#she also just fought back extremely hard which ended up in it being all the worse by the end

[arolesbianism]

I am being bewitched by the random card au once more. I <3 inventing more and more ways to ruin characters lives with magic bullshit I pulled out of my ass

[sickvictorianangel]

My "hot takes" about RDR2:

All the characters are well written, complex and well played. But that doesn't mean I need to like every one of them or defend them.

We all love John because of own bias (thanks to RDR1). His only redeemable point is after the end of the Epilogue. This man was irresponsible, a deadbeat, didn't listen to Abigail even at the end and caused his own death, leaving Abigail and Jack alone.

Abigail, Mary-Beth, Karen, Tilly and Sadie are the best women in the whole game and I will always stand up for them. Abigail fought for her son with teeth and nails, she always did her best for the ones she loved. Mary-Beth, Karen and Tilly were soulmates, who always defended each other and had each other's back all the time. They stood up for themselves many many times and were a girls girl. Being there for Abigail all the time when Jack was kidnapped and trying to pull Karen out of the hole she was burying herself. And of course, Sadie was a strong woman. She didn't just devote herself to avenge her late husband, but she devoted her time to stand up and move on. She was loyal to Arthur and such a good friend to Abigail, John and Charles. Her loyalty carried the love she felt even when the people she loved died.

Which also brings me to: I will always defend Molly! She abandoned everything she was and had for a narcissist that stole her youth and will to live. She tried to salvage her broken "relationship" in every way she could, always receiving the bad hand of Dutch's attitude. In the end, dying trying to show her feelings that were constantly dismissed. Molly deserved better.

Susan Grimshaw wasn't a bad woman, she lived for the well being of the gang and loyalty to Dutch. She was hard and cold, but because she learned that was the only way for survival. She died being loyal to the Van Der Linde gang. She died siding with Arthur and John.

Reverend Swanson was a sick man. Addiction is a disease! I will always love that man and defend him. And in the end, he also reached his redemption.

Hosea was the glue that kept everyone together, the gang only existed for so long and succeeded because of him. Until Dutch's ego talked louder and louder, putting everyone in such a fragile position that ended up taking his own life.

No, Dutch didn't get crazy. Dutch was always a narcissist and didn't want to carry the responsibility of his actions, always blaming everyone and pointing fingers around trying to frame someone for the downfall of the gang. For him to be happy and satisfied, you had to side with him and his decision no matter how crazy they were. Micah was just a mirror for his own actions to come to life. Making Arthur and John question if that was a "new Dutch" or if he was already like that. And don't make me even talk about how this man became a whole rap!st in RDR1.

Mary is a complex character and necessary for Arthur's growth. But, Mary is just a rich woman from the 1800s. The way she treated the other girls from the gang with such disdain, treating them like they were inferior? Fuck you, girl. She was always a red flag for me for the simple fact that Karen, Mary-Beth and Tilly didn't like her at all. Only Abigail talking positive about her once. And no, I don't care that she "used Arthur" lmao That part is extremely important to Arthur's path of redemption, so get over that already (to all the annoying men in the fandom).

Charles, Lenny and Kieran are literal angels. Victims of their circumstances but acted with honor till the end of everything. Always ready to help. I've never seen these boys harassing anyone.

Javier was blind loyal, his ideals weren't real and depended on Dutch's empty words to hold it. When everything fell apart, Javier became the opposite of what he preached so much.

Bill was never a good person. Bill was a big drunk bully. He was always a coward, even before RDR1. His loyalty was with some of the members of the gang (as long as they were white... Tilly got his ass during the stagecoach mission and I love that).

Arthur is one of the best written characters I've ever seen. We see someone who was hurt since a child, who was forced to become a "hard man" by every person in his life. He was made to believe by everyone that he was just a strong and ugly motherfucker, whose only use was to do someone's dirty work. But in reality, he was soft. Arthur was an artist, and the people that actually knew that soft side of him, knew how reliable he was. His redemption story is actually beautiful. Arthur is the base of the gang and the pivotal point in the story. His actions and sacrifice started a butterfly effect so strong that it change the course of everyone's life.

And to end this huge mountain of nothing lol I just wanna say that those are MY OWN OPINIONS. I love that game so much and I hope we can see even more of the whole gang and other characters some day again.

[kzlove]

oh no you didn't!

syn -> carla jaeger thinks she raised her son right, but this is a sight she never thought she'd see.

modern!eren jaeger x fem!reader

beware of.. foul language, eren is a father, arguing, ymir and eren are siblings (hc)

~

if you were to ask carla jaeger her opinion on how she raised her children, she'd proudly say she did a great job.

eren always tried to be a respectful boy towards people, and could be such a sweetheart.

sure, his mouth got him in trouble more times than not, and maybe he fought more than he needed to.

but she made sure he was raised correctly for sure.

ymir had no filter on her mouth, but was still likeable by people.

she was carefree and honest with people, which would also get her in as much trouble as eren got into.

but carla was the same way, so there wasn't much she could do about it.

ymir understood, and tried her best to be well behaved. even with her potty mouth and snarky remarks.

carla's marriage with their father didn't work out in the end, so it was always just her and her two children.

it was hard for her to push on at some point, losing it and failing her kids for a part of her life.

but that didn't slow them down on being successful.

ymir went into the music industry, having her own group that she allowed her brother to pitch in every now and then.

she got a wife, who had a daughter. luckily, the daughter loved ymir like she loved her mother.

eren was able to get him a wife, have a well paying job, and advancing in his studies and the world on its own.

just a few months back (six to be exact) you were able to bring life into the world for eren.

a daughter.

ymir couldn't visit as much, so she left that to eren to fill their mother's loneliness.

and because his mother held a huge place in his heart, he always made sure to take a week or two to visit and stay in his mother's home with his little family.

they never get to see each other alot, so eren always goes all out when it comes it his mother.

so when she walked into the house from buying groceries, she never expected to hear this.

"i work hard. for this goddamn family. and this is how you fuckin repay me?" eren's voice boomed from upstairs.

carla paused and raised her eyebrow in confusion, placing the groceries on the cleared off counter.

did something happen while she was gone or was eren just being dramatic yet again?

sometimes carla swears she raised two daughters instead of one.

eren must've not heard his mother when she walked in, because he just continued going.

"but-" "there aren't any buts! you think i'll be all 'akekeke' after you fucked my boss? in my clothes?" eren cut you off, sounding angrier and louder than before.

carla held her gasp in her throat, placing a delicate hand over her mouth.

had you cheated on him?

in his mother's home? the home he grew up in?

carla had half the nerve to dash into the room and begin cursing and yelling as well.

but suddenly remembered one thing when she made it past the picture frames on the wall.

eren was a grown man now. his mother couldn't always handle all his problems for him.

so she paused where she was and listened.

"you have the nerve to have him hold my child, and have sex with him in the same room?!" eren grew even louder, making you sob even more.

carla shook her head in disbelief. she would definitely have to call mrs. springer when they were done.

the older woman listened even more, hearing her son mutter 'you know what' before a bit of shuffling could be heard in the room.

carla assumed eren was tossing you out of the house, until a scream rang throughout the house.

suddenly, carla grabbed a wooden spoon from the kitchen and dashed upstairs, running to the room you were staying in.

the possibilty of eren putting his hands on a woman was extremely low.

then again. the percentage was not zero.

when carla opened the door, the sight she'd seen was definitely not what she was expecting.

you and eren were kneeling beside each other at the foot of the bed, backs towards the door.

at the sudden outburst, you two whipped around and looked at carla.

she paused, still clutching the wooden spoon in her hand.

"what's going on." carla demanded, out of breathe and looking between the two of you.

she definitely missed the little bundle of joy between you giving her a sleepy, gummy smile.

"it's not what it looks like." eren said, holding his hands in the air.

in his hand was a ken doll, dressed in a suit with white paper wrapped around his neck.

in your left hand, was another ken doll with a (horribly) drawn mustache and the same suit. the only difference?

the paper around his neck was yellow.

your left hand held a barbie doll that wore a red bathing suit, a very small towel wrapped around her body.

carla blinked in confusion at the sight before her, before looking at her son for an explanation while lowering the spoon.

"we can't get her to sleep." eren complained, looking towards his little girl.

carla looked at you, who was smiling just a bit with the dolls still in your hand.

she then averted her eyes to eva-lee, your shared daughter.

little lee cooed at her grandmother, before rubbing her eyes with her little fists.

"so.. you had a argument. with dolls." carla said, rubbing her forehead in growing annoyance.

you and eren looked at each other, the dolls in your hands, and then back at eren's mother.

"uhm.. yeah." eren said, placing the dolls down and standing up to his full height.

you followed after, placing the dolls down and smiling just a bit.

carla was entirely speechless.

she didn't know what to say, or why eren thought this was an amazing idea to put his daughter to sleep.

the room stayed silent for a bit, save for little lee's tiny coos.

"eren." carla sighed rubbing her temples in soft slow circles to ease the headache coming along.

"we were just mimicking your dramas!" eren defended, gesturing to his mother.

none of carla's dramas were like whatever eren was up here doing.

"oh just give me the dang baby. and stop cursing around her." carla scoffed, stepping over to pick the young girl up.

but before she could approach, you stood in front of your daughter and held a finger to your lips.

carla raised her eyebrow, peeking around to look at her grandbaby.

eva lee was knocked out, sucking on her thumb while snoring softly.

carla couldn't believe eren's ridiculous tactic had actually worked.

her son wore an extremely proud smirk, looking towards his mother with an 'i told you so' look on his face.

"you know what? make dinner yourself eren. put the groceries away while you're at it." carla scoffed, shooing her son away.

eren let out a dramatic gasp. "that's not even fair!" he yelled, protesting like a teenager.

loud wails rang throughout the room, making everyone look at eva lee.

she was wide awake once more, and fussier than ever.

"get your ass downstairs and cook, eren. i'll help my daugther in law." carla smiled evily, lifting up the baby in her arms while cooing.

you stuck your tongue out at him and watched as he pouted, childishly stomping his way downstairs.

of course not before adding in his two cents.

"this is such bullshit!" he had yelled towards the two most important women in his life.

yeah, carla was definitely telling mrs. springer about this.

[janesociety]

how different marauders characters would act at a taylor swift concert w/ you ⭑

inspired by this post by the lovely @bealovesmarauders

(0.7k)

remus knows her discography by heart. he was originally a little insecure to sing the whole time, but he can’t help but sing along when you look so cute dancing and screaming the words to each song. he probably would’ve been the one to buy tickets after you came to terms with your chances of getting them being so slim, so when he surprised you with them you were over the moon. he would’ve gotten you two lower bowl seats so you would be really close but also able to see every single visual. he also would’ve offered to stand and wait in the merch line during the openers and before the concert started so you could have fun and watch them and have a cute t-shirt to take home.

james “swiftie” potter would be going absolutely feral. he would’ve gotten floor seats that were at least in the first ten rows so he could feel everything. he would’ve made a huge ordeal about surprising you with the tickets. i just know he would take you out to a fancy brunch before you guys got ready for the concert. he would probably want you two to go as miss americana and the heartbreak prince and people would definitely use your pictures as inspo for their shows. i also think he’d be the type to propose during lover or love story if you were at that point in the relationship. he would’ve been all cute about it too and told everyone around you so they could film and take pictures for you guys during the moment. he would also make a show of carrying you back to your car after the concert, even if your feet didn’t hurt that bad from the extremely uncomfortable shoes you inevitably would wear.

oh, sirius. i feel like he’s a total music snob and was really only going originally because you were so excited about it. but then he gets to the concert and he’s awestruck. he would’ve gone insane during the beat drop in don’t blame me but also prob would’ve teared up during my tears ricochet. he would’ve loved every moment of it and would immediately regret not learning all her songs before the concert. i think he’d be so obsessed that the minute he got home he would’ve gone online and bought you two more tickets for either the second night in your city or the next closest show. he’d also probably make you explain all the lore and stories behind everything on the way home. you just know that next time, he will be so prepared he will outshine every other swiftie boyfriend in the crowd. he’s also a rep girly.

lily is a swiftie through and through. there’s not doubt in my mind that she’s not an evermore and lover girly. she would’ve fought hard for those tickets and she would be so proud when she surprised you with them. you and her would spend so much time picking out the perfect themed outfits for the night and would definitely end up in a few of those “my fav outfits i saw at the era’s tour!” videos. she definitely has a note in her notes app where she keeps track of all the surprise songs and which ones she wants (she was heartbroken after dbatc and clean were taken in the same night, but she also knows that there’s not a single song that she’d be disappointed in getting). it honestly doesn’t matter where your seats are because no matter what you two will be having so much fun it won’t even matter in the end.

regulus, unlike sirius, actually prepared for the concert. he was definitely doing his research before hand. he was never a big taylor swift fan before, but when he saw your eyes light up when you told him you got tickets, he knew he had to be ready. he spent months listening to each album one by one, making playlists, attempting to learn words, and maybe even looking into the meaning behind the songs. he may get a little too caught up in connecting each song to one of her relationships and prob would wear and “i <3 T. S.” shirt to the concert. like james, he would’ve offered to carry you out of the arena, but unlike james, he would’ve listened to you saying no and would’ve been content simply holding your shoes in one hand and your hand in the other.

[doctorofmagic]

BLOOD HUNT PREDICTIONS (and spoilers!)

Okay, I see everyone is struggling to keep it cool because of what just happened today in Blood Hunt #1. But honestly I'm very excited to put the pieces together (also very HYPED!!!). So here are my thoughts (and my friend Red's, thank you, my darling) on what we gathered so far through clues, covers and solicitations.

Obviously, spoilers.

Well, first thing I'd like to establish is that people will probably feel lost if they haven't read the last Blade volume. Thankfully, yours truly did! Which means I can provide some context:

Just recently, Blade released an ancient evil called the Adana by accident. To make it up for this mistake (which would lead to the end of the world, basically), he had to embrace his full vampiric powers by drinking Dracula's blood (they're in a kinda complicated relationship right now, not friends nor enemies but necessary allies). That also meant that he was corrupted by its evil.

Plus, as I said it many times, Blade has a deep respect for Stephen because of the Montesi Formula, which resulted in the extinction of all vampires. Yes, Stephen did it once, and I'll get back to it because I think it's REALLY important.

Since we established that Blade might be corrupted, let's move on to the next topic.

Is Stephen dead?

My best guess is "not really".

In Blood Hunt, we see that T'Challa sacrificed himself to protect Cap America Sam and the rest of the Avengers who survived the first strike. But is T'Challa gone? Luckily, I follow Farid Karami on twitter and he posted a few inks he did for Black Panther: Blood Hunt. And guess what? That's right, we'll about to have vampire!T'Challa!

Besides, we all know that the next Doctor Strange issue will feature Wong and vampire!Stephen. What we didn't know was how Stephen would fit in the plot, but thanks to the variant cover I posted last week, we do now: he'll be guiding his allies via his astral form.

Now, how can the Sorcerer Supreme deal with the vampiric threat? It was shown that Stephen and Clea are looking for the Montesi Formula again.

For those who don't know, the Montesi Formula is a spell from the Darkhold that can wipe every single vampire off the face of the Earth. Stephen already used this spell once when he fought Dracula (and Blade was there, hence the respect he holds for Stephen). Unfortunately for them, Wanda has just recently absorbed the Darkhold within her body as a way to gain autonomy from Chthon (as seen in Darkhold: Alpha and Omega). Besides, Wanda was captured by the Bloodcoven, which means she can't do much right now. In addition, as hinted by Blade himself, she won't use the Montesi Formula, mostly because the character can't be involved in another kind of genocide (thanks, Bendis). And that leads us to the next topic.

Who could do it? The very one character who would overcome morals on behalf of his people, the same one who already appeared in the first issue: Doctor Doom. And if we think about it, he has two advantages already: 1) he's second in line to be the Sorcerer Supreme, and 2) as already established, he'd do anything to protect his planet and, most importantly, Latverians.

It's also important to reiterate that an astral form is not as powerful as the body+soul. With Stephen's strength limited, it's not that crazy to imagine that he could pass the mantle to Victor for a limited period while they find the spell. "Why not Clea?" I don't know. It's already established that managing the power of two sorcerers supreme is extremely hard and draining. Could be another reason as well. I'm just trying to find a coherent train of thought through this variant cover here:

Still, we're left with a very important dilemma. We have nice vampire allies in current comics: Brielle (Blade's daughter) and Soldier and Reese from the Midnight Mission (Moon Knight), the three of them being characters to be featured in the tie-ins. Well, not to mention Stephen and T'Challa, and maybe some more to be turned in the next issues. This is why I don't think the Montesi Formula will happen. Jed won't kill THE Black Panther, let's be real. So what's next?

We're expecting a plot twist at some point, and Blade will have an important role here. He's set to have another solo title this year, probably following the consequences of his actions. But there's a high chance someone else is involved. Let's check this panel once more:

Atlantean rituals.... Where did we hear about it before? That's right, Sorcerer Supreme #11!

During the old age, Varnae become ruler of the vampires and was brought back by Marie Laveau in modern age, fighting Doctors Strange and Voodoo. His last appearance traces back to Blade when he and his friends confronted him. Frank Drake sacrificed himself in an explosion to kill Varnae, and that's the last time we hear about him.

But see how the pieces come together? Blade, Stephen and Varnae. It makes sense that things would center around these three. And this is why I'm very excited. It's not a surprise that I love Blade and Stephen's relationship, and all these elements would make a wonderful drama, one that I'm really looking forward to!

Overall, I'm not worried about status quo or anything like that. I know things will work out in time, and seeing so many of my favorite characters involved in an event written by McKay only makes it better!

And that's it! Feel free to add your thoughts on this post! And see you all next week with Doctor Strange #15! 👀

[whydontyousaeso]

“Bunny”

Drew McIntyre x fem!reader

Type- Angst to fluff

Warnings- pregnancy, mentions of previous miscarriages, mentions of difficulties of being able to conceive (not proofread)

A/n- hiii! So im not gonna lie, this one is personal for me. As someone who suffers from pcos and just having extremely small chances of having children, I wanted to make something for my other girlies who might be going through the same thing. I hope you guys like this, and be ready for my next posts! Love you!

Tag list: @alyyaanna @queencherryberry @new-zealand-chic @slutfortheeclaymore @codyswhitebelt @lizzyd1ish @southerngirl41

You mumbled under your breath as the last stitch fought with you, not going into the yarn.

You had recently took up crocheting, especially with drew on the road.

It had taken a moment, but you had made a little bunny with fluffy yarn, it was adorable.

“What did ya make dear?”

You heard your husband come up behind you, feeling him wrap his arms around your smaller frame.

“I made a little bunny, isn’t it just adorable?”

“It is, your talent never fails to amaze me.”

You chuckled and turned around, kissing his cheek.

“You gonna give it to someone?”

“Nah, I think I’m gonna wait a bit. After all, you don’t exactly know what the future holds for us”

It aggravated you whenever it seemed like your own family didn’t even understand you.

“When are you gonna have kids?”

They always asked it at family gatherings

In reality you didn’t even know if you could.

You had been born with a disorder that made it extremely hard, if not impossible, to conceive.

And every time you had hope it never made it past the second month

The odds were never in your favor.

But every time they asked, you just smiled and said

“You know, when we finally get the chance and settle down a bit.”

You knew that was a lie, so did Drew.

But he loved you regardless.

He would always comfort you afterwards, throwing out adoption if you truly weren’t able to.

He tried his best, and you loved him as much as he loved you.

You stared at the positive test in your hands.

Instead of joy, you felt fear.

Very true fear.

You never had a positive, and when you did it never ended well.

You had been sick for the last couple weeks, and you also missed your period when you were supposed to have it.

You were actually terrified.

Lucky for you Drew was busy today so he wouldn’t be asking a lot of questions until after the doctors appointment.

Which was just as dreaded.

And when you got there they just confirmed it all.

“Congrats Mrs Y/n! You are pregnant!”

They gave you some vitamins and told you to come back in a month to check up.

That would either be the worst or the best appointment of the entire process.

You didn’t want to tell Drew, not because of how he would act, but because you didn’t want to get his hopes up like before.

He was absolutely crushed every time.

You wouldn’t have that again until you knew for sure.

The day of the doctors appointment had you in shambles prior.

You were so nervous, it was gonna kill you.

They asked all the normal checkup questions, asked a few extra, and then it was time for the final procedure.

The ultrasound was always where it went downhill for you.

You watched the doctors reaction as she moved the wand over your stomach.

“There it is!”

She stopped the screen and turned it around, showing you the picture of the little baby in your stomach.

“The heartbeat sounds extremely strong, and when your bloodwork comes back we will be able to tell you nothing is wrong, once again, congrats y/n!”

It felt like in that moment you were able to breathe again.

You were so relieved, you were just gonna have to tell Drew now.

You sat on your bed, holding the bunny you had made and thinking.

This would finally be used.

You heard the door opened.

“What are you doing darling?”

He came over and sat down next to you, rubbing your back and kissing your forehead.

You really didn’t know how to say it.

“Drew I uh, I have something to tell you.”

“What is it dear?”

You paused, looking at the little envelope on your table.

The one that held the ultrasound picture.

“Drew I’m pregnant again. And this time it made it past the second month mark.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of you.

“Are you serious?”

You nodded and got up, walking to grab the envelope and handing it to him.

You watched him open the envelope with shaky hands and look at the photos.

“So..there’s a chance?”

“They said there was an extremely high chance that I carry to term because everything seems fine.”

He stared at them a bit longer before finally smiling and looking up at you.

He stood up and pulled you close, embracing you with his broad figure.

“I love you so much baby girl, I’m so excited you don’t understand”

You felt yourself tear up and held him closer.

You were nervous, but you knew with him it would be okay, no matter what happened.

You sat in the nursery, rocking back and forth with your daughter in your arms.

You had little complications with your pregnancy, thank god.

“There’s my two favorite girls”

You looked up and saw Drew walking in, holding the bunny you made a year prior.

Your daughter was awake, she looked perfect to you.

She looked too much like her father, you loved it.

He put a hand on your back, leaning down to come into view for your daughter to see.

You smiled as he cooed at her, making her smile and laugh at him.

He held out the bunny, letting her tiny hands try to grab the larger toy.

“I love you Drew”

“I love you too baby girl, can I hold her?”

You mumbled a small “of course” and handed her over, watching him.

It amazed you on how such a huge giant could be so gentle with such a fragile little thing.

He could only do it to two people though,

You and her.

You loved his gentleness.

She loved it too.

Despite looking like her dad, she was just like her momma.

It was the perfect balance really.

You watched them two play together.

Drew was play wrestling with her, and she was enjoying every moment of it.

You loved the way she laughed and squealed with him.

You held her bunny in your arms, the bunny had been there her entire life.

She adored it.

You chuckled and watched her make him “tap out”, ultimately winning the match they had going on.

“Alright you two, let’s go eat dinner outside, it’s nice and warm and I’ve got some fresh fruit and veggies.”

You watched her scramble up and giggle as she ran outside, leaving you and Drew together.

“She takes after you too much”

“Not at all, after all, that’s not a bad thing.”

“No, it’s not a bad thing at all.”

You reached up and kissed his cheek, wrapping your arm in his.

You liked this life.

[cozy-the-overlord]

The Lighthouse

Summary: Stabbed by Kurse on Svartalfheim and fading away in his brother's arms, Loki expects to wake in Valhalla, having finally died in battle like a true Asgardian warrior. Instead, he finds himself drowning in a sea of inky black, the only light coming from the stoic tower guarding over the darkness. The woman who tends the lighthouse is as mysterious as she is caring, and Loki can't shake the feeling that she knows far more than she's telling …

Word Count: 10,141

Pairing: Loki x Sigyn

A/N: Summer before last I watched a video about a creepy old lighthouse and thought it make a fantastic location for a scary story. Two weeks ago I was going through my notes trying to find an idea for a spur-of-the-moment Halloween fic and I came across it again. This story ended up being quite different than I originally envisioned -- I'm not even sure you can even call it a Halloween fic anymore lol -- but I'm still very happy with it. Also huge thank you and shout out to @lokislittlesigyn, who both researched and beta read for me as well as just cheered me on throughout the whole process. I don't think this story would have come together as well as it did if not for her <3<3<3

Thanks for reading, and happy Halloween!!

Warnings: Injury, grief, death/afterlife

Tags: @lucywrites02 @gaitwae @whatafuckingdumbass @the-emo-asgardian @imnotrevealingmyname @electroma89 @lokislittlesigyn @moumouton4 @theredrenard @justdontmindmetm @lostgreekgod @naterson

If you want to be tagged, feel free to send an ask/message :)

Read it on Ao3!

“I’ll tell Father what you did here today.”

“I didn’t do it for him.”

There’s a light haloing his brother’s face, growing brighter and brighter until his silhouette has been washed away with the barren landscape as his own vision turns white behind his eyelids and even still it grows brighter, so bright it sears his retinas, so bright it hurts–

Loki gasps for air without realizing, breaking through the bitter cold of the water—water? There’s no chance to process it—another wave crashes over his head and thrusts him beneath the inky black of the sea. He thrashes against the current, fighting his way back to the surface even as the piercing pain in his chest explodes throughout his torso. It takes everything to keep himself from going under again. The light has moved—no longer on his face, it cuts through the starless void of the night sky, a glowing beacon in the dark, moving slowly across the horizon. Loki can’t breathe.

This isn’t Valhalla.

That much is clear, and the realization numbs him more than the cold. He died in battle. He died fighting for Asgard, for Thor, for her. She was supposed to be there to greet him. His eyes burn with salt and tears. It’s supposed to be over—he fought and died, why can’t he rest? Why is it not over? Norns, he just wants it to be over!

If not Valhalla, where am I?

He can’t think of any story that told of an ocean waiting beyond death, but he doesn’t have much time to try to remember either because yet another wave is cresting, and he barely has a moment to gulp a mouthful of air before he goes under yet again.

He must get out of this water. He can’t last like this. The light swoops across the ocean once more in the same steady movement. A lighthouse, he realizes suddenly, and curses himself for not making the connection sooner. A lighthouse means land, and people to tend to it. A lighthouse means safety. In this moment, nothing else could matter more.

Loki gasps a great heaving breath and begins kicking towards the light.

It’s a slow process. He has no way of knowing how long he’s been there, thrashing along the surface as best he can with what feeling he has left in his extremities. Between the waves slapping him back and the current tugging him every which way, it’s hard to believe he’s made any progress. The wound in his chest burns with every movement of his arms, a searing pain that zips up his spine and streaks all along his torso. His mouth is dry with blood. And all the while, the light flashes before him, soft and mocking as ever. Perhaps the lighthouse isn’t real, he wonders hazily; perhaps it exists only in his mind, and he’s condemned to suffer these waves until Ragnarok comes as penance for his failings in life.

He’s barely conscious enough to register when his feet scrape against sharp rock, his fingers almost too numb to grasp the stony shoreline. He collapses in a heap where the waves deposit him on the coast, his labored breathing drowning out all other sound. He knows he should crawl up, at least get his lower half out of the water, but his body is leaden and heavy, and Loki can feel himself drifting away.

I’m dead. Above him, the light flickers around a shape, a dark silhouette, a woman’s form. As weary as he is, his heart leaps in relief.

“Mother?” he calls out weakly.

There’s no response. The light is fading around him, and he’s fading with it. I’m dead, he thinks again. What an odd way to be dead…

…

He wakes gradually—so gradually that he doesn’t quite realize what it is he’s doing even as he blinks the sleep from his eyes. There’s the plush of mattress beneath his back, cotton blanket bunched around his waist. He’s in bed. For a brief moment it’s his bed, the one in his palace bedroom just down the hall from Thor’s, and he’s a child stirring awake after having fallen asleep atop the book he stayed up too late reading. But Loki blinks again, and the memory fades back into its place in a past life.

The room in which he wakes is no palatial chamber. It’s small, and quite barren—aside from the bed (which is more of a cot, now that he’s looking at it properly) there’s nothing more than a modest nightstand and a faded rug for furnishing. The stone walls are gray and dusted with age. A lantern flickers on its hook next to the door. The window to his right is draped with thick black fabric, with not the slightest hint of daylight peaking through.

Loki shivers, and it’s then that he realizes his chest is bare. Both his armor and his tunic have vanished, and his torso is wrapped in white cloth bandages. He presses his hand to the spot where the dark elf’s sword pierced his body. The pain is still there, but it’s muted ache rather than a biting hurt—the ache of a wound attended to briefly by a healer’s magic. Loki’s head is spinning. He presses harder and winces.

Is he dead? Alive? Surely a deceased soul would no longer require a healer’s touch, but in the same vein, if he had somehow been rescued from Svartalfheim, would he not have awoken in his Asgardian cell rather than … whatever this place is? And the ocean—had he dreamt that? Or had someone pulled him out? Who healed him? Where is he?

Loki pulls himself up with a groan. His body feels stiff, out of use, and he wonders how long he’s been laying here. Beneath the blanket, he finds that his boots have also been removed, although thankfully his mysterious guardian deigned to leave him his trousers. He sighs, bracing himself against the chill in the air, and staggers towards the door.

It leads him out into a cramped hallway, the right side ending in a wall and another covered window, the left twisting around what appeared to be the base of a staircase and disappearing into another room. Loki’s chest aches with a new vigor, and he leans against the doorframe to catch his breath, glaring daggers at his bandaged torso. It’s ridiculous that such a short distance would demand so much effort, he barely walked his own length—

But he’s distracted from his frustration by the sound that cuts through the silence—a lilting, feminine hum from somewhere down the corridor. Loki freezes.

He knows that melody. It’s a lullaby—a soft, gentle little tune that Frigga would sing to them as children to soothe them at night. The thought brings a lump to his throat. How long has it been since those days? All at once he remembers the woman on the beach.

Could it be?

Loki is too afraid to let himself hope. Instead, he rushes down the hallway with a new urgency.

The space he finds himself in is not much bigger than the room in which he awoke. It’s a small kitchen area, lined with cupboards and shelves and a meager counter space. A simple stovetop rests in the corner, a looming grandfather clock in the other. A table and a pair of chairs sit across from the large window on the left wall, a window covered, just as the ones that came before. On the right, a narrow staircase ascends into darkness.

The source of the humming stands at the stovetop, tending to a whistling kettle. Loki’s heart falls—it’s not his mother. No, this woman is much younger—a slender, almost ghostlike form in her creamy white dress, frayed hem brushing against the floor as she sways gently to the sound of her own voice. Her dark hair rests in a long braid down the length of her back. She wraps the kettle’s handle in a stained cloth as she moves it from the stove with the practiced motion of someone who’s done so a hundred times before. It’s then that she turns to see him standing at the room’s entrance and freezes with a gasp.

“Oh!” Her brown eyes wide, she stares at him as if he’s risen from the dead. Perhaps he has. Her expression turns hard. “What are you doing up?”

Loki stiffens. “Who are you?”

The woman ignores the question, dropping the kettle on the counter with a clang as she rushes towards him. Loki tenses, half expecting a struggle, but before she even reaches his side he finds himself whisked into one of the chairs, landing with a thud against the wood, head spinning.

He grunts. Seidr. It shouldn’t be a surprise—after all, he had known that his injuries must have been treated with magic—but he finds himself caught off guard just the same.

Loki moves to stand up, but the woman is in front of him now, gently but firmly pressing him back into the seat. Her hands are clammy on his bare shoulders.

“You’re not supposed to be up yet,” she frets. “You’ll hurt yourself—” She tips his chin up to peer at his eyes before pressing two fingers to his pulse. Loki flinches away instinctively. Her skin is cold, but it’s not just that—there’s something about her, the ease, the familiarity with which she touches him, that he finds disquieting.

“Who are you?” he demands again. “Why did you rescue me?”

She glances back at him, as if the question caught her off guard. “I-I’m Sigyn. I tend to the lighthouse.” She bites her lip. “You washed up on the beach.”

The lighthouse. Loki remembers the beam of light he had so frantically kicked through the waves towards. So that had been real after all. This ramshackle building must be it. Still, it explains very little of his predicament.

His eyes narrow at his rescuer. “You’re Asgardian.” Sigyn looks as though she is going to argue, but there’s no denying her accent. He continues without giving her the chance. “What is this place? It’s not Asgard.”

She hesitates. “It’s … it’s a kind of in-between.” Her gaze drifts to the covered window. “Not many find their way here.”

“In between what?” Loki asks. “The realms?”

Sigyn huffs a dry laugh, straightening to her feet. “The realms don’t exist here.” She returns to the kettle on the counter to pour a cup of steaming tea, a cup she then presses into his hands. “You should drink this. It will help with your healing.”

Loki eyes the tea suspiciously. The color is normal enough, but it has a medicinal stench about it that makes his eyes water. He has no intention of drinking it.

Instead, he glares back at her. “You didn’t answer my question.”

She sighs, collapsing into the chair across from him. “This is a place in between life and death. Somewhere neither living nor dead.”

Loki frowns. “That’s impossible. There’s no such place.”

Sigyn laughs again, but the sound has a far more bitter edge than before. “I thought so too,” she says. “Then I woke up here. It’s not so bad, though. A bit lonely, but …” Her voice goes quiet. After a moment she smiles, but it seems more of a pained act than anything else. “It could be worse.”

His frown deepens. None of this makes any sense. “But … then … if that’s the case, how did I come to be here?” he asks. “Why am I not simply dead?” He strains to remember his last moments on Svartalfheim, strains to recall anything out of the ordinary that could have happened to cast him here, but there’s nothing. He fell to an Elven sword in battle. There’s no reason why he should be anything but dead.

Sigyn only shrugs. “I don’t know. I just found you.” She’s not looking at him, picking at a splinter on the side of the table. Loki’s gaze darkens, but he doesn’t show it in his voice.

“How did you come to be here, then?” he asks.

His hostess doesn’t answer. Instead, she shakes her head, closing her eyes and motioning towards the tea. “Please drink it.” Her voice is thick. “I promise it will help.”

Loki raises his eyebrows. “And I’m to trust the promise of a strange woman who claims to be neither living nor dead and won’t give a straight answer?”

Sigyn looks back at him, eyes wide. “I couldn’t kill you if I wanted to.” There’s a desperate tinge to her voice as she leans forward. “Death doesn’t exist here.”

“If that’s the case, why bother healing me?”

“I …” She stops, and Loki is stunned to realize there’s tears pooling in her eyes.

“I don’t like to see you in pain,” she whispers at last.

There’s a heaviness in the air that sends a shiver down his back. Loki opens his mouth to question further—who are you really?—but he’s cut off by the sudden ringing of the grandfather clock, a sinister, resonant tolling that seems to echo in his chest. Sigyn trembles, closing her eyes with a shaky inhale. A stray teardrop drips down her cheek. After a moment, she lets out a breath.

“Excuse me, I must tend to the light.” She stands and turns to start up the stairs. “Please stay here. This place—it’s quite a labyrinth, and you’re still injured. I’ll be back soon.”

He watches her disappear up into the darkness, the creaking of her steps echoing throughout the building for several minutes after she vanishes. Loki sets the tea down on the table. This place—it’s quite a labyrinth, and you’re still injured. Was it a threat? Maybe, maybe not, but Loki takes it as a challenge.

The first thing he examines are the many cabinets and drawers lining the walls of the kitchen. He’s not sure what he’s expecting to find—evidence of spellwork, perhaps? Weapons?— but the contents turn out to be fairly ordinary. Really, there isn’t much at all. He’s surprised to find most of the cabinets are bare. It seems she’s prepared to serve a party of two—he finds two plates, two forks, two butter knives, two spoons, the matching teacup to the one he left on the table. Loki frowns. Sigyn had given the impression that she lived alone prior to his arrival. Had she expected him, he wonders?

The grandfather clock reveals little as well. It appears to be of Midgard, and it’s easily the most ornate item he has yet to see in the lighthouse—an intricately carved overlay of mahogany rests above the glimmering gold pendulum encased in glass. The pendulum swings with a soft tick, just as any normal clock would, but Loki is surprised to realize that the clock’s face is completely barren. There’s no numbers, no hands, no way to tell the time—just his own face reflected back at him in the pale slab of metal.

Odd.

Loki supposes that in a world beyond the bounds of life and death, the time would be irrelevant, but the clock’s rings had clearly signaled something for his strange rescuer. Perhaps it served as more of a timer? Regardless, it’s confusing.

He moves to the window, peering beneath the heavy black curtain. It doesn’t make much of a difference. The world outside is just as dark, the whole place smothered in the inky black of night. Even the sky is starless.

The only reprieve is the glowing beam of light from somewhere in the tower above him, slowly passing across the horizon with a steadfast resolve. Only through its reflection can Loki make out the choppy waves in the ocean below. He shivers despite himself and moves away from the window.

There’s not much else in the kitchen, so he goes back down the corridor through which he first came, returning to the little bedroom he awoke in to see if there was anything there he missed. There isn’t—the tiny room is just as barren as he remembers it. The ache in his chest is beginning to grow once more, and Loki sits down on the bed to rest a moment as he catches his breath and decides what to do next. He shivers again. Goodness, these old stone walls are so drafty, and here he is in nothing but his trousers. He had forgotten to ask Sigyn what she had done with his clothes. They certainly weren’t down here.

Come to think of it, there were several things that were missing from this level. There was no washroom anywhere to be found, and unless she had tucked him into her own bed to sleep off his injuries (a thought he finds too unsettling to accept as reality), she too must have a bedroom somewhere else in this tower. His thoughts return to the staircase—he had assumed it only went up to the light at the top of the spire, but perhaps it also led to a second level before that. It was a thought worth exploring. With a groan (his body seems reluctant to rise from the mattress), Loki pulls himself to his feet and hobbles back to the kitchen.

The spiraling staircase is steeper than he would have preferred, but Loki forces himself to ignore it. If he (seemingly) survived a sword to the chest, he can manage a few steps. By the time he comes to the second level he’s panting and out of breath, leaning against the wall for support, but he’s pleased to find that he was in fact correct in his assertion.

There’s a long hallway stretching before him, lit only by a flickering lantern dangling on the wall at its end. He can make out the outline of closed doors resting on either side. This is what he had intended to explore, but there’s another, far brighter light flickering above him, and Loki glances back up the spiraling staircase. Was it just his imagination, or did he hear a voice? His brow furrows. That hadn’t been Sigyn speaking—no, that had been a masculine sound. He thinks back to the pair of dishes in the cupboard, the pair of chairs resting on either side of the table.

There’s someone else here.

He can’t hear the voice anymore. Had he even heard it at all? Loki starts up the staircase again—perhaps if he gets closer, he’ll be able to better make out what is happening in this tower. The pain in his chest is almost masked by the rapid pounding of his heart.

To his horror, once he passes the second level, the spiral widens to be the full circumference of the tower. So many stairs. Loki peers up at the lantern room above him—the bright light makes it difficult to tell how high it is, but the staircase stretches nearly beyond his vision. He can make out the shadow of a person moving about the balcony, but if it’s Sigyn’s or another’s, he can’t tell. Loki gulps a breath and continues on.

Just a little farther, he tells himself, just so you can see better.

His head aches—it’s the flickering of the light, it’s straining his eyes and making his vision all spotty. He tries to ignore it, but then his chest sears in pain, so potent that for a moment everything goes white. With a soft cry, Loki leans against the stone wall. His hands are trembling.

It’s alright. It’s alright. He presses his back against the wall, trying to keep his legs from buckling under his weight. It’s alright. He just needs a moment to rest. His legs give out anyway, and he slides to the floor with a hard thump. The stairs are spinning. The whole tower is spinning. His chest is beyond just pain now, it burns, stinging with every heaving inhale he gasps.He gulps, but he can’t seem to find a breath.

“Loki?” The sound is one of shock and terror, and for a moment it pulls him free of his dizziness. Sigyn is standing a few steps above him; even silhouetted by the glow of the lighthouse, the look of horror on her face is clear as day. He’s barely processed the realization that she said his name before she does it again.

“Loki– oh Norns—” She rushes down the stairs to kneel in front of him, hands fluttering to his chest. He follows her frightened eyes and realizes dimly that his bandages have soaked through with blood. “Loki, I told you to stay—”

Loki tries to respond, but his tongue doesn’t seem to be working, and the words turn to mush in his mouth. Sigyn doesn’t seem to be looking for a reply anyways. She presses a hand to where his shoulder meets his neck, and for once the coolness of her skin feels pleasant against his—when did this tower become so unbearably hot? She’s murmuring something, words he can’t quite hear, but the pain in his chest is slowly melting to a dull ache, the fuzziness in his vision fading away. When she looks up at him again, he’s struck by how her brown eyes sparkle in the eerie light.

“Can you walk if you hold me?” she asks, and he can only nod, gripping her shoulder as she guides him with an arm around his torso back down the staircase. It’s slow work, but she’s gentle and steady, her earlier admonishments replaced with soft words of encouragement as he stumbles along.

He’s expecting her to take him back to his original room, but instead Sigyn leads him to the unexplored second level, and he’s grateful to not have to walk as far. The door on the right opens to a bedroom almost as threadbare as the first, although Loki does catch a glimpse of his tunic hanging on a clothesline to the side along with other various articles of laundry. He huffs a laugh to himself as she lays him down on the bed. At least that’s one mystery solved.

Sigyn wastes no time getting to work on his wound, cutting away the soiled bandages with a surgical precision and dabbing the blood with a damp rag. Loki watches in silence as she begins to redress the injury. He’s skilled enough in emergency care—after all, knowing such can mean life or death on the battlefield— but these are the movements of someone who’s been trained with far more proficiency.

She’s a healer.

Loki had already suspected as much, but this seems to be confirmation. However, that doesn’t explain everything.

“You know my name,” he says at last.

Sigyn jerks her head up. “What?”

“You called me Loki. I never told you my name.” He studies her with an exhausted sort of suspicion. She confuses him. There’s clearly much that she’s not divulging, but she seems so sincere in her actions. “Who are you, really?”

She inhales, her gaze planted firmly on his bandages. “I told you already. I’m Sigyn.”

Loki huffs. This woman is a terrible liar. “You also told me that you didn’t know me, and yet here we are.”

She bites her lip. “I never said that …”

“So you do know me?”

“It’s …” The bed creaks as she shifts her weight against it. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“How? It’s a yes or no question.” Loki jerks himself up into a sitting position with a grunt. She lets out a soft cry, but when she moves to push him back down he grabs her wrists and holds them still. He’s had enough of this.

“I don’t know you,” he growls. “Before today, I have never once seen your face. And yet you know me by name. Who are you?”

She’s squirming, still avoiding his gaze. “You’re going to hurt yourself again—”

“Tell me what’s going on here!”

A tense beat of silence passes, but then she sighs, her arms going limp. When she tries to pull away, Loki doesn’t stop her. There’s a shift in the air that tells him he’s won.

Sigyn walks over to the window, runs her hand down the dark fabric of the curtain as if in a trance. She stands there for several moments, immobile and silent. He’s wondering if she’s going to say anything at all when she turns back towards him, an anxious look on her face. “Do you … are you familiar with the concept of … alternate lives?

“The concept of – what?” Loki’s thoughts stutter – he’s not sure what he had been preparing for her to say, but that’s definitely not it.

“I mean – goodness, I’ve never explained this out loud before.” She lets out a nervous laugh and comes back to sit beside him on the bed. “I mean … you’re you,” she says, gesturing towards him, “as you are here today, because you made a series of specific choices, and the people in your life made a series of specific choices, and all the generations of people who came before you made a series of specific choices, and that all lead to you, with your specific set of experiences and feelings and beliefs. Yes?”

She’s looking directly at him, her gaze as intense as it is apprehensive, and Loki swallows. He almost wishes she would go back to being afraid to make eye contact. But he nods.

She studies him a moment, as if deciding whether to believe him. “But if any one of those choices were different,” she says finally, “If you did something different, or your parents did something different, or a person in the distant past you don’t even realize you’re connected to did something different—if anything changed—your life would look different to how it is now. Perhaps it would be a small change, or perhaps it would be such a drastic alteration that it doesn’t look remotely the same. Are you still following me?”

“I believe so …” Loki says, although his voice sounds less certain. He pauses for a moment. “It sounds like Skuld’s Net.”

He’s not sure if it’s a fair connection to make— the matrix-esque symbol is meant to represent the web of fate’s possibilities past, present, and future, but he is very aware that he’s grasping for something familiar to cling on to in this sea of strangeness.

But Sigyn’s eyes light up. “Yes, that’s a good way of thinking about it!” she exclaims. “So now, imagine if every different choice, every variation, every individual thread, exists in its own separate reality.” She interlocks her fingers together, then slowly pulls her hands apart to demonstrate.

Loki’s frowns. “But if that were true – if every infinitesimal difference created a different universe—” Norns, his head is spinning “—that would be impossible to quantify. There would be infinite possibilities.”

She gives a wane smile. “Precisely.”

He’s lost in thought for a while, grappling with her words. A separate reality for every individual thread. It’s too fantastic, too absolutely ridiculous, to be believed. And yet …

“And you mean to tell me that you knew me in an alternate universe?” he asks finally. “That’s what you’re trying to get at?”

“Oh!” Sigyn is clearly caught off guard by the question. She swallows, glancing up at the ceiling. It seems her eyes are misting over again. “A … a version of you, yes.”

Loki is quiet. Does he believe her? Can he believe her? He’s not sure himself.

“How?” His voice feels thick.

“What?”

“How did you know me? What was I to you?”

“You—” She’s definitely fighting tears now, furiously trying to blink them away. Her words come out strained. “My husband. You were my husband.”

Loki feels as though he’s been doused in cold water.

“What?” He can barely dislodge the sound from his throat.

Sigyn gives a jittery nod. “Yes. I, uh –” She reaches under her collar to pull out an oval locket on a gold chain—it’s an Asgardian style, a trinket he remembers as being a popular gift between courting lovers after their first solstice together. Sigyn unlatches the mechanism to open it. It projects a holographic image in her hand, soft and warm in the dismal shadows of the candlelit room. Loki’s heart stops.

It’s him, unmistakably him, gentle curls resting against his shoulders as he beams down at the woman he’s cradling against his chest—Sigyn, he realizes dimly, although it takes a moment to recognize her smiling visage, lively and joyful in a way that seems lost to the haggard woman who sits across from him. Loki stares, unable to take his eyes off of it. It’s me. His chest feels empty. His hologram’s face is crinkled with a jubilance that Loki’s not sure he’s ever experienced in his life. Sigyn watches the projection in silence for a moment before clicking the locket closed once more. She looks over at him, waiting for him to speak. His mouth has gone quite dry.

Loki doesn’t know what to say. He can’t meet her gaze. He swallows. “How did we meet?” he croaks at last. “Or … you and him, how did you meet?”

She lets out a soft little breath—surprise, perhaps? Or was she upset? “I was a novice, in the healing ward. You – him – he was always getting into trouble, always needing something patched up … we just got to talking a lot.” Her voice is drifting away, into something lighter, dreamier, and she lets out a small giggle. “There was this one time, on Alfheim, you took an arrow to the shoulder—it had been dipped in something, so healing spells didn’t work properly, and we had to give you a sedative for the pain, and you completely out of it, just saying the most ridiculous things—”

“Hold on—” Loki reaches out without knowing what he’s reaching for. Alfheim … shoulder … poisoned arrow … Words and images click together in his mind, leaving behind only confusion. Is this what it’s like to go insane? “I remember that – happening to me, I mean.” He gulps a breath. “Thor had gotten into a row with an Elven militia … you weren’t there, though. Eir handled it …”

Sigyn hums—it’s a soft noise, with only just a hint of sadness. “That makes sense. I … I don’t think I exist in your universe.”

He furrows his brow. “How’s that?”

“I don’t know. The circumstances necessary for my birth just didn’t happen.” She shrugs. Her smile seems tired. “Infinite possibilities, remember.”

Infinite possibilities … He’s struck by a sudden thought. “Is my mother alive in your universe?”

“Frigga?” Sigyn sounds surprised. “Yes, of course – or at least she was when I was there.” She lets out an awkward laugh. “I’ve not exactly kept up with current events since landing here.”

Loki stares into space. He feels rather like he’s falling again. There’s a world where she’s alive. Where I’m happily married. Where everything is different. What is reality anymore? Does any of it matter? Is any of this real?

Sigyn reaches forward, resting a cautious hand on his forearm. “I’m sorry – I know this is a lot to take in, all at once. I really didn’t want to just drop it on you—”

“How do you know all this?” he interrupts. “With the different universes, and all the rest? Is this common knowledge in your world?”

“Oh …”  she stutters, glancing away again. “Well … no, not exactly. I … I sort of stumbled into that knowledge on my own.”

His suspicions are roused again instantly. “What does that mean?”

“I was …” Sigyn gulps. “I was studying. I was looking for something else, a different kind of magic, and I … I inadvertently discovered all this.” She motions distractedly to the air, and it reminds Loki of their surroundings.

“Is that how you ended up here?” he asks. “Because of your studies?”

“Essentially …” her smile seems anxious, uncomfortable. “I … I disrupted things.”

“What things?”

Sigyn stands abruptly. “It’s … it’s probably better if we don’t talk about it.”

“Why?” Loki stands too, perhaps a bit too fast given the ache in his temples, but he ignores it in favor of maintaining his questioning glare. “Don’t I deserve to know? As your husband?”

She flinches, and he can’t help but feel a bit guilty—he didn’t mean to sound so mocking. But he pushes the thought from his mind. Remember the voice in the lighthouse tower. There are things she’s not telling you.

“What if you get dressed first?” she asks finally. “Get dressed and eat something? Then we can talk more.”

It’s tempting to refuse, to insist that he will not be moved until every secret has been revealed to him, but her words make it difficult to ignore the chill running down his spine.

“Very well,” he relents.

…

Loki never would have expected dinner in a land between life and death to be so delicious.

“What did you call this again?” he asks as he scrapes the last bits of tartly sweet scarlet sauce from the plate. When they had sat down to eat, he had insisted that Sigyn eat a bit from both plates first, to alleviate his instinct to expect poisoning (she had done so without arguing, a slight amusement on her lips, and he found himself wondering if his interdimensional counterpart was similarly prone to suspicion), but now he was almost sorry that he had given up even the smallest portion.

“Kompe with lingonberry compote.” Sigyn grins at him from across the table—it’s the first time he’s seen her truly smile, and he has to admit, there’s something endearing to the sight. “Have you not had it before?”

“I don’t think so.” He licks his lips, chasing a final taste of compote. “I feel I’d remember if I had.”

“In my universe, it was your favorite.” She’s still smiling, but it’s fading into something dreamier, more reflective. “I actually learned to make it because you liked it so much. I surprised you with it once.”

Loki sits back in his seat, gaze drifting to the covered window. It’s strange—how she knows him without actually knowing him, how she has all this history with him, and yet simultaneously not with him. It’s a bit like talking to an omniscient being. He wonders what his interdimensional counterpart is doing right now.

“So we’re very similar, I presume?” he says. “Him and I?”

Sigyn is quiet as she clears the table of dishes. “Yes. It’s … it’s a bit uncanny, to be honest.” She huffs a fond laugh to herself. “He was about as terrible at following my medical advice as you are—never wanted to stay still.” Smirking, she adds, “I threatened to tie him to the bed once.”

“Oh.” How am I supposed to respond to that? “… did you?”

She seems to realize all at once what it was she just said, and her cheeks flush crimson red. “Oh goodness, no, not – no, definitely not.”

He chuckles at her awkwardness, but this train of thought leads another sudden station, and he goes quiet for a moment. “Did … did you and him, did you have children?”

Goodness, what a strange thought. Somehow Loki has never been able to picture himself as a father—even when he was younger, before he knew the truth of his existence, when he thought he would have to produce heirs like any normal prince might, the idea felt like something that would happen to a faceless stranger in some sterile future that didn’t belong to him. Knowing what he knows now, it’s a relief he never had the chance to pass his biological baggage on to an unsuspecting child.

Sigyn places the dishes into the washbasin with a soft sigh. “No … we had been talking about it though.” She pauses. “You—he was nervous. Which was fair—I was nervous too. But I think it would have worked out.” She smiles fondly. “Your poor mother—she never wanted to push, but she was so eager for grandchildren, and with Thor off traveling most of the time she had basically given up on any from him—”

“Thor traveling?” Loki interrupts, frowning. “How’s that?” He can’t imagine a world where Odin would take lightly to his firstborn spending most of the time away from the realm.

“Oh yes, he had a huge falling out with your father several years back.” She leans back with a huff as she recounts the tale. “Odin banished him to Midgard, then changed his mind and said he could come back but Thor was too stubborn to return unless Odin said that Thor had been right all along, and Odin was too stubborn to ever do that, and it just turned into a whole mess.” Sigyn turns back towards him, her brow furrowed slightly at the memory. “It was hard. You got caught up in the middle of it all, trying to be the mediator, and it was just overwhelming.”

 “Huh.” Loki’s head feels a bit odd. “Something similar happened in my world but … but that’s not how it ended at all.” He shivers, but for once it has nothing to with the cold. He can feel Sigyn’s quizzical eyes on him, and so he clears his throat before she has the chance to question him further. “If Thor’s not there, then does that make me the crown prince?”

“Oh no, that’s Hela. The crown princess, I mean.” She’s turned back to the washbasin, so she doesn’t see the look of utter confusion on Loki’s face.

“Who?”

“Hela. Odin’s firstborn.” Sigyn glances back, eyes widening. “Does she not exist for you either?”

“I—” Loki’s voice doesn’t seem to be working properly. “She – he – Odin has another child?”

Sigyn nods, leaning against the counter. “At least for us. She was his first wife’s daughter. She’s quite a bit older than you and Thor – I don’t think you and her were ever particularly close.” She lets out an anxious huff of a laugh. “She always rather frightened me, to be honest.”

“Goodness …” is all Loki can manage.

Sigyn looks thoughtful as she dries the plates and puts them away. “I’m really surprised she’s not in your timeline,” she says. “I would have thought – because I don’t think yours is that different to mine? – but I suppose so.”

“Yes …” Despite everything—the overwhelming, mindboggling cascade of sudden information—Loki finds himself chuckling. “It seems my version received the short end of the stick. I don’t have you, I don’t have Hela, and I don’t have kompe.”

Leaning back against the counter, Sigyn cackles. “The most painful loss of them all!” She cocks her head to the side, still laughing. “Norns, do you not have harvest festivals? That’s always one of the main dishes for us!”

“Oh, we do—in fact I think we may serve every possible dish at them except for kompe.” He shakes his head, grinning. It feels good to laugh. “Although usually the food comes second to the mead. I remember once I was dancing with a young lady who had had far too much to drink, and she ended up losing the contents of her stomach all down my front.”

He’s not sure where the memory comes from, why it’s bubbling to his mind now. He hadn’t thought of it in years but … Norns, that seems a lifetime ago. He had been so young, a boy still, his hand trembling as he held his hand out to her—it had been the first time he had found the courage to ask a girl to dance. Funny how he can’t remember her name now, or even her face. No, when he thinks of her, all he can remember is standing frozen on the dance floor, dripping in vomit, as somewhere to the side Thor howled with such laughter that he nearly made himself sick as well.

Sigyn looks absolutely horrified. “Oh goodness, that’s terrible!” she cries with wide eyes. “Was she alright? Were you?”

Her concern is a baffling thing. “Oh yes, we were both fine,” Loki says slowly. “She was very embarrassed, if I remember correctly. And I was uninjured—I just needed to change.” He chuckles dryly. “Needless to say, it put me off dancing for a bit.”

“Not permanently, I hope?” There’s a sadness to her that he doesn’t quite understand. “Do you not care for it still?”

“I’m not sure I would say that.” Loki shrugs. “I never had any particular talent for it to begin with. And I was never a very coveted partner.”

“Really?” Sigyn bites her lip, crestfallen. “I remember you dancing so beautifully in my universe. The first time you asked – I felt so unworthy of your hand. I remember the other ladies were quite jealous.”

Jealous. He snorts at the very idea. “I’m afraid we’ve stumbled on to another interdimensional difference.”

“I’m sure you’re better than you say …” Her hesitation is a palpable thing, hovering by the counter as she gazes back at him with unsure eyes. “I’d love to dance with you.”

“What?”

“I’d love to dance with you.” As if to emphasize, she crosses the room and offers him her hand. “Now, even, if you’d like.”

He stares at her hand, unsure how to respond. Is she joking? She must be …

“I appreciate it, but …” he glances up at her. “I’m not your husband.”

Sigyn inhales softly but doesn’t move. “I know,” she says. “I’m not asking my husband.”

Loki raises his eyebrows. Norns, she’s serious. “There’s no music,” he says cautiously.

“We don’t need music.” Her smile is affectionate. “I want to give you a nice dance.”

He huffs. This is absolutely ridiculous, and yet … there’s something almost comforting about the way her fingers close around his when he takes her hand. Sigyn grins as she pulls him to his feet.

“You know how to waltz, don’t you?”

Loki smirks. “I did at one point, at least.” His free hand comes to rest on her hip, some long dormant instinct flickering back to life. She’s the right size to dance with, he thinks suddenly. She fits perfectly into his arms. It’s an odd feeling.

Sigyn reaches out to stroke a loose bit of hair from his face, her fingers lingering on his cheek for a moment before placing her hand on his shoulder. “Think you can follow my lead?”

He inhales. “I’ll do my best.”

It’s hardly a proper waltz—there’s not enough room in the small kitchen for a full dance floor, it’s hard to keep a rhythm without any sort of music, and besides, he’s woefully out of practice, but … there’s something freeing about it. They stumble about the room, Sigyn giggling as she tries to count out the beats as he bumps into the chair again, chuckling through his apologies – “You’re doing fine, just keep going, just like this—”

He smirks. “Still think you’d be jealous of my partner?”

She laughs. “Immensely so.”

He bumps her arm as he tries to twirl her and makes a face. “See, I told you—”

“No, no, you’re doing wonderfully, just like this—” Sigyn tries to spin around, but trips and nearly loses her balance. Loki grabs at her in an attempt to hold her steady, but any semblance of balance has been lost and they both go stumbling into the counter, giggling hysterically.

“Oh goodness!” She manages to gasp between fits of laughter, reaching for his chest. “Are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

He shakes his head, bracing himself against the countertop as he tries to catch his breath. “Are you sure all the ladies wanted to dance with me, darling?” he teases. “Perhaps it was you they coveted, with your unique dancing techniques.”

Sigyn collapses into giggles again. “No, I swear, I—”

But she’s cut off by a somber tolling from the corner, rattling the window beneath its cover. Through the course of the after-dinner pleasantries, Loki had forgotten the faceless grandfather clock, forgotten the flickering tower room above them, forgotten everything he had aimed to uncover. How had he let himself become so thoroughly distracted? He glances at his dance partner, who has gone very still beside the counter. The room seems to have dropped in temperature.

“What does that indicate?”

“It …” Sigyn inhales. She looks quite pale. “It means I have to tend to the light.”

“And that means?” When she doesn’t answer, he huffs in irritation. “I want to go with you.”

She shakes her head. “No … no, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” Again, she’s silent, staring up at the heavy darkness of the staircase. Loki grips her arm, and she flinches. “You promised to tell me everything, remember?”

“I … it’s too many steps. You’ll reopen your wound again.” She won’t look directly at him, not even to try to free herself from his grasp.

“What is up there that you don’t want me to see?”

She shakes her head. “It’s not that, it’s just – it’s best if you stay down here.” There’s a desperate tinge to her voice. “Please, just believe me—”

“Why should I?” he snaps. “What are you hiding from me?”

“I’m not hiding anything, I swear—”

He lets out a puff of air, lets go of her arm. This is getting him nowhere. “I suppose I’ll have to see for myself.”

Her eyes widen. “No—Loki—” She’s grabbing at him, but he brushes her off as easily as a fly and heads towards the staircase. Her pleas are frantic, wild behind him, but he doesn’t turn. She won’t look at him, why should he look at her? “Loki please, just listen to me—” All at once, her voice hardens. “Loki, STOP.”

And then the world goes black.

…

He comes to gradually, the flickering candlelight seeping back through the corners of his vision. Something doesn’t feel right – it’s as if he’s floating. His limbs are numb.

Where am I?

 Loki blinks groggily, taking in his surroundings. Stone walls, plush mattress, modest nightstand … didn’t this happen already? He blinks again. No, he’s not dreaming – he’s back in his original bedroom, the one he woke up in earlier. How did he get here? Images and words come trickling back through his mind, memories of the dance, the clock, the staircase …

She used seidr.

His gaze darkens. Of course she had—how could he have been such a fool to think she wouldn’t? He had known she was capable of it, known that she was hiding something, and yet somehow she had managed to bat her pretty little eyelashes and fill his head with stories of an alternate world – imbecile, he hisses under his breath as he rushes to the door. He knows better than this. He is better than this.

The door is locked tight. Of course it is. She isn’t pretending he’s anything but her prisoner anymore. He bangs with his fists, yelling at her to open it, but there’s no answer. Letting out a frustrated howl, he slams the door with his side. Pain explodes across his shoulder. The wood bends but doesn’t break. Loki huffs. So, she didn’t seal it with magic. An odd choice, but one that would work to his benefit. Still, there must be a better way to go about doing this. He glances around the room for something to use as a battering ram.

His eyes land on the nightstand.

A resounding crash later, and Loki is storming down the hall into the kitchen. He hasn’t much of a plan – finding Sigyn is the goal, but what is he going to do when he does? Force her to reveal her secrets to him? Yes, because that worked so well last time. He grimaces, digging his nails into the palms of his hands. At least this time he’s prepared for her tricks.

But it all comes to nothing, because the kitchen is empty – their dinner dishes still untouched on the counter where she had left them. The grandfather clock looms menacingly in the corner. Loki bites his lip, staring at its faceless visage.

How much time has passed since he lost consciousness? He has no way of knowing. Still, he thinks, his gaze drifting to the shrouded staircase, it’s no mystery as to where she’s gone.

The steps seem less steep this time – perhaps it’s the adrenaline pounding in his ears, or perhaps Sigyn’s talent for healing is really that incredible, but he passes the second level far more quickly this time, climbing into the tower without skipping a beat.

The lighthouse chamber is just as eerie as he remembers it, the flickering lantern casting shadows that dance on the stone walls like spindly spider creatures. There’s another shadow too, a figure moving methodically around the light at the top. Sigyn? Or perhaps someone else? Loki slows his pace as he nears the top to hide his approach.

There’s that voice again—Loki cranes his ears to try to make out what he’s saying, but the words escape him. There’s something familiar to it, something he can’t quite place. Is that … are there multiple voices? He frowns. Yes, there’s definitely more than one person speaking, and not in unison—they’re all talking over each other, yelling over each other, goodness, how had he not heard this before? How had he not heard this panic? It’s clearer and clearer as he climbs closer to the top. Someone, multiple someones, are being tortured. His heart jumps to his throat.

Some of them are breathless, gasping, shaky voices weak with injury as they struggle to gulp a last bit of air.

Some of them are calling out, begging, wailing, howling in pain and screaming for help, piercing shrieks that make his hair stand on end.

Some are just screaming.

What is she doing to them?

Sigyn is up there—he can barely make out the sound of her footsteps on the wooden platform through the sounds of agony. Loki kneels on the steps just beneath, hidden out of sight. His knees are shaking. Because there’s something else. Something lingering in the back of his mind, something that’s been there ever the first time he entered this chamber but that he hadn’t been able to recognize, didn’t want to recognize—he presses his palms to the step in front of him, as familiar words break through the cacophony

“I’ll tell Father what you did here today.”

“I didn’t do it for him.”

It’s him.

It’s all him.

All of the voices, all of the pain, all of the horror, it’s all him.

Loki feels as though he’s going to be sick.

He’s not what he’s expecting to see when he stands. The light burns his retinas but he doesn’t waver in his gaze. It’s white, whiter than anything he’s ever seen in his life, searing deep into his skull, but the more he looks, the more he sees the flashing images flickering past his vision. It’s him—they’re all him—different versions of himself that he’s never seen before, drowning, dying, bleeding out in a prison cell, chests crushed, limbs broken, lips shown shut, all strangers to him except one, a gray body on a gray planet, fading away in his brother’s arms …

He doesn’t see Sigyn until she’s practically upon him, grabbing his wrist and yanking him back down into the staircase. He’s too stunned to fight back.

“I didn’t want you to have to see it,” she whispers hoarsely. She’s crying, he realizes suddenly, her eyes puffy and red. “It’s bad enough for me, I didn’t – I couldn’t imagine what it would be like for you—”

Loki gulps, a great heaving gasp as he collapses against the wall. His cheeks are wet – it seems he’s been crying too. “Why – what is it? What are they?”

“Different timelines. Things that have happened, or are happening, or have yet to happen.” Another Loki shriek breaks through the air, and she shudders. “We should go back downstairs.”

“No—” Loki grabs her wrist. As desperately as he wants to leave this place and never come back, he can’t let her avoid her explanations any longer. “Why are they here? What is this place?”

Sigyn swallows, and another tear drips down her cheek. “They’re connected to the light,” she says at last. “You are too—every Loki is. I have to keep the light burning, or else—” her voice breaks. “Please, can we go downstairs?”

He doesn’t let go. “Or else what?”

She draws a shaky breath. Her voice is barely audible. “Or else you’re all erased.”

Erased. The word hits him like a bucket of cold water. His whole existence, every version of his existence, dependent on the burning of this lantern … He stares at her with wide eyes. “Why?”

“It’s … it’s my fault.” Sigyn is trembling, pressing a hand to her eyes as if to block the tears from coming. “The Norns had to do it, to keep everything stable. They made the light show the worst parts of every timeline. They know—” she hiccups a sob “—they know with those stakes I’d never let it go out.”

There’s something in her eyes, something grey and dead that Loki hasn’t seen before. All at once, he realizes the truth.

“This is a punishment. It has nothing to do with me—it’s your own personal agony.” He’s confused – the Norns do not act as judge and jury, nor do they interfere with the lives of those beneath them. To earn their ire … “What did you do?”

“I … I messed with things I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t trying to, I just … I thought I could—” she inhales again, barely suppressing another sob. “I ripped through reality. Destroyed … several timelines. Once it started, I couldn’t stop it.” She lets out a sigh. “So they put me here. To control me. Connected all the universes to fix what I had done, and left me here to tend to it.”

“Oh …” He believes her – there’s a truth in her face that he hasn’t seen before – but he still doesn’t quite understand. “But … what of your universe? Surely it would be changed by the loss of you? Your Loki, is he not affected?”

“He isn’t. He can’t be.” Her tone is uncharacteristically short. It catches him off guard. “He – he’s gone. My Loki, he’s gone.”

“Gone—” Oh. Loki inhales. All at once, the pieces click into place. Her protective urges towards him, the soft air of sadness that always seems to follow her … Loki’s chest is aching, but it has nothing to do with his wound.

Sigyn continues in halting sentences. “That’s why … I thought – I thought I could save him. Reverse time, start it over again, stop it from happening … Because I couldn’t … without him, I couldn’t—” She gulps a shuddering breath, as if shaking away the memory. “But I couldn’t. I just ended up breaking everything. And the Norns put me here. They made it especially for me.” She laughs, but it’s a humorless sound, broken and bitter. “Keeps me out of trouble, and reminds me … reminds me of what I lost.”

“What you lost?” Loki’s voice is soft.

Sigyn laughs again, tears freely streaming down her face now. “There’s two of everything. They made sure of it—two plates, two chairs, two bedrooms. But it’s just me. It’s only ever just me …” she gulps, then nods in the direction of the great lantern. “Then there’s that … I see every version of you, every awful thing that’s happened to you, all of it, every time I come up these steps. I have to look—” her voice breaks. “I have to watch it all, I have to keep the light going, I can’t lose any more of you—”

She looks up at him, her eyes wide and desperate. “I wasn’t trying to pull you here.” Her voice is thick with emotion. “I really wasn’t. I didn’t think it was possible. I just saw you, on Svartalfheim, drifting away … you weren’t dead yet, but you were so close, and I, I just – I’m so lonely—”

And then she collapses in on herself, shaking with the weight of centuries-old sobs. Loki gingerly reaches towards her – this feels like something private, something not meant for his eyes, but once he touches her she melts into his arms, clinging to him like a life raft as she bawls into his chest. It’s a bit unnerving – he’s never been one skilled at providing comfort. But he holds her firmly, cradling her head against his tunic, and it must be right because she tightens her grip, and it’s just the two of them, two broken souls alone together in a broken world.

“It’s alright,” he hears himself whisper, so low he’s not sure she can even hear him. “It’s alright. I’ve got you.”

…

The first thing he notices when he opens his eyes is the dust.

Svartalfheim is as dark and barren as he left it, the dirt like ash beneath his fingers as he stretches and twitches, feeling slowly returning to his extremities. His armor is still stained with blood, but the wound beneath has vanished. He’s alone – Sigyn had told him he’d be alone.

“Thor and Jane go off to find a way off world,” she had said. “They think you’re dead, and they can’t afford to take your body with them.” She didn’t know what happened to them after. The light only shows her him.

They had decided to spend one last meal together – she knew that if she didn’t send him back, it wouldn’t be long before someone came to force him to return, but they wanted to take their time with it. She made kompe once more, since he wouldn’t get to taste it again.

“What were you going to do if I hadn’t found out?” he asked her. “Surely you didn’t expect to keep me here forever.”

Sigyn had sighed. She seemed to have aged a century since their moment in the tower, but there was something beautiful to it – an invisible tension that had melted away. “No … I didn’t really have a plan. I just … I didn’t want to lose you again.”

She wasn’t sure what he would remember when he awoke in his own world once more. Would it be as though no time had passed? Would the lighthouse seem like a hazy dream? “That might be for the best, honestly,” she said with a slight smile. “You won’t have anything to grapple with.”

“Perhaps,” he had hummed, but secretly he hoped she was wrong. He didn’t want to forget.

Waking up on the dark planet’s blood splattered soil, Loki’s relieved to find he still can picture her sparkling brown eyes clear as day.

They had danced, too, one last time before he entered into the light. “We can’t let whatever happened with that first one be our dancing legacy,” he had teased. Sigyn laughed and took his hand.

He wondered about her, as they swept across the room in perfect harmony. Perhaps there’s a reason no one else had ever clicked, no one else fit into his arms like the final piece to his puzzle. Maybe she was right – maybe his Sigyn doesn’t exist, through some cruel twist of fate he had no say in. Or maybe she is out there, somewhere in the world, waiting for something she doesn’t realize she’s been waiting for, just as he’s been his whole life. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but perhaps not.

He had kissed her hand at the end, when they were saying goodbye – it was a gesture that might have seemed oddly formal, but he wasn’t sure how to put his cocktail of emotion into words. Her eyes misted up.

“Thank you,” he had whispered – for the food, for the healing, for keeping him alive in a way he couldn’t put into words. It was a meager thanks, but she seemed to understand. She stroked his cheek with cold fingertips.

“No … thank you,” she whispered back. “I’ll be thinking of you.”

And I you.

Loki sighs, sits up. There’s an emptiness in his chest, but he exhales it away. His stint at death has lasted long enough.

Now, it’s time to live.

[theabsentmindedwriter]

The Summary and thoughts of the story, "The Town Of The Dead"

Oh boy, you people like fan fiction but just want a summary so you can catch up to current story events? No? Yes? Well frankly this post is going to be about my first Animal Crossing story that started it all. So if you want to read the story before being spoiled. Use the provided link though I must warn you that due to it being an early work of mine...it has early stage fan fiction writing. If you can withstand that then go ahead. If you just want a summary then continue the post.

Summary:

The story is about Nacho returning to his town after hearing news about disappearances and attacks by clone zombies. As bizzare as it sounded he made a rush to his town to help protect it. Only to be late and with a majority of the villagers being taken. Armed with a gun and his skills Nacho looked for anybody that could be left. Finding Booker, Harriet, and Ankha to which the latter hid out in the secret compartment of her house.

It was here the group is brought to Nacho's home and also the secret that their Mayor was originally an I.G.M.A.D.A agent who mainly fielded in the Monster Hunter world. Everybody armed up and Nacho recieved a briefing on dealing with the source of the zombie threat.

There is some personal drama between Nacho and Ankha from the relevation. However it's patched over fast. Interestingly there is a brief moment of flash back with Ankha's history. Which was a nightmare that Nacho comforted her on. To which afterwards she would contact Lucky. After some rest they would be picked up by a team from I.G.M.A.D.A who would aid them.

The group would land in the town considered the origin point of the zombie madness. There they fight off some of the monsters while saving Coco. Lucky would join them and together they would enter the nearby forest and make a small journey to the aptly named Town of The Dead.

There they would fight their way to the large mansion in the center. Some close calls the group would fight their way through the mansion. Running into Isabelle who managed to escape from a lab for a period. Until she was capture by a gargoyle monster and whisked away. Causing the group to double their efforts as they reached a library. There they discovered notes from one of the Scientists who created the mess. Before shortly being attacked by 'Chariot' to which they defeated the creature.

Onwards the group did take a moment to rest while Ankha has another flash back to her history with an old flame. Thinking to Nacho and maybe deciding to finally move on.

However things take a dive when they encounter the gargoyle beast on a stone bridge. Who of which damaged the bridge. Everyone but Nacho managed to escape the collapse. With him falling into the water below presumably being killed. However he did in fact survive but not without injury. Stuck with a broken arm and injured leg he somehow manages to work his way to follow the team.

Ankha would later fight the Hangman creature and execute him with extreme prejudice. More zombies and creatures will continue to get in their way along with the Hermit boss creature that they dispatch. Leading to the final area where they refight the boss creatures from before.

Later reaching the last room where Dr. Cadaver reveals the Magician creature as his ace in the hole that takes his life shortly after. Forcing a fight that Ankha and Lucky nearly lose. Nacho would show up to support Ankha in the fight. Which was a grueling and hard fought battle. It was ended when Ankha invoked her gods aid to super charge Nacho's gun and finish off the monster in one blast. The strenuous effort would have them both pass out.

After everything was said and done. Both would admit their feelings for one another as Nacho is thanked by his townmembers for his role in stopping the clone zombie threat.

My thoughts:

Oh man, comparing this from back then to my skills now. Lots of things have changed. Ankha and others now have more developed personalities and back stories. So reading the dialogue I wrote for her and others makes me feel cringe. But we all started somewhere. Plot was pretty straight forward pace wise because this is what happens when you mix an arcade game with animal crossing.

Still though I have no regrets making this. As some of the ideas laid here ended up as ground work for the more thorough development of characters the stories after this one. I actually plan to one day to remake the story so it fits the quality of my current writing and more better portray the characters. Until then though we are stuck with this.

I kinda had a we cross that bridge till we get to it mentality in my writing. A fly by the seat of your pants approach that seems to work with me somehow. It's not perfect and now these days I can craft more complicated story world building and the like. It's a process that's for sure.

Anyways this post went on long enough. Thanks for putting up with it. Until next time.

[daughter-of-sapph0]

Tell us more about the maids please!

okay so I already gave away a bit of lore in this post, but I'll drop some more lore

Avery and Iris and two OCs from a story I'm writing called Fool's Mate. just be warned, it is porn. like really heavy fucked up porn, and I absolutely do not recommend it to everyone. dead dove and all that. but I'll try and censor most of the nsfw stuff and keep it at least pg-13 in my lore dump

also, major major spoilers for Fool's Mate below the cut. there's only four chapters out right now, and a fifth dropping soon-ish. some of these bits of lore won't be revealed for several chapters. so only read if you want spoilers.

okay so where do I even start. well first off, this is actually a sort of adjacent / spinoff story to someone a friend of mine wrote called The Matron's Handmaiden, which is a really good M/s lesbian love story that's longer than LOTR. although it is extremely intense and hard to get into, and I certainly don't recommend it to everyone. I'm trying to write FM in a way that you won't need to have read MH to understand it, but will still be entertaining if you have. basically the only thing you need to know is that the Italian mafia exists, and runs a semi-secret operation where people get made into... let's say "less-than-willing servents"

so Fool's Mate focuses primarily on the relationship between Rosa DiAngelo and Avery Fitzgerald. Rosa's parents come from two different crime families. her father, Antonio Fiore, was a hitman for the Italian mob her, Margarita Ruiz, comes from a family that ran a drug empire in Puerto Rico until the communist revolution forced them to move to new york. being from two different cultures and competing for control of the city, Tony and Rita's families fought a lot. despite this, they fell in love with each other. although they try to treat this as a storybook Romeo and Juliette style romance (or I guess in this case West Side Story), their marriage was actually arranged so that the Italians could have a share of the opium business while the PRs received protecting from the mob, and was seen as mutually beneficial for both families.

Rosaline Fiore was the first and only child born to Rita and Tony Fiore. she grew up rich, pampered, and spoiled rotten. everything she could ever possibly want was handed to her on a silver platter. but around the time she was about 7 or 8 years old, her father started to get back in with the mob and was almost never home. to help take care of Rosaline, Tony "hired" a maid named Irene Sorello, who he renamed to Iris.

Iris had a rough life growing up. her mother left home, and her father was incredibly abusive. she was always a bit goth and into the occult and mysticism and stuff, but her father called it demon worshipping and tried to make her stop. when she was around 16, she ran away from home, and through a series of unfortunate events, ended up becoming the Fiore family's live in maid, and Rosaline's babysitter.

Iris realized early on that Rosaline was an extremely weird kid. she had almost no empathy for others. she's unsure how much of this is caused by her parents, especially her father, being neglectful, and how much of it is Rosaline's own issues. despite this, Iris deeply cared for Rosaline and did her absolutely best to take care of the princess.

Rosaline went to a private catholic high school called St Andrew's Academy. her two friends, Juno and her cousin Christina, stayed by her side no matter what. there was an incident where a classmate was being racist to her, but when Rosaline told her father about this, that girl's family mysteriously moved away. so no one fucked with her after that.

around the time Rosaline starts high school, Aiden Fitzgerald is about 7 years old. he lives in a small new york apartment with his mother, Eileen. Eileen, a single mother and Irish immigrant, struggles to raise her son on her own. she seeks help from a close friend of hers, another single mother Veronica Accardi, who also has a daughter of her own named Violet. Aiden and Violet grow up to be close friends, almost like siblings. and Ms Accardi is like a second mother to Aiden.

I'm not gonna reveal how because spoilers, but one day Eileen dies. Aiden is traumatized, and Ms Accardi volunteers to adopt him, raising him as her own son.

eventually, Aiden comes out as transgender, changing her name to Avery. Veronica and Violet are both super accepting and support her transition.

meanwhile, back at the Fiore manor, Rosaline is 18 and in her senior year. for the past year, her and Juno have been dating. but Juno has been showing more and more masculine traits, wearing the boys uniform, cutting her hair shorter. eventually, Juno comes out to Rosaline as a trans man and changes his name to Julius. Rosaline doesn't take this easily, assuming that Julius is trying to turn her straight, and the two get into a huge fight and break up. despite this, they both still have feelings for each other but are both too prideful to admit it.

Rosaline is furious, and acts like a huge brat when she's not given something she wants for the first time in her life. she takes out a lot of this anger on Iris, who takes the abuse without resisting. around this same time, her father who has only been home occasionally for the past decade announces that he's retiring from the mob the same month Rosaline leaves for college. Rosaline interpret this as her father not loving her and trying to avoid her, and feels that her low empathy and abusive tendencies (as well as a past traumatic even that I won't spoil) makes her unlovable. she tries to talk to Iris about this, realizing that she has a crush on her. but when Iris rejects her and says that Rosaline is more like a sister to her than anything, Rosaline loses her temper and whips Iris across the back so hard that she still has a scar over a decade later.

meanwhile, Avery is having simar feelings towards Violet. being by her side for her entire life, she feels a deep attraction for her. but Violet has repeatedly shown that she sees Avery as more of a little sister, and Avery feels it's too awkward to confess her feelings to her. around this time, she meets a new best friend, Rachel Goldwyn, and the two hit it off well. Rachel acts as the sort of overprotective mother of the group, and is especially needed when Violet's teenage punk antics get them into trouble.

Rosaline leaves for college, and tries to separate herself from her family as much as possible, going so far as to change her name to Rosa DiAngelo to avoid people recognizing her as a mafia princess. she sleeps around a lot, having a preference for girls with dark red hair just like Iris. Rosa and Christina hang out whenever they get a chance. but despite all this, there's still an aching feeling that she misses Julius, but will never admit it to herself.

years pass. Violet graduates high school, then Avery and Rachel a few years later. Violet starts a band who eventually get a record deal, and Rachel gets married and has a kid before she's 21. including Rachel's husband and daughter, the five of them live in a tiny crowded apartment. while Rachel and Violet are somewhat successful, Avery is an absolute failure. she can't keep a job, or a boyfriend, to save her life. the only thing she's half decent at cooking meals that Ms Accardi taught her. her main hobby is watching video game streams online alone in her room.

for her 21st birthday, Violet and Rachel basically force Avery out of the house to go to a nightclub, despite how much Avery hates it. there, she meets someone who can't keep her eyes off her; Rosa DiAngelo.

and that's at least most of the backstory for my OCs so far. I'm currently writing chapter 5, which is a flashback to were Avery and Rosa first meet. and I plan on introducing Iris properly in a few chapters, too, as well as giving Rosa a bit of a family reunion.

if you wanna hear more nsfw details or want a link to the current four chapters, dm my other blog @angel-in-shibari, because I am NOT posting them here lmao

[zprites]

May All 4-1!

Here we are folks! Happy May!

This is my submission for the TMNT All 4-1 Challenge.

The lovely hosts: @turtle-babe83, @thelaundrybitch, @leosgirl82, and @post-apocalyptic-daydream ❤

Prompt I chose: "You did what, now?" - "You heard me. What are you gonna do about it?"

This takes place in the What Better is Like universe, set after the events of the main fic so slight (?) spoilers. I did my best to not give away TOO much, so it can be read as stand-alone 😁

Rise! Donatello x Kayla (Female OC) - SFW, maybe slight NSFW (?)

Donnie and my OC are both over 20!

Enjoy!!!

Taglist: @turtle-babe83, @manduse, @morning-sun-brah, @crazysarah-98, @pacoholin, @iamdefinitelytheratking

Lavender and Lace

With you nothing is simple yet nothing is simpler About you many good things come into relation I think of proofs and grammar, vowel sounds, like A is for knee socks, E for panties I is for buttondown, O the blouse you wear U is for hair clip, and Y your tight skirt The music picks up again, I am the man I hope to be Lines Depicting Simple Happiness - Peter Gizzi

Kayla groaned as she fought with her luggage, cursing as her carry-on fell off her shoulder and snagging her hair in the process. The wheels of her suitcase would not cooperate with the grating of the elevator so she gave one last particularly hard tug, finally dislodging one of the wheels from where it got caught. After coming out victorious she hit the button for the top floor, carefully fixing the strap on her shoulder to free her brown locks. 

One may think she overpacked for her trip, but unfortunately the weather in Texas during the week of her visit was all over the place. She planned for the rain which was still downpouring when her flight landed, for the random heat wave that spiked temperatures up during her third day and went on until the end of her week there, which was met with a sudden cold front with extremely high winds. Sometimes she missed the sporadic weather patterns of her home state, but she was grateful to be back home. 

Sure, visiting her aunt for a much needed change in scenery to finish up the last round edits of her novel was nice, but she found herself missing her boyfriend with each passing day. They still communicated daily, almost hourly even, but distance really did make the heart grow fonder as she found herself counting down the hours she would be in his arms once more within minutes of taking off from New York. 

The elevator came to a stop and she thankfully had an easier time maneuvering her luggage, getting to the door of her penthouse rather quickly. Once inside she shrugged off her carry-on and left her bags at the entrance, taking her glasses off to keep them out of harm's way before promptly falling face down on her couch with an exaggerated sigh. 

As if on cue her phone went off from her back pocket. She dug it out and lifted her head to see the display, seeing a new message from her boyfriend. 

Of course he knew she was already home thanks to the security system he installed in her apartment early on in their relationship. He had wanted to install cameras as well but she was able to convince him not to after a couple hours of back and forth. She knew he meant well and just wanted to make sure she was safe, especially with him and his brothers essentially being New York’s superheroes, so they compromised - he was allowed to install a system that would notify the both of them if an outside door or window was opened. In return she was given more in-depth lessons on self defense (which were almost always cut short due to the two of them getting… distracted). He also taught her how to best use the new upgrades on her stun wand he made for her all those months ago. 

She smiled to herself, remembering their last conversation where he rambled about the possibility of adding in yet another upgrade for the extendable staff feature, even if she didn’t understand half of the lingo he used. He could read out the entire encyclopedia to her and she would love every second of it. 

Kayla sat up and put on her glasses to read his message as another one from him came through.

💜Pookie💜: Welcome home Darling Dearest! I hope your flight was swell. 

💜Pookie💜: I went through the liberty of leaving you a surprise while you were gone. You should see it as soon as you go into your bedroom <3

Her brows raised as she read the words. A surprise?

Curiosity bubbled up inside of her as she stood up to immediately see what Donatello had left for her. There it was, just like he said - a large purple gift bag with black tissue paper sitting right in the middle of her bed. 

She sat down on her bed and opened it up with a speed that matched her excitement. Underneath the tissue paper was several pairs of underwear in purples, blacks and grays, and the occasional pink… Oh, that’s a lot… Is that lace? Wait a minute…

Her phone began ringing. She answered the call without looking at the screen, knowing exactly who was calling. 

“Did you see your present, love?” Donatello asked before she could speak, the telltale sound of him typing on his keyboard in the background. 

She pursed her lips. “I did. Do I want to know why I’m looking at about thirty pairs of new underwear?”

“Twenty-eight actually. Enough for four weeks since I know you put on a new pair every morning and night, and enough to fully replace all your old ones I threw out while-”

“You did what, now?” 

Kayla promptly stood up and went over to her walk-in wardrobe, finding her underwear drawer completely empty. 

“You heard me. I threw out your old underwear and got you new ones to match my own color scheme, with some in your favorite color of course.” He stated, still typing away.

She blinked once, then twice. “And you did this because…?”

A pause and she could almost feel the eye roll he was doing on the other end. “Simple. I just really like you in purple.”

“Oh? It’s not because you hated seeing me in underwear that matched your brother’s colors?” She questioned with a smirk, knowing she hit the turtle on the shell with that observation. Donatello was too easy to read sometimes. 

Another pause, this time the clacking of his keyboard went hand in hand with his silence. “And if it was?”

“So I’m right.” She grinned. 

“What are you going to do about it?” 

She hummed aloud, walking back into her bedroom. “Well, I was going to suggest modeling them all for you…” Kayla teased. 

Donatello’s breath hitched on the other line.

“But you sound kind of busy…” She trailed off.

“I’ll be over in five.” 

[sparxaf]

7, 10, and 13!

7. What OC (yours or someone else's) can't you get enough of?

These are really hard. For my own work, I'm gonna say Maitland in TSIME. She's a side character and one of Bobby's best friends. She's unpretty, she's grumpy, she has no time for feelings, but underneath her crusty exterior is a person who loves HARD. I just adore her. I also have a great love of Siobhan in TSIME. For other people's OC's, that's tough. There are so many I could list. But I think I'm gonna go with Sadie from The Greatest of Them All. She's sweet, strong, smart, and batshit crazy and I love her. The Scorpio rising in me honors the Scorpio that must live in her. Because she is SPITEFUL. I could read many more stories about her life with Bobby.

10. What's a theory/headcanon that you would die on the hill of?

Hmmm. Sam just reminded me that I basically wrote an essay on why my favorite fuckboy Levi cheats. It's a whole long build up I won't post here, but basically Levi feels his only worth is in WINNING. In being perfect. And he's desperate to feel like he can be loved even if he fucks up. Which is why he cheated and then immediately flew home and told Luci. And Luci of course, dumped him without hearing him out (as is her right) but to him proved that yet again, he isn't allowed to fuck up. Which is why, after Cherry-gate, if you give him another chance, he becomes THE UBER BOYFRIEND. He's the fucking best. Because you gave him space to fuck everything up, but you still cared about him. You stuck around and now, he'll fucking die for you.

13. What's your favourite moment during your time in the fandom?

It happened a long time ago, but back when my first exposure to the fandom was Twitter, there was a lot of weird shit happening. Long before the Tumblr accounts, there were S2 characters tweeting. And there were two Bobby accounts. I was in a Bobby stan Twitter GC and one of the Bobby accounts joined the chat. Everyone went bonkers and we all just sort of roleplayed that Bobby was our group boyfriend. It was extremely weird 😂 But then one day, THE OTHER BOBBY JOINED. LE GASP. And the two Bobbys fought for our hearts. Sides were chosen, accusations were hurled, and in the end, one Bobby was CAST OUT of our love nest. To this day I can't see the Spiderman gif where the two point at each other without thinking of the Battle of the Bobbys.

Also, side note, afterward, I found out that it was the same person running both Bobby accounts, so she was fighting with herself and somehow, that made it even weirder and funnier to me. She told me she got bored so she spiced it up 🤣🤣🤣.

Thank you for the ask, @longbobmckenzie!

[somewhat-adorkable]

Today at work a customer said "Are you having a fantastic day?"

Not "how are you?" and it gave me a moment of pause because I'm so used to "how are you?"

And that one is easy because I always just smile and say "I'm doing well! How are you?" so we can move on from the conversation and I don't have to expend any energy talking about myself and can keep the focus on them.

But no, "are you having a fantastic day?"

And obviously I could say yes and get it over with but the question made me freeze. Because no. I'm not having a fantastic day. But I can't say that because then she will ask why, and what am I supposed to say to that?

'Nah, you see, the godfather of my goddaughter decided to eat a fucking bullet in front of his girlfriend and it really shook us all up, especially her and my best friend. So I spent days staying up with them both to the point I ended up sick, and then on the third day I had to take a six hour car ride with my family while they screamed and fought constantly and I'm damned if I talk to them and damned if I don't because either way is a problem and I'm wrong. And then I had to spend three days around the extremely wealthy part of my family, which is uncomfortable enough at the best of times, but I had to pretend I wasn't completely devastated, exhausted, and heartbroken the whole time because that would have been a drag on everyone else. I'm also autistic so being out of my normal routine was extremely draining and having to mask so hard was seriously burning me out and I couldn't sleep because it was a hotel and not my house, and I spent the time I should have been at a funeral at my cousin's graduation instead and got to think about how he ate a bullet so now he will never see any of his kids milestones and how do you explain to a three year old that his dad is dead? I don't know how it feels to watch someone you love do that, but I remember standing with my hand over the muzzle of a gun and telling my friend if he wanted to kill himself then it had to shoot me too, and that resulted in me having a total mental breakdown so I can kinda imagine. They needed me to be there for them and I couldn't be because of my cousins graduation in another state which was just salt in the wound over and over. And then my family fought the whole time and fought the whole way back and it's exhausting to be around and I have an awful cough and a sinus infection but I'm at work anyway because I'm not rich like that side of my family I mean who the fuck thinks 64,000$ a year is a reasonable amount for highschool thats more than I make in a year and my friend is dead and I can't ask off work because the friend that killed himself was dating my boss's daughter and they are all back working so no I'm NOT having a fantastic day.'

In the grand scheme of things none of that matters so instead I say "I'm doing pretty darn good! How are you? How are the kids?"

And the world keeps spinning because your life goes on even when someone else's doesn't.

And the worst part of getting old is that some of the people that you love don't.

And I'm doing well, because that's what you're supposed to say.

[evansbby]

This is gonna be so long i am so sorry but i’ve been reading WG3 all throughout the day, at work, on the street and as i ate my lunch so its been all on my mind for HOURS now and i have to SCREAM about it somewhere 🤷‍♀️

First things first… Wanda, bestie, is currently in, what i’ve coincidently learned recently is called, the ✨dick sand✨ its where you lose touch of reality and friends and everything that actually matters and just fall for a guy like a fucking idiot falling into quick sand, so yeah we definitely hate this version of Wanda but i shan’t judge until Curtis like cheats on her or something, which he will, and she’s left a sobbing mess being dragged out of the ✨dick sand✨

Also… we still have yet to see her handle reader in this fragile state and if she keeps ditching her for Curtis while she’s this distraught… you must kill her off please and thank you 😌

I understand that its more convenient for the plot for reader to forget about what happened in the ride back home with Steve but like she remembered being fucked in front of everyone by Ari while being most high and drunk! I’ve never been drunk before so i dont know if the haze intensifies as the liquor runs through ones’ veins but like i just hated that for her because it could have saved her but like i said it is essential for the plot i guess so i’ll just shut up about it 🥲

I LOVE how it all started with Ari forcing himself on reader and ended it with Steve doing the same thing and how the difference in her reactions was stark, depending on the dickhead, her feelings towards each one and just like the actual way they did the forcing! And i cannot believe that i am team Ari now! Like you’re really about to convert so many of us to Ari stans after this because Steve is a fucking monster and also you should definitely kill him off as well please and thank you 😌

Thank you for giving us a fragile and submissive reader who got to actually speak up and say no for once before all hell broke loose.. well.. looser 😅 with poyt, Omega was seriously pushed to her most extreme edge before falling over and just saying enough and even the way she said it was more to herself than to Steve tbh so this was a lovely change and i am grateful for it so thank you bestie 💜

Fucking Sharon! I can’t believe you made her nice and sweet! That is so genius of you but like also diabolical 😈 it’s like you had an angst bingo card and you’re just FEROCIOUSLY going for the win 😂

The ball hitting reader was just *chef’s kiss* and its just perfect for me cause this was such a classic romcom moment and then having Ari scoop her up and take care of her is also another classic romcom move and i love you so much for it! God you’re so talented im gonna cry 😭

Speaking of the scoop, Ari felt fast for reader, huh? Did not think he would fold so damn fast! I mean i understand your assholes tend to have a heart hidden deep deep DEEP within them that ends up beating hard for your readers but i thought this one would take longer so i am definitely pleasantly surprised i must say 🤭

Now for The Beef… i think Kira has to do with it. That kind of hostility between boys almost always circles back to a girl they fought over or like a sister that got burned lol but like also let me congratulate you on your stunning talent to make me hate Steve Rogers’ guts and to make him the WORST human being ever when his image is that of a golden retriever. Kudos bestie you have done what no one has ever been able to do which is break us essentially but we love it 💋

I can’t wait to hear Steve’s backstory about when he was hospitalized for his anger issues btw i’m holding my breath for that one cause neglectful parents 🤝 angry and confused child is very relatable to me and representation matters 👍

“I broke up with her.” is like singlehandedly the most powerful phrase i’ve read in a fanfic in a long time because the timing, Ari saying it and the way he chose to say it are all just so incredibly and perfectly woven together to create the best plot twist EVER! Again with the genius and the talent and the you’re the goat shenanigans 🙂

I love the questions at the end cause its such a clever way to engage with your readers and honestly you are one of the best fanfic writers in this fandom at that! Your blog is honestly just the best place to hang out and just have the best of fun like we’re all just this insane group of besties who keep fighting over Ari’s 13 inch dick (when soft) and spewing hatred in the ugly and icky face of Andy Barfer lol

I’m so sorry this is long but i’ve made a promise to myself that i would read every review for this chapter since i never did it for any of the previous ones or ever for poyt cause i have the attentions span of a snail so i just took liberty and just talked my ass off to kinda compensate for all the reading imma be doing lol

Anyway, in case it aint obvious yet, loved the chapter to death. Love you to death. Forever grateful for all that you give us. You feed us so well, mother, we are so chubby and cute just like little Rosie 😘😘😘😘

Yep, Wanda is definitely in dick sand right now! I love that hahaha, it fits perfectly.

And it’s not uncommon for people to remember only bits and pieces when they were drunk. When the Ari stuff happened, she had just drank. When the Steve stuff happened later, she was fully gone lmao. Like when I’ve gone on nights out, there have been times where I remember the beginning of the night but then have no recollection of anything else until the very end. And other times I remember everything! So it all just depends.

Also I didn’t really think you guys would think Steve was a monster 🤔😂 Like, as you said, they BOTH forced themselves on her. But the one who stopped and apologised is the monster and not the one who clearly didn’t stop? That’s soooo interesting to me mwahahah, but I didn’t see this reaction coming from yall but it seems to be the popular one! Tbh they’re both fucking monsters bahahaha but it’s called wicked games for a reason! 🤭🤭 also I think reader’s reaction to Steve in his bedroom was BECAUSE of her past experiences with Ari!! It made her wiser to the fuckboyness of boys hehehe and wary too!

Also hahaha I am so happy you appreciate the questions at the end tbh i do the questions at the end bc i remember a lot of writers doing it on 1dff (the 1d fanfic site) back in like 2014 lol and even I did it when I wrote a fic there! It’s bc whenever I finish a fic im so frazzled bc I’ve taken in so much info so all I can do as a review is a keyboard smash so the questions are a good way for me to gather my thoughts so I thought it would be the same for you guys!

Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a wonderful review bestie! I love you sm 🩷🥹 Now let’s see if Ari truly lives up things bc he has a lot more people in his corner this time around hehehe

ANDNSJXJSJA CHUBBY AND CUTE ROSIE DIDNSKSK I FORGOT ABOUT HER 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

[themanagerisavampirex]

Task Eleven → Intro & Connections

Nani Pelekai // Thirty // Owner of Ohana Dance Studios // She/Her [Biography]

+ Hard-Working, Devoted, Feisty - Sarcastic, Stern, Irritable

Quick Facts:

Moved to Redwood Hollow from Hawai’i when she was 14 because of her dad’s job. They were supposed to move back when dad’s 5-year contract ended, but they didn’t get that far. The Pelekai’s still live in the house that their parents bought when they moved to Redwood Hollow.

#Disaster Bisexual - has for sure had the hots for all of her best friends at some point, and the only person that knows this is her Super Secret Diary.

Never sits down. Runs on caffeine. Tries to cook but is fucking awful at it. Sleep, whomst?

Has worked just about every single job going in Redwood Hollow at some point in the past 12 years.

Was a surfing champion in Hawai’i in her teens, and often went back during the summer to compete after moving to Redwood Hollow.

Was accepted to Redwood College for Dance & Sports Sciences on a sports scholarship, and had started her first year before ultimately dropping out to look after Lilo.

Fought tooth and nail to keep her family together, and will absolutely fight anyone who gets in the way of that. (To be fair, she’ll fight you for less. Don’t piss her off unless you want to be absolutely roasted to death.)

Drives an absolutely ancient car that only has a cassette player. She saved up for it as a teen through odd jobs and competition earnings, and finally had enough to buy her first car the year after her parents died. She hasn’t been able to afford another since.

Nani is super friendly and can talk to just about anyone, but be warned, she is also extremely sarcastic and takes no bullshit from anybody. She will call you out.

Taken Connections

Ohana - Lilo Pelekai (Sister) @imsorryibityoux, Stephen Pelekai (Adopted Brother)

Housemates - Gwen Pleakley @gwen-pleakley, Javi Jookiba @javi-jookiba

Besties - David Kawena (See Below), Babette Dust @babettedust, Becky Detweiler @beckydetweiler, Victor Lumier @victorlumiere

Relationships

What Are We? Boyfriend - Paxton Patterson @paxtonpatterson​

Nani and Paxton are one giant question mark, and one big avoided answer. They’re totally dating, but they’re both also totally stupid and in denial about. Everyone can see it. Paxton makes Nani feel all sorts of ways -happy being the main one- and she’s absolutely terrified she’s going to fuck it up by putting a label on it. She’s also scared that if she lets herself focus too much on herself and a relationship, she’ll miss something with Lilo. She will come out with the excuse that she’s “too busy” for all that mushy romance shit, but let’s be real, one look at Paxton’s puppy dog-eyes and floppy hair and she’s swooning. Plus, he’s a great cook, prime roasting fodder, and makes for a very comfortable napping location.

Ex-Boyfriend - Freddie “Flash” Slothmore @flash-hundredyarddash

They dated for a while waaaay back in the day. Nani thought she was ready for dating again but it was this relationship that made her realise that there was no room for that in her life when looking after her kid sister, and working 3 jobs. Freddie wanted them to go off into the world on some chill adventures, which sounded great in theory, but wouldn’t work in practice. The relationship ended amicably and they’re still friends.

Other Connections:

TJ Detweiler @tj-detweiler - Becky’s Brother. Pain in the ass. Would like to be paid for babysitting him, thanks.

Patrick Patterson @patrickpattersxn - Paxton’s Brother. They’ve bonded over absolutely roasting Paxton, and each other, apparently.

Elsa Arendelle @magicalelsaarendelle

Mrs Hasagawa - Nani worked at her Fruit Stall. She is now the bane of her and Paxton’s life. Ring-Leader of the Yoga Ladies.

Mary Gibbs @itsmarygibbs & Adam Legrand @magicaladamlegrand​

Persephone Kore @itspersephxne​ - The apparent mastermind behind setting up her and Paxton.

Hayden Bodaway @haydenbodaway​ - Paxton’s “Dad”/ Boss. Nani is stupidly intimidated by him though she would like to think otherwise, and makes an arse of herself every time she’s in the same room as him.

Wanted Connections:

The Yoga Ladies - Anyone can be a Yoga Lady. They have all banded together to give Nani shit about her love life, and honestly probably do that with half the town. Generally all older people in town, but basically anyone that attends the Yoga Class can fall under this category.

Lilo’s Friends (and enemies)

People that attend dance classes at her studio, or have kids/ siblings etc. that go.

Past Employers & Past Colleagues - Until Nani took over running the dance studio, she had to work every job she could get to keep her house, car, and siblings well-fed. If your character owns a business or is a manager, there’s a high chance that Nani has worked for them at some point. Whether she was fired, or quit, is all up for discussion. And she definitely knows a ton of people from having worked with them too.

Enemies - Nani needs someone that just really grinds her gears in the worst possible way.

Surf Buddies - Either current surf buddies or old surf buddies from her competition days

Wanted Plots / Plot Ideas

Watch Where You’re Going, Stupid Head! - Someone gets on Nani’s bad side for one reason or another. Maybe they almost hit her with their car and she proceeds to stick a boot in their bumper and she has to pay for the damages, or someone just catches her on a really bad day.

Two Left Feet - Nani has been tasked with teaching someone to dance, either because they want to build their confidence, or because they want to surprise someone, or anything really, but it turns out they have the coordination of a shopping cart.

Green Eyes - Would an Are-They-Dating? plot be complete without a little jealousy added into the mix to spice things up a little? Either Nani is jealous of someone who had been eyeing Paxton up at the bar, or she misconstrued a look from Paxton to someone else as potential flirting and honed in on that poor person instead of calling Paxton out, because she’s totally not jealous or anything.

Someone brings in David Kawena (see below) for the drama lmfao

Honestly, I don’t have too many wanted plot ideas for Nani that wouldn’t be heavily connection driven, so feel free to message me to spitball anything you want from Nani!

Wanted Characters

Characters I would love to see taken/ an OC for (in relation to Nani) that one day might get bios:

DAVID KAWENA my beloved! - Nani’s all-time best friend. They grew up together, and David was there for Nani and Lilo when their parents died. David was always Nani’s rock, her voice of reason, and her shoulder to cry on. At some point there were mutual feelings, and they almost dated multiple times, but Nani never acted on her feelings because she was afraid of ruining their friendship. (David was too important to her to lose him over something as stupid as dating.)

Honestly, would love to say they were best friends in Hawai’i and he came here to start college with Nani, and then tragedy struck, but can totally work with anything here. He either has been here this whole time, or had to move back to The Island a few years ago but Nani still keeps him updated on everything.

(And honestly who doesn’t love a bit of almost-lovers drama? Especially now that Nani is almost-kinda-sorta dating Paxton amarite???)

MOSES PULOKI - In the movie, this is Lilo’s Hula Teacher. Totally up for spitballing ideas on this one, but either he was Nani & Lilo’s childhood Hula Teacher, now in Redwood Hollow as a trainer or retiree, or he’s the person Nani took over the studio from.

With Bios: Stephen Pelakai & Cobra Bubbles

Stephen Pelakai - Nani & Lilo’s Adopted Brother. Honestly, as if social work wasn’t complicated enough they had to go and adopt Stephen into the family. Nani is listed as his guardian, as she is with Lilo, but she calls him little brother.

Cobra Bubbles - The Pelekai family social worker. Nani couldn’t see it at the time, but Bubbles really was looking out for Nani to make sure she did what was best for Lilo. I just think it would be really fun to see their dynamic now that Nani isn’t fighting against him all the time, and the risk of Lilo being taken away is now 0 because she’s not a minor anymore.

[ass-smaker]

So I saw this clip on YouTube with the question what is a 25 year old to old for. I'm not 25 but 22 and turning 23 near the end of this year but it made me realize some things.

Now here's a bit about me first, I suffer from depression, social anxiety, a small speech impediment, hallucinations (auto able and visual) and seizures. Absence seizures if I remember correctly. That's my health and now for when I was little.

I often was bullied at school since I acted younger or older then I actually was since I grew up with people who were either older or younger then me. It was extremely hard to make friends since it was also pretty hard to understand me as my speech impediment was really noticable back then. The school also fought since they didn't believe I had any issues and my mom had to literally threaten to go to court many times just to make them do what they already were supposed to do ga my school life was really bad. I was a ticking time bomb which went off during 3rd grade.

I was mentally unstable, my hallucinations got worse in stressful situations which mess with me being able to focus and I was just struggling to be a normal kid. I would throw tantrums, fight, run off campus, I did a lot of dangerous things, I was a suicidal 9 year old. Jumping in front of cars, this lasted up until I was in 8th grade, my mom (she is so fucking amazing) had fought for me the entire time but the school did us dirty and my mom took me out and homeschooled me. Once I was out of school I actually started to mature, being out of that constant stressful situation helped me for the better.

Still I suffer from all of that and it affects my everyday living, my depression makes it difficult to even get out of bed to use the restroom some days. I do take medicine for all of this and if I didn't my depression would be 100 times worse but it's still there. However I have grown, I no longer get triggered by little things and I'm coping with stress and change well. (I can't thank my therapist enough.) I still have my moments when I fall back at times, yelling during a argument, losing my temper to the point I feel like braking somthing (though I don't anymore just have the urge to) and get really emotional when I get yelled at. (Being yelled at is one of my triggers.) All of this is a cause and a explanation why I have my moments but it isn't a excuse to how I negatively react to them.

I think what makes you a adult is how you respond to certain things, unlike some people (aka people like Karen's) and actually try to approve, seeing what you did wrong and accepting the consequences. The world isn't fair so even if you believe you're in the right you shouldn't lash out or bother others and accept the consequences you are given for what you believe was right. I'm happy with how much I approved and I hope to whoever sees this (if anyone does.) This helps you one way or another. Keep going, the trail is never smooth but your walk is what makes it worth it. Hold your head high, it's never to late to change.

[emmym1]

My thoughts on... Captain Marvel 2019 (#6-11) "Falling Star"

So after the first arc I was pretty excited to see where they would take the story next. I really loved what they did with it as it had layed down some pretty interesting foundations. And man they did not waste the foundations they've layed. This second arc was a blast to read and managed to surprise me a lot! So the story picks up with Carol being back on the Avengers and dealing with Malekith who is launching an invasion on earth. Enchantress is part of Malekith's army and Black Widow & Bucky have trouble fighting her. Until Black Widow gets an opening, she goes for it but gets blasted away by Enchantress. But by doing so she sees a vision of the future, one where Dr. Strange defeats Enchantress along with Black Widow & Captain Marvel. Nat quickly calls up Carol and they soon team up with Dr. Strange. As they fight off hordes of Malekith's army, Enchantress arrives. She wants to end things here to prevent the vision from coming true. So she swaps the minds of Carol & Dr Strange, renderring them virtually powerless as they both do not have a grasp on each others powers. It's really interesting because they explore what Carol's and Strange's powers mean to them and how not having them affects them. It was pretty intriguing to see them touch upon that. Nat also made for a hillarious addition to the trio as she grows more annoyed by Carol's & Strange's bickering over figuring out each others powers. They try so hard to learn each other's powers but Carol realizes she doesn't need to try and be like Strange but instead do what she would do. She casts a spell that turns Enchantress' army of the undead against her that forces her to use all her magic to fight them off, which results in the mind swap spell being undone and her being defeated. This is where Carol's adventures with the Avengers end for now and we pick back up on her personal adventures. We pick back up with Carol fighting off some type of organic space ships reminiscent of the monster she fought in the first issue of this run. Things quickly go south as her powers don't work properly and she's a lot more weak to hits. However, a new hero comes to save the day, Star. Honestly I found her really suspicious when she got introduced, she came out of nowhere and had the same powerset as Carol. Regardless Star saves the day while Carol falls down unconcious due to her powers malfunctioning. Luckily Spider-Woman is able to save her in an amazing fashion. I really loved the panel layout and art of how she saved Carol, it was so cool and really showed off her moves. Hazmat is also on the scene to help with the threat. I'm glad she's back as she was a lot of fun in the first arc! After the battle it turns out there were unconcious kree pilots in the organic spaceships, Carol saves them but is aware something bad is going down with her powers and then the kree showing up.

After this she has one of the worst weeks of her life as her kree origins get revealed to the public and and a targetted media campaign against her starts to unfold. I was quite surprised by the pacing here as the way they presented the week was just extremely fast, personally I think it would've been a bit better if they had spent some more time on it. But i think the decision to make it super fast paced makes sense to show how fast the public turned against her. She gets fired from the military and decides to go back to her family home. She really questions whether or not she should still be a hero and if you should be a hero when the worlds hates you. Which are interesting questions to pose. She doesn't get to rest for long as Jessica Drew has invited over some friends to cheer up Carol. It was really fun to see all these heroes just hang out with each other and try to have a fun time. It really helps humanize them and it's just tons of fun to see them hanging around and have fun. Later in the evening when Carol is alone she gets visited by Minerva, a kree scientist. Now that she knows Carol is half kree she wants to protect her and ask Carol for help to protect her people from excitinction. Carol is suspicious of her as they have a long and troubled history but agrees to help her. Well at least she says she does, she's still very suspicious of her and decides to plant a tracker on her. And from here the story really starts to pop off. As she follows the tracker she comes across a secret lab under New York. Here it's revealed that she was the one making these alien monsters and setting them free in New York. Turns out it was a trap as they find the tracker together with a post it note saying hi to carol and they get attacked by yet another one of these alien monsters. Carol tries to fight it off but her powers keep failing her, luckily Star is there to save her once again. She decides to go with Tony to his lab for a medical check and they finally find out what's wrong. There is a device in Carol's chest that is reminiscent of kree tech. They don't know what the device does, only that it's there. With Carol knowing that's it's kree tech she decides to go back to Minnerva's secret lab to find out more. There she finds Minnerva almost dead with a message taunting Carol. She's able to save Minnerva in time and everything gets revealed. Turns out she was the one who exposed Carol being half kree to the public in order to drive her into a corner and to agree with her. However there was more to it. Minnerva had been working on a way to create a stronger kind of kree by fusing humans with kree dna in the hopes of them becomming superhuman. Lots of people volunteered but all of them were failures. Except one, however the fusion did not grant them powers as Minnerva has promised. So she had to come up with a solution, she infected Carol with a virus. The way this virus works is that its transmit the power of the host to someone else. Carol realizes that this someone else is Star and things start to make sense. Why she lost power, why she was her weakest when Star was around. Honestly it was such a crazy reveal and i just knew something shady was up with Star. However things would get more crazier.

Carol calls out to Star in the middle of time square and they have a stand off. Turns out Star is pretty damn evil and is using her influence to further turn the people against Carol. They start to fight but Star gets the upperhand quickly as she sipphons off Carol's powers. As they fight Carol has a hard time understanding why Star is doing all of this, what her motivations are. Regardless she decides to end things by ripping out the kree device in her chest so Star can no longer sipphon off her. But it's revealed that she has infected the entire city with the virus and is now sipphoning off them. Carol still doesn't get the why and then the truth gets revealed. Star is Ripley Ryan, the journalist who Carol saved and a spent a month with in the Nuclear Man's wasteland. Honestly this reveal was such a shock to me, I did not see it coming whatsoever. Suddenly it made a lot of sense as to how a media campaign against Carol took off so quickly. And also how she was able to manipulate her public image so much. She reveals that she was terrfied after the events in the wasteland. How she didn't sleep for weeks after and the trauma she was experiencing. She realizes just how weak you are in a world like this and that the only solution is to be like Captain Marvel. But she also sees Captain Marvel as part of the problem. She feels like Carol's actions create new victims each day, that her helping people prevents them from helping themselves and growing stronger because of it, that without her people would reach their true potential. I really like these motivations as it's quite an interesting viewpoint to have and it makes sense she has these viewpoints given her past with Carol.

Star continues to overpower Carol until Hazmat joins in to save Carol. She continues to be an absolute badass and amazing addition to this run! Star takes her out quickly and goes back to fighting Carol but gets stopped by a kid standing in front of her. The kid wants to protect Carol but Star pushes her away quite agressively. Carol uses this moment to grab Star and rip out the kree tech inside of her that's allowing her to sipphon them. The day gets saved and Carol has a really touching convo with the kid that protected her. They talk about her being half kree and she finally makes peace with that and accepts that she can just be open about it. It's great character development for Carol as she accepts more of this part that she's kind of trying to hide. The final panels of this arc show Star breaking out of the raft as she apparantly has turned into the reality stone. A pretty interesting change and I wonder what they'll do with that! This arc was amazing! I absoluty loved how you slowly uncover the truth behind Carol's power loss and Star. All of it makes so much sense and Star was a terrific villain. The twist of her being Ripley was so good and made so much sense. I loved how they even hinted at her despise of Carol at the end of the first arc and how that ultimately led to her becomming this incredible villain. Her motivations are pretty interesting. I loved their standoff in times square, it was an amazing fight with high personal stakes. Carol was once again reliving the trauma of her powerloss and Star was dealing with trauma in her own way and I love how they showed these differences in them both dealing with their trauma's and how it eventually shaped their character. Carol slowly coming to terms with her kree side was also really great character development to see although I wished they explored more of her struggle with that. It's part of why I wanted the week of her kree identity being exposed to be stretched out more. But regardless it was great to see her growth from that. I am glad that Spider-Woman & Hazmat continue to appear in this run. They're both amazingly fun characters and they add a lot of value when they appear. Whether it be as comic relief or as a good friend for Carol when she needs it. I also love how this run is able to have a lot human moments where there isn't crazy stuff happening but it's just Carol dealing with life and her friends being there to support her. It's really great to see and grounds these characters that sometimes seem invincible a lot. They may have all the powers in the world but in the end they struggle with all sorts of problems just like us. This comic continues to deliver and surprise me in so many ways. It's been a lot of fun so far and i can't wait what happens next as i'm really getting hooked to Carol and her stories. She's an incredibly awesome character and I'm glad that I'm learning more about her.