#save me Lwa fandom

[widdlediddle2]

Soooo Lwa?

[tonydaddingham]

LWA: Just some random stuff on a Sunday morning!

Missing scenes: Furfur's book of angels includes "bishop" as one of Aziraphale's jobs, and as we've already seen all the others on the list, even if only in deleted lines (the music tutor was originally in the Rome scene), I would guess we'd see that one as well. Not necessarily a good fit for 1650, though, although since Gaiman has done things like have the Bastille still standing in 1793, anything's possible.

Assumptions about character progression: I think there's a tendency to assume that Crowley and Aziraphale develop or ought to develop towards something "better" as the series progresses, but that's not quite right. They become more /complicated/, which is a neutral--dare I say grey?--concept. The novel and series both deny that good and evil are steady-state aspects of character: you /aren't/ good or evil (or something in-between), you /do/ good or evil (or something in-between). S1 Crowley, as both Gaiman and Tennant have said, has no real character arc, but one of the reasons I think the fandom needs to pay attention to my favorite bugbear, the child murder manipulation subplot, is that it is also about moral complexity. Flood-era Crowley offers the moral absolute "you can't kill kids." Armageddon-era Crowley runs Aziraphale over with a trolley problem in order to duck the more unpleasant reality that if you're fine with someone killing a kid for you, you're fine with killing kids. (I have to say that the sentimental "Crowley wuvs Warlock" headcanon is one of those instances where supposedly-positive fanon constitutes outright character assassination, right up there with "Aziraphale had an affair with Oscar Wilde" [oh, do /not/ get me started on why that's horrifying].) The series is on the side of Flood-era Crowley and Madame Tracy, not the "developed" Crowley. Meanwhile, Aziraphale learns how to lie, which is a skill that can be put to different moral purposes in different contexts. Sometimes it's unambiguously good, like saving Job's children; sometimes it's ambiguous-to-evil, like concealing the Antichrist's whereabouts from Crowley (revealing this knowledge to Crowley would mean more pressure to murder the child, but his rehearsed speech suggests that he's willing to let Heaven handle it, perhaps, which is not a viable moral alternative).

AWCW and being "impressionable": one of the funniest things about Crowley is that in some respects, he's every bit as conformist as Aziraphale is, and sometimes more so. His unreliable narration about the Fall hints very strongly that, as you say, he just went along with the "cool kids"--which, despite his protestations to the contrary, /is/ a moral failure on the terms set out by the novel and series. Even later, both Crowley and Aziraphale rebel in ways that maintain the fiction of the overarching system (the Arrangement) rather than dismantling it entirely. Crowley also enjoys his job, especially in the novel. Which, to be clear, is also a moral failure: slacking off is, hilariously, the most moral choice he and Aziraphale can make. FWIW, for me, neither the novel nor the series are "burn it all down" narratives, in part because they both advance a theory of humanity that suggests burning it all down just gets you the same thing from a different direction. The most radical political ideas are given to a conspiracy theorist and to children, and the Antichrist concludes by rejecting all of them and hitting a literal reset button. Pratchett may have co-written the book from a place of "anger," but anger can lead to a lot of different political practices. Obviously, YMMV.

LWA✨ woke up today and chose analytical violence, what a legend

1. see, i feel like 1650 could work for aziraphale's bishop occupation, even if only mentioned retrospectively. theoretically, he could well have been a bishop before the abolishment in 1646, and exploring the episcopalian polity vs presbyterianism argument of the time could be really interesting narratively (especially if handled somewhat like the resurrectionist episode)... but detail aside, even if by the time we see him in 1650 it's only mentioned casually that he was a bishop "a few years back", i don't think it would be entirely out of field. we don't necessarily need to have everything played out on screen!

2. okay, a lot to unpack here, but essentially i agree. the issue it seems to me is to posit moral absolutes in the first place; there will almost always be a contextual 'except'/'but' clause that comes along with it that turns it on its head.

it's bad to kill children, except when they are the antichrist and could bring about the apocalypse.

it's bad to lie, except when it would prevent unimaginable cruelty and grief being wrought on those that don't objectively deserve it.

it's bad to manipulate and brainwash a group of people, except when there's no lasting harm done, and you were only trying to demonstrate to someone that you love them.

it's good to try to further human medicine and prevent needless suffering, except when doing so puts the desperate as the first to fall in the figurative battlefield.

it's good to forgive a huge debt when you don't have any necessity of it being paid, except when it's primarily borne out of materialistic selfishness.

neither character does anything so completely reprehensible, or alternatively so inarguably irreproachable, that someone, somewhere, can't or won't argue a justification for their actions. we individually, according to our own moral compasses borne of our experiences, may justify or condemn what they've done in the narrative - objectively, the morality behind their actions as we've seen them so far is never absolute.

eg. for me, crowley's plan on killing the antichrist, a child, in the specific context of GO is not the condemnable action here; its the manipulation of getting aziraphale to do it because he, personally, will not do it himself. i understand why, but the thing that i personally consider to be unambiguously bad is not killing the antichrist itself, but instead the fact that crowley considers that the only solution to the hellhound being named - ignoring the 'running away' that crops up later, for a moment - is to underhandedly manipulate someone he cares about into doing it instead of him. however, others may see it differently.

who is to say what is 'better', anyway? what even is 'better'? is 'better' to do things only when it's for the benefit of other people? is doing 'better' for your own self not also worthy of consideration? is 'better' wholly only when doing something that is kind or generous to others, rather than being kind or generous to yourself?

whilst crowley hits certain moral epiphanal milestones before aziraphale does, neither have the full right of it - aziraphale should not hold morality to being plainly black or white, dictated to by a set of absolutes that are so basic and lacking in complexity that they are by all accounts redundant. and crowley should not dismiss alternative choices or solutions just because they do not fit his perspective or reasoning, nor hold that his understanding of morality is the only viable one or is the only one with any weight or validity. ep6 imo succinctly demonstrated this.

both of them are still so young at the flood. aziraphale holds that whatever has been decreed by the source 'of all that is good' must therefore be good (and choosing to not see beyond it) and crowley acts so incredulous that something he sees as being absolutely bad would ever be entertained (despite, you know, having been cast out of heaven for 'just asking questions'....). both of them by the time of job have had a pretty seismic shift in that respective naivety - aziraphale begins to question what god actually intends, and crowley acts stoutly bitter and unsurprised by the assignment. neither reactions are compatible still, they constantly circle each other, and literally indicate that some level of understanding (of god, of her will, of morality 'in the real world' itself - take your pick) is still lacking.

re: Oscar Wilde and warlock hcs (i couldn't let these stroll by without comment)... god, where to start. re: warlock, i never begrudge any hc where it's borne out of a developed fanon background. that's arguably one of the main benefits of having the fanon side of things: to develop a point/event/gap in the story for yours and others' amusement - that's cool! for this example, any fic that gives more insight into their years in warlock's life, and therefore gives legitimacy to crowley having a fondness for warlock - yep, i like that! that's awesome, i could see it as an unrealised narrative, but that's where it firmly stays, for me - in fanon.

but i do get frustrated when certain narrative points are pointedly ignored in order to establish a character trait that would otherwise not exist. crowley in canon does not - to me - demonstrate any fondness towards warlock. he literally proposes the option of his murder! i don't think him refusing to entertain killing warlock himself indicates any sentimentality towards the kid - thats a bit of a stretch, imo - but instead it reflects on his character being, put reductively, a bit of a knob sometimes.

as for aziraphale and oscar wilde... yeeaaah. i think anyone that holds that hc seriously needs to reevaluate the implications of it, and whether or not beyond professional (?) respect for his work aziraphale would willingly want to associate with him... ultimately, i refer back to my above point about "...anything so completely reprehensible...". and, respectfully, perhaps there needs to be a little more separation between michael sheen's filmography and aziraphale's narrative - whether in hc or canon.

3. right, AWCW time. i agree re: his conformity to the 'cool kid group' being something that is deserving of scrutiny on his own morality, but i feel like this only is viable once that association goes beyond a certain point (and an arguably arbitrary one at that). essentially, i think it's possible to still see AWCW's decision to associate with the group as understandable and empathetic. we know from the narrative that a) AWCW starts hanging out with them at some point, and b) that lucifer et al. are in the end considered bad people. but were they actually bad at the time that AWCW comes across them? if they were, did AWCW himself know? we don't really have enough narrative to reliably confirm this.

but we do know that AWCW fell, and it's therefore rather likely that he continued associating with them past a point where he would have known that they were Bad News Bears. in the beginning, he may have just been glad that these people seemed to listen to him and make him feel valid for having questions - that's understandable. but as time goes on, as lucifer etc. hypothetically get more and more questionable in their actions and beliefs, AWCW presumably choosing to stick with them, possibly even defending them, confers the deserving of negative judgement onto AWCW in turn (presuming there's no element of coercion or blackmail involved, mind you).

i like the point you raise of aziraphale and crowley respectively not conforming to their inherent purposes (being an angel or demon respectively) when it benefits them personally, being an almost accidental 'good thing', especially when the story puts forward that, however you look at it (ie. whether bc they are lazy, or it poses more excuses to see each other - immaterial), the arrangement is entirely self-serving. 10/10 narrative irony. but this is kinda going back to one of our first asks, LWA - it is for me once again the key difference between rebellion, and revolution:

(never been more grateful for making the LWA masterpost, thank you past-me)

so whilst i agree to a certain point that the 'burn it all down' narrative may not be a viable option, or is at the very least a reductive one, i think that the question is what it is replaced with, if at all. adam hit the reset button and put earth back to how it was, because what humanity and earth was - by my interpretation - was just fine as it is. it's not perfect, but not worthy of being destroyed in totality.

so what can we say about heaven? is it a mirror to earth in this respect? i don't think it is. heaven may well have been intended originally as a neutral party with the best of intentions, and then pigeonholed into being the 'good side' following the fall, but it has been allowed to fester and corrupt. maybe we will see more in s3 that there are other angels that feel that heaven as a system is flawed (personally, i think we see this in saraqael's introduction to GO, but that's just my interpretation of the character so far), and maybe those angels will represent the part of heaven that is still redeemable.

so okay, yeah, maybe heaven shouldn't be completely gutted and dismantled, but it is not in the same place as earth is at the time of adam's reset. earth and humanity were arguably the innocent parties in their prospective destruction, whereas heaven has sown their own seeds for it. i don't think the two are entirely comparable. heaven does need a major realignment, and i personally don't think this can happen without some form of systematic reform, without revolution (especially if the wider fandom's evaluation of metatron is true come s3!). it needs reworking with an alternative system that works to be fairer, and removes any binary rhetoric of good vs. evil. don't ask me for the minutae of how this should happen, because i have zero idea (well, very little, anyhow), im not that clever.

but this is what i hope aziraphale will actually be successful in come s3. he can't just - in anger at the injustice of it all - set heaven on fire and walk away from the ashes; it will invite for the original regime to rebuild or something worse to take its place. that being said, it's not just him that needs to do it - to build an alternative to heaven in his own image is equally questionable. again, this is the suggestion that i liked in the armageddon 2.0 meeting in ep6; the idea of democracy in heaven, even if the current board is less than ideal (and the point could poetically hark back to the hypothetical 1650 flashback...?).

[scrabbleknight]

FanFiction MasterPost (UPDATED: As of 05/24)

If you're wondering about the photo, don't.

Yeah, making a masterpost for my fanfics. I did say I was going to do that but I was too lazy so here it is. I'll be updating it over time btw. Links will be to AO3 and FFN.

WIP

Sasha and the Frogs

[AO3] | [FFN]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: What if Sasha and Anne switched places at the beginning?

Featuring Sasha becoming good, Anne becoming bad and lots of consequences! Like, so many consequences. I almost muted someone...

SEASON 1 FINISHED! Now with Season 2!

TvTropes can be found here.

Glitch!Miko AU

[AO3] | [FFN]

Fandom: Glitch Techs

Short summary: Miko is a Glitch and an evil corporation is doing evil things.

Working with the limited canon material here and full of action sequences! Also, yay for parental abandonment!

My Child is a Human?!: An Emperor's Guide to Parenthood

[AO3] | [FFN]

Fandom: The Owl House

Short summary: What if Emperor Belos was Luz's dad?

Luz is a spunky child and Belos is still a dictator but, like, not a dick-tator. Plus, there's OCs but the good kind. Promise :v

Bloody Disassembly

[AO3]

Fandom: Murder Drones

Short summary: A series of one-shots based on the web series.

Vampire robots? Vampire robots. ‘,:)

Twig's Teen Romantic Harem Comedy (NEW!!!)

[AO3]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: Twig (human ver. Sprig) has to build a harem to save the universe.

It's funny and in 1st person.

Finished

There Is No "I" In Team

[AO3]

Fandom: RWBY

Short summary: Ruby angst with Jaune about his suicidal tendencies.

Old fic, back when I watched the show. Short and hurt/comfort. Though, quality is old school.

A Butterfly's Finale

[AO3] | [FFN]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: A possible take on the outcome of an eventual clash between a possessed Marcy and a matured Anne.

Super angst. Also, major character death. You are warned.

Anne's mom got it going

[AO3]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: Sasha and Marcy talk about how hot Mrs Boonchuy is. Anne despairs.

It's just me simping over her. To be fair, responsible parents are attractive.

Sasha's mom ain't so bad

[AO3]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: Anne is still mad at Sasha for simping over Mrs Boonchuy, so she gets revenge.

It started funny but then it just ended up being mean :(

MagAnne

[AO3]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: Maggie X Anne fanfic.

Wrote it mostly as a challenge. Also, Marcy gets cucked.

Pet the Girl (NEW!!!)

[AO3]

Fandom: Amphibia

Short summary: Sasha pets Marcy. That's it.

Sasharcy fic with a completely different initial plan.

Little Black Bear

[AO3]

Fandom: Epithet Erased

Short summary: Molly is part of Bliss Ocean. Takes place during Redwood Run.

I enjoyed writing it. Might add more stuff later.

Hiatus/Not Sure What To Do

Bright Eyes

[AO3]

Fandom: Little Witch Academia

Short summary: Akko became blind after watching Chariot's show.

I have no idea what to do with this. I might continue though. I still love LWA btw.

Brilliant Blue Eyes

[AO3] | [FFN]

Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses Of Power

Short summary: What if Hordak was Adora's dad?

Angst, angst, angst. None of you is free from sadness. Also, writing this is a on-off thing. It depends on my mood.

[kayr0ss]

Perfect, or Not

[LWA, Diakko, cooking, trying new things, Diana needs a break from all the expectations, cute fluff!, domestic cute girlfriends, STAY AT HOME]

Diana and Akko navigate perceptions, vulnerability and... a cooking activity?

---

Diana once told her that what made her different from everyone else at Luna Nova was that Akko never thought she was perfect.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Akko had asked, caught off guard by the admission.

“A good thing.”

She didn’t fully understand it back then—she was much, much younger—but as the years flew by and led to their eventual romantic involvement, Akko began to get it. When it came to Diana, it seemed as though the whole world had one form of expectation from her or another: model student, soon-to-be heir of magic aristocracy, and later on a well-respected front-runner in the educational career she had chosen.

This was mostly due to the fact that Diana Cavendish rarely made mistakes. Seriously. Ever. Her reputation was held in such regard that even as a student, the instructors at Luna Nova made exceptions based on her opinions (which may have infuriated a younger Akko who had no idea they would end up dating). But even back then, she could see it bearing down on Diana’s shoulders like rocks piling up; and how hard it was becoming for the young Cavendish to keep it balanced lest it all come falling down.

Within their first year of dating, the brunette came to a realization: Diana never failed because she never did anything she might not be good at. She figured it out during a fishing trip of all times! Diana had tucked herself behind a book and under the shade of her wide-brimmed (and very stylish) hat while Akko wrestled with what felt the Master of the Swamp of that darned lake.

“We went all the way out here to fish! Won’t you even try?”

“You seem to have it covered. Fishing isn’t exactly within my area of expertise.”

“And so?”

Diana looked up at her and blinked in confusion, as though the concept of doing anything just for the heck of it was completely foreign to her. “I… well.”

They had to cast the rod seven times before Diana even got so much as a nibble, but fishes be damned—Akko didn’t give up on her that afternoon.

Biking was another activity which Diana had obstinately refused to even consider doing, she fondly recalled. Now this sucked for Akko—it really did—because biking around a park dusted with autumn leaves was kind of on her ‘couple bucket list’, except the other half of said couple didn’t even want to get on the bike.

“We have brooms. This is completely unnecessary.”

“It doesn’t have to be necessary,” Akko took her hand and practically dragged her towards the bicycle. “Don’t you remember what it was like for me to learn flying? Come on, try it for me!”

She’d never forget the how visibly difficult it was for Diana to say this, and that it hurt her to see how the blonde seemed to be expecting some form of judgment. “I… don’t know how.”

Akko laced their fingers together and made sure Diana was looking into her eyes when she said,

“That’s okay.”

Diana seemed surprised.

“I’ll teach you?”

--

This year, Akko’s birthday fell on a lovely, overcast Saturday. There were no dinners or parties to be held on account of a recent outbreak, which left her in the company of Diana with whom she now shared an apartment. It was more than enough.

What she wasn’t expecting, however, was for her girlfriend tap on her shoulder, looking a little excited and reluctant at the same time, asking: “Could you help me bake a cake?”

Akko’s eyebrows shot up, and she blinked away from her video game. “Oh. Without… magic?”

Diana nodded, and Akko lowered her line of sight towards the paper bag the blonde witch was carrying in her arm. Ingredients?

Akko dropped her game—her island and its denizens could wait.

“Please tell me you wore a mask when you went out to buy those!”

“Of course.”

--

Their first obstacle for the afternoon’s baking session was cracking the eggs.

“By Jennifer, I’ll always be amazed at how eggshells are both so fragile yet strong.” Diana accidentally crushed another egg, and braced herself for a witty remark form Akko, but none came.

“That’s okay,” Akko beamed, handing her another egg. “One more time!”

Encouraged, Diana picked up another egg and decided to just smack the damned thing along the rim of the mixing bowl. Oh. To her pleasant surprise, it cracked open obediently. “Right along the prime meridian.”

“P—Prime meridian!” Akko chortled, “mou, Diana, you’ve made the egg into a little Earth!”

Diana wanted to roll her eyes in annoyance but found herself smiling instead—Akko could get away with murder weilding a laugh as warm as that.

“Come on,” Akko stole a chance with a kiss to her cheek, “we’ll make a chef outta you yet. Time to get to mixing!”

The brunette had a good spot of fun during the first five minutes watching the taller witch mix. But Diana started grumbling about how her arm was sore, and so it was Akko’s turn to, to quote her girlfriend, “toil.”

“Someone’s comfortable,” Akko teased, leaning back when Diana decided rest her chin on the opposite shoulder of her mixing arm.

“I’m simply resting,” the blonde replied with a rare dash of jesting. She brought up her arms to circle Akko’s waist, squeezing a little bit while she planting a small kiss on the brunette’s shoulder. “Thank you for agreeing to teach me.”

“And what a teacher you’ve picked!” Akko giggled. “The last time I baked a cake, well… you were the one who brought Lotte to the clinic for a stomachache.”

Diana chuckled, and Akko couldn’t help but love the way she could feel the sound of it through her back pressed against Diana’s chest. “You know, I…”

“Mhm?”

“I always liked you teaching me new things.”

“After making beg all those times? You liked it after all?” Akko stuck her tongue out ��Betrayal!”

“Oh, come on.” Diana nudged the side of Akko’s head. “It’s just… I always remember how I lost my magic when I was younger.”

Akko kept quiet, bring her pace of mixing to a slow, smooth motion.

“The kind of expectations my family had, and how hard it was to learn everything. Everyday. On my own. I remember how I couldn’t even cast simple spells, and how I told myself I’d never feel that… inept anymore. Not at school. Not at work.”

“But now, Diana, I’d say you’re pretty amazing.”

"That’s... Thank you.”

“But you don’t have to be,” Akko reassured.

“I… just never thought that. Not until recently. It felt right to be perfect—fit everyone’s preconceptions.”

“I don’t think you need to be perfect.”

Akko felt Diana’s arms wrap themselves around her a little tighter, felt her firsts clench with the way the cloth of her shirt balled up in them a little. The blonde witch relaxed, and then nuzzled against Akko’s shoulder.

“And I love you for that. Among many other things.”

Akko turned her head to kiss Diana’s temple. “Oh! Other things like what?”

“Must you always ruin these cheesy moments,” Diana rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.

Akko laughed, dropping the mixing spoon to turn around in Diana’s embrace and drape her arms around her neck. “Indeed, I must! But for the record, I’m sure Hannah and Barbara don’t think so too, you know?”

Diana wiped a spatter of chocolate mix off Akko’s cheek with her thumb and licking it off on instinct.

“I love you.” Akko smiled, “even if you can’t bake to save your life.” She slowly brought a hand to cup Diana’s cheek and she tilted her head, inching forward for a soft, warm kiss that tasted like chocolate.

She really couldn’t bake. But somehow, Diana thought that was just fine.

---

An hour later, they found themselves trapped in an apartment that smelled like rich—yet slightly burnt—chocolate cake.

Diana looked a little lost and adorably sheepish, holding up a tray with a cake shaped like a… a rhombus? The frosting was uneven, although the birthday message was written in perfect handwriting (which was no small feat for a beginner!). Her sleeves were rolled haphazardly, and the apron looked hopelessly awkward on her, but by Jennifer—

(“Happy birthday,” she lifted the tray up as if to say ‘ta-da!’

Akko smiled so wide her cheeks hurt.)

—she looked absolutely perfect.

--

fin

---

A/N: Howdy folks! Firstly I genuinely hope everyone is safe and doing well. Stay at home--and stay properly informed! Secondly, aaaa I’ve missed writing and I’ve missed the fandom so have a cute fic! I have another idea which I’m excited to write!

This was the product of me getting so TIRED OF WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER all night and READING FOR THREE HOURS just to WRITE ONE SENTECE so I’m sorry if the grammar is kind of whack or for typOs you see sir it is 7;30am sir..,.,., i haven’t slept helpe meEe I am but an ant in a colony  L I F T

[yurireview]

Ambition and Affection the drama of Croix and Chariot

it's been 2 years since the LWA premiere and I still like the dynamics of Croix and Chariox even though the dynamics of Diana and Akko is very good, I think the engine of the series were the two teachers who took separate paths ... that said I will begin the review in honor of my favorite dynamic and for the anniversary of the series

Litte Witch Academia is probably one of my favorite anime has all the elements for a good story, the focus is fun, true friendship and a path of the “hero” well simplistic but with great development, it can be said that it is one of the few Current projects that do have a soul unlike the current anime, but in the middle of this show there are 2 characters that really give a maturity to the show

Croix and Chariot were the reason why half of the season was the best part, it had an incredible development and it really made me wish that the anime had focused on that issue from the beginning to show us a lot more, but let’s continue with the review

Croix and Chariot

I hate that in the Fandom they tend to simplify their connection with saying “They’re like Diana and Akko if there was no jealousy” which is ridiculous if they can really figure out how deep Chariot and Croix’s relationship is not that they do not have parallels but that It is very different because of the context of their situations.

The anime leaves a lot of them in the mystery but what little it shows is quite revealing, to start with Croix was an excellent student and did not get together with other people because she did not care and did not need it. This image summarizes what Croix was then and his contrast with Chariot even before she met her.

Croix’s life was just becoming good enough to excel and achieve his goal that was all, only had his knowledge … but look at the change of Croix to meet Chariot, this shows us how special this girl meant to her.

Many in the fandom have wondered that it took an introverted girl to join Chariot who was the opposite of her and that probably Chariot’s dream would have seemed naive and stupid.

The answer to this is given in chapter 23 in the conversation of Diana and Akko, which point to one of the main points of the series as a whole and this is that many were fascinated by the magic of Chariot, but few realized that the first to fall in love with that cheerful and silly half-wit was Croix, even in the midst of all her seriousness and cynicism she was attracted to Chariot’s cheerful and problematic magic and encouraged not to give up and what makes this better is that it was Croix who in the end was the one who tells him the famous words “Believing is your magic”

Many have referred to this anime as the “Harry Potter in anime” which is inaccurate … but I must focus that Chariot and Croix’s part is like a less dark version of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, if they realize in spite of the “Friendship” of the two young magicians that really united them was the attraction of the Deathly Hallows were ambitious young but clear with different goals…with Croix and Chariot is basically the same, even in spite of that instant connection Croix ambitioned the “Magic to change the world” and influenced Chariot to help her look for it but each with different goals

it must be a tremendous irony that Chariot took Croix words as a personal motto while Geller took the words of Albus as his personal motto

“Believing is your magic” “For the greater good”

After becoming close they went to look for the wand … each one with their respective dream to neither of them the dream of the other seemed stupid, until Chariot was chosen, that was the beginning of the problems since for the first time Croix looked at Chariot with frustration and anger as he had ruined all his goals and I must say that this reaction is normal in someone like Croix

But if we continue the scene when Chariot cries exclaiming that he did not want that and thinking that Croix hated her, after seeing her cry Croix hugs her and swallowing her pride, her anger, her ambitions just for not seeing her cry … she trusted in her and encouraged Chariot to move forward at that time his affection for her was greater than his ambition which unleashed one of the Words and as we saw in the case of Akko this word has to be with a special person and clear a feeling of immense gratitude both parties.

Although I must say something curious Croix is ​​the only witch who is not even allowed to touch the Shiny Rote and this is because Croix is ​​the kind of witch that is supposed to be protected by the Grand Triskelion … What would happen if she used the magic of world reconstruction with its ambition to become the most powerful witch? Taking your dream to the extreme and transforming into something else

People like Croix are very explosive and their dreams are quickly transformed into very unpleasant things, in the whole series we see that their only emotional link is to Chariot and otherwise had no remorse, just imagine:

What would happen if she unleashed the words or found a way to dominate all the power?

Here again I can make an accurate comparison with Harry Poter … just imagine how many deaths would have been saved if Gellert Grindelwald could not have obtained the power of the Deathly Hallows for magical protection, as Dumbledore himself said. “He lost the control when receiving power ”

In the incident of the Shiny Rote and the “chosen” was something that created a big wound that would affect both long-term, but as we see in chapter 12 of Akko vision, there Chariot is with the Shiny Rote next to Croix who looked at her and applauded him, sharing a nice moment what basically eliminates those who say that right there they stopped spending time together.

I must say that this memory is very romantic

Although Croix was half resentful, he had not turned away but his relationship with his special person, to see the way Chariot executed his mission and truly the distancing worsened when Chariot became an “Idol” and the famous “Shiny Chariot” was born “

If you remember chapter 23 Croix tells you that thanks to the Full Dream Spirit his plan is now possible, but if analyze Chariot little Flashback this is a lie, after several months of using the Full Dream Spirit it was confirmed that it was a Total success and Croix told him the effects, but really Croix if he wanted to help his way with that spell because Croix thought that was the way to get the Seventh Word that’s why he let go of his frustration when Chariot said “I do not want that power” , is angry that the “Chosen” is a stupid who does not see the “reality” of the magical world, it is more Chariot stopped looking for the last word in concentrating on his show.

One of the reasons why Chariot believes she is responsible as Croix for the theft of magic is because he knew in his heart that Croix had become selfish and ambitious for power through her, but decided to ignore him and trust in his methods…because of her affection for her, she pretended that everything was fine, but in the end that caused much more damage to both of them and to the people who lost their magic

After their fight even when they separated Croix was watching her as her career was broken and even with everything that happened between the two Croix worried and was very surprised to see how Chariot destroyed herself because of all her problems and pressure that it was carrying … although the reality is that Chariot became selfish and that made Rote reject it.

Returning to the current events in the series, you will notice that the day that Chariot retired was when Croix truly went on his way and a plan to carry out his mission and if we see the bigger picture, Croix had already surpassed Chariot in terms of “Achievements” when they spent 10 years each separated by their way, Croix was admired and they said that the future of magic was on their shoulders, since she was a revolutionary in “modern magic”

In the incident with Akko in Chapter 15 where Chariot confronts her, she says this very revealing phrase:

“You have not changed in anything, you are always trying to get things for yourself”

Chariot sentence proves what I mentioned before and makes a lot of sense with the guilt he has for the Theft of Magic because she let herself be deceived and ignored the truth until Croix herself confessed it, although ironically Croix revealed this information because she thought that Chariot was not going to be an “Immature” because from Croix’s perspective “Good justifies the means” for her. What good is it for a few to preserve their magical talent if the magic in the world were to disappear?

In all their interactions there is a kind of tension that only people who liked in the past possess, are practically enemies and have different goals and ideologies … but in their confrontations, none of them actually seeks to hurt the other because they can not .

If Croix had wanted to kill Chariot, he would have done so long ago and the same with Chariot, she could stop Croix before he started his plan, only that he did not really want to confront her and not give her away even without knowing his plan.

Why do you think I did not give it away? Why do you think he did not tell Akko about Croix? again I can use something from Harry Poter … when Dumbledore was asked to face Grindelwald he did not make his decision in 5 years where there was a lot of confusion and chaos in Europe, where he said “I had an emotional bond for man”. … basically Chariot had the same dilemma with Croix, she really wanted to stop her without having to face her directly and her internal conflict is very well done.

Although Croix is ​​not better, he had the same weakness for Chariot and this is clear in chapter 21 where he was holding Chariot to arrive with Akko

When one of her attacks left her unconscious and Chariot was going to die in the fall, Croix did not hesitate 1 second to go and save her in a state of panic, forgetting all her goals.

A simple and powerful scene that gives us a good background of both

The moment Chariot reacts and stares at Croix for the body language you can determine that he was feeling our “villain” and asks him to stop trying to save Akko to which Chariot refuses knowing that Croix was not going to stop her anymore.

Chariot just decides to stop Croix when he hurts Akko revealing the truth in the worst way crushing the dreams of his special student and fuck if it was such a well done scene

In the only real showdown in the whole anime was between Croix and Chariot in chapter 24 when both abandoned all their emotions to fulfill each his dream, even though it lasted little I would say that Croix won by managing to stop Chariot and defeat her

When Croix breaks the seal and thinks that he already won by getting the magic that changed the world, upon receiving it he realizes that not only can not use it but it is not what she expected … something curious about Croix is ​​that it is the Witch who has an ambition of real power not “smiles” and see that the “Great magic” was about that left her shocked

In this part he shows us how his own egoistic dream is in constant conflict with and I dare to say, the love that Croix has for her. That is why in the series this is what leads to their contradictory actions. She can never really settle on either, no matter how much she tries on herself. She may think that she knows what she really wants, but in fact, she has no damn idea and the moment Woodward appears she reproaches him that nobody is guiding her and that she felt set apart.

Being stripped of her dream and consequently of her ambition, the other great thing she had left was the feelings towards Chariot and that is why after her magic gets out of control she asks Chariot to leave her and to save her several times, showing true repentance for what he did and recognizing that it was all his fault.

When Akko uses great magic the result is something that Croix never came to expect since honestly it is such a joyful magic that I really do not think Croix would have imagined something like that.

Understanding this should not be surprised that Croix helped Chariot and the little witches or the speed with which Chariot forgives her and re-establishes what they previously had … it can be said that Akko not only revived the magic in the world and he gave the redemption to Chariot but he made Croix understand what really mattered about magic and about his own feelings.

In the final scene of both that I must say is my favorite because it symbolizes a new beginning for Croix and Chariot that has a lot of romantic charge in his farewell especially by Chariot his facial language to the departure of Croix is ​​amazing and his final words are even better “! Croix will be waiting! … I’ll be waiting for you”

No doubt a great conclusion and definitely the only couple (lesbian) of the series

[skywardsoul]

Stories From the Sidelines (1): Sarah’s ‘Crummy’ Day

While Akko and her friends may be the focus of the series, they are hardly the only students attending Luna Nova academy! A handful of small stories and vignettes following the many witches, both student and teacher, that make up Little Witch Academia's extended cast.

Hey would you look at that! I actually wrote something! I’ve been working on this idea for awhile and finally have a finished to chapter to share with you all! I really love just how much are went into designing LWA’s background characters, so I’m doing my best to add some content to the fandom about them! I don’t know how many of these I’ll do, or how frequent my updates will be but I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349089/chapters/46032391

Read on FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13320277/1/Stories-From-the-Sidelines

Sarah Bernhardt had never wanted to stand out. All throughout her life, both at school and outside it, she was perfectly fine with letting others take center stage. It wasn’t due to any lack of motivation or belief in her personal abilities, she just didn’t like having people’s attention. Having eyes on you, having people expect things outta you, the very thought of it made her skin crawl. That’s just how she was, how she had always been and Sarah was happy with that.

She just had one problem. A problem that made her attempts to stay out of the center of attention quite difficult. Sarah Bernhardt was tall, quite tall in fact for a girl her age. And for whatever god forsaken reason, people tended to gravitate their attention towards the tall. People like to say that when they pick someone out from a crowd, it’s at random. But for her, and for other tall people she imagined, it was never random. She always got picked out. Everything from brain dead tourists asking for directions to teachers looking for the answers to their questions; it always ended up at her feet to deal with. It was like people saw her as some kind of lighthouse, standing out amongst the crowd ready to offer them guidance for whatever asinine problem they had. She didn’t want to be anyone’s damn lighthouse! If Sarah had her way, the only “house,” she would be was a standard, boring townhouse crammed side by side with a dozen others like it.

Admittedly her height hadn’t been too much of an issue back in her middle school, as there were plenty of boys just hitting their growth spurts shooting up like weeds that Sarah could expertly take cover behind. Unfortunately for Sarah, it was a different story in highschool. Luna Nova was an all girls school. Girls, who on a statistical average, were a good deal shorter than the 187 centimeters of nervous teenager that made up Sarah Bernhardt. Needless to say it was quite easy to spot the red head among the crowded halls of the school and made it all the more likely that she would go back to being everyone's lighthouse.

As she sat in magical history, Sarah could only hope against hope that this wouldn’t ring true today. History had never been one of her favorite subjects so when Elfriede had invited her to join her in a trip to Blytonbury, Sarah may or may not have blown off her reading for class the next day. What harm could it do? A lot, apparently as upon walking into class today the professor informed the young witches that they would spend the period discussing the readings. It didn’t take long for Sarah to realize the nightmare scenario she had made for herself. The professor would call on her, everyone in the class would turn to stare at her, and they would continue to stare as she desperately tried to half-ass her way through some kind of answer. She was royally screwed.

As she sat in her seat, all Sarah could do was watch the clock as it slowly ticked towards her freedom. A mere 5 minutes stood between her and possible annihilation at the hands of embarrassment.

“Come on come on,” Sarah whispered, bouncing her leg impatiently. Gaëlle was sitting next to her and turned to shoot her an annoyed look.

“Do you mind?” the German girl asked curtly. 

“Sorry,” the redhead said quietly, with a sheepish chuckle. Gaëlle merely rolled her eyes and turned back to face their professor.

“Bitch,” Sarah thought to herself once the other girl’s attention was back on their teacher. 

She really wished that she could have had this class with either Elfriede or Chloé. Not only would either of her teammates make for far better company than Gaëlle, but at least if they were here she could bum some notes off of them. Maybe if she focused in a bit on the professor’s lecture, she could scrape up a half decent answer by rephrasing what was just said.

“Of course in this era, magical warfare between covens was still devastating to their populations, as the advent of settling disputes through ritual combat had yet to go into practice,” the professor said. “In fact, as you read in the journal passages I assigned you, it was a madam Raiya Denn that would come to have this idea.”

Sarah felt her skin start to crawl at the direct mention of the assigned reading. The old hag was seconds away from popping a question, she just knew it. Maybe she would get lucky. Maybe she wouldn’t be called on.

“Now, who can tell me the basic rules she would propose for these instances of ritual combat?”

Afterall, there were plenty of other students in the class, and she was seated near the back. Who called on people in the back? Nobody right? That’s what students in the front were for.

“Let’s see. How about…”

Time seemed to stop for Sarah as her professor made eye contact with her. The curse of the tall rang true.

“That’s it. I’m dead,” the redhead thought to herself, her heart dropping in her chest.

Then, all of a sudden a hand rose up confidently in the front row, breaking Sarah’s line of eye contact and drawing her professor’s attention away from her. Diana Cavendish had come to her rescue like an angel, a beautiful, know-it-all angel.

“Ah yes, Diana,” the professor said, gesturing to the young Cavendish.

Diana stood and cleared her throat before answering, “In order for one coven to be declared a total victor over the other, 5 of their chosen witches must face and defeat the other coven’s chosen by duel.”

“Very good miss Cavendish,” their professor said, obviously quite pleased.

Before their teacher could say much else however, the bell to end class rang.

“Well that’s all the time we have for today girls,” the old witch said. “We’ll pick up this discussion on Monday.” 

Sarah was pretty sure she had never been more relieved in her entire life. She had been saved from her impending death by embarrassment. Thank the Ancient Nine for Diana Cavendish and her need to answer every single question. It was seconds before Sarah had gathered up her things and made a beeline for the door. Talk about dodging a bullet. It was a good thing it was Friday, because after that stressful class, Sarah wanted to do nothing more but crash into her bed.

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Being tall came with plenty of more issues than just attracting attention. Aside from the difficulty that came with finding clothes that fit her, Sarah noticed over the years that people had always treated her...differently. It wasn’t in a malicious way or anything of that matter, but more in a way that felt inconsiderate. Whether it was children staring up at her like she was some kind of exotic animal, classmates that seemingly only talked to her when they need to reach a tall shelf, or even her brothers making jokes about how she dwarfed all her friends, It made Sarah feel like an “other.” Like she didn’t belong. She had always hated it, hated how it felt, but never really was able to speak up about it. The most she could get out was an awkward chuckle or a quiet attempt to change the subject. It was her least favorite thing that came packaged with her height and after the day she had, it was the last thing she needed. Thankfully, there was little chance of encountering the problem once she was back in the safety of her dorm. 

If there was one thing Luna Nova was known for, it certainly wasn’t the niceness of it’s dorm rooms. Sarah had heard that some teams got fancier ones, no doubt chosen through a mix of nepotism and whomever’s family donated the most money, but the one her team called home was nothing special. Still, after the emotional ordeal she had just gone through, the old, small, cramped room might as well have been heaven. Throwing open the creaky wooden door, Sarah trudged into the dorm room, face planting dramatically onto her bed. The redhead let out a contented sigh as she felt herself sink into her mattress. She definitely felt like taking a well deserved nap. A nap that she was so focused on taking that Sarah had failed to notice that she was not alone in the room.

Chloé turned to watch as her teammate noisily entered the room, and chuckled a bit at her dramatic display.

“Well hello to you too Sarah. Did you just get back from history class or war? Because you’re reaction would lead most people to guess the later.”

Sarah groaned at her friend’s teasing, turning her head to face her.

“Trust me, it might as well have been,” Sarah said, a shudder ran through her body at the memory of the unpleasant class.

Her teammate merely rolled her eyes and turned back to face her desk. Sarah quirked an eyebrow as she watched her friend return to her work. The other witch began muttering to herself, carefully measuring what appeared to be a swatch of cardboard before making a mark. Sarah couldn’t help but be intrigued, her earlier exhaustion quickly replaced by curiosity.

“Cholé, whatcha working on?”

The burnette witch turned back to face her teammate with a smug smile.

“Something very important that only I can do,” She said with an air of bravado bringing a hand to her chest.

“This isn’t another one of your schemes to like, overthrow Diana as the school idol is it?” Sarah asked tiredly.

Chloé practically fell out of her chair at her response, the wind clearly knocked out her sails.

“No! It’s not one of my ‘schemes,’ as you call it,” Chloé responded. “If you must know, I’m helping the theatre club design stage elements for their end of the year performance.”

Sarah stared at her friend unphased.

“...And?” she asked, knowing there was more than Chloé was letting on.

The other girl fidgeted a bit in her seat. “And, I might have offered to do it because Diana had turned them down…”

“And there it is,” Sarah said with a flourish, turning onto her back.

Chloé gave her an annoyed huff.

“You just don’t understand the opportunity at hand here Sarah! The snobbish Diana Cavendish, apparently too good for her thespian peers, turning them down in their time of need. They reel in despair only for me to swoop in and offer my assistance, wowing them with my sets! It’s perfect!”

Anyone else might have described Chloé as having a hopeful twinkle in her eye, but knowing her friend Sarah would call it more of a sinister glint. 

“Diana was probably just busy Chloé. She’s always getting asked to do things,” Sarah said.

“Oh what? Are you part of her fanclub now?”

“No! I just think you should try and be a bit nicer to her,” Sarah said hopefully. “Sure she can kinda come off as a teacher’s pet, but she’s pretty...nice. Besides, she totally saved my ass in class today.”

“Language,” the other girl said curtly.

“Sorry, she totally saved my ‘butt’ in class today. Happy?”

Sarah couldn’t currently see her teammate’s face, but she could tell she was unamused.

“If your just going to lay there defending my rival the least you can do is help me out. There’s something I need your specific help with,” Chloé said as Sarah heard her rustling with a bunch materials at her desk.

Sarah sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. “Which is?” Without even looking over her shoulder, Chloé tossed her what looked like a brown smock.

“Put that on for me, and stand by the door,” the brunette witch said.

“Uh, okay.”

Sarah did as she was told, slipping the smock over her head and moving to stand in front of their door.

“Now what?” She asked Chloé as the girl walked over to her.

“Take this and hold it above your head for me,” Chloé instructed, Handing Sarah a green piece of cardboard.

The read head did just that as her friend took a step back, appearing to be deep in thought. Chloé once again began to mutter to herself as she eyed Sarah up and down.

“Uh, Chloé? What exactly is this helping you do?”

The brunette witch was seemingly shaken from her thoughts at her friends question. “Hmm? What did you say Sarah?”

“I was kinda wondering what this has to do with you designing play sets,” Sarah asked.

“Oh! Well, I was having difficulty designing the forest scene,” Chloé explained matter-of-factly. “For whatever reason I couldn’t visualize how tall I wanted the trees to be.”

Sarah immediately felt a pit start to form in her stomach. No. It couldn’t be, not now, not from one of her two best friends.

“Chloé...,” Sarah began, slowly lowering the cardboard she was holding. “Why did you ask for my help with this?”

Chloé blinked back at her friend, confused at the question. “Well I would have asked Elfriede, but it’s just that she’s similar in height to me and you’re so, so…”

“What? I’m. What?” Sarah asked through gritted teeth.

Sarah could tell her friend was taken aback by the anger that was starting to leak into her voice, and she was right there with her. What was coming over her? For some reason Sarah couldn’t stop her ire from rising. She needed to calm down. She was just overthinking it right? Chloé just wanted her help because she was here, nothing more.

“Well, it's just that trees are well, typically high up and you’re uh, fairly tall?”

What happened next came in a blur. Sarah could barely register what she was doing until she had already torn off the smock and thrown both it and the green cardboard at her friend. A small voice in the back of her head spoke up, hoping that Chloé wasn’t hurt at all, but it was drowned out by the much louder, angry and hurt one that was currently in control. Sarah felt like her head was swimming, She needed fresh air. Almost instinctively, the red haired witch grabbed her gym clothes from her side of the room, and made to storm out the door.

“W-wait! Sarah! Where are you going?” Chloé asked, concern lacing her voice.

Even as mad as she was, Sarah couldn’t help but feel bad about that. Still, she couldn't bring herself to face her friend just yet. The peach team leader let grabbed the door knob and angrily threw open the door.

“I’m going for a run,” was all she said before slamming the door shut behind her.

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Ever since she was a little girl, Sarah had enjoyed running. She had been on some kind of track or cross country team practically her whole life. If Luna Nova had one, she would have joined in a heartbeat. There was just something about the rhythmic motion of putting one foot in front of the other, of feeling your heartbeat and every breath that Sarah just couldn’t get enough of. If she was ever feeling down or troubled, a good run was her number one way to clear her head. 

Thankfully, despite the school’s lack of any meaningful sport clubs, Luna Nova did have a fairly nice track. It was well maintained, out of the way of most of the other hustle and bustle of the school, and better yet, surrounded by the field that was mostly used for broom practice. That meant that even when there where other students or occupants around, they would be spending their time up in the air and out of Sarah’s way. Sarah liked the area so much that she had started a routine of going for a morning run before classes whenever she could. 

It was probably the most comforting place on campus for the French teen, aside from her dorm room. With how she had just exited said room however, the track was definitely her current number one. Unfortunately for Sarah however, she might have cleared her head a little too well and a little too quickly. She had barely started her third lap when she had started to feel quite guilty about her outburst. Replaying the incident in her head, all Sarah could see was Chloé’s hurt and confused expression.

While she had continued for a good few more laps, the memory eventually drove the redhead to slowly come to a stop, stretching her arms over her head and taking a deep breath as she did so. Yes, it was true that Chloé had singled her out for a task solely because of her height. That was pretty much the number one thing that got under Sarah’s skin, and after the stressful class she just got out of, she just couldn’t handle hiding her anger. The thing was that Chloé had absolutely no way of knowing this. Sarah had never really told either of her teammates about how much that bothered her. She struggled telling anyone about it, Even her family. Chloé didn’t know about her history class either, as Sarah never elaborated on the events that occurred. Hell if she was being honest with herself, that whole fiasco was entirely her fault. If she had just done the damn readings then she would have been able to answer professor grandma’s stupid questions.

She just couldn’t help it. No matter what slight grounds she had to justify her actions, there was an avalanche of more reasons to tell her she fucked up. Sarah felt like a bit of a jackass. With a heavy sigh, Sarah made her way off the track and over to a nearby bench. With all the grace of a dying bird she plunked down onto the wooden seat.

“Wow, you were running for awhile,” came a sudden voice directly to her left

“GAAHH!” Sarah shouted with a start, jumping to the end of bench and clutching a hand to her chest. 

The redheaded girl turned to see just who the voice was and found another student, one with long black hair and a teal team sash tied around her waist.

“Oh, your...Verochka, right?” Sarah asked, her heartbeat slowing down now that she realized she wasn’t about to be murdered.

“That’s right,” the Russian girl said, a bit of pride in her voice. “And you’re Sarah. Sarah Bernhardt.”

“Yeah, I uh, I am,” Sarah responded.

Verochka gave her a small smile before returning her attention forward, starting out over the field. With not much else to say, Sarah did the same. An awkward silence fell between the two witches. Sarah didn’t know much about Verochka, let alone ever really talk to her. The French girl was pretty sure they shared at least one class together, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember which one. All she knew about the teal team girl was that she was a pretty reserved person. Any other knowledge she had about the girl came from some rather unfortunate sources. 

Whether Verochka knew it or not she was the center of some pretty rude gossip, mostly perpetuated by Teresa and her two ugly toadies, Alma and Julietta. According to them, Verochka was obsessed with combining magic with her own style of mixed martial arts to make some kind of super style. It honestly sounded pretty badass to Sarah, but Teresa and the others liked to make fun of Verochka for it behind her back. They made her out to be a nutcase. They also tended to make fun of the Russian girl’s forehead, which Sarah thought was pretty ballys considering the three of them looked like trolls with hair. Sarah chanced a quick glance to her left and examined Verochka for herself. Teresa was just jealous, as Verochka was far from ugly in her opinion. In fact, the light of the setting evening sun actually gave the Russian girl a rather striking profile.

“Huh...She’s actually kinda pretty...,” Sarah thought to herself. “Pretty and really...tall?”

Sarah had no idea she how she hadn’t noticed before. Sure she didn’t see Verochka very often but just looking at her now, even sitting down, it was obvious that the other had quite the height. Hell Sarah was pretty sure she was even taller than herself. Sarah couldn’t help but find this revelation comforting. She wasn’t alone in the sea of shrimpy witches that made up her peers! The main reason that Sarah never talked about her height related insecurities was because she felt like no one around her would understand. Verochka however, just might! 

Admittedly it felt a tad embarrassing to be so ready to unload her emotional turmoil on what was essentially a stranger, but the promise of talking with someone who truly understood her plight was just too tempting. Sarah nodded to herself, resolved to try. Figuring that the silence between the two witches had gone on long enough, Sarah decided to try and say something.

“You scared the hell out of me, you know?” Sarah said, realizing too late that she sounded a tad too annoyed. 

“Smooth Bernhardt, smooth.”

“Apologies,” Verochka replied without missing a beat. “I was practicing a way to mask my emotions and presence. Seems I succeeded.”

“Oh. Is that for your, magic martial arts thing?” Sarah asked.

Verochka’s face seemed to light up at the question. “So you’ve heard! I’m not quite ready to start taking on any disciples but I’m glad word has gotten around so easily.”

Sarah couldn’t help but smile at the taller girl’s enthusiasm. It almost reminded her of Akko, in a way. It nearly helped to lift her out of her crummy mood.

“Why were you doing all that running?”

Annnnd her mood was back full force. Sarah sighed leaning her chin on her right hand.

“I’ve been having a pretty shitty day. Running helps clear my head. Makes me feel better.”

“I see,” Verochka said contemplatively. “It must have been pretty bad then, if you were running for so long huh?”

“Where you watching me that whole time!?” Sarah asked incredulously. She had to fight back a bit of embarrassment that was welling up in her.

Verochka seemed to notice her apparent discomfort. “I didn’t mean to, really!” The Russian girl said waving her hands in front of her. “I was only gonna sit here for a few minutes but I guess I just got caught up in watching how you move. You’re a very graceful runner.”

No amount of fighting could keep Sarah from blushing slightly at that.

“Really?” she asked in disbelief.

“Without a doubt,” Verochka replied with a nod. “You’re long legs and tall frame makes it look like you’re gliding. It’s very breathtaking.”

“You don’t think It makes me look lanky at all? Or weird?”

“Of course not!”

Sarah gave shot Verochka a smile and a quiet ‘thank you,’ before turning back to face the field. So far, talking with the teal team witch had done nothing but improve her mood. With each passing moment Sarah felt more certain that Verochka would be able to help her with her dilemma. Still, the peach team leader found it difficult to approach the subject.

“Say, Verochka,” Sarah started. “Do you ever feel...weird, about your height?”

Sarah chanced a glance at the other girl who seemed to be contemplating her question.

“Hmmm...weird how?” Verochka asked.

“I don’t know, like, the fact that you stand out in crowds...that people look at you different…” 

Sarah gripped the fabric of her gym shorts. Part of her wanted to stop talking before she embarrassed herself but a much larger part was egging her on to continue.

“Being this tall has only ever made me feel out of place, like an outsider. I guess I was just wondering if you’ve ever felt the same way.”

Sarah turned to look at the other Russian to find her with a hand to her chin, thinking deeply. A small moment of silence returned between the two girls. It was Verochka this time however that broke it.

“Well I’ve definitely get what you mean about standing out and there’s always been people who look at me funny...but I can’t say that’s ever made me feel weird.”

“Really?” Sarah asked. “Not even a little?”

“Nope.”

“Huh, guess it’s just me then,” Sarah said sadly.

“Is that what made your day so...crummy?” Verochka asked. 

Despite her mood, Sarah couldn’t help but smile at Verochka’s choice in words. The other girl was obviously trying not to repeat what Sarah herself had said. The staunch avoidance of the curse word added a bit of an innocent air to Verochka.

“Yeah that’s what made my day ‘crummy’. My teammate singled me out to help her with something because I’m tall and I snapped at her for it,” Sarah explained.

A beat of silence passed between the two witches before Sarah let out a sad chuckle.

“Guess you think I’m being over dramatic, huh?”

To the redhead’s surprise, Verochka shook her head.

“Of course not. If being singled out because of your height is something that makes you feel bad, you have every right to be upset about it.”

Sarah blinked at the other girl in surprise. She had been hoping that Verochka would understand her on some level, but was shocked that the Russian girl actually was.

“I guess my only question is why she did that,” Verochka asked.

“Uh, come again?”

“Your teammate. She’s your friend right? Why would she do something that upsets you like that?”

And that’s just the thing wasn’t it? Sarah had no doubt in her mind that if Chloé had even an inkling of her insecurities the brunette witch would have never asked her to be a tree model like that. Too bad Chloé had no way of knowing.

“Ah, that’s because...she doesn’t know it bothers me. I’ve never told her.” Sarah responded, somewhat embarrassed. “I haven’t really been able to talk to anyone about this kinda stuff. You’re the first one.”

Sarah turned to the Russian girl to shoot her a small smile.

“I don’t really know why, but I guess I felt like you’d be the first person to understand.”

“Because I’m also tall?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“And that made me more reliable to talk about this with than your teammates?”

Sarah froze for a bit as what Verochka said really sank in. She had known Chloé and Elfriede for how long now? How many close calls, ridiculous assignments, and crazy magical happenstances had the three of them have been through together? Yet here she was, trusting a witch she had shared a total of one meaningful conversation with, more than her two best friends, with her deepest emotions. All because Verochka stood a few heads taller than them. Just how goddamn stupid was she going to act today? The reality of the whole situation was so absurd to her Sarah couldn’t help but start laughing. She could tell Verochka was startled and probably really confused but she didn’t care.

As her fit of laughter faded, Sarah wiped a tear from her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I, I think I’ve been acting like a goddamn moron Verochka...and I think I owe Chloé an explanation. Probably an apology too,” Sarah said.

Verochka was either really good at rolling with the punches or hid her confusion quite well as she just nodded her head in encouragement.

“Sounds like a plan. I guarantee, they’ll understand the way you feel. Anyone who actually cares about you will.”

Sarah stood, stretching her arms over her head tiredly.

“Then I guess I better get to that.”

Verochka stood up next to her.

“And I should get back to my room. I’ve got homework I gotta finish.” The Russian girl made to walk away, but stopped when she heard Sarah speak.

“Hey Verochka, thanks.”

The teal team witch blinked at her somewhat blankly. “I didn’t really do anything, well except for scare you earlier.”

“Yeah...but talking with you, I don’t know just kinda made everything swirling around in my head make sense. So, thanks.”

Verochka smiled. “In that case, your welcome.”

And with that, Verochka turned back towards Luna Nova and began to walk  to her room. Sarah stood on the track for a bit longer as the sun continued to sink in the sky. She was still a bit nervous about trying to explain her long held issues with her height to her roommates, but she was ready. Taking a deep breath, Sarah began her own walk back to the castle. Strangely enough, she was looking forward to class on Monday, and figuring out which one she shared with a certain tall Russian witch.

[shintorikhazumi]

LWA Phone Snippet #3 : "Where's my noodle cup?"

Snippet #3 : “Where’s my noodle cup?” First of all, @akilice hope you don’t mind me using your family AU for this snippet? Now, first time writing Charoix in my ENTIRE stay at lwa fandom. So I might not get it right. Meh, I’ll try.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

“Noodles, noodles, noodles~ Genius Croix wants noodles, wants noodles, wants noodles! Genius Croix wants noodles to secretlyfeedittoherdaughter,againstherbelovedwife'swishes, AK-KO!”

The tune of “Mary had a little lamb” parodied into the worst one yet had resounded within the Meridies home as a middle-aged woman came home from work, in search of her guilty pleasures.

Reaching her paradise isle, A.K.A the kitchen, Croix reached for her private ramen cabinet where her favorite noodle cup in which she ate noodles on special occasions, was located.

“I’m back for you, my sweet, salty darling~” Croix sang, opening the holy wooden doors before screeching in pure despair. “Kyaaaaaaaaa!”

The sound was so ear-splitting, and it could even shake up their whole house, that Chariot panicked, coming into the room, having just woken up from a long nap that afternoon, not noticing Croix coming home.

She had a long day, she didn’t need any more negative additions.

“Croix? Honey, what’s wrong?!” She got into an odd fighting stance, groggy and trying to shake the sleep from her system. Maybe their was an intruder, a burglar.

At the sight of her homely wife, Croix immediately burst into tears. “Chaaarriiioooottttt…” She whined, holding her arms out like a child needing to be carried.

Chariot relaxed a bit, seeing no other presence aside from her wife’s, and the open noodle cabinet, piecing it together as Croix running out of her stash again.

She sighed, running a hand through her luscious locks before taking her baby wife into her arms.

“What’s wrong this time, dear?” She cooed, running her hands through the shorter hair. “Run out, again?” She asked, kissing the crown of the purplette’s head.

At the shaking of the head, the former performer felt confused. Usually, these pathetic whines pointed to no ramen, and Chariot had long before associated these events with one another. “What- then… Why are you crying?” She asked skeptically.

“oodle… Up… Dle… p” Croix murmured, still sobbing.

“What? Say it clearly!”

“MY NOODLE CUP HAS BEEN STOLEN!”

“…”

Croix immediately felt nervous, cold sweat running down her brow at Chariot’s blank stare. She may or may not have gotten herself into trouble.

“Baby? Are you… Are you ok?” She tried, fearful.

Her wife continued to stare at her blankly, before wearing the gentlest of smiles.

“Char-bear?” The name came out in a squeak, Croix visibly shrinking. “Mama Ursula~”

“Your noodle cup…” Chariot finally spoke, Croix perking up straightaway, nodding like a puppy.

“Th-that’s right! My precious, beloved noodle cup-” She tried getting Chariot on her side, but was cut off.

“I. Don’t. Care.” The redhead smiled so sickeningly sweet, Croix felt doomed. “Personally, I think it’s a good omen.”

The absolute, genuine cheer on Chariot’s face scared the modern woman, who could only nod sorrowfully.

“I’m going back to bed. I ordered Chinese because I’m tired.”

Then the room door clicked shut.

“But Babbyyyyyy… Noodles…”

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Later that night, Croix cried again, but this time it was out of pure joy.

Her precious Angel of a daughter…

Her other baby, Akko, age five, had somehow managed to accidentally break Croix’s special noodle cup, but with her tiny bits of saving allowance, bought a brand new one with her mama’s favorite brand printed on it just this afternoon, accompanied by ‘Auntie Marjie’ (Marjolaine) who had found the little brown poppet wandering the town streets alone.

Ursula had scolded the girl, but then showered her with kisses for coming home safely.

Also, Akko bought her Momma chocolate and flowers. (Bribery, possibly)

“Akkkooooooo~”

They had the best little angel in the universe.

;)

A/N: You should know I had to sing it in my head to get the timing right. I SUCK AT CHARIOX, OKAY?!?! I’M SORRY.

[hanasaku-shijin]

Okay so. I have some LWA fics now saved/completed in my backlog to post at later times after the series is over, but I’m just gonna make a post/list them out for myself so I don’t forget (cuz I will). Also to give ya’ll a sneak peek of what’s to come:

The Warmest Night (Years Later Dianakko with Cerus, Romance/Comfort) - this one’s actually going up tonight

Beneath Our Memory Tree chapters 2 and 3 (Charoix Angst/Hurt/Comfort/Romance)

Reflect chapters 2 and 3 (Dianakko, Friendship/Romance/Hurt/Comfort)

Untitled (Dianakko Romance/Suspense/Hurt/Comfort)

So since two of those involve 2 chapters each that’s essentially 6 stories backed up and saved.

And then of course there’s the rewrite fic, which I am still debating a title for. I’ll probably be breaking it down into a dozen or so chapters and releasing maybe one a week to help keep LWA alive over the whole summer!!

So stay tuned! Even if I can’t write as much over the summer as I used to be able to, I still have plenty I plan to post and share to keep the LWA fandom alive! 

And don’t forget Happy LWA Week is coming up soon so I’ll have things for that as well!!!

And if you want earlier access to all of them and to be able to make requests from me, you can always check out my Patreon! I’ve yet to get any LWA requests and I’d love to try some!

[sparklyricee]

for the fandom ask thing, little witch academia?

send me a fandom and i’ll tell you…Little Witch Academia the first character i ever fell in love with: Akko a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:Uhh idk a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:Still idkmy ultimate favorite character™: Tbh Diana prettiest character:^my most hated character:uhhh idk my OTP:DIANAKKO my NOTP: Andrew x Akko?? But I don't really hate that ship?? favorite episode: The one where Ursula/Shiny Chariot was being all badass and saved Akko (I don't remember I need to catch up tbh)saddest death:Uhh was there a death??favorite season: Season one least favorite season:nonecharacter that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: idk my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: idk that either my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:Diana, I remember in the past her character has been bashed before her and Akko made amends my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: Idk my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Lotte x Akko is so pure omfg I'm sorry this is so empty!! I need to catch up on LWA :c

[tonydaddingham]

LWA: I like your alternate reading of the damsel-in-distress scenes, in that Aziraphale's explanation becomes both post hoc and an attempt to lie to himself about how he feels about this dynamic persisting into the present. That would parallel Crowley's repeated attempts to invent a consistent friendship/partnership with Aziraphale that the script shows us is only of recent vintage. Both characters are unreliable narrators.

1967:

Two things interested me about the 1862/1967 scenes when I first watched the series. First, they're out of line with all of Crowley's other requests for Aziraphale to step out of Heavenly form, and that includes the straight-up child murder. Crowley can convince Aziraphale to go along with the Arrangement, anti-Armageddon, and even the child murder because they all involve benefits for both of them and/or the "greater good." The Holy Water is /only/ for Crowley. Here's the point for Crowley in the argument: Aziraphale won't do a (really big) favor just for Crowley. (Back to the new 1941 scene: Aziraphale's sleight of hand saves Crowley, as a riposte to 1862.) However, the flip side of 1862 is that Crowley, who by this point in the script knows that it took several centuries for Aziraphale to agree to the Arrangement, just drops the request on him out of nowhere. This was destined to not go well, even though the matter is urgent. More importantly, Aziraphale sets a hard boundary in this scene: he won't give Crowley a suicide pill. No, it's not self-evident that Crowley wants a suicide pill instead of a defensive weapon (the new 1827 scene explains why Aziraphale's mind went there, however), but Crowley just doesn't get around to stipulating why he's asking for his anti-demon nuke.

(I will take a quick break from my chain of thought to note that Gaiman's abandoned plans for a "Wild West" scene would have blown up our understanding of their nineteenth-century chronology. If it was before 1862, then Crowley wasn't in Hell for thirty-five years; if it was afterwards, then they would have seen each other prior to 1941, even if on hostile terms. The TV fandom keeps forgetting that according to Gaiman, TV!Crowley is awake for the nineteenth century.)

The script is clear that the 1967 scene parallels the 1941 church rescue (Crowley's/Aziraphale's "what are you doing here?!", the gift of an important object as a token of love). However, the script is also clear that the conversation has not progressed beyond 1862. Aziraphale repeats his earlier points and says explicitly that his mind has not changed. The boundary has not moved. Instead, Aziraphale faces two options: he can let Crowley risk death for something that he still thinks is a suicide pill, or he can just give him the suicide pill. So he plumps for the least unacceptable option, which is door #2. But he has still violated the boundary he has set for himself, and spends the rest of the scene visibly near tears about it.

A lot of fanon assumes that Crowley's "anywhere you want to go" is lovely and romantic and all, and that Aziraphale's "you go too fast for me" is a sign of a character flaw. Resisting the demon's love, once again! At the risk of treading on sensitive fanon feet, the parallel to this scene is the end of S2, in which Aziraphale's half of the proposal crosses Crowley's hard boundary about Heaven. In S1ep3, Aziraphale's dialogue shows that his hand has been forced; Crowley's "anywhere you want to go" is not a reciprocal action because it doesn't respond to what Aziraphale either says or visibly manifests over the course of this scene. The outcome of this mini-arc is that Aziraphale hurts himself to help Crowley, but does not get any assurance in return that Crowley will not make him do that again. I'm not sure that we need something more from the 1941 scene to explain why Aziraphale yeets himself out of the car as he does. (That being said? If we are idly predicting what might happen in 1941 that causes Aziraphale to be upset in 1967, it's most likely to be yet another request for Holy Water at exactly the wrong time.)

thank you!!!✨

re: wild west, i did think this when i saw his ask response - and the same for the 60s scene that neil mentioned - that they would potentially alter the narrative as we've received it so far, so for the moment im glad they weren't actualised, even if they would be fantastic on their own merit.

as an unrelated aside, because i haven't fangirled about this yet; the papal mention really piqued my interest - it was vague ("15th century") but even the implications of that time period... the build of the sistine chapel (and michelangelo)? the borgias and medicis? or even reference to constantinople? that would have been so cool!!!

anyway -

i see your point about the holy water request being of a different kind to any other request that crowley has made of aziraphale, either directly or indirectly, and that's true.

it is entirely for crowley's own benefit, as opposed to the wider benefit of humanity/'greater good'. i would slightly also argue that 1941 was also for their joint benefit, insomuch that whilst aziraphale is cognizant that hell is directly threatening crowley, he - aziraphale - would lose crowley, and only just having realised at least to some degree that he feels something More for, loves, him. would this - aziraphale saving crowley in 1941 - therefore by definition be selfish as well as selfless, compared to 1862 where arguably it is only for crowley's benefit? debatable but admittedly very tenuous.

in any case, id have to agree with your second reading of 1862; whilst crowley no doubt sees this as the only time that he's actively reaching out to aziraphale for help, and has been refused despite that it must be desperate because he is asking, not only is it dropped out of nowhere on crowley's part, but also the context is key from aziraphale's perspective, and that is what is being withheld.

aziraphale is hypothetically not under, at this point, any notion that crowley might be in danger, he's presumably been out of contact with aziraphale since 1827 (if we accept that pre-1862 wild west is technically not canon...? if it's not in the story?), and crowley presumably has just dropped a cursory letter or telegraph to tell aziraphale to meet at st james with no explanation whatsoever. i think given that, aziraphale's demeanour is understandable, and hardly poses as a good set up for such a request.

and it's a huge request! as you indicated LWA, aziraphale is slow to change himself, and slow to take in changes to the status quo; whether that's the idea that what is Good is not always Right, or whether that's 'lending a hand when needed' in the Arrangement because it means he's consorting with a demon etc., to drop something monumental on him, something that could ensure crowley's destruction, is not a light thing to aziraphale. i could imagine in some way it almost feels like a betrayal of the friendship and trust that they've slowly been building up.

ive taken a look at the scene again, and crowley's first line to aziraphale is, "ive been thinking. what if it all goes wrong? we have a lot in common, you and i." so, first of all, no preamble. straight away, he's loosely suggesting there's an Issue without so much as a by-your-leave. but the reference to having something 'in common' is stumping me; what does this line serve? is crowley saying that they both are being watched by their head offices, like aziraphale in 1793 and crowley in 1827/this scene? is he saying that he and aziraphale are both in the grey, and that puts a target on their respective backs? is he saying that they have started this friendship, and by that a reliability on each other, that crowley is hoping will play a part in aziraphale acquiescing to his request?

regardless of that (which, LWA, would be grand to have your interpretation at some point because idk if im just reading too much into it, but similarly also feeling like im Missing Something that could be key contextually for crowley), absolutely the mere suggestion of a suicide pill is a hard no for aziraphale. and crowley is deliberately vague with using 'insurance' because, to my mind, he sees it as being either/or. if demons come looking for him, he'll try to take them out. if that doesn't work, he'll remove himself from the equation entirely. and that's a horrendous prospect, but completely empathetic, but we only surmise why it's empathetic by way of our hypothetical conclusion drawn from his yeeting in 1827.

aziraphale however is demonstrably a little slow on the uptake and has clearly got some pretty big self-esteem issues. it's understandable (albeit frustrating) that he'd immediately interpret crowley's disappearance as being a reflection on him himself, rather than something potentially involuntary on crowley's part. it's only in 1941 that aziraphale understands why the request was made and - yes, 105 years after st james - in 1967 he finally reconciles that to give crowley the holy water instead of him risking death to get it (which in itself must lend some indication of how dire the need was and is after both 1827 and 1941) is the safer option. caught between the devil etc etc.

in terms of the boundary not having moved by 1967, absolutely. and this is where i imagine what will be a follow up to the s2 1941 minisode will be key in s3, because the departure from the softness at the bookshop is so vastly different to 1967.

there must be (speculation alert), not only a further conversation about the holy water - given that it's not discussed at all in the s2 minisode - but i think this will directly correlate with 'you go too fast for me'. that crowley perhaps - now feeling secure in that they can fend off hell - pushes the boundary of their friendship/arrangement/relationship, and tells aziraphale what happened after 1827 (bearing in mind that im basing this entirely off of a theory at this point). tells aziraphale that is why he needed the holy water, pushes again for it, and aziraphale still refuses. and given what they've just gone through at the theatre, crowley is expecting aziraphale to just change his mind and follow what crowley has asked for, not taking into account that this is a bit too soon for aziraphale.

maybe also a romantic move is made, maybe not, but aziraphale having only just realised what he feels for him can't quite bring himself to give crowley what he's asked for, not yet, and perhaps in multiple senses. personally, i think it has to be something deeper than just a move being made (although this would offer an interesting parallel to the ep6 kiss), but in any case the fact that aziraphale responds with such veiled conviction that for now this is all he can take shows to me a huge leap in his development.

even if he has given crowley the holy water, he is probably quietly angry that crowley has pushed the issue (in trying to get the water by any means necessary, directly undermining and neglecting how aziraphale would feel to lose crowley even by accident), and feels potentially even somewhat betrayed that crowley would use him and his feelings for him like that - even if at this point crowley only interprets those feelings as purely platonic. it doesn't surprise me that this is the last scene we see of them together pre-2019, and i kind of hope it remains that way (although i pray nightly to every god above that we at least see crowley in 1984/5 but that's immaterial).

last couple of things; "anywhere you want to go" always struck me as crowley trying to brush everything under the carpet, same way he kind of intended in 1941 with "lift home?". yes, on the surface, it's an innocuous, kind gesture - but going by character-reading feels like it's a, 'cool that's over and we're good now, let's get on'. it's crowley reverting back to his Acts of Service standby like that will solve everything. it worked in 1941, possibly because of the setting and aziraphale being distracted by his epiphany, but it worked; crowley was invited back into aziraphale's world, and the status quo was re-established.

but in 1967 he attempted this twice: "can i... drop you anywhere?" comes first, which aziraphale rejects, but remains in the car and intimates that they're not over (however you want to interpret 'over') but one day proposing a picnic or the Ritz, but first he needs time. crowley steamrolls this, pushes again - "anywhere you want to go" - and this seems to finally push aziraphale away, and he physically removes himself from the car (which now feels like an very interesting mirror to the s2 ending).

and ooft, your remark on this hurting aziraphale but crowley not seeming to notice and makes no overture to ensure this is a one-off incident? well. his calling him 'stupid' in s1 being mirrored by 'idiot" in s2, his borderline-gaslighting apology in s1 being mirrored by the dance in s2 (even if aziraphale seems to accept it), his distrust that aziraphale could find a solution to armageddon in s1 being mirrored by his dismissal in ep5 re: demon incursion in s2... certainly seems to be a bit of a habit.