#shadow really went ‘mother? i have mother now? hell yeah’

[iolitemoth]

Spoilers for the Newest Violet Incidents

this is absolutely one of the best chapters of the series so far and i had to make this once i stopped laughing long enough

The Violet Incidents is by @bokettochild

[misserabella]

stray. pt. 5

joel miller x fem! reader

gif credits to @pedrorascal <3

< previous chapter next chapter >

summary; after saving Joel and Ellie from the brink of death, you get caught with having to live with two more strays.., and you don't do strays.

REMINDER: english is not my mother language so i apologize if there are some mistakes <3 !¡either ways, i hope y'all like it. <3

REPOSTS AND COMMENTS ARE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!<3

warnings; eventual +18 content! MINORS DONT INTERACT IN THE CHAPTERS WHERE IT IS IMPLIED IN THE WARNINGS and smut, mentions of death, possible deaths, blood, fighting, angst, fluff..

warnings for chapter 5; angst, loss, ellie and reader getting closer <3 (man i love them), guns, daggers, blood, wounds, weapons, tension, cursing, fear, ptsd, joel and reader get closer…

Please, under no circumstances, repost my work on any other sites. I do not consent to anyone taking my work and posting it as their own.

a/n; omg in so excited, the tension is growingggg

You had been awake for hours, unable to move from this bed that surrounded you like a big tight hug. You knew you shouldn’t let it, should get up and start moving, start one more day…

And you too knew that Ellie was on the other side of the door, waiting. You had heard her pacing around, getting closer, almost knocking but always sighing and stepping back. Now she was sitting against it, you could see the shadow, hear her head moving from time to time and her soft breathing.

You got up, a groan falling from your lips when your side throbbed and pinched. Fucking bitch knew how to kick…

You sighed when you opened the door and Ellie, who was fully leaning on it, fell backwards into the room. She looked at you from below, eyes shot open and you gave her an unamused stare before inhaling deep and stepping outside, dodging her. She sat up as you entered your room, exiting it shortly after taking a new change of clothes, and stood up as you closed the bathroom’s door behind your back. She stood there silently, hearing as you turned the shower on and bathed.

The mirror reflected your messy state, your bruised cheek and sticky skin bathed in blood. You didn’t waste time to scrub it off, thanking the water pouring on your body.

You didn’t take long, being efficient in putting on your clean clothes —along with the dirty ones to wash up— and leaving the bathroom.

She was in the same spot you had left her. And you went back into the room dodging her…, again.

You could feel her need to be near, to talk to you, to do anything that could help. You could almost touch her worry as you started to rummage the bloody bedsheets and making them onto a ball to go and put them to wash along with your clothes.

“Ellie?” you called for her, stopping the ruffling of sheets, and she perked up.

“…Yeah?” she asked, her voice careful.

“Are you gonna keep boring holes on the back of my head or are you gonna come in?” you said, and she stepped inside as quickly as she could, almost stumbling. Her eyes met yours, and she swallowed. She didn’t move.

It had surprised her, you letting her in. She was ready to wait ‘till you would come out. She was not ready for this. Hell, it had surprised even you.

She took in the surroundings, took in the art, the photos, the books…

“Are you… Are you okay?” her eyes were away from you, on the floor. You knew she was nervous by the way one of her hands was scratching her neck.

“Oh yeah, brat. Never been better.” you sarcastically said and she stood there, silently, her eyes everywhere. You sighed, taking a seat on the naked duvet. “She was really cool.” you said, and she looked at you. “Kind of annoying, like you, but cool.” she huffed at your semi-compliment. At least you didn’t hate her… “It’s been a year… And everything looks the same.” you sighed, your eyes dreamy on her artworks.

“She was great.” she said, pointing at her sketches.

“She truly was. He wanted to be a tattoo artist. Got a gun and everything.” you said. “Carved one on my back for her first time.” you chuckled, and she smiled.

“Can I… See it?” she inquired, and that caught you by surprise.

“You want to see it?” you frowned.

“I’ve just never seen a tattoo before. Only on pictures.” she said and you nodded, muttering a ‘sure’ that made her get excited.

You turned her back to her and slowly shifted up your white sleeveless top, revealing at the middle of your back a big black moth.

She took it in, eyes open and mouth ajar. She stepped closer, and one of his hands rose with the need to touch it, but she retracted it. It was beautiful. “How… Does it feel like? To get a tattoo I mean.” she says, and you turned back to her, letting your top hide your tattoo once again.

“It hurts. But it feels awesome when its finally done.”

“I want one.” she said, and you scoffed.

“You’re too young for that kind of stuff, kid.” Kid. Well, at least it was better than ‘brat’.

“I’m not. When did you get yours?”

“When I was sixteen.” you answered.

“I’m sixteen!” she said and you laughed.

“Bullshit!”

“Okay, fourteen. But does it even matter? It’s practically the same!” she said and you shook your head.

“It’s not.” she frowned and practically pouted. You rolled your eyes. “Look. Once you turn sixteen we’ll get you one, alright? Hell, I’ll even pay for it.” you offered and she lighted up like a firework.

“Really?”

“Sure.” you said, and she smiled so bright that you almost followed her.

You went back to your shuffling, stripping the pillows off their covers.

“Hey, y/n…?” she asked and you hummed. “I’m sorry. About Laura.” she said, and you looked at her, after a few seconds nodding slowly.

You two fell back onto that silence that seemed to follow you everywhere. Only this time, you decided to break it.

“Hey, brat?” you called for her and her eyebrows rose, paying attention. “I saw that you finished those comics of yours.” you said, giving her your back to take a hold on something in between your hands. You smiled softly as one of your palms slowly dragged against the pages, over the drawings and inked letters. “You should give this one a try. It’s a really good one.” you said, closing the book that had been open for a year to hand it to her. She took it with such a great care… As if it was made of the most rich porcelain and could break with just a mere whisper.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ she red on the cover.

“What is it about?” she asked, and you smiled.

“You’ll have to read it to find out.”

-

Ellie was really enjoying the book, you could see it. She had not put it down the whole day except for eating and a kick trip to the bathroom.

Joel opens the door to your house, you keys having been copied for him since he had started helping Larry on the farm.

“What are you reading, kid?” Joel asks, a box full of food in between his arms. Probably from Larry’s. He always insisted on sending you more and more…

“Alice in wonderland.” she answered, monotone, too focused on the book to even look at him.

“Don’t try and make her talk, Joel, I’ve had a pretty good and silent day with her glued to that thing.” you warned him from the balcony, your naked feet against the ice cold flooring and your eyes still looking at the sunset.

His eyes found you, and he stared at you. At you and your gray baggy sweats, at you and your white sleeveless tank top, the cigarette in between your lips…

He sighed and walked towards you, opening the sliding door to take a seat next to you, closing it back up so the smoke wouldn’t get inside.

You looked alright. That was good.

“Pretty face you’ve got, huh?” you said, and she glared at your before scoffing, shaking his head.

“Just as sweet as always, aren’t you?” he rolled his eyes and took a cigarette out of his pocket. “Thanks.” that’s what he said when you offered him light to burn it. “Larry asked about you, he’s worried.” you sighed.

You didn’t answer, you were fine, okay. You had been scared shitless yesterday, and still felt a little shaken up, but breathing in Laura last night had really helped you get up that morning, try and heal a little bit more through the day.

Joel’s leg was shaking, a nervous and anxious tick that always seemed to came back after tense days. He wanted to make sure that you were okay, wanted you to tell him that you were okay. After yesterday events… He needed you to look at him.

You spent hours like this, watching the sun disappear and the night fall, in silence, him being focused on you and you being focused on him. The present. Something you never focused on lately.

He had gone inside after having caught Ellie completely passed out on the sofa, book still in hand. He tried to take it away from her as he softly woke her up to take her to bed, but she grumbled something that you couldn’t hear and hugged it closer to her chest. Oh no, there was no way she was letting go of it now. She was gonna sleep with that thing.

“What the hell did you do to her? She didn’t even let me put it on the night table.” he said as he came back onto the balcony, first-aid kit in hand to start cleaning up the wounds on his body.

You looked at him once he was back on his chair, new cigarette lit in between your lips. You took a long drag and exhaled. “It was Laura’s.” you said and his eyes widened just the slightest.

“y/n, you didn’t have to…”

“It’s okay.” you cut him off. “I wanted to. And she would have too. She would have loved for someone else to enjoy her books. She loved them.” you said, and he could swear his breath hitched when an almost imperceptible smile crept on your soft pink lips.

He nodded, silently, and unbuttoned the sleeves of his flannel, letting see the new cuts and bruises from yesterday’s fight. You looked away when you’d caught yourself staring to the muscles clenching under his tanned skin, his biceps pressing against the shirt.

You cleared your throat and took another drag of your cigarette, filling your lungs with an oxygen that seemed to not exist.

Joel cleaned his wounds silently, rubbing alcohol on them like he had for the last decades. New scars would decorate his body, but that was okay. ‘Cause that meant that he had survived, he was still alive.

Soon enough he was done with her arms and had to move up to his face. You watched him struggle to find the right spot, struggle to clean the cut on his forehead properly.

You softly took the cotton from his hand, and he looked at you as you moved your chair closer to him. So close he could smell your shampoo, your deodorant and your perfume. It was intoxicating, but not as much as your presence, as your closeness.

He hissed when you pressed it against the cut, and even if his hands twitched with the need to stop you, he didn’t. You were focused on cleaning it up, on making sure it didn’t get infected, and he was focused on looking at you. At your pretty eyes and soft skin, your long curled lashes and your teeth biting down on your bottom lip in concentration. His heart was beating fast, hard against his ribs. He wanted you to be closer, to held you like he had yesterday, to help you heal the wounds that weren’t on the surface, but inside of you, throbbing with every one of your breaths.

You put ointment on it before moving to the cut on his bottom lip. That was the one that hurt the most. You noticed when he softly gripped your wrist.

He never pushed you away, only closer.

You looked at his lips, at how soft and plump they seemed. You looked away for just a mere second to leave the cotton aside and take in between your hands the ointment once again. He let go of your wrist, but your skin was still crawling on goosebumps, and you could still feel the warmth of his touch, remember the warmth of his hug. You wanted more. You’d been freezing for a year.

Your index finger met his bottom lip once again, spreading the ointment softly onto the cut. Tomorrow it would be almost closed and wouldn’t hurt anymore. He took a deep breath at the feeling of your touch, of your soft yet cold fingers.

You had already finished covering it completely, helping him. But you couldn’t pull away. Your finger softly outlining the plush of his lips. His eyes met your own when your tongue unconsciously dampened them. Your heart was beating hard, your skin breaking like ice under the sun. What is it that you wanted?

Your hand met his jaw as you thumb now pressed against the cut, smearing the ointment a little bit more even if it wasn’t necessary. You didn’t do it for him. You were doing it for yourself. ‘Cause your body was begging to be touched, to be held, and your mind was reeling with his warmth.

“Don’t look at me like that…” he whispered, and that’s when you met his eyes. They were dark, darker than the night, and soft, softer than your touch on him. You looked at him, with that goddamn beautiful face of yours, and he felt like melting, like dying when you looked away and let him go.

You silently stood up from your seat and walked inside your apartment, leaving him behind as you closed Laura’s door behind your back.

Your breathing was shaky, and your hands were clammy. This is trouble. You shouldn’t. Nothing good would come out of this. You couldn’t loose no one else, couldn’t up your heart once again just to get it broken again.

You tried to make up your mind, try to promise your heart to stay low, to stay safe. But you found yourself having yet another night when your mind wouldn’t shut up and your eyes would stay open.

And worst of all, found yourself looking through Laura’s desk cabinets ‘till your hands finally found that metallic little box that you swore would never touch again.

Soon enough, your fingertips were stained, and the hours seemed shorter.

-

The sound of something falling and breaking on the salon startled you. Your hands left aside what they were holding, your body jolting alive from your seat. Was there someone inside?

You took one of your daggers in your hand, cursing after having left your gun on top of the dinning table.

You stepped outside the room, softly, lurking. Your eyes adapted to the dark and noticed the light coming from the kitchen. You stepped closer, and that’s when you heard it.

“Shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” you let down your dagger, let it aside on the table, next to your gun.

“Ellie?” she turned to you, following your voice. She was holding something in between her hands. Something broken. A mug.

You looked at the floor, there was some of the ceramic little pieces that she couldn’t get left, decorating it like snow.

“What’s going on?” you inquired and stepped closer.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. I was trying to make some of that tea you drink to fall asleep but then it slipped and… Shit, I’m sorry for breaking it.” she blurted out, and you hushed her by taking her shoulders.

“It’s fine.” you said, and she shook your head.

“But-“

“Ellie. It’s fine. It’s just a mug.” you promised, and she let you take it from her hands to dump it on the trash can. “Now… Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on?” you inquired, looking at her, and she looked away, growing quieter…

“I…, had a nightmare.” she confessed, and your eyes softened. Oh.

She was awkwardly hugging herself, seeming little, seeming just like what she was: a kid.

You silently went towards the stove, where the tea she had sneaked from your jar was boiling and took the pot. You poured it on a new mug for her to sip from, and softly and carefully handed it to her.

She took it with just the same care, enjoying the warmth of it against her fingers.

“Come on.” you simply said, and she followed behind you, slowly stepping inside Laura’s room when you did. She looked just as dazzled as the first time.

You closed the door and that’s when she noticed the staining on your fingertips, the pages filled with charcoal all over the desk. She walked closer, and took a peak.

“Were you…, drawing?” she inquired and you let out a little smile, nodding, this time being you the one feeling embarrassed. “But… I thought Laura was the one who did.” you let out a soft chuckle that made her chest grew warm.

“Sure. But who do you think teached her?” her eyes widened and her mouth fell on a surprised smile.

“You dick!” you laughed when she whispered, inspecting the drawings. Some of them were simple, like flowers and animals, others were more complicated, like portraits of people you knew: Lizzy, Larry, Laura… Joel. She frowned just the slightest, but instead of questioning your motives and make you uncomfortable, she rather asked a: “Hey, and what about me?!”

You looked at her and her scowl. “You want me to draw you?” you eyebrows rose.

“Heck yeah. Though I’ll get mad if you make me look bad.” your chest bubbled with a new laughter.

“Alright. But first let me finish up the one I was drawing, alright?” she nodded and you took a seat on the desk, grabbing the charcoal in between your fingers once again. She stepped closed, inching by your side to watch as you sketched some leaves. Her stomach fell and her eyes shone. It was really simple, but truly beautiful. There was a moth, just like the one tattooed on your bag, with its wings spread open and showing her patterns, standing on two plants with their leaves fully exposed.

“It’s beautiful.” she whispered, and you felt your heart flutter. You never showed people your drawings, didn’t like to brag about your skills or let them out onto the world for it to see, but it had been a long time since someone complimented them, and that made you feel better. Maybe you hadn’t lost your touch after all.

“This?” you inquired as you rose the finished piece. “It’s not that impressive.” you shrugged and let her take it as he pushed the cup away and onto the free side of the desk, away from your sketches.

“Can I keep it?” her eyes full of hope and light looked into yours, and you melted.

“Sure.” you accepted and she only smiled harder, making you smile just the slightest as well.

She gave you her back, inspecting it over her head. She looked so happy. It was a mere simple drawing yet it had made her so happy… Made her forget everything about the nightmares that sometimes tormented her on her sleep.

You looked at her and back to your drawings, his face catching your attention. You hadn’t even noticed you had drawn him, drawn his side profile as he smoked, his eyes as he looked at you…

You pushed it underneath the rest as you rummaged them to clear up a little the space, trying to bury it where it belonged, deep into your head.

Ellie finished up her tea as you cleaned up, and after a couple of minutes of her chatting you up about all kind of stuff; about what she’d have liked to be if the world hadn’t turned into what it was now, about how she’d have loved to travel up and away into the sky, into the space, where only the starts would ever talk to her, she fell asleep on Laura’s bed, her new drawing on the night table behind her back. She was breathing slowly beside you, her wavy hair a mess all over her face. You shook your head with a smile and softly pushed it away and behind her ear.

You didn’t like strays. Didn’t like new people. Change.

But for once in your life, you hoped this feeling wouldn’t go away.

That they would stay.

-

taglist; ♡

@bubbles-for-all-of-us @hiphopdancer101universe @amethystwonders11 @mmeerraa @azxulaa @euovennia @twilightsbiggestfan @dabria14 @minaxcarter @lynndaline @frogjumps-world @cassiepascal @mdnigts @fudosl @batweildinglittlepysco @doodlebob-mp3 @boh3mian @saintmagx @scaredknight @ipadkidsworld @somebodytookmyusername @natalia42069 @cassrox @seninjakitey @maddsfilms @issybee0611 @corpsebridenightamare @eddie-munsons-slut @wren-2-d @hiroikegawa

pedro pascal’s masterlist <3

[number1rizgukgakstan]

FANTASY HIGH JUNIOR YEAR EPISODE 18 LIVEBLOG

It's that time again! Spoilers below the cut!

The only CW being underage drinking + drug use is fascinating- I assume that means no one dies? At least, not like Buddy did.

I'm SO excited looking at that set it's so fucking cool. The crackling in the fake clouds? HOLY SHIT the modeling team went OFF I love their work.

I FORGOT JAWBONE'S THERE. AND SO IS EUGENIA. This is so insane I'm so excited.

"Airitime law" God I love you so much Zach you are SO FUNNY

The WHOLE school is here that's so funny. Does this mean the clubs Riz joined are going to come into play?? GERTIE??? GERTIE???? HEY GERTIE???

The divine domain idea is so fascinating but I would like to say- imagine worshiping a god named Porter. I'm crying laughing.

CURSED GOLD PIECE??? FUCK YEAH GO FOR IT FABIAN

RAGH IS HERE??? FUCK YEAH!

Okay we're getting the NPCS set up? Fuck yeah

FIG NO WHY ARE YOU WANDA CHILDA???? THATS SO FUNNY. Gerard Neigh I'm CRYING. I love Armor of Ayda and the Spirit Guardians.

VULTURE KING LIVER + TALON FOR FABIAN In BAD! BABY! MILK!

WHY IS GORGUG SWALLOWING THE HEART LIKE A PILL??? INSANE

EAT THE FEATHER??? FIG YOU DON"T HAVE TO EAT IT ITS JUST WHEN BROKEN [sobs]

"You're wearing an Orangutang mask and the skull of the Vulture King?"

"And I'm speaking Vulture.

"And you're speaking Vulture."

Adaine is so brilliant I love her.

K2 giving Kristen basically a whole extra turn is so funny. We love K2.

They have so many spells prepared I love it. Fabian's party sounds sick as hell. Even the Bad Baby milk sounds fun. Disgusting but fun.

I feel like using the NMK against Kristen is a bad idea but will have terrible consequences for Kristen, who's silly goofyness has been coming back to bite them. IDK we'll see

Fabian faking it till he makes it is SO FUNNY.

Baby and Baby Baby being here's so fucking funny. Let's go Baby and Baby Baby!

Fabian's HOUSE burning down would be devastating but maybe it'd make his mother come home

CANNONS!!! PUT BABY BABY ON THE CANNONS

They have to DO ELECTIONS and RUN THE PARTY WHILE FIGHTING??? BRENNAN LEE MULLIGAN THIS IS INSANE I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Kristen and K2 helping Riz load the canon is so wholesome. They're such a great team

NOOOO FABIAN HAS THE PACMAN TATTOO [laughing crying] RIP

1/4th of the party voting in one turn is absurd. Fabian's charisma is INSANE i love this man and his conga line

Jawbone once again completely out of the loop and just going with it is great.

I now see why Sprak has his own art.

The music video idea was genuis. Emily Axford is such a quick thinker and her performance as Fig is top-knotch.

Oisin summoning dragons breaks my heart. NOOO you were so cool :( now Adaine has to Furious Fist Mega Punch you to death

This fight is honestly so fucking metal. The music video, Fabian killing a dragon singlehandidly, Riz murdering two with the canons, all the Dex saves, Gorgug's excellent driving, JAWBONE, the voting drive... honestly I'm so proud of the Bad Kids and how far they've come.

ANOTHER GORGUG NAT 20 HOLY SHIT! Zac's really fucking it up right now. 7d12 is absurd

Wanda Childa running the party is so insane and I love it. It's Emily Axford's world and we're just living in it.

Eugenia Shadow is amazing. Best NPC by far.

"Can I bring a vulture to give me the help action?" absurd request. brennan's face was brilliant. Again: ITS EMILY AXFORD'S WORLD AND WE'RE JUST LIVING IN IT.

The fight. Every moment was incredible. They really did slay those god damn dragons. No one had to make a single death save. The party was popping. Fig was constantly being the fucking COOLEST. Fabian telling Gorgug not to crash his parent's boat. Eugenia Shadow telling Riz he's the best student she's ever had. It was brilliant. Excellent.

"Sorry Oisin, shouldn't have been such a douchebag, we're gonna kill your grandma now" BRILLIANT. 10/10. I love it.

AS SOON AS SHE SAID DIVINE INTERVENTION I FUCKING CHEERED. K2 DIES TO SAVE THE WORLD BY SAYING "BLIMEY" NOT FUCKING CLICKBAIT.

Zac doing the dm bit is so funny.

K2 not knowing shit and pulling off a miracle is such pure Kristen its so fucking brilliant. THE UNCERTAINTY OF MAYBE BEING PREGNANT IS INSANE. I love Ally Beardsley.

Brennan's reaction to the pregnancy bit is so fucking funny. They broke this man's spirit in the funniest way possible.

"Haunted Wizard Clone Mini Golf Lightning Extravaganza" is the single funniest string of words imaginable. Brennan Lee Mulligan you are my favorite comedian ever.

"How much of this can we cut out, do you think?" Ally this is your bed, you have to lie in it, I'm so sorry. Funniest roll of all time.

WE ALMOST GOT THE GOLD TORNADO?? NOOOOOO.

Circling back, the flavor of Armor of Ayda is so cute. Ayda's protection is always over Fig no matter where she is.

THEY FUCKING DID IT GANG! Now for the penultimate battle! :]

The previews are making me go insane. RATGRINDERS FIGHT RATGRINDERS FIGHT RATGRINDERS FIGHT!

"I think I have to try" is making me so fucking excited. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING FIG????

LETS FUCKING GO! NEXT WEEK BABYYYYYY

[julieverne]

Jess sits in the sun in the backyard. She's the age her mother was when she remembers that year - that wonderful year. She'd gone to the United States on a scholarship. She'd been so sure of her future, and then it had come crashing down. Her father fell while mowing the lawn, and Tony tried to kill himself rather than come out.

So she'd gone home. She'd had to. All this time she'd felt the pressure of family and expectations as a waste of her existence, but when it was the people she loved she barely gave her soccer a second thought.

Jules, at the airport, sobbing and holding Jess until she'd really had to get through security - she was brown, and it was 2002. She'd needed an extra hour to get cleared the first time, compared to Jules.

"Come back when you can, yeah?" Jules had said, but they'd both kind of known. The odds Jess had faced were insurmountable; these were doubly so.

"When I can," Jess had said. And she'd meant it at the time. And then Jules was holding her again and they were both crying, their faces close and they might have missed when they tried to kiss goodbye, and Jess might have touched her lips the entire flight home, trying to remember the feel of Jules's mouth on hers, even for that short moment.

Jess starts when she realises she's touching her lips again. Tony sits beside her, slings an easy arm around her. They're divorced, and he has come out. And he survived it. They both did. For the sake of the kids. Jess is glad none of them are like her at that age; they're like Tony, all affable and amiable. Jess doesn't hound them like her mother used to hound her, but she understands, now, what happens to women that stand out. Women who let themselves be seen.

People hate women that are good at things. Some people just hate women. She's seen what people say about Jules, a d she hates that they think it's okay to say about one of the world's best soccer players - hell, one of the world's best people

Coming over to London after the war, her parents never spoke of home as a place they'd ever want to go. Jess went there with Tony, and it had been harrowing. To think she'd grown up with so much, and she was spoiled enough to complain about soccer?

Tony's husband brings out a fresh pot of tea. Jess lives with them; they live with her. It's a little awkward, but Jess has gotten better at awkward conversations. She's grown up a lot.

But on a sunny summer's afternoon she can't help but want for more.

A shadow steps between her and the sunlight, and Jess looks up.

The light haloes around the most angelic face Jess has ever seen.

"Hope you don't mind, the kids said I'd find you out back."

Jess is winded; it's Sunday, and she's dressed traditionally. She feels every pound she's gained over the years, with every child. She feels old and slovenly and it doesn't matter because she is being pulled into the arms that have always held her best.

Jules feels exactly the same. She's scrawny and wiry and all muscles and so strong when she holds Jess. Jess sees Tony and Aaron slink away, and Jules gives a low chuckle of delight, her face scrunched up with happiness when she pulls away.

Jules spends the afternoon entertaining Jess's starstruck children, even though they've all met aunty Jules before. She handles a soccer ball like a pro; she should, since she is one. She's played every game, and she's in the news often enough.

Jess has a silly little autograph book, the one she had when she was into Beckham. It's filled with every news article she could find about Jules. She'll never ask her to sign it.

Panting, Jules comes over, resting her hands on her knees. She's sweaty and gorgeous in a way Jess had carefully tried not to notice as a teenager. Jess hands her some water and Jules throws herself down next to Jess with the same youthful exuberance she'd always had.

"Been a while," Jess notes.

"I write. I write a lot."

"You do," Jess concedes, not sure why she'd goad Jules after so long apart. Just to let her know she missed her, she supposes. "I do too."

"It's not as good as the real thing, is it?" Jess looks over and that cheeky grin still breaks her heart each time. It shouldn't be different this time, but it is. Jess excuses herself to make dinner, and ignores the worried look on Jules's face.

---

"It's okay that I'm here, isn't it? I cleared it with Tony."

"It's fine," Jess says, pulling the sheets from the linen cupboard. She is making up the bed in the sewing room for Jules. Twenty years ago they'd have shared, but now that's not something they do.

"I suppose you saw... I mean, you know why I'm not staying with my parents this match, yeah? You know I'm..."

Jess had seen all of the interviews after Jules had come out. She'd seen the moment when Britain's soccer team had come out in a rainbow version of their uniform to rally against the injustices being done against the LGBTQIA+ community. She'd seen Jules filled with passion and fire, and she'd wondered where her own had gone. She was living the small little life of her mother, the life she'd never wanted. Married - no - divorced - a man she'd loved but had never wanted. Children - the children she loved too. But her life was so small and quiet.

"I know," Jess confirms. Jules still looks worried, so she elaborates. "You know I don't mind. I married a gay man. I live with two gay men. The children keep reminding me what pronouns they use, like they don't change them every half hour. You're welcome here, if that's what's bothering you."

Jules sighs, but not with relief. With something constrained, something restrained. Jess opens the sewing room and moves her craft table.

"Did you make this?" Jules asks, her voice light with wonder. Jess turns. It's just a sari. She shrugs. "You're amazing. You have this wonderful life, this wonderful family..."

"And you have a wonderful career." It comes out a little more bitter than Jess wanted it to.

"And no family. Not any more."

"Jules, it's 2023. They'll come around."

"Thanks for putting me up. And thanks for putting up with me." Jules sounds almost forlorn, but Jess can't talk about it. Not here, in the confines of her tiny sanctuary, where she sews and dreams of what could been. The life she'd wanted. Bending it like Beckham, at Jules's side.

Jess sighs and sits on the bed.

"Everyone here loves you for who you all. All of you, not just the parts the tabloids get a hold of. The kids think it's Christmas when you show your face around here. They can't believe a stuffy old maid like me has friends like you. A friend like you."

"You're not stuffy. Or old. I'm older than you," Jules laughs. She's put her carry-on on a chair and she's digging through it. She's stripped off her shirt - sweaty from playing with the kids - and slung a towel around her neck. "Just be a minute."

Jess listens to the shower run - Jules is always quick in the showers, Jess hardly ever got a glimpse of her.

Jules has worn a lot of soccer uniforms over the years, but when Jess thinks of her, she sees Jules in that sports bra, covered in sweat, the first time Jess saw her.

The first time Jess knew what falling in love felt like.

Jess sighs again, shaking her head. Jules comes back in just a singlet and shorts - she's swapped the Tillie's at some point, since these are green and gold. She probably bagsed them from a conquest or something. It hurts more than it should, and Jules notices something amiss. She slumps down beside Jess, rubbing her arm gently, making every hair raise on her skin. Jess wants so badly to curl into her and be held, but she's spent most of her life denying who she was. If she lets it go now, she'll never reassemble her life again.

Her small, tidy, safe life. She looks up as sees the Garbage CD she keeps in the CD player in here; the memory of Jules that keeps her company now and then. The distinctive cover art she'd seen displayed in Jules's room, back when Jules was the coolest girl Jess had ever met.

She sobs then, and Jules's arms close around her like a goalie net, catching her as she falls. She smooths Jess' hair, holds her close like she is delicate. She strokes Jess like she is something precious and fragile.

She's always touches Jess like this, and Jess has always responded with guilty desire.

But there's no guilt left. She held her father's hand as he died. She stared down Tony's family when they came for him, and she stood by her family, putting aside her own wants and needs. She has lived her life the way others wanted her to.

So when she kisses Jules, it's purely selfish. It's purely because she wants to; has always wanted to. Jules starts, but she doesn't pull away. Her lips are warm and soft; they feel like coming home. Jules warms to Jess quickly, her hands still smoothing over her, accepting all the guilt and pain and loss Jess is throwing at her, accepting, receiving and somehow comforting.

Jess had kissed Tony; not for recreation, purely as performance art. Like finds like, and they'd liked each other well enough to keep up the charade when they'd had to. But Jules is not at all like Tony. Even with all her muscles she's still incredibly soft and sweet and fresh and it feels like being fifteen and in love. It feels like boarding a plane half a world away.

Jess pulls away, but Jules lingers, her cheeks flushed, her lips plump.

"I came out too, but the tabloids never covered it," Jess whispers. Jules chuckles again, low and throaty, and she looks at Jess with the same stars in her eyes as she's always had. "I know I said I fancied Beckham, but you know I really fancied Posh, yeah?"

Jules laughs again, and it's like sunlight on a window pane, it's like freshly mown grass on the field and adrenaline before a match, it's like glitter on skin, it's like it hasn't been twenty years since they maybe-almost kissed.

Jess is, at thirty-five, finally doing what she should have at fifteen. She kisses Jules again.

"You've got a match tomorrow. Better get some rest." Reluctantly she pulls away. Jules bites her own lip, watching Jess with hooded eyes.

"They say, when you get famous, that you can never go home again. I always thought you'd taste like cardamon."

Jess laughs at the absurdity of Jules's filterless thought.

"But you taste like vanilla. You taste like..." Jules threads her fingers through Jess'. "You taste like coming home."

[clearlydiamondz]

Loyalty to Royalty

Erik!Stevens x OC

Part Five

- - - - - - - - - -  

Princess Imani was the black sheep of her family, never really fitting the female royal type. When an arranged marriage between Prince   N'Jadaka and her is set up, she tries her hardest to get away... but she just can’t.

IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE: I HAVE UPDATED MY MASTERLIST SO IT'S EASIER TO NAVIGATE. SO CHECK IT OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T! IT'S ALSO PINNED

- - - - - - - - - -  

"I don't know whos face I want to ball up in my fist, Erik's or Amarah's." Imani snapped walking through the halls with her newly hired publicist and manager, Makiah. She walked behind her keeping up with every news article the presented the news typing away.

It's been weeks since she's been to Wakanda and everything has been going smoothly. Her step-mother and step-sister stayed out of her way, her and Erik seem to get closer, and her worries of Vibranium went away as it seemed to vanish in the wind.

That was until this morning.

As she was eating her breakfast, her phone started to ring of notifications with Erik's name in the headlines.

Prince N'Jadaka Ex Comes Forward, Trouble In Paradise?

Her face twitched at the news before she clicked on the article. A video popped up of a beautiful girl with a light skin complexion, and curly hair. It was a Tiktok.

"Yeah.. he called me asking if he could fly me out to Wakanda. Obviously in respect to Princess Imani I declined. He continued to tell me how much he missed me but honestly that was a bridge I burned long ago."

Arianna Cope was her name.

She stood up calling Erik's phone but obviously no answer.

And to top it all off, fucking Oshana and Amarah.

It was believed that the two of them were going on a Vacation to Mexico but last minute plans changed to them going to New York. As her and Makiah were coming up ways to come up with damage control ideas, another notification came up.

The City Kambaho Is Now Willing to Trade, and so is Wakanda?

"No.. no no no no no." she stood up looking at her phone. "What the fuck have y'all done. What the actual fuck have you done!?" she yelled in horror as she seen the video.

"Princess Imani, let's the put the phone down and take it one step at a time." Makiah said, but she couldn't. She played the video,

"As we all know both Wakanda and Kambaho are greatly armed with the material known as Vibranium. We also know how important this could be for trading with not only America but with other nations who are possibly willing to trade with us. We no longer want to be in the shadows of what our strength can do, and we call to our sister nation to help support those that are in need."

Amarah looked at the screen with a smile as everyone asked her a bunch of questions. The screen with black as her eye started to twitch. She stood up making a B-Line straight to her fathers office, where she knew he would be.

And here we are in present time. As she was going to cross the garden room, she saw Erik running towards her. "Erik I swear on every linage of ancestors I have don't you-"

"It's not true. I promise it isn't." he said running towards her. "I jumped on a flight just to let you know this, I would not do something like this to jeopardize your future." he said, damn near out of breath. She looked over his face to see that he was genuine, but looks could be deceiving.

"Prove it." He pulled out his phone showing that she was the one that called first.

"In the call she was telling me how she missed me and that she wanted to be together. I admit, before I came to Wakanda I wanted a relationship but she didn't. Once she got wind that I was royalty and I moved on, obviously she wanted to be a clout chaser."

"That doesn't prove nothing. She could have called you first but you initiated first. And there is audio of you." Makiah said as he looked at her in confused.

"Okay first of all, who the hell are you?"

"That's our publicist and our manager who's going to be saving your ass, so show her all of your respect please." Imani snapped at him. "Show me other proof." he sighed not knowing any other proof but then he remembered.

"I have a screen-recording of her turning me down. " she had her palm out as he went through old videos before finding it. He handed her his phone as she read through the text-messages. She looked at him before cringing.

"Jesus.. that's sad." she handed him the phone as his fascial expression dropped.

"You really didn't have to say all that." she looked back at Makiah before asking.

"What can we do to fix this?"

"If this is true, that means that she could have edited the audio. We could hire an audio specialist to clear the audio that was recorded. He would then have to put out a public statement explaining how it's chopped, and Erik put out a public video on his side of the story. I can easily write that up for him." she said as she nodded.

"You get started on that, I on the other hand have to deal with some other bull-crap. You-" she pointed towards him. "Are coming with me." she said.

"I'll be getting right on that Imani." And with that, Makiah ran back down the hall with to her office. Imani handed him her tablet that she was holding as he looked at the article in shock.

"Why would they do this? The Wakanda council will set hell for this?" he told her as she opened the door to her fathers office. "No idea, but most definitely will be having a meeting for every party involved." she stated as her dad looked up at the screen.

"Imani I-"

"Dad. It's not your fault. Just get them on a plane back to Wakanda." she stated as he looked at her confused.

"Why Wakanda?" he asked her.

"I'm taking initive and we will all personally take accountability for this mishap and you will explain to them what your next steps are on fixing this." she demanded him as he scoffed..

"Hold on, you just told me that it wasn't my fault. Now I have to take accountability for what they did?"

"Yes because that is your WIFE and the Queen! When you decided to marry the back stabbing manipulative women you signed up for taking full accountability of everything she does as her HUSBAND and KING!" she yelled at him. "The country of Wakanda is our one and only true ally and whatever she just did, just had the possibility of messing it all up." she lowered her tone. He looked shock at the threatening voice but she did not care.

"So yes, we are going to Wakanda and we are fixing this mess. Wakanda deserves our loyalty and you know this, and I do too." she snapped at him. She turned and looked at Erik.

"Prince, please explain to my king how detrimental this could be for my people." Erik cleared his throat before speaking.

"Because Wakanda helps regulate and distribute your country's share of vibranium, we will have all rights to simply stop production. This could mean your economy market will crash, leaving you defenseless against other nations if they do decide to attack us for vibranium." Erik says as her father sighed rubbing his temples.

"Like I said, we are fixing this. Get your apology ready and decide how you will tell the nations how your step-daughter has no authority to make decisions for this country, or Wakanda." she told him.

"Imani, I do this she will leave." he said as Imani scoffed.

"Are you seriously considering not doing it for a woman who went behind your back and put your people in jeopardy? Father if she decides to leave you over this, this just proves her motive of marrying you in the first place." she stated.

"I don't get my paranoia from no one. You taught me why I should fear this."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Imani sat down next to Erik in the Council room, as she stared back at T'Challa who sat in his throne, and he looked pissed right a long with Queen Ramonda. The council of Wakanda looked even more angry.

"I would first like to start off and says that me as well as the rest of the citizens of Wakanda is very disappointed in the actions that transpired over the course of the day." he stated as Imani hung her head low.

"Now, we do acknowledge that some people are more to blame than others, but the fact that you could come and apologize for any acts of betrayal that you guys may have caused. Princess Imani, we and the council appreciate you initiative to come to talk to us so we have decided to hear you out, but those who have done the damage is not here." T'Challa stated as Imani stood up and cleared her throat.

"Permission to speak." he nodded. "King T'Challa, I-"

"We have never used formals before, let's not start now." he chuckled as she nodded.

"Challa, first I would like to apologize on behalf of my father and his wife, and his step-daughter. As you know, my mother's death took a toll on my father more than he can admit and he's doing unwell. As you know, our loyalty as a country is with you and the Wakandians and we will never sway from that. We are working right now to get this fixed as we speak." Imani spoke. Queen Ramonda looked her in the eyes, as if telling her she was okay.

"I would further more like to explain that this is not in a state of where they think this will help benefit the world, but in act of greediness. His wife knew the dangers of exposing the world of our ability with vibranium, and out of spite went to America. I do not and have not recognize her as my Queen, as my queen and mother is long gone." she stated. T'Challa looks at the council as they still stared at her with mixed emotions.

"This is your King and your families. You speak of them like you don't associate yourselves with them." M'Baku states.

"That's because I don't." she sighed looking down. "Look, I say this from the heart and not because I'm trying to play clean up. Every choice that I have made is the betterment of my country. And those choices are influenced by those older and wiser than me. Every ruling, every law, everything has been influenced by my father, my mother, and even you. I ran through these halls with Challa and Shuri for more than I can remember. My mother would have never taken Wakanda for granted as she too was a child of Wakanda."

She tried so hard not to cry, but the state of her people was at hand. The severity of her love for her country showed as she tried to hold back her tears but she couldn't help but let a few drop.

"I hope that we can be forgiven." she finished, as her voiced break.

Erik saw her and realized that they had more in common than they think. Not the herb, not that they are getting married. But the love and protection of their own kind. Looking at her in pain, knowing that she her country could be in potential danger. He had to say something.

"Can I say something real quick." Erik said raising his hand as the council looked at him, a tad bit shocked. Hell, even Imani did.

"I will say, these past couple of months have been a tad bit challenging for the both of us due to some... unforeseen circumstances." he said throwing a little shade at the council. "But, I can say that within these past few months and getting to know her is that her nation comes first. She has mentioned to me on plenty of times where she stated that the distribution of vibranium was against her wishes. She has no fault in this." he stated as the council looked at her.

"Furthermore, and Challa and Auntie can account for this. Both his wife and step daughter is just weird as hell." he stated making Imani chuckle through her tears. That was just so outta line but also the perfect timing.

"Meaning?" one of the council elders asked looking at Ramonda and T'Challa.

"We did notice how resilient they were being about their step-daughter being the true queen of Kambaho instead of Princess Imani." T'Challa said as Erik scoffed.

"More than that. They were acting like I should be the one marrying Amarah instead, how she wasn't fit to be a queen, how her father shouldn't trust her." Erik continued.

"Princess Imani, is this true?" The elder asked her as she nodded.

"Yes. That's why I believe this was an act of retaliation. Those statements never came from our kingdom." she stated. The elders looked at each other before one said,

"Well then why are we questioning her. This does not seem like it's her fault."

"It doesn't matter who's fault it is." M'Baku said standing up. "Princess Imani, I am sure you'll make a fine queen. I admire your bravery but this does not fix what was said." he pointed at T'Challa. "We now have world leaders expecting T'Challa to hand over the vibranium and obviously we cannot do so." he stated as Imani closed her eyes sighing.

"We are working on-"

"Don't mean to cut you off but what can you truly do. You don't even have your title yet to be making decisions for the country yet, and it seems like King Z'Kiri has his heads in the clouds."

"M'Baku there is no reason for your to be standing up and towering her like that." Erik said stepping close as M'Baku clicked his tongue. She never saw Erik angry, but his eyes showed every emotion.

"Well she doesn't seem that afraid if she's here playing king." he stated making Imani roll her eyes.

"Then I will." T'Challa said shrugging his shoulders. "Like you stated, King Z'Kiri doesn't seem like he's in his right mind to making decisions, he's not here defending himself or apologizing on their behalf, but she is." T'Challa replied standing up. That's when the ideas in her head started going.

"Erik.. you should be there." she said out loud. "Your word over hers as the next ruler in line, and as King will have a lot more effect than hers considering she isn't royal blood. It will have even more of an effect because you are blood cousins with Challa and a child of Wakanda also." she stated looking at him.

"Then if that's the case you should be there too." Okoye said. "Your mother was also a child of Wakanda and you are the rightful ruler to the throne. That's three words against what? A step child? And it's the black panther and the golden jaguar making this statement." Okoye chuckled then sneakily winked at you. You looked at T'Challa.

"Then.. it is settled."

As everyone was dismissed, it was now only her and Erik in the room. She sat down on the steps as he sat next to her. "Ya know ya really did good. Not surprised but thought you should know." he told her looking at her.

"Thank you Erik. I also wanted to say I appreciate you standing up for me." she whispered the last part playing with her fingers. She then looked up at him. Out of all this time they've known each other, he has never seen her been shy or cry. More than showing that she was showing her vulnerability to him.

"It's just- I never had someone stand up for me. I'm always standing up for myself so this feeling is different." she whispered looking him in the eyes. He looked her in the eyes before smiling at her. The damn smile.

"I told you, I got you." he whispered back looking at her. He was most definitely going in for a kiss when her phone ring. Looking at it, she saw that it was Makiah.

"Oh would you look at that." she chuckled. "It was shown that the audio had traces of editing software." she smirked at him as he smacked his teeth.

"I told you." making her chuckle. "Well you're not in the light yet. You still need to put on a public statement about the situation." she said standing up as he looked up at her. "Now, I need to go confront dear father for not coming." she said. He could obviously see the anger in her face but lord did she look sexy while mad. She had her hand out for him to grab to help him up. He stood up, a tad bit close as she was faced with his chest, breathing in his cologne.

Damn he smelled good too..

"A bit close don't you think?" she whispered looking up at him.

"I don't see you moving." he snapped back at her, moving even closer closing any room the two had between them.

"Maybe I don't want to move."

"Maybe I want to be close to you." he said placing his hands on her the sides of her face softly as he traced her lips with his thumb. She bit her lip in anticipation. That was all he needed to make the first move.

He leaned in placing his lips on hers, with her gladly accepting his advances. She grabbed the bottom of his shirt bringing him even closer as the kiss became heavier. His arms dropped from her face as he kneeled down, still kissing, and wrapping his arms around her thighs and lifting her up into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and a hand through his locs as he moaned into the kissed.

"Ahem." They heard someone clear their throat in the door way. There T'Challa

"Well, I owe Shuri and mom two hundred bucks."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"I need everyone in the council room." Imani stated as she walked into the living quarters to see the three of them in there.

"For what?"

"We have some visitors."

"I hope you seen the conference set up in New York." Oshana claimed standing up as Imani nodded.

"I have." she said looking directly at her.

"It seems like the Americans love me." Amarah said with a smirk. She look down with a chuckle.

"Yes, congratulations." she stated as they looked at her weirdly. They were about to chastise her before she looked at her father.

"Prince N'Jadaka, King T'Challa and Queen Mother is here to discuss some exciting news with you guys." she stated looking at them as Oshana looked at my father with a smirk.

"See.. I told you they'll catch a long." she than looked back at Imani. "Don't get your head too full of ego and pride." she walked passed her as the two walked in front of Imani and her father excited about what the conversation may be. Her father looked at her, but she showed no emotion to him at all.

As they walked into the council room, they thought that they would be faced with greetings and hugs, but when they saw the three of them were three angry monarchs and some scary Dora Milaje. Their excited faces were then changed with confused and concerned looks.

"King T'Challa." the both bowed at his presence but her shook his head.

"Please.. take a seat." he pointed at the chairs as they all sat down in front of him. Imani took her seat next to Erik.

"So you may be wondering why we are calling this meeting with just the few of us." he told them leaning back in his chair.

"Well from Imani, you guys had some exciting news to tell us about the vibranium. We thought it was necessary-"

"Is that what you told them?" Ramonda asked with a little laugh as Imani shrugged.

"I had to tell a little white lie or they wouldn't have come." Imani confessed than turned to look at them. "That's not what they are here for." she finished off.

"I don't think you guys understand the magnitude of your actions of going to America and telling them we would be willing to trade vibranium." King T'Challa said, his voice was calm but his deamonr was nothing of it.

"You have not only put your own country in danger, but you have also put Wakanda in danger." Erik said looking at them. The realized how this conversation was going, they ended up going in defense mode.

"We apologize but we only did what we thought was best for both countries and-"

"No you didn't." Imani spoke up as they looked at her. Their face pleaded for her to remain quiet but she was long passed keeping her mouth shut. "Oshana I told you in my fathers office months ago why we shouldn't trade with them, yet you went behind our backs. Father, did I not?" she looked at her father as he looked between the two women.

"Imani did warn her, so did I." he admitted as Ramonda scoffed.

"For the love all ancestors." she sighed rubbing her forehead.

"Not only that, but King Z'Kiri the fact that your daughter had to come plead with us not to take action against this, and you as KING and her Father wasn't there to defend your country not only shows us how you think of her, but the kind of King you are." T'Challa told him as her father looked up.

"And I am forever grateful for that, but you have to understand, my wife and step-daughter knows no better." he stated. "That is why my heir goes to my only blood daughter, the daughter that has been trained since birth to do such." he admitted as Oshana scoffed.

"Excuse me!?"

"We are not here to fix any family issues that you guys may have. We are only here to talk about the mess that two of them have caused." Ramonda stated.

"T'Challa, Imani and I will be visiting the states tomorrow and holding our our conference in Oakland at the Outreach Mission there. We will disregard any of your statements made in New York, and let it be known that Wakanda has no intent on distributing any vibranium in the near future." Erik stated, Imani looked at her father.

"Father, as King, would you like me to also speak on your behalf and recant her statement?" Imani asked as her father sighed.

"I've told you before, I trust your judgement." he said with a whisper as Oshana scoffed.

"You just let that girl walk all over you." she shook her head.

"No, let me say this." Ramonda said as Oshana looked at her, scared for about what she has to say. "Any decision that Imani has made or have been making whether it has to do with your kingdom, or her marriage with N'Jadaka, or anything else for that matter is because she has been heavily influenced. Influenced by those who are wiser and older so when she makes a decision, damn well it is planned to a T." Ramonda stated.

"You doubt her, you're doubting those who are wiser and older."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

@youcanttouchthis1001 @softleosworld @bethy-baby @automaticdragonmugalien @mscarter213 @lynaye1993 @etherealluvrr @xsweetdellzx @ajenae @babbydollaaassignn @forevermoremagcon @babbydollaaassignn @ziayamikaelson @blmcd57110 @kaireads2020 @ts1mp0ne @luvvvjada @cozyashhh @ziirowe @blkmystery @princessmel-1995 @itsophiebby @thiswasnevermylifefromtony @trippyscotch @determinednot2fall @metra873 @ravynnn-12 @meeeeep5 @ts1mp0ne @jordyn-wkndafvr @nccu-rnc @christinabae @kanilive @tthatkidmimi @sourbabynaee @ejs398 @nanii2x @hippieonboard @reneinii @royaler1999

[randomthoughtsfromkaitorodrigeuz]

So I gave different Percy Jackson characters parts in the campfire song for a fanfiction I'm writing and I want to know what you guys think

Will Solace My dad is Apollo He raises the sun He has lots of kids ‘cause he has lots of … fun We wish he would stop Because our cabin is full Oh no He’s kind of a bro And bi as hell too And all of his kids of daddy issues

Beckendorf My dad’s Hephaestus, forger of flames At least my mom didn’t throw me away he’s busy with blueprints and work every day Oh no I know he’s real busy, but I try not to mind I just wish there were time off in his grand design

Leo Valdez So my dad Hephaestus, he’s the god of forges; Gotta admit, he’s not quite that gorgeous; And he gave me powers that make my hands blaze like torches, Oh no And these powers aren’t as great as you’d expect; Because after my mom, all I got was neglect

Pollux My dad’s Dionysus, God of the vine, He is kinda crazy but I do not mind Maybe he‘ll slip me a glass of wine- Mr.D from far away: Uh no! Pollux: Say what you want, I’m not even mad At least I get to see my dad *mic drop*

Mr. D Random camper: Hey Mr. D, who are your parents? Mr. D: No, I don’t sing. Chiron: It's for the kids. Mr. D: You owe me horse… My dad is Zeus … but he’s also my mother It’s really weird, don’t know why I bother See he killed my mom with his true form Oh no Ripped from my dead mom, sewn in a thigh, was born a demigo- Oh never mind!

Holly and Laurel Victor Holly sung: Our Mother is Nike Goddess of the Games Laurel sung: You'd think it'd be cool But turns out it’s lame Both: Oh no Holly: Cause she won't even look at me if I don't win, Laurel: So I keep training every single day, Both: Or she'll show up and take our talents away

Butch My mom is Iris, she sends Hera’s things You’ll know who’s her kids when we start to sprout wings So you can think of my mom the next time you mail things, Oh no! things can be rough When that’s your mom I mean yeah, she’s all right, but one messenger is enough

Nico di Angelo Will: Your turn Nico: No I don’t sing Will: Please Nico: … Fine Nico *sung flatly*: My father is hades, lord of the dead Shadows surround me ghost fill my head. The others all fear me alone I tread Oh no He sits in the underworld watching me weep Meanwhile, I haven’t slept or eaten in over a week Will *spoken*: Are you okay..? Nico *spoken*: …no (…)

Hazel Levesque So my mother decided to summon Pluto And he gave her a curse before going abroad the good of my jewels always being a fraud Oh no For it was too late when I realized And to save us for then I gave up my life

Piper McLean So my mom Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and grace Her powers let me steal things Like it is a race; All I want Is uninterrupted time with my dad Oh no I went from school to school to be reformed yet all I got was one hell*someone yells Hades* of a storm

Percy Jackson So my dad Poseidon is not really that bad I just wish he supported me as my mother had it wouldn’t kill you to pay your child support dad Oh no But I survived two wars now and that’s pretty cool But I wish the first thing said to me wasn’t that I drool

I got a lot of this from the internet and rewrote some of it so that may be why some of it may be similar.

Let me know if you guys have requests, some of my friends have made requests so there might be some more.

[witchfall]

what you hear is not silence

[Fallen Hero series. Set post-Retribution. A hypothesis about the Ranch ending...particularly regarding two rangers and their budding Shared Interest.]

[Chargestep + Chargeflystep. A negotiation of what that means. 1718 words.]

[or read on ao3.]

“You’re doing good work, Daniel.”

Ricardo means it, in the momentary leaning on a comrade while covered in blood kind of way, and Daniel, thankfully, takes it that way. “Thank you. I hope so.”

They’re both too tired to play games right now. Both too keyed up, on the edge, despite the easy, distracted smile that graces Daniel’s face after being near River for two minutes, if that.

“Is she doing okay?” Ricardo asks. Because — he’s not so prideful he can’t admit it while at the depths of his exhaustion, at the very least — Daniel can get River to talk about the things she fastidiously hides from them both. She thinks she does a good job of it, too, hiding things from them, which would be funny if it wasn’t so…not.

Ricardo just knows better than to chase those dogs, anymore. Not if he wants to keep her close.

Daniel’s expression flickers from passive happiness to mild distress. “I would say try to drive slower but…” He slips into an anxious laugh. “You shouldn’t. We should just get her there as fast as we can.”

Ricardo nods, taking a pull from his water bottle. He hasn’t let himself sit with the revelations about The Farm. He can’t. If he does, he’s not sure how the rage will come out — just that it will be ugly.

Seven years he thought she was dead and gone, but it had somehow been worse than that.

“Ricardo…”

Right. Here it comes. Another long-needed confession in a night of them. Ricardo focuses on screwing the cap back on.

“You know we…she is…I’m…” A frustrated huff of breath, and then: “We sort of went on a pre-date the other day and we kissed and I really, really don’t want to roll up to your mother’s house without us…acknowledging…that.”

Do you have any idea how absolutely terrifying it is to be in love with you?

He knows it wasn’t a lie. The cold mortification in her eyes was real. The fury, the frustration, haloed by that golden string that keeps bringing them together. Keeps her together.

“I told her we would talk about it with you together,” Daniel continues, voice fast, hand running through his mussed hair, “but she’s so…so scared. She almost…this was…”

His eyes squeeze shut.

“I know,” Ricardo says. “And I had a feeling.”

Another bubble of nervous laughter. “Yeah, I imagine you do.”

“You aren’t exactly subtle, you know?” But the smile is warmer than even Ricardo expects. “It’s nice to see her smile like that. And you,” he tacks on, but he finds he means that, too.

Daniel smiles back — he’s good at that — but it fades quickly into something shadowed by moonlight. “She loves you. I think you should know that, if you don’t.”

A flash of something there. Uncertainty. He can see it in the way Daniel’s mouth turns downward, the way he looks elsewhere. Because while the history between River and Ricardo is sometimes as frustrating as a brick wall, it also binds them like chainlinks — and Daniel isn’t part of that. Doesn’t have something that sturdy. He just has hope. Just has throwing himself into the sky, believing it can work.

Ricardo tilts his head and stares at the asphalt. “I—”

“She needs you. I mean it.”

He turns to meet Daniel’s gaze, surprised by the intensity of the unnecessary rejoinder. He does mean it, in perhaps the most unselfish-selfish way possible. He knows River loves Ricardo. That it may define her in that thorny, bone-deep way, like it has come to define Ricardo, too. But Daniel also knows that this is what heroes do, making sure their happiness comes last, and he won’t be anything less.

Fucking hell is it like looking into a funhouse mirror, sometimes.

“I could never walk away from her,” Ricardo says. This fucking day. It’s entirely the truth, too painfully bare. “But she doesn’t let many people in. You know that.” He thinks about it for a long moment. “She’s lost enough in her life. We’d be real idiots if we tried to…I don’t know…fight dramatically in the street over it.”

His eyes widen. “So you aren’t…”

And this time Ricardo laughs for real. “No, you’re stuck with me. We’re dealing with this. Somehow.”

Daniel’s smile is…

Well, it’s not innocent, he can say that for certain. There’s a knowing there that’s…

Hmm.

“I’ll pretend to be surprised when we talk,” Ricardo says, “if she doesn’t figure out you spilled the beans before then.”

Daniel laughs. He laughs in the face of that danger. He laughs in a way that makes the situation feel fizzy and bright and not cold and dangerous and yawning like a chasm. He gives a small salute, pulls his goggles back on over his face, and spirals away into the sky like that’s a normal thing that humans do.

It’s not like Ricardo doesn’t get it.

---

Once River is all wrapped up in Mama’s loving care, Ricardo excuses himself to the bathroom to stand there and…consider the situation.

He stares at himself in the mirror. At the bags under his eyes and the lines in his face and the grays along his temple.

Of course he was confused about it. The Daniel and River situation. He kept it compressed in a ball, just beneath his ribs — a painful little burr of things he had been pointedly not thinking about. He was focused on keeping her alive, on protecting her from herself; on how determined the universe seemed to be to tear her from him, to turn her into smoke and bone and blood, over and over and over…

At least he revived her this time.

But now it is unspooling and he needs to wrangle it together before he can face her again.

He can’t stop thinking of her bursting into tears the minute Mama greeted her with wide open arms. Too many things make sense now. Of course she would…of course, if you’ve never…

No. Still too raw.

Much easier to think about how Mama noticed immediately that he and Daniel both — for the same split second — became helpless, useless boys waving their arms around trying to figure out how to banish River’s tears from existence before they remembered their professional faces. Which means they’ll have to talk about it. Potentially in front of Mama.

River is going to be so pissed.

But damn, he’ll take it. He really will. If you had told him two years ago that River would be back in his life—

No, honestly, it just stops there. He wouldn’t have cared what the cost was. And if the “cost” is “you will have to make a very interesting arrangement with the new guy on the team who makes you think a little too much” then that’s nothing. That’s less than nothing. He will pay it. So fucking gladly. Just watch.

Even if the cost becomes something sharper, harsher. Even if the cost is “she prefers him over you because he isn’t the past” or “she trusts him because she can read his mind and she’ll never see yours and it will never be the same to just say what you really think.” Even if the cost is a little pin needle like “she frankly finds Daniel handsomer than you.” Really. He’ll live.

Isn’t that what love is about?

She said it first.

---

Ricardo leans into the door frame. "Daniel couldn't stay because he has to go kick up dust over the trail, in case you were wondering."

River pointedly picks at invisible dirt on her blanket. “I wasn’t.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Instead of the usual exasperation, she regards him with empty…nothing. An absolute resistance to showing anything at all. Unfortunately for River, that tells Ricardo everything.

"So he talked to you?" she asks.

Is she more scared of this than…the rest of it? Maybe it’s easier to be scared of this. Ricardo covers the ache with a shrug. “Talked to me about what?”

Her expression turns brittle and strange, eyes darting to the quilt. And then she says: “I’m sorry.”

Stunned, his “Why?” comes out sharper than he expects.

“For, I don’t know, everything about it?” Her eyes are shining again, glaring and furious. Someone staring down the car coming right at them, like that might make a difference. “Not telling you first, not talking…about it all, about…I don’t even get it…”

He sees it, suddenly. Clarity. This is what she meant. Lashing out. She can’t twist herself into a perfect shape in prediction of what he’ll say and how he’ll react. She just has to be herself. And damn if that isn’t painful.

Damn if he doesn’t understand.

“You? Not knowing something?” He kneels down by her bedside and reaches for her hands and takes them harshly in his own before she can draw back. “Too many pain killers for you, I think, if you’re admitting that.”

She doesn’t pull away. Even though she says, “Dick.”

“Got it in one.”

Her frown wobbles. He watches textures of words rise to her lips and die before she lets them out. Trying so hard to exert control over a situation that is defined by the complete loss of it.

“Nothing has to change,” he says. “Nothing at all. I didn’t lie to you. And I don’t think you lied to me.”

A shadow passes through her face — the same one that comes around whenever she mentions how complicated her life has become in the wake of her not-death. He still hasn’t puzzled it out.

And then, a commendable recovery: “If you hold it over my head I will kick you in the balls.”

“With what legs?”

Her hands flap angrily in his grip, like that might banish him from existence.

“You looooove me,” he croons at her, darting just out of reach right as her hands shake free. All to watch the orange creep into her face, to watch her eyes glow with some semblance of life and fury and, he would like to think, happiness — though he hasn’t yet seen the proof. That’s fine. He’ll find it.

“Idiot.”

“And I love you.”

“Get out of here before I yell for your mom.”

[originalhybridloverfics-backup]

Healing and Scars - The Sacrifice

Summary: The Glades fall and Felicity's abilities are put to the test.

Oliver slept on the life raft with his father’s arm around him. 

“You can survive this.” Robert leaned into his son. “Make it home. Make it better. Right my wrongs.”

He gently eased his son away from him, unwrapping his arm from around Oliver’s shoulder. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun, firing his gun at his bodyguard. 

Oliver jolted up. “Dad?!” he gasped, eyes wide in horror 

“Survive.” Robert told him before turning his gun on himself. 

“No! No!” Oliver shouted in fear, but it was too late. His father put a bullet in his own head.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver was jolted to consciousness as a bucket of water was tossed on him. 

Long chains shackled his arms to the warehouse ceiling, his feet barely touching the ground. 

He gasped as the water dripped down his naked torso. 

He groaned, his muscles feeling the strain from his predicament and his fight with Malcolm the night before. 

“I hope I didn’t hurt you.” Malcolm entered the warehouse. “At least I can properly thank you now for saving my life. If I only knew how you were spending your nights…” he circled around Oliver as he spoke, every step he took spoke of confidence. “My hope is that I can explain everything to you to help you understand.”

“You murdered my father!” Oliver snapped. “You sentenced me to that island, to five years of hell.”  

“I am truly sorry for what happened to you.” Malcolm continued to circle around him like a shark circling his prey. “You know I have lost people.” 

“Yeah, your wife. Do you really think that you’re honoring Tommy’s mother by destroying the Glades?” Oliver challenged. 

Rebecca Merlyn had dedicated her life to making the Glades a better place for the people who called it home. 

Malcolm stopped in front of Oliver. He was smart enough not to get too close. “As surely as you believe you’re honoring your father with this hood.” he lifted his arm and in his hand was Oliver’s hood. The same hood Oliver had received from Yao Fei and Shadow. “Not a day goes by I don’t miss your father.” 

Oliver glared. “You’ll see him soon.” 

“You can’t beat me, Oliver.” Malcolm told him. “Yes, you’re younger. You’re faster, but you always seem to come up short against me. Want to know why? Because you don’t know, in your heart, what you’re fighting for. What you’re willing to sacrifice, and I do.” he turned, walking away but paused, turning back, lifting the hood. “No one can stop what’s about to come. Not even the Vigilante.”

He tossed the hood onto the floor and walked away. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Oliver waited till it seemed like the coast was clear and turned his body, lifting his legs. He began to climb the chains, shackling him, stopping more than halfway. He let go, allowing his body weight to snap the chains from the ceiling. 

He dropped to the ground, grunting from the impact. He got up quickly just as a guard came down the side entrance and used the chain as a weapon. He disarmed the guard and snapped his neck with the chain. He quickly moved to the open entrance and pressed his back against the wall. 

A guard rushed in with his gun raised. Oliver snapped his neck with the chains still attached to his wrists and then moved over him, searching his body. 

A third man came, but before he could get a shot off, another shot went off and he went down. 

John was behind him, gun drawn. “I take back every joke I made about you sticking a tracking device in your boot.”

Oliver’s shoulders fell in relief at the sight of his teammate, partner, and friend. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Felicity’s at Queen Consolidated. She’s still going through the data she pulled off Merlyn’s network.” John told Oliver as they started down the steps to the foundry. 

“Did she find anything?” Oliver asked, walking further inside. 

“Yeah, the design schematics of the earthquake generator. So we can shut it down. Assuming we find it in time.” John answered and pulled out his phone to call her, listening as her cell started ringing.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Felicity pressed the phone to her ear as she stepped out of Queen Consolidated and turned down the street. 

“Yeah, Felicity, I got him.” John’s voice came over the line. 

“Thank God.” said Felicity, relieved. “Is he ok?” 

“Mostly.” John answered. 

“Ok. I’m on my way.” Felicity ended the call. 

“Miss Smoak.”

Red and blue lights flashed in front of her as she turned to see Detective Lance walking toward her. 

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” 

Felicity lowered her cell, slipping it back into her bag as she faced the detective. 

Detective Lance actively seeking her out, couldn’t be good. Certainly not for her. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Lance opened a door to one of the interrogation rooms in the police station. “Please.” he motioned Felicity inside. “Take a seat.”

Felicity stepped inside reluctantly. “You know, I think I’d rather stand.” 

Lance slammed the door shut.

Felicity quickly turned and took a seat, and inhaled shakily. 

“You’re not exactly a hardened criminal, are you?” asked Lance, moving to stand in front of the table she was seated at. 

“No, I’m not any kind of criminal.” Felicity answered, eyes wide. 

“What do you call computer hacking?” Lance challenged. 

Felicity shrugged. “A hobby?” at his arch brow she winced. “That I do not engage in.” She quickly backpedaled after inadvertently incriminating herself. 

“Hey, I got a whole mess of computer gobbedly gook that I don’t understand, but it says otherwise.” he took a seat across from her as he spoke. “I had my tech guys go through your computer at Queen Consolidated. You used it to hack into Blackhawk squad security to research arrows shipped to a company called Sagittarius and to analyze a water sample to tie back to a Vertigo drug lab. These are all cases involving...The Hood.” he locked eyes with her. “Tell me, Felicity. What am I thinking?” 

Felicity’s lips parted, but no sound escaped. For once in her life, words escaped her.  

Lance’s cell rings, cutting through the tension in the room.  

“Saved by the bell,” said Lance, and pulled out his phone. “Excuse me.” 

It continued to ring until he answered it. 

“Hello, Detective.” The Hood’s disguised voice greeted him. 

“It’s funny you should call.” Lance spoke into the phone, his eyes never leaving Felicity. “I got your trusty sidekick sitting right in front of me.” 

“I don’t have a sidekick.” The Hood responded, his disguised voice coming over the line. “When I need help, I call you.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Malcolm Merlyn plans to level the Glades with a manmade earthquake using technology from Unidac Industries.” Oliver informed him, speaking into the cell he used for The Hood business. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“What?” Lance chuckles. He stood walking around the table. “Now you’re just trying to have some fun with me.” 

“I don’t know what Merlyn’s timetable is, so you need to evacuate the Glades immediately.” The Hood's voice came over the line. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Get as many people to safety as you can. Whatever you think of me, Detective, please...believe this,” Oliver said, hoping to get through to the detective.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Sounds like you have bigger problems than me.” Felicity said, watching the detective from over her right shoulder. 

Lance nodded to the door. “Don’t leave town.” 

Felicity quickly stood and opened the door. She paused, turning back to Lance. “You know… I used to think the Vigilante was a criminal, too, but it seems to me, whoever he is, he’s willing to sacrifice an awful lot to help the people of this city. Kind of makes him a hero… Doesn’t it?”

Lance looked at her and said nothing. Felicity walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. 

Felicity hoped her words would have a lasting effect on the Detective. Oliver was not an enemy. He was a valuable ally that the city needed more than ever. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver walked up to Verdant out of the bunker. Tommy was at the bar. 

Tommy chuckles, closing the half drunk bottle of liquor in his hands. “Look who it is. My best friend in life.” 

“Hey, buddy.” Oliver stepped closer, a little wary because of the bitterness in Tommy’s voice. 

Tommy walked forward. “I took your advice, you know. I went to Laurel’s. To fight for her. So imagine my surprise, seeing you there, kissing her!” he slammed the bottle onto the table. 

“I’m sorry.” Oliver apologized. 

“No, you’re not.” Tommy glared. 

“Something’s happening, and it involves your father.” Oliver told him. He had more important things to discuss with Tommy than Laurel. 

With The Undertaking looming, everything else paled in comparison. 

Tommy pointed a finger at him. “Keep my father out of this.” 

“Our fathers,” said Oliver sharply. “They aren’t the men we thought they were. They made a plan together... to destroy the Glades.” 

“Do you have any idea what you sound like right now?” Tommy asked, glaring. 

“Your father’s going to do it.” Oliver told him. “Because he thinks it will avenge your mother’s death.” 

“Do not talk about my mother!” said Tommy, angrily, swinging at Oliver. His mother having always been a sore spot for him.  

However, Oliver easily stepped to the side and Tommy fumbled to the ground. 

Tommy rolled onto his back, propping his weight up on his elbows. 

Oliver crouched down in front of him. “The difference between us, Tommy, is that I didn’t find out the truth about my father until it was too late. But you’ve always known, deep down, you have always known the man he is.”

Tommy glared hatefully up at him. “I wish you would have died on that island.” 

Oliver nodded, looking away from him. Refusing to show how much Tommy’s words hurt. He stood up and walked around him. 

There was nothing left to be said. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Moira was packing away clothes into boxes and a portable dresser from a suitcase on her bed when Oliver walked in. 

“No more lies, Mom.” Oliver told her. “The Undertaking. We need to stop it.” 

Moira folded a shirt, putting it away. “Everything I have ever said or done has been to protect you and your sister.” 

“What about all those people in the Glades?” Oliver challenged. 

Moira turned to him, speaking sharply. “I’m not their mother.” 

“I spoke to Malcolm.” Oliver informed her. 

“You what?! He could have killed you.” Moira admonished. “He killed your father.” 

“No, he didn’t.” Oliver corrected. “After the “Gambit” went down, dad and I both made it to the life raft. And then we drifted for days. In the end, there wasn’t enough food and water for both of us.” Oliver sighed sadly. “So he shot himself in the head.” 

Moira turned away from him, her hand going to her mouth. “I don’t want to hear this.” 

“He sacrificed himself… So that I could live.” Oliver continued, despite her protest. “Do you really think that I could go on living knowing that you sacrificed thousands more in my name? Mom. Please. You have to help me stop Malcolm.” he took her by the arms. “We need to know where the device is.” 

Moira’s phone started ringing. Moira moved to answer it, pulling out of her son’s grasp, grabbing it from the bed. “Malcolm. How can I help you?” she turned, locking eyes with Oliver as she spoke into the phone. “I see. Yes, thank you for calling.” 

“What is it?” asked Oliver after she ended the call. 

“Malcolm’s accelerated his timetable.” Moira answered, her face stricken. “The Undertaking is… Is happening tonight.” Oliver turned to leave. “Where are you going?” she called after him.  

Oliver paused to look back at her. “Somebody in this family needs to put an end to this.” he shook his head, definitively. “Whatever the cost.” 

He walked away, leaving his mother standing in her room, her arms wrapped around herself. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver moved down the hall that led to the staircase. 

“Hi.” said Laurel, announcing her presence. 

Oliver looked over the railing to see her standing in the foyer. “Hey.” 

“I woke up, and you were gone.” Laurel said as he started down the staircase. 

“I’m really sorry about that.” Oliver said, descending the last staircase. 

“Oliver, I’m trying not to think that our history’s repeating; That you’re scared again,” said Laurel, wringing her hands. 

“No.” Oliver reached the bottom of the stairs. “That’s not it.” 

“Then will you tell me what’s going on with you?” Laurel asked, meeting him halfway as he closed the distance between them. 

“There are so many things that I have wanted to tell you for so long,” said Oliver. “I never told you what happened to me on the island.” 

“You didn’t have to. I can see that it changed you.” Laurel told him. 

“That’s the thing. Laurel, it didn’t. Those five years didn’t change me. They just… They scraped away all the things that I wasn’t, and revealed the person I always was, which is the person… That’s who you always saw. I don’t know how you saw it, but you did. Nobody in my life is who I thought they were… thank you.” he took her by the hands. “Laurel, I need you to do something for me. Stay out of the Glades tonight.”

“Why?” asked Laurel.

It wasn’t the time to tell her he thought they were better off as friends, that last night had been the last time for them. A goodbye to a relationship that had nothing left to give.

“You’ll know soon. One way or the other.” Oliver answered. “I have to go.” 

He left, leaving her alone in the foyer. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Tommy walked into his father’s office, ripping his jacket off. “It’s over. Laurel and me, I mean.” he walked over to the bar, pouring himself a drink. “She’s with Oliver, again. Always.” .

“I’m sorry, son,” Malcolm said, his back to him as he looked out the glass walls of his office. 

“Yeah, and he said you wanted to nuke the Glades or something.” Tommy walked over to him. “You know, it’s funny, Scotch doesn’t make it any more believable,” he said, taking a drink. “Maybe after your jihad, we can grab some steaks.” 

“It’s true, Tommy.” Malcolm turned away from the window to face him. “It’s the reason I closed your mother’s clinic. I didn’t want to see it leveled.” 

Tommy looked at his father in disbelief. “What?” 

“I have something I’d like you to listen to.” Malcolm moved to his desk, picking a small metal bowl. “The night your mother died, she called me. I awoke to a voicemail from her.” 

Inside the bowl was an old cell phone. 

“Dad…” said Tommy hesitantly. 

Malcolm set it down on his desk. “Her final gift to me.” he pressed play on the voicemail. 

“Malcolm, I’m in trouble.” Rebecca Merlyn’s pained voice sounded in the room. “I told--I told him to take everything. My money...my ring.” 

“Turn it off,” said Tommy, not wanting to hear his mother dying. 

“They shot me.” Rebecca’s voice shook. “I screamed for help, but no one would come.” 

“No one would come.” Malcolm repeated, as tears filled Tommy’s eyes. 

“Malcolm, I don’t want to die alone,” said Rebecca, scared and alone. 

“She bled out into the pavement while people passed, did nothing,” said Malcolm, frowning deeply. 

Rebecca started crying, and Tommy swallowed with difficulty. 

“Your mother built her clinic in the Glades because she wanted to save this city.” Malcolm told his son. “It can’t be saved. Because the people there don’t want it to be saved.”  

Tommy looked at his father, appalled. “So you kill them all–” 

“Yes!” Malcolm snapped, taking Tommy aback. “They deserve to die! All of them! The way she died!” 

Tommy’s heart pounded in his chest with dawning horror. Oliver was right about his father. 

The man in front of him was a psychopath. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver walked into the bunker. “The Undertaking is happening tonight.” 

Felicity was seated at her computer, and John stood behind her station. 

“Oliver, Felicity may have found something.” John walked around to meet him. 

Felicity held his book of names in her hands. “This symbol is a map of the old subway tunnel system.”

“That’s what got us thinking the Undertaking is connected to the Glades.” said Oliver. 

“What if it’s more specific than that?” Felicity questioned. 

“What do you mean?” asked Oliver. 

“If I had a machine that could trigger an earthquake in an otherwise geologically stable area, where would I position it?” asked Felicity.

“Underground.” Oliver answered. 

“Yeah. This is a U.S. geological survey of the tectonic plates running underneath Starling City.” Felicity said, showing him images on her computer monitors of the map of the city. “This red line here is a known fault that runs right below the Glades. About a mile, the fault runs underneath the old Tenth Street subway line.”  

“Dollars to donuts, the seismic device is somewhere along there.” John said, pointing to a red line that cut through the Glades. 

“I know where it is,” said Oliver. 

Oliver’s cell buzzed in his pocket, and he turned away, fishing it out of his back pocket and put his phone to his ear. “Now is not a good time.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Yeah, understate much?” Thea replies, speaking into her cell, walking through the foyer of her home, stopping in the entry of the sitting room. “Mom has a whole bunch of reporters here. She’s holding a press conference or something.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“What channel?” Oliver asked, alert.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Thea peered into the room. It was full of news crews with cameras. “Ah, it looks like all of them.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Oliver ended the call and moved toward Felicity. “Felicity, pull up the local news, please.” 

Felicity did as he asked and the inside of the Queen mansion with Mrs. Queen as the focused appeared on the monitors. 

“My name is Moira Dearden Queen. I am the acting CEO of Queen Consolidated.” Moira began. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“And God forgive me, I have failed the city. For the past five years, under the threat for my life and the lives of my family…” As Moira spoke, a police officer moved to stand a foot behind Thea, waiting. 

Waiting to back up law enforcement and arrest Moira Queen for her crimes. 

Moira looked at her daughter in regret. Her eyes moved to the detectives waiting, and then back to the camera. “I have been complicit in an undertaking with one horrible purpose… to destroy the Glades and everyone in it. I realize now that my family’s safety will mean nothing if I let this dreadful act occur.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Tommy and Malcolm watched the pressed release from Malcolm’s laptop in his office. 

“But you need to know that the architect of this nightmare... is Malcolm Merlyn.” 

Tommy looked at his father, watching him.

Malcolm slammed the laptop shut. “No!”

Rage coming off him in waves, his perfect control wavering.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Yes, and I have proof that he has killed dozens in pursuit of this madness.” Moira continued as Thea looked at her, appalled. “Adam Hunt, Frank Chen, and my husband… Robert.” 

Tears filled Thea’s eyes at the mention of her deceased father. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Please. If you reside in the Glades, you need to get out now. Your lives and the lives of your children depend on it.” Moira’s voice filled with emotion. “Please.” 

The reporters shared wary looks before they all started talking at once, shouting questions. 

Moira pushed past them toward Thea. 

The cops were moving at the same moment, following closely behind her. 

“I don’t understand,” said Thea, shaking her head, looking at her as if she didn’t even know who she was anymore. 

“I’m sorry.” Moira apologized, reaching for her. “I love you.” 

Thea pulled out of her reach. “I love Roy.” 

“Roy?” Moira repeated, confused. 

“He lives in the Glades.” Tears shined in Thea’s eyes. “I can’t leave him there.” She turned, leaving. 

“Sweetheart--Thea!” Moira moved to follow but was stopped by SCPD. 

“Moira Queen, you’re under arrest for conspiracy.” The detective moved her hands behind her back. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.” 

Moira looked down. She wanted nothing more than to go after her daughter, but she couldn’t. 

Because of Malcolm, she had lost everything. Including her freedom. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Tommy stared at his father in horror. “Is it true? Did you kill all those people?”

Did he kill Robert, who had been like a father to him?  

“I did what I had to do,” Malcolm told him and moved to the far wall of his office. He removed the picture frame there, revealing a thumb print pad. He pressed his thumb to it and it opened to reveal the suit of the dark archer. 

Tommy gasped, his horror growing. 

SCPD swarmed his office. “Freeze! Malcolm Merlyn, you are under arrest.”

“Dad, no!” Tommy exclaimed as Malcolm cut them down with a sword from his wall. Tommy grabbed a gun from his father’s desk and aimed it at his father. “Please, Dad.” Malcolm took a step toward him and he took a step back. “Stay back. I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“You can’t.” Malcolm disarmed Tommy and clocked him with the end of his blade, knocking him out. “And you can’t stop me.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Oliver stood in front of his Lian Yu crate. 

Felicity moved toward him. “Oliver, I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be. She gave those people a chance.” Oliver opened the crate. 

“I thought Merlyn broke your bow,” said John. 

“I have another.” He stared down at it in the crate. 

“I was going over the device schematics. The device can be set for a timed detonation or can be remote activated by a mobile transmitter.” Felicity told him. 

“Something Merlyn could have on him.” Oliver turned around to face them. 

“Listen, Oliver, if we can just get our hands on this transmitter, maybe we don’t need to track down the device,” said John. 

“It’s too big of an “if,” Diggle. I need you in the subway. Find the device, disarm it.” Oliver told him. 

“So you can take on Merlyn by yourself?” asked John. 

“I have to.” answered Oliver. 

“Oh, he’ll kill you, Oliver,” said John. 

“I know.” Oliver admitted. “He’s beaten me twice. And I don’t know how to stop him.”

“Ok.” John moved around Felicity. “Well, how about this time, you bring along something you didn’t have the last time you two fought.. Me.” 

“I can’t let you,” said Oliver. 

“I can’t let you do this by yourself, man. Oliver, you are not alone, not since you brought me into this.” John looked back at Felicity. “Us into this.” Oliver looked past John at Felicity and she smiled faintly. “Besides, army regulations… a soldier never lets a brother go into battle alone.” 

Oliver smiled faintly. “I’m out of bows.” 

“I got my gun,” John returned. 

Felicity stepped forward beside John. “I guess it’s up to me to do the dismantling.” 

“This whole area is ground zero.” Oliver said, his eyes locking with hers. “I want you out of here.” 

Felicity stepped forward, her eyes not moving from Oliver’s. “If you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving. Besides, if I don’t deactivate the device, who will?”

And Felicity wasn’t going to run and hide when the city needed help saving and she could do something to help. 

Oliver moved past John and Felicity, grabbing his phone. 

There was no way he was going to let Felicity anywhere near Malcolm’s machine, whose sole purpose was to level the Glades and kill everyone in it. 

He wouldn’t risk her life. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“You were right.” Lance said into his cell phone, standing in the middle of SCPD’S bullpen. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“I need one more thing from you,” Oliver spoke into his phone. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Yeah? What do I got left to give?” asked Lance. 

“I know where Merlyn is keeping the device.” The Hood’s voice came over the line.  ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“It’s in an abandoned subway station near Puckett Street.” Oliver informed him. 

“How do you know?” asked Lance. 

“That’s where his wife was murdered.” Oliver answered. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“I need someone I can trust to deactivate the device.” Lance heard the Hood say. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“We have a mutual friend that I think could…” Oliver looked at Felicity and she looked at him. “Talk you through it.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“She says you care about the people of this city, that it needs you.” Lance told him, knowing the Hood was speaking of Felicity Smoak.  

He recalled the look in her eyes when she spoke those words to him. 

Honest belief. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“: Right now, Detective… It needs you.” Oliver told him.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Lance exhales, unable to argue, lowering his cell, ending the call. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

John and the Hood entered Malcolm’s office at Merlyn Global, weapons raised. 

“Looks like we missed him,” said John, but he did not lower his gun. 

His office was empty except for the bodies of the SCPD that Malcolm left behind. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

A groaned filled the room. The hood whipped around. 

Oliver lowered his hood and his weapon, recognizing the downed man. “Tommy.” he moved toward him. “Tommy. Tommy!” 

Tommy lifted his head. “Oliver.”

“Where’s your father?” Oliver crouched in front of him. 

“Ohh.” Tommy groaned. “I don’t know.” Tommy answered, leaning on his elbow, bracing his weight on his side. There was a cut on his right cheek, seeping blood. “You were right. You were right about him.” 

“Oliver.” John said, standing in the doorway of Malcolm’s secret room. 

“Are you going to kill him?” asked Tommy, not really wanting an answer but needing to know, regardless.  

“Get to safety.” Oliver told him. 

“Looks like a false wall.” John said. 

Oliver and John found their way in. The room was basically Malcolm’s armory. 

“Welcome, gentlemen.” Malcolm stood in front of a large fan blade, dressed in his Archer gear. “I’ve been waiting for you. I wanted to see you watch your city die.” 

“Where’s the transmitter?” The Hood demanded. 

“Somewhere I can easily get to it.” Malcolm smirked. 

“I doubt it. You’ll be too dead,” said John and fired his gun. 

Malcolm dodged, and the three engaged in battle. It was difficult with not a lot of room to maneuver. 

“Aaah!” John dropped to the ground, a dagger Malcolm threw imbedded in his shoulder. 

Malcolm used the distraction to escape. 

John groaned as Oliver stopped in front of him. “Stairs. Go, go.” 

Oliver quickly went after Malcolm. 

John groaned as his hand moved to grip the blade imbedded in his upper chest and shoulder. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver stepped out onto the roof, and the Dark archer fired an arrow at his feet. The Hood didn’t so much as flinch. 

“So tell me.. are you ready to die?” asked the Dark Archer. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Lance ran through the abandon underground subway that ran beneath the Glades. 

“You found it yet, Detective?” Felicity's voice came over his cell phone. 

“Not exactly sure what I’m looking for.” Lance answered. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Do you want me to describe it to you?” Felicity asked, from her stationed in the foundry. 

She couldn’t help but think this would be easier if she was the one in the abandon underground subway. 

She was a firm believer in, ‘If you wanted something done right, do it yourself.’ 

Especially considering the circumstances. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“No, I’ve got it,” Lance answered as he came upon a large machine with flashing lights. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“You should see something that looks like a circuit board.” Felicity’s voice came over his phone. “Pull it out. Do you see a timer?” 

Lance removed the circuit board, revealing a bunch of wires. 

“Seven minutes.” Lance answered as the numbers were counting down. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Ok.” Felicity swallowed. “Well, the good news is, this is going to be a paperweight in three.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The Archer and the Hood exchanged arrows and then physical blows. 

The Hood fired another arrow. The Archer caught it mere inches from his face. It beeped in his fingers before exploding, knocking Malcolm off his feet. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“There are three wires.. you need a green one, a yellow and one blue. Cut the blue.” Felicity told him, looking at schematics. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“All right, I got it, I got it,” said Lance, doing as she said.

The machine starts beeping, lights flashing, the timer of the clock went down from 4 minutes to 2 minutes. 

The machine began whirling, opening and connecting to the ground. 

“Oh, my God. No, no, no, no, no!” Lance gripped his head in dismay, his heart pounding frantically in his chest.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“There must be some sort of anti-tamper safeguard.” Felicity told him, bringing up more schematics, her voice calm and collected. 

There was no time to panic. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Hold on. I’m going to try to figure out how to override it.” Felicity told him over the comms. 

“Not enough time. There’s not enough time!” Lance shouted, turning away from the machine. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Just hold on!” Felicity insisted. 

She knew he was panicking, but she needed him to pull it together. 

Hundreds of people were going to die, possibly a thousand if they couldn’t get this done. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Not enough time.” Lance panicked, pulling out his phone and calling his daughter. “Laurel.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Dad, don’t worry, I got your message, and I did not come into work today.” Laurel lied, as she gathered files from CNRI, others around her doing the same. 

“Save it, kiddo. We both know you’re there.” Lance said over the phone. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“But listen..you got to get out of the Glades.” Lance told her.

He needed at least one of his daughters to live. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“You got to get out of the Glades right now!” Lance insisted. “Ok, please.” 

“Dad?” Laurel replied into her cell, the tone of his voice, the urgency throwing her off. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Right now, Laurel! Right now, Laurel!” Lance raised his voice. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Daddy, you’re scaring me.” Laurel told him, her heart racing. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Sorry, but I’m not… I’m not going to make it,” said Lance, his voice shook.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“What?” Tears gathered in Laurel’s eyes. “What?!” 

“You have to promise me one thing, Laurel.” her father’s voice came over the line. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“You’re not going to die along with me,” Lance told her, voice shaking.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“You have to go on with your life,” he continued, much to Laurel’s dread.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“After your sister died, I pushed people away. I became like a ghost. I didn’t think I had the right to live when my baby girl didn’t.” Lance’s voice broke. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Promise me you’re not going to make the same mistakes as I did,” Lance said into his phone. 

“Where are you?” asked Laurel. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Promise me, Laurel.” Lance pressed. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Promise me.” Lance insisted again when his daughter didn’t answer him.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“I promise.” Laurel replied, breathing shakily. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“I love you, honey, now and forever.” Lance told her.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“I love you.” Laurel cried. She lurched forward when the call ended. “Dad!” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

 “Detective Lance?” Felicity spoke into her comms, rubbing at her temple. “I need you to listen to me very carefully.” 

She didn’t mean to be unsympathetic, but now was not the time for any goodbyes.

Right now, she needed his full focus. She needed him to do exactly what she said. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver and Malcolm continued to fight at the top of Merlyn Global, exchanging blows. 

John managed to drag himself to the roof exit as Malcolm gained the upper hand on Oliver, gripping him in a vice lock, his arms cutting off Oliver’s air. 

“Don’t struggle. It’s over,” Malcolm said as Oliver struggled to breathe. “There was never any doubt in the outcome.” he brought Oliver to his knees. “Don’t worry. Your mother and sister will be joining you in death.”

Oliver could hear his father’s voice. “Survive.” 

He could see him putting a bullet in his own head to save him. 

Oliver looked at John and then his hand felt blindly on the ground. Finding purchase on one of his discarded arrows, gripping it tightly, he plunges it through his own chest and into Malcolm’s.

Malcolm's arms fell away in pain, and he fell to his knees. Oliver pushed himself to his feet, chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Thank you for teaching me what I’m fighting for.” Oliver struggled to his feet and turned to face him and slammed his fist into Malcolm’s jaw. 

Malcolm fell back against the roof. 

“But my father taught me how,” Oliver finished, standing over Malcolm’s prone body. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

The machine continued to beep as Lance tried to cut the correct wire. 

“Come on!” Lance clipped the wire, and the machine shut down, his shoulder’s sagged in relief. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Oliver, Lance did it.” Felicity’s voice came over the comms, unable to hide the relief she felt. 

“It’s over,” he told Malcolm, standing over him. 

“If I’ve learned anything as a successful businessman, it’s…” Malcolm cough from his place on the ground. “Redundancy.” 

Malcolm gave one last groan, his body going limp and his eyes falling shut.

Oliver placed his hand over his chest, his eyes filling with despair. “Felicity... there’s another device. There’s two of them!” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Lance made it to the streets. It was full of panic, only made worse as the ground began to shake. 

“What the hell’s happening?!” Lance exclaimed, gripping to a wall to keep steady on his feet. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Ohh!” John’s lips parted as he and Oliver looked out over the city to see buildings shaking. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Explosions sounded everywhere. 

“I turned the damn thing off!” Lance shouted. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Merlyn had a second device!” Felicity gripped tightly to her desk, horror washing over her.  

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“My daughter! Laurel! She’s at CNRI!” Lance exclaimed, trying to move through the streets, struggling to stay on his feet. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Oliver?” Felicity whimpered as the building she was under shook. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Are you ok?” Oliver asked her, concerned. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Yeah.” Felicity gasped as sparks showered above her head. “The damage seems to be contained on the east side, past Wells Street.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Laurel.” Oliver looked at John, who he was helping stand. “Are you going to be ok?”  

John gripped the barrier of the roof and pushed at Oliver. “Go, go, go.” 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Help!” Laurel sobbed, trapped beneath a slab of concrete. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

“Please! Help me!” Laurel sobbed and suddenly Tommy was there, bracing his knee and gripping the slab of concrete. “Tommy! What are you doing here?” 

“I kind of figured that you might come back to CNRI,” Tommy said, looking down at her, the blood on his cheek dried and crusted. 

Tommy grunted as he tried to lift the concrete off of her. 

“You came here for me?” Laurel’s voice was filled with wonder and disbelief. 

“I love you.” Tommy said sincerely and grunted, using all the strength he possessed. “Get up! Go!” he said as he lifted it from her. “I’m right behind you!” 

Laurel scrambled from beneath and took off running without looking back once.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Felicity ran through the streets, her breaths coming quickly, glad for once that since working with Oliver she knew the Glades like the back of her hand. 

She saw Lance running through the streets and ran faster to catch up with him as he shouted for his daughter. 

“Detective Lance.” Felicity had wanted to see if she could help. She hated having heard the fear and regret in the man’s voice when she heard him on the phone with his daughter. 

Laurel. Oliver’s Laurel. 

Oliver shouldn’t have to worry about the woman he was in love with when he was trying to save the city.

She had made her way to CNRI, hoping she could be of some help in some way. 

Lance stopped in front of CNRI, shouting for his daughter. Felicity wasn’t sure he even heard her call out to him. 

“Laurel!” Lance shouted. “Laurel!” 

“Dad!” Laurel ran into her dad’s arm, clinging to him. “Dad!” 

Lance held her as if his life depended on it. “Oh, thank God.” 

Felicity stopped a few feet behind, going unnoticed. 

CNRI began to collapse. 

Laurel whirled around. “No!” 

“No! Laurel!” Lance grabbed her by the waist, keeping from running back in. “No, you can’t!” 

“Tommy!” Laurel screamed, struggling in her father’s arms. 

Felicity’s eyes widened at the mention of Oliver’s best friend. 

There was no way he could survive a collapse like that. 

“You can’t!” Lance shouted. “It’s too late, it’s too late.” 

“Tommy!” Laurel screamed at the top of her lungs, collapsing back against her father. 

Felicity moved quickly, no one noticing her as she ran around to the back entrance, finding her way inside through the rubble. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Felicity picked her way through the rubble, stumbling and barely stopping herself from falling as she ran over fallen debris. 

She heard a man’s groan of pain and followed the sound.

“Tommy?” she called out. 

Felicity screeched to a halt. Tommy was trapped beneath a large piece of fallen concrete. 

“Felicity?” Tommy coughed her name out. 

“Yeah.” Felicity moved to kneel beside his head. 

She and Tommy didn’t really know each other that well. They met each other through Oliver when he found out the truth about Oliver. Tommy knew she worked with Oliver, helping him with his Hood activities. 

“What are you doing here?” Tommy asked, struggling to breathe. 

“I don’t know. I wanted to help.” Felicity answered. 

“I don’t think you can help me.” Tommy said. 

Felicity hated to admit it, but if she couldn’t find a way to free him from the concrete, he was right. She couldn’t help him. 

Did she really come here just to watch Tommy Merlyn die?

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver could hear Laurel screaming as he brought his bike to a screeching halt behind CNRI. Jumping off his bike he ran into the collapsed building, lifting fallen debris as he went until he came across Tommy, trapped by slabs of concrete and to his surprise Felicity kneeling at his side. 

“What are you doing here?” Oliver asked Felicity. 

“I wanted to help.” Felicity felt relief wash over her. “Can you lift this off him?”  

“Yeah.” he answered before addressing Tommy. “Ah, Tommy. You’re going to be fine.” Oliver assured him as he began lifting the debris off him. 

“Another thing…” Tommy struggled to breathe. “We got to disagree on.” 

Oliver lifted the concrete off him and, to his horror, saw a piece of rebar protruding from Tommy’s chest. “Tommy…” 

Felicity gasped. She had healed severe wounds before, but nothing to this extent. 

“Is..is Laurel safe?” Tommy breathed. “Is Laurel safe? I tried to get her out of here.” 

“Yeah, yeah, you did.” Oliver forced a smile. “You saved her. I’m going to get you out of here. You’re going to be fine.” 

“Stop.” Tommy told him, tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” 

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “Don’t apologize.” Oliver looked at Felicity. “Can you help him?”

“No one can,” Tommy said, moving to grasp tightly to Oliver’s hand. 

Felicity’s eyes zeroed in on Tommy’s wound. 

“Felicity!” Oliver said sharply. 

“You need to move him first,” said Felicity. 

Oliver nodded. “Tommy, I need you to hold on a little longer, okay, buddy?” 

“Oli-aahhh!” Tommy cried out in pain as Oliver lifted him off the rebar. 

Oliver’s eyes widened as Tommy began to bleed out quickly. “Felicity!” 

Felicity heard the urgency in his voice. There was no time for warnings, concerns for her secret or second thoughts. 

It was now, or Tommy was going to die. 

“What’s happening?” Tommy asked. 

“You’re going to be okay.” Felicity said quickly. 

She placed her hand over Tommy’s bleeding wound. Her hand started to glow a light yellow, before growing bigger and changing to a golden light. 

Oliver watched in wonder, his eyes widened as the same golden glow coming from her hands began to shine beneath her skin, making her look like a heavenly being. 

Felicity doubled over. The pain of Tommy’s wound, healing and ripping through her own chest, stole her breath and her voice. 

She had never felt something so intense. Slowly, the pain started to recede, her vision began to darken. 

“Oliver.” she try to say and felt herself collapse over Tommy before losing consciousness. 

“Felicity!” Oliver gently grabbed her and pulled her away and into his arms. Alarms went off in his head as her head lolled against him, her body limp. With a shaky hand, he placed it over her neck, searching for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak and thready. 

He laid her gently on the ground. She was pale. Paler than he ever seen her and her breathing was slow.

He placed his hand over her heart, relieved when he felt the beat beneath his palm. It wasn’t as steady as he wish it was, but he took relief that it was there. 

“Is she okay?”

Oliver’s head whipped around to watch as Tommy sat up. “Are you?”

Tommy place his hand over where the rebar was. He felt no pain. His fingers worked quickly to unbutton the shirt and pulled the blood-soaked fabric apart. He wiped at the blood coating his skin, revealing perfect skin. 

“I am.” Tommy looked at Oliver. “How?”

Oliver looked back at Felicity. 

An angel, his mind supplied. 

Tommy moved beside Oliver, hovering over Felicity. “What did she do?” 

“She healed you.” Oliver answered. 

“How?”

“That’s not for me to tell.”

“Is she going to be okay?” Tommy asked, looking down at Felicity with concern. 

He hadn’t known her long, and he didn’t know her well. They exchanged numbers because of Oliver. 

They weren’t friends, but more acquaintances. 

But now he thought he knew her more than she knew him. 

He now knew she was the kind of person to help someone, to risk herself to do something good. 

She was a good person, selfless and giving and better than Oliver or himself. 

“I hope so,” Oliver answered, sweeping strands of Felicity hair back that had escaped her ponytail. 

“Can you walk?” Oliver asked Tommy. 

Tommy stood up on steady legs. “Yes.”

“Good. Let’s go.” Oliver lifted Felicity in his arms bridal style and began making his way through the rubble. 

Tommy followed closely behind, his heart in his throat. A feeling of pure gratitude rising in his chest. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver placed Felicity on the med table in the foundry. 

Tommy followed Oliver down the steps. “Where’s your shadow?”

“John went to the hospital.” Oliver answered. “Your father shot him in the shoulder.” 

Tommy winced. “And the damage in the Glades?”

“Substantial.” 

Tommy moved to stand on Felicity’s other side. “Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?” 

“Because Felicity is not like everybody else. She’s special.” 

Oliver didn’t know if Felicity’s DNA or blood was normal and he would rather not have her turned into a test subject because she was unlike anybody else in the world. 

She protected his secret, and he would protect hers. 

“What do we do now?” asked Tommy. 

“I wait.” said Oliver. “You need to go let Laurel know you’re fine.” 

“I can’t just leave.” Tommy protested. “I don’t know entirely what she did, but I do know she saved my life. I can’t just walk away.” 

“You’re not. She’s going to be a fine. You will be able to thank her later, but right now there is someone we both care about who is devastated by the belief you are dead. Go and fix it.” Oliver told him. 

“Will you let me know when she wakes up?” Tommy asked. 

“I will.” Oliver promised. “Now go.” 

Tommy nodded and reluctantly left. 

Oliver checked Felicity’s pulse again. It was stronger than before. Her breathing had even out and her skin was no longer cold to the touch. 

All reassuring signs to his worried mind. 

He pulled up a chair beside Felicity to wait for her to wake up. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Felicity's eyes fluttered open. Her body ached in a way that wasn’t entirely familiar. 

She wasn’t really surprised. She didn’t entirely know what to expect. 

When she healed Tommy, it was the first time she had healed someone at Death’s door. She felt that when she healed him. Felt how close he came to dying. 

Tears filled her eyes. 

It was painful and beyond terrifying. 

And more so the knowledge that she could weighed heavily on her. 

If she could heal somebody on death’s door, what was the full extent of her healing capabilities? 

Felicity wasn’t sure she wanted to know. 

More so, if she was capable of saving a life like this, how could she selfishly keep this ability to herself?

Should she be doing more?

The very thought scared her to her core.

She felt a tear leak from her eye and she lifted her hand to wipe it away. 

The movement was painful and caused pain to shoot through her torso. A groan slipped past her lips. 

“Felicity?” 

Felicity turned her head. “Oliver?”

She moved to sit up, and Oliver helped her. She was grateful when he did because it hurt to move, but she did her damndest not to show it. 

“Are you ok?” Oliver asked, concerned. 

“I’ve been better?” Felicity answered. “Tommy?”

“He’s alive.” Oliver’s eyes shined with gratitude. “Thanks to you.” 

“I’m just glad he’s okay.” She eased off the med bay table. “It’s been a long day. I’m going to head home.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Oliver asked, concerned. He had so many questions. Seeing her ability first hand was unlike anything he ever seen and he wanted to know more, but she looked exhausted. 

“I am.” She forced a smile, pushing the pain down. 

“Are you okay to drive?” asked Oliver. 

“I am. Oliver, I appreciate the concern, but I’m good. I just want to go home and climb into my bed. And you should find Thea or Laurel or go home and rest. You’ve earned it.” 

Oliver wanted to argue, but he did need to see Thea and needed to call Tommy like he promised. “Okay, but I insist on driving you home.” 

Felicity conceded, offering him a faint smile. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Oliver waited until he got Felicity safely home before pulling out his phone and calling Tommy. 

“Hello?” 

“Tommy,” Oliver greeted.

“Ollie, hey, um, I’m with Thea back at the mansion with her boyfriend. Laurel’s with her dad. I saw your bodyguard at the hospital. He’s going to be okay. I didn’t know if he knew about Felicity, so I didn’t tell him anything. How is she?”

“I just took her home. She’s fine.” Oliver answered. “Tired but okay.”

“She saved my life tonight.” Tommy said in awe.

“She did. It’s what she does.” Oliver agreed, the call becoming silent. 

After a moment, Oliver cleared his throat. “Look, Tommy, I’m sorry-” 

“Don’t apologize.” Tommy cut him off, his voice turned remorseful. “I’m the one who is sorry. I was angry, and I was jealous.”

“It’s okay.” Oliver said. 

“No, it’s not.” Tommy said. “I- I am my father.” 

“No.” Oliver shook his head. “No, you’re not. You are nothing like him. You never have been. You are your mother’s son at heart.” 

“Did--did you kill him?” Tommy asked. 

“No.” Oliver lied. He wanted to tell Tommy the truth, but he didn’t think now was the time. 

“Thank you.” Tommy said. He knew his father was awful, a monster, but he was still his father. 

Oliver didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. 

“When do you think Felicity will be up for visitors?” asked Tommy. “I really want to thank her.” 

“Maybe not for a few days. I’ve only seen Felicity do this once before, and it takes it out of her. She’ll need her rest,” 

Oliver stayed on the phone with her for a few more minutes before ending the call. 

He called John to check up on him and to tell him about what Felicity did for Tommy. He was concerned and asked after her, but Oliver assured John that she was fine. 

He made his way home. It was a long couple of days and he needed the time to just be.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

Felicity stripped out of her blood sodden clothes, her entire body ache to its core.

Every step cause pain to shoot through her. 

She never healed someone so close to death before and she’s glad she hadn’t. 

This was agony. 

Tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. She tried to blink them back, but it didn’t work. 

There should be a limit to what she could do. 

Maybe there was, and this was her body telling her so. 

She turned on the hot water, stepping under the spray. She knew her legs couldn’t hold her up much longer and sunk down to the floor of her shower. The blood circled down the drain. Her chest stung.

Even now she could feel the wound healing and it hurt so badly. 

Her ability was a gift to others, but right now, it felt like a curse to her. 

She tried to focus on the good. 

She saved a life. She might be in pain now, but because of her, Tommy was alive, and that mattered. 

She pulled her knees to her chest and pressed forehead against them, her shoulders shook with the pain.

She hummed softly, singing to herself, doing anything to distract her from the pain. 

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ 

The glades had fallen, buildings left to nothing but rubble. Hundreds dead, family ruined all for one man’s revenge, but yet there was still good when you looked for it. 

There were still the few who would sacrifice to help others because it was the right thing to do. 

It was those few who made a difference and changed the world for the better. 

And it was just the beginning. 

[kaipersonlol]

Hello!! I'm a non-binary artist on the internet who wastes too much time on it. If you wanna see me draw anything, ask away! If you also have any questions about my AUs, feel free to ask away on that too! I really enjoy my stories, so I really love talking about it!

Monster in Your Head info:

So yeah, that's what it's called. Basically, Eggman made a Chaos Being, like Shadow but worse, and everything went to shit real fast. Best part is, the being now resides in Shadow, giving him a tough time. The being is responsible for Cream's death, blaming it on Shadow. Sonic works with Shadow because the being is pretty much a being of pure Chaos Energy. The Monster's name is Eclipse(NOT LIKE THE BROTHER OF SHADOW!! I WAS NOT THINKING OF HIM WHILE MAKING HIM) and he hates being called Shadow. To learn more, read the story^^

(Its on WattPad)

IDK what to call it yet but for now it's gonna be extra scared Shadow(since he's the only fully hashed out character other than Rouge lol):

Rouge had finished assisting Sonic with yet another Eggman battle with her buddy Omega. Both were on their way back to the bat's house when Omega heard the sound of something rustling. Both went over and saw Shadow, looking at an apple like he had no clue what it was. She takes him in, and tries, emphasis on the TRIES, to teach him how to talk/understand speech. The rest of the Sonic team go to her house to see where she's been, and get surprised when they see Shadow sitting on the chandelier like you would a couch. And that's really all for that for now, but I will keep updating it lol.

(Will soon be on WattPad)

Hazbin Hotel AU:

A swap AU kinda thing, with Alastor doing the Hotel alongside Husk. Charlie is sent to help her by her mother, Lilith. Raised as a sinner, but finds out she's a Hell Born. More details in the character designs as I make them.

(Will be a comic here and TikTok under the same name)

Other stuff:

I mostly do digital art, but I do enjoy doing paper art. I tend to mostly do Sonic stuff.

And now you know my page :3

[roseworth]

cassrose + "I'm not leaving you here." <3333

send me a prompt 💕

(don't think about where in the timeline this takes place because it is simultaneously in like 5 different places and also nowhere)

-

Rose used to wonder why so many people lived in Gotham, and why all those people were so proud of being from Gotham. 

She understood now. Gotham was where people went when they didn’t have anywhere else to go. It was the home of people that didn’t belong anywhere else, and they found belonging through that.

Rose didn’t have anywhere else to go, so she ended up in Gotham. It was constantly cold and rainy, and the citizens saw everyone else as a threat.

Rose felt right at home.

She was going to have to get used to being alone. She used to have her mom to fall back on, or even the Titans, but those were both long gone. Her mother was dead, and she certainly thoroughly burned her bridges with the Titans. 

One nice thing about Gotham City, though, was that there weren’t any anti-homeless measures that hadn’t been removed. The Bats never hid the fact that they tore away any spikes and rails on benches. 

Ugh. The Bats. That was the worst part about staying in Gotham: She was sure the Bats would never leave her alone if they found her here. She could only imagine Tim’s stupid pity face if he saw her living on the streets of Gotham. 

Whatever. She didn’t need their help, and she certainly didn’t need their pity. She could be alone. It was much better than being with Slade.

A chill ran down her back at just the thought of finding Slade again. She never wanted to see his face again unless it was in a morgue.

She ducked into an alley, hoping to find a nice dumpster to sleep under or something. She could figure out what she’s going to do tomorrow, but tonight she’s worn out and pissed off and alone and she just wants to rest.

As soon as she sat down, though, she knew she was being watched.

She wished she could say that she learned those instincts from her mom, but that was all Daddy Dearest. Her mother taught her how to fight. Slade taught her how to be hunted. 

She slowly reached for her sword, hoping that whoever was watching her wasn’t trained. She really was not in the mood for a fight right now. 

She stood back up, shifting herself into a fighting stance and holding her sword in front of her and keeping her back to the wall. “Come on out!” she shouted into the shadows. “I’ll go easy on you if you show yourself now!”

There was a soft rustling, then a silhouette stepped out in front of her. 

Fucking Bats. 

“Batgirl,” she said through gritted teeth. “Long time no see.”

Batgirl reached up slowly and pulled her cowl off. She didn’t look like she was about to fight, but Rose refused to let her guard down.

“Cass,” Batgirl said. “That’s my name. Cassandra.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “I know. I took a contract on you, of course I know your name.”

Cass blinked. “How?”

Slade told me, she thought bitterly. “I have my ways.”

Cass hummed in thought, then stared at her with an expression that seemed a little too calculating for comfort. Rose felt her entire body tense under Cass’s gaze. “What do you want?” she hissed. 

“I saw you come here,” Cass said simply. “Wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Okay?” Rose laughed harshly. “Where was that attitude when you stabbed me in the fucking neck, Batgirl? You saw what Slade was doing to me, and you let him! Hell, you encouraged it!”

“I didn’t,” Cass huffed. “Encourage it. I didn’t.”

“You didn’t? ‘Cause it sure as hell seemed like you did.”

“You needed to… to see it for yourself. It wouldn’t have helped if I had told you he was bad.”

“Bad?” Rose repeated, throwing her sword on the ground and taking a step closer. “Yeah, he’s pretty fuckin’ bad. So ‘bad’ that I’m lucky I left with my life. And no one even bothered to help me!” She stalked forward until they were inches apart, glaring straight into her eyes. “So I’m not going to thank you for letting me figure it out for myself, or whatever you think. But I am perfectly fine on my own, so fuck. off.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

“I want to help you now,” Cass said. “I can–”

“That’s the thing about you ‘hero’ types, you know that?” Rose interrupted. “You think you know what’s best for everyone, but really, you–”

“I don’t,” Cass cut in. “I don’t know what’s best. But I know… you.”

Rose froze. Cass said it with so much conviction, so assured in herself that it almost sounded true. 

And that pissed her off more than anything else. 

Rose knew how Cass fought, so she had to be quick. She threw a punch, hoping that she would reach her right before she knew to react. Unfortunately, things hadn’t exactly been working out for her lately.

Cass ducked under the punch, causing Rose to stumble forward with the momentum. “Son of a bitch,” she muttered, picking herself up and lunging again. Cass dodged once again, causing Rose to fall straight to the ground. 

As much as she hated to admit it, her time with Slade made her a better fighter. He helped her use her precognitive vision to her advantage to win a fight. Not that it was doing her any favors now. She leapt to her feet and threw another punch despite knowing full well there was no chance of it connecting. 

In a strange way, she was glad she was losing this fight. Slade would be so disappointed to see her attacking without thinking. He would say something like This isn’t how I trained you, or You’re supposed to be better than this. 

She kind of liked letting him down.

Rose went to kick her, but Cass grabbed her leg in midair, letting her fall back on the ground. Rose took a few deep breaths, then stood back up, brushing herself off as Cass kept giving her the same blank stare.

“Well, if that’s all, then I think we’re done here,” she said through heavy breaths. “You can be on your merry way, and I’ll continue to mind my fucking business, and we don’t have to see each other again, okay?”

“I’m not leaving you here.”

“Yeah? And why not?”

“Because I know you.”

“Uh huh, you said that before, but I don’t think you understand anything about me.”

“You ran away from your father because… you didn’t believe in what he does,” Cass said, never breaking eye contact. “You… trusted him, and now you don’t. So you don’t know how to trust. You think you’re better off alone after everything, and you think… no one will be there for you anymore. You’re alone and… want to do everything for yourself. You’re scared and angry. But you don’t have to be alone.”

Rose clenched her fists and tried to muster up the coldest glare she could. “Go away.”

“No.”

“Go away.”

“Rose,” she whispered. “You’re better than what he wanted you to be.”

And for some stupid reason, that was what made her break. After getting left behind by everyone, leaving Slade, surviving on her own… after everything, she hadn’t shed a single tear. But now, the dam is broken and she can’t even breathe anymore. Her entire body is shaking under her own weight, and the tears won’t stop pouring down her face, and she collapsed onto the ground and now she can’t even feel her body, can’t even feel her own arms wrapped around herself.

“I don’t want to be alone,” she sobbed quietly. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“I know,” Cass said, gently cupping Rose’s cheek. “You don’t have to be.”

[usagi-zakura]

Drawing a bunch of my DnD oneshot characters.

They all exist in the same universe, and sometimes pop up in the main campaign (the one with Remus the foxfolk wizbard, and now Moriko the ranger) but whenever someone can't make it to a session we like to do a oneshot in the same world. Its a lot of fun and is great for worldbuilding... and its also fun when we run into these characters later.

There are more... The kobolds Hugs and Kisses also exist in this world, but I've already drawn those a lot.

The characters are:

Nyx Duskrynn: Drow Druid (Circle of the Stars) She's one of three drow siblings with a dark past (though her's is the less dark.. my friend made a set of twins and gave them a really tragic backstory of being kidnapped and used for experimentation... and since I made a drow for the same oneshot we decided to make her the younger sister who got away.) She has since been reunited with her siblings and went on to explore a spooky house that turns out to have held a coven of hags... her oneshot ended up inconclusive but the DM later revealed that Nyx, her siblings and their guardian got captured by the hags... So that may be something our main party will have to deal with at some point (probably in another oneshot because their adventure is technically over). We've been told one of the twins has been freed, but we don't know exactly what that entails yet, nor what happened to Nyx and her sister.

Shadow in the Wind: Tabaxi Monk (Way of Shadow because of course he is) A small time criminal and best friend/boyfriend to Remus' older brother Romulus (its complicated). I've played him in two oneshots so far, one he was exploring another spooky house (there's a lot of those...) and another he was searching for a creature that could grant wishes living in a cave.

Alexis: Centaur ranger (Beastmaster conclave Tasha edition) Nicknamed the "All Terrain centaur" because thanks to class abilities and a magical item (winged boots re-flavored as magic horseshoes) she has every type of movement available in DnD, except burrowing. (I did consider giving her an item that would give her that too just for the hell of it) She's also really fast... being a centuar. So she can fly/run/swim/climb at 45 feet per turn. (Well maybe not climb since Centaurs have their own handicap when it comes to climbing...she could technically just walk right up the mountain wall though thanks to her magic horseshoes). Despite being a ranger she's part of a druid organization that's a pretty big deal in our world. She also gets visions of the future sometimes. She has no special feats for it or anything...she just does.

Her animal companion is named Hermes. He's a bird. He's not designed to be any specific type of bird or anything he's just bird. (He uses the "Beast of the Sky" statblock from the updated BM Ranger in Tasha's Cauldron of everything).

Sapphire Twinkletoes: Fairy Barbarian (Path of Wild Magic) Yeah that's right. Barbarian. (For some reason all my Barbarians are small races...I didn't even try for that it just happened.) I had an idea to make an anxious fairy but wasn't sure what class to make her...the DM suggested Barbarian with the rage reflavored as Panic. I went for wild magic because she's a magical creature but not a magic class...so her magic just goes haywire when she's afraid. She's a lot of fun. Yes her last name was inspired by Avatar the Last Airbender.

Jasmine Greenjoy: Gnome Wizard Played in Pathfinder 2e instead of DnD. Second cousin once removed on her mother's side to the main party's rogue Jade, as the second time I made my character related to one a character made by that player specifically (Jade's player is the same person who made the traumatized drow twins who became Nyx's older siblings). Mainly because they're the same race and I thought it'd be neat to tie them to the main party, even though in the campaign they haven't interacted. They have met...in fact the DM implied that Jasmine's mother was a midwife for Jade's mother when Jade was born, as a reason to explain why Jasmine is a magical misfit. Jade's mother did some suspect magical things on her unborn daughter... I don't know what they did, but as a result Jade was born with bright pink hair and Jasmine... well her hair changes color every day. She likes to have it match her familiar, a fluffy pipefox named Mr. Noodles.

[waeirfaahl]

The ghostly warriors issue

I think, since this mysterious warrior appeared in 1 episode, all people started to wonder, who this haunting and silent figure is. The most obvious answer — Death. I think, it’s pretty cool idea to see the physical embodiment of Death in Samurai Jack universe, how it takes various forms for everybody Death comes to.

All segments with this warrior and the beginning of the graveyard scene in 6 episode have one of the most stunning, haunting and mezmerizing visuals I’ve ever seen in animation. I love this supernatural, sinister emerald light and fog, mixed with the black silhuettes. Literally the other world.

But what answer we got from 5 season itself? Well, Genndy and the team wanted to add the symbolical character with psychological shade. The character symbolizes Jack’s depression, despair and guilt, that choked him all these 50 years.

And it’s really cool idea to show some Jack’s inner demons, which try to devour him out of inside to death, and how Jack defeats his inner demons. Like, he already had hallucinations in previous episodes, the warrior showed himself only to Jack in previous episodes. The concept is good, but... again, small contradictional details ruined it...

First of all, in 5 season the events of how Jack got depression are stupid. He (and clearly Aku too) forgot about magical creatures and artifacts with the ability of time travelling, i.e. there’s not only time portals, whose gates actually can be restored. Plus, Jack could assume that Aku intentionally fooled him into “Yeah, I destroyed all portals, now run to some secret ones I didn’t find myself, so I’ll destroy them too and make another prank for you” (honestly, in 4 season I was under impression that Jack decided to stay in the future — especially after The Aku Infection episode), but no. And just realize, how mind-blowing (in bad way) it is — instead of going down into the mountain and taking the sword back, Jack just went away and wandered these 50 years without the only weapon that can protect him from Aku. And all this time Aku could watch on him and know that the sword is lost and finally kill Jack, and all this time Jack could make this meditation journey or whatever it is for returning the sword, and all this time those three alien gods could resolve the problem themselves, but ignored... Jack literally survived only ‘cause of the bad and stupid script, which turned both Aku and Jack into idiots.

The contradictional details continue in 6 episode. Jack travelled many miles (including on the airship) and near all habitants he helped and saved earlier, and almost nobody saw him and literally nobody stopped him for some reason, and Jack somehow didn’t see them and didn’t realize that he saved many lives and has to live on... HOW?! And absolutely no bounty hunters, no spies and so on... But in the end of 6 episode this twist happens. This warrior is not one. Five warriors. And they’re not the metaphors or hallucinations in Jack’s mind. They’re real, ‘cause not only Jack can see them and even fight with them. 

Ashi sees them and even fights this warrior too. Somehow...

So... who the hell are they? Death gods? Entities, which feed on pain/fear/emotions/energy of their victims? Ghosts? Why they wanted Jack’s death and specifically waited for his own decision and agreement to die, if they’re absolutely real and could kill him themselves in 3 episode, when Jack had serious wounds, for example?

Why the regular sword kills the ghost? 

Why the other four warriors don’t help to their leader and just escape to their graves?

I would accept an explanation “The graveyard itself is magical, and it makes real absolutely all fears and negative emotions of its victim, so that’s how the shadow warriors became real ghosts, and when Jack overcame his inner demons, the graveyard has no power over him anymore, hence the warriors disappear”, but in this case Ashi would face and fight own fears and inner demons too (specifically scarier version of her mother). And it would be much better...

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

Cersei! Or Jaime/Cersei!

CERSEI MY LOVE. Oh, with her I feel like I'm allowed to make this a shitpost. This will be ridiculous but I'll have fun

Cersei

Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns When they all come down and did tricks for you You never understood that it ain't no good You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat Ain't it hard when you discover that He really wasn't where it's at After he took from you everything he could steal.

Bitch by Meredith Brooks

So take me as I am This may mean you'll have to be a stronger man Rest assured that when I start to make you nervous And I'm going to extremes Tomorrow I will change And today won't mean a thing I'm a bitch I'm a lover I'm a child I'm a mother I'm a sinner I'm a saint I do not feel ashamed I'm your hell I'm your dream I'm nothing in between You know you wouldn't want it any other way

What You Waiting For? by Gwen Stefani

Like an echo pedal, you're repeating yourself You know it all by heart Why are you standing in one place? (Uh-huh) Born to blossom, bloom to perish Your moment will run out 'cause of your sex chromosome I know it's so messed up how our society all thinks (for sure) Life is short, you're capable (uh-huh) Oh, oh-oh Look at your watch now You're still a super hot female You got your million dollar contract And they're all waiting for your hot track

Fucked My Way Up To The Top by Lana del Rey

I'm a dragon lion, you're a whore Don't even know what you're good for Mimicking me is a fucking bore To me, but babe Lay me down tonight In my diamonds and pearls Tell me something nice About your favorite girl

King by Florence + the Machine

But a woman is a changeling, always shifting shape Just when you think you have it figured out Something new begins to take What strange claws are these scratching at my skin? I never knew my killer would be coming from within I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king I am no mother, I am no bride, I am king

Jaime x Cersei

Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac

Rock on, ancient queen Follow those who pale in your shadow Rulers make bad lovers You better put your kingdom up for sale, up for sale Well, did she make you cry? Make you break down? Shatter your illusions of love? Well, is it over now? Do you know how? Pick up the pieces and go home

The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit

But don't you come here and say I didn't warn you About the way your world can alter And oh how you try to command it all still Every single time it all shifts one way or the other And I'm a goddamn coward, but then again so are you And the lion's roar, the lion's roar Has me evading and hollering for you And I never really knew what to do

Michelle/La Femme Michelle by Sir Chloe

Fun enough there are two versions of this song. I like to believe the first one is Jaime struggling but the second one is him coming to terms with who Cersei really is.

Walk in the room Watching you smoke I'm such a fool Take off your coat You know just how to be cruel When you shake your hips that way I don't care what you say Michelle Michelle You are a monster from Hell

Yes by Coldplay

(Shut up. I don't care. I pretended not to like that band for years because of the implications. I like their old stuff.)

When it started, we had high hopes Now my back's on the line, my back's on the ropes When it started, we were alright But night makes a fool of us in the daylight There we were dying of frustration Singing, "Lord, lead me not into temptation" But it's not easy when she turns you on

Ready To Let Go by Cage The Elephant

Sun went down, sun went down over Pompeii On both sides the vow was broken Oh my my, I'm the one Trying to hide this damage done One day, all our secrets will be spoken As we slow dance, I became your statue, frozen 'Times I wonder, are we just a puff of smoke? Yeah Underneath this bed of ashes Still withholding everything Like we were never close

[awkwardwithapause264]

Thoughts about Shadow and Bone season 2 episode 5 as I was watching. (Somewhat out of order)

(Ravka? Or Kirigan? Didn’t take him destroying a city to question my loyalty.) Yeah she’s got you there Zoya.

(Nikolai telling Alina to run with the wounded and where she can find allies while he stays behind to fight who he thought at first to be Kirigan.) See if that had been Vasily there’d been a dust cloud with how fast he ran out of there.

(Stupid girl.) Classic Baghra.

(Genya avoiding David) Look he’s out of his bindings, but aw all he’s wanted since leaving her was to have her back. He was so excited and confused.

(Nikolai trying to punish Genya, but both Alina and Baghra setting him straight) I’d do the same thing but I wouldn’t comfort her afterwards. She can go find someone she didn’t screw over.

(Multiple people doubting whether Nikolai will or can make amends for the wrongdoings of the kings that came before him) Y’all do know he really isn’t a Lantsov and the fact you’re currently standing where you are should prove to you that he’s willing, can and is making amends.

(Genya doing what she can for Adrik’s arm.) Aw she’s telling him what he needs to hear even if she’s still trying to believe it for herself.

(Genya telling the queen how she poisoned the king) now that’s ingenious.

(Nikolai shaming his mother and sending her away) You know this reminds me of that Scandal episode heavy is the head where the prince sends his mother away to live alone until she dies because he can’t stand the sight of her after she’s killed his wife and the unborn baby his wife had with another man. Though I think Nikolai did it in a much more compassionate way. For obvious reasons.

(David making a grand declaration to Genya) MF-er is making me cry.

(Kaz not selling it while undercover) Maybe Nina should have went with Tolya instead.

(Zoya getting on Nina about Mattias) Girlie just because you’re lonely and miserable as a patriot doesn’t mean everyone else has to be lonely, miserable or a patriot. And the hell do you care what Nina does or who she does it with you don’t seem to be that close of friends.

Might add more.

(Baghra and Alina talking) YES FINALLY! IMO BEST F-ING DIALOGUE OF THE ENTIRE SERIES THUS FAR.

[felikatze]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

Oh my, an opportunity to be vain!

The first one is gonna be my current baby, of course.

You awoke to blood in your mouth and birdsong in your ears.

Grima's closest servant followed the Shepherds into the past. Alone and injured, Morgan makes a vow. To save the world, to save their family, to save their father.

No matter the cost.

(Or: Hierophant Morgan AU, without amnesia and a Future Past adjacent Morgan.)

I think abt this fic so much. so much. i keep talking abt my Plans for it bcuz i am just STOKED. i barely even remember what inspired this fic outside the vague notion of "What if FP but Main Timeline"

this version of morgan is near and dear to me. i love laying out their various psycholigical issues. did you notice they emulate grima's speech when trying to be evil.

second! not FE! My original baby on hiatus because the FE brainworms took over. When missing link drops it'll be back I promise.

Naminé finds a shadow creature inside a cave, Repliku gets attached before he can get rid of it, and Vanitas would like for people to stop petting him please.

(Or: Two introverts try to hide a really weird cat from their keyblade-wielding friends, who will probably slay it on sight.)

Oh man. I havent worked on this one in a WHILE which is especially cruel because I left on a cliffhanger but you gotta consider. terminal FE brain. this fic is what REALLY got me started on writing. It actually made me plan things.

It also made me realize that writing slice of life is really hard. If you don't have an overarching plot to push outside of general character arcs what do you even?? do???

i love this fic but i do cringe when i reread it.

if you ever notice oddly slapstick elements in plusquam, this is where they come from. morgan getting yeeted two chapters in a row is really just an evolution of the vanitas defenestration joke.

next up, my current series.

It's just another pitstop for Grima's hoard; Naga's Tear. But as he tears through the ruins, a girl hugs him and claims to be his daughter. Now, if Grima knew how she came to be, and what bees had to do with children, that'd be great.

And of course Chrom had to recruit her. What else.

(Or: Grima meets Morgan. He's conflicted about this.)

Out of the labyrinth is a series that gives me insane joy from its sheer sillyness, but don't feed that thing after midnight is my favorite of the bunch so far. you might notice i love morgan.

considering how mired i was in my AU morgan characterization, going back to canon and seeing how silly as hell she is made me love her all the more. also. also. joke fic yeah but DID YOU NOTICE how much of grima's thoughts about her mirror forneus' in the valentian accord. did you. please i'm so proud of that.

next, what the fuck do you mean this fic is a year old, was my ninjago phase really last summer:

The fateful inheritance letter reaches Jay eventually. Only now, he knows it's coming.

Just in time for Cliff Gordon's funeral.

(Or: Jay meets his mother.)

out of all my eleven ninjago fics, this is my favorite. i wrote it because i kept thinking about skybound during 4am summer insomnia. it went through many typo fixes.

i do love how i did jay in this one. it's far too late for his mom to be his mom. he's already an adult. but it's not late enough for her to be his friend. it's a nice sentiment.

and last but not least! this fic us two years old, goddamn!

Astrid Remond did not expect life after death. And after another death. And a third one, for good measure.

She also did not expect meeting the protagonist. (And falling for them.)

(Or: Reincarnation, the fourth wall, and the slightly eldritch nature of customizable player characters.)

even if i'm not really into loh anymore for various reasons, a lot of the characters are still near and dear to me! lord/astrid is such a ship and astrid is a really fascinating character, and i wanted to explore that. when she came back in extreme mode, i was floored. also floored that my joke that she got isekai'd was actually true.

i also used a custom skin to make the text blue!! look at that!!

honorable mentions for "fics of mine i really like" go out to One Whole Boy, Sunny-side Up, Jailbreak, and dusk of a new night.

thank you for giving me the chance to gush about my fics!!! i have fifty five of these now, jesus christ!! i cant believe i've been writing fic for. five years now. FIVE YEARS!! THAT'S A LONG TIME!! that's a quarter of my whole life so far actually.

[darkseraphscorner]

King's Row

Seraph's House.

Late at night, Neph was sitting on her bed, playing with the dog she had accidentally summoned in the First Ward, after it had passed Quarantine and been looked over by several members of MAGI, it was labelled as a slightly magical French Bulldog pup, she had taken to calling him Spike.

As she played with him, Spike suddenly sat up and begin wuffling at something. In confusion, Neph looked around till she noticed a strange purple tinge in the air in the middle of her room, before with a pop, Katie Douglas was there, wobbling on some crutches as he leg was still in a cast. "Ta da, here I am- What the hell is that?" The seer squawked as Spike started sniffing her.

Neph laughed and scooped up the pup. "Oh that's right, Preatoria was real strick on animal controll, so you never seen one before, this, is a dog." She explained as Spike happily panted.

Katie hobbled over and looked at him. "I read they where bigger.... And had more teeth..."

"Well not sure about the teeth part, but this one is a baby... So what brings you over?"

Katie raises a hand. "Spend a night at my GFs of course."

"Oh really?." The cyborg asks.

"Okay, I need to get away from the seerers I am mothering, not all adjusted to being older like I did, so many still think like kids and god psychic kids are the worst cuz the psionicly scream at each other and oh god it was not this hard in the First Ward."

Neph puts down Spike who starts eagerly sniffing Katie's cast and hugs her. "You got someone looking after them."

"Yeah, there are Vanguard agents in the building, some are psychic.... I told them I be out, didn't just abandon my girls.... But need a me night." She explained. "So here I am... I brought PJs and everything."

Neph couldn't help but laugh. "Get comfy, I'll grab us some sodas." She says, heading out of the room, Spike trotting after her.

When she returned, Katie had rested her crutches against the wall and was floating, dressed in a dinosaur onsie. "Now I know you are no sex, so instead of wearing something sexy, I went with cute.... Cuz I am a grown ass woman and can be cute if I want to." She spins around, showing a pair of wings and a tail. "I'm a cute dragon, raw."

Neph burst out laughing and hands Katie her soda. "Looks great, better than what I got on." She motions to her t shirt and boxers.

Katie squints. "Do your boxers say "No Entry"?"

Neph smirks. "Seemed fitting for someone that is Ace."

Katie chuckled and floated over to the bed, sitting down on it. "So how have you been?"

Neph sat next to her, Spike struggling to get on her lap. "Oh you know, hero shit... Working in the Rikti War Zone now."

Katie leans against her. "Still dealing with other dimensions problems?"

"Eh, it's a living, sides, if I sit on my ass too long, my mum would find something to do... And knowing her she would send me to the shadow shard."

"What's that?"

"More dimensional bullshit."

Katie chuckled. "You are good at solving other worlds problems, you know that, right?"

Neph sighed. "Feels like all I do is patch up other worlds problems..... It's not bad I guess.... Just leaves more for my sister's to do here."

Katie kissed her cheek. "Well I think you are a great dimensional champion, my champion."

"Keep that up and I'll get an ego.... Which knowing this city will turn into a super villain I have to fight."

The two girls laughed, leaning against each other and sipping soda.