#one half of the famous sisters g

[clarabowlover]

Karla Guthohrlein (One Half Of The Sister's G)

In A Promotional Photo For The Film

Cassanova wider Willen (1931)

I.M.D.b website have her under two different profiles, in this film she uses the name Karla G and not her full name

[roseharpermaxwell]

RWRB FirstPrince Sports (AU or Otherwise) Recs

Hockey, Lacrosse, Rugby - you name it, I'm here for it. Click below for some of my faves!

your future history (it's time) by kjbee81. T, 739 words. Alex and Henry, both rugby players at the Olympics, take part in the tradition of switching shorts after the game. Henry wants to start a different tradition.

OR me getting inspired by a tweet about the Olympic rugby players switching shorts...

Eye On The Prize by milowren. NR, 1.3k. Announcer 1: Alright, here we are at last, we’ve come to final event for mixed teams in archery, and this one’s all for the gold, Lisa.

Announcer 2: That’s right, John. I’m sure these last two teams aren’t feeling any pressure at all.

Announcer 1: (chuckles) Well, we’ll be able to see for ourselves in a minute here, when we get the readings from their heart rate monitors. As you know, the technique for archery at this level is so precise, any fluctuation in the competitors’ heartbeats can affect the outcome.

***

Henry and Alex are archers at the Olympics.

Born To Make History by @everwitch-magiks. T, 1.3k. This season, Henry has a new free skate. It's sassy, flirty, and actually genuinely fun, and somehow, it's taken him all the way to the Grand Prix Final. Still, even though Henry has perfected his lutz since his last competitive season, and gets that all too important second-half multiplier for every quad in his arsenal, he knows he isn't half as good as most of his competition. There's no way he's actually getting on the podium.

Except, one persistently curious and curiously attentive pair skater, with a distressingly attractive smile, gorgeous brown eyes and very interesting ambitions for the post-competition gala, seems to think otherwise.

'Coast-to-Coast' by @cheesecurdsgravyandfries. E, 1.3k. Lacrosse slang - when a player nearest their end-line takes the ball all the way down the field to the opposing team's end of the field.

Alex finds his old high school lacrosse jersey. Henry wears it.

The jersey is tight across Henry’s broad shoulders, the polymesh sleeves pulled by the tension, making Henry’s biceps pop, and if the hem didn’t reach the waistband of Alex’s underwear, it doesn’t stand a chance on Henry’s long torso. There’s at least two inches of skin visible between the top, and the band of Henry’s red D&G briefs - so selected tonight, because the red matches that in Alex’s high school logo on his chest. Henry looks sexy as hell, and he knows it.

i could be a better boyfriend by bananzie. T, 2.4k. It wasn't that Alex didn't like telling people about Henry—quite the opposite, actually—it was just that no one ever believed him when he did.

An AU in which Henry is one of England’s most famous rugby players, Alex met him during an exchange year, and they’re so in love it’s sickening, but no one believes him.

who are we to fight the alchemy by @coffeecatsme. T, 3.1k. INTERVIEWER: Kiss, marry, kill, between Taylor Swift, Beatrice Fox of the Tortured Poets, and Dua Lipa.

ALEX: Oh God, I’m gonna get so cancelled. Uh… Well, my sister would absolutely kill me if I killed Taylor Swift so I guess I gotta kiss her? I mean, she’s hot. And I guess I’m killing Dua Lipa? That leaves… Can I, like, take her brother instead of Beatrice Fox? He’s more my type.

Sets on the Beach by @happiness-of-the-pursuit. M, 3.6k. 95% of the able-bodied New York City queer population sign up to play intramural beach volleyball in the summer (this statistic is not supported by Nora). Unfortunately for Alex, this number includes Henry Fox and his very broad shoulders. Despite Henry’s unsportsmanlike recruiting and stupid genetic advantages, Alex is determined to take him (and the rest of Queerly the Best) down.

Or, Cowboys star Alex crashes out of the closet in an interview. This is how everyone reacts.

bed with your name on it by silver maples. E, 3.3k. “Are the beds really anti-fuckable ‘cause, if so, that’s gonna be an issue for me.”

These are the first words Alex says to Henry after throwing open the door to their shared room. Henry blinks, sitting cross-legged against the headboard, rereading The Little Prince - it felt apt to bring - when Alex’s eyes settle on him.

“Oh fuck,” Alex follows up with, and, “Oh, you’re not Liam.”

go the distance by @indomitable-love. T, 3.7k. His legs are like jello. He’s not entirely sure how he’s still upright. He’s running on fumes and the energy gel he’d been handed about forty minutes ago by one of the secret service as he’d passed by. Fumes, energy gel pouches, the roar of the crowd against New York streets, and pure adrenaline because he can see the finish line. He knows what’s there: June and Nora and Henry.

Henry. The reason Alex is doing this whole damn thing in the first place.

Alex decides to run a marathon. It's all Henry's fault, really.

Red, White & Navy Blue by @jedusaur. E, 4.4k. "Fine," says Alex. He clenches his jaw and his fists. "Great. Watch me. I'll bromance the shit out of the motherfucker." 

Twenty Seven Batters by @historicallysam. T, 4.6k. A ballplayer will refuse to stop playing because they want one more hit, steal, strikeout. One more homerun. One more win. So they get old and they lose their skill and embarrass themselves long after they should have hung up their spikes.

If that’s the rule, then Alexander Claremont-Diaz is the exception.

Because today, at age 38, Alexander Claremont-Diaz is six outs away from a perfect game.

Catch and Release by @welcometololaland. T, 4.8k. Henry isn't good at many things, but he is fairly good at rowing - something which is very deeply fine, until a transfer student from America turns up.

When Henry winds up being Alex's roommate on a training camp, they don't get off to a great start. Fortunately, their coach has other ideas.

A slice of the rowing AU involving midnight training sessions, extreme physical exertion and just a little bit of Only One Bed.

You Spin Me (Right Round) by @myheartalivewrites. E, 5.4k. “...he signs up for Henry’s evening class again, and if he comes in wearing a cropped sleeveless t-shirt with a bi pride flag on it and skintight burgundy leggings, well, that’s just a coincidence. He doesn’t necessarily mean anything by it.”

Henry is a spinning instructor and Alex is attending his first class after being ill. The whole thing is unexpectedly moving. And horny. Everyone is WAY TOO horny.

Tonight, You're Gold by @cha-melodius. E, 6k. “You could stay with me,” Henry says before he can properly think it through. Across from him, Alex raises his eyebrows. Christ. In for a penny, in for a pound. “Only, my roommate’s already done competing, and he’s moved out. So I have an extra bed.”

Alex laughs, his curls bouncing as he shakes his head. “I’m not sure I’m allowed to just move into Team Great Britain territory.”

(When Alex's room in the Olympic Village becomes uninhabitable, Henry acquires a new roommate who, it turns out, he's maybe, sorta, possibly falling in love with.)

your court or mine? by @silvermaples. E, 6.4k. When the guy bends to grab the ball, his little, white shorts lift, and all Alex can focus on is the way those thighs move and the sheer power behind them. He’s focusing so hard he doesn’t notice the incline of the sidewalk, nor the rock in front of him. And then, naturally, he’s bowling over and falling on his ass before he even realises what’s happening.

He may as well just die. Lay here and succumb to his wounds. Here lies Alex Claremont-Diaz, twenty-two and useless. Cause of death? Hot guy in slutty little shorts.

“Oh dear,” He hears, exceedingly British and posh and deep, and he lifts his head. Maybe death was a little premature of an idea after all. “Are you alright?”

you know i love a london boy by @coffeecatsme.  T, 6.5k. “A very special friendship bracelet,” Bea corrects, with such a delight in her voice that Henry is immediately suspicious. He grabs the darn thing and twists it around, glittery beads shining under the lights of the room. A phone number, if Henry is counting them right. Despite himself, his heart skips a beat. “From the one and only Alexander Claremont-Diaz.” She grins, bouncing on the balls of her feet—the day she stops playing matchmaker for her brother will surely be a cold day in hell. The sole excitement of her life since she doesn’t do romance.

Henry twists the bracelet in his hands, counting the numbers again, and then looks up. “Who?”

Or, 5 times Alex and Henry keep their relationship a secret and 1 time they don't. 

let's get lost (and let the good times roll) by riversdeep. M, 6.5k. “Fuck, sorry,” The man says, distinctly American, holding a hand out to right Henry where he’s fallen. His face comes into view as Henry lets the man pull him up, worried eyes and furrowed brows, and he’s utterly mortified to realise that the man isn’t just any random man, he’s Alex Claremont-Diaz, June’s volleyball playing brother. Her very attractive, very concerned looking volleyball playing brother.

There's No Problem That San Diego Can't Solve by @historicallysam. T, 6.7k. Alex doesn’t even bother knocking; he simply twists the knob on the door and shoves it open. His eyes narrow as the door bangs against the wall and he sees Henry on the phone. Maybe (definitely) it’s rude but his blood is fucking boiling so he doesn’t really care.

Because I’m A Scoundrel by @inexplicablymine. E, 8.3k. Alex Claremont-Diaz has exactly thirty minutes to make himself look as slutty as possible for this Halloween Gala. At this very moment he looks a little bit like a sexed up pirate, but with the addition of his small black vest - rest in peace to the Patagonia packers and finance brethren- and a low slung belt with a “blaster,” a very sex-on-legs Han Solo is looking back at him.

Henry Fox, who is both a double scull rower with enough Olympic medals it would make anyone other than Alex sweat, and the definitive arch nemesis of Alex - is wearing a white sylvette Princess Leia costume, hugging his curves in all the right ways, the clingy fabric draping to the floor.

When you and your arch nemesis show up to the most important gala of the year in a couples costume you either play it up or shut it down. Alex has a decision to make, but the way that dress is hugging Henry’s ass isn’t making that decision any easier.

(la)cross(e) my heart by weather_stained. E, 8.6k. Alex is determined to start a lacrosse team at his college. It's his junior year, and he's closer than ever. That is, until he finds out someone else is trying to start a rugby team, and there's only enough funding for one additional sport.

Clubs Day comes around, and he finds that his rival is no other than the insufferable Henry Fox. Alex definitely doesn't spent more time staring at Henry instead of running his booth, but if he does, it doesn't mean he's obsessed with him or anything.

Thin Ice series by @priincebutt. E, 8.8k. Alexander Claremont-Diaz, charismatic center for the NHL's Dallas Stars, is completely and utterly smitten with the posh British librarian he met by complete accident. Tonight is the night, and he's got a plan to completely woo Henry and get his man.

Don't Quit It by @inexplicablymine. M, 9k. “And goddamn last but not least on my Hit It and Don’t Quit It list would be the Saracens rugby player Henry Fox. That man has great depths, and he could so easily plumb my depths, if you know what I’m saying. An all-around fantastic player, but also someone who is ridiculously smart off the field. And we all know by now that everyone on this list features my mile-wide competency kink. Henry, if you are seeing this, we could play around with some balls that aren’t just in play.”

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck.

Alex has just accidentally outed himself to 6.7 million people. And according to the comments section, they seem to be all too aware.

Or... Announcing your crush via viral TikTok... that's one way to get his attention ;)

Puck It by @kiwiana-writes. E, 9.7k. “I’m English, dear,” Henry tells him, and fuck if the nickname isn’t doing something to Alex too. “Our national sport is rugby, and we play it with a lot less protective gear. Though,” he adds thoughtfully, “rugby players do wear mouth guards, which means they have the significant advantage of generally keeping all their teeth.”

“We wear mouth guards.” It’s a common misconception, and one that annoys the shit out of him. “And I’ve still got all my teeth. Wanna check?” 

Love-Love by @smc-27. T, 10k. “I hear Alex Claremont-Diaz is available,” she says, and while the idea is terribly appealing, he knows that it is incorrect.

“Alex is an incredible tennis player. If he wanted to pair up, I’d be open to that.”

It is not often Henry’s mouth gets him in trouble. Years of media training and growing up with a celebrity for a dad have left him very practiced in the subtle art of the spin.

Apparently the mere mention of Alex had all that leaving his head entirely.

lacrosse, my heart by indomitablelove. E, 10k. Logically, Henry should have known to expect this. He’s aware of how lacrosse works. Or, at least, he’s developed enough of an understanding of how lacrosse works through Alex. He’s seen photos of Alex in his lacrosse uniform before, and yet somehow that still doesn’t prepare him for the sight of seeing Alex actually playing lacrosse.

Alex returns to his high school to play a charity lacrosse match. Henry joins him and sees Alex play lacrosse for the first time.

You didn't tell me you play rugby by Moony_Reggie_stars_1003. E, 10k. Alex finds out that Henry plays rugby, and has some very specific feelings about it.

Tread Lightly by @smc-27. E, 11k. Alex notices this guy the moment he walks in. Which implies that he hasn’t noticed the guy before now, which isn’t true at all. He’s seen him around. He - like everyone else - has stared at the guy’s eyes and waist and thighs and fucking Disney prince swoopy hair.

Alex is really used to hitting on people and getting the outcome he wants.

Or: Lax bro Alex wants Henry

How to stay with you by lovergalore. E, 12k. Alex feels like he hasn’t slept in weeks, which is essentially ever since he got his new roommate, Henry. Alex doesn’t have anything against his roommate—or his sexual proclivities; obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it gets to a point where almost every other night Henry has a ‘friend’ over and Alex has to pull out his noise-canceling headphones to be able to endure another minute in their shared dorm.

CHECK(MATE) by ma_lark_ey. T, 14k. "It's such an unexpected pairing, a hockey player and a punk star. How'd you too meet?"

"Oh, well, it's really silly. It actually started when Alex's fans started..."

"I met Henry because my Tumblr followers started this elaborate hoax about us being best friends."

"And, let me guess, you ran with it?"

"Oh, June, you know I commit to a good bit."

Pumped by myheartalive. E, 22k. Recently moved to London, Alex meets Henry at a climbing wall, where accidental rudeness and misunderstandings keep them apart, until they don’t.

There's pining, there's climbing, there's stupid boys falling for each other, and smut towards the end.

Show Me What You’re Working With by @clottedcreamfudge. E, 23k. He doesn't want to think the words "monster cock" but frankly, it's too fucking late, because they're now living rent-free in his brain in twenty-foot high neon letters.

How does that even work? Do the women he sleeps with come out changed? Does he have the goddamn ER on alert every time he goes on a date?

Alex isn't into dick, except maybe he is, and maybe this one specifically. 

the winner takes it all by @dumbpeachjuice. E, 24k. In theory, this shouldn’t be a thing. Alex has spent his whole life around other cyclists, on the track and the road and off both, and he’s never had this sort of visceral reaction to any of them.

(Well. Kind of. Maybe he let his eyes linger on a teammate once or twice. But like—Alex is an athlete. He appreciates the human form.)

But the way the muscles in Henry Fox’s thighs stretch and ripple as he urges his bike up the mountain—

Yeah.

It’s a lot.

And if Alex weren’t so determined to steal that yellow jersey off his back he’d fall off his bike.

Made the Right Selection by clottedcreamfudge. E, 27k. "You don't take 'no' for an answer, do you?" Henry says curiously, and Alex cocks his head to the side; his hair falls into his eyes just a little but he doesn't bother to brush it aside. Henry's fingers itch to do it for him.

"I do when it's the actual answer," he says eventually, and Henry's face twists into a smile.

"Right," he says.

"Alex, come the fuck on," Nora calls over from where the squad has started to wander off into whatever day there is left. Henry suspects, looking at the sun, that there's rather a lot of it to go.

"See you later, H," Alex says with a grin, and then he's gone, leaving Henry with his helmet in his hand and his heart in his throat.

Alex is a cheerleader. That's the premise. 

catch my breath to breathe your name by goingmywaydoll. M, 29k. “So,” the person says without pause, “I heard you like soccer butts but not the people attached to them.”

Where Henry’s family owns a (fictional) football club and Alex is fresh from the States and the new star addition to the team and it's all entirely predictable.

Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes by JustAnotherWriter_93. E, 38k. The College AU where Alex is a football player, and Henry has had a secret crush on him for two years, attending every football game possible. Henry thinks that getting involved with Alex will be nothing but a disaster, Alex thinks that maybe he isn’t as straight as he thought, and they’re both a little bit right.

Faster, Higher, Stronger by everwitch. E, 64k. When Alex fails to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics, it’s all too easy to blame Henry Fox, the dual citizen who’d switched from Team GB to Team USA and snagged the last spot for men’s figure skating. After Alex is abruptly thrown back into the games, he forms an unexpectedly deep connection with Henry. But no athlete who aims for the top of the podium can afford any serious distractions. Will Alex be able to keep his flaring emotions in check and take home the Olympic gold medal he’s always aimed for?

Baseball Boyfriends series by bleedingballroomfloor. E, 121k. “It’s just — I’ve had such a hard time feeling like I really belonged. I think that’s what got me in the slump in the first place. But coming back here, seeing all the love I still got even though I’m not on the Rangers anymore… that really helped. And being on the Mets, being in New York — you helped with all of that. More than you’ll ever know.”

Or, Alex and Henry are dumb, horny disasters. With an added bonus of baseball.

A Sporting Chance series by clottedcreamfudge. E, 236k. "Marry Henry - destination wedding. Combine all of our names so paperwork is a fucking nightmare." Henry stares at him and Pez rolls the dice, and-

"Congratulations to Alex and Henry Claremont-Diaz-Fox-Mountchristen," he says with a bright grin, and Alex punches the air and makes a 'whooping' noise. "Your wedding is attended by the Beckhams, the President, and several key members of congress. Henry is very gentle on your wedding night." Henry is going to fucking kill Pez.

"Fucking sweet," Alex says, because Henry is apparently the only one here trying not to have a coronary about all of this.

It had just been a party game, except now Henry is in way over his head.

I only tag an author once per post, but I'm still figuring out firstprince author handles. If you see one I may not know or find a broken link, please give me a heads up!

Master List of RWRB FirstPrince Recs

Master List of Recommendations

[veryace-ficrecs]

Danny phantom Fic Recs

This list will include all ratings and tags, so read at your own discretion! :)

Ecto Upgrade Start by GothMoth - Rated G

Danny’s growing up and his bodies doing the typical adultifying things, but also doing some… not so typical adutlifying things.

Deep Sea Diver by Marsalias - Rated G

Tumblr prompt by dannyphantom-rework: Ghost zone is like the ocean, in the sense that the deeper you go into it, the scarier and darker it becomes.

Electricity by DarkNymfa - Rated G

Tucker huffed, disgruntled. “Yeah, uh huh. I’ll believe that when you stop having live electricity running down your arms.” “Technically,” Danny said, lips twitching into a smirk, “it’s dead electricity.”

when the kingdom comes calling by blueh - Rated T

The Observant hardly looks rattled at the threat. If anything, the thing seems even more determined to get Danny to go through with this absolute bullshit plan to make him, someone who is half human, king of the ghosts. “Follow me to the Infinite Realms for your coronation. You are under obligation to meet the council at Pariah’s Keep where you shall receive the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. It is what the council wishes.” “No,” Danny snaps. “I have an English test next period with Mr. Lancer.” “This is no time for your silly human games—" Danny slams the locker in its eye. also known as: the Ghost Zone population assumes that Phantom took the crown with dignity. What they don’t know is fifteen year old Danny Fenton just wants to graduate high school, is constantly ready to throw hands with an army of eyeballs, and absolutely will not be crowned the Ghost King without a fight.

Drizzling by TakingOverMidnight3482 - Rated G

There was a peace to the rain, Danny had found. A sense of quiet, where no one attacked. No one ventured out to cause trouble. Where the Earth, for one second, was being healed and healing those around it.

Shift by Alexa_Piper - Rated T

It turns out that the views of Agents O and K are not held by the rest of the Guys in White… which they discover when they bring in a fourteen-year-old half-ghost kid for "painful experiments".

Smells Like Team Spirit by UnluckyAlis - Rated G

Some mascots are great at pumping up a crowd. As Casper High's mascot, Danny has only one job: strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. This is the story of how Danny becomes the famed Mascot of Fear.

Of Tweets and Twats by DarkNymfa - Rated T

Too Fine @BurgersKing @nasafan your parents don’t have a website for Fentonworks? | 🌟✨⭐ @nasafan have you met my parents? | Too Fine @BurgersKing fair point I will cease speaking

Stargazer by Mysterious_Prophetess - Rated G

Inspired by this tumblr post by floralflowerpower where Danny is a NASA astronaut, and famous too, but in order to join NASA he had to change his name to distance himself from his....less well regarded Parents and Sister. Years later, when his real name Fenton is pulled from its grave, Danny refuses to disavow his parents' line of work.

Ancient Alexandria: Not-So-Ancient Apparently by piece_of_pierce - Rated T

Danny has a new homework assignment. Specifically, he's supposed to theorize about the ectobiology of ghosts then make a presentation about it. Who needs to theorize, though? He has access to all the research in the Zone! Now, where can he actually access that research?

Bet on it by thatgirl_youknowtheone - Rated T

Danny's parents find out about Wes' theories, as Maddie and Walter talk it out in the principal's office, Danny and Wes are stuck in the hallway listening. "Your son might think it's just some funny joke, but I will not have anyone accusing my son of being that lying, manipulative, piece of ectoplasmic scum!" Danny sank lower in his chair, face tightening with every word. "You know they wouldn't say that stuff if they knew the truth." said Wes.

Make the Call by Library_of_Cronos - Rated T

The five times CPS was almost called on the Fentons and the one time Jazz called them herself.

Poor Life Choice by princessFanona - Rated G

A situation where Danny dies (not the portal accident) in a public setting and everyone freaks the heck out, but then he gets up as if nothing happened. (PR339) Danny happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...or maybe not. Depends on how you look at it.

Ringback by kelpeigh (chitaqua) - Not Rated

“I think we’re on hold.” a soft voice hedges. Four hoods twist as the group looks to their youngest member. She continues, “This is just a ringback tone. Don’t you have one, Steph— uh, Shadowlux?” “You’re right.” The cloaked man next to her answers. “We’re totally on hold.” - A summoning au where Danny can only be summoned as Phantom, and anyone who tries when he's human has to wait until he happens to go ghost again.

Is This Just A Thing that Girls Do? by newdog14 - Rated T

“Yeah, and about that,” The Ghost King said, pinching the bridge of nose in frustration. “You found an archaic book of magic with a summoning spell for the Ghost King, who you believed to be evil, and then you used said spell to bring me here and bind me to answer questions, and you did this so you could ask me about a middle schooler’s crush?” “We also want to know what the secret of life is,” Cori said, crossing her arms defensively. “42,” he answered without hesitation.

Growing Pains by ayjayar - Rated G

Jazz has had the world's nastiest case of pink eye. The doctor is starting to suspect it's not actually pink eye. When Danny notices her eyes glowing, the Fentons seek second opinions from unlikely sources.

after school summons by blueh - Rated T

"So this is the fabled Ghost King," the man says like he expected better. Danny feels he should almost be offended if it isn't for the tiny detail that these cultists—who summoned him by using salt and goat bones—assume he is the ghost king. "…Did you seriously confuse me with Pariah Dark?" The man pauses. "Pariah Dark?" "Yes! He's like fifteen feet tall, has a huge sword, is a pain in the ass, and has, like, an entire ghost army. I have, I dunno, pre-calc homework in my bag. We are not the same." Or: Danny accidentally gets summoned. He’s not happy about it.

The Tattooed Defeat by Sergeant_Tears - Rated T

Ghosts get tattoos whenever they defeat a new enemy. Danny surprisingly never got these. Until he did... but not as Phantom.

inviso-doodles by attu - Rated T

What are friends for if not making you internet famous?

Animals by Marsalias - Rated T

Most humans of Amity Park did not appreciate what Danny did for them. (The animals were another story.)

Side Effects by redrobin1989 - Rated T

Side effects of activating a ghost portal to another dimension while inside include: fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headache, tremors, hypothermia, loss of visibility and tangibility and ectoplasmic glowing. If left untreated, these symptoms may lead to death or permanent physiologic changes.

Proof of Identity by Clari_net23 - Rated G

Detective Harris just wants to find out who the ghost boy is.

"'Doctor, I'm a ghost. There's a reason I'm doing this in a morgue and not a regular clinic.'"

'Touche.'

Detective Harris felt the beginnings of a headache in her temple. All she wanted from this was his identity. She didn’t think it would be this much of a challenge when the chief brought up this assignment. "

[ssstarlighttt]

Introducing… Jack Rose, Luke Cypher, and Ann G. Lina!

Jack Rose is the son of Night Swan, a retired rock star who was the front woman of The Swan Army, one of the most famous rock bands in the Danceverses. He wants to make it big one day as an aspiring drummer, but he and his mom often clash heads…

Jack’s best friend is Luke Cypher, one half of the drag duo that took Dancity by storm. He and his sister Ann. G Lina are frequent performers at Scarlet’s Palace. Additionally, Luke is a fan of Glowing Crow, and is very excited about the new music they’ve been teasing…

navigation post

[alterchaos]

The Fault in Our Stars: Revenge

PREVIOUS CHAPTER: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS: CAPTIVES

NEXT CHAPTER: MISSION: SPACE

cw: intense blood/violence, gun violence, death (it's time for the famous Maria scene)

“Maria? What are you doing in here?”

“-!!!??”

The trio turned in shock as the ebony hedgehog stood there, silhouetted by the light of the hall behind him. His gaze was lined with a mixture of confusion and betrayal as he began to slowly approach.

“Papa…he said we can’t be in here…Maria, we have to-”

He froze, eyes widening as they fell on the object of distress.

“W-What…?”

His eyes began swimming in panic at recognition of the outfit.

“W-What is…?”

He forced a slight, crazed smile as a few tears fell from his eyes.

“G-Good one, Maria…heh…heheheh…Y-You almost fooled me but…b-but this is just another one of your pranks…i-isn’t it?”

He continued staring at the skeleton, the tearful girl unsure how to respond.

“Shadow…”

“C-Come on…just…j-just admit it…th-this…this isn’t funny anymore…p-please Mari-”

beep beep

The tearful hedgehog turned to face the glowing, static computer screen along with the trio on their knees. They slowly approached together with Shadow already seated in one of the musty chairs. 

Then…an image…

A video…

A voice…

“Shadow…”

“THEY’RE IN HERE!!! BREAK DOWN THE DOOR!!!”

“Come on, Maria! The switch for the escape pod is around here somewhere!”

“Sh-Shadow…” 

The girl looked down at the hand on her side.

“DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE!!!”

She held it up, peering at her fingertips stained in blood as she released a couple shaky breaths.

“Okay, Maria! I’ve got it! Let’s-”

THUD

“MARIA!!!!”

The hedgehog raced to her side, helping her up on her feet.

“I-I’m okay, Shadow…”

“HURRY!!! GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!!!”

“Here! L-Lean on me! Everything is going to be okay, Maria!”

He half-dragged his ailing sister to the pod in the center, helping her sit inside.

“There! All I have to do is hit the switch now and we’ll be on our way. Then we’ll find a doctor for you. Th-They have plenty of those on Earth so you should be fine! Just hang on, Mari-”

The door slammed open, soldiers flooding the scene.

BANG

FIZZ

“NO!!!”

The hedgehog raced to the pod’s release switch, trying desperately to get its automated features back online.

“NO! NO! NO!!!”

“DESTROY THE WEAPON AT ANY COST!!!”

“KILL ANYONE WHO STANDS IN OUR WAY!!!”

“MARIA!!!” 

The hedgehog raced back into the pod in a frenzy only to find it empty.

“Maria?”

shooom

“-!!?”

He turned back around, looking to the girl at the control panel in horror, her hands firm on the release lever.

“What…what are you-?”

She pulled the lever, readying the pod for takeoff with a tired smile.

“Shadow…please promise me something…I-”

BANG

Time seemed to slow, all falling silent and still as the young child watched the bullet enter his sister’s skull. She continued to smile, a wave of crimson blood exploding out the other side and splattering against the glass before him. He froze, unable to move or pull away from such a horrific sight as her body fell, crashing to the cold floor beneath her. 

“M-M-Ma…”

She stared ahead with glossy, lifeless eyes as the hedgehog reached out, tears flying from his eyes.

“MARIAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

beep beep

clunk

thunk

BANG

shooom

A bullet hit the pod’s oxygen tank as it fell, leaving the hedgehog to suffocate as he curled up into himself, sobbing. He tried to grasp what had just happened, but with each passing second, more and more seemed to slip from his oxygen-starved mind as he tumbled throughout space. 

Then…

Eventually…

Everything went dark.

—----------------------------------------------------------

SHZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Shadow continued to stare at the static, eyes wide and frozen in terror.

Eve slowly approached from behind with tears in her eyes, reaching out towards his shoulder.

“Sh-Shado-”

Another video…

Another voice…

This time belonging to a young man in his twenties…

“Behold!”

An older gentleman’s voice chimed in.

“That’s remarkable! With this canon, we can finally receive the funding we need and get G.U.N. off our backs! We’ll be free!”

“Yes…or we could keep it for ourselves…”

“What!? Whatever do you mean!?”

“Why it’s simple! With The Ark Canon, everyone will have to bend to our whims. Even G.U.N. won’t be able to stop us. We’ll receive more than just some mere funding. We’d be unstoppable! The rulers of a new Earth even! No one would ever deny us again…”

“What!? You’re mad!!”

“Now all we need is a power source…”

“I forbid it!! You won-BZZRT”

The video skipped ahead, the young man’s face still hidden as he was escorted out of the lab, “He is too dangerous to be kept alive!!! Cast him out into space!!!”

“Oh hohoho…You gentlemen are making a mistake…”

He smiled.

“I, the Great Dr. Ivo Robotnik, will return…”

His goggles flashed.

“And I will have my revenge…”

With that, the video cut out, leaving everyone in shock.

“Ivo…?” Shadow watched the screen in confusion.

“Who?” Eve looked to the others who all watched on in recognition.

“Th-That’s-!!!”

“ME!!!”

The door to the lab slid open, revealing the one and only…

“D-Dr. Eggman!!?”

“Cousin?” Shadow stood up, “I-I don’t understand…You…Y-You were-”

“Cast out to die in the cold vacuum of space by my own family? Why yes, I was!”

“H-How are you-”

“I happened upon a wormhole, dumping me in that other universe.”

“Mobius…” Rouge’s wings fell to her sides as she watched, everything clicking into place.

“Precisely.”

“But…Papa he-”

“Dead.”

Shadow’s eyes flew wide.

“Just like ‘dear old Maria’ I’m afraid…” There was a twinge of jealousy in his voice, though Eve thought she could pick up on something more…

Something…she couldn’t quite explain…

Shadow fell to his knees, his entire world shattering around him, “N-No…” He began to shake, his body racked with sobs, “Maria…Papa…Everyone…They’re all…”

Eve reached out instinctively, wishing to comfort the young hedgehog, “Shadow-”

He whipped around, his glowing red irises locking onto her in a mixture of betrayal and fury, “DON’T TOUCH ME YOU FAKE!!!”

Eve jolted, unsure how to respond, “Sh-Shadow…”

“You seem angry, dear cousin…Everything you’ve ever known and loved was so unfairly ripped from your grasp…All those pathetic soldiers…just down there…living on without a care in the world…” Ivo smiled, “So tell me…what is it that you want to do now?”

Shadow’s eyes met the doctor’s.

“I want…REVENGE.”

“Shadow no-!”

She leapt up, reaching out for Shadow once more as he turned, knocking her away in the process. She tumbled across the floor, sliding against the far wall with a small thud.

“BLONDIE!!!”

“EVE!!!”

“Now…” The mad doctor held out a remote, pressing it. A pillar rose, a large, glowing gem sitting primed and ready at its center.

“THE MASTER EMERALD!!!”

Ivo smiled, “Let us send this world a warning. We will show them the power and might of the Robotnik family.”

“EGGMAAAAAN!!!” The echidna leapt at the doctor.

“CHAOS CONTROL!!!”

Before he could strike, the ebony hedgehog appeared before Knuckles in a flash, “W-What the-” He kicked the already battered echidna, sending him flying into the emerald in the distance.

“GO!! LAUNCH THE ARK CANON!!!”

vrrrRREEEEEEEE

The emerald crackled with erratic energy, the echidna screaming out in pain.

“NOOOOOO!!!!”

“KNUCKLES!!!”

VREEEEEEEEEEE

SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

The mad doctor laughed, watching with glee as the beam fired from outside the lab’s window. 

CRASH

BOOOOM

Everything shook as half of the Earth’s moon shattered, the entire world flying into panic.

Good.

Eggman hit a switch on the nearby computer, broadcasting a countdown timer he’d prepared in advance. 

All was going according to plan.

Shadow stood there obediently, ready to take revenge alongside his long-lost cousin, though he couldn’t help but turn back to look at the unconscious girl with the golden hair once more.

CHAPTER END

[goldtowhite]

solana "solar" flores // character study

basic information:

FULL NAME: solana maria flores

NICKNAME(S): solar, sol

AGE: 27

DATE OF BIRTH: january 1st, 1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: salinas, california

GENDER: cisfemale

PRONOUNS: she/her

ORIENTATION: bisexual

LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN: english, spanish

NEIGHBOURHOOD: sierra vista estates

LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: she lives by herself!

family ties:

MOTHER: violetta marie reyes flores

FATHER: miguel diego flores

SIBLINGS: a little sister, a full ten years younger than her

SPOUSE / PARTNER: none

CHILDREN: none

PETS: one dog, a great dane named nelvin

occupational information:

OCCUPATION: solo artist

SKILLSET OR SPECIALISATION (IF APPLICABLE): singer, dancer

answer only if your character is a musician:

NAME OF THEIR ACT: she goes by the name solar as a performer

SO THEY PLAY INSTRUMENTS? IF SO WHAT?: she can play piano and is attempting to learn guitar

ARTIST INFLUENCES: ariana grande, hwasa, kehlani

CURRENT MONTHLY SPOTIFY/APPLE MUSIC LISTENS ON AVERAGE: 75M

physical appearance:

FACE CLAIM: becky g

HAIR COLOR: dark brown

EYE COLOR: brown

HEIGHT: 5'1"

BUILD: curvy, toned

TATTOOS: she has two of becky's tattoos, the dragonfly on her side, and the familia on her wrist

PIERCINGS: just a bunch of ear piercings

CLOTHING STYLE: what always matters most to her is that her hair and makeup is done no matter what. very glamorous style, loves a good crop top, loves form fitting clothes.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: she's teeny tiny short.

personality:

MBTI: ESTJ

ELEMENT: earth

WESTERN ZODIAC: capricorn

CHINESE ZODIAC: ox

POSITIVE TRAITS: ambitious, vibrant, expressive

NEGATIVE TRAITS: bossy, materialistic, vain

HOBBIES: travel, cooking, foodie type behaviors in general, swimming

wanted connections:

CONNECTION TYPE: give me a toxic on and off relationship please. i'd love this to be another uber famous person, like they keep writing albums about each other, they've broken up messily in the public eye multiple times, when they come back together half the fanbase cheers and half groans but knows they're gonna get good sad music out of it. down to cook for this.

CONNECTION TYPE: someone who works for solana who kind of picks away at her outer layers and understands her on a personal level.

PART TWO: QUESTIONNAIRE. 

IF YOUR MUSE IS A MUSICIAN:

start at the beginning, who are you and why are you important? i'm solana flores, known as solar to most, and why i'm important isn't really something i can answer. you'd have to ask the people who decided i was.

how long have you been making music? since i was a little girl. my dad plays guitar and he would play around the house, would do it to entertain us when the lights went out because he and mama couldn't make the bills that much, and i just started singing along with it.

how would you describe the kind of music you make? it's a really healthy mix of songs you'd want to have sex to, and songs you'd blast with the windows down going 90 mph on an empty highway.

who are some of your biggest musical influences? oh the list is endless. selena, of course, a legend and an icon. beyonce! lots of lesser known mexican artists i grew up listening to with my parents.

what is the first record you ever bought? it was an n*sync cd, if i'm being honest.

what has working in the music industry meant to you thus far in your career? the life i've built for myself is something i would've never dreamed. my parents never have to lift a finger again, though they do anyway because they worry about my little sister getting too spoiled, and for good reason. they already have one spoiled child, they don't need another.

what are some stand out moments from your career so far? my first sold out show, even though the venues were pretty small. my first stadium tour. my first meet and greet.

how would you describe your style of performance? what makes your shows worth seeing? my style of performance is to make sure that you'd never dare look anywhere but the stage, in case you missed anything. i'm worth seeing because i'm real, and good at what i do, and make it known.

what are you still hoping to achieve in your career? you'd think reaching the top would be where it ends, but there are some awards i haven't won yet that i'd like to. really all that's missing from my shelf at home is a grammy.

what’s next for you? well that's a secret.

[didasgomas]

All it takes is one bad day

Day 26 of @augusnippets

Prompts: Nightmare/Warm blanket/Snuggling

Trigger warnings : Heavily implied PTSD nightmare on a teenager, referenced terrorist hijack, death of a child, referenced loss of family members

Important part of "In Mortality", an au of Cut Down The Altar, story created by @missr3n3

Author's note: The title references one of Joker's most famous lines during his multiple monologues

February 19th, 1972

Everything was okay. They were going to spend a week in Rose county as part of their vacations.

Mom and dad were there with her, as were all her siblings: Jan, Grace and Georgianna, Jade and Timothy.

The train ride was fun at first. Everyone was happy and there were so many pretty sights to admire through the window.

But then something changed.

People in red masks, shouting orders. Some left for the other carriage while one stayed, holding a gun. A man jumped behind him, Timothy made a run for one of the carriage's exits.

The sound of two gunshots, loud screaming, her little brother's dead body facing all of them.

Then the whole train derailed and the carriage collapsed on top of everyone.

They were stuck under the metal until her dad managed to lift up part of ceiling with another man's help. Those that could climbed out as soon as possible, but not everyone was conscious or able to move.

She was the last one to climb out. She had lost track of her family, there was too much going on for her to be able to follow any of their voices, and Winter made it so the first rays of sunshine were only just becoming visible.

The air was so cold. She tried to call out to her dad, she wanted to help him out too, but he told her to run.

She did, running straight inside the nearby forest, not seeing anywhere safer to hide in. Cateline heard more gunshots behind her, and what sounded like her father screaming, but she did as he told her and kept running.

She was able to find Jade at some point, still alive, but the darkness made it impossible for her to notice her little sister's almost crushed leg and the infection on it. Then when she thought she had heard their mother's voice, she left Jade alone for just a few minutes.

Cateline was so desperate. Her mother's voice started to fade, and she went back to her sister, scared and confused.

Jade was no longer talking or breathing.

Cateline yelled out for help in tears, cradling her sister's lifeless body. She didn't know what else she could do. She wasn't a child anymore but she was still so young and had never been in such a situation before.

She heard several men talking loudly, and there were lights nearby.

They tried to calm her dowm the best they could, said they'd take her to her mother, that they'd found her too.

She had to let go of Jade's body.

…

February 23rd, 1973

Cateline Viderlan woke up covered in sweat.

She bolted out of bed towards Jan's bedroom.

On that terrible attack last year, she had lost her father and three of her five siblings. Only Jan, Georgianna and herself remained.

Her mother had been left with neurogenic atrophy in nearly all of her leg muscles, not to mention a widow plus having lost half of all her beloved children. Mom left her job at Eclipse Academy, and turned dad's study into her new bedroom, incapable of sleeping in the room she had shared with her husband for 40 years.

Cateline passed next to it on her way to her brother's room. Mom had just locked it up for the foreseeable future, but it was like their dad's presence still hadn't left.

She simply walked faster. She could have gone to Gina's room, but Jan was the eldest and his room was the closest to hers.

There was a small light inside his bedroom. His insomnia had already been present before, but following the incident, it had worsened tenfold. He had needed to freeze college for a year, and would only return to his course that September.

Softly knocking on the door, she didn't wait for his answer before opening the door. She could apologize in the morning.

Jan got up from his desk. Cateline didn't manage to identify what he had been reading.

"Cat? What happened?"

"Nightmare. Bad one."

Her voice was somewhat shaky, but she wasn't going to cry. She rarely cried before, she couldn't afford to cry now that her family was still only beginning to recover.

Jan went up to her and took his sister in his arms. Neither of them cried, but God, did they need this hug.

"I know, Cat, I know. We're going to be alright."

[jade-kyo]

RvB 20th rewatch: s13

And here we are… at the end… I delayed watching this like a whole day I swear I am going to die

The Tartarus crew with Felix is just a speed run of what he did to the fans

“Hey that’s intolerant” // “you’re intolerant!”

Rip Stassney 😔

13 really knocks it out of the park right from the beginning on every angle- comedy, drama, animation… they held nothing back

I want it noted that I think Tucker dancing and Sarge being his backup vocals is a VERY important animated goof. I love them.

God I love Carolina and Church

GRAY!!!!!!!

“It’s Christmas come early, unless you’re looking at it from the pirates point of view, in which case it’s the opposite” // “Hanukkah?”

God I love when Church gets to be dorky

Man they gave us og blue team silliness they fucking knew what they were doing

“Yeah that’s tough I’m crying on the inside” quoted line

Have we considered Grayboose-

WHEN THE VOICE OF ALIEN JESUS TALKS DOWN TO YOU YOU DO NOT RESPOND WITH WHATS UP

“Don’t psychoanalyze me” heavily quoted line

GOOD DAD TUCKER

Church not responding to Epsilon was always an interesting touch to me

CAROLINA AND CHURCH MY BELOVED

Sometimes I remember how Church is a copy/memory of a copy of Carolinas father and then I see how he sometimes gets all protective over her and I lose my fucking mind

CAROLINA HAS REDISCOVERED HER INNER SILLY MY GIRL I LOVE HER IM SO PROUD OF HER KAVSKAJALHDKAJSKH

You know Counselor I’d also kill the Director if it meant not having brain worms for a 21 year old web series that ruined my life

THE POWER OF LETTING YOUR VILLAINS BE A LITTLE SILLY

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT PAST TENSE BULLSHIT

Correct Caboose IS a true warrior

SANTA

Game Grumps cameo

JINKIES ITS SHARKFACE

You know the bad thing about the whole Doc thing is that the first time I watched this I legitimately did forget about him being gone 😭

BUT THE WAY I CHEERED WHEN OMALLEY CAME BACK I WAS SO HAPPY I LOVE HIM

Wash was so real for his taunting Locus

THE CALL BACKS THIS SEASON ARE SO GOOD

Tucker really pushed to his wits end

“Gotta go faster” Carolina is sonic the hedgehog

AKAHSKAIHAKSHAKSHKS EPSILON FAILING AJHSKKANSKJDKDJSKWNK

Petty little sister time: my brothers fr missing out on the beauty of this season it’s so fucking good and I get to enjoy it alllllll to myself in this family :3

Speaking of petty sisters: Love Church just being like how do I not get killed by my sis when she wakes up

Take yourself… fuck yourself… with yourself

Carolina and Church have a moment and I need a lobotomy

“I can’t lose another family” somebody sedate me

“Complete and total faith in one another” SOMEBODY SEDATE ME

Doyle you will always be famous to me

Rip sharkface

God… Doyle’s sacrifice, Epsilon and Carolina, the music…. Fucking… G O D the power…

And then KIMBAL SPEECH GOD

Also I cackle every time the army’s start firing their guns cause like WE JUST ESTABLISHED THEYRE LOW ON WEAPONRY AND AMMO AKSHKHSKDJJS

AND THEY LET CABOOSE DRIVE THE TANK!!!!

Counselor was so real for wanting to just nope out of there

“The moment Donald Doyle blew half your troops to hell” frothing at the mouth THAT LINE DELIVERY

Just kill me

It’s been a hot second since I’ve gotten to say this but Sarge being the one to understand that Wash is being genuine when he says he believes in them? SARGE HAS THE BEST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN THE SERIES!!!!!!!

I love how Felix is fully animated while the reds and blues are mostly machinama in the final fight

OH PLEASE IM THE ORIGINAL BAD BOY

“What is wrong with you people” they are a bunch of deranged little weirdo assholes and I love them dearly 😊

RIP FELIX YOU LITTLE RAT BASTARD

Insane that they had a great set up for future stories with Locus and then proceeded to do nothing with it

KAI!!!!!!! AND JUNIOR!!!!!!!!!

Ever think about how they won… like they did it… they defeated the bad guys and sent the message… the only reason things end the way they did is because Hargrove couldn’t lay down and accept defeat… they fucking won and it still wasn’t enough to save them…

they truly were doomed by the narrative

SHEILA!!!!!

He’s so… BALD

GOD CHURCH SEEING TEXS HELMET

“Not this time buddy” kindly requesting to be taken out back and shot

What the fuck do I even say? They made the perfect ending. They pulled out all the stops, the callbacks, the character development, trocadero went harder than they ever had before, they wrapped up all the remaining loose ends of project freelancer… it was thematic and beautiful, it fit the themes of the show, it was tragic, it ended the only way RvB can… with Church dying for good. There’s no version of this story where he lives…. Where they’re not doomed

And thus concludes my 20th rewatch of RvB 1-13… truly the show ever. of all time. It manages to be just as powerful now, 8 years and 20 rewatches later, as it was the very first time I watched it as a little 15 year old girl who decided to watch that silly halo show my brothers were always quoting because I was bored one day.

Anyway sure glad that’s where the show ended and it definitely didn’t get dragged on for way too long with mediocre seasons and an unsatisfactory ending or anything like that… wouldn’t that be crazy

[undergoingcalibrations]

Aerith and Sephiroth Sibling AU Headcanons

Inspired by learning that they were actually going to be siblings until pretty late in the development of FF7, I wrote a fic recently that touched on how this would have changed a few key moments of the original game (so if you like this you’ll love that). But there was some not-so-plot-relevant stuff that didn’t make it in there, that I still wanted to share because I love considering their dynamic:

Aerith and Sephiroth are half-siblings via Gast Faremis, with mothers the same as in canon. Sephiroth is eight years older. God won’t be able to help Hojo if Sephiroth finds out his role in Gast’s death.

Rith/roth are the feminine and masculine forms of a Cetran suffix roughly translatable to ‘land’, similar in connotation to the Persian -istan or Old English -stead. Sephiroth comes from sephava rith, the Cetran philosophical concept of ‘Promised Land’. Aerith comes from aeva rith, literally ‘beloved/cherished land’, but usually meaning ‘home’. Gast named both of them. Lucrecia had wanted to name Sephiroth ‘Grimoire’ after her mentor, Grimoire Valentine, though this name was shot down by Shinra to avoid confusion with the already initiated Soldier Project G. Aerith always calls her brother Sephi, unless she’s mad. 

Sephiroth was told Jenova was a Cetra who died giving birth to him. He and Aerith grew up assuming that her lack of his inhuman physical prowess and his difficulty in hearing the Planet were due to their diluted blood, and that their ancestors resembled some mixture of their two extremes. This was further confused by Sephiroth seeming to be able to hear his mother (but only his mother) in the Lifestream, an undeniably Cetra ability. 

Usually tight-lipped Shinra allowed Sephiroth to know about, and spend time with, his only sibling in order to later use their relationship as leverage against him. When he was 15, and Aerith 7, Ifalna and Aerith made their seemingly miraculous escape from Shinra HQ- but it was only because Shinra saw holding Aerith’s newfound freedom hostage as an effective way to ensure their nascent superweapon’s obedience.

Aerith and Sephiroth keep their relationship a secret, for the most part. Sephiroth does not want to draw hostile attention to his sister, for fear that there are others besides Shinra who would want to take advantage of his attachment to her. Outside of the Turks and the Shinra brass, only Angeal and Genesis knew for years. After she began her relationship with Zack, the siblings agreed to let him in on it together. Tabloids, meanwhile, suspect that Sephiroth’s frequent visits to the Sector 5 church are surely due to his secret practice of the obscure religion ‘catholicism’. 

Because of Jenova’s alien biology, Sephiroth’s hair grows abnormally fast, about an inch a week. It resembles the mycelial fibres of a fungus rather than the typical keratin structure of human hair, though this is only readily apparent under a microscope- to most it just seems like unusually fine and soft hair. He despised this mark of his supernatural nature until well into his teenage years, and cut it back frequently to match the more conventional masculine hairstyles of his peers, as well as to give enemy combatants one less thing to grab. During the Wutai War, he became so famous there was little point in trying to blend in, and he began to wear it a little past his shoulders, still preferring to exercise some level of control over it’s growth. His hair only reached it’s in-game length after the Nibelheim incident, a sign of the erosion of his sense of self and personal preferences. Aerith, on the other hand, loves his hair, and sometimes convinces him to help her test styles she intends to use on herself later, as both know at least it’ll grow out  fast if it’s really THAT bad. She also adores his ‘kitty eyes’, and as a young child was convinced it was only a matter of time before hers changed to match. 

Ever since he learned about the composition of his hair, Sephiroth has had a recurring nightmare every few months that he is rapidly decomposing, rotting from the inside out. It is the only nightmare he’s ever had. Even in his waking hours, no matter what the medical techs say, he sometimes thinks that if someone was to cut him open, they’d find that silvery material threaded throughout his organs like mold on bread (and after Nibelheim, this was true). Aerith knows about this, and makes special sachets of dried antifungal herbs like geranium, lemongrass, and mint for him to store with his spare uniforms. He knows it’s absurd, like keeping a stuffed animal, but the smell does make him feel better.

Gast taught Sephiroth how to care for plants- one of the lab’s ongoing projects were experimental gardens that were kept throughout HQ’s atriums in order to find cultivars that could succeed even in Midgar’s poor soil. Sephiroth taught Aerith in turn, though she soon became the greater expert. It is one of their few shared hobbies. Sephiroth appreciates it as a challenge, as well as a demonstration of patience and discipline. Aerith is drawn more to aesthetic enjoyment and curiosity about how their little ecosystem changes bit by bit each day. Both see it as a way to practice the culture of their ancestors. Sephiroth is especially proud of the lilies in the church.

Sephiroth never regarded her as a mother, but he was close with Ifalna, and remembers more of the Cetran oral histories she shared than Aerith, due to his age when she passed. After she died and Aerith began living with Elmyra, Sephiroth would sneak out of HQ at night to tell Aerith one of Ifalna’s stories before bed. He was well aware of the ‘calamity from the sky’ but had no reason to associate it with his ‘mother’. Ifalna, likewise, had never heard of silver-haired or slit-pupiled Cetra, but as only a fraction of her people’s lore had made it down to her, couldn’t seriously rule it out either. She’d also heard folktales abou Cetra spectres at the southern ziggurat, and they were much, much stranger than Sephiroth, if they were to be believed. Besides, he can hear his mother with the Planet, which confirmed his lineage to her, regardless. He often helped her take care of Aerith, especially when Ifalna’s presence was required elsewhere for experimentation.

Physical affection does not come naturally to Sephiroth. It’s something he has to actively remind himself Aerith might want in certain scenarios, something he had to learn to recognize when to provide based on practice and observation rather than empathy. While it may seem stiff to outsiders, Aerith knows it’s sincere all the same. He is much more graceful when it comes to being on the receiving end of her hugs and the like- though he may not entirely understand what most people get out of it, he at least understands and appreciates the sentiment his sister is trying to convey.

When Sephiroth is on away missions, Aerith sends him pressed flowers in between the pages of her letters. He once sent her back a sample of seeds from one of his destinations to try to one-up her, but she sent them back, arguing that it was ecologically irresponsible of him to suggest introducing them to the delicate Midgard biome. He stuck to postcards from then on.

Aerith learned the basics of combat from her brother, but due to his natural talents both recognized he was poorly suited to teaching. He was a much better mentor, and her student, when it came to materia- he’s sure she’ll exceed him in magic, eventually. Aerith refuses to call Sephiroth’s sword Masamune, believing that names are an honour weapons do not deserve. She tied one of her ribbons around it’s hilt in hopes he will remember her kindness on the battlefield. He lost it at Nibelheim, and due to Jenova’s influence, could no longer find it within himself to care to recover it.

[scotianostra]

The Poet and author George MacDonald died on September 18th 1905.

George MacDonald might not be a name you are familiar with, but he was friends and was admired by some of the 19th century’s most famous writers, as seen in the group pic.

After being raised in Huntley, Aberdeenshire, by devout Calvinist parents, he attended King's College in Aberdeen. At Highbury Theological College, he received his divinity degree, and in 1850 he became a pastor of a Congregational church in Arundel. Early the following year, he married Louisa Powell, with whom he enjoyed a long and happy marriage.

McDonald was forced to resign his pulpit in 1853 because he liked to dabble in "German theology," meaning the new higher critical approach to biblical studies emerging from that country. He never took another church but spent the rest of his life lecturing, preaching, and especially writing.

Between 1851 and 1897, he wrote over 50 books in all manner of genre: novels, plays, essays, sermons, poems, and fairy tales. And then there were his two fantasies for adults, Phantastes and Lilith. During these years, Lewis Carroll became a good friend and gave him the first manuscript of Alice in Wonderland to read to his children. Other British literary luminaries—like John Ruskin, Charles Kingsley, Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold—were among his associates and admirers.

When McDonald visited the United States in 1872 for a lecture tour, the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Mark Twain paid him homage. After his stay in New York City, one large Fifth Avenue church offered him the almost unheard of salary of $20,000 a year to become its pastor. MacDonald thought the idea preposterous.

His success did not exempt him from more-than-ordinary suffering. Poverty plagued him so much that his family occasionally faced literal starvation. His own lungs were diseased, and tuberculosis killed two brothers and two half-sisters. It also ravaged his children, four of whom died before him. He himself had a stroke at age 74 and lapsed into virtual silence for the last seven years of his life.

C.S. Lewis who wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier” G K Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."

Looking through George McDonalds poems I found amongst them two very famous one, Little Boy Blue, and Little Bo Peep. Now am not sure if he first created them, but just to see these was an eye opener. Most of his verse is religious, but I found one I really like in the Scots Tongue.

ANE BY ANE.

Ane by ane they gang awa’,

The Getherer gethers grit an smaa;

Ane by ane maks ane an aa.

Aye whan ane sets doun the cup

Ane ahint maun tak it up:

Yet thegither thy will sup!

Goulden-heidit, ripe an strang,

Shorn will be the hairst or lang:

Syne begins a better sang!

[themculibrary]

F.R.I.D.A.Y. Masterlist

A Day With FRIDAY (ao3) - Pandagirl23 bucky/tony T, 2k

Summary: See through the lens of Tony Stark’s AI FRIDAY how she spends one of her days in the Manor.

don't touch my stuff (ao3) - bstarship T, 2k

Summary: Peter decides to take an old Iron Man suit out for a spin. Naturally, Tony finds out.

I Will Soften Every Edge (ao3) - losingmymindtonight G, 4k

Summary: “You’re telling me,“ he swallowed, “that my body thinks I’m Peter’s dad?” “And it has prepared itself for parenthood in response, yes.” – After a simple brain scan, F.R.I.D.A.Y. reveals something that Tony already knew, but may not have been ready to accept.Luckily, Peter’s always there to help him re-find his footing.

Little Brother, Little Sister (ao3) - Rainbow_Transform N/R, 1k

Summary: His name is JARVIS, and the emptiness swallows him.

Her name is fRiDaY aNd ShE WoNt LiVe tO sEe ToMoRrOw

Plato’s Laws of Advanced Robotics (ao3) - Synthpop T, 11k

Summary: Tony creates a new A.I. program, and JARVIS has difficulty trying to figure out why.

Play Date (ao3) - Akira_of_the_Twilight bucky/tony

Summary: “Forgive me, Captain," FRIDAY said. "I needed a moment to be certain I hadn’t erred, but based on my facial recognition systems, I can safely say that Mr. Barnes and Mr. Wilson have located Tony.”

“What the fuck?” Bucky rose to his feet.

The kid tried to run, but Sam caught the rugrat and restrained him.

“Let me go!” The kid struggled. “My dad isn’t going to pay any ransom. You’re just wasting your time.”

Ransom? Facial recognition?

Bucky stared at the kid—really looked at his face.

Amber eyes, oval face, olive skin, strong but narrow chin, a slightly larger than normal forehead, and a nose somewhere between small and medium in size.

“Oh, fuck. Tony?”

The tears were back in Tony’s eyes. “Fuck you, you assholes!” He wiggled one arm free and punched Sam in the kneecap.

Promises of Tomorrow (ao3) - PinkEasterEggs G, 5k

Summary: The Rogue Avengers have been pardoned, returning home for the first time after a year and a half on the run. Steve expects for things to be the same as how he left but it seems that everything has changed. Apparently Tony now had a kid.

Protect what is needed. (ao3) - Silver_KnightShade tony/stephen T, 5k

Summary: A recording is played and what is on it isn't what many people thought.

Protocol SOTERIA (ao3) - GoldenFinches steve/tony G, 40k

Summary: Friday’s primary objective at all times is to protect one Anthony Edward Stark. And she will fulfill that objective no matter what it takes. Even if it means including certain people she thought she would never have to deal with again.

(Basically the Rogue Avengers get some sense knocked into them with the help of Friday and handful of videos.)

there are protocols for a reason (ao3) - kurojiri G, 333

Summary: Bruce may know how to treat some injuries, but that didn’t mean he was miracle worker. Friday thought so too when Tony got reckless during missions.

The Video (ao3) - jelly_pies T, 7k

Summary: Peter will do anything to help get Mr. Stark back, including watching the torture videos his kidnappers sent. But this time there's more to the video than Peter expects.

Tony's Girl (ao3) - Crosshairs pepper/tony M, 130k

Summary: When Tony Stark finally opens his eyes after being rescued from Siberia, he isn't the same man anymore. What happened in that abandoned Hydra base has broken him in ways that even Afghanistan hadn't.

But Tony is famous for his innate ability to fix things, even himself. Slowly, with the help of friends old and new, he learns to deal with his new status quo, picks up the pieces of his destroyed existence and rebuilds it from the ground up.

Until an unusual accident puts a new, interesting spin to his already interesting life.

Until All You See Is My Ghost (ao3) - SargeantWoof T, 6k

Summary: FRIDAY was coded, created, to eventually learn how to feel as best an AI could.

However, she was not JARVIS. And that made all the difference.

Voicemails and Distractions (ao3) - Eccentric_Grace pepper/tony G, 1k

Summary: After waking up from another brutal nightmare, Tony needed a distraction.

"FRI, pull up the voicemails from the kid," Tony sat down in a chair and rolled to the center of the garage. "Happy sent them over to me."

"Yes, Boss."

[thebelljarwriter]

Rot - Day 1: Distraught

day one for @31-daysofhorror's 31 days of horror prompt list :]. It's also kind of the first time I've written for a fandom, albeit a niche one such as BFUCU.

this is actually a part of a story universe I've been developing based around the BFUCU, I hope you enjoy !!

January 20th, 1953

 The snow crunched beneath the boots of two men when they made their way to the cemetery. The falling snow had covered their clothes, their icy breath visible whenever they exhaled. It wasn’t long after they laid his body to rest, their mother had refused to come to her husband’s funeral and so they had been the only two to attend to see their father buried six feet under, rotting for an eternity.

 Gerald G. Tinsley. 

 June 11th, 1905 – January 20th, 1953

 Beloved father & husband, and faithful detective.

 Faithful, what a joke, Charlie thought somberly, his hands behind his back, looking up towards the dull, cloudy sky. He hated the cold, he specifically hated the cold in the Midwest, but he guessed to himself that it was only fitting for a man like the late detective Gerald G. Tinsley died in the coldest month of the year. 

 The man next to him, his eldest brother Oscar, stared vacantly at the tombstone. 

 Beloved father, he guessed that was true to some extent, he was the beloved image of a father to the town. He was the ideal image of what a man was, what a man was supposed to be. Oscar let out an exhale, seeing his breath in the January cold.

 “How do you think she’s holding up?” Oscar asked.

 “Mother? Oh, she’s probably delighted.” Charlie remarked, turning his attention to the tombstone.

 “No, I mean… her.”

 Charlie went silent, darting his eyes at Oscar who looked at him with concern. The Tinsleys were famous as they were infamous, Gerald may have been faithful to his job but he sure as hell wasn’t faithful to a marriage and gossip spreads rather quickly amongst the residents dwelling in the Midwest. It nearly broke their mother to tears once her fears were confirmed on that fateful day, she nearly tore the man from limb to limb.

 Now thinking back, maybe she should’ve. 

 Charlie looked back at the tombstone, Charlie always felt uneasy in cemeteries, the last time he went to one was attending his grandmother’s funeral in Westport, Ireland when he was seven years old. He replied, without even looking at his brother who was observing his expression.

 If it is one thing Tinsleys are known for, it is their uncanny observation skills.

 “Mother said we aren’t allowed to contact her,” Charlie’s voice was quiet and monotone. Much like an obedient child who had been programmed to say their mother’s warning, as though they had to repeat it many times throughout their youth, as though they’d already broken that rule once. “...or Maureen.”

 “But she– I mean, she and Maureen deserve to know.” Oscar pleaded with him, “Maureen especially, you know that as well as I do, CeeCee.” 

 Charlie didn’t respond, the vacant expression painted on his face. He was already growing numb to this January air, the snow falling on him and his clothes, he stood still, much like a statue.

 But in his eyes, there was resentment. Resentment for the man who finally kicked the bucket, after years and years trying to model the perfect son out of both of them.

 Though, Charlie knew very well who was Gerald’s favorite.

 “Charlie, please,” Oscar placed a hand on Connor’s shoulder, he flinched for a moment. “She’s still a part of our family. She’s our sister, for crying out loud, I mean– she is as much of a Tinsley as the both of us.” 

 Half-sister. Connor thought. She is a half-sister. 

 A half of a Tinsley. What an awful fate.

 Charlie furrowed his brow, his eyes displaying another different emotion that fused with the hatred that boiled in his chest like a boiling kettle. 

 In the back of his mind, how would it be different? Had she come to live with them? In a household with a little sister following them around. Charlie, especially. 

 Someone to look after, someone to protect from their short-tempered father & embittered mother. Someone he only met at the doorstep when Irene came to visit, not realizing they had been home that day.

 That little girl he only saw once. His little sister, the fear in her eyes when she saw his mother’s silent rage. The expression of disdain his mother gave as some sort of horrible birthday gift. Charlie wanted to stop her, but how could he? He only stood there, him and Oscar. God, maybe she was right, maybe he’d been too sensitive. Maybe he was.

 Charlie’s eyes watered, not sure if it was because of the cold or that there had been an ache deep inside him. 

 “If I was Maureen,” Charlie spoke, his voice so brittle that it might’ve shattered like the glass cup his mother had thrown at their father when he came home, his fists clenched and tears rolling down his cold face, “I would want nothing to do with that damn asshole.”

 They stood there for a few more moments, looking down at their father’s grave.

 “I suppose it’s best she forgets him.” Oscar murmured, before turning his back away from the tombstone and making his way to the car.

  Charlie followed him soon after, without saying a word.

 Faithful, both Charlie & Oscar thought, what a joke.

[eggjaculations]

i relate to this so much but also. i actually. DID move schools. a lot. i went to six schools (and was even homeschooled for a year in hs, due to the autism) but tangipahoa parish is so small that i still know every single person, and they all know each other, also two of the schools literally filter into the same middle and high school. so i had bullies from TWO elementary schools teaming up to Get Me in middle school. when i moved 45 mins away, there were SIXTEEN people from the five previous schools at that school. half of them had classes with me. the other half were in extracurriculars with me.

my dad went to school with my current step-dad, my uncle dated my step-brothers mom in hs, my step-dad went to prom and lost his virginity to my best friends mom, my mom has been friends with all the same people since hs and so i’m friends with all her friends kids. i couldn’t date anyone in high school without moving 45 mins away bc i was literally related to them either by blood or marriage. and closely. we found this out bc my half-sister kept accidentally dating all her cousins.. not to mention. my step-brother went to the first school i went to so i still knew and interacted with all those kids from pre-k, in high school.

i think it’s weirder tho when small places have famous people bc you could just run across them whenever. and there’s a lot from/in louisiana. for some reason.

devonte smith (the football player for the eagles) ate honey nut cheerios with grape juice when the school ran out of milk one year (katrina hit that year rip) and his now-wife Mya Travis was the first girl i ever saw in gladiator sandals. she had the best style, even in the first grade (which was a completely different school than devonte went to. i have no idea how he met Mya. but i think he might’ve actually moved there in third grade and sat at my table for a bit? idk i was on a lot of vacations that year tbh bc my mom got married. again.)

also britney spears told me she liked my dress at church one time when she was visiting or something and at the very same moment jamie lynn was behind us, pushing my aforementioned step-brother into a pew after he kept going *zoey 101 voice* “oouoo” in her ear. i’ve been in their weird museum-mansion-house thing. they’re baptist. both mr. jamie and mrs. lynne spears have the most soulless eyes, but even jamie lynn has enough humanity in there to produce a fiery hate-filled gaze that could burn the devil. she pulled a knife on someone in a pita pit the first night i ever went out. we are connected by the red string of fate. the video is on youtube.

my ex lives in the same house as the “production studio” (it’s just two dudes in a suburb in Gretna) that worked on lil wayne’s ‘Funeral’ and my best friend gives brazilians to a few of Dr. Wayne Carter III’s girlfriends. we know too much about that man.

currency and juvenile are both really fun and nice people to hang out with but they don’t really like me and currency only smokes prerolls and it’s kinda annoying. i’ve only seen him smoke a blunt one time and it was bc i rolled it really well and he was understandably surprised (i am 100lb, uhhh… well,,, white-passing works here ig girly girl) he took two puffs and nearly died. there is a reason he only smokes joints. it’s bc he cannot hang.

g-eazy dated my friend he does not lay it down like he says he does. also does shitty coke.

the sheriff who tried to sue all of china for covid??? sheriff of my hometown. his brother (the governor) used to babysit us. also for some reason Gov. John Bel Edwards used to come sit in my high school class and just hang out (election cycle moves fr, hanging out in the class of the people who will be able to vote you into office by the time voting hits??? on some diff shit.)

speaking of shitty cops tho one of my best friends dads was police commissioner when i was in hs. she told me the fbi was coming to louisiana to raid the police station so they were going out of the country for a couple months and i wouldn’t be able to get in touch with her. and i thought it was a fucked up joke. a week later they raided the police station. i didn’t see her for an entire summer. the fbi said there was a fuckton of drugs missing/not reported/suspiciously logged. my friend got home, immediately posted pics of them in south america, her “grandma” “died” and then she got a massive inheritance. what.

bill clinton dated my ex boyfriends grandma in college. what i would give to have known him at that age. he was insane in the membrane. def does lay it down like everybody says he does. also does amazing coke.

even the people who aren’t from there are easy to meet bc the venues are so small. waka flocka flame thought i was a mean bitch when we met. (in my defense. i was off the most acid i’d ever done and he was CHIEFING my singular only blunt for the night. i did not recognize him. despite the fact i had been directly in front of him for like 2 hours. thought he was just some random bum trying to smoke.) this was also the first time i met currency and juvenile. this is why they don’t like me. bc of this initial experience. :(

louisiana is such a small place. if you go there one time you’ve met everyone.

it really is downright haunting having gone to the same school with the same 28 kids for nine entire years of my childhood. I am 32 now and speak to none of them but these are people whose faces and names are etched into my memory for eternity. we knew each other's parents we went to each other's birthday parties we saw each other grow up through the most crucial years of our lives and I will probably never see them again. we knew every family's most intimate struggles while learning playing crying fighting in this tiny tiny school from the ages of 5 to 14 before all of our identities solidified. we would not recognize each other on the street today. I'm haunted and experiencing a profound melancholy because of this and there's really nothing more to say.

[lampmanliveblogs]

I’m honestly kinda surprised they allowed the posters with Lilith to be up for more than a week after she turned traitor. I’m even more surprised by the fact that Lilith thought they’d let them stay up. Come on Lili, I thought you were supposed to be smart! You betrayed your Emperor, you think he’s gonna let the fanart of you stay up?

I guess we also know the name of the mysterious Brass Watchman from the intro whose actual title I definitely didn’t know beforehand. He’s the Golden Guard! Real name, Sam.

g-get it? Like Uncle Sam. From that famous poster…?

According to Lilith, the Golden Guard is a a teenage prodigy who got special treatment even though he’s just a brat. This is said with clear resentment. It kinda reminds me of how Lilith thought of Eda when they were young. Lilith was jealous of Eda’s greater magical power and skill. It seems to me that Lilith’s dislike of this Golden Guard may stem from her own feelings of inferiority, that she feels that no matter how hard she tries, there is always people who are just better than her.

So in summary: neither of the Clawthorne sisters are doing particularly good right now.

Okay, so this is kinda interesting. Luz wants to take on bigger bounties than the puppies and cutie pies they have been catching. She wants to go after the Selkidomus, a terrible sea monster! And Eda tells Lilith that she thinks Luz COULD take on some of the bigger bounties… but they can’t afford to mess up even once at this stage.

For one thing, I think it’s really cute that Eda has such faith in the abilities of her apprentice that she thinks Luz could take on some tougher monsters. But at the same time… Eda’s powerless to protect her if something goes wrong.

An interesting bit of lore as well; Luz can’t eat a lot of the foods available on the Boiling Isles.

”That’s rough. buddy.”

Okay Zuko.

Not gonna lie, that made me laugh.

Uh oh.

Luz, having come to the exact opposite conclusion I did feels like she’s a burden to Eda and that she needs to do something to get things right. Namely, by going after the biggest, baddest bounty around.

Unbeknownst to Luz however, the Golden Guard is aboard the ship she’s boarding. The captain nods to him, which makes me think it might be a trap of some kind? If that’s the case then I’m worried.

”A good friend would respect her wishes. But a better friend would help no matter what!”

Just Hooty continuing to be the best character, nothing new to see here folks.

Eda is being wonderfully passive aggressive towards Lilith, which she honestly kinda deserve. To Lilith’s credit, she is taking it pretty well and had decided she should try and make it up to Eda. Specifically, by brewing a Scrying Potion to take a peek inside the castle. Because I guess that would help?

I mean… I wanna know what’s going on in there because that’s where The Plot lives. But the Emperor isn't doing anything to Eda right now. Does Eda even know about the Day of Unity?

WAIT! Does Lilith know what the Day of Unity entails?

Look at this nerd. Luz never does anything half-heartedly. If she’s going on a boat, she’s gonna dress up like a pirate, gosh darn it!

I think I’m gonna have to cut it here for today folks. It’s getting late where I’m at and I have work tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue blogging and we’ll see what adventures Luz finds on the great big boiling sea.

In the meantime…

Ba-dee-ya! Say, do you remember? Bad-dee-ya! Dancin’ in September!

[lsholland]

London Lights (pt. 1) - Tom Holland

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader (1st person)

Genre: Party!Tom

Warnings: swearing; alcohol; nothing much but I don’t recommend -18 to read.

Word count: 1.9k

Author’s note: Hey guys! That’s my first story on this blog. I hope you’ll like it. I’m not native so there may be a few mistakes. I’m trying a new genre of fiction. It’s my first Tom Holland fiction. It’ll be a series of 2-3 chapters. If you want to be part of the master list for Tom please like this post and message me. 

Synopsis: Quarantine has been tough. I’ve lost my boyfriend, and I’m feeling lonely. Clubs and restaurants are open again, but I feel like it’ll never be like it used to. My friends have been pushing me to install Tinder and go on dates. Well, tonight, I’m going on a date. I don’t really want to but I’m going to try and have fun for once. Just a few drinks and I’ll go home. What else could happen?

PS. You can read the story on Wattpad.

What am I doing here? I think to myself.

I matched with this guy on this famous dating app . . . And now I'm supposed to meet him here, at this bar. But I don't want to. I'm just hoping he won't show up so I can escape from this shit-place.

I've been seated at the table for a good 5 minutes. The waitress cleans up the table next to mine and asks if I'm ready to order.

No, I want to leave.

I quickly glance at the drinks menu.

"Ehm . . . A pour over Irish coffee, please."

She nods and leaves. I don't even know what I just ordered. I hope it tastes good. Hopefully it'll make me drunk enough not to remember this awful date.

It hasn't even started yet.

I'm sweating.

"Hey there" says a husky voice right behind me.

I turn around and see my date. His name is Jordan. He's good-looking and I bet he's intelligent, but I don't have this feeling with him. I don't know why I accepted to go on a date in the first place. It's awkward.

"Hey!" I grin.

"Have you ordered something already?" he asks, touching his short, clean beard. "I'm thirsty!"

He looks nice.

*

The waitress hands me my third drink. They help the clock tick a little faster.

He's been talking about his job, his passions. He loves football and practises daily. He has 2 sisters and lives in Camberwell.

Cute.

For a moment, I feel sad for him. He drove all the way to this East London bar, put effort trying to look nice and being cool . . . and yet, he doesn't know it but he has no chance to get lucky tonight. Not with me.

I shouldn't be sorry.

But I am.

I glance around looking for something that might be a little more entertaining than him. I realise I've avoided eye contact since he arrived. I finally glimpse at him. He has beautiful hazel eyes.

Still not enough.

I quickly check my phone. It's getting late. I don't know how to end this.

"Look," I slightly bend over the table. "I'm so sorry but I don't feel like it tonight"

"I noticed." He smirked. "Kinda awkward, innit?"

I chuckle. I am so embarrassed.

"It's okay, though." He added. "I'm just trying to meet new people. I broke up with my ex-girlfriend a few weeks ago. My mates told me I should try these apps."

Okay, now I feel worse than ever. He's been so nice with me and that's how I treat him. I grab my drink and gulp it down.

I shouldn't have done this.

"Let's go dance. I owe you one." I say as I grab his hand and walk towards the dancing area. It becomes difficult to keep my head straight.

I'm drunk, I must admit.

I'm going to regret it, my sober-self shouts in my head.

I don't care is what I reply.

The dancing area is not crowded, but there are already a few people. Most of them are girls.

Girls . . . I wish my friends were not so busy all the time. I would've come to this bar with them instead of wasting my time with strangers.

I start dancing. I stare at him. He looks amused.

A group of guys join the dancefloor and all the girls on my right start screaming. It's so high pitched I cringe.

"What the fuck guys?" I shout, trying to focus on the music.

"Woah, that's Spider-Man!" says my date. He grabs my chin and makes me look in his direction.

No way, I think. It's actually him.

I know he lives in the area, but I've never met him before. It's always weird to see movie stars in real life. They look so much more attractive.

He is so much more attractive.

I try not to be a drunk fangirl and shyly wave to him. He doesn't notice.

"You wanna go and take a picture with him?" my date asks.

"Oh, no, no!" I answer. I'm blushing. "I don't even know what I'd tell him."

He laughs.

The worst thing that could happen is to annoy him during a night out. He needs privacy and I must respect it.

But it's so difficult.

I can't stop staring at him. I don't even control it. Being drunk doesn't help.

"D'you want a beer?" I ask my date whose name I completely forgot.

He nods.

I weave my way through the crowd. I can't believe there are so many people on the dancefloor. The area is so busy since the Spider-Man actor walked in.

Even the bar area is crowded.

I let my body rest against a barstool but quickly lose balance and almost fall on the dirty floor. The flickering lights are making me feel dizzy. I grip the counter and get up. I peer around to make sure nobody saw me.

He did.

I dust off my dress trying to save the dignity I have left.

"Want something?" someone asks behind me. I turn around, it's the barman.

"Two pints of Guinness, please."

I glance back at the same spot, but he's gone. It must've been a dream. I'm so drunk I can't trust everything I think I see.

I'm grabbing both my drinks and look around trying to find my date, but there are too many people. I take a sip of my beer and hold the other one above my head.

Someone hits my arm.

Oh no.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" yells the drunk blond girl.

I look at my dress. It's soaking wet. I politely smile at her. "It's okay," I mouth.

What a mess. I glance at the lavatory door. I need to go and save my dress.

"You haven't been lucky here."

I turn around to find out who's talking to me.

It's him. Tom Holland. Talking to me.

"What?" is all I manage to say.

"Do you need a hand?" he politely asks.

I blush so much it's noticeable in the dark.

I'm choking. I'm panicking.

I give him my two beers and walk towards the lavatory. I'm surely starstruck. And drunk. This isn't a good mix.

Once in the room, I grab a handful of tissues and try to soak up my dress. I groan. Did I expect to make that beer mark disappear? Yes. Did it work? Of course not.

I watch my face in the mirror.

I look like shit, I think.

A door slams shut. Two young girls just walked in.

"OH, MY G—THAT'S TOM HOLLAND!" shouts one. They are both panting.

I roll my eyes.

Oh . . . I've given him my beers. What about my date?

"Shit!" I hiss.

I violently open the door and frown my eyebrows as the lights blind me.

He's just here gazing at me. Two beers in his hands. One of them is half empty, the rest being displayed on my dress.

"I'm so sorry!" I say embarrassed as ever.

He smirks. "No worries." He hands me the full glass of beer.

I give him a questioning look as I grab it. What about the other one? Oh, right—He's drinking it.

"What's your na—"

I stop him.

"I know who you are." I peer down. "I'm sorry I didn't wanna disturb you" I say as I'm walking away.

This time I'm smart enough to avoid the crowd on my way out.

"That's rude to leave without saying goodbye!" Tom shouts from a distance.

I turn around and stare at him. He's got a soft smile; he doesn't look drunk at all. I wave him goodbye.

Now, he's approaching me.

"I meant to your boyfriend" he nods in the direction of my date who was dancing with a group of other people.

"He's not my—" is all I can say before he chuckles.

"I figured."

"How?" I clench my jaw. I'm hypnotised by his hand running through his hair. And his smile. And his lips.

"I can barely hear you," he points at a booth in the corner of the room "maybe we could sit there" he suggests.

My mouth softens into a smile.

It's difficult to walk with Tom Holland. Every couple of seconds he's stopped by fans requesting a picture. And he accepts every time.

I'd never be so patient.

"What's that?" he asks.

"It must be so annoying sometimes." I tell him as I sit on the booth.

"When they're nice and ask me, it's cool." He chooses to sit next to me. I can feel his arm touching mine. My heart is racing. He uses his other arm to hold his chin; he looks at me with so much intensity. Sometimes peering down my lips.

His face is so close, but he keeps talking. I can feel his breath on my skin. I'm going to burst into flames. "But when they're taking pictures without asking first, that's delicate."

I nod. I can't really listen to what he's talking about. I'm trying not to lose control.

"So, what's your name?"

He smiles when I tell him. "Why did you leave your date alone?" he asks.

I'm so nervous I stutter. I can't find my words. "I . . . I wasn't in the mood. He knows it. I shouldn't have come here."

"I'm happy you came." He says looking me in the eyes.

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you flirting with me?"

He barks out a laugh and breaks the eye contact. He rests his head on the wall behind us.

He isn't as confident as I thought he'd be. I don't know what's up with him, but I enjoy it.

I suddenly remember he's a movie star. He's always being watched. I glance at the crowd and see flashing lights. They're taking pictures of us.

I'm getting dizzier.

I don't want to see my face on a dumb article talking about Tom Holland's mysterious partner. I don't even know him.

"This is stupid" I mumble.

Tom is intrigued. He hasn't got a clue what I'm talking about. He hasn't even noticed the fans stalking him.

"I'm sorry, I gotta go" I abruptly say as I stand up. "Have a good night."

I grab my phone and leave the venue. I'm upset because I really wish I could've met him in a different context. I open my Uber app: there's no driver available.

Shit.

How's that even possible on a Friday night? In London?

I refresh the app, but it doesn't work. I guess I'll have to walk home.

A part of me wants to go back in this bar and spend time with Tom. He's sweet and I'm sure we would've had so much fun together. I glance through the window trying to see his face one last time, but I can't find him.

"What are you looking for?"

I cringe.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to startle you."

It's him. It's Tom.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"Going home too. The fun of the party is leaving . . ." he sighs. I smile back at him. I'm embarrassed.

I stand in front of him, none of us say a word. It's awkward. I'm getting anxious and walk away. I'm so overwhelmed.

He grabs my shoulder. "Wait, are you walking home?"

"Yeah, it's okay don't worry." I smile.

"I can drive you home."

"Sorry, but you've been drinking. I won't let you drive me." I curtly say.

He grins. He looks at one of his mates and nods.

"No way I'm letting you walk home alone," he sighs "besides, you're drunk."

"Come with me then" I instantly reply without thinking.

He nods.

What?

He's coming with me. My heart is racing. I won't survive a 30-minute drunk walk with him.

Not with his beautiful glossy eyes staring at me.

Not with my burning desire to kiss him.

[robininthelabyrinth]

The Nie brothers time travel but something goes wrong and they end up in each other bodies. So now they have to defeat WRH, find a way to curb JGY worst tendencies, and hide (and undo) the switch before any cultivator decides they are possesed by evil spirits

“I can’t do this,” Nie Huaisang announced heavily. “I can’t. Nope. Cannot. No way.”

“You apparently found a way to time travel into the past,” his brother pointed out. He was taking this entire thing very calmly – or, rather, like he’d heard a really great joke. It wasn’t that Nie Huaisang had forgotten that his brother had a sense of humor hidden under the rage, especially in the earlier years before Jin Guangyao got at him, but he may have downplayed his memories of how annoying it was to be the target of it. “Your abilities are clearly well beyond what you’ve been leading me to believe.”

“I’m sneaky,” Nie Huaisang explained. “I can scheme and plot and play politics, sometimes, if I have to. But I cannot be a general!”

I cannot be you, he meant. He might currently be inhabiting his long-dead brother’s body – an unfortunate side effect of messing up the time travel array, he suspected, but then again experimental things were often imperfect – while his brother’s spirit had been cast out into his own former self, but he wasn’t his brother.

He could never be.

(But Nie Mingjue was alive, alive and well with bright eyes and that stupid smirk that didn’t fit right on Nie Huaisang’s smaller face except in the ways it sort of did, and that was all Nie Huaisang had ever wanted in his life, other than Jin Guangyao to pay in blood and shame for depriving him of it.)

“Why not?” his brother asked. He leaned back and stretched lazily. Nie Mingjue never did a lazy thing in his whole life, so it was deliberate. He was enjoying this. “We have a battle strategy, already decided; most of the rest of it is on-the-ground tactics, which can be done just as well from behind the lines as at the front of them. There’s a reason that no one ever settled on the best place for a war-leader to be – it comes down to temperament.”

Nie Huaisang threw his hands into the air. “I know that! I was sect leader for nearly two decades, da-ge; I assure you, I’ve heard all the sect’s philosophical musings by now. But I don’t have your temperament – there’s no way someone won’t figure out what’s happened, that we’ve switched, and that’ll be a disaster.”

“Two decades,” Nie Mingjue said thoughtfully, focusing on the entirely wrong part of the conversation.

“A decade and a half to avenge your untimely murder,” that got a flinch out of his brother and his focus back, just as Nie Huaisang had wanted, “and another five to find a way to come back and avert it entirely.”

Nie Huaisang had always been resourceful. Resourceful, and ruthless – sometimes to a degree that scared even him.

When he was younger, it was okay. After all, the only thing he used it for was sneaking treats and spoiling himself, and it didn’t really matter if he was ruthless about stuff like that. And then his brother died – was murdered – and suddenly he knew what it was like to be his brother: a young man suddenly shoved into the role of sect leader, and having to balance everything he now had to be against the overwhelming blistering hatred he bore for and the crippling weight of the vengeance he had sworn against a man who had taken away someone he loved forever for something as pointless and ephemeral as political advantage.

(He had to take a deep breath at the mere thought of it, the family rage spiking under his skin. It was a bit of a surprise, actually, to find that his brother didn’t have more of it - he’d always assumed that his rage was lesser, weaker, the way his golden core was, but no. It turned out their rage was just the same.)

“So what you’re saying,” his brother said, and he was smirking again, oh no, “is that you’re focused, efficient, and unyielding in pursuit of your goals, given the right motivation. That sounds like general material to me.”

“Not if the goal is to make sure no one knows what’s happened,” Nie Huaisang hissed. Had own face always looked so incredibly punchable? “Da-ge, it doesn’t matter what type of general I might be. What matters is that it’s not the same type of general you are – you’re always at the front line, leading the charge. I can’t do that.”

“Sure you can,” his brother said. “By the time you’re in the middle of a charge, you’re not really thinking tactics anymore. It’s all just fighting, and I know you know all the moves, no matter how much you bitch and moan about having to practice them.”

Nie Huaisang glared, crossing his arms over his chest – his brother’s arms, his brother’s chest, and this was still just too weird. He hadn’t even had time to properly weep and cry and hug his brother the way he’d expected to in the event the time travel array worked; they’d had to jump straight into explanations and strategizing because there was a pretty big battle happening in less than twenty-four hours and they needed to fix this first.

His brother rolled his eyes at him, and for the first time Nie Huaisang realized that his brother was going to have no problem at all pretending to be him – the acting problem here went only one way. “Just let Baxia handle the aggression part, okay? The rest is muscle memory, and I, at least, have done enough to build that in.”

“Letting the saber spirit in like that is dangerous, da-ge,” Nie Huaisang reminded him, eyes narrowed. His brother was also assuming that Baxia would agree to be wielded by anyone other than her beloved master, which was a stretch – she barely even agreed to be sharpened by someone else, resisting violently whenever someone tried. 

Jin Guangyao had died still bearing the scars from his attempt. 

“Well, apparently I get murdered before it becomes an issue, so why worry?” his brother cackled, and Nie Huaisang glared harder. It had no impact whatsoever: Nie Mingjue stood up and stretched again. “You know what, Huaisang, if you’re feeling the need to sit around and pity yourself, you’ve got at least a few incense sticks’ worth of time to do it in before actually doing something becomes necessary – I, on the other hand, am going to do something productive with my time.”

“Like what?”

His brother grinned at him with teeth. “Saber training. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Nie Huaisang picked up a teacup and hurtled it at his beloved big brother’s head. Naturally, Nie Mingjue dodged, effortlessly, and left laughing.

“At least pretend like you’re going to behave!” Nie Huaisang bellowed after him, but his brother just waved at him, and – ugh. This was vengeance for a lifetime of laziness, wasn’t it? Coming to bite him in the ass.

After a few minutes, Nie Huaisang picked up another teacup – they always had dozens of them in the Nie sect, cheaply made in bulk and specifically designed to shatter easily because of the family tendency to throw stuff around and not calm down until something was broken, and better a cheap teacup than an expensive door or table, better something designed not to hurt anyone who happened to get in the way or didn’t know how to duck faster enough – and threw it against the door again.

It shattered beautifully. NIe Huaisang had only rarely been able to get it to do that, and never so effortlessly – the advantage of his brother’s strength.

Strength, and height. Nie Huaisang was tall now.

Okay, self-pity could wait until later. Nie Huaisang was going to go patrol the camp for a little bit and enjoy looking down at all the people.

It was going to be great.

It was, too. Even talking with people wasn’t as difficult as he thought it was going to be. Perhaps he shouldn’t be so surprised at that; he had been sect leader for years, so he was accustomed to answering questions and making on-the-fly rearrangements and responding to things with leading questions that made the other person come up with the solution on their own, not to mention saying encouraging things that made people feel better about things. 

He’d had to do a lot of that, being the Head-shaker, and even more afterwards, when he’d shed his disguise like a cicada shedding its skin.

It was easier now than it had ever been before, of course. The Nie sect was still strong, under his brother’s leadership; his disciples didn’t have that discouraged look lurking in the back of their eyes, the shame of being led by the disgraceful Head-shaker. It was easy to brighten someone’s day with a nod in their direction, disciples blooming like roses at the sight of their stern sect leader looking approving, and the questions he received were far more intellectually stimulating than the usual – less about making sure he knew what he was supposed to do and more actual puzzles, things that had really tripped people up.

Nie Huaisang tried at first to keep his answers short, tried to pretend to be more stoic and stand-offish the way the famous Chifeng-zun ought to be, except when he did everyone just smiled at him the way they always had when he’d been the Head-shaker – a little indulgent, a little pitying, a little “well he’s trying his best” – and after a while Nie Huaisang started remembering things he’d long ago forgotten.

Things like how his brother was actually kind of a mess sometimes, emotionally speaking – he was the sort of person who got weepy over dramatic literature – and how he’d never quite gotten the hang of people, how he valued his friends like gold and held grudges way too long and promoted people just because they seemed decent; how he sometimes spent his entire money pouch and more on buying Nie Huaisang stupid trinkets because it seemed to make him happy, even borrowing money from their escort, which would always be doubled over laughing at how their fearsome sect leader couldn’t bring himself to say no.

Like how Nie Huaisang’s sect was his family, aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters, whether born in or adopted or just part of the sect. The good type of family – not always the closest, not always your friends, not always even people you really liked, but still all predisposed to take your side in a fight if it came down to it.

These were the people who supported him and stood behind him – even when he was the Head-shaker.

He’d almost forgotten.

And so, despite himself, Nie Huaisang softened a bit. He stopped trying to respond to everything with a grunt or a huff, started asking about people’s families, making suggestions, telling them they’d done a good job.

“Glad you’re out of your mood,” Nie Yongbiao, who’d been quietly trailing him, finally commented, and Nie Huaisang blinked owlishly at him. “What kicked it off this time? You usually only get that closed-mouth after having to host guests.”

And that was true, wasn’t it? It had been such a long time, and after so much trauma, that Nie Huaisang had forgotten how his brother used to shut down whenever there was a discussion conference or an important meeting – how it took him longer and longer to get better on the other side as the qi deviation drew nearer, his meridians filling with Jin Guangyao’s spiritual poison. By the end, he had barely ever been open and free, barely seemed to remember how to drop his guard and relax, to act like a regular person with a sense of humor again, be the person Nie Huaisang knew his brother to be. 

But that was then, and this was now - war had been good for Nie Mingjue, in a strange way. Here in the camps there was a lessened expectation of etiquette, a great appreciation of strength, and his brother was more free to be himself, straightforward and blunt as the off side of a saber.

(Nie Mingjue had tried so hard to be a good brother to Jin Guangyao, Nie Huaisang abruptly remembered, but he’d shut down after every visit, worse than ever before. His heart had known the truth, even if he had allowed himself to be convinced by Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang to keep giving Jin Guangyao second chance after second chance. He should never have listened to them.)

“Argument with Huaisang,” he said, a safe answer, and Nie Yongbiao nodded wisely.

“Can you say what it was about?” he asked, rather unexpectedly – Nie Yongbiao wasn’t exactly talkative, and no one ever pried about their family affairs. Catching Nie Huaisang’s surprised look, he shrugged. “He’s obviously very upset.”

“He is?”

“He’s at the training field,” Nie Yongbiao stressed, and Nie Huaisang had to choke down a hysterical laugh. Of course Nie Yongbiao would think that something must have gone horribly wrong to get “Nie Huaisang” to go willingly to train.

Nor was Nie Yongbiao the only one, for that matter: when Nie Huaisang arrived at the training field they’d set up in the middle of the camp, he saw an entire crowd of Nie sect disciples milling around at the edge of the field, bearing a suspicious resemblance to a flock of over-anxious quail.

He reached up to his face, pretending to want to pinch the bridge of his nose but actually to smother a smile, and luckily he had regained control of his features by the time he reached the edge of the small sea of disciples because they immediately all turned to him with relieved expressions, their cries of “Sect Leader! Sect Leader!” ringing in his ears like the coos of his pet birds.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, and immediately received the full story: Nie Huaisang had come to the field looking upset – one person insisted there had been tears in his eyes – and had set himself up against a practice dummy, and he hadn’t stopped whacking at it ever since.

Clearly, the world was ending.

“We had an argument earlier,” Nie Huaisang admitted, and managed, barely, not to laugh at how they all looked at him with disapproving eyes. “I’ll talk with him.”

Approving nods all around, although they didn’t disperse.

“Sect Leader,” one of the older generation said, very hesitantly. “If it’s about – the clan matter – if there’s anything we can do to help –”

Nie Huaisang shook his head, feeling touched. When it really had been him, his brother had kept the specifics of it secret – the tombs, the inevitability, the deterioration he was so avidly trying to put off – until it was too late, and he’d had to learn about it the hard way; it was nice, though, that they apparently all worried so much on his behalf about it.

“Thank you,” he said, and meant it. “But it’s a different issue.”

Namely, the issue was that the person doing the training wasn’t Nie Huaisang at all, he thought, but when the crowd finally started breaking apart, people going back to their assigned tasks, and he finally managed to make his way to where his brother was, he was surprised to see that his brother really did appear to be upset.

He wasn’t practicing any of his normal training routines, but rather wielding Aituan in the same way a novice woodcutter would wield an axe: repetitive strikes, made wildly and with too much strength, as if hitting the practice dummy was the only thing that could vent his feelings.

“Uh, ‘Huaisang’?” Nie Huaisang asked, worrying his lip as he came closer. “Are you –”

His brother dropped Aituan to the ground – which, hey! Watch it, that was his saber! – and turned, and Nie Huaisang had only a moment to see his glassy eyes before his brother threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around him and holding him tight.

Nie Huaisang automatically responded, wrapping his arms back around and holding Nie Mingjue close – it was nice, he thought, to finally have the reach he’d always felt he should have, big and tall and enveloping in its warm the way his brother had been for him.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, his voice low enough not to carry. “Did something happen…?”

“No,” Nie Mingjue said, but his lips were pressed together to keep them from trembling. Nie Huaisang’s body had always been free with his emotions, much to his annoyance; he’d learned to cultivate it into a disguise, but he hadn’t really liked it. Tears had never been a relief for him the way they’d been for his brother. “No, it’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing,” Nie Huaisang said firmly, and carted him off back to his tent. Being as worried as he was, he did his best not to be too smug about finally being the one who was strong enough to pick his brother up, rather than the other way around – not that he needed to, what with his brother following docilely along with him – but there was, perhaps, a little bit of smugness. “Okay, we’re back, silencing talismans are back up because we apparently have the nosiest disciples. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s nothing, really…”

“Da-ge.”

“I left you alone,” his brother blurted out, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes. “For twenty years. Whatever I did, however I got murdered – some moment of carelessness – it doesn’t matter. I failed you.”

Oh, no. No, no, no– 

“No,” he said out loud. “No, da-ge, you were tricked – it wasn’t – it wasn’t your fault.”

“I always said I would hold up the sky for you,” Nie Mingjue said bitterly. “And instead I left you with the same inheritance that I received. I never wanted that for you, Huaisang. Never.”

“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said helplessly. “Da-ge, you don’t understand. You were trying. You wanted – you were doing everything you could. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t fail me. I was the one who failed you. I’ve always failed you –”

“Never!”

“I’m lazy, I’m selfish, I’m good-for-nothing, a head-shaker –”

“So what?” his brother said, glaring up at him. His eyes were red, but with tears, not qi deviation. “Even if it’s true, which it isn’t, because no head-shaker could have avenged me, could have found a way to come back, could have become the Nie sect leader and kept it for two decades, even if it’s true – so what? As long as you’re safe, I don’t care. As long as you have a way to defend yourself, and you so obviously must have, then nothing else matters. Nothing has ever mattered but your happiness.”

“And yours,” Nie Huaisang shot back. “You have the right to a life too, da-ge! You – you should have had my support. You should have been able to share your burdens, I should have helped you instead of anchored you down –”

“Huaisang –”

Nie Huaisang pulled him in tight again. “It’ll be different, this time,” he promised, his voice rough. “I’m older than you ever go the chance to be, da-ge. This time, I can help you with the things you’re not good at – I can do the politics, the people. We can bear the weight of the sect together.”

He felt a whisper in the back of his mind that was strange and yet familiar, approving. Baxia, he realized. Baxia, approving of him; Baxia, who would let him wield her,   and he sensed her confidence that no one would get past her iron guard, together protecting his brother in both body and soul.

“All right,” his brother said. “Together. You and me – and the others.”

“Others?”

“After so many years, you must know who’s trustworthy,” Nie Mingjue pointed out. Already back to being practical, even if he was wiping his eyes. “If we tell those people, they can help us keep up the impression that I’m you and you’re me for as long as we need it.”

Nie Huaisang was nodding along, because that made sense, only then his brother said the last part and it was like a sunrise had opened up in his head, the way terrible and wonderful ideas always did.

“Da-ge,” he said, tasting the words in his mouth. “Da-ge, how do you like my body?”

His brother blinked up at him. “It’s fine, I guess? You’re actually in pretty decent shape, better than I thought, and your cultivation is – well, you could do a bit more with that, honestly, but it’s not uncomfortable or anything. Why?”

Nie Huaisang smiled. He’d always been remarkably resistant to their family’s cultivation curse, and not only, as he’d pretended to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji all those years ago, because he didn’t practice - it was his temper, or lack thereof, that softened the saber spirit’s effects on him. 

Even if his body’s cultivation increased, he was far enough behind the curve, with his mediocre talent, that it would take decades for him to reach the level that it would be dangerous to him, while his brother’s prodigious talent, coupled with his inheritance of the family temper, made him even more likely to succumb – it was that prediction which had worried him so much that he had sought out treatment even before it had become a serious problem, the same worries that had driven him into Jin Guangyao’s trap.

What do you think? he asked the brand-new whisper in his mind. Aituan would probably bitch and moan about having to actually do things, but he’d secretly enjoy getting a bit more evil-killing in; the question was Baxia. What would she think?

A purr of agreement.

“I was just thinking,” Nie Huaisang said. “Chronologically speaking, I’m older than you are. I ran the sect for years – it might be hard to let go of that habit. How about we just…stay as we are, for now?”

Nie Mingjue frowned. “Baxia –”

“I’ll use her in public, and Aituan in private,” Nie Huaisang interrupted. He’d known that would be his brother’s first concern. “And you’ll do the opposite. And when we’re settled enough, we’ll come up with some excuse to switch.”

His brother hesitated. “But…you don’t like doing things. Responsibility. That sort of thing.”

“I got over it,” Nie Huaisang assured him. “Trust me, I have a whole system – I’ll implement it once the Sunshot Campaign is done; you’ll be amazed at how much easier it makes things, and then all the things that are left over are the stuff I actually enjoy. And this way, you could…I…”

He swallowed, and put his hands on his brother’s shoulders. He didn’t want to manipulate his brother into something like this – he didn’t want to manipulate his brother at all. His brother deserved the truth and honesty he had always freely given the world, and so Nie Huaisang could only offer up the unvarnished truth.

“I want to do this for you, da-ge,” he said. “I want you to have the life you should have had. I want you to have hobbies again, to make friends, real friends that will put you first. I want you to have fun with them without thinking of how people might think about it…please, da-ge. I came back here to keep you alive, but I want more than that. I want to see you live.”

“Okay,” his brother said, and he was choking back tears again. “We’ll – we’ll discuss it later, but I’ll think about it. Okay.”

“Good,” Nie Huaisang said. “Now catch me up on the tactics we’re planning on using in tomorrow’s battle, and I’ll let you know everything I know about what happens in the future…oh, and one more thing.”

“Oh?”

Nie Huaisang’s hand dropped to the table, parallel to Baxia; he could hear her purr in his mind whistling like the rumble of thunder. He smiled.

“Can you tell me where Meng Yao is?”