#so he doesn’t trust that four people that were all friends with Beau are going to do the right thing

[beauzos]

Was wrapping up chapter 21 last night (which. Pain because I rly wanted to finish it before today and because of it I went to bed at 4:30 fml) and something I think is interesting is like. Blackstone is talking to Vic about how he feels like he can’t trust Jerome or the posse because they all knew something was wrong with Beau and just kept letting Beau go along with them anyways, not to mention how there’s always been rumblings about shadiness in that group, and although I think the narrative (from Vic’s perspective) suggests that Blackstone is wrong . To be honest I think he has a point KDND

He just seems irrational because he’s really angry but Blackstone is fuckin right about most of the things he says lol

[tressasinterlude]

𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐓 #𝟑: Female Public Figures Dating Men with Questionable Views That Contradict Their Image & Alleged Politics

𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗥: These rant blog posts are really just reflective of my thoughts at the time that I make them and are posted here because I need an outlet to release all of this shit I have going on my busy ass mind. That’s it and that’s all. Now let’s get into it..

This rant was greatly inspired by none other than Ms. Robyn Rihanna “Tell Your Faves To Pull Up [in regards to social injustices directly affecting black people]” Fenty and her openly colorist boyfriend, A$AP Rocky. Aside from the fact that Rihanna tends to slip under the radar and is never held accountable for her problematic ways due to her conventional beauty (i.e. Her heavy usage of anti-Asian slurs, particularly targeted towards Chris Brown’s ex gf, Karrueche), it’s very alarming that a woman who has an entire makeup brand with a campaign based around the inclusivity of ALL black women is publicly flaunting a beau who once said that DSBW do not look good with red lipstick.

And yes, I’m very much aware that Rakim said this tasteless comment over 8 years ago but from the looks of it, not much has really changed with him. Don’t @ me about it neither because I don’t care.

Also peep how he compares a hypothetical darkskinned woman to a man (Wesley Snipes) while trying to explain how his antiblackness isn’t wrong because he said something about white women as well. Gaslighting at its finest. Don’t you just love it! 😀

Furthermore, you would think that somebody of Rihanna’s level of stature would know not to associate themselves with someone as messy as A$AP Rocky but... Stupid is what stupid does, I guess! I can’t even begin to place the blame on him anymore because he’s revealed his true colors and we all have made the deliberate choice to either accept it or don’t and have discontinued all support for him. Unfortunately, misogynoir is never the dealbreaker for most people and the hatred for [dark-skinned] black women is so engrained in society that it’s frowned upon when we publicly speak out against it. Very ass backwards if you ask me but that’s society for you. Now, enough about that. Let’s focus back on Ms. Vita La Coco.

As a woman who claims to be a girl’s girl and is always presenting herself to be someone who is the epitome of a pro-black feminist bad ass, it just makes her alleged activism come off so disingenuous when she’s also laying down with the same man that actively attacks the demographic she’s supposed to be standing in solidarity with. It’s “Black Lives Matter” on the IG posts but your vagina is getting moist for a man who openly stated he doesn’t relate to what goes on in Ferguson because he lives in Soho & Beverly Hills. Ferguson being the exact place where a 17-year-old black boy’s lifeless corpse laid on the hot concrete for FOUR hours after he was murdered by a police officer. He couldn’t 'relate' to the fate of so many black men, women, and children who are murdered or seriously injured from state-sanctioned violence because they’re poor and he is not or so he thought.

But then again, what can I really expect from a woman who identified as being “biracial” until as recent as roughly 6 years ago? What can I really expect from a woman who called Rachel Dolezal a ‘hero’ for cosplaying as a black woman? I’d be lying if I said my expectations for her were high in this regard because sis has always shown us she was lacking in this department. And just for the record, this is not a personal attack on Rihanna at all for the die-hard Navy stans in the back. I admire her latest fashions and bop my head to her music just like the next person but she’s getting the side-eye from me on this one.

Trust and believe me though, she’s not the only woman who I can call out for being a hypocrite. Of course not! This stone can be cast at a few others. So without further ado, why don’t we bring Ms. Kehlani Parrish to the front of the congregation? Prior to Kehlani’s recent declaration of identifying as a lesbian, her last public relationship with a man was with YG. Yes, the same YG who felt it was necessary to say him & Nipsey had ‘pretty light-skinned’ daughters to raise in the middle of his deceased friend’s memorial. By the way, Nipsey’s daughter is not even light (or at least not in my book anyways.) She’s a very deep caramel tone just like her father which makes what he said even more moronic. Yes, the same YG who thought it was clever idea to use slavery as an aesthetic for a music video to a diss track about 6ix9ine. And yes, also the same YG who has derogatory lyrics targeted at bisexual women. Just to end up sweating the red carpets with one. I swear the jokes just continue to write themselves.

This raises the question once more; How high of a pedestal can I really put a multiracial woman who has a song titled ‘N*ggas’ and when received backlash for the song in question, she used the ultimate ‘I’m mixed’ copout while not having a visibly black parent in sight?

It’s also kind of suspicious to me that many were not privy to Kehlani’s secret romance with Victoria Monét (pictured bottom right) until Victoria did an interview with Gay Times revealing she fell in love with a girl but they subsequently broke up because Victoria had a boyfriend and that girl was pregnant in a polyamorous relationship. Fans began to speculate because both Victoria & Kehlani previously candidly spoke about their sexual orientations, Kehlani had just had Adeya and they both were seemingly close. Their short-lived fling would later be confirmed when Victoria released the song ‘Touch Me’ on her last project and Kehlani hopped on the remix. Meanwhile, Kehlani’s relationship with Shaina (pictured bottom left) was very overt and all over her Instagram feed from my recollection. And as you can see, Shaina looks absolutely nothing like Victoria. They look like the complete opposite of eachother in every aspect which is kind of alarming(?) to say the least because why is it that the women she proudly claims as her partners tend to have a very racially ambiguous look such as herself but her ‘sneaky links’ on the other hand are undoubtedly black women? Again, it could just be me jumping conclusions. You know, I’m kinda good for that however something tells me I’m not. Y’all be the judge of the material though.

Last but not least, I’d like to touch on Ms. Raven Tracy very briefly. I was very weary about even including in this segment and if I should just put her in a entirely separate blog post with other women who openly date abusers despite their checkered past (alongside Nicki Minaj & her r*pist murderer of a husband, India Love & Sheck Wes etc.) being this particular blog post was based around the theme of lightskinned/mixed women dating men with extremely problematic views about DSBW. Raven obviously isn’t lightskinned or mixed however I refused to ignore how contradictory her [former] relationship with an alleged (I used this word very loosely and mainly for legality purposes.) serial r*pist while promoting a brand that is all about feminism & body positivity. This also traces back to A$AP Rocky by default being that Ian Connor is his very close friend and he came to Connor’s defense when several women came forward detailing accounts of Connor allegedly s*xually assaulting them. (I wish I could place the actual video of what A$AP Rocky said verbatim but Tumblr only allows one video per blog post. 🙄)

Back in June of this year, Ian & Raven had a back & forth on Twitter after Ian tweeted about Raven “fucking everybody” behind his back. I can only assume that he was alluding to Tori Brixx posting a video of her ex, Rich the Kid & Raven kissing on her story. Disgusted is not even the word to describe my feeling when she admitted she stuck by Ian despite of his many allegations of s*xual abuse because she loved him and her being a empath causes her to want to help everybody. Imagine aiding and abetting a predator and even paying for his bail & legal fees just to turn around and expect sympathy because this same individual cheated on you and exploited you all over Twitter for the public to see. The same man that you would get back with not even a WEEK after the fact & turn off your IG comments because it isn’t our “business” after making it our business...

That being said, I just genuinely want to know: Why do these women completely go against what they stand for in regards to these men? Maybe it was never genuine from jump street and if that’s the case, why jump on the bandwagon of performative activism? Is it because it’s profitable right now? Is it because disrespecting black women is not an immediate death sentence to your careers and more often than not actually helps you advance even further? I guess that’s the billion dollar question that’ll never truly be answered. I just want the world to stop using black women as their stepping stool to get to where they need to go and then discarding of us when we’re no longer beneficial. Support us all the way or don’t support us at all. We deal with enough disrespect as is so we’d appreciate if y’all would stop straddling the fence and partake in your misogynoir out loud if that’s what you choose to do. We have no use for fake allyship and quite frankly, it’s doing more harm for us than good. Please and thank you!

Sincerely,

- 𝙼𝙸𝚂𝚂 𝙴𝙳𝙶𝙰𝚁 𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙴𝙽 𝙷𝙾𝙴. 💋

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E125 (Feb. 16, 2021)

Goooood evening good evening good evening, all! I hope you’re all staying warm and safe and dry in this chilly weather. Tonight’s guests: Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey. 

We open tonight with Travis ribbing Brian for his continuous remodel of his office space. Laura demands a second introduction of herself as she wasn’t paying attention during the first one.

Travis: “You’ve gotta love Julianne Moore. She’s the only actress who can cry and show you all her teeth at the same time.” I was listening pretty closely when he said this and I’m still not sure it had any context. 

Jester thinks there’s a strong possibility at least half the party will die against the Tombtakers. Fjord doesn’t think the odds are quite that high, but it will be dangerous. Laura points out that most of the M9 are also willing to sacrifice themselves for the rest of the party, so that changes their odds as well. Travis: “The game is not a stress reliever. It is not a stress reliever. I mean, it’s fun as shit, but it is stressful!”

Laura thinks Essek will give them a better chance. Travis: “A plus-one? A powerful plus-one, but a plus-one?” Did you see his reaction when we gave him the lowdown? Let’s be real: we kinda trust Essek. I got $50 that when we come back, he’s gone.” Laura is convinced he is trustworthy & wants to lighten his soul.

Jester spent so much time trying to bring out the Molly side of Lucien that to have him then betray them sucked. She knew that trying to bring the good out of everyone they met would eventually fail, but it stung that it was the most powerful one they encountered to first betray them.

She tries to talk about finger gestures during the answer as a reference to the HBO show “Raised by Wolves,” and Brian and Travis tell her to keep digging this hole she gets herself into about fingering. Travis: “Just get off the interstate at the next exit and turn right.” Laura, of course, immediately mimes turning a hard left, and they spent the next few minutes laughing at her inability to tell right from left and that even now she still has to hold up her hands to tell left from right.

Fjord is furious that they nicked the Bag of Holding. The loss of Vess DeRogna is bad enough, but he is genuinely IRL anxious about the loss of the Cloven Crystal. Laura points out that Fjord has also explicitly talked to Lucien about the deep sea creature patron he used to follow as well. He’s terrified one of Lucien’s scimitars is suddenly going to have a big eye sticking out of it. Laura suggests they’ll just succeed, bring back the city, and wake up Uk’otoa for the heck of it.

It was really rough to go from the Gelidon fight to the Tombtaker fight, especially since the first fight sent so well. Travis felt great that he initiated the dragon fight - he knew they had a far advantage in the numbers and felt that it was an open and shut case.

Laura does boggle that if Caleb hadn’t asked for that item from the Bag of Holding, they might have slept all night before realizing it was gone. They’re both relieved that they now know so much more about how the Tombtakers fight, especially the anti-magic cone. The most anxiety-ridden part was when they were trying to run and the TTs weren’t letting them. “You know when you don’t even have squares, when Matt’s black-tableclothing it, you’re in deep shit.” Laura had no spells left - she was so worried if she dropped the polymorph she would have had nothing left.

Travis: “Thanks for healing me, babe.” Laura: “You’re welcome, baby. It was ultimately a waste, though, because we took a rest immediately and you could just spend your hit dice.” Everyone laughs at Travis’s pain. She does say it was worth it in the moment since they didn’t know if they would be able to get away.

They joke that Laura’s just wearing the Fire Resist ring on a chain around her neck/Sprinkle is wearing it now to keep it safe since she’s not attuned to it anymore. It’s pretty hilarious!

Travis hoped that the TTs were originally actively looking for more acolytes rather than just having Caleb & Beau read the book. Otis needs to die. He’s relieved they have an idea of what all their blood rites do. Laura thought the time with them was fun, but it makes her retroactively wish that she’d dropped Zoran in the lava when they had the chance. Travis wishes they’d put a chime on the door of the tower.

Laura loved the tarot card reading, since Taliesin sent her really detailed breakdowns of the cards & gave her a real deck for Christmas. Taliesin told her she did a great job afterwards which she really appreciated, since she’s not sure what she’s doing. She does wish that she knew why Lucien seemed so nervous when she was talking about rebirth.

Cosplay of the Week! @clever_comics on twitter with a lovely Veth in her snowy lavender-colored outfit and pigtails.

Travis on confessing to Jester: “It FUCKING made me crazy!” He’s never been an instigator of campaign romances in the past, but because he loves Laura and was able to connect to her on that level he felt like it was a good challenge instead. He doesn’t think he could have done it with someone he wasn’t comfortable with. It was also important to him for it to be founded on real-game moments and after real-game time had passed, and he felt it was a very natural progression. Seeing the statues rip five years from her in such a benign situation made him realize that to let the opportunity pass wouldn’t have been worth it. He wishes he’d told Vandran what he meant to Fjord as well.

Laura loves that Fjord is becoming more confident as well. The post-Gelidon smooch took Laura completely by surprise since she’s finding Jester is a little surprisingly awkward with IRL affection, and she was surprised Fjord was the confident one there. “It’s so wonderful. It’s a matter of finding a way to get comfortable with it with her away from the Tombtakers.” Travis thought it was important to continue the “go for it” mantra. He notes that he’s pretty private about his personal life IRL, so it’s been a bit of a shift. It’s slower in a way - not a “you’re my one true love” kind of thing, more of a “let’s see where this goes and act on what you can” thing.

They were all “poopin’ in their pants” to get to go to Emon. The worst part was not getting to explore outside the tower since they had to leave again immediately. Kima is so cool, and Travis was actively trying to get Kima to come with them. Everyone boggles that they got to borrow Allura’s staff.

Laura only was thinking about the item-tuned-to-the-target-plane because she’d been texting with Liam trying to iron out their spell choices. She’s so relieved that they were able to get something tuned to the Sea from Allura.

For the most part, Laura knows what spells are the most useful for Jester, but every now and then she does get caught by major component requirements that she hadn’t noted. She wants to get another chalice for Hero’s Feast before they go into the Sea.

Dani points out that a lot of their allies right now are mages (no Kashaws, no Kimas, no Grogs) and they’re heading to a bad place for mages.

Travis has a sudden brain wave about all the TTs being from the Claret Order and wonders if they should investigate that before they pursue. I don’t even remember what that order is and I feel terrible!

Fanart of the Week! It’s a beautiful card by @crovyne on twitter of the Cree counterspell.

Laura really wants Brian to shave the sides of his hair and do Viking braids in the rest. I didn’t want to say anything out loud, but Brian’s hair is really looking pretty...pandemicky.

This is Dani’s four-year-anniversary of her start for Critical Role! Awww, Dani! You’re so short in real life.

Fjord is stoked that the Star Razor is a Vestige, and more now that he knows in-character what that means. It was great to see Allura react the way she did.

Jester doesn’t think they can really go to Nicodranas - they don’t have anymore time. Even more, Jester’s avoiding going home because she doesn’t want the Ruby to see that she got aged up/hurt on her travels.

Travis honestly assumes that the TTs are spying on them 100% of the time now.

Does Jester feel better now that the crest is away from Lucien? Yes, even though it’s gone off course. She thought dropping the crest where they were was a HORRIBLE idea and was appalled so many people were suggesting it. She saw the city with her own eyes, knows the danger of what’s coming, and if they had dropped it in flight she would have dropped with it and defended it as long as she could if that’s what would have kept them from getting it.

Travis thinks that if they can negotiate with Lucien, they should try. Everyone is super worried about Caleb’s and Beau’s new eyes and are fully anticipating they’re on a clock at this point. They wonder if it’ll drive up their exhaustion, allow Lucien to force them to fight against them, maybe make them willing slaves to the mysterious voice...they need to solve it sooner rather than later. 

And that’s all for tonight! New episode this Thursday - usual time, usual place. Stay warm, friends, and is it Thursday yet?

[shinebrightlikeanarwhal]

Travis-centered plots because I Like fix it’s… (I just finished typing them all, I’m ashamed for my sinful brain oml)

- Larry and Travis having once been friends but being torn apart by Travis’ father. Larry keeping an eye on Travis for years but then turning his attention to Sal, whom in turn receives the sudden disdain of Travis.

Sal confronts Travis in the bathrooms one day and Larry listens from the door. Eventually Sal talks Travis into tears. He confesses to being jealous of Sal and not wanting Larry to stop focusing on him, even if Larry ends up hating him. How his dad would beat him if Travis and Larry ever got close again. Larry barges in and holds Travis close. They reconcile (Sal opting to let the boys talk, clearly not in the mood to see Enemies to Lovers tonguing den in the school bathroom.

They uproot and destroy the cult, blah blah blah, Happily ever after and Travis gets help for his trauma induced depression and anxiety.

- Travis has been off for a few days. He doesn’t antagonize anyone. Philip does more talking and ginger touching that Travis violently jerks away from. During class he barely responds and teachers don’t try to force him. Sal didn’t expect to find Travis sleeping on a bench one day. His worn shoes now tattered with holes at the bottom. His black eye prominent but accompanied by a busted lip and what looked to be severe damage to his legs.

Not sure how he did it, but Sal managed to convince Travis to come home with him. Introduces Travis to Henry and leads him to the bathroom where he washed off and got treated. His damage was severe and Sal really wanted to call the police but just seeing a fearful Travis weened him off the idea.

Larry was not too pleased to find Travis at Sals. He almost yelled until he noted Travis look at his raised hand and cower from him. Larry pausing and pulls Sal to the side to understand. Of course they don’t know the full story but it’s enough to have Larry texting the group for help. Most were curious about what could lead them to wanting to help Travis. Ash, however, seemed to know a lot.

They find out about Travis’ abuse, the cult. Travis helps a little. He is still terrified of them but they start to grow on him with time. He even allows contact with Sal rarely, who shows him his face during a bonding moment at the dead of night. Larry makes playlists and CDs to help Travis get accustomed to loud noises (many of which are songs Larry personally thinks Travis would enjoy.

After the gang destroys and puts the cult behind bars. No demons, no murders, and no dead friends. Sal manages to convince Travis to report his father, thankfully they kept his clothes to give to the state police, Todd refused to trust the local police after further investigating the cult and their connections.

Healing and coping, cuddling and coddling. Travis getting the love and attention he deserves! Could end with him dating someone or him just being under their care for a while.

—Salvis but Sal is a bit more aggressive with Travis. Fuck it ABO, Travis is a very spicy omega that pretends to be a Beta. Sal is a strong scented alpha, like it’s a musky and domineering scent compared to his appearance. Larry is an alpha, though his scent is murky and smoky, and he doesn’t act like the stereotypical alpha. Travis nitpicks them like usual, though sometimes they are too distracted by the nice smell seeping off of him. Larry sneers and asks if Travis mom scented him before school. Travis is upset at this. Much more emotional than usual. Sal notes the spike in scent and jabs Larry.

Uh oh, Travis is presenting in the bathroom, and beta Philip isn’t able to fight off the alphas coming to investigate the scent, thankfully Sal is here to soothe and calm the terrified Travis while his friends help fend off the other students.

Mr. Phelps is pissed about an omega son. Travis is constantly scented with distress. He isn’t allowed to talk about it but everyone can smell it. They are well aware of Travis’ fluctuating weight, fatigue and his tan skin turning pale and bruised worse than before. Larry is annoyed by this but can’t tell whether it’s the scent affecting him or his stern belief in protecting omegas from abusive alphas.

Sal hates it, he knows he felt the mate bond but Travis doesn’t seem to notice. Travis’ suffering eats away at Sal until he all but corners Travis and propositions him to save him from his father and give him sanctuary. It takes a lot to convince Travis. Heck, he has to promise Larry wouldnt hurt him (Larry later seeks Travis to reconcile their bad blood).

They get to know eachother. Sal is head over heels and watching Travis grow and blossom into his omega blood. Travis starts falling for someone else and Sal tries to be supportive (until he can’t even look at Travis without feeling heartache). But Travis notes he doesn’t love ____ And follows his heart to Sal. They bond, they love and boom, happy little family. (With three cute babies because Travis and Sal deserve happy families)

Larvis: roughly the same as the salvos ABO but Larry straight up picks up Travis and carries him home. Travis tries to fight but is swaddled and pampered until he’s fast asleep and purring in Larry’s arms.

Mr. Phelps doesn’t have much ground to stand on when he tries to take Travis back. Larry confirming that Travis is his mate and based off of Phelps’ beliefs he should reside with his mate.

Travis is surprised his father backs off so easily (because how could the pastor refute what he preaches?? Such blasphemy would be heard by the church blah blah blah). Larry and Travis talk and Larry admits that they are indeed mates, he never brought it up for Travis’ health. He was already struggling to care for himself, a mating bond would send his already feeble body and fragile mind spiraling. Larry also admits he knew they were mates ever since he presented, which wasn’t that long after entering highschool. But, Travis was so proud to be ‘normal’ and not some horny mess like the others. He also didn’t like seeing Travis harass and bully others, which probably aided in his aggressive rejection of the omega and prolonged Travis’ presentation.

Life goes on and Larry and Travis are happily married with four kids (two more in the oven, because Larry is a very affectionate husband). Cult was handled and Sal is NOT dead and very much the worlds best uncle.

-Travis having a hot girl summer.

That’s it. That’s the plot.

Thotty church twink marching about in short shorts and tank tops (sinful!) showing off his goodies to the masses. Larry shamelessly offers to partake, and gets thrown for a whirlwind when Travis’ phat ass is delightfully uncontrollable. Sal jokingly shoots his shot and winds up slumped in the back of the church from immaculate head.

Mr. Phelps is away so the thot is out to play. (Courtesy of Mama Phelps aiding and abetting her sons growth as a person. He may be throwing it back to the boys he once sneered at but at least he’s nicer to people)

-Travis being rescued from the Phelps home after a concerned report to the state police. The church closed and his father put behind bars for many accounts of child abuse and neglect and the disappearance of Travis’ mother.

Sal and gang are curious about what the new home will do to Travis after months of rehabilitation, and all damn near faint when they see Travis with long pink hair and a cute sun dress marching into the school. Directly towards them and apologizing for his horrible treatment of them, specifically Sal. They can’t believe his change at first but after weeks of watching him, he seems genuinely happier.

This new happiness starts to get unsettling to Larry, who watches Travis and Philip be closer than before. He shouldn’t care he hates Travis! But god he wished the boy would wrap his arms around his and march down the halls. He would kill to get surprise back hugs or do the hugging. He wanted to share lunch with Travis. Be hand fed meals and have his mouth cleaned whilst being scolded.

Fuck, he’s in love! He thought he nipped that in the bud when Sal started getting bullied by Travis. But no, Travis being rescued from his awful father and being a genuinely good person from then on was astounding. Hell, he even brought Sal treats as an apology for walking in on him with his mask off once. Sal said it was fine but Travis babbled ok about feeling bad because Sal looked terrified even though Travis didn’t think Sal was any less cool. (Yes, Sal cried in his room about how much it meant for someone to say that).

For fucks sake, Travis had pictures upon pictures of his new family and their pets. PETS. He had dooogs, god Larry lost his mind seeing Travis jogging around town with dogs in shorts and a sweaty, almost see through tank top!! He’s too gay for this.

He finally confesses, maybe tries to play it off as a joke, but Travis just smiles sweetly and pecks his cheek. He’s sorry but he’s already dating someone. Larry tries not to let his disappointment show, but he just can’t feel the need to go to school for a couple of days. Hides out in his tree house and just smokes. Cause, cmon.. who’d wanna date him?? All he does is smoke and play around! He hasn’t had a stable relationship in years and most he’s known for is sleeping with whoever he deems the hottest.

Sal notices his behavior and tries to comfort him, not sure why Larry is like this, by offering to introduce him to his partner. Maybe they have a friend Larry is interested in. Larry wants to be supportive but he really doesn’t care to see Sals new beau(ty). He really just wanted to camp out in the tree house and smoke away the pain. Or, he did until he sees Travis and Sal holding hands and nuzzling on the couch one day. Sals legs on Travis’ and Travis combing Sals hair. Larry felt like his world came crashing down, his best friend?? And his first and worst crush?? The crush that sent him spiraling for what could have been weeks? Sal is innocent, he didn’t know that Larry was madly in love with Travis. Didn’t know that Travis so politely rejected him and offered to cease contact if Larry felt he couldn’t be around him.

Larry wasn’t much of a romantic after that. He played around with whoever he felt needed love. His partying spiraling out of control in adult hood. Travis tried to contact him and help him find a good person, but any attempts to help Larry ended with Larry crying to him drunkenly. Asking why he wasn’t good enough, why he couldn’t have been Sal. Travis wasn’t allowed near Larry after Larry drunkenly made advances at him, he doesn’t blame Larry he’s extremely emotional, but Sal felt Larry would only get worse the more they stayed in contact, so they were kept apart.

Larry never loved anyone as much as he loved Travis Fisher.

-Last one was a sadder Onesided Larvis, this one is Larry teasing and cornering Travis so much that Travis tries to shock him by kissing him. He came home with some hickies and a very prominent limp.

They’re not saying, yet, but Wingman Sal is politely judging Travis into Larry’s arms. They are constantly alone together. Larry blowing Travis’ back out in an abandoned amusement park when the others split up to explore. “He sprained his ankle running from a shadow” Hmph, Travis smelt like axe. He HATES the smell of axe… but okay lovebirds.

Sal has 100% walked in on the secret lovers getting frisky when moms out. Later helps Travis shop for more pretty clothes, because who wouldn’t want a shopping body??? That’s almost illegal to not take the opportunity.

Larry eats ass. A lot. Travis can literally be on FaceTime shopping with Sal and Larry just slips under the covers and enjoys his fill of boyfriend cheekies~ yum!

Travis, as revenge, will give the gawk gawk 9000. Larry is NOT safe if he thinks Travis has forgotten the embarrassment of Sal chuckling and telling him he has to go walk his homework. He could be on the phone with his boss or Lisa and Travis will give the sloppiest top he’s ever had. (Praise the son for horni bratty bottoms)

[dent-de-leon]

Mollymauk, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22 :D (feel free to trim down if this is too many)

asksjkdf I'm sorry in advance because I got a little carried away so this got a little long, but thanks for the ask! I love any and every excuse to talk about Mollymauk...

4.) Best places to kiss on their body

I think Molly is actually very partial to forehead kisses! I feel like he uses that to ground Caleb in part because it’s something that’s always been very comforting to him--for instance, when Yasha finally gets to embrace him again, she also kisses his forehead. I think I remember Molly doing this for the twins back at the carnival too, so I feel like it’s a habit he picked up from the circus? Just the kind of little thing you do for someone to show you love them.

Aside from that, I think he would really appreciate a kiss on the neck, where most of his blood hunter scars--and that haunting red Eye--are. A bit of loving tenderness to soothe the pain.

5.) Guilty pleasures

Oh I love this pick for Molly cause boY does he have a lot of these!! He builds a life off joy and hedonism, so he’s got this in spades. I forget where, but I’ve definitely seen someone theorize before that the reason base pleasures are so appealing to Molly is because he started out just feeling like an “Empty” body, so anything that’s very stimulating on a physical level is very grounding for him? I really like the idea of that. I think wanting to feel like he was really “alive” and “whole” is part of why he gravitated towards decadence and indulgence, anything that made his heart beat faster.

The episode where we get the famous “Long may I reign” scene definitely covers a lot of his favorite indulgences. But as much as he loves being spoiled, I think he also likes making sure the people he cares about are pampered like royalty too. Taliesin mentioned before that the reason Molly likes gold so much is because he’s got this very childish perception that money is Good because you can use it to get Nice Things that make other people Happy. Since Molly’s been alive for only two years, I feel like a lot of his guilty pleasures actually stem from this sort of sentiment. The fact that he’s still so young and everything in the world is very new and exciting and he just wants to be as happy as possible--and make his loved ones happy too. It’s a very endearingly innocent sort of view.

11.) Bad or petty habits

Hmmm I feel like the one thing that makes Molly the pettiest is when someone tries to tell him his tarot readings are bullshit lmao. Even if he mostly thinks so himself, he adamantly refuses to hear it from anyone else.

13.) What gets them flustered

I think whenever someone is being very genuine and having a real heart to heart with him. Molly is perfectly at ease talking bullshit or telling pretty lies. He’s also very comfortable being very sincere and compassionate when it comes to comforting others, like the little ways he’s always trying to cheer up Jester, the forehead kiss for Caleb, promising Fjord the Nein won’t let him die, bringing Yasha a four-leaf-clover with the wish that one day she’ll feel happier.

But whenever people are openly affectionate and trying to have an honest conversation with him? I think that makes him tense up and panic a bit. He’s not good with letting himself be vulnerable, dropping his showman’s performance. We actually see a lot of this when Molly is resurrected and starts going by Kingsley. He knows he has feelings for the Nein, but he’s definitely a little nervous and overwhelmed when he confronts that.

Several times, Caleb assures King he’s still welcome in the Nein, and that always makes Kingsley either defensive or very quiet, keeps catching him off-guard. “Well for starters, you are with friends.” “Perhaps this is your first time meeting us. It's our second time...Stick with us.” “We have a habit of taking in strays.” “This is the newest member of the band.” Being accepted just like that, loved by all the Nein so unconditionally, just like that? I think it leaves him a little shaken, because he doesn’t feel like he’s done anything to earn it. Like he doesn’t deserve to be this missed and wanted and loved.

14.) Ingrained habits/forces of habit

I think there are some nights where he keeps looking over his shoulder and feels like he’s being watched--when the Eyes of Nine start to itch and burn, when it feels like something’s crawling under his skin--and he looks at the mirror and swears he sees a face that looks just the same but somehow isn’t his. And for a while after he first wakes--and again when he’s resurrected--I think there are still moments when he’s scared or panicked and he’ll just keep repeating Empty over and over.

I also really like how Taliesin used to just pick a random card from his tarot deck to decide what Molly should do. I can definitely see Mollymauk doing something similar--just pulling a random card from his deck on a whim, trusting it’ll lead him in the right direction.

15.) What it takes to make them cry

I feel like Molly rarely cries, mainly because he hates feeling sorry for himself or ruminating on any bad memories. He’s kinda funny that way; he refuses to let himself be unhappy, especially when he feels like he’s always living on borrowed time. The one thing I can see really making him break down is seeing his loved ones hurting--he literally spits at the face of his own death, but I think he’s really terrified of losing someone else.

If there’s one scene where I can really see Molly crying, it’s when Jester falls in that final battle. When Caleb makes this desperate plea that breaks through to Molly for a single heart-wrenching moment, “You’re killing her, you’re killing her! You love her. You’re killing her!” The absolute horror of that shakes Lucien’s control for just a moment, and Molly claws at his own face in retaliation. You can just tell how much his heart is breaking just then, how scared he is, how much he must hate himself. I could definitely imagine Molly shedding a few tears right then, if he had enough control of the body to do it.

Having to watch Lucien use his body to kill Jester and Caleb, the amount of pain Lucien caused Yasha and all the others, the nightmares of his death and black chains that forever haunt him after--I think those are the kinds of things that would bring Molly to tears in his lowest moments. And when he finally reads Beau’s book and finds out about how Yasha suffered a similar fate under Obann? Yeah, I think he’d get choked up over that too.

21.) Turning points in their life

Oh, there’s so many interesting twists and turns Molly’s life takes in just a few short years. Undoubtably, I think every life, death, and rebirth left the biggest impact. The fact that he woke all alone that first time--and then found himself surrounded by so many loved ones a lifetime later--I think that had a profound impact on his sense of self worth and his attachment to others.

That first life, Molly convinces himself that he must have been someone awful before, to have been left alone in an unmarked grave on the side of the road. With no one who missed or mourned him. He believes he somehow deserves that fate. And when he’s taken in by the circus? Taliesin mentions he never spends more than 24 hours alone. He’s...very lonely, I think. Someone who can’t bear to be isolated again. So when he wakes up again to a whole family of people who love him? Who welcome him wholeheartedly and insist they’ll love him unconditionally, no matter who he is? It’s beautiful, and it means the world to someone like Mollymauk/Kingsley. “I’m looking forward to the future. And I hope to deserve to have woken up surrounded by such people.”

Molly’s also mentioned that it was the Moonweaver who helped guide him when he first woke, who gave him comfort in having a new start in life. “Can you imagine what it would feel like to not feel anything about anything that had happened to you so far?...It’s very freeing. It’s the best thing--It’s the thing that happened to me. It’s not the best thing that happened to me, it’s the thing that happened to me. I found peace in building a new person. The Moonweaver--” However he came to worship the Moonweaver, I think it was definitely one of the most formative experiences in all his lives. I also like to headcanon the woman in a red coat Molly/King met in his dream was another visit from the Moonweaver, and she was either trying to return his memories or offer him another chance at a fresh start.

22.) People who’ve influenced them greatly

Oh, pre-campaign I think Molly modeled a lot of his behaviors and mannerisms after others in the circus, especially Gustav. He’s the one who named Mollymauk and presumably the one who spent the most time raising him and caring for him in that Empty period.

Molly has his own set of morals he feels very strongly about, and it’s entirely learned from the circus, “Things came back quick, and the circus helped. They were good people. They did a lot for me, and joy can fill an awful lot of a person’s life.” “I may be a liar, but I’m never a betrayer. I’m honest in my work and I believe in doing a good turn...I stayed with that circus for two years, and I know how people treat each other. It’s important.” When Molly is resurrected again, I think all of the Mighty Nein have very much the same effect on him.

[maribabyart]

Do you have any Demon Martha headcanons? How do you think her reunion with Mrs. Mayberry (The teacher who paid for her assassination) in hell would go?

 OK YES I HAVE HEADCANONS FOR THIS HERE WE GO --

MARTHA HEADCANONS <3

So, I’m gonna start with her before she died so I can fully get into why every part of her is the way she is as a demon.

Martha is light skinned Latina woman with family coming from Venezuela. Her mother has a much darker skin tone than her, but her father is far more light-skinned, where she gets her complexion from. While she was raised in America, her parents were immigrants. She was born at home, and she didn’t get a birth certificate until she was four, the year before she started schooling.

She has three older brothers. They were very rambunctious with Martha as a child, pulling pranks on her/with her, taking her hunting, etc.

She was raised out on a farm in the middle of a forested area in Kentucky. They raised cattle, sheep, chickens, and horses. Martha’s main job on the farm was to groom/ride horses and feed chickens.

She learned her sharp-shooter skills in a more intense version of something like 4H unique to her area. She was fantastic with a bow and arrow, and even better with her firearms.

Cannibalism was normalized in Martha’s life from a young age. She knew that it must be kept secret from the outside world, and that it wasn’t accepted. However, it wasn’t something she found to be horrid.

Her family -- and their close friends -- came from a long lineage of Satanic cultists that practiced cannibalism to purge any bit of, “soul” remaining in the corpses of their sacrifices. Due to this, Martha had evolved to be able to be immune to the ill side effects of cannibalism, along with the ability to not feel repulsed by the idea of eating human meat.

Her favorite part of the body growing up was the brain, and it still is to this day. She loves the frontal lobe slathered in spices and hot sauce.

She began her cultish killings at age fourteen, when she officially joined the cult of her family’s descent -- Compañerismo de la Fruta Prohibida (Fellowship of the Forbidden Fruit, a refrence to their following of Lucifer)

Martha didn’t love Raphael Peterson, or, “Ralphie”. She was married of to him at age sixteen, when she became a, “Woman” in the cult’s eyes. They were both meant to appear as an ideal couple so that people wouldn’t suspect them, as their parents before them have.

Ralph and Martha always saw each other as friends with benefits.

They moved to Dayton, Tennessee to start their family when they turned eighteen.

In Nashville, Martha started singing to music her husband played in Taverns. Think Dolly Parton style music. She sounded a lot like that.

Their first child was born when Martha was eighteen: Their daughter, Jolene Peterson. Two years later, they had their son, Beau Peterson.

Martha was always really involved with her kids’ school activities, and she was always volunteering to work events, and her kids were in every activity they could be.

She used her physical attractiveness to seduce and kill men.

While sex favorable, Martha is on the aspec -- greysexual (sexual pleasure is irrelevant to her, and she only engages in it to appease her partner generally. She only finds sexual attraction in people while in the act.) Because of this fact, Martha only has affairs for the sake of gaining trust to bring the men home so they can be killed and eaten.

When Martha was shot, the community villainized Mrs. Mayberry because the town darling, Martha Jane Nunez Robles-Peterson, would NEVER cheat, right? The situation was misread: Martha was just talking to Jarold Mayberry that night about t-ball-related things, right? He WAS the the little league captain for her 6-year-old-son’s league, wasn’t he?

Martha was gifted millions by the community, and people were insanely supportive of her. They wanted the sweet Martha they, “knew” to get better soon. They loved her so -- such a darling woman!

Her music became more well known, and soon, Martha was all over TV. Her big musical break came from when she auditioned for American Idol and made it. Her sob-story propelled her, and she eventually won.

Martha was a hero to everyone around her -- surviving a traumatic event that was uncalled for, while also being so damn chipper and kind.

Hell, did you guys see the background in one of those scenes?! Martha was canonly proclaimed a SAINT! People loved her that much.

She used the public trust to lure in more victims and never be suspected.

Martha was 28 when she died. Ralphie was 28 as well. Jolene was 10, and Beau was 8.

Ralphie managed to survive the explosion, albeit he was completely paralyzed, and the two children went to heaven. Ralphie repented during his last month alive, and confessed to his crimes. He was sent to heaven as well.

Martha and the children were declared to have died in a bear attack, as Compañerismo de la Fruta Prohibida covered up their true demise with ease.

People were heart broken -- Martha’s music was used in sad collages on Youtube, Tik Toks had Martha’s face in them for memorials.

No one ever realized her crimes.

Now! As a demon....

In hell, Martha picked up the alias Hero -- it’s what she was in life, right? I’ll be calling her Hero from now on.

Hero is both different and similar to how she was when she was alive. She’s still the got her kind-hearted, southern mama vibe going for her: She tends to be able to fit into any demonic crowd well, either by attractiveness or by sheer, overwhelming allure -- she’s a very magnetic personality.

As far as powers go, Hero’s are mostly related to firearms. She’s acquired these powers through deal making and soul dealing, as most demons do. Her charming aura very quickly lure people into thinking she’s naive or really just being honest with them.

Her nails can peel back to allow her to shoot from, “finger guns”. Each finger is a different gun, besides her middle and index fingers. They are both shotguns. Together, they make a double barrel shotgun.

When in full demonic form, Hero’s bandages become sentient. They peel away from her wound, revealing a minigun like weapon in the hole in her head. This can rapid fire while the bandages can grab onto things or hoist Hero up. She can make this last for five minutes -- ten at the longest -- before she gives out to sheer exhaustion and needs to eat demon meat to replenish herself.

Within her first week in hell, she was known to be powerful. Not quite an overlord, but powerful enough to hang around overlords. 

She hit overlord status three months later, during the terf war seen in Hazbin Hotel’s pilot: She took several areas of land, and was seen to have several lesser demons flocking to be on her good side.

Hero used her land to build up a bar and grill that serves strictly demon meat and blood, where demons can play music and dance. It’s like a fucked up country dinner. It’s an insanely popular addition to Cannibal Colony, where she lives.

The place is called La Cocina de la Calle Kuru (The Kuru Street Kitchen)

Hero REALLY wants to get her hands on exterminator tools, but she’s not really a fan of black market deals -- it’s too “trashy” for her.

Hero knows Alastor pretty well, as he’s came in for meat and to watch the music. They’ve had pretty decent conversations while she was on break, seeing as they were both influential  southern, cannibalistic serial killers. It’s a running gag between them where they jokingly talk about who was more iconic -- “I bet I took out more belles in a lifetime than you could in your entire afterlife!” “Well hon, at least I could eat the brains without gettin’ Kuru!”

She talks to Rosie a lot about business, and has met Niffty and Mimzy before. (Al hooked a bitch up with some friends lmao)

She REALLY likes Mimzy. She reminds her of Ralphie, and they became super fast friends. 

Vox and Hero have a confusing sort of friendship, as neither really wants to be seen with the other -- In his case, because she’s much lower on the overlord spectrum than him, and in her case, because she’s no stranger to Alastor and Vox’s hatred for one another. However, she often finds herself consoling Vox on sleepless nights after closing up the bar, trying to convince him that Valentino is NOT worth his time. Beyond that and him occasionally paying her back in tech at random hours of the morning, they don’t talk often.

Hero LOVES dancing! Like, a lot.

She’s seen Charlie’s ad for the Happy Hotel. Her and Mimzy watched it, and they both thought it was the stupidest damn thing they’d ever seen. However, Hero said she was happy Charlie got up there, because she was just, “Cute as a button, that lil’ sweatpea was!”

Hero’s best friends are Mimzy and an unnamed demon who specializes in black market, extermination tool selling (the one seen in in Addict -- Cherri Bomb’s former lover).

These two people, and these two people alone, can call her “Martha”

Hero cooks whenever she’s stressed. She also adores sewing and binging soap operas and reality shows on Voxflix.

Hero’s Instagram would be, “HeroicMelodies” in reference to her music career and name.

Hero gets hit on A LOT, and she despises it. She doesn’t need to seduce people anymore to get away with murder, and she doesn’t want to. She dresses the way she does because she LIKES that clothing. People can fuck off.

The reason Hero is white and pink is to show how innocent she looks. Her pitch-black eyes show her dark soul.

Hero sings in Spanish to herself when cleaning up.

Sometimes, Hero and Rosie spend holidays going around with ground demon meat to throw to the hell crows and other critters. They find it peaceful.

Hero, shockingly, holds no hatred for I.M.P., and commonly jokes about how the I.M.P.’s, “Did her a favor” by sending her somewhere she can actually be her. She has no idea who called for the hit, though. 

Hero finds Blitzo’s Instagram posts being poorly spelled to be, “Damn near precious”.

She thinks he’s a teenager, and probably would think it less adorable if she knew he was a grown man with a grown kid.

Hero doesn’t care about Mrs. Mayberry at all. Like, at all. She honestly assumes the woman is in heaven. She knew Mayberry wasn’t bad -- she probably wouldn’t care if she was in hell, though. Oh well. Sucks to suck, bitch.

Husk frequents La Cocina de la Calle Kuru to drink and engage in the gambling scene. Hero finds him trashy, but can’t say she hates him. She finds him funny as hell, and enjoys the business. Just not someone she’d personally hang out with.

[autistic-beshelar]

'm loving everyone venting about Molly! Thanks! And I want to ask you how you imagined the finale was gonna be? I have this whole fanfic in my head about Molly realising he had a four leaf clover stuck in his hair and upon noticing it he would give it to Yasha. Then the M9 would deal with Trent and Molly would finally know how terrible of a person the dude was. And then the M9 would introduce Molly to everyone else they met and visit every place they left better than they found it.

that's so sweet!

it's weird, because while like every other molly fan, i've had thoughts on his resurrection and a fic series i'm working on, but i'd never really... thought about the end of the campaign, or what it might be like?

(ETA this ended up so long im so sorry i have a lot to say apparently and this isn't even all of it)

my biggest and most important thing: they are a family. they belong together. maybe they'll go off on their own for a while, or stay with their families, but the nein belong together.

for fjord... he spent so long trying to be someone else, and while he's learning how to be his own person now, he deserves closure on that part of himself. he deserves a last conversation with vandren, and then to move on, to explore new places, to find new goals for himself. there is so much for him now, the open sea with so much life and promise. he buys a ship, a new ship, all his own, not one borrowed or stolen from another, and jester paints its name, decorates its quarters, makes it a home. he wrangles the nein (yes, even veth, yes, even essek) into joining him, and they set sail, all nine of them, the way it couldn't be the first time. he shows molly the ropes, teaches essek how to navigate, and watches his crew, his friends, his family, learning from him, placing so much trust in him, letting him guide them, and sees how truly happy they are to be here with him. usually, the crew is him, jester, beau, and often molly and yasha, but sometimes he will leave for a time, entrusting the boat to orly. sailing isn't all he has now, there is more to see, to do, there are things for him on land now too, but the sea will always be home to him.

for jester... she deserves her happy fairytale ending. i think for a while she stays with her family, seeing her parents happily together, finally properly introducing her boyfriend, and just spending time with her mum in a way that she didn't get to so much when she was young. and then i think she travels, just for the sake of exploring, with no defined goal other than to sow the seeds of joy and chaos everywhere she walks. and as she travels, she begins to write. stories were homes to her as a child, and they're homes even now, for someone with such a powerful imagination. she writes of her adventures, of her friends, she writes of mystical and fantastical things, half of them real. she writes and writes, words and illustrations filling so many books, she gives them to beau, to yasha, passes them off as silly little things, as though they aren't brilliant works of art. all of the nein read her stories - yasha out loud to molly as she plays with his hair, caduceus and calliope in the quiet of their garden, caleb and essek by the light of their bedside table. and in time the stories reach others, scattered journals are copied and bound into books, and one day jester wanders a quiet, nameless town, and in the window of a bookshop she's never seen, embossed on the cover of a novel, there is a brilliant green door.

for caleb... oh man, he is a teacher. that is so perfect for him, and i've been thinking about it ever since his talk with luc. i think there's something so powerful about being the person he deserved when he was younger, about stepping into that position of power and authority and being so kind with it. he's so passionate about magic, and i think it's beautiful to see him come so far - from someone burned and traumatised and so convinced he was irredeemable, to someone who can take comfort in soft things, someone who some days, almost, almost believes he can be good. i think out of everyone, except perhaps veth, he stays home the most. he still adventures with the nein of course, and if there is ever a whisper of artefacts or hidden knowledge or some expedition or other, the nein are with him in an instant to investigate it. but more often than not he is home, making the empire a better place, keeping the fire warm for them.

for veth... i want her to learn that she is enough as she is. i want her to learn that she doesn't have to choose between wife, adventurer, mother. she is all of these things. i want her to accept that her transformation was not a return to her old self but becoming someone new. i think she goes home, as she promised, and i do think she stays there for a long while, a few years perhaps, making up for lost time. and she'll pretend that she's fine with that life, with staying home, with being a wife and a mother. but that isn't all she is, and eventually, with yeza's help, with the nein's help, she will accept that. she'll no longer see it as two lives, two identities. she'll be able to kill fearsome beasts and explore strange new lands with her friends without guilt or fear, and at the end of the day she'll go home and regale her husband and son with extraordinary tales of her and her friends' heroics (that may or may not be exaggerated).

for yasha... i want her to be happy and loved. she's come SO far, from someone running from her past, drowning in guilt and so unsure of herself, to someone strong and bold. i love that ashley said she would do little odd jobs - i think she would do that, go around helping people as they explore. like most of the others, i don't think she would truly settle down. i like to imagine she does have a house somewhere - maybe inspired by the clays, she has a home somewhere green, surrounded by flowers, somewhere quiet and calm and peaceful. a little cottage maybe, for her and beau, just somewhere to return to and feel safe, somewhere she can rest. but i think most of her time would be spent travelling, seeing all the wonderful beautiful things the world has to offer, being with her friends who love her for exactly who she is, who showed her that she was someone worthy of being loved, who taught her that it's possible for her to love herself.

for caduceus... i think, for a time, he rests. he's tired. not done, far from done, but tired. i think he stays with his family at the grove, tending to all the things that are now so vibrant and alive, feeling the walls he was so sure would crumble. but after a time, he would feel that he is supposed to leave. the grove is wonderful, and will always be his home, somewhere he will always return to, and i think throughout his life - throughout the nein's life, and of course they will come to rest there, after everything - he will come home, to tend to the garden, to watch over the temple while his siblings roam. i think he travels, too, but not so much to adventure. after everything he's been through i think he deserves some peace, and quiet. he travels all the lonely winding roads, all the quiet humming spaces, sees all the life in all the hidden corners. while several members of the nein travel with him, it's yasha that walks with him the most, happy to go at his pace, eager to share in that peace and wonder.

for molly... there is so much for him now. he is no longer covered in eyes, no longer has that weight on him, even if he does hold memories of it, in darker moments. he is him but brand new, able to forge himself into whoever he wants to be, and the nein give him so much space and so much time for that. i think he stays with the clays for a little while - while the others deal with trent, yasha, so so scared to lose him again, places all her trust in caduceus to take care of him. and when they return (to find him with freshly cut hair the same colours as his coat, and a particularly proud looking clarabelle), they just spend time with him, all the time they missed and more. fjord tells him of their journey, jester showing him her journal, giving him meaning for it all, and all the time yasha holds his hand, unwilling to ever let him go. it's hard, being gone for so long, and while he is so, so (embarrassingly) proud of his friends for all that they've gone through, and how much they've grown, it's also glaringly obvious that he can't keep up. he almost has it in mind to leave - he doesn't want to hold them back, and he can't help but wonder if he's really the molly they want - it's hard to live up to a memory, after all. and there is so much he's missed. they tell him he's a moron, obviously. he is their friend, and there is nothing they won't do for friends, and waiting, staying, is such a small thing to ask. beau trains him, at his insistence - she thinks it's a joke at first, tells him that she'd be a terrible teacher, just as she was a terrible student. she's wrong, of course, and molly grows stronger by the day. he has so many adventures with them, sailing the seas on fjord's ship, sowing chaos with jester, fighting side by side with beau. there is not a single day that he isn't with his friends, yasha most of all. they are with him through everything, though good days, so many good days, and through bad ones too. molly has so much time - time the nein have given him, as he once gave to them - to live, to love, to wander, to form new memories and experiences. to be everything he never had the chance to the first time, and so much more.

for beau... she is so, so scared at first. they saved the world. they stopped trent. they've done... everything they've set out to do. what's left? what's keeping them together? when molly tries to run it reminds her so much of how she felt before, how she thought to run, to leave them before they could leave her. he returns the favour, reminds her that they are family, reminds her that she has worth, and the nein want her to stay, that they keep her, just as they kept him. (she almost believes him, and definitely doesn't cry). she does so many things - she goes home with yasha once in a while, somewhere tranquil, somewhere to study and research, she travels with caduceus, learning to appreciate a slower pace and all the quiet contemplation and companionship it can offer, she travels with fjord, his first mate, his best mate, allowing someone she trusts to take the helm and lead her on adventures. and she studies - long gone are the days of pretending to turn her nose up at books - she is one of professor widogast's best (and most irritating) students, learning magic not to weave it herself but just to understand it, just learning for the sake of learning. when she confronts her father, fjord and caleb are there as they should be - fjord to talk, to use his words and his charm to help, caleb in quiet solidarity, a hand on her shoulder, just standing with her as she tears down her mentor, her abuser, and comes out stronger for it, just as she had been there for him. finally, she can put that behind her, and she stays with the soul, as their greatest expositor (though maybe one who never does their paperwork), rooting out corruption, seeking the truth, exploring new horizons.

for essek... he spends a long time waiting for the past to catch up to him. it doesn't. it already has, in a way, if only in his own mind, the once unfamiliar guilt that weighs heavily on his shoulders. it never goes away, not entirely, but time heals, and so does the presence of the rest of the nein, always in his life, for as long as they can be. though he and caleb have different goals, they overlap so neatly, and though essek has a place in his own homeland, he spends far, far more time living with caleb. he continues with his research, caleb and beau poring over his notes, sharing his excitement and passion. he doesn't go on adventures near as much as the others, preferring to stay home, but he visits them, in all their different homes scattered across the land - jester in nicodranas, the clays at the blooming grove, veth and her family on the outskirts of zadash, beau and yasha's cottage in a little forest near felderwin. he has homes scattered across the land, so many places he is always welcome, and while guilt never entirely leaves, nor does the knowledge that one day, of course, all this will end, he finds peace.

i guess the reason i've never thought about the campaign ending is because for me.. it doesn't, not really. the mighty nein are family, chosen family. they stay together, they find homes in each other, and they leave every place better than they found it.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E88 (Dec. 17, 2019)

It’s the last show of 2019!

Tonight’s guests are Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel!

Announcements: Issue 4 of Vox Machina: Origins is out Wednesday, December 18th! The cast will be hosting a fireside chat tomorrow afternoon on Twitch at 5PM Pacific (and the VOD will be up on YouTube on Friday)! After Thursday’s episode of Critical Role, the next episode will be Thursday, January (Mighty) 9th!

There’s a long digression about ox farming, featuring new crew member Kyle!

We’re 13 minutes into this hour-long show, so it’s probably time to talk about...

Episode 88: Unwanted Reunions

Stats for this episode: this is the only episode across both campaign to not use any party spell slots! Caleb rolled his 1,000th roll, which was Deception against Trent, and also rolled his 50th Natural 20, which was a History check (Liam: ”On worms!”). 40 minutes and 21 seconds passed between Sam touching Laura’s dice bag and her arrival. Liam: “Meryl Streep left, too, to go to a Pathfinder game.”

Caleb/Liam regrets how his reunion with Trent went. “I always imagined that we’d run into him on the streets, or on a mission somewhere. I was stunned at how I stepped on a rake.” On motivation: “I’m not sure it’s revenge that he’s going after. I think that Caleb wants to fix it, to not let that happen anymore, but I don’t know how that related to that.”

Sam: “I think the cool thing is that everyone is concerned about Caleb now. Used to just be Nott, but now Beau is invested, Jester checks in, even Fjord seems to be concerned. Everybody wants to make sure that Caleb’s okay, and that’s a new thing.” Nott’s more aware that Caleb has a full support network now.

Caleb’s “still Bren, but I think he wishes he were more. He’s never going to let go of his past, even if he rights those wrongs that he’s obsessed with. If someone’s going to call him Bren, he feels he deserves it. He must always be reminded.” Liam thinks of it as “dual residence” for the names of Caleb and Bren in his head right now.

Nott feels terrible to be considered a “tame goblin” rather than just another citizen of the Empire. “Every time she’s reminded of it, it’s another little jab, another stab in the back. I don’t think it gets any easier.” She’s especially feeling on edge after having spent so much time around her friends and in Xhorhas, where it was less of a factor.

Liam: “It’s not like Bren was the chosen one... he’s just a nail that needs to be hammered back down. If Trent’s going to do something, he’s going to do it later, when people aren’t paying attention. I think he sees Bren like a fly that needs to be swatted. We’ll see.”

Sam on Astrid: "Nott is just trying to get Caleb laid. Everyone who sees Caleb has to know that this guy needs some fuckin’. Loosen this guy up!”

Cosplay of the Week: Pinup Gilmore! (KP11Photos on Twitter)

Liam thinks they should come up with “a sensible plan that doesn’t involve fuckery”. Sam: “Since when have we ever done that?” Liam points out that the Martinet was lying, too, and they really don’t know who they can trust.

Caleb is “extremely moved and doesn’t feel entirely worthy” over his friends offering to kill Trent for him. “He doesn’t process it very well. It’s a lot.”

“Nott is of the Empire, but she grew up in a farming area, sort of a far-flung District. It didn’t really affect her day-to-day life, so she doesn’t have a strong sense of patriotism. If given the choice, I think she’d 100% choose the Dynasty, doesn’t trust these Empire folks, especially not in this city.”

Everyone tries to work out which plots have and haven’t wrapped up thus far. Liam: “You know who’s really at the middle of this? The Tal’Dorei Council.”

Liam on seeing Eodwulf again: “I mean, he’s only been thinking about these people for years. It felt out-of-body, like it wasn’t real. The last time he saw this dude, he was seventeen years old.” Sam pries for more info on the three of them: “They had regular classes, but every week they had three or four days in a row where they were off on their own. They had a little bit of downtime together and they’d run about Rexxentrum together.”

Fanart of the Week: Trent and the Nein! (Feralkingspeil on Twitter)

Sam notes that Ludinus was there in Felderwin, “so Ludinus is not 100% innocent in this. Probably has seen Yeza, or heard of Yeza, and at least tacitly approved of Yeza’s confinement and experimentations-on.” (Sam did also get confused about the characters. “As with most things, I do think I was right.”) Nott is definitely suspicious of all the Assembly. “They’re all fuckers unless proven otherwise.” Caleb’s also trying to suss out who all is corrupt.

“I think the only sense that Caleb has of the fact that he missed a huge portion of his life is seeing Ikithon and Eodwulf. He doesn’t walk around thinking, oh, I’m Tom Hanks in Big, I’m the wrong age for my size. He more just feels like he lost time, he doesn’t feel like a 15-year-old piloting an adult’s body or anything.”

Sam came up with the idea of Nott’s crush on Caleb “pretty early on. When I stared in your eyes during some of the scenes we had together... It makes sense, two people on the road together, away from their mutual lives. Of course that thought’s going to cross her mind. And this man could be her salvation!”

Dani, in reaction to a long string of sexual innuendo: “What is this episode?” Liam: “This is it. This is the worst one. We did it.”

Caleb believes the Nein are in “way, way over their heads, that Ikithon is  a spider in the middle of a web. This guy has been working his craft for decades. That’s how Caleb sees it, anyway, at this point.”

For Nott, the money they’ve been making has seemed like “a means to an end. It hasn’t really changed her outlook, I guess. It’s just security.” Liam: “I would agree with that. It’s the logical progression of both of their determination.”

[luckyjak]

essek week day 4: wine/cupcakes

day four: wine AND cupcakes, and Beau and Essek coming to an understand by reading books at a Mighty Nein party XD Little bit of Shadowgast

He’s late.

He almost didn’t come at all, but Jester assured him via message that it was fine, that they still wanted his company, in spite of his tardiness. He didn’t bring anything with him this time, and he hopes that’s acceptable--he could have ran to get something, he supposed, but then he would be even more late, and that felt worse than showing up empty-handed.

Still, his palms are sweaty as he knocks on the door of the Xhorhaus, and he’s unsurpried when Jester swings it open.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he says quietly, stepping into the house. He didn’t wear his mantle this time, but he does take a moment to remove his boots, in hopes of keeping their floors clean. “I hope the party is still occurring?”

Jester giggles at him. “Well, most everyone but Caduceus and me are pretty drunk,” she whispers like she’s telling him a secret, leading him towards the dining room. “But we still got some food left. And we could use the company.”

He smiles at her softly. “Then I hope to provide--”

“ESSEK!” comes a loud Zemnian shout. Across the room, Caleb is barefoot and very clearly drunk, his hair a mess of wild batch of curls not tied down to anything. His pants are rolled up halfway up his calves, and there are more than a few buttons on his shirt undone, exposing more of the Zemnian’s chest than Essek’s seen before. There’s a dark haired woman in his arms that Caleb seems to be intent on ignoring. “Come dance with me!”

Essek laughs and blushes, stepping over Yasha, lying in the middle of the floor cuddling what looks to be a white tiger. Their home is a disaster area--there are broken pieces of furniture and bodies in various states of undress, and there are more people here than just the Mighty Nein. There’s only one other drow here--a quiet woman with red hair watching everyone while sipping on a glass of wine--but Essek finds he doesn’t mind the company too much. There’s an older red tiefling who is having a deep conversation with a tanned, golden-robed elf. He suspects they are flirting with one another, but neither of them wants to commit entirely to the act. There is a tortle with bagpipes that’s playing quite well, actually, and Veth is dancing happily with a tiny bright haired gnome while a happily buzzed Yeza cheers her on. Fjord is arm wrestling a dwarven woman, and Caleb practically throws the half-draconic woman he was dancing with towards Caduceus as soon as he sees Essek. 

So Essek goes, and dances with Caleb for most of the evening. It’s something of a bastardization of a waltz--Caleb knows how to dance, and likely can dance quite well when he’s not so inebriated. Still, Essek’s toes are stepped on more than a few times, but they dance to the tortle’s song until Essek’s poor feet can’t stand it anymore, and Caleb doesn’t seem capable of doing more than lay his head on Essek while shuffling his feet a little bit.

Jester giggles at them. “I’ll help you carry him to bed,” she says, “I’ve already had to help Fjord get upstairs. One more won’t kill me.”

Together, they carry Caleb towards his room, although in all honesty Jester is doing more of the carrying; Essek has one of Caleb’s arms looped around his neck, but Caleb’s other arm is wrapped around Jester’s.

“I’ve had this dream before,” Caleb mumbles, and Essek feels his face flush, though it doesn’t seem like Jester heard him. He opens the door to the library for the three of them.

There, they find Beauregard, alone by herself at a quiet table, reading by candlelight.

Jester drops Caleb immediately, which means Essek is forced to try and hold the drunken man upright. “Beau!” Jester whines, abandoning the two gentlemen and bouncing towards Beau. “Why are you not at the party?”

“Huh?” Beau looks up from her book, as if noticing them all for the first time. “Sorry Jes. I just wanted to finish this.”

Jester doesn’t return to help carry Caleb, so Essek struggles to drag him five feet closer to his room. “Are you upset?”

“Why would I be upset?”

“Because Keg--”

(“That’s her ex,” Caleb helpfully explains, his breath warm in Essek’s ear.)

“--Was flirting with Fjord, and Reani--”

(“Her other ex,” Caleb interjects)

“Was flirting with Yasha, and neither of them were flirting with you and it made you sad?”

“Nah,” Beau laughs it off, though Essek senses there may be some truth to what Jester has said. “I just thought of something, and needed to research it.” She raises an eyebrow in Essek’s direction. “How useless is Caleb at the moment?”

“In,” Caleb starts, then collapses into giggles. “In-in-in--”

Incredibly useless, Essek mentally supplies.

“Pretty fucking useless,” Jester says, crossing her arms. “Why? Whatcha working on?”

“Goddamnit,” Beau swears. “The one fucking time I need his help--”

Essek does not intend to volunteer his services; Essek, quite frankly, doesn’t care much for Beauregard. Of all of the Mighty Nein, she has been the most prickly towards him. Veth flips between warm or cold towards him, but Beau has consistently been, well, pardon his language, a bitch towards him. That, and Essek had intended on relaxing tonight, drinking a little bit and having fun with his friends, not working on anything.

Unfortunately, Jester volunteers him anyway. “Essek could help you!” She says cheerily, bouncing on the table by Beau. “He’s really smart! Just as smart as Caleb is! I’m sure he could help you figure it out!”

Essek bites his bottom lip. “Jester, I’m not sure if that’s--”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” She interrupts. “You two could totally figure it out in like no time!”

The one plus to this is that Beau looks as uncomfortable with the idea as he does. She scowls at him, and starts organizing her notes, making reluctant space for him at the table. 

His shoulder hurts from trying to carry Caleb, and so he scowls right back at her. “What are you even working on, anyway?”

She cocks her eyebrow at him. He can tell what she’s debating: she’s thinking about if she can trust him or not, and Essek feels the sting of her judgment even as she tells him the truth: “I think the Luxon Beacons may be related to Tharizdun.”

Essek drops Caleb on the floor.

(Jester holds her hands up to her face. “What? Ohmygosh!”

“Ow,” Caleb mumbles on the floor.)

“I don’t have proof yet,” Beau blushes, before pulling out a map. “But look here, right? These are where the Luxon Beacons were dug up--” she pulls out another map, a much older one, “and this map has two of the so-called chains locations, and--”

“They line up,” Essek supplies for her, breathless. This is revolutionary, and heresy, and validation, all in one. “Not exactly, and only in two spots, but--”

“But really fucking close, right? And you’ve not found all the Beacons--”

“--But if we did, what if they are there?” Essek marvels. He looks at Beau’s stack of books, and starts pulling one of them out. “Chaszmyr’s Litany of Sacrament? I didn’t know you read undercommon.”

“I do,” Beau brags before pulling out a different book. “And I haven’t checked that one yet, but in this one, it talks about--”

Jester interrupts them with a polite cough. “I’m going to put Caleb to bed!” She announces, carrying Caleb over her shoulder like he weighs nothing. “Then I’ll bring you guys snacks. Wine? Oooh, maybe some cupcakes--”

She leaves, and Beau and Essek get to work.

[lots-of-little-pink-clouds]

Black Cadillac Valentines

Summary: A oneshot explaining how the PC from Bloodlines knows the Prince of Tucson, Arizona, Lettow Kaminsky. Also, the Cadillac incident Dove tells you about at the beginning of VTM: Night Road.

Characters: Malkavian PC (VTM: Bloodlines), Heather Poe, Lettow Kaminsky, Dove, Sebastian LaCroix (mentioned).

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28660233

February 14th 2005

Briar Rose rots under the sand.

An eagle makes its nest out of blue bones.

Father plucks the feathers from a lark's wings.

Beauregard Sawyer wanders the streets of Tucson, Arizona under the pale light of the moon. All around him, couples walk arm-in-arm on the sidewalk, smiling and laughing and exchanging gifts and kisses.

After arriving in Tucson and presenting themselves to its new Prince last month, Beau and his ghoul, Heather Poe, kept busy. Beau was convinced that something was here, something important. Ever aware of his moods, Heather looked at local real estate agents for a secure haven to live in while Beau began his search. She eventually found a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom basement apartment where the elderly couple who lived in the house above never asked any questions. They officially moved in three days ago.

Whether it was successfully moving in or because it was Valentine's Day, Heather wanted to celebrate and Beau could never say no to his Heather Feather. She was planning something, so he stepped out to give her time to set up.

Beau closes his eyes, readjusts his blue-sunset aviators, and relaxes for the first time in months. Los Angeles was a total bust, but at least its Jester Prince was dust and ashes. Hopefully whoever takes over will be able to clean up the mess the Ankaran Sarcophagus left behind. He takes a deep, calming breath.

The scent of smoke fills his nose.

She got in the wrong Cadillac.

His eyes snap open as he stops in front of the parking lot of a Marriott. He watches as a red-haired woman flings herself out of a burning black Cadillac, pushes herself to her feet, and takes off running past him.

"Isn't that the Prince's Seneschal?" he wonders. Beau's Sight doesn't grant him night vision, but he could swear her silhouette matched that of the hulking Nosferatu woman with the skull face that loomed behind Tucson's Gangrel Prince. Funny, he can't remember her name.

Looking back at the vehicle the woman just vacated, Beau spots a man in a wolf costume hanging halfway out of the driver seat window, screaming and clutching the bleeding remnants of his arm. Ignoring the human, Beau turns back to the woman, flames licking at her heels, as she runs out into the street.

At that moment, a car with its headlights off swerves around the corner at full speed and slams into her. Beau stares as she goes flying, hits the pavement, rolls, and is run over. The car stops and a man in a cream suit jacket climbs out and goes to check on her.

Eagle eyes scan the eastern horizon.

Not yet, he thinks.

He has to keep her safe.

"That's the Prince of Tucson," Beau realizes, bewildered. The Prince of Tucson, Lettow Kaminsky, helps the woman to her feet and pats her down to douse the remaining sparks of fire that cling to her clothes. Beau's attention turns again to the woman and, "Yep, that's definitely his Seneschal."

Then, because his night couldn't get any weirder, a jeep speeds around the corner that the Prince came from. Four heads stick out from the vehicle's open windows and point guns towards the Prince and his right-hand-woman.

Beau immediately ducks into the nearest alleyway, reaching into his hoodie's pocket for his pistol as the sound of gunfire erupts behind him. Screams fill the air. He peeks around the corner and spots the Prince and the Seneschal taking cover behind the Prince's car. The jeep swerves and comes to a stop, the Kindred inside clambering out and taking up defensive positions as pedestrians flee.

The wise decision would be to let them fend for themselves. The Prince and his Seneschal are both Elders. They would be fine. And after LaCroix and the debacle in LA, Beau's never held much stock in the Camarilla or any of its rivals. Kindred and Kine are the same in that sense - both will do whatever it takes to attain power. However...

Father's flock frays and turns to dust.

A lark stretches her wings to embrace the dawn.

Decision made, Beau leans around the corner, raises his pistol, and fires, just missing the head of one of the attackers. Immediately, the person calls to their fellows, drawing attention to the new challenger shooting at them. Their voice cuts out as Beau finally hits his target, the impact knocking them back on the pavement and stunning them.

"Shame that Kindred are so resilient," he thinks. He ducks around the corner again as the other Kindred focus on taking him out. Sticking his head back out as the assailants reload, Beau catches the Prince's eyes and gestures to him.

"Come on! This way!"

Then he steps out from the alley and continues shooting. He watches as the two share a look. The Seneschal finally nods and then they dart out from behind the car, dodging fire as they go.

Beau feels a bullet tear through his gut. He grimaces, throwing himself around the corner and back into the alleyway just as the two Camarilla members reach him. The Seneschal covers them, turning around and firing at their attackers with extreme prejudice.

"Evening Prince," Beau says, using the wall to push himself back to his feet.

"You are... Beauregard, correct?" the Gangrel asks.

"Yeah. My ghoul and I moved here last month." Beau puts a hand over the wound in his side to staunch the bleeding. "I know a place you can hide until they're gone. Or until dawn, whichever comes first. This way." He starts jogging down the alley. Lettow and his Nosferatu companion follow as the shouts of their pursuers ring out behind them.

"Who were those guys anyway?" Beau asks.

"Remnants of the Sabbat that took advantage of the turf war," Lettow replies.

Beau heard about that. From what little he learned from LaCroix and afterwards from rumors, Tucson's Camarilla was embroiled in a turf war. It started four years ago, when the old Ventrue Prince sought to purge the city of the riff raff. That is to say, every Kindred not part of Clan Ventrue.

Many people took offence to that.

Some rebelled, others fled. The Prince's childer took it as an opportunity to latch onto any form of power they could get their hands on and began fighting each other. Soon, they too were as much of a target as the other clans the Prince warred against.

Then in the midst of all that, the Sabbat arrived - led by Beau's sire, LaCroix always loved to mention - and made everything exponentially worse. It was every Kindred for themselves up until Lettow killed the old Prince and took over.

"We need to lose them," the Seneschal says. Footsteps pound on the pavement behind them, the Sabbat giving chase. The Nosferatu huffs, fists clenching white around her gun as she shoots behind her.

A dove with clipped wings and no other place to go.

"We'll find a way," the Prince replies.

"My haven's not too far," Beau says, "If we can shake 'em, I'll lead you straight there."

"You sure we can trust this guy?" the Seneschal asks. Beau feels the Gangrel Prince's sharp eagle gaze settle on his back.

His eyes see all, a gift from someone dear to him.

"For now," Lettow replies with certainty. Then to Beau, he says, "I do not take betrayal lightly. For your sake, you will uphold your end of the bargain."

"And if I don't, you'll dust me?" Beau laughs. "Sounds like someone I used to know. But you don't have to worry, Prince. I always keep my word."

With that, Beau leads them through Tucson's twisting alleyways, letting his feet and the voices tell him which way to go. He guides them through narrow streets and over roof tops, the Sabbat slowly falling behind. The trio eventually lose their pursuers completely when Beau stops, grabs the Seneschal's muscled bicep and the Prince's sleeve and lets the tingles of camouflage cover all three of them. The Sabbat run past none the wiser.

They wait for a time as the confused shouts of the other Kindred gets farther away. Approaching police sirens scare off the remnants. Only after the cops pass does Beau drop the camouflage with a heavy sigh.

"I think we lost them," he says.

"We should get somewhere safe in case they come back," the Nosferatu adds. The Prince nods and turns to Beau.

"Does your offer of sanctuary still apply?"

Beau shrugs. "Sure, why not. It's been a weird day. Night. Whatever."

He leads them back through the maze of alleys. Without the hassle of being tailed, the trio make it to Beau and Heather's haven without difficulty. Beau takes out his key and unlocks the door, leading them inside.

"Beau?" Heather's voice calls from the kitchen, "Is that you?"

"It's me," Beau replies, closing the door and locking it.

Heather rushes to him, red hair whipping behind her. Beau catches her, stumbling backwards as she flings herself at him.

"I missed you," she says, hugging him. He smiles and pats her back.

The Prince coughs, interrupting the moment. Heather quickly lets go. Her face flushes as she recognizes their guests.

"Ran into some friends. They needed a place to stay a bit," Beau shrugs, taking off his aviators and tossing them onto the hall table. "Hope you don't mind. I know you had plans."

"No, no, it's fine," she replies, tucking her hair behind her ear. She shuffles in place, wringing her hands. "Um, Beau?"

At her tone, Beau pauses. "What did you do?"

She bites her lip. He crosses his arms.

"... I caught a fish again."

Beau blinks. Then, he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Feather, remember what I told you last time you did this?"

"I'm sorry," she deflates. "But we just moved in, and I wanted to get you something since you've been so stressed lately."

"And I appreciate it, I really do, but it's still super dangerous. What if you got caught?"

Her silence is telling.

"You got caught."

"... I caught two fish."

"Please Heather, please tell me you didn't use the shovel."

She swallows and braces herself. Beau throws his hands up.

"Feather, you know how I feel about the shovel!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Just... Just go," Beau rubs his eyes, desperately wanting to scream. "Where are they?"

"I locked them in the guest room..."

He waves her off, exasperated. He watches her disappear into the living room before turning to their guests. "Are you two hungry? I've got bagged in the fridge, and you're welcome to that, but I gotta take care of this mess."

The Camarilla members stare at him. Beau glances between them.

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"See," the Seneschal finally says, turning to Lettow, "I told you he was a Lunatic."

"Come now Dove," the Prince sighs, "That is no way to speak to our host."

"Oh right," Beau thinks, "Her name was Dove." Then the rest of her sentence registered.

"Lunatic, huh? That's a new one."

"It's the eyes," Lettow says. "Because of your sunglasses, it was hard to tell. I believed you were Toreador."

"Huh." Beau pauses. "I honestly don't care either way. Let others see what they wish to see, the truth is always obscured." He shrugs. "But enough of that, we did a lot of running earlier. Are you hungry?"

"I could eat," Dove replies.

The Prince agrees. "We will make do."

Cold and slimy and unfulfilling.

Blood bags don't provide enough subsistence for Kindred. The ones who subsist entirely on them are either desperate or clinging to the remnants of their humanity. Most prefer obtaining their fill directly from the source. With this in mind, Beau extends another olive branch to them. The voices whisper that something good will come of this relationship.

"If you want, you can help me with the fish," he offers. The two look at each other.

"Fish?" Lettow asks. His lips twitch into a small bemused smile. A dubious expression crosses Dove's face.

Beau grins as he leads them to the guest room. He stops by the closet and pulls out the shovel he and Heather own, hauling it over one shoulder before continuing on. Dried blood sticks to its metal blade.

"Yeah, fish. But not literal fish. I think you'll like it."

[hs-devote]

2. S T A R T E R

Moodboard // Content // Masterlist

Disclaimer:

All characters and situation in this story are fictitious. Resemblance to any person living or dead is only God knows.

Previous chapter :

In less than 30 seconds, the door bursted open revealing a man with fancy clothes, curly blonde hair, hands in his pants. Y/N never seen him in this company before. Harry sighed in disbelief, dialling Madeleine's extension immediately.

“Don't you know what function of the phone or fucking intercom is on your desk?! I didn't say I'd be available for another guests.” He hissed.

That blonde guy looking at surrounding, until his blazing blue eyes caught Y/N busy figure on the couch. He taking closer step to her, tilting his head. “I've never seen you before.” He spoke lowly. Y/N just offered a small smile.

“Hey, Harry. Is this your new birdie? You didn't tell me you got a new beau.”

2. STARTER

His words made Y/N face reddened, trying to ignore it.

“You almost never let a female to sit on your couch, always sitting formally.. in there.” He's teasing again, while pointing at regular seat. Y/N squinted her eyes, while Harry massage his temple. She knows this guy irritated him so much. “How many times to I have to tell you, you can't go straight into my office without warning. We never know if I'm busy-”

“Busy shagging this girl? Woah I think office is off a limi-”

“LUCAS!”

“Excuse me?!” Y/N screamed along with Harry. The man –who called Lucas by Harry– just giggling like a fool, but in one second the look on his face turned serious. “With your reaction like THAT, I believe even more.”

“Just.. just don't listen to him, Y/N. This is my cousin, Lucas. And Lucas, this Y/N, my assistant.” Harry was lost in his words, didn’t want to make the situation being uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Y/N muttered a nice to meet you – even Y/N didn’t like his first impression, she had to be polite by forcing a small smile.

“What do you want?” Harry's voice stern, glaring at his cousin – trying to balance his emotions. Lucas smiled wryly, “Firstly, I want to apologise to you and your lady. Secondly, did you check your phone? I didn't come to joking around. Except for earlier.”

“No, I was busy. Why?”

“Commonwealth decided to review the projects and there's possibility that we might.. lose the bid.” He asserted.

Another crumbling day for Harry.

Harry stared at his cousin in disbelief, then snickering. “You've gotta be kidding me.”

“If the worst scenario really happens, you should find substitute.”

“How much the bid worth?”

“Around £850,000.”

“Fucking hell.” He muttered, while rubbing his face. “Keep an eye to this. I'll think of another plan.”

Lucas nods, getting up from the seat. “I'll keep you updated. Get enough rest, you're overworked. Try to have fun for a while.” He tapped Harry's shoulder – winking at Y/N, then excused himself.

“Dear lord please get easy on me.”

Y/N heard Harry mumbling, she couldn't imagine how upset he is at the moment. Finishing the paperwork, she put it on his desk “I made a few points, there are something we can fix. The rest, we have to change the agreements in total.”

Harry was silent, no words came out. Until suddenly his head snapped, “Have you grab lunch? I need to clear my mind.” He asked, change the subject.

.

.

.

. Lunch break taking place at an Italian restaurant not far from the office. While Harry ordered pasta, Y/N was more interested in salads. London cool breeze this afternoon and vacant booths in the restaurant are something that she enjoyed for a moment. If she was alone to take a lunch, she didn't dare to eat in a fancy restaurant like this. She would go for Shake Shack, The Athenian, or Thunderbird – sometimes she likes to bring her own homemade food.

“I want to apologise for Lucas behaviour earlier. Sometimes he doesn't have control over his mouth –or whatever came out from his mouth.” Harry sighed, putting down his cutlery. “Meanwhile, he's one of the trusted people in Erskine. The most loyal employee I've ever seen.”

“It's okay.” Y/N mumbled, “I thought he was your friend. Never seen him before, not expecting a cousin or employee either.”

“Indeed,” Harry sipped his drink. “He's not having duty in here. He heads a branch in Manchester, but every two weeks he'll definitely come here.”

“Mr. Styles, can I ask you something?” Y/N ask quitely. Harry glanced briefly, smirking. “It's Harry when we aren't in office.”

She blushed, “Right.” Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “I do not intend to ruin your mood, regarding the two agreements that you asked me to correct. There are a lot of weird things, if you want to change them, I'm not sure they would want to because.. If I could say, the agreements was favourable on their side.”

He just stared at her, bitting his lip. “Have you finished them?”

“If we can persuade them, our losses can be minimized. Everything will be okay if we do it right.”

“I hope so.” Sighing, he leaned in his seat. “Arrange the meetings, we have to talk to them as soon as possible.”

After finishing lunch, they both in rush to getting back at the office. When Y/N wanted to pay her meal, Harry beat her first. She refused, but he was insisted – he said it was small treat because he hasn't found her mistake during her work with him. Y/N thanked him when leaving the restaurant, promising to treat him a lunch the other day.

Canary Wharf that noon filled with people, some dressed up in their business attire, or common people who just want to grab lunch. It took a couple meters walking to the restaurant, so Harry didn’t use his car when he took Y/N out for lunch.

Harry was talkative person with meaningful conversation. From him, Y/N knew that Erskine actually has a sister company, but he didn't take care of it anymore since it had been sold by his father's friend.  Right now, Erskine is kind of arguably hostile to that company. His father was furious, but he couldn't do anything because it was his own fault after all.

“The name is Machtig, if you want to know.”

Having a good chat, a joke here and there, until someone hit Y/N from behind. She was stumbling a bit, but Harry was quick to hold her arm. It was a man, wearing a thick, worn-out jacket and black beanie. At first Y/N didn't really bother, but after realising she was no longer holding her purse. It hit her that man was running on her, most likely the robber.

“Hey!” Shouting, her legs start running after him. Hoping he didn't disappear in a sea of people. Harry was confused, chasing her slowly without knowing the reason.

“What's wrong?”

“That man stole my purse. I need to find him.” Y/N ran back, hoping to find that man. A little grateful for remembering his appearance, makes it easy for her. Having no care with some people curious eyes, Y/N kept run following her instinct –left Harry somewhere.

Her head snapped, seeing Harry was pulling the collar of the man she was looking for. Y/N walked to him, being able to hear what Harry say to him.

“It's not yours, mate. Give it back to me.” The robber was stubborn, not wanting to return it back. He still holding her purse tightly. Y/N took the initiative to pull his jacket, so she could take it, but luck was not on her side that day. As fast as lightning, he pulled out the pocket knife, leaving a small scratch on her arm. Blood was splotching from the cut, not much -but still hurts.

Seeing Y/N in pain, Harry pinned the man's hand down in his back, taking away her purse from him. Saving it securely behind his suit jacket. The robber managed to free his hand and giving Harry a  punch below his jaw. Y/N flinched, as Harry stumbling –while the man ready to give another attack, she quickly stand on his way. Ignoring her wound.

“No! Please stop! We just want my purse back!” Y/N shouted.  Taking a step closer, she could smell alcohol from his awful breath.

“Get out of my way!” Before he could reach her, Harry pulled her behind his back and this time give that man a good punch right in his face until he fall backwards, holding his seems broken nose. Harry's fist was tight with the veins popped up.

Something strange, despite his bruised jaw, Y/N felt that someone standing in front of her is not like regular Harry. Yes it’s Harry, but he was dark, more intimidating. When he look back – staring at her, she could clearly see his irises get darker than usual, his pupils dilated. Without warning, Harry pulled the man's collar and beat him up, everywhere. Face, jaw, chest, stomach. No matter he was bleeding blood and his action gathering more crowd.

“Harry, please!”

No response, still punching.

“Harry, stop! He's slowly dying!”

Again, still punching, no mercy.

“Harry!” Y/N grabbed his waist, holding him back so he couldn’t punch his opponent again. As if he didn’t hear her, he tried to let go of her hand, but she got faster by cupping his face. Forcing him look at her, “Harry, please stop. I'm okay. We're okay. He's dying, you could get him killed.”

He averted his gaze around, seeing people seemed to be talking about him. Y/N quickly turned his head, to look at her again. Comforting smile was drew on her face, “It's okay. We'll go, okay?”

When she turned around, she saw the man lying unconscious, silently praying Harry didn't kill him. Four policemen appeared before they both could go from the scene. The two of them lifting the man up with the help of paramedics who had just arrive, while the rest of policemen came to them.

“Excuse me ma'am?”

Y/N gave him small smile, “Yes, sir?”

They begin to ask about the scene that concerns them both and asking for information. Feel enough to hear her confirmation, they ask for Y/N phone number if they need to call her upon the accident later, and excuse themselves. She glance at Harry, because he hadn’t said anything. His stare was blank, still with darker irises and dilated pupils. It took her a moment to realised his hands were covered with blood, but the police never asked anything about it. Looks like they didn't notice, same as her who was unaware, the blood from her wound still dripping.

Harry suddenly wrap her wound with handkerchief, tighten it to keep the blood from flowing. Taking her hand in his, he asked her to leave. “Let's go.”

Arriving the Erskine building, they took another lift, direct to his office, not wanting employees to see his state. When they both passed Madeleine's desk, Y/N was one hundred percent sure she was looking at them both in utter shock, not daring say anything. All she knew, Harry's hand was still holding Y/N's, not knowing that her two colleagues were bleeding.

Y/N got a first aid kit and start helping Harry's wound first. But again, he beat her first, taking over the kit.

“Hey, let me help with your wound.” She said. He just silent, taking the kit out.

“Yours worse.” That's all he said. Y/N endured the pain while he help her, thankful that the wound wasn't that deep so it didn't need hospital stitches. During he bandaged her wound, she was looking at him carefully. His chocolate tousled curly hair, soft curls that fell on his forehead. Eyebrows, eyelashes, those eyes, and then nose, thin lips, cheekbones, jawline, and his small ears. This man was so pretty, so beautiful. Despite his rough act earlier, he was so delicate.

When his eyes flickered at hers, Y/N avert her gaze. He bandaged her wound neatly, she muttering a small thank you, appreciating his help. He refused her help when she took his hand.

“Let me help you, Ha-”

“I said, no! Don't you understand? Are you deaf?” He growled, voice heavier than usual. The earlier aura still dangling around him. Irises still dark meanwhile his pupils back to normal. To be honest she felt a slight pang in her heart, do not understand what's happening. He got up, leaving her alone with a loud bang when exited his office.

.

.

.

. From what happened a few days ago, Y/N still doesn't dare to interact much with Harry. Just talking and meeting him if necessary. He also didn't talk about that scene. Since the accident, it seemed his mood was still bad, he was more often issued a higher pitch than usual.

Sun shining blindly that noon. Upon her return from lunch break, some employees gathered together, seemingly talking about something. When Y/N passed by, she felt their attention follow her every step she take. She didn’t bother, thinking they're gossiping about unnecessary things.

“So, your wound because of that huh?” Madeleine, with the last name Brown –well, she just know recently– pointing at Y/N's bandage.

“That what?” Y/N didn't want to jump into conclusion that she know what happened, Madeleine might has another assumption.

“You were robbed while walking back to here, weren't you? The news with headlines – Harry Styles, the man of Erskine, got into huge fight – spread massively today. Some medias showing your pictures that day.”

She stare at Madeleine dumbfounded, didn’t know about this. Did Harry know? Her minds rolling on the few people she met in the corridor, it most likely they were indeed gossiping about her. About that accident. Y/N just shrugged, “I don't know if that accident will spreading everywhere.”

“I was surprised, it's rare for a robber hanging around in that area. As well as the pictures, how the hell the journalist got the pictures” She mumbled. “How's your wound anyway?”

“It's getting better, I think it can be removed in a few days.” Looking at her bandage, a small sign that always reminds her of the accident. Madeleine just nod, “I think the scene really getting into him, you know? I mean, he's more irritable lately. Did you know he fired three employees on the 6th floor yesterday? He even threw a journal right in front of them.”

She bulging her eyes, shocked. “I didn't..”

“Well, he was furious. But it was undeniable hot.”

“Get to work!”

They both flinched when someone barking behind them.

Speaking of the devil, it’s Harry Styles himself.

Madeleine nodded, walking back to her desk. He didn’t stop in front of them, continued to walk towards his office. Y/N stare at his back, then down to his hands. His bruised fist still look angry, although it seems already taken care of.

The time keep ticking until clockwise shows 7.00 pm. Y/N tasks today was awfully pile up, every single one of them were screaming wanted to get it done. Dead silent in her office increase her desire to  finished them quickly. She realise the office was getting dark, contrast with her view of London night sky that twinkles from buildings lights out there. Y/N was getting ready to go home until she realise the office next to her, Harry's office, is still blinding light.

Thanks to the sheer curtain, she still able to see Harry's figure still on his desk, hands holding his head tightly. For a slight moment, Y/N can see him gripping his head, veins poking, sometimes hitting his head with his fist. Worried about him, Y/N taking initiative to dialling his extension, keeping her eyes still on him. He didn't budge, letting his phone ringing. She tried to call his personal number, Harry had looked at his phone screen but didn't answer it. Lifting her bag, she headed to his office.

“Mr. Styles?”

No answer.

“Harry?”

Dead silent.

This time, she knocked his door. Still, no answer. Slowly, Y/N scanned her access card, the door opened successfully. Slowly, very carefully, she walks to Harry.

“Harry?” She call his name, in friendly way. She hopes he will soften a bit if she call him not with Mr. Styles

“What do you want?”His venom voice scared her, but Y/N was determined to getting closer to him. Step by step...

“Are you okay? Are you in pain?”

His head immediately snap to her direction, his face made her fear increase. Y/N swallowed, taking a closer step. In a flicker eyes, he stood up – walking to her, grabbed her hands – right in the wounds. She winced, hands trying to hold his hand away.

“What do you want?!” His boomed voice startled her. Y/N squeaked, while staring into his eyes. His eyes, a pair eyes she didn’t know. She wanted to scream, ask for a help. But there was only Harry and her in here.

“Harry, please. I don't intend any harm.” She whispered, almost crying.

“Harry? Harry you say?”

What?

She didn’t understand. Maybe he meant she should address him Mr. Styles. He opened his mouth again, but it wasn’t an anger, it was a wince. He let go her arm, and moved away. Keeping his distance from Y/N. He screamed again, in agony. Y/N comes near, but his hand prevent her.

“No, please no. Just.. just go home, please. It's getting late. I'll be okay.” His voice is gentle now, like his usual voice. Seeing his assistant didn't move any muscles, Harry's pleading again. “Please, I'm okay. You should go home, Y/N.”

Y/N just stare at him, nodding her head. “Get rest, Harry.” She left Harry alone, headed home. Her muscle feel stiff. She wants to hurry up so she can relax her muscles under the shower.

The following day, until late noon, there are no signs of Harry. His office is still the same as last night, a little bit messy. Y/N asks the cleaner to tidy it up, while trying to contact Harry on her phone.

To: Harry Styles

Good afternoon, Mr. Styles. Are you coming to the office today?

Less than five minutes, her phone buzzing. New message from Harry.

Hi, Y/N. I'm sorry I forgot to let you know I couldn't come today. Is there something important?

When Y/N just wanted to reply his message, her office phone ringing,

628 – Madeleine Brown

“Yes, Madeleine?”

“Hi, do you know if Mr. Styles will come? I have five lines waiting on him.”

“Oh, actually he just text me that he couldn't come. I think he's unwell right now. Tell them they can call back tomorrow, or leave a message. I will tell him later.”

“Alright, thank you.”

She hung up the phone, texting Harry back. Letting he knows that his client wants to meet him tomorrow, but she's not sure, offering to push it back. But Harry, as the hard worker he is, undertakes to meet them tomorrow, asks for her help to prepare, and asks her to send some finished documents to his email.

Lunch break, Y/N decided to take away a chinese food and chose to spend her lunch break in the break room. The queueing is not too long, but standing alone in a queue is quite boring. Y/N wants to take Madeleine with her, but she has disappeared first. While she's waiting her order, the ongoing broadcast news quite distract  her, showing news of the murdered that occurred last night on King's Road - Chelsea. The victim was lying on the side of empty road, with a stab wound in the hip. Unfortunately no sharp objects were found, there was no CCTV either. The Police are having a little trouble investigating it. All they can find out is the victim is a homeless thirty year old man.

Thanking the waiter after her order came, she walking back to office immediately. On the way back, she remembered the accident with Harry the other day, she just realise that she didn't get any call from the police. If they did follow up on that case, her or Harry should have been asked to be willing to be witnesses, right? . 

.

. Unedited. The first few chapter will be sucks.

Feel free to ask me anything here

[mithrilwren]

Shadows and Light

On the evening of the Nein's return to Xhorhas, Essek finds himself wandering past their door again, searching for... well, if he knew the answer to that question, this would all be so much simpler. 

Basically, Essek and the M9 hang out, because this poor boy deserves a break. Also on Ao3.

-----

With all likelihood, they won’t even be there.

The Mighty Nein are just as likely to have returned to the Empire by now as to have stayed the night in Rosohna, Essek reasons, even as the inescapably logical portion of his mind soundly rejects the hypothesis.

(They said they were for us, for the Dynasty, and even if most of them are from the Empire…

And even if…)

It’s just a walk, is his second justification. A chance to clear my mind. He has work to do – reports piling up on his desk, people to message before the day is done – but he can spare fifteen minutes, surely, to breath in the night air and recenter himself. It might make him more productive when he returns to his study, and at the same time he can check for watchers-on in the vicinity of the house, or any sign of illicit activity. While he does not think anyone would openly accost sanctioned guests of the Bright Queen, these are strange times, and it does not hurt to be cautious.

Excuses continue to float through his mind as Essek approaches the halo of luminescent light that radiates from the guardian tree upon the house’s apex. The sound of caterwauling – in every sense of the word - meets his ears.

Home, then, Essek thinks, then corrects himself. Still here. The Mighty Nein have not yet returned to Rexxentrum, and any would-be lurkers have doubtless been chased off by the awful din emanating from the house. No reason to stay any longer.

At his own home, the work is waiting. It is always waiting: an inescapable, immovable mountain of tasks, no matter how much he chips away at the foundation. One night of neglect, and it will all come crashing down on his head – or, at least, it often feels that way.

Five minutes more. He’ll walk past the door, and then return. By this point, the path to the house is practically on the way. A justifiable excuse to continue walking.

Five minutes more.

The cobblestone reflects the faint daylight that drifts from the tree to the street below. It burns faintly against Essek’s skin – not quite strong enough to damage the tissue, but enough to be a constant aggravation. He’d thought at first the magic was a deterrent, meant to keep unwanted drow from snooping about. But now, he suspects the Mighty Nein were simply ignorant of the effect it would have on their neighbours, as they are ignorant of most everything that lives within Xhorhas.

That willful lack of prudence should be frustrating – after all, he is tasked with ensuring the group assimilates, to some degree– but their carelessness seems only to add to his hopeless endearment with each passing day.

And after all, some of the dens in the area could stand to experience a little discomfort now and then.

He’s by the door now, close enough to look through one of the windows if he so chose. Close enough to knock. Which is a foolish idea. An utterly foolish idea.

He has so much work to do.

Almost anything else would be preferable.

His hand finds the doorframe almost of its own will, and he can scarcely believe what he’s done as he draws back, the echo of his rapping knuckles against the wood fading away.

He stares at his traitorous hand. Surely, the sound was drowned out in the rest of the noise, he thinks wildly. The instruments haven’t ceased their wailing, at least. Surely, he still has time to-

Ting-a-ling-a-ling.

The door cracks open, revealing a sliver of green skin near waist level. Yellow eyes blink up at him. He blinks back.

“Guys?” Nott calls over her shoulder, never breaking eye contact. “Essek’s here!”

The music finally stops, and Essek has no rational explanation why his heart feels suddenly too weighty for his ribs to contain.

A flurry of footsteps, and then the door is swinging fully open, and there are four of the Nein staring out at him. Beau, and Fjord, and hovering in the background, Caduceus, with a flute of bone and pearl still dangling in his fingers.

“What’s wrong?” Beau asks, already pressing forward past the others. “Did something happen?”

Right, he thinks. Right, that would be the assumption, as he tries to come up with some excuse, any excuse for his presence that isn’t in the shape of ‘it seemed less agonizing than heading home’.

“My apologies,” he says, bowing his head slightly, “I didn’t mean to disturb you. I was only hoping to borrow Caleb for an hour or so?” Beau’s eyes narrow, and Essek searches for his next words, the right ones to justify himself. To de-escalate the mess he created. “Since your group might not be back in Rosohna for some time, I thought we might take the opportunity to squeeze in one more lesson. Assuming Caleb is interested, of course.”

Good. Plausible. And knowing Caleb, an undeniable lure. The correct thing to say, even if Essek’s heart clenches in his chest all the more to know he’s drawing the man away from his friends for the evening, all to bolster his own pointless deception. He’s seen the bags under Caleb’s eyes. He deserves to relax for a night, as much as any man. And still, Essek is selfish, and he cannot take back the words now he’s said them.

Beau considers for a moment, then glances down at Nott, who looks back at Essek with unveiled suspicion, and he is suddenly and violently reminded that however much he has observed this group, they have been observing him in turn.

The thought is… not pleasant.

“Nah,” says Beau. “Fuck that shit.” Then she grabs Essek by the arm and pulls him through the door. “Caleb’s spent the last two days stuck in the library with me. Your little lesson can wait until the band’s finished, at least.” Fjord jabs her in the ribs as they pass him by, and a smile materializes on Beau’s face, one that more closely resembles a pained grimace. “Oh yeah, come on in, welcome to our home, whatever.” Beau glares at Fjord. “Do I have to do this every time?”

“No formalities are necessary,” Essek assures her, and takes his arm back before she can feel the escalating rate of his pulse through his sleeve. Which is, again, a foolish reaction. He has no reason to feel anxious. The Dynasty granted the Nein this house, it’s as much his right to be there as theirs, but he still isn’t sure how he ended up in this position. How all his individual actions could have led to this moment, to him being pulled into an open space of haphazard pillows and mismatched furniture arranged in a semi-circle around a still-seated Yasha and Jester. Caduceus rejoins the pair, and Beau directs him to the spot on the floor next to where Caleb sits cross-legged with his cat in his lap. He balances a closed book on one knee, like he meant to open it and got distracted somewhere in the effort.

Caleb looks up, taking in Essek’s presence with a little surprised oh that becomes a welcoming nod, and that too is endearing, and Essek should not be here. He is meant to be at home, finishing his work, ensuring all is ready for the days to come.

“I’m sorry,” he begins to say, readying the next excuse on his lips, when Caleb’s hand finds his sleeve and pulls him down to the floor. And, light guide him, he goes.

He allows himself to be manoeuvred onto a cushion, seated with legs bowed slightly to the left as the trio resumes their playing. Nott still shoots him the occasional suspicious look from Caleb’s other side, but the rest of the Nein seem… strangely comfortable with his alien presence in their midst. He is considerably less comfortable to find himself there.

This whole circumstance is beneath him. If someone from the Bright Queen’s council were to see him here, in such an undignified position as this, he’d be laughed out of the throne room. To be taken seriously has been a decades-long endeavour, in light of his age and his as-of-yet unconsecuted status. He knows there are still those who would jump at the chance to embarrass him for less than this, if it meant elevating their own status.

And yet, he accepts a lukewarm cocktail from Beau when offered, and listens all the way to the end of the ‘song’, if it can be called that. Caleb’s presence at his side is an ever-nagging thought, prodding at him from all angles, and that too is an impropriety he should not indulge. Has not indulged. Has been very careful not to indulge, for many, many weeks.

(There are many things he knows, that would be dangerous in the wrong hands. He does not intend to make his own feelings one of them.)

The music ends, and he is immediately smothered in attention. Jester’s voice rings the loudest, pressing over the others with adulation and excitement that makes his (recently, near-constant) headache start to surge.

And it’s Caleb, of all people, who takes his sleeve again and draws him away from the clamour.

“We will be back,” he assures the rest, “but I believe you had something to show me?”

He leads Essek down the stairs, towards the basement library where they’ve spent the majority of their time together. His mouth runs drier with every step.

He made a promise of more, when he arrived, and now he must honour it, but there haven’t been the proper preparations this time. Essek is walking himself out on a narrow limb at an already precarious time, and if he teaches Caleb yet another unapproved spell tonight, he may find himself tipping the balance. The Bright Queen still doesn’t trust the Nein, after all they’ve done.

And he, so, so foolishly, does.

They stop just inside the door. Caleb closes it, and Essek swallows down the tightness in his throat. With his back ramrod straight, he has a good few inches over Caleb, and his posture is always pristine. He still looks the part of the confident tutor, and that is all that matters.

“So,” says Caleb, “what are we going to study tonight?”

The brightness is still there in his expression, the eagerness mixed with no small hint of fear, as Caleb makes himself vulnerable before Essek’s eyes. He makes himself vulnerable, as much as Essek makes himself imposing, and he wonders if Caleb has realized the same thing about him yet – whether only Essek has been watching closely for the tricks of the trade. They understand each other too well. They have known the same sort of training, have lived very different but somehow parallel lives.

They are complicit in their dishonesty, and Essek is abruptly tired of it, so very tired of everything that is involved in this dance of mutual manipulation. He is tired.

“Nothing,” says Essek. “My apologies, yet again. I should not have come.”

Caleb’s hand is on his arm once more, and the touch burns right through his cloak, through his skin, all the more painful for how much he wants to let it linger. It feels different than the tension that courses through his limbs, and he has wanted nothing else, through the last few weeks of escalating demands and endless worry and impossible tasks, to feel different. It’s comforting, and awful, and he doesn’t want to remove the hand, and hates himself for not having the same willpower he did in the forest – the last time Caleb attempted the same.

He wants to think that the touch is genuine, but wanting is not the same as believing. This – this thing between the two of them – is still work, of a sort, and pretending it is anything else would be a betrayal. It would be a betrayal of his queen, of himself, and even of Caleb, who is working as hard as him, though towards an end Essek has never been able to fully pin down.

“Should we sit?” Caleb offers, and Essek finally removes his eyes from the lingering hand, the one he has not yet managed to shrug off. They find Caleb’s, and there’s a different sort of vulnerability living behind them now – uncertainty, yes, but also understanding, and no small measure of determination. “It was too loud up there for my tastes. Thank you, for giving me an excuse to catch my breath.”

Still, Caleb looks at Essek, and squeezes his arm gently as a small, self-deprecating smile ghosts his lips. He saw my discomfort, Essek thinks. He noticed, and offered me an escape.

What does he expect in return?

Essek does his best to mirror Caleb’s expression, to keep the dance going, but can’t quite make the same light appear in his own eyes. There have been too many sleepless nights to fake another expression of certainty he doesn’t feel, and he doesn’t know what Caleb hopes to see anyway, so really, what’s the point, of any of it?

His inner voice is petulant to his own ears, and he chides himself even as he surrenders to it. One does not remain the Shadowhand by dropping their guard at a whim. It’s his duty to maintain his own composure, regardless of any feelings he might hold. It’s his responsibility. It’s-

“-alright,” Caleb is calling up the stairs. “We’ll be up soon, Nott!” He looks back at Essek. “Whenever you’re ready,” he says more quietly. When did Caleb become this confident? When did their roles reverse?

And Essek still can’t spot where the manipulation hides.

It scares him, more than the thought that he might have missed a tell, the notion that this might not be a game after all. That Caleb might be honest – at least here, at least now – in his intentions.

After all, the Mighty Nein – to a fault, admittedly – seem to land within the realm of overbearing honesty. When Jester asked about his mother’s name earlier in the evening, he forgot to be suspicious of her reason for asking. When Beau offered him a glass, he did not think to check for poison lacing the rim. If Caleb touches his arm in a comforting manner, can he believe that too?

If there is a proper manner to forming… honest relationships, he is sorely out of practice. But the alternative is to remain on guard for the rest of eternity, and more and more, he’s beginning to suspect he won’t survive to his first consecution, if he doesn’t find a way to relieve the constant pressure in his chest, the kind that reminds him that every word must be carefully considered. That anything less than perfection could mean the end of his career, his status, the very future of his soul.

(There are times, when he sits at his desk and puts his head in his hands, and tastes the sourness on his own quickening breath, that he wonders if this body is already falling apart from the inside.)

“Thank you,” he says at last, and puts his hand over Caleb’s – not to draw it away, but to press his own fingers down. To squeeze back.

He’s not wearing gloves. It has been an age since he’s felt another’s skin against his own. He’s almost not sure what to make of the sensation, at first. But Essek finds he doesn’t want to let go, and Caleb doesn’t force him to. No expectations. No exchange. Just a small moment of comfort, the first he’s allowed himself in a long while.

Essek almost lets himself believe, as he chances one more glance into Caleb’s eyes before pulling away, that it was a comfort for them both.

They return upstairs, in the end, and Essek stays for another hour of socialization more. He dances around the edge of Jester’s more personal questions, but answers a few of the less intrusive ones. He compliments the unnerving beauty of Yasha’s new harp, and receives a soft smile in return. He finds himself laughing at Fjord’s dry humour, and the sound catches him off-guard, for being the second time he’s heard it leave his mouth today.

He doesn’t remember the last time he laughed – at least, not without flattery as the main objective. Perhaps a little too much honesty has seeped into his blood now, because it feels worryingly natural to be easy in their company.

That’s another thing he’s scarcely remembered – that some things could be easy.

At last, he begs off to return home, and they all bid him farewell at the door. Even Nott gives him a little wave, and he waves back before heading off into the night.

When he opens the door to his home, his servants greet him immediately, take his coat, beckon him towards his study. The world grows narrow again as the new words filter in amidst the resumed rushing in his ears, -needs a response by the morrow- and he agrees without fully hearing the request.

If it must be done by tomorrow, he will get it done. There is no other option. And he does, along with every other task that cannot wait. Then he looks at the stack of scrolls on his desk.

It will continue to grow if he leaves it, and there are still a few hours yet till morning-

Thank you, for giving me an excuse to catch my breath.

Essek shakes his head, and looks again at the stack.

They will still be here tomorrow.

…It can wait.

Though morning still comes too soon, Essek finds it easier to drift off to sleep tonight than usual.

He may be foolish, but he’s not so naïve that he doesn’t realize the reason why.

[goldstonegolem64]

epilogue

On the planet of Olkarion Rebels,Queen slayers Mercarnies and Olkair alike were celebrating the Huge Victory they just had against the empire .But above the planet the Castle of lions , Along with several other rebel ships were being repaired by Vanguards cloud of nanobots. An as this was happening inside of the Castle of lions .Lance,Keith, Hunk, Pidge,Jay and Matt  Were all sitting around The healing pods that housed Thace and Shiro now both armless seeing as Shiro was rejected do to his metal arm being severally damaged in the fight  

“ Hey Jay can you put some music on sitting here in silence is really depressing “Matt asked 

“ Alright  “ Jay replied as he tapped on his wrist computer and let his music start play 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wccRif2DaGs

“ Thank you “Matt said 

“ Your welcome “ Jay said before the room return to the semi silence it was before just with music playing in the background They all sat there for a few minutes until Allura,Coran, Ezra,Shay and Kolivan walked in

“ So how's everyone doing  ?” Coran asked But no one answered” Oh that bad uh” Coran rubbed the back of  his head as Ezra and Shay walked to their respective Boyfriends 

“ Well after everything they have gone through it makes sense that they would be tried and well worried “Allura looked towards  The healing Thace and Shiro

“ So Allura what is are next move?” Keith asked

“ Well I wanted to talk to you about that. After learning Zarkon’s plan to capture your families and use them as a bargaining chip against us. I believe we should go back to your homeworld and make sure your families are alright and to well recruit Earth to the coalition along with recruiting Mars if that’s ok with you jay ”  Allura looked over to jay to see his reaction 

“ Yeah it’s fine we would  have to go there eventually” Jay said as he leaned his head on Ezra’s shoulder 

“ An the rest of you ?” Allura turned her head towards the other 

“ Yeah going home sounds nice” Lance said

“ Same here it would be nice to show Shay around my hometown   “ Hunk said  

“ I would like that” Shay add

“ I wouldn’t mind going home after a year of fighting see mom again would be a breath of fresh air.Right Katie “ Matt said as he elbow bumped his sister 

“ Yeah it would be nice to see mom again. I just hope see doesn’t loss it when she sees what happened to my leg “ Pidge said as she tapped on her right foot   

‘ Yeah that’s going to be a pain explain also she might want you to stop being a Paladin after seeing your foot” Matt replied 

“ Keith what’s your opinion on this ?” Lance asked 

“ I mean where am i going to go. I live on this ship and my brother brother in law and Nephew also live here.So where they go i go” Keith said Bluntly 

“ Alright it looks like were all in agreement So when are we heading out?” Jay asked 

“Once Adam and your kids are back on board and the repair are done will be heading out to your home system“  Allura said

“ Alright with that out of the way is there anything else we need to take about?” Lance asked 

“ Well i think K-7 could be useful he was made to be pilot so having more mech pilots on are sie would be nice.Once we start make are own V-types. As for the twins “

“ They did help us fight Zarkon” Pidge add  

“ But they almost kill us the first time we meet them” Hunk said he felt Shay’s grip around his arm tighten a bit 

“ Yeh i don’t trust them to much after that “ Shay added 

“ But they also worried us about zarkon plan to kidnap  are families “Pidge countered 

“ But they helped kill entire rebel outpost” Matt add 

“ Ok but they helped us and can pilot Robeasts and i firmly believe that they can help us in the long run and i mean if the do betray us we can just end them without a second thought “ Jay said 

“ Not to interrupt your discussion” Everyone turned to look at the speaker who was Kolivan “ but i believe the Twins should go with us seeing as they are children of are former members “ Kolivan said     

“ Well Before we make a concrete decision  let have Adam be here and see what the twins want to do.” Jay said 

“ no i think they Should go with the Blade it would get them out are hands, An they could still help us in th long run”Keith said   

“ Yeah that sounds fine but still lets wait for adam to get he so we have a full team decides “ jay replied 

“ Well you are third in command so will wait “ Lance said 

“ Well Allura’s here and her word trumps mine” Jay turned his head to look at the princess  “ So boss what do you want to do with them ?” He asked

“Lets wait til Adam is here and when Shiro wakes up “ Allura said she then turn to look towards Kolivan “ Will you being willing to wait an few more hours ?”

“ It will be fine i am not need back for a few more day.But if you don’t mind we would like to send Thace back to base with Axtok?”

“ That is fine “Allura replied 

“ Thank you “ 

[ Princess The prometheus is approaching and will be docking soon.  ] 

“ Well i looks like will get are answer soon “ Matt add 

“ So whose going to be the one to tell Adam what happened to Shiro ‘ Hunk said 

“ I will i’m a doctor intraining and i was the one who had promised to Shiro home alive” Jay got to his feet helped Erza up to their feet  ”  lets get this over with  “ Jay said as he walked out of the room followed by Ezra 

Elsewhere 

in his peranol chamber of his Capital Ship Lotor looked at The badly damaged Command center with thousands of plasma impact burneds ,Bullet holes, and a long gash that lay their like an open wound on the side of the command center. “ I wish i could have seen it. Most have been a beautiful fight “ Lotor said to himself as he starred at the carnage caused by the Rebel army. As he looked the door to his chamber.Lotor turn to see a Women with lite blue skin dark purple and blue hair. Blue eyes with yellow sclera  She also had four small horn sticking out of the side of her head and they wore the armor of his generals

“ Lord lotor we have collected the fragments of those cubes “ The woman said 

“ Good have are top researchers on in i want to know what they're made of and where they came from “ 

“ Yes my lord” 

“ Then once your done with that bring me the man named skyver followed by Contacting are spies in the rebellion and tell them to watch this Jay person closely i want any and all information on them. He is are only lead to this second Altean Colony and we must find it before my mother does .  I will not let her kill of what is left of my people. “ Lotor ordered 

“ Yes my lord” 

“ one last have we found where bandor disappeared to ?” Lotor asked 

“ Yes we have  “

“ Where “

“ Back i the first colony we was found by guard barely alive. He is currently being treated there and is said to make a full recovery in the come months. We also did a head count after the crash and found that we are now missing one other person”

“ Who is it ?” Lotor asked 

“ Bandors older sister Romelle Silva ‘ 

“ Do we any idea on her current whereabouts ?” 

“ No she has disappeared near the Void’s opening she may be dead My lord “

Lotor clenched his fists hearing that “ And what of CenterPoint labs 

Axca voice when from her normal stern and militaristic tone to more somber one “ completely destroyed and only a few members of the team survived”

“And what about the few survivors “   

“ Off world and in recovery “

“ Alright We'll hold off  on the gate project for another few year and keep me posted on the recovery. You are dismissed “Lotor order 

“ Yes my lotor “ Axca said as she left Lotors Chamber    

Lotor stood there in silence for a few minutes 

“ It was not your fault My friend sciences as it’s rises   “ Ragna said as he walked out from a shadowy corner of the room 

“ Still It was my orders that sealed  the fates of all those people “ Lotor said looking at the smokey wolf      

“ True but you now know what not to do next time “

“ Not to follow my parents notes and stop trying to tear a hole into the fabric of reality “

“Correct Now what is the next step seeing as your father failed to capture  Voltron or the Valkyrie  “

“ I still believe conniving  Voltron  to join us is are best options and to make peace with the rebellion.But i don’t think mother or most of the Generals that were under my fathers rule wouldn’t  be happy about it “

“ Then fight for it and make them listen to you”  Ragna said 

“That is the easy part the hard part is going to be talking to the Paladin in the first place”

“ The worst thing they can do is kill you and fully shatter the empire and bring peace to the universe “ Ragna said 

“  They won’t kill me hopefully when they make this new universal government.Now how is my mother doing “

“ She is in grieving still “ 

“ And of the force that influencing her.”

“ It’s still there stronger now then it was before ” 

“ Alright then it’s going to be but we most keep pushing forwards if we are to stop what is coming “  Lotor said as he walked over to a desk in his room and tapped a button on it to reveal a screen that show a crack in the fabric of reality that was slowly getting bigger and had several different energies leaking out of it

Back in the castle of lions   

Jay and Ezra walked down the hall way towards the hanger beau had told them to go to meet Adam and Jay’s kids

“So you guys going to stay with the fleet or got back to hunting down Queens?” Jay asked 

“ once the repair are done will follow you guys for a few day see what worlds your going to recruit some people then go back to bugs” Ezra replied as They  held onto Jay’s arm 

“ Good to know ‘Jay replied

“ So have you figured out what your going to tell ADam when you see him ?” ill Ezra asked 

“ I’l just tell  him the truth we won and Shiro’s in the healing pods and is missing his arm. “ Jay replied as the two entire into the Hanger. As they entered the Hanger they saw several rebel Ships parked along with Seeing the Valkyrie sitting there surrounded by dozens of rebel pilots engineers and ground troops They also saw the Prometheus parked with next to the dragon mech  

“ Looks like Val has a little fan club “Ezra said 

“ Yeah it looks like it and it looks like Adam’s already he let get this over with then ” Jay replied as the two walked towards the crowd surrounding.

As they got closer to it A female voice Yelled out to them“ Hey Silver lining do you have a moment “Jay stopped in place with Ezra stopping alongside him 

  Jay didn’t know if the person was referring to him or someone else but he turned his head towards the voice and saw a Coeihns woman with short Green hair, Blue eyes  wearing a muscl-t and a open  fleet suit with the upper half tied around her waist .she was walking towards them and the only reason he know the women’s race the moment he saw here was because she looked very similar  to bastion which made him fell a little uneasy.

“ You talking to me “ Jay said while pointing to himself as his helmet automatically pitch shifted his voice to sound like sound wave 

“ Oh my god really” erza asked as they fought back laughter at the stupid voice 

“ What i am i suppose to do it just happens “ Jay said as he pulled of his helmet and started to messing with the in working off 

“ Well that answer my first question “ The Coeilhn woman said as a carma bot float in front of Jay’s face and was about to take his picture 

But if on reflex most of Jay’s facial features disappeared leaving just as the flash when off  

‘ OK that one’s new” Ezra said starring at a now faceless jay 

The Jay mouth reappeared” Next time ask someone  if you want to take their  picture” Jay pushed the carma bot away from his face as he put his helmet back   “ Now who are you and why are you bothering me “ He said he voice dripping with annoyance and anger following that his face marking glowing brightly    

The Coeilhn women stepped back a little scared by the sudden tone shift “ I’m Rey Wellmore I’m photographer working with the Rebels. An i was hoping that i could get a few pictures you and the valkyrie along with Asking you a few question “ REy replied 

Jay’s anger faded away ‘ Next time ask a head of time because  right now i have some where to be and someone to me wi” JAy was cut off as something slammed into his back nearly knocking him to the floor. Jay’s head did a 180% and looked down to see bastion face pressed against his back followed by him  hugging Jay “ Oh hi Bastion”   

“ Your back “ BAstion said his voice muffled   

“ Yeah i am .What did you think i wasn’t going to comeback ?”

“ Maybe”

“ Why?” He question 

“ I don’t know when you didn’t come down with everyone. We thought maybe you had died  “

“ You could have called i bought you all phones for that reason” 

“ we may have forgotten that “ Bastion replied 

“ God you guys really are taking after me “ Jay said as he patted Bastion on his head 

“ Excuse me but who are you talking to ? “ Rey asked

Jay’s neck snapped back into place to look at the reporter “ Sorry Ms. Rey This is Bastion one of my Boy . say hi Bastion “

Bastion walked from behind Jay and looked up towards Rey and when their eyes meet Rey He felt like he was looking  mirror into a which made him felt a little uncomfortabl.So he step back behind Jay  “ Hello Ms.Rey Bastion said “ He said with a wave. and a noticeable hint of nervousness in his voice 

“ Hi Bastion “ Rey said but she sounded Distance and a little confused  

Jay notice this an made a note of this “ Alright with that out of the way. If you wish for an interview when i’m not working you can find me either living in there “ jjay pointed towards the Prometheus “ or in the med by learn from doctor Ventair or in the training deck ‘ Jay said as he, Ezra and bastion started walking towards the Prometheus 

“ Yeah talk to you later “Ray said lose in thought . She watched the three entire into the prometheus   and once she knew she would see her she pulled out a her phone and call someone “ HEy Gillmore it’s me Rey can you check check something out for me ?”

In the Prometheus 

Jay,Ezra and Bastion walked into the Living room 

“ Hey everybody i’m home  “ Jay said as he walked in the living room.

The moment his voice rang out  in the room  Molly head turned around and She scrambled out of Fitz lap crawled up the couch and throw herself at he father. Not noticing the two foot gap between the two of them. Jay with the reflexes that all people get when they become Parents. Quickly grabbed his Daughter out of the air before she even started to fall.Once she was in his hands he quickly pulled her close to him “ God you are going give me a heart attack one of this days”  Jay said

“ Papa’s home” Molly said as she wrapped her arms around Jay’s Helmeted Head 

“ Yeah i’m home Sweety daddy’s home “ He said sweetly as he hugged his daughter back 

“ Hey Jay how was the Mission?” Fitz asked as he looked up toward Jay from his seat 

“ Yeah how did the mision go and why did it take you so long to get back ?” Usamu asked

“ Well that’s a long story see ‘ Just stopped mid Sentence as something Grabbed his Leg. So he looked down and saw Clay hugging it “ Hey Clay “

“ Where you go “ She said as she looked up to him with tears in her eyes 

Jay felt like he had just been punched in the heart as he looked at his other daughter “ I’m sorry Daddy had to go save the universe “ Jay said felling really bad 

“ No leave again “ She said as her grip around Jay’s Leg tightened

“ Yeah no go away again” Moly said as she tried to wiggled out of her father’s arm.Jay didn’t want to drop her. So he place her down .Once she was on floor she grabbed onto Jay’s other leg mimicking her sister 

“YOu both know that not going to stop me right.” Jay said as he start walking  as he did molly started Giggling while Clay stayed quiet  

“ Oh god this is the adorable “ Ezra said as they watched their boyfriend and his kids just goof around as Usamu jumped onto jay back while Bastion and Fitz watched and laughed 

“ Yes it is “ Adam said as he walked out of the stairway holding onto a walke and curious Izuku 

Jay stopped in place “ Hey bub”

“ Is Shiro alive ?” Adam asked already know what jay was trying to do 

“Yes missing his arm but yes “

“ Alright Same medbay as before “

“ Yes “

“ Alright  See at lunch and thanks for for keeping your promises man “ Adam said as he patted Jay on the shoulder before walking out of the Prometheus 

“ Your welcome man “ Jay replied as he watched adam leave “ Ok tat was easy”

“ Yes it was “ Ezra said 

“ Now with that out of the way “ Jay looked to fit then Bastion seeing as the other three were still holding on to him “ Um So there is a chance that were going back to my home world and then to the home of the other Paladins  “ Jay said as Usamu jumped off of his back 

“ So were going to meet Grandpa then?” Usamu asked as he walked in front of his father with a tone of wonder in his voice 

“ Yeah along with my brothers and sister some friends of mine and my mom’s parents  an if we're lucky hopefully not my dad’s family “Jay said that last bit with a little bit of venom in his voice

“ Why not you dad’s family ?” Ezra asked 

“ it’s along story my dear and my DAd can explain it better . Now who wants hear how the mission when “ Jay said not wanting to talk about his families problems 

In what remained of Galra central command

Haggar stood looking over her comatose husband. She had been starring there for the past few hours and wonder how this could have happened . They had taken ever precaution studied every battle that the paladins were in and even equipped the titan with weapon’s tailor made to handle Voltron and the Valkyrie at the same time  but when the snap dragon self destructed on top of the Titan it sealed his fate “ Oh my love what have they done to you” She asked herself 

“ They butchered him “ A very familiar yet strange disembody voice said right behind her

She quickly turned around and slashed at the person behind her only to swipe at empty air “ Who goes there show yourself ‘ She yelled To the empty room

“ I’m hurt Honvera how could you forget me..I’m the reason that you and your husband are even alive after your little encounter that beast from the void ’ the voice said 

“ What “ Haggar thought back to when she and Zarkon had died she remembered hearing a voice talking.But she had put that up to being on death's door. ‘ So it was  you i have to thank for our revival “

“ Yes it was me” The Voice said as a faint humanoid being started to form from purple quintessons  that was powering the lazuriz chamber that Zarkon was resting in  the figure had only defining feature was the two bright soul burning yellow eye “ My name is  Deceit and despite my name i’m here to help you again. ”

“ Why “ Haggar asked  not trusting this thing but she had to be weary seeing as this thing was just sitting on her husbands healing chamber 

 “ Because  every time you  drained a world of it’s quintessens and used it to fue you and your husband.It feed me and i wish to keep that relationship on going. So i’ll help you again by keeping your husband alive. Seeing as this thing “ He tapped on the Lazarus chamber “ Is only postponing the inevitable .” Deceit    said as a jagged smile started to appeared on his avatar’s face.

“ What do i have to do for this deal to work?” Haggar asked knowing that it’s not that easy 

“ Your a smart one “ Decit pointed the newly formed finger at her “ I want you to find this ship   “ Deciet’s hand seemingly grabbed onto reality itself and opened at portal that showed of a massive ship that looked like the castle of lions mixed with her Son’s Capital ship surrounding it it was a massive ring around it “ An destroy it”

“ Why ?” 

“ It’s existence has put plans i have had in motion for a long time in jeopardy. and that is all i’m will to tell you at the moment “ Deceit said 

Haggar glared at Deceit but she really had no real choice  but to follow “ Alright then we have a deal ‘

“ Good i’ll see you in the funny pages Honvera “ Deceit said as he faded out leaving the tear in reality that show off the ship there for a few seconds before it closed up 

Haggar stood there starring at the empty space before turning back to her husband and hoped she man the right choice 

Back in the Castle of lions  

“ So right before Zarkon Die he grabbed on to the black lion’s head with his robeasts remaining arm and tried to electrocute shiro to death but his arm took most of the damage and now he’s healing for the next hour.An once he’s a wakes We’ll be deciding whether or not will be going back home along with the Fates of The twins and K-7 am i correct “ Adam said

“ Yeah that sums it up real well “Matt said

“Alright and thin else i need to know before me and Izuku have to wait another hour just so we can take to him “

“ Uh were going to need a new black paladin for a few months while Shiro new prosthetics are installed from what Jay and that spider said “ Hunk added 

“ That spiders name is  Ventair and she is one of the best Doctor in the whole rebelion so please show her some respected “Matt said 

“ Sorry what Dr.Ventair said “Hunk said  

“ Alright when will decided who the next black paladin then ?” Adam as 

“ After we decide are next course of action will pick the next Black Paladin and with Shiro still around along with Leonidas it won’t take to long i hope “ Allura said 

“ Yeah lets hope “ Lance said 

“ It would be funny if Jay was chosen to fly the black lion “ Matt said Jokingly 

“ I mean Val’s design was some what based off of the black lion so it could be possible that if we  run into  trouble we could possibly combined with the Valkyrie  to make new version of Voltron  “ Pidge added as she grabbed her laptop and started typing away at the possibilities of powers that could come from the union between the two mechs  

“ We could run that by Jay and Val before anything happens i know val was against at first but maybe she changer he mind after the fight with Zarkon. I’ll go ask him“ Lance  said as he got up.But before could full get on his feet Beau’s voice came over the P.A System

[ Alert Alert A gargantuan class dreadnaught of unknown origin as exited a wormhole  8 kilometer north east from are location ] This was followed by a screen show ff the massive ship

Everyone stood or sat there in stunned silence as the massive ship which was a weird mix between the Castle and That war ship that attacked then before they had left the battle fleet 

“ Hey guy is anyone else getting a weird case  desaviolooking at this thing  ?” Pidge asked  

“Yeah i feel it too” Shay said 

“ Same here” Hunk add 

Allura looked at the ship as she did one name came to mind “kronse” Allura said under her breath.Before hundreds and hundreds of Image flashed right in front of her mind causing her a massive and painful head that caused her to fall to the ground clutching her head 

“Princess !!” Everyone yelled in surprise 

“ What’s wrong” Coran asked worried as he helped Allura back to her feet 

“ I don’t know but something about that ship is causing me to see thin Ah “ She grabbed he head again as another set of flash happened 

[were receiving a message from the Ship ]

“Send it through”Adam said taking charge of the situation as he said that a message written in english which surprised everyone.But that’s wasn’t what caught their attention what was write on was 

Hello my old friend let us take like the old day :Signed Queen Allura of the Altean/Galrain Empire 

To be continued in Book two Time to change History 

[unicyclehippo]

jester giving yasha a special pastry/a pretty flower post-obann

there’s a quiet knock at the door of the room she is sharing with jester and beau, though beau of course is not there. she has been...avoiding yasha is not correct, because she is not, but the way beau slips like a falling star into the room, into her bed—blink and you miss her, and the same accompanying disappointment drops into her gut when yasha hears jester cheerfully announce that she had seen the other woman—is part avoidance, maybe.

that is how yasha knows that the knock is not beau. and the cheerful pattern to it leaves only one other.

‘jester?’

‘it’s me!’

‘you—you can come in, it is your room,’ yasha calls, though she crosses the room anyway to open the door. a hand on magician’s judge. just...just in case. in case it is a trick. but she pulls the door open and sees, yes, it is jester standing there at the door, beaming, with something hidden behind her back.

another drop of pain. disappointment. she is a reservoir of it, she is full of pain, and wishes the drops would go unnoticed. but it seems she is cursed to notice each and every one. sometimes, she doesn’t know why. this one is molly. seeing jester’s tail wandering in excitable trails behind her, the jewellery dripping from her horns, the fearless and bright smile...she is a reminder in all the best ways of molly.

‘hallo, jester.’

‘hallo!’ jester’s smile grows. ‘can i come in?’

‘it’s your room, jester,’

‘i’m taking that as a yes!’ she announces and laughs, skipping inside and ducking around her in such a way that yasha doesn’t get to see what she is holding.

glancing out into the hall, left then right, eyes skimming carefully over the ceiling, yasha pulls back into the room.

the check didn’t go unnoticed by jester but she doesn’t seem to mind. maybe she does. yasha is historically...not the best at seeing intent. or upset. when it is not clear. people in the empire—people not of her own kind—they are confusing and speak around everything, and expect her to understand. the marshes were simpler. if someone had been upset with her, they would have tried to kill her.

for the first time in a long time, yasha is really and truly glad that she is not there. she does not want to kill anyone. for a little while, at least.

‘okay so before i give you this,’

‘a gift?’

‘yeah!’

‘oh, jester, no, you do not have to do this,’

‘but i already have so you have to accept it, otherwise—well,’ jester blinks. her smile falls a little before returning twice as bright. ‘well, no one else is going to eat it!’

‘eat it?’

‘ah shit!’ jester shakes her head, jewellery jangling. ‘okay, yes, it’s a cupcake,’ she admits, begrudgingly. like she was looking forward to drawing it out a little.

‘i can pretend i don’t know,’ yasha offers. ‘it is easy. i can just,’ she opens her mouth into an o of surprise, arches her brows. takes a half step back like someone is trying to ambush her, catch her off guard.

the combined effect has jester laughing. she tilts her head to the side when she’s done, looks up at yasha from beneath dark lashes. a fond little smile sits in the corner of her lips, dimpling her cheeks. ‘okay,’ she agrees. ‘but first, i think they got the wrong idea for who these were for because i asked for, like, some specific decoration so...’ she steps away from the table and waves yasha forward.

approaching the little box, yasha lifts the lid. stares down at the small cakes. probably for quite some time before jester has slid up beside her and asks,

‘do you like them? they definitely thought it was for a dog, i think, so i am sorry about that,’ she says, nose crinkling, looking down at the white icing shaped into a generic bone. ‘but the flowers turned out pretty!’

yasha stands there and stares—six little cakes, bought for her, even after everything. sweet little cakes of absolute nonsense, two with bones and she thinks she sees flecks of blood painted on which, okay, is a little disturbing but very on brand. the other four are rather lovely different flower shapes.

‘oh, look at this,’ yasha breathes, reaches a finger down toward one cake that has small paper flowers artfully arranged around it. ‘jester,’

‘do you like them? do you?’

‘i- i do. thank you, jester, you didn’t have to do this.’

‘it’s like a welcome home,’ the girl says with a smile, a delicate shrug.

‘well, thank you. do you—want to share one?’

yasha reaches down for one of the floral cakes. tears it indelicately in two. she hands one half to jester and examines the other one. tasting it, she finds it is very sweet—like the sweet apple she had had that time in zadash, but also nothing alike because she tastes neither caramel nor apple.

‘so, how are you liking being back?’ jester asks, sitting herself on the table, feet kicking as she picks at the cake and licks the icing off her thumb.

‘it’s very nice. it is—strange.’

‘how come?’

yasha shrugs. pretends to examine the cakes some more. ‘i am...sometimes afraid that i am still asleep. that i will wake up and still be with him.’

‘oh.’

hearing the note in jester’s voice, she shakes her head, offers up a smile. ‘not all the time. just...when it is too quiet. or when i am alone. i was always...by myself. in the dreams.’

‘well, i’ll just have to be with you all the time then!’ jester offers.

yasha doesn’t mean to be hurtful when she says it, but she is good at hurting people. accidentally seems to be her forte. ‘it will have to be you. no one else wants to.’ she squeezes her eyes shut, waves her hand in a, no, ignore that, kind of way. ‘that is not—i would be happy to have you keep me company,’

‘yasha,’

‘that is very kind of you to offer.’

‘i’m sorry the others are being assholes,’ jester says, and doesn’t soften the word with a laugh or a smile or anything. she’s finished her half of the cake and wipes her hands on her skirts, stares down at her lap and the symbol of the traveller on her belt that she fiddles with. ‘they just need some time.’

‘i know.’

‘it was hard,’ jester tells her. ‘fjord—‘

‘i hurt him. i remember. i remember all of it.’

jester nods. ‘nott is okay with you, i think. she was there that night, when you had that dream? after we cleared up the giants house.’

‘yah.’

‘she’s just worried about caleb. and caleb is totally out of it, so you have to excuse him for not checking in on you, and caduceus would totally be here but he knows that i’m here and super trusts me with like, healing and stuff. and also he’s working with fjord on being a wild man,’

‘a what?’

‘like, a priest or whatever for melora.’

‘oh.’

‘yeah, fjord also broke away from his super powerful scary thing too, so, you have that in common.’

‘i will be sure to bring it up,’ yasha says dryly. ‘when we are trying to bond.’

jester pulls a face. ‘oh i don’t know about that,’

‘that was a joke.’

‘oh.’

yasha drums her fingers on her belt. jester doesn’t make eye contact, peering over at the cupcakes like she hasn’t a care in the world. the tail is a giveaway—coiled tight around her own ankle, the very tip of it swishing anxiously through the air.

‘and beau?’ she asks.

jester drags in a breath. lifts her eyes from the box to meet yasha’s, but can’t hold it for long. it was long enough that yasha saw enough in them. nothing good.

‘she...might take a little while,’ jester admits. ‘beau is—i mean, she’s beau, so who knows what she’s doing or who she’s talking to. right? she’s probably super busy being cool and smart,’

‘i do not blame her. i—‘ yasha glances over to the empty bedroll. the raiments are tucked away but yasha sees them in those arrays of blue. ‘i have done some very bad things,’

‘obann made you do it!’

‘i am never sure of that.’

there is a long moment of silence. ‘beau said that was when she knew, you know. that you were either...or under his control. that’s when i knew for sure for sure that you were under control. no doubt about it. you were crying,’ she tells yasha, as though the woman hadn’t known. ‘you didn’t want to do it, i know it. and eventually you will too. i promise.’

ice drops into the lake of hurt and pain yasha has been gathering in her belly. spreads to her edges, threatens to freeze her.

‘jester... did you see it?’

she can’t look away fast enough. there’s a flicker of something in dark eyes and then jester is smiling, a thin, tremulous smile. ‘someone had to watch out for you,’ she says, which is a yes. ‘i know the stormlord was but...everyone can use a friend. right?’

‘oh, jester,’

yasha’s voice cracks and she closes her eyes against the hot press of tears. she doesn’t know what jester might have seen but any of it, any of it would be bad. and for her to have seen her in zadash, in the cobalt soul... yasha doesn’t remember all of what she did in those fifty nine days, but that—that she will never forget.

‘i couldn’t leave you alone. beau told me what it felt like. like—‘ she hesitates. presses on. ‘like being crammed into an itty bitty box.’ yasha flinches. nods. ‘i couldn’t leave you alone.’

[yfere]

Shipping Calculus! Live Updates from C2E55

“What about shipping calculus? Isn’t the shipping calculus going to be interesting?” people have been asking, and boy oh boy have we wanted to deliver this quickly, but three things happened: 1) Three quarters of our staff took sick days after the episode aired because the anxiety made them physically ill, 2) the Angst Points statistical program we use was overloaded and we had to recalibrate it to handle larger loads of data, and 3) one asshole decided to write fanfiction on company time instead of doing their job.

+10 to Caleb/Cat-Shaped Creatures or in this case, cat-shaped spells. Caleb may have a big heart, but if you want a place in it you’ll have a tight squeeze beside his massive love for massive pointy-eared, bewhiskered, four-legged folk. Bonus points because Caleb’s cat-love apparently gives him game with the rest of the party, between Fjord’s MeeeOOOW and thinking Caleb’s spells are super sexy, Jester going right for Caleb’s goopy center with the “big heart” comment, and Caduceus Clay Grinning Like A Fool.

+10 to Caleb/Fjord/Jester between Jester’s “Caleb is going to kill me, and Fjord is going to finish me off!” belief of the two Charmed and Charming Men (alas, Jester, you could have been charmed with them!), and then Fjord and Jester both standing over Caleb’s unconscious body, desperately trying to keep him and each other alive. For the record, Caleb tried his best to help them too. Mostly he managed it by accidentally tanking and absorbing damage with his multiple KOs.

-2 to Jester/Succubus While Jester was open to the flirting and pursuing the relationship, the succubus decided Jester wasn’t her type after all.

-30 to Beau/Incubus Neither Beau nor the Incubus were each other’s types. What the nine hells was he thinking? If he’d only checked in with Caleb before trying, Caleb would have let him know he should spare himself the effort.

+15 to Fjord/Detective Work Fjord is definitely out to oust the Detective Agency as Wildemount’s #1 Detective, between discovering the beginnings of anchor glyphs being sketched in the tunnels (identified and destroyed by partner Caleb Widogast, rubbings taken by Beauregard), and then discovering the Big Bad Abyssal Anchor that had been causing all of their trouble in the first place (alongside partner Caduceus Clay, identified by partner Caleb Widogast). The Agency needs to work on defending their reputation! Perhaps those documents Nott located on the Succubus will help them gain some ground next week.

-10 to Caleb/Uk’otoa and Fjord/Uk’otoa as for the second time Caleb puts up his middle finger at Uk’otoa’s Super Special Powers and Anyone Fucking with the Wall of Fire. Fjord was sadly robbed of the chance to admire Caleb’s guns as he was knocked himself against some stalagmites by the bidet he summoned. He and Caleb are equally stinky now though, which seems….symbolic.

+15 to Caleb/Fjord as besides being the most compatible Detective Duo outside of the Agency, how Fjord shows Absolute Implicit Trust in everything Caleb says and does. Destroying the glyphs perhaps not a good idea? Absolutely shouldn’t destroy them. We should destroy the glyphs? What a wonderful idea! The only person to support Caleb’s Abyssal Riftmaker in the Bag of Holding idea before Caleb himself thinks better of it. Stays put for as long as Caleb asks in the tunnel, literally saying they’re staying put because Caleb said so, and coming forward again because he said so as well. Sure, he and everyone else got blasted to smithereens for it, but though Caleb/Leadership got -10 points, Fjord was probably mostly just impressed by Caleb’s ability to totally murder him and shoot down all his magical abilities. Concerned and hurting, yeah, bruised in body and ego, but a little turned on, all the same.

-5 Fjord/Self Confidence as Fjord attempts self affirmation exercises to build himself back up after Caleb Fucked Him Up, screaming “I’m not useless!” as he just barely manages to kill a quasit.

-50 Nott/Being a Team Player between healing the mildly-injured wizard in preference to all her other friends he brought to the precipice of death, and forgetting for the second time (third time?) that making things explode while her friends are around causes collateral damage. She’s picking up some bad habits from Caleb in the explosion department.

-3 Caleb/Humor No spell will ever make him laugh. Points mitigated because the joke was a bit questionable.

+8 to Beau/Tough Love. Tries the Diplomatic Friend approach with Caleb, nearly gets set on fire. But beating some sense into Yasha proves effective! Experiments show that fists are the only way to solve problems, guys. And she can do it from a distance now, hey!

+20 to Beau/Yasha. Did not know it was possible to gain so many points while the player for the character is absent! Nonetheless, Yasha continues to carry on the M9 shipping tradition from Fjord, not of having a crit of love, but having crit fails of love. It’s almost as if a part of Yasha was resisting hitting Beau in particular, but once Beau cottoned onto the fact that Yasha wasn’t on her ass in exactly the way she was hoping, Beau too carried on the M9 shipping tradition from Molly of beating your partner back into awareness. Yasha had to scamper off to murder a demon before she could get a kiss, though. Damn.

+4 to Jester/Beau as Jester begs for the enemy to come after her instead, and not Beau. Does the plea make logical, strategic sense, what with Beau’s higher AC, higher HP, and reaction punches? No, but love is rarely logical and strategic. Love is just love. Beau and Jester also bond once more over their love of chopping up dead demon bodies. Compatibility! Keeping the huge demon heart is probably symbolic of something.

+2 to Fjord/Jester as Fjord makes sure to choose Jester’s side of the flanking formation, just to make sure she doesn’t end up alone again.

+2 to Caleb/Jester Another rollercoaster week for a Jester ship! We should be glad we aren’t in negatives with these two! Peak Widojest with the “big heart” comment, with Jester telling Caleb to catch up, with Jester as always standing over Caleb’s unconscious body (whether faking or otherwise!), spending all her time healing him even before Fjord came to help, and dragging him away from the fray. #ItPaysToBeADamselInDistress. How even casting spells against Caleb, Jester chooses the one that will make him less dangerous without hurting him. Points taken away because Jester chopping up bodies brings up supes unpleasant memories, and Caleb came terribly, terribly close to murdering Nugget. The dog is off limits. I guess we could mention Caleb nearly murdering Jester, too. There is that.

+2 to Caleb/Caduceus “I can definitely see you,” Caduceus says with delight as Caleb attempts to stealth. Alas, Caleb is concentrating on Srs Bussniss and does not respond to Caduceus’ poking (Question: Are all Cads ships fundamentally based on banter???) Caduceus trying very hard to heal Caleb in battle despite being in Lots Of Danger, and Caleb’s gift finally coming to use as Caduceus is knocked out for the crime of focusing too much on healing people besides himself. Caduceus making sure to give Caleb resistance while he tries to identify the Abyssal Anchor. I mean, gods forbid he should die, right???

+15 to Caduceus/Death “That was invigorating,” he said. Dying, but getting that sweet confirmation you are on the right path to your personal quest in the process? That’s great. That’s so cool. Can’t wait to do it again.

-20 Taliesin/Periapt of Wound Closure. That item is cursed for you, my guy. That’s 2/2 times you’ve used it and your characters have died. It’s dangerous!

-500 The CR Cast/Sam’s Terrible Beauregard Puns. Stop!!!!!!!!!!

+1000 yfere/Stress ..........................................................................this episode.................

[princessamericachavez]

Fjorester moments episodes 70 and 71

HEY I’M NOT DEAD

I was just enjoying a few days offline on the beach, but I’m back and all caught up. So, who’s ready to review some Fjorester moments??

Episode 70

Jester: *trying to understand why the mountain doesn’t have snow*

Fjord: *softest heart eyes*

Jester: Well, I could send like four times but...

Fjord: That’s kind of a waste of your gifts, right?

Jester: Not necessarily, if it’s important.

I JUST REALLY LIKE HOW THE PAST FEW MISSIONS/DAYS FJORD HAS BEEN EXTRA THOUGHTFUL ABOUT HER SPELLS EVER SINCE SHE VOICED HER ANNOYANCE ABOUT IT THAT ONE TIME OKAY? HE PAYS ATTENTION

When Caleb says he can take Jester home to her mother and she just says that very soft “oh” and kinda spaces out and Fjord immediately notices something’s wrong

Fjord: You okay, Jester?

Jester: Mhm

Fjord: JUST KEEP WORRIEDLY STARING AT HER

WHAT KIND OF DISNEY FANFIC SHIT

Fjord *before he literally just steps outside the room to keep a lookout while staring directly at Jester*: I’m gonna- you’ll be okay in here?

Jester: *nods*

REMEMBER THAT ONE AWKWARD AF EXCHANGE IN ASSARIOUS WHERE FJORD ASKED IF SHE’D BE SAFE IN THE ROOMS THEY WERE STAYING AT?? THIS WAS JUST LIKE A CALL BACK TO THAT IMO

LIKE

SAME FEELING, SAME WORRY, SAME SOFTNESS

IM FINE

Okay, so here might be my favorite one of this episode

when they are arguing about how to proceed

and Jester is getting all worked up and she’s angry and sad and still emotional about Yasha

Jester: I mean, honestly, I don’t give a fuck who we are with. I don’t care if it’s the Empire. I don’t care if it’s Xhorhas. I don’t care!

Fjord:

Fjord: What does matter? What if these men have families? What if they are in danger? What if what we can say can help?

Jester:

I think disagreements are, obviously, super important when you build a relationship with someone. A serious not crush-based relationship. And this point feels incredibly intense between them. The way he gets serious, and she can’t meet his eye, and how he keeps looking at her.

I don’t feel like Fjord is berating her, at all, either. It sounds, to me, like he is truly trying to understand where Jester stands and to make her see the moral conflict from his point of view.

What does matter? Is such a big and important question that they need to ask themselves, but I particularly like that Fjord seems inclined to figure it out with Jester, instead of just saying “this is what I think matters”.

And —this is the good part— Jester does listen to him! As she shows later on.

Fjord goes into a lengthier explanation about why he thinks they should stay, warn people, at the very least hope to help in the 24 hours they have left before returning to the capital. And he ends his speech clearly looking at her and with a plead:

Fjord: We could save lives.

And Jester nods.

Because she understands. Because they are again on the same page.

Jester: *wants to scry on Yasha*

Fjord: Do it, Jester.

I think they both want to know. They need to know.

Absolutely do not think about how this betrayal clearly hit them both the hardest (maybe second only to Beau) given everything they went through with Yasha back when the Shepherds took them.

Everyone: *talking about how Fjord should disguise himself to start a whisper campaign*

Jester: You want to do it, Fjord?

Fjord: Yeah, I’d be okay with that.

IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO ME THAT SHE CHECKS IN WITH HIM AND MAKES SURE THEY AREN’T SENDING HIM TO SOMETHING HE DOESN’T WANNA GO

Jester after her chaotic mission: I was all over the place with my accent, Fjord would’ve been so disappointed of me!

SHE’S SO SAD BECAUSE SHE CARES SO MUCH ABOUT HIS OPINION OF HER AND SHE WANTS HIM TO LIKE HER AND BE PROUD OF HER AND listen Beau is right and it might not be the healthiest but THERE’S A REASON HIS OPINION IS SO IMPORTANT TO HER

Beau: You know, you don’t need Fjord’s approval to be amazing, you know? You’re pretty cool. Do you need his validation?

I love Beauregard so much, she’s such a wonderful friend and honestly, this is the same advice I’d give a friend regarding her crush. Just because you like someone or you highly value their opinion of you, it shouldn’t mean you need their validation.

I think, in the long term, Beau will help Jester archive the healthy place she needs to make a relationship work.

Jester: *realize they left the moorbounders behind*

Fjord: *again, is the first one to notice she’s sad/shocked*

Fjord: C’mon, let’s stay on task.

He says it softly and, though this isn’t the shippiest thing, I really like that he makes sure to recenter her and keep moving.

It’s also funny and a lot more banter-y when she brings it up again and he just goes:

Fjord: The little death panthers will be fine by themselves, it’s fine

Also Jester both encourages Fjord to speak to the Bright Queen and to go peek into the cell, and I love both instances because they reinforce just how much Jester trusts Fjord and looks up to him when it comes to critical moments. Nice nice nice.

EPISODE 71

Admittedly, we didn’t get that much stuff this episode. One, because Skype makes things more complicated for everyone and Two because there was a lot going on.

I have this theory about most ships happening on face-to-face tables and brotps on side to side, and I feel like this placement kinda reinforced that a little... even if we did get a cute little gems.

Jester: Have you lived a really long time?

Fjord: !!!!!!

Darion: *reveals she’s nearly 200 years old*

Fjord: Fuck

WHY IS THIS SO FUNNY TO ME OMG

I love that he turns to look at her like DID YOU JUST HEAR THAT?? but she isn’t looking which is what i’m talking about with side-to-side limitations

Fjord: *asks Darion to investigate about Uk’otoa*

Jester:

SHE’S SO WORRIED

Also, though I’m frustrated by the placing, one thing i love about this is that, in my head —and most fanart, and the intro, and most official art—Fjord and Jester are always standing or sitting next to each other, so this kinda illustrates how they probably behave all the time.

Sharing looks, turning to the other, probably most of their talks are quiet exchanges like this, private little moments.

Beau: *mentions splitting the party*

Fjord and Jester: in sync

LOOK AT THEM

LOOK IT

SPLITTING UP HAS NEVER BEEN AN OPTION

Nott: So, me and Jester and Caleb can go to Nicodranas and meet you here tomorrow

Fjord:

Beau: Fjord?

Fjord: Yes?

Beau: Do you wanna go to Nicodranas or do you wanna stay?

Jester *puppy eyes*: Nicodranas?

LOOK AT THOSE PUPPY EYES

SHE WANTS HIM TO COME WITH HER

SO BADLY 

Fjord: Do I want to?

Jester: *mouths something that for the life of me I can’t decipher*

Nott: It’s near the water.

Jester: I mean, only if you want to.

Fjord: What’s everybody doing here while we’re gone... if I go.

Even though he corrects himself in the end there, I love how he’s already made up his mind. Deep down, he knows he’s going.

Jester: [Essek] is pretty hot, so...

Fjord:

Their very married banter about bringing Sprinkle along for their adventure was so cute too. 

Jester: *lies about still having the dodecahedron*

Fjord: 

DLÑFKJADÑLFJA

Marion: Has [Fjord] been taking care of you?

Fjord: *nervously looks at her*

Jester: Yeah! I almost fell to my death, he made sure that didn’t happen!

Fjord: Yeah, caught her on the quick. 

Jester: Yes.

Marion: Very good, keep doing that. 

Fjord: *nods solemnly*

MAMA LAVORRE APPROVES AND SHIPS IT

MAMA LAVORRE KNOWS

IT’S SO CUTE AND AWKWARD 

BOTH OF THEM ARE SO SHY ABOUT IT

ALSO ‘HAS HE BEEN TAKING CARE OF YOU’ CAN BE READ IN SO MANY WAYS

ANY WAYYY

YESSSSSSS

okay okay okay that’s all

they are cute

i can’t wait for tomorrow’s episode!!

this was a lot to put together in a single post lmfao 

I love you all so much.