, “you know I chipped a little bit off of your wall of hatred.”  Elena turns to look at him, says seriously, “I need to know the truth.”

“When you broke Jeremy’s neck, did you know he was wearing the ring?” she asks.

“No,” he says, his voice so strained.  “No, I didn’t.”

“Katherine really pissed me off, and I snapped, and I –” He stops, looks at her intently.  “I got lucky with the ring,” he admits. “And I don’t know what I would’ve done if he wasn’t wearing it.”

She nods, slightly.  “Elena,” he says, “I’m sorry.” She nods again, says, “Thank you for being honest with me.  And the answer to your question, about our friendship?”

“Is yes…you have lost me forever.”

She turns to go into the house.  “But you knew that already, didn’t you?” Damon says, bitter.  She pauses, he accuses, “You used me today.”  She looks at him, unrepentant. 

“You had information about Katherine that I needed to know.”  “I thought friends don’t manipulate friends,” he replies.  She looks back at him, her response left unspoken: they’re not friends, and so it doesn’t matter.  He swallows, tells her, “You and Katherine have a lot more in common than just your looks.”

Both women stood on this porch with him and pretended to be something they weren’t so that he would pour his heart out to them, and then turned around and rejected him.  Living, breathing mirror of oneself indeed. 

Katherine wakes Caroline, tells her not to be frightened. “We’re gonna have so much fun together.”

Music Moments: A Fine Frenzy’s “Ashes and Wine” plays over the final scenes, and wow that song doesn’t fuck around: “don't know what to do anymore / I've lost the only love worth fighting for”, “is there a chance / a fragment of light at the end of the tunnel / a reason to fight? / is there a chance you may change your mind / or are we ashes and wine?”

previous episode

[moricatlibrary]

The Moon and The Sea

Short mourning blurb:

In which Ymir stops by to chat with her friend Armin one evening near the end of her 13 years to talk about the late Eren Yeager on the beach.

I love any excuse to write Ymir and especially to write her up against Armin and ESPECIALLY to write eremin and yumihisu supporting each other, so this was a hecka fun blurb to write! I’m not at my computer right now so I will edit the italics and such later.

Enjoy if you can!!!

Armin watched as the waves crashed on the shore, the familiar smell of salt and brine traveling up through his nose. He swept his thumb over his own arm, holding himself tight as he rested against the sea stack in front of the sea on his home beach. Over a year had passed since the tragedy that everyone knew Armin would struggle to recover from… The smell of the ocean and the sound of the endless waves in the wind was something he associated with Eren’s loss ever since that awful day. While the tears fell less often than they did at the beginning, the empty place in his heart never stopped howling for his lover to come back. It never stopped hurting. Of course Armin expected as much, and was rather proud of himself for holding up as well as he was in the mean time though. He’d been traveling, staying in touch with his friends, writing, praying, and dreaming, keeping himself as healthy as possible. But the empty feeling, he knew, would never go away. And some nights, like this one, his heart ached extra woefully…

He blinked slowly, his body simply going through its motions at the moment while his depression depleted him of emotions. He tried not to think, a difficult task for Armin Arlert, but, though slow, his brain still ran through any number of different thoughts… Why does sand feel so hot in the daytime but cold and damp in the evenings, like this one? He supposed the crumbled rocks and shells in it just conducted heat from the sun very well. Why does the light blue sky turn lavender, pink, and violet in the twilight hour like this? Maybe the heavens churn it that way to give humans pleasant sights for comfortable dreams… Why does the ocean have so much salt? No idea. Did god just put it there? Was it whale semen like the outside world teenagers always joked? He hoped not. Maybe there’s a big salt rock somewhere on earth that the waves always smack and carry its essence to all the oceans of the world? No matter… Nothing matters anymore… “Eren…”

“Hey, Shrimplet!” A familiar voice called.

Armin slowly turned around, his heavy body taking its time, and found that the snarky voice came from Ymir.

Ymir swaggered over to Armin’s space and plopped down beside him by the rock. “Ahh, these old bones of mine really don’t work like they used to. ‘My curse’ sure creeps up on you fast, I must say.” She croaned.

The corner of Armin’s lip slightly floated up before floating back down to its empty expression.

Ymir glanced at him and pursed her lips. “Alright, lamb chop, what’s eatin’ you, eh? No one likes a sad sack.”

Armin glanced back but resumed his gaze at the sea just as quickly. “Sorry, Ymir… Just depressed.”

“…Missing your cuddle buddy, eh?”

“… Yeah.”

“Hmm. Well, you know, as morbid as it sounds, you’ve only got 4 years left before the clock strikes for you too. He’ll be waiting for you.”

Armin’s eyes welled up as his throat heated, a cry bubbling through his lips and burning his ticklish nose. He hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face in his arms, crying quietly in spite of Ymir’s presence.

Ymir winced at herself, feeling guilty for misspeaking in her attempts to comfort him. “Ah, not the right thing to say, huh? My bad. That’s what I’d be telling myself if I were you, is all. Historia wouldn’t like that, but what can I say? I’m an honest human being.”

“…Eren wanted me to live. I’m trying my best. And I’m okay for the most part, but there’s still this part of me deep down that wants to hurry up and be with him again…” he confessed, his voice cracking and his tears growing as they fell in big drops from his eyelids. “And I feel like he’d be so ashamed of me… betraying his will for me like that…” He buried his face back in his arms, still crying, while Ymir thought for a moment…

“…That suicidal bastard has no room to talk.”

Armin gritted his teeth at such a disrespectful comment towards his late husband and raised his head back up, but Ymir continued before he could speak.

“As much as he sought after death? He’s got no reason to judge you. My point is, don’t feel shitty over that. He knows you, he knows how hard it is. He’s not gonna be ashamed of you. He’s not gonna be mad. The only thing that big sap would do is hold you and say ‘I’m sorry’ while he drools over your hair and dry humps your knee. You two were gross, you know that? And that’s coming from ME.” She laughed.

Armin’s jaw relaxed and his expression softened again. As always, Ymir knew what to say to him, even if she was horrible at saying it. She was right though… If Eren were alive and sitting there before him, hearing that Armin felt this way, the first thing he’d do is hold him tight, and kiss him, and beg him in a whisper to forgive him and to ‘Just hold on… Just hold on…’ Armin prayed an apology for minding Eren’s will above actually remembering Eren. Eren is always alive if he remembers him… He is always alive… And of course, Eren would just say ‘Hey, come on, it’s not your fault. Everything’s okay. Don’t be sad, please. Crying is my job. I love you, Armin…’

“…You with me, shorty?” Ymir finally asked after Armin seemed to drift off into space in his mind for a long moment.

“Ymir, Historia is grateful for every single second you have with her. Don’t ever change. And give her every second of your time.”

Ymir snorted. “What a sap, you certainly never change, do you, bunny boy?” she laughed, ruffling his hair and smiling to hear him laugh in return. “…So tell me, are there any non-sappy stories about you two getting into mischief over the years?”

“Oh, we got into trouble all the time when we were kids. If there was something I wanted to do, Eren would make sure we’d do it, no matter how much people were against it.” He chuckled. “Oh, there was a time in the trainees corps where the commandant said something really mean to me and Eren got so mad he insisted I help him break into his office and steal his cookie stash. And of course, I said we shouldn’t do that. But of course we did it anyway.”

“I think I remember how this one ends…”

Armin blushed and stifled his embarrassed laughter. “The Commandant made an example of us as soon as he found out the cookies were stolen. He said he would have done nothing about it except the culprits made a fatal mistake he wouldn’t accept from his soldiers in training: We left the cookie tin right out in the open in the cabin during a surprise inspection, crumbs all over our beds. He pulled us both out of roll formation by the hair and displayed us as incompetent fools.”

“That was pretty hilarious!” Ymir commented, hunched over laughing in the cold sand.

“Yeah. But after that he was surprisingly pretty nice to us. He said he liked our gumption. And he actually hoped we would use our team work get back at him for calling me whatever it was he called me. It was strange, really. But it turns out he was fond of Eren anyway for being the son of Carla Yeager.”

“Damn, how did I miss all this gossip?”

“You were MIA when we found out about the Carla thing.”

“Ah, right.”

“Historia missed you a lot back then by the way.”

“Yeah, crazy-eyes told me.” She said, of course referring to Eren. “Say, fuzz nuts… You’re smart. Do you think she resents me at all?…” she inquired sadly.

Armin was surprised. Ymir never showed herself in a vulnerable light… “No, of course not. Why?”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty hard to love sometimes. In the face of a goddess, who wouldn’t be?”

“I understand… That’s why it’s good to have friends. To tell you that it’s all in your head and that you’ve nothing to worry about cuz we can see that she loves you more than anything.” He gave her a reassuring smile and placed his hand on her shoulder affectionately. “Even when you call her friends mean nick names and drink all the wine.”

Ymir snorted again, giving Armin a playful nudge, and Armin could swear he saw her wipe a tear from her eye… “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking, baby face! Heaven knows I’m a goddess too.”

Armin grinned. “That’s right.”

Ymir sighed and shifted in the sand with an aching groan, ready to stand back up again. “Welp, guess I’m headin’ home. Nice talking to ya, goo goo eyes.”

Armin quickly took her arm. “Ah– wait, wait… Wouldn’t you like to watch the moon rise over the ocean? It’s pretty soul cleansing.”

Ymir beamed. Of course she knew the beauty of the moon… It was her favorite thing in the world. “Yeah, alright.” And with that, she settled back in her sandy seat.

The friends watched as the moon slowly rose over the horizon, chatting about nostalgic memories of their trainee days and gossiping about their lovers. Since talking about Eren was Armin’s best medicine in mourning, he desperately needed this quality time and sent Ymir endless gratitude with his happy eyes. Ymir smiled to herself the entire time, so glad to have had this lovely evening reminiscing with this good friend on the tail end of her life… She never once had a boring conversation with Armin Arlert.

[davidaolson]

We took the water taxi from the dock at the end of the next door pier to the ferry in San Pedro then ferried to Caye Caulker. We are not a big fan of the ferry system mainly because we are always be stuck in the lower section which does not provide a vantage point where the shades of turquoise are easily studied, where the wind can rub its fingers through my ever whiter hair. Most seats are in the belly of the beast where there are few windows. And because we are shoehorned sardines, there is little space to maneuver for a better view. It feels claustrophobic.

Our return ride, our final ferry ride, was infinitely better. We were able to wrangle two seats on the top and watch the green shores of Caye Caulker fade into oblivion and the palm-lined shores of Ambergris Caye appear magically on the Northern horizon. See the horizon stretch from yesterday into tomorrow, into the soul of a lone rainbow hanging onto Earth’s edge in the East and a gray wall of never experienced rain in the distant West.

Roots, rock, reggae, dis a reggae music Play I some music, dis a reggae music…

The vibe on Caulker is a far cry more mellow than the relatively bustling San Pedro which is a slow crawl compared to sweet home Chicago. I specifically wore my Che Guevara shirt, his head in silhouette against a military green background, for this part of our vacation. Rebel. Rebel. It received an early compliment. I think I may need to purchase similar shirts for Brotha Marley, Uncle Ho, Cousin Vladimir, Papa Villa, Tante Joan d’Arc, Señor Bolivar, Jefes Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, Friar Martin Luther, Uncle Martin King, Great Aunty Rosa, Mr. X, Viva Zapata, ¡Viva la Revolución! …I think you can see where my heart lies…

Anyway, the Caulker feels reggae…dis a reggae music…from the moment one disembarks the ferry. The island sends relaxed out relaxed vibes that appear to be floating within life. Maybe, floating on the spirit wings of the Ganja bird…I don’t know. But the vibe is one lovish…

One Love! One Heart! Let’s get together and feel all right…

One Love Bench on Caye Caulker

Everyone we encountered was friendly and chillaxed. It is a place I could see me whiling away the years of my youth when I was young and living close to, if not over to the edge of sanity. How about the Winters of my retirement? Not sure. I’ve taken to enjoying solitude and don’t see that possible in this very small village but it is definitely a great place for a lunch and an afternoon.

One of our first activities was to hole up in a restaurant hanging over the ocean, a restaurant with a cover but otherwise open to the sea breezes and gentle waters and puffy clouds lazing their way across the impeccable sky. In the North, a dozen or so Magnificent Frigate Birds hung in the sky, all facing into the wind, barely moving as if they were tethered to a child’s mobile hanging over a crib. They almost lulled me to sleep.

The Frigate is brownish black with a deeply forked tail. I envied their ability to float in tranquility. Frigates are considered good omens as their presence means land is near. I felt lucky to be at this place at this time in my life. We ate close to noon and were almost finished eating the fresh fish when a catamaran dumped a load of tourists all who tried to squeeze into the eatery quickly destroying the tranquility. We hurried out. I like to be around people…generally in moderation. I also enjoy silence…

People talking without speaking People hearing without listening…

When I think of silence, I don’t envisage absence of sound. For me, silence is defined by the absence of human-generated noise be it the human voice which can trill emotion beyond the bounds of human thought, be it a jackhammer chewing away in the heart of downtown Chicago in the twilight before the masses have emerged from their hives to pollinate the financial flowers perfuming global commerce.

For me, silence includes the choir of nature, the low croak of Gecko hunting insects by the light of the waxing Moon, the rustle of leaves when a flock of Pelicans launches into the morning sky after a night sleeping safely in the trees, the gentle scraping of Fiddler Crab hauling its shell across a sandy beach at night seen when I walked out with a bottle of wine to sit in the poetry of the ocean, the song of the orange Sun inching o’er the horizon, the light scratch of Iguana’s claws scurrying over rocks before it sucks in a juicy fly or hurries to a hideout when spooked by the shadow of Hawk on the prowl. The iguana moves in staccato bursts punctuated by long stays in the musical score playing in the background of its life.

For me, silence is the place I find myself, if not find, then converse with my inner voice, scratch away at my defenses in an attempt to understand the beast within until, that is, Monkey gets antsy and interjects without raising his paw to be called upon in an orderly fashion. He sticks a needle in my ass to get my attention. As he frequently did in Caye Caulker.

Folks won’t find us now because Mister Satch and Mister Cros We gone fishin’…

Caye Caulker is run down as if the town was succumbing to neglect. Or it was rooted in the hippie vibe more concerned with the present moment than the tomorrow which never comes. Zen existence. Many buildings are on stilts to keep the residents dry during the hurricane season when waters can surge and cover the low lying island. A number of buildings were broken. Many were little more than concrete shells. Poverty. Surprising?

I seem to be always surprised by poverty which is strange considering there are many more poor than there are not poor. The rundown nature of the island may be why accommodations tend to clock in at half or less that of Ambergris Caye where we were staying. It could also be why so many youths choose to congregate here where bars line up side by side on the main streets. Youth and alcohol…fun and dangerous…dangerous fun…bars in Caulker open early. I don’t drink before 5pm…

Jewelry particularly earrings and necklaces on a street vendor’s table is a bait my wife can’t pass up. It’s her shiny penny, her pink pony. Where I see a hook, she sees yummy morsels to add to her eclectic collection. When choosing, she selects for rare beauty. It is my job to negotiate the final price so the barb doesn’t set too deep in our tender wallets. I paid higher than normal because some profits went to the local women creating a cottage industry to help them sustain and grow. The woman we purchased from told us of a place on the island to see Tarpon and seahorses and gave us a free map of the tiny island. Glad my wife took the bait.

Tarpon In Tarpon Bay

We followed the map with less luck than I would have expected. That was ok because while on Caye Caulker, I planned on taking Monkey walk for a long walk on a very short pier and pushing him into the drink for a few hours of peace. What I wasn’t planning on was a heat that was punishing, a humidity making my balls swampy, while searching for the appropriate length pier. I was beginning to think we wouldn’t get lucky when we walked along a dilapidated, twisty pier through a shaded, almost spooky mangrove opening to a bay teeming with tarpon.

Tarpon are a sportfish that can grow up to 280 pounds (127 kilos) and 8 feet(2.5 meters) long. These Tarpon were schooling in about three feet deep. None were the 280-pound monsters but there were a few in the vicinity of 50+ pounds, prime game for a fisherman such as myself. They are edible but not delectable so most are thrown back. I was itching to pull out a rod and reel and try my hand but today was not the day I would get to fish. This is one of the few places Monkey and I aligned today. Nor would I fish the entire trip as it cost $250 for a half day of guided fishing which is to steep for my tastes.

I’ve been around for a long, long year Stole many a man’s soul to waste And I was ’round when Jesus Christ Had his moment of doubt and pain Made damn sure that Pilate Washed his hands and sealed his fate…

Mi esposá opted to purchase feeder fish from the Belizean woman manning the shack at the end of the pier. 5 Belizean dollars for 10 dead fish to hold a few inches above the water, dead fish to entice the monsters to break through the surface and suck in an offering. She a high priestess offering sacramental communion to the devotee. The trick is to hold the fish between two fingers with the palm open so the fish doesn’t also inhale the hand although the mouth is big enough to suck in the hand and half the arm.

High Priestess Offering Sacramental Communion to the Congregation

        After watching her feed a few, I decided to join in the fun but with a twist. I figured it could be a great way to wash my hands of Monkey once and for all. I wrapped Monkey tightly around a tantalizing feeder fish and dangled it a few inches above water counting the seconds until Tarpon swallowed Monkey for absorption in his gullet or puke him far out in the deep blue sea where he would drown. Either way, I would finally have Monkey off my weary back. Freedom! Just one fish away.

Pelican

But, not a Tarpon jumped. Not a one. I touched the water with Monkey Fish, still nothing. It was as if the little fucker hypnotized Tarpon. They even quit leaping for the fish my wife offered. Frustrated, I tossed fish into the air and let it plop into the water where it was gobbled up almost as soon as it hit the surface. It is amazing how fast the behemoths can move when motivated. Unfortunately, Monkey was not part of the meal. He crawled up my arm, into my ear, and tucked himself deep into my subconscious where he remained hidden quietly for a few hours. I think he finally figured out I was serious about existing in and only in the moment.

Fly me to the moon Let me play among the stars…

Three kayakers pulled into the bay to marvel at the Tarpon. They spoke a combination of French and near accent-free English. The blond, almost as pasty as me, hopped into the water, waded with the fish who swam safely distanced from her pallid glow. Tarpon has sandpaper teeth instead of needles or spikes meaning they can do little damage with their mouths to human flesh.

Kayakers in Tarpon Bay

Tarpon kept a safe distance parrying with a flick of the tail all her attempts to ‘pet’ one of them. Predators don’t grow large without developing street smarts in abundance. She settled for a few selfies featuring Tarpon in the background. When the woman climbed back into her kayak, two halves of a pale moon separated by a thin, black partially eaten thread shown bright as the raging sun. Her bikini was little more than a thong with ruffles at the waist.

We walked around town for a couple of more hours in the glaring sun. My wife added to her golden glow while the little of me exposed to the sun mimicked the pink inside of a conch shell which, by the way, are quite tasty.

We walked to one of the few resorts on the island which is much different than the many resorts lining the shores of our island. There was a small seahorse farm with yellow, black, and brown seahorses hiding in the weeds. We mostly saw them when their tales were wrapped around a blade of seagrass and they sat idle.

I am amazed at the number of midday drinkers mainlining alcohol into their systems. And it was not young kids. These were adults, some retirement aged drinking their day away. One woman looking to be 60ish but that could have been from the ravages of alcohol was so drunk she had to walk carefully to the bar for her sixteen-ounce refill. I had a Mai Tai…it’s always 5pm somewhere.

It wasn’t our scene so we moseyed in the general direction of the dock to await the ferry. A short downpour, they tend to be brief on the island lasting no more than fifteen minutes, forced us onto a bar porch for a short rest before completing our trek. We arrived at the dock early meaning we were in the front of the line. And we finally were able to sit on the upper deck of the ferry. Definitely not Uecker seats this time.

And we were excited to go back because San Pedro is home to the best Chicken and Rice or Pork and Rice we have ever eaten. It is on par with Jerk Chicken from the kettles of Jamaican beaches. We planned to buy enough food for a couple of meals…

To be continued….

Caye Caulker, Long Walking Monkey on A Short Pier: A Week in Belize, Part 4 We took the water taxi from the dock at the end of the next door pier to the ferry in San Pedro then ferried to Caye Caulker.

[dearlybeelovedreadingroom]

Voided Reveries: Book One, part one

Book One: Birdie

Prologue: Above the Clouds

When the world was created, there were two goddesses; a sun and a moon, a land and a sea, an earth and a sky. There was Chance, and there was Change. The goddesses worshipped these days were only angels at first. Chance and Change made the four goddesses—Din, Farore, Nayru, and Hylia—to guard and to mark. They had jobs—to assist the ones above them, just like they had assistants in ranks below them: Din’s priestesses, Hylia’s dragons and Sages… the actions credited to the three Golden Goddesses were the things they were given to protect. The land was Chance and Change’s joint effort; it was created, and then given to Din to protect and cultivate. Chance made the laws, then Nayru was made the frame that upheld them. Change filled the earth with life, to care for the earth and help Nayru uphold the law, under Farore’s watch. Then, those three became protectors of the Triforce, and of any mortals born to be bearers of it. Hylia was assigned to protect the timelines, splitting to represent lives that could have been, would have been, if it had been a different life. When she was called to take a mortal form to guide a hero, Chance and Change picked up her work for themselves.

The hero that Hylia guided was a particular favorite of Change’s. Change was the nurturing side of creation, the protector of travelers and the displaced, a giver of guidance, and the helper of anyone who wanted protection from the cataclysmic events that Chance unleashed on the world. Given these facts, Hylia’s hero was an ideal person for Change to become attached to, especially given what he was up against—one of Chance’s biggest disasters, a demon named for what he planned to bring to the world: Demise.  

Chance, on the other hand, preferred a different hero that was protected and chosen to be a Triforce wielder by the three Golden angels and guided by Hylia (when she returned to her post as the Angel of Time); he was further down in the lineage.

The two of them, Chance and Change, each bestowed their blessings on a third hero, to be born even later and brought to live with the other two favored heroes by another of Chance’s… tests of the people below.

When Change saw that Hylia was able to become mortal and return to power later, and that she had stored the memories of her divinity in a series of statues, it gave her an idea. Perhaps she could become a mortal temporarily, too, to live on Earth for a little while, instead of watching it from above.  She copied Hylia as best as she could; she built one spring to hold the memories of her divinity instead of Hylia’s two, but she built it—dome, statue, and all— under the ground a short distance from one of Hylia’s, so Change could be closer to Hylia’s hero.

She wanted her vessel statue and its surrounding shrine to reflect her perfectly. She made the stones in the eyes of her statue match the shade of her eyes, sculpted the face to look down on its observers kindly, made the hair shine, used one of her own dresses to clothe it, and made the walls glow.  Around the base of the statue was scrolled her name and the groups she protected. The next time someone would find and enter the room, the words would be overgrown with moss, but for now, they labeled the vessel of an immortal soul.

When Change finally felt the shrine was ready, she put her hands on the altar in front of the statue while she prayed, granting a blessing on anyone who entered the room to ask something of her. The room went dark, and she left to find Chance, to ask to be made a mortal.

I.             To Earth, To Sky

Goddesses don’t beg. That’s why Change knew that she really shouldn’t be one, and needed to remedy the situation as soon as humanly possible.  But what would she do with her humanity? She wanted a life like the women down there had, a husband and a child—oh, she wanted a little girl so badly—but it wasn’t worth it to fall in love and get entangled in all that just to die at the end. Where was the point in getting so stuck? What if you had just gotten excited about living, and then you died? At least she could always watch bigger things go on, whole civilizations rising and falling, if she stayed put in the clouds.

But as much as she loved the world from up on high, where she and Chance casually observed the affairs of men—letting them believe whatever they wanted about how any of them got there and who she and Chance were—watching stones turn to towers, reaching higher before they crashed down with each generation, and step in when something had to happen, it wasn’t enough anymore. She wanted to do it, not watch it.

And so she begged Chance. One lifetime, that was all, just a taste, and she would come back at the end. But she had a job. Nothing would ever move forward without Change. At least, not steadily. Chance could change a whole lot, but she was a risky mistress. Only Change herself was definite. When Chance’s sands shifted, they revealed Change’s laws beneath, holding everything up.

And she would hold everything up the other way if she took a break from making sure things stayed the way they were supposed to—never the same.

But finally, Chance agreed, somewhat reluctantly…with the secret intention of taking it away when she felt it, when Change, got out of hand.

II.           A New Life

It was cursed from the beginning, but when what had been Change landed in her Garden of Eden, waking up in the middle of a thunderstorm in a body that was only a smaller version of her old one (the same green eyes, flowing blonde hair, and wide hips, on a smaller scale), built by her and Chance and lacking everything –she had no name or divinity, no powers, and no memory of ever having had any powers—she didn’t know that.  She just walked across the wide, open field until she came to a house.

Dirty, wet, and tired, she knocked on the door. A short conversation happened behind it, then a young man opened the door, rolling his eyes until they landed on her. “…Hi. How can I help you, Miss?”

She opened her mouth, but nothing happened except that she licked her lips, then her tongue slid back over her teeth to let her jaw hang open. That language he had spoken in wasn’t his native language, was it? He had a very slight accent, but more than that, she’d heard his voice before— only in whispers like prayers, in a language she knew, but wouldn’t come out of her mouth.

She wasn’t mute, was she? She put her hands to her face, and then rubbed her eyes.  He looked over her shoulder—it wasn’t hard, she had ended up being very short—and squinted across the muddy field behind her.

“No Loftwing?” she shook her head. “No horse, either?” She shook her head again, a little faster this time.  “You must have walked quite a way, then.” She nodded then, a smile coming to her face easily. “Well, I guess you can sleep on the couch for a little while.”

Her smile widened, and she nodded her thanks as the man stepped back from the door to let her in.

She set herself on the couch gently once she had been led to it. First, her host had given her a glass of water, hoping maybe to get her to talk if her throat wasn’t dry. It didn’t work, but she had appreciated the drink.  She couldn’t stop smiling at him, and feeling like there was something about him and about the house that had felt familiar, like some internal desire had landed her there.  He was very attractive…

But that didn’t matter now. Her host was helping her lower herself into a supine position, and he slid a pillow under her head. She smiled one last time before she went to sleep.

When she woke up, it was because of a slammed door; the noise that she had made in reaction had woken her up. She opened her mouth again, and after swallowing the film on her tongue, made a sound like a baby bird. At least she could make noise again.

She stood up from the couch and made her way towards where the door slam had come from. When she found the closed door, she knocked on it.

“Go away! You clearly have other things to do, Time! Like spend time with your new boyfriend!” When the person within didn’t hear receding footsteps, he added, in a cracking voice, “…please just go.”

“No,” she replied softly, “it’s me; I was asleep on your couch?” suddenly, the words were coming louder and easier, and she was speaking the language she could see him translating from in his head.

“…where did you learn how to speak that way?”

“I speak a few languages,” she said. She wasn’t sure which ones yet, but she was bilingual at the very least.

“I just haven’t heard it on a woman’s tongue in a long time,” he said, moving a little closer to her, “and I missed it.” He grinned down at her. “My ex… I mean, my roommate, can speak very little of it. That’s why I learned… well, this.” He smiled again.  She smiled back, then took a deep breath, readying herself to speak the same language as he was.

“Which would you rather I speak?”

He shrugged. “It’s up to you. But it was nice to hear my mother tongue.” She gave him a wide smile, crinkling the edges of her eyes. She liked that he was switching in and out between the two languages. It excited her. Everything he did, especially while standing so close to her, excited her. She was snapped out of the reverie by a pointed look and a raised eyebrow.

“Excuse me?” she squeaked.

“I asked if you wanted to take a bath and get some of that dirt off.”

“Oh. Yes, please.”

He led her to the bathroom, started the water, and then turned to leave her to strip in peace.

“Thank you…?”

“Sky.”

“Thank you, Sky.”

_

She’d been staying there a week when it first happened.  She and the three men were all seated in the living room, Time (Sky’s ex, she had learned through the glances and hisses exchanged at the table) wrapped around Twilight (his new boyfriend, who had moved in permanently only a few weeks before she had shown up), and Sky sitting off to the side, carving in a tense silence. She had decided to sit on the floor next to his chair to read a book.

When Time and Twilight had gotten more amorous and Sky was getting more and more upset, she did little but look at him, his hands shaking and cheeks flushing. He seemed angry, but not in a rage, so she stayed still, but put a hand on his leg in reassurance. He put down his carving and looked at her hand.

Gently, he took it off and used it to pull her to her knees.  She flicked her eyes away, towards Time and Twilight, for a second and when she looked forward again, Sky’s lips were but half an inch from hers and still moving in slowly. She shut her eyes and met his lips with her own.

It wasn’t long before they were both breathing heavily between kisses and moaning slightly, and there was a tiny gasp behind her. She pulled away, more than a little reluctantly, and looked behind her to see Time and Twilight staring, both agape.  Sky clicked his tongue and took her hand again, bringing her up from her knees and leading her off towards his room, mumbling something about “privacy” and “not having them hear or see us.”

She hadn’t expected to feel like she knew what she was doing. But whatever she had done had been right, good even, and now Sky was peacefully asleep beside her. She hadn’t expected to know what she was doing, but she hadn’t expected any of it to have happened, especially not the way it had.  

Not that she was complaining. She would have jumped at the chance if it had been officially offered, instead of a spur of the moment thing.  It was good. Really good. All of it was. She rolled over and fell asleep herself.

_

For three weeks it continued, getting to be less of a surprise, but no less impulsive. She would finish the work she had taken on around the house, and then she and Sky would disappear off to his room, not to be seen until the next morning. Or sometimes, at all the next day.

This isn’t to say that the pair only spent their time together in acts of passion. Most days, if they didn’t leave what was now their room, it was because they had woken up late and then stayed in bed talking. This was how she had come to learn what exactly had happened between Sky and Time before they broke up, and why Sky had been so bitter when she’d arrived.

As she understood it, Sky had lived in the house they all shared first, and Time had joined him later. After living together and having something of a relationship for just over a year, Time was bored of Sky (as a lover, that is), and Sky was exhausted by Time. It was at this point that Twilight had shown up, and Time was infatuated instantly, upsetting Sky even more. Heartbroken and angry, Sky was the one to dismiss Time, making the both of them free to pursue others.

Time had immediately gotten together with Twilight. Sky hadn’t found anyone that quickly, and after six weeks of living with the new happy couple—though he wasn’t mad anymore, in fact, he was happy for them—was considering moving out…until a woman knocked on his door and he wasn’t alone anymore.

She made him happy; they made each other happy.

It was divine. But she was not, she was only human now. And this was her Garden of Eden, so eventually, trouble had to come to Paradise. Well, trouble was a bad word for it. It was just… a change.

She woke up one morning, having lived with Sky for a month, and suddenly, something felt off. She was exhausted. More than she normally was after spending the night with Sky, that is. She sat up and the room spun for a moment. She lay back down and tried to go back to sleep. That’s all it was. She was just sleep-deprived. She ought to take it easy later that day, too. If she was this tired…

But it went on for a week. And almost another. But one morning, just as she’d woken up, she realized that there was more off than just her sleep schedule.

Something was late. More than late… it was missing.  So when Sky woke up and rolled over to kiss her, she stopped him with a gentle press of her fingers on his lips.

“Before you speak, and before you kiss me, there’s something I need to tell you.” He pushed up onto his elbow to look at her.

“What’s up?”

“Sky…  I’m pretty sure we’re having a baby.”

For a moment, he was speechless. This was when the panic set in, curling and knotting in her stomach.  Finally, he spoke, breathless. “You’re joking.”

“No, Sky. I’m dead serious.” Tears began to slip from the edges of her eyes.

“No, no, don’t cry. I’m just shocked. Well…,” he laughed, “not totally shocked…” He lowered himself down from his arm to hug her. “But still. Don’t cry.”

“I’m glad you’re not too shocked,” she said, wiping her eyes. The knot in her stomach dissolved as his body heat spread through over her skin.

Sky shrugged. “It makes sense.” Then he kissed her. “I love you.”

It’s been a month, she thought. But she replied, truthfully, “I love you too.”

He sat up then, and she followed him. “I’m going to go tell Time and Twilight. Is that okay?”

She rested her arms on her bent knees and smiled. “Sure.”

_

Early in the summer of that year, Time and Twilight, excited to be uncles to the developing child—found to be a likely bearer of the Triforce and tentatively named “Autumn” now that her mother was just past having three months to her due date—had their wedding. It threw the whole household into a state of ecstatic dishevelment that had only been matched by the frisson created by the whole house’s vacation three months earlier so that Twilight could propose marriage to Time. It made sense that everyone was frazzled, though; the wedding party was everyone alive in the house—even the seven cats Twilight had adopted and Time’s dog Bliz had a role to play in the wedding. And on top of that, Time’s best man and Twilight’s Maid of Honor were expecting a child.  But luckily for everyone, the wedding went off without any problems, and the toasts at the reception were only minimally embarrassing.

Once the newly married couple had been wished well and sent off on their honeymoon, the other couple had the house to themselves.  They sat on the small porch and watched the sun set.

Finally, they began to speak.

“Sky… do you think we’ll ever get married?”

“Probably not. I don’t think I’m one for marriage, Birdie.” In the last six months, Sky had taken to calling her “Birdie,” since the people from his home of Skyloft were named after birds, but there were none on the ground with a name he thought was pretty enough for her.

“But you’re one for love and commitment.” She replied, laying one of her hands on his.

“I’m not going to leave you, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I want to see Autumn grow up and get married herself someday, and… yeah. I want to do that alongside you, she’s your daughter as much as mine. It’s not like she’s more mine because of the Triforce. But do you think we need to be married to do that together?”

“I suppose not.” came her quiet reply as she looked into the sunset.

He leaned back onto his hands. “Exactly.” He looked over at her. “That doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “I know, Sky. I know you do.” Silence settled over them again, until the sun was nearly under the hill. “Sky… do you see that?”

“See what?

“If you don’t see it, it’s probably nothing. I just thought the land and sky looked funny there for a second—like the ground was dry and cracked, and there was a flash of a dark cloud. I must be too tired.”

“Then come on, let’s get you to bed. We can’t keep you from getting rest. The world needs you, and it’s going to need Autumn.”

“Are you the world?”

Sky shrugged. “Not all of it. I meant Time and Twilight, too.”

She laughed.

Autumn was born—and definitely named Autumn, Autumn Jo was her full name—later that summer. She was almost two months early, but seeing as her mother had been stressed with many things, including planning a wedding, there was nothing wrong.  Sky called her the most perfect daughter, his little sweetheart, and the sweetest thing to set foot on the planet. He adored her, and she was daddy’s little girl. When he wasn’t commenting on how soft she was or stroking her wispy hair, he was probably napping with her asleep on his chest. He loved taking naps with her. They were a tightly bonded pair, that man and his daughter. Autumn had two parents who loved her dearly, and loved each other dearly.

And in a way, that’s what made the rest of her life so difficult.

That is, after a certain point.

Until she was six, Autumn had the most idyllic childhood imaginable. She gained a cousin that was more like a sister, named Olive, when she was almost three, and made many friends—young Zora royalty, the future Prince of Hyrule, people of all the races in Hyrule, and even one little boy from Skyloft, the son of two of Sky’s friends, named Cormorant.

For six years, her life was defined by the time she spent running through the fields with them, or swimming the depths of the Zoras’ Domain with Princess Vella and Olive, with her mother and the Zora guards looking on. But the time in the Zoras’ Domain was one of many things that ruined Autumn’s life—many a time, Autumn found her mother elsewhere in the Lake talking to a man who was living under Zora protection.

This didn’t bother Autumn at all; she was glad her mother was making friends just like she was. But her mother didn’t like to talk about her new friend like Autumn liked to talk about her friends, like Autumn did about Cormorant especially.  And no one liked when Autumn asked about her mother’s new friend.

So she stopped asking, and tried to stop thinking about it. She didn’t understand why suddenly she and her mother had to leave because her mother had finally mentioned the new friend.