#ok someone may argue they do this in the beginning with handing out miraculous but i dunno yall | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

monsterywriting · 4 years ago

Text

Thenerius - pt 3

Masterlist

Word count: 4,581

AN: so i gave up on making this just 3 parts lol. will probably finish up in the next part. maybe. the last couple parts i posted weren’t showing up in the tags initially so fingers crossed this one does on the first try.

Alfore was nearly devoid of all life as your odd pair rode into town, the cold driving most residents indoors to the warmth of their hearths. Besides the occasional resident outside running errands and icebreaker ship crew, the streets were largely empty.

You were frankly jealous, your knitted wool coat thin with overuse and doing little to protect you from the cutting wind. However, the largest source of unease for you was the stares following you, only able to catch the subtlest hints of movement in windows whenever you would whip your head around to look.

It took you a minute to figure out why, but the reason was obvious once you thought about it.

Thenerius still led the way, a few feet in front of you despite the fact that he had no idea where you were headed. Even in a city filled with all kinds, purple skin and twisting horns stood out, and it was evident to anyone who caught a glimpse of his clothing what the nature of his occupation was.

Pirates weren’t rare in Alfore, but really only venturing here in the warmer months. There were hardly any normal sailors this time of year, much less the more criminal ones. And, despite their frequent visits to the port, pirates were by no means a welcome sight to the residents.

The city council had even imposed alcohol bans within city limits to try and discourage them from stopping here, the only reason The Deep was able to turn a profit as the port was a necessary stop for trade between the eastern and western hemispheres and too far away from any major kingdom for adequate protection, making for prime pickings for pillaging.

So of course Thenerius would be stared at, most average people resenting his presence. It made you antsy, paranoid someone would grow brave and decide to confront the lone pirate and his companion - you. But even as you feel nervous, Thenerius seems unfazed by the glares, sitting tall while on horseback.

“We’re turning here,” you scowl as your voice waivers, uncertain, as you try and get Thenerius’ attention.

You turned Horse down a narrow side road, now in front as Thenerius was forced to turn his own horse around.

“Where exactly are we going?” Thenerius asked after an innumerable amount of turns in the maze-like structure of the city, the sound of the water of the bay now audible with how close you were to the water.

“I am going to the doctor’s office to buy medicine for my mother,” you say, keeping your eyes trained on the street signs as you navigate.

“What, exactly, does your mother have?” Thenerius asks, his voice careful, though you’d been expecting the inevitable line of questioning.

“She fell ill with an unknown sickness a few years back,” you say, unable to maintain the usual bite in your tone you had for Thenerius when you thought back to those uncertain times, “Mr. Thistle wrote to me that it seemed I should prepare for a funeral, she had gotten that bad. They had to bring her to Alfore for treatment The doctors weren’t sure what it was, just that it wasn’t the consumption.

“By the time I arrived from the capital, she had recovered somewhat and insisted on going back home. The doctors couldn’t stop her, and they said it was just a matter of her body fighting it off, so she went back,” you finished, wincing once you realized just how much you revealed.

You hadn’t intended to say more than she was sick, but it had been like a dam had broke once you started speaking.

It felt… cathartic. To talk about what had happened. You couldn’t talk to your mother about it - it inevitably devolved into arguing about selling the cottage to move to Alfore. And though Mr. Thistle insisted that you could always come to him with any trouble, having a heart to heart with your prickly halfling godfather about how sick your mother and his best friend of decades was, was about as appealing as it seemed.

“What does the doctors say now?” Thenerius asked, seemingly unaffected by your rambled speech.

“I’ve been saving up for one to make a home visit, but it’s been almost a year since he last saw her.” You think back to how bewildered the doctor had been when he came to check on your mother after so long the last time and her condition hadn’t improved.

You find yourself glancing at Thenerius through your periphery. He was staring right at you. You quickly look away, not wanting to see the pity in his eyes.

“Actually, I’ve finally earned enough for the final payment, so I’ll also be giving him that today.” A small lie of omission. You would be able to make that final payment, as well as the next month’s supply of pills, but there wouldn’t be much leftover until you go back to work, and even then with only your base salary to last you the winter as the cold kept even more travelers from crossing its threshold, much less tipping ones.

Miraculously, Thenerius didn’t push the matter further. You’re grateful, finding that mulling over every answer to avoid oversharing exhausting. You find that word beginning to describe your state of being more and more lately.

The doctor’s office is a small storefront in a larger building, nestled in between a tavern and barber’s facing the choppy water of the bay, only a single cobblestone separating it from the drop-off.

After hopping off Horse and tying him to a post outside, you step inside. The doctor had no receptionist, so it was just a matter of being able to find him amongst the clutter of medical devices and books everywhere.

“It’s been a long time, child,” the doctor’s wizened face appeared from what you now realized was a desk underneath the mess, nearly giving you a heart attack, “Good news, I hope?”

“I have the final payment,” you smile, but it’s forced and awkward as you desperately wished you had good news to share. You give up on the smile and pull out your coin purse to hand over to him, “it’s all in there.”

“How is your mother?” He asks as he waves you into his office, clearing out a small section on his desk and flipping through papers until he somehow finds one particular one. He pulls out a pair of spectacles from his pocket, looking at the paper, shaking his head before putting it back and flips some more. He then begins the arduous process of counting your gold.

Dr. Inderpahl was old as dirt, to put it mildly. He was the doctor who delivered you and your mother before you. You’d believe it if someone told you he had some magical blood in him, keeping him alive much longer than a normal human. Though his body was ancient and senescent, and he hadn’t been able to perform a surgery in years as his hands had become gnarled with rheumatism, his mind was still sharp as a tack. So, though he counted every coin painfully slowly, he made no mistakes that would have further set back his progress.

“Yes, it’s all here,” he muses, crossing something off on the paper. At some point, Thenerius had found the two of you in the back room and both of you now stared expectantly at the doctor still scribbling away, “Okay. I’ll be seeing her in the spring.”

The relief you had been feeling burned away, your eyebrows furrowing as your mind refused to process what he said.

“What? No, Dr. Inderpahl, she needs a checkup as soon as possible. The payments- you said it was enough to close your practice for the day!”

“I’m sorry, child, but I’m afraid I’m unable to travel in the cold. I’m much older than I used to be, you know,” he said, struggling to rise from his seat in one go as though to prove his point, “and your mother’s condition remained largely the same the last time I went, correct? I’m afraid a house visit will have to wait.”

Your eyes sting, but you quickly grit your teeth and stand, nodding. With a trembling lip and small voice, you give a small “ok, thank you” and turn to leave.

Thenerius was leaning against the doorframe, his lip curled in disgust as he watched the doctor. He pushed off the wall, taking a step towards the oblivious old man futilely straightening a stack of papers. Sensing the danger in the look in his eye, his expression twisting into that familiar anger you’d only ever seen the one time before, you jump into action.

“I also need the medicine for the next month,” you say, stepping in front of Thenerius and stretching both hands back to keep him from moving forward. You do not want Dr. Inderpahl to be scared off before he can get you your mother’s medication - or worse, become unwilling to go out to your cottage to check on her, even if months later. Thenerius fortunately seems to get the hint, tense behind you but stilling.

“Of course,” Inderpahl muttered, finally noticing the pirate for the first time and eyeing him disapprovingly.

You pray he doesn’t ask about him, your mind already trying to think up an excuse as to why a pirate would be with you that wouldn’t come across as an intimidation tactic. You could say he was a stranger, but Thenerius may argue that assessment and that would look suspicious. Friend was too vague, partner may be taken as romantic which… with Thenerius right there, you refused to say.

Your whirring mind slows as Inderpahl finally looks away without a word, walking around the tiefling with no fear and back into the storefront, a large row of bookcases pushed against the far wall repurposed to hold various ingredients for medications.

Thenerius still doesn’t move, and you realize you’re gripping his sides tightly. You immediately drop your hands back to your side and step forward to put distance between you.

“Please, don’t do anything,” you hiss, about to follow after the doctor before Thenerius grabs your arm just above your elbow.

“He’s scamming you,” Thenerius seethed, “How much gold have you paid him so far? I can’t believe you’re going along-”

You break his hold on you, immediately rounding on the tiefling. You struggle to keep your voice low, but the outrage is evident, “He has helped my family for decades. He is the only doctor we can afford and the only one willing to even go all the way out to see her. You absolutely cannot ruin this by scaring him off or- or worse!”

When Inderpahl returned with an envelope of pills, you were afraid Thenerius would ignore your plea, but he fortunately kept his mouth shut. His expression, however, was a different story, glaring daggers at Inderpahl.

You thanked the doctor as you took the pills, elbowing Thenerius’ side to get him to move to the door.

He allows himself to be ushered by you out the door, though he lets the tips of his horns scrape the top of the doorframe (or you may not have given him enough time to duck completely). Either way, you make it outside with no bridges burned and everything you needed to do done.

“I suppose the apple does not fall far from the tree. If you’re anything like your parents, I’ll be seeing you two soon,” Inderpahl bids you farewell from the entrance.

You freeze, the meaning of the doctor’s words sinking in. It wasn’t malicious, and as you turned around the old man was smiling at you from the doorway.

Nodding dumbly - unsure of what else to say and hoping Thenerius didn’t ask questions - you shove Thenerius towards your waiting horses.

“What did he mean, like your parents?”

You suppose a nice, silent ride it was too much to ask of Thenerius. And, if it meant he could learn something so personal about you as your lineage, you held no doubt that he would jump at the chance. But, it had miraculously taken him until you reached the inner limits of Alfore to ask his question - a whole ten minutes, during which you lost track of his many attempts to speak up beforehand.

Not once had you ever affirmed aloud who the man was, first because everyone in your life already knew - more than you, in fact - and then because no one in your life knew. Once you went to the capital, everyone you met came from wealthy families, their fathers nobles and doctors and the like.

You weren’t necessarily jealous of that - you didn’t miss a man you never met. As far as you were concerned, you had no father. You were, however, upset at what his abandonment did to your mother. How she constantly worked, spreading herself so thin to provide for the two of you, to try and give you a better life while he was off fucking around at sea. Most of all, how she still loved him despite all that, refused to curse him for the scoundrel he was for leaving her.

Realizing Thenerius was still waiting on your response, you cleared your throat.

“My mother also used to work at The Deep and…” you trail off, the words feeling foreign and heavy sitting on your tongue, “My father was a pirate.”

“Was?” Thenerius asks, “What does he do now?”

You shrug, the edges of your mouth twisting downward, “Wouldn’t know. Never knew him.”

Thenerius is silent for a long time, seemingly sensing your souring mood but clearly wanting to say something.

“Your friend, at the tavern. She truly is worried about you,” Thenerius thankfully changes the subject, though not to one you feel like talking about any more than the topic of your parentage.

You sneak a peak over your shoulder at him, confused at the sudden change of subject. He’s staring at a spot on the back of his horse’s head, seemingly mulling over what he wanted to say.

“She says- you never accept anyone’s help, would rather say everything is fine and do things on your own. She asked me to check on you, even gave me your pay to give to you. She said they were all worried you’d ‘off yourself,’ I think it was. Not that day, just in general you… offing yourself.”

Putting aside the tiefling’s apparent penchant for exact quotes, as well as any mention of doing yourself in, you instead focus on the important bit of information shared in that entire rant.

“That was my gold?” You ask, pulling Horse’s reins to slow him down until you were riding next to Thenerius.

“Oh, yes, here,” he said, feeling up his coat, pulling out the small pouch and handing it over to you.

You glance down at it briefly, noting the small embroidered frog leaping off of a lily pad before stuffing it into your bodice, your brassiere holding it in place. You ignore Thenerius’ lingering stare.

“My offer still stands,” Thenerius finally spoke again and you wished he hadn’t.

“What offer?” You feign disinterest, hoping he’ll drop the subject but knowing better.

“Let me help around your farm. I’ll stay at The Deep but… just let me help you.”

You blink, your rapid-fire retort to a different response dying in your throat. You hadn’t been expecting that. You thought for sure he’d bring up the proposal again, using your obviously dire financial situation as incentive to marry him at least for convenience. You’re not sure what to say and the silence is only extending, threatening to seem as though you can’t turn down his offer.

“I can’t afford to pay you for that,” you finally manage before quickly adding, “and I won’t let you work for free. I’m not going to take advantage like that.”

You leave your final statement vague, but the point is clear. You don’t want to take advantage of his feelings for you, obviously much deeper than the initial infatuation you believed it to be. No matter how badly you may need the extra set of hands around the homestead, you simply could not bring yourself to agree to such a one-sided agreement, unable to give Thenerius what he truly wants. You almost wish it was the fleeting nightly obsession of drunken pirate, vanishing with the onset of the inevitable hangover and gone with the morning dew, dried out by the light of day.

Fortunately, Thenerius seems to recognize the finality of your decision and makes no further argument, following you wordlessly.

Rather than head straight back out of Alfore, you make a detour towards the market in the heart of the city, a block lined with stalls and shops in the old town square.

As you approach the center of Alfore, the city also grows more lively as people run their daily errands. Once the streets become crowded with stalls and people walking between them, you dismount from Horse and tie him to a post, trusting his surly attitude and the crowd to keep any would-be horse thieves at bay. Once you were certain he was secure, you grabbed the empty satchel hanging from the saddle and throw it over your shoulder.

“I’m going to go pick up an order,” you turn to Thenerius, holding up a hand to stop him from following you, “Alone. No pirates allowed.”

“But-” Thenerius began to protest, but you shook your head firmly.

“Her business, her rules. And you don’t exactly have the best disguise,” you gesture to the tiefling’s clothing, the most obvious pirate garb even a child would recognize and was already earning both of you a few stares, “Go… look around or something. Keep an eye on the horses. I’ll be done soon.”

With that, you leave Thenerius behind and head to the blacksmith’s.

Unfortunately, when you reach the street of your destination, there’s several crowds converging around it. Nearby stalls selling firewood and thick fabrics and pelts for winter clothing were of course at their busiest, and flanking the one place you needed to go.

With great difficulty and several sour looks directed your way when you squeezed in between people in lines, you finally reach the entrance of the small stone structure. As though to further mock your misfortune, a small piece of paper stuck in between two pieces of the wood making up the front door.

Of course the blacksmith would be away making a delivery when you arrive, you think with a brief flash of bitter annoyance, sitting on the step as you wait for her return.

By the time she does, the crowd on the street has largely dispersed, the stalls nearly completely sold out of their wares, and you were on the verge of freezing to death.

“You finally came by to pick up your order,” Yagiri said, sweeping you aside to unlock the forge door.

Yagiri was a half-gnome. Well-suited for the heat of the forge though perhaps not for the nippy winter air, evidenced by the sheer quantity of layers she’d wrapped herself in, looking more like a textile merchant’s inventory come alive.

“Yes, I’m sorry I’m so late,” you answer sheepishly, following her into the forge.

“I’d tell you I was going to sell everything off to the next customer who wanted them, but truthfully no one’s building anything this time of year,” she called out, pulling small boxes of iron bits onto her workstation, “Is there a particular reason you finally decided to come by?”

“Finally have time to use everything,” You reply, waiting awkwardly as she counted forty small nails, various hinges and pieces of wire mesh. Not entirely a lie. You have a week before your next shift, but you had plenty of opportunities to come down and at least pick up the order.

You apologize again as Yagiri hands your items to you, placing everything in your satchel and take care while rolling up the meshes.

Yagiri walks you to the door, both of you freezing as you step around her to see Thenerius standing across the street with both horses, dressed in more simple clothes and a wolfskin coat.

“He with you?” Yagiri grunts suspiciously and you wish you could deny it before Thenerius grins and waves at you, calling out your name.

“Yes, thanks again,” you murmur, quickly exiting the blacksmith’s and tugging Thenerius away from Yagiri’s watchful eye.

“I bought regular clothes,” Thenerius said proudly, showing off his new outfit to you.

You were definitely wrong. It wasn’t so much the clothing that made the pirate, but his overall demeanor; too carefree and wild to be anything else.

“I also got you one, too,” Thenerius held up another pelt coat, this one appearing to be from a bear based on the sheer size of it.

You balk, tempted to throw it on over your own but not wanting to encourage Thenerius’ affections, and there was no way you could pay him for it. Pelts were worth two months of your wages at The Deep. You had no idea how much a finished coat would be.

“I can’t pay you back-”

Thenerius grabs your arm before you can continue walking, “I have to insist. You’re going to get sick if you don’t wear something thicker, and then how will you work?”

You can’t argue with his logic, but can’t help but stiffen as he throws the coat over your shoulders and begins to tie it off down the front. As soon as he finishes, you step away and slither your arms through the sleeves.

“Better?” Thenerius chuckles, you practically swimming in the coat, “give me your bag, keep your hands in the pocket.”

You’re no longer shivering, so used to it at this point that you no longer noticed you it was so bad until you were finally able to stop and your muscles slightly sore where they’d been overworked.

You nod, silently handing over the satchel still clutched in your hand so you can stick your hands in the felt-lined pockets of the coat. With that, you lead the way through the labyrinthine streets to the section of vendors selling live creatures. You take your time looking at each vendor’s wares, smiling at the cute animals until you come across a stall with what you’re looking for.

You smile at the old woman manning the stall and her granddaughter sitting a short ways behind her, both snuggled comfortably in rabbit pelts, before turning your attention to the rabbits curled together in their cages.

“How much for the spotted buck and three solid does?” You ask, pointing out the each rabbit you’re referring to in their respective enclosures.

The old woman grins toothlessly back, holding up three fingers, “three silver pieces.”

You hesitate, not sure you’d have enough to take all four home today. You grab your coin purse from a pocket of your satchel and dig around for any silver, finding two and starting to count up the equivalent bronze when the old woman suddenly clucks a “thank you, sir.”

You look up in surprise to see Thenerius retracting his hand, the silver pieces disappearing into a pocket of her coat before you can even protest. You don’t know where where Thenerius was keeping his coins, much less how much he had. She picks up an empty cage and begins gathering your picks, each easily curling up into the crook of her arm when she grabs them.

“The gray one’s already pregnant. Two weeks left,” she whispers, winking at you as she hands the full cage over, continuing loud enough for Thenerius to hear, “Good luck for you and your husband.”

Your smile strains to remain plastered on your face, merely nodding in thanks so as to not cause a scene. You already feel the heat rising in your face, refusing to meet Thenerius’ gaze as you walk away from the market despite how deeply you could feel it boring into you.

The ride out of Alfore was mostly silent, you lost in thought and playing absentmindedly with one of the ties of your coat.

You think back to what Yagiri asked you. Why you were picking up your order now when it had been ready for weeks now. You had already made your decision, one you had spent the entire afternoon thinking about but was now unsure how to bring the topic up again.

“What did you buy from the blacksmith?” The question sounds nonchalant, but when you look over, Thenerius looks concerned as he looks at the satchel. You suppose Thenerius wouldn’t be very familiar with a blacksmith’s more mundane talents in metallurgy.

“Some things to build a hutch,” you reply, looking away.

“You’re building a hutch?” Thenerius asks incredulously.

“No, you are.” Is your brilliant retort, and you hope your burning face isn’t noticeable from where Thenerius is.

“I am?” It isn’t teasing, or negative, but actually sounds… hopeful. It’s almost enough to make you backpedal, tell Thenerius nevermind or that you somehow misspoke.

“I still can’t afford to pay you,” you say instead, swallowing a lump in your throat you think is your pride, “But you will be compensated with room and board.”

“Yes,” Thenerius agreed immediately, his mood obviously perking up, “but I’m going to pay rent.”

You are on the verge of arguing but soon think the better of it, “Twenty gold a month.”

Thenerius scoffs, “Why so low?”

“It’s five gold less than the rate at The Deep,” you shoot back, “or were you lying when you said you couldn’t afford a room there?”

“Yes, I did,” Thenerius admits immediately, surprising you with his shameless.

You feel the amusement begin to bubble up and before you can stop it, what you thought would be a small snort comes out an uncontrollable peal of laughter.

You bend forward, body shaking with the force of it, threatening to fall right off your horse’s back had you not had your feet securely in the stirrups.

Once you’re finally able to compose yourself with only the aftershocks of your giggling managing to escape, you realize Thenerius is beaming over at you.

“You’re still paying twenty,” you fail to put in the sternness you wanted in the words, to out of breath to sound firm.

Either way, Thenerius would no doubt change his tune about paying the extra gold after a few days of the work you planned to put him through. There was plenty of work you’d been holding off on doing yourself around the homestead, having planned on waiting until the weather warmed.

“Alright,” Thenerius agreed dreamily, or so you determine, a small kernel of gratification germinating within you at the thought of your ability to turn a sea-hardened pirate into a lovestruck fool.

Residual mirth, you tell yourself, forcing yourself to not read so deeply into things. Perhaps it was unwise - stupid, even - to invite the tiefling whose ultimate goal was your heart into your home for an indefinite stretch of time, but as you continued riding down the path, the sun finally making its presence known and still buzzing with your good mood, you can’t help but drown out your objections.

Besides, after a week you’d be occupied at the tavern and your daily interactions would undoubtedly be limited to the mornings when you returned from work.

part 4

#monster boyfriend #tiefling #exophilia #reader insert

90 notes · View notes

fandom-pardes · 4 years ago

Text

According to halacha, which actions are Azula liable for?

Reposted from my Tumblr.

One of my favorite ways to study Jewish texts is to take a fictional character or situation and examine it through the lens of Jewish text and tradition.

I’ve done this before with ABC’s Once Upon A Time. Now I’m going to take up this exercise again with Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Before I begin, a few things to keep in mind.

I’m not a Talmud scholar.

There is no definitive Jewish Opinion™ about any issue pertaining to halacha. Unanimous opinions on halacha are so rare that when we find one, we assume something went wrong in the process..

Azula is a morally polarizing character in AtLA fandom. Regardless of who you ask, you’re bound to get some strong opinions about exactly what she’s done, the extent to which she’s responsible for it, and what this says about her morality or lack thereof. I’m not going to rehash those arguments. I think I’ve made it clear that I care less about whether people approve of her behavior than I do about how their statements about her reinforce harmful messages about women, people of color, LGBT people and mentally ill people.

Nevertheless, she’s incredibly interesting, and studying Jewish text is fun, so here we are.

Why examine Azula’s actions through the lens of halacha?

Halacha gets a lot of flack because it comes off as excessively legalistic. But, in my opinion, that’s based on a misunderstanding of what halacha is. Usually translated as “Jewish law,” the word halacha actually comes from the root word that means “to go/walk.”

Halacha is not a collection of rules for the sake of having rules. It’s meant to take us somewhere. You can write a library of books about exactly what that is and what it means. But for the sake of simplicity, halacha is how we show that we recognize the holiness of everything in creation. So we aim to do right by one another, by the land we live in and by the creatures we share this world with.

Before we can launch into examining the halachic ramifications of the things Azula does, we need to establish some boundaries.

Only the show counts. It’s the common frame of reference universally accepted by the vast majority of fandom. Fandom’s stances on the comics, novelizations and other tie-in materials are too variable to base an analysis on.

Word of God is immaterial. While some would use the phrase Death of the Author, Jewish tradition has a more entertaining take on it. In the Talmud, there’s a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and some of his peers. In that story, Rabbi Eliezer says that if he’s right, this or that miraculous thing would happen, and those miraculous things do happen. But the other rabbis still reject it because we don’t determine halacha by miraculous signs. Eventually, God parts the heavens and says, “Rabbi Eliezer is right.” But another rabbi responds, “The Torah is not in heaven,” meaning that the Torah was meant for human beings on earth to interpret for themselves. And God’s response? To smile and say, “My children have defeated Me.”

Now, let’s begin.

Is Azula bound by halacha?

She’s not Jewish, so no. However, all human beings are bound by the Noahide laws. For the sake of argument, let’s say that the Noahide covenant applies to all humans on all worlds. According to the Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a.24):

Since the halakhot of the descendants of Noah have been mentioned, a full discussion of the Noahide mitzvot is presented. The Sages taught in a baraita: The descendants of Noah, i.e., all of humanity, were commanded to observe seven mitzvot: The mitzva of establishing courts of judgment; and the prohibition against blessing, i.e., cursing, the name of God; and the prohibition of idol worship; and the prohibition against forbidden sexual relations; and the prohibition of bloodshed; and the prohibition of robbery; and the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal.

What is Azula’s legal status?

In any case, we know the rules, and now we have to decide whether Azula broke them or not, right?

Not so fast.

First, we have to determine if Azula is of the appropriate legal status to be held accountable for upholding the Noahide laws. In other words: when she committed certain acts, was Azula an adult capable of making rational decisions?

Clear your mind of the idea that being an adult is the same as being a grownup. Instead, think of it as a term that defines when people can make legally binding decisions.

As far as I can tell, the Talmud doesn’t say when a gentile becomes an adult. However, we can use halacha as a guide.

Now for a warning.

If frank talk about the physical development of adolescents makes you uncomfortable, you might want to skip this next part. There’s nothing graphic or titillating about what I’m going to discuss, but if breasts and pubic hair squick you out, skip this part until I say it’s safe in bold like this.

According to halacha, a girl reaches adulthood when she’s twelve years and one day old and has two pubic hairs. Yeah, you read that right. Twelve and two pubes are the requirement. Before this point, nothing she does is legally binding, even if she’s really smart and claims to be fully aware of what she’s doing. After this point, her actions are legally binding, even if she says she had no idea what she was doing.

On the show, we see Azula in a range of ages. In “Zuko Alone,” we see her at roughly eight years old. In “The Storm,” she’s about eleven. In all the other episodes she’s in, she’s fourteen. So, from a legal standpoint, flashback!Azula is too young for her actions to be legally binding. At that point in time, the responsibility would fall to her parents.

Um, I’m not willing to speculate about the genitals of an underage cartoon character, so for the sake of argument, I’m assuming that 14-year-old Azula meets the two pubes requirement. Thus, 14-year-old Azula is responsible for her actions.

If you skipped that last part, it’s safe to continue now.

OK, we’ve established that flashback!Azula is too young for her actions to be legally binding, but in the main story, Azula is legally an adult and responsible for her actions.

We good? Alright.

Which Noahide laws does Azula actually break?

This is both easier and harder than it seems.

The laws about idol worship, cursing God, and forbidden sexual acts don’t apply to her because neither religion nor sex are portrayed as such on the show. Also, the law about establishing courts of justice is a communal obligation, not one that falls on a single individual, so that’s another one we don’t have to concern ourselves with.

That leaves the prohibitions against bloodshed, robbery and eating a limb cut from a living animal.

First up: bloodshed.

The connotation of the prohibition against bloodshed is not for general acts of violence, but actual murder.

Here’s where I think I’m going to throw a lot of people for a loop. Azula doesn’t kill anyone on the show. She tries. She comes close. She wouldn’t lose sleep over it if she did. But nobody’s dead because of her. She doesn’t even take lives as collateral damage.

One could argue that zapping Aang with lightning counts as killing, but when the Sages talk about death and dying, I assume they mean the kind where the dead stay dead, not people who are revived by magic spirit water. Furthermore, if someone’s about to kill you (and I think entering the Avatar State qualifies here), you are halachically obligated to save your own life, even if it means killing that person.

Second: robbery.

We’ll come back to that.

Third: eating a limb from a living animal.

This prohibition is often expanded to incorporate all forms of animal cruelty.

The show does portray animal cruelty. We see a prime example with the circus in “Appa’s Lost Days.”

But what about Azula? We don’t see her interact with many animals on the show, but there are two notable examples: Appa the sky bison in “Appa’s Lost Days” and Bosco the bear in “The Crossroads of Destiny.”

How does her behavior measure up? Despite her earlier behavior of terrorizing turtleducks, Azula does not harm either Appa or Bosco.

On the show, Mai and Ty Lee are seen spending time with Bosco in the throne room while the Earth King is imprisoned. So, at the very least, they treat the bear well.

So, Azula is not liable for animal cruelty.

*hands Azula her Not As Big A Jerk As She Could Have Been award*

Now, let’s revisit that prohibition against robbery.

Given the prescribed punishment (decapitation), the connotation seems to be taking the rightful property of another through violent means. That being said, the prohibition against robbery is often extended to include all sorts of theft.

This one might have some legs. On the show, does Azula take the rightful property of another, and does she use violent means to do so?

Absolutely.

A major example is stealing the clothes of the Kyoshi Warriors after defeating them in combat.

But!

The show takes place during a time of war, and the Kyoshi Warriors, as allies of the Avatar, are enemies of the Fire Nation. So does beating them up and taking their uniforms fall under the prohibition against robbery, or are the Kyoshi Warrior uniforms considered the spoils of war and thus free for the taking?

Halachically speaking, it might actually be the latter. When fighting the Kyoshi Warriors, Azula acts as a military commander during a time of war and achieves a decisive victory against an elite combat unit. Thus, she is entitled to take their stuff.

So, back to the original question: which actions does Azula commit during the show that she’s halachically liable for?

The answer, shockingly, may be: none.

On the show, we’re encouraged to think of Azula as a Very Bad Girl who does Very Bad Things. She’s calculating, ruthless and deceptive. She’s also full of herself. She’s not someone who inspires warm, fuzzy feelings in most people. But when you put her actions under the microscope, she exercises remarkable restraint compared to what she’s capable of.

Don’t worry. No one’s going to nominate her for a Nobel Peace Prize just yet. This is Azula we’re talking about. She’s not acting out of an overwhelming love for humanity. But it is interesting that despite her threats to kill, maim and destroy, she doesn’t participate in wanton destruction or wasteful loss of life.

#azula #atla meta #jewish meta

62 notes · View notes

krinsbez · 4 years ago

Text

Work Stories

So, it’s been a weird week. Business has been steady, but nothing too crazy, except on Friday...but I’ll get to that in a minute.

First off, I’ve been having stomach problems on-and-off for several days. Just keep this in mind. Anyways, on Thursday...have finished OCD-induced pre-lunch stuff, am about to take off my mask and dig-in to my lunch (which the line cook generously made before taking his own lunch break), and the manager (who’s suppose to be stepping in for the line-cook during while he’s on lunch break) calls me over. It seems that while I was doing said preparations, a lady called wanting to use two Groupons at once for an order. When the guy who took over the phones while I was supposed to be on lunch break explained that you can only use one at a time, she tried to convince him to let her do it anyways (I think, specifically, she wanted to do her order as two orders). When my co-worker explained that this was against the rules, the customer insisted on speaking to the manager. He is awesome, and eventually made her see reason, but he has to get back into the kitchen, and asks me to finish taking her order, which is for half-an-hour after the lunch special ends on another day. I mention we need to let the line-cook know it’s not for today, my boss points out he’s on lunch, so we’ll have to wait ‘til he comes off said lunch (you may see where this is going).

Finish my lunch break, get a phone call. It’s the fiancee of one of the co-owners, who always puts food on her fiance’s tender and is a bit of a Karen (ironically, said co-owner’s ex-wife, who also gets to put food on his tender, is named Karen, but is really nice), but has a soft-spot for me, and I can generally make her see reason eventually. She places an order for around half an hour after the lunch special ends. (ominous music)

Welp, we (that is to say me and the aforementioned co-worker who’s manning the front counter with me) start prepping her order when the time comes, realize we are out of one of the components for what she wants. I call to tell her this, ask what she wants us to do. She insists we find out how long it will take to whip up more of said component. I explain to the line-cook, he says about an hour. I tell her this, she says to shift her order to an hour. OK. I try to tell the line cook...but he’s already started prepping his part of the order. Also, no one told him that the other order is for another day. And we have another order for the same time. So, I’ve got food piling up behind me some of which needs to be packed and others we need to figure out what to do with it.

At which point two customers come in. They’ve never been here before, and need me to run down the whole menu. While they’re doing this the phone rings. I look down and see it’s from our phone service person (long story short, we hired someone at a call center to take some calls to reduce the workload on the front counter staff, who will sometimes have to call us when a customer asks for something that needs to be handled in the store), whom I put on hold (which is always awkward, because when she calls she usually has a customer on hold) They make a big order, concluding with wanting to order a lunch special (of a smaller order of a regular item, which isn’t too burdensome, to be fair). I explain to them that the lunch special ended half an hour ago. They start arguing with me. The phone starts making this beeping noise it does to remind you have a call on hold. They keep arguing, saying all manner of nonsense that I don’t recall, save that it is nonsense.

Now as i mentioned earlier, my stomach has been unhappy on-and-off all week...and it chose that exact moment to remind me of this. But, not in an urgent way, that I can justify bolting for the bathroom and leaving this mess in the hands of my co-worker, but I still need to deal with it soon, so I make a tactical decision and give in to their demand. They don’t even tip.

OK, so flash forward to Friday. As we are a kosher restaurant, we close early on Fridays. We tell everyone this. Everyone who’s Jewish knows this. Two-thirds of the orders placed throughout the day were for right before closing. We manage to have most of them ready, we start the pre-close clean-up; our manager has to leave to get his kids from school, the kitchen staff are doing whatever they do to clean, my co-worker starts moving stuff to the freezers, I start wiping down the tables, an am about to start cleaning the bathroom. Then we get over half-a-dozen people walking in; some are here for pickups, but some want to place orders, and all are trying to approach the counter at once. My co-worker calls me to help. My manager calls then because there’s a delay at one of his kid’s school and he needs to give me instructions on what to do if he isn’t back before I have to leave.

We somehow, miraculously, manage to take care of everyone, even the people who want to place new orders, which thankfully are small things we can do quickly with the stuff we haven’t put away yet. In particular, two students from one of the local Jewish high schools, who have ordered from us before. As they came up to order, I noted that we are in the process of closing, and some things therefore may not be available. As I take their information, instead of asking if they want their food to stay or to go like I usually do, I commented that obviously, this would have to be to go, since we are closing. I staple close their bag and wish them a good Shabbes, then go back to packing stuff for other customers, then hurry off to finally clean the bathroom.

I complete this task, and begin mopping the floors. The kids are sitting at one of our tables, eating. A combination of cognitive dissonance and focus on getting my job done ASAP initially causes it not to register with me what is happening. I believe I may have literally done a double-take. Oblivious to the guy with the mop staring at them incredulously, they finish their meal, pile the garbage together...and keep talking, in no hurry to finish up and leave.

Through a supreme act of will, I manage to be polite when I remind they that we are now closed, and so could they please leave. They do so with alacrity, which is good, because I was really incandescently furious and if they’ve given me an argument I might’ve done something I’d regret.

Aaaand just typing this makes me angry again, I need to think about something else to calm myself down.

#Work Stories

1 note · View note

deliciousmeta · 4 years ago

Text

According to halacha, which actions is Azula liable for?

One of my favorite ways to study Jewish texts is to take a fictional character or situation and examine it through the lens of Jewish text and tradition.

I’ve done this before with ABC’s Once Upon A Time. Now I’m going to take up this exercise again with Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Before I begin, a few things to keep in mind.

I’m not a Talmud scholar.

There is no definitive Jewish Opinion™ about any issue pertaining to halacha. Unanimous opinions on halacha are so rare that when we find one, we assume something went wrong in the process..

Nevertheless, she’s incredibly interesting, and studying Jewish text is fun, so here we are.

Why examine Azula’s actions through the lens of halacha?

Before we can launch into examining the halachic ramifications of the things Azula does, we need to establish some boundaries.

Now, let’s begin.

Is Azula bound by halacha?

What is Azula’s legal status?

In any case, we know the rules, and now we have to decide whether Azula broke them or not, right?

Not so fast.

Clear your mind of the idea that being an adult is the same as being a grownup. Instead, think of it as a term that defines when people can make legally binding decisions.

As far as I can tell, the Talmud doesn’t say when a gentile becomes an adult. However, we can use halacha as a guide.

Now for a warning.

If you skipped that last part, it’s safe to continue now.

OK, we’ve established that flashback!Azula is too young for her actions to be legally binding, but in the main story, Azula is legally an adult and responsible for her actions.

We good? Alright.

Which Noahide laws does Azula actually break?

This is both easier and harder than it seems.

That leaves the prohibitions against bloodshed, robbery and eating a limb cut from a living animal.

First up: bloodshed.

The connotation of the prohibition against bloodshed is not for general acts of violence, but actual murder.

Second: robbery.

We’ll come back to that.

Third: eating a limb from a living animal.

This prohibition is often expanded to incorporate all forms of animal cruelty.

The show does portray animal cruelty. We see a prime example with the circus in “Appa’s Lost Days.”

How does her behavior measure up? Despite her earlier behavior of terrorizing turtleducks, Azula does not harm either Appa or Bosco.

On the show, Mai and Ty Lee are seen spending time with Bosco in the throne room while the Earth King is imprisoned. So, at the very least, they treat the bear well.

So, Azula is not liable for animal cruelty.

*hands Azula her Not As Big A Jerk As She Could Have Been award*

Now, let’s revisit that prohibition against robbery.

This one might have some legs. On the show, does Azula take the rightful property of another, and does she use violent means to do so?

Absolutely.

A major example is stealing the clothes of the Kyoshi Warriors after defeating them in combat.

But!

So, back to the original question: which actions does Azula commit during the show that she’s halachically liable for?

The answer, shockingly, may be: none.

#azula #azula meta #jewish meta #atla meta

7 notes · View notes

vgckwb · 4 years ago

Text

ML: Are They Worthy? Chapter 80: Horrible Truths and Beautiful Lies!/Trickstern

Tuesday morning brought visitors to the Tsurugi residence. Specifically, Hao-yu and Corina. Tomoe answered. “How may I help you?”

“Hello” Hao-yu said. “We are associates of the guardians of Paris. We just wanted to ask a few questions about some documents you provided us with.”

Tomoe smiled. “Come on in.” The two entered her home. Tomoe messaged her daughter that it would be easier for her to stay out with her friends. The three of them sat down. “Now, what may I help you with?”

Hao-yu looked at Corina and nodded. “We’re just having trouble deciphering this document.” He pulled out a scroll that looked ancient.

“I can sort bits and pieces of it,” Corina explained, “but can’t put it together.”

“What can you tell me about the document, miss?” Tomoe asked. “I am unable to see what you have brought forward.”

“Oh, sorry” Corina said. “From what I can tell, it’s a story about the fox miraculous. The scroll is fairly old, Japanese, and it appears to tell the story of someone passing on the fox miraculous.”

“Ah, yes,” Tomoe said. “I am very familiar with this story.”

Hao-yu and Corina were surprised. “Can you tell us in full?” Hao-yu asked.

Tomoe nodded. “As you have said, this is a fairly old story. It begins in a village. The village had a protector by the name of Akagitsune. She would use her illusionary tricks to thwart anyone who would cause harm to her village. Of course, this was because she had the fox miraculous

Akagitsune’s alter ego was a woman named Hatsuko. Hatsuko was your average villager, for the most part. But everyone who met her liked her. She was set to marry a man by the name of Hideki. However, Hatsuko came down with a grave illness, and it was clear she wasn’t long for this world. As she was laid up, her husband-to-be kept watch over her.”

“It’s not fair,” Hideki said, on the verge of tears. “Why you? Why now? Is there nothing I can do?”

“Sweetie” Hatsuko replied. “There is something you can do.” Hideki looked at her. Hatsuko gently caressed his face. “You can be happy, as I have been.”

“But...but…” Hideki said.

“I know,” Hatsuko said. “But I can say I don’t have any regrets. I’ve loved this village, I’ve loved my family, and I’ve loved you. That is all I can ask for. And I want you to carry that love.” Hideki nodded through his tears.

There was a knock at the door. “May I come in?” said a child’s voice.

Hideki turned toward the door. “Of course, sweetie,” Hatsuko said.

A young girl opened the door. “Fumi, what are you doing here?” Hideki said.

Fumi was nervous. “I just saw these flowers, and I thought Hatsuko would like them, big brother.”

Hideki relaxed. “It’s OK Hideki,” Hatsuko said. Hatsuko gestured Fumi forward. Fumi handed her the flowers. “My, these are lovely. Thank you, Fumi-chan.” Fumi smiled, but then got sad again, as her brother’s fiance grew weaker.

“Hatsuko!” Hideki worried.

“Please,” Hatsuko said. “Don’t worry about me. My fate is sealed.” Hideki became silent, partially because it was true, and partially because he wanted to respect his girlfriend’s wishes. “Fumi-chan.” Fumi looked up. “I have a gift for you as well.” She pulled out a box. “This will keep you safe. I need you to take really good care of it. Can you do that for me?” Fumi nodded. “Thank you.”

“Wait, she gave the miraculous to Hideki’s sister, and not Hideki?” Hao-yu questioned in the present.

Tomoe nodded. “That is a point of confusion for most first-time listeners of this story. But it will all come together in due time.”

“I think I understand it though,” Corina said. Hao-yu and Tomoe were surprised. “But, I want to hear more. I just have a hunch.”

Tomoe nodded. “Very well. Not long after, Hatsuko passed. Her family, and Hideki’s were in mourning. Everyone was taking it hard, but Hideki harder than anyone. There were days where he would hardly move.”

Fumi approached her brother. “Um, I know it’s been hard,” she said, “but today is a nice day. I think that if we walked around, we would start to feel better.”

“Nothing could make me feel better,” Hideki said.

“Please big brother,” Fumi continued. “I don’t think Hatsuko would want to see you like this.”

“I DIDN’T WANT TO SEE HATSUKO LIKE THAT, BUT IT HAPPENED!” he snapped. He saw that he had scared his sister. “I’m sorry.”

Fumi was still nervous. “I’m sad too, you know. Hatsuko was like a big sister to me. I didn’t want to lose her either.” There was a silence. “I’m going to go on that walk. Today is a nice day. A day Hatsuko would love. I’m going to experience it for her.” She walked back to her room to prepare.

Hideki still wallowed. “Hideki,” a voice called out.

Hideki was shocked. “Hatsuko? Hatsuko, where are you?”

“Follow my voice,” Hatsuko’s voice said. “You will find me in the forest.”

“The forest, huh?” Hideki said. “OK.” He left a note saying he was going out after all, and then left.

Meanwhile, Fumi was preparing herself when she found the box that Hatsuko gave her. She opened it up to find a necklace. A flash of light appeared, which turned into Trixx. “Hiya!” she said.

Fumi was shocked. “Woah!”

“Don’t be alarmed,” Trixx said.

“Wh-what are you?” Fumi asked.

“I am a kwami,” Trixx said. “My name is Trixx.”

“Trixx?” Fumi said.

Trixx nodded. “And what is yours?”

“...Fumi” she answered. “What is going on? Why are you in the box Hatsuko gave to me.?”

“Like I said, I am a kwami!” Trixx said. “I am a being that can give people the power of illusions through the use of this miraculous.” She pointed to the necklace

Fumi looked at it. “Illusions…” Fumi wondered. “Wait, does that mean?”

Trixx nodded. “Hatsuko was Akagitsune.”

Fumi was shocked. “I don’t get it. Why did she choose me? Why not Hideki?”

“I asked that when she made her decision as well,” Trixx said.

Trixx remembers what Hatsuko told her, as she was laid up due to her illness. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Hideki with all of my heart. However, Hideki is a bit emotional at times. You told me that a miraculous user needs to keep a cool head.”

“Yeah, but his sister?” Tixx argued.

“She is the bravest person I know” Hatsuko retorted. “Look, I know it might seem weird to you, but it will make sense in due time.”

“Very well. I trust your judgement” Trixx said.

“The bravest person she knows?” Fumi wondered after hearing that.

“That’s what she said,” Trixx responded.

Fumi thought about it. “I doubt that it’s true, but I am honored. I guess I have to respect Hatsuko’s wishes and become the new Akagitsune.”

Trixx smiled. “I can see why she chose you already.”

“I knew it!” Corina said.

“Knew what?” Hao-yu asked.

“The reason Hatsuko chose Fumi over Hideki” Corina answered. “It’s like how you got akumatized over helping me when you arrived in Paris. Hideki was in a similar situation, and cooler heads need to prevail.”

“I see” Hao-yu said.

“Very perceptive,” Tomoe said. “Anyways…”

Fumi took the miraculous and put it on. “I hope you don’t mind, but I was planning on going for a walk.”

“That’s fine,” Trixx said. “It’s not like she was always Akagtsune.”

Fumi left her room and noticed her brother wasn’t there. “Huh?” she wondered. She found a note. She went over to read what it said. “‘I’m heading to the forest to be with Hatsuko. -Hideki’?!” She let go of the note. “We have to go!” She ran off.

Trixx flew next to her. “What’s going on with this forest?”

“The forest is cursed!” Fumi explained. “There are several stories where people go in, but never come out!”

“Really?!” Trixx said. “Hmmm. And the note said he’s going to be with Hatsuko?”

“Yeah” Fumi answered.

Trixx got a worried look on her face. “Could they be here?” she wondered. “I have a bad feeling I know what the cause is.”

Meanwhile, Hideki was wandering around in the forest.”Hatsuko! Hatsuko, where are you?!” He saw her. She gestured him to follow her deeper into the forest. He did.

“An evil kwami?” Fumi questioned.

Trixx nodded. “Specifically, I think it might be my evil counterpart: Trickstern.”

“Why do you think it’s them?” Fumi asked.

“Because if Hideki is hearing or seeing Hatsuko, it could be a mirage” Trixx explained.

“So, why do you think there’s an evil kwami here in the first place?” Fumi asked.

“You said it yourself, the forest is cursed” Trixx said. “When us good kwamis dealt with the evil kwamis a very long time ago, we couldn’t get rid of them entirely. We had to seal them. The various locations we sealed them in over time grew to be cursed. However, I think Trickstern wants someone to break them free.”

“And Hideki can do that?” Fumi asked.

Trixx nodded. “It’s really hard to, but Hideki fits all of the criteria. He was close with Hatsuko, so he has an association with miraculous power. He is in the area that is holding the evil kwami. And he is swelling with negative emotion. The perfect prey.”

“Hold on” Corina interrupted in the present. “Arakk, is this true? About the evil kwamis?”

Arrak and Scorpii popped out. “It is,” Arakk said.

“And you never thought to mention this before?” Corina asked.

“Well, as it says in the story, it is very hard to come across those specific circumstances” Arakk answered.

“Hold up,” Hao-yu said. “Is it possible to at least understand the will of these creatures?”

“What do you mean?” Scorpii asked.

“Well, I was thinking about what Ma- ...Master Ladybug said” Hao-yu explained. “About how various looters knew to attack specific miraculous sites. Maybe they were trying to gain that affinity to miraculous power to set those evil kwamis free.”

Scorpii and Arakk were shocked. “Hmmm. Maybe” Scorpii said.

“To be honest, it has been a long time since we’ve needed to deal with these evil kwamis,” Arakk said. “We know what to do when danger is imminent, but so much happens that it’s not at the forefront of our mind.”

“Well, either way, it seems like we have an answer,” Hao-yu said.

“Still, I would like to hear the end of this story,” Corina said. Tomoe nodded.

Fumi grew determined. “I need to stop him.”

“If you’d like, you can use my power,” Trixx said. “All you have to do is say “Trixx! Let’s Pounce!”

Fumi smiled. “Trixx! Let’s Pounce!” She transformed into a hero of the fox miraculous, which came with a domino mask, an orange kimono, fox ears, and a fox tail. She looked at the instructions that came with her flute to get herself adjusted to her power.

“Closer” said the mirage leading Hideki. “We’re almost there.” Hideki came even closer.

“STOP!” yelled another Hatsuko. This confused Hideki, and angered the mirage.

Hideki turned around to see another Hatsuko. “Hatsuko? But you’re there.”

“That’s right,” said the first mirage. “I’m here. Come to me.”

“No! That’s not true” the other mirage said. “Neither of us are real!”

Hideki was confused. “I don’t understand.”

“That Hatsuko is a fake! Created to lead you into destruction!” the second mirage said.

“So, are you real?” Hideki asked.

“No” the second mirage answered. “I was created to stop you.”

“What?” Hideki said.

“Come now, don’t listen to her,” the first mirage said. “She’s fake. She said so herself.”

“She’s also fake!” the second mirage said. “She’s just using you to get what she wants!”

“Be quiet!” the first mirage said.

“I don’t know what to do,” Hideki said.

“Just follow me!” the first mirage said.

“No!” the second mirage chimed in. “Go back! You have a life to lead!”

“Yeah, but a life without Hatsuko…” Hideki trailed off.

“Come closer, and you can be with me forever and ever” the first mirage said.

“Do you think I’m the only person in your life that deserves love?!” the second mirage said. Hideki looked at her. “Because if you do, then you never loved me at all.”

“No sweetie, of course I love you” Hideki said.

“If you love me enough to marry me, then you must love everything about me, right?” the second mirage said.

“Of course!” Hideki confirmed.

“Then you have to love the fact that I cared for everyone!” the second mirage said. “And I know you do too.”

Hideki looked down at the ground. “You’re right. It’s just…”

“It’s OK,” the second mirage said. “I understand. It was hard for me too. More than any of the pain the illness caused was the pain of never seeing you again.” She walked over to Hideki. “If you love me, you have to let me go. You have to spread my light now that I no longer can. Can you do that for me?”

Hdeki looked at the second mirage. “Yeah. I can do that.”

The second mirage smiled. “That’s all I can ever ask of you.”

“NO!” the first mirage screamed. Hideki and the second mirage turned to face them. Instead of Hatsuko’s face, it was a monstrous face. They had collapsed and began fading. “Curse your love. Curse you faith in each other. I was this close to being free, and now I’ve lost it. I will reemerge! Just… you.. WAIIIIIIIIIT!” With that, the first mirage was gone.

“That was scary,” Hideki said. He turned to the second mirage. “So, you're a mirage as well.” The second mirage nodded. “I’m guessing Akagitsune created you then.”

“Well, kind of,” the mirage said.

Hideki smiled. “Well, whoever did, I want you to thank them. This was just what I needed. I’m sorry I didn’t see it earlier.”

“It’s OK,” the second mirage said. “Better late than never.”

“Right,” Hideki said. The second mirage faded as well. Hideki started to leave the forest.

Behind one of the trees was Akagitsune-Fumi. “Trixx! Let’s rest!” she transformed.

“You did great!” Trixx said. “I can clearly see why Hatsuko chose you. Do you have any berries?”

“Thanks,” Fumi said. “We have some at home. But first…” She rushed around and found her brother. “Brother. I saw your note and got worried.”

Hideki looked at his sister. If I died and left Hatsuko behind, she wouldn’t have worried Fumi like I did. He patted her head. “I’m sorry I worried you. And I’m sorry I lashed out at you. But I’m feeling better now.”

Fumi hugged Hideki. “It’s OK. I understand”

Hideki hugged her back. “Let’s go home.” The two began walking home.

“After that day, Fumi continued to protect the village as the next Akagitsune,” Tomoe concluded.

“I see” Hao-yu said.

“What a touching story” Corina said.

“And very insightful,” Hao-yu added.

“We’re sorry for failing to mention it before,” Arakk said.

“It’s fine,” Corina said. “After all, we now know what to look out for.”

“Yeah” Hao-yu said. “We better inform everyone. Hm?” Hao-yu looked out the window. “Woah!” Scorpii, Corina, and Arakk followed suit. To their shock and horror, they saw a dark cloud descending on Paris. “What is that?” Hao-yu asked.

All across Paris, residents were taking notice of this, including the gang of heroes and Hawk Moth. “What?” Adrien said.

“What’s going on?” Ladybug asked.

“I… I don’t know” Hawk Moth said. The cloud grew bigger.

The helicopter, the night of the chase:

“Well, I need a fix,” Receiver Deceiver said. “So, if you aren’t going to use the power of the miraculous to their fullest extent, then I will!” She charged at Scarlet Moth. He tried to settle her down, but she had been willingly akumatized so many times that she could fight it. She tackled him, and both of them were sent falling out of the helicopter.

There was a bit of a struggle in the air, but Scarlet Moth managed to kick Receiver Deceiver away. Receiver Deceiver was falling through the Parisian sky. She eventually landed on the ground. Soon after, her phone hit the ground, breaking it, and causing her to transform back to Lila.

Lila was panicking. If she was found now, she would get punished surly. No one was on her side anymore. Not her friends at school, not Hawk Moth, not anyone. She looked around and saw an entrance to the Catacombs of Paris. She ran in there just as Ladybug had passed by to purify the akuma that was residing in her phone.

She spent days just trying to bury herself in there. She went deeper and deeper without caring about how to get out. Eventually he was lost.

“Heh heh”. Lila heard a voice.

“Who’s there?” she called.

“I can solve all of your problems,” the voice said, menacingly. ”Just come over here.” Lila wasn’t sure what to do. She was scared of the voice, but she was scared of everything. She walked closer. “Good. That’s it.” She walked closer.

The wall began to crack. Once it broke, Lila saw a small, butterfly-like creature for a second. Then it began attaching itself to her and swallowing her whole. The creature had fused with Lila and became humanoid. “Finally. After all this time, I’m free!”

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug fanfic #tomoe #Trixx #adrien #Marinette #gabriel #lila

1 note · View note

kittyotakunoir666 · 5 years ago

Text

Felix Month #1 Felix is Chat Noir

ok, so this is my first post and story on here so yeah. Also, this is for @felixmonth and a few other things you should know is that this will also be at AO3 and I will do my best to keep up with all this.

Now this story will not be friendly to Adrien’s character mostly because I have pent up emotions after watching the first few episodes of Season 3. Chameleon in particular so please proceed with caution, please. but as time goes on it will disappear along with me improving my writing so we shall begin.

Felix is Chat Noir

Marinette had, had enough of Chat Noir. He had started to get more persistent with wanting to date her. She kept telling him she didn’t like him like that and that she.

“Why can’t you see that we were meant to be together?” Chat Noir once again brought up in another night patrol.

“Chat why can’t you understand that I don’t see you in that way,” Ladybug said frustrated.

They were both on top of the Eiffel tower looking on to the city of Paris. They decided after daylight with no Akuma insight they should do a night patrol in case Hawkmoth decided to strike at night.

“Well clearly you must be in denial because if you remember correctly we fell for each other in with oblivio” Chat once again brought up

“Oh my god chat we were under the effects of the Akuma and had no idea who we were, let alone who we were to each other.” Ladybug stressed, “oh and I’m not in denial Chat I just don’t like you in that way”

“Is it because you like someone else because you mentioned before that you like someone else and I’m telling you now that they won’t make you happy unlike me Bugaboo” Chat said

“No there is no longer anyone else my crush on that person disappeared long ago,” Ladybug said sourly. The thing is that Marinette’s crush on Adrien did disappear after she noticed that his way of the high road was just to do nothing and to just stand there. He didn’t have her back then and wouldn’t have her back now.

The fact is that Marinette finally told her parents what she was going through and decided that transferring her to a different school was the best course of action. She would be able to transfer in a week with no one knowing since they all turned their backs on her. Now though now she had to deal with a Chat Noir who can’t get it through his head that she doesn’t love him.

“Then why won’t you date me huh cause don’t you think I deserve you” Chat argued

That made Ladybug freeze up and ask chat, “what did you say?”

“I said that don’t you think I deserve you after everything I’ve done for you” Chat answered frustrated at having to repeat himself but thinking he’s finally getting through to her, “I put my self in the line for you, I sacrificed myself for you, I tried to give you a nice date that which may I remind you, you didn’t show up for, and not too long ago I turned down someone because I love you!”

Chat screamed the last bit which made Ladybug, even more, enraged then what she already was when Chat started his rant. Ladybug finally unfroze and started walking toward Chat Noir with determination in her eyes and talking.

“First off I never asked you to put your life on the line for me, I never asked you to take a hit of an Akuma for me, I never asked you to sacrifice your life for me.” Ladybug said getting more and more frustrated while walking towards Chat, “and as for the date thing, I told you I might not make it not to mention it was never going to be a date because I don’t like you in that way, and as for the girl you turned down for me, I never asked you to do that”

They were both face to face with Chat Noir backing up a bit when Ladybug started to get closer. He was becoming frustrated with this whole situation and it was getting him nowhere near his goal of her finally realizing that they were meant to be together. Ladybug decided that it would be best to back up before she slapped him across the face.

“Oh, and as for you deserving me,” Ladybug said finally calming down only a little bit after she backed up a bit, “ I am not a trophy Chat Noir, I am a human being of my own I am not entitled to give you anything. I am not a price to be won and honestly you saying that says a lot about the type of person you are in your civilian life”

“Excuse me but I’m not the one who…..” Chat was suddenly interrupted by a shield coming in between him and Ladybug. The shield had made both of them jump back a bit considering they were getting closer again.

“ENOUGH!!!!” A voice yelled. They both turned to see the Guardian using the turtle miraculous to become Jade Turtle. He moved to the place that both Ladybug and Chat Noir were standing and fighting.

“Master its good to see you,” Ladybug said bowing her head to him

“Guardian” Chat also bowed his head

“Ladybug my dear why don’t you head home while I speak to Chat for a but” Jade instructed her while sneakily pointing to a hiding spot of a nearby building in case he needed her to intervene.

“Of course master, I shall be on my way” Ladybug bid farewell, bowing once again and left but sneakily made her way to the hiding spot. She knew she would have to step in if Chat retaliated badly.

“Chat Noir do you know why I’m here” Jade spoke calmly but assertive.

“No Mr. Guardian,” Chat said hesitantly.

“Its because you have not been acting well these past few weeks” Jade informed him.

“That is not my fault, its Ladybug’s for not seeing that we are soulmates and are meant to be together,” Chat said frustrated. Why can’t anybody see that or was everyone just blind?

Thing is that Chat didn’t see the anger that was in Master fu’s eyes for a brief moment. Chat didn’t notice the look of the guardian calculating what to do next.

“Chat I need you to listen to me and understand that you need to change your ways right now or I would have no chose but to take back the chat miraculous from you,” Jade warned Chat

“You can’t do that!” Chat exclaimed holding his ring with his other hand.

“I can and will if you don’t change” Jade warned again, “now I suggest you head back home and think over what you were told tonight”

After that Jade left Chat alone to head back home and have a cup of tea. That cued Ladybug to make her way home so as to not be spotted by Chat and to sleep after this long night. Chat on the other hand headed home frustrated and angry with both the Guardian and Ladybug.

After chat arrived home he detransformed and started ranting to Plagg. Plagg, on the other hand, knew to stay quiet in case he said something to make Adrien discover on accident the power he’ll have over him. But Adrien kept going on and on about how much he was entitled of.

“And who do they think they are huh, they aren’t the once sacrificing their lives so the Ladybug can purify the Akuma, they are not the ones who know nothing about love.” Adrien kept going

Plagg had actually also had enough of Adrien. It was at first entertaining but after a while, he saw that although not as entitled as Chloe he thought that things should mostly go his way. That there will be no consequences to his actions. Plagg missed when Adrien would want to rebel but now he put himself as not only becoming a doormat to his father again after the little love Gabriel showed him at that fashion show but also to that girl Lila who lies were hurting people just not Adrien himself so he did nothing about Lila’s lies.

So in all this Plagg knew the Guardian was giving Adrien the option to reflect and to change his ways. But the way things were going no it would be best to leave. See what the Guardian didn’t tell Arien was that Plagg had the option to leave him even if the guardian gave him one last chance to reflect and change. So he waited until Adrien had finally settled down and decided to go to sleep when he made his move.

He quickly grabbed the ring off of Adrien’s finger and headed to the window. Plagg took one last look back to Adrien’s sleeping body and then headed out through the window. He slowly closed the window back up and started making his way to Ladybugs house for the night since her house was the closest option plus he wanted to inform Ladybug of what has been done.

After arriving at Ladybugs balcony Plagg knocked softly on the glass trap door. Marinette heard it and look up only to see a sad looking Plagg holding on to the cat miraculous in his paws. Marinette quickly opened the trap door and let him in.

“Is that what I think it is?” Marinette asked knowing full well that yes it is the cat miraculous in Plagg’s paws, “I thought the guardian gave chat another chance?”

“He did but the kwami also has a chose of staying with that wielder during the last chance or if they want they can leave and head to the guardian to see if they can find a new holder,” Tikki explained taking Plagg into her arms while PLagg stayed silent.

Marinette took in this information and finally noticed how sad Plagg looked and made a decision, “Well then how about you stay here for the night and tomorrow we go to Master Fu’s and hell know what to do next okay?”

Plagg nodded and made himself comfortable on Marinette’s pillow next to Marinette’s hair when she laid down once again.

~~0~~

The next morning Marinette made her way to Master Fu’s place to inform him as to what has taken place. When they arrived at Master Fu’s place it would seem he already knew what had happened.

“Plagg I am sorry for I have made another mistake again.” Master Fu apologized to Plagg

“Master if I may” Marinette intervene, “ you didn’t know how this Chat Noir would act, you shouldn’t shoulder the blame of a Chat Noir who wouldn’t behave.”

“Thank you Marinette” Master Fu responded with a smile, “I am glad I chose you to be Ladybug and to be the next Guardian of the miraculous”

At the mention of this Marinette blushed and started stuttering a thank you and a no problem. She calmed down a bit before sitting down. The thing is that after Marinette first came she and the Master have gotten close enough to consider each other family. Then out of nowhere, the Master decided that Marinette would make a perfect next Guardian.

“Master, how will you find a new Chat Noir?” Marinette asked, “since there could be an Akuma at any given time right now”

“Don’t worry Marinette let me take care of it but you must get going now,” Master instructed, ”after all you are transferring to a new school soon and you mentioned you wanted to tour the school before you start.”

“Oh that’s right I did say that,” Marinette exclaimed getting up, “Well alright Master I will see you soon”

With that Marinette left with one more final goodbye and leaving the cat miraculous at the hands of the Guardian.

~~0~~

Felix was having a normal nice day when an Akuma started going on a rampage and quickly made his way to his house. When he sees an old man having trouble getting to safety. Not even thinking about it he made his way to the old man and started helping him.

“Here sir let me help you to safety,” Felix said approaching the man

“Why thank you young man” the old man, “if you can help me to that cafe over there”

“Of course here” Felix agreed. Felix was able to get the old man into the cafe with the people there also helping the old man into safety.

Afterwords Felix made his way to his house and went straight to his room. When he got there he immediately noticed a small black box on his study table. He slowly made his way to the box and noticed its markings. He inspected it a bit more before he decided to finally open it and immediately closed his eyes from the bright light that came out of there. Slowly he opened his eye and saw a small creature.

“Ok so don’t freak out but we have to speed this up considering there is an Akuma right now and Ladybug is on her own.” The creature said to him fast, “My name is Plagg and congratulations to you because you are now the new Chat Noir.”

“Wait, what but there is already a Chat Noir” Felix retaliated feeling very confused

“He has been retired after recent behavior if you didn’t notice,” Plagg told him and the thing is he did know, most of Paris had noticed how Chat Noir had recently been acting, very unprofessional. “Now rules are that you should follow before we start are that no one can know you’re Chat Noir, you have a power called Cataclysm and after you call it out you’ll have five minutes before you detransform but the ring will give you a warning now if you have any questions they will have to wait after the fight.”

Felix nodded and asked, “Alright how do I transform?”

“Oh well aren’t you focused, “Plagg commented, “you say Plagg claws out”

“Alright, Plagg claws out,” Felix repeated. After the transformation, Felix saw his transformed self. His suit was like the old Chat Noir’s but his tail had some chain wrapped on it, his ears were more pointy, his left ear had two piercings, his boots were around knee high, his claws were sharper, and his hair much wilder. He still had a bell but it was silver instead of gold and he still had the pockets.

Felix quickly made his way to where Ladybug was fighting the current Akuma. He saw as Ladybug was running out of options so he decided to lend a claw to help. He moved quickly as he could and picked up Ladybug and moved quickly out of the way of the Akuma. He quickly set down Ladybug after putting distance in them and the Akuma.

“Well hello there Mlle Ladybug” He introduced himself, “I am the new Chat Noir”

“Oh um Hello,” Ladybug greeted awkwardly, “will you stick with that name?”

“You mean Chat Noir?” Felix asked, he actually wanted a different name but only the Noir would be changed, “I was actually thinking of going by Chat Nuit”

“Night Cat?” Ladybug asked, she then nodded, “nice to meet you Chat Nuit”

“The pleasure is all mine” Chat Nuit greeted once again and bowed. They were immediately reminded of the Akuma and remembered where they were.

“How about you join me later for a night patrol to get to know each other to build a bit of a bond to get you used to this?” Ladybug offered

“I would very much appreciate it since this is new to me” Chat Nuit admitted.

“Well then let’s take down this Akuma” Ladybug commended

“Right” Chat Nuit agreed. And they were both off to fight the Akuma.

~~0~~

Meanwhile, at the Agreste Mansion, Adrien was both angry and betrayed when he saw there was a new Chat Noir

#felixmonth #felinette #marinette dupain cheng #felix #adrien agreste #master fu #felix month #day 1 #felix month 2019

93 notes · View notes

littleogreboii · 6 years ago

Text

MIRACULOUS DAZE: 2

BRIDGETTE’S THEORY OF HAPPINESS

Summary: Felix Agreste has been a shut in since the death of his best friend Bridgette Cheng and the disappearance of his brother Adrien Agreste. His only company is the AI, Ladybug, that downloaded itself onto his computer a year ago. However, there might be more to it than meets the eye, and his foster siblings, Nathaniel, Lila and Rose, might know more than him about the events that are happening. And what the ‘Heat Haze’ is. (Kagerou Project AU)

Chapter Summary: “Hey guys look over here!” She called them over. They all quickly swarmed. She stood proud with her hair tied in two pigtails. The red ribbon she had used shone. “Now, where like a secret brigade or something!” The trio stared in awe. “Like the Miraculous Team or something?”

The three of them laughed at that with Lila speaking up. “That’s so cringey.”

Bridgette flushed. “What? I thought it was cool!” She defended. “Like we were superheroes or something.”

Warning: Suicide, Bullying and Major Character Death

Particular Cover I like for this

English Lyrics: Jubyphonic

AO3

1 2

Again those years run on by

My mind filling up with only family

"Ayano now’s your big sister everyone"

"so try to get along with her for me please"

Bridgette thought back to the time where everything went wrong and it seemed every sign pointed towards Felix’s family. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to regret being so mesmerised by them. They were so different to her own family and she was intrigued.

There was Felix. He was so quiet and withdrawn, but she couldn’t mistake the serenity on his face when he found a good book or created a good design. He tried to push her away constantly, yet she could see the walls he made desperate to crumble. He didn’t know how to let someone in and she wanted to be the first. She wanted to see all the expressions he was capable of. She could almost picture them, but to see the real deal was a dream. There was a glimpse she’d seen once. He’d been trying to get a book down in the library and managed to bring the whole row of books down. His flustered expression as he’d glanced about to see if anyone had seen his blunder was frankly adorable. She knew she loved him. She never thought she’d like such a sarcastic, introverted person, but now, she couldn’t imagine life not sitting beside him in class. Then, there were the supposed study sessions they did after school at his house, which mainly consisted of him reading and her interacting with his family. Although, initially it consisted of her watching him while pretending to study.

Adrien was usually around, but due to his health, he tended to retreat to his room in the evening. She suspected he spent most of his energy during his tutoring, especially trying to impress Marinette. She found it funny watching Adrien and Marinette interact. Adrien would throw out joke after joke, which she personally found hilarious, and Marinette would pretend not to like them. However, she knew Marinette was into him. She once hoped they’d be able to go on double dates together.

She still remembered when she was first introduced to Adrien and Felix’s younger siblings. Mr Agreste had recently adopted them, which confused her but she wasn’t going to complain. As even if Mr Agreste rarely ever spent time with them, she knew they’d be loved. Adrien had an endless supply of love and Felix would grow protective of them like he did with Adrien.

However, she also wanted to do her bit for the trio and she nearly cried when Felix introduced her to them. “This is Bridgette. I guess she’ll be like a big sister for you so do try and get along with her for me please.”

Little house of crimson brick, we all had fit inside of that place

To and fro they whispered back, making plans of their own so it seemed

Looking deep into their eyes, so red in all three and then I see

Hidden just beneath are memories grown ups never see

She didn’t quite understand when the treehouse appeared, but she suspected it had something to do with Adrien. He had a way with words when he wanted to and Gabriel, although distant, appeared to have some sort of soft spot for the boy. However, as she climbed up it, she began to realise Felix may have also had an influence on the design of the treehouse. It’s design was far too elegant for Adrien to have designed it alone because the boy had a habit of drawing a little black cat on anything he made.

When she reached the top though, she was alarmed to find the three of them sat close together and whispering. They were already far away from the house yet they huddled together like they would be caught doing something they shouldn’t. It was only her second time meeting them and the first had been so rushed, she hadn’t got a chance to take a proper look at them. So, while standing at the top of the ladder, she took a moment to just watch.

And it hit her. Red. Their eyes were a deep red. Something had happened. Something the grownups can’t see. There was more to these three kids than met the eyes, and she wanted to find out what.

Terror in his face he said "I'm a monster deep inside" filled with fear

But they're wrong and so I said "That's not true at all, just look here"

"That red you hate so much, a hero wears it proud! No really"

"It's okay, no need to be afraid anymore"

When she first tried to get close to them, Nathaniel glared at me and stated. “I’m a monster deep inside.” It was meant to be threatening, a warning, but all she saw was the pain and fear which was consuming him. And she thought to herself ‘how could children think this way?’

She thought for a moment, before grinning. “That’s not true.” She grabbed a comic book which sat in the corner of the treehouse. “Just look here you see!” She pointed at Ironman who stood proudly on the front cover. “That red you hate, well he wears it proudly and he’s a superhero. So there’s no need to be so afraid, ok?”

Thinking of what'd be fun, or might be dumb,

I was a big sister and tried my best to

"Hey guys, look over here!" A crimson muffler I wrapped around me

"A secret brigade -er something"

Her days she spent staring at Felix were quickly changed into days of planning what to do with the three of them. She wanted to bring laughter back into their lives and the way to do that was with fun activities, or even dumb activities. She was determined to be the best big sister out there.

Lila was the easiest, or at least she thought she was. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure. Lila wasn’t exactly forthcoming on her opinions, but she looked happy and that was enough for Bridgette. She was sure if Lila truly hated it all, she would have said something already. Besides, she couldn’t let insecurities overtake her now, not when the children needed her.

Rose was easily overwhelmed and didn’t particularly like being out in public. Bridgette had heard from Nathaniel that Rose was bullied in school, but Lila would often stand up for her. However, Bridgette knew that there was more to it than that. Lila could stop the verbal and the physical bullying, but she couldn’t stop the thoughts the bullies had and that was all the bullies needed to hurt Rose. It was terrifying. Any thought Bridgette held could potentially be heard by Rose and she dreaded the day Rose heard someone she love think something negative about her.

Nathaniel was a challenge. He was similar to Felix in a way, yet he hadn’t been able to put up all his walls at this point. Bridgette would stop him before it happened. She wouldn’t let him close himself off from her. He was shy and sometimes, it was hard to notice him. He snuck up on her constantly, usually causing her to drop something or trip over. She hoped with time he’d open up to her because he was such a kind boy.

“Hey guys look over here!” She called them over. They all quickly swarmed. She stood proud with her hair tied in two pigtails. The red ribbon she had used shone. “Now, where like a secret brigade or something!” The trio stared in awe. “Like the Miraculous Team or something?”

The three of them laughed at that with Lila speaking up. “That’s so cringey.”

Bridgette flushed. “What? I thought it was cool!” She defended. “Like we were superheroes or something.”

“But who would be the supervillain?” Rose questioned.

“Felix.” Bridgette stated with zero hesitation.

“Really?” Nathaniel looked up with large eyes.

“Yes.” She nodded, crossing her arms. “We must go defeat him with love and affection.” And they all set off.

Dye it in madder of roses, so we can begin

Just because we play heroes, it doesn't mean nothing

"So maybe just a little we'll smile again"

And always be one big happy family

It became a regular occurrence. Bridgette would come round and they would play heroes. Although, Felix argued they were more villains than anything with all their pranks. He did nothing to stop them though, even going as far as to let them put fake cat ears on him. The cat ears of course being a courtesy of Adrien, who also enjoyed watching them, even going as far as to join in on days he felt well enough.

It was surprising, but Nathaniel’s leadership skills slowly began to come out. He was timid about it, but the elaborate plans he sometimes came up with were insane. Bridgette was impressed and every time he would carefully slide a plan other to her, she couldn’t help the praise that endlessly slipped from her lips. Sometimes the plans even had illustrations and it brought a smile to her face knowing Adrien was teaching him how to draw. She just hoped Nathaniel didn’t pick up Adrien’s habit of putting cat ears on everything.

Lila seemed to reveal herself as quite a wicked character. The worst pranks always came from her and ended up being the ones which would cause Felix to chase them around the garden. However, she was also the best at feigning innocence, easily passing the blame onto one of the others. Rose had reported to Bridgette that Lila virtually had the whole of the school in the palm of her hand. It made Bridgette proud to say the least.

Rose plans were the most innocent. They were usually something as simple as prank Adrien by filling his room with paper cranes or ambush Felix with hugs. That kindness was something Bridgette hoped Rose would keep with her for the rest of her life.

Bridgette never voiced it because she knew they wouldn’t take it seriously, but there was reason behind her actions. She longed to see them all turn to her with beaming grins for they were her family through and through. Even Gabriel seemed to be accepting of her role in the house and by that she meant he hadn’t said anything about it.

I hope they're happy and laughing at every new day

And if they just couldn't take it, they won’t run away

"Now listen close, hear this secret for you"

And so the sun sets on a day fun and new

Occasionally, Bridgette would sit and simply watch the others. It was blissful to see them all running around and playing together. She wanted this happiness to last forever and she prayed that she had helped even just a little. She wanted the happiness to swallow them to the point they can’t contain it yet she hoped it wouldn’t scare them away. It had already been scary enough when Rose ran away at one point. She’d been missing for two days before returning with no explanation. However, after the incident, Rose had seemed to relax and even though she would be gone some evenings, she seemed happier than ever. Bridgette had her suspicions of what had bloomed within Rose but she didn’t voice it. Rose would learn in due time.

Bridgette would lean over and pull all of them into a hug. “Now listen close, hear this secret for you.” And she would lower her voice before continuing. “I love you.” Felix would sometimes ask what had been said and they would simply grin. Each day would be brought to a close, brimming with happiness.

Blowing spring into the air, the adult world we knew was changing too

Something wrong I couldn't see, like a plan of their own so it seemed

Billow tears and fade away, the people that I love keep crying out

No one seems to notice but it's all dying into black

At one point, Bridgette found herself in Gabriel’s office. She’d been called into see him, much to her confusion. Yet when she’d entered, he was nowhere in sight. All that was left was several documents on his desk. On first inspection, it had appeared to be nothing more than papers about his students, Marinette and Adrien, but it wasn’t. The word ‘subject’ was littered throughout the document, and she took a moment to skim through it. The ‘Heat Haze’ was repeated a few times and the trio were even mentioned. Something had occurred to give the trio those red eyes and there was no way she was going to risk letting anymore suffering happen. She took a glance out the door, checking both ways, before beginning her search. What she found shocked her. There were papers detailing what happened to Lila, Nathaniel and Rose, and reading further, there was even a plan to achieve similar results with Adrien and Marinette. She had to stop it.

At a similar time, Marinette began being plagued by a nightmare. She never got the full details, but apparently, it was the same dream each time. Rose’s bullying had also gotten worse to the point that she was coming home each day in tears. Nathaniel became even more distant and Bridgette found herself constantly having to call out to him. Lila seemed to smile even more than before, seemingly oblivious to everything that was happening, but Bridgette had come to realise by this point that it was simply a mask Lila wore. Adrien’s health seemed to be getting worse and it was increasingly rare for him to play with them. Felix was rarely ever heard from, appearing to be constantly busy, yet to Bridgette it just appeared as though there was something on his mind.

All the adults seemed to be blissfully unaware of what was happening. They didn’t see their struggles and if the noticed, they passed it off as nothing more than the worries of a child. They refused to acknowledge their problems.

It's all gone wrong, but now I knew deep down

I couldn't tell a single soul how I felt

"God no, oh please don't destroy what I had found"

In came a world where our happiness died and flew out

She kept her thoughts to herself. She didn’t even tell Felix what she’d discovered. Shockingly, she even managed to keep it a secret from Rose. Everytime she went round their house now, she would have to force herself to focus on other things. She locked them up and hid the key out of reach.

Every night, she would beg the haze. “God no, oh please don’t destroy what I had found. Don’t take their smiles away. They still have so much left to live. They deserve so much. Please, you can’t take it away from them. I’m begging you.” Yet, the happiness continued to stay hidden.

Oh madder red no, I beg you, can take no more

Why can't you stop breaking futures so there'll be tomorrow?

The tears never stop falling the answer is clear

Hiding behind smiles from ear to ear

So, she made a plan while she maintained her play pretend. She continued to play with the trio, putting her heart and soul into it. She pretended that nothing was wrong and made her smile as large as possible. If the others wouldn’t smile, she would smile enough for them. In the meantime, she continued begging the red that plagued them. Each day, she would hope tomorrow would finally come and their happiness would return. Each day though, she found herself continuing to fake that smile.

If they were my eyes, such red eyes, I wonder could I

be their one and only hero who saves their future?

I'm clumsy awkward and shameful no less

But on this mission, I must go alone...

Finally, her plan was complete and all that was left was to put it in motion. This time she would be the hero. She was probably the worst fit for the mission. She wasn’t smart like Felix. She wasn’t elegant like Adrien. She wasn’t confident like Lila. And, she certainly wasn’t the right fit to go up against someone as powerful as Gabriel. Yet, she was the only one who could. She couldn’t push this mission onto anyone else, she wouldn’t forgive herself for doing so.

She left no note and told no one. She simply went into school in the evening after visiting the Agreste’s. They wouldn’t notice at the moment. They were all too stressed about Adrien, who had collapsed earlier. She snuck up to the roof and looked across the city.

And she lept.

Now I'm gone and wonder what the brigade is doing now and hope again

They're smiling all the time and they're getting along with each other

They probably hate me now or maybe just hurt

I wonder, have I become for them their big sister by now?

She lingers in the haze, unable to leave. Her thoughts linger on the Agreste’s. She tries to picture them with smiling faces. She hopes Lila isn’t teasing Nathaniel and Rose too much, and Nathaniel isn’t retreating too much into his shell, and Rose has been able to stand up to her bullies. She doesn’t want to think about how they feel about her now, yet it nags at her. They probably hate her. She hurt them, even if she did it to save them. She wonders if she’s finally of the title of big sister. She wishes she could ask them.

Will you remember the word I loved with every bit inside me?

That "happiness" ah how strange it is, the feeling

And as tomorrow breaks, I hope you love it too

Their safety fills her will all the happiness she needs and she hopes that with each passing day they will also grow to love happiness.

8 notes · View notes

aaronmascoll · 6 years ago

Text

Chapter 33 - Leila

Arguing and yelling, that's all the teachers have been doing for the past two hours. After Leila let everyone into her pocket dimension, she opened another portal to demonstration room. She only let the teachers out so they could talk about where they were going to put all the male students. When the rest of the female staff came, she made it abundantly clear that there was no way any of them were staying in her pocket dimension. Even now, after she restricted all the boys from going within a hundred yards of Spencer's house, Spencer was still curled up in the corner of her room crying. Suddenly having nearly three thousand boys on her front porch was a little traumatizing. They made it worse when they started banging on the walls and windows yelling for her to come outside.

As Leila stood on a podium at the front of the room, a portion of the female teachers argued that they absolutely did not want the male students, or teachers, anywhere near the school. So, when Leila told them that Morgan herself had invited them to join the school, they all quite. "Well, what do we now?" A female teacher sitting in the front said. "We need to replace all those that left."

"We would be happy to take over some of their classes," Mr. Slum said. "I myself teach, I'm sorry, taught a course in healing magic."

"I can vouche for him," Leila interjected. "He's the one that healed Morgan."

"And where is headmistress," the same female teacher said.

"She's in my pocket dimension," Leila stated. "I'm currently feeding her body as much anomali energy as I can provide it. Mr. Slum healed her head injuries, but he wasn't able to do anything about the coma she's in. We're hoping the extra energy will speed up the healing process."

"That's very convenient for you," and elderly teacher said.

"Excuse me?" Leila said with a hint anger.

"You show up and our headmistress miraculously falls into a coma. Then you say she wanted to bring all these men here. And to top it all off, here you are trying to take her place."

Leila didn't have to be told what was happening, she could see that a lot of the female teachers were believing what the elderly woman was saying.

"If you dont believe me, you can go and see for for yourselves. I can open a portal to Wolfenstein's school big enough for all of you, right now."

The elderly woman laughed. "As if I would trust your magic. That's probably what caused our headmistress coma."

"Then perhaps, one of you can use clairvoyance magic," Mr. Slum said. "Maybe someone you do trust, so that the results are to your liking."

"I'll do it myself. It is my specialty after all."

The elderly woman stood up. She said a few words in the language of Merlin and moved her hands in a elegant manner. Leila could see the experience in the way she moved her fingers. Though she didn't like her, Leila hoped that she could learn from the elderly woman.

When she was done, a window of energy opened, and an image came into to view. Rubble and black fire, covered every inch of the once prominent magic school for boys. Not a single building was left standing, and if it hadn't been for the broken fountain, Leila wouldn't even been sure they were looking at the right place. In the middle of the rubble, the tall black creature stood over Mr. Apex's broken and bloodied body. Huge lacerations cover every inch of him, and the blood red flames that had once surrounded him almost protectively, were now dying. A single red spark on his chest seemed to wane as his life force fled from his body. The black creature stomped on his chest, snuffing out the spark, and roared. Leila felt her head begin to throb even though no sound came from the window.

The elderly closed the window and sat back down. "Does anyone else still not believe me." When nobody said anything, she continued. "So where are we gonna put the boys, I need ideas."

A young woman in the back stood up. "Hi, im Mrs. Fume, I teach courses on reading and writing to grades first, and second. Since the dimensions teacher was one of those that left, we can't increase the size of the female dorms. So, we could use bunk beds and put four girls to a room. We do it with the first years so they get used to living without their parents. It helps them know they aren't alone. "

"That's a great idea," Leila said. She was glad they weren't arguing any more and finally moving on. "Mr. Slum, what were the boy's dormitories like at Wolfenstein's school?"

"They were the same as Mrs. Fume described," he said. "Though we did make sure that all four boys were all from different years. It gave the younger boys a chance to bond with kids older than themselves. A third of our students were orphaned when they started showing signs that they could use magic, because as some may know, those born with the ability to use magic are stronger for it."

"What about the non-magic students?" A teacher in the back said.

Leila had forgotten that the school taught both magic and non-magic students. "We'll give them a choice," Leila said. "We could use non harmful spells to activate their anomali energy. We could make a ceremony out of it. Like a coming of age thing."

All the male and female teachers were nodding in agreement, but one still seemed keen on taking them two steps back whenever they took one forward. "Next you'll be telling us we actually to have to teach these boys," the elderly woman from before said.

"Actually, that is what I was going to say next. The male and female students will be divided evenly among the male and female teachers. Any extra course taught at Wolfenstein's magic school will be added to the curriculum as an elective."

"What about necromancy?" A male teacher in the far back said.

The necromancy teacher wore leather robes and a leather mask around his face. The only peice of his body that wasn't concealed by leather was a finger that had no flesh or muscle tissue on it. It just a plain-white bone. "Seniors only," Leila said. "Let's go over it again. The girls will be put four to a room, each from a different year, and it will be the same for the boys. The students are to be divided among the male and female teachers, so until class rosters have been drawn up, classes are suspended. Any new courses being added, that could potentially harm the students, are for seniors only. Is there anything else? Does anyone have any ideas or opinions they want to voice?"

No one said anything, so Leila decided to say one more thing before the meeting was over. "Ok, besides the boys, there is one more student I'd like to enroll in some of yours classes. But, do to special circumstances stances, she wont be able to physically attend. She'll require special, one on one, lessons through a communication device. I know this might hinder some of your personal time, but I'm only asking this as a favor. So, if any of you can spare the time, please come and see me after we're done. Meeting adjourned."

After everyone had left, only one person remained. "Why can't she attend?" The elderly woman said.

"She's bound to my pocket dimension. I tried releasing her, but the guy who made the binding is, levels, smarter than me."

"I can teach her astral projection. It's a more advanced version of clairvoyance magic, so she'll need read the books on clairvoyance, one an two, not three, and if she can master that, she can attend classes without actually needing to be here."

"Thank you, thank you very much. You have know idea how much this means me."

"Its no problem at all. I know you mean well, but just know, if you try to do anything that goes against this school's moral code, my ancestors will hear about. I look forward to seeing how you'll run our school."

"What?"

"You didn't really think after you lead a meeting like that we wouldn't you in charge. Have a nice day Headmistress Leila."

#thechampions #excerpt from a story i'll never write #excerpt from a book i'll never write #entertainment #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #books #bookish #book writing #writers #writing #keep scrolling #author

1 note · View note

brightlycoloredteacups · 6 years ago

Text

As You Wish

Pairing: Ylva x Brynhilda

Series: In Another Life

Tagging: @anunhealthydoseofangst

Warnings: NSFW

It had been thrown about before, the words, “One should be married to their equal” and “You’re my rock.” Ylva had heard them many a times from her new family. They made her rather uncomfortable, for many reasons.

She looks up at her wife, Brynhilda. The most beautiful woman in all the world. She was most beautiful naked, in their bed, her black hair spread out on the pillows as her chest heaves as Ylva pleasures her. This was a close second.

Brynhilda sat straight on her throne, her done in an ornate braid, jewels sparkling in the fire light. Her face was stone, green eyes giving nothing away, their fingers were entwined. She cut such an imposing figure, struck fear into weak men’s hearts, made the strong doubt themselves. Gods, how Ylva loved this woman. How perfectly mismatched they were.

Brynhilda was perfection personified. She was always poised, unreadable. She always had a plan of action. She said the right things at the right time. She was smart, witty, cunning, strong. Stronger than a human had the right to be. Her father boasted it was the blood of Freyr running through her veins, you had only to look at her miraculous battlefield feats and understand this to be true.

Ylva was nothing compared to her. She was a small woman that had trouble walking. She never knew what to say, and often remained quiet. An ugly little thing with scars and twisted kneecaps, dumb as she was useless. Ylva longed to be nothing more than Brynhilda’s equal, but it was not meant to be. Ylva would always hold her wife back. Some days, she thought about leaving her wife, disappearing into the forest and never returning, but she couldn’t bear the thought of living without Brynhilda. Selfish of her, she knew, but she was a selfish woman.

The man finishes his request, and Brynhilda is silent for a moment. “I will consider Lagertha’s offer,” She says. The man, haughty over his appointment as the intermediary between Lagertha and Brynhilda says, “Don’t take too long, you know your queen doesn’t enjoy waiting.” At this, the grip on Ylva’s hand tightens. Upset on her wife’s behalf, Ylva snaps at him. “You would do well to remember that Brynhilda is a queen in her own right, and Lagertha is not her ruler.” Everyone in the room chuckles, even Brynhilda. “As I told you,” Brynhilda says, raising Ylva’s hand to give it a kiss, “I will consider Lagertha’s offer. You have room prepared for you. Mother?” A woman that looks so much like Brynhilda, with the exception of brown eyes, stands. “This way.” Camila says, leading the man from the room. Others shuffle out with her.

It’s Brynhilda’s brothers and father now that surround them, each one wearing the identical looks of anger. “We can’t go to war.” Her father says. “I know,” Brynhilda mutters. “We have to, or Lagertha may get it in her mind that we’re her enemies.” Brynki, the youngest son, and by far the wisest, advises. “I know.” Brynhilda says again, anger seeping into her tone. “But think of our people!” Brynjulfr the Compassionate says. “Get out!” She snaps, not wanting to hear this any longer. Her father and brothers know better than to argue with her. They shuffle from the room, closing the doors to the great hall behind them.

Brynhilda is up from her chair in an instant, pacing back and forth. She’s muttering to herself in her mother’s tongue, brows furrowed in worry. She stops, goes still suddenly, then let’s out a vicious growl before turning the Ylva. Her green eyes were ablaze. “My love,” Brynhilda says softly. “My love tell me what to do.” She kneels in front of Ylva, gripping her tiny hands in rough ones. “My queen, my reason for living, tell me what I should do. I’ll do it. I need guidance and I only trust you to guide me.” Ylva’s face flushes red. What could she possibly say?

“Brynhilda I-” she pauses, shaking her head. “Don’t tell me you’re as lost as I am love, you’ve always been the decision maker in our relationship.” Brynhilda rests her cheek on Ylva’s knee. “You always have an opinion. Please, I’m begging you, please,” Her voice cracks with emotion. Ylva’s heart goes out to her wife, ruling was difficult. Even in Brynhilda’s time of need, Ylva couldn’t help but think, was this the way Brynhilda really saw her?

Flushed and very pleased, Ylva is quiet for a long time, thinking it over. It wasn’t just about the resources, it was about the people too. Lagertha had brought them into battle after battle. The people were heart sick and wanted to be left to peace. But Brynhilda made a promise to serve Lagertha as faithfully as she could. Was destroying your own people worth it? “Our promise to our subjects is what matters the most,” Ylva says, speaking from her heart. “We need to look out for them first, and for everyone else second.”

Brynhilda lifts her head to look at her, green eyes shining. Love replaced the anger. “We don’t go to war.” Ylva says. “Yes,” Brynhilda mutters, “Yes, we don’t go to war.” She leans back up on her knees and pulls Ylva into a passionate kiss. It’s sloppy, more teeth than tongue, but it thrills Ylva. Brynhilda pulls back from her, breathe heavy. “My wise wife,” She murmurs. “the most beautiful woman to walk the earth.” Ylva whimpers at the praise, pressing another kiss to Brynhilda’s lips. “I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, but I need you so much.”

Brynhilda grabs the edges of Ylva’s dress and tugs harshly, tearing the fabric apart. Ylva gasps. Brynhilda immediately attacks Ylva chest, leaving love bites wherever her lips landed. “Brynie,” Ylva moans, latching onto Brynhilda’s dark hair. She’s so aroused she can’t even be mad at the dress. “Brynie, what if someone walks in and sees us?”

Brynhilda pulls back from a breast, making sure to drag her teeth over a nipple before letting go completely. “Then they will see a wife,” Brynhilda mutters, hiking up Ylva’s skirts. She places kisses to the twisted knee caps, rubbing the ache from the for a few moments. “eagerly pleasing her Queen.” Brynhilda kisses her way up Ylva’s thighs, throwing the blondes legs over her shoulders. “What will people say?” Ylva says, a little self-conscious. They’ve made love many places, in tents, battlefields, hell, right in front of everyone in their wedding night, but in the great hall…where anyone could see…

“People will say they are jealous of me, to have such a sweet and beautiful wife.” Brynhilda adjusts Ylva to the edge of the seat and gives her cunt a long, slow lick. Ylva leans back, moaning. “A strong wife, who’s survived much and yet retained her compassion. A wife who is intelligent, and loving, and giving.” Ylva’s legs begin to shake at the pleasure Brynhilda brings. The praise warms Ylva through, she doesn’t have time to wonder if Brynhilda is just speaking from her ass, she’s too pleased with how things are going.

Brynhilda falls silent as she busies herself in Ylva’s pussy. Ylva moans at the wet smacking noises coming from between her legs. The hungry grunts and tight grip never fail to make her feel wanted. It’s not long before Ylva’s hips are bucking into Brynhilda’s face, too concerned with chasing her pleasure than allowing Brynhilda to breathe.

Brynhilda comes out from underneath Ylva’s dress. Standing, she takes Ylva off her throne and settles on her own, Ylva sideways on her lap. She rips the rest of Ylva’s dress off, leaving her bare for all to see. “I want to see my wife writhe in pleasure.” Brynhilda says, running her fingers down Ylva’s belly, past the dark blonde thatch of hair, and straight into her cunt. Ylva moans. “I want my wife to cry and moan with pleasure.” Brynhilda slides her fingers from Ylva, circling the clit lazily. Ylva goes limp in Brynhilda’s strong arms, giving up to the pleasure.

It’s slow, torturous, and Ylva wants to scream with frustration, but she knows the end result will be worth it. All the while, Brynhilda is praising her wife. Telling her how beautiful she is, letting her know how much she loves her. It’s amazing, it’s almost too much, Ylva feels as though she’s going to break she’s wound so tight.

That familiar feeling of pleasure rushes through her. Shaking again with the force of it all, she clings to Brynhilda, whimpering words of love. When Ylva goes limp again, Brynhilda takes her fingers out and licks them clean. She shifts Ylva one more time. The blonde’s legs over either side of hers. The pressure on Ylva’s sensitive clit begs to be intensified. Brynhilda looks at her expectantly. This is a new position. “I don’t know what to do,” Ylva admits. “It’s ok my love,” Brynhilda whispers, smiling softly at her. “Let me show you.” She takes Ylva’s hips in hand, and pushes her back, then brings her forward. “Oh,” Ylva says, gripping her wife’s shoulder at the new sensation. “If you don’t like it, we can stop.” Brynhilda reminds her.

Ylva gives her hips an experimental roll. “Oh,” She says again, liking it very much. Brynhilda’s hands simply rest on her wife’s hips as Ylva sets her own pace, eager to see how this is going to play out. This time, Brynhilda is silent, intent on watching Ylva’s pleasure. “Can you do something for me my love?” Brynhilda whispers. “Anything,” Ylva stutters, barely registering the question. “Take a hand of yours and play with a breast for me.” Ylva follows her wife’s instructions automatically. This is also new, Brynhilda had never overtly told her what to do before. She can’t help herself but go along with it.

Ylva twists a nipple, whimpering. It’s so different doing it on your own. She hears Brynhilda growl. Looking up at her wife, Ylva is shocked to see so much lust there. She only get’s that look when there’s blood involved. Talk about motivation. Ylva slows her actions, exaggerates them. She feels emboldened by the lust in her wife’s eyes, she decided to put on a show.

It seems to be very effective. Brynhilda’s grip on Ylva’s hips tighten ever so slightly, and her breathing becomes heavier. “Finish Ylva,” she growls. Before Ylva can come up with a smart comment, Brynhilda leans in and kisses her deeply. “And don’t you dare think about teasing me. I’m going to have you, and no one is going to stop me.” Ylva giggles, excited at the prospects of being taken again and again by her lover. Ylva gives her one last, lingering kiss and says, “As you wish, your highness.”

#vikings #in another life #keeping promises x brynhilda's saga #ylva x brynhilda #oc x oc

11 notes · View notes

thecuriouscrusader · 7 years ago

Text

A Different Kind of Horror

Characters: Sam, Castiel, Dean, Gabriel

Pairings: Dean x Castiel

Word Count: 1667

Prompt: The Ring

Tags: Sam’s POV, Canon Divergence, Sexual References, Attempted Humour, Horror Movie References.

Summary: Sam finds a strange videotape that leads to (not really) unexpected discoveries.

A/N: Written for @uniquewerewolfsuit‘s Oh the Horror Challenge. This story did not end up were I thought it would so sorry it takes a really weird turn xD Not betad, so please let me know about any mistakes!

Sam had found the tape buried in a pile of documents which had been marked as classified. He had discovered plenty of film reels in the bunker before, but never a video tape. What made it more intriguing was the lack of a label or any other form of indication as to what was on it.

Sam took the tape to his brother's room.

"Dean, do you have a VCR?" He asked.

Dean, who was laid on his bed listening to music, looked at his brother with a frown.

"Why would I have a VCR?"

"I dunno. You have all your old crappy music on tapes; I figured it might be the same for your old crappy movies."

Dean's expression was stoic as he stared at Sam for a few moments before he got up and opened the cabinet underneath his TV. Sam smirked when he saw the VCR but Dean stomped out of the room before he could say anything.

Sam put in the tape and static immediately started ringing loudly from the TV.

The first image appeared to be a ring of light; like an eclipse. A series of disturbing and seemingly unrelated images followed. There was an empty chair, running water, and a ladder leaning on a wall. There was a women combing her hair, a figure stood in a window, and then the same woman falling off a cliff. There was a girl dressed in white with her head bowed low and her hair dripping wet. And then there was a well. Sam realised that's what the ring of light must have been; a shot from inside the well as it was covered over.

The video stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Sam frowned. He could not even begin to comprehend what the mismatch of images meant, but there was also something eerily familiar. The whole thing sent chills down his spine, and Sam thought there was little that could horrify him like that anymore.

He rewound the tape and started to watch it through again until he paused on the image of the young girl dressed in white.

"You" he murmured. "Why do I know you?"

He was distracted when his cell phone started ringing in his pocket. He looked at the caller ID and saw it was an unknown number, but he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

There were a few moments of chilling silence before a quiet voice spoke.

"Seven Days."

The line went dead.

"What the hell?" Sam murmured to himself.

He was having a strange feeling of deja vu but he could not figure out why. He quickly scrambled to his feet and opened the door; it was research time.

Sam opened the door quickly and was shocked to find a pair of blue eyes staring up at him. He jumped and let on an involuntary yelp.

"Jeez, Cas, you startled me" Sam breathed. The Angel had not been around for a few days so Sam was not expecting to see him.

Castiel frowned. "Why are you in Dean's room?"

"Uh, I was borrowing his VCR" Sam said. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Why do you want to be in Dean's room?"

Castiel started back at him blankly for a few moments. "I wanted to tell him I've arrived" he decided on. He was quick to change the subject. "What were you doing with the videocassette recorder?"

"I found this tape whilst I was sorting through one of the rooms and...well it didn't make any sense but it was really creepy."

"What was the contents?" Castiel asked curiously.

"It was just a bunch of random images that didn't really seem to connect, but there was this girl and I swear I've seen her before. I just can't remember where I saw her. It was probably whilst I was doing research, but I don't remember which lore she belongs to."

"This...girl, what did she look like?" Castiel pressed.

"Well, I couldn't see her face but she had long black hair, which was wet I think, and she was wearing a white gown."

"Did anything else of significance happen?"

"Yeah, actually. I got a phone call from an unknown number, but all they said was seven days, and then they hung up. I mean, I guess it could have been Dean being a jackass."

"May I watch the tape?" Castiel requested. "Alone."

"Uh...I don't think-"

Castiel slipped passed Sam before the younger Winchester could protest.

Sam went outside and closed the door. He paced the hallway impatiently as he waited for Cas to come out.

"Well?" Sam asked as soon as the Angel emerged. "What do you think?"

"I think I shouldn't be surprised" Castiel deadpanned as he headed down the hall.

"What?" Sam frowned as he followed after him. "Cas, what are you-"

They went into the library and found Dean sat at the table eating his breakfast; he could not seem to care less about what had Sam looking so freaked, but that was expected as he had not finished his pancakes yet and Dean had a strict policy about not having to deal with anything until after breakfast.

Castiel's phone started ringing and he answered it immediately.

"I'm giving you one chance to stop this" Castiel said sternly. Sam could only watch in a mixture of confusion and awe.

"Seven days."

"Yes, that is exactly how long you will have to survive if you do not show yourself this instant" Castiel replied coldly. He hung up.

"Cas, what..? Who..?" Sam stammered.

"The tape seemed familiar to you because it is from a horror film called The Ring" Castiel stated. "That's why you've seen the girl before."

Sam frowned as he thought back and then his eyes widened with realisation. "It was Halloween in my first year of college. We didn't feel like going to a party so we watched movies instead, but I don't remember much because we were drinking and smoking a...brisket" he ended cautiously with a glance at his brother.

Dean stared back at him. "Must have been one damn tasty brisket to make you forget stuff" he said sarcastically. "You're grounded."

"De-" Sam started to argue, but then realised he did not care. "How did you know about the movie, Cas?" He asked instead.

"Metatron provided me with the whole history of popular culture" Castiel reminded him.

"What about the phone calls?" Sam asked.

"That was not Dean being a...jackass" Castiel said with air quotes. Dean made an indignant noise in response as his mouth was stuffed with pancakes. "But rather, someone else being a jackass."

Sam frowned. "Who?"

"Who is the one being you know who enjoys torturing you by bringing fictional things into your reality?"

"Well, Gabriel but..."

"But he's dead!" A voice called mockingly from down the hall. Gabriel appeared with his unforgettable smirk in place. "Ain't that right, Samsquatch?"

"Gabriel" Sam deadpanned.

"Why'd you blow my cover, Cassie?" The trickster sulked. "I didn't even get to make the girl crawl out of the TV screen."

"I've heard about and seen the pain you've inflicted on Sam with your ridiculous pranks" Castiel scolded. "I wasn't going to let you do it again."

"How'd you get in here?" Dean asked angrily as he stood up to join them.

"You forgot to put the Angel warding back up last night after your let your boyfriend in for you sleepover, Dumbo. Probably because you were only thinking with your downstairs brain.”

"Oh..." Dean murmured. "My bad."

"Cas, I thought you just got here this morning?" Sam asked.

"Dean told me to lie if you asked any questions which could lead to you discovering the truth" Castiel explained. "And I am not Dean's boyfriend" he said to Gabriel. "As Dean explained we are something called friends with benefits."

"Cas" Dean hissed. "Shut up."

"I cannot believe this-" Sam said despairingly as he ran his hands down his face.

"Excuse me!" Gabriel cut in. "But how on earth can my baby bro and this bozo boning be more horrifying to you than the fact that I'm freakin' alive?! This was supposed to be my moment" he pouted.

"Ok, A, we've thought that you've been dead several times before so this really isn't as shocking as you had hoped" Sam pointed out. "And B, finding out that my brother and my best friend have been having sex just down the hall from me is way more horrifying than whatever you could have planned.”

“Trust me, it was no horror show” Dean said with a smug smirk. He pointed his fist at Cas for the angel to bump, but Castiel just frowned and shook it instead.

“I do not want to know the details” Sam stressed. “But, why didn’t you tell me you were together?”

“Because I knew you’d get your panties in a bunch” Dean replied.

“I’m not mad that you’re together, I’m mad that you kept it a secret when I thought we agreed no more secrets!”

“That only applies if one of us is in danger” Dean said.

“We use a safe word to ensure that won’t happen” Castiel added.

“Oh my god” Dean groaned despairingly.

“Don’t you bring dad into this!” Gabriel warned. “We have enough drama going on right now, most of which should have been caused by my miraculous return!”

“Enough!” Sam exclaimed. “Dean, Cas, I am really happy for you guys but I also don’t ever want to hear another word about it. Gabriel, I have very mixed feelings about you being alive and I have questions, but we will talk later. Okay, I’m going back to bed.”

“Can I come with?” Gabriel smirked. “Since our brothers are doing it maybe you and I could-”

“No!” Sam and Dean exclaimed simultaneously.

Gabriel rolled his eyes.

“Well I can only stay for a couple of weeks” he said. “I got reasons for being back, you know.”

“Later” Sam whined as walked down the hall.

He was going to use those seven days to recover.

#oh the horror challenge #team free love #destiel #supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #spn writing challenge #my stuff #curious writes

13 notes · View notes

bulldogedition · 5 years ago

Text

Hold the cue cards! The Eagle has landed!

As America quietly--and we mean quietly--marked the 50th anniversary of the moon landing this week, TIME magazine decided to use nostalgia for its cover story on the topic.. Back when the moon was the hot location to get to, when John Kennedy's promise of landing a man on the moon during the 60s ended with Richard Nixon's Administration celebrating it, and back when they were relevant as a weekly, they featured a 'race to the moon!' article a few months prior to the famed event..

This year on the 50th, they are placed a "next space race" re-do with SPACE X as the main racer.. Business taking over!!

Things have changed since then, obviously.. The ole-timers who lived through this event tell me that the world stopped in its tracks to watch coverage on TV of the moon landing.. The wiser elders of today inform me of the emotions of that time, the amazement and bewilderment so many had as they watched history being made in real time.. on TV sets--a new medium for so many in that era..

Even the Brits did it their way across the pond.

BBC mounted programming to celebrate the great event. One of the shows featured a live jam by Pink Floyd. The program was a one-hour BBC1 TV Omnibus special with the whimsical title of So What If It’s Just Green Cheese?. It was broadcast on July 20, 1969, at 10 p.m.. The Floyd session eventually came to be called “Moonhead.”

TV GUIDE issued a cover story at the time cementing history: As major a worldwide television event as you can get.. Broadcast live not from our planet but from a satellite of it, the moon..

Children across America watched one small step for man became the giant leap for mankind, and turned to space .. they wanted to be astronauts when they grew up. Neil Armstrong became an American hero--looked up to by countless around the planet..

It was America's moment, the shining example of how WE could make it.. how WE could strive for more.. how WE could get to the moon and maybe one day beyond.

MALAISE DAYS

That brief but albeit amazing American moment of being the first to plant an earthly flag on a desolate space dwelling wore off quickly.

About 50,000+ deaths in Vietnam, Watergate, the Manson murders in Cali, high gas prices, inflation, and other world wide events suddenly forced people into a corner where pride and patriotism was not as evident.. Where we lost our focus on leaving this planet.

Instead, we decided to stay, and fight.. and argue.. Burn bras and protest war!

There was economic turmoil and other vastly amazing and historic moments of political upheaval.. whether it was Richard Nixon resigning before impeachment, or a sweater-wearing Jimmy Carter telling the nation to conserve its energy, it all led to the Reagan Revolution.

He indeed paid for that microphone and he intended on using it..

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd_KaF3-Bcw&w=935&h=701]

PATRIOTISM UP IN SMOKE

President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on January 28, 1986, hours after classrooms and media across the nation watched the Challenger explode on LIVE TV..

He called it a national loss.. He said during that broadcast, "I want to say something to the school children of America... I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the faint hearted. It belongs to the brave."

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa7icmqgsow&w=935&h=701]

There seemingly something about this moment that killed the dreams of space.. The malaise 70s turned into roaring decade of greed in the 80s, and somehow we trashed the notion that space mattered.

By the 1990s, a decade when miraculous and amazing discoveries were being found on Mars and other moons of Saturn, we continued just finding ourselves finding space to be the frontier not worth mentioning..

George W. Bush had a similar moment when he addressed the nation in 2003 when the Columbia exploded after mission control lost contact.. Debris fell from the skies above Texas as the Columbia was lost without survivors..

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT5ecjjXdqw&w=1218&h=685]

And now, 50 years after the moon landing moment, even the business SpaceX cannot get attention unless one of its rockets blows up on the way to the Van Allen Belt.

TAPES AND LEGACIES DESTROYED

I mentioned before the ole' timers.. those who lived through the decade of revolution.. As an 80s child, I only can contemplate the death of space exploration. .When I was just 5, I may or may not have known of the Challenger horror.. when I was growing up in the 90s, my love of space was not because of NASA exploration but instead because of my healthy diet nightly of staying awake late to listen to Art Bell expose and expand on potential alien life and UFO sightings around the world.. But my interviews of those who lived through the live stream -- the true live stream during the 60s of the event -- produce another interesting side effect of the moon landing: I am told the youth of that day were glued to TV sets, but the older Americans had disbelief in what they were seeing..

Hogwash! Man on the moon!? No way!

Perhaps this is where conspiracy theories were formed.. This could be the beginning times when people just could not believe their eyes.. It was all too perfect a story. Kennedy promised men on the moon before the end of the decade. And suddenly at the end of the decade we were going to the moon, safely on LIVE TV for the world to watch, land then leaving the moon without incident, arriving back at home.. all without injury. All without a situation. Without a disaster...

Also destroyed.. a legacy? This was reported last year:

US astronaut Buzz Aldrin is suing two of his children and his former business manager alleging they stole money from him and are slandering his legacy.

The lawsuit, which also claims they are stopping him from getting married, was filed after his children petitioned to take control of his finances.

They asked a judge to name them as his legal guardians because he is suffering from memory loss and confusion.

HOAX OR NO

There is still a large amount of people (and actually growing if you see popular opinion polls and compare throughout time) that do not think we actually were on the moon. Some real events may not have helped the NASA defenders over the years..

Back in 2009, media reports told us that Nasa taped over its only high-resolution images of the first moon walk with electronic data from a satellite or a later manned space mission, officials said today So the most historic event in the agency ever, and someone they managed to record something else over it to save money.. huh!?

Stories like that don't help...

Rumors like this don't help either: Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' was released 11 years after the first landing on the moon. In that movie, Danny Torrance - played by child actor Danny Lloyd - is seen wearing a knitted jumper with an Apollo 11 rocket on its front. In the scene where Danny first encounters Room 237, he is seen playing on carpet that it is said to resemble an aerial photograph of the launchpad of Apollo 11.. When Danny picks up the tennis ball, which is supposed to represent the hoax itself, he then enters Room 237 and comes out of it attacked and bruised. Later, in the climax of the movie, Jack Torrance - played by Jack Nicholson - screams and raves about the responsibility that's been placed on him, and that he has signed a contract to maintain the hotel and that he is responsible for holding its secrets.

The interpretation asserts that 'The Shining' was, in part, Kubrick trying to confess his role in the moon landing, from the carpets up to Jack Nicholson's crazed rants acting as Kubrick's vented frustrations.

youtube

Stanley Kubrick's daughter was forced to push back against this in 2016..

Also this.. There was a viral video that was released on the internet where Buzz Aldrin was attending the National Book Fest in Washington DC and was being interviewed by an eight-year-old girl named Zoey.

Zoey asked the astronaut: “Why has nobody been to the Moon in such a long time?”

Aldrin’s eyes grow wide in the video and he says to the little girl:

“We didn’t go there, and that’s the way it happened. And if it didn’t happen, it would be nice to know why it didn’t happen.”

Some have even claimed to see NASA being sloppy and forgetting to censor buildings appearing in moon footage..

And just on Friday night, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis featured this as the topic for the program.. and also included a strange clip of the astronauts joking to mission control about cue cards and stage hands!!

Mission Control to Neil Armstrong: Is Buzz Holding the cue cards for you… over?

Neil Armstrong: Cue cards have a no. We have no intention of competing with the professionals believe me.

Unidentified voice: yea Ron’s getting to be known as the silent CAPCOM. (unintelligible) OK.

Buzz Aldrin: The only problem Charlie, these TV stagehands don’t know where they stand.

Mission Control: Well he doesn’t really have a union card there we really can’t complain too much I guess.

Neil Armstrong: Hey the restraints here are doing a great job of pulling my pants down.

x x x

NAZI CONNECTION

There are tons of questions that people will constantly ask about whether the moon landing REALLY happened in space or in front of TV cameraman somewhere on some elaborate set directed by Stanley Kubrick..

If you side with the conspiracy theory that the landing was a hoax, suspend your disbelief for a moment and believe.. because there is a whole other conspiracy theory/fact for your enjoyment..

Filmmaker Aron Ranen got a grant for $65,000.. He got this grant in order to travel across the USA to interview former astronauts, mission controllers, scientists and others, in an attempt to prove that NASA actually sent men to the moon in 1969.

But instead of proving it was real, he was left with countless questions over whether it really happened.. His movie, MOONHOAX, is available for free download on YouTube and other platforms..

Along with the questions that persist whether it was real or not, Ranen asked some other question. If it was real, the set of facts that presents itself may be much more discomforting..

In the documentary, one of the Apollo mission’s few black employees reveals that the Ku Klux Klan operated openly at the Kennedy Space Center during the ’60s.

And more: A retired tracking engineer said that Nazi scientists helped the U.S. test hydrogen bombs in the South Pacific during the ’50s. This was a claim substantiated by recently declassified documents.

A former slave laborer recalls esteemed rocket scientist Wernher von Braun overseeing huge forced-labor camps in Germany during World War II (true).

And, finally, it turns out that all the basic data taped during the Apollo 11 mission has been misplaced--something confirmed in 2009 by NASA itself as we talked about earlier.

For your discernment, all the uploaded segments of MOONHOAX featuring some of the hard to stomach facts that Nazis helped the United States get to the moon, with one allegation that Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon because he was a German, and Nazis assisting the US get there wanted it that way..

PUNCH DRUNK

50 years on... 50 years later. We have not really been back since....

We have been stalled here on this planet. A planet filled with war and mayhem. Instead of reaching for the stars we are just forced to continue grasping at straws that something will change..

If the moon landing really even happened to begin with.

And on that note, we will end with Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. When he was approached about the factual matters of the moon landing several years ago, he had an interesting response..

Back in 2002, Buzz was approached by a moon landing denier.. Aldrin decided to take action..

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_YM9cCtwz4&w=1218&h=685]

It would have been the punch heard around the world.. but after decades since 1969, everyone stopped listening.

#nasa #moon landing #moon landing hoax #pop culture

0 notes

bitchfromtheseventhhell · 8 years ago

Note

AU where Nymeria didn't come soon enough and Joffrey maimed (murdered?) Arya. What would've happened? How do you think the story would proceed?

well this ask is sure a punch to the gut so thanks for that.

but after that initial punch, i had fun with this. my goal was to keep major strokes of the plot largely the same but to justify them with different characterizations that precipitate from this different scenario.

this is also long bc i had fun so i’m putting it under a cut

trident:

arya:

first thing’s first--i’m not killing arya. sorry will not will never.

so let’s assume some maiming of some sort. joffrey’s got live steel and is swinging it, so my guess is he’d hit either her arm or her abdomen.

if abdoment, i’m going to assume a not deep strike/miraculously misses internal organs swipe--but one that bleeds a lot and one also that takes a while to recover from.

if arm or leg, there’s going to be muscle damage depending on where he strikes. in any case--how that would affect her permanently i’m not sure.

ned:

look ned was super fucked up by arya’s disappeareance to begin with after she fled the scene, my guess is he’s going to be even more fucked up by the fact of her being physically attacked. can you imagine arya being brought back somehow covered in blood and the lyanna flashbacks he would have been having? (especially if, given that arya disappeared for several days in canon, he may have already have been having lyanna flashbacks). he’s really not going to be ok with any of this.

while he can’t call for anything bad to happen to joffrey, i wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if he told robert he wouldn’t be hand, and then had robert cajole him back into it; i think he would likely break sansa’s betrothal to joffrey as well, or at least say that he was considering breaking it pending joffrey’s further behavior. i think he’d want to believe that “children fight” but i don’t think he’d be willing to accept that “children fighting” = joffrey turning live steel on his daughter.

if they continue to king’s landing, my guess is that guilt would wrack him a whole heck of a lot. if they turn back north, it’d probably be the same. ned carries guilt really intensely. for the sake of this au, i think they continue on south.

sansa:

sansa’s whole drunken experience on the banks of the trident is already 12 times of overwhelm for her. agot sansa--and agot-sansa-i-sansa which oh hey here she is!--especially is someone who does everything she can to believe that things are good, right, fair, just, perfect, etc. so there are two options for her witnessing joffrey swing and hit her sister with a sword:

blame arya for it--if she hadn’t gotten in the way and had just come to the wheelhouse with sansa the way sansa had wanted everything would have been fine.

be immediately disillusioned by joffrey--seeing him for the cruel boy he is.

i lied there’s a third option which is some combination of the two but

i, personally, am leaning option 2 laced with option 3 but really more option 2 than anything else: why? because lady’s still alive coming out of all this since it was nymeria who attacked joffrey and if nymeria didn’t attack joffrey both wolves get to stick around. since so much of the lady’s death symbolism is connected with the way that sansa engages with the truth and reality (among other things) but if lady’s alive that is a literal game changer for like all of sansa’s characterization. i def think it’s gonna be a “dragged kicking and screaming” kind of thing for sansa (see: secret option 3 maybe transitioning towards option 2), but i think it’s a major shock to the system: her perfect prince almost killed her sister because she tried to get him not to beat someone up. like imagine nymeria snuggling and being all protective of sickbed arya the way that summer is of bran, and lady keeping them company because pack!!!!!! and suddenly you’re going to have a very different world experience for sansa within a game of thrones because her wolf is choosing her pack for her and is not being severed from her symbolically or literally. that’s a big deal.

let’s say that sansa’s betrothal is on hold. let’s also remember that both lady and nymeria are alive and still with the party at hand.

lannisters/baratheons of a lannister vibe:

my guess is that cersei’s furious with ned to begin with and believes whatever it is that joffrey tells her.

i think joffrey, knowing he’s in deep shit, lies, and does a lot of blaming of arya, saying his same story that she and mycah set upon him with clubs. i think he sticks to this story.

because of this it’s likely that mycah is killed still. which means that arya’s likely going to still blame herself for the whole situation; the difference is that i think that she’s more likely to get support from sansa out of this because lady’s alive and a lot of sansa’s lash-out was about lady’s death.

i bet nymeria’s not thrilled with joffrey, but stays close to arya (playing more defense) and i bet lady growls every time he lies and, as septa mordane points out, sansa’s “as willfull...as arya” when it comes to lady. and while i do think she may well play that “i don’t remember everything happened so fast” card when people ask her what happened, i think that 1) ned being livid and potentially freezing her betrothal to joffrey and 2) lady growling all the time will keep the situation real for her.

but i think that there’s still a lotttt of love lost between lannisters & starks heading into king’s landing. it’s got a different flavor to it.

king’s landing (and beyond):

ned:

i think, for the most part, ned’s political actions and moves are going to be similar. he’s going to have a lot more open hostility for lannisters earlier on, but is also going to need to play it cool. he’s also going to be tetchier with robert sooner (which may mean no hand’s tourney? since robert doesn’t want to alienate him and ned can really push down on that “your son attacked my daughter” thing.) i think he is likely going to follow littlefinger down the road to hell as he does in agot, and is likely going to rat himself out to cersei, and is going to get iced. i don’t think this will change in its grander arc though details of it will change. the nature of his need to comfort arya will be different because nymeria will be there and she’ll be recovering from injury. syrio might be more of an active “self defense for the daughter” and less a “welp my dad was a dick to lyanna so i guess i won’t be a dick to you and get you a teacher” move.

sansa:

i think things will be rocky with joffrey for always. i mean they’re rocky in sansa ii (when the hound walks her back and freaks her out; this might not happen in this au bc chances are lady’s enough of a guard for sansa, if the tourney happens which as i said maybe it doesn’t), but i think sansa’s wary of him because she has seen his violence and has had to live with the ramifications of it rather than being able to compartmentalize them away and blame arya for lady’s death. i think it takes a long time (as mentioned above) for her to wrap her head around this, but it’s a very intense “life is not a song” thing for her earlier than it happens in canon. my guess is that, rather than getting meaner to arya as time progresses as she does in agot, she’ll get easier with arya. if life’s not a song, then she’s not “a lady in a song” at least not the way she thought she was at the start of the series and--lbr here--i think the fact that lady and nymeria are both present is going to drastically change the way that they engage because even if arya and sansa argue--which they will. as i said this characterization is different but that doesn’t mean that what we started with goes out the window--the wolves are pack and i think that’s an odd point of clarity for both of them amidst the “wtf is going on” that is 1) king’s landing and 2) pre-pubescence on sansa’s part coupled with the privilege she has of being the elder sister and the conventionally beautiful one.

i think that “shit hits the fan” moment is going to be different for sansa’s character more than for what happens. i don’t think she nec goes and tells on ned when he says he’s sending the girls north; this doesn’t change anything. she and jeyne are held hostage; jeyne is sold to littlefinger; sansa has lady with her.

i hate saying this: i think lady isn’t going to survive king’s landing. there’s no fucking way she doesn’t attack anyone who tries to hurt sansa, even if she’s the most docile wolf, and i think the first time she tries it ends her life. this, like ned’s death, is going to be deeply traumatic for sansa, esp if wolf-dreams began happening for sansa.

to me, the timing and the nature of that death for lady is everything. lady being killed in defense of sansa, rather than as collateral damage for something she didn’t do changes both sansa’s relationship with her death (ie she’s gonna hate lannisters even more intensely than she already did, and it’s going to be unequivocal, rather than her periodically blaming arya for it) and the symbolic nature of it. it’s not ned giving lady a northern death, and changing drasitcally the nature of sansa’s connection with the north and with her stark identity--it’s reinforcing i think, given everything that’s going on. they killed her daddy, they killed her wolf (and lbr here preliminary wolf-dreams are likely here which means ugh with lady dying), joffrey attacked arya, this is bad news bears. i think she’s terrified of all this, but i think lady has a deeper influence (and she already has a deep one tbh) on sansa and rolling forward i think that just changes the nature of her growth.

this puts sansa’s situation--if not her characterization--back in line with canon.

arya:

first of all hi please imagine arya carrying needle with her always instead of keeping it hidden in her room because she’s scared but doesn’t want to be scared so she keeps needle with her because it reminds her of jon and if she has needle and nymeria she won’t be afraid.

because getting maimed with live steel will make her frightened but she’s determined not to be frightened but, being 9, she is frightened.

she throws herself into her syrio lessons. i think that--given nymeria’s proximity--it’s possible that those’ll help kick off her wolf-dreams even sooner than canon because a lot of his teachings involve focus and mindfulness which is a lot of what jojen’s trying to get bran to do when he’s controlling summer; also given the sheer power of arya’s warg/skinchanging capacity hell yeah nymeria’s presence is gonna kick that off sooner.

the challenge we hit with arya is going to be the same challenge we hit with lady: nymeria’s presence is gonna be tricky to navigate when shit hits the fan. part of how arya is able to escape king’s landing is that she is able to hide and be a streetrat for a few days; that’s gonna be tricky when she’s got a direwolf. the main solutions to that i’m coming up with are:

she does the rock throwing thing now rather than at the trident. i think this is unlikely but it’s possible.

she has better control over her wolf than she expects and is able to get nymeria out of the city somehow. this also feels unlikely, more for the “while i think arya may have some control over nymeria, i don’t think it’s this much control” sort of way.

the most likely is: that you have the goldcloaks finding the wolf, nymeria beasting the shit out of them because i have a sense that they’re freaked out by her and also she’s the literal head bitch in charge of this series, and escaping the city on her own. i don’t think she goes far--the kingswood maybe at least initially?--but that leaves arya on her own so she can conveniently get picked up by yoren after ned’s beheading and then get boosted from the city.

what i think this means is that nymeria’s never toooooo far from arya. i think that she’s wary of those around arya, but arya’s dreams have her “safe” and so maybe as arya’s making her way north, nymeria is doing the same. i don’t think that nymeria is able to go and be at arya’s side again, but i think that--like in canon where she’s kinda helping arya out--she’s never toooo far, and does start her whole pack-building project.

tbh i think in asos they’d reunite??? which would change up arya’s going to braavos bc i don’t think she would if she had nymeria i bet she’d brave the wild and try to walk north to jon.

ok i’m tired and vaguely pleased with this upon a reread so i hope this all makes sense!

#anonymous #arya #sansa #ned #stark #au #Anonymous

55 notes · View notes

yeomangamer · 6 years ago

Text

Dusty Skirmishes Chapter 5

Her first day back in Tatooine, Luke laid the contract out in front of her at the dining table. Five signatures out of the eight allotted were present, and Leia clasped her hands over it, thanking God for everything.

“How many people?”

“1,078. Strike that, 77. Old Bossk passed away last night.”

She took ahold of his hand, gripping it tightly. “We did it.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet, sister. I’m on my way to tell the other leaders, and we’ll head to Naboo first thing tomorrow.”

“May I come along?” she begged. He hadn’t let her come to meet the other towns, partly for her safety and saying he needed her to stay in Yavin as a gesture of goodwill to Mara. Though Leia wasn’t convinced that he didn’t use her as an excuse to visit Madame Ahsoka’s. Not for the girls, but for the owner.

“Sure, looking like it’ll just be the two of us, sister.”

She frowned slightly. “Mr. Solo and Chewie won’t be joining us?” He, Mr. Solo, had visited her a handful of times in Yavin, all under the guise of “checkin’ on her,” but Leia wasn’t sure of his real intentions.

Luke bit his lip and shook his head. “No.” He sat down next to, a concerned look on his face. “I don’t know how much they’ll be around, Leia.”

She looked down and back up at him. “Are they alright?”

“Oh, they’re fine. Han got a tip that someone in Takodana may have recovered most of Jabba’s steers, and he’s looking to acquire them so he could buy back his freedom.”

Leia’s face fell and she tried to jump up, but Luke held her down. “It’s not safe, it’s going to go wrong. How is he going to buy all those steers? It’s some sort of a trap, I’m sure of it.”

“Leia, calm yourself. Han has assured me its an old friend of his. It’ll be fine, I assure you.”

Leia was not convinced. “We must go after him.”

“After the business with the town, we will. Alright? We’ll stop by in Takodana on the way back from Naboo, you have my word. We have to pass through to change horses regardless.”

That settled her down, but not by much. “Why not find him on our way there?”

“I would prefer not to get sidetracked on our way there. We’ll pass through, and if we see him, we see him. But we won’t worry until we’re on our way back.”

She was about to argue when there was a frantic knocking at the door. Luke ran to the door to see Wedge standing there. He exclaimed that several men had come into town and were headed for the mayor’s office. Luke ran out, instructing Wedge to stay there with Leia.

Leia paid no mind, grabbing her hat off the peg as she rushed past Wedge.

“You’re going to have to keep up to stay with me, Wedge,” she called out as he tried to grab her. She chased after Luke, with Wedge following close behind. She ran all the way to the town meeting hall and into the mayor’s office.

A big man had a gun pointed at the mayor as he signed a document.

“What are they doing, who are they?” she whispered to Luke.

He cursed under his breath when he saw her. “You should’ve stayed home.”

“You’d save a lot of breath not telling me to do things. What is Ackbar signing?”

“An agreement to be annexed by Scarif as a representative of Tatooine.”

She also cursed under her breath. “We were so close. Why must our hard work come to nothing?”

“Hush. The war ain’t over yet, sister.”

Ackbar handed the pen back to the stranger with a gun. The man chuckled. “Thanks pard. It’s a pleasure doing business with you. I feel this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, boys. Don’t you agree?” A collective laugh came up as he moved away, nodding to Luke and Leia.

“Good sir, if I may have a word.” Ackbar stood, red-faced as ever. The man stopped and turned back, a smile on his face as he chewed his tobacco.

“I ask only that you listen to my warning and heed it. This way, your way, of life is dying, and the days when you can point a gun at someone and get your way are numbered.”

The man shrugged. “It worked today.” He tipped his hat and walked out with his goons.

Ackbar sighed and slumped in his chair, the color draining from his face. Leia rushed over to him and embraced him.

“You had no choice, they would’ve killed you,” she told him.

He chuckled and patted her arm. “It’s been a good run, Leia.”

“It may not be over yet,” Luke said, holding up the paperwork. “You reckon we could get this to Naboo before those bastards in Scarif get there?”

Leia stood still for a second, then ran out. “Wedge! We’re going to need the wagon a might sooner than we’d thought!”

The sabacc table was calling him, he knew it. But Chewie had grabbed his arm and shook his head when the waiting had gotten to him. He had figured one game couldn’t hurt anybody, and he could maybe walk into this deal with some real money, not the small sum Luke had loaned him.

“I’m sorry it isn’t more,” he had told Han, not looking at him.

“I can’t take this from you, kid.” He didn’t know what made him say it. A younger him would’ve taken it and run. He almost scoffed at that thought, younger him wouldn’t stolen it from Luke a long time ago.

“Take it before I change my mind. As a thank you for helping me save the town.” He’d clapped Han on the shoulder. “Take care of yourself, Han.”

He’d nodded, and left. On the way to Takodana with Chewie besides him, he wondered whether he might come back if this somehow miraculously worked. He’d be a free man. Free to join another cattle train, or try and make it in Hoth territory. A small voice in his head grew to a scream: or he could buy some land, marry, and settle down. He tried not to think about it, but the thought kept coming back all the way to Takodana. Where would he go? Civilization was budding Tatooine, and he’d burned that garden down a long time ago. A pair of dark eyes under a wide-brimmed hat and a dusty dress flooded the vision in his mind’s eye. He imagined coming into a cabin he’d built on a tract of land all his own and she’d be- He stopped that thought right before it could grow further.

“Hey Chewie.” The Wookie warrior grunted, keeping his eyes on the road. “How does Hoth territory sound after this?”

[“My ancestors always warned the dangers of crossing the mountains.”]

“Yeah, well, they’re dead, aren’t they?”

[“No thanks to your people.”]

“You’re my only people, Chewie.”

Chewie grunted in disbelief and Han scoffed.

“What, them?” Han made a gesture back in the direction of Tatooine. “Those aren’t my people.”

[“But you want them to be.”]

Han scoffed. “I don’t know where you get your ideas from.”

[“I think it is time to stop running.”]

“What’re you, scared? I’ll get us out there, no problem. When have I ever steered you wrong?”

Chewie cursed in his native tongue, and Han couldn’t quite make out if he had said he was going to shoot him or if he had to cough.

Chewie’s look when he held Han back from the sabacc table said everything. Don’t run, for once in your life, finish what you start.

Finally Maz came down from her hiding place, squinting at the two of them. She gestured at them to follow her. They sat a table in the back.

“Maz, it’s good to see you again,” Han told her, smiling. She ran her hand along Chewie’s arm, and he jumped back. He cursed at her in his native Shryiiwook. “He says it’s good to see you.”

“I know what he said, Solo.” She spoke to him in his language, and he recoiled back at her words.

[“Dust bitch, I hope you burn!”]

“Now, now, Chewie, that ain’t no way to talk to a lady,” Han chastised, pulling his friend back as Maz blew kisses to him. “A lovely place you’ve got here, Maz.”

She snapped her attention back to him, almost as if she remembered why they were here. “Cut it, Solo,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “I assume you’re here for Jabba’s property.”

“How much?”

“Well, I recovered 24 of the suckers, at 100 a head that makes 2,400 credits.”

Han whistled. The kid didn’t give him nearly as much. “I’ll give you 25 a head.”

She laughed. “Why would I cut you such a deal?”

Han shrugged. “For old times’ sake?”

“We never had any old times. You stayed the night and lost too much at sabacc back before those wonderful, sweet men in Scarif took over, but I see ten of those every week.”

“Then for charity. You’d be saving my life.”

She scoffed. “I’d be saving nothing then. How many years you got left steer-driving? Five tops?”

Han’s jaw dropped. “I’ve got plenty o’ years left under my belt and I’m good for plenty more than steer-drivin’.”

She laughed, but then quietened down. She seemed to think of something. “Tell you what, Han. I’ll cut you a deal. 50 a head.”

Han blinked and then laughed. “You got it, Maz. I won’t-”

“That’s not the end of it.” His face fell. “50 a head, and I want in.”

He was confused, he looked at Chewie, who shrugged. “Want in on what, Maz?”

She was whispering now, looking over her shoulder. “The deal you’ve got in Tatooine.”

He leaned in, also whispering. “What deal in Tatooine?”

She sighed. “The deal you’ve got with the other towns to get away from those Imperial thugs in Scarif. I want in on it.”

“Imperial, what?”

Maz looked surprised. “You don’t know?” Han and Chewie shook their heads. Maz looked around and leaned in even further. “They run this whole operation, the Imperial Company.”

“They’re the ones behind Scarif?”

Maz nodded. “They founded the damn town. It’s common knowledge around here ‘cause they don’t care who knows it when they’ve already won. Some folks say that first they’re going for the towns out here in the West, then Alderaan, then the Republic, and then, who knows, maybe the world.” This information was swirling around Han, he had to sit back. “Han, Han, you alright? You don’t look good.” Luke and Leia, he had to warn them.

He bolted up. “Chewie, pay her and get the steers to Jabba.”

“Where are you going?”

“I forgot something back in Tatooine!” He started to make his way to the front.

“Han Solo, get back here or the deal’s off!”

“Then I guess I’ll see you in Hell, Maz!” He pushed through the crowd, and into the outside. He ran for his horse when he heard a voice calling out his name.

“Are you ok?” He looked to see his prayers answered, Luke and Leia on a wagon. He ran up to them.

“What are you doing-” He shook his head. “Never mind that, the Imperial Company. They’re the ones behind Scarif. They founded the town, they’re trying to take over!”

“We were just served annexation papers,” Leia told him. She held up an envelope. “We’ve got to get these to Naboo before they get there.”

“If what you’re saying is the truth, I’ve got to get back to Tatooine,” Luke exclaimed. “Han, take the papers and head there as quick as you can.”

Leia started to climb down as Han reached for the papers. “I’m coming with you!”

“You’ll only slow him down, just give him the papers, Leia!” Luke exclaimed, reaching for her while trying to keep ahold of the reigns.

“What’ll I do back home? Sit at home and wait for you two to take care of everything? No, I’m going to take these here papers to Naboo, and Han is going to take me there!” By that time she was down from the wagon and was gripping onto Han.

He groaned and lifted her onto his horse. “Dammit, sweetheart! Why do you always have to make everything so complicated?” He jumped up behind her. “Go on back to Tatooine, Luke. I’ll take care of her. We’ll be back soon!” He kicked Falcon into a run and they sped off.

#sw #star wars #star war #star wars a new hope #star wars return of the jedi #Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back #Han Solo #Han #han/leia #leia #leia skywalker #leia solo #han x leia #dusty skirmishes

0 notes