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adorerdraco · 4 years ago

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Healing Heart ✧ Draco x Reader Mini-Series PART 3

PART 1

PART 2

Summary: PART 3 ! of Draco accidentally falling in love with reader during his sixth year (HBP) and finally allowing the relationship to blossom!

Warnings: just the tiniest bit of angst, crying (ofc), Draco sad for a little :(

Words: 7.3K (THIS IS SO LONG OMG BUT MEMORIES IN ITALICS)

A/N: PART THREEEE !!! I think this is my favorite piece of writing in this series and the LONGEST. I know series start losing an audience after the first part but I hope that those who have been following this enjoy this one as much as I do ! I went off the HBP script bc i wanted Draco to live it up and be happy and playful ! also i do not own gif.

The sky was a darkening orange, the sun casting its last glowing light of the day as it quickly began to disappear behind the Hogwarts castle. Small birds and other flying creatures passed overhead, going towards their homes in the trees before nightfall, chirping and singing as they did. The sound of wind rustling through leaves from trees and overgrown plants brought a peace in the air between the couple.

Draco turned his head to the side, a soft smile forming on his lips as he observed you. The both of you were on your backs lying on a spot of grass under a small tree, a different tree than the one the two of you had your fall out by a few months prior, requested by you. Draco thought back to a couple weeks ago when you and him had been walking around the outskirts of the school and you had seen it in the distance.

“That tree is cursed,” you muttered bitterly, eyeing it behind Draco’s head. He turned back to look at it and grimaced.

“I’m still terribly sorry about that, love,” he slipped his hand into yours, bringing the pairing up to his lips and gently placing a kiss on your skin. “We’ll find a new spot.”

“Effective immediately,” you nodded in agreement. “Plus, my friends dared me to climb it last year and I fell off and broke my arm and leg. I hate that tree.”

“Arm and leg?!” He stared at you in disbelief, “Merlin’s sake, Y/N, it’s shocking how clumsy you are.”

“You should be glad I’m clumsy,” you retorted, “you wouldn’t have been graced with my presence now if it wasn’t for me tripping into you.”

“I suppose that’s true,” he smiled, throwing an arm over your shoulder and pulling you into his side before pressing a kiss to your temple. “Who would’ve thought that I’d be a fool for the klutz who sprained my finger and busted my lip on two separate occasions before we’ve properly met.”

“On accident!” You exclaimed horrified, stifling a laugh as he did the same.

Your eyes were closed, peacefully allowing yourself to fully bask in the sunlight that was kissing your skin in its golden hues and warmth. Draco turned onto his side, propping himself up with his elbow so he could admire you better. The longer he looked at you, he felt a shiver run down his spine and a foreign queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach appear that he could only describe as tons of tiny blue cornish pixies wreaking havoc on his insides. In simpler terms, butterflies.

“Are you staring at me again, Malfoy?” You hummed quietly, your eyes still closed as you questioned him.

“No, why would I?” He answered with a playful arrogance, the grin on his face widening as your eyebrows furrowed at his answer.

“You’re rude,” you mutter, trying to fight back a smile. “I think I remember you doing the same thing earlier and telling me, and I quote, ‘I can’t believe someone so beautiful is real,’ end quote,” you tried mocking his haughty accent as you quoted him which only earned you a laugh from Draco.

“That sounds nothing like me, you must have me confused with some other poor bloke,” he snickered, a laugh leaving his mouth immediately after.

Your hand came up and playfully slapped his chest, a smile finally breaking onto your features. “I love hearing you laugh. It makes me happy.”

He slowly leaned over, his face hovering over yours before he leaned down even lower and gently pressed small kisses onto your still closed eyelids, your nose, your forehead and then finally your lips. Your face scrunched after every kiss, except for the last one which you happily returned.

“You make me happy, I have you to thank for the laughs,” he said quietly, his hand reaching up to smooth back the flyaway hairs on your face, “and for several other things. I don’t think I could ever thank you enough.”

You finally open your eyes, peering up at him with a loving gaze. It honestly felt like you had opened your eyes in heaven and an angel was leaning over you, greeting you at the gates of paradise, that angel being the platinum blond boy, his warm gray eyes staring back at you with the same look you had in yours. It was a sight to behold, behind Draco, the sun had gone down, leaving a haze of purple clouds and a pinkish sky, the leaves from the tree above swaying gently in the cooling breeze of dusk. As breathtaking as the scene was, Draco outshines it.

He looked so much more different than he did a little over a month ago, the day he had almost had his meeting with death. His skin had regained some color, he was still pale, but the pink undertones he always used to have had returned. His eyes were a lighter gray, almost a sky blue as they now held a warmth he had been so evidently missing. The bags under his eyes were still there, but not as deep or as dark as they had been before.

A smile reappeared on your face, your palm finding its way to his cheek and resting it there. He leaned into the tender touch, his eyes fluttering closed as he enjoyed the feeling. It felt like a movie, or a book, or a dream, your heart was doing happy flips in your chest as you tried to rationalize how in the world you were in this current position. It was bliss.

“I can’t believe someone so beautiful is real,” you murmur, stealing the compliment he had used on you earlier in the day. Your palm moved up towards his hair, letting your fingers rake through his hair as he smiled.

“Hey, that was my line,” he mumbled.

“No, I got it from some other poor bloke,” you laugh, dropping your hand from his hair. He leaned away from you and lied back down on the grass, an exaggerated sigh leaving his lips as he closed his eyes.

“He sounds dodgy, you should probably stay away from him.”

You rolled over on your stomach and onto Draco’s side, your head falling over his chest as his arm underneath you came up to rest on your lower back. You looked up at him, straining your neck so that your lips could meet his. He lifted his head up slightly, meeting you halfway. Like every time you kissed him, the world around you stopped and it was like every single good thing in the world came together in that one moment. You could always feel the love in his kisses, wordlessly letting you know how much he adored you and cared for you. Just as he could tell the same with yours.

You pulled away, opening your eyes to see his slowly flutter open. Both of you holding that same dazed and dopey in love look that was there every time your lips left his.

“I could never stay away from him.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Draco let out an irritated huff, marching his way down to the dungeons with his robe billowing around his legs with purpose, similar to how the long and greasy raven haired professor’s often flailed about.

Speaking of said professor, Draco was headed towards Snape’s office after receiving word from one of his Slytherin friends that their Head of House had requested him. The idea of talking to Snape right now made him feel dizzy, knowing full and well he was going to be reminded of his painful duties and be ripped out of the short-lived paradise he has been living in recently.

He didn’t want to leave his bliss, at all. He even neglected mending the vanishing cabinet for a while just so he could put all his attention and efforts on you, something he found to be much more important and rewarding. The plans for Dumbledore, especially, strayed even further from his mind as if they didn’t even exist to him at all.

When he reached the office, the door was already open and he saw Snape standing over his desk, looking down at some papers he had scattered over the old battered wooden surface.

“Mr. Malfoy,” Snape acknowledged lowly, not looking up from the papers, “close the door behind you and have a seat.”

Draco walked in slowly, taking in a deep breath and did as he was told, shutting the heavy wooden door once he forced himself to go inside. He made his way over to one of the empty chairs near the desk and begrudgingly sat down, letting out quietly the shaky breath of air he was holding in. This was the last place he wanted to be.

“Tell me, Draco,” the Professor finally looked up from his papers to give Draco a pointed look, “how is the vanishing cabinet coming along?”

“Fine.”

“Is that so?” He drawled out accusingly, taking short and careful steps around the desk. “Would you say it is able to transport individuals successfully?”

“I haven’t quite gotten it there yet, Professor,” Draco answered weakly, letting his eyes wander around the room and looking at all the different jars lined up against the walls just so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact.

“With that information, it appears to me then, that it is not fine.”

“I’m working on it.”

“Hardly,” Snape sneers, stepping even closer to the chair the cowering boy was sitting in. “Do you think me a fool, Draco? Do you think that I do not know what you have been doing with all of your time? I see that look in your eyes, you’re in love, and stupidly so.”

Draco fearfully looked up at him, seeing a rage beginning to build up in the black of his professor’s eyes. He stayed silent, the sound of his heart rapidly thumping against his chest was the only thing he could hear. It felt as if he were going to explode with panic.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, Professor,” Draco lied through his teeth, locking eyes with the man as he stared him down.

Before he could blink, Snape had taken one long stride towards him, placing both hands on either side of the arms of the chair, Draco immediately leaning as far back as he could as his big-nosed teacher got in his face.

“Don’t lie to me, boy!” He snarled, “I know what love looks like.”

Draco was breathing hard now, his chest rising and falling painfully as his heart began to beat impossibly faster.

“This is no time for fun and games, especially for love,” he grabbed Draco’s left arm, forcefully rolling up his sleeve and flashing the skin upwards towards the blond’s face, “I’m afraid all of that ended the moment you had taken this mark.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” he cried, the Dark Mark was staring angrily at him and he twisted his arm out of the hard grasp it was in, rapidly pushing his sleeve down again so he wouldn’t have to look at it any longer.

“You don’t have a choice!” Snape stepped away from him and looked down at the boy who was quickly breaking down before him. “Your fate and that of your parents, is on the line. Eventually, it will be Miss Y/L/N’s fate in that position as well. There is only so much I can do to help you, Draco. Remind yourself that the Dark Lord doesn’t tolerate or take kindly to any sort of foolery.”

Draco shook violently with tears and anger, his head falling into his hands as all his realities began to hit him all at once. This is exactly the pain he was trying to avoid. He knew he would have to face it again eventually, but not this soon. He figured he would have more time with you. More time to live in the fantasy that left him feeling so euphoric when he got to his dorm at night after a long day of classes with you filling up the spaces in between. He wished he had more time to enjoy his love, the love that was so beautiful and light, so effortless. He wished he had more time to be happy.

Now here he was, stuck on a path he couldn’t change or control. A path that was forced upon him and had no choice or decision he could make. He often wonders what his life would be like now, if the Dark Lord never came back, his father never went to Azkaban, he never quit quidditch, his mind never tainted in evil plans for murder and destruction. He often imagines that life. He imagines you, waiting for him after a quidditch game, cheeks rosy from the frosty wind that whipped around the stands, smiling up at him so beautifully as he proudly took you into his arms after he caught the Golden Snitch and won Slytherin the Quidditch cup. He would be going to an after party at the common room, everyone praising him and his skills and being jealous of him and the girl on his arm.

He didn’t see it, but Snape gave him a small empathetic look, remembering his own pain and loss at the hands of Voldermort.

“I suggest for you to shift your focus to the more important matters at hand, Mr. Malfoy,” Snape says in a low voice. “You may leave.”

Draco roughly wiped away his tears before he jumped up from the chair and rushed towards the door, pushing it open with his body as he nearly ran out of the dungeons and up towards the Great Hall where dinner was being served.

Once he entered the hall, his eyes searched for you at your house table, knowing you’d be there with your friends. His eyes scanned up and down the rows a good two times before he finally saw you, throwing your head back in laughter as everyone talked. The pure joy on your face made him feel the tiniest bit lighter and his breathing a fraction easier.

Your friend noticed him first, tapping your arm vigorously as she pointed in his direction. You turned, your eyes meeting his frazzled ones and you frowned when you realized he had been crying. You threw your napkin down onto the table, hastily slipping out of your seat as you took quick long strides over to him. When you got to him, you slipped your hand into his and walked the two of you out of the hall in a hurry and headed into an empty corridor.

“What happened?” you ask, your voice laced and dripping with worry and concern as your hands reached up to cup his face. “Are you okay?”

Draco let the tears fall again, crying even harder at the your question. He was not okay and soon, neither were you going to be. On his way to you, he made a decision to do something. It was dumb and reckless, but in his mind, he knew it had to be said and done. If there was any sliver of a chance in the future where the two of you lived somewhere near happily ever after, he knew he couldn’t get there if he kept lying to you.

“Y/N, I need to tell you something,” he croaked out, “and you’re not going to like it.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The silence surrounding the top of the astronomy tower was thick and dreadful. The faint moonlight above Hogwarts had cast ghostly shadows onto your faces and illuminated the grimaces you both shared. A cold and bitter wind passed through, picking at and numbing the exposed skin that neither of you cared to acknowledge. You sat on the floor across from him, an empty look filled with tears pooling in your wide eyes. He had told you everything. He pleaded for you to say something, to react, but you couldn’t. You just sat there, frozen and mumbling an almost incoherent ‘I need to think.’

Out of all the things you expected him to tell you, this was not one of them.

It all finally made sense to you. The broken down and erratic state he has been in for months on end was for a very obvious reason now. It was hard for you to grasp at first, wondering how he could ever agree to be a part of something that was so dark and evil. Your mind temporarily mourned the boy, feeling as though that it was over for you two. But the longer you thought, the more it became clear to you that this was in fact, not his choice. It was the first thing he even said to you before he told you about his status as a Death Eater and all the dreadful things he has to accomplish.

And as you stared deeply into his pained eyes, you knew it was true. The Draco you had fallen in love with and are still just as in love with, was the same one sitting before you. Sharing something with you that could potentially jeopardize his life, his family’s life and everything else for the worst. He had trusted you with his darkest and most deepest secret. And it took you less than five minutes to process it all, your final thoughts coming together calmly and without hesitation.

“This doesn’t change anything for me,” you say finally, scooting yourself closer to him and taking his hands in yours. “I still love you all the same.”

A breath of relief left his lips, a sharp and painful ache in his heart suddenly easing drastically the second he heard your words. It was the same relief someone feels when waking up from a nightmare or just bad dream in general, a tranquility settling in that none of it was real and you can let your mind relax.

“But you must see me differently now then?” he then asked with a frown, his relief leaving his body again as his mind hit him with all sorts of pessimistic thoughts and ideas. “I’m not as good as you thought me to be.”

“I do see you differently,” you placed a finger under his chin, gently moving his face so that he could look in your eyes and you noticed the hurt that flashed in his storming gray’s. “I see now that you’re so brave, and so strong. I think it takes a lot of courage to be in your situation and not lose yourself completely. The weight of the world is on your shoulders, but you’re still you and you should be proud of that. You are just as good as I thought you to be.”

He blinked back the tears that had gathered and pricked at his eyes, his hand reaching up gently onto the back of your head as he leaned forward so that now your foreheads were resting against each other.

“You really are the best thing that has ever happened to me, you know that?” He states quietly. He placed a kiss on the space between your eyebrows, letting his lips linger intimately as the two of you relished in the feeling of being so close to one another, mind and body. “I love you.”

“I love you,” you repeated affectionately.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Weeks had gone by in a blur since the night at the astronomy tower, your relationship with Draco had only grown deeper and more meaningful since then. Instead of the ill-fated news tearing you apart, it brought you more closer together than you could have ever imagined. It was as if your souls were finally bare to one another, meeting and embracing each other lovingly on the astral planes.

The dynamic had changed, but only for the greater good as you had encouraged him to spend as much time as he could on the vanishing cabinet. It wasn’t like you wanted him to fix it, but you knew it would come at a great cost if he didn’t so he needed to. You thought back to a couple days after he had told you his duties, frowning at the remembrance of the shame in his voice as he explained everything to you.

“I think I’ll just leave it to rot in the room of requirement,” he muttered bitterly, his eyes focused on his thumb running over the softness of your knuckles. “I’ll just set it on fire and say it was an accident.”

“As much as I’d love for you to do that,” you sigh, “it would be like sentencing yourself to torture and death.”

Draco chuckled darkly, shaking his head. “I’m already headed there.”

“No,” you interject, “you’re not.”

He stayed quiet, trying to get the painful images out of his head that his mind was currently putting on display for him. No matter how many times you told him, he was never able to fully get rid of his pessimistic thoughts.

“He is going to find a way in, eventually,” you lean your head onto his shoulder and he tilts his head to the side so that it rests against yours. “It might as well be you who does it. You need to get onto his good side and from what you’ve told me, it’s only obvious he’s wary of your family.”

“He doesn’t have a good side,” he scowled. “He currently has my father locked in Azkaban, my mother in distress, and me doing his dirty work from within this school. He’s more than wary of us, he’s punishing us already.”

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, squeezing his hand reassuringly. He sighs, squeezing your hand back.

“It’s alright, love, nothing I can do about it anyways,” he trails off sadly. “But you’re right, I have to do it. I have to fix it.”

From then on, he had split his free time between mending the cabinet and being with you. It was hard for him as it was for you, but either of you knew there was no other way.

You were sitting by yourself next to the Black Lake, hugging your knees to your chest as you mindlessly played with the overgrown weeds you were sitting in. Your wand danced over a patch of dead flowers, wordlessly casting a spell you had learned in Professor Sprout’s class that brought life back into the wilted daisies.

You missed your favorite Slytherin, still not used to not the sudden changes in his schedule that kept him away from you. Your friends obviously kept you company, but there were times like this when you just wanted to be alone and sulk. And sometimes always, you just really missed Draco.

All you wanted at the moment was to hear his laughter, to feel his arms wrap around yours and give you gentle kisses all around your face as you giggled underneath him. To hear him whisper to you how beautiful you are and how much he loves you. It was like a cliche love story that you couldn’t get enough of, it was your life. And you never knew that those same stories you always laughed and made fun of but secretly deeply desired, would come into fruition with Draco Malfoy, the boy you’d had a crush on since third year who never even knew you existed until this year.

Despite everything life had thrown at the two of you in these short but also long months, you had formed something so intense and real that most people would never get to experience, especially someone your age.

You heard a faint flapping of wings get louder as it approached, the shadow of a familiar owl appeared from behind you and you turned to look at it. It was Aquila, Draco’s beautiful and large eagle owl swooping over you before landing in front of you, dropping a letter at your feet. You gave her a little pat on the head, and she closed her eyes gently before she backed away and flew off back towards the owlery.

You unrolled the small piece of parchment and smiled as you read it.

Just broke something in the room of requirement for tripping over it and it reminded me of you. Now I can’t stop thinking of you. I’m rushing to finish now, I’ll see you soon. xx DM

The parchment was rolled back up and tucked into the pocket of your robe, a happy sigh slipping past your lips as you rested your chin on your knees. Your eyes landed on some familiar glowing fishes in the water near you from a few days ago and you allowed your mind to slip into the memory, yet again.

Draco lied across your lap, your fingers dancing around in his hair as he hummed in content. He loved it when you did that and you always made sure to play with it any chance you got when the blond mop was vulnerable to you.

He had met up with you after a shower and skipped styling his hair, the platinum strands freely going in their natural direction of falling over his forehead. You ran your hand towards his ends, pushing and slicking them back into his old signature hairstyle from when he was little.

A laugh tumbled from your lips at the sight and he peered up at you, rolling his eyes when he realized why you thought it was funny and sitting up to flatten his hair back down.

“You think my hair is funny, do you?” He accused with a pointed look, but you noticed the laugh that he was trying to hold back. You shook your head ‘no’ while still laughing and he finally smiled.

He lurched forward, playfully and gently tackling you down into a fluffy bed of dandelions, a ridiculous amount of the puffs from the flowers flying up into the air around you and into the dark night sky. He attacked your collarbones with kisses, your shoulders, up your neck and then your lips. You loved when he would do that, leaving multiple lingering kisses along your skin so he made sure to do it any chance he got, just as you did the same with playing with his hair.

After he was done snogging you, he sat up again and pulled you up with him, a comfortable silence falling between you two. The comfort only lasted a minute or two before a thought had trickled its way into your head as your hands sat over his forearms.

“Can I see it?” you asked quietly, afraid of sounding insensitive or offending him you immediately added, “only if you’re comfortable, of course.”

Draco followed your gaze onto his arm and he stiffened, his blood all of a sudden feeling cold in his body. Not once since he’d gotten the mark has he looked at it for longer than a couple seconds, absolutely loathing the fact that it was permanently etched into his skin. He was hesitant, wondering if you would be disgusted by it and him, but you looked at him with such a genuine concern and curiosity that he couldn’t say no.

He fiddled with his sleeve a little, rolling it up towards his elbow and facing the mark towards you so that you could observe it. Instead of looking at it, he looked only at you and your facial expressions, he wanted to see exactly what you thought in the eyes that were the window to the soul.

The mark looked as if it were a scar, it rose a little bit above the rest of his milky skin, angry and swollen. Your fingers ghosted above it, Draco shivering underneath the closeness of your touch. He felt your hand tenderly stroke the mark, your finger tracing its outline with a delicate pressure. The next thing you did was lean down, delicately and lovingly placing a kiss onto something that only represented hate and evil. The complete opposite of everything that you were.

“This doesn’t define you, Dray,” you say warmly as you pull away. “I know you hate it and I know it hurts to see it. But it’s not you. And one day, it might be so faint that it’ll just be a reminder of how you survived and got through the most difficult point of your life.”

He nodded, staying silent as he took in your words. They made him feel better because if that what was you believed, who was he to say it was wrong? He desperately wanted your words to be true, so he happily accepted them and let them relax the part of his mind that constantly doubted himself.

You rolled down his sleeve for him before settling yourself onto his lap and pulling him into a hug. His hands rested themselves on your lower back, one almost slipping down onto your butt before you reached behind you and raised his hand back up as he snickered. He let his head lie against your chest, the even and soft thumping of your heart calming him instantly and he sighed, pressing a kiss into the exposed skin above your shirt.

You reached down beside you and plucked two dandelions from the ground, holding them up and twirling them around in your fingers.

“Muggles like to say that if you make a wish on a dandelion and blow on it, your wish will come true,” you hum, making him look up at you in confusion.

“That sounds ridiculous,” he mumbles. You give him one of the dandelions and smile.

“You never know until you try,” you raised an eyebrow before giving him one. He eyed it with doubt and you pouted, silently pleading for him to do it with you. “Just close your eyes, think of your wish and blow.”

He waited until you squinted your eyes shut, he didn’t, but as he watched you he wordlessly made his wish. He wished that he could have moments like this with you for the rest of his life, moments of loving nirvana. Ironically, you had wished for the exact same thing.

When you opened your eyes, you blew onto the flower and he did the same with his. The both of you watched the fluffs flail about in the wind around you until they were carried higher and higher up into the starry night sky and out of your sights. You held the boy underneath you tighter against you and he followed, his hand again trying to land on your butt but you stopping it again and both of you laughing.

“What did you wish for?” He asked, the question muffled against your sweater.

“If I tell you then it won’t come true.”

“That’s rubbish.”

The afternoon was fleetingly turning into evening, the sun beginning its descent behind Hogwarts and a number of thick clouds had formed in the sky that blocked the beautiful orange sunsets you loved.

“I knew I’d find you here,” Draco announced his presence from behind you, a weird tone in his voice as he approached you. He plopped himself down beside you and gave you a long affectionate kiss before pulling away from you with a half-hearted smile.

“You seem very cheery,” you teased, poking his frown with your finger before forcing his lips up into a smile and he let out an airy chuckle. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you want the bad news or good news first?”

“Bad.”

“I think I’ve finally fixed the cabinet.” He said suddenly.

“Oh,” was all you could say as you processed his accomplishment. His hand reached for yours, interlocking your fingers with his as he anxiously waited for your answer. “So what’s going to happen next?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he answers honestly. “I suppose I’ll let Snape know and then eventually You-Know-Who will become aware. But I don’t know what chaos lies ahead. I don’t even know if it’s fully mended, I’m waiting until tomorrow to test it out.”

“Why not today?” you ask quietly. You felt your hand beginning to nervously sweat in his as each second of silence passed by.

“I wanted to have one last normal day,” he looks up at you and smiles faintly. You return it even though you felt as though you were nearly about to empty out your stomach from earlier’s lunch. “Before everything changes.”

“So then, what’s the good news?” You desperately wanted to change the topic, hoping that his good news would be enough to ease your panicked mined for the moment and luckily, it did.

“You and I are spending all day and night together,” he responds happily.

“Who said that’s good news?” you eye him mockingly, a goofy smirk making its way onto your lips, your mood improving instantly as you thought of the next 24 hours with your love. He gaped at you in fake shock, blinking slowly as he tried to come up with a comeback that would stump you.

“You know what, Y/L/N, perhaps I’ll ask Pansy instead, she’s been rather fond of me again lately,” he snickers, a look of horror replacing your previous teasing.

“Absolutely not!”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

You weren’t aware of how sleepy you were until you had gotten back to Hogwarts, a clock on a faraway wall in the dungeons displayed 1:11 AM. You were stopped right outside the Slytherin common room, Draco pinning you up against a wall as his lips passionately and lovingly danced with yours. Your hands were tangled in his ridiculously soft hair as he gripped onto your hips tightly.

This was the way the two of you should have been living, every day, stupidly in love like teenagers and having fun.

The whole day had gone by in a flash. Draco had taken you out for an evening stroll around Hogsmeade, stopping at The Three Broomsticks for butterbeer and food where you talked about everything and anything, avoiding any negatives completely and only talking of childhood memories from home and school or of funny stories that had come to mind. He had then taken you to a small jewelry shop where you admired every piece of gem in there and basically begged Draco not to buy you anything which he repeatedly tried to argue against.

Somewhere along the line, you found a small group of stray cats, dragging Draco by his hand to the little bundle of kittens hidden in a hollowed tree stump. One hissed at the two of you, backing far into the corner of the the stump as it protected the rest of its siblings behind it.

You had reached into your pocket, getting out your wand and pointing it towards the ground in front of them and whispering some spell Draco had never heard of. Suddenly, a small pile of cat food had appeared in a heap on the ground and the two of you watched as the leader of the litter had began to inspect it.

“Where did you learn that?” he laughs in astonishment as the kittens began to hurriedly munch on it.

“I found it in a book about cats in the library one day while I was bored,” you said with a sheepish smile. “Nice to know it came in handy.”

You then began walking around again, this time further away from the castle and the little village and more near the Forbidden Forest. This was the Hogwarts equivalent of long romantic walks along the beach. It was there where you found a small cliff and sat down to rest with your legs dangling wildly over the edge.

“With your track record, you should reconsider the way you’re sitting, darling,” Draco chuckles, his eyes peering over the edge and into the dark and rocky surfaces below before as he shuddered in fear.

“Relax,” you say, pushing yourself back from your spot and standing up before looking up at him. “You really think I’m that clumsy that I’ll fall off a cli-”

Draco reached out for you before he could even process that a chunk of the cliff had given out from underneath you as you stood. You fell into his embrace, the both of you staring down in terror at the tumbling piece of earth, watching it crash and explode as it hit a sharp boulder below. Draco let out a breath of relief, giving you a ‘I told you so’ look.

“Yeah, alright,” you nodded. “I think I’m ready to go home now.”

So now here you two were, still snogging in the dungeons without a care in the world. You were so wrapped up in each other that you hardly noticed the sound of Filch approaching nearby, the sound of his lantern accidentally falling behind a corridor made you finally rip away from the kissing, looking in the direction of the noise.

“It’s Filch!” you hiss before pushing Draco towards the entrance of the common room. He quickly said the password and slipped the two of you inside once the stone had opened up, quietly laughing to each other as you heard Filch yell a distant, ‘students out of bed!’

Draco wasted no time in taking your hand and sneaking you into his Prefect room, the both of you haphazardly tumbling inside out of panic when you had seen another Slytherin passing by somewhere near the staircase to the room. You landed into the room with a ‘thud’ and Draco underneath you with his face twisted in that of pain.

“Oh no, please don’t tell me I’ve done it again,” you scattered off of him, grabbing onto his hand that he had landed on with too much force as he tried to stop both of your falls. His wrist was staring to swell up a strong pink and then red as you felt around the bone.

“You’ve done it again,” he laughs quietly through the pain at seeing your reaction. You gave him a scowl before reaching for your wand at drawing it at his injury.

He admired you as you handled his wrist with the same caring and tender touch that you gave him the last times you had healed him from the accidental trips of fate that had been thrown onto him, literally.

You breathed out a quick, “episkey,” and let relief wash over you as his sprained wrist healed to its original glory and he flexed it back and forth just for your benefit.

“Thank you, my little personal healer and injurer,” he stood up, pulling you with him and gave you a tight embrace that you lazily returned with an exaggerated frown.

“On accident!”

“I’m only joking, love,” he chuckles before giving you a kiss that made up for his teasing. “Also, I got you something.”

You raised an eyebrow, stepping away from him as he reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small velvet rectangular box before handing it to. You took it in your shaky hands, opening it up to be greeted with a glittering silver band bracelet, glowing green emerald jewels going all around it. You gasped at its beauty, pulling it out of its box as you looked up at Draco as he beamed at you.

“I know you said not to buy anything, but I had to.”

You flung yourself into his arms, kissing him all over his face as he laughed from underneath you.

“I love it, Dray,” you gleamed, carefully slipping the band onto your wrist. “Thank you.”

He nodded, smiling to himself at satisfaction that he had gotten something for you at the jewelry shop even though you insisted that he didn’t, he couldn’t help himself. Eventually, he thought, he would be adding a diamond ring to your new collection of expensive accessories from him.

You let your attention focus onto the space around you, it was dark and a little disorganized seeing as he was hardly ever in there now, only to sleep. You had been in his room plenty of times recently to talk or if he was feeling upset but this was the first time you were going to actually sleep through the night with him. You weren’t even prepared for the impromptu slumber party, but it didn’t bother you all too much as your boyfriend passed you one of his sleeping shirts and shorts.

When you clambered into bed with him, legs entangled and bodies pressed up against each other, you sighed sleepily in content. You laid in silence, the sound of steady breathing and a tick and tock of a clock nearly sending you into a deep sleep while you admired the new bracelet on your wrist until your brain started conjuring up thoughts of the very near future.

“It’s all going to be different now, isn’t it?” you mumbled.

He waited a moment before responding, the same thoughts began to run through his mind and he sighed, letting out a breathless, “yes.”

There was another moment of silence, a painfully quiet one as now the both of you had started to think and torture yourselves even further.

“I’m scared,” you whisper timidly, the grip you had on Draco’s shirt got tighter.

“I am too,” his head turned to meet your eyes, the same wide eye look being held in them that he’s been seeing a lot of that day. “But I promise that no matter what happens, I’m always going to love you. Forever.”

Tears had accidentally slipped from your watery eyes and you buried your face in his neck to inhale his scent to calm yourself down. It was weird in theory, but there was something about the mix of his cologne and minty smelling soap that relaxed your whole body from whatever would be bothering you.

“I say this all the time,” he started again, his hand mindlessly played with your hair as he spoke. “But thank you, for helping me, healing me and not just on the outside. I owe you so much and I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” you cried relentlessly now, “so, so much.”

Draco stayed quiet, his own tears falling now but he didn’t want to make the moment sadder than it already was, so he sucked it up and gave the top of your head a long and amorous kiss while you cried yourself to sleep in his arms.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

It was morning, a heavy set of clouds rested over the castle in an eerie and gloomy way. You took it as a sign that everything was going to end up that way, dark and melancholic. It was sad, being the only two people as of right now who knew what was coming to Hogwarts in maybe a couple hours or days time. But there was nothing you could do but hope for the best and silently place your hope that Harry Potter would save the day as he somehow always did. You didn’t dare tell Draco that, however and as much as you disliked Harry for nearly killing your lover not too long ago, you needed to believe that there was hope for a future with no Voldermort.

You walked timidly behind Draco as he guided you to the room of requirement. Your eyes were glued to the back of his perfectly styled head and iron pressed black suit and if you weren’t in such upsetting circumstances, you would have let yourself admire him longer, but you couldn’t quite focus on anything other than what lied ahead.

He had asked you to come with him to test the vanishing cabinet, wanting your support as he brought life to the thing that would bring destruction to the beloved school. You stood quietly, watching the very large doors of the room appear on the wall as Draco called for it silently.

You had never been in the room before and that was apparent when you looked at everything in awe, seeing all the forgotten artifacts and knickknacks for the first time that were piled onto each other for miles on end. He lead you through the maze of objects until you stopped at a tall and ashy gray run down wardrobe, his other hand grabbing onto the corner of the drape that was feebly covering it and pulled it down in one swift motion causing a pile of dust to fly into the air around you, making you feel suffocated all of a sudden as you stared at the revealed cabinet.

He let go of your hand, reaching into the pocket of his blazer as he pulled out a small green apple to place inside the middle of the cabinet. You watched carefully as he closed the doors of it and pressed his wand up against the opening, his eyes fluttering closed as he thought of the spell.

“Harmonia Nectere Passus,” a small whooshing sound passed and Draco opened his eyes to check if the apple was still behind the doors. The apple was gone, and your heart sank in fear. This was it. He took one deep breath before shutting the doors closed and placing his wand against them once again.

“Harmonia Nectere Passus,” he whispered, “Harmonia Nectere Passus.”

The whooshing sound came back and he slowly grabbed the handle of one of the doors, his hand reaching inside of the cabinet and pulling something out. He turned around to face you, his skin paling in fear, the apple was back in his hand and as he turned it, you spotted the new clean bite around its side.

You inhaled sharply, your heart thumping rapidly as you realized what this meant.

“You fixed it.”

PART 4

TAGLIST: @bluesunflowersz @viirgobbyy @blueleonor @thefandomplace @natt-nih @angelofslytherin @dreamyvcid @ohhsheet-blog-blog (AHHH IM SORRY IF IM FORGETTING SOME OF YOU ;( !!!)

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envythepalmtree · 4 years ago

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Xingese Roy supremacy Do you have any in-depth headcanons abt it :o

XINGESE ROY SUPREMACY!!

omg. thank you for asking about headcanons. yes I have SO MANY. many of which I cannot say yet (just wait to get spammed with xingese roy things later this year). I'm Chinese American myself so I project SO much onto him (we love our Ownvoices narratives here)!

On this post I mainly talk about what it's like to have Xingese heritage in Amestris. How it affected Roy growing up, and how that reflects Amestrian society as a whole. A little bit about how he starts to reconnect with his culture. If you want lighter, more fun headcanons about Roy being connected to Xingese culture:

insulting ed

roy likes rice crackers

chinese new year modern au

SO!!

My main thing about Xingese Roy: while it's technically canon compliant because it doesn't directly contradict anything in canon, it couldn't be canon because being of a different race in Amestrian society would have vast impacts on Roy's character and on the way he interacts with others, especially as a military officer. If Arakawa intended for Roy to be Xingese, there's no way she wouldn't have mentioned it. That being said, it's the best headcanon ever when done right.

Like the general fanon goes, Roy's father is Amestrian and the brother to Chris Mustang; Roy's mother came to Amestris from Xing. She didn't exactly immigrate by choice, but nonetheless she resents Xing and convinces herself that Amestris is the best country and she needs to be a good citizen. (She also happens to be one of my favorite OCs ever but I will stop myself from infodumping about her backstory.)

If you can't tell by me crying over I Can Only Write My Name by Will Jay, a theme I like to use a lot is assimilation. Erasing one's own culture, erasing parts of their identity to fit in. When Roy's mom showed up in Amestris as a teenager having lost everything, she learned to assimilate. Even if she visibly looked like a foreigner, she could beat away her accent, learn the customs and culture of the new country, and erase her life from before.

And that's how she raised Roy before she died. Assimilate. Be good. Our heritage is not important. Show loyalty to Amestris. Show patriotism. You look Xingese, but you are not Xingese, you are Amestrian. You have to prove it to the world so that they accept you.

You can say Amestris is diverse in cultures, not because people chose to move there, but because they're an imperialist power. The Amestrians conquered other countries and melded them into their own. They love it when they take over a smaller country and its people blend into Amestrian society. (Ishval didn't. The Amestrians didn't like that.)

"Foreign" is synonymous with "enemy." Amestris has enemies on all sides - Drachma, Creta, Aerugo. Xing isn't a military threat because it's separated by a desert, but it's still foreign and unknown. And that's why young Roy Mustang can't say he's Xingese - he isn't a foreigner. He's a good Amestrian boy and will grow up to help his country.

To Roy's friends and classmates, Roy is a perfect token. He looks visibly Xingese (visibly foreign), but he's smart, great at alchemy, and patriotic. He loves being Amestrian and wants to help his country when he grows up. Roy Mustang is a great prop when someone needs to say, "I have a friend who's a foreigner so I can't be racist." (Roy isn't a foreigner and hates being called one, but he likes being useful.)

Dehumanization is something else I think about a lot. Especially with FMA. State alchemists are called "human weapons." These people, or anyone really, are only as valuable as they are useful. The state doesn't see its military (and certainly not its civilians) as people - they are weapons to further their goals of expansion and conquest.

Civilians might see each other as people. But why would they see foreigners that way? But when their nation conquers a new territory, or someone flees to their country, the outsider might have use. (Ishval did not.) The outsider might have something to contribute to society. The outsider might reject their own heritage to prove that Amestris is superior. The outsider could be a golden boy, a prop to show that despite one's blood, a boy like Roy Mustang can be the perfect Amestrian citizen.

So, just as his dead mother wanted him to, Roy Mustang rejects the blood she gave him. She washed herself away. And it will be many years, after Roy becomes a good Amestrian soldier and creates a river of Ishvalan blood, after years of unlearning everything the state taught him, that he meets some Xingese children tied to his mother's past. Only then does he start to recover what his mother washed away.

#xingese roy #roy mustang #fmab #fma headcanon #fma meta #fullmetal alchemist #ask #elextric-sea #aure speaks #I loved writing this!! THANK YOU again for the ask!!

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6okuto · 3 years ago

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HELLO I Would like some interior hcs pls bc i dont fucking know anything (this is a lot dont feel pressured HEHE) my mc is felixs gf, Anne Nova. She's 24, 5'8, and loves anything cutesy but ALSO really loves flower + bone imagery. she's a painter, musician, writer, cosplayer/sews, and grew up on a farm. She loves cozy clutter & reading and is very bubby, optimistic and impulsive. She's sassy, sarcastic and very blunt but in a very kind way, despite cursing like a sailor. she has adhd and has a bit of an eclectic style, always just wearing whatever she likes. she doesnt like people paying for her bc she feels guilty, but she also loves when felix does bc its always so thoughtful. its a dilemma. she has a lot of jewelry, but only wears lipstick and eyeliner in terms of makeup. her jewelry is all gifts from her friends/family, many of whom are no longer in her life. she loves the aesthetic of nobility; princess dresses, golden details, etc. but she hates all the rules and bullshit.

shes always carrying around a pencil case, notebook and a scrunchie. she's very messy but if the kitchen or the bathroom is messy she gets very antsy. she works the best in daylight, but loves the night just as much. this is probably so much but i love rambling about her LOL. she loves pink and sunflowers and does tarot and has so many crystals. she collects animal bones and sometimes paints on her denim clothes. one of her jackets has a coffin with sunflowers painted on it. shes just a very preppy, cutesy person who really loves dry and morbid humor.

note from nia: i just know these two get along super well pls. everyone's ocs sound cool wtf anne nova is such a cool name?? also don't worry omg more details only help me HDJDJS this was very fun (i think i called her anne a few times but if she uses the full name/just nova,, which sounds very cool thinking about it,, i can edit it!! <3) their bedroom is objectively pretty, especially when the sun is rising or setting. waking up to a dream perhaps

they have a canopy bed with pretty wispy curtains

ahhh there's a really pretty oak dresser with a mirror above it that has really intricate gold detailing

the wall around it has a bunch of posters/art and a jewelry hanger for anne's most worn pieces

Mini Gold Heart-Shaped Mirror On The Dresser. also this glass dome with sunflowers and led strips in it. thank you

other stuff includes crystals, the tarot deck she's been using recently, and a jewelry box that felix gave her :(

their side tables usually have a book or something that anne was sewing before bed

felix had to put a little table where you walk in that has one of his taxidermied animals and favourite preserved insects in resin

their master bath also as a gold detailed mirror above a wooden vanity

there's a little spot on the counter shelf for those headbands to keep hair out of their face. they have like, 4 and they're all fuzzy

the shelf also has skincare products, lotion, etc. + face masks that they use together

they got a basket for bath bombs to place next to the bathtub

their living room is so cool get these two on pinterest Immediately

they have the coziest reading nook sectioned off with a mini bookshelf omg it's under this big curtained bay window and has super soft blankets

it's also a super nice place to sit when they want to write or talk </3

there's fairy lights hanging up that they switch out during holidays!!

the tables have decor like lace tablecloth, an animal skull in a glass dome display, crystals, salt lamps, etc.

the walls have paintings (thrifted or painted by anne), small mirrors, and mounted candle holders

the couch and accent chair are a muted brown and they both have at least one throw pillow and blanket thrown over them

there's two dark bookshelves on either side of their t.v. with novels, plants, an incense burner, ceramic trinket dishes, a sunset light, (+ a duck night light they got semi-ironically) and little figurines

if you looked up cozy cottage kitchen you'd probably find something like theirs

sage green kitchen....Sage Green (and brown) Kitchen

the fridge has a calendar, a bunch of magnets they've been collecting (animals, letters, etc.), pictures of them and their friends, and a chore schedule because felix would forget otherwise

they have a couple of hooks for aprons and they are either really nice or really stupid (one says "oh crepe" probably)

there's a small mug shelf on the wall with their go-to ones

the sink has a ceramic animal soap holder (also a little bunny kitchen timer nearby)

there's a rolling tray table they use for snacks and to put tea sets on

they have a small wooden table by the window where they usually eat breakast

they put a little glass jar on the counter to put spare change in so they can go out when it's full without worrying about who's paying

anne gets a whole room as her studio/workshop considering how much she likes to do (deserved!!)

there's a really cute pastel pink utility cart with different supplies next to the easel that sits in front of a big window

there's a mug that has "paint water" written on it

they put a table ( + a rolling char) in the middle of the room so it's easier to work on any larger projects

there's a cabinet with craft supplies, a clothing rack with baskets + a full-length mirror for when she works on cosplay

there's also a little seat by the mirror that felix sits on when he's watching/talking to her

she has a smaller desk with a computer in the corner so she can play/make music or write

the keyboard has cute customized key covers she can switch out!!

the walls are covered with different art prints, paintings, album covers, posters, etc.

general hcs

imagine anne giving felix a painted pair of jeans or something that has a super cool design that specifically includes an animal skull surrounded by double black hellebores (his favourite flower!!) i really do think felix would love personalized things like that </3

tangent,, you know when people get someone to write something so they can get it tattooed? that except she puts it on one of her favourite pieces :sob:

i see anne is a little taller than felix...him wearing her clothes? let's think about that

the paying thing is so relatable tbh. they decide to switch paying for food each time and remember that gifts are not something to consider when paying the other person back

felix isn't a fan of the whole royal outfits thing, but he doesn't mind as much when he sees her wearing a dress and jewelry (that he paid for with escell's money probably) that coordinates with the colours of his own outfit

#🛒nia.reqs #last legacy #last legacy felix #fictif felix #felix iskandar escellun #last legacy headcanons #screaming and crying #these two sound so cute together

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thecrenellations · 4 years ago

Text

Return of the Thief Notes, Part One: The Book of Pheris, Volume I

Notes from my first read, October 2020. (Part Two | Part Three | TaT)

Contents: "So, so, so” watch, Costis watch, swearing, trashing the king’s attendants, being objectively wrong, boundless enthusiasm and love

I promise I’ve had more developed thoughts since these often incoherent ones, but I’ve enjoyed having these notes to refer to - for sentimental reasons and for entertainment, so here they are, for others who enjoy liveblogs and/or being whisked back in time to their first read of this wonderful book.

Format: Page number. My thoughts (Context?)

Dedication, Table of Contents, Exordium:

There it is – to Sounis

Exordium – vocab #1

Interregnum?!? Alyta?

Pheris!!!

Yeah I love him from the first page

MOIRA

MOCKING COMMENTS HELP! Gen lives!

A new level of unreliable narrator

Moira, messages of Gods, Pheris, messages of __

Wtf is going on in this study? A zoo?

high king vs great king vs annux?

okie dokie dude

Chapter 1

1. Susa – Costis

2. Infirmity – who gets to be hero/tell story (I started reading right after the book launch, in which mwt spent some time talking about her writing influences and decisions connect to this question - Pheris isn’t her first disabled protagonist and storyteller, of course, but it was lovely to meet him properly directly after hearing her talk about it. Book launch foreshadowing part 1...)

Melisande?

Is this why he wasn’t taught to read?

3. Always the summer

Bees!

4. Hunting cat… hm…

Ok … shrine … 😬

5. Once again we start with a disaster or having to flee

Which Eugenides precipitated

Bite!

Little monster :(

6. Falling…

7. :( :( :(

His purpose? D:

8. YIKES

Chapter 2

9. Hello there! (Gen!)

Massive chair?

10. CRACKED WATER JUG (amphora motif???)

11. Triangle from seal!

Gen that’s rude to Pheris :( (“He will fit in very well with my attendants”)

Wait. This must have happened before ACoK! (nope)

12. :(

Xikander … never made an impression before

How old is Pheris? (lol)

13. Philologos come thru!

Royal closet reappears!

14. Hello weird secondhand scene!

He is Eugenides

Marina…

15. Petrus? GALEN? OH SHIT!

Is this why Galen was called? (nope)

16. Hell yea Petrus

Miras’ golden balls oh no

All these previously unnamed sucky attendants!

17. Ula – goddess of hearth and healing

Ok … Galen … or a god? Eugenides????? (why did these options occur to me before Mr. Shows Up At Your Bedside At Night himself)

18. Finally the attendant floor plans I crave + hunting scenes!

19. EXCUSE ME he slept through Sounis + Eddis wedding!!!

Again – high king!

20. So Ion is beautiful … hmm.

Yeah … Sejanus has facets. I like it.

21. Clearly no one would know what king would do … lol

Don’t mind me just sorting the attendants on a spectrum of awfulness!!!

22. SO SO SO – ION!!!!!

How many fucking attendants are there and how many are on my hit list!

Is “the necessaries” bathrooms or like … him stealing? (just the bathrooms ... the Gen-Pheris parallels were really getting to me at this point)

23. OH MY GOD THE UNIFIED CREST

Also … frogs. Frogs.

24. Big day for Gen huh

Definitely an aura of Something as he writes about Gen

25. HELLO EVERYONE

26. Sorry Kamet, Pheris does the physical descriptions better. They’re beautiful

I’m blacking out at Eddis and Sounis

27. Jesus Christ. The bear.

Cousin time!

Under the table is the new up on the roof!

Uh… twin imagery ….

Gen’s feet!

Jesus. The matching

28. Cleon … wtf? A cousin?

A trial for Sophos?

Show! Us! Sophos’s! Shoes!

29. If u throw things out the air shaft you might hit the king

Was it a chicken?

Lol nvm the guy at night is Gen. That is … very sweet

- Showing up at night

- Accent

- Complaining about Petrus

- Swearing

- One hand

I am judging Costis and Sophos for not describing the paneling in Gen’s room!

Chapter 3

30. Was it a chicken?

An earring huh, good hand huh

31. Literally screaming “NO!” at Gen. Don’t joke about dying! I am killed by Gen on annux day. This is. My boy. Yes he is perfect. Yes he will refuse to get up. I love him. I died on page 31

Philologos is still the best of them

32. Dancing bear indeed

Always the powdered gold

Ruby!!!!! <3

Aww a smile!!! <3

Pheris he likes you!

33. They both love invisibility and lost it … I cry

Erupt like the sacred mountain excuse me!

OR WORSE return to bed! Lol

34. He’s Eugenides when he’s talking to Attolia

Ouch hero talk

! from Irene!

My queen!

Hey Phresine!

They way we do <3 he’s hating it but he’s so comfortable with her

Sister and bro mention! C’mon!

I love them

EYEBROW

35. Honestly that’s a yes (“I have no idea what you mean, my queen”)

It’s so cute they hang out in the morning … like how long was it even since they’ve seen each other lol

:( tough walk for Pheris

Is it prophecy time?

Lol how long does this construction take?!

Also … she’s pregnant, huh? but no one knows (nope)

Is befriending someone weaponized as a prank count for Gen’s enemies to friends list?

Also SHOW ME the magus. I know he’s here!

36. Pheris excuse me, why not recreate this!

Lol cast off language of history indeed

Feel the thrum of the goddess!

EXCUSE ME… a minor goddess? Mystery goddess? Or Philia?

Oh Gen

37. Well, Gen, someone is having a worse day than you.

Damn, how far we come.

Aww Sounis, babe, I love you and so does Gen

[drawing of the four of them sitting in a row]

38. Artadorus???? Pomegranate?

39. HEIRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A friend! Also lol. Two smiles, for Pheris and Heiro..

40. Yesss Melheret joke in action.

Costis has left tho right?

Jesus, Melheret

SHE GAVE HIM A HORSE (I COULD NOT DEAL with this entire conversation, but then again I could not deal with this whole book.)

41. I love them all so much

“on that horse, you will look like a king” I can’t with her sense of humor

He sure did say that

I feel like I’m missing something with the fight on foot thing … remembering battles?

Helen called him Gen!

Sophos stop talking about yourself and bringing apricots into everything lol

Lol these bystanders don’t know how lucky they are. Nor does Pheris, yet

42. She’s protecting him

Also … Gen … you didn’t want to be a soldier.

43. Guards have capes

2 startled men … hm …

Oh Gen. The fucking brutal echoes…

44. :( :( :(

Gen tell your wife you’re sick!

The attendants are so dumb

45. So, so, so :(

Tell who? Petrus?

Wink!

Yes?

46. Bleeding! Salt! Lemon! Heck no! What is he, a piece of meat?

Oranges?

47. “savoring each bite as if it were my last” ... Same … but with this book

Hmm… Alyta! Goddess of the gentle rain! (despite this “hmm,” I did not put the pieces together)

48. Oh no Teleus! And someone?

Aw he realized <3 lemon water

49. Gen eat your broth lol

50. I love them.

Ion’s really trying to make up for what he did that one time

51. Without the approval of the great goddess HAHAHA

I love them. Cousin time! Growl?

Idk whether or not to be reassured, Gen.

Wow Cleon I do not like that. Also didn’t he die? (...)

Comma (“I am not, Eddis”)

Go smack him!

52. Gen I love you.

Helen I love you.

He’s so bad at self care but I love him

Chapter 4

55. love that our narrator just disappears and reappears

56. Attolia’s brother’s bedroom? Yikes. Ominous. A detail in a story we’ve already gotten, different every time <3

57. fucking attendants. 3 good ones. Medander you were beneath Costis’s notice before but I hate you. Costis didn’t have time for you or Xikos or Xikander and nor do I

58. interesting pawn talk!!!

59. <3 Pheris :(

The Gen comparisons though

:( :( :( :(

60. flamboyance <3

Cemphora bush

Bees

61. I love him

62. I love them

Also lol “Your majesty?”

63. Name … hm … (“I have deliberately omitted [my tutor’s] name here”)

64. more twin imagery I swear

WAIT … it was his birthday! Not just Annux day?!! Gen was born in late summer???

Attendant list thank you

65. laying it all out there, huh … (that one Gen quote)

Lol they’re the same but Pheris likes horses

66. Insellia! Hello nice to meet you

67. Gen that’s mean. (“He is hardly even half of one.”)

68. Coleus leves???

“I am Eugenides.” <3

Gen why

69. Gold cups???? Hmmmmm. Also lioness. Def invoking Costis. (they’re probably not the cups, but STILL)

Earth….

70. Moira! Hi!!! Rainbow shawl!

Like a rabbit!

Pester!

I’m … very sad he uses his Attolian accent with Helen

71. Aaah so good

Mortals

Moira knows another messenger?

Does he think he can’t die in battle?

72. hmm are they WRANGLING?! (Galen and Petrus and my Fire and Hemlock word association)

Kill that pastry Irene I love you

morning training with his … guard? (Is that the whole guard or a guard? Costis senses tingling once again.)

73. Oh gen.

Ouch! (“to send people to their deaths and not risk my own is contemptible”)

Is she implying he’s paying Therespides?

74. Interesting Cleon plan. So many doubles

OUCH. (“Only if he comes back from the dead.” I assumed Lader had died in the war; it’s a different ouch now. I love that they both accidentally say things to each other that poke old wounds, and it’s not a big deal but it’s also not dismissed! Their relationship has come so far, and I love them so much.)

75. Verimius – Lavia – Celia??? Somebody is queer in there!

A GUARD

This scene confuses me. Xortix? Layteres? Aris! but dice thing is less political … so maybe? (just wait....)

76. So many reasons to hate Medander

Hey Costis! You exist! KoA happened!

Gen is just … still so uncomfortable and miserable. He chose, he has people, but still.

RIP Clopius also WHAT

77. Lol Hilarion’s grand statements

78. Yorn Fordad Hello!

Luxurious mustache

The mighty Pents?

Besin Quedue – she’s coming 4 you watch out

79. RIP Baron Hippias

Chapter 5

80. Spring! Plays! Cenna!

81. Oh dear

Oh dear

At least they said he was pretty

83. ?!? :( wine

Uh oh. Stockpiling

85. What even.

AAAAAAAAAH COSTIS

86. Omg Irene. Hissing. I love her.

Also … Gen’s the viper

Also this scene was written by Pheris.

Damn.

87. oh no.

What better man

She fucking quoted Howl. I love them.

Also, bees (this scene killed me)

90. Falling?

Oh shit

Also … Juridius and Pheris, Susa and Costis (comparing demands for information)

93. oh my god (IT’S THE WINDOW SCENE)

Oh my god

94. She! Called! Him! Gen!

I love this and it scares me

Lol Chloe

Irene you learned from her though

95. D:

96. :(

97. water stuff

98. what the heck

OH NO (Quedue scene)

100. yikes

Omg

Wow.

102. yikes yikes YIKES

103. a blade has protruded from his chest (tbt to The Thief)

jesus

106. shit

Did Gen hit him?

108. lol Phresine

109. lol

I want genuinely every character’s reaction to this shit

Chapter 6

111. what the heck Gen.

112. like a god [crown doodle]

114. Perma?

116. Gen. Gen. Gen. Do not.

117. AAAA (god intervention)

122. Juridius to Dite

124. bye Iolanthe and Ileia! Tell us about Caeta and Silla.

125. did not expect so much Ion

Chapter 7

127. Fryst god of winter

She laughed!

They’re so married

128. OH SHIT (Costis ship is sighted and I remember what’s about to happen next)

Interesting timing

He rode the horse home?

131. Beauty and good, beauty and kind

134. The gods’ goodwill

Keep them safe <3

135. Is that his MOM?!! Wtf (it was!)

Pheris steal those earrings!!!

RING! SMASH BOX!

137. AMPHORA EARRINGS (and flowers)

138. I love Phresine

139. Why do I feel like all the game birds are pigeons

140. meanwhile Gen’s been hanging out with Kamet. Shit. I cannot.

WELCOME HOME BOYS!

HELL YEAH KAMET ATTEND THOSE MEETINGS!

RELIUS COME THRU

141. lethium soup! The reversal

Safe for you

142. of course he knew <3

143. Kamet time! I love him. We get to see Kamet!!!

Also … echo of Gen’s notes on Mede

145. very handsome. … gaycostis vindication (referring to @costis’s url at the time and this post. Little did I know what else was to come in the next chapter and then a few months later with the adaptation news...)

Do you know who I am?

Chapter 8

147. Of course he’s a cartographer

A favorite huh

148. of course she didn’t tell us his age!

149. the angsty window staring I crave

Music!

151. adventure, huh

I do have a soft spot for Melheret

152. concerned about amphora gift

153. Glad they can be well and united in spite!! (Gen and Melheret)

154. Pheris loves math and I love him

155. Hello Teleus. Hello olives

Lol Relius is not into math

156. pigeons. Inkpot!

157. yeah honestly. He tortures people. He was NOT tortured by the king

159. lol (“I have noted the elective nature of certain behaviors” ... I love Relius and Pheris.)

160. The Invitation! I <3 it

161. EXCUSE ME WHO

Legarus!

FOLKS HERE WE ARE (I cannot overstate how wonderful it was to read this page. I did not know who the poem was from, and “Someone loves me very much, even with all my faults” is even sweeter to reread, but it’s just ... his confidence is so different from the tentative consideration of a new philosophy of trust and love we see in KoA. And there is subtextual queerness in the books before this one, some more apparent and some more subtle (and what is obvious to one reader may be subtle or invisible to another, in these books especially), and there is the attendant love triangle a few chapters back, but HERE - here, Pheris acknowledges the real feeling and love in Legarus’s disastrous relationship and tells us directly that his lover was a man, here he seamlessly makes it clear how bi and poly Relius is, and he quietly ties these relationships and realities to his growing understanding of the world. It’s not subtext. And there’s a lot more to come, but this page really hit me, and sort of promised the “more to come” while assuring me that what had come before, more subtly, was there. I used to have heteronormative readings of both these books and myself, and when Thick as Thieves brought them crashing back into my heart after years away, I knew better about myself, and I saw that - or the possibility of that reading - reflected in the new book, and it was such a good surprise. It meant a lot, and this page meant a lot, and that is why I’m writing a small essay to accompany this note.)

Lol wow

162. Where are you traveling, man (this question remains)

163. Fuck you, Orutus

164. Stole an inkpot!

165. the map!!! (Kamet’s)

166. I love them!

167. The Math Master hmm

Am I an oracle (Nope! :) )

#there is SOME context #and some rambling #but i'm sure some of it doesn't make sense so i'm very up for explaining anything #return of the thief #the queen's thief #mwt #something i #rott spoilers #return of the thief spoilers

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #355

“despite all my rage, i am still just a rat in a cage”

Have you ever shared a shower or bath with someone as an adult? No, only as a kid. What kind of pizza toppings do you like? Meats or jalapenos. When did you first take a shot of alcohol? Never, and I'm not interested. Did you babysit for money when you were in middle school? No. Who is your favorite band? How long have they been? Ozzy Osbourne, since middle school. Has the last person you kissed ever been to your house? My old house, yes. Not the one I currently live in. Have you ever been to a spa? Only because my friend at the time took me. When talking on the phone, do you place it against your left or right ear? My right. What’s your favourite Lunchables meal? The nachos one. Do you like Bob Marley? NO. Omg his voice is awful. Have you ever eaten at Golden Corral? Yeah. I'm not a big fan. Do you sit and eat dinner at the same table with your family? We only ever do that if my sister is over (she comes for dinner once a week). Are you listening to any music right now? If so, what are you listening to? Yeah, Violet Orlandi's cover of "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins. God she's so beautiful and talented and asdfjkaljddkfjlwkee FUCK I'm gay for her. Who was the last person to make you genuinely smile? Watching Mark. :') Is there something you want to say to someone but can’t/won’t? Yeah. Do you like men who have a sensitive side? Yes. Please be in touch with your emotions, for the love of God. Have you ever tried to get someone into a certain band/artist? Not persistently, no, but Mini is a case where me mentioning them enough got her to listen to them. Metallica, by the way. They're her favorite band because of mwah, haha. Have you ever carved you and someone else’s initials into a tree? It's possible, but I don't believe so. Do you like Dairy Queen? Love it. They're Oreo Cupfection thing is BOMB. Is there anyone you know with an amazing personal success story? Yes. I have a friend Shannen who first was a widely-recognized photographer in the state, and now she's a fashion designer (or something like that) up in New York. Is there a song in a different language that you can sing? A number of Rammstein songs. How do you feel about bands that use pyrotechnics in live concerts? So long they're well-made for safety reasons, I don't care much. They do seem a bit unnecessary, though; like just look at James Hetfield's accident that burned half his body because of standing in the wrong place. It seems easy to fuck up and get in a dangerous range. Ever fallen down a hole? No. Do you like bananas? Yeah. How long do you normally spend in the shower? Not even 10 minutes, usually. I've never understood how people can take such long showers. Have you ever been a featured member on any website? Yeah, on a Silent Hill fansite. Have you ever had any weird pets? Not by my standards. A ball python morph is as "weird" as it gets. Are you currently talking to/texting/instant messaging anyone? Nope. Have you ever experienced insomnia? Ugh, yes. I went through a horrible insomnia spell, and I still have an awful time trying to fall asleep. Do you like egg nog? Nooo. Would you ever wear Converse with a prom/formal dress? I'm not opposed to it, but realistically I'd probably wear something more traditionally suiting just because. Do you prefer hot chocolate with or without marshmallows? Without. How many different people of the opposite sex have you cried over? I've cried all the oceans over just one lol. Would you rather be a surgeon or mortician? Being a mortician actually doesn't sound awful, weird as it sounds. It sounds almost relaxing if I could just be alone with some music doing my job. Would rather be a musician or a painter? A painter. Would you rather write your own book or make your own movie? I'd love to write a book. At home, do you have a trampoline? No. When you are about to go to bed, do you put on some sort of noise? No. What is your favorite Christmas movie? Jim Carrey's How The Grinch Stole Christmas. And what about your favorite Christmas song? Probably "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" or whatever it's called. "Carol of the Bells" too, of course. What is your ultimate favorite stocking stuffer? Haha, okay so it seems to be an unspoken rule that Mom always gets us Slim Jims for our stockings, and that's obviously the best considering my sisters and I loooove them yet still don't buy them much. You're making me ready for Christmas, lol. After Halloween, do you sort out all of your candy into little piles? I did as a kid, and then my sisters and I would trade what we preferred. When you listen to music with headphones, do you keep the volume low enough to hear surrounding noise faintly, or do you blast it? It's honestly pretty loud. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Cold pizza from dinner leftovers last night. What’s the largest animal you’ve ever had as a pet? Our late boxer mix, Cali. She was a big 'ole pup. Do you own any kind of helmet? No. Out of everything currently in your refrigerator, what food or drink is your favorite? Food: strawberries. Drink: Mountain Lightning. What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? Either when I skinned my knees so deep that pus was visible, or when I fainted onto my chin and got a short, but very deep cut. Do you like the taste of cough syrup? No. What is something you like to have conversations about? I like talking about deep stuff, like where we came from, our unique feelings and beliefs, conspiracy theories and cryptids, mysterious stuff like that, too. And don't forget animals. And Mark, haha. What all is in the trunk of your car? I don't have a car, and I don't remember what's in Mom's trunk, even though I helped bring in groceries just the other day. Do you ever put fruit on your cereal? Ew, no. Is your heat or air conditioning currently on? Our AC is currently on because it's too damn hot. The weather here has been so up and down, it's wild. Have you ever fallen off of a horse? No. Which do you value more, your appearance or your intelligence? Honestly? I'd be dumber than I already am if it meant being happy with how I look, because my appearance now is a key factor to my depression. When was the last time you drove something other than a car or truck? Oh jeez... I have no idea. I don't think since I've driven a golf cart at someone's b-day party as a kid. Were your grandparents present when you were born? No. If you drink/smoke, how often do you do these things? I don't smoke, and I only have a drink or two very rarely, usually just on special occasions. What do you think of fast food? I like it way more than I wish I did. What website do you spend the most time on and why? YouTube, because I'm always listening to and/or watching something. What’s the most amount of time you’ve spent online? Is this usual for you? In one non-stop setting, I don't want to know. I pretty much only exist on the computer. When it comes to travel, what kinds of places intrigue you most? Mountainous, loads of nature, cooler/cold, mysterious locations... stuff like that. Do you think humans colonizing Mars is a good idea? Would you go, if you could? If we learn from our goddamn mistakes and not fuck up its environment, it could be healthy or even life-saving for humanity, but I'd prefer to stay on Earth as long as possible. What is the farthest you’ve walked in one day and what made you do it? I dunno, maybe at Disney World or something like that as a kid. What is something important that’s often on your mind lately? Physical health stuff. I'm worried about a lot of things relating to that. What about something unimportant, but you can’t stop thinking about it? I don't know about "unimportant," at least to me. Do you like oatmeal? If so, what kinds of things do you like in it? Yeah. I only really eat the cinnamon apple ones; I always use milk and sprinkle some sugar in there, and it's delicious. What was going on the last time you felt nostalgic? When Mom and I stopped at Jason's house to bring the family some treats following his mother's death. I stayed in the car and couldn't even look towards the house, but yeah. So many memories just stampeded me. How much attention do you pay to the movements of the stars and planets, and do you believe they influence anything? I pay zero attention to it; I don't believe they have influence over people in any way. What is the most difficult or involved video game you’ve ever played? I guess you could say World of Warcraft. It's definitely the most involved, like I've been playing it almost consistently since 2014, and I used to be in a Heroic raid team, which certainly wasn't easy. Then there's some achievements I busted my ass to get. Which accent do you find most sexy, alluring or appealing? British is where it's at. Which accent do you find most annoying, disturbing, or bothersome? Extremely Southern ones. Can you cry on cue? Is it any kind of useful? No. Does it take you a while to actually get jokes? Embarrassingly, it frequently does. Can you wear socks to bed or does it annoy you? Ugh, I could never. I hate the feeling of socks. Have you ever bleached your hair? By myself, no, but a professional has to dye it. Do you like jelly beans? They're okay. It really depends on the flavor, and even then I can't eat a lot of them. Do you have trouble sleeping when it’s storming? Yes, but not because it scares me, but rather that I'm just jumpy. Subtle thunder isn't so bad, and I LOVE the drone of heavy rain, but once you add booming thunder and strong flashes of lightning, it's too disruptive for me to fall asleep easily. Who was the last person you know that graduated? (high school or college) My not-so-little sister is just about to finish her Master's lakdsjfakwe I'm so proud of her. Were you happy or sad when you found out your babysitter was coming? I think I was always kinda bummed out, even though I liked my babysitters. I had horrible separation anxiety from my mom. Did you have a boyfriend in kindergarten? No, but I did have this one guy who'd been like obsessed with me since pre-k and would always chase me to hug and kiss me. In pre-k it was awful, but he still did it sometimes in kindergarten, despite the teachers getting on him about it. It's actually a memory I forgot for a very long time, like I think my brain tried to oppress it, and I wonder if it has anything to do with my fear of people standing behind me, men specifically, and being raped. Did you ever read the Magic Treehouse series? Oh yes, I was obsessed! Who was your best friend in elementary school? It jumped between Brianna, Kim, and Quiata. Did you ever watch The Land Before Time movies? YESSSSS. I even had the computer game. Did you collect anything when you were a kid? Stickers. I'd put them on my dresser everywhere to the point it was absolutely covered. Did you get an allowance? No. Not because my parents didn't want to or anything, but rather they couldn't afford allowances to three kids. Were you into American Girl dolls? Nah. I got one, but I think it was mostly so my sisters and I each had our own. Nicole, however, was sooooo into them. Were you friends with your childhood neighbors? Some, yeah, especially the boy down my street named D'Andre. We would hang out ALL the time, be it at each other's houses or just riding our bikes. He actually got married very recently and I'm so happy for him, ahhhhh!! What was your biggest fear when you were a kid? Thunderstorms. Did you ever play the "Reader Rabbit" computer games? Oh my god, YES. The one where you were hosting a surprise birthday party was my absolute favorite. Did your parents let you drink soda growing up? Yes. .-. What was your favorite kind of cake as a kid? Chocolate, of course.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''bullet with butterfly wings'' by the smashing pumpkins

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bigscaryyanderewriter · 5 years ago

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Idea there is a horrid beast that terrorized the villiage, Every night killing the live stock, demolishing buildings, killing villagers. But luckily they found a way to stop the beast. Every few generations there is a ritual held to sastify the beast and leave the villiage alone. The ritual is the offering of someone who fits the description of the beast's old love, for the beast to take away to his den. 1/2

The beast (bakugo) was cursed to roam the lands forever and have his love ripped away from him. His love's soul is reincarnated every few years to live life again, growing up, looking the same when they first met bakugo but no longer holding the memories of their past life. I can only imagine the utter confusion of being locked away with someone who claims to know who you are and yet you have no recolection of who the heck the person infront of you is 2/2

So um, I took creative liberties, but omg... I really liked writing this.

Tw: Implied Sexual Assault, Yandere Themes, Captivity, Restraints

1.5k words

You were the beast’s. Marked untouchable from such a young age, that you couldn’t really remember anything else. Your family ripped from you. It was tradition for your bloodline at this point, but you didn't know that. Once you started showing the true signs of what you were to be to the village, they forced the mantle of being the next sacrifice onto you. It started when you were very young. Daily lessons on how to act and drilling. They taught you what your place would be from the day you first bled.

That's why you were going to run away.

Originally? You accepted it. You knew no other way for yourself. Only the future as the wife of a beast who wanted the you from the past. A dead woman who was dust at this point, taken back into the earth.

It didn't change suddenly, but something in you questioned it. Questioned why you had to do this when everyone else made their own choices. They got to marry or court whoever they wanted. Bringing this up resulted in a talk about duty and the future of the village. Why should you care for the future if you may not live to see it? No one truly knew why the beast wanted girls like you. It could be companionship, a snack, or just to have fear control the village.

Though, it was also the things people didn't think you hear when it came to what they actually thought on your situation. About how they pitied you and how you were unfortunate. No, you weren't going to sit idly by and just be someone they told you to be. The beast could get over himself. Nothing could convince you to go with him. You had even forgotten your true family due to being separated at a young age. You were deprived of a childhood by the priests of your village. Everything had to be for the sake of the village and it sickened you. It wasn't your place, no matter how much they tried to train you.

It all clicked, the unfairness of it. The fact you wanted out. You wanted to run farther from here, to the other side of the earth. Anyway to escape this fate.

So you came up with a plan.

You crept through the dark night and into the forest to see the woman who would save you. The Gorgon. An old crone who took in girls who seeked to escape arranged marriages and abusives husbands. Even saving girls slavery and prostituting. Medusa was her name. Your mission was to find her. You heard whispers from servants at the temple of this to women who had blackened eyes and cuts from glass that their husbands caused. No one would protect anyone here, but you could leave.

No one would know who you were there. You would be free. Free to be happy for once.

You didn't know where the crone lived, but you knew the way to go. The trails to follow. You packed for a three day journey and took the golden coins from the offering to the gods to pay for your safe haven. Hopefully the gods would smite you if this didn't work out and you would be in no shape to marry the beast.

The snow fell, it was the week before you were to be sent to damnation. Darkness hugged the earth like a thick blanket, but warmed nothing. The cold cut through your layers like a knife and chilled you till your fingers shook as you avoided the eyes of others. The hood of the cloak you had stolen was up, hiding your face as the frost crunched beneath your feet.

The forest you could see was taller than anything you had ever known. It would be dense and full of danger. The danger kept the men and others who would seek to harm the sacred home of Medusa away… Wolves and cougars, things that could haunt your nights for years lurked there. With the right intent though, you could survive the journey. Just follow north and look for the creek with five heads of marble. You would be fine.

Before you could step through into the forest. You heard the alarm bells sound, torches were lit and chaos broke the village behind you as you proceeded to run.

They knew you were gone and the howling dogs called you back to your cage as you heart thumped in your ear like a war drum. It was the cold wind slapping your face and the fabric flying behind you as you sprint. You would never outrun the dogs. You needed to though.

This was so you could live!

The weight hit your back though and the wind escaped you. Everything turning frozen as time seemed to stop. You couldn't move. The freezing paws chilled you through the cloak as you laid in the snow. The dogs whining and yelping, barking as the swarmed you. You could feel the tears rolling down your cheeks as you looked at the dogs who were too kind to even bite you, pulling on your cloak. Snarling when you would try to get up though.

The horse hooves as the townguard brought you back, hands tied and lifted onto the horse. Being led back as you sobbed, finding yourself filled to the brim with nothing but despair. A warm bath waiting for you and a proper scolding like you are a petulant child.

"Don't you know what you could have done? You could have doomed us all. If it wasn't so close to the festival…"

The high priestess hissed, giving you a scowl. If she were given the chance to be a sacrifice, you know that she would in a heartbeat. She seemed to want to marry the beast far more than you ever would. Not that she could, she never showed any care though about that fact though. Or the fact she could be ripped limb from limb by it. You knew the horror stories of the blood running through the streets and the livestock being ruined… The town left ablaze and many other things that happened.

After more yelling, you were sent back to your room. A small bed with a comfortable mattress and a warm blanket you've had forever. The dress from the ceremony was hung on the wall, prepared for the festival. Prepared to be worn by you. It was white with red accents, a hair piece ready to adorn you and everything was set for it to happen.

The week of the ceremony was filled with ritual fasting, feasting and everything between. There were ribbons binding you to your seat. Food you hated, food that was her favorite, colors that were HER favorite, flowers that she had loved. You hated every single thing present. Gifts and offerings laid before you as you sat on the altar. An offering yourself. Not a person, but an object for the beast to take. They fed you and you could feel yourself getting fatter with the rich delights that left you vomiting after they took you back to your chamber. You would be locked in there now. The priests knew you wanted out and they would not lose the power they had over you, claws in too deeply for you to struggle against their wishes. It was hell. This was hell.

The night before the last day of the festival, they gave you wine and made you drink until you could barely stay awake. The high priestess whispering in your ear, only you could not understand. You could feel as her cold, porcelain colored hand ran up your thigh, other followers watching with fascination and laughter. The games that they made you play. How they trained you.

You heard the growl. The screams. The High Priestess gasping as she stood, going to bow, but finding a red mouth opened on her neck. Crimson rolling down. Jewels of a ruby necklace covering her neck as she fell. You saw fangs and claws like steel flashed through the crowd. The torches fell from the motion and a bloodbath took place as you fell into darkness, still tied to the altar. Fear still possessing you through the haze of your inebriation. You swore you saw the red eyes of the beast staring at you. A demon's gaze.

It made you feel the hollowness within yourself.

The heat and the sweat feeling like you were being crushed.

Katsuki wasn't going to let anyone touch his soulmate. He would have never let you stay here this long if he had known.

"Don't worry… You're safe now and I'll never let them hurt you again." He murmured into your ear, a voice hoarse and deep that made a shiver run through your core. His breath was soothing as he lifted you, warmth radiating from his body. Calluses on his hands scraping against your soft skin as he held you to his chest, bridal style. Horns twisted through his hair and fur.

#yandere bnha #yandere my hero academia #yandere x reader #yandere boku no hero academia #yandere mha #yandere bakugou x reader #yandere bakugou #bakugou x reader #reader insert #x reader #beast x reader #beast bakugo

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c0untb00z · 5 years ago

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I would just like to clear, I don't hate the BBC Dracula 2020 Show. In fact, I actually like the idea of Dracula being set in modern times like in the show, but I would like it a lot better if it wasn't written like a fucking reader insert fanfiction.

Don't get me wrong, I love me some reader inserts every once in a while but they're meant to be on Wattpad. Sometimes, you can find really fucking good fanfictions that could genuinly be movies, but this really just feels like someone wrote an erotic fanfiction for Dracula. It almost reminds me of a worse version of 50 Shades of Grey with less kinky sex.

First and foremost Agatha Van Hesling. I actually kinda liked her personality, how driven she was and determined to never give up, but she was literally created for a love interest. In Dracula by Bram Stocker, Sister Agatha is a nun that nurses Jonathan back to health, claiming he was 'sick in the head' as he ranted of what he had seen and warning others of Dracula. She doesn't even have a last name.

However there is a Dr. Van Hesling in the book, hes dutch(???) Professor that mentors and taught(????) Jack Seward who was in love with Lucy, who was fed off of and eventually killed and eventually undead by the means of the one and only Dracula. Dr Van Hesling plays a large role in the plot of the book. He has an open mind and was able to draw connections between things that some others couldn't, as he had access to more sources and could speak to most off the charecters involved. He's the first person to present the idea of a vampire, and Lucy turning into one. Thanks to Jonathan he was able to identify the vampire feeding on Lucy as Dracula and finds out how to kill the vampires.

So basically Agatha was literally fabricataed for the sole perpose of being there, to fall in love with Dracula or something.

I know we all are horny for Dracula. I'm horny for Dracula. Vampires are fucking hot but the sexiest part of vampires is that they ya know. Kill you and are mercily and heartless. The show does show that in a lot of parts and even decapiates a nun and yeets it into a gaggle of nuns which i fucking died at. But it also, humanizes him way to much, hes literally a monster. The scene in the boat with lord whats his name really portrayed that. It was really,,,, weird cause me being a kinky fucker I don't find the particular phrases of "you're going to need to be quiet now," and " youre doing so well" that creepy and if anything a little hot but looking at the circumstance and the look on that kids face, it was like r e a l y fucked up. Which is why i liked that scene. It showed just how fucked up Dracula is.

To be fair i did like Cleas Bangs acting and casting as Dracula. He had a certain charm that was ever so s l i g h t l y off. I heard people say he just 'made up an accent' but fuck you guys its a fucking danish accent you incolent twats anyways. He could be really funny at times and i actually apprecited it.

However the casting AND acting of the modern parts is absolute shit. Ep.3 is where i kinda gave up on the show and finsihed it for the sake of torturing myself. FIRST OF FUCKING ALL LUCY i cannot fathom how P I S S E D i am about Lucy. Why did they have to make her a phone obsessed basic asshole with no regards to anyones emotions besides her own and the extent of her personality is 'getting likes on socail media is all i care about because it makes me feel validated so im gonna wallo in self pity because i was obiously written by white man in his 50s that would have made me white if he wasnt forved to throw in diversity points" like shut the fuck up steven king.

Also lucy and mina never meet??? Theyre in different fucking time lines??? Theyre friendship and love for eachother was fucking golden how dare you rob that form me and give me a garbage bag full of shit with a shiny little bow on top in its place jesus f u ck.

The cemetary scene was o k ay i gues?? I liked the little nod to the book with the bloofer lady and the concept of random sprits being undead because of unfinished buisness. But this really just felt like it was slapped in the show for the sake of going on a date with Dracula in cemetary. I actually kinda apperacted it but it just felt awkward.

Also who the f u ck is Lucy's friend? The gay one??? Like,,,, is that supposed to Arthur???? His chatecter was so fu king weird and offset he just didnt feel like he should be in there. Hes literally just there for a-50-year-old-man's-interpretation-of-young-women-now-a-days verson of Lucy to have a gay best ffriend.

Ok i not even sure if i want to talk about Quincy. It just hurts. It physically hurts me to think about how d i r t y they did my baby. His charecter is the defination of american chivalry, just as great as regular chivarly but with a little extra cowboy vibe. Quincy is jist the biggest,,,, sweet haert,, like he asked lucy to marry him in his cool american cowboy voice cause he knew lucy loved it and it always made her laugh. And even when she turned him down becayse her heart belonged to arthur, he stayed. All he wanted was for lucy to be happy and all he requested was that they stay frirnds. Hes also invovled with taking fkwn dracula although hes not a main charecter percice ly as he doesnt have any entires in the book he still has an amaizing precence and sometimes while reading the book ill be readying one of dr sewards passanges and think "huh i wonder what quncys doin. I hope hes dooin good. Cowboy vibes n stuffs" amd boy dles he do that. Everh dracula film adaptataion robs us. R O B S U S of quincy morris best scene. In the middle of dr van helsing ranting about vampires( thats basically what half of the book is. I could write a 4p minute mono louge of his rambling jesus how does sweard take note of all this) quincy litterally just walks out. And nobodg really pays any notice beside glancing ag his leave and shrugging at one anouther and going back tl listneing tl van helsing explaining his vampire fan theories quincy moris , the quincy morris from texathe untited states of the amerkca the land and the free and also cowboys.stands outside of the bouilding and pints his gun up at. Dracula whos in the shape of a fucking bat eves ddopping outside the window and just fucking,,shoots it. Now he doesnt hit it cause thatt wouldnt be as fun as brutally stabbing the fucker witja wooden stake. But S T I L L. And the fucking bullet hits the window that everybodys in anprobably causes arthur to shit himself the ppoor boy. Can you belive that theh didnt fucking flim thatfor any dracul? Now i i under stands why not put in this adaptation because quincy is only mentionsed like three god damned times. And when theh DK mention him jesusnshit they literally jsut made him some popular jock from amwrica just to conter jacks white twinky ass and then they had him propose to lucy in the middle of a fucking night club and she says yes???? Lile ok jut throw Arthur out a window then cause cause fu c k him i guess. And then after lucy dies he jjsy fucking moves ?? The only thing thta makes this version of qincy quinccy is the fu king name and fact hes from america

Ok now jack fucking seward. He reminds me of when ylu forget you had a pb&j in your back pack so in the bos after school you pull it out cause yoyr hungry and yoyr mom put WAY to much jelly on it so now its like. All obsorbed into the bread and joggy and squished. Just sad and really white. They even had some kid call him whate bread and they werent fucking wrong. His obly personality traits were ' omg i love lucy but shes a hoe ;,,,((' and being connected to Zoe.

Now last and definately least the god forbaden ending. Just thinking about it gives me a fucking head ache. So , jesus, zoe, who is agathas great niece or someshit, a d looks exactly like her (its literally the same fucking actress) is a detective lile scitist reasearching dracula. So dracula is illedatly attracted to her becasue he thinks shes like agathas reincarnation or soenshit. So he tries tk drink her blood at one point and spits it all out and pukes and sjit cause her blood is poisonous bevaise she has fucking c an c e r. So later we find out that draculas weaknesses ( the sun crucifix) arnt actually real hes just afraid of dying so he has like irration fears or some shit so for some fucking reason. They deside. Its a good iea to end the show with this:

Dracula fucking drinks all of zoes blood killing her and himself because her blood poisonus. And ghe fucking emd scene is them like,,, in the sun???? Or soemt hi ng??? And theyre naked and like presumably fucked and dracula says some shit like " its doesnt have to hurt" and i almost tore my wrist open wiith my teeth because of how shitty this ending is.

Not lnly is it disrespectful to zoe but agatha, agathas whole thing was K I L I N G. dracula she wanted him fucking D E A D she woULDNT FUCK HKM

And like just after finding out that he can be in the sunlight with out fucking dying and that crosses just make him umcomfortable or some shit he just desides to kill himself??? DUDE YOU JUST FOUND OUT YOURE PROACTICALLY MORE INVINCABLE THAN YOU WERE BEFORE AND YOU JSUT FUCKING OFF YOUR SELF ??? HE COULD HAVE FUCKING RULED ENGLAD AND SPEAD VAMPIRISM OLL LVER THE FUCKING COUNTFY AND WORLD KF HE TRIED HARD ENOUGH AND HE KILLS HIMSELF BECAUSE THEY WANTED A STUPID SAPPY ENDING

anyway if anyone actually goes through the effort of reafing my god damn eS S A Y about Dracula that i finkshed typing (im not gonna bother editing tbh) at 4 fucking am. Then thank you and please get a life

#vampire #dracula #dracula2020 #bbc dracula #bbc dracula 2020 #3 am essays cause im pissed #dracula bram stoker #bram stoker #draculaxreader apparnetly

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eallisnwndrlnd · 5 years ago

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A New Year. A New Decade.

As I type away, only a couple of hours to go to lead us into not only a new year but a new decade. So many memorable moments that happened this year…some good…some not so much.

2019, a year that began with anxiety and stress as I began my final semester and final year of college and ended it with uncertainty of what the next year will bring with a bit of hope that things will get better.

As I begin to reflect on my 2019, I note that even with all my downs I had a lot more ups and so much to be thankful for this year. As some of my family and friends had many new joys to celebrate there are others near and dear that also suffered a lot of hardships and loss this year. For them I hope that this New Year will bring hope, joy, peace and many more blessings.

I stressed over my academic performance as my college years were coming to a close. As I lost myself in my thesis and trying to complete it and finding that pulling my hair strand by strand may have been less painful of a process. The stress of personal issues happening at home, my deepening depression, and self-inflicted stress from school, led to me smoking a ciggy after being more than 2 years smoke free. Albeit only two lung cancer sticks, but still a moment of succumbing to my go-to distressing vice. I was, however, more determined than ever to survive my senior year being on top. With many late, tiring nights I worked towards ending on a high note. And boy did I. After having graduating high school 19 years ago, I, Ethni, at 37 years of age FINALLY graduated college…as a foreign student…with honors to boot! Can you believe it folks? I actually managed to graduate cum laude. Holy mother of fruitloops, how the frak did I even do that and not go bald? An academic acknowledgement I never dreamed possible four years ago when I started my first year of college. An honor that I can solely chuck up to hard work and determination no matter how much I lacked in confidence or ability. Alas, I finally completed a long held dream to obtain a college degree even if it took me a long time to get there. Of course the dream initially was graduating back home years ago in my dream school NYU-Tish, but hey, there are moments when dreams and goals change depending on what cards you’re dealt with and how you deal with them.

This year I was able to go back home for a visit after being away for five years. Oh how I missed my family and friends and OMG the FOOD. (the latter gifted me 20 extra pounds to take back to the Philippines) As I went back to visit the people nearest and dearest to my heart, unfortunately not having enough time to see all of them, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. How much has changed in just those five years amazed me. I felt so odd when I visited my old workplace. I hardly remembered the halls I once roamed for three years. It felt so much farther back in time than it was that it almost felt like a dream rather than actual memories. I also found some odd connection to my hometown of Los Angeles that I don’t remember ever having in all the time that I lived there. Perhaps being away for as long I had gave me some new perspective of my birthplace that was something other than being at odds with it and not feeling like I belonged. Basically I can say I don’t hate L.A. as much as I did when I was so desperate to move away from it.

After graduating, I had so many things I still needed to complete before I could even begin to search for my new direction in life. I had to change my student visa status which was a trying and pricey task. I had to finalize the printing and binding of my thesis which I finally managed to do only a month ago…ahh ever the procrastinator that I, at times, can be.

As a part of my student visa downgrading tasks of having to deport myself briefly and return with tourist visa status, I was able to check off yet another goal of mine from my ever changing and growing bucket list. My ma and I made a three day vacation of it in Tokyo, Japan. This was a city I had wanted to visit for years but had to work at convincing my mom to let our trip itinerary be in Tokyo. With her memories of WW2 as a child, I couldn’t really blame her but thankfully she finally said yes. Tokyo is a remarkable city with a lot of history and traditions. We found the Japanese people to be some of the most respectful, disciplined, welcoming and helpful people we ever had the honor of meeting throughout our travels. There were a handful of standout moments like where one young lady even walked opposite of her direction to help show us where our hotel was. I definitely will make plans to return one day but for longer than the three days we were there and make sure that I go to Mount Fuji.

Out of what I had hoped to accomplish from what I wrote last new year, I only managed to check off a few but hey, we all know that even one being checked off is practically a miracle for many of us.

I did get to learn a new language, bombarding my phone with language apps. I have managed to nearly memorize the Hangul alphabet. Now I just need to start memorizing the actual vocabulary and I’ll be good. I can now at least read several of the ingredients on Korean cosmetics and skincare products. I have also added some words in Chinese, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Gaelic, and Russian. (I tried Arabic but I need a one on one assistance with that one rather than an app) In one or two more years I hope to at least be mediocre in my ability to speak and understand Korean while learning a few more words from other languages. Of course I sometimes get confused as hell mixing up foreign words and their translations in my head. Some Chinese leaks into Korean sentences and Portuguese gets muddled with Spanish, Italian and French. The proper pronunciations and accents also get flipped around. I already had this issue with my second language, Tagalog, finding itself mixed in with my first language of English (U.S.) With my memory issues also adding to this problem, I may find myself one day accidentally saying a multilingual sentence without realizing it. I already have a bad habit of going Taglish around people who only understand the English part.

I did cook and bake a lot more this year than I did last year to the point that my mother is complaining that I am spending too much money and time on ingredients for my baked concoctions. I even took the time to cook vegan dishes for much of my school lunches during my last semester. I did love to bake more often than cooking this year thus partly to blame for my added weight gain…

As one recent unsolicited comment from a male FB acquaintance said…”u really fat” Yes, darlin’, thank you so much for that ‘oh so keen’ observation (FYI I have a mirror and a plucking scale of my own. I don’t need input I didn’t ask for nor need. Ever heard the phrase “if you ain’t got nothing nice to say...shut tf up”?) . As he so gracefully put it, yes I’ll admit I added a bit more junk in my trunk this year rather than shedding it. And? Yeah so I admit, I piled on the dessert and snacks and revisited my obsession with video games that had me mimic the physical actions of a sloth or an overly blubbered seal to the point that I nearly gave myself tennis elbow and the posture of Igor. It also didn’t help that my fybro kept flaring up on and off this year which made me feel like a Golden Girl could take me down in one fell swoop and outrun me. Not to mention my constant and annoying friend that is called clinical depression and chronic anxiety that kept nipping at my heels that I’m lucky that I can even act like a functioning human most of the time. The fact that I can tell my inner negative voice to shut the duck up most of the time and ignore it, as well as wishing to not wake up at all only twice this year is a frakking miracle in itself. (Seriously though...what is up with some people that feel the need to foist their shallow insights on those that did not solicit it. And the added ludicrousness that sometimes this is supposed to lead into a flirt-on...I mean what kind of hells bells reverse psychology load of horse manure is that?)

Unfortunately I did not read any books this year but I did read more news articles and try to keep myself up to date on current events. (and try tried to stay sane while reading them)

My writing progress stalled and I only have a long list of story ideas to show from it. There is one story I recently started outlining that I find hopeful. I think it has the legs to be a decent script if I can manage to focus on its development. That will be a big focus this coming year…to gain some momentum in my writing.

(currently being distracted by the onslaught of illegal fireworks popping in my neighborhood, hoping my house and neighborhood manages to survive these irresponsible idiots.)

The promise to keep up with my daily checklist died a hollow death early on in the year with my senior year and thesis weighing me down from being able to stay consistent. Well there’s always next year.

Sadly I didn’t get any higher in Gurushots but I did get one of my shot viewed along with other peoples work at a showing. Yay for the small things!

I did sell several of my clothes and accessories but still way more to go before I can say I am done. Like a HEEP load. Every time I see some clothes I want to buy I have to keep repeating “no more clothes” over and over again. I just try to picture Hasan Minhaj’s piece on fast fashion to control those horrible habits of mine.

Even though I didn’t successfully check off a lot of what I wanted to complete for this year, I still look back to this year as a decent one even with my ever present depression and anxiety looming over me. Dude, I graduated college, I learned a new language, and I knocked off Tokyo from my bucket list. I think that was enough to make my year above meh and almost a big YAY!

As I near the close of this annual report of mine, I list these goals and hopes not set in stone but in rainbows (oh yes I just went there into ridiculousness!!!)

May I find a job I actually like rather than what I just deem as a necessary obligation to obtain a paycheck.

I will learn enough Korean to be able to legitimately claim that I am multilingual.

Finish reading the books that I have collected on my shelf before I leave the Philippines.

Cook and bake with a bit more flair and add more complicated dishes to my repertoire.

Sell and clear out more of my shit to prepare me for our move back stateside if all goes according to plan.

If I manage to shed enough off my caboose to fit in the jeans I already own that will be a small victory in itself and the only goal that deals with my rollipollies for the year. If any extra manages to come off along the way that’ll be just an added bonus.

Hitting reset on my daily checklist and will do my best to let it last longer than last year (I can say that now as it is currently past midnight and officially 2020 in my neck of the woods)

If I do move back stateside this year I will start saving towards my future goal of getting me a tiny home. (Seriously the perfect solution to my wanting a permanent home but not a permanent address and thus my added reason to shed the burden of most of my crap)

Complete my story outline and treatment and finalize the first draft of a 45 minute script.

Delve a bit more into my art and photography as well.

Get more sleep…(crappy sleeping habits I can lay blame to my current gaming and ongoing kdrama addiction and mindless internet browsing habits)

Begin volunteering once again.

With my final moving destination still unknown dependent on the job prospects I get, pretty sure I won’t be able to mark off any other travel destinations or adventures for the coming year.

Just be healthier not only in body but in mind and soul overall. I need to work on alleviating my health issues that aggravate my fybro as well as my anxiety. If my brain could shut the frak up and calm the frak down, and keep my ma’s schizophrenic outbursts and episodes to no more than an hour a day at least once in a while would be oh so lovely.

As long as I keep going and progress even in baby steps I will eventually get there.

For those that know me and my political ideology, they know what I especially hope for this year. Please oh please if there are any actual deities that exist or even if there isn’t…please let that outcome be a good one.

Now I end my annual New Year musings with a Happy New Years greeting to everyone. May we all find good and peace in this new year and may we have a better decade than the last one.

Goodbye 2019, I can’t say I’ll really miss thee. And goodbye to another decade.

Hello 2020, be better dammit and I promise that I will strive towards making it a positive and productive one for me, my family, my friends and with that, some decent contribution to this world we all live in.

#happynewyear #newyearsresolution #newyears2020 #goals

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needyoulikeaheartbeet · 5 years ago

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lover: first reactions

Album Length: 61 => 6 + 1 = 7 TS7 confirmed

1. I Forgot That You Existed free rent, living in my mind it isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference! haha I LOVE THE LAUGHS

I love how she says indifference skgnfskj

It's all just a blur?

THE SO YEAH AT THE END LOL

2. Cruel Summer is this with jack

the chorus is so effing good

I DONT WANT TO KEEP SECRETS JUST TO KEEP YOU!!!!

OMG END OF BRIDGE INTO CHORUS HOLY FUCK I ALMST CHOKED ON MY WATER I HAD THIS FACE: :o BUT WITH WATER IN MY MOUTH YESSSSSSSSSSSS

GOD

OKAY. OKAY! I SEE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

(AFTER LISTENING TO LOVER IN FULL) IM LISTENING AGAINA ND CRYING

3. Lover

Lover is absolutely stunning. I love the instruments. I love The lyrics. Everything is beautiful. The soft "forever and ever" in the chorus.

4. The Man

OOF SECOND VERSE YES

SPEAK IT TAYLOR

DID SHE SAY BITCH AND BITCHES

USE DEROGATORY SLANG BACK AT THEM YES

ITS OKAY IF YOURE MAD!

OMG THIS IS FUN TO DANCE TO

POwER HECKING MOVES

5. The Archer

HELP ME HOLD ON TO YOU.

THE ROOM IS ON FIRE, INVISIBLE SMOKE. I love the buildup within the song itself. Beautiful vocals. Im baby.

6. I Think He Knows

OOOOO SHIT OKAY

SHE INTO HIM

WAS THAT AN ACCENT

Cute!!

7. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

Omg ok i like this intro

This gives me Lana vibes

SO SAD WE PAINT THE TOWN BLUE

the ahhhahhhhhhahhh before the pre chorus

you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes

THE WAY SHE SINGS THE TITLE

jack?

after the bridge omg back into the chorus YES

THE END

whats it about tho [edit: now I get it, it’s BRILLIANT]

8. Paper Rings

PAPER RINGS IS UPBEAT

I LIKE HOW HER VOICE SOUNDS

IS THIS STAY STAY STAY OF LOVER?

PAINTING BROTHERS WALL … THE PICTURE. STOP CUTE

THE LIL 1 2 1 2 3 4 I LIKE

ID MARRY YOU!

After the bridge the way she sings the chorus!!!

9. Cornelia Street

SECOND TIME WE MENTION BEING DRUNK

I HOPE I NEVER LOSE YOU

I RENT A PLACE ON CORNELIA STREET! OK! MY HEART.

10. Death By A Thousand Cuts

ANOTHER DRUNK! I like how she's singing.

The back vocals omg

The drums / guitar make it sound like it’s from the early 2000s

BUT IF THE STORY'S OVER WHY AM I STILL WRITING PAGES

O DAMN

THE BRIDGEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YO.

11. London Boy

I love her little laugh and I love sampling

Ok I like how she sings this song it's PRETTY CUTE

The beat is good too

IS SHE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT SHES DATED MANY BRITISH MEN OMG

LOL

Its so fun omg

I saw someone say it's like a country song disguised as a pop bop and THEY RIGHT WOW

12. Soon You’ll Better

I'm already crying.

Okay now I'm sobbing.

13. False God

OH IS THAT A SAX? DAMNNNNN

False God has a nice beat.

THE ALTAR IS MY HIPS? OH OKAYYYY

OMG THE NEXT VERSE WHOAAAA

They all warned us to when you're lead by

It's like… Yes.

Second chorus oooo

The END

Is this the dress / SIG of this album omg

14. You Need To Calm Down

CAUSE SHADE NEVER MADE ANYBODY LESS GAY!

15. Afterglow

Blue is another common word

Is that autotune (in my "head"?)

I DONT WANNA DO I DONT WANNA DO THIS TO U!

16. ME!

THE DRUMS WE GOT A SNEAK PEEK OF UGH

ME! Is so fun

17. It’s Nice To Have A Friend

I like that steelpan!!!

A cute simple love story developing oh my gosh

NEW MARYS SONG

FROM SCHOOL TO RICE ON GROUND WEDDING

18. Daylight

I once believed love would be burning red

But it's golden, like daylight.

YOU GOTTA STEP INTO THE DAYLIGHT AND LET IT GO

Omg the ending… I'm crying I love these things.

I wanna be defined by the things that I love

Not the things I hate

Not the things I'm afraid of- I'm afraid of

Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night

I- I just think that…

You are what you love.

What a beautiful ending to this magical album. It literally felt so complete and like a ride through all the ups and downs of love.

ARE THERE 13 SECONDS OF SILENCE AT THE END? TAYLOR. I LVOE YOU.

#personal #lover #taylurking #first reactions

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ghostheadcanons · 6 years ago

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Papas + Copia: Weddings!

Anonymous said: I really love your writing omg! It has heavily influenced me to starting writing headcanons again and I cannot thank you enough!!! ANYWAYS! I'm quite curious on this subject so what would the Papa's and Cardinal's wedding with their s/o be like?

Words can’t describe how thrilled I am to hear that!! A lot of my love for Ghost and my knowledge of the lore came from headcanon blogs, to the point where I started getting headcanons of my own!

Remember when I said the weddings were coming after the proposals, guys? Here they are! LET’S GO!

Papa Nihil:

It would be a mostly-private ceremony, planned by Sister Imperator. Family and friends only!

The decorations and food are both lavish and decadent--reds and golds everywhere.

Cardinal Copia would be the one to officiate the marriage, and Sister Imperator is Nihil’s ‘best man’. Imperator swept you away almost immediately and instructed you on the proper way to behave at this ceremony ages before it actually took place--you’ve hardly seen your husband-to-be.

It’s weird being told how to act for your own wedding, but it’s worth it when you see Nihil and how stunned he looks on seeing you again.

He’s dressed to the nines in papal robes made specially for the occasion, and you’re in a brand new golden wedding outfit, with red accents.

“Sei bello, cara mia,” he whispers, squeezing your hand encouragingly.

Papa I ends up falling asleep partway through, Papa II pays attention (though he looks bored), and Papa III has his phone out.

Papa III ends up calling Copia’s number, grinning at the look on Copia’s face when his phone starts vibrating and ringing in his pocket right in the middle of Nihil’s vows. The death glare Papa Nihil gives the poor Cardinal is enough to kill someone.

You two exchange rings, and you kiss. He takes your hand and eagerly leads you off. No time for the reception! You have a boat to Italy to catch, with a bridal suite waiting!

Nihil wants to start this honeymoon off right. ;)

Papa I:

Your wedding is more of a ritual, technically speaking.

You are cleansed and properly prepared (separately of course), as is tradition.

You two are then brought together in front of the entire congregation. Dark, mystical, mysterious...there is plenty of chanting, singing, and the bowing of heads in worship.

Your souls are bound together, so that not even God can break your union.

Papa I would take you right there on the altar as the other members engage in a delicious orgy...if you were open to it. If not, the two of you can consummate later. It’s entirely up to you.

Now you truly are one.

Papa II:

His wedding would be the darkest, gothiest wedding of them all. It will take place in the church, with the rain pouring down and lightning flashing outside, with everyone in the congregation + important members of the other, international branches of the church.

Papa II takes care of most of the planning. You don’t envy him one bit; planning a normal wedding is bad enough, but a wedding for a satanist church where there are a lot of very delicate politics going on between people? That’s a minefield you don’t need.

But he allows you to pick your outfit.

Whether it’s an elegant black suit with a billowing cape, or a massive black ballgown with a bouquet of skulls, you will look stunning.

He, of course, is in new papal robes with skull facepaint. When he sees you walk through the massive doors to the aisle, he beckons you to come closer.

Papa Nihil would be the one to give you away, should you allow it. He’s absolutely thrilled to see his son get married!

The kiss that seals the marriage is intoxicating. Unfortunately, the pair of you can’t consummate right away--there are customs he has to follow, people to greet, so on and so forth.

But you can look forward to one kickass reception party with him at your side.

Papa III:

He wants a classic horror-movie themed wedding. He’s adamant on it. He wants to be Dracula. Let him be Dracula!

Sister Imperator shoots him down almost immediately. Nobody ever thought III of all people would actually get married, so a lot of people are going to be coming--and it won’t do to look weak or ‘silly’ during such an occasion. There are sure to be people there who will be looking for an opportunity to usurp him.

He’ll be sulking for weeks. That was something really important to him (and you thought it would be fun, too!). But after awhile, he accepts it.

He fights Sister Imperator tooth and nail for creative control over this wedding. He even lets you have input on what you want!

You two end up getting married on Halloween--so he has an excuse to goth it up, at least. And so do you. Black and purple!

Little do you know that there’s a nasty surprise waiting for you....

Throughout the ceremony, the ghouls are restless. Something is wrong, but nobody knows what. But at the moment when the priest says “Should anyone object to this union, speak now or forever hold your piece...” the doors come crashing open.

Looks like your parents decided to show up after all! Along with the rest of their church! And they brought weapons! Some Papa III’s hateful ex’s decided to help sabotage the wedding.

It’s a brawl like nobody’s ever seen before. The ghouls are ripping people apart, the audience is screaming, it’s pandemonium!

Papa III is quick to get you away from the carnage and upstairs to safety. You can tell by his slumped shoulders and defeated expression that he’s disappointed. “...I’m sorry, tesoro. This was not the wedding I wanted.”

Luckily, you prepared for this.

You tell him to meet you in his room in about ten minutes. He’s confused, but would show up, open the doors....

...and gape.

There you stand in the special Bride of Dracula costume you got, makeup applied, smiling demurely at him. “Ah, Count. You have returned at last.” You hold your arms out to him, adoration in your eyes. “I ache to be one with you. May we commence the ceremony?”

His face lights up. With a predatory grin, he lets the doors slam locked behind him and stalk closer. “Si, mia sposa. Your Count has something special in mind for you....”

You’ve made him the happiest man in the world.

Cardinal Copia:

Nothing as grand in scale as the Papa’s, and honestly? He prefers it that way. He wants a small, private ceremony, no huge party, nothing like that.

At the very least, the two of you can plan it together without Sister Imperator watching the two of you like a hawk.

All of his rats are watching. All of them. He has provided plenty of snacks and refreshments for them. They all have nice little outfits on. That was something the two of you did together.

Since neither of you has family able to attend, or an obligation to invite people, it can just be you, him, the priest, and the rats, if you want.

When he reads you his vows, his voice is clear and ringing, and he doesn’t stutter once--though he did bring them up so he could read them.

Your marriage kiss is sweet, and the rats all squeak their approval as the two of you walk out the doors.

The both of you are ready to consummate the hell out of this union.

#ghost #ghost bc #papa iii #copia #cardinal copia #papa ii #papa i #ghost headcanons #ghost bc headcanons #love #marriage #weddings #relationships #iii's kind of ran a little long but i had to get it out!!#headcanons

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shushvera · 6 years ago

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*toy story shark vc* howdy howdy howdy ! i would like to make it known i’ve been unabashedly eyeing this since it opened ! anyway ! i’ve lost my ooc intro groove so we gonna move down to my ic intro down below:

oh hi there, welcome to holiday, VERA FLOROS. you’ve been here for TWO MONTHS? awesome! you look just like MARINA DIAMANDIS, it’s crazy. oh, so you’re a 30 year old ‘FORTUNE TELLER’/’MUSICIAN’. and you’re FEMALE and use SHE/HER? okay, just checking! oh, people say you’re INTUITIVE & DILIGENT but DECEITFUL & RASH? well, i’m sure that you can prove yourself here. you’re looking forward to the HALLOWEEN celebration? that’s a good one, you’ll love it. i have to get going now, bye! [fleur, 19, est, she/her]

i would like to start by saying i’ve played vera once (1 time) before and it was,, so much fun,, the dumbest smart person to exist. i’ve tweaked her bg a little (because..... that’s what happens when you read lucille ball’s autobiography that was SUMN.....), but ! who cares !

update: this got rly long so there’s a tl;dr at the bottom if that better floats your boat !

INTRO-WORTHY STATS

aka, stats that aren’t that deep™

FULL NAME: Vera Floros DOB: August 17th, 1989 AGE: thirty FROM: Abergavenny, Wales OCCUPATION: “fortune teller” & a musician who doesn’t understand marketing ORIENTATION: bisexual CLASS: middle class ( that inheritance kicked in ! )

BACKGROUND:

CHILDHOOD

triggers: parental death, brief mentions of child abuse

alright, vera was born to a very young couple in wales. they’d gotten married fresh out of high school and had a child (her) just two years later. that being said, for about two years after, her mother began distancing herself from the father... not because he was a bad guy, but he moved cities entirely and she was NOT about that.

to be perfectly redundant, for about two years, it was just vera and her mother.

grandparents weren’t about their daughter being married. at 18. did they help pay rent for a separate living space? until vera’s mom was 21, yes. but was she welcomed in their house? lmao!!!!!

THEN her father blew back into town. they reconnected, they both began working more so that vera’s mother didn’t have to rely on her own (we’ll get to her dad’s parent’s in a second).

vera, at the Tender Age of Three™ learned that she was a complete Daddy’s Girl™. although she loved her mom for obvious reasons, she connected with her dad on an entirely different level. he was fun! he was playful! he was young, but he was the perfect dad! he even told dad jokes! which she didn’t get until she was five because three year olds usually aren’t that smart! they did little ‘acrobatic’ things! it was cute and fun and good!

but? this is a roleplay character?

our man died from unexpected heart failure. the autopsy showed an abnormality that hadn’t previously been discovered, and we know our man rarely went to the doctor. vera was six at the time.

her mom: married at 18, mother at 20, widow at 26.

because she and her mom had never developed that Close Bond™, it was difficult for her mother to figure out how to... like... keep her from wandering around... because just telling her not to wasn’t working... so she was like “you know what.... a leash.”

we love ‘puppy’ by george saunders

so whenever her mom was at work and vera wasn’t in school, she was tied to a tree in the backyard.

cruel and unusual punishment!

eventually, her mom kind of just... threw in the towel... she left completely for a change of pace. she said she would be back and that vera would be under the care of her father’s parents in athens until then.

her father’s parents had always been more accepting of the young marriage. they’d been more supportive of them being young parents, in spite of her father having left for a while. they’d definitely been supportive of vera and her mother during that time because they were like “omg mood”

there were a few other kids under their care, all related or not. they did some work for her father’s parents, but nothing very laborious – just sort of... Bonding™ ja feel?

so her mom DID keep her promise and returned three years later when vera was nine. mind you, vera had never held any feelings of resentment towards her mother. when she was six, she... just didn’t get it. at nine, she was old enough to be like “i get u.”

BUT her mother DID get remarried. she didn’t resent her for that, but... she was not fond of the new husband. he wouldn’t accept the ‘dad’ title, was very stern, very serious, made her mom seem like an absolute joy, etc.

but her mom was in love, so what could she do? and then they had a son together, so what could she do? nothing.

that summer, to learn more Discipline™, vera was sent to live with her step-father’s parents in london. boy howdy, it was nothing like her father’s parents! they had a knack for pointing out flaws, induced actual laborious work, constantly quoted the bible at the worst of times, and thought that a single head nod was the equivalent of “good job!” there were a couple of other kids there too, but yikes.

TEENS ( *hang ten emoji* ) + COLLEGE

triggers: brief domestic abuse implications

early was filled with Drama™ surrounding her step-father’s parents and her step-father himself. the overall consensus was that he was not a dope dude, nor were his parents. vera’s mother filed for divorce and gained sole custody of their son (keeping in mind.... she basically already had sole custody of vera.... considering she was her only legal guardian left lmao)

after the divorce was filed, vera’s mother was like “u kno what. my parents hate me. my first husband is dead. my second husband was a douche. i have no reason to be here anymore.” so they went to the land of golden opportunity

but wound up in america instead

(joke patented by dr. doofenshmirtz)

vera, around sixteen at the time (y’all i’m figuring out ages as i go along bear with me), now attended some strange high-school where they were like “fahrenheit.”

by the way! it was in holiday! that’s important to note for possible future connections!

it wasn’t an unwelcome change, though. starting over... was nice...

but the problem was that she was like her father in that she always acted before she thought... which made her a very dumb smart person.

alright get ready for the single idea that drove this entire thing:

she majored in philosophy then was *pikachu shocked face* when she realized there were no jobs out there for philosophy majors.

ADULTHOOD

alright... so what do you do when you have no good opportunities for things in your major?

you would think you would do something like... idk... find a well-paying job that doesn’t require a major?

or maybe a job that just requires experience in ___?

or maybe a job that just requires a bachelor’s degree of any sort?

or maybe a job that doesn’t require a major, but would like a major similar to yours, thus giving you a leg up?

etc.?

lmao no. you go to new orleans and become one of many phony fortune tellers using the one good thing you got from your weird upbringing: easy analysis of body language.

in addition, you try to make something of your life through music, but have no clue what ‘marketing’ is because you really don’t understand social media and probably still have the egg as your twitter profile picture.

what do you mean print is out of style?

what do you mean no one listens to CDs anymore?

what do you mean garageband isn’t acceptable to record on?

that being said, it’s not like... she wasn’t good at it... i mean she was v good at it... but musician is in quotes because she has made NOTHING of her LIFE with it. DOES NOT UNDERSTAND MARKETING.

*sonic kid vc* WHEN WILL YOU LEARN? WHEN WILL YOU LEARN? *end vc*

she got some decent pay from being a ‘fortune teller,’ though. tourists totally flocked and using a fake russian accent helped, as did... just speaking a language they didn’t know while pretending to contact spirits...

at least she’s a good scam artist

can’t market very well, but could probs create the next big ponzi scheme

returned to holiday when she heard news from her brother that her mother had fallen ill.

honestly rest in peace.

is still around because... that’s her home! sentiment! also rip!

also marketing isn’t as hard in holiday so???

also testing fortune telling out in holiday is more interesting so???

DOPE.

PERSONALITY

either really dumb for a smart person or really smart for a dumb person.

still has a childlike trait tbh. i mean when ur growing up just laying beneath child labor laws, ur gonna have to become a kid again eventually.

really bad at technology for reasons unknown to... everyone, but really good at scams.

has not thought before she acted even ONCE.

hasn’t used her degree since she was 22. the closest she’s come is buying some misc. philosophy books and sharing tidbits with strangers.

“now this is a taoist anthem” - vera @ ‘soak up the sun’ by sheryl crow

so many ragrets.

will find a way to bring up she’s half greek in every conversation.

“and i’ve had mental illness since i was in middle school. good night.” - that video someone edited of professor tox

im so bad at personality sections but she’s got a fun one y’all one of the few characters i’ve played who’s had a Sad Backstory™ but wound up being a Fun And Comedic Character™

TL;DR

that was my first time ever writing this whole thing out, so it got real long. so we gonna give a tl;dr:

triggers: v brief mentions of parental death, brief mentions of child abuse, v brief implication of domestic abuse

born to a v young couple in wales. dad was like “brb” then he did, indeed, come rb. loved dad. but dad died when she was six lmao get wreckt this is a roleplay character.

mom was like “idk what 2 do” so she took notes from george saunders’s ‘puppy’ and just tied vera to a tree when she was gone adjsflka. went away for a while and vera stayed with her dad’s parent’s in greece. came back three years later and reunitedanditfeelssogood.mp3.

got married tho and vera was like “i don’t like this guy” and mom was like “i’m having his child.” lived with his parents over the next few summers. they almost violate child labor laws. like. just a hair more. hare? became source of any self-hatred lmao get wreckt

vera’s mom and step-dad divorced bc he was horrible and they moved to holiday when she was sixteen. she left for college when she was eighteen. she decided to major in philosophy which was a bad idea and the source of her entire character.

decided to become a phony fortune teller in new orleans instead of... idk... just getting a job that didn’t require a degree or sumn? pretty successful tho! talked in a fake russian accent around tourists bc? why not?

also did/does music but has no idea how marketing works. bad at social media. records things on garageband. an overall fool. good but a fool.

back in holiday bc mom died lmao get wreckt we’re an orphan now boizzzz

Sad But Rad™

WANTED CONNECTIONS

it’s 2:38AM as i write this part and i still have to go back and include a stats thing bc i love those then post ic but i’ll update this w/ some when im done i suppose?? but we do love brainstorming in this house!!

like this or hmu if you’d like to plot !

#holidcyintro #ok! i said this at the top of the intro but this accidentally got rly long so if reading it all doesn't float ur boat there's a tl;dr at #the bottom!

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bookcoversalt · 7 years ago

Photo

Despite having the askbox closed, multiple people still found ways to request that I cover the abomination that is CATWOMAN: SOULSTEALER by Sarah Maas, and who am I to deny such determination?

So the DC ya novels, as we can see, all abide by this Formula of BIGASS GRITTY DIMENSIONAL LOGO over the figure themselves, with their face in shadow, author up top, and title and needlessly dramatic subtitle down below. It’s not a good formula! The centrality is static and dull, the shadowed faces of the figures as a requirement is hard to pull off, and the logos and the figures are competing for hierarchical dominance.

Let’s talk first about these two versions of the batman and wonder woman covers, first, because they illustrate some of the, uh, flaws with this system.

The ones on the left are the paperback versions, and the Batman one is, almost, making the formula work: the gold accents of the batsymbol make the logo take visual precedence, the perspective lines are giving it some needed depth and dynamism, and the shadow on his face doesn’t look..... too awful, I guess. And most importantly, the type isn’t getting in anyone’s way: it’s a flat sans-serif, appropriately batman-ey but inoffensive. It’s actually, intentionally, Marie Lu’s signature author font from the Young Elites covers, but it works.

So i have no idea why the middle version, the hardcover/ebook, was like “no no, the type needs to look like a class full of fourth-graders learning to use word art in powerpoint did it.” It’s so, so ugly.

I also don’t know why they felt the need to oversaturate the background with blue, scale up the figure, and actually reduce the shadow on his face but like weirdly, but whatever. The paperback cover is better all around.

The Wonder Woman covers are worse all around, both of them. The paperback’s title type is better by merit of being Not Hideous but where Lu’s “signature” typeface was a naturally good fit, Barduo’s are a little more decorative, and letterforms used to evoke Magic Imperial Russia aren’t so great for Wonder Woman. Also, on the paperback, her legs sticking out of the shield logo like an M&Ms mascot is a DEEPLY unfortunate look.

So the type is either fine but ill-fitting or word-art hideousness, and the imagery is bad on both: murky dramatic ambiguity, a VERY fakebad faceshadow, (she’s being lit from below, it seems like from her shield; we instinctively know it should illuminate her facial features the same way) a static, symmetrical pose with no expression, backlighting that clearly doesn’t belong there, and I don’t know if her bracelets were superimposed or what, but they look STRANGELY fake and ugly.

SO.

This brings us to the worst of the bunch.

Here it is again in case you forgot because I can’t write short posts:

Honestly I only talked about the others to procrastinate bc i don’t even wanna get into this. It’s ugly and I hate it. BUT WE CAME THIS FAR, SO.

This is so bad I gotta break it down: we’re gonna talk about each element, first, and then about how they fit together (or fail to). 1) The symbol lockup/ “logo.”

I didn’t really talk about the “logos” themselves on the BM and WW covers, just how they worked within the design, but both of those were fine by themselves, as three-dimensional rendered items go. Which makes sense, as both those heroes have a long history of classic symbology to go with them.

Catwoman does not. So i have SOME (NOT A LOT. BUT SOME.) sympathy for this weird..... cat..... vault... thing. On the others I called it a logo, but because this is less abstract and more literal, doesn’t feel like one here; it just feels like a misguided imagery choice. Was the best conceptual way to express “SHE STEALS THINGS” really to make her whole thing a literal bank vault? Was it? Why is the cat symbol so small within it? why the heavy crosshatching texture? Why visually imply that this is an Actual Physical Thing To Scale when the scratch marks vs the size of the door handle make no sense? Why do the cat eyes look like the green fairy’s lips? Why the ghostbusters-ectoplasm-looking teal smoke?

Thing 2: the type.

I try to avoid low hanging snark/ hyperbole, but all i got for this is that between the beveling effect and the teal/purple combo, it’s hideous and it makes me want to die. moving on.

(Note: as of yet, there isn’t a paperback cover out, and based on what was done with the other two, we may have a version of this with Maas’s signature fonts to look forward to, whatever the fuck those are.)

3) The model.

So. Ugh. First of all, i saw some “OMG SHE’S WHITEWASHED” stuff flying around, and if you feel like that, that’s valid, (and god knows Maas has issues with it; I’m still not over the whole Illyrians debacle in ACOMAF/ ACOWAR, seriously, nevermind the messy “SURPRISE, LUCIEN HAS BEEN A MOC THIS WHOLE TIME, NO IT’S NOT JUST BECAUSE BLOOMSBURY SAID I NEEDED MORE DIVERSITY″ thing) but this looks like a brown girl to me. One styled to within an inch of her life and subjected to some truly heinous photoshopping, and one who will be doubtless be written with Maas’s deepest discomfort on full display amongst variations of the phrase “golden-tanned skin”, but I would still say that’s a WOC. YMMV, of course.

ANYWAY. This is a really goofy shot. Wonder Woman’s looked bad, but her arm-crossed thing is still her Iconic Move, and her hair could ostensibly have been blowing in the wind. Catwoman here is straight from a CW photoshoot for one of their teen dramas, w a wind machine on her and cat ears photoshopped badly onto her head. (Pretty sure it’s just the same ear, duplicated, too.) As with WW, there is an attempt at backlighting that doesn’t work and the face shadow is real, real bad.

Also, lol @ the fact that you can still see her legs poking out at the bottom. At this point just cut her off behind the logo thing? No one’s actually checking to see if she continues for that last inch behind it except me because that’s what I do?

4) The background! It’s! A City! because GOTHAM. I assume. I don’t know if the story actually takes place in gotham. Whatever. So here’s the thing: obviously, Figures on covers needn’t plausibly physically exist in what their background image is. That would be very limiting. So it’s not the fact that she isn’t actually standing miles above a city that bothers me, it’s that she’s close enough to sort of imply that she is, so instead of a deliberately unreal effect, we get one that’s just Off. It doesn’t help that the other two covers’ heroes definitely are supposed to physically exist in their background. Also the purple treatment is silly and the lighting is totally contradictory to what’s on the model.

OK BEAR WITH ME WE’RE ALMOST THROUGH. THE NIGHTMARE IS ALMOST OVER.

So we’ve talked about why the Series Cover System Overall does not work: static, boring, bad hierarchy, necessitated ugly effects and type. But Catwoman specifically does this the worst of all of them: the background is overemphasized, making the figure and the background compete, and the cover’s split straight down the middle between the logo lockup thing and the figure, making those compete, and the text is such painfully bright, undiluted colors that it steals focus from the logo lockup (which is weirdly lacking contrast) despite placement and the precedence of the other covers indicating it should be secondary in the hierarchy. Then there’s the tense, tight placement: the cat ears run into the author name and the lockup runs into the title, neither a deliberate overlap but an awkward lack of space.

This cover hates itself as much as I hate it, all the elements glaring at each other and fighting futilely in the backseat while the book threatens to TURN THIS THING AROUND.

I wish it would.

#Catwoman #catwoman soulstealer #anti sjm #bookcoversalt #book cover

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sachertortes · 7 years ago

Note

OMG PROMPTS YOU ARE AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU. wintershock nobility #1???

@bloomsoftly PROMPTS TIMES YES!! ALL OF THE

Prompt: Nobility themed, #1, “Your country’s trying to take over/annex my country and you’re making it difficult to hate you because you’re so nice and attractive stop it”

Pairing: Bucky x Darcy

Rating: T

Notes: Nobility/Fantasy AU

“So he’s arrived today at court. At the palace. My palace,” Darcy said, turning to her Advisor.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he replied.

Darcy frowned. She heard many things of this Prince James Buchanan Barnes and she was mostly certain none of it could be true.

Just the other morning, she’d hid in the corridor to listen to the maids talking about him as they were dusting in the music room.

“I heard he and his brother led their army over the Northern Pass during a blizzard and did not lose one man,” Ingrid said breathlessly.

“I heard he fought off a dozen men with his bare hands and won. And that a wizard gave him an enchanted arm of silver and his brother hair of gold,” Emmaline added in an awed whisper. “…They – they call him the Winter Soldier.” Then in a softer, dreamier voice, “They say he��s as tall and strong as a bear and his eyes are like glaciers.”

“Why, Emmaline! You naughty girl!” teased Ingrid.

“Oh, hush!” giggled Emmaline and Darcy left after that, leaving the girls to the rest of their work.

In the receiving room, Darcy now waited for that fearsome sounding man. He’d probably arrive cloaked in bearskin and covered in dirt or something, the barbarian.

“Well. There’s nothing to be done about that, I suppose.” She stood in a rustle of silk and faille then glided her hands over the front of her gown, over tiny pearls and embroidered roses.

“We’ll just have to throw him in the dungeon,” she continued breezily, flipping her curls over her shoulder. “The dark one. With all the spiders.”

Coulson merely raised one brow and intoned drily, “You know we don’t have dungeons.”

“Then I’ll build one! I’m the Queen! At least for a little while longer. I can definitely build a dungeon where some snivelly little Prince from an invading country can rot forever in the dark! Write that down, Coulson – a dark dungeon!”

“Might I remind you that you signed the Treaty and invited him here? And that the country needs the force of his armies?”

But Darcy was on a roll and elected to ignore Coulson’s logic. She tapped a finger to her chin. “Oooh! The Rack! Let’s bring back the Rack!”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Not even a little one? Just for his legs or something?”

Coulson let out one long-suffering sigh.

If it was meant to chastise her, Darcy wouldn’t know. She’d heard that sigh for most of her life and was immune to it by now.

It was actually Sigh #21. Not as serious as Sigh #1 (The “You Must Stop That This Instant You Are the Leader of Your Country” Sigh) nor as lighthearted as Sigh #32 (The “You Amuse Me, But I’ll Never Say It” Sigh).

“Please, please, be civil. The welcome dinner is tonight – “

“Seat him between the Baroness Mowbray and the Duke Thornton. Perhaps he’ll flee the country out of sheer boredom.”

“And must I remind you that he has large armies and gold which our country needs at the moment?”

Darcy glared at him, then after realizing that she wasn’t going get any reaction other than his usual placidness, turned to glare at the dour portrait of her great-great-grandmother.

“Yes,” she ground out. “That’s the second time in five minutes you’ve mentioned that. He deserves the spidery dungeons. Who does he think he is?! We’ve always been neutral and we haven’t needed his stupid army or his stinking gold or his dumb – “

“Your Majesty –“

“Stupid face –“

“Your Majesty –“

“Or his so-called magical –“

“DARCY.”

“Yes, Coulson,” Darcy sighed, turning. “Oh!”

Standing there slightly behind Coulson was a man who could not be anyone other than the Prince.

Prince James was tall, but not as tall as a bear. His shoulders were broad under his black coat. His eyes, though – his eyes were a steely grey-blue, seeming even more light due to his dark brown hair that framed his face. He had obviously not had time to groom, but the days of growth on face only served to accent his already angular jawline, the slight dimple in his chin.

And Darcy could only think to herself, oh, if Emmaline only knew.

“If I am to be thrown in the dungeon, might I beg of the Queen that it be one without spiders? I don’t like spiders.”

“I – I am very sorry. You weren’t meant to hear that.”

Prince James’ lips twitched.

“Yes. I figured.”

“Won’t you please sit?” She shakily gestured to one of the two armchairs. The tea and pastries set up by Coulson were already on the table.

In the awkward silence, Darcy chastised her stupid mouth for running away from her yet again, and busied herself by pouring them both tea.

“I want to – I am here because…Thank you,” Prince James said haltingly, so unlike the smooth, pretty words offered to her by her courtiers.

“It seemed that I did not have much choice,” Darcy answered unable to keep the sadness from weighing down her tone. She’d promised herself that she would cede gracefully, but the thought of a foreign power in her land, her home, made her heart ache.

“I know,” he said, in a voice so low and gentle she strained a little to hear him. “I won’t make you regret it just the same. We need all the assistance we can get. Schmidt’s navy is, as we speak, sailing through the Sapphire Sea.”

Darcy gasped. “So soon?” she asked, heart thumping. And so close?

“Yes. And my men have received intelligence that he could be at your western borders within a month.”

Darcy put down her teacup with a shaking hand.

“But I promise you,” the Prince said, “I promise that he won’t be able to set foot here. Schmidt doesn’t fight honorably, but by the gods, we won’t let him take this part of our continent.”

Darcy clasped her hands tightly together in her lap. Prince James placed one large hand over hers. His calloused skin was warm and the weight a comfort.

From across the room, a soft, polite cough sounded. Coulson.

“I’m sorry.” He quickly drew his hand away. “Please forgive me, I’m unused to…well, all of this.”

“I admit I’ve never seen you or your family at our court.”

“The Barnes’ are – were – a smaller cadet branch. Then my father’s cousin died without an heir, and suddenly I’m being pulled out of military school to attend a proper boarding school. Someone hands me a title and so here I am.” He shifted uncomfortably. Then under his breath, “In this damned jacket which my valet tells me is exquisite but is actually extremely uncomfortable.”

Darcy was unable to help her huff of laughter. “It is a very fine jacket,” she reassured him. “And you look very…” she trailed off, any number of words filling her head.

Fantastic. Handsome. Dashing.

“Yes?”

“Nice. Good. You look good in the jacket.”

Prince James had a tease at the corners of his easy smile. “Why thank you, Your Highness.”

“Darcy,” she said, surprising herself a little. “I’ve threatened to imprison you, so I think I should allow you the use of my name.”

“Alright, Darcy. Please call me James.”

“Well, James, I hear much about you. Is any of it true?”

“Much of it is exaggeration.”

“What of your brother? Is he as fierce a fighter as I’ve heard?”

“Well, that part is true. Sometimes I have to pull him out of fights.”

“And other times?”

“And other times I join in,” he admitted with a chuckle and a sideways glance.

“And leading your army through a blizzard?”

“It was…a small blizzard?”

He was downright bashful, and Darcy found herself smiling into her teacup. “Well, wizards don’t exist so that part of your lore cannot be true.”

James laughed. “So we’ve heard the same tales. The only person who gave my brother his golden hair is our mother.”

“And I know you can’t possibly have a silv-“ but then Darcy’s eyes alighted on James’ left hand, covered in a black leather glove. “I – Oh, I mean –“ she stuttered.

James only smiled ruefully and pulled off the glove, revealing his silver hand. Darcy couldn’t help her intake of breath. “The silver arm is real but I’m afraid no wizard was kind enough to gift it to me or enchant it.” He swallowed audibly. “This was from a run-in with Schmidt’s men. You see now what I mean when I say that he won’t fight honorably. They do not believe in such things. All other countries until now have honored the neutrality of yours. He won’t. He doesn’t care. Your land, your people, are a means to an end.”

“What – what end?” Darcy asked even though it was with a sickening feeling that she already knew.

“He wants to conquer the world.” Then he leaned forward and looked at her with those ice blue eyes, solemn and serious again. “This treaty – Please don’t think this won’t mean everything to us - to my country, and to my men. Your promise of safe passage and the resources your lands and your people can provide…It is everything to us.”

The way he was looking at her…Darcy’s heart beat a hard rhythm against her bodice and she felt her face warm.

“Yes. Of course. It’s – it’s why I signed the treaty, James.”

“I am grateful every day for it,” James said softly. “Oh, yes. I’ve brought you something,” he said, almost mischievous. “In thanks for your kindness.” He looked to Coulson, who was standing patiently at the door, and nodded. Coulson then spoke a few words to the guards beyond.

In a moment, two guards were lugging in a smallish chest. It was lacquered onyx and was covered with sterling designs of waves and stars. There were bars at the top and when she glanced at her guards they looked strangely apprehensive.

Still, she knew that nothing inside would be truly dangerous. Not with Coulson and his team double and triple checking everything for her.

James carried in the box the rest of the way and placed it at her feet.

She reached down and unlatched the heavy gold hinge.

She expected gold coins or maybe jewels - necklaces or earrings or tiaras that were usually gifted to Queens. But when she opened the box the little thing that blinked back at her drew the breath from her lungs.

“A – a dragon!” Darcy exclaimed, overjoyed.

The young dragon, sighting Darcy, squirmed out its cage, and flew-hopped up to land itself in her skirts. Satisfied at the softness of her dress, it folded back its leathery wings and stared at her with inquisitive black eyes.

She took in its shimmering grey-white scales and the bright blue tips of its wings with awe.

“Oh, it’s beautiful,” she breathed. Hesitantly, she put out her hand. It sniffed at her for a moment then let her scratch lightly at its neck. “I’ll name it…”

Then the dragon opened its tiny mouth, revealing a series of little white teeth still on their way to being fangs, and attempted a roar. What resulted was a loud, raspy chirp that ended with a small burst of blue, crackling lightening emitted from its mouth, then disappeared just as quickly.

Darcy jolted in response then laughed delightedly. “I’ll name it Taser!”

In response, Taser cooed several times, blinked slowly, and curled up in her lap.

“A strange name, but it seems she likes it.”

“She? How wonderful. I always need more strong women beside me.” Darcy petted Taser along her spine, and Taser arched into her touch. “Thank you, James.”

“You’re very welcome.”

They chatted for a while after that. He told her of allies he’d made on his journey (an archer with impeccable aim, a man who could run so fast he was a mere blur), and she told him of her country – of the endless groves of oranges in the south, of how her cousin Jane’s work in the east made the entire area a center of learning for women and men both.

When word was received that Prince James’ quarters were ready, James took his leave but not before clasping her hand and bowing somewhat stiffly. When he smiled at her, she found herself smiling back.

“Well, Your Majesty? Shall I summon the builders to begin digging a foundation for the dungeons?” Coulson asked, when they alone. “Or does the Prince live another day?”

“He lives another day,” Darcy said, hiding her pinking cheeks behind a fall of hair. She trailed her hand down the smooth scales of the young dragon now perched on her shoulder. It purred loudly in her ear. “And as for the dinner tonight?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Please sit him next to me.”

#wintershock #bucky x darcy #darcy lewis #darcyland #wintershock fic #prompt fill #sachertortes fic

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